Kabuto waited.

The silence was hardly reassuring; there was no sign of life at all, but there was nothing to show that a battle had just occurred. What had happened to all the traitorous Otonin and their rogue leader? Where was Orochimaru? And where were the Sounds still loyal to Orochimaru?

Kabuto used his puppet imitation to bring Orochimaru back to him, cutting the strings he had attached to Orochimaru's body to allow him to move freely. However, the damage-double would still be in effect for another twenty minutes, or until Kabuto removed it. Kabuto swallowed hard and slipped his hand into Orochimaru's.

"Slaves do as they're told."

Kabuto started at the voice from behind him, and suddenly he was wrenched away from Orochimaru. In a last-ditch effort to save him, he cut the jutsu short, feeling his chakra leave him, but also Orochimaru.

"Now, obey me!"

Kabuto could feel his body thrown away from Orochimaru, and someone screamed. With a start, he realized it was himself; crying out for Orochimaru to move, to get out of there. But still, the sannin knelt on the ground, paralyzed by fear. Then, the entire world faded to black with one quick strike.

OOOOOOOOO

"Clear the table."

Orochimaru quietly did as he was told. Two weeks later, and he was still feeling the effects of Sasuke's punishment. Sasuke rose and went into his bedroom, for what Orochimaru didn't care. He was finally alone, and he wanted it to last. He obediently went about cleaning up after Sasuke's dinner, lost in thought and moving by rote.

Two weeks…after Sasuke had knocked Kabuto out, he had taken Orochimaru into hand and brought him back to Otoga. And there, Orochimaru was punished severely by Sasuke's own hand. When Kabuto regained consciousness, he and Orochimaru were forbidden to see each other. The Sound Five were reduced to genin and given only the lowest of D- and C-ranked missions. Since Tayuya held the highest position of all the original Sounds (partly because Sasuke had a romantic interest in her) she was often called upon to wait on Sasuke. She still acted cold and distant to him, going as far as to tell him flat-out that she had no interest. Sasuke asked if there was another; Tayuya said no, lying to begin with. Sasuke backed off slightly, for whatever reason or the other, Tayuya didn't care.

She and Kimimaro continued to see each other in secret.

Kabuto was also reduced to a genin and was often isolated and alone. He did, however, maintain contact with the Sound Five and continued to attempt to keep Sasuke off Orochimaru, even to the slightest degree. It was mainly Tayuya "taking Sasuke's attention away from Orochimaru" but it was not unheard of for one of the other Sounds to insinuate that Sasuke might kill Orochimaru if he continued to treat him so roughly. Sasuke would often back off after that, but Orochimaru was still hurt. Kabuto would heal him whenever he could, but they both knew the consequences would be dire if Sasuke ever found out.

"Hurry up!"

Orochimaru sighed and finished wiping the table, then washed off the cloth he had used, folding it neatly and setting it next to the sink. He walked to Sasuke's bedroom and knocked twice on the door, letting Sasuke know he was coming in.

Sasuke was lying on one side, reading a scroll and surrounded by servants. He barely glanced up when Orochimaru walked in, instead only looking up to who had entered.

"Did you finish in the kitchen?"

Orochimaru nodded. Sasuke glared up angrily.

"Speak, slave! Did you finish?"

"Hai."

Sasuke nodded. "Good. Dismissed."

Orochimaru bowed respectfully and slipped away again. Tayuya, who was leaning against the wall, glanced at Sasuke's expression. The entire time he had been talking to Orochimaru it had been disgust; now, it was only disinterest and possibly boredom. Tayuya sighed.

"Sasuke-sama? May I be excused for a moment?"

Sasuke gave a curt nod. "You have five minutes."

Tayuya breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out into the next room. Orochimaru was sitting quietly on the floor, eating what could probably be called food if you were a desperate raccoon poking around in a garbage can.

Tayuya sighed and pulled it out of his hands, giving him a fresh apple.

"Eat quickly," she advised, seeing Orochimaru's questioning look. "Before Sasuke misses it."

Orochimaru smiled. "Thank you," he said gratefully. "As you can tell, the leftovers from three days ago aren't very appetizing…"

Tayuya sat down across from him, looking him over. Orochimaru, apparently, didn't have many things left to his own decision. He was wearing a fishnet shirt an tight leather pants, which, Tayuya knew from experience, was not to Orochimaru's taste at all. She sighed and leaned over, whispering to Orochimaru,

"Has Sasuke been using you as a sex toy?"

Orochimaru's skin flushed so badly it almost looked normal.

"Well, since there's really no rosy way to say it…"

Tayuya sighed. "Something has to be done…"

Orochimaru shrugged. "What can we do? We've all been forbidden to see each other, Sasuke has me on a tight leash-often literally-and I can't get this off," he said, motioning to the collar around his neck. "It responds to chakra, and also whenever I try to get it off. Sasuke seems to be able to control me with it…or at least, cause me excruciating pain in which I am forced to obey his every whim and whine."

Tayuya flinched. "Ouch. So you've got a bad deal…" She shook hr head sadly. "A mere slave…even the servants have it better than you. At least we get to choose what we eat…"

Orochimaru sighed. "Technically, I'm allowed to…as long as Sasuke won't miss it."

Tayuya snorted. "I suppose you drink from your hands while washing the dishes because Sasuke won't let you drink at all?"

Orochimaru glared. "Not that bad; he lets me drink occasionally, but it's never much, so yes, actually, I do end up sneaking water."

Tayuya sighed. "We have to get you out of this. Hey, your hands-are those rope burns?"

Orochimaru flushed again and lowered his hands to his lap, biting his lower lip. He didn't answer other than to toss the apple core into the garbage can.

"Speak, Orochimaru-sama!" Tayuya said firmly. "Are those-?"

"Yes!"

Orochimaru's body was tightly coiled, as if expecting a blow. Tayuya felt her heart clench at the sight and reached out, running her hands through Orochimaru's hair, cursing herself when Orochimaru flinched away from her touch.

"Come here, I won't hurt you…" she promised. As much as Orochimaru hated to admit it, Tayuya could actually be a very nice girl when she wanted to be…

"Tayuya, you were supposed to be back in my room three minutes ago!!"

Tayuya sighed as Sasuke stomped out of his room. "Three…two…one."

"So this is what you were doing? Fraternizing with a slave? Don't tell me he's what's keeping you from seeing me-!"

"No, Sasuke-sama!" Tayuya cried, standing up protectively in front of Orochimaru. "That's not it at all! I was just-!"

"I don't care," Sasuke snarled, shoving her aside. "Move. And you-!" he growled, advancing on Orochimaru. He dealt the sannin a hard blow to the face, producing a pained yelp, then kicked him away. "Go someplace else. You've caused enough trouble."

Orochimaru skittered away, darting out the door and fleeing down the hallway. Sasuke sighed and turned back to Tayuya.

"My apologies, he's sometimes a bit defiant…"

"It's not his fault!" Tayuya protested. "Can't you see that? Why did you hit him? He didn't do anything-I told you, it was my fault. I went up to him-get it? Why did you hit him like that?!"

"Tayuya, you know your place!" Sasuke roared. Tayuya shrank back a bit; she was, by no standards, a helpless little girl, but even so, when Sasuke was like this, it scared her. "It's time he learned his! You are to treat him as if he wasn't there at all; he's a slave, Tayuya-he's nothing but garbage. Now, come-I have business to attend to."

Tayuya sighed, but followed Sasuke back to his room anyway.

The entire way, she could see nothing except Orochimaru's terrified face as he fled from Sasuke's wrath.

OOOOOOOOO

Sakon collapsed on his bed in the room he shared with Jiroubou, exhausted. The day's most boring mission had stretched on for hours, and it had been exhausting standing around doing nothing…in the other room, Kimimaro and Tayuya were settling in, and Kidomaru was finding a comfortable spot in his own bed: the couch.

"Okay, bad day," Tayuya was saying. "While I was playing goody-two-shoes for Sasuke, I got to sit back and watch as Orochimaru got a nice smack for no reason at all. Sasuke yelled at him and told him to go someplace else, and the poor thing looked scared shitless…"

Sakon shook his head. "It just isn't right. I mean, what did Orochimaru-sama ever do?"

Kimimaro and Tayuya were whispering for a minute; finally, Kimimaro said, "I think there's a way we can keep Orochimaru-sama safe. But it's risky, and we need to talk to him about it first."

Kidomaru propped himself up on his elbows. "Oh, really? How so?"

Kimimaro handed Tayuya a piece of paper with a murmured instruction of, "Pass that around," and continued, "There's a series of vent systems around the lair, all marked with snakes of a different color. Kabuto put it in as a safety measure, in case they ever needed to evacuate the lair in a hurry, like an attack from Konoha. The passages marked with black snakes lead to the surface, since most of the complex is underground. The red ones lead to Kabuto's room, and the blue ones lead to the infirmary. Rumors are heard about a green passageway that leads to Kabuto's secret lab, but he swears he has no such place. Anyway, we just need to get into these vents and meet at the gates. We get out and make a run for it. It's a lot more subtle, and we could probably make it out this time, instead of running for the nearest escape route."

"Hm…"

The Sounds passed around the paper, each contemplating the plan. "You know, if we have a set amount of time that we know we can keep Sasuke away, we might actually be able to pull this off," Sakon mused. "Ukon?…Aniki…"

"Nani?" Ukon grouched. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think it's possible, but again, we need a diversion of sorts."

Kidomaru nodded from the next room. "I say go for it."

Jiroubou glanced around. "Fine, fine, I'll do it…"

Kimimaro nodded and took the paper back from Sakon. "Well, then, we need to work out the details…we should start soon, though, because Sasuke is getting more and more aggressive every day. He's not happy without his little fuck toy, and we all know Orochimaru-sama isn't happy at all. Neither are we, for that matter, but we need to think of Orochimaru-sama first. He's the one that has it worst, and he's the one who gave all of us a purpose in life. We need to return the favor, and give him a reason to live, as well. So, we start planning tomorrow. For now, get some-"

"Bad news!" Kabuto had just burst through the door, clutching a scroll. "Sasuke is really going for it-this is the scroll he told me to go over and see if there were any mistakes on-it's a binding jutsu. I put a small flaw in it, just to make sufre, but it won't hold for long, and Sasuke will probably find out quickly enough. We need to get Orochimaru-sama out of here, or Sasuke out of the way-by a week!"

Kimimaro glanced at Kabuto. "Come here for a second."

OOOOOOOOO

Sasuke lay next to the sobbing Orochimaru, stroking his hair and stroking him, giving him false affection and murmuring bitter-sweet words.

"My beautiful love slave," he whispered, stroking Orochimaru's hair. The sannin's face was soaked with sweat, and there was a lot in his hairline. Blood dripped down his thighs and back, and semen splattered his face, chest, stomach, and legs, evidence of Sasuke's many rounds of mindless fucking. Now, he felt like he was going to pass out, and the collar around his neck had been used for discipline more than once.

"I love you…"

Orochimaru shuddered. He could finally feel his body giving way to sleep, even with Sasuke next to him. He felt himself being turned onto his stomach, and a hand caressed his rump, running over smooth muscle and pale skin. Orochimaru shivered and fought to accept the touches; he knew Sasuke would punish him if he showed any sign of discontent.

"You're my dark prince," Sasuke whispered, nibbling on the shell of Orochimaru's ear. "I could never love another."

As Orochimaru drifted off into a deep, fitful sleep, he couldn't help but ask,

Can't you grant me the only thing I wish?

A/N: Angsty…review, please!!