Cure Me
I don't own Naruto...unfortunately
Chp. 12
A knock is heard
"Please enter." Says the familiar voice of the cunning snake charmer, Orochimaru. Kabuto slowly opens the door to his quarters. It is dimly lit with snake shaped candles on each side of the room. There is a table with jars of embalming fluid with snakes and a hand with a ring on it. A large chair sits against the wall next to the table. On the other side where the light from the candles barely reaches; Orochimaru sits at his desk that is covered with scrolls and books.
"You called for me lord Orochimaru?"
"Yes, I have. I have a couple of tasks for you to take care of for the night. The first is simple; I need you to do another test run on that water ninja, Suigetsu, to see how his health is." Orochimaru starts as Kabuto jots down information on a note tablet.
"Then there's the next task, but before I tell you this what is the condition of Anko?" Orochimaru leans forward out of the shadows with a widen grin across his face as he says this. Kabuto stops his writing and stares at his notes.
"The condition of Anko?" Kabuto says; the words seem to fall out from his mouth. Orochimaru's eyes fixated on his as he speaks.
"Yes, I do believe we used this time to let her rest and recover am I correct? I take it she should be feeling back to her potential for the extraction…" He says coolly.
"Yes…she is fully recovered now but as I said before, her strength isn't fully at the proper level to completely go the next level of the seal to draw out its true power…at least not enough to keep her alive for what ever reason you may have."
"This I know from the information you gave me earlier…" Orochimaru gathers and organizes the scattered scrolls and books on his desk. "Kabuto come here, I have something you might want to look at."
Kabuto walks over to him ever so confused. He takes a seat in a nearby chair. The contrast between them is evident. Kabuto is visible in the light from the candles while Orochimaru remains hidden in the shadows with only his face and arms visible. He pushes the scrolls and books in the light towards Kabuto. He looks at the scrolls and his eyes grow large.
"What is this may I ask?" Kabuto says glancing through the large book with book marked pages.
"I used some of the time I had after training Sasuke, to go back researching on the heaven seal. Apparently, extracting such a powerful seal will be preformed a lot differently than all the other seals we have experimented with." He says while Kabuto continues skimming through the reading. Orochimaru smiles at his comrade's instant interest at the new material.
"To your luck this task cannot be rushed as I originally planned. It also has to do with the patient's will power, personal strength and hate."
"I see, so what do you want me to do in the mean time?" Kabuto says finally looking up and closing the book.
"That's your second task for the night. I want you to read these over and formulate a plan as how to properly go about this. I would do it myself but…" He hesitates for a second "I have other tasks I must take care of myself."
Kabuto takes note of this and gets up from the chair grabbing the scrolls and the books. He bows and heads to the door to leave the quarters.
"As a reminder, Kabuto…" Orochimaru starts and Kabuto stops just before leaving.
"I know I have said this numerous times, but if you fail at these tasks I may have to kill you…heh depending on how I feel…"
Kabuto lets out an uneasy smile and finally leaves the room.
"Kabuto…I can't help but to notice your growing uneasiness when ever the subject of Anko is brought up. I'm beginning to wonder what's going on in that mysterious head of yours…" Orochimaru says to his self with a large serpentine grin plastered across his face. He finally gets up and leaves his room.
Kabuto continues down the hallways that are candle lit by the other subordinates of the village. The path to Suigetsu is far into the underground cells of the village.
"Looks like this is going to be a long busy night as always…My break would have been longer if it wasn't for that wretched woman and her issues on being still and being defiant. Such a shame she has to be experimented on again…too bad I was just starting to like her around…" He shakes his head at the thought of thinking about her again. "Ugh, what am I thinking, I'm supposed to be taking care of these tasks not thinking about what lies in her future here."
He stops his talking when he comes to the end of the prison halls. He locates the room next to the cell where captives from the seas are held. Inside are multiple tanks that held fish-like people. They are horribly distorted and malnourished. Some appeared to be dead by the way they are floating. There are some men, women, children and some infants still in their fetal stages. Some of them are cramped together in one small tank.
There is one larger one kept separate from the others. A lot of tubes and wires connected to it; however it appears to look like an empty tank full of water. Kabuto walks over to the towering tank, a toothy grin like that of a smiling piranha slowly appears in front of him.
"Hey, well look who it is? Its four-eyes haven't seen you in a while, to busy getting fucked by Orochimaru, eh?" said the voice coming out from the toothy grin. Kabuto just ignores him and starts to set up the monitors connected to the tank.
"What's wrong? Am I speaking the truth? It has to be since you're around him 24 hours of the day. Learn any new positions during those times? Ha ha ha ha!! GYAAAAAA!!!!!"
A wave of electricity bolts through the water in the tank and the water splashes around as if a body was thrashing about inside. When the electricity is gone and the water is settled, the body of a nude male gradually appears slumped over. He is very lean with short hair that is white with a sea foam green tint to it. His limp body falls slowly to the bottom of the tank. On his hands and knees he looks up and glares at Kabuto's cocky grin.
"You motherfucker! You're gonna get enough of electrocuting me like that!!" He punches at the glass.
"Yeah, what ever, Suigetsu, like I haven't heard that before. Could you do me a favor and behave for once, I'm trying to get a reading on your health."
Suigetsu gains his strength back and starts swimming around the tank again.
"Why, where is the fun in that? As you can see I'm perfectly fine, stupid." He chuckles out. Kabuto sighs and starts to walk over to the other side of the tank next to a large contraption that towers over Suigetsu's tank. Connected to the contraption is a powerful looking device that has claws similar to a crane. Suigetsu swims over to the side and looks to what Kabuto is planning to do. His smile disappears as curiosity over comes him.
"Eh, what are you up to four-eyes?"
"Oh nothing, I'm just going to make doing this task a little easier for me since I don't have time for your foolishness." Kabuto starts setting up the devices that are hooked up to the crane-like contraption. The claws start moving. Suigetsu's head shoots up when he hears the sounds of the motors.
"Are you crazy!? Come on it's not that serious!?" He starts moving around in his tank more frantically when the crane lowers.
"Am I crazy? No just the same four-eyed nerd you're used to seeing that's all…" He smiles; a glare from the fluorescent lights above reflects on his glasses blocking out any sight of his eyes. The crane lowers into the water.
"Hey cut it out man, I was only kidding around. What's gotten into ya? Have you lost your mind?!" Suigetsu yells.
"I don't know maybe I have lost my mind, maybe it's all those times I got fucked in the ass by Orochimaru…I don't know what do you think fish boy?" The grin already on his face grows larger and Suigetsu sinks to the floor with no room to move around. The claws finally clasp around his neck and keep him stabilized. Suigetsu tries to pry the machine off him by enlarging the muscles in his arms for strength. The claws start to loosen up a bit.
"Oh we can't have you wrecking fine machinery…" Kabuto hits a switch and the claws clasped around Suigetsu's neck glow a bluish color. The energy is being sapped from him and he finally releases his grip and gives in.
"Good now we are finally getting somewhere…" Kabuto says. Suigetsu, drained looks up at him with pure hatred in his eyes. 'I'll get you for this…just you wait…'
Back to the room where Anko is being held, she wakes up from a short nap. She sits up and the leaf she had let fall on her face falls slowly to the floor. She catches the side of her head which is severely throbbing.
"Must've fallen asleep…my head is killing me." She goes to reach for something and it hits her.
"I'm such an idiot…reaching for an alarm clock…have I grown accustomed to this place already to think it's my actual room?" she stands up to stretch and hears a crunching noise as she walks forward. "Hm?" she lifts her foot and frowns that she has accidentally stepped and crushed the leaf that reminded her of Konoha.
"Damn, I'm such a klutz, I would go and do something stupid as to step on something like that…" She removes the remains of the leaf off her feet. "Oh well it was just a stupid leaf not like it had any powers of taking me back to my home or some fantasy shit like that…"
She walks to the small bathroom and stands staring at herself for a good minute. It's dark and there are no lights but she can still see thanks to the light of the moon. One half of her face is dark while the other half is hidden behind the darkness of the bathroom where the moonlight cannot reach. She can tell already that due to the lack of sunlight her skin has grown very pale. Even her hair starts to show a bit of neglect.
"I need a shower, I haven't taken one all day…" She lifts her hands up in a fist and smiles weakly. "This should be more relaxing now that I can do this myself!" She looks over towards the tub that is engulfed by the pure darkness. Goosebumps develop across her arms, it looks eerie but it's not the first time she has showered in the dark. In fact she's done it to calm her mind, but for some reason this kind of dark was not calming especially in this death hole.
Anko shrugs her shoulders and walks out of the safe moonlight and into the darkness. She kneels down and turns the water on running her hands underneath till it's at a desirable temperature.
"Well there isn't any soap or anything like last time but it's better than nothing…" She looks down at her dirty gown. It's covered with dirt, dust, grass stains and little traces of blood. "…He could of at least gave me a daily change of clothes…what am I talking about I'm a prisoner here, I shouldn't expect the finer things while I'm here" she sighs. She switches the direction of the water to the shower head. She steps inside the tub and lets the water hit the dirt coated surface of her skin.
She flinches a bit and finally her skin gets used to it. She sighs and lowers her head to let the water soak in. She lets her hand wander around and to her satisfaction she discovers the little remains of the bar of soap from the other day.
"Thank you god…"
Back to where Kabuto and Suigetsu are…
"See that wasn't too hard. If you've been more cooperative this wouldn't have gone to this." Kabuto says to Suigetsu with a friendly cheesy smile. Suigetsu sits sulking in the other side of the tank. Kabuto checks the reading he has gathered and writes it down on his tablet. It's silent with only the sound of the pencil scratching against the board. Suigetsu looks over his shoulder like a pouting boy sent to time-out.
"Guess what Suigetsu?" Kabuto says in a cheery voice. Suigetsu doesn't say a word but just continues to glare at him.
"Looks like you were right. You're perfectly fine, sorry to have to man handle you." He chuckles to his self and Suigetsu comes flying towards him slamming into the glass.
"You fuck'n asshole!! You knew that the whole fucking time!! I swear, when I find a way to get out of here you're gonna be the first one on my list to kill you hear me!?" Suigetsu screams.
Kabuto just nods his head and walks across the room to a desk and sits down ignoring all of Suigetsu's insults and threats. He pulls out all the scrolls and books Orochimaru has gave to him and flips through the pages. He switches to his reading glasses and begins reading over the forbidden use of the seals and the process on how to extract the heaven seal. Suigetsu stops his yelling when his curiosity overwhelms him again.
"Hey four-eyes what's that you got there?"
"I told you to stop calling me that…" he turns another page.
"Oh yeah, so what is it then, uh…"
"Kabuto you idiot, and it's something you wouldn't be able to comprehend."
"You don't know that…"
"Shut up already it doesn't concern you okay?"
"Geeze, alright, alright…"
Back to Anko…
Anko stands directly underneath the falling water to wash off the soap, removing the dirt. She turns the water off and squeezes the water out of her hair. She steps out of the tub.
"If only there is a spare towel…" she opens the cabinet under the sink and finds one there and begins to dry her herself and her hair off. She wraps herself in it eyeing the dirty gown she was in the whole day.
"I guess I'm going to be stuck in this for the night 'cause I am not wearing that nasty crap again… hopefully he'll remember to grab something for me."
She looks over at herself again in the mirror and combs through her water tangled hair.
"Wonder why they put me in a room with a bathroom…?"
"I'm sorry would you prefer something less comfortable Anko dear?"
Anko quickly snaps her neck around to where the voice was coming from. She sees nothing, nothing in the room nothing in the bathroom for which she doesn't move from. She backs up to where the sink is and braces herself.
Back to Kabuto and Suigetsu…
"Hey, four…uh…I mean Kabuto…can I ask you something?" Suigetsu finally says after a long silence.
"You're going to ask me anyways if I say no so what is it?"
"I heard talk of a new female prisoner, is that true?"
"We get lots of female prisoners Suigetsu so what's new?"
"No-no, I heard she used to be a former student of Orochimaru or something like that…"
"There are lots of former students of Orochimaru…"
"Ugh, you're not letting me finish! I meant she was one real close to him from what I heard. I even heard a description of her…uh" Suigetsu places a finger on his chin while he tries to remember from the gossip from the other sound shinobi that passed by earlier "I remember now, I heard she has lilac colored hair and maroon colored eyes. I also heard she's quite well put together if you know what I mean?" Suigetsu laughs quietly to his self. "I also heard that you have been assigned to watch over her too, that must be great."
"You're starting to aggravate me now Suigetsu…"
"What I didn't say anything all I'm saying is that you're quite lucky to be assigned to a woman like that; a former and close student to Orochimaru that must be fun. Think of all the…"
"Shut up or I'll shut you up idiot!"
"What I do? Oh…I get it now…" Suigetsu's toothy grin returns.
Anko's breathing starts to pick up and her heart rate speeds up. She makes sure she backs up enough that she doesn't touch the edge of darkness in the bathroom. The darkness it's self fells like an entire form all to its own.
"Anko, what's with the look of fright? You should be used to my presence by now" She feels the coldness of the voice build up in the back of her neck. She leaps forward out of the bathroom and into the room for which her bed lay. She stands low to the ground ready fight anyone to appear before her.
"Alright come out! I know it's you, I can recognize your chakra signature…sensei!!" she hisses out.
With that said he finally appears from out of the darkness that has gathered in the bathroom. His white skin seems to glow with the shine of the moon and his coal black hair appears to melt into the dark shadows. The shadows of the bars of the window cover across his face only letting the light reveal his yellow serpentine eyes and his vicious smile that looks to hunger for something.
"Why are you in here? It's not like you to sneak into one of your own prisoner's cells like this!" she huffs out.
"You're right this isn't something I normally do, but where's the fun in just coming in through the door?" his voice sounds as if he is teasing her.
"Quit toying with me like you used to always do Orochimaru! Why are you in here? Why now?" She screams.
"Still not respectful as always. I thought I taught you better." He says in an almost hurt voice.
"That was 14 years ago! I don't have to be respectful to a monster like you! So tell me already quit beating around the bush"
"Monster, heh... Well if you must know, I came to check on you myself. I wanted to see if you have recovered any and I've grown curious as to why my subordinate, Kabuto, acts strangely every time your name is mentioned. Tell me Anko dear, are you giving him a hard time?" he asks as he slowly closes the gap between them.
"Yes I am fine, fine enough to defend myself from anything you're trying to pull. But what are you talking about, giving him a hard time? He gives his self a hard time not me…" She starts to look confused from what Orochimaru is talking about.
"You seem very confused by this. For starters I see he took it upon his self to heal your arms with out my permission. He's been a bit hostile whenever I insist on checking on you myself, and then there's the garden I forbid any captives from ever seeing…I heard you enjoyed the scenery in there." He pulls out the remains of the leaf she accidentally stepped on earlier.
Anko's eyes widen in fear from all the information he has gathered.
Suigetsu, floats limply in his tank again from being electrocuted. Kabuto stands in front of him glaring at him but with no particular expression.
"You're very hardheaded you know that…?"
"It's not…my fault…you're starting to get feelings…for her…" Suigetsu manages to squeeze out another remark regardless of the obvious consequences. Kabuto turns around, anger filled in his eyes.
"Still talking!? Look you I'll say it again like I said before, I don't and will never have feelings for anyone! Those kinds of things are left for the weak and I will not make myself vulnerable with that kind of bull!" Kabuto turns and walks back to where he was trying to research, when he hears Suigetsu slowly laughing out loud.
Kabuto turns around again only to see him slowly lift up his head.
"All I'm saying is if Orochimaru catches any hint of you even thinking about screwing around with something he holds as his possession…the end result will not be pretty for either you or that bitch. If that does happen I will be satisfied that I got my pay back with you with out even lifting a finger…" Kabuto returns a hateful glare at Suigetsu as he gathers his things.
"I had enough of you; I'm going to another room if it'll keep me from killing your stupid ass!" He storms out slamming the door and locking up the room.
Anko looks up at her former teacher with confused eyes.
"How did you know about the….?"
"Kabuto isn't the only spy in here…I have, what you may say, a bit of a trust issue with lots of the people around me, even to the most loyal of them. So tell me Anko, what is it you have done to mess with my best right hand man's head to get him to behave like this? I'm really curious to know…" He's finally dangerously close to Anko.
"That damned fish got to me again! Why am I the one, who has to be assigned to him, I thought that was Karin's jo…" the moment he turns the corner he slams right into the red-headed girl dropping all the things he was holding.
"OW!! Watch where you're…" She stops when she notices who it is.
"Karin!? Where have you been this whole day!?"
"I uh…I been around…" She says in a very shaky and startled voice; putting on a fake smile.To be continued...
Yikes, long chapter sorry about that. For anyone not up to date with the manga, Suigetsu and Karin are not OC they are part of Sasuke's time jump team.
