Insanity rise: AH! As school approaches things are cooling down fast, coming to a standstill! Readers, where'd you all go? Seems like I;m talking to myself now when I write these things….ah! Anyway, I understand why though, nothing interesting is happening, but don't worry the next chapter is going to be exciting, I will smack myself if it is not. This story is still a priority, more than any of my others, so yeah. I will keep going, I will! This chapter seems a bit sad because I wrote it to "See who I am" by Within Temptation, and that is one depressing song. I have got to get there cd! But I sort of spent the last of my money on my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack…poor me…I need more money! Oh and alos, I have officially begun my 100 themes project for the characters of a novel I am writing( sorry can't tell you anything!), I can't say much but I will say its all about the animals I think are so awesome, wolves! I've been writing on it but my fanfics keep me rather busy, I'm only on like chapter 2 O.o. Gosh I don't know if I'm lazy or just bored with it. Anyway, thanks a bunch for the 1, 600 reads, I'm gonna draw up a little "thank you" pic for you guys and give you a pretty link to it here in the next couple of days, so you can see that I do love drawing sooo much! Thanks for everything readers! Now read, review, and enjoy life before school bits you in the butt, because its about to get me!

Chapter 35

Falling snow

"You're not going to do anything," Mrs. Kinuta cried as Kabuto pushed his way past her, stepping over to the front door in a hurried manner. To him, he'd accomplished the task he'd been told to carry out, he wasn't going to do any more than that. He'd checked up on Dosu, and discovered that he was sick, but that was all he intended to do. Right now, all he wanted to do was get back home to Orochimaru, and his mountain of paperwork that was surely waiting to greet him. He didn't have time to listen to Mrs. Kinuta's whining, he just wanted to leave. Sighing, he turned to the woman standing behind him, quickly thinking of what he could say to ease her troubled manner.

"Mrs. Kinuta," he said in a casual manner, as a doctor would to their patient, "your son won't die if you just keep him in the right care."

"What should I do," Dosu's mother asked, choking back a sob, "aren't you going to help him at all!"

"Listen," Kabuto, answered her, trying to calm her down, silently hating how rushed and tense her tone was, "it's simple alright, Dosu has pneumonia which explains his coughing like he is. All you need to do is keep him inside in a warm climate and keep a good watch over him. He's got quite the fever too."

"Give him this," Kabuto told her, taking a small package from his bag, "mix it into whatever he eats twice a day alright?"

"Sure," Mrs. Kinuta took the package in her hands, "but-"

"That's all I can do for you," Kabuto cut her off, tired of hearing her complaints.

"What about when I'm at work," Mrs. Kinuta asked shakily, seizing Kabuto sleeve, determined to finish what she had to say, "I can't leave him here alone can I?"

"Alright," Kabuto sighed, hoping he could just give her the information and leave quickly, realizing he would have to tell her every last piece of info before he was allowed to leave, "Let me explain everything so I won't have to say it again. Your son has pneumonia, meaning his lungs have become inflamed. In other words, he'll continue to have breathing problems until he's given a long while to rest and you have to keep him here. That serum left him extremely weak; if you take him anywhere, the change in the air could kill him. There isn't anything I can do to help except tell you what I've already said. You should try to find someone who could watch him while you were at work or you could leave him here, it doesn't matter to me. Now if he gets any worse just send for me, but I may not be able to do anything for him by that time. That's really all I can say right now, so if you don't mind…"

Without so much as a goodbye, Kabuto pulled away from the woman's grasp and opened the door. Cursing silently as a blast of frigid air struck him; he took a deep breath and stepped out into the cold, finding it a better place than this stricken home. Dosu's mother still held out her hand from where he'd torn away, slowly clasping it tightly to her heart. She did her best to calm her trembling, knowing it would do no good to act so cowardly at this moment. She sighed, realizing that again, she was alone. Sometimes the feeling of cold dread that ran through this house seemed even worse than the frozen world outside…

Kin sighed as she heard the door slam closed, looking up to see Kabuto enter the building. She sat in a chair nearby, looking down at the kunai knife she'd been sharpening in her hands, the blade still as dull as it had been when she had started moments ago. She gulped down a lump in her throat, still regretting having left the Kinutas alone that morning. Kabuto gave her a dark glare as she looked up at him, shaking the snow from his shoes before disappearing down the hallway. She sighed and looked down at the ground, wondering why he looked at her with so much hatred.

"Something wrong Kin," she heard Zaku's tired voice in front of her.

"I don't know," Kin, sighed, "I guess I'm just tired that's all."

"Things have been pretty rough lately," Zaku, sighed, flopping down on the couch across from where Kin sat.

"I know," Kin's eyes were clouded with sadness, looking up at him; "you think we're ever going to get back to our training."

"You know I don't even think we're gonna make it to those exams," he shrugged, looking up at the ceiling, "I mean seriously, that Orochimaru is nuts to think we'll ever get anywhere with all this medical stuff popping up."

"Yeah," Kin nodded slightly, "we have been having way too many problems."

"It's because of that stupid Dosu," Zaku grumbled, "he gets us into more trouble than he's worth, and he's not much on the bright side either."

"Don't go insulting people like that," Kin snapped, hating to hear such complaints, "you're just mad because you're not going to be some big shot ninja any time soon, especially with your arms…"

"Thanks to our so-called sensei," Zaku rolled his eyes, wincing as he remembered the dulling pain he still felt occasionally in his bruised wrists, "the guy's a total nut case."

"Sometimes I think you're right," Kin looked back down at the knife in her hands, sighing to herself, "We're not much of a team are we?"

"Were we ever," Zaku asked in an almost sarcastic manner, "we barely know each other and already so much has happened."
"Too much," Kin shook her head, "and we'll have to work even harder when the spring comes to catch up for all this lost training."

"I know," the boy scoffed, "think how behind we'll be of the other villages."

"But they've got everything," Kin pointed out, "we're so small and this village has just now started, I don't know why Orochimaru seems in such a hurry to be prepared for this years exam, can't we wait till the next one?"

"I think he's planning something," Zaku said mysteriously, throwing a quick glance to the hallway as though making sure no one was watching them, "after all, exactly why did he do this to my arms, what does he expect to accomplish out of it?"

"I have no clue," Kin couldn't provide even the slightest answer, "But I'm dreading the moment when we find out."

Silence followed, both nin having said all they could think of, their depressing conversation sinking in with the desolation of their lives. Kin sighed and turned her head, staring out into the snowy wasteland. White flakes were still falling, but not half as heavily. It was more like a gentle flurry now; the only real problem was the raging cold that struck anyone who dared venture out. They could never hope to train out there, that was easy to see, they would have to wait until it thawed at least enough to where they wouldn't have to plow through snow everywhere they went. Watching the falling flakes made her feel almost calm somehow, the cold outside making where she sat now seem like heaven. Yet the snow was both pre and beautiful, and cold as the claws of death. It seemed like that was how life had been for them lately, only good when you were watching, not when you were enduring the hardships that came their way so very often. With another sigh Kin looked away, her thoughts filled with pain and sadness, as the tranquil feeling vanished to the depths of her heart…