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Chapter V: A New Acquaintance

"Koyuki-sama! Koyuki-sama!"

The purple-eyed Jounin looked up from the book of herbs she was reading, her perfect eyebrows furrowed together in a questioning frown. A green-haired Chuunin, one who was under her in a supplementary Healing class, came to a halt before her, clutching her chest and panting like there was no tomorrow. Koyuki shut her book and took a step forward toward the girl.

"What is the matter, Aya?"

"You are needed in the hospital, Koyuki-sama." The girl said in a wondering voice. "One of the Legendary Sannin..."

Koyuki's purple eyes widened. "One of the Legendary Three? What happened?"

The Jounin broke into a brisk walk with the Chuunin trying to keep up beside her. "What were you saying about one of the Sannin, Aya?"

The girl nodded hurriedly. "The Snake Sannin Orochimaru was brought into the emergency room just now, Koyuki-sama. The standby medics have done the proper preliminary examinations, and they've confirmed he's been suffering from internal bleeding."

"Internal bleeding?" Koyuki repeated. "From a battle?" she had half a mind to ask Aya what the hell was Orochimaru doing in their village, but she doubted the girl knew. So she kept her mouth shut and decided to keep the question for later.

Aya shook her head, green curls bouncing on her shoulders. "He had been walking down the street with a bag of vegetables, Koyuki-sama. The Chuunins who brought him in said he had been about to go into a grocery to buy something when he just lost his balance and started retching in the street. He lost consciousness three minutes later, and they rushed him to the hospital."

Internal bleeding but not from a battle? I can diagnose him for some illnesses but there is possibility of this being a side-effect of a jutsu or a kind of poison. Koyuki thought hard. They now rounded a corner and Kirigakure's hospital loomed above them. Lights filtered out from the many windows of the six-floor building.

"Has Orochimaru regained consciousness, Aya?"

"No, not yet ma'am."

"Has the Mizukage been informed?"

"Not yet, as well."

"Keep it that way for a while."

The Chuunin very nearly tripped on a rock. "Koyuki-sama?"

"Keep it quiet for a while, Aya." Koyuki repeated as they entered the hospital vicinity. "If you can talk with the Chuunins who brought Orochimaru in, tell them to hold their tongues as well. I shall take care of the standby medics who attended to him. Which emergency room?"

"Room eight, ma'am!"

Koyuki turned into the first corridor in the hospital and walked briskly down the brightly-lit halls, stripping off her gloves in the process. She came upon a door and swung it open carelessly with a fist, and the sound of a bustling emergency room reached her ears. She turned to her left and soon enough, one of the standby medics ran up to her.

"He's growing worse, Koyuki-sama, we can't stop the internal bleeding..."

"Did you even find out what was the cause?"

The medic hesitated. "W-we couldn't be sure what it was, ma'am. We ruled out all others and that left us with two possible answers. It's either because of a jutsu he had been long using and suddenly released – or a kind of poison that is yet to be identified."

"Has Orochimaru regained consciousness?"

"No, ma'am, but he has been in a fever that's constantly getting higher."

"I see. Bring me ten buckets of ice water, and be quick about it!"

"Hai!"

As the medic turned on his heels to run in the opposite direction, Koyuki came upon emergency room eight and threw back the curtains that screened Orochimaru and the attending medics from view. Koyuki's purple eyes ran swiftly over the scene. Five medics were fussing over the still unconscious Orochimaru on the bed. Beads of sweat bedewed and trickled down the Sannin's temples, slicking locks of his sleek black hair. Even his breathing was harsh. Koyuki's trained ears could hear his heart working very hard to get blood around his body. If this kept up, he would die.

"What of the bleeding?" Koyuki demanded as she rolled her sleeves ready and approached the Sannin.

"We brought it to a trickle inside him, my lady, but it still doesn't want to stop."

"Which area?"

"Left torso, ma'am."

The side? The liver or the pancreas, perhaps? Koyuki thought hard as the healing light of green Chakra spread around her hands. She was no Tsunade, but she was Kirigakure's first and best medical ninja. It was good that the other medics had already taken care of Orochimaru's clothes. Koyuki quickly placed her hands above the said afflicted area and her eyes saw through skin and muscle to view the bleeding in the Sannin's body. His other organs seemed fine. She could not see how he possibly just bled like that with no reason at all. Focusing her Chakra, Koyuki sought to seal the wound. It fought back, as if it did not want to be closed, but in the end she won. The bleeding came to a stop just as the medic she ordered earlier arrived with the buckets of ice water.

"Misao, Hikaru and Tama, get a tub, quick. Kira and Amei, be ready to help me lift him into the tub when it arrives and pour the ice water quickly, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Koyuki turned on her heels. "Get me a dextrose set, quick! He's dehydrating!"

"Hai!"

A sudden moan made Koyuki turn her head so fast her neck creaked dangerously on her shoulders. The Sannin Orochimaru was awake, eyeing them all with slight confusion and surprise.

"Where am I?" he asked. Koyuki saw one of his bandaged hands clench into a fist.

"You're in Kirigakure Medical Center, Orochimaru." Koyuki replied, bending over him to peer into his golden eyes. They seemed clear, unaffected by his fever. But how was that possible?

The golden eyes widened briefly. Orochimaru tried turning his head. "Where is my shopping?"

Koyuki frowned. "It is not the time to worry about vegetables, Orochimaru."

The Serpent sat up so suddenly that Koyuki jumped back, one hand flying quickly to one of the wakizashi at either side of her shapely hips. But the Serpent did not attack. He eyed them all coolly.

"I believe I am going to be late for dinner, and thus have to go back to my companions." He said, readying himself to rise from the bed. Koyuki gave him a push that made him grunt and bounce back into his pillows.

"You are not going anywhere until your fever lowers, Serpent." The medic said sternly.

"Fever?" Orochimaru frowned at her as if she were mad. Then one of his bandaged hands touched his forehead. "How under Manda's venomous fangs did I get a fever?" he demanded.

"Don't we all like to know?" Koyuki replied just as the tub arrived. The buckets of ice water were quickly emptied into it, and as Koyuki and her medics crowded around him, Orochimaru swung a kunai into his hands and pointed it toward them. Nobody moved.

"As I said, I am going to be late for dinner, and as such, have to get back to my companions." He repeated as he rose, still keeping the kunai at Koyuki's neck. "Oh, don't worry; I am not going to attack you or your village unless you all give me a reason to. My clothes?"

Still nobody moved. One of the medics licked his lips anxiously and shifted – Orochimaru's golden gaze rested upon him.

"Don't make me commit unnecessary murders, boy!" The Serpent snapped. "Put that syringe down or I will make you."

"Do as he says, Hikaru." Koyuki instructed sharply. The young medic looked like he'd been slapped, and did as he was told albeit shakily.

"My clothes. Please." Orochimaru said. A curly-haired medic gave him a spare shirt. For a moment the Serpent frowned at the white shirt. "It'll do." He lowered the kunai and wore the shirt quickly. Nobody had moved still, and he smiled. These medics knew he wasn't called Sannin for nothing. He looked around. "My vegetables?"

The medic called Hikaru gave him a paper bag. Orochimaru snatched it and the kunai vanished up his sleeve. "I would like to thank you all for helping me out – I assure you that I am as all right as I am going to get." He walked toward the nearest window, lifted it open and fled in a blur of movement.

Koyuki sighed as she felt the immobilizing jutsu leave her body. "Do not inform the Mizukage of what hastaken place here. I will take care of it." Unsheathing the two short swords at her hips, she followed Orochimaru out of the window.

Naruto was getting worried. It had been two hours since Orochimaru went to get things for dinner, and to be late for this long was obviously getting on the fox's nerves. As of the moment Naruto was pacing before the door with his arms folded across his chest. Jiraiya would have loved to say that Orochimaru was over fifty years old and therefore very capable of taking care of himself, but the frog hermit knew Naruto could get really scary if pissed off. He had to do this carefully.

"Naruto, you wouldn't help a single bit if you worry your ass out like that." Jiraiya said easily.

"There's something wrong with him." Naruto said sharply. At another place and time Jiraiya would have knocked him flat with a fist for disrespect to his elders. "I know it, but he doesn't tell me. I've noticed it since we met from Gaara's, you know, he's been looking so frail and doesn't eat much. Heck, he wouldn't even eat if I didn't tell him to. There's something wrong with him, and he's not telling me."

Jiraiya did not speak. True, Orochimaru looked kind of...sick. But he moved normally; it might have been fatigue or so – Jiraiya knew days like that himself, a time when you simply don't want to rise up from bed and do something. It could be an effect of old age, but he could not be sure. Of all of his mentors, Naruto was particularly protective of Orochimaru. Jiraiya could not see the fox caring for him like that...well maybe Naruto would for Kakashi, but still...

The door slid open and Orochimaru entered. Jiraiya's eyebrows rose. Orochimaru was not wearing a white shirt before he left their apartment. Naruto, on the other hand, planted his fists on his hips.

"You're late!" the fox said accusingly.

Orochimaru did not bother answering and brushed the boy aside. He gave the hotpot things to Jiraiya. "Had a trouble in the streets, but nothing major." The Serpent said. Jiraiya eyed him for a moment, determined to detect a hint of a lie. But there was none. The frog summoner marched to the adjoining kitchen.

"What took you so long?" Naruto demanded. "I was so hungry I could have eaten a live frog!"

Orochimaru only eyed him askance. Sometimes the fox behaved as if he were the Serpent's mother. Orochimaru was just about to answer when a brisk knock sounded on the door. For a split second he and Naruto looked at the door, confused, but the Serpent got there first. He slid open a crack and peered out to see who called.

It was the purple-eyed medic. Orochimaru hastily banged the door shut.

"Who is it?" Naruto inquired.

Orochimaru did not bother replying. He slipped out, careful to keep the door closed behind him as he came to stand before Koyuki. She looked up at him beadily, a medic's stare. She was diagnosing him on the spot. Orochimaru bit back a furious diatribe. She was certainly a hell lot more annoying than Kabuto.

"What do you want?" he demanded quietly.

"You shouldn't have left, Orochimaru." Koyuki said coolly as she tentatively reached out a hand to touch the Serpent's forehead, but Orochimaru knocked her hand aside harshly. "You know you're sick – no, you're dying. You could live longer if only you would not act like a proud peacock and let me prescribe some medicine for you."

"I'm not dying." Orochimaru hissed. He glared at the woman; a glare that was enough to send Kabuto peeing down his pants, but she just stared blankly back at him. For that alone she was worthy of his admiration. Nobody could stand up to his death glare like that. Except perhaps certain people named Sarutobi, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Naruto. "And I am most certainly not sick. Why don't you just go away and mind your own business?"

"You know, you're an interesting case." Koyuki said, ignoring him. "Your body is deteriorating from the inside. I was barely able to stop that internal bleeding from killing you off, you know?"

Anger crackled beneath the thinning layer of patience. "I will not say this to you again. Go away."

From the inside, Naruto's voice sounded. "Orochimaru-sensei, what's happening? Are you all right?"

There was a thud as Naruto tried to open the door, but Orochimaru held it shut. He licked his lips anxiously as he eyed Koyuki. "Fine, let's have a deal. Let's pretend that...I've invited you over for dinner. We go inside, you eat with us, and during that time you can look at me however way you want. And then you will leave me your stupid prescription and never show your face to me again. And before I forget, not a word to the boy and to the other Sannin, do you understand me?"

"The other Sannin?" Koyuki asked excitedly. "Who? Tsunade?"

Orochimaru grunted in annoyance and slid the door open to reveal a gaping Naruto behind him. Naruto's blue eyes immediately rested on Koyuki's purple ones.

"Who are you?" the fox demanded rather rudely.

"Kirishima Koyuki!" the medic said brightly as she bent over Naruto and kissed him on both cheeks. "I'm here to have dinner with you!"

Naruto gaped at Orochimaru in confusion, but the Serpent was already inside the apartment, setting the table. Jiraiya's white head peeked from the kitchen, and his eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful Jounin.

"Oho! Is this what you meant by your little trouble in the streets, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya said slyly. "I thought you had eyes for Tsu -!"

"Shut up, Jiraiya!" Orochimaru hissed.

The perverted hermit did as he was told, but did not fail to look at Koyuki's hips and chest before going back to his cooking. Naruto, still confused, led Koyuki into their apartment and gestured her to the couch.

"Nice place you have here!" she said cheerfully, but the men did not answer.

There was an awkward silence in the house. Naruto was busy thinking who on earth their visitor was. Jiraiya on the other hand was busy mixing up perverted thoughts and shrewd calculations in his brain. Koyuki appeared outwardly cheerful, when in truth she was awed by the fact that she managed to see two of the Legendary Three in a single day and that she was busy diagnosing Orochimaru from her place on the couch. Orochimaru was cursing everything inside his own head as he threw furtive looks toward the meddlesome woman.

Soon dinner was served, and the four sat around the table in strained silence. Jiraiya and Naruto were busy gaping at Koyuki, while Koyuki was busy staring at Orochimaru and Orochimaru was busy cursing the medic in his head.

"What's your name, sweetie?" Jiraiya asked, flashing one of his annoying smirks.

"Hai, Kirishima Koyuki desu." The medic replied cheerfully.

"How did you and Orochimaru-sensei meet?" Naruto piped up.

"I picked her up." Orochimaru replied sharply. "Got a problem with that?" he glared at Naruto.

Jiraiya choked on his tea. Orochi-kun, you've always been a poor liar, did you know that? What are you hiding from us? He cast another furtive look toward their mysterious visitor. She had short swords on either side of her hips, but Jiraiya knew a medic when he saw one. A sword-wielding medic? Interesting...

Naruto was soon at a loss for words, and dinner was over in a matter of minutes. As Jiraiya and Naruto rose to take care of the dishes, Orochimaru quickly ushered Koyuki to the door. She gave him a small packet.

"Thrice a day, don't forget that, before each meal." She said, her purple eyes glinting. "Or you will die a very painful death." That was all and she walked away.

Orochimaru glared at her retreating form before going back into the house and throwing the packet of medicine into the trash can.

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