Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

References to the recent Anko filler arc.
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choice of weapons
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When he returned from the training area late in the morning, there was a snake waiting outside his door. Kabuto paused a safe distance away and waited.

"You're to go pick up something," the habu informed him, uncoiling loosely. "It should be wandering the halls near the main rooms about now."

"Thank you," Kabuto replied politely, and backed away until the snake was out of sight. He had to detour slightly because of the action.
-

He found Sasuke in the long corridor parallel from the main open rooms, walking slowly down the hall with a hand braced against the wall for support. When Kabuto stopped in front of him and Sasuke looked up, he could see the leftover glaze of one of Orochimaru's genjutsus in the teenager's eyes.

"I warned you," he didn't refrain from saying, before setting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and guiding him toward the medical clinic.
-

Orochimaru had been concealing his anger well--it took Kabuto five minutes to clear away the dregs of the older man's chakra from Sasuke's own. Sasuke flinched involuntarily, from time to time, as he worked. Kabuto didn't bother stimulating the teenager's chakra with his own; it was easier to work when he was still in a mild stupor.

The damage to his chakra system was the worst of it. Beyond that, there were only some minor skinned abrasions--from groveling, he supposed--on Sasuke's palms and knees. Not even worth bandaging, but they meant Sasuke's pride would make him insufferable once he was completely back to himself.

The pattern of the abrasions indicated they'd come from concrete rather than wood paneling, which meant Orochimaru had used the genjutsu in one of the public rooms. Kabuto was pretty sure Sasuke wouldn't realize at first that that had been a small if maybe unintentional mercy, to not be attacked in a private room--he'd just think of how he'd been humiliated.

Kabuto filled a glass with water and set it beside the cot Sasuke was laying on, and then went to eat lunch.
-

When he came back just before the few hours he had to set aside to treat the higher-ranked ninja began, he found Sasuke was still there. He'd moved to the cot in the farthest corner, and had his arms folded under his head. The emptied glass was sitting by the sink.

Kabuto pulled the curtain around the bed shut and went to open the drawer containing rolls of bandages.
-

The injuries he saw during those hours were generally the same, broken bones and severe bruises or cuts. Yesterday a student had come in after being poisoned in a sparring match with someone he didn't like and who didn't like him, but nothing today had been interesting.

Kabuto finished setting the three broken fingers on the woman he'd been dealing with, and then told the man waiting outside that he was done for the day and to go down to the regular medical clinic--he wasn't bleeding to death, so he'd make it.

"You're going to have to go back out there sometime, Sasuke-kun," he said, after he'd closed the door.

"Were your teammates spies too?" Sasuke replied.

Kabuto turned and gave the curtain a long look.

"Yes," he finally replied, moving to clean up the remains of the splint.

"And your teacher?"

"No."

"Really?"

"I would hardly be worth Orochimaru-sama's time if I couldn't deceive my own teacher," Kabuto answered, throwing away the cut bandages before picking up the metal tabs.

"He had his suspicions, though," he continued, after he'd put the tabs away and Sasuke had still said nothing. "Especially by the end. It was Misumi's fault," Kabuto added in annoyance. "It was stupid of him to agree to that surgery without hesitating. He really was an idiot."

"Where are they?"

"Some trouble occurred with a group of Leafnins on the island they were stationed at," Kabuto answered, closing the drawer. "The one Orochimaru-sama checked on a couple years ago, with the DNA experiments?"

"I remember," Sasuke said darkly, sitting up and pulling back the curtain. When Kabuto didn't continue, he added: "So they were arrested?"

"Killed," Kabuto corrected. "They were Soundnin after all."

". . . Bastard," Sasuke said, by which he meant I envy you.