AND WE'RE BACK! After too many days I must say! D:
But it is true! It's been awhile, guys, and I'm glad to have finally returned to writing :] I want to thank you all for your previous reviews and reading, and favorites and alerts. So now that I've come back, I hope that I won't disappoint you, and my goal is to COMPLETE THIS STORY!
I want to thank GirXzimXfanatic and Jerseykitty for reviews back in March and April of 2010!…I know it's so late…I'm sorry, please don't hurt me! :[
But still, I thank you all for your support and for reading my story :] I am truly grateful.
DISCLAIMER: Still don't own it...
And without further ado…
Chapter 6: The Deal
Roji blasted through the hospital door, along with Chiyo and the two other ninja.
"Father! We're here!" he said, his voice strong and authoritative, yet worried. He saw Taoru laying in the bed, eyes glazing over. "What's going on?"
Lord Saiyon turned around from facing the window.
"Roji. Chiyo. Good. We…" He paused, glancing at his youngest son occupying the hospital bed, then took a breath. "Taoru is in danger. The village may be in danger as well. I will tell you the details once everyone gets here. You two may leave."
The two ninja that accompanied Chiyo in their search for Roji and Kagami nodded simultaneously, then poofed away.
"Where is Kagami?" Lord Saiyon asked, raising his voice slightly.
The sliding of shoes on the floor was heard.
"PRESENT!"
Everyone turned to look at the door, expecting to see her. However, Kagami had slid too far, and passed the door as she yelled "PRESENT!"
Through reflex, she managed to latch a hand onto the framing of the door, and stopped sliding. After she caught herself, she walked into the room, panting and breathing heavily through her mouth.
"I…ran here…as fast as…I could. Curse these…waxed floors…I-"
She realized that nearly her whole family was in the room, and one of her brothers was in the hospital bed.
"Taoru! What happened?" she cried.
The boy himself had come to realize that the room was gradually being filled with more and more people. He looked at the faces of his beloved siblings.
"Chiyo…Roji…Kagami…"
The three had already gathered around their brother's bed, expressions of pain, shock, and worry streaked across their faces.
"Who did this to you…?" Kagami whispered.
Lord Saiyon watched his children, and mentally counted four. There is one more left… Daisuke, where are you?
As if he had summoned him, Daisuke appeared at the door, along with four professional medical ninja.
"Father! I brought them!"
"Very good. You four! Find out what is ailing my son! I want a full report when you are done. Children, come here!"
Although the room wasn't very large, there was enough room for one section to be occupied by Taoru and the four ninja examining him, and another section for Lord Saiyon to stand and speak to his four other children.
"My sons and daughters…you all know that there have been strange things happening around our village. One of these things is your brother being bitten by a snake, which is why he is lying in bed now. There have been snakes wandering around our village, attacking certain people. However…" he cleared his throat, then frowned. "We do not know why these things are happening."
Roji had his eyebrows furrowed, and had his arms crossed. Daisuke was biting his lower lip, while shifting his weight from one foot to another. Kagami kept her eyes on the ground, while putting a comforting arm around Chiyo, who was trying her best to keep the tears in.
Roji was the first to respond.
"Daisuke."
Daisuke jumped, startled from his older brother's cold and eerie voice.
"Bro, you know it's not me! I-"
"I know," he said, quietly cutting him off. "Just listen. You have a connection with snakes, right?"
Daisuke didn't know if his brother was setting up a trap. He stuttered, "Y-yeah. So what?"
"Your snakes have a different chakra then the ones that have been invading our village. Do your snakes know where the enemy snakes have been coming from? Or why?"
He slapped a hand to his forehead. "I never even thought about talking with my snakes! We'll find out right now!"
Daisuke clapped his hands together to form a hand sign. "Summoning Jutsu!"
POOF!
Two snakes appeared on the ground, a green one with a wriggly blue stripe down its back, and a light purple one with tiny blue spots. Daisuke bent down and began speaking with his summons, occasionally nodding his head and frowning.
Kagami suddenly lifted her head, widening her eyes. She removed her arm from around Chiyo's shoulders, and put both hands around her mouth.
" 'An omen of snakes…'" she whispered.
Her father and her siblings stared at her. Daisuke looked up from his conversation with his snakes.
"Kagami…what did you say?"
" 'An omen of snakes!'" she repeated, louder this time so everyone could hear. She ran over to the window in the hospital room, opened it, and immediately looked up. There were rings around the sun.
She turned around, facing her family. "Papa Saiyon! I read one of your letters earlier today, and it said that if there were circles around the sun, it meant that it was an omen of snakes!"
At this moment, a ninja ran into the room, panting like Kagami had when she first entered. It was Yokotoro.
"My lord! Please excuse me! But this urgent!" he announced, slightly hunched over and holding onto the doorframe for support.
Lord Saiyon's face turned dark. "What is it?"
Yokotoro's eyes flickered, and he said in a grave tone, "There's someone outside in the village square that has requested to see you."
The leader of the Watanabe clan closed his eyes. Of all times…and who could this person be? What could this person want?
His eyes shot open, an imaginary drum beat once to intensify the dramatic moment. He turned to the medical ninja working on Taoru.
'You four! Continue searching and look for a cure!" He turned to his four children, one who was still at the window. "Roji! Daisuke! Kagami! Chiyo! Stay here until I come back!"
It was late afternoon, the sky had an orange tinge, and the sun had cast shadows on the various streets of the village. No wind blew. The air was still, almost stale. News of the snakes had spread, creating an unsettledness in what was once a peaceful village.
There was a murmur in the village square. A small crowd had seen a mysterious man who appeared a few minutes ago, and walked right into their village. He asked for the head of the Watanabe clan, and stood on the dirt ground of the square, waiting for him.
Lord Saiyon walked up, his hat and linen cloths proclaiming that he was the one that this mysterious man had waited for. He stopped several steps away from this man, seeing as how he couldn't trust any strangers at this time.
"I am Lord Saiyon, the leader of the Watanabe clan, and this village. Who are you, and why are you here?" he bellowed.
As creepy and sinister this new mysterious man might of looked, he spoke with a surprisingly smooth voice.
"I am Orochimaru, a former student of Hiruzen Sarutobi! If I am not mistaken, you have a strong bond with him. I have come here because I heard your son has fallen ill. I specialize in the medical area, having cured over millions of diseases and sicknesses. I felt that I could do goodwill by coming here and offering to heal your son."
Lord Saiyon's eyes widened. Was it really possible that this gruesome-looking man was a student of his best friend and former comrade?
"And what authority or proof do you have to say that you specialize in the medical department, and that you were Sarutobi's student?"
Orochimaru maliciously grinned inwardly at this.
"My sensei has sent to you a letter of recommendation about me. Perhaps, you haven't read it yet. But there is information disclosed about what I have done and my successes."
Saiyon stared into the yellow eyes of the man who called himself Orochimaru.
"I see. I will look into this letter later. However, what amount of money, or what sort of trade, do you want if you can cure my son?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, but keeping his mouth straight.
"My lord…as I have said before, I came to do goodwill. I do not wish for any form of money. However…" He paused, resisting to lick his lips, as it could have blown his cover, "It would be greatly appreciated if I could personally research and create profiles of the Bikuyu." Pretending that he didn't know that the Bikuyu were only children, not to mention Saiyon's children, he continued. "I have heard that they are an impressive group of people, and I'm sure that by learning more about their powers, it would open more doors in the medicine world and allow more cures to be discovered."
It was hardly noticeable, but to the ninja eye, it was easy to see that Saiyon's eye twitched when Orochimaru mentioned "powers."
"That is your request?" Saiyon asked in a flat, but forward tone.
"Yes. That is all I wish for."
"How much time will I have to make a decision?"
"I will be leaving this land within three days. I need one day to diagnose and cure your son, and one day to research the Bikuyu. This leaves tomorrow for you to decide and to inform me of your decision."
"Very well. I will let you know tomorrow, by sunset," he replied.
Orochimaru smiled. "I look forward to our meeting tomorrow, Lord Saiyon."
And with a poof of smoke, he was gone.
It seemed like a harmless, beneficial deal. What more, Taoru could be cured by this practiced medical ninja, taught by Sarutobi Hiruzen himself! But who would have readily accepted this offer, overlooking the request of Orochimaru? He said that he only wanted to do research on the Bikuyu, to open up more of these so called doors into the medicine world. But this request was more foreboding to Saiyon than it seemed, because this involved his children. All of them.
Yet, Taoru still needed to be cured. He was on the verge of dying, dying. What were the chances that an offer like this would come up again within the next, and possibly last five days of his son's life?
Saiyon would rush to the hospital to tell his children what had happened, about this "deal", then he would immediately head for his office to search for the letter that Sarutobi had supposedly sent him.
Little did he know that this "letter" was a lie. Not only was it a lie, but the original letter was meant to prevent anything Orochimaru-related from happening. Ironically, it was eaten by one of Orochimaru's snakes, and Orochimaru himself knew this.
And little did Kagami know, who was still looking out the window, squinting her eyes against the rays of the encircled sun, that this letter would haunt and push her, for the rest of her life.
Dun, DUN, DUNNN! Guys, I can tell you right now, some serious s*** is about to go down.
I HOPE YOU LIKED IT! I enjoyed writing it. It was a bit tricky to get the suspense and intensity going, but I tried my best!
Review if you'd like, and stay tuned for the next chapter, Breaking Mirrors!