Orochimaru waved Kabuto off with a flick of his hand. "No, no, I'm not hungry. Eat your own lunch and do whatever you need to do. And I want you to have an assistant by tomorrow. You need some time to yourself."
Kabuto sighed and pulled a bowl covered with plastic wrap out of the refrigerator and pulled the plastic off. "Yes, sir," he mumbled, rooting around in one of the drawers for a pair of chopsticks. Finding them, he pushed them down into the bowl and set it on the table. Orochimaru smiled and let Kabuto push open the door for him on the way out. Kabuto was about to close the door and lock it when he saw Orochimaru stop dead in the middle of the doorway.
"What the-?"
Kabuto craned his neck to see around his master. In the hallway, several Otonin were struggling with an ANBU black op. The ANBU was bound and gagged, but despite the restraints he was putting up an excellent fight. Even with the four Otonin trying to control him he was almost out of their grip and was still fighting to get away.
Orochimaru turned around and stepped aside just as quickly. "Go help them!" he snapped at Kabuto. Kabuto slipped past Orochimaru without so much as stirring the air around him and pulled a hypodermic needle from the kunai pouch behind his hip. He jumped at the ANBU, grabbed his arm, and inserted the needle. The ANBU froze, then twisted weakly. Kabuto smiled; his latest sedative was working perfectly. The ANBU pulled at his captors again, but it looked like his struggles were barely making an impact. Kabuto took the ANBU's silver hair and shoved, pushing him down to the floor. The ANBU soon found himself on his knees on the floor, a vise-like grip pressing on his shoulder. Kabuto reached down, took the porcelain mask in his hands, and lifted it, revealing the pale, partially covered face of-
Hatake Kakashi.
OOOOOOOOO
"But Orochimaru-sama, please! We can't just-"
"Oh, yes, we can!" Orochimaru turned on Kabuto, leaning over into Kabuto's face. "He was captured, he will remain in my possession until he either decides to submit to me or I decide what to do with him. And as of now, I am leaning more towards torture him for information and then kill him, simply so he isn't in Konoha's hands! And we all know he can't be broken by normal means, so I am choosing someone to go break him differently. I don't care how, i just want him submissive."
Kabuto sighed. He knew his master would never allow him to protest against the jounin's torture, unless...
Wait! That was it!
"...and
Kabuto, you know I wanted you to have an assistant by now. Have you
decided?"
Kabuto swallowed. He prayed Orochimaru would allow
him-
"Oh, Sasuke," Orochimaru was saying. "I know you're very good at making Kabuto miserable, perhaps you'd like to take on a certain jounin from Konoha?"
Sasuke looked fairly bored. "Depends on how interesting they are...Who is it?"
Orochimaru smiled. "The Hatake."
Sasuke's face spread into a ghoulish grin. "Well, then of course! Please tell me I can start now."
"Wait!"
Everyone turned to look at Kabuto. Kabuto swallowed hard, trying to figure out a way to say this. Finally, he simply blurted out what he was thinking.
"I want him."
At
first, Orochimaru only seemed stunned. Then he snorted, then began to
laugh, a cruel mocking sound that echoed through Kabuto's ears and
fueled his bad mood even further.
"What? You don't think I'm
serious? Well, then, watch this!"
He turned around, hearing the laughter die down to nothing as he walked away. "I think he was serious," he heard Sasuke muter to Orochimaru.
"If it didn't hurt so much I would have slapped you three times by now," the snake sannin hissed. Sasuke laughed and dodged Orochimaru's kick as Kabuto rounded the corner. He stalked down the stairs to the basement, footsteps echoing off the walls and down the spiral stairs. He shoved his hand deep into his pocket, withdrew a key, and began counting off the doors. When he reached the twelfth one, he inserted the key and opened it.
Kakashi flew at him almost immediately, but the chains over his wrists and ankles and around his neck kept him from going far. Even so, he kept fighting, refusing to go down completely. Kabuto could see the blood dripping down his chest, arms, and legs from where he had rubbed his skin raw. Kabuto sighed.
"Do I have to sedate you again?"
"If you ever want to actually control me, you're going to have to use enough tranq to knock out a bear," he growled, throwing his entire weight against his restraints. Kabuto sighed. If this didn't go well, they were both toast.
"Just listen, okay?"
Kakashi looked somewhat surprised, but his struggles were less violent and the wild, feral look was fading a bit from his eyes. "What do you want? If it's information, you'll have to kill me-"
"Oh, put a sock in it," Kabuto muttered. "I thought I told you to shut up and listen."
"Doesn't mean I have to-Agh!"
Kabuto had just slapped Kakashi across the face, sending him into another frantic struggle to free himself. Kabuto sighed and reached behind him. Kakashi's body froze up, like a deer caught in headlights, and the chains were taught between him and the wall.
"Don't
make me do this." Kabuto pulled a needle out of the pouch on his
hip and held it in front of him. "See? I've still got it, and I
have several more I can use. So don't do anything stupid."
Kakashi's
muscles began to quiver, and Kabuto noticed how badly he was shaking.
He sighed. "Okay, I've gotten you out of here on one condition,"
he started, then waited for Kakashi's reaction. Getting none, he
continued. "Orochimaru-sama wants me to take on an assistant. He
thinks I'm overworked. So i chose you. Why I have no idea, I guess I
just felt bad for you. So cooperate and I can get you out of here
eventually."
Kakashi's chest was heaving now with heavy breaths, brought on by the tight chains around his neck. "I submit to no one's will," he said, his voice shaking with suppressed rage. "I belong to no one. I bow to no one. I am no one's. So don't think that just because you did me a favor that I will return it."
"Oh,
don't be like that," Kabuto said lightly, stepping forward. "You
know you shouldn't."
Kakashi shrank back in alarm, eyes
locked on the needle in Kabuto's hand. Kabuto sighed, realizing that
actually threatened the jounin would be very skittish for a while. He
slid the needle back into the pouch and held up his hands. "I've
got nothing now. And even if I did, I wouldn't want to hurt you. So
calm down, and let me get these off."
Kakashi was still breathing hard, the chains beginning to choke him. "Why should I?"
"Because you'll strangle yourself if I don't get this off your neck," Kabuto said matter-of-factly. Kakashi was still trembling violently, but he allowed Kabuto to step towards him and reach up to slide his fingers under the tight chains. "You've been strangling yourself ever since we got you restrained," he murmured, feeling the warm blood soaking his finger tips. He slid his hand around Kakashi's neck, holding his head firmly as he untwisted the chain.
The second Kakashi's head was released, he tried to break away from Kabuto's hold. Kabuto, though, refused to release him, and leaned forward, his other hand straying down to Kakashi's hands. He found that in addition to being chained to the wall, they were also chained to each other. Kabuto bent Kakashi's hands up to his chest and within seconds was pressing his body back to the wall. Kakashi was now really scared and trying to break away, but Kabuto still denied him the freedom he sought. He held his hands firmly, and then brought his hands back to Kakashi's face, running his finger tips over every contour of Kakashi's face. He worked his way up, feeling Kakashi's trembling body pressed to his own. He finally slid his fingers under the edge of Kakashi's mask-
-and pulled it down.
A long, jagged scar ran nearly the length of the left side of Kakashi's face, finally disappearing under the Konoha headband. Kakashi's face was as white as a sheet, so white that it reflected most of the meager light in the cell. His features were somewhat girlish, in that they were very small and...pretty.
Smiling,
Kabuto pulled away and gently resettled the mask over the bridge of
Kakashi's nose and subtly unlocked the chains. But he left them
there, just to see Kakashi's reaction.
"Such a mystery,"
he murmured, sliding backwards, out of the cell.
He left the door open.
A/N: Thank you name…I don't remember…T… for putting in the first review. Chapter three later!