Kabuto almost passed out when he saw Orochimaru bust open the door he had actually bothered to seal. His mouth dropped open, and he began groping around blindly for the door to the cabinet that contained Orochimaru's original hand. Orochimaru sighed, walked over to him, and pointedly took his hands, placing it on the cabinet and swinging the door closed.
"Basket case. What the hell are you doing?"
Kabuto suddenly seemed to find his tongue and immediately began talking.
"I-I was-was just…um, I was just…uh, you see, funny story…"
Orochimaru sighed. "You said you destroyed it."
Kabuto wordlessly handed him a folder full of medical records. Orochimaru opened it and gave everything a cursory glance. "My, my, Kabuto-kun, very impressive," Orochimaru hissed. Kabuto gulped; Orochimaru was using formalities. That always meant he wasn't happy…
"So, Kabuto-kun," Orochimaru continued, "Why did you lie to me?"
Kabuto couldn't help it; his breathing hitched, then accelerated, and sweat began dripping down the back of his neck. He found himself, for the first time in his life, unable to meet Orochimaru's twin golden eyes. He gulped and looked away, breathing fast. Orochimaru tapped his foot impatiently.
"Well? I'm waiting."
"We know. God, Oroch, you haven't changed a bit."
A dark-haired girl walked in, carrying a huge katana. Orochimaru's eyes seemed to pop out of his skull-
"K-Kik…you…?"
The girl grinned and waved. "Hello!"
Karin sighed. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, can we move this along?"
Orochimaru ignored her, slowly approaching the girl he had called Kikyou. "Kikyou…how did you know…?"
"Please, Orochimaru," the girl spat, holding up her katana and pointing it at Orochimaru's throat. "Akatsuki's been giving me hell, too. Seems my kitty is a demon. Hell, that doesn't give them the right to go chase me all over creation. I help you, you help me. What do you say?"
Orochimaru shrugged. "Keep talking."
Kikyou laughed and swept the katana across Orochimaru's neck, drawing a thin line of blood. Orochimaru let the blade fall away, and also allowed Kikyou to pick up some of the blood on her fingers. Kikyou held the fingers up close to her face and inhaled, picking up the scent of Orochimaru's blood.
"You changed again."
Orochimaru sighed. "If that was what you wanted, you could have asked."
Kikyou wordlessly licked the blood off her fingers, small, pink tongue lapping up the blood. Orochimaru sighed again, even more heavily this time. "Sadist."
Kikyou grinned. "Of course," she said lightly.
Orochimaru glanced at her. "You changed as well. Armor, I mean."
Kikyou grinned. "Maaaaaah, yes I did."
Kabuto looked the girl over. She was wearing black armor with blue highlights threaded through it. Her hair was tied back with a blue ribbon, and a blue sash was wrapped around her waist. An empty sword sheath hung from her waist, a blue braided rope holding it to her sash. Kikyou slid the sword back into the sheath and turned around, revealing more clearly a quiver full of arrows and a bow, strung and ready to be whipped over a slender shoulder and wielded in an instant.
"I like," Orochimaru said. "The orange was a little strong…"
"Bleh, too childish," Kikyou said. "I'm twenty-five now; I have stuff to do. And it's hard to be taken seriously in orange…"
Orochimaru smiled. "I remember I never used to take you seriously…until you bashed my skull in."
Kikyou laughed. "Ah, haha, Oroch…good times, when I could bash your skull in. That was fun, really."
"Sadist."
"Stop flattering me so."
Kabuto cleared his throat.
"I'm about to shit myself, Orochimaru-sama, are you going to kill me or not?"
Orochimaru gave him a dismissive wave. "I can fuck you rough against a wall later. Or you can just run and start praying. Get Kikyou settled, and I might go easy on you."
Kabuto sighed. "Hai, Orochimaru-sama."
Orochimaru smiled and turned back to Kikyou. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods? Surely not just me-"
"Nope, you and you alone, snaky," Kikyou said fondly, drawing her katana again. "See this scratch?" Orochimaru peered at the katana, then nodded.
"Hai, what is it from?"
"Bounty hunter," Kikyou replied. "Scratched it raw. Anyway, yeah, he chased me for a while and then I realized you were in town. So, I stopped by."
Orochimaru nodded. "So, I give you a favor, you give me a favor?"
Kikyou nodded. "Hai, that's about the sum of it."
Kabuto cleared his throat somewhat timidly, trying to make himself known without interrupting. Orochimaru glanced at him, glaring like a basilisk. "What?" he snapped. Kabuto shrank back a bit, seeming intimidated by the snake ninja.
"Which room?"
"Find an empty one," Orochimaru said. Kabuto nodded and rushed out of the room, looking anxious to do so.
"So…"
Orochimaru looked at Kikyou curiously. "Hai?"
"What's new…?"
"Nothing much," Orochimaru said pleasantly. "You?"
"Not really."
Karin glanced back and forth between the two, knowing something was definitely new.
"Orochimaru-sama…"
"What, Sasuke?"
"I think something died in Kabuto's room."
"Why?" Orochimaru asked slowly. "Or do I want to know?"
Sasuke's girlish nose wrinkled up. "It smells like dead ferret."
Orochimaru sighed. "Lovely, Sasuke-kun. Kikyou, is there anything you need?"
"Ew, it smells like dead ferret in here, too."
"Sasuke, shut it!"
Sasuke mimicked Orochimaru when the sannin's back was turned, causing Kikyou to smile and try to keep from laughing. Orochimaru whipped around, tongue reaching forward menacingly.
Sasuke's face was smooth.
"What?" he muttered.
Orochimaru hissed a warning, turning around again and motioning to Kikyou to follow. Sasuke followed as well, probably just to be obnoxious.
"Sasuke-kun, do you mind?"
"Yes."
Orochimaru sighed and lazily backhanded the boy, watching as his head snapped back with a loud, resounding, crack! Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction; his message had been clearly delivered. Sasuke made a face, hissed in pain, and slunk off somewhere, looking chagrined. Orochimaru sighed and kept walking.
"Who was that?" Kikyou asked.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Orochimaru replied. "He's my next body."
Kikyou shivered. "You're a creep."
Orochimaru sighed. "To each his own, I suppose."
Kikyou grinned. "And a moron."
Orochimaru glared. "I will fight you."
"And lose!" Kikyou laughed, drawing her katana again. "May I remind you who won last time?"
"I swear, there was a quarter on the ground!" Orochimaru cried. "But then you kicked me…and then my balls."
Kikyou grinned maliciously. "Tough luck. You're a guy fighting a girl, therefore you're at a disadvantage already."
Orochimaru sighed. "How much does it hurt if you kick a girl in the chest?"
"Not much more than if you kicked her, say, in the thigh," Kikyou said. "But we take it as an insult, so we only get madder and go on a killing rampage."
Orochimaru smiled. "Well, then, I suppose it wouldn't be very wise to kick you…"
"Good boy. Want a dead rat with that?"
Orochimaru sighed. "Shut up."
"No."
Orochimaru sighed again. "Haven't changed have you?"
"Neither have you," Kikyou replied evenly. "Still a virgin, and still a nerd."
"Actually, the virgin part vanished a few weeks ago. And it depends on what kind of geek you think I am."
"Science geek."
"That's still the same."
Kikyou smiled, and slung one arm across Orochimaru's shoulders. "You're still taller than me."
"Depends on the body," Orochimaru said. "It's true, thought, that I like them on the tall side…"
Kikyou exhaled. "Long day. It's late, too. Where's the food?"
"Just ask Kabuto, he'll do just about anything. If he mouths off, just slap him. He'll get the message loud and clear."
Kikyou nodded. "What if I just tell him to watch it?"
"Warn him once, then slap him. One warning is enough for a nineteen-year-old man."
Kikyou shrugged. "Works for me."
Orochimaru led her through the lair, up stairways and through doors, and around so many bends and turns that Kikyou simply lost track. Finally, he stopped at a door near his own, knowing that this was the room Kabuto had chosen for Kikyou; it was next to Kabuto's and close to his, but not between. It was far away enough from the sound Four that they would not disturb Kikyou. Kabuto had chosen well.
"Find Kabuto; you know where his room is?"
"Well, your room is there, so his must be right next to it," Kikyou reasoned. Orochimaru nodded.
"Find him if you ever need anything. And I'll find map for you."
Kikyou smiled and nodded her thanks and stepped into the room, looking around curiously.
"I like. Thank you very much, I will."
Orochimaru nodded and walked away, hearing the firm click of a lock. Footsteps sounded in the hallways near Kabuto's room, and the genin emerged carrying a large box.
"What's in that?" Orochimaru asked. Kabuto set the box down and stretched. "Experiments."
Orochimaru bent over and began rifling through the box; through papers, bubble-wrapped bottles and test tubes, and several suspicious-looking jars of powders and some that looked like leaves. Orochimaru sighed.
"Kabuto, why did you lie about my hand?"
Kabuto fell silent, helping Orochimaru pick through the contents of the box. "I wasn't sure…I wasn't sure if you would need a special antidote later for something. I've been hearing wild rumors about enemy shinobi infiltrating the lair and wanting to harm you, even kill you…I was making poison antidotes for everything under the sun, using blood cells from your hand. I knew that any good assassin would have excellent poisons, and they would probably make them especially for you. Something to shut down your chakra, or something. And once the poison progressed, you wouldn't be able to do anything, and I would be stuck fighting off your death; again. So I needed specialized antidotes for specialized poisons, right? And whatever body you take reacts to your original cells, so I figured I may as well make a poison antidote from that. Best for testing purposes, and I couldn't possibly get as much blood as I needed from you. And the only place to get your original blood was from the hand. And knew Akatsuki was after it, so I thought that if word got around that I had destroyed the hand, people would stop looking for it. The average ones, anyway. The good ones would probably know I was bluffing, or at least suspect, and they would probably keep looking. But it helps. So I fought back the assassins that remained and made poisons and antidotes with the rest of my time. And Tsunade gave me a very potent poison…I have the antidote, for safety's sake, but I am planning on using it on our most powerful enemies, like Itachi."
"Sounds interesting," Orochimaru said slowly. "I want to see this later."
Kabuto nodded and held up a plastic bag. "And this is probably the best poison I've made yet…It's composed of your cells, actually. I forced the to divide enough that I could get as much as I needed."
Orochimaru sighed. "Sometimes I think if I was really smart, I wouldn't have a genius at my side."
"Why?" Kabuto asked. "It's better than having someone stupid…"
"They could kill me at any moment."
Kabuto's eyes widened. "You don't think-!"
"Kabuto, if you put a knife to my throat right now I probably wouldn't even flinch, I trust you that much. And I probably wouldn't even object if said kunai drew a little blood. I trust you with my life, and you could probably kill me right now if you wanted to."
Kabuto sighed and pulled out a kunai. "I probably could…" he mused. He stared at the kunai for a moment, not even moving. "But what if I did?"
Orochimaru felt the cold metal pressed to his neck and barely flinched. Kabuto's hand shook, but Orochimaru knew the boy was merely testing him. Orochimaru carefully lifted his head, baring his neck to Kabuto, and completely putting his life in the other's hands. Orochimaru watched Kabuto's face carefully; he knew that Kabuto's little run-in with the Akatsuki hadn't been pretty, and also that Sasori was there. He still trusted Kabuto with his life, but he knew full well that Sasori could have done something to Kabuto, like replace the jutsu Orochimaru took off.
A single tear formed in the corner of Kabuto's eye, and he tore the kunai away from Orochimaru. Before the sannin could stop it, the kunai was buried in Kabuto's wrist. Blood flowed freely from the wound, and it immediately began steaming and hissing, Kabuto's natural regeneration powers kicking in. Orochimaru heard the whimper that slid past Kabuto's lips as he yanked the kunai out, and he simply sat there in shock, looking at Kabuto as if he had just lost his mind.
"I swear, Orochimaru-sama, on my very own blood," Kabuto whispered, voice dull with pain, "I will not let you die. Even if it means betraying you-I will not let you die!"
A/N: Mushy and OOC.