"So...let me get this straight...you're Tayuya's sister...one of four...and you know Kikyou...who is also Tayuya's sister...who is currently in Akatsuki..."
The girl nodded. Her hood lay down her back, revealing an angled face that had softened somewhat once Tayuya recognized her. "She's after you, Orochimaru. She betrayed you and is now going back to Itachi, and then they will go back to Akatsuki. From there, it's only a matter of time before they figure out that the ring abuto let them steal was a fake."
Orochimaru leaned on the table for support, breathing hard and struggling to absorb the shock. Kabuto's hands were suddenly on his hips, pulling him down into a chair and pressing on his shaking shoulders. "Quiet," he said, gently massaging Orochimaru's shoulders. "Come on, it's not healthy for you to keep absorbing shocl like this..."
"Like I have a choice."
Kabuto pressed harder, kneading at the knots of tension and pain in orochimaru's back and using chakra to help the trigger spots disperse. "What else do you know?" he asked the girl. Tayuya had called her "Cissy," presumabley a nickname of sorts. She shrugged.
"You may call me either Cissy or Hikari. But I like Cissy better; it's what I'm used to. Anyway, Orochimaru needs to move. Now. Itachi will be back, and nothing good can possibly come of that. Tayuya will be involved as well; almost as much as Kikyou is now. I'm not sure in what way, though. So Tayuya, keep an eye out. You probably have our clan's special ability-only two in a generation can have it-Kikyou and another. I know it's not me, so it must be you."
"Or Marise, but she didn't seem all that great. Little shithead; sick with something deadly every other week. Still, she was spoiled rotten."
Cissy smiled and glanced at Tayuya. "My, you've grown up. Congratulations; you're officially the most successful of us all. What I wouldn't give to be next to Orochimaru...he values you, Tayuya. He loves you...what I wouldn't give..."
Tayuya smiled. "Well, I think he's okay with you. But once he regains his sanity-"
"Regains?" Kabuto scoffed. "He never had any to begin with." But he leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on the side of Orochimaru's face. "But that's okay. I rather like the crazy murderers. It adds quite a thrill to-"
"Shut up. if you complete that sentence, I will personally rip your intestines out and use them as a-!"
"Oh, don't start taking Tayuya's insults, orochimaru-sama," Kabuto teased. "It makes you so much less difficult to agure with-"
"Shut your mouth if you know what's good for you, boy!"
Kabuto grinned. "Fine, if you really must be that way..."
Orochimaru sighed and put his face in his hands, but still managing to arch into Kabuto's carresses. "Why are you here?" he whispered, seemingly addressing Cissy. "If you're only here for Tayuya, then I'll leave you two to catch up-"
Cissy shook her head. "I need to tell you something-something very important. It's about Itachi."
Orochimaru looked up. "This better be good," he hissed, "Otherwise-"
"Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto warned, and Orochimaru felt the pressure on his shoulders increase. Orochimaru sighed, the only sign he gave to show Kabuto he would submit to him. Kabuto looked worried again, but Cissy didn't catch the look.
Cissy exhaled and sat down across from orochimaru. "Listen to me, and listen well, Orochimaru," she whispered. "Itachi has no weaknesses. None at all. At least, not in battle. Do not even attempt to defeat him; you can't. Not even all of Otokagure could even hope to prevail against that ninja. He is simply too powerful. However...there is one way to weaken him."
Orochimaru straightened a bit, but Kabuto kept at his shoulders. "I have the feeling youre going to get hit in the face again," he said dryly. Orochimaru sighed.
"Why do I have the sinking feeling you're right?"
A small smile flickered across Kabuto's face. "Because I'm always right."
"Anyway, continue, please," he said quietly. Cissy nodded.
"Of course. As I said before, Itachi cannot be defeated, but he can be weakened. Not signficantly, but enough that you might be able to hope for an injury."
"Let me guess," Kabuto said. "It has something to do with the ring?"
Cissy nodded. "Every time those ten rings are all together, they...activate something, I don't know what, but it was given to Itachi as the strongest of the Akatsuki. he must not be physically present when all the rings are in one place, otherwise...I'm sure exactly what happens, I've only seen it once from a distance, but he seems to be in pain, and he can't focus on one thing. He just seems to need something to concentrate on besides the pain or something...I don't know. But the rings are also vital for the demon extraction process: again, I'm not sure exactly why, but I do know that they are. I've done some digging-" Cissy reached into her robe and pulled out a scroll-"and I now know each of the rings, who wears which one, and how long they've had each ring. I've also compiled a list of who had died and/or lost their ring and/or status. I also have positions on the statue and corresponding ring finger."
Orochimaru's eyesbrows came up. "My, my, someone either wants a position or just likes me."
"Or hates Itachi."
"What do you have against Itachi?" Kabuto questioned. Orochimaru felt Kabuto's shift of weight; he resisted the urge to turn and see what was wrong, but he began taking in more of his surroundings, trying to see what Kabuto had. An assassin? He couldn't find anyone with his chakra...not besides the people around him.
"He murdered my best friend," Cissy hissed, and this time Kabuto's shift of weight was much more obvious. Orochimaru's muscles tightened, preparing for an attack. "Uchiha Matsuri."
"Matsuri, hm?" Kabuto asked, and Orochimaru felt his hands leaving his shoulders. "I knew her."
Cissy nodded. She dropped the scroll on the ground, stood up, and began backing away.
"Allow me to leave in peace and nothing dies!"
Kabuto was at her throat in a second, forcing away the hand full of senbon and tackling her to the ground. Tayuya grabbed Orochimaru and pulled him away, behind the line of Sounds. Kimimaro took Orochimaru's wrist and held him firmly, despite the protests. Kabuto ran his hands over the girl'sneck, searching for her Jugular vein. Finding it, he dug a small, but incrediblysharp, scalpel into the hollow of her neck, threatening her.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason, and I swear, I'll do it."
The girl smiled. "Suit yourself. But if you allow me to leave, I'm sure you won't regret it."
Kabuto's eyes narrowed. "It's that scroll, isn't it? It's not really a scroll: it's an explosion, isn't it?"
Cissy smiled even more. "I'm not who you think I am."
Tayuya grinned. "Of course not!" she said. "So it's no surprise I didn't want to let you in?"
The girl shook her head. "You still know me; I'm just not who you think I am."
Kabuto glanced back at the scroll. "When is it rigged to blow?"
"Boom."
The entire room was shaken with a massive explosion.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Kabuto stood up, shaking. He had managed to shove the knife into the girl's neck a secon before the whole room blew apart, and now Sound ninja were rushing in, pulling rubble away, and looking for everyone who had been in the room. Kabuto, however, ignored every effort of theirs, instead looking at the girl's face.
Her wooden face: a golem.
He sighed and straightened. He had to find everyone else, otherwise bad things would happen.
Someone's hand emerged from the chunks of stone wall, gloved in black and surpringly small-
"Tayuya!"
Kabuto ran over to her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her out. Several small cuts littered her body, but there was nothing serious to see. "Hurry," she gasped. "Get Kimimaro! He's holding himself over Orochimaru-sama, but I'm afriad they'll be crushed-!"
Kabuto motioned the crowd of Otonin over and began pulling chunks of stone off the huge pile. "Help me, most of them are still in here-!"
Suddenly, the ninja were all over the pile of stone, yanking away the rubble and casting aside the debris. The red, sticky spots on the gray concrete were getting larger and wetter with every stone removed; Kabuto became frantic and began pulling aside the stones at a rapid pace.
"Kimi? Can you hear me...? Kimimaro...! Kaguya Kimimaro, if you can hear me, Goddammit, answer me!!"
"K-Kabuto...sensei...?"
"Kimi!"
Kabuto reached down into the pile, grabbed Kimimaro's arms, and pulled him out of the dust, dirt, and debris. "Where's Orochimaru-sama?" he asked, pressing healing chakra to the many broken bones, cuts, lacerations, and abrasions on Kimimaro's body.
"He's still in there," Kimimaro whispered. "You have to get him out...hurry..."
Kabuto finished healing the mortal wounds on Kimimaro's body, then stood up and dove into the rubble again. It didn't take him long to find Orochimaru; he pulled him out of the debris, coughing and spitting dust, but relatively unharmed. Blood ran down his face from where he had been cut, and blood was smearing across the skin of his arms from where he had thrown his arms up to try to defend himself against the falling concrete. Kabuto checked him over, then ahnded him to Tayuya and went in after Sakon, Jiroubou, and Kidomaru. He found all three under one of Jiroubou's earth walls, which was holding back the debris. Kabuto helped them out, then went back to where the wooden golem lay on the floor, parts of it splintered from where it had been hit with falling concrete. He sighed with annoyance; great. Now all the evidence was...gone...
No; it wasn't! There was a strand of hair wrapped around the golem's neck, obviously the tether used to control it. If the DNA equipment was still untouched in the fifth lab...
Kabuto reached down and picked up the hair, carefully slipping it into his glove; through the fingers into the palm. He felt its sharp prescence against his palm and smiled. I have you now...
He went back and forth between all the ninja caught in the explosion, healing the worst of the wounds and bandaging the rest. Kimimaro especially was in bad shape; apparently he had jumped over Orochimaru in an attempt to protect him, creating the bone masks under his skin to save himself. Even with the bone masks, the pressure was still immense, and it looked like the pressure had created lacerations and abrasions. The rocks had probably shifted and possinly fallen, thus creating more cuts and injuries. Kabuto healed them all, silently pondering who the hair belonged to; who was so afraid of coming that they had used a golem instead...
Finally, Kimimaro was healed and Kabuto's chakra was at about half.
"Okay, I'm running down to the lab," he said. Orochimaru nodded, giving his permission to go. Kabuto slipped away, but not before seeing Orochimaru giv himself over to his concerned followers. Everyone wanted to see for themselves if he was alright, and Orochimaru was apparently in the mood to have people throw themselves at him...Kabuto couldn't help but smile at this. His master never ceased to amaze him...
Kabuto slipped into the deserted lab and dug out an old piece of equipent: a DNA tester. He slid the hair into it and settled back, waiting for the results to print out. While he waited, he began thinking more about who it could belong to. Well, the hair was black, so that barely narrows it down...I'm thinking Itachi, but why would he offer up the information about the rings? Unless he was sure we would all die in that explosion...and I highly doubt that. He's an Uchiha; he's smarter than that! What about the girl herself...? No, her hair was green...was she working for someone, and that's who this is? Maybe someone else in Akatsuki...but who else in Akatsuki has black hair? Well, there's Sasori...no, that's just a puppet. His real hair is red...what about that girl, the one always hanging out with pein? No, her hair is blue...and Pein's is red...Kakuza? But then, what does he have to do with it? Maybe he was the one controlling the puppet, but he was acting on someone else's orders...
A shrill beep brought Kabuto's attention back to the DNA test. He waited while the machine spit out a paper, then caught it, turned it over, and read the results.
He almost fell over from shock.
A/N: Guess who!!