The weapons flew out in all directions, pelting the Akatsuki with every single projectile Orochimaru had acquired in his lifetime. From the spurts of blood and the pained screams, Orochimaru was guessing the Akatsuki had been hit…

Orochimaru fell to his knees, exhausted from the amount of chakra he had used up. He released the gates, and suddenly Kabuto realized their true purpose. He summoned all three…to protect us, he thought, staring at Orochimaru.

"Release the gates," Kabuto said softly. "I'll take care of it."

Orochimaru swallowed hard, doing as he was told. Kabuto glanced at Jiroubou. "Take him, please?" Jiroubou nodded and took the four steps to Orochimaru's side in two. He gently lifted the sannin into his arms, holding him close to his body and waiting for Kabuto's next orders. Kabuto vaguely registered Orochimaru's golden eyes closing and smiled. They had fought for nearly an hour straight, and Orochimaru had exhausted his chakra with the summonings, the complex jutsus, and the overall fighting. For now, the enemy was paralyzed, and Kabuto wanted to take advantage of that. He edged out of the lair the same way they had come in and sprang away, heading for Otoga.

OOOOOOOOO

The guards on duty were shocked when Kabuto came back.

"One dead; Zetsu. The rest were injured when we left. We had to get him out of there; dealing with them all at once was too much, and his chakra was gone."

On the way out, Kabuto had snatched as many rings as he could; it only amounted to one, since there was only one dead, but it was still one less in the Akatsuki's possession. Kabuto glanced back at the sleeping Orochimaru, still laid out in Jiroubou's arms, and reached out to the Otonin.

"I'll take him now; thank you."

Jiroubou nodded and surrendered his lord to his loyal medic, watching as Kabuto carried him into the infirmary. Kabuto laid him out on a bed, found some bandages and ointment, and bandaged most of the wounds. He healed the more severe ones, as he was low on chakra, and bandaged the rest. Several of the medics on duty had come in and offered Kabuto help, but the genin refused them. He told them to stay close, however, because he might want help. One girl sat next to Orochimaru's head and kept track of his vitals for Kabuto; Kabuto was fairly touched at the gesture. Another man supplied him with more bandages when he asked for them, and still another woman carefully stripped Orochimaru down to boxers as Kabuto worked. He had already pulled up Orochimaru's shirt to get at a wound on his stomach, but he knew he would have to strip Orochimaru sooner or later.

The sannin would probably be furious that anyone but Kabuto had done it.

Well, he didn't need to know that…

"What are you doing?"

Orochimaru had seized the poor girl's wrist and was pulling her down to his face, trying to sit up, but failing when he flinched in pain and Kabuto pushed him back down.

"Quiet, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto said. His tone was gentle, but it held a firm undertone that compelled Orochimaru to obey. And although the sannin lay back, he still gripped the girl's wrist and demanded to know,

"Why am I being stripped by this…this…servant girl?! Kabuto, you know I don't like it when you do that!"

"Quiet," Kabuto repeated, even more firmly this time. Orochimaru glared hard at the girl and shoved her back. Kabuto sighed and caught the girl before she could hit the wall.

"Orochimaru-sama, I really wish you wouldn't react so strongly whenever you wake up naked," Kabuto said lightly. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, but Kabuto went on. "I understand that you have your reasons, but I really hate strapping you down-"

"Kabuto, you insolent child-!"

"Hold him down, please?"

None of the five medics in the room had any desire to get near the sannin at that moment in time, but at Kabuto's request they each tried to bring Orochimaru into hand. Kabuto sighed and the sannin kicked out at one of the men holding his hips down and reached around to the back of Orochimaru's neck.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, oooooooooooooow!!"

Kabuto sighed. "I'm not even touching you!"

"Yeah, I'm practicing for when you do," Orochimaru said sarcastically. "Don't lie to me."

Kabuto shrugged and used his other hand to dig into a pressure point on Orochimaru's hips. Orochimaru yelped and shrank away from Kabuto's touch, causing several concerned glances to pass around the ring of medics.

Finally, Kabuto released Orochimaru and straddled his hips, putting his hands on his shoulders.

"…I hate you…"

Kabuto smiled, leaned down, and placed a gentle kiss on Orochimaru's lips. "I know."

Orochimaru gave a whine of complaint; Kabuto was sitting on a bruise. Suddenly realizing this, Kabuto lifted his weight a bit, taking the pressure off the bruise. Orochimaru glanced up at him, golden eyes suddenly turning to liquid.

"No! The puppy eyes will not work!"

Orochimaru gazed steadily up at him, blinking innocently and giving Kabuto the very best puppy-eyes he could. Kabuto sighed.

"No! I won't let you-…!" He sighed again. "Fine," he muttered, crawling off Orochimaru. He gave an indignant huff and glared at Orochimaru. "You are too good at that."

Orochimaru grinned. "No, you're just a sucker."

Kabuto sat down next to him on the bed and used a small burst of chakra to get his temperature. "It's a little high…well, I'll watch you for the next couple days, but you should be fine."

Orochimaru nodded, and Kabuto smiled and kissed him again. "Good. Now stay!" he turned to the medics. "Keep him here. You have my permission to use force if necessary, as long as he is not badly and/or permanently injured."

The medics nodded. "If that's the case, maybe we should bring in real shinobi-?"

Orochimaru laughed. "I have bad news for you losers," he said, throwing back his head and laughing. "When I want out, I want out. And nothing holds me back-so keep that in mind when I ask nicely-because you only get one warning!"

Kabuto smiled. "But you're not even going to go there," he said sweetly, taking both of Orochimaru's hands in his own. "Because you won't be able to."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "What?"

Kabuto's smile widened, and he stepped back. "Man, you are really out of it if you didn't notice what I was doing."

Orochimaru looked down; black bands encircled his wrists in the pattern of a Heaven curse seal. Chakra restraints.

"He'll be much easier to deal with now," Kabuto said. "If he gives you any trouble, call me down here. I'll tire him out quickly enough."

The medics looked skeptical, but decided to trust Kabuto and nodded in agreement.

Kabuto gave Orochimaru one last kiss. "Brat," he murmured, stroking Orochimaru's hair back from his face. "Really, you should learn to get a hold of yourself…"

Orochimaru growled a warning, but Kabuto ignored it. "Well, I'll probably be seeing you soon. Ja!"

The medics glanced back and forth between Kabuto's retreating back and Orochimaru, sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, seemingly lost in thought. The girl Kabuto had saved earlier only looked wary, and the two men in the room were sharing concerned glances. Although they trusted Kabuto's powers, they also knew that Orochimaru was feisty. He would fight, and they wondered if they could deal with him.

"Hello?"

Karin poked her head in. "What's up? Kabuto told me to check in on you guys…" Catching sight of Orochimaru, she grinned. "And I can see why!"

"Don't push me," Orochimaru snarled. "I've had enough already, and I've only been here for a grand total of five minutes!"

Karin gasped in false shock. "That's terrible! How dare they keep you so long!"

Orochimaru glared. "Don't make this worse."

"It's my job to torture you," Karin said, walking in and shutting the door behind her. "Otherwise, it's just not fun around here. I mean, how funny is it when you throw a tantrum-ah!"

Orochimaru given a whole-hearted swipe at Karin's head, but the kunoichi ducked just in time for Orochimaru's hand to fly over her head. "Brat," she muttered, sitting down next to him anyway. "You have the mind of a two-year-old in a twenty-four-year-old's body."

"Actually, this body is twenty-three," Orochimaru corrected with a smirk. Karin rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Anyway, I heard about the mission…success, failure…?"

Orochimaru shrugged. "I don't know…we never really had a goal to begin with, but I still need to subvert or re-direct this binding…" He sighed impatiently. "Kabuto said he would work on it, but it's probably going to be a while until it's done."

Karin glanced at his hand; the left one, the one Itachi had severed. "I might be able to find the chakra signatures and trace them…but I need the chakra from the original hand. Or is the chakra the same?"

"Same," Orochimaru said slowly. "Are you sure about this?"

"No," Karin sighed. "But the worst that could happen is it doesn't work. No pain involved or anything."

Orochimaru shrugged. "Why not? The sooner this is over with, the better."

Karin placed her hand over Orochimaru and took a small sample of chakra from him. She began reaching out with her own powers, trying to find the equivalent. "You know, there's one that's very close, but not exactly the same, and one that's half-and-half…but I don't see any exact matches for as far as I can see."

"Which is how far?"

Karin snorted. "Just about all of Otoga and half the world surrounding it."

"Can you see the Akatsuki headquarters?"

"Easily."

Orochimaru sighed and fell back against the pillow. "God, this sucks…"

Karin smiled and stood up. "Well, I'll be around if you cause trouble. So don't!"

Orochimaru waved her off. "Find that hand; and do it quickly! I don't think Kabuto has enough drugs to suppress this for much longer, and this little project he has going about subverting the binding will undoubtedly take a bit of time."

Karin nodded. "Just get some sleep, alright? Kabuto dropped a few hints about letting you go tomorrow if you behaved yourself and slept it all off."

"Slept what off?"

"Nothing!" Karin said quickly. "Nothing…"

Orochimaru sighed. "He drugged me."

Karin blushed. "Yeah, kinda…"

"Just go," Orochimaru snarled. "Before this takes effect, I will pummel you. By the way, what exactly does this drug do?"

Karin shrugged. "The usual; sedative, or something."

"I am going to kill him…I really am…"

Karin smiled. "Kill him when you can. For now, sleep."

Orochimaru didn't look happy about it, but he did as he was told and settled down. Karin smiled as she went out; she had to tell Kabuto that Orochimaru was feeling a bit submissive today…

OOOOOOOOOO

Itachi punched out a rock, climbing out of the pile of debris that had come down with the roof.

Orochimaru was going to get it now. Itachi would torture him until he begged for mercy, and then he would torture him some more. Orochimaru would pay dearly for every problem he had ever caused Akatsuki, and Itachi personally. But, if anyone else had a complaint, Itachi would gladly throw in their two cents…Orochimaru would regret ever being alive, that was for sure.

Itachi crawled out of the pile, nursing his injuries and looking around for any sign of life.

"Hidan…?" he called out weakly. "Kisame? Kakuza? Deidara…Sasori? Anyone alive…?"

Someone shoved a rock off their body. "Itachi? Where's Deidara? Can you see him? Where's Deidara?!"

Itachi began sorting through the pile, looking for the telltale shock of blonde hair.

"I found him! Help me get him out!"

Itachi helped Sasori pull rocks off Deidara, trying to see what the blonde's condition was. There was a lot of blood on the rocks, and it was increasingly difficult to pull the rock away, since they were slick with blood.

"Deidara, can you hear me?" Sasori called. "Deidara!"

"Mmmm…Sasori Danna…?"

"Deidara!"

Sasori reached down and pulled Deidara out of the rubble, falling to his knees and holding his blonde in his arms. "Deidara?"

"I-I'm okay…Danna…what happened…?"

Sasori shook his head. "You're not okay, Deidara: you're bleeding a lot, and-"

"No, Danna…it's not my blood. At least, not most of it…I took a couple Otonin with me."

Sasori shook his head. "Dei, they all got away…you might have wounded them, but nothing died."

Deidara sighed. "Damn…I just used up all my chakra, that's all. Look for everyone else…I'll sleep."

Sasori smiled and wiped the blood from Deidara's face. "Quiet," he said, stroking Deidara's hair. "Just rest, all right? I'm putting you over here so you won't be in the way. I'll come back when I'm done, okay?"

Deidara nodded, and promptly fell asleep.

Sasori sighed as he helped Itachi look for everyone else.

A/N: Well, that's that. Review, or no next chapter!!