Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 10: Juuman' Okudo
Meaningless.
The way things were, to Sasori, had always been meaningless. Every fight that he had ever been in, save for the one to claim his favorite human puppet, the Sandaime, had been nothing but a small blur on his unnaturally prolonged life. If he saw a person with a talent that he himself didn't have, then he would make that person one with his collection. It was that simple. And the little resistance – 'ungratefulness' as Sasori had come to call it; that petty resistance that one would show to protect his or her own life to keep Sasori from turning them perfect (more deadly), was meaningless. He only ever did them favors.
A mutual negotiator. That was what it meant to be Akasuna no Sasori. His gain in making people stronger…was making himself stronger. Sure there was the minor long-term effect of the 'client' losing his or her own life, but of course, sacrifices simply must be made.
But finally, after two decades of wait, this girl whom he had stumbled upon by chance was in fact, not so meaningless. The thought of seeing her again brought only the slightest brush of amusement to his lifeless eye. But as he always says…all mortal things must come to an end. And her end just happened to meet up within a year's reach. What wonders there would be to look forward to afterwards – after he had obtained this…hidden chakra monster. The power that he would achieve. The land that he would rule over, the things that he would have…
"OI! Sasori no Danna. Head: out of the clouds, hm."
…He was getting close.
Footsteps trailed down the green padding of the grass, every so often, a small splash of water. It was dark, almost pitch, with the sounds of wind blowing and bird chirping – gone as if they never had existed. Clinging to her mask as the only opposable mean to conceal her identity from whoever may be watching through the dark back at her, Yugao made her way up to the shadowed blot the size of a man.
The sky above was bleak, cracked, and dead. The white flash of lightning revealed itself from behind the black clouds, the clash of thunder in the far distance quickly following suit. One particular beam of light being shot through briefly gave Yugao time to make out the major detail of the white cloth clinging to her objective target's head. A thick black band was wrapped around the back of the person's head as she could see, indicating that he was wearing a headband.
As she could see as she got closer, whoever it was had his back turned, staring down at something at his feet. It was apparent that he had not detected her yet. She realized that there may be hope for her yet, and she was left with a choice to make. Use the element of surprise to her advantage, or flee silently.
Deciding that finding out if this person knew anything about Hayate was more important than turning back after coming all the way out, she persisted with the approach. Although her conscience told her not to confront this man without further information in regards to if he could kill her and how, she could handle anything that the young Leaf Retrieval Squad could.
She chose to tread especially light as she got closer, although with her level of training, she could walk up to a sleeping cat normally, and not wake it from its slumber. That went without saying when it came to the ANBU Black Ops.
Ambling closer and closer to the figure drenched in the black of night, his figure became more and more realized to her, as well as the cloud shapes staining the back of a long, void cloak. The curtains of the uniform sway back and forth only slightly at the catch of wind. The rain continued to drip from the sky, although not as heavily as when she had confronted Uchiha Itachi, and the thunder and lightning persisted to make it a very loud night for ninjas.
She wondered back to her friend, Komachi, and if she would be okay without her being there with her. Although she held absolute faith in Kakashi and the others, she still had to worry about who they may have to fight just to get back home.
Shaking that from her mind, Yugao brushed her long purple hair back, which had been pushed in front of her decorated mask by the rude wind.
She kept both eyes on the tall figure, which continued to stare down at something invisible to her from behind him. He was in a daze, swaying his body in back and forth motions only slightly, much like a sleepwalker, or one of those zombies from the late night horror movies that she used to stay up to watch. Back then ninjas chose to be more afraid of a possible zombie outbreak than an Akatsuki raid.
Suddenly the figure in front of her threw his head up straight. Yugao froze. Had he sensed her? Was now a good time to leave?
The figure's head looked forward the opposite direction of her for a few tens of seconds before dropping back down to continue dozing.
The female officer felt her mind breathe out a hefty sigh of relief.
But all sense of relief was ultimately denied when she heard something slimy moving alongside the hill. By the time she turned, something invisible shot at her from the side and delivered an impact blow.
Where most of the forest was already calm, the rain ceasing up, there was one part in particular where rain was pouring down mercilessly. The area was somewhat of a grotto, with a patch clearing of trees and a small waterfall adding on to the rainfall. The sky was cracked with a black and dark gray texture.
The texture became bright red.
And then it became a dark purple. The perplexing clouds soon lapsed into all manner of discord with lightning of an unnatural sort – at least what the people of Konoha and Oto were not accustomed to. The ongoing war in the sky strove farther and farther, and louder and louder…until the breaking point.
The very heavens burst asunder, rendering the nearest rock and trees no more. A gigantic surge of power lashed down from the open gap, which had stars of all manner of colors, from the whitest light to the most sinister purple, scrambling and separating in the twilight. The surge itself was pure white, and any mortal who were to gaze upon it would no doubt have their eyes seared out of their skull from the intensity.
The gigantic pillar of light rippled, almost as if it was attempting to open up or expand into something bigger. But in all attempts failed, there was a violent outburst of electrical static shooting forth and immolating more debris. And instantly, the gigantic pillar, as quickly as it had come out, vanished, with the trace of the huge smoldering crater were it had evidently ended on, and the sky above, flashed back into nature.
The immense power of the whole incident was such that there was no dust cloud around. The great heat had left small flickers of light drifting everywhere, like little tiny white fireflies, from where the dirt particles had all been incinerated.
The rust-colored cloak covering something crouched in the center of the huge crater left by the great light pillar of energy, drifting to and fro in the wind and rain. Then, the figure of a man slowly rose from his crouched position, his face safely stowed away under his network of tattered rags. The outfit was detailed, but with gnarl. The cloak looked like it could collapse at any given time.
The figure brushed his long cape of brown and black mended together to the side, and checked his surroundings through his hood. He held his arm up to shield his hidden face, fighting against the torrent. He found himself in the middle of the lush, green forest stained only slightly from his sudden entrance.
A man's cold, but somewhat handsome voice spoke from the bottom of the hood.
"Now…this is more like it." A grin began to spread where the words had been spoken. "The technology here seems a bit primitive compared to an encephalon. It seems that I have escaped U-DO and the others for a moment. That's wonderful. Though I do miss the sweet sound and pain of being shot at by guns, I do in fact appreciate the serenity of being able to clear one's…perfect conscience away from the war for a little while."
He began his slow ascent out of the crater and spread his arms out to breathe in the fresh air opposed to the same stingy smoke and death that he grew to be quite accustomed to. His feet splashed against the puddles of water littering the ground. He wore no shinobi sandals or sandals of any kind, but dark gray boots that were wrapped around occasionally tattered gauze.
"But what's this I smell?" He raised his nose from under his hood and gently whiffed the air. After a moment: "OOhhhohoho, what a delicious fragrance! Hatred, power, and conscience that almost matches mine, all packed together! Ah, Rubedo's scent was nothing compared to this! Nothing!" He screamed hysterically at the fact.
He hesitantly turned his head both ways to realize that the 'scent' was coming from two compass directions.
"How interesting. One from the North, one in the South. One of them is much stronger than the other." With a reluctant first step, he began his wander. "But why spoil the promise of such a beautiful confrontation. I'll track the weaker trace first, and then,"
He lifted his hood to reveal the tan, handsome face of a man with free, silver hair.
"I'll test the source." His icy eyes lit with cruelty, his face already smiling with the bliss amusement of a long-awaited challenge.
"Heh…Heheheheh…AAHEHAHAHAHAHAA…AAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!"
The rain continued with the sound of his sadistic, inhuman laughter.
It was a bleak, rainy early morning in Oto. The dawn had not cracked yet, but would in a few given hours. The buildings were large, tall, and metallic, and some of them showed signs of debris indicating that they hadn't been looked after in a very long time. The walls were tall, each one at almost forty feet, and guards patrolled every corner.
At the front gate, a long draped red cloak, somber in the night, almost hovered elegantly, completely covered. The person's face was unclear, a hood thrown over his head. Two familiar figures lagged behind him. The jounin that Orochimaru had left to die. Together they pulled endlessly at a steady pace a rusty cart, three bodies lying inside. Each one had a hand on the handle adjacent to the other, and they grunted with effort. It would have been a lot lighter of a load if Jirobo wasn't on it with his less hefty colleagues. And as expected, Kidomaru, as well as the entanglement of Sakon and his identical brother, were laid around or atop the giant of a kid.
The cart's wheels creaked eerily along the mud-ridden trail on their way to the village's great gates. When they arrived directly in front, the one in the red, whom apparently had led the expedition, raised his arm up high in a signal for the others to stop.
They did.
He then proceeded to stare up at the impressive construction of the wall around the city. Amazing. It was the property of a previous member of Akatsuki, no doubt.
With the flick of his finger, the stained figure issued a silent order to one of the following shinobi to call up to the gatekeepers. The man did as he was instructed.
"Hello up there! Is anyone on duty?!" He shouted through a pair of cuffed hands over his mouth to amplify his voice. There was no instant reply. The dark-colored flags marking the front gate above blew violently against an angry wind carrying in. "HEY! ASSES!! Get it together!!" He shouted again, while his partner seized the moment to temporarily recuperate.
Just then a few heads stuck out from the wall littered with spikes in a neat, singular row.
"Who goes there?!" An authoritative voice shouted from the high elevation.
"It's me: Yaturo! And I've got Sazuka with me too! We have a guest who seeks an audience with Orochimaru-sama!"
The other voice took a moment to respond.
"I received no issue from Lord Orochimaru that he would meet with any visitors today! Which province does he hail from and what is his business with the Otokage?!"
"Degarashi Port! Tea Country! He's a defected noble who has chosen to give himself to our village as a soldier, and he's come a very long way! Now open the gate before all of us down here dash up the wall and throw you off of the top!" He explained to his stubborn colleague.
"Permit me for saying sir," one of the voices high above responded, "your behavior is rather assholish today!"
"Yours'd be too if Orochimaru left you for coyote food! Now open the goddamn GATE!!"
They waited for a long moment. The man in the red cloak took the time to survey the outside area of Oto. It was nothing short of a wasteland. He could see in the far off distance where the forest begins, but no tree was standing within a hundred meters of the towering walls.
Suddenly they all heard a low creak, and recognized it as the two humungous doors of the gate opening slowly for them. The red-cloaked person smirked beneath his hood and resumed his approach to the village itself.
The jounin who had vouched for him picked up the speed slightly as he dragged the wagon of teenage shinobi, and struggled to keep at the pace that the slightly shorter noble was.
"I'm sorry for that, sir. Oto doesn't have the most hospitable citizens and police force. You'll have to bear with us."
The traveler didn't answer, but heaved a short breath. It was relieving that he didn't have himself a Monty Python moment with the soldiers on the wall. The last thing he needed to make this lovely hike more wonderful was a pointless fuss, argument, and subsequent uproar.
He looked around. Heading for the highest building, to which he was sure was Orochimaru's office, he ignored the curious or dirty looks that he was getting from the village's denizens. In due time, everyone would learn to respect him, but for now, he was most very anxious to meet the Snake Sannin face-to-face.
Still, he could not believe that he was finally here. His faded blue sandals splashed the muddy road of the first street, while his head kept a straight profile to keep from exposing himself to the stares of the villagers. Did everybody stop doing what it was that they were doing every time a mysterious visitor just happens through their gate? He elevated his hidden head slightly. Even the guards had stopped their routine patrols to leer down at him. Some people were whispering to each other.
"Hey, what're all of you staring at?!" Yaturo shouted in extreme annoyance to the onlookers. "This man is royalty! Show some respect all of you!"
The effect of this demand was lagging, but overall a success. One by one, people turned back to what they were doing, whether it was trading wares, gardening, or just an early morning walk. The shinobi returned to their patrolling of the walls and high rooftops of the metallic building structures.
The stranger in red grinned silently under his hood, and proceeded.
It took about twenty to thirty minutes of trampling through mud, but he had finally reached the fancy doors of the Otogakure mansion. The place itself was in a lot better shape than any of the neighboring buildings would probably ever be. On the door were two knockers, one for each door, handsomely gilded with gold, bearing the resemblance of serpentine heads.
The concealed figure's hosts no longer carried the cart behind them. They were sure to drop the unconscious shinobi off at the medical district before proceeding up the long flight of stairs leading to their overlord's doorstep.
Sazuka, Yaturo's colleague, walked up with his head bowed low in respect, while his teammate and the former noble stood at the either side, the red figure twitching his fingers in sudden movements while he waited.
He made two loud, distinct knocks on the door, and stepped back.
They waited for about a minute before one door creaked steadily open.
'This is it.' The young man under the cloak thought excitedly to himself.
Everyone cautiously stepped into the dark to follow a mysterious green glow.
The halls of the Otokage's mansion were breathtaking. The designs etched into the floor, walls, and ceiling of the entrance were so perfectly lined up with each other, that the noble was certain that the architectural blueprints themselves must have taken months to set up. Lights of limelit green illuminated the hall to keep the residents from running into the walls in blind darkness. Whether they emitted from candles, lanterns, or torches was unknown. Everyone's footsteps clicked against the stone ground and echoed down the narrow corridor. Every now and then, the small group would run into a tall statue of a long serpent.
Finally, after what the party could swear to God was an hour, they reached the throne entrance of the mansion, and an evil wind was heard sweeping out. No one dared to poof in on Orochimaru, because he disliked the sudden interruption, and because they never knew what he might be doing. Hence, they never even knew what it took to interrupt him.
The red-robed noble stepped through the throne room, his two guides following him, up to where he saw a man with straight silver hair, covered in bandages sitting. To the right of his position was the pale Sannin himself with his arms folded neatly, shining two golden evil eyes at the approaching party.
"Kukuku," they heard his creepy chuckle echo as they neared his throne. "A bit early for visitors…" The pale man announced seemingly to the bandaged man sitting beside him, leering up at them with that very same insidious look. "Don't you agree…Orochimaru?"
The bandaged man leveled his head a little, but then resorted to simply leaning against one of his hands with his arm locked in an upright position. "Yes," he spoke in a hiss, "I very much agree…'Orochimaru'." His seemingly identical voice answered, emphasizing playfully on the Snake Sannin's name.
The men side-to-side with the red concealed man instantly dropped to the ground in the form of a respectful, somehow desperate bow. One of them decided to speak quickly.
"I apologize with the utmost sincerity…Otokage-sama. This man came a long way to see you. He-he's a noble from Tea Country who defected to join us."
Both images of 'Orochimaru' smiled with amusement. That was the noble's chance. He hadn't spoken a word since he had arrived, but now was time.
"I may be new here…" the voice of a young man started. "But I still hear things." He reached for his hood and gently lowered it. A bed of black hair quickly replaced where the garment once was. The man's eyes opened to them. They were jet black. He was not really a man after all, but instead had the face of a boy. "I hear that 'Akatsuki' has returned. I may not be the best fighter in my village, but I've been taught basic forms of taijutsu and genjutsu, and know a few advanced forms of ninjutsu. Not that I'm not confident in your ability to fight 'Akatsuki' yourself, but it seems to me that you could at least use every available ninja to your disposal."
The bandaged man leaned forward on his throne and clasped his hands together in anticipation. "Is that so…and just what is it that you hope to achieve from me for your services? Or do you simply mean to tell me that you traveled all the way from the Tea Country just to offer them to me for free?"
"That's not quite right," the noble objected. The Orochimaru that he was speaking to leaned in closer. "I've had my eye on you for a long time…most of my own years as a matter of fact. I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but my country is going through...quite the recession right now, and are not prepared to risk anything in wars of any kind. I always spoke with my family that we, that Tea Country, could use your alliance in terms of warfare against other villages that may seek to do us harm. They never listened to me. They called me a fool. So I said to them 'If you think me a fool, then I'll be somebody else's fool.' And shortly thereafter, I left without saying goodbye. I guess I was still kinda pissed with them."
Orochimaru chuckled slightly more with amusement at the comment.
"Before you start to think I'm after money or status or something like that, I hope you recognize the fact that I've had all that stuff before I decided coming here. Really all I'm trying to do is make a statement to my family that Tea Country needs Otogakure. Before you know it, they'll have figured out where I am, and they'd have no choice but to form an alliance with you to get me to come back."
The Snake Sannin nodded in understanding to this. The revealed form of Orochimaru standing to his right continued grinning at the red figure standing before them. The nobleman continued.
"So really, having me as part of your village…these aren't bad conditions for you. I don't see what harm one more fighter in your armies is. I…I even brought your Sound shinobi back." He realized it even as he spoke. "They were lying unconscious on the ground. I saw somebody looming over them, like in some sort of a trance or something, but when I revealed myself, he fled at the sight of me."
The pale man thought long and hard at this. Then, grinning malevolently through the bandages masking his face, he slowly stood up from his throne in his light purple gown.
"…What's your name, boy?" He asked in almost a whisper.
The handsome noble looked up at him. Then he smiled and ceremoniously nodded his head once off to him.
"Of course. I guess I've been gone from home a bit too long and have forgotten my manners…" He got down on his knee with the other two jounin and announced, "Please accept my cordial interjection. My name is Okudo." He stated. "Juuman' Okudo."
Both forms of the Snake Sannin smiled down at him from the throne, both pairs of arms neatly folded.
"You may rise." One of the two announced. He complied.
"I-if you don't mind me asking," The young black-haired man attempted, "which one of you is…the real Orochimaru?"
They both smirked silently at him for a moment. "Guess."
Okudo decided to accept the game of Stupid with them. He pointed randomly at the uncovered face of Orochimaru. "You?"
The pale man's grin deepened.
"Incorrect."
Instantly, the form burst into a cloud of smoke, and a pair of bright spectacles shone out.
"Please allow me to introduce to you my assistant," the masked, apparently real version of Orochimaru declared. "Kabuto."
The boy with that very name put a hand to his hip and used his other hand to adjust his glasses in his customary pose. He glared out from under his hand with a devilish grin on his face at the young noble.
"Pleased to meet you," he said in a somewhat manner of a scoff. Okudo's eyes widened in surprise apparently at his sudden appearance. "Okudo-kun." He finished teasingly.
The red man's surprised expression eventually wore off, and he leered seriously back at the medical nin. "You too…Kabuto-kun." He replied, addressing the courteous suffix with false respect.
Kabuto easily recognized this, which was probably what Okudo had meant for him to do, so he simply held his smile.
"I see you two will get along just fine." Orochimaru stated happily. "Unfortunately, I am far too weak at the moment to venture outside of Oto's walls. In the midst of a failing mission, I sent Kabuto out posing as myself to bring back someone to…assure my successes in the future."
Okudo looked up at him questionably. "You're not talking about the Uchiha boy?"
Orochimaru's golden eyes widened only slightly through the mask. "Sasuke-kun? Indeed you have heard a lot… Well yes, he is a necessity, but not quite the person I was mentioning. Sasuke-kun is busy training right now, but maybe you'll see him in the morning."
"And just who is this…other person, do you mind me asking?"
Orochimaru smiled ambitiously at the question.
"If you're so very curious," he started, "why don't you go to the private sector of the medical district and meet her."
The young man's eyes lit up. Her? Could it mean… "I-is that really okay??" He asked anxiously.
"Of course. Now if you'll excuse the excuse…I am rather tired now." He turned and prepared to depart from his throne. "See you both in the morning, Kabuto-kun…Okudo-kun…kukuku…"
With that, the Sannin drifted away into the dark, leaving the four shinobi standing behind in the giant chamber. Excluding Kabuto, a strange chill, almost like a mist wrapped around the small party left the masked man's footsteps as he descended into the darker interior of his sanctum. But the strange thing was that the very moment he stepped into the abyss out of sight, his footsteps just...stopped.
Leering over at Kabuto to make sure that his attention wasn't on him, Okudo swiftly twitched and yanked his fingers in a strange kind of gesture, and Yaturo and Sazuka simultaneously stood up from their knelt positions. They held at attention, waiting for an order.
"C'mon." Kabuto quickly said while he headed for the doorway. "I'll show you to her."
The man in red, with his guides at both sides staring on, continued his empty stare in hidden anger at the medical nin, before following behind and leaving the colossal throne room with the jounin.
The trip to the medical facility went just as awkward as the previous one. The roofs were damp from the rain, and the lanterns of bright red that lit up the street were dripping from the bad shower.
The group of four walked under the red illumination cast by the lanterns onto the mud road. Despite the somewhat miserable condition of the buildings around, the entire place wasn't completely without electricity. Telephone poles were lined up along the sidewalk with electrical wires protruding out of them, connecting each section to the next, and giving the village of Oto the appearance of one huge industrial complex.
Some building structures in the background behind the metallic ones, unnoticed by Okudo before, were wooden, inferring that they were slums for the less fortunate.
Unlike Kabuto, who walked straight ahead, having possibly been through this route a thousand times before, Okudo turned his head to look for civilians. Most everyone else had gone into their homes, leaving just the small party to walk alone down the plaza.
Finally they came to a particularly large building situated slightly outside of the main village, secluded from most other buildings except for a small communications tower that branched off of it.
"Here we are." Kabuto announced. "This building is the crown jewel of medical technology in Oto. Only Orochimaru's top advisors, spies, and military are allowed to be looked after here, and it's very rare for average shinobi to be able to visit here, so feel humbled. For all it's worth, this could be the last time that you come here."
His toured party stopped and looked up at the amazing structure. It was metallic, like most everything else, but looked a lot better built. This place was important to Oto, and everybody knew it.
"Now," Kabuto held up his index finger to make a point while he proceeded to walk through the glass doors, "I'd like to lay down some ground rules."
He walked up to the secretary counter and signed in to the lady at the desk, whom looked bored out of her mind. She practically ignored Kabuto as he inscribed his signature on the chart, resting her weary head against her hand.
"This place is not just a hospital," he continued, "It's one of our many top-of-the-line medical research facilities, and it happens to be the only one we've got in the village. There are scientists working here every hour on the hour. If you disrupt or disturb, even attempt conversation with some of them here, there's a very good chance you could be killed, and that would be messy for me. Please make a point to leave them be, unless for any given reason, they approach you instead."
Okudo nodded with understanding. They proceeded to walk down the hall, looking for the door leading to the girl.
"We're looking for room 212…" Kabuto muttered while he held the clipboard out in front of him as they walked on. "Another rule is not to disturb the patients. Some of these people are very old veterans, and they can be cranky as hell. Some of them still have some spark left in them too. Doctors and nurses have been killed unexpectedly in a couple of incidents because they served some of these folks the wrong foods." He chuckled silently to himself as if he just made a hilarious joke. "So I guess you should mind your manners." He concluded, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.
"It won't be a problem." His accompanied replied calmly.
They proceeded to climb the stairs to the second floor. Their sandals clicked noisily on the marble stairway. The tall window to the side was still dark.
"Is there any particular reason you brought your two guides with us? I'm your guide for now, there's really no need…"
"They agreed to accompany me for my first day in case I ran into trouble." Okudo quickly explained. "I said it was unnecessary, but…"
"We said it would be an honor." Yaturo finished for him, giving him a polite smile from behind.
Kabuto scoffed from over his shoulder and turned to continue the long walk. He hid a smile behind his clipboard so that nobody else could see. This fool had no idea what he was getting into. The personal game that Kabuto enjoyed playing with newcomers was to keep them thinking on their first day that they would be treated first class. Then when they signed onto the military, they entered Hell compared to their own standards. It was always so worth the effort to keep the flow going. And it kept everyone in line.
They walked down the mostly white hallway, although some of the paint on the walls and ceiling was peeled back to reveal a gross brown underbelly. Okudo cringed at the filth and severe need for redecoration. Every so often the group would walk past a slender, white stretcher without the sheets on it, prepared to serve any sudden emergency or need. Some of the stretchers were already covered in sheets, the shape of bodies stuck underneath them. They were motionless. Dead.
Everyone stopped at a certain door. "This is it. Here we are." Kabuto's voice reeked with tension. Whether it was to rile his guest or not, it was working.
The red garment royal's heart pumped quite noisily with excitement. And there was a good reason. He stared on at the white hospital door that appeared to also have peeled paint on its surface. The metal license next the door read 212.
He turned expectantly to his new, younger guide. "Am I allowed to see her?"
Kabuto gave him a funny look. "Well I didn't bring you all the way from Orochimaru's throne room to the second floor of our high-tech facility miles away just to have you look at the door." He established. Even without the mocking tone, the statement itself criticized Okudo for his stupid question.
"O-of course."
Savoring the moment a bit longer, he wrapped his fingers around the doorknob, and twisted it. The lock clicked, and the door slowly creaked open. He found himself peering into a dark room. There was a high-pitch beeping sound coming from some of the medical machinery. His dark eyes affixed on the very thing that he wanted to see even more than Orochimaru.
On a white bed, under the covers, with some bandages wrapped on, was the dormant body of a red-haired kunoichi.
"It's…you…" Okudo whispered silently to himself so that his host could not hear.
"I brought her here just a matter of hours ago. She's been comatose ever since the incident a little ways away." Kabuto adjusted the spectacles of his glasses again. "We've got big plans for our little girl." He giggled eerily. He took the clipboard out from under his arm and presented it to Okudo. "Her psychological profiles are restricted, but I can let you see her basic information on this medical sheet. You may end up even working with her, so it may be beneficial to you."
The red noble took the clipboard out of his hand and kept eye contact with him. "May I wait here for a while with her?" He asked, expressionless.
Kabuto smirked at the request. "Growing a bit attached to our little girl already, are we Okudo-kun?" He cooed, knowing now that the suffix pisses his new guest off. "Personally, I wouldn't. Visiting hours are day hours." He said sternly. He put his hand to his chin, as if he was still thinking about it. He ultimately lowered his hand and gave his guest a toothy grin. "Well, well, you really are getting the royal treatment this morning, aren't you, your majesty?" He asked mockingly, inspiring a glare from the taller noble. "Fine. Do what you like. I'm outta here though, I have work to do back at the mansion."
He turned for the door and took a step out. Before he went, he turned his head to glance menacingly back over his shoulder at the group he was leaving. There he saw the young-blood noble in his red cloak, his attention already off of him, standing right next to his patient's bed, ignoring the buzzes, beeps, and whirs of the machinery as he loomed over her. As he continued to watch with the utmost amusement, the boy lifted his hand toward her peaceful face, reaching out to her. To cut him off, the last words Kabuto said before his departure were:
"…But I'd sure hate to be around if she woke up."
With that, the door slammed shut, and the royal heard the gears of the lock click.
"Kabuto! You better not have locked me in!!" He shouted at the door. There was no response. Just the damned continuous sounds that varied off of the hospital's technology drifting lightly all around. He looked back to see the two jounin still staring emotionlessly at him. Good little toys.
He then looked at the wall to see if there were any security cams surveying him. There weren't, surprisingly. The room was windowless, so there was little worry about being watched from a window. He crept silently up to the door that his guide had just closed and held his ear to the surface, listening calmly to make sure Kabuto was really gone. Even though the machinery's sounds got quieter and less annoying with time, it made him try extra hard. But he heard nothing on the other side. Though Kabuto was a ninja, Okudo's hearing would not fail him.
Finding that everything was clear, he turned his head back to the girl lying on the bed and narrowed his eyes wickedly upon her. He watched her torso from under the sheets slightly rise, then slightly fall. Her gentle breathing. He instantly felt like approaching her further just to listen to the relaxing sounds that her gentle voice made with every breath of air she let go. But that was hardly the reason he had come in the first place. "You've cost me a lot of trouble." He gruffly told her, even though he knew she couldn't hear. "You, a young girl..."
He pulled up both of his hands instantly in a clicking gesture, and the two jounin he was with instantly crashed to the hard tile floor. A loud clatter erupted from the bodies, and their wooden frames broke open.
Reaching down into one hollowed body of the two shinobi, he pulled out a fair-size scroll, and then he reached into the other one to do the same.
With both scrolls retrieved, he held them under one arm, while he braced Kabuto's clipboard with the other.
"I'm disappointed with you, Orochimaru. Truly, I am. Even though I made slight modifications to my eyes and hair, I thought for sure you would recognize me. We've seen each other so many times before."
Taking the name of a noble by the surname of 'Juuman'? Has there ever been a bloodline called 'Juuman'? Absolutely not. What a ridiculous thing to fall for, especially since it had only taken fifteen minutes to make his whole background life up. Honestly, if he had thought the infiltration would have been this easy, he would have done it years ago.
He forcefully held the clipboard up to his face. Time to learn the name of the girl he came all the way up here to see. His still dark eyes frantically surveyed the top of the sheet for the patient's name. They widened when they hit it.
Tayuya of the North Gate
He now knew who she was.
A twisted grin started slowly around the 'noble's face and he held a handsign up to himself.
His black hair and eyes faded away to their normal colors. He did tell Orochimaru that he was taught the basics of genjutsu.
"You won't be rid of me that easily," he told the girl while he faced the other way. "…Tayuya of the North Gate." He hummed her name out gracefully from his lips. The name itself was a soliloquy to his own ears. It matched up perfectly.
His red hair and brown eyes were back. His true form was now clear.
Akasuna no Sasori had come to Oto. And he had found Tayuya.