Kabuto's moral seemed to have taken a miraculous upward swing overnight. The long, boring silences that they usually fell into while traveling were not so silent anymore. Currently, the snake-like man was chatting away about inconsequential things. It didn't seem to matter to him if Ino was listening or not, as he didn't berate her on her lack of participation in the very one-sided conversation like he would have done just days ago.
Ino should have been delighted with this development, as she'd found the lack of talking dreadfully boring. But today, she just wished he'd shut up again. Her head was pounding in the worst head-ach she'd ever experienced, and for a female ninja, that was saying something.
Now he was actually humming! This was getting downright weird. Ino gritted her teeth painfully, trying to distract herself. Since her latest voyage into the depths of her companion's mind, she'd felt violently ill. It seemed that there were repercussions of dying in someone else's subconscious after all. As well as the pounding in her skull, Ino's whole body felt clammy and achy, her vision seemed off and she was very dizzy. It actually felt similar to the one time she'd gotten drunk at one of her old school-friend's parties. She felt like she had the worst hangover ever.
It felt like ages passed before they stopped for lunch, and by that time, Ino was totally worn out. She flopped unceremoniously down, and slouched droopily, zoning out within seconds. Kabuto appeared content to dish out their meals himself, so it was all right to take a small rest…
The next thing she knew, she was being shaken roughly by the shoulders. Focusing sluggishly on the gleaming silver face in front of her, Ino smiled slackly. "Hey…w'tr ya doin' K'buto?" She slurred. He looked funny, he was all frowny and shouty, but his glasses were on, so it was okay. She began to float back into the soft white fluffy oblivion, she was being pulled in by purple rimmed golden eyes.
Suddenly, a sharp blow stung her cheek, bringing back to the surface. Glaring at him, she shouted "What the hell you asshole, you slapped me!" For some reason, this brought a smile to his face, and he sighed in relief. "That's better" he said gently. "I though I'd lost you for a moment there."
Confused, Ino stared at him. As awareness trickled back, she grew increasingly alarmed. She no long sat hunched over on the fallen log that she'd parked herself on earlier. Instead, she was lying limply in Kabuto's arms, apparently having fallen forward out of her seat. Struggling to get up, she experienced a bolt of pain behind her eyes. Moaning, Ino fell back onto Kabuto's lap.
Not so cheerful now, Kabuto slid off his leather glove and put a blissfully cool hand on her forehead. "You were out cold for a good ten minutes." He explained in a professional tone. "Your vital signs were all critically low and at one point you stopped breathing all together. It took all my efforts to get you back awake, and ever then you nearly slipped away again. That's why I slapped you, I was desperate to wake you up."
Slowly, he slid his arm under her knees and stood with her cradled to his chest. Too tired to freak out at the manhandling, Ino only grumbled as he lay her gently down on her sleeping bag. Tucking an extra blanket around her shivering body, he held her head as she drank deeply from their canteen. Even that small effort was draining, and Ino lay back panting to catch her breath.
Kabuto gazed at her huddled form with an unreadable expression on his face. Finally, he let his medical training take over and grabbed her wrist to check her pulse. "Do you have any idea what this could be?" He asked her, counting the sluggish beating of her heart. "Does it feel like the flu, or food poisoning? Have you eaten any unfamiliar plants or anything?"
"No, of course not!" Ino snapped irritably. "I'm not an idiot, I've eaten the same as you this whole time."
"Can you think of anything else then?"
Ino could, of course. She had little doubt that her encounter with Orochimaru inside his sleeping mind was the cause of her sudden illness. But she couldn't very well tell Kabuto that, "Yeah, I've been invading you privacy on a regular basis to try to gain control of you body and take you to the base of your worst enemies who will most likely torture you before they execute you. But it turns out you have the spirit of your dead, murderous psychopath of a master inside your brain, funny isn't it?" No, that would not fly well at all.
But something was seriously wrong with her that much was obvious. She'd almost died, if Kabuto was telling the truth, and there was no benefit in lying. Even now, she could feel herself fading, and there was no telling if Kabuto could revive her again. She needed help, and if there was anyone she'd place money on being able to cure her, it was the silver-haired man at her side. She'd just have to divulge as little information about the cause of her state as she could.
"It's mostly my head I think." She started after careful thought. "Maybe something to do with my jutsu, yeah probably that." It would direct him in the right way at least.
Nodding, Kabuto moved behind her, and lifted the top half of her body so that she was once again resting her head on his folded legs. He rubbed his hands together, and preformed a simple hand sign that she recognized as one of the most basic healing jutsus. Resting his hands on the top of her head he asked "Where can you feel the pain the most?"
Ino motioned to the area just above her eyebrows. "At the front here." She said confidently. "But it hurts everywhere." Kabuto nodded and moved his glowing fingers down onto her face, pressing gently against the area she'd directed him to. Blushing, Ino looked to the side. Physical contact was not necessary for this particular jutsu, and he could just as well perform it by hovering his hands over the skin. But she couldn't deny that it felt good, and she soon forgot her discomfort as his slender digits massaged her sore temples. She closed her eyes and settled against him with a soft moan, the gentle ministrations felt absolutely delicious, and she had to reluctantly remind herself not to fall asleep.
"I think I've found your problem." Kabuto's voice cut through the peaceful silence not long later. "But I can't…exactly tell what it is. It looks like some sort of growth, which scared me for a moment, but it doesn't feel like one." Ino opened her eyes to look into his face. His brows were drawn together, forming a crease on the bridge of his nose. "Tumors and other growths are made from tainted cells of the patient's body." He explained. "They are sick cells, or mutated ones, but they still belong to the person. This one…this thing on your brain is not like that. It's as if the matter making it doesn't even belong to you." He sighed in frustration and his hands slide down to rest on Ino's shoulders. "I've only even felt something similar once before, and that was…" He trailed off.
"Regardless, this thing nearly killed you." He continued determinedly. "I will find a way to get rid of it." Closing his eyes, he preformed a much more complex series of signs, and a bright gold point of light appeared at the tip of each finger. Ino had never seen such a technique, and she watched in fascinated suspense, eager to see what he was going to do.
But when Kabuto opened his eyes and looked down at her expectant face, he shook his head. "You do not want to watch." He said solemnly. "This is not a pleasant thing to see."
Ino scowled darkly. Men were always assuming that all females were squeamish little girls who fainted at the first sight of blood. Although Ino still felt very lightheaded, she was not some precious princess, and she was going to see how he did this.
Seeing from her expression that there would be no argument, Kabuto shrugged. "Fine." He said regretfully. "But remember, I warned you."
Snorting, Ino tried to relax as best she could as he place his fingers firmly along her brow. Checking to make sure she was ready, he pressed down hard on the digets, and they sunk straight through her skull.
She tensed and froze as she felt his palms come to rest against her hairline, long fingers fully submerged in her head. It didn't hurt, not in the sense that she felt pain. But it certainly wasn't pleasant. The entire front half of her head, from her eyes to the crown had gone completely numb. Only at the points where his fingers entered her skin could she feel anything. It was sort of a pulling and wiggling, and it gave her the impression that he was fiddling with her brain.
Now she regretted not heeding his advice, and now she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. But it was too late, as she'd already seen what he was doing. A clausterphobic, trapped feeling started to well up inside her, and to keep herself from panicking, Ino recited the names of all the flowers she knew in alphabetical order. Abelia, Abeliophyllum, Abelmoschus, Abroma, Abutilon, Acaena…
The sun was low on the horizon, and Ino had reached Rhodanthemum on her mental list by the time Kabuto's hands finally left her face, taking the numbness away with them. Leaning back on his heels, he rubbed at his wrists, wincing "There, I think I've done all that I can for now, hopefully I've done enough." Ino sat up slowly, feeing a slight head-rush from lying down for so long, but miraculously, her headache was gone.
"You should be able to sleep safely now, so get some rest." Kabuto told her wearily. Ino looked closely at his face, and saw that he looked just as tired as she felt. But he did not settle into his sleeping bag like she did, instead, the silver-haired man stood and began to walk off into the forest. "Where are you going?" Ino called after him.
"Same as usually." He responded as he moved away. "Just need to take care of some things, don't wait up for me."
Of course, it was the same thing he said almost every night when he went on his mysterious excursions into the wilderness. It was a regular occurrence that Ino had gotten used to during the weeks spent traveling with him, but she had yet to find out what the 'things' that needed taking care of were. Honestly, she didn't want to know, but she would need to find out at some points, as it seemed like Kabuto didn't even have a destination.
All this time, she'd been expecting him to lead her to some villainous lair full of valuable information that she could feed back to Konoha, but lately Ino had begun to suspect that they were just wandering around the land to allow Kabuto to 'take care of things'.
In that case, she'd need to follow him in order to make this mission a success. But tonight wasn't the right night, she was far too tired. She'd sleep and recuperate now, and focus on recovering. When the time was right, she'd know, and she'd finally figure out what it was Kabuto did in the forest, so late into the night.
N
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Sorry for the long absence, but here we are again! I'm trying to heat up the relationship between them, but I absolutely hate stories that take romance to fast, especially in a case like this when they start out with absolutely zero connection. I actually have the last chapter of this story partly completed, it's the events leading up to it that I'm having trouble with.
Anyway, better late than never!