Jiyuudo leaned against the chain link fence on the hospital's rooftop with eyes closed as she breathed deeply. It had been about a week since she had woken up and she was beginning to get restless. At least she could find a little peace on the roof with the sun shining down on her and the wind tugging at her hair. She let out a content sigh as she leant back with her arms outstretched and fingers twined into the fence.
"Ah, there you are Jiyuudo-san."
She recognized the assistant's voice and she opened her eyes with a slight frown. Her moment of peace was gone.
"Time for medicine?" she asked tiredly as she turned around to face the young woman.
The assistant looked to be about a year or so older than she was with black hair pulled back into a pony tail and light brown eyes. She always wore a set of light blue scrubs and carried the same clipboard where she would scribble notes from time to time. Jiyuudo hadn't learned her name, that or she forgot it – "Short term memory loss," the doctor had said, "an unfortunate side effect of a particularly nasty head wound".
"Nope," the assistant smiled as she held the clipboard behind her back, "you've been cleared to leave, isn't that great?"
"Yeah," Jiyuudo didn't sound nearly as excited as she should have, "fantastic."
The truth was that even though she was getting tired of being stuck in the same place, she was terrified of the idea of being on her own. Mostly because she didn't know where she could go; maybe she could go back to the mountains? Yeah, that sounded good. She had family there; she could stay with them until she figured things out.
"Well, good luck," the assistant broke her out of her thoughts, "maybe our paths will cross again someday."
"Yeah," Jiyuudo said softly as she turned her face back to the sky, "someday."
"Can you or can you not track the chakra?" Orochimaru asked in a dangerously low tone as the tracker nin before him broke out into a cold sweat.
"Erm, well… you see," the man started as he glanced around at the "disappointments" scattered around his feet. "It's a very – ah – complicated process… you c-can't rush things like… like this."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed at his fumbling answer and the man knew that he had blown it. He was going to die. Before another complete thought could pass through his mind the Snake Sage had a pale hand wrapped around his throat and began to squeeze the life out of him.
"I do not tolerate failures in my ranks," he hissed into the twitching man's ear before tossing him aside like a rag doll. "Kabuto!" he snapped, turning around to find his second in command.
The silver-haired man looked up from the tree bark he had been examining and padded over to his master like a faithful dog. Sasuke watched this with mild disgust as he lounged on the head of a long dead giant snake. He picked at some of the white scales and watched them float away on the breeze as he listened to the two confer about something that he supposed was important; to them at least.
"I'm sorry Orochimaru-sama," he heard the soft rustle of fabric as Kabuto shook his head, "but there's nothing to work with, it's all been corrupted by the elements by now."
Sasuke tried to remember what they were even doing there in the first place. One of Orochimaru's summons had been killed, he had gathered that much by the dead snake occupying most of the clearing and then some. Right now they were looking for some way to track who ever had killed it, and that was where things were getting tricky. There was plenty of blood, but the wind and the rain had washed away any scent except for that of the rotting corpse, so ninja hounds were out. Tracker nin were proving difficult as well, apparently the chakra signature was a challenge to pin down; though its presence was hard to ignore in the clearing. Kabuto had been trying to find a blood sample from the mystery killer so he could try and track him that way, but that had ended up as a failure as well.
"Very well," Orochimaru sighed, "send for her."
"My Lord, there is no need," Kabuto tried to change his master's mind, "I can find another way –"
A sharp slap cut through the clearing and Sasuke looked curiously over at the two. Kabuto had his head turned to the side and he thought he could see a faint red mark beginning to form on the man's pale cheek. He turned back to picking at the snake's skin feigning indifference, but on the inside he was pleased that Kabuto had been put into his place in such a humiliating way.
"Don't second guess me," Orochimaru ordered. "You will retrieve her. Pray that I do not send you from my sight."
Sasuke scoffed to himself; he wished that Orochimaru would get rid of Kabuto; he was a meddling annoyance at best in his eyes. But even a meddling annoyance was better than what was coming if he was right about who they were sending for. And he prayed that he was wrong.
Isamu frowned to himself as he dug roots out of the ground, pulling at them with more force than usual. He never did like it when people went wandering around the mountains. Partly because he liked his privacy, but mostly because he knew what happened to those who lingered for too long. If they were lucky they would turn up after a few months no worse for wear, but if they weren't lucky then they wouldn't turn up at all. Most people would claim that it was the work of spirits, but Isamu knew that it was the work of something more sinister and territorial than spirits.