"Of Bones And Blossoms"
Chapter Two.
"Touch."
"He should wake up soon," he heard a soft voice murmur.
"What are we going to do, though? The Hokage's told us that we shouldn't even have brought him here.." another deeper voice asked in reply.
"I'll talk to her. For now, you go home; he's mine to take care of."
He heard some footsteps on a hard floor, followed by the opening and closing of a door. Kimimaro forced his eyes open. The light hurt. He was so used to the darkness. The first thing he noticed was that he could breathe much better. That was good. He slowly looked around the room. The walls were bright white, one thing he wasn't used to, and the lights were on full blast. Were they trying to give him a migraine..? There was a window to the left of the hospital bed he was laying in. He looked out of it, at a glance, and saw clearly at it was dark.
"What time is it.." he managed to whisper, and the woman in white whirled around. When she laid eyes on him, a small smile crossed her face.
"Oh, you're awake."
Kimimaro only stared at her with apathetic eyes. It was the woman from before..
She looked at her watch. "It's.. Ten minutes past midnight."
She approached him, and Kimimaro stiffened. To his relief, she didn't touch him, but she asked, "How are you feeling?"
He stared.
Her smile faded slightly, but she continued. "Well, I've healed you quite nicely, so far.. About thirty perfect of the damage in your lungs is healed. You've been unconscious for about a week."
Well, at least she was filling him in on everything.
"Do you know where you are?"
Kimimaro wasn't stupid. It was the Konoha shinobi who took him, so it was probably Konoha's hospital he resided in at current. He slowly nodded his head.
"Do you know why you're here?"
Kimimaro glared at her. What a stupid question..
She paused awkwardly for a moment, before taking in a breath and speaking. "I'm Haruno Sakura, and I'm going to be the one to take care of you, so you might as well get used to it and stop glaring at me."
Her sudden change in voice surprised him slightly. "Well, I have to go speak with Tsunade-sama.. I'll be back to check on you tomorrow."
As she turned to leave, Kimimaro spluttered out, "Where is.. Uchiha Sasuke?"
He saw her visibly stiffen. As she turned her head to look back at him, the coldness in her gaze was enough to make even him uncomfortable.
"That was who we were looking for.. but we found you."
And she walked out the door, her heels clicking quietly against the floor.
x The Next Morning. x
"Sakura, do you know who that man is?!" Tsunade demanded.
The seventeen-year-old nodded her head, rubbing her eyes wearily. She'd stayed up all night, waiting for the blonde woman to wake up. "Yes I do, Tsunade-sama."
The elder woman rubbed her temples, elbows planted on her desk. "Just tell me this, Sakura.. What exactly is your purpose in bringing one of Orochimaru's pets to my village?"
"Tsunade-sama," Sakura bowed her head respectfully. "With all-due respect, I have a plan, if you so wish to hear it."
Tsunade sighed. "Go on."
"I've talked around and asked others what they know of this man; Lee was one of the ones who fought him. According to him, his jutsu is spectacular. Lee's description was vague, but it had something to do with the manipulation of his bones. My plan is to begin healing his body, and do some research on his kekkei genkai by examining him."
"You do know what when healed, he'll be very, very dangerous," Tsunade countered calmly. "How do you plan on keeping him from running off to Orochimaru, or perhaps killing several people? Turning him? Softening his heart? Orochimaru has brain-washed him, most-likely, and there's probably nothing that could change that."
Sakura pursed her lips. "I'll get over that hill when I come to it."
Tsunade frowned, studying the medic for a moment. ".. I'm only letting you do this because you're my student, and I trust you. But because you're the one that insists on putting this into action, he will be solely in your care, Sakura. He is your responsibility alone. You will be accounted for everything he does, and I will daily check up on your progress.." Tsunade's lips drew back into a small smile. ".. To see if you come up with anything interesting."
Sakura's face brightened. "Arigato, Tsunade-sama! I won't let you down!"
"You aren't the top medic in Konoha for nothing." Tsunade smirked. "Don't disappoint me."
xXx
He awoke to see the woman's face hovering over him. He could feel charka invading his body and immediately his defenses began building up to push her charka out. She pulled back, frowning slightly. "Relax; let me in. I'm only checking you out."
Kimimaro's eyes narrowed. His mouth was about to open so he could spout out question after question for her answers, but he forced himself quiet. His muscles relaxed some, but his charka kept repelling hers. Finally, she pulled away again and sighed. "Well, let's just save that for later."
As she pulled her hands away, he remained tense. He didn't like this situation. He hated being at the mercy of another.
"Well," she sighed softly again, turning and leaning back against the edge of his bed. "Let's talk for a bit. I'm going to ask you simple questions, and I expect direct answers."
Kimimaro only looked at her.
"What is your name?"
He continued to stare, expressionless.
".. We could try charka exploration again." She shrugged.
"Kimimaro.." He finally rasped. "Kaguya.. Kimimaro."
She considered him with thoughtful jade eyes. "Kimimaro.." she murmured, as if trying out the name. The syllables rolled over her tongue gracefully. "Your clan's name is Kaguya, yes?"
What a stupid question.. "Yes."
"And what is the kekkei genkai of your clan?" She asked.
Kimimaro was a terrible liar, but he wasn't about to be sliced open and invaded just so they could try to investigate his abilities. "I.. don't have one."
"Bull," she countered immediately, harshly, and it surprised him a bit. "I have a little bird who told me what he knew about you; I want the truth, now."
"..What did he tell you..?" Kimimaro asked softly; he could barely speak.
"He told me that you had some ability to manipulate your bones," Sakura replied, looking down at him. He just noticed how dangerously close her hand was to his thigh. "And I'm immensely curious. I want you to tell me about it."
"I.." He swallowed, with a bit of difficulty. "It's hard to speak."
He watched her bit her lip before nodding slowly. "Alright, I understand that. However.." Kimimaro watched as she turned to face him, looking down at him. "I think the best way to get you used to my charka is to get you used to my touch."
Kimimaro's eyes widened. Her what..? He wasn't comfortable with that idea. He didn't want her hands on…
.. It felt kind of.. nice. He watched as she took his hand within nimble fingers. "I'm going to test out your reflexes as well," she mumbled, watching his hand's every reaction as she touched his fingers with her own, running her fingertips down the palm of his hand. His fingers twitched slightly; he most certainly wasn't used to this.
This kind of touch… It was different, much different. Violence was the only physical contact he'd ever really received. Orochimaru really didn't ever give him that kind of attention.
His eyes fell to a close as her fingers slowly ran up his forearm. He was relaxing already; he was immensely enjoying the feeling, to his slight annoyance. Her gentle fingers sent chills up his arms, making the hairs stand on end.
"You're relaxed already," she commented, and pulled her hands away slowly. He found that he didn't like that at all. But.. since when did he, Kaguya Kimimaro, let his guard down so easily, and like it?
"That took less time than I thought," she said, and he looked at her.
"I've.. never really felt something like that before." His emotionless eyes bored into hers. He noticed a flicker of emotion on her face. What was it? Pity? He didn't like being pities.
"Are you ready to try this again?" She asked. He didn't answer. She let her hands hover over his chest, and a small green glow emitted from her palms. Immediately his system rejected her charka, and she jerked her hands away, wincing. She sighed after a moment, giving him a withering glance and turning her back on him. "I'll be back later."
He watched her leave.
He was alone. It wasn't unusual, and it didn't make him uncomfortable. In fact, he was quite used to it. But this time, he didn't want to be alone. Being alone allowed his mind to roam. He didn't want to think. He didn't want to be reminded of the dismal situation he was in, or the God-awful place he was stuck at.. How he was basically abandoned by the person he lived for..
He did his best to shove those thoughts away by focusing on something else. Her touch. He hated to admit it, but he found that he rather liked it, enjoyed it. And the more he thought about it, the more he craved it. He didn't want to crave it, he didn't want to want it; he just did.
A simple pleasure of the flesh, he decided. Even so, it most certainly wasn't something he was used to. He hated this girl, this.. Sakura or whatever her name was, but she was attractive. He'd watched her every movement when she healed him(or attempted to heal him, rather), and memorized her every feature. Her pink hair came to her shoulders and fell into her eyes in a rather disoriented yet sultry way; not to mention that it was a bright bubblegum-pink. He hated pink; so why did it look so good on her?
Her eyes were much like his, yet so different, in two senses of the word. They were a jade hue, not quite so emerald, but near to the same color, but unlike his orbs, hers were filled with life, with.. purpose.
His were dead. There was no other word to describe those cloudy pools of green.. Just dead.
He'd only caught a glimpse of the clothing under the long white lab coat she wore, but he saw a maroon color. Quite a good choice; the red clashed with her hair in a nice way.
Kimimaro was a very perceptive person; he caught the little things as well. Her mouth was just slightly crooked, but it was immensely attractive, for some reason. Her smile, however strained it was, was fascinating. Her cheeks were rosy, yet the rest of her(what he saw, anyway) was pale as porcelain.
She truly was an exotic-looking woman, and Kimimaro was one-hundred percent sure his mild interest in her was purely physical.
With this comforting knowledge, he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.