Stage Twenty: Snares

The note was quickly tucked away without much more regard. Orochimaru would have no need to view it, and I didn't really want him all over my room anyway. I considered the possibilities, and there isn't much threat behind someone telling me what I was already ordered to do. Orochimaru had made it very clear to me that I was not to leave of my own free will, nor would he allow his will to let me venture too far unassisted for a long time.

The next morning, I entered Orochimaru's office to see that there was damage all around me. Bookshelves were broken, walls had been cracked. "Ohayou gozai masu, Sensei."

"Ohayou, Little One."

I observed him for some time, evaluating his current state. He was bent over charts, and there was paraphernalia about that made obvious to me that he had not slept much in the last night. Although he was sleep deprived, he was also in a good mood. It seemed that thrashing both Sasuke and Kabuto relieved him of stress that had accumulated from late nights, early mornings, and insubordinate shinobi.

I took my place before him, noticing that there was an empty cup beside his paperwork. "Sensei, would you like more tea?" I asked. There were times when caffeine was the only thing that kept him going.

"No. I haven't been drinking tea."

I understood, but took the cup from him anyway to refill it. He seemed to perk up when I walked back into the room. The aroma of the coffee was enough to revitalize his mind. The first sip sparked life back into his slowly closing eyes. This last night had been more stressful to him than I had first thought.

It wasn't long before Kabuto walked into the room with charts, providing detailed updates on all the experiments that Orochimaru was conducting that didn't include me. Kabuto never had clearance on those. I listened to them, though not focusing on what was going on or what was going to be done. There were problems, but there were also enough successes to outweigh them. I was convinced that the night, though long for the subjects, was a good one all together for Orochimaru.

Kabuto showed no signs of being confronted by Orochimaru. Being an elite medical shinobi, I didn't expect him to. He stood as tall and as arrogant as ever, nearly acting as though it hadn't happened at all. There was the edge in his voice that he couldn't hide, and that told me all I needed to know. Kabuto had what was coming to him. I am the last person he will ever critique Orochimaru to again.

Sensei payed close attention to what was being said. He asked a few questions, and referred to the charts that were placed before him. A few things had caught my attention; instable vitals, mostly. There were always those whose organs failed when subjected to Orochimaru's unrelenting medical research.

Thus, the day began like every other in Otogakure. People bustled in the streets as they opened their shops or hurried off to work. Shinobi filtered in and out seeking assignments and relief from the day to day training regimen. Sasuke left for training soon after Kabuto arrived, and hadn't even bothered entering to declare where he was going or what he was to do.

I was forced to stay inside by Orochimaru's daunting amounts of medical work that needed looked over. The three of us looked over vast amounts of information, each of us working on our own sets of experiments. Kabuto was tolerable at best when he was busy like this. I was often irritable.

I could not tell the differences from one experiment to another after I had filled in the allotted information and closed the manila file. I had not the passion for such things, as experiments often puzzled me toward their necessity. Is there point in seeing if you could force a person to live entirely underwater? What shinobi is ever going to consent to being solely aquatic? I have often wondered if Orochimaru does things just because he wants to know if he can.

Of course I never voiced this to him. Do you think I was a fool? This was his life, his passion. To shroud it in doubt and question was worse than treason. Kabuto knew it, and so did I. Naturally, it helped that the little nerd shared Sensei's passion for the medical monstrosities that they were attempting to create. There were times when I only scraped by on my will to please Orochimaru alone; sometimes, only my will to survive. Perhaps he mistook my loyalty to him as a profound passion for the sciences.

I felt overwhelmed. Kabuto kept muttering strangely, the same way he always does when he's consumed by something. Orochimaru was a statue, pausing his still tranquillity only to fill in data, unroll a scroll, turn a page. I was still weary of him. The things he had said and done in the last few days, weeks even, had me on edge. I have always known that his moods were subject to change without further notice, but they have never been this volatile.

In my mistaken action of staring at him through this thought process, he noticed my lack of progress. Still keeping what he could of the silent treatment, he simply arched an eyebrow at me. I blinked once, then turned back to my charts. I sighed.

Kabuto opened his mouth as if he were going to say something when I stood up. One look from me silenced what ever he was about to say before it even emerged from his gullet. My butt hut; hours had passed. I strolled over to Orochimaru's desk. His eyebrow arched at me.

I have come to learn that he has different eyebrow arches to imply different things. Before this, I had no idea. This one happened to say, "Sit back down, get to work, and don't move again." Thrown into that was, "Don't say a word, and I won't throw you."

I arched my own eyebrow, stalled for half a second to irk him (which was very dangerous), and snatched his coffee mug. The look on his face was priceless. Fury mixed with astonishment, thrown among the confusion. Apparently, this was a little brash for his current mood.

I then turned my back on him (while smirking a very dangerous smirk to smirk) and marched out of the room. For some reason, I had defiance in my blood that day. This is what happens when I sit still for too long.

I passed a few shinobi in the hallways. Tayuya had stopped to ask me about Orochimaru's current state of mind. She had run into Sasuke earlier, who was still nursing his wounds. After telling her that he was edgy, I made my way into the kitchen to refill the coffee mug. I added the appropriate amount of sugar before returning to Orochimaru's watchful glare. He noted the mug in my hands, and there was a faint hint of a smile on his face… until I sat down with it.

The day went by a lot faster with that cup of coffee in my system.

I went back to my quarters after the piles of paperwork were dealt with appropriately. My mind felt numb from all the numbers and charting that had to be done. My bed had never looked so comfortable. Nor had it ever smelled so weird.

Now, whoever was here last to leave me the note knew to cover their scent. I know this, because I couldn't smell who it was who had been here. I am guessing that they had used the clothing they took from me to cover the smell of their own clothes. There were a lot of precautions that had been taken to insure that I didn't know who was here. They obviously wanted me to know they had been here.

Now with this intruder, I could smell them all over the place. Everything they touched had their scent on it. Well, her scent on it. I was pretty sure it was a girl. Dunno why a girl would go through my things, or how she got in here. It seemed like I needed to rewire a few things.

"What are you doing, Child?"

Orochimaru's aggravated glare stopped me. It was about three in the morning. I had two wires in each hand and three between my teeth.

"Inah rewhairig myh trabs," I answered.

His hand took the wires out of my teeth. "Answer again," he demanded.

"I'm rewiring my traps," I repeated.

"Is there a reason why?" he asked.

"To keep Kabuto and Sasuke out," I answered. In truth, having Sasuke around added a whole other mindset I had to contour to with these defences. He was going to see something Kabuto wouldn't notice. I had to add that into it. It was a truthful lie: the only kind I could tell Orochimaru without being seen right through. Him knowing about the intruders would only make things worse for me. Conspiracy would be thrown around. It will be anyways, from what little I know.

"Is there something you're hiding from me?" he asked.

My heart rate picked up. I'm sure he noticed. "Would I just continue working if I were? You've always been able to get through my wires."

"I know where they all are, or at least, I did."

"I'm very sure you'll pick them out in an instant, regardless, Dono."

Using the formal suffix to name him seemed to upset him a little bit, as though I was driving a nail into the statement I made the night he told me to remain here. I saw the same hurt in his eyes, just before it was whisked away.

"Or, rather, I could watch you put the rest of them in," he suggested.

"Be my guest, Sensei."

At this statement, he turned into my bedroom. The one place I didn't want him to be. Luckily, I had burned the note and altered the room myself. I didn't think he'd notice, but it was Orochimaru who was snooping around. I'm sure you'd understand that I wasn't quite at ease there. Especially when considering the mood he had been for the past few weeks.

I had moved a few feet down the corridor when he stepped out of the shoji. "You've rearranged your room." He waited for my nod in response. "I like it better this way."

"Thank you," I answered with unease.

"You seem a little anxious. Is there something I need to know about?"

Shit… "No, Sensei. I'm just cautious. Your mood is a tad unpredictable."

"You should know that I don't act, I react. Tsuki, I won't discipline unless it's called for. Is it called for?"

"No, Sensei, I don't feel it is."

"I should worry if you had replied otherwise."

"Indeed, I suppose you should."

He regarded me for a moment.

"Permission to speak, sir?"

"As always, Child."

"Why are you awake?"

"Because you are."

How typical of him. He didn't trust me enough to sleep unless I was docile and drugged next to him. "Aren't you tired?"

"Caffeine goes a long way," he answered.

"It doesn't go on forever."

"Perhaps not," he answered.

It was then that I noticed he had something very long and very thin wound between his fingers and strung between both hands. He was playing with it, making sure I knew it was there. I felt danger for one thin moment, just long enough for the breath to catch in my throat and fear that he changed his mind, and decided Kabuto was right about me.

Once rational thought caught up to inform me that it was neither the right colour nor the right width for a steel wire and that it was, in fact, harmless, Orochimaru let me in on his little game.

"Tsuki, whose hair is this?" He held it up in the light, making sure that the long, blonde strand held my attention. I had missed something.