Nurse Me

AN: Thanks for the reviews. This chapter is much longer than the last. :)

Chapter 9

Saya slept surprisingly well, as far as he could tell. Orochimaru was never a heavy sleeper and woke during the night, every night, quite often. He had a particularly difficult time falling and staying asleep that night. Every scuffle Saya made on the floor made him wonder if she was getting up. His body went rigid and ears pricked with anticipation each time this happened.

He didn’t know why. What would he do if she did get up?

Better yet, what would she do herself?

With that said, morning came early for the man. He stayed in bed for quite a while, though. This was the main reason he wanted to be up and moving around during the day: his cuts dried over when he stayed in place too long. He didn’t want them to open up enough to bleed, but it was terribly uncomfortable to have them rip and tear when he did move around after staying still.

Orochimaru eventually peered over into the floor at the sleeping nurse. The blood stain on her pillow had grown, but that’s not what caught his attention. From his bed he could see that her neck was horribly bruised. Curiosity got the better of him as he carefully got out of bed.

His feet stopped just beside the pillow. He looked over her neck from behind his black curtain of hair. A lazy smirk pulled at one corner of his mouth. He sometimes amazed himself at what he could do with minimal effort.

That smirk was replaced with a grimace as he bent down into a squat. He lightly curled a finger around her dark hair and moved what was covering the rest of her neck. Orochimaru almost gasped in surprise when Saya quickly swatted his hand away. Increased breathing and flickering eyelashes told him that she was still out.

There was one eye movement that caught his attention, though. After she calmed down, Saya’s eyes moved toward Orochimaru under her eyelids and stayed there for a moment. His smirk returned. Orochimaru continued to let his finger run through bits of her hair.

“Get. Away.” Saya growled.

He chuckled as he sat down on the floor. “So, you are awake after all. I was beginning to worry about you.”

She opened her eyes then. The bright silver was now replaced will dull grey that appeared to be out of focus as she looked up at him. “Get away,” she breathed. Her eyes began to clear as she focused on his mouth, the same one from her dream. Nausea rolled over her as she made an attempt to move across the floor. She stopped as soon as she started.

“What did you do to me?” she asked as she buried her face in her arms.

Orochimaru involuntarily ran his tongue over one of his teeth. “You’ll be fine.”

Saya quickly shot up and turned to face him. “That is not what I asked!” She was close enough to make his hair blow as she spoke.

His words caught in his throat as her eyes stared him down. The foggy eyes he saw just a moment ago were now sharp and animalistic. Blackness was creeping in from the edge of the irises. He was brought back to his senses as Saya swiftly struck him across the face. The sound of her hand connecting with his face seemed all too loud.

Orochimaru’s eyes burned with rage as he saw her hand coming toward his face again just as he was reclaiming himself. He grabbed it and twisted her arm. Saya fell forward into his chest as the pain in her arm met the pain in her head. He looked down at her as she angrily breathed against his chest.

“That is a very bad idea,” he told her.

Saya sat still for a moment, save for her heavy breathing. For a moment it seemed as though she was going to calm down. Awkwardly so, she slammed the fist of her free arm down onto his injured hip. Orochimaru cursed loudly and twisted her arm that much more. Saya was laughing softly.

Orochimaru released her arm, but only to wrap his hand around her injured neck. He drew her up and pushed her back against the side of the bed. Saya instinctively clawed at his fingers, but he then began to squeeze, making sure to dig his thumb into to spot he bit.

She cried out in pain and anger as he did so. The pressure was much worse than his bite. So much so that she was afraid her neck would snap. She felt tears welling up, but she blinked them away. There was no way she was going to cry in front of him. Instead, she opened her eyes to look back at him.

Her eyes softened, but they exposed the fear she was experiencing. She stopped trying to pry his hand away from her and instead let hers rest on his wrist. Orochimaru loosened his grip, but only just a little. His eyes trailed down to her hands and back to her eyes.

With a scowl on his face he let his hand drop. He leaned in close to her face, his expression changing as he heard a small gasp from her. “You’re lucky,” he told her before his tongue extended to quickly flick her lips.

Saya closed her eyes and turned her head. It only further exposed her neck to him. Orochimaru leaned even further in to brush his lips against her neck. Saya both tensed and relaxed at the same time as his lips glided against it. She didn’t quite know what to expect. Another bite or general discomfort, but instead it was the exact opposite.

As he continued to kiss her neck, the throbbing pain began to cease. Even the pain in her head was breaking up and beginning to clear. Frowning, she moved her head so he could have better access.

“How are you doing that?” Saya breathed.

“Doing what?” He stopped moving his lips long enough to look up at her, surprised by her calm tone.

Saya looked down at him before gently moving away. “Nothing.”

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, but before he could respond his door slid open.

“Lord Orochimaru? I heard shouting.”

Kabuto stood at the door. He was all but hanging onto it to support himself. His eyes slowly scanned over Orochimaru, Saya, and then to her bloodied pillow close by them.

Saya looked worriedly at him. His fists were clenching at his side and his breathing was uneven. Her focus changed at she looked to Orochimaru for his response. He found her eyes and smirked. “It’s nothing,” he said lightly.

Her eyes turned to stone as he continued to look at her with that smirk on his face. “Bastard,” she called him through clenched teeth.

Ignoring Kabuto’s presence, Orochimaru leaned in and kissed her deeply with a chuckle. With a scowl on her face, Saya thrust her fist up into his ribcage. Genuinely off guard, he pulled away with a loud gasp and bent over her lap in pain.

“Hey!” Kabuto shouted at her as she scrambled away. He rushed into the room the best he could and knocked her off her feet. Saya felt her head jar as it hit the floor.

“Kabuto! Stop-” Orochimaru ordered before he went into a fit of coughing.

Kabuto stopped long enough to notice this. He moved towards his lord in order to help him get to his feet, but a shiny object on the bed caught his attention. Two shuriken lay on the bed from the night before. He stole a quick glance at Saya before he snatched them up. Orochimaru saw this out of the corner of his eyes. He ordered Kabuto to stop yet again.

Orochimaru was as quiet as the wind to him at that point. Kabuto raised one of the throwing stars and let it fly. There was an amazing amount of force behind it given his weakened state, therefore Kabuto smiled not only when the metal embedded itself into one of Saya’s hands, but also as a point went all the way through and pinned her to the floor.

Saya screamed in both shock and agony, made worse as every small movement made the shuriken dig that much farther into her hand. A stream of curses and threats escaped her lips as her other hand dug into the floor. Tears started to run down her face and onto the floor as she saw Kabuto’s shadow looming over her.

“Orochimaru, please…” she begged.

Holding his abdomen tightly, he rose to his feet. He wasn’t quick enough, though.

Kabuto quickly bent over Saya’s back and grabbed a handful of her hair. Pulling it taut, her bruised neck rose and became exposed to him. He blanched for a second. “He bit you?”

Orochimaru gaped at him as he noticed that Kabuto still had one shuriken left in his hand. He rushed over to him and grabbed the back of his shirt, but his one good hand was not enough to keep him from plunging the remaining star into Saya’s neck.

Orochimaru hauled Kabuto to his feet as Saya let out a blood-curdling scream. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked as he pinned the other man to the wall. Kabuto grimaced as a sore spot on his head made contact with the wood. “Reverse this,” Orochimaru hissed. “Now!”

“I c-can’t.”

Orochimaru pushed him further into the wall. “You’ve been secretly healing yourself so you could sneak around. You will heal her.”

Kabuto tried his best to turn his head away from his lord’s murderous gaze. “I can’t anymore. I’m too sick,” he finally admitted. He gasped as he was released and fell to his knees. Mixed feelings boiled within him as he watched Orochimaru ignore his own pain to bend down beside Saya and lay a hand on her back.

“Then tell me how.”

Shaking his head Kabuto told him, “You’ll have to channel your chakra into her. It’s advanced even for medical ninja.”

Orochimaru scowled at him before turning his attention back to Saya. She was growing pale as her blood kept running onto the floor. Her screams had been reduced to whimpers. “Hold still,” he told her. Saya’s body contracted as he pulled the first shuriken out of her hand. She looked up at Orochimaru with pleading eyes as she turned over.

His eyes quickly darted back and forth between her wet and weakening eyes to the second star protruding from her neck. He gripped it firmly and allowed her a deep breath before he quickly jerked it out. Saya screamed loudly for a second time as tissue was ripped out of her neck along with the metal. She sobbed as she held a hand to her bleeding neck.

“Hush,” Orochimaru gently told her. He gently laid his hands on her throat and the wound, noticing for the first time that the cast on his left arm would not provide an adequate flow. Focusing more on his right hand, he willed his chakra to flow through it and into Saya’s neck.

“No,” Kabuto protested, “Lord Orochimaru, you’re too weak.”

Ignoring him, he continued to focus on transferring his chakra. A small flash of a smile graced his face as Saya’s neck started to glow with energy. He instantly felt his energy quickly draining from him. Saya looked up at him with both fear and hope. Their eyes locked for a moment as the gash slowly started to close.

“You’ll be fine,” he told her with a slight grin. It slipped as his eyelids fluttered and his body started to sway.

“Lord Orochimaru-” Kabuto started.

The lord continued to ignore the other man as he kept his attention on channeling his chakra. His whole body eventually began to shake as the gash downgraded to a slight cut. Saya grabbed at his clothes with her uninjured hand. “S-stop,” she rasped as she began to speak, “You’re going to faint.”

And she was right. Before the word left her mouth, Orochimaru’s eyes rolled back as his eyelids closed and his body went limp. Saya was able to sit up in time to catch him, letting his head fall onto her shoulder. She looked at Kabuto who was standing frozen to the spot from watching them. His mouth was even gaping open.

“Help me get him to bed,” she shakily asked.

Kabuto moved forward with as much energy as a zombie. He hooked one of his arms under Orochimaru’s as Saya did with the other. Together they raised him from the floor and carefully dragged him into bed. Saya sat down on the edge of the bed with her back to Kabuto, sniffling like he wasn’t there.

“Your hand’s still injured,” he mentioned.

“You don’t think I know that?!” Saya yelled in a hoarse voice. “Or are you just rubbing it in?”

Kabuto stared down at Orochimaru with wild eyes from all the excitement. He started to speak but changed his line of thought. “I’ll get something for that,” he offered as he quickly left the room.

Saya would have been shocked, but decided to pay him no mind as she too looked down at the passed out lord. His skin was beginning to dampen from his unconscious state. She brushed his hair away from his face with her right hand; her left was cradled in her lap.

More tears streamed down her face as her neck tingled as the remnants of chakra continued to weave her skin back together. “You stupid man,” she whispered.