Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shikotsumyaku ❯ Enigma ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.

 

 

 

 

While Sakura's plan to get friendly with Kimimaro in order to find…well, anything she could use to help him seemed to be going fairly well under the circumstances, she had failed to consider the possibility that Kimimaro had a plan of his own.

He was still alive and would probably stay alive for the time being (unless someone killed him), so there might still be a way to get out of this situation and do something useful for Orochimaru-sama.

The fact that he hadn't been sent to a research lab, or at least a holding cell, struck him as strange, since studying him was the whole point of bringing him to Konoha in the first place. ANBU was still definitely watching his room, but that seemed more like a security measure than some kind of study. Sakura had also started asking him questions about his past. She hadn't done this before, so something was definitely going on. And he might be able to use it to his advantage. Answering Sakura's questions and being nothing but willing to cooperate seemed like an appropriate first step. And if things went well, he could be out of his hospital room prison within a few weeks.

But then, what if Orochimaru-sama didn't want him to do anything? He might accidentally interfere with a plan he didn't know about.

He needed to think about it more.

 

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After the incident with the strap snapping, Kimimaro hadn't tried to break out of his restraints, and didn't seem as annoyed by Sakura's small talk. Then again, it was hard to read any kind of expression on his face. But one thing Sakura definitely noticed was the absence of any expression when she said something disrespectful about Orochimaru. Not a muscle in his face or hands so much as twitched. Maybe removing the Cursed seal had negated the effect of making him blindly obedient to Orochimaru. Or maybe he was still depressed about losing it. He was something of an enigma. Every observation she made about him could be interpreted in several different ways. And every time she thought she had found something out about him, it just raised more questions.

For example, if you asked most people “So, you broke the box?” and they had indeed broken the box, often they would try and explain exactly why they broke it to try and avoid any kind of penalty they might incur. Kimimaro would just answer with a “yes” or a “no.” All he did was answer the questions. He didn't give any details. She guessed this was because when you were one of Orochimaru's followers, volunteering information could easily get you killed. But then, it might have just been a habit of his.

`Aaah!' Shannaro! Sakura slammed her head onto the desktop, just a little harder than was probably a good idea. The more she tried to understand Kimimaro, the more confused it made her. It just kept making her think in circles.

She had been keeping a journal and filling it with notes. Unfortunately, it was a mess. Nothing she found seemed especially relevant, and it was even hard to relate anything to anything else. The Kimimaro puzzle she was trying to complete in her mind was missing half the pieces, and all she could get to fill the spaces were checkers.

Yeah, this was going to take a while.

 

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`Hn!'

`What is it?'

`Haruno Sakura has fallen asleep.'

`Where?'

`In the Kaguya's room.'

`What? Quickly, go-'

`Wait a minute, you two. If he tries anything, it'll take him at least a few seconds to get free.'

`But-'

`Also, this is a good opportunity to see whether or not he really wants to go back to Orochimaru. Let's just sit tight, and see what he does.'

 

Kimimaro was…uneasy. Sakura had been talking to him for around three hours now. She probably had a strong reason to pursue questioning him to such an extent, but he was unclear about what that reason was. She must have slept very little the previous night as well, since she had started falling asleep while he was talking. She had asked him to tell her how he had met Orochimaru-sama for the third time that week, and had finally fallen asleep, sitting in the chair and head on the side of the bed, using her arms as a pillow. He didn't know why she wanted to hear the story again, it wasn't like he was saying anything new, and he didn't know why she wanted to ask him questions when she was half asleep already. But one thing he knew with absolute certainty was that he didn't know what he should do in this situation.

For his entire life, dealing with people more-or-less meant killing them or following their orders. Whether or not he should wake up someone who was sleeping right next to him was not something he was familiar with. It had just never happened before. And if it had, it wouldn't have been under these circumstances.

As he debated, a thought occurred to him. In the entire time he had been in this room, he had only asked Sakura two or three questions, and only one of them was not a question about a question she had asked. Since he was going to be here for a while, maybe he could try and understand…people. Not something he ever claimed to know a great deal about.

He'd never really thought about it before, but he really didn't understand how other people thought, or why they acted the way they did. He certainly didn't understand Saku… In- in fact, he probably didn't even understand Orochimaru-sama. Yes, this was a good opportunity to better understand Orochimaru-sama's dream.

 

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`Nn-nno…leave bones alone…shannaro…he needs them…' Sakura woke with a start. A panicked expression passed over her face, until she looked up and saw Kimimaro watching her. Then a relieved look passed across her face before she realised that it wasn't normal to wake up to find someone, whose presence in Konoha was being kept a secret, staring at you. She was in Kimimaro's room. And at some point during the night she had taken his hand in hers. But the worst part was that Kimimaro had the closest thing to a smirk she could imagine occupying his normally impassive face.

It was probably just her imagination, since Kimimaro was trying to picture what she had been dreaming about. Seeing Sakura, as soon as he woke up was…well he didn't really know how to describe it. Unfamiliar? Interesting? …That wasn't quite right, but “unfamiliar” would do.

More importantly, Sakura was still staring at him, and she hadn't moved since she first saw him, and it seemed very likely that the only way to break her out of the trance would be to say something. Well, it was morning…

`Ohayou, Sakura.' Her reaction was, to say the least, not quite what he expected. For some reason she started babbling almost incoherently.

`K-k, Kimi-Kimimaro-kun! O-ohayou! How are you, today- feeling? Are, um, are you-oww, oww, oww… I'll be back!' As she stammered and mixed around words she sat up straight, which seemed like it was extremely painful, stood up fast enough to knock the chair over, and nervously backed out of the room. Then she disappeared down the hall and her hurried footsteps faded into the distance.

Kimimaro lay in silence, increasingly unable to understand Sakura. He rubbed his fingers together absently.

Her hand had been warm.

 

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A few days later Sakura had almost gotten over the incident with falling asleep, and she was starting to get an idea of why Kimimaro followed Orochimaru. As a matter of fact, it was a similar relationship to the one between Haku and Zabuza. A strange kind of “he is the one who gave me a purpose” situation. It must have made perfect sense to Kimimaro, but Sakura had a hard time getting her mind around it.

Since he had been answering her questions, and had been behaving himself, Sakura had decided to take away the restraints. It was still a bit early to let him wander around the hospital, but he might even be able to walk around the village after a while.

Since he had been lying down for almost a month now, Kimimaro was easing himself onto his feet bit by bit. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and trying to get used to the altered flow of blood to his head. Sakura was hovering uncertainly, trying to decide whether or not she should help him or not.

When he actually stood up he was a little wobbly, but otherwise he seemed fine. And Sakura finally realised just how tall he was. She hadn't really tried picturing him standing up before, so she was relatively surprised when faced with facts. As it was, he was nearly a head taller than she was.

Damn he's hot! Shannaro!!

Sakura managed to turn away while Kimimaro practiced shifting his weight from foot to foot, concealing the fact that her face had gone fairly red.