Title: Serious Research
Characters: Sasuke, Karin,
Suigetsu, Juugo
Rating: (12A) for fun facts about
wildlife.
Summary: "So, apparently all female spotted
hyenas are actually female pseudohermaphrodites."
It was one of their rare resting days, and whilst Suigetsu was relegated to 'clean up the blood and guts' duty for this particular hiding-hole, the others had decided to go through the base's paltry library.
Rather, Karin had decided, Sasuke had been dragged, and Juugo had dutifully followed. Boredom set in rapidly, and they had ended up sorting through the more random of the book selection.
"So, apparently all female spotted hyenas are actually female pseudohermaphrodites. They look like guys at first-"
"Karin-san," Juugo said from his chair, "I don't think Uchiha Itachi is a female spotted hyena."
She forced a smile and leafed through the book again, half-watching as a red-eyed Sasuke set another pile of tattered scrolls to one side, contents memorised. It irked all of them that he could render them all obsolete in even a single area, even if they never called their self-styled leader on it.
She found another fact quickly, "If you put a frog into boiling water, it'll jump out."
"It says they'll stay in if you heat up the water instead," Suigetsu added as he passed through to the bathroom, hair soaked through with blood and what looked suspiciously like vomit. "But it's a lie. You just have to put a lid on the pan so it goes to sleep, otherwise it secretes poison into the water."
They all stared. Sasuke's eyes faded to black for a moment whilst Juugo threw the next batch across.
"Didn't you guys eat during missions?" Came the muffled voice from the now closed-off room. Sasuke nodded slightly, as though unwilling to admit that he'd ever done missions at all. Juugo frowned to himself. Karin looked faintly sick.
"Yes, well," she muttered, adjusting the hold of her glasses as she looked back down at the book and then at Juugo - anywhere but the bloodsmeared door - "Some animals change colour when their diets differ. Prawns make some birds turn pink."
Juugo leant across to see the strange bird in the illustration, and then read the next part out loud.
"Many aquatic creatures have adapted to change colour rapidly upon dietary changes, the process taking between a few hours for small invertebrates up to a week for larger creatures."
If asked at a later date, they would all swear that it had been the lack of sleep and information overload that had made it seem like such a great idea, but everyone knew it was just revenge and curiosity that made them add increasingly large amounts of food dye to Suigetsu's water rations.
He looked surprisingly attractive in orange.