Anonymous
Sudden downpours were part of traveling. Kakuzu shot an annoyed glare at his partner. The man's constant whining grated on his nerves.
"Why are we in a cemetery?" he asked suddenly noticing the surroundings.
It was one of those old and decrepit cemeteries that time and aging families had forgotten. The gravestones were haphazardly tilted over, rain coming down in sheets over the cracked markers.
He walked directly through the puddles while his shorter partner raced around them, wasting energy. The sky was dark and angry; thunder cracked and lighting followed. The only bright spots in the dreary surroundings were the occasional white tombstones and mausoleums that dotted the environs. Kakuzu was growing more and more irritated with his partner who had yet to answer him.
"Why, I repeat are we here?" he inquired tightly.
Hidan was, conversely, giddy. "It's Halloween!"
"I'm failing to see your point." he frowned.
"Praise Jashin! I know!" The man grinned, running a hand through his rain-slick tresses. "Isn't it fucking awesome?"
"No," Kakuzu growled.
"Kakuzu you're such a goddamn wet blanket."
"It's pouring. Our blankets are probably wet," he pointed out.
Hidan walked up a few steps to the nearest mausoleum and he kicked open the door. "Hey lets bunk in here. This is fucking perfect."
Kakuzu snorted.
The inside of the crypt smelled of old death. It was musty full of sarcophaguses and worse yet, damp. The Jashinist set his scythe against the wall and was ransacking the nearest tomb with delight, ripping clothing off the body.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked
Hidan looked up. "Wha?"
"I asked you what you thought you were doing?" he repeated, a vein throbbing in his temple. "I know how hard the good-evil concept is for you Hidan."
"I'm getting something dry to start a fire," Hidan said and gestured with the clothing that he had pulled of the dead body and started to pile it up into a small circle to start a campfire. "And it's not like he need's the clothes now." The man gestured towards the now-open crypt. "The poor bastard is dead!"
Hidan started a fire with a quick few hand signs of a fire jutsu and was easily warming his hands over a small fire. He looked up at him with a questioning face.
"You're serious," Kakuzu glared at the man, his patience nearing the breaking point.
"I would think you'd like this," Hidan smiled. "It's fucking free."
He cocked his head and cracked a joint. "Free, I like. But sleeping in a graveyard on a rainy night when the Boss is paying seems like a goddamn waste to me, Hidan."
The other man pouted. "But it's...Halloween, Kakuzu!"
"So?" he glared.
"Cemetery, crypts, it's also a full moon?" Hidan catalogued, ticking off on his fingers. "You know the other fucking guys call us the 'zombie brothers', right?"
Kakuzu shifted and leaned against the wall. "That name only shows their ignorance."
"I fucking love it," Hidan grabbed his crotch a few times and thrust randomly.
He narrowed his eyes and pointed his thumb back towards the door, "I think I saw an inn about a mile back down the road. I'll be there for the night if you get sick of this place."
"Hah!" Hidan laughed. "I'll be here in case you miss all this natural ambiance."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Yamato did not like being in the city. He knew it was silly, but he liked walking on the dirt, feeling the earth under his feet, feeling connected to life. This large city pulsed with electricity and foreign sounds. Yamato glanced down at the train schedule in his hand, double checked the time for Iwagakure. He noted the rush of wind that foretold the coming commuter train, before pocketing the train schedule.
He turned his head and stepped onto the oncoming track, then past the swoosh of the opening doors. Yamato felt the sway and movement of the car beneath his feet. His body adjusted to the movement of large machine and he walked between the isles, grasping onto the bar to steady himself. Amegakure was a unique city, much different from Konoha. One of the largest cities despite not even being in one of the 5 Great Shinobi Nations; it teemed with people, crime, smog and sweat. He did not like it.
He spent the bulk of the train ride staring out the window watching the passing cityscape pass him by, amazed at the sheer vastness of Amegakure. The number of alien looking skyscrapers, the people hanging out on tiny balconies, and the wires and masses of cables connecting the city from building to tower. Before he realized it, the ride was coming to a close. Yamato stepped out from the train after an hour and twenty minutes of riding; this portion of the Village Hidden in Rain was thinned out, near the very far boarder of Iwagakure. It was a simple scroll delivery mission to a shinobi that was intelligence gathering in the region. But with whispers of this new criminal organization, the Akatsuki, on the loose the - Hokage had labeled the mission as an A-Class and he was to make his way to Village Hidden in the Rocks keeping his eyes open and to leave the scroll with their operative there post haste.
He hated to travel in the city but he was glad to be away from Konoha for once. His recent relationship with a fellow teammate was stifling him and making him uncomfortable in his own skin, ill at ease in his own life. He frowned, not wanting to think about Sai right now. Yamato glanced up as the sky turned black as rain began pouring down in sudden sheets, musing to himself that the weather matched his own turbulent thoughts.
Yamato skittered under an awning of a nearby restaurant. The building possessed the familiar architecture of Iwagakure; a rounded squat building popular in the area with oval windows and arches. He ducked in the door and smiled in a friendly manner at the proprietor.
The bearded, portly proprietor looked at him with an unfriendly face and continued cleaning a glass with a dirty rag.
"Hai," Yamato said as he brushed some of the water off his hair. "I am traveling in the area on the way to see visit my sick mother. I was wondering if you could recommend an inn?"
"You buying something?" the proprietor glared at him as he continued cleaning the glass.
He slid a few crinkled Ryō on the counter and the proprietor palmed the money in his hand, pocketed it and shrugged.
The proprietor went back to cleaning the glass. "Town don't like strangers. Especially today."
Yamato nodded with understanding, although he didn't really understand. "I'm leaving in the morning, just passing through." He placed a few additional crinkled Ryō on the counter with a sigh. Even for mission purposes it irked him to part with money. The proprietor glanced at the money and then back at him. He set the glass he was cleaning down and picked up the additional money and gave him a hard look.
"There is a place about a mile and half to the north. Follow the road, you can't miss it. Big brown building with a sign out front." The proprietor turned around and busied himself sweeping now, dismissing Yamato with the gesture.
He found the inn easily enough after about twenty minutes of brisk walking, despite the rain falling in drenching sheets around him. The ramshackle building was something he wouldn't ordinarily spend the night in. Yamato preferred to bivouac out in nature, under the stars, smelling the earth with every breath. Or using his wood release to create a small hut for the night. But he was he was a practical man and even as much as he loved the outdoors he did not relish the thought of camping in this downpour.
Mud sloshed between the open toes of his shoes, making him grimace slightly as he approached the door of the hotel. It did indeed have a sign out front, with a faded bed painted on it although he couldn't really read the words. He reached for the door and opened it to enter. The inn was illuminated briefly as lightening flashed while Yamato entered, showing the façade in its dilapidated appearance. He was already inside and missed the sudden illumination; the boarded up windows, painted signs of warning. As the front door closed behind him; the inn's old tattered sign above the door that looked like it was barely holding on, tumbled and fell to the ground. The name was almost worn away and appeared to have been burned partially at some point in its lifetime. Its name, 'Mōteru Yasuraka Ni Nemure', could barely be read. The placard landed behind some bushes, forgotten.
Yamato entered the dingy little inn and glanced around; a small beady eyed man sat at the front desk.
"Ano, do you have a room?" he asked with a sociable smile, hoping he wasn't slopping mud all over the man's entryway.
The clerk picked up an ancient looking key and held it aloft. "Just one."
Thunder cracked loudly outside reverberating throughout the inn, rattling the windows, shaking along the floorboards. Yamato was glad he had sought out shelter for the night after all. Seemed like it was going to be quite a storm.
He grasped the metal of the room key from the beady-eyed clerk as lightening flashed, revealing the man across from him, making him appear ghostly pale and washed out. The key felt cool in his hands. It was an old design but the building was also old so he supposed it was only fitting.
"How much for the one night?" he asked, reaching a hand into his pack.
The clerk shook his head slowly, his stare unblinking. "On a night such as this, traveler, consider it my courtesy to you." The innkeeper paused. "Up the stairs, last room on the left."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Kakuzu fingered the odd skeleton key in his hands and twisted it in the lock. The room was as old and disrespectable as the rest of this place, but Hidan and himself had stayed in worse over the months. In fact if the place had clean sheets he could consider it a haven compared to this once place in Suna he would prefer to forget. He glanced around the room; the bed looked slightly rumpled and there was even a small knapsack and muddy shoes sitting in the chair by the window. Kakuzu frowned beneath his mask, glancing at the number on the door again. Ne, he had the right room.
Over the sound of the constant, unending torrent of rain on the roof this night he could hear it. Another sound blended in with the rain, a lighter, closer patter that was now distinguishable to him; the shower. Kakuzu's eye's slid to the shadows cast by the subtle light glowing along the floor where he could see the gap in the door letting the light in. Silently he crossed the bedroom and began ransacking the interloper's belongings. This person was in his room after all.
A change of clothing, obviously male. Size large. Ration bars, so obviously a ninja. Some partially carved wooden figurines. A half-eaten candy bar. Deck of cards. A Konoha hitai-ate. A book of poetry? Kakuzu immediately dismissed the man for an intellectual, probably some boring chūnin. A piece of paper slipped out of the book, a note from some one. He read the note: "If you're reading this, your penis is missing me!" Kakuzu snorted before he could stop himself and shoved the note back into the book surprised not to find any weapons beside a sole kunai that was buried at the bottom of the bag.
He set the bag down and looked around the room, realizing he only probably had a few moments before the shower would be off. Why was this man in his room? There was no way he could know who he was or that he would be staying here, so he couldn't be trying to fight him or gain any Intel on him or the Akatsuki. Kakuzu was still glad he had left his cloak and the loud-mouth, Hidan, back in the cemetery. Before he could pull his thoughts together completely there was a man walking out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist.
The man was plain, but attractive in a bland sort of way. He had short brown hair with rounded almond dark-brown eyes. There was something familiar about the man but he couldn't quite place it; Kakuzu was certain he had never seen him before, never met him before this moment. His body was well built but not overly muscular. He easily spied the man's ANBU tattoo on his shoulder as well as light scars that ran along his chest and arm.
The ninja caught sight of him standing in his bedroom. He was immediately alarmed, a large flare of chakra spiking in the room. Kakuzu held up his hands and pointed to the key in his defense.
"Hey I was given this room, but I think there is a mix-up," Kakuzu said with a masked grimace and not completely feigned confusion. "Ratty looking guy at the desk told me 'up the stairs, last room on the left'..."
The other ninja looked at him with undisguised curiosity and bewilderment.
He felt for a moment, as he looked at this attractive anonymous nin, a slight pang that he must be found wanting. It angered him and he fought the grimace that he was thankful that his face mask covered. Kakuzu was glad at least this body was fully clothed with a long sleeve black shirt and pants, not to mention his long black jacket he had put on instead of the typical cloud Akatsuki cloak.
"Nani?" The man from the shower reached up and unselfconsciously ran a hand through his short brown hair. "Ano...but that's this room."
Kakuzu reached up his hand and waved the skeleton key in his hand. "Yes, this is my room. Bought and paid for the night."
The other shinobi looked a suddenly angry, "I knew this was too good to be true!"
"Huh?" Kakuzu raised an eyebrow.
"The clerk gave me the room for free!" the man paced back and forth for a moment. "Should I go complain?"
"Well..." Kakuzu began although he wasn't sure what he was going to say because the other man was reaching into his bag and then he looked over his shoulder at him and they shared a look.
The other man knew that Kakuzu had gone through his bag, and Kakuzu knew that the other man that he knew. There was a beat of silence as they measured each other up. He personally had seventeen various weapons on his body, and he knew this shinobi was naked; he liked his odds very much.
Kakuzu was already reaching for his nearest kunai, which was strapped to his wrist, pushing back and to the left with a burst of chakra. The unknown shinobi surprised him by quickly hand signing: Tiger, Horse, Tiger, Snake and suddenly wood shot out from the unknown shinobi's hands, pinning him to the nearest wall with two sturdy wooden branches that just nearly missed pinning through his left shoulder and right leg. As it was, they did catch his clothing. Hiding his surprise well, he fired off two rapid kunai, a shuriken and was reaching for a katana.
"Who are you?" the man had the audacity to ask.
As if Kakuzu would tell him.
"I should ask you the same question. I haven't fought someone who could perform wood release in many years, young one," Kakuzu stated as he climbed the branches themselves to the ceiling and jumped down on top of a rickety dresser.
"You're the one who barged into my room..." the man began sending out more countless sharp, spear-like branches, as he leapt nimbly around the room after Kakuzu. "You went through my things and now you're attacking me."
"You're not a chūnin," Kakuzu stated suddenly.
"These things happen," the man laughed as he climbed up the branches after him, continually sending out more branches and then paused suddenly as he had him pinned with his branches to the side of the wall. Kakuzu had been about to detach his arms using his Earth Grudge Fear jutsu and fight in earnest when the man had stopped.
"Why are we fighting?" the other shinobi asked suddenly, his round dark eyes bright.
Kakuzu looked surprised, his mouth hanging open behind his mask. Damn Leaf-nin's had more curiosity than a barrel of monkeys' had madness. And he was starting to sound like Hidan in his own head, because that was a phrase he had heard the man utter last week, he thought with a contemptuous grunt.
"You were in my room," Kakuzu stated obstinately. "And I paid for it."
The man looked rather shocked at the answer. "Were you prepared to kill me over a room?"
Kakuzu shrugged and answered carefully. "No." He lied.
Leaf-nin considered his answer, seeming to sense the truth hidden beneath his words and surprisingly backed off anyways.
"If you'd like, let's start over. This seems like it was a mix-up and we can share the room if you'd like. The bed is big enough for both of us," the man gestured towards the bed. "My name is-"
"No," Kakuzu interjected quickly. He didn't want to know this innocent seeming, handsome nin's name. "I'll just call you Leaf."
The other man regarded him silently for a few moments and then inclined his brown head in assent.
"And what shall I call you?" Leaf inquired as he pulled one of his spare shirts out of his knapsack and started to tug it on over his head.
Kakuzu was slightly stunned by this turn of events and sat on the side of the bed, still holding the katana in his hand as if Leaf might run over and attack him with that rouge kunai he had stashed in the bottom of his knapsack. He tore his jade eyes away from the other man as he started to pull the towel from his lean hips to step into pants. Ironically Kakuzu thought living with Hidan for the past few months would have desensitized him to random acts of exhibitionism. Apparently not. Maybe it was just the Jashinist's skinny pale nakedness he didn't care to see? Leaf's tanned and toned body was entirely different and pulsed with a living vitality that was foreign to him.
"You can call me Takigakure," he heard himself stating although thoughts of the place only conjured up bad memories now. Why had he even said it? He should have made something up. Something about this man made him feel instantly wary, he felt put out and distrustful. Why was he offering up Intel?
"Should I call you Waterfall since you're calling me Leaf?" The man padded across the room barefoot and sat on the other side of the bed, tossing a deck of cards on top of the comforter.
He bared his teeth although it was hidden behind his mask. "Do and I unsheathe this katana," Kakuzu threatened without any heat.
Leaf laughed, it was a pleasant sound.
"So what brings you to Iwagakure?" Leaf asked with an agreeable smile.
"Visiting my sick mum," Kakuzu said cheerfully. His practiced lie slid off his tongue easily. It sounded marginally better when he said it than when Hidan said it, because when the Jashinist said it, he followed it up by making crass hip thrusting gestures.
The other Nin started choking and the Akatsuki member quirked an eyebrow at him. He might be a member of ANBU but he seriously had questions about this man's intelligence.
"Sick mom, huh?" Leaf said with a small chuckle. "Mine, too."
"Really?" Kakuzu arched a brow.
Leaf nodded and held up the deck of cards when unexpectedly the lights in the room fizzled out. They could hear the rain in the background continuing to fall in great drenching sheets. It seemed like the two of them were in this warm cocoon away from it, in a way. It felt disjointed.
"Hungry?" Leaf asked after a few minutes of them sitting in the rain.
"I could eat," Kakuzu said.
Leaf handed him a ration bar.
He slipped his mask off and pushed it around his neck so he could eat the ration bar. It wasn't the best tasting thing in the world, but it was at least nutritious. Suna made better tasting ration bars. Konoha's always tasted vaguely like grass. He was in the middle of contemplating which nation made the best ration bars when the other Nin asked him a philosophical question. It threw him for a loop; maybe it was a good thing he traveled with Hidan; he never asked him anything more philosophical than should he kill the heathen with his a kunai or a fire jutsu?
"Have you ever been in love?" Leaf asked and turned his head in his direction.
The room was dark but his eyes were adjusting to the gloom in the room.
Kakuzu paused before answering. "I've been in relationships but I don't think I believe in the concept of love. It is a meaningless notion. Just a word for fools and poets. We're shinobi." he finished the ration bar with a few economical bites and. "I prefer to put my faith in the bottom line."
Leaf regarded him silently.
"Love? Meaningless?" Leaf sighed. "Just because something isn't solid doesn't mean it isn't real, Waterfall."
"I thought I told you not call me that?" Kakuzu glared.
Leaf ate the ration bar, slowly as if he were savoring it. He shot him a treacherous grin.
"Che..." Kakuzu sat up in bed and gestured. "You're overly concerned with these concepts that plague youth."
"Blasphemy and lies," Leaf snorted.
Kakuzu froze for a moment and let out a harsh bark of laughter. It sounded rusty on his lips even to his own ears.
"Don't laugh much, do you?" Leaf said with a crooked grin.
"Whose penis are you missing?" Kakuzu asked all of a sudden, remembering the note, feeling a faint blush creep over his cheeks, glad the lights were out. Feeling secure with the darkness, he pushed his arms out of his bulky jacket, as the room was starting to get stuffy and he was getting hot. He could see the other man pretty clearly in the room; he just hoped the other man would just assume the stitching lines along his arms were very bad scars.
Leaf pursed his lips, "One of my teammates. He badgered me into dating and I'm not sure why I agreed."
"Sounds like you're too nice."
"Some people think I am probably." Leaf huffed a little and blew out of the side of his mouth, causing the hair on the side of his face to rise slightly and then fall back down, in a charming manner.
Kakuzu grunted. He didn't want to think about Leaf being charming, attractive or anything like that. Innocent, handsome, nice, respectable ninja's didn't like shinobi like him. They certainly wouldn't find him attractive, and most definitely wouldn't have random meaningless sex with him in a grimy little hotel room. Not to mention he had a moronic Akatsuki partner camped in a cemetery about a mile down the road. Honestly, what the hell was he even contemplating these thoughts for? He would probably have to rape the little Leaf-nin and he just didn't have the stomach for that, no matter how monstrous he looked.
The lights flickered back on and Leaf's eyes immediately slid to Kakuzu's face, the stitching along his jaw and down along his arms and the tattoos along his wrists. He withstood the man's inspection silently. His almond eyes widened marginally. If Kakuzu hadn't been watching for the reaction he probably wouldn't have seen the small intake of the man's breath. Decades of similar and more drastic reactions should have hardened him, should have prepared him.
The centuries had not exactly been kind to him and Kakuzu knew the portrait he made. He held no illusions about his appearance, no false sense of worth. Once upon a time he had been attractive, but he had traded in his looks for power and near immortality. Over the decades there had been times he had regretted his decision, but never for something as irrelevant and fleeting as looks.
A look came over Leaf's features almost immediately. It was one of disgust and anger. Kakuzu was used to disgust but...not anger.
"I see you're no stranger to experimentation on your body, Waterfall," he said icily. "Contaminating your body with some sort of sordid pursuit in biological engineering."
"You arrogant little shit," Kakuzu growled suddenly rolling on top of Leaf and pinning him to the bed. "Who are you to preach to me about righteous indignation? About the re-creation of nature?"
Leaf looked furious, anger rigidly controlled from years of practice.
"I know all about madmen and their perverse quests for perfection," Leaf looked away, face set in harsh lines.
"You think you know all about me?" Kakuzu spat. "You know nothing. You see my body like a roadmap of bad decisions, but you know nothing of my life. So take your goddamn wood release and shove it."
"You don't know any damn thing about my wood release!" Leaf whispered.
"The fuck I don't!" his temper spiraled perilously close to the edge. He had to remind himself that this man was not immortal. Kakuzu was still on top of him, looking down at the man. He could feel his hard body underneath him.
"You couldn't possibly even begin to know-"
"I fought and lost against Hashirama Senju, I know more about it than you," Kakuzu condescended before giving Leaf a calculating look. "And look at yourself, you hypocrite. I hadn't heard that the man had any heirs running around."
"People always talk to me like I should be so grateful, like I asked for it." Leaf said back in a furious voice. "Sometimes I wished I was just some normal, bland...anonymous Leaf-nin."
Kakuzu reached out unconsciously, before he could stop himself and caress the man's cheek unmarked and perfect. Leaf didn't flinch.
"Tonight you are," he said.
Leaf licked his lips, slightly nervous. A moment ago they had been fighting and yelling at each other. Name-calling. They had wrenched and wrestled for control across the bed not but two minutes ago. Now Kakuzu felt himself press his right leg into the other shinobi's forcing him to submit below him. His hand went from idly tracing the man's perfect jaw line to cupping it almost harshly. Leaf let out a pained gasp but agreed to meet the kiss.
There was the mad rush that met these types of things, where you're pulling off your clothing, trying to keep kissing as much as possible but yanking off your clothing as greedily as you could. The incessant need to have your flesh pressed up against the other person's over riding all other needs. Kakuzu left his shirt on, knowing that Leaf would ask too many questions about the masks on his back, too many difficult queries that he didn't want to answer. He kept the man's hands and thoughts busy with other things, hoping he wouldn't notice that he kept his shirt on.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
It felt like fire was racing through Yamato's veins. He didn't do things like this. He felt guilty and wrong and kami forgive him, wicked and mischievous. It wasn't that he was in some sort of monogamous relationship with Sai, but they did have an agreement of sorts. And he did feel like was being disloyal.
Disloyal to a lot of things; to Sai and to Konoha. He knew Waterfall was some sort of mercenary – he didn't want to know. Kami help him, he did not even want to contemplate looking the man up in the Bingo Book when he got home. He was almost afraid what he might find. Maybe he wouldn't allow himself to look later. That might be healthier; to not know. To always just leave it as a memory in the back of his head might be nice, he thought. Leaf and Waterfall.
He knew the other shinobi was currently yanking his pants off and sliding his hot mouth around his needy cock that was amply leaking pre-cum. He grunted as the dizzyingly pleasurable sensation of Waterfall's hot tongue sliding along his length and the suction working along it, then pushing his thighs apart and pressing a moist finger inside him.
Yamato had known his share of beautiful men and women in his life. Sai, in fact was a very beautiful man. But sometimes when he talks to him and he thinks in fact that he is a very ugly man. That there is very little substance to the artist. Sai does not understand the emotional needs of his fellow man, and certainly not of his lover. Sai can be as dumb as a brick. But this unknown shinobi, this Waterfall, was not a beautiful man. Almost ugly, actually. But their random, rambling theoretical conversation had struck him in an odd way that he couldn't quite describe. He got to know this man, while the rain poured outside the window of this haunted little hotel room in Iwagakure. And now as he looked up at this man, he doesn't see the stitching lines, he just saw Waterfall's face. Like he could see the shinobi's personality's written all over it. He turned into something completely beautiful.
Waterfall slid into him smoothly, and their movements were nothing coordinated, but everything that felt right. Yamato felt his head arch back and moaned as he was assaulted with sensations; the other man pinned his arms behind his head. Sweat dripped off his forehead onto his face, into his mouth, but he didn't mind. He groaned throatily as the bundle of nerves inside of him were brushed by the man repeatedly. At some point, Waterfall began stroking his neglected cock and he lost it. Yamato squeezed his eyes tightly at the outpouring of emotions that welled up inside him, tightly in his chest, exploding as he came. He gasped loudly and spurted between them, seeing white dots blurring his vision. The man on top of him grunted in must be mutual satisfaction and followed after him.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Early morning daylight slanted in through small cracks in the window. The dingy room looked even more rundown in the morning light. Kakuzu ran a hand through his hair and sat up. He felt older and more ramshackle than this falling down little inn. Leaf was snoring lightly beside him although he wondered idly if it was a put on for him, if the man was merely being polite. The man was ANBU, he couldn't really possibly sleep through another man sitting up and starting to get dressed could he?
Kakuzu pulled on his pants and slipped his mask back into place as he watched Leaf's features carefully for any sign of the man waking up. He didn't want to rouse him; it actually suited his purposes better if he could slip out before the shinobi woke up. He turned away and picked up his jacket and started to shrug his shoulders into it.
"One day, I don't want to have to face you in battle," Leaf's voice, slightly muffled from sleep stopped him.
"Hopefully it won't come to that," Kakuzu stated with his back turned, his jade eyes closed to block out the lies he knew he was telling.
"You can't know the future," Leaf stated.
He turned around now and spied the other man who was sitting up in bed now. Kakuzu didn't know what to say. He couldn't even begin to explain these pains that were welling up inside his chest as he looked at this man. Maybe something was malfunctioning with one of his recent heart acquisitions for Earth Grudge Fear. He couldn't think of another explanation.
"I'm afraid one day I'm going to look down and see your body on the autopsy table. I don't want to look down and have to think that's not just some enemy – that's someone special that's Waterfall-"
"Would you cry for me, Leaf?"
"Don't be an ass, I'm a shinobi. I know the realities of our lives."
"I've lived for a long time, little Leaf. I hardly think that will come to pass," he smiled ruefully at the other man.
"So this..." Leaf gestured. "Is what you want to be?"
"I've made my choices," Kakuzu nodded but looked away. They didn't have time to go into his whole life story. Honestly, what was it with this little Leaf-nin? He shined like a beacon and it lit him up and made him feel human again, as apposed to the monster he felt like he knew he was.
"Be safe visiting your sick mother," Leaf said finally after a moment and he remembered that was indeed the ruse he had told the man last night.
"And yours as well," Kakuzu nodded.
Leaf ran a hand through his short brown hair. "Indeed, she is very ill."
He figured the other shinobi was probably telling the truth, the man looked like the type to actually visit nuns and help small old ladies across the street in his off time. When he said he was 'visiting his sick mother' that was his code for killing someone. Kakuzu smiled with genuine warmth.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Leaf," he made a few seals and transported out of the room. He made his way down the road and after a few minutes of walking down the muddy lane he found his way to the cemetery he had left Hidan last night.
The Jashinist was not in the crypt he had left him. He sighed and rubbed his eyes a few times. Kakuzu changed back into this Akatsuki cloak, then leaned against the edge of the mausoleum and waited for Hidan to show up. He didn't have to wait too long. After about thirty minutes, the man came whistling along the road, his triple-bladed scythe balanced on his shoulder.
"Goddamnit, I was hoping to beat you back," Hidan said with a pout.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Kakuzu pushed off against the mausoleum and looked around. "Where did you go?"
"Fuckin rain last night flooded me out of the crypts. So I visited my sick mum," Hidan grinned wickedly.
Kakuzu groaned. Hidan's code word for visiting a 'sick mom' was something different entirely. The zealot didn't wait long to explain further. He never did.
"Found a heathen, wrapped a leash around her goddamn neck and made her made her praise Jashin all night long," Hidan made a crass hip thrusting gesture to accompany the statement.
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A/N: Please Review ^_^
Written for the "Akatsuki Halloween Challenge" at Banana Pajamas...it was a challenge about writing characters we would never ordinarily pick for ourselves. I hate Yamato. Don't judge me. I just do. But, I have to say, after writing this I'm definitely warming up to "Leaf". And you know what? I really, really love that cheap-ass bastard Kakuzu! I found lots of interesting parallels between the characters – even though I'd merely chosen them in order to do EPIC "Wood vs. Flesh" tentacles...which, by the way, I didn't even do – it just didn't feel right - even after all my big talk. Hah!
*wink*
Maybe in a sequel...? hah!