Lilacs and Cyanide, Part Un
Author's Note: This is a role play between one of my best friend's and I. If you do read this, understand that it is formatted exactly how are role play is, and not like regular stories I write. Also, you may notice that both American and British English were used in this. [It may be apparent in later chapters more than it is now. I didn't feel like changing it. I would also like my loyal readers to know that I haven't forgotten about 'For Eternity'!
Disclaimer: Naruto Characters (c) Kishimoto
Yokaze no Yuka (c) Me [Takika/Manixa-chan
Kurosawa Miya (c) AromaticPain [deviantart
Yuka stood behind a dark cedar counter, drying a glass with a white rag. Tonight she was posing as the barmaid for the tavern for a woman who wanted to know who her husband was cheating on her with. The target had yet to show, so she nonchalantly observed a couple men sitting at a nearby table because of their 'odd' behavior.
'Whoaaa...Senpai! I think -hic- I'm getting drunk!' an obnoxiously childlike man said. Yuka couldn't see his face, as it was covered by a mask.
'You can't be getting drunk, Tobi. That's Kool-Aid, un.'
One other figure sat farther from the two on the table. He was shorter, had short red hair; hell, he looked like he was just a kid hidden underneath that large cloak. He was, however, much older than at least one of the other two at that table. Akasuna no Sasori; he had discarded Hiruko for the night and was now sitting there, watching the other two men (although it seemed like there were only two people on the table).
He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the masked man's comment. "Why can't that idiot stay with Zetsu, brat?" He asked in a dull tone, crossing his arms.
Miya silently made her way into a tavern; she had been traveling for a few hours now and obviously needed to stay somewhere. She had taken care of that already, but staying at that inn and falling asleep so early didn't sound all that pleasant. Besides, a few drinks couldn't hurt... Much. Her hair was tied up tonight, but other than that she looked plain and not interesting at all, which she found good because she did not want to attract any unwanted attention.
She walked over to the counter, only glancing away to look at a group of men talking about Kool-Aid. Weird... She thought, frowning, but that expression vanished as she looked over at the barmaid with a smile.
"Hello..." Miya started rather slowly, as if afraid her voice would fail (she was usually quiet lately). "Do you have any sake...?" She asked.
Yuka pulled a long stand of hair behind her ear and smiled as she set the rag and glass down. 'Of course.' she replied in a Southern drawl although the accent is unnatural to her, it fits her barmaid guise. She pours a small cup of sake in Miya's glass and sets the bottle on the counter beside it. 'Enjoy.'
'Oh, I don't know, Danna,' Deidara said irritably. 'Zetsu had some kind of plans tonight with, um, the other Zetsu, un.'
Tobi giggled. 'Zetsu has line dancing class tonight.' The thought of Zetsu dancing amused him profusely, and his laugh became very loud and annoying, disturbing the other customers.
Yuka tried to get Tobi's attention, but he didn't hear her and since she was too lazy to walk over, she through a knife at him, which missed him by 3 cm and drove into the wall. When he turned wide eyed [although his expression couldn't be seen she smiled genuinely. 'If you would be so kind as to be quiet, I would appreciate it. If not, I'll have to forcefully show you out.'
"Thank you." Miya said with a smile, her attention then drawn to the glass as she slowly started drinking. She wasn't exactly tired, just kind of thoughtful; it had only been a week since she had set off on a journey. Maybe Tsunade-sama had said yes because she would see it as something like a mission: Miya was searching for knowledge in the medical area and, who knows, maybe she would discover things that could be useful for the village! She almost laughed aloud at that thought. She didn't even know if she was going back anymore.
Sasori sighed irritably; Zetsu should know better than that. The redhead already had to take care of the blonde brat; he didn't need another one to add to his list. He was an S-Ranked criminal, not a babysitter!
He didn't say anything when Deidara was done speaking, but sighed once again, narrowing his eyes at the masked man when he started laughing louder and louder. For a moment, the thought of poisoning him and leave him to die in an abandoned alley crossed his mind, but he was sure Leader would kill him afterwards and, well, Sasori was aiming for eternity. He was about to snap at Tobi when a knife flew by and hit the wall, narrowly missing its target. He turned around in his seat to look at who had thrown the object, a surprised expression evident in his face for a few seconds.
Miya nearly dropped her glass when she heard the metal of the knife hitting the wall. Mostly out of instinct, she set the glass down, and her hand was about to reach to the needles she carried at all times when she heard the barmaid speak to those men at the table she had walked past only moments ago. It took her a minute or two to process the thought of what had just occurred was not actually an attack, but when she did realise that fully, the shocked look was replaced by a calm one and she drank some more of her sake. "That was a good one." She told Yuka, smiling slightly.
Yuka grinned, about to say humbly that it comes with the job, but she remembered she was undercover. "Yeah," she said quickly--hopefully not too quickly. "It's how I keep my kids in line. Rowdy, and obnoxious, the lot of them." She noticed her target walk in with another woman. After a quick glance she decided she could describe the bimbo, so she went back drying glasses.
Tobi stared at Sasori. "Are you okay, Sasori-san? That lady almost killed you! And she says you're being loud?"
"She was talking about you, idiot! ..Un" Deidara said, gripping the neck of his beer bottle and chugging it.
Miya blinked a couple of times at Yuka's answer, but eventually smiled once again. "You look a bit young to have kids but, then again, I guess I'm not really one to talk." She laughed at that last part and directed her attention to the other people present in that room.
"Uhm... I know this is an odd question, but do you know if there's any doctor or someone with at least some knowledge of medicine around here?" She asked, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. Oddly enough, she wasn't wearing her forehead protector now. She had left it at the small inn she was staying at, along with whatever few belongings she had brought along.
"..." Sasori inwardly twitched at the masked man's idiocy. Could he be anymore dense than this!? Hell, not even Deidara had ever been this hard to put up with! And if Sasori had more than once thought of poison him, rip out his internal organs and make him into a puppet... For Tobi it would all be much worse, much more painful and in the end, he'd probably burn the damned thing just so it would never bother him again.
"Tobi, do you even know what we're doing here?" He asked bluntly after some time, just to make sure he wasn't as useless as he looked like.
"Medicine? This is an awfully small village...there's only a 'medicine man' who knows the basics of medicine...like treating colds and such. There's a larger place a little north of here that has a medical school...mostly non-shinobi people attend there...then there is Tsunade from Konaha." Yuka couldn't think of any other medicinal places or people then began to wonder if non-shinobi knew about Tsunade. Well, she was a Sannin, after all, so it's possible...
Tobi stared at Sasori as he thought deeply. "Deidara-senpai is aiming on getting smashed, so I guess to drink alcohol." He turned and smiled at Deidara, who scowled at him.
"Oh, um... Thank you." Miya said simply. Since she grew up in Konaha, she didn't know if people who weren't shinobi knew Tsunade. However, if Yuka, just like many people she had seen on missions had heard of her, then it was more than possible. Besides, it's not like shinobi lived in a separate world from everyone else. "I'll make sure to look for that place tomorrow or the day after. As for Tsunade-sama... I think she'd be happy to know her name is recognized even in smaller villages like this one."
Sasori rolled his eyes at Tobi's answer. He couldn't help but wonder how Zetsu hadn't eaten him yet. No, actually he wondered how the kid was an S-ranked criminal; nothing came to him except for the fact that he was exceptionally good at making everyone lose their temper.
The redhead sighed once again. "..." He was going to speak, but realised that he had nothing to say. However, he assumed there ought to be some voice of reason acting before he had to drag his co-workers out by force. "Tobi, either you stop drinking or I'll tell Zetsu and leader-sama what a bad boy you were. The same goes to you, brat... Except in your case, I'll make sure to chop off your hands and burn them before Kakuzu can sew them back on."
Maybe a bit too harsh, yes, but Sasori was like that and besides, each and everyone was present in this place - including himself - was starting to irk the puppet master and his patience was wearing off.
He stood up and walked over to the counter, a few feet away from Miya; it seems she hadn't sensed their chakra the same way he at least had sensed hers. Pathetic, really, but he wasn't about to put up a fight. "If those two ask for anything else, be it the strongest drink you've got or a simple glass of water... Do not give it to them." He told Yuka.
Yuka nodded, glancing at the clock on the wall. "I'll pass that along to the barmen who is taking my place. I'm getting off in five." Yuka turned to Miya. "I'm sure she would." It took her a moment, then she realized she said that coldly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that to be rude. My village--where I grew up--didn't think very kindly of her."
Deidara turned away from Tobi and saw Sasori talking to the barmaid. "What are you doing, Danna, hitting on the barmaid?" His eyes widened. "Don't leave me with this idiot!"
"It's... It's alright." Sure, to Miya it was a bit odd to hear someone speaking of Tsunade that way, but not everyone had to like her or worship her and she tried to take that in consideration as well. Besides, she wasn't that fond of her apprentice... Haruno Sakura, was it? She sounded way too irritating, at least most of the times she'd seen her.
She heard the blonde man back at the table speaking. Danna? She frowned at the title.
Sasori nodded at Yuka and looked over momentarily at the shorter, brown-haired lady. He obviously understood what she was thinking of. "We're not married!" He snapped, inwardly twitching at the thought. He looked back at the table, casting Deidara a look that basically told him to 'shut up or else...!', then looked back at Yuka. "Don't mind those two. Brats." It was ironic how he was saying that, yet a lot of people who saw him outside Hiruko would instantly assume he's the youngest of the three.
"Not a problem, Sir." Yuka replied, then turned to an older man who came behind the counter. "Ah, Bobu! You've come to take my place."
The man looked at Yuka, confused. "Who are you? Where's Arisu?"
"Haha, You're so funny..." Yuka said, laughing dryly. "Always the jokester, Bob..." She knew she played that off poorly and was itching to get out of the bar. She nodded a goodbye to those around her and walked out of the bar, then hopping onto a tree limb.
Deidara sat in his chair, sulking, not only because of Tobi's insolence, but because his Danna was being 'mean' again. He felt something jabbing into his hair and scalp, and with a swift jerk of his hand, pulled out two straws. "Tobi, what's this?"
Tobi whined. "Ah, senpai! Now you're not an alien anymore."
"Arisu?" Both Miya and Sasori asked when Yuka left.
The redhead, however curious about this and knowing that something was probably off - this was a little village and people most likely knew each other fairly well -, didn't seem as interested. He walked back to his table and glared at Tobi, only to smack him afterwards. "Grow up." He growled. "Same to you, brat! You should know better than to let him get away with his jokes."
Miya, on the other hand, stood still, thinking, but snapped out of it when she heard a coin falling on the floor. "Oh, um..." She eventually found her wallet and paid for the sake. "I almost forgot that." She smiled and was about to leave when she turned back to the man. "Excuse me, but you didn't seem to recognize the other barmaid... Why?" She asked, then added; "If you don't mind me asking." as an afterthought. Although it wasn't any of her business, she couldn't help but wonder if there was more to this village than the friendly people who lived in it.
"Really, Danna, it's not my fault!" He looked at the clock irritably. "Tobi, you should go ahead and go to the hotel room. It's hours past your bedtime."
"Senpai, I can't go without you! I'll get lost!"
"What's so bad about that?" Deidara replied. "I don't think the person we're waiting for is showing up."
"We were waiting on someone?" Tobi asked incredulously. Deidara didn't answer because he didn't even know the reason they were there anymore.
Bobu replied simply. "I don't know who the hell she was. Never seen her before...I figured Arisu would have told me if she was getting someone to replace her...guess not." Bobu was very puzzled about this, but could not come up with a reason why Arisu wasn't there.