-I don't own Naruto.
-I'm very aware that I'm not a good writer. This is just for fun (and to relieve my over-obsession with Kimimaro).
-This is obviously an AU story. Somewhere else in the Naruto-verse, Kimimaro was somehow cured of his mysterious disease (but was still after Oro used that random guy as a vessel and now Sasuke is to be his next desired body, so Kimimaro is not gonna be used by Oro as his next vessel anytime soon).
-The setting is about a year or so after Kimimaro was first introduced, so he is around 16.
-Sorry if this story is cliché.
Wind rustled the leaves of the trees Kimimaro was navigating through. He was heading back to Orochimaru's hideout, but there was still a long way to go that would take at least the rest of the day to travel, and it was only noon.
Kimimaro licked his dried lips. He was terribly thirsty. His leather water pouch betrayed no signs of liquid. Even the deadliest beings can't battle dehydration. Knowing that there were no open sources of water nearby, he veered off to a nearby village.
A cup of hot tea would sure be nice, he thought silently as he advanced towards his destination.
A quick glance told Kimimaro that this community was not the wealthiest. Caved-in roofs and dangerously hanging doors greeted his sight as he walked into the mess of a village. However, the bad aura it gave off did nothing to deter him from finding something to quench his dry mouth.
Wary glares came from the few citizens that were walking on the streets. It wasn't a surprise that such a worn-down village was so empty. There was not a smile apparent on anyone's face. It was almost like being miserable was a contagious disease that affected both the buildings and people.
After turning a corner of a block of molding cottages, Kimimaro was presented with exactly what he had wished for earlier—a tea house. There was an unpleasantly large hole in one of the walls, but other than that mishap there were no other significant details of damage on the place.
Kimimaro was welcomed by a young brunette girl as he walked through the entrance. From the nervous laugh that escaped her throat to her hands busily playing with each other, she was no doubt an awkward ball of nerves that can't contain themselves.
"W-welcome to Kyo's Tea Shop! My name is Ryuna, and I will be your waitress for today! You can sit anywhere you'd like! B-but please not the table by that window over there—the chair is on the verge of collapsing onto itself. We're not r-responsible for any injuries here; we only serve tea! I'll be right with you in a moment." The girl closed her rather wordy welcome with a wobbly smile and disappeared into the kitchen.
While wondering to himself why anyone would ever employ a waiter like her, Kimimaro took a seat near the entrance. There weren't any other customers inside the tea house, which wasn't a surprise for the measly handful of people in the village.
A few seconds passed and Ryuna quickly hurried back to take his order, but not without tripping over a chair leg and nearly taking a face-plant on the floor. It was almost a wonder how she managed to grab onto a table edge to break her fall. She was thankfully less hasty in her steps the rest of the way.
Putting on a less fearful face that almost had a date with the floor a few moments ago, Ryuna brushed a lock of brown hair away from her face and asked, "M-may I take you order? We serve most types of tea here," her eyes shifted in every direction. "Th-the chamomile is great! The oolong is quite popular as well… Jasmine isn't half as bad eith—"
"Plain green tea would be good, thank you." Kimimaro calmly interrupted her blabbering.
The waitress's cheeks grew red as she apologized, "S-sorry! I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut around strangers," her hands flew towards her mouth as she continued, "N-not that you're strange or anything! I meant stranger as in someone who—"
This time it wasn't Kimimaro, but the tea house owner who interrupted her with a loud "OYE! Stop toying with the customer and take his order already!"
Ryuna squeezed her grey eyes shut and drew a deep, shaky breath. When she opened her eyes again, they lacked the upbeat spark from only a few seconds ago. Slowly, she said, "Is that all? If it is, then your plain green tea will be ready in about 5 minutes." She emphasized plain if to mock.
Surprised by her sudden change, Kimimaro gave a slight nod. Ryuna walked back to the kitchen with confident strides, as if the clumsiness displayed earlier were nothing but an act, although she still had an uneasy imbalanced atmosphere about her.
Kimimaro's eyebrows knit together closer as he wondered, Does she have a split personality?
The brunette returned 5 minutes later, as promised, with a steaming teapot and an empty teacup on a round dish. The cooler side of her that surfaced earlier, however, was seemingly gone.
The dish chattered slightly against the contents it held from Ryuna's trembling hands as she slowly navigated a path to Kimimaro's table, careful not to serve the tea to the floor instead of the customer.
Ryuna breathed a sigh of relief as the tea made it to the table without harm. She gave Kimimaro an apologetic smile as she started pouring his tea and quickly stuttered, "S-sorry about that earlier. There's another me that sometimes take over. I don't like her at all, but I can't control her very well… I managed to stuff her back in to her cage before coming to serve your tea, b-because I know that she can be so rude sometimes, although she does a much better job at everything than I do. By the way, which version of 'me' do you like better? Me or h—"
Ryuna's drabbling was silenced for the third time by a quick clear of Kimimaro's throat. She looked down at the table and realized where she was pouring the tea. Instead of the cup (which would have overflowed already by now anyway), the stream of hot fluid somehow shifted away from it and was making contact with the bare table. Not only that, but the puddle of steaming tea was dangerously spilling over the tabletop like a miniature waterfall and taking nest into Kimimaro's lap.
A long, high-pitched gasp came from Ryuna as she realized the mess she had made. She quickly set down the teapot and reached for a towel from the inside of her kimono.
"I-I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" came her frantic apology.
Ryuna forgot how close she was to the table but attempted to bow. Her quick unplanned action, however, caused her forehead to take a beating against the table edge.
"Wahhh… that hurts," Ryuna rubbed her sore forehead. "N-nevermind me. A-are you hurt? This is the worst mess-up I've done so far… Kyo (the shop owner) is surely going to kill me this time. Let me hel—"
Her advance with the towel towards Kimimaro's lap was quickly cut short from his fast grab of her wrist. "I'm alright. A towel won't do much help, anyway."
Ryuna flinched and replied, "A-ah! I see. S-sorry. I'll get this cleaned up right away."
Kimimaro released his tight grip from Ryuna. She rubbed the spot on her wrist where his painful lock had been.
What strength… she thought to herself. He does look like serious business though. I wonder how I'm not dead already. I'm lucky that he's such a collected individual. He barely even reacted to the tea that spilled on him.
Ryuna hurriedly cleaned up the table with the towel and reached for the teapot again.
"I'll do that, thank you." Kimimaro stopped her just in case she isn't careful again.
Ryuna's face grew hot as she silently agreed.
What a strange person… Kimimaro wondered to himself. Ryuna's performance had amazed him—to say the least.
Finishing up what was left of his tea from the accident, Kimimaro got up to leave. Just before exiting, however, he heard an angry voice coming from the kitchen. Slightly curious, he moved closer to the commotion to investigate further.
"…what you've done…despicable…can't believe I felt sorry for you…shouldn't have hired you…all you bring…shame to my shop…" slips of the one-sided conversation that had escaped the muffling of the wall separating the kitchen from the outside reached Kimimaro's ears.
Not wanting to eavesdrop any further, he turned to leave. However, a sudden smack that was no doubt from the forceful contact of a hand against skin made Kimimaro pause yet again.
And then came a heavy thud and soon a crash of unmistakable glass. This was enough to make Kimimaro break through the door to the kitchen.
Kimimaro's eyes met a very shocked and frozen middle aged man, who was presumably the shop owner, Kyo. In front of him lied Ryuna's unmoving body and pieces of shattered glass and tea leaves.
"What happened here?" Kimimaro's voice broke Kyo's trance with a start.
"Wh-who are you?" the man looked frantic as he desperately tried to explain, "I-I only slapped her out of my own fury, but I didn't expect her to collapse against the tea shelf. I-it was an accident!"
Kyo was backing away from the scene uncontrollably. With a terrified yell, he ran towards the back exit of the shop.
"Coward," remarked Kimimaro.
Turning towards the body on the floor, he examined the details of the accident. He quickly came to a conclusion: Ryuna was knocked against the shelf with glass jars of different tea ingredients. One of the containers slipped off the shelf from the force and shattered against her head.
Kimimaro bent down for a closer look at Ryuna's wound. It seemed quite deep—blood was escaping at a quick and steady pace.
"Are you alive?"
When he got no answer, Kimimaro got up to leave. A sudden thought made him stop.
She caused this upon herself… but why do I feel like I'm ultimately the one to be blamed?
Kimimaro disliked causing violence to things he weren't ordered to exterminate. With battling thoughts, he hauled Ryuna into his sturdy arms. She was alarmingly light, like she haven't had a proper meal in years. Kimimaro related this discovery to her over-clumsiness.
"Let me go."
Kimimaro was almost startled by the sudden voice from the body that anyone would have recognized as half-dead.
"So you weren't dead after all," Kimimaro commented with a smirk.
"Let me warn you: I'm not as weak as my other half, but I'm still trapped in her improperly fed body so I can hardly do anything. I can fix this one on my own."
Kimimaro watched in astonishment as the blood that was flowing from Ryuna's wound just a second ago abruptly took an unnatural form as it started to become forced back inside. But it only continued for a few lasting moments before her control on the blood faltered and stopped altogether.
"Damn it! This bitch really didn't take care of herself at all. Why can't she just let me take over…"
Ryuna's voice faded away as her body went limp once again.
A kekkei genkai? No, it can't be, Kimimaro thought, But then again, look at yourself.
Ryuna's work seemed to slow down the bleeding, but the loss of blood and her already weak body didn't allow her to hang in there long enough to fully fix the wound.
Sighing, Kimimaro carried Ryuna out of the tea house and started to search for a place with medical assistance.
Sorry Orochimaru, but you'll just have to wait for me a bit longer.
-By "young girl" I didn't mean that young. Kimimaro might be a bit gay, but he's no pedophile. Ryuna (sorry I'm not good at giving names either .-.) is about 2 years younger than him.
-I'll try to keep Kimimaro in character as much as possible, but it might be hard sometimes for such an emotionless brick like him.
-I tend to rush a lot, so I'll try my best to keep chapters (if I even continue this) not too short.