Author's Note: I've always wondered how Kakuzu obtained his odd powers, or atleast discovered them, so... here is one possibility I thought up before I went to bed one night.
Please, enjoy, and reviews would be much love. (Especially since I haven't written FanFic stories in SUCH a long time, so this is like, my first in years xP) 3
Where Water Flows
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The falls nin stared deftly at the front of the classroom, barely able to keep awake.
One eye drooped wearily as the teacher kept up a paceful, monotonous-like speech over the the ninja skill they were learning that week; transformation.
As the other eyelid began to lower in a slump, Kakuzu thought back, a week or two ago; it had been the same then, too. He had barely been able to stay awake in class, watching with much resentment and hatred of the other students as they performed the techniques without fail.
True, his taijutsu was exceeding the entire class, but the other students merely shrugged it off, saying that ninjas are ninjas for Ninjutsu, not Taijutsu. And they could perform ninjutsu perfectly.
He, on the other hand, had always had trouble with the simplest abilities, causing every kid in his class to consider him a no-talent. A waste.
What's even worse was that he knew it, inside. He knew he would not surmount to what the others could. Smething held him back from their level, and he couldn't
explain it. It boggled his mind.
So instead, he settled for slowly drifting off to sleep at the back of the class, barely listening to the teacher speak.
"What," he thought to himself bitterly, resentful of their bliss while he was in such a turmoil state. "A waste."
However, he was surprised when the bell rang suddenly, signaling the end of class and jerking him out of sleep. Again.
He shuddered, slowly getting to his feet, shaking his head in resentment. He had always been bad with time, never expecting the bell to ring so suddenly, whereas all the other students seemed to be waiting for it, ready to go. He simply couldn't fathom why he was different.
As he lethargically left the school, he looked up at the dreary, gray sky with scorn, watching the clouds slowly rolling in, bringing the promise of rain.
"The heavens weep," he thought bitterly, staring at the clouds. "But they do not weep for me."
And with that, he lowered his head before heading out, to his favorite place in the entire village, and his only haven where he could just... be alone.
He moved slowly at first, just walking past gray stone buildings, some two or three stories high, or else long or wide in their size, past people in cloth kimonos or leather vests of black or gray, their eyes grimly ahead all too aware of what was happening just beyond the village borders. It was a grim time.
Kakuzu sighed, before speeding up, until he had broken into a swift sprint, heading for the forest just before the border of the village. Running past trees of varied heights, their leaves painted bright colors of yellow or red or orange, sprinkling the leaves over the soil as the season wore on, and the cold came up. It was taxing on nature as much as it was on the village.
For several minutes he ran by in utter silence, the forest silent as he, as he passed brushes of berries and small branches on the ground, heading towards a clearing
centered in the forest. And after a few moments, the clearing came into slight view, and he veered off towards it, relief welling inside him.
Moments later, the sound of rushing water met his ears softly, as if though a melody, and brought with it a calmness of mind and body. Here, he truly felt at home.
Here, he felt the same as everyone else.
He slowed his pace, walking past the last canopy of trees and bushes that obscurred part of the clearing, revealing the source of the water flow as a waterfall,
serene in it's being, the water calmly rushing off the side of the large cliff into the stream below, leading off back into the forest, where it shortly branched off a dozen
different ways.
He walked over to the trench the stream had dug from age, sitting on the edge and letting his legs slide into the cool water, enjoying the feel of the nice, fast-paced water on his skin, his eyes closing in relaxation for once. Here, he felt at home; safe, and protected.
However, it was not long before he heard a soft-paced movement behind him, followed by the rustle of a disturbed bush. He opened his eyes, identifying the sound as that of a ninja. Perhaps stalking him.
He slowly got to his feet, pulling his legs out of the water, reaching into his small knapsack for three kunai and two exploding notes, eyes weary and watching.
Then a rustle sounded again, and he knew he was dead before it began.
From out above him, over the cliff, came a ninja, the headband on his forehead indicating that he hailed from the hidden mist village. The nnja jumped down, throwing two kunai at a rapid speed, his silver hair waving lightly in the breeze, a mask obscurring the lower half of his face, cold eyes staring intently at Kakuzu.
Kakuzu threw two kunai, the four hitting eachother in mid-air as he readied the third, throwing it a second later at the falling ninja, already pulling two more from his knapsack..
As the third kunai hurtled towards the mist ninja, he performed a string of rapid hand seals, becoming a broken tree branch before the kunai hit, and exploded a moment later.
Kakuzu grimaced, looking around intently for any signs of the ninja, when he noticed small bubbles emitting from beneath the stream. Bubbles that weren't there before.
He immediatly turned towards the stream, releasing two kunai at the origin of the bubbles, smiling as the mist ninja darted out of the water, which exploded mere moments later. However, Kakuzu was not ready for the three kunai that the mist ninja had ready, and was surprised when he felt stabbing pains in both of his arms, as well as his chest.
His immediate reaction was to clutch the wound in his chest, but he knew then that that had cost him. The slow, agonizing time it took to move his arms to the area was enough to give the mist ninja time to draw three more kunai, and Kakuzu shuddered as his shoulder and two legs were pierced, his hands falling to his sides as he felt himself go slightly numb, darkness creeping on his vision.
However, he managed to extract two more kunai and two more exploding notes, surprised to see that the mist ninja hadn't noticed, though he realized the man was also advancing upon him, a rather large knife drawn from a shathe hidden somewhere on his body, his eyes twinkling coldly.
Kakuzu knew he had but one chance.
As the ninja slowly advanced, sure in his victory, Kakuzu gave his arm one lurch forward, throwing one of the kunai at a spot directly behind the ninja, his other hand
grasping his other kunai.
The ninja took the first kunai for an attempted attack, and released a concealed kunai immediatly, his eyes flashing as both of them collided and flew behind him.
And as he turned back towards Kakuzu, he realized the smart ploy to distract him as he watched the second kunai embed itself deeply into his shoulder.
The ninja grimaced, clutching his shoulder as the exploding note on the first one went off, and he was sent forward, coming to a stop just before Kakuzu.
Kakuzu smiled inwardly, tryin with all might to take a third kunai from his pack as he edged forward on the ninja, though his eyes widened when he found out he had none left.
And to make matters worse, the ninja had started getting up, knife still drawn, his movement not as impaired as Kakuzu's.
Just above Kakuzu, the ninja smiled, knife flashing in the dull sunlight as he raied it above his ready, and Kakuzu slowly raised an arm in an attempt to block it.
And that's when things happened at once.
As the ninja rushed his hand down, Kakuzu felt a shart pain shoot through his right arm like the knife that was about to hit him... and he watched in awe as a small, black thread emerged from the hole in his hand that had just been made, the thread immediatly whipping itself at the mist ninja, impaling itself through his hand, causing him to drop the knife a few feet away.
Kakuzu and the mist ninja could only stare in awe at the black thread as it retracted slightly, before lunging again, this time hitting it's mark dead on. And through the forest came a blood-curdling scream a sound screeching to the ears and shuddering to the core. The mist ninja fell to the ground without a pause, his eyes already staring blankly, the last vestiges of fear still emblazoned on them.
And as kakuzu watched, the thread slowly retracted itself, returning inside the hole in his hand, as he starred in awe.
And with a last, fleeting look at the ninja, he turned, towards the waterfall that had, miraculously, remained largly intact.
"This is... where.. water flows..."
And with that fleeting sound escaping his lips, the blackness creeping into his vision overtook him fully, and he spiraled into unconsciousness.