Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…(can't believe I'm doing this again)
A/N: I'm back! Although I didn't really leave in the first place…hehe. Now it's Temeki's turn to find love and peace within her heart.
This story starts 5 years after the events in my other story "Finding Myself in You" and will take us up to (and past) the 6-year exile sentence Tsunade placed on Sasuke.
You don't have to read that one to totally understand everything that's happening in this one. (I hope…) But it might help to understand how and why Sasuke was turned into Temeki and why he chose to stay that way.
Not to mention all of the Gaara/Kinabuhi goodness…
So enjoy!
Chapter 1: Shadowed Information
The inside of the bar was exactly as one would expect of a dive: dirty and loud. Men laughed and yelled as they drank and shoved badly made food past their lips, which only caused them to drink more to get the taste out of their mouths. More than one fight started and ended within the confines of the booths. No one paid them much attention, with the exception of the men who bet on the outcomes of those fights.
Smoke hung heavily in the air and caused the eyes of the waitresses to water. But they just shrugged it off and accepted it as part of the job, along with the ass grabs and indecent propositions. Some of the waitresses accepted the smarmy come-on lines, while most of them declined the less than gentlemanly advances. At least the manager of this particular bar was reasonable.
"Whether they used their voices or their fists," he told all of his customers, "no means no." That was the bar's one Rule.
The manager looked over the crowd from his position by the actual piece of wood that served as the bar. Thanks to a recent turn in the weather, the place was packed and filled with its fair share of short-tempered goons. Rain and lightning storms had a way of keeping even the stupidest badass inside. The man wasn't worried about the fighting; he was a strong man himself and could clear out the whole bar in less than thirty minutes if he had to.
The reason for the man's uneasiness had more to do with the new waitresses he'd hired the week before than anything else. He almost refused to give the pair of sisters the job, but relented only because he knew if he didn't, one of the many pimps or madams in the village would snatch them up and make the girls work for them—willingly or not.
The manager shook his head. He knew that the other "businessmen" in town thought that he was wasting a good opportunity to earn a few extra coins. But as the illegitimate son of a whore and the richest man in the village, he refused to accept any money that had been "earned" in such a manner.
The sisters he'd hired were nice girls.
This was not a nice village.
But, as they'd told him, they had nowhere to go after Sound nin pillaged their family's ranch and killed their parents.
Sometimes he hated living in the Country of Field. The presence of the Hidden Village of Sound had only made things worse. There had been many attempts by other Hidden Villages to destroy Sound, but its Kage, Orochimaru, was a shrewd man who always seemed to be three steps ahead of the other Villages. Although he heard that the man was declining in health and had lost his chosen successor almost five years ago, the shinobi of Sound continued to run the country and terrorize its citizens.
Two flashes of spun golden hair brought the manager out of his thoughts. The girls he hired were actually 19-year-old twins. They were both on the short side, the one with dark blue eyes was shorter than her sister by a few centimeters, but the crowd immediately parted for the two beauties.
They should be married to good men and have at least one child each by now, the manager thought. Not stuck here serving swine.
The twins split up after a while, holding trays full of food and drinks and carrying them to their destinations. The taller one took the joking and pinching in stride as she passed by the tables. She "accidentally" spilled a drink in the lap of one of the more pushy men and stared him down. Luckily, the man was a regular at the bar and knew the manager's Rule. More importantly, he knew what happened to the men who violated the Rule.
The twin with the dark blue eyes was having a more difficult time. She jumped every time someone pinched her ass and looked on with eyes full of fear at the men who were so much larger than her. The other waitresses noticed and sought to protect the girl. They remembered well how it felt to be pawed for the first time and they liked the kind-hearted teenager. They intercepted the worst of the men and subtly shifted the girl over to the tables that were occupied by serious, quiet men who refused to drink anything but water.
The manager's eyes narrowed as he witnessed what his well-meaning staff was doing. They might think that they were doing the girl a favor, but those tables were among the most dangerous to serve. The men who sat there drank only water because they wanted their wits about them. Many plots and schemes were planned at tables like the ones that lined the east wall of his bar. The manager knew this, but also acknowledged that the girl might be the perfect waitress for that section of his establishment.
She was unobtrusive.
She was pretty.
And most importantly…
She was mute.
The manager nodded at a customer and wiped the bar with a dirty rag. This just might work out, he thought.
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"If I don't like the information you have to give me, I'll cut your throat," a dirty man in rags whispered.
"You'll like it," the other occupant of the table chuckled. He looked over at his companion and smirked. He highly doubted the fool could go through with his threat. No matter how much dirt the idiot rolled around in, no one could miss the whiteness of his teeth and the softness of his hands.
Save me from power hungry younger brothers, he thought. But then again, they pay handsomely for one night of murder.
The two looked up when a shadow came over their table. A pretty girl with dark blue eyes, blonde hair, and a scar across her mouth stood there with a menu and a pad of paper. They looked on with interest as she pulled a card out of her apron and placed it on the table.
'Would you like anything to eat or drink?' the card read.
"What's with the card?" the disguised noble demanded.
The girl only smiled and turned the card over.
'I apologize, but I am a mute. The manager begs your indulgence and would like to know if you'd like anything to eat or drink. My name is Meruka.'
The noble frowned while the assassin looked up at the girl. "How do we know, you're really mute, girl?" he asked.
Meruka opened her scarred mouth and showed the men the stub of her tongue.
The noble reared back in disgust while the assassin just nodded.
"Got it cut out, huh?" he asked.
Meruka nodded and swept her fingers over her forehead. She then pointed to the North and frowned.
The assassin nodded again. "Sound ninja cut out your tongue?"
Meruka gave him a small smile and shrugged as if to say, That's how life is here.
The man felt a strange empathy for the girl and reached for the menu. "My friend and I will circle the orders we want, okay?" When the girl smiled again and nodded, the assassin felt glad for some reason. He shook the feeling off and looked at the menu.
"But what about my information?" the noble demanded.
"I can talk and read at the same time," the other man answered.
"But what about the girl?"
He looked up and winked at the girl, who promptly blushed. "She won't tell nobody."
If the noble had doubts, he dismissed them. He refused to remain in this filth any longer than necessary. "Go on," he ordered.
The assassin turned cold gray eyes to the noble and said, "Your older brother is involved with an organization called Akatsuki. They are an organization that deals in various illegal activities."
"What kind of activities?" the noble asked. "I can't discredit him in the eyes of our Clan if all he does is deal in prostitutes and slavery. You've been in this village long enough. Father would probably give him a fuckin' medal."
"So your blue blood isn't as pristine as you make it out to be," the assassin murmured as he circled two items on the menu. He passed the menu to the noble, who refused it. "Your brother is involved in activities that include helping several missing nin and providing them with safe havens all across the Countries of Field, Fire, Wind, and Cloud."
Meruka picked up the menu and wrote down the orders on her pad. She smiled at the assassin and moved on to the next table, repeating the introduction with the card.
"I need proof," the noble said eagerly.
"I have a map of each of the safe havens your brother provides to Akatsuki in my room."
"Where are you staying?"
Harsh laughter cut through the noise in the bar. "I'm not as stupid as you think I am," he responded. "Meet me outside twenty minutes after I'm done eating and I'll take you to the map. After I blindfold you."
The noble looked the assassin in the eyes and nodded. "Deal."
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"Well?" an impatient voice asked. "Did it work?
"Fell for it hook, line, and sinker."
"Where do you get these lines?"
"You should be used to it by now."
"Shut up. Where's the meeting gonna be?"
"Outside in twenty—no, fifteen minutes."
"So, Drunk in a Funk? Or maybe Mug and Drug?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of Bladder in a Lather."
"We really need to come up with a better code for our attacks."
"And miss out on the rhyming fun?"
"Why don't we just attack him when he sleeps?"
"But I've been practicing at controlling my bladder…"
"Why do I work with you again?"
"Because I'm the best."
"Whatever. Let's go."
"Poor sod won't know wat 'it 'im." (1)
"Why are you talking like that?"
"Loike wat?"
"Nevermind. Just shut up and get ready."
"Sure, thang, guv'nor. Sure thang."
"Uhhhh…"
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The assassin leaned against the shadowed side of the building as he waited for the noble. The storm had passed, but rain still fell in light sheets. The roads were a muddy mess and he knew that it would take several days before they would be fit for horses or carriages to travel on.
He barely noticed when the door that led to the bar's kitchen opened behind him. The sounds of male panting and the breathless gasps of a female filled the small alley. The assassin didn't pay that any attention either. His eyes were glued to the opening of the alley.
The noble bastard was late.
The noises behind him grew louder as the couple continued their little 'session' despite both the muddy ground and the rain that was still falling. The man was now whispering to the waitress he'd gotten. His voice was low, but it was enough to reach the assassin's ears.
"I knew a bitch like you would be like this…"
The assassin slowly turned as a strange gurgle sounded.
"Meruka…" he whispered, the strange feeling of empathy hitting him once more.
Before he knew what he was doing, the assassin found his dagger in the back of the man who rutted on top of the mute girl. He pushed the now dead man off of the girl and held out his hand to her. Meruka looked up at her savior and recognized the nice man from before. She brought her tattered clothes to her chest and launched herself at the assassin.
He was surprised when the girl lunged for him and immediately fell to his knees. The girl's sobs sounded painful and she continued to make the strange gurgling noise from earlier.
"Shhh…" the assassin murmured, awkwardly patting her shoulder. "It's over now. Um…do you want me to get the manager?"
His question only made the girl cling to him harder as she violently shook her head from side to side.
"Okay, that's a no," he looked at the building that housed the bar and thought. "What about that other girl, the one with blonde hair? I noticed that she looked like you, sort of. She's your sister right?"
At Meruka's timid nod, he gave a small smile and carefully stood up.
"I'll get her."
Meruka's eyes widened and she started to shake her head again. She held on tight to his shirt with one hand and searched for something in her skirt with the other. The assassin stiffened warily, half-expecting a blade to be in her hands. It wouldn't be the first time someone had faked a rape to get his attention.
He relaxed when Meruka only pulled out her pad of paper and a pencil. She shakily wrote down some words on the page and turned it to the assassin. He squinted so that he could read it in the darkness.
'No! Teruka would cause an even bigger scene!'
The assassin shook his head. "I can't just leave you here. You need to…um…wash up."
Meruka's eyes teared at the reminder and wrote another sentence.
'The room me and Teruka share is upstairs. I don't want to go in there!'
"But you have to take care of yourself."
'Can't you take me to where you're staying? Please?'
The assassin was surprised by the girl's statement. She had just been raped by a stranger and now she was willing to go with another stranger into his hotel room. But as he thought about it from another angle he realized that in her mind, he was her hero and therefore wouldn't hurt her. The girl tapped the word 'please' with the pencil and looked up at him with dark blue eyes.
"Okay," he muttered. The assassin gently picked her up and, sticking to the shadows, took her to his room.
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Shadow's danced against the room's wooden walls as the wind howled outside. The couple asleep on the futon were oblivious to the noise as they dreamt. Meruka lay on her side, facing away from the assassin, while the assassin himself lay on his back.
A slight noise woke the man and he opened his eyes a bit to orient himself. Something was wrong.
He felt the warmth of Meruka next to him and immediately noticed the presence of another person in the room. His hand slid to the dagger he always kept on him and he waited for the figure to make his move.
Damn, he wondered. I didn't meet up with the noble bastard earlier. He didn't have me followed, did he?
He felt two hands clasp his shoulders and suddenly he was up against the wall of the room. He tried to raise his dagger, but the figure grabbed his elbow and locked the joint. His attacker's other arm pinned his shoulder to the wall and the hand lightly rested on his collar bone. His legs were kicked apart and spread wide so that he had to concentrate to keep his balance.
He looked up and saw the white porcelain mask of a hunter nin. The symbol for the Hidden Village of Sand was carved onto the mask's forehead. The mask was a stark, unpainted white, except for a black kanji character on the lower left cheek.
"Where is it?" the hunter nin hissed in a low voice.
The assassin looked over at the still form of Meruka and answered, "Where's what?"
The masked ninja slammed the man into the wall and growled. "The girl doesn't matter. She's dead anyway. Where's the map?"
The assassin stilled as he felt a blade slide out of the hunter nin's sleeve and press against his throat.
"I could search the room after I kill you," the masked one whispered. "But I'm afraid that I'm in a bit of a hurry. Now, where is the map?"
"Really, Aitou," another voice whispered. "You're going to have to work on your interrogation skills."
The hunter nin, Aitou, stilled, but didn't turn. "Zannen," the ninja calmly said. "Can't you let a body have a bit of fun?"
"No," was the answer.
The assassin slid his gaze to the other person and grasped the fact that there were two hunter nins in his room. He knew the map he had marked several safe havens for missing nins, but he didn't know how the hunters knew that he even had the map in the first place.
"A girl just can't have any fun anymore," Aitou said.
The man noticed then that the two nins were female. A flush came over his body as he realized that he had been ambushed by two females.
Zannen gave a short, seductive laugh and waved her hand. "Fine," she said. "I'll look while you play. But as you said, we're in a hurry."
Aitou tilted her head at the man and he had the feeling that a smile graced her lips behind the mask. He shivered as the blade ran up the side of his face.
"You've killed many people," she whispered, pressing against him. "And you've enjoyed it. You've reveled in it. Didn't you? Answer me!" She began carving lines into the man's forehead.
Zannen snorted and continued to search the room for the map, stearing clear of Meruka's body.
"Y-yes," the man stuttered. He felt wetness in his eyes and in his pants, but answered the woman.
"And tonight you killed again. But this time for a woman," she whispered as she pulled away from him in disgust. The man smelled of fear and urine. Although she didn't mind the fear—she enjoyed it, actually—the urine offended her.
"Found it," Zannen said.
The assassin jerked when he felt a kunai stab his side. He stared at Aitou's mask and knew that he was staring at the face of death.
Zannen looked at her partner and sighed when Aitou roughly jerked the kunai up, tearing at the man's internal organs, before removing it from his body. He fell to the ground and the moonlight lit his face and the character that Aitou had carved into his forhead.
'Yurushi.'
Forgiveness"Are you finished?" Zannen asked.
Aitou turned toward the girl and Zannen knew from experience that a joyful smile was now on the hunter nin's face.
"Quite!"
"Then let's go," Zannen said. "Kazekage-sama is waiting for this information."
Aitou turned toward the door and paused when Zannen poked her toe at the girl on the floor.
"What about Meruka?" she asked.
Aitou blinked her eyes and the girl disappeared.
"Who?"
A/N:
Okay…set up done! Ha! Feels good to write again!
By the way…apples and bananas to the ones who know who Aitou is! Don't put your answer in the reviews! Just be smug in your all knowingness!
(1) How ya like my first attempt at a British accent in written form? Good, huh? Huh? Hello…?