"Plants to Poisons"
Zetsu x Ino
(Yes you read that right.)
"Like parasites to plants, he was a disease to her."
The whip snapped harder down the back of the blonde. Her body arched but otherwise she remained unresponsive. Her blood dripped from her wounds onto the vines which wound around her and kept her still. She heard leaves rustle behind her and knew he was getting irritated.
"She hasn't given in. What a nuisance."
She heard him speak with his strange voice. If she had a deranged split personality like him, Ino could only figure she'd have some pretty strange conversations as well.
She let out a light hearted laugh despite circumstances. She heard more rustling and the vines shook to life before turning her around to face him.
"Ahh!" There was inches between them and Ino leaned back with a startled cry. The man, if you could call him that, looked at her contemplatively before cupping her chin gingerly and tilting it up.
She met his inhuman eyes with a glare. At this close a range his features seemed perfectly balanced and a thought she never knew was possible struck her.
'He's handsome.'
His half black, half white skin showed that his freckles, were nothing more than scattered yellow dots. Had he been more human looking they would be very light on his skin and barely noticeable.
"What's so funny, Yamanaka?"
From so close a range the plant like growths could have been none existent for all she cared. Because...he was handsome. Even as the thought persists in her mind Ino Yamanaka questions her sanity.
But no matter how much she questioned herself internally, she could never question the well balanced face, small nose and delicate chin that glowered at her from such a creature.
There was an artful way his features stood well proportionately on his face. The way nothing was wrong with him, and it seemed almost that god was playing a cruel joke when he put this well balanced face on a man's body and then threw a plant on his shoulders.
Shameful, really.
The whip lashed out and brought Ino straight from her inner musings. The plant man had her by the shoulders with a most unpleasant sneer to his lips.
"Why haven't you broke yet? Answer me woman!"
Ino blinked owlishly up at him before smirking. But before any words left her mouth the Akatsuki had her pinned to the ground and hovered over her. He readied himself to take a chunk out of her abdomen and Ino squirmed and kicked at him, but while she was still bound, it was still useless.
"I was only laughing at your split personality!"
Skipping over his second question Ino answered his first only to find that, that may have been the wrong thing to say. Considering of course, how the vines tightened around her.
"Wait a minute that came out wrong, I didn't mean it as a bad thing!"
He exhaled and she could feel the breath on her flesh. Panicking and not wanting to lose chunks of herself, Ino blurted out the first thing to come to mind.
"I think your hot!"
The man pulled away and squinted his strangely colored eyes looking quite utterly confused. He put one hand to his forehead and Ino watched him carefully before he commented.
"My temperature can't be over ninety-eight degrees and that I assure you is not hot, it's normal."
Ino burst into a fit of giggles at his childish expression. (How a member of Akatsuki could look childish was beyond her.) Before he clutched her shoulders rather painfully and sneered down at her.
"What's funny this time Yamanaka? Tell me!"
Ino shook her head and squashed the rest of her laughter with ease. A serious expression over took her and she merely shook her head.
"Let me up and I'll explain."
The plant man squinted at her before thinking it over and removing himself from her. Cautiously Ino sat up as the vines retreated to just holding her wrists in place. She leaned against a tree and watched him deciding the best way to go about doing this.
"Well..."
Ino started awkwardly as he watched her as a predator watches prey. He almost seemed hungry, sitting back on his haunches and watching her every move. Then Ino remembered who exactly she was and straightened, gathering her dignity before starting her long explanation.
When she finished what exactly all the slang means she finally told him that she found him attractive, of course not without a blush on her cheeks. After everything she had gone over the Akatsuki member just kind of looked at her with those weird unblinking eyes.
"Oh I almost forgot!"
Ino clapped her hands together happily, having had them freed a while ago, before she leaned in playfully.
"So what's your name?"
The plant man blinked at her twice before speaking.
"Zetsu."
Ino huffed in annoyance at his clipped tones and limited vocabulary. She wagged her finger at him and put her hands on her hips.
"You know you should really talk more it really expresses feelings and such!"
Zetsu or the formally dubbed "plant man" just looked at her strangely before nodding.
"Yes. I will remember that."
Ino smiled slowly, her lips curling, her eyes brightened and Zetsu watched fascinated.
Her eyes roved over his shoulder and she gasped. She stood up and smiled so wide Zetsu wondered if it was anatomically possible and probably quite without thinking, she used his knee to help her up.
Zetsu stared in shock at the place she once was. Nobody, nobody in all his years willingly touched him, openly touched him. But this girl, Zetsu looked to see her back turned to him leaning over a log and running her finger down an open flower.
He slowly took a black palm and laid it down in the space where it still remained warm from her touch. Then he looked back to her as she waltzed around identifying flower after flower and plucking them from their stems.
He swallowed the saliva that had somehow accumulated in his mouth during his inattention.
"Zetsu!"
He turned to the sound of his name and found his face full of a bouquet of flowers. He grasped her wrist and lowered them so he could actually see.
"You touched me."
Ino blinked at him seemingly uncomprehending.
"Just now. You touched my knee."
Zetsu had never been use to touch but now since he held her wrist his fingers began to slide up her arm.
"Come now it wasn't so bad! It was barely a brush of skin and..."
Her words trailed off as his fingers lightly brushed the crook of her elbow. All talking ceased as she watched his hands' progress. His white left hand still rested on his knee while the other kept going.
His thumb brushed the side of her breast and she stepped back putting the bouquet into his open hand.
"Did I do something wrong?"
She shook her head, a light blush adorning her cheeks.
"No..I mean...don't worry about it. Here I picked these for you Zetsu."
His fingers closed around the little bouquet and she smiled. Eyes closed, hand outstretched, lips pulled back to show white teeth. Innocent. He felt his own smile form and the thought of eating her barely received notice.
"Thank you."
Ino tucked a blonde strand behind her ear, leaning over him hands on her knees, face smeared with mud, clothes tattered, and back torn. Resilient. "Your welcome."
"Like the resilience of flowers, she was a cure to him."
