Hikari sat in the small shack she had built on the edge of the town and smiled sweetly to herself while boiling a pot of herbal tea, filling the room with a cinnamon and orange scent. After pouring a small cup for herself, she checked her stock of useful herbs for traditional healing and flipped through her journal quietly, making sure it was all up to date. She tucked a lock of rose red hair behind her pale ear as cobalt blue eyes regarded the tidy room with an inspecting gaze. "Everything looks orderly~" she chirped to herself before walking outside to observe a small plant she had been growing, and continued her detailed medical drawing of it in watercolor and pencil, slender fingers moving skillfully across the page as colour seemingly spilled across the previously blank and aged page of the old journal. She had a fine hand for art, as well as medicine. Many people came to her looking for a healer despite her location on the outskirts of town.
Two hooded figures walked through the forest near the small cottage, muttering to each other. Walking down the small, pebbled path, the blonde one of the two knocked on the door three times precisely.
Expecting customers, the girl looked up and called with a sweet tone, "I'm just finishing a sketch, I'll be out it a second! Please be patient, sorry to make you wait~!"
"Come out here this instant, brat." the other of the two snapped impatiently in a harsh tone. He was an odd man, hunched over with mid-length black hair and a bandana around his strangely shaped jaw.
She ignored the rude comment, mistaking it for worry about whatever injury it was they wanted her to address and stood up. Folding her sketchbook up and putting her media in her pockets quickly, she walked to the front door and opened it. Expecting nothing out if the ordinary, she beamed with an adorable smile, and said, "Good afternoon gentlemen~ how can I help you?"
The red head's eyebrow twitched as he sat inside his puppet shell. "Lord Pein has required your presence at the base. Now." He was not in a good mood.
Frowning, she inquired, "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what that has to do with me right now. I'm a medic, and have no knowledge of this Lord Pein you speak of. If you have an injury, I can examine it and heal for a small fee~" Around other people, she always finished her sentences with a higher polite tone, a small quirk to her voice. Being nice made business more pleasant, despite the occasional rude customer.
"Do not talk back to me, brat. I am asking, no, ordering you to come with us now this instant." the strangely wooden-looking man said.
With a giggle, she replied, "I work here, and don't usually leave the clinic I'm sorry. And I'm not sure how much authority you can assert over me right now~." It was rather hard keeping up her sweet demeanor with these two men, who seemed more intimidating by the passing minute.
"I am not very patient, and I do not like to be kept waiting. So hurry up and do as I say."
Looking the slightest bit afraid by now, Hikari took a slight step back, and repeated more firmly, "I'm sorry, but I don't leave the clinic."
"Well you can damn start now, un." the blonde spoke up for the first time, an obvious speech impediment at the end of his sentence.
"I-I won't tolerate violence at the clinic." she stuttered back, blue eyes flashing.
"I don't tolerate idiots." the raven haired man snapped back.
Shaking her head violently, she slammed the door in their faces and fled further into the house.
"Tch, Playing hard to get now, are we?" the puppet master said with a scoff.
The blonde had already finished molding a clay bird and was throwing it at the door. "KATSU!" he yelled before the bird exploded along with the poor wooden door.
"ART IS A BANG, UN!"
"Bah. Art is eternal." the red head inside the puppet said before stepping inside the house and walking up the stairs.
Hiding under her bed, she covered herself in clothes and hid as best she could, trembling in shock. 'Why on earth are they doing this…?' she thought worriedly to herself.
"Playing hide and seek, are we?" the red head asked no one in particular. "Well guess what? I have no time for games, bitch."
Cringing at the vulgar language, she blocked her ears; as of it would stop them from hearing her as well.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are...~" Sasori taunted, making his puppet body smirk.
"Hn. Contradictory much, un?" the blonde chided and sneered.
The two S-Ranked criminals headed towards the girl's room and walked in quietly. Smirking, the red head said "Hm.. I wonder where she is..."
The red head squeezed her eyes shut tightly, not realizing that the tips of her flaming rose red hair were splayed out from underneath the bed, visibly showing.
Deidara smirked and grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking, and painfully pulled her out from under the bed.
She shrieked in pain and gripped her head, yelling repeatedly "STOP IT! PLEASE!" kicking her legs to try and get some purchase on the ground, she whimpered, a tear leaking down her cheek. She attempted to struggle away, but to no avail, the chakra strings keeping a firm grip.
"What a wimp, un." the blonde said before letting go.
Attaching chakra strings to her body, the puppet master walked her towards him.
"Was it this hard to recruit Ankoku?" Sasori asked, sneering.
"No. Harder. She ruined five of your puppets, remember, un?" the blonde replied.
"Oh I remember. All too well in fact." the red head said, still sneering at the struggling girl. "I'm starting to think I should turn this one into a puppet instead... And tell leader-sama that we couldn't find anyone...~"
"N-No!" she yelled in protest. "No way! I'm not going to be your doll!"
He made the red head punch herself in the face before continuing "Leader would attempt to kill me if I did anyway. We're going back to base." the puppet master said before walking away, heading down the stairs and making the red head follow after him. He turned back only to say "Whether you like it or not."
"W-why are you doing this...?" she whimpered quietly.
The loud-mouthed blonde followed and said simply "Because Leader-sama told us to, un."
"W-who's this leader you keep talking about?"
"Leader-sama is Leader-sama. No questions, un.." Deidara answered.
At last, she hung her head in defeat, and mumbled, "Please... I can walk by myself..."
Sasori sighed in annoyance whilst walking her out the door. "If it'll keep you shut up, yes." he released his hold on her and walked ahead.
Looking back at her house one last time wistfully, she grabbed her emergency medical kit, a bundle of her freshest herbs, sketch book and media, stuffed them in a bag then walked after the two men, seeing that she really had no choice in the matter.
"I still think art is a bang, un." the blonde muttered inaudibly.
At last, they had arrived at the Akatsuki base, the two men in front of the red headed girl.
The young medical kunoichi was tired as hell as she stumbled up behind the hunched over man, nearly walking into him in the process. As a medic, she wasn't used to a lot of walking, but was still rather fit due to her training, and herb hunts in the forest.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, BRAT!" the puppet master yelled from inside his shell. "YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN AND I WILL TURN YOU INTO ONE OF MY PUPPETS!"
She cringed, and whimpered a muffled 'sorry' before hiding behind the lesser intimidating of the men.
Deidara snickered at her childish behavior. "I don't think she'll survive very long with Ankoku."
"Who's this Ankoku you keep talking about...?" she queried.
"Oh you'll find out soon enough, un." Deidara said with a smirk
Pulling her flame coloured hair back into a ponytail before letting it drop neatly into her back, she nodded mutely.
"I don't think the leader's here right now. Why don't you just go run around and meet the rest of the gang, yeah?"
"That would be most appreciated." the puppet master said, already fed up with this brat.
She winced at the indirect insult, but nodded, still clutching her pack to her chest as she walked off.
Sasori of the Red Sand smirked as he said this, causing Deidara to nudge him and whisper, "Aren't you going to warn her not to go into Ankoku's room, un?" seeing the smirk on the red head's face get wider, Deidara snickered and decided not to give his little trick away.
Right now, all the red head wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die, or at least cry for a very long time. With good reason too, as she had left behind everything that she knew, possibly forever. Hearing voices coming from most rooms, she attempted to find the quietest one. At the end of the hallway was a door painted entirely white with a black border, and a bloodied, smeared handprint in the center. Despite the eerie design, it seemed like to only quiet room, so she went inside.
Upon entering the room, she sighed in relief, seeing as it seemed this was an unused room. There were cobwebs here and there, and everything was extremely neat and tidy, the furniture covered in white sheets that were somewhat dusty, a few shelves against the wall and precisely stacked books.
There was a single window at the back of the room, which was open just a crack, making the stark white curtains billow. There was lone claw mark tear made through the curtain, and the left bottom side looked as if it had been dipped in blood. Taking a few steps forward into the room, she took note of the dust that swirled beneath her feet, making her sneeze, and the multiple dark stains and splatters on the plain wooden floor.
There was a clear path to the window, and on either side of the room were two identical silver candelabra complete with black candles that burned eerie blue purple flames.
The girl looked terribly out of place in the barren room, cherry red hair and bright forget-me-not coloured eyes with her simple cream coloured dress, hands clutched nervously in front of her chest, but she was ever so tired so she curled up on the couch and fell asleep.
Ankoku had just returned from the mission that Leader-sama had sent her on. Walking slowly towards the base, her clothes underneath her cloak, which she never wore during battles and was hanging loosely around her shoulders at the moment, were in tatters and covered in blood, she yawned quietly. The high collar of the cloak covered her mouth and nose, the only part of her face that was visible being her ruby colored eyes. Her long raven colored hair flowed out behind her like a cape of sorts. As she neared the base, she sensed a disturbance in the chakra flow of the house- there was someone new there. She decided to dismiss this strange feeling for the time being and focused instead on the large gash she had on her arm, a souvenir she had gotten from her previous battle.
The raven-haired girl walked towards her own room at the end of the hallway. Everything seemed to be in order, Hidan-teme was praying in his room, Kakuzu was most likely counting money like the miserly individual he was, Konan was doing who-knows-what, Deidara probably blowing Sasori's stuff up, Sasori probably yelling at Deidara for doing that, Itachi doing... Well, doing whatever it was that he did in his room. Leader-sama was nowhere to be seen at the moment. Huh. Just like him to ditch her right after she had finished doing all of his work for him so that he didn't have to get his hands dirty. She scoffed at this thought before opening the door to her barren room. Admittedly, It was a little un-homely, but she liked it that way. She didn't appreciate untidiness, after all.
She opened the door a little wider, expecting to be welcomed by empty darkness as she usually was, but instead, a strange girl with flaming red hair greeted her. Asleep. On her couch. She was going to pay. Oh, she was going to pay real bad. But first, she needed to get the girl off the couch and out into a mission. A dangerous mission. A dangerous mission that would probably get her accidentally killed. With emphasis on the accidentally, of course.
She stared at this strange girl, a sneer of disdain already appearing on her lips, as she looked her up and down. This one wasn't going to last very long. The raven haired girl was definitely going to enjoy hearing her screams and cries of help as she ended her pitiful life. It would be easy. A single swipe of her sword. A click of her fingers. That would be all it would take. She snickered quietly at her own sadistic thoughts.
She walked towards the flame haired girl, high heeled boots clicking on the ground and the wound from her arm dripping blood onto the wooden boards of the floor of her room.
Drip.
Drip.
That even rhythm that she oh so loved.
Stirring in her sleep, Hikari rolled onto her back, one hand resting on her chest, the other hanging off the couch. A small smile graced her lips, obviously dreaming about something nice.
Licking her crimson red lips, a consequence of biting her lips too much, she smiled at another sadistic thought... She was already planning on how she would get rid of this one…
Fringe flopping messily over one eye, the other fluttered open at the sound of movement in the room. Looking up through long, dark lashes, her soft blue eyes met the new girl's harsh red ones with a slight look of surprise as her mouth dropped into an 'o' shape.
Ankoku put on her best 'I'm completely innocent, nothing to see here' face as she saw the girl wake up.
The red head sat up, rubbed her eyes and said, "Oh, sorry, is this your room? I didn't know, the two men told me to go wait somewhere until 'Leader' returned, whoever that is.."
Though all of her facial expressions were well practiced and always in use, the harsh, cold, sadistic glare forever remained in her red eyes, and, no matter how hard or how many times she tried, the raven haired girl could never get rid of it.
" . . . . . . . . . . . . ."
Her eyes were like stones, cold and unforgiving as she stared into the large blue ones of the girl who was asleep on her couch a few seconds ago.
". . . . . . . . . . " the raven haired girl decided to be kind, whatever her definition of 'kind' was, and answered her question. "Yes. This is my room." she said in her sweetest tone possible, which, by the way, wasn't very sweet at all, considering the fact that she was a very sadistic person.
"Oh, I see... Do you know why I was brought here?" the young girl asked sweetly. "I... I want to go home now..." saying this, she lowered her gaze to her hands and sighed softly.
'Does it look like I care?!' the raven haired girl thought. But, as per normal, her thoughts were unvoiced.
". . . . . . . . . .Unfortunately, I would not have a clue." she decided that this girl would trust her more if she answered some of her questions, at the very least.
In truth, she hated this girl already. Her sickly sweet tone was annoying the hell out of her and the way those blue eyes looked up at her was enough to make her sick.
Thinking over the response for a moment, she tilted her head to one side and asked yet another question. "What is this place?"
". . . . . . . . Shouldn't you know, since you were the one who was brought here?"
Never giving a straightforward answer. That was the way Ankoku worked.
". . . They... Took me from home..." she replied sadly.
". . . . . . . Is that so. . . . . . ."
Right now, she was trying so hard not to flick her knife out and kill this girl. But no. She would save that for last. The grand finale, if you like. She always saved the best bits for the end of the show.
"Yes..." sighing, she looked up at the woman and tried her best smile. "Oh well~ I'm sure it will all work out somehow!" Hikari beamed her best smile. She had always been the optimist, even in the darkest situations, and this time wasn't an exception.
". . . . . . . . . . . ."
She decided 'quiet but kind' was the way to earn this girl's trust. Before she crushed her. Before she squeezed the very life out of her. Before she watched her lifeline seep out of here dying form.
" . . . I'm. . . . I'm sure it will. . . ."
"You're a very nice lady~ Is there any way I can repay you for answering my questions?"
". . . . . . . . . . . No. I wouldn't think so." she said. But, on the inside, she scoffed at this stupid little brat. Nice. She was anything but nice.
This girl obviously did not know the right people to trust.
Sniffing the air, she asked innocently, "Are you hurt? You smell of blood..."
With this, the Ankoku turned around and made her way towards the door.
She glancing back and nodded slightly before continuing to make her way out of the barren room.
"W-Wait!" She called hesitantly after the woman. "I... I could heal you!"
The red eyed woman turned around and raised a meticulously shaped eyebrow at her.
"I-I'm a healer... And I hate seeing people in pain..." The girl said in a hushed tone.
"Did I say I was in pain?" she snapped, half reverting back to her normal self.
"I can tell by the way you move. It's your arm, isn't it? You make sure your cloak isn't directly touching the wound, and it's rather tender, yes? And from your position, I can also tell it's a rather deep... Blade wound? It'll get infected if you leave it too long.."
The girl looked genuinely concerned, with a frown on her face, worry showing in her crystal blue eyes.
". . . . . Yes. . . It's a blade wound. . ."
Maybe this girl wasn't as bad as she first thought.
'She could tell all that just by looking at me?' Ankoku thought. Maybe this girl would last a little longer than she fir- no. She would kill this girl. And she would smile the whole time she's doing it. It depends on whether Leader-sama thinks she's... expendable or not.
The raven haired woman slowly unbuttoned her black cloak and slipped it off wordlessly before walking towards the younger girl and holding out her arm, which was bleeding at an alarming rate, the messy gash being fairly large for a blade wound. Without her cloak covering her nose and mouth, which had a small studded labret piercing, she looked less intimidating, showing flawless pale porcelain like skin. In this world, she would have been considered fairly beautiful, but the slightest bit creepy and scary, vampirish, if you like. Her blood red lips did not seem capable of even the tiniest smile and her face remained in it's impassive expressionless form. With the way she moved, one would not have been surprised if her skin had caught a ray of light and sparkled.
The woman was wearing a tight half shirt underneath her cloak that revealed her navel, which had a double navel piercing studded with rubies that were exactly, if not close to, the color of her eyes. Underneath the shirt, she was wearing a pair of black pants with knee high black, heeled boots that looked rather impractical for fighting.
The only flaws on her face were actually quite visible and she made no move to hide them. There were three old and rather large scars on her right cheek, the top one just barely missing her eye. They looked as if she had been attacked by some large feral animal or had been swiped at by some type of large claw-like weapon.
The red head's mouth dropped at the sight of the large wound. She dealt with terrible injuries all the time, but the state that this one had been left in was awful.
There was slight swelling around the lips of the wound, alluding to the fact that it was most likely already starting to become infected, and the blood had a watery property which usually meant the wound was trying to heal, but was to large or wide for the skin to start knitting back together.
Looking up at the woman, her blue eyes wide and honest, she admitted "The wound's in a bad way... It's going to be tough to fix.." Then, as an after thought, she added "But I'll try my best!"
Hikari brushed her hair off her shoulders before patting the couch beside her. "Please, take a seat. It'll be easier for me to work that way." From there, she picked up her bag and opened it, pulling out a bundle of herbs, smelling strongly of mint and ginger.
Along with the herbs, she removed a mortar and pestle in which she placed a small, oak leave shaped herb and a stick of small, browned leaves. She smiled to herself at the familiar work, and proceeded to grind them up, slender and experienced fingers adding a bunch of this, and pinch of this and a sprinkle of something else quickly and confidently.
Once she was finished, the product was a creamy and smooth poultice that she ladled onto a large, wide yellowed leaf. It gave off a sweet scent, like honey. "This will help it start healing, and I'll do the rest with hand techniques. But for the moment, there's nothing I can do with it bleeding and looking like that, so I do apologize that this will sting quite badly."
Taking a small bottle of mentholated spirits and a cloth for her bag, she wet it with the strong alcohol and deftly began patting the blood off around the area of the cut. "Hold still, I'm going to clean the actual wound now.."
Holding the still nameless woman's arm in one steady but firm grip, Hikari wiped the cloth gently over the top of the wound, knowing how much it would hurt, just hoping that this girl could handle it.
Continuing to clean it, she didn't stop until she was satisfied that she could clearly see the depth of the wound without it any remains of puss or it bleeding too much. Discarding the cloth, she placed one pale hand over the skin as it began to glow a soft mauve colour.
This was the most tricky and crucial part of the healing. Furrowing her brow in concentration, she muttered a few words to herself as she knitted tissue and sinew back together under her palm. If she didn't get it right, the wound had the potential to have permanent nerve damage, and the woman would subsequently lose feeling in the area.
When at last the wound was substantially less open, and the skin around it was much less irritated, she applied the poultice from earlier, which was a cooling relief on the heated and somewhat slimy skin. Skin obviously heats up when it's being healed, because of the blood underneath, and she smiled slightly knowing that it would a welcome change from the uncomfortable and painful feeling.
"Just leave that on for a few days," she said as she bandaged the area tightly, holding the poultice in place, "And it will be as good as new."
". . . . . Thank you. . . " the raven haired woman mumbled, not really liking the taste of the unfamiliar words in her mouth.
"Pardon? I missed that." Hikari said cheerfully.
". . . Nothing. . . . . . . . . ." she mumbled again, this time a little louder.
This girl was really starting to tick her off with her cheery demeanor and her happy go lucky smiles.
"Oh, alright then~" the red head said, with a bright smile.
Tilting her head to one side, she said "You know miss, you're really pretty. You should smile more often though, you eyes are so sad.." Slapping her forehead, she exclaimed "Silly me, going on about what I see in people's eyes again.. There's a lot you can tell at looking at eyes… Is it alright if I stay here for a little? I don't feel safe going out there again at the moment..."
". . . . . . . . . . . . No." she said before walking out of the room and towards the lounge.
A little taken aback by the odd woman's answer, she sighed and thought 'Fair enough, it's her room anyway...'
AN: So, there's the start of my next Naruto Fan Fic~ :D Please Read, Review and Enjoy, Any feedback and positive criticism is very welcome :3