The Settlement
It took a few minutes before Tenten fully understood what was happening, and still then, she was confused. This garage was so… so strange. It was dodgy, like Ino had said. 4 days a week and late working hours; it sounded like a fraud more than anything else, and she had known it. Emptiness one day and then suddenly thriving the next; with workers doing nothing associated with car fixing should have further confirmed the uneasiness in the back of her head. Yet, Tenten was too proud. That had always been her weakness. She had decided to give this place a try; she had been warned, yet just one mock, and she was blind to all logic.
Sighing, Tenten leaned back onto the sofa, wondering what she had gotten herself into now. The chair squeaked at her movement. She froze, not wanting to make anymore noise.
"Don't make any noise; just…don't do anything until I come back." The way Itachi had said it made Tenten dare not disobey.
She heard car doors slam, and then crunching footsteps from the gravel floor. Muted voices drifted into the room; not anything clear enough for her to understand; but voices nonetheless. The first to speak was Itachi, she recognized the thick, deep quality. Then, a slow, crackly man's voice filled Tenten's ears in reply. It was horrible; like nails on a board, and it sent chills up her spine.
Curiosity got the best of her, and she decided taking a little peek would not hurt. Very slowly, Tenten leaned over to the side of the window and carefully lifted a curtain with a finger. She glanced out the window.
Itachi was standing at the entrance with the rest of his men (and woman, Tenten noted Karin's hair in the crowd). Everybody seemed to have stopped their activities, and were all standing in a line behind Itachi; as if building a wall between the garage and the intruder. Tenten could only assume he was an intruder; everybody looked uneasy.
The appearance of the man who had just arrived sent another wave of chills up Tenten's spine. He certainly lived up to his voice. His skin was abnormally pale; almost grey. His hair was long and dry; and unlike Itachi who put his hair up in a neat ponytail; this man's hair was unruly and simply seemed to be everywhere. His nose was merely two slits between his mouth and eyes… his eyes – Tenten could not look straight into them. Beside this man, stood a shorter one who looked about five years older than she was. He looked wise, and had glasses. He stood a little behind the first man, staying out of the conversation. Behind them, Tenten recognized a black, shiny car – the villain's car.
She had always liked to call the Maybach Exelero 'The Evil Car' because it certainly looked the part. The first time she saw it, she could not help but see the resemblance of the front of the car to an angry, villain's face. The headlights, especially, reminded her of deeply evil eyes. Kind of like the ones the scary man had right now. You are what you drive, she supposed.
**
"Orochimaru, it's been… a while." Itahci spoke first. The said man licked his lips
"Indeed," He said quietly. A few of the men behind Itachi twitched. Orochimaru glanced at the vans and boxes hiding behind the wall of people.
"Going somewhere?" He asked delightedly.
"Ah, no." Itachi replied. "We're just…relocating some of our stuff; paperwork, that's all."
Orochimaru threw his head back to laugh.
"You must have a lot of paperwork for so many vans." He commented. Itachi merely nodded once.
At this moment, a loud revving of engines from the distance interrupted the conversation. The two new arrivals turned around in mild confusion and interest, anticipating the newcomer. The ends of Itachi's lips turned up, recognizing the noise of the engine. Only one person here drove a bike.
The engine got louder and louder, until finally, a shiny silver and black motorcycle slid round the corner into view. It settled itself next to Orochimaru's Exelero as the engine died down. The driver slid off his ride and took off his helmet, revealing a handsome face and a head of careless, messy black hair.
"Sasuke, what good timing!" Orochimaru cackled. "Your brother and I were just talking about the relocation of your goods." Sasuke merely gave the man a glance and a grunted "Hn" before turning to his brother.
"She's fallen ill and can't move." He stated simply.
Itachi closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"Well, we'll need a doctor then, won't we?" he replied quietly. Sasuke frowned.
"Have we got time for that?"
Itachi thought for a moment, and then gave a sigh through his nose.
"Use the phone in my office." He said.
Somewhere in the crowd, Deidera let out a low growl. Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke gave Itachi a confused look, but obeyed. He grabbed the handles of his bike and wheeled it with him towards the office, leaving the group behind. He could feel Orochimaru's gaze burning into his back; but he did not care.
**
Tenten did not like what she was seeing. The two parties never broke out into a fight; physically or even verbally it seemed; but by the way the men were standing; how they fidgeted; the looks on some of their faces – all that was needed was a shove and hell would break loose. She was curious when another addition arrived on an impressive motorbike. She wondered whose side he belonged to. The grey skinned man had spoken to him first, but he had spoken to Itachi only. She could only guess he was an Akatsuki.
Tenten gulped as the dark haired man made his way towards the office. He was good looking; actually, that was an understatement. He was very good looking – beautiful, even. But she wondered whether he always looked so… so menacing. Quickly, she removed her finger from the curtain and scrambled back into a normal sitting position, just in time for him to open the door.
The man seemed just as surprised as she was to see her. He froze for about a second at the sight, and then quickly closed the door behind him with a small 'click'. He stood, staring at her with one of the most piercing gazes Tenten had ever experienced. She tried to look back, but it was a matter of seconds before she could not stand it anymore, and looked away from his eyes – they were hard and cold as stone, as if there was nothing inside. He looked a lot like Itachi, except his hair was shorter, and his face younger. However, he seemed to possess a different type of aura than his older counterpart. Where Itachi ruled over his opponents through influence and charisma; Sasuke simply had 'FEAR ME' written across his forehead – and he defiantly could do it.
"You?" he asked. He sounded like Itachi too, except with a more nasal quality. She swallowed, not wanting her voice to betray the fear inside her.
"Um, yes…me." she replied, not sure whether that was what he was looking for. "Do I know you?"
He grunted.
"Is there any reason why Itachi would tell me to come find you?"
"Itachi told you to come find me?" she blinked. The man sighed, and ran a hand through his already unruly hair and began pacing the room. Somehow, unruly worked so much better for him than the creepy, snake-like guy outside.
"Why are you here?"
"I er… Itachi told me to stay in here until he…"
"No, why did you come here, to Akatsuki?"
"Oh." She stopped. "Eh, well, I was here for a job interview; but I guess that's not happening anymore…"
"What job interview?"
Tenten was starting to get annoyed with his interruptions.
"You guys posted an ad on the papers, didn't you? About wanting to hire an auto technician?"
He stopped and frowned harder at her.
"You're an auto technician." It was not a question, but rather a statement. As if it reminded him of something. "You came yesterday."
"Yes."
His eyes trailed across her body, as if scanning her.
"W…what!?" she exclaimed in embarrassment.
"Come with me." He replied, grabbing her by the wrist. He pulled her towards the back of the office, where she noticed was another door; the back door.
"Woah…w…wait a second." She said, twitching her arm away from his painful grip.
"What is this? What's going on?" He gave her a death glare which almost made her knees give way. But she was not going to give in.
"We've got no time for this." He growled dangerously. "I'll explain when we get there." He made an attempt to reach for her hand again, but she turned away.
"Excuse me." She stated. "It's not we've got no time; it's you've got no time." she folded her arms across her chest.
"Now it seems to me you're asking a favor from me, and I refuse unless you tell me what the hell is happening right now. Or else, you will be out of time."
Tenten wondered if he was going to just pick her up and carry her to wherever he wanted her to be by force. It certainly looked as if that thought was going through his head, and he was certainly capable of it. Tenten bit her lip at the sight of his bare, muscular arms and shoulders underneath his black vest. His skin was red – burnt from the harsh summer sun. He was sweating a little, and his breathes were quick and shallow; making his chest rise and fall at a slightly quicker pace than normal. Was he desperate? She wondered if the reason behind all this would make her guilty for lagging him like this.
He took a deep breath.
"That man out there is called Orochimaru." He said calmly.
"Ok" she nodded.
"We've got something…some things even, that he wants, but…well…"
"Yes?" she encouraged. He smirked.
"Let's just say he's a bad guy and he will do bad things with them; if he gets his hands on them, that is."
"Uh huh."
"So, we need to get these things out of this place as soon as possible."
Ah, so that was what they were loading.
"One of the vans has broken down about two miles away from here, and we really need it to be up and running before it's too late." He stared at her for a few seconds.
"Help us fix it." he said.
Tenten frowned.
"One." She replied. "If you didn't want this Orochimaru guy to know about these… things you have, then why are you guys taking them away now?" she questioned. The boy gave her a puzzled look.
"I mean, shouldn't you have done this earlier, instead of now? Isn't it a little obvious with him watching you guys load a bunch of 'somethings' into a car and revving away?"
"We…" he started.
"And two." She interrupted. "As far as I know, this is a garage. Shouldn't this place be concentrated with people who fix cars? Why me, the Konoha student who isn't good enough for you to hire?"
This time, he remained silent.
"And three." She smiled. "My mother always told me to never run off with a stranger - they're dangerous. What do you say about that?"
He gave her a smirk, and unexpectedly, one quick stride was all it took before he was towering over her. She unconsciously stepped back from him – only to hit a wall. She was trapped. He lifted an arm and rested the hand on the wall close to her head; leaning in until their faces were inches apart. He stared into her eyes, locking her gaze so she could not look away.
"One." The man in front of her replied quietly. "Orochimaru came earlier than we expected." Tenten opened her mouth to talk back, but was silenced.
"Two. I think you'd be pretty retarded if you still haven't noticed by now, that this place isn't really a garage."
"Are you trying to say…"
"I never said you were." He finished answering before she had even asked her question.
"And three. My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He leaned his head back so they were at normal distances again. "What's your name?"
"T…Tenten. But I…"
"There, we are no longer strangers. Come now." He took her wrist again.
They were almost at the back door when Tenten halted them yet once more. Sasuke gave her an impatient look.
"Wait." She said. "I have a four."
He lifted an eyebrow.
"If I fix this car of yours, do you promise to hire me?"
A/N: Mild fluff next chapter. Yay!