Author's note:
OKAY so I've had over a hundred hits on this story but no reviews...what to do, apart from keep on going? And resort to putting pairings in the summary. I surrender...this is my last update unless I get a crapload of reviews/story alerts/favourites/cake.
So Close
Chapter 4:
A Weapon For Great Men
'Come out, you little bitch! Come and avenge your master's death!'
For a moment, the night sky was quiet, and the ocean of leaves beneath Deidara remained undisturbed. But then she appeared: a kunoichi, perhaps the same age as Deidara, her hair the colour of desert sand and kept short and messy behind the nape of her neck. Her bangs, however, fell down to cling to her sweating face, set with deep green eyes and, currently, gritted teeth. She was a small girl, draped in a long-sleeved black kimono that hung off her shoulders, and fastened around her middle by a grey flack-jacket fitted with two belts. Though the kimono was short, she made up for this by wearing fishnet tights and long black socks with heavy-duty boots.
Not your typical Sunagakure kunoichi, Deidara mused. She has some attitude. He then glanced at the metal wheel the girl carried: it looked like an acrobat's prop, albeit a dangerous one. And what is that?
'How long do you plan on following me, un?' Deidara called down to the girl. The mechanical attachment to his left eye then zoomed in on something: prayer beads hung from the belts of her flack-jacket, and amongst these beads hung a metal tag, stamped with the kanji for 'love'.
Where had he seen that before?
'Ah...so you're that jinchuuriki's guardian?' scoffed Deidara. 'Aren't I lucky...I get to kill you, too.'
Kazue Houseki stood tall at the topmost branch of the tree below. She carried her weapon much like her master's sister, Temari.
'You can try,' she replied, in a smooth yet bold tone, 'However, both your arms are gone - not very good for making hand-seals. Or clay, if you had any.'
Deidara scowled at that. He knew nothing of this girl, and if she happened to have any lightning-based jutsu, then he would be in trouble.
And so he settled for further tormenting. 'What's the point of chasing me, un? You're master's already dead and in the ground! You should go back and mourn him, un!'
'I will when you're dead!'
She sprung at him, ring-blade at the ready, but Deidara was prepared: his clay vessel had begun to mould several bird-shaped bombs, and as Houseki grew close, it spat them at her. But Houseki assumed it was a bluff: unable to make his hand-seals without his hands, she simply sliced the birds in two and landed on the head of the larger one that Deidara flew.
Without hesitation, she threw her ring-blade out into the open air and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. She was a match for Deidara in her technique, but when it came down to it, he was more experienced: he struck her across the calves with a low sweep of his leg, and Houseki stumbled to teeter at the edge of the bird. He was surprised she could even attack, the sleeves of her kimono were so long.
Suddenly, Deidara heard something whistling behind his head. Purely due to reflexes, he ducked, and Houseki's ring-blade shot over his head and back into its wielder's hands.
Shit...that was close, Deidara cursed. At this rate, I can't beat her, I can only lead her on. Come on, where are you, un?
Houseki let fly with another kick. Deidara ducked. Using this to her advantage, Houseki brought that same leg swinging back and, with no way to defend himself, kicked Deidara hard in the side with a chakra-filled blow.
The result was anything but what Deidara expected. Not only did the kick shove him from his clay bird vessel, it sent him down through the treetops to slam into the dirt far below. Combined with the pain from his missing, bleeding arms, removed by the jinchuuriki Gaara and Kakashi respectively, he actually cried out in agony as Houseki landed with the fleet-footed nature of a fox a yard or so away.
'You...you little...' Deidara gagged, spitting up blood. Then he saw the cloaked figure behind Houseki, and grinned.
With a gasp she spun, having not noticed him, but was suddenly trapped in a genjutsu that she had simply not predicted: she was standing in the same forest clearing, and an old scar over her heart had suddenly burst open. Now, blood poured down her kimono and legs, leaving a thick pool on the leaves at her feet, and she went down clutching the scar, screaming, bleeding to death.
Uchiha Itachi moved quickly, striking the pressure points about Houseki's neck to make her go limp. She ceased her screaming under the effects of the genjutsu and dropped, seemingly dead, to the ground.
'Itachi-san!' Deidara spat more blood as his anger rose. 'Took your time, un!'
The Uchiha simply surveyed him calmly, nudging Houseki with his toe.
'So...the Kazekage's bodyguard?' He asked, sounding unimpressed. 'We have orders. Our leader wishes to see her for himself.'
'Why?' Deidara growled, struggling to his feet without the aid of his arms. 'Just let me wring her neck first, un!'
'With what hands?' Itachi shot back levelly. 'Speaking of which...what happened?'
Deidara explained as they walked, Itachi hauling Houseki over one shoulder. Once he was done recounting his capture of Sunagakure's Kazekage (with excessively flamboyant details regarding how he defeated Gaara of the Desert), he once more turned a glaring eye to Houseki.
'What's the leader got planned for her, un?'
'Most likely...she'll wish you'd killed her after all.'
After Gaara's first attempt to kill her, Houseki changed drastically - Baki, at the least, noticed an immediate change. A week out from her confrontation, he took over from her companion Junko and became her teacher, training her alongside the Kazekage's other children, Temari and Kankuro. Whenever Gaara decided to actually attend these training sessions (no amount of nagging on Baki's behalf could make him), Houseki would stay as far away from him as possible, sheltering behind Kankuro simply because he had a bigger build than his little brother.
Outside of Baki's training sessions, Houseki worked herself to the near bone: she practiced her mandalas almost obsessively, and undertook a gruelling physical regime that had her running laps back and forth across the desert every morning. As she grew, and came to further understand what her unique weapon meant for her, she also took up a diet that made her nurse cringe, so that she may always be light and small and be able to perform aerial acrobatics with ease.
Six months after arriving in Suna, she was changed. She was older. She was growing cold. But still, her new life in Suna did not cease in becoming more and more difficult.
One evening, the Kazekage's complex was attacked by three assassins - ninja from the Hidden Village of Sound, a threat from a man that called himself Orochimaru. Suna shinobi were quick to track them down, with Baki killing two after a long battle, whilst the Iron Country woman named Junko, Houseki's nurse, went after the third. Unlike Baki, she did not succeed in her task.
She died the following day in Suna's hospital due to massive internal bleeding and haemorrhaging in the brain, caused by one of the intruders' sound barriers.
Houseki was at her side to hear Junko's last breath.
After the death of the woman from Iron Country, Gaara found himself somewhat drawn to the little Iron girl, Houseki. He made a habit of watching her training from a distance - watching her cry and bleed and sweat, summoning and dismissing her mandala at such a rate that he was surprised she did not run dry on chakra. He sensed an air of solidarity about this girl similar to the one he carried in his shadow, and when she cried, he mused at the way her eyes seemed to grow the brightest of greens against the red of her face...that, too, reminded Gaara of himself, of the tears that had been shed at the death of his uncle, Yashamaru.
Perhaps this was the only reason that he never attempted to kill her again. Over the next year, some dare say that Gaara began to tolerate the little foreign girl. She would let him sit in on her personal training sessions, and he allowed her to do the same. In a year a half, Shukaku's constant murmur to have the girl killed began to fade. Baki also noticed that Houseki hovered behind Gaara during his training days; she did not hide from him. It was like watching a dog attach itself to a master, and though the master did not ask it to do this, it still followed him wherever he went. Kankuro sniggered every so often and nicknamed Houseki "inuko-chan", meaning "puppy."
When Gaara graduated from his village's academy at twelve years old, Houseki carved him a small kunai pendant out of crystal that she claimed (in a letter; she rarely spoke face-to-face with Gaara) she had found in the wall surrounding Suna. According to her clan, gifts that could be worn in the form of jewellery granted good luck upon the wearer. Though she never saw Gaara wear it, for Houseki's twelfth birthday, he presented her with a similar gift: a string of prayer beads made from hardened sand, set with a silver tag with the kanji for 'love' etched into it in a child's handwriting.
And so it was that, Gaara having mutually accepted Houseki, the Kazekage announced that he had formed "a very exciting test" for her - for, as a foreigner, Houseki was not allowed to sit exams within Suna. 'This test,' Gaara's father had explained, 'is the equivalent of your academy graduation.'
It would be Houseki's first one-on-one fight with Shukaku, she later discovered; a test of her own strength, of "dimension-stepping" ninjutsu, and her loyalty to the boy she was bound to forever protect.
It was on that day that Baki also gave her a clear warning.
'You are only young now, Houseki-chan, but never forget: you are Gaara's protector, his shield, the one who will pull back on Shukaku's leash should he ever escape. You must have a clear mind when you do these things, so that you do not make a single mistake that leads to the death of the Kazekage's son. And your mind cannot be clear when it is filled with emotion. So...do not ever attach yourself to Gaara emotionally, Houseki. Never claim to care for him more than anyone else.'
Some time after leaving Sunagakure, Gaara found himself standing in the open meadow where Chiyo-baasama had revived him only days ago. The place still reminded him of emptiness, of desolation, and the voice of a familiar hyperactive Konoha shinobi calling for him: it had been like being pulled from an empty well, from a place that had once been inhabited by the snarling spirit of a tanuki.
Gaara did not miss Shukaku...at least, he did not think he did. In truth, the beast was something that he had simply become accomodated to, like ones' own shadow, or the sun shining down on his face almost every day of his life. Shortly before Shukaku's removal from him, Gaara believed that he had been able to control the tailed-beast somewhat, although he could not say that this was due solely to his efforts: Houseki had assisted him, using her Secret Void Technique: Shadow Dimension Ghost Step to leave her body and speak to Shukaku on the same mindscape as the chakra monster.
This, Gaara had come to see, was why the Akatsuki found her interesting. Doubtless, as they went about capturing tailed-beasts across the land, they could use Houseki to speak to the beasts and possibly change the tide of battle, or force them to reveal themselves in a way that made them easier to capture and seal away. It would also be difficult for the jinchuuriki to defeat Houseki: she had perfected her Dimension Step remarkably over the years, and recently had announced that she had been able to (briefly) move her body using a combination of the jutsu and the manipulation of the space-time continuum.
The idea still rattled Gaara's brains slightly.
Quite abruptly, Gaara's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement on the nearby forest fringe. Instantly he whirled around, the sand in his gourd awakening, and he demanded in a level voice: 'Whose's there?'
Surprisingly, the shinobi lingering in the forest did not attack: instead, he came forward with his palms raised to show that he was unarmed. Still, Gaara did not relax the control on his sand.
'Who are you?' He demanded of the newcomer. 'Why do you follow me?'
The shinobi was strangely familiar, even to someone as socially introverted as Gaara. He was at least a good head taller than the young Kazekage as well, with spiked blonde hair shaved at the sides and very dark, near black eyes. His outfit and weapon clearly identified his country of origin, as well: he wore, beneath a long grey coat, an open martial arts gi, with long black hakama pants and quite high, clog-like shoes, which looked as though they could take some used to fighting in. As for his weapon, it was attached to a metal rigging on the shinobi's back, and resembled a large, steel ring with a sharp edge.
At this, Gaara's eyed widened a little. A ring-blade.
'You...' Gaara suddenly realised why this shinobi looked familiar.
Amegakure. The Village Hidden in the Rain.
From somewhere atop a high tower, Pain of the Akatsuki stared out over his industrial city, hidden under a curtain of rain that, quite unknowingly to the village's inhabitants, allowed his to sense foreign chakra, and thus know when an intruder had made his way in through the gates.
Currently, Pain was feeling an incredible surge of chakra close by. Its mere presence made him ill.
It came from the young kunoichi currently kneeling a few feet from him, bound at the wrists by chakra chains that she could not possibly break. Nearby, Deidara stood in wait of appraisal from his enigmatic leader; in the meantime, Kakuzu had appeared to sew Deidara's arms back together, whilst Itachi hovered at Pain's left shoulder, Konan at his right.
'This is the girl,' Pain was saying, 'that can speak to the beasts within the jinchuuriki?'
'A useful talent, to be sure,' Deidara sung out, obviously proud of himself. He had to make up for the shame of having Kakuzu stitch his arms back on.
Pain stared down at Houseki, who could not bring herself to look up at him in return. Her body ached from having been struck by Deidara several times out of frustration before her meeting with the Akatsuki leader. As he stood over her, Pain noticed the scar that vertically traversed the left side of her chest and disappeared down into the collar of her kimono, suggesting that she had undergone some sort of surgery on her heart.
'This ability you have,' Pain began, 'tell me. It will be of great use to me, and the Akatsuki...'
'No.' She could not tell. To do so would put far too many lives at risk, including that of the only other jinchuuriki she knew, Uzumaki Naruto.
'Then...' Pain turned now to Deidara, whose arms were now reattached, the tongues in his hands flickering about as he regained use of them. 'Deidara. I'm sure you have a score to settle with this girl...you came so close to losing to her, after all.'
Deidara grinned. Rarely had any of the Akatsuki ever seen him look manic. Itachi had only ever seen Deidara this livid when he had defeated him with his Sharingan, therefore recruiting the terrorist bomber into Akatsuki against his will. Deidara was actually cracking his knuckles.
'Happy to, un.'
From thereon in, the Akatsuki headquarters were filled with the sound of a young girl's horrific screams.
Closing:
Yep, so...the usual. Please review, favourites are looked upon kindly, and thank you for taking the time to read this story (if you've made it this far, I commend you). Also, check out my other story, How To Kill The King, for more Akatsuki madness.
