1zara-uchiha1 and I don't own the Naruto cast or anything else you might recognize. 1zara-uchiha1 owns Laura and I own Kahlan. Together we own the plot.
Chapter 7
Note: Traveling makes you sleepy, even more so when traveling in the cold.
~Kahlan's POV
Sinking into the hot spring I let out a sigh. It feels really good and is helping to relax all my stiff muscles that I didn't know were stiff. For a moment my eyes close as I sink lower and smile just a little.
Opening my eyes, I see Laura swimming in the shallow part of the hot spring. Konan gets in, and sinks until the water is touching her chin. Leaning back I close my eyes again feeling myself slightly drift into a half sleep state.
"How did you two get here," Konan asks after a few minutes.
"I think it was a thunder storm," Laura replies. I make a small humming sound in agreement. "There was a lot of purple lightning. It looked sooo cool but it was kinder strange because it kept striking more than once."
"When I woke up," I say without opening my eyes. They're getting too heavy to keep open. "We were in a forest. Long story short, half a day was spent walking to this village. Then we came searching for you guys after breakfast when people started yelling about the Akatsuki."
"And the rest is history," Laura says cheerfully.
"Purple lightning," Konan says in a questioning tone.
"Yeah," I reply with a yawn forcing my eyes open.
"When we get back with the others it would be good to tell Leader-sama," Konan says.
"Okay," I reply as I reach for my towel. Standing up I quickly wrap it around me. "I should get some sleep, Lord knows I need it."
"Can you find your way back," Konan asks. With a small smile I nod my head. "Okay, I will be there in a few minutes."
"Okay," I reply then turn to Laura. "Take care, I'll see you when I wake up and remember to slap Deidara if he does anything."
Laura pouts and I just wave going inside. Drying off, I put on the yukata Konan got me then pick up my clothes. With a large yawn I walk out and head to the room Konan and I will be sharing. Once inside, I pull out my scroll, gather chakra up and summon Rellik.
Putting the scroll back in my coat, I climb onto the left side of the bed-ish looking thing, snuggle close to my lovely bear and I fall asleep without any problems. I get no nightmares about the war. Yes, even now I still dream about the people that I killed and how they drag me to hell to make me pay, thankfully I always wake up before they do anything. I don't mourn for them anymore; I stop a week after the war because they were people I didn't know. However, I think the nightmares I get is from the guilt of taking their lives, but if it was to happen again…I'd probably kill them again, because just like every person I want to live.
Anyways, I have no nightmares. My dreams are filled with…nothing, I don't dream about anything, at least I think I don't. That's a good thing because really I don't want to be waking up from a cold sweat.
My eyes flutter open to see a white wall. Yuck, I hate white walls. With a yawn, I stretch letting go of Rellik then sit up in a sitting position. Rubbing my eyes I look around the room. Bright light flutters through the window touching everything. I ignore all the furniture because it's not what I'm searching for.
"Konan," I call out worried that everything was a dream. No, I can't think like that. I'm very positive it was all real. I'm sure there is a really good reason why she's not in the room.
Standing up I stretch again until I hear all my joints pop. Going over to my coat, I pull out my scroll and go through the process of getting clothes out. I pull on a pair of faded blue jeans under the yukata. With them on I take the yukata off and pull on a purple tank top with red butterflies then placed on my coat. Finished I place the rest of my clothing back into the scroll along with Rellik and it once again returns to my coat pocket.
Grabbing my purple bandanna, I use it to put my hair up with just my bangs and a few strands down. The door opens as I'm picking up the yukata. Looking up I see Konan walk in. I sigh in relief and smile. See, I was right she was out of the room for a reason, everything wasn't a dream.
"I was coming to wake you up," Konan says as she takes the yukata. "We're going to leave in a few minutes to head back for the base."
"Ah…okay," I reply with a nod. "Do you know what time it is?"
"It will be noon in five minutes, that's when we're leaving."
"Thank you," I reply smiling.
She gives a small smile in return then walks out of the room. With one last glance around the room, I walk out to go find Laura. I replay the route to Deidara's room in my head then start walking. When reaching the room I go to knock on the door but stop. Chuckling, I kick the wall a few times. Immediately the door swings open with a glaring Deidara and I wave.
"Good afternoon," I say innocently.
"Stop kicking the walls, yeah."
"I wasn't kicking the walls," I reply honestly. It's true I was only kicking one wall not all of them.
"Yes you were, now stop it, yeah."
"Whatever," I reply rolling my eyes and placing my hands into my pockets. From now on I'll be kicking any wall to annoy Deidara. It should be fun. "Is Laura awake?"
"She's taking a shower, yeah."
"You're not taking a peak at her are you," I ask glaring dangerously.
"No, un," he replies.
"You better not," I say in a warning tone. "Otherwise say goodbye to your manhood, and Konan will be on my side."
Deidara mutters something and I kick the wall. He glares and I smile then waltz right into the room. Going over to one of the chairs, I take a seat. A moment later Laura walks out of I assume was the bathroom with wet hair and wearing the kimono Ame let her borrow. We're going to have to return that to her once we can get some clothes. Well, I'm sticking with my clothes we just need to get some kimonos for Laura.
"Afternoon," I say.
"Kahlan," Laura says happily and gives me a hug. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes I did," I reply with a small chuckle. "It felt really good. Did you sleep well?"
"Yep," she replies with a huge grin.
"Did Deidara do anything," I ask as I glance over to the blonde putting on his Akatsuki cloak then look back at her.
"Eh…n-not really," she replies her face slightly turning red.
"Not really," I ask raising my brow.
"We were j-just hugging," she replies looking down as she covers her face. Her face becoming redder and I chuckle a little bit.
"Alright," I say ruffling her hair. "I'll take your word."
She gives me a slight glare and I laugh while ruffling her hair again. She swats my hand away and then quickly moves away. Smiling, I stand up and wish I had gotten out my camera earlier. All of those wonderful sneak attack pictures I can take can be awesome…and possibly used for blackmail.
"We're leaving now," Konan says from the doorway.
"Awesome," Laura says with a grin.
Deidara chuckles and places his hand in Laura's. I watch as she looks up at him with a small blush and gives his hand a small squeeze that he returns. Placing my hands in my pocket, I walk over, stand on my tip toes and place my face right in the middle of them.
"You know if Sasori-Danna is at the base," I say with a thoughtful tone. "I don't think he'll like the fact of waiting."
"We weren't doing anything, yeah."
"Exactly, you should be walking," I reply, trying my hardest not to grin.
"Kahlan," Laura whines and I look to her and smile.
"You two can keep holding hands," I say as I walk around them heading for the door that Konan disappear from. "Just be careful."
I walk out and down the hallway hearing the two of them behind me. The last sentence was a warning for Deidara that he will be getting worse than a punch next time he hurts Laura. It was also a warning to Laura because I don't want her to get heartbroken.
When we reach the front…reception area…the same man from yesterday dives under the desk. I slightly frown at his actions. Konan and Deidara have done nothing, so why is the man acting so scared…never mind it's the Akatsuki we're talking about.
"Bye," Laura says waving to the desk man.
"Have a good day," the man says bowing from under his desk.
Shaking my head I walk over to the man. He flinches but doesn't move. Letting out a sigh, I grab his arms and pull him up a bit. He tries pulling away but I don't allow him.
"Stop shaking," I say with slight annoyance. "I promise you're not going to get hurt."
"But…the Akatsuki," he says with fearful eyes.
"Kahlan what are you doing," Laura asks sounding confused.
"Nothing," I reply with a smile then look back at the man keeping my smile in place. "Have a nice day and stop being so scared."
Even though the man is obviously older than me, I pat him on his head then walk away. Placing my hands in my pocket I smile at the three people in front of me as we walk out into the empty streets.
"Are we going to fly back, yeah?"
"No," Laura and I say at the same time.
"Why not; it will be quicker, yeah."
"I don't like any transportation except walking," Laura says with a small whine.
"My feet belong on the ground," I reply, still refusing to let others know about my fear of heights.
"We can walk," Konan says. "Deidara if you want to fly then you can."
"No," Laura says as she immediately wraps her arms around Deidara and looks up at him with puppy eyes.
Sighing Deidara replies, "Okay we can walk, yeah."
Laura grins and goes back to holding Deidara's hand. With Konan in the lead we start walking. Laura starts talking to Deidara about…something…I don't know since I'm not listening in on their conversation. My eyes roam around, taking in all the sights to remember this place.
We walk out of the village and I look up towards the gate. I can't read it but I assume it does say the name of the village. With a small smile, I look back ahead following Konan. We walk on the dirt road, and I look at how beautiful and tall the trees are. I bet our forest would look like this if people didn't cut down so much.
Since Laura is busy talking with Deidara, I can't talk to her. I would talk to Konan but I don't know what to say. After not seeing her for three months one would think I would be able to talk to her or anyone else, but really I don't know what to say.
"How far away is the base," I ask after about…a long time.
"It's three days away," Konan replies. "If we run we can make it there in about a day and a half or two days."
I nod in reply. Though I would like to get to the base soon, I don't want to ruin Laura's time with Deidara. She missed him a lot. I could tell when we were traveling with each other for a month. I should have never left her alone the last two months…but I was being selfish. So I'll keep my mouth shut and let her talk and enjoy her time with him. But I swear if he does anything to hurt her…again, he's a dead man.
As we start getting farther away from the village, the temperature started dropping. Shivering, I zip my coat up and wrap my arms around myself. Being a Floridian, I tend to be able to take the heat a lot better than the cold and well…I don't like the cold. Anything below seventy and I need to be inside. If the temperature drops below fifty you can count on the fact that I will not be leaving my bed, and if I do it is with very thick blankets with hot chocolate.
The longer we walk, the closer I move to Konan to stay warm. It's been a while and Deidara is now carrying Laura piggyback. She seems to be getting sleepy, but is trying to stay up. Konan holds out her hand and we all stop.
"We'll rest here for a few minutes," she says.
"Okay," I reply rubbing my arms.
"Great we can have food, yeah."
At the mention of food my stomach lets out a loud growl. Quickly, I place my hands over my stomach and look down feeling my face heat up realizing I haven't ate anything since breakfast yesterday. I hear Deidara laughing and I glare at him.
"Here," Konan says handing me rice…shaped into a ball.
"Thank you," I say with a smile.
"Deidara…you can share your food with Laura."
"That's not a problem, yeah," he replies as he puts Laura down.
He reaches into his cloak and pulls out a…lunch box…or something like that and then a canteen. Opening the box he holds it out for Laura and she grins grabbing some food and starts eating. I look down at my…rice ball (That's what I'm going to call it) and take a bite. I grin tasting just a hint of salt and almost inhale the food, mostly because I'm hungry.
We spend the next few minutes eating and drinking then start walking again. Laura was once again being carried by Deidara and I stayed near Konan as the temperature kept dropping. Okay, if it's been six months in this world that would mean it's February…if they go by the same months as we do. And if it's February that means it is winter. Argh, I hate winter.
At night we make camp away from the road and in the forest. I used my fireball jutsu to get a small fire going to stay warm. I tried to get some sleep, but really I've practically became an insomniac and well…it's too cold for me to sleep outside.
After three long cold days of traveling, we finally reach what I assume is the base. It's a large-ish building that looks like it is built into the side of a mountain. In fact I almost mistaken the building as the mountain because I almost can't tell the two apart. The building is just a very light shade off from the mountain, something that can easily be over looked.
Konan and Deidara do some hand signs and a rock-ish door slides open. We walk inside out of the cold. The door closes back up and we walk down a candlelit hallway. My teeth are clattering as I pull into myself for warmth. The sad thing is…I'm the only one with the clattering teeth. I'm a Floridian I was not meant for cold weather.
"We're back," Konan says as we walk into a large room that is warm.
The room…doesn't look like it's made from rocks; in fact it looks like a room you see in a house. There are nice deep red colored walls, with the same colored carpet. There are a few dark brown tables and black couches and recliners around the room. Inside the room sitting in one of the recliners is Kakuzu and on the couch is Sasori.
Kakuzu grunts in reply not looking up from the suitcase in his lap. Sasori nods his head as he is working on some wood with some carving type tools. I smile softly at the scene remembering how they did this back in our world.
"We brought some guest, yeah."
"Sasori," Laura yells, getting off Deidara. With tears in her eyes she runs over to the redhead and hugs him. Sasori looks up at Laura, then his eyes move to Konan, Deidara then land on me. With a small smile I join Laura in hugging Sasori.
"I've missed you," Laura says as she pulls away.
"Same here," I say very softly.
"I see," Sasori replies as he pulls away from the two of us.
Laura pouts but then smiles when he gives her a one armed hug. I then get a one armed hug after he pulls away from her. Laura then turns to Kakuzu and gives him a hug. Well she tries to since he holds out his arm to keep her away.
"Kakuzu," Laura whines as more tears fall from her eyes.
"You're going to have to pay for this hug," Kakuzu says a moment later and then lets Laura hug him as he gives a hug back. After about three seconds pass he stops hugging her, then looks over at me.
"Hey," I say with a small nod as my way of greeting him. Though…as fucked up as it is, I missed Kakuzu as well even though I still don't forgive him for what he did to Timothy.
"Where's everyone else," Laura asks looking around the room frowning. More tears starting to form in her eyes. I bite my bottom lip wondering the same thing.
"They should all be back by tomorrow," Sasori replies.
Pouting, Laura goes over to Deidara. He wipes away her tears and places his arm around her shoulder while grinning at her. Sasori shakes his head at Deidara then looks back down at…I guess his project.
"Konan," I say as I rub my arms to try and warm them up faster, it's not my fault that I'm still cold. "Where will Laura and I be sleeping?"
"Until some arrangements can be made the two of you can stay with me," she replies with a small smile.
"I can't stay with Deidara," Laura asks with a small pout.
"No," Konan says shaking her head slightly.
Laura pouts and I sigh a little and turn back to Konan. "Can you show us where your room is?"
She gives a small smile and nods in reply. I follow her down another hallway, lit similar to the one we came through. Laura and Deidara follow behind us, and I know this because I checked over my shoulder. We make a few lefts and rights here and there then find ourselves in front of a normal door that Konan opens.
"There's a bathroom right there," she says pointing to a door opposite of the bed. "There are others down the hallway with white doors. And that's the closet. She points to another door that is opposite the one we're standing in. "Deidara you are to stay out of my room or face the consequences."
"I'll stay out, yeah."
"Can I take a nap," Laura asks with puppy eyes.
"Hai," Konan replies with a small smile.
"I'll join you," I reply yawning. Insomniac or not, the cold is making me sleepy.
"I'll come wake you both up for dinner," Konan says.
"Thank you," I reply.
"Okay," Laura says as she gives Konan a hug.
She then hugs Deidara and I walk into the room. Inside the room I go through the process of getting Rellik. I take off my shoes and climb into the bed. I let out a sigh as I bury myself deep under the covers holding Rellik close. I close my eyes and a few moments later I feel Laura getting into the bed.
"Sweet dreams," I say to her with a yawn.
"You too," she replies.
I smile as I fall to sleep. Maybe when we wake up the others will be back. I just need to see with my own eyes that they're all alive and okay.
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We hope you have enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the story. Please stay tuned for the next update and once again thank you. Reviews are much appreciated and loved; until next time. ^.^
