A/N: I updated this chapter because of some light editing that I discovered I had to do when I reread it. Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favorites, guys! They really inspire me.
Chapter 7
Masma
Kami's burned body! What the hell had happened to her neck? It felt stiff in the way an amputation felt like a cut. Had she slept with her head hanging off the bed somehow? With her cast-iron pot tied and dangling from her neck, too, maybe? Because that was what this felt like. And only one one side. Weird.
She blearily opened her eyes, then wondered why it was so pleasantly dark in her room. Usually, a chipper beam of sunlight managed to wiggle through a crack in her curtains and shine directly into her eyes. After blinking slowly and processing what she was seeing for a minute or two, she came to a realization.
This was not her room.
Or her living room.
Or any part of her tiny cottage.
This was, in fact…..
"Why on earth am I in a dungeon?!" she shrieked.
Itachi
"…dungeon…dungeon…dungeon…"
Her shrill voice echoed around the room, bouncing off the large ugly rocks; some of which were still wet from the manic scrubbing that they'd just been subjected to. Blood just doesn't come off that easily after months of neglect.
It figures that she'd side with Deidara on this whole dungeon thing. Was she going to completely ignore the fact that she was lying on a luxurious four-poster bed? What about the soft, deep rug on the floor that was conveniently hiding the blood drain?
There was just no pleasing some people.
Completely forgetting about the guilt-ridden epiphany he'd had just 2 minutes ago, he let himself the rest of the way into the room, sulking. At least on the inside. His face was set to its default 'mild glare'.
Most people would have coughed in an effort to get someone else's attention. Itachi had never had this problem. The cold aura that he had emanated all his life had always been enough to alert someone that he was in the room.
That rule didn't seem to apply to this woman, though.
Itachi's left eyebrow rose a fraction of a centimeter at her continued lack of response to his presence. Or at least it seemed to rise, if you believed that he was capable of any facial expressions at all. He decided to give her another 10 seconds. After all, she was merely a weak townsperson, unused to the rigors of adventure. She had probably even never been knocked out before. He chuckled (internally, of course). From what he was given to understand, majority of the 'normal people' lived sedentary lives, largely devoid of violence. Of course, there was a chance that that wasn't true. This came mostly from (unasked for) second-hand reports and hearsay (mostly from Deidara), since he himself had never stooped to observing the rodents' way of life.
After 10 seconds had passed and she was still moaning and flopping around on the bed, he began to get (more) weary of the situation. He reviewed his options. He could make some sort of innocuous sound to let her know that someone else is here, then act like he just came in. He had seen that particular move in several plays (that Deidara had cajoled him into attending in the nearby city). Or he could just walk up to her and say what he wanted to say. She probably wouldn't hear him approach, and it would appear that he had suddenly appeared by the side of the bed. In fact, hearing a voice suddenly speak by her elbow would probably scare the living daylights out of her.
He contemplated her shrill " Dungeon! Dungeon!" squeaking from earlier.
He found that his bruised ego wouldn't mind some suffering on her part, and found himself beset by a wave of 'smirking'.
Masma
Masma was still trying to figure out what was wrong with her neck by prodding at it with a finger when a voice came out of the gloomy corner.
"Are you always this noisy when you get up?"
From the way the voice created a cold pit in her stomach and thoroughly unpleasant goosebumps, she guessed that it was the Overlord himself.
Wonderful.
"Only when I feel like I've taken a sledgehammer to the neck," was her snarky reply.
Usually she'd be a lot more careful with the way she talked to him but her mother had always said that common sense abandoned Masma when she was in pain.
"That's not the way a sledgehammer wound feels. For one thing, you should have a lot less neck," the shadowy corner said.
"Well, excuse me for being inexperienced with beheading innocent villagers," Masma replied after touching a particularly tender spot.
"I haven't been beheading innocent villagers."
"Oh, so you've kept it strictly to abduction and torture? Lucky me."
"Abduction and torture? What do you mean, abduction and torture?"
"Is there an echo in here? Doesn't that make it really noisy when the torture starts in here? This is a dungeon, right?"
