Chapter Ten: Resume, unpause!
"Ow!" Natsuki clutched her head lightly. Itachi looked down at her disapprovingly.
"Maybe you'll start turning up to training now?" She growled at him and rubbed the sore spot left by his hand.
"I was finding Chikakon!" He cocked a brow. "And then I was severely injured!"
"That wouldn't stop a ninja."
"Good thing I'm not a ninja then, isn't it- ow!"
"Let us continue with your training." Itachi lifted his hand from the top of her head and she growled at him again. "We should start by practicing and enhancing your current jutsu..."
Itachi had her run through the hand signs until she no longer fumbled with her fingers and had a relatively good speed going for her. Then they went on to target practice, utilising their Great Fireball Jutsu to try and destroy select boulders whilst missing others. Let's just say that that one took a while. By the end though, Natsuki was proudly spitting out fire with ease, even if her fireball wasn't as big or as ferocious as Itachi's. Next, much to Natsuki's displeasure at continuing, they moved on to hand-to-hand combat. Natsuki made him swear not to use his Sharingan, to which she received an unspecifying 'hn' before he leapt at her.
She jumped back, not expecting him to attack so suddenly. Rubble flew up beneath his fist. Wind whistled and she turned just in time to see a second Itachi swinging a kick at her head. Her arms flew up to guard and she flew further into the air. She flipped, landed on her hands and flipped again onto her feet. There was no time to rest and think up a strategy. The second her feet touched the ground, a pair of hands shot out of the rock and gripped her ankles. Her head snapped up at the sound of flapping cloaks. Three clones, all flying at her. One hand grabbed the foot of the first Uchiha, flinging it into the second as her free hand slammed into the third clone's gut. Three poofs sounded and she immediately began her squirming, trying to escape the iron grip encasing her ankles. Fleeting footsteps snagged her attention. She ducked just in time. Her hands pounded into another Uchiha's legs, flipping them over her head. There was another poof. Her fist collided with one of the hands restricting her. It only tightened. Growling, she bit down hard on his pale fingers until she felt sour blood in her mouth and the hold disappear. Fingers suddenly brushed her scalp, running through her hair. A palm fell in place after them. Force.
Grit and dust scraped against her face as her head was ground into the floor. Sneaky Uchiha! Was Natsuki's only thought as she kicked up with her legs, feeling them impact on flesh and bone. Then suddenly- Poof! A growl tore from her throat at being unable to find the real Itachi. She stood. Her eyes flew wider. Her hand flew in front of her face, latching onto the fist thrown at her. Her other hand intercepted a jab to the gut and they stood there, locked in a fearsome embrace. Natsuki's eyes narrowed in sadistic pleasure. This was the real Itachi, she could tell. It was the way his black orbs seemed to want to turn as if they were Sharingan, how he was more stoic with an underlying layer of pleased arrogance as if he were enjoying their spar. Not a battle, not violent like that, just a harmless little sparring match. Natsuki shot out her foot and embedded it in his gut, taking advantage of his moment of weakness. He crippled a little, but didn't let go until- Natsuki felt her foot being swept from underneath her. Her head cracked against the ground painfully and she cried out involuntarily, clutching at her skull. Her tail swished sourly and she curled up in a tight ball as fireworks of pain exploded about the base of her head, zinging outwards across her scalp.
A hand touched her shoulder.
Her back was leant against an arena wall gently. Tender fingers loosened her grasp on her head and she cracked her eyes open, still wincing at the bouts of pain spiderwebbing across her skull. Itachi inspected her wound with a soft touch, his breath ruffling her hair. He pulled back. "You're fine, just a bruise." She nodded gingerly in thanks and they sat there for a little while, staring up at the birds circling high above. Natsuki was just closing her eyes when- "You have a tail."
The world shattered.
He knew.
Leader-sama would know.
"H-how?" She managed to croak out.
"When you curled up. You didn't control it very well." Natsuki felt like whacking him backside the head.
"Don't you dare tell Leader-sama." She hissed. He looked at her blankly.
"Why not?"
"You know perfectly well why." She ground out at his cool demeanor. "You said it yourself, Leader-sama wants something to do with my 'talents', whatever they are, and this," She swished her tail agitatedly, "Is most definitely a part it!"
"How did you get your tail?"
He completely ignored me!
"I will keep your secret if you tell me how this came about." He bargained. That, she would agree on.
"I went out after Chikakon, he was in danger..."
"Chikakon! Chikakon!" My feet pounded against the rough ground. The images kept flashing across my eyes. I tripped and stumbled. I could hardly see past them, the blood they showed. The doom the perceived. I didn't know where he was, but... I was running. I was running to him, I knew I was. I wouldn't let... that happen to him. I wouldn't let him suffer the same fate as Tessou-sama and... No! I wouldn't let him slip through my fingers so easily. Nobody would take him from me! I burst through a clump of fallen branches. Growls, ripping and tearing through the air surrounded me. They were competing with me, the predators. Overtaking me. No! I forced myself to move faster. But my legs lagged, they weren't moving fast enough. I had to reach him before they did!
There he was! That orange furball. My orange furball. My stupid, idiotic ball of orange fluff. Paws pounded towards him, I threw myself over his hackled figure. Wolves. Great beasts with silvery fur bristling and raised, throaty growls. They padded closer, encircling us. Surrounded just like that. How they must have laughed, their lips curled back in feral snarls. They were cackling between themselves, why wouldn't they be? Two easy snacks, quaking ad shivering with nowhere to run? So weak. So desperate to live. They pounced. All at once. I felt the fear burst from my stomach in one easy flip, hurling itself up to my throat. Chikakon, my little orange furball, stupid but mine all the same. He shook beneath me. He looked to me to protect him. The fire inside me grew. It grew and pulsated-
"It felt like chakra." Natsuki murmured. "But it wasn't my chakra. It was so much stronger and far wilder than my own. It burned my insides, but I didn't realise that at the time. It took me a while to realise it, but it was the same burning feeling I got when I was in the middle of fighting Sasori." She reached up and rubbed her forehead as if the memory gave her a headache. "Before I knew it, I was surrounded by wolf corpses and there was a burning in my spine." Her eyes caught Itachi's for a brief moment. "I think the chakra made my tail form. Itachi, you'd better swear you won't tell Leader-sama!" She cried, clutching to his collar violently. Her canines bared, "Swear you won't tell!" Itachi stared at her blandly. Calmly, he removed her fisted hands from his cloak and she sat down. "I told you that I would keep your secret if your told me how it happened, did I not?" Natsuki grumbled at his chiding tone and looked away with an irritated pout. Itachi smirked at her antics. They reminded him of Sasuke as a small child. "You were crying the other day." He said. Natsuki shot him a sharp look. "No I wasn't." Why was he talking so much? Couldn't he shut up and be the stoic weasel he was? "Why were you crying?" She could almost see the smirk in his eyes. He was so enjoying this!
"Was not!"
"I just want to know."
"For the great Uchiha prodigy, I would have thought you'd be able to figure out that I was. not. crying!"
"Tsk. What's going on here, a lover's spat perhaps?" Natsuki's head swirled around. Kisame cocked his head at her frown and smirked. "Leave me alone." She muttered, standing and marching past him. She couldn't help her eyes lingering on his arm though, just for a tiny second, before she had passed and gone.
Chikakon bounded up to Natsuki as she stormed down the corridors. His tail wagged happily and she eyes him suspiciously. "You suddenly turned into a dog or something?" He looked up at her adoringly and she sighed, crouching down to look him in the eye. Her tail automatically stuck out to balance herself. She sighed. Chikakon licked her on the nose and she smiled appreciatively. "You had better be staying out of trouble mister." She tapped him back. "Come on then, I know your dying to." His little eyes lit up and in one smooth leap, he was sat proudly on her head. With a laugh, he was taken high into the air as Natsuki stood and began walking to her room for a shower. Just as she was about to cross over to the other side of the hall to get to her door- "Outta my way you dirty whores!" Natsuki flung herself against the wall as a half-naked (as per usual) Hidan shot past. Kakuzu soon followed, marching after the silver streak like a man on a mission. "Down the hall and to the left." Natsuki informed politely. She'd rather be on Hidan's bad side than Kakuzu's. "You little bitch!" Hidan's far-off voice yelled.
"You dumb heathen!" Chikakon barked for finality and they safely crossed across the corridor to their room.
Chikakon sat on Natsuki's bed patiently as he waited for her to finish her shower. His tail fell from one side to the other like a ticking grandfather clock. He was humongously satisfied with himself. He got a free ride on his master's head with permission. That and he'd stolen another one of Kisame's fish. He heard the shower turn off and the water stop running. Just at that moment, the bedroom door creaked open. Chikakon barked sharply and stood, hackles raised. Within a flash, he was thrown into the wall and left to groggily stare as the scene began to unfold. One of those people in the black cloaks with red clouds was scurrying about the room. It wasn't the tall blue-skinned one, or the puppet... Who was it? Chikakon could hear Natsuki's feet hurrying about the bathroom. The door flew open, "Chikakon!"
"Chikakon!" Natsuki cried, her eyes instantly snagging on his concussed form.
"Crap!" Her head snapped around.
"Deidara..." The blonde bomber grinned nervously, removing himself from her drawers. He shot out of the room like a rocket before she could wrangle his neck. "Deidara, get back here!" She dashed after him, realising that she was only in a towel. Unfortunately for her, his little 'stunt' was to steal all her flipping clothes. What utter brilliance. She bet Hidan was playing some part in this too. Those two just had it in for her.
So Natsuki ran through the Akatsuki base in nothing but a towel with her hair dripping wet down her back and her tail wrapped feverishly around her stomach under her towel. Needless to say, she got quite the few odd stares as she went gallivanting past. She couldn't care less though. Her sights were set solely on grabbing Deidara by the neck and wringing it so hard he'd die. Or at least pass out because she didn't want to get punished again. In the back of her mind, she was irked off by the fact that she was actually being trained like a damn dog. Deidara was the dog! Him and Hidan, always thinking it was funny to pull pranks on her! Sore losers the lot of them! The terrorist bomber skidded into the kitchen, stopping in front of the hob. "Oh no you don't!" Natsuki crashed into him, her tail almost losing it's grip. She caught him in a headlock, dragging him back from the hob before he could set her clothes alight. "Don't you dare blondie!" He squirmed in her grip but no way in hell would she be letting go anytime soon. Chikakon flashed through her mind and her arm tightened it's grip. "You think you can get away with hurting my fox?" She hissed, "And stealing my clothes to top it all off." He choked, but she only squeezed harder. "Now I'm going to strangle you until you lose consciousness, and don't for a second think about faking you mongrel, because I assure you I can tell." The last part she whispered in his ear as he clawed at her arm fruitlessly.
"I don't recommend that." Came a voice from behind. Natsuki swivelled on her heel, hand whirling out to hit the person's face. Her hand scraped their chest and she looked up. She glowered a little at Kisame and he removed her hand from his cloak. "Why the hell not?" She muttered, all too aware of the fact that she was dripping wet and only in a towel. He smirked and pulled the half-dead Deidara out of her grip. She was not all too pleased with this and made to kick his shin when her clothes were tossed in her face. "There you go, go help your fox." Natsuki frowned a bit as the shark man left with her prey.
"Stupid shark boy..." She did as he had suggested though and made her way back to her room hurriedly. Luckily for her, the other members had decided to keep their noses out of her business for once and she was able to salvage her dignity.
When she got back to her room, she immediately let her tail uncurl and ran to Chikakon's side. "Are you okay?" He groaned a little and raised his head dizzily. Natsuki smiled and rubbed between his ears. "You'll be fine; don't worry, I got him." The little fox yawned and she gently scooped him up and placed him on her pillow before shuffling in next to him. Her tail dangled out of the bed limply, still dripping wet, but Natsuki couldn't care less. The methodic thrumming of Chikakon's heartbeat slowly made her drift off to sleep with a small smile on her face.
Her feet were bleeding. She didn't feel it though, she didn't stop as the rocks and pebbles tore more flesh from her soles. The wind press against her, rushing by and dragging at her hair. Her legs pumped faster. The trees turned to blurs as she streaked past. She broke free of them suddenly, the leaves that burst out with her seemed so slow... She ran ever faster, towards the outcropping of rock. The waterfall crashed from it's mouth like before. Before? What was this 'before'? Her feet did not hit solid ground this time. Her scream scattered the birds for miles around, the haziness that kept her going before diminished as her feet hit the spray. Her entire leg was engulfed and her body pummelled down. Down towards the pool. Her heart leapt in her throat. Her tears flew up to join the rest of the spray. Her feet cried out in pain and the spray stung like the mad wind lashing out at her like a whip.
Impact.
Her body bent at all the wrong angles as if she were nothing but a ragdoll as she hit the surface of the pool. The water yielded suddenly and her tail lashed about. Water flooded into her mouth and the choking feeling arose. Her lungs were burning already as they were deluged by the onslaught of water.
Natsuki flew upright. Her rapid breathe hitched in her throat and she struggled to choke the air down. Her lungs burnt and she was soaking wet. Had her dream somehow caught up to her? Could it take on some sort of solid form in reality? The thought sent a spear of terror through her chest. But then her towel fell lose a little and she sighed in relief. No, she was safe. She hadn't dried herself off before getting into bed, how silly of her to have forgotten. All that fear for nothing. She looked over at Chikakon, his chest rose and fell softly. He was alright, and he was still with her. He would remain safe. With her mind at relative peace, she slipped out of bed and dried herself off, wagging her tail like a dog to get most of the moisture out before she got dressed. It was five in the morning, but she didn't feel like going back to sleep. She wrapped Chikakon up in an old yukata and cradled him to her chest with one arm, picking up her cane, she left the room awkwardly.
Hobbling down the corridors at five a.m, Natsuki didn't expect to see anybody and fortunately for her, she didn't. However, with nobody to talk to, her mind was free to stray away from matters at hand and her thoughts wandered upon her dream. That's the second one so far... She sighed. I haven't had one in weeks, why would they come back now? Her head lifted to survey her surroundings. Her eyes lit up and she grinned down at Chikakon. "Hey, wake up!" He turned and opened one eye groggily. Natsuki stuck her tongue out at him and lifted him a little higher. They were on the spiral steps she had stumbled across when she had first arrived at the Akatsuki base. In the little window, a small trail of purple Morning Glory was clinging to the outside, it's flowers peeking up over the ledge. The morning sunrise blessed it's petals from the east, turning them a sweet translucent lilac. Chikakon lent out of her arms and sniffed at the flowers. Natsuki laughed shortly, staring out over the land through the small gap. It was very beautiful in a serene, melancholy way. Tranquil seemed to be the word for it.
The two of them stayed for a while longer, staring out across the world through that small little gap in the smoothened rock face, before the Sun rose high enough the dispell the enchantment that seemed to have enraptured them in such a trance. Natsuki slowly took Chikakon back to their room, where she bundled her blanket under the arm with her walking stick and lurched out to her work room.
A surprise met her at the door. Sasori was leant against the frame casually, a small knife was in his hand and flakes of wood were falling smoothly to the ground. He looked up as she ventured closer. Chikakon poked his head out of her yukata and sniffed the air. Sasori smiling fondly and rubbed his snout, the fox snorted and pulled back. He hadn't expected that. But a moment later, he had stuck his head back out and was nudging the puppet master's hand for attention. Natsuki rolled her eyes at him and then looked up at Sasori. "What are you doing here?" He pulled out a little carving from his sleeve. It's form crept forth from the block in a crude, half-finished kind of way. Natsuki could still tell that it was a fox though. "I'm carving this."
"Yeah, I can see that, but why here of all places?" He shrugged.
"I got bored." She eyed him incredulously, but settled for his answer and invited him in. They entered her work room and Natsuki brushed away the blueprints and circuit maps from her desk, piling the blanket into a nest-like shape and tucking Chikakon safely in it's center. Sasori came to have a look at him, sitting on the stool and examining his bruised head. Natsuki checked the boxes for any work, but only found a few bent senbon from Itachi, a couple of kunai from Kakuzu and a lopped off finger from one of Hidan's sacrifices. She sighed and flicked it out of the box and into the hall.
For the next hour or so, Natsuki lazily worked on fixing the weapons, her hands working excruciatingly slowly thanks to her boredom. Sasori stayed sat next to Chikakon, carving out the little fox sculpture. Once she had finished up her work, she gathered some scrap materials from around her workbench and began tinkering. She didn't even realise it when her head hit the surface and her light, slumber-laden breaths filled the room.
Sasori looked up when Natsuki's head suddenly thumped against the desk. He hadn't felt any stressed energy roiling off of her, but his confusion was set aside when he realised she had just fallen asleep. A smile quirked at the corner of his lips, but he quickly suppressed the movement. With a sigh, he realised she would wake up cold and achy if he just left her like that, but it was safer on his behalf not to wake her. Heaving himself up, he walked over to her sleeping form and slid off his cloak, draping it over her shoulders gently. The door suddenly swung open without even a knock and Sasori was just about to yell at Deidara, but reeled back the bark to a strangled cough-like noise when he was a familiar shark-like figure. Kisame looked at him, golden eyes narrowed so carefully that Sasori almost missed it. He withdrew his hands from the cloak over the woman's shoulders and looked at the younger man boredly. "What are you doing here?" Kisame finally spoke, a lazily-hidden accent of accusation in his tone. Sasori refrained from sending the nin a glare, instead voting for a chide smirk, "Just hanging around." He knew his response who irritate Kisame, which was why he did it. He did not appreciate being spoken to as if he had committed a crime. Admittedly, he had, he was an S-ranked criminal of course, but he had done nothing wrong in being polite to Natsuki. Kisame 'tched' and looked away. "Whatever. Just tell her that me and Itachi-san are going on a mission." He left swiftly without even waiting for a reply. Sasori smirked and leant on the workbench. Victory was his, that shark had better learn to hide his emotions better from now on, he could see right through him during their little 'chat'. He may be a Swordsman of the Mist, but around Natsuki, he could barely keep himself in check. That jealous look in his eye? Sasori had caught it. What a fool that Hoshigaki could be at times, thinking that Sasori felt any sort of attraction to Natsuki was absurd. He, Akasuna no Sasori, was a puppet. He did not feel emotion, he used his rational mind. Yes, Natsuki was what most would call a 'friend', just like Deidara was a sort of 'friend' to him, but she was nothing more to him. Kisame Hoshigaki... He was a bit too possessive of things that didn't even belong to him. Sasori smirked. How foolish.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, read, favourited or is watching Weapons Dealer!
IMPORTANTE!
I will be uploading sporadically for the next few chapters probably due to upcoming exams, but I will still try to update every Monday.