Once again, if you are here, you are awesome
and I love you forever
I hope you enjoy this little silly chapter
"What seems to be the problem? My advisor told me you'd sent an urgent distress letter, but everything seems to be fine here," observed the young Kazekage.
He was about sixteen years old, incredibly old to be running his own village, his maroon hair was shaggy and short and framed his eyebrowless face quite perfectly.
On the corner of his forehead was the Japanese symbol for "love" in a red similar to the color of his hair. His wardrobe consisted of a black long sleeve shirt along with long black pants accompanied by a tan vest and a large gorge which he carried around on his back.
Aside from all these factors though, one could easily detect that the most fascinating thing about this boy were his eyes. They were pupil-less sea foam green, shockingly noticeable due to the dark rings that outlined his eyelids which seemed to swallow them whole. They gazed toward the Hokage lazily, unamused and disappointed.
"Come with me and I'll explain," she stated, leading the young man out of her office and up toward the conference room.
Once they'd settled down onto couches and drank some tea, Tsunade explained her situation to her collaborator.
"So let me get this straight," said Gaara and he shifted from his sprawled leisurely position to resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward in order to clarify, "you are asking me to allow you some of my nin so that you can go search for one measly girl? That just sounds unreasonable Tsunade!"
The Hokage sighed; she knew convincing him to agree with her was going to be difficult. "I know it sounds irrational, but something just doesn't feel right about this! I need some of your nin, maybe even you! There is something more to this than just a missing girl, I know it! It's not like the Akatsuki to just kidnap some random talentless person, and you know that!"
"I know, I know… I just…," the Kazekage looked toward the blonde whose expression was nothing but business, "I don't see what they could possibly be planning under these circumstances! It doesn't make sense."
"Which is why we need to find out," she was leaning forward now to, each glaring at the other intently when finally Gaara let out a sigh.
"Fine, I will allow you some of my nin, but only because I trust your judgment."
"Thank you Gaara, I appreciate your cooperation. When will they be ready?"
"Sometime later today, most likely around five tonight," said the boy, leaning back, now more relaxed than before.
"Perfect, I'll probably have recruited enough by then too…," considered Tsunade.
They sat in silence for a moment, glad to have reached a verdict, but soon Gaara had thought of something they hadn't yet brought attention to, "Do you have any idea where they could be?"
Tsunade stopped drinking her tea mid sip, then slowly set down her cup with a curious expression plastered across her face. Why hadn't she thought of that before? She wondered. "I'm not sure…," she admitted, "but, I might know someone that may be able to give us some clues."
In the hospital room C84 sat Hiroki with a nurse at his bedside helping him read a small colorful book. When the door opened and two large figures entered quietly, Hiroki and the nurse both looked up to see the Hokage and Kazekage side by side.
"Do you mind if we have a moment with the boy?" Tsunade asked the nurse, who nodded quickly in agreement, setting the book on a table next to the boy's bed. She did a few extra routine checks on the beeping monitors, then promptly left the room; informing its inhabitants that if anything was needed, to just let her know.
"Hello Miss," said Hiroki quietly, but was obviously more interested in the boy by her side, "who is he?" he asked jabbing a finger at the red haired man.
"Hiroki, this is Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure. Gaara, this is Hiroki, the little brother of the woman who was kidnapped."
Gaara bowed to the boy who returned the gesture to the best of his abilities, then leaned back on a fluffy stack of white pillows. The child seemed calmer and more natural than before. The first time Tsunade had met with him, he'd seemed distant and odd. He might be more open about the subject, she assumed.
"Now, Hiroki," began the woman, "would you mind explaining to the Kazekage and I everything that happened to you the other night?"
"Yes ma'am…," he replied shyly.
"Great, just begin when you're ready," encouraged the Hokage as her companion pulled them up some chairs.
"Well," he started, "it was like any other night. I'd just come home from playing with my friends from the Ninja Academy, and my mother and sister were in the kitchen preparing dinner. My father sat on the back porch, playing his shamisen to the coy fish in the pond below. I'd started to set the table, making sure to do it exactly how my mother had shown me a week before. That night, my mother was preparing something special for us because my father had won a bingo game at a bar earlier that day; I never got to find out what it was…," Hiroki looked down and twiddled with his sheets, then looked out toward the kids playing down below the hospital.
Children laughed and squealed as they played, but one little boy had fallen and scraped his knee, his mother quickly going to check on him, making a funny face to cheer him up. They both stood and walked toward a slide where they would continue to enjoy one another's company.
"I wish I could taste my mother's cooking again…," he trailed off in thought as his eyes lingered back down toward his hands.
Gaara and Tsunade both exchanged a glance reading, 'maybe it's too soon,' but the boy continued his story, recaptivating their attention.
"Anyway, my father went to go get something from his room, I think it might have been the bingo card he'd won with; I'm not sure. But… He was taking an awful long time… My sister had brought the food out to the table, covered so it could be a surprise, and began to pour our tea. We all sat around the table eagerly, still waiting for my father to return, but eventually my mother decided to go check on him; he was pretty old, we could never be too sure. But, when she didn't come back…," he looked over at his audience, who sat intently waiting for what was to come next like what he was saying was a ghost story passed down by generations.
"When she didn't come back, that's when Harumi got up to go look for them. Then I was alone. It was scary, even though there were people around me, our house isn't very big, but that was the most alone I'd ever felt. Even though they're gone right now, and I have no one, I felt more alone then in that moment. I got up and started walking to the front door, backing up so I could see the entire room. There was something wrong, it was beyond obvious. I'd made my way to the door, but when I bumped into it, it was breathing. I couldn't move, I just barely turned my head to look up at a giant zombie looking man in a mask and cloak."
By now, the boy was clearly enveloped in the pains of that night, he clutched his elbows and his good eye opened wide in terror, but still, he continued, "someone from the room where my family was shouted out, 'I've got the girl and her parents are dead, can we go now?' and I saw him walk out, carrying my sister over his shoulder, she was unconscious at the moment. At the same time I saw them, the man behind me said, 'hey, Hidan, I think I found you a toy'. I looked back at the man holding my sister, his skin as pale as the moon, and his hair was grey and slicked back. On his back was a giant red three bladed sythe. I was automatically afraid of him."
Hiroki paused, mustering up the courage for what he was about to relive, "and then… They did this to me," he said pointing at his face. "He laughed while he cut off my ear, and chuckled when he poked my eye blind. He thought it'd be funny to jump on my right shin bone, then pull out some of my hair because it just seemed right. After all of this, I couldn't really feel my body, so I guess it wasn't really fun to him anymore. He tied me up and threw me in the closet to rot and die. Bless my neighbor. Had she not been there, I wouldn't be here." He concluded his painstaking story with a small giggle that no one really understood, probably just to shake off the memories.
"Is that all Hiroki?" inquired Gaara. Although it was a painful story to envision, there really wasn't anything to go off of.
"After I was locked in the closet, I could still hear their conversations. There were three of them. I don't remember exactly what they said; I could only make out a few things: Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sand. That's all I remember," he enlightened.
"Sand?"
Tsunade looked over to Gaara with a mystified face, who seemed to be staring at something not visible to anyone else. Now the Sand was involved, or at least something about sand.
"Tsunade?" Gaara continued to stare into space, "Remember how I said I'd lend you a few of my nin?"
"Yes…?"
"Well, I think I'll be able to spare a couple more."
Tsunade said nothing, but that was enough. The two stood up and thanked Hiroki once again for being so open to them and they quietly left the building.
Alright, so maybe it wasn't that silly
but hey, just tryin to make things interesting here
btw- thank you again and again and again :)