An Author's Note: The Count for this story is at 5.
Yeah...this is an old habit I have leftover from when I started fanfic writing. My first story I kept a running count of my reviewers. This was back when I actually thought the number of reviews as a reflection of quality of work. I've grown up since then, but I still do the Reviewer Count around the tenth chapter of a new story. Hey, we all have our little superstitions.
Anwho, I would like to thank you all. Thanks for reading. Hope yall will stay with me.
Now...what was I talking about...oh yeah...
Oh yeah. OC and OS alert.
Chapter Eleven
Poisonous Things
After eating breakfast Kankuro got up and said something that perplexed Neji to no end:
"Well, I got to go milk the critters now."
Neji stared at him. Since when did the Kazekage live on a farm? "What? You have a cow?" he asked.
Kankuro rolled his eyes "Yes Hyuga, I have a cow. Also sheep, chickens and that bacon you just ate? I slaughtered it myself just yesterday, of course I don't have a cow, you fool. I'm talking about..." the puppeteer sighed. It would do no harm to show the Leaf the shack. After all, the "no giving away puppeteer secrets" rule really only applied to training methods, chakra manipulation and whatever it was that went on in the labs. Milking was not part of it, seeing as how other people did it as well. "Come on and you'll see."
Bristling about being called an idiot by a man that wore freaking cosmetics, Neji followed Kankuro as he lead the Hyuga out the back to a rather large...well it was a shack. Still not sure that a cow would not appear in the near future, Neji sighed and walked in.
Right into a arachnophobiac's nightmare.
The place had dim lighting, but there was enough. Oh yes, there was enough light to see every single skittery, crawly, jumpy spider in the place. Thankfully they were all in little tanks, some filled with leaves and sticks others with sand and small rocks. Further on Neji could see lizards, a few scorpions and snakes. In the middle of the shack was a bench with mortar and pestles, bottles, jars and other alchemical devices.
Neji finally realized what Kankuro had meant by "milking". He was talking about milking the poison from venomous animals. "You make your own poisons then?" he asked.
"Yeah," Kankuro said "It's just one of those skills you learn as a puppeteer. We'll just do the spiders and snakes for now. Here, make yourself useful and hold this bottle while I get our first customer." Kankuro shoved a bottle into Neji's hand and walked over to a tank. Carefully and delicately he reached in a snagged a large, black, bulbous looking spider with a red hourglass marking on its back. It looked like the symbol on the Sand shinobi's headbands.
"Now this nasty little girl is a Desert Black Widow. I think you have a few of her smaller cousins in the Land of Fire. She's just as deadly as the other kind. Just stand still, Hyuga, and don't make any sudden moves. Got to be careful with this girl. She's not just deadly, she's sacred!"
"Sacred?"
"Yeah. Did you think this thing on my headband is just an hourglass? Nope, it comes from this girl here. Now, don't move."
Kankuro held the widow gently and...well to Neji it looked like he was teasing it with a stick. He kept poking at the thing's fangs, forcing it to drip venom onto the stick. Then, after Kankuro was satisfied he dropped the stick into Neji's bottle and gently released the spider back into her tank. The spider, obviously traumatized and feeling violated, crawled under a rock. Neji would swear that the creature was glaring at them with its thousands of beady little eyes.
And so they went down the line, extracting venom from all kinds of spiders, none of which seemed very happy to be there. Neji felt distinctly nervous with all these poisonous things just sitting there glaring at him.
Then it was time for the snakes, which Neji definitely approached with a level of dread. He hated snakes. A lot. Hated spiders too, in fact.
Although it was interesting to watch Kankuro work with them. The man obviously had no fear of the venomous things and made this look easy. It had scared Neji when Kankuro dumped the first snake on the floor and waved his hand in from of it, taunting the thing and daring it to attack him. Which it did. And...Kankuro caught it behind the head. Its mouth was open and it was bearing its fangs at them, and that was so freaking unattractive and horrible to look at! Kankuro held the snake's fangs against the lid of a bottle and let it drip into the glass.
At the last tank Kankuro grinned, and instead of dumping the occupant on the ground he slowly reached into the tank and held out his hand. A hiss, and a snake crawled up Kankuro's arm and slithered around his neck.
"...is that a pet or something?"
Kankuro grinned "Not really. Snakes aren't exactly loyal and cuddly. But I raised this guy since he was a hatchling, so he knows me."
"What is is?"
"King Cobra."
"...a cobra!" Neji squeaked. He heard they were extremely poisonous. "And you are wearing it!?"
"Hey, I can handle this guy. Besides, I've been bit by him more times then I can count." Kankuro said as the cobra slithered down his arm, around his waist and up his back. "I'm mostly immune to his bite about now." the snakes head appeared over Kankuro's shoulder and he started to stoke the cobra, almost absentmindedly. "I mean, he's not like that mutt your sister hangs around with. He's not tame and I would never take him into battle. But he likes my body heat, that's why I am letting him crawl around like this. And his venom is really potent. I get my best stuff from Willy here."
"Willy?"
"Yeah. Willy. Got a problem with that?" Kankuro asked in a challenging tone.
"As long as...Willy stays right there with you I don't care what you call it. Him. Whatever."
Kankuro laughed "Don't worry. I won't let the big bad cobra get you, Hyuga. You'd give him food poisoning or something. Right, Willy?" to Neji's surprised the snake turned its head to Kankuro and flicked out its tongue, as if in agreement.
Kankuro gently grabbed the cobra behind the head and began to milk the creature. He chuckled to himself. He had no intention of telling Neji that the snake was actually more deadly then its wild fellows. The special diet that Kankuro had feed the snake since its birth had done that. In fact, Kankro could not help but think that, if his poisonous blades had actually manged to hit Sasori then it would have been the treacherous puppet master who would have been suffering from a deadly poison.
When he was done milking Willy Kankuro placed the snake back into its tank. He collected up the rest of his poison and put them away. He was not going to show a Leaf nin his techniques of poison mixing. It was not so dangerous for Neji to know about the animals, most medical nins used the same techniques for collecting anti venoms. However, the mixing of poisons was tricky, and Kankuro did not want to show them to a Leaf ninja. True, the Leafs were now their allies. But, ever since he was small Kankuro had been taught that nothing was stable. Perhaps it was the fact that he lived in a desert, were the landscape was ever changing and shifting beneath your feet, but the fact was that even though Gaara was certain that he and Naruto would always be friends, his two siblings were still mentally preparing for the day when Leaf and Sand would clash again. It would happen, of that Kankuro was certain.
He could only hope that it did not happen in his lifetime.
Gaara almost now could sympathize with his father.
The council was...annoying...
"Lord Kazekage! We cannot allow some blood crazed beast free reign of the city! Especially not with only a Leaf ninja to control it!"
It. Beast. Blood crazed. Words once used to describe Gaara. Now they were talking about his brother. It was strange. Almost surreal. Like a dream. No, a nightmare.
Gaara had no idea how everyone now knew that Kankuro was a wolf creature, but somehow the information had spread through Suna like a wildfire. And now, the rumors had started. That Kankuro was in on the attacks, that he had been behind the attacks all along. That he was a victim. Or a tratior. That he had been like this his entire life and only now was it coming to light. That he was going to kill them all. That he was another demon.
"He must be killed, right now! I know he is your-"
Gaara glared at the man. He knew him, of course. This...person was the feudal lord's pet shinobi, and was only on the council for political reasons. He had always demanded the death of Gaara, and now he was calling for Kankuro's.
Gaara interupted him "Who do you think you are talking to?" Gaara glared at the open mouth councilman. "Do you presume that I would be so heartless, so crule as to kill my own brother when we have not even determined the exact nature of his illment? We do not even know if this is a demon at all. I am not going to murder my brother, not while there is still hope to help him."
"But the village!"
"I would never put this village in danger. But I am not going to kill Kankuro. Precautions have already been taken. We know that the transformation only occurs during a full moon. While the moon his full Kankuro will be locked up. But he is perfectly rational the rest of the time. I will not punish him for the crime of being different, and I am not going to give up on him. Rest assured, a solution to this will be found, and he will be cured. You would like to compare this to Shukaku, but this is different. He has not even killed anyone yet. A goat or a sheep is not a human, and there is no indication the he would kill one of the villagers he had sworn to protect." Gaara glared at the entire assembly "While my father may have been willing to throw the lives of his family away, I shall not do the same. Kankuro shall not come to any harm, not as long as I draw breath."
"And if he does kill? What if he does murder someone. What then?"
"He will not." Gaara was certain of this...however, he knew these foolish men would need some kind of reassurance. "However, if we exhaust all our options, if there is no hope, and only if he cannot be controlled or contained...then I will take of it myself."
Everyone knew what he meant by that.
But it would not come to that.
Gaara was certain.
A few hours later Gaara was at the cell that would be used to house Knakuro at night. It was originally a dungeon that, for some strange reason, the first Kazekage had installed below the offices. It was not used for regular prisoners, in fact it had rarely been used at all. But now, they needed it.
He, Rock Lee, and Naruto had been installing chains onto the floor of the cell they had chosen. Naruto had been sulky about it, but he had done it. They had been testing the chains, making sure that they were as strong as possible.
Gaara felt that they were just about done...when the screaming started.
"Witch! WITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTCH!"
"Huh?" Naruto asked with a puzzled look.
Gaara's eyes widened. "It cannot be..."
"Well well well. Kazekage now, eh? How interesting. I would not have expected it of you, little demon."
Right there, in the doorway, was a large coyote. But, Gaara knew that it was really not an animal at all. Just as he thought that, the coyote seemed to blink out of existence and a woman stood in its place. She was tall, as tall as Naruto. She was wearing very little, only a few strips of tan cloth around her most intimate areas, as well as a scary array of jewelry that looked like it was made of bone. She had dark, tanned skin and almost cruel black eyes. She was smirking at Gaara with an almost gleeful expression.
"So now, what is it like when the tables have turned?" she asked.
"Who is this, Gaara?" Lee asked with puzzlement.
"She is Cassudina. She is a witch."
An Author's Note: OC is the witch, of course. And OS is the snakie. Original Snake, in fact. Hehe.
Honestly, I don't know where I came up with the name "Willy". It just seemed like the least snakelike thing to call a snake. Anyway, I think it is cute.