Chapter Ten;
Sasori eventually found his way to the others. Itachi revealed to him that they had gathered the tree sap last night. He also warned Sasori to be cautious. Since it was noon, that meant they would be leaving later than Evelynn anticipated. This meant that Evelynn herself was in a foul mood. Sasori took note. Evelynn saw him enter their small campsite, and stood up.
"Hope you had fun." She stated nonchalantly. "We're leaving. Let's go."
No one spoke as the followed the fuming red-head. The full moon wasn't for another week, and they had to get to Lion's Valley in the east. That alone was a three week journey, and once they got there, they had to find the 'Lion's Den' that Giovanna mentioned. A million things were running through Evelynn's mind as she walked a few yards a head of her comrades. She was slightly disgruntled by the fact Sasori decided to go to bed with Ivanna. She didn't know why it upset her so. Only that she might kill him if he bed another woman again. Evelynn shook her head.
"I need to get a hold of myself." She muttered. "He's a comrade. I'm worried for his safety. That's all."
"What are you mumbling about?" Sasori asked as he approached her from behind.
"None of your business." Evelynn frowned as she looked a head. Sasori studied her for a moment.
"You're upset." He observed.
"You were late." Evelynn stated bluntly.
"Right. It was an.. Eventful night." Sasori smirked. Evelynn felt her jaw clench up. "We were up rather late, you know."
Sasori had to hold back a laugh as Evelynn's left eyebrow twitched. Taunting her was slightly amusing. He wondered just how far he could push her.
"She was rather nice." Sasori commented thoughtfully. "Nice and tight. Experienced too."
"That's nice." Evelynn replied dryly.
"That's why I was late, anyways. This morning we.." He didn't get a chance to finish.
Evelynn stopped in her tracks, and swung her fist. She punched him in the left eye with such force he flew back into a tree. He growled as he jumped up, and glared at her. His left eyebrow was busted open, and you could already tell he was going to have a black eye.
"Shut the fuck up. I don't give a damn what you did with that tramp!" Evelynn snapped, and then took off in a full sprint through the trees.
The others had seen the punch, heard Evelynn snap, and then watched her run off. They ran up, and caught up with Sasori.
"What did you do?!" Shoto snapped. Her blue eyes flashed dangerously.
"I simply explained to her why I was late this morning." Sasori replied calmly.
"How did you explain that?!" Shoto spit out as she grabbed him by the front of his shirt. He eyed her calmly.
"Just that Ivanna and I had been.. Busy." Sasori smirked.
Shoto punched him in the jaw, and he was back on the ground. Running to catch up with her friend, Shoto didn't wait for any kind of reaction. Mira frowned at Sasori, and then took off after her two best friends. Itachi and Deidara helped Sasori off the ground.
"Was it really necessary?" Itachi drawled as they walked at a much slower pace.
"Probably not." Sasori shrugged.
"You can be a dick sometimes, Sasori-no-danna, un." Deidara frowned.
"I don't know why I did it!" Sasori snapped. "I just.. I don't know. Wanted to see her reaction, I guess."
"If it makes you feel any better," Itachi raised an eyebrow. "She didn't sleep at all last night, and kept pacing back and forth while looking in the direction of the gypsy's camp."
Without another word the three men sped up to catch up to the girls. Though Sasori wasn't at ease. Why the hell would Evelynn waste a night of sleep?
'I have people to protect.'
Her words rang in his ears. Surely he wasn't one of those people, was he? Besides, he simply had sex with Ivanna. It's not like he was going to hang around the gypsy tribe forever. Surely Evelynn knew that, didn't she? Sasori shook his head of the thoughts as the men broke into a run.
-With the Girls-
"Evelynn, wait up!" Shoto shouted to her friend. Evelynn jumped onto a boulder and stopped.
"D-don't take o-off like that!" Mira scolded as she and Shoto stopped near the boulder to catch their breath. "W-we were v-very worried about you!"
"I would have been fine." Evelynn stated as she jumped off the boulder. As she did Shoto whacked her in the back of the head. "Ouch! what the hell, Sho?!"
"Did you forget we're a team?!" Shoto snapped. "We don't leave each other behind."
Evelynn looked at the two. The two women who, for the last three years, have stuck by her side. Through all the battles, the storms, the training, and laughter. Evelynn grinned slightly sheepishly. How could she be so selfish?
"Sorry." She mumbled.
"I-it's alright." Mira smiled warmly at her. Shoto put a hand on Evelynn's shoulder, and smiled slightly as well.
Their moment was cut short by a low growl. The girls whirled around towards the sound. All around them were six great hound-beasts. They looked like a mix of coyote and wolf. Their brown fur matted and tattered. Their eyes were a burning red, razor sharp teeth, and at least ten feet tall. All six were in a pouncing position. Glowering at the girls as saliva dripped from their snouts.
"Oh, shit. Keep sharp. Their fangs are poison." Evelynn ordered as she swung her pole axe off her back.
Shoto and mira both nodded. Shoto grabbed her axe head, and started loosening the chain. The other two surrounded Mira as she unsheathed her dagger. All three took a defensive stance as the hound-beasts snapped their jaws. Then, the smallest one leaped at them, and the rest was a blur of ripped muscle, snapping teeth, and the clanking of Shoto's chain raveling and unraveling again.
The chain of Shoto's weapon was wrapped around the neck of one hound. The barbed wire-pikes of the chain dug painfully into it's neck, and it howled in discomfort. Shoto continued to pull the chain tighter as it sliced through the skin, muscles, and bone. The blood poured from the wounds like a waterfall, Shoto herself getting splashed with a few drops. Another hound leaped towards Shoto, but Mira slid under the hound. As she did so she grabbed it's tail, and climbed up its back onto its head.
The great beast tried to shake her off, but Mira held onto its fur tightly. When she reached it's head she plunged her dagger down into its brain. The hound let out a painful howl, and Mira pulled out a syringe. In it was an incredibly potent poison that she was only to use during emergencies. Well, this was one of those times. She swung down towards it's neck, and impaled the syringe into its jugular. After she released the poison into the beast, she leaped down, and jumped to the left. She barely moved out of the way as the hound convulsed into a seizure. It foamed at the mouth as it collapsed. It twitched a couple more times, and it was dead.
Just as Mira turned to see how her friends were doing a third hound leaped at her. Mira yelped, and went to jump out of the way. She saw an arrow embed into it's back. Mira could almost cry with relief. The dynamite on the arrow exploded, and so did the beast the arrow was attached to. Blood, bone, and muscle splattered everywhere. Soaking all six of the young rebels.
"You couldn't have been a bit cleaner about it?!" Evelynn snapped as she shoved her pole axe upwards, and into the head of another beast.
The final of the two hound-beasts noticed their defeat, and whimpered as the sulked off into the darkness of the forest depth. Shoto spit out a bit of the hounds blood that got into her mouth. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. Mira picked a piece of muscle out of her hair, and Evelynn tried to wipe the blood off her face. Honestly, the three girls were completely drenched in the beasts blood.
"Sorry, un." Deidara rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he and the other two men approached.
"There's a spring nearby we can rinse off in." Shoto assured him.
Itachi moved his half-sleeved shirt and handed it to Shoto so she could wipe off some the blood. Deidara did the same for Mira, leaving him and Itachi only in their mesh-Armour tank tops. Sasori watched as Evelynn tried to find a non-bloodied spot on her arm to wipe the rest of her face off. he removed his shirt, and walked over to her.
"Here." He gently ran the shirt over her face.
"I can do it myself." Evelynn mumbled as she took the shirt from him. "Is it contaminated?"
"No." Sasori glared. "I took my own clothes off, and I put them on myself, as well."
"Good." Evelynn scoffed as she wiped down her arms. "I'll wash it for you in the spring when we get there."
"Hm." Sasori hummed as he watched her, Shoto, and Mira take the lead once again.
-Time skip!-
The spring was only a twenty minute walk north east. Sasori, Deidara, and Itachi waited a few yards a head, by order of Evelynn. The girls stripped, and slipped into the water. They washed their clothes of all the blood and dirt, first. Then, they proceeded to slip underwater, and rinse their hair out. Once they were clean of any blood, the sat on the bank to wait for their clothes to dry. It would be an hour or two.
"The full moon is in six days." Shoto sighed. "I hope Ivanna's stupid instructions work."
"If they don't, I'll kill her." Evelynn stated bluntly.
"Typical." Shoto smiled slightly.
"I th-think that w-would be f-fair, though. Sh-she did t-take one of our comrades f-for a night." Mira frowned.
"The thought makes me cringe." Evelynn wrinkled her nose.
"Agreed." Shoto nodded.
"So, do you really think we'll find those weapons?" Evelynn asked.
"Possibly. I don't think Giovanna would lie." Shoto said thoughtfully. She turned to Mira. "Did the villagers ever tell stories of a Lion's Den?"
"N-not that I r-remember. I w-was very young wh-when I left." Mira explained.
"Well," Shoto said quietly as she analyzed the situation in her head. "The elders of each village had a secret room where they kept documents of the villages history. Perhaps if Hanzo's men never found the room there will be a scroll or something on how to find it."
"What are we going to do if we find the weapons anyways?" Evelynn wondered out loud. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we can't just find them, take them, and then use them. If it were that easy someone else would have already done it."
"Perhaps there will be something there to instruct us on what to do once their found?" Shoto suggested.
"It just sounds sketchy to me." Evelynn frowned. "Still, we'll search for them. In honour of Giovanna's memory."
Shoto and Mira nodded. Both were fairly certain Giovanna wouldn't send them on some wild goose chase. The three fell into a comfortable silence as they waited for their clothes to dry. They would head off to Lion's Valley. Now that they had the means to remove the seals on the men. All they had to do was wait until the full moon. Six days.
-Time skip!-
It was finally the night of the full moon, and they were only two weeks away from Mira handed each man a vile with faerie tree sap, and they prepared to do the ritual Ivanna told them about. The three men removed their shirts, and within a few minutes it was dark enough for the moon to shine brightly.
"You guys ready?" Evelynn asked. They all nodded.
Mira took her dagger, and made a small cut across Deidara's seal. Then, she gently rubbed the faerie sap into the wound. Shoto made a deep cut across Itachi's seal, and generously applied the sap. Evelynn quickly sliced across Sasori's seal, and slapped the sap onto his chest with enough force to make him wince.
"You're real classy, you know that?" Sasori growled sarcastically as he evened out the stick substance onto his cut.
"Listen you.." Evelynn started.
"Enough, you two." Shoto cut in while rolling her eyes.
"D-do you f-feel any different?" Mira asked quietly.
"Not really, un." Deidara frowned.
Then, slowly, the sap started getting sucked into the cuts, which heeled as the sap entered. Then, before they could react, their skin started to bubble where the seals were.
"OUCH. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, UN!" Deidara yelled as he tried to claw at his back.
"What the..?!" Sasori growled. He was about to start scratching at his chest, but Evelynn grabbed his arms in a death grip. "Get off, this burns!"
"No, look!" Evelynn nodded her head towards the seal.
Slowly, the seals were starting to fade. Each man could feel and heart their hearts pounding in their chest. They felt the adrenaline rushing through their veins. Slowly, they also started to feel their chakra moving through their systems. Shoto put one of Itachi's arms around her to keep him from falling as he twitched in pain. Mira was kneeling besides Deidara, trying to comfort him. Evelynn kept Sasori's wrist in a tight grip, and had him pinned against a tree. The men were starting to sweat from the unbearable pain. Then, as quickly as it started, the bubbling skin was still. The three former Akatsuki panted slightly as they tried to catch their breath.
"Are you guys alright?" Evelynn asked as she let go of Sasori's wrist, and stepped back to give him some air. He nodded as he held onto the tree for support.
"F-fine." Itachi muttered as he sat on the ground.
"Your chakra is back?" Shoto asked.
In response, Itachi activated his sharingan. Shoto watched in wonder at the eye technique. Sasori himself pulled out a scroll, and summoned his Third Kazekage puppet. With ease he attached his chakra strings. The men each smirked or smiled slightly. Sasori put away his puppet, and Itachi deactivated his sharingan. They were still in quite a bit of pain, but at least it worked. At least now they had their power.
"Let's just set up camp here for the night." Evelynn decided.
The shinobi muttered a soft thanks. Tomorrow they would start back on the trail to Lion's Valley. Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara were actually quite happy to have their chakra systems working again. Now they could protect their girls to their full potential, just like they had secretly promised themselves. No doubt they would be more useful for battle as well. So, for now they rested. Perfectly prepared for whatever the rest of their journey might be.
A/N; Oh man. I'm actually pretty happy with how this story is coming along. Stay tuned, because in two more chapters there's going to be something epic.! Well, I think it'll be epic. I'll try to have the next chapter, and the epic chapter posted today. I've just been really busy with work, finding another job, and looking for a new apartment. Anyways, don't forget to review, and let me know how you like or dislike it so far.! Have a great day/night.!
