Chapter twelve
Kuukaku flexed her new right arm, grinning when she was pleased with the fine, swift movements. It was such a relief for Sasori, having to be rid of the sight of the shoddily contructed fake arm. After all of his experience with wooden body parts, the mere existence of such a piece of crap put him on edge. Sasori examined the room that they were now in. There wasn't much to look at, just a table where Sasori and Kuukaku sat at with simple walls and doors. They were now in the home of Kuukaku Shiba. After getting used to her heavily improved arm, Kuukaku grinned broadly at Sasori.
"Nice job, kid." apparently have forgotten yesterday's events with the Genjutsu already.
Sasori sighed heavily on the nickname, quite displeased with it but decided that it was at least better than brat. 'I swear...a thirty-five year old should not be called a kid.' Sasori thought in his head.
"...and is that young? Adolescence or something?" Kuukaku asked, repeating one of the terms she had heard being used frequently about kids that seemed to be around this one's age. But Sasori simply snorted, rolling his eyes, mentally wanting to slap himself for accidentally talking aloud. He should be more aware of what comes out of his mouth when he was beyond annoyed.
"No. I'm more near middle age," Sasori told her.
"Then why do you look so young?" Kuukaku demanded, finding it hard that someone who had died older had come to the Soul Society looking like a snot nosed brat. Usually people took on the appearance of the age that they had been right before they had died. What made this guy so special?
"It's complicated," was all the Sasori answered, not even bothering to explain everything. It wasn't something he had the patience to do, especially not with this woman.
"It is a kid compared to a lot of residences here. So deal with it, kid." Kuukaku's grin spread across her face as payback for his arrogance and cockiness.
"So are you gonna tell me about Shinigamis or not?" the man asked with impatience ringing in his voice.
"Why do you even wanna know?" Kuukaku eyed him strangely.
"Just curious." Sasori leaned his chin on his hand which was set on the table. Kuukaku silently growled.
"What can you tell me about the Seireitei?" Sasori changed the question.
Really he was only asking because he had never seen any sign of it while travelling and everyone that lived in the Rukongai seemed to be completely clueless about the place except the fact that both shinigami and the nobles lived there. However, Sasori had not been anticipating the peculiar tightness that had developed in Kuukaku's expression.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Curiosity," Sasori answered truthfully, now even more curious than he had been before.
Kuukaku sighed and laid her elbow down onto her lap, propping her chin up into the palm of her hand.
"Well," Kuukaku began tentatively. "There's a lot I can tell you seeing that I used to live there."
Sasori felt his face scrunch up in confusion.
"Then why-"
"It's complicated," Kuukaku said shortly, her tone not inviting any questions on that particular subject about the past. "But I'll tell something, I guess.
"Well, you probably already know that shinigami live there, most of the nobility as well."
Sasori nodded even though Kuukaku didn't even look at him, she seemed to be lost in her own world.
"The Shiba used to be one of the five most influential noble clans. We... dwindled, however, and we lost out status. Now there are four noble clans. They form a part of the government and all other lesser noble clans serve one of them."
Sasori took in the information, wondering about all the things that she wasn't telling him. Ultimately it didn't really matter and Sasori knew that he would probably get himself stabbed if he tried.
"But anyway," Kuukaku went on, "The shinigami are all a part of the 13 Court Guard Squads, or the Gotei 13. There are a lot of other little branches and sections, but I won't mention those. There's also the Chamber 46, which is a kind of judiciary department, although they have influence in other areas. Generally, they have a reputation for unforgiving, arrogant bastards, but I doubt that you'll have anything to do with them personally."
"Where is the Seireitei? Someone told me about the districts of Rukongai, but-"
"Did they tell you there were only eighty?" Kuukaku asked wryly, knowing the answer she would get.
"Yes..." Sasori wondered what she was getting to.
"Well, whoever you asked was partially right. There are eighty districts in this part of Rukongai, west Rukongai, but there are three other sectors that have eighty districts as well. All in all, there are three hundred and twenty."
"Uh-huh."
Sasori wondered why Nobuko had told him differently. Maybe she herself hadn't known this.
"Anything else?"
"How does one become a shinigami?" Sasori asked this time, getting to what he really wanted to ask.
To be honest, Sasori was, frankly, bored in this world. Selling tea and helping old grannies wasn't what Sasori wanted at all in life, and travelling through all 80 districts would be okay, but he'd have to always do odd jobs to just make a living, and that wasn't what Sasori wanted to do with his whole afterlife. Besides, he was too used to the life he had lived before and it seemed that becoming a Shinigami might be the closest thing that he could get to the purpose that he had had in his life before. Of course, this time there would be much more at stake if he decided to go rogue, but these problems could be addressed when the time called for it.
"What?" Kuukaku spat back, now sporting the confused look herself. "Why do you want to know that? And don't say curiosity or I will punch you."
"Why do you keep asking why do I wanna know?" Sasori retorted.
This kid was getting on Kuukaku's last nerves. Gritting her teeth, she could feel her blood pressure rising like yeast in an oven. But she decided it'd be more smarter to take the calmer approach to this.
"Keeping possible career options open," Sasori answered, his tone too bland to be cheeky, but somehow it still had the same effect.
"Urgh," Kuukaku grunted, still feeling the urge to punch the red head, but controlling it, "There's an academy that you have to be enrolled in. If you're qualified, you get schooled for six years and then you get assigned to a division to start out as a grunt. Unless you're a noble or a prodigy or something."
"What makes a person qualified?"
"Don't you mean to say 'am I qualified'?" Kuukaku snarked at him. Sasori shrugged in response. "Yeah, I'd say you were although I'm not sure what they look for exactly. You might even make it into one of the advanced classes."
"I see," Sasori said absentmindedly as he thought on this. It was good to know that he had a good chance, but a little aggravating that he had to go back to the academy. Granted, it probably wouldn't be too similar since he wouldn't he be eight years old this time, but still. He felt that he was long past the point that he belonged in school.
"What would I be learning?"
Kuukaku sighed before rolling her eyes. She had been hoping that he was done after the last question, but it seemed that the question barrage was going to continue.
"What you need to know," Kuukaku answered, delighting in pissing him off with a vague answer, but she elaborated. "Sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, hohou: the art of agility and speed used in footwork, and kidou: the various spells that a shinigami can use for either healing, defense, or combat."
"... okay," Sasori hadn't really expected that much detail, but any information that he could get could be used to his advantage.
"Anything else that you've got to get off your chest?" Kuukaku asked, snark once again at full force.
"No, I'm good," Sasori said.
"Good, 'cause I gotta few questions of my own." the woman smirked. Sasori had a bad feeling already.
"Why don't you have a surname?"
"Classified."
"What did techniques did you use for your puppet performances?"
"Classified."
"How do you look so young?"
"Classified."
"What were you when you were alive?"
"What do you mean?"
Kuukaku huffed at the other's intentional obtuseness. She knew that he knew what she meant.
"You know what I mean. You probably did something to keep yourself occupied. What was it?"
Sasori wondered whether or not he should answer that, but in the end and in true shinobi fashion he decided to answer as vaguely as possible.
"Puppetry among other classified things."
"Why's everything classified?"
"Classified."
Kuukaku slammed her fists down on the table she was leaning on. Oh how badly she wanted to kill this punk. Sasori seemed to be enjoying her rage, smirking a bit. This only spiked Kuukaku's blood pressure through the roof. She felt her face being hot with rage, desperately wanting to maim the red head extremely slowly and painfully. She slowly breathed in, and exhaled the oxygen that had once been in her lungs with a sigh. Finally calming down, as much as Kuukaku Shiba can, she looked at the red head once more.
"Okay, here's another question. One you can't say 'classified' to ya lil' brat. How about letting me train you?"
"I reject."
It was seriously hard to control her anger when this kid was around, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
Sasori narrowed his eyes, "I reject." he repeated, slowly enouncing every syllable.
"You lil brat!" Kuukaku spat out, eyes comically wide with anger, "Why not?" What the hell gave this little punk that right to say no to her?
Sasori waved his hand in an 'I pass' motion, "No," Sasori repeated. "I've seen what your little brother can do and I'm unimpressed. I'd rather take my chances out there."
Kuukaku felt her temper dampen as she heard his explanation. She would probably react the same way to someone who wanted to teach her and the only evidence of their teaching she had was Ganju.
"Ganju doesn't count. I have to take care of him," Kuukaku shrugged. "But I know what I'm doing. How about this, I'll introduce you to one of my friends who can take you to the Academy for training? That is...if you undergo my training."
Sasori contemplated about this. It would be nice to have someone show him the way, especially since he'd have no idea where's what and what's even going on. Besides, all he had to do was just train with this crazy woman. That should be easy enough.
"Okay."
Kuukaku grinned in victory at this.
