Thank you Cecilia Glass and Ami1010 for reviewing since the beginning. It means a lot to me, guys.
This is for a very bored Chisa Chispa. :P See? Yes, I do care.
I hope you will all enjoy. :)
-X-
Decayed Obsessions
by Clementive
-X-
The rising day appeared in pale streaks of color across the sky. Tobacco smoke thickened in complex curves above the soldiers as they smoked, throwing their heads back in laughter. Their voices raised above the growing tumult of the market place. Suddenly, they bowed; their body part of the movement crowd as their captain and lieutenant appeared on the veranda.
"He's getting more and more troublesome since he knows that woman. Since when does a shogun leave the key of the city to a concubine?"
Kiba shrugged, yawning loudly as the Nara warlord stared unflinching at the inattentive look on his face. Since the war against the Sand, he had watched Neji raised as a lord always composed, no longer holding anger against the main branch of the Hyuuga clan, no longer purchasing revenge for his father's death. Yet, as sun rays meekly pierced through silver clouds, he wondered if they hadn't been all met to lose it to the heart of a woman. His finger stiff from the cool wind pressed roughly the tobacco in his silver pipe.
He watched the men passed by them as they leaned on the pillars of the veranda, the market waking from its slumber. During the war against the Sand, he had led Neji and other young lords into the battlefield, all of them came back half dead.
Gory images assaulted his mind; the guilt subsided despite the years. He couldn't shake off the sensation of cold fingers twisting his entrails at the mention of the coming war.
War meant cadavers and all his old companion could see was his cursed concubine, a decaying obsession.
"It concerns you too, Kiba." He muttered slowly his fists clenched inside his robes. "You will also be part of that troublesome bloodbath."
They barely raised their heads as her footing silently brushed the wooden floor. When Shikamaru's dark glance turned towards the moving shadow, her body folded among them and she disappeared.
"This is what we do, Shikamaru. We live, we fight and then we die with honour if possible."
Beneath the black wool hood, the young woman bit her lips silencing her raging pants as she listened to the Nara's uncertainty and concerns.
"Dying for nothing is no honourable way to die."
"I think you are seeing too much into this." The Inuzuka young lord grunted rolling his eyes. "She's a commoner for crying out loud, she probably won't even show to inspect the freight. What would a woman know about weapons anyway?"
Her red lips stretched into an ironic smirk as she detached her body from the darkness stepping inside the empty headquarters.
She reached the basement, passed the morgue without crossing the path of a living soul.
The raspy odour of ashes and blood unpleasantly tickled her nostrils. Lightly, she knocked onto a blackened door and waited.
She heard a rustle of papers, silver tools meeting the wooden surface of a desk. Then, a man with two scars slashed on his face appeared before her. Ibiki Morino's frame hid his dark office from her view. He held a bloody cloth in his hand wiping his fingers in slow movements. He froze as she pushed back her hood exposing her face.
The cloth disappeared in his robes and she pretended not to have seen it.
He frowned, taking in her small smile and painted lips. Her skin glowed in a dark golden tone as she brushed past him, her hair falling in waves around her face. In slow movements, she took off her gloves kneeling in a pool of silk and wool in front of his desk. The dimmed light allowed her to barely distinguish the desk in front of her.
She closed her eyes, feeling her heartbeat accelerated. She could feel pain pulsating around her; harsh cries and steady cold instruments digging deeper.
She had made those instruments.
His dark eyes searched the darkness of the other torture rooms before he closed the door a predatory smile firmly hanging on his thin lips.
"Well, well. What an honour, Tenten-chan," the torturer mocked dryly.
The tall man roughly opened a drawer pushing in its depth the bloody cloth, his broad build hiding the displacement of other objects he didn't want her to see. He thought of his younger brother and the kunai he had recognized inside of him. As always, he felt the need to shield her from the truth; from the tumult of coldness and blazing fire, her features could ignite inside of him.
"It has been quite a while, yes, Ibiki-san?"
His glance stopped on the sign of the Hyuuga clan on her beige and gold kimono and dark shadows masked his expression.
"Is the young Hyuuga lord also going to knock on my door, Tenten-chan?" Abruptly, he snapped the drawer shut. The lie came naturally to his lips; he had never let her seen more than the quivers of the darkness inside of him. "Because if that's the case, I would rather you leave immediately."
The concubine cocked her head on the side throwing him a mysterious smile. She was only comfortable stepping in the wide path of the game of pretense. Her heartbeat slowed, her innocent smile deepened.
She needed new weapons, she needed his forge.
He lit another lamp and she leaned forward, her fingers grazing the surface of a torture tool he had left on his desk. Her movements exposed her slender neck and their eyes briefly met. He saw a flash of limpid green in her eyes and his jaw clenched.
Her ghost never left him alone.
"He's gone for a week or so."
His brutal voice broke into silent laughter as he reached for a bottle of rice wine turning his back to her. Whenever he saw her, he couldn't help his debt. He felt her eyes on him and he jealously buried a twenty year old memory where he knew it wouldn't resurface; in alcohol.
"The poor bastard," he muttered while filling his glass. "Whatever it is you want: I won't take the ax for your pretty smile. The rules haven't changed."
The concubine took a deep silent breath, ignoring the bitter smell of alcohol and the shadows thickening on his placid face.
"I need a favor, Ibiki-san."
He grunted, his dark glance lingering on the movements of the limpid liquid in his glass.
"Oh, you mean except access to my forge? That will cost you, Tiantian."
The next gulp burned his throat.
"I need the name of a taijutsu specialist."
"What kind of boring favor is that?" He snickered roughly putting his glass down on a shelf, next to a human crane. "Why don't you ask that bastard who owns you? The gentle fist is a powerful taijutsu."
"I want the title," she said quickly raising her voice above his. "I need training."
Stunned, he cocked his head on the side resisting the urge to run his hand on his scarred head. Their eyes met once more and he asked himself for the hundred times if she knew about his obsession, his weakness for her resemblance with his persistent ghost.
It rotted in his mind whenever he thought about Tenten and the brothel where he had found her. In one gulp, the rest of the alcohol drowned his secret.
"Is he treating you well, Tenten-chan?"
Taken back, she nodded slowly searching his unreadable face. His lips twisted in a relief.
They met two years ago and once more, she could recognize the nervous signs of guilt when he looked at her. He offered her his forge without reaching for her obi. She made his instruments of torture and even as her third dana, her protector, he never asked for more, freeing her from silk and her dance whenever she beat her silver in his forge.
"He deserves more than an uneducated concubine, Ibiki-san. When he looks at me, I want him to see more than just silk. A bit like you see in me." She straightened her back, small fists clenched on her laps. "I want the title."
"You are looking for Maito Gai then," he gave in through clenched teeth. "His dojo is in the south of the city, on the other side of the river."
She thanked him with a small bow of her head putting her hood back on its place with a shift movement of the wrist.
He stopped her, his scars more prominent as brutality dug them.
"If he mistreats you," he darkly whispered his arms crossed around his wide chest. "Tell me and I will get you any part of his body you want."
Quietly, Tenten laughed her hazel eyes glancing over the darkness of the big man's office. Carefully, she noted the absence of anything personal, of thick scrolls and dusty skeletons that served as human anatomy maps for his assignments.
Her hand reached for the door once her glance fell on his scars and his placid facial traits.
"You know, Ibiki-san, sometimes you remind me of my father. Brutal with his hands but a soft giant at heart, nonetheless."
In her aerial gait, she left him with an ashen decomposed face. A teasing breeze blew her name in his ear before he could stop it. He leaned back against the dark wall behind him, his hand pulling at the bandana hiding the punctures on his head.
He closed his eyes.
'Sora…'
-X-
Carefully, her white slender fingers felt his temples, the thin skin around his eyes. Sakura Uzumaki bit her below lips waiting for the Uchiha warlord to react to her cool touch; longingly waiting for anything, just as she had waited for him all her life, to throw her a smile, to lean forward.
Her hands heavily fell back on her laps, briefly shaking.
Her pink hair wavered in front of him. Sasuke tried to focus on her eyes and then his sight was gone. Abruptly, he tried to stand but the darkness quickly surrounded him, imprisoning him once more on his futon. He gave a cry of rage, his hand grabbing the young lady's wrist.
She winced, he panted.
"What you are doing isn't working. My sight is coming back on its own, Sakura."
Roughly, he pushed her away massaging his temples with cool fingers. He felt her body shake, he heard her silent tears. They both knew what he meant: he didn't need her as much anymore.
She had become useless; a fathom of her previous annoying self that Naruto had loved nevertheless.
"What will come of our alliance with the Akatsuki?" she tried nonetheless, savouring on her tongue the fact that it was still theirs.
"What your mother proposed wasn't enough but it seems they are interested by another weapon. They will simply collect her in Konoha."
"Her?"
He stiffed a silent laugh, his empty orbs searching the darkness of the room towards the direction of her voice. After all these years and despite his brother's death, revenge still ruled his heart.
"Yes, her. Neji Hyuuga's concubine, Tenten of the House of Dragons."
-X-
His earlier cheerfulness died down the moment her request passed the barrier of her lips. Tenten felt foolish, her bare feet the only things that were in harmony with the decoy of calm setting of hard work and wooden sticks that replaced swords. The rusty smell of blood and its unpleasant counterpart of sweat floated around her.
The young woman waited politely, her features frozen in her resolve.
Dark eyes veiled by thick eyebrows searched her face for a while. Then, the smile naturally came back exposing his white teeth.
"Yosh! Women can also be youthful! LEE-KUN, COME HERE!"
Tenten froze when her ex-captor came into view. The same thick eyebrows shot up when Rock Lee saw her. 'This is over before even starting. He won't let me train now and Neji will be furious.'
"What a youthful flower!"
She blinked, seeing no trace of recognition on his face. Her nails released the tender flesh of her wrists and with relieved curiosity, she observed the feigned resemblance between the two man; from the thick eyebrows to their green fighting robes. 'How strange…'
"Tenten-san will be your first student, Lee-kun," The older man grinned.
"Gai-sensei, I would rather be trained by-" She began nervously but Lee stepped between her and the older sensei.
"You truly think I'm ready, Gai-sensei?" He shouted excitedly.
Their bodies bounced in the same excited dance. 'Is Neji really acquainted with Lee-san?'
"Yosh, Lee!"
Her mouth slightly opened, Tenten watched the interactions of the two heteroclite men who ignored her. Suddenly, the owner of the dojo threw his arm around his protégé's shoulders.
"Be youthfully careful with her. Flowers are fragile, Lee-kun," he whispered loudly drawing a frown on Tenten's face.
"I'm not fragile," she snapped, her fingers brushing the kunai hidden in her right sleeve.
Dramatically, they turned their face towards her. Wide dark eyes silently watched her while she bit her below lips regretting her words.
"She's youthful," Lee agreed nodding gravely drawing a jolt from her. Their behavior oscillated between two extremes making her act useless. The genuineness of their feelings and reactions took her breath away. Dizzy by their loudness, she tried once more to open her mouth but was cut off.
"Tenten-san, we will begin the lesson with push-ups-"
"Lee-kun!" The sensei stopped him pointing vaguely towards her abashed face. "This can't be how you begin."
"You are right, Gai-sensei," he admitted feverishly nodding. "Her attire is youthful but inappropriate. Gai-sensei, you are a genius! She needs to change first!"
She tuned them out, closing her eyes as the breeze caressed her face. The beast inside of her purred; it was finally time to fight.
-X-
"I'm afraid the Sand is not our ally, Shikamaru-san."
Savagely, the brutal heat of the afternoon assaulted them as they sat on the veranda of the small house of the Nara clan. The elongated roof sheltered them, drawing shades on the shogi board set between them. Whenever Shikamaru needed to think a strategy through with one of his men, his old servant would install the board along with the pieces across the board.
The game began, the leaves rustling in the wind.
It reminded him of Suna, of her.
At times, Shikamaru could feel the shadow of each piece reaching past the board, in his reality, taking masks of the people that surrounded him, that pressed their faces and their katana in the unforgiving rise to power.
The Aburame warlord moved his pawn across the board not daring to face his captain's quiet cold anger.
"Do you think Gaara-sama is allied with Sasuke?"
"He asserted that he isn't and that his decision regards merely the state of his military force."
Violently, Shikamaru took a silver general that he distractedly threw on the pile of shogi pieces on his side.
"Then, how come none of his troublesome lords has tried to overthrow him?"
He knew warlords fell more quickly than they rise.
"I'm afraid their military forces are even more limited than his own," Shino stated blankly his dark eyes evaluating his possibility of movements across the board. "I have seen lords with only farmers on their lands. The daimio is the head of the Hyuuga clan of the south and that is the only thing that assures stability in the desert."
"That and the fact that Gaara-sama is married to a politically powerful woman, I suppose," Shikamaru grunted while closing his eyes for an instant. "I hate troublesome lords who can't honour their position."
The Aburame warlord's fingers froze inches over the board at the mention of Hinata.
"This is even more troublesome, now that Neji's wife is dead."
Shino furrowed his brows, his fingers closing around a mere pawn.
"I see. Things are moving too fast in every direction just like the weather. Insects are also disturbed by the waves of war. I suppose Neji-sama is in the South now."
He released the pawn, grazing the kanji of the knight over another piece. What he couldn't say was that he was as lost as insects.
"He should arrive there tomorrow," the strategist nodded. "But fear not, to mitigate this troublesome situation his absence creates, he's asked his concubine to take all his decisions."
"That is very much unlike him," Shino softly admitted moving finally his knight across the board. "But again, you married a beautiful woman."
"My marrying Ino doesn't endanger my lands, Shino-san," he replied harshly.
"You know, Shikamaru-san, the most dangerous insects are the ones we can't see or feel onto our skin. You should obsess more about Uchiha Sasuke and less about a bewitching commoner."
Stunned, he raised his head meeting Shino's purple cold glance. A smirk slowly rose to his lips; a meek shadow crystalized before his eyes.
"I see, if we can't count on Gaara-sama, we can count on Hinata-hime. You are a troublesome brilliant man, Shino-san."
"She offered to help." The cold man shrugged stiffly avoiding the Nara's approving look.
"It's still devious to turn a woman against her husband."
"She doesn't love him."
Their hands froze above the board, the impact of his words hitting them both as his weakness revealed. He couldn't avoid the dark unflinching eyes of the man in front of him. Without looking down, the captain's fingers leisurely pushed his pawn forward and took one of Shino's knights.
"It looks like Neji's not the only one with a troublesome misplaced obsession," he said finally letting a warning creep into the tone of his voice.
Warlords fought with their katana and never with their hearts.
Insects could easily be crushed onto the battlefield.
-X-
Steam whirled above the bathe, the limpid liquid rippling as a servant added the last bucket of hot water in it.
Rage boiled in her veins. The moment the door slid shut behind the servant, it exploded on her lips. Tenten looked down at the thin lines of dry blood on her fingers and she hissed in pain when she plunged them in the cold water of the basin. She ignored her reflection; the vision of a weak woman who couldn't handle more than 10 strings with weapons.
The election of Weapon Masters was always held one year after the death of the previous master so that candidates would hold no more grunge against the dead, so that each fight, each win represented skills and prowess alone throughout the election. Candidates needed to fight every member of the House that challenged their strength.
She was 12 years late.
Violently, she pushed the basin away from her, her fingers trembling on her bruising laps. Rock Lee's speed caught through her defenses again and again. She was enslaved to inadequate reflexes; she danced away from the blows instead of fighting back. A sensible weak dancer, she was, her mind repeated insensitively.
Her father could handle a thousand strings at her age.
Anger and bitterness twisted her lips as she bent over her bath. She was late from a thousand years and she saw the eyes of despair onto the waters.
In battles, instinct wasn't enough. Her footing and aim were flawless but she couldn't land one hit. She laughed dryly, pushing her thin kimono down her forms. The water reflected her bruises, drew her efforts across her skin.
She welcomed the warmth of the bath, submerging herself in it to chase away the knots in her muscles. She closed her eyes, her back resting against the wooden extremity of the bath. Her dark hair floated around her. 'I will never be worth of Neji, even less of the title. God, how have I been so stupid?'
Her blood turned to ice and she opened her eyes. Suddenly, she met the reflection of two purple eyes.
A force interrupted her scream as she was pushed down into the water. She fought back, hearing a muffle cruel laugh.
Water overflew.
Moments past, her muscles reaching their limits.
Her lungs burned, she floated. A hand snaked around her neck and brought her back up. Black spots danced between her eyes as she coughed water clawing at the hand holding her up. Damp air scratched the inside of her throat as she tried to drink from it.
"Hello, little one."
Savagely, the silver haired man disregarded her. Her body fell like a doll on the floor, her blood beating her temples. Unhurriedly, he stepped towards her, a sadistic smile rising to his lips when his eyes ran over the pearls of water covering her shaking back and a golden tattooed dragon.
Dizzy and weakened, her fingers brushed the handle of the kunai in her robes. Sobs rose from her chest as she felt the stranger's hands traveling down her back.
The kunai spun and spun, out of reach as he roughly pulled her away from it.
"Oh now, little one, don't cry. Jashin wouldn't want you to. After all, you are coming with me."
-X-
Some clarifications:
-A dana is the equivalent of a patron/sponsor since Geisha are considered like entertainers.
-Ibiki's little secret will be revealed in due time, no worries, bunnies. There are plenty of hints though. :P
-A dojo is a place where people are trained. Usually, they were next to a temple.
-A sensei is a teacher.
-I'm still unsure of what will become of Shino's feelings for Hinata, so if you have a request or suggestion, I cordially invite you to PM me.
I hope you liked it, I will update in two weeks considering the fact that school have begun. As always, feedback is appreciated. So, review? :)