Kakuzu watched Reni sleep, unable to do so himself. He had no idea why he could not go to sleep, but his theory was that he was still feeling the aftershocks of Reni's near-death experience.
The clock in the corner ticked its way slowly to four thirty-seven, and the window was lightened slightly. Dawn was coming, and Kakuzu had not slept a bit all night.
Finally, he gave up. He sighed and rose, listening to the bed springs creak slightly. He quietly walked across the room, opening the door softly and heading down to the kitchen, planning on getting some tea.
To his surprise, however, he saw Pein sitting in his chair, sipping at his coffee.
"Morning, sir."
Pein mumbled in response, staring blankly at the air before him. Kakuzu set the kettle to boil, getting out a tea bag and sticking it into a cup for himself. He sat across from the leader, both staring into space blankly.
Pein finally broke the silence.
"You and Hidan have a mission today. It will take you about three days to complete."
"What about Reni?"
"I'd have you leave her with Itachi, but he and Kisame are going out on a mission as well. You could always leave her with Zetsu…."
"Over my dead body", Kakuzu growled, knowing Zetsu would rather eat her than watch her.
Pein nodded.
"All right then, the only people left to watch her will be Deidara and Sasori. Is that okay with you?"
Kakuzu nodded. The teakettle started whistling, and he shut it off before the shrill noise woke up everyone else in the house. He poured his tea, and sat back at the table, sipping at the hot liquid. He was planning on how to leave for the mission, since he highly doubted Reni would just let him walk out the door. She obviously had abandonment issues, and he didn't want her to become more depressed then she already was. Finally, he was struck with a brilliant idea.
He finished his tea, putting the cup in the sink before heading upstairs. Pein watched him, pierced eyebrow raised.
"What are you planning?"
"If we leave without her noticing, it will be better for all of us. I'm going to wake up Hidan, and drop her off in Sasori's room. He should be awake, he's an early riser."
He walked upstairs, entering his room and walking over to Reni. He picked her up gently, and she murmured slightly before snuggling her face into his chest.
He paused for a second, enjoying the contact, then walked back out his door, walking to Sasori's room. He knocked quietly on the door, and an irritated looking Sasori opened it, looking up at him.
"Yes?"
"Hidan and I have a mission. Could you watch her for three days?"
Sasori looked at him briefly, then nodded.
"Just put her on my bed, I'll keep an eye on her."
He waved his hand dismissaly, turning to go back to his bench. Kakuzu walked across Deidara's messy half of the room, frowning at the clay ground into the carpet, and entered Sasori's half, which was frighteningly neat.
He set Reni down gently on the red-head's bed, and stroked her hair softly before turning and exiting the room, nodding in thanks to Sasori, who looked boredly up at him. Deidara snored, all three mouths drooling onto his bed, and Kakuzu paused briefly, disgusted.
"How do you sleep with that?"
Sasori shrugged.
"I just turn off the audio receivers in my body."
Kakuzu just shook his head before finally leaving the room, shutting the door softly behind him. Now to wake up Hidan and leave before Reni wakes up.
He entered his room, using his threads to rip the blankets off the immortal while he started preparing for travel.
Hidan bolted up, making a sound similar to a small dog being strangled.
"What the fuck, Kakuzu?!"
"Quiet, Reni's asleep in Sasori's room. We have a mission, and I want to leave before she wakes up."
Hidan scowled at him.
"You fucking woke me up for that?"
"I could have decapitated you, would you have liked that better?"
"Fuck you."
"I'd rather not."
Hidan frowned, but slowly rose, grumbling while he got dressed, which, with him, was equivalent to pulling a pair of pants on over his boxers and slipping into his sandals. He slipped his cloak on and tied his scythe to his back, turning to Kakuzu.
"Are you ready?"
Kakuzu growled.
"I still have to pack. Go grab some freeze-dried food from downstairs, enough for three days."
"I hate that fucking shit!"
"You could go hungry."
Hidan glared at him.
"I hate you."
"I know. Now get going."
Hidan stomped out of the room, walking heavily down the stairs. Kakuzu sighed, but continued grabbing supplies and stuffing them into a pack, until all he had left to put in was the food.
Hidan walked in at that moment, carrying a few packages.
"I tried to grab the better tasting shit, but you're still eating the fucking spaghetti."
"Whatever, just bring it over."
He stuffed it into a pack, slinging it over his shoulder and grabbing his briefcase and heading out of his room. Hidan followed, yawning, and stumbled down the steps after his partner.
Pein was still in the kitchen, and he silently handed them the scroll containing the details of their mission. Kakuzu accepted it and exited the house, looking towards Sasori's room one last time before starting to run to their destination.
The girl stretched, feeling herself on a soft surface again and chittering to the giant, eyes still closed. Suddenly, the smells assaulted her nose, but they were the wrong smells, like earth and wood and some sharp chemical smell.
Her eyes flashed open, and she looked at her unfamiliar surroundings, panicking. Where was she? And where was the giant?
She bolted to her feet, leaping off the bed and towards a corner before whirling around to study her surroundings, growling in fear.
The red-head sat at a table, and he looked at her, frowning slightly. He got up and approached her, and she snarled a warning, hunching her shoulders.
His frown deepened, and he said something sharply before walking towards her again, hand outstretched.
Her growl got louder and louder as he approached, and when he got too close to bear, she leaped up and bit his throat, feeling her teeth bite through wood instead of flesh.
Knowing her plan of attack had failed, she leaped off him and ran to the door, throwing herself against it in an attempt to get it to open.
The blond one rose at the noise, and looked around sleepily before saying her name in soothing tones, trying to get her to calm down. However, when he got too close, she bit his hand, oddly feeling teeth meet teeth, and a foreign tongue lashed around in pain.
The blond screamed and yanked his hand back, and the blue-haired woman slammed open the door, smelling worried.
The girl took advantage of this and bolted out of the room, heading for the giant's dwelling.
However, when she got there, the door was tightly closed, and there were no sounds of anyone inside.
The girl could feel her heart break into tiny pieces at the knowledge that the giant had abandoned her. She whimpered, and the three came around the corner to see her sniffing at the bottom of the door.
The woman opened the door for her, and she looked in only long enough to make sure her assumption had been correct. It was.
She walked into the room, sniffing for any sign of the giant, but any traces there were hours old.
She whimpered again, then lifted her head and howled sadly, feeling the three watch her. The blond came forward with comforting tones, and something in the girl snapped. It was their fault the giant was gone! Their fault!
Slowly, she turned and started snarling menacingly, eyes full of hatred. She stalked slowly forward, keeping her gaze locked with the blond's, seeing him back away fearfully.
He raised his arms in defense the moment she leaped forward, teeth latching onto his arm and crushing down, shattering it. He screamed, and she released to jump over him, landing on the red-head and knocking him to the floor with a clatter.
She ran out of the room, angry at them all. Not bothering to run down the stairs, she instead leaped onto the railing, balancing for a moment before jumping down, landing on the pierced man.
He gave a shout of surprise as she bit into the side of his neck, before he reached around his arm and yanked her off of him, tearing a chunk of flesh out in the process.
She landed on her feet, and leaped to the side to dodge a knife thrown at her.
The woman ran in, screaming something to the pierced man, and the girl snarled and leaped forward, tackling her to the ground and burying her teeth in her stomach, tearing through the muscle and feeling her teeth carve through the intestines.
Something heavy hit the girl's side, knocking her off, and she raised her bloody face to look at the attacker, the strange plant-thing. The object he had thrown was next to her, and it looked like one of the small tables.
She bared her teeth menacingly, crouching and slowly creeping forward, gray eyes locked with his golden ones.
He bared his own sharp teeth at her, meeting her challenge. Teeth bared, she started circling around, looking for an opening to attack, unfamiliar with the plant-thing's strength.
He calmly watched her, and she could feel the gazes of the others in the room, but she ignored them in favor of watching the greater threat, who was still observing her with a detached calmness that unnerved her, making her feel suspicious. This creature knew something, and it worried her.
He moved, and she focused sharply on him again, snarling slightly. His hand moved toward his leg, and she watched cautiously, knowing that the others liked to keep weapons attached to their legs.
He swiftly withdrew a knife and threw it at her, and she couldn't move fast enough to keep it from pinning her hand to the wooden floor.
She snarled at the metal object, trying to work it free as he came closer. Finally realizing it wouldn't come out, she gritted her teeth and yanked her hand free, feeling the sharp edge tear through her skin, separating her third and fourth fingers on her right hand even farther.
She leaped up and tackled him to the ground, where they began fighting to the death, snarling and snapping at each other.
She felt his sharp teeth bury themselves in her leg, while she in turn bit his ribs, feeling her fangs skate over the bones, leaving permanent grooves. He bashed her skull into the floor, leaving her dazed for a brief second, and took advantage of the moment by biting her shoulder, slowly crushing the joint.
She screeched in pain, struggling wildly to get free, feeling the bones slowly crack under the pressure of his jaws. This was a creature like her, knowing the ways of the wild and having the strength to live in it.
She felt a familiar pressure in the back of her mind, the same she had felt when the giant had gotten stabbed, and released it with a snarl, feeling the black, non-touchable tendrils form around her, lashing at her attacker.
He screeched at the sudden pain, releasing her and lunging back as the whips flickered away, having done their job of protecting her.
She staggered as the sudden weakness hit her, and the plant-thing grabbed her with one hand, lifting her up above the ground and throwing her into the kitchen, where she collided with the new oven, shattering the glass and denting the metal.
She fell limply to the ground, head feeling miles away. She turned her gaze slowly to the creature, but she couldn't find a way to react, couldn't think clearly. She knew he was a threat, but she couldn't remember why.
The creature walked slowly toward her, eyes turning red in her daze. His fangs grew longer, and he snarled at her. She felt her world fade to black, and as her vision dimmed, she felt a strange surge of power passing through her and traveling on. It hadn't originated from her, but from another somewhere else.
As her head touched the ground, and her vision faded away, she heard a familiar voice whispering in her ear. She frowned and concentrated on it, focusing on her mother's voice. She listened to the words, and felt strength flow through her.
Her vision snapped back suddenly, disorienting her for a second, and she came back to her senses just as the creature bent over her.
She snapped up, teeth locking onto his throat, and he made a gurgling noise as he pulled away. She released her teeth, and leaped away, staggering slightly as she landed, her back to the door.
Everyone gazed at her, some fearfully, some angry, and the creature with respect.
A sudden noise came from behind her, and a hand settled itself on her shoulder.
Without thinking, she whirled around and slashed at the hand with out thought.
When the scent of the hand filled her nostrils, she pulled away in disgust, a look of horror upon her face. The giant appeared equally shocked, and held himself still, frozen. The smaller man looked surprised as well, hand frozen on the doorknob.
The girl hung her head in shame, before bolting past them and running.
Kakuzu stared in shock as Reni buried her teeth in his hand, and saw horror flit across her face as she realized who she had attacked. She removed her teeth, hung her head and bolted through their legs, heading outside.
Kakuzu had gotten Pein's return signal and had run back as fast as he could. But when he opened the door, he didn't even think the trouble would be Reni. But the kitchen was now in ruin, the oven smashed and blood smeared over the floor. The living room was equally damaged, a kunai sticking out of the floor with a large puddle of blood surrounding it.
However, Kakuzu was not thinking about the cost of repairing the rooms, but instead of how he could get Reni to trust him again. The look of self disgust on her face, she would never forgive herself.
Finally, he felt the need to speak.
"What happened?" he managed to croak out, voice hoarse.
Sasori looked at him.
"She woke up, and when she realized you were gone, she snapped. She attacked everyone."
Kakuzu closed his eyes.
"What's the damage?"
"Deidara had his hand shredded and his arm broke. I can repair my own body, but she tore a good-sized chunk out of my neck. Pein had a bite taken out of his own neck. Konan had her stomach slashed open, and is in critical condition in the medical wing, and I'm not sure what injuries Zetsu has."
"She scraped our ribs and bit our throat. But we will be fine."
Kakuzu took a breath to steady himself.
"I'll start working on Konan, and give Reni a chance to calm down."
He headed toward the medical wing, and Hidan rushed after him.
"Oi, are you just going to fucking leave her out there? She needs you! Who knows what she's feeling right now!"
"Hidan, I just….. I just need to be away from her for a while, okay?"
Hidan stared at him, then shook his head.
"Whatever, just make sure you're going to check on her later."
He turned and walked away, leaving Kakuzu to himself.
Hours later, Konan in stable condition, Kakuzu walked out the door, peering into the afternoon light, shielding his eyes from the glare. Where would Reni hide, feeling like she did?
He sighed and stepped down from the porch, kneeling down to peer under it. There Reni sat, shivering and sniffling as the cold soaked through her wounds and chilled her severely, body going into shock as she slowly bled to death.
He stared, disgusted with himself. While he had been trying to make sense of what had happened, she had slowly started dying, wounds worse than what he had originally thought.
He tried whimpering quietly, seeing if he could get her to come out. He wouldn't be able to fit under there to get her.
She twitched, but just huddled even tighter, shivering deeply. He sighed and tried crawling in, but his bulk wouldn't fit in the tight space.
Stuck, he tried whimpering louder, a pleading note crawling into his voice and startling him. When had he learned to do that?
Reni looked toward him, equally surprised, and slowly unfurled herself, 'chrrf'ing slightly. He made the same whining noise, and she slowly crept towards him, keeping her head low and submissive.
He managed to coax her into the sunlight, where he carefully picked her up, hearing her whimpers of pain. He held her gently and carried her into the house, where pretty much everyone was wearing a bandage of some sort, except for Tobi, who had been oddly absent.
He carried her through the living room, and everyone gave her dirty looks, except for Zetsu, who actually smiled at her. Ignoring their looks, he carried her up to his room, setting her down on his bed, not caring if he got blood on the blankets or not.
He gently stripped her clothing off, assessing her wounds. She had a bite on her shoulder, her hand had almost been sliced in half, another bite was on her leg, and she was covered in many other cuts and bruises.
He used his chakra to mend her shoulder, feeling the bones realign under his touch, and used his thread to stitch shut her wound, cleaning it after. He attended to her other wounds, closing and cleaning them all.
When her wounds had been attended to, he gently picked her up, trying to avoid her many bruises, and brought her into the bathroom, setting her down into the tub and running some warm water, filling the basin.
She didn't move as the water slowly covered her body, just stared blankly as Kakuzu began gently washing the blood off her body, moving when he showed what he wanted her to do.
The water slowly turned pink from the blood he scrubbed off her, and he drained the tub and filled it again with clean water, adding a crystallized medicine good for bruises.
She hissed slightly as the medicine took effect, stinging the pools of blood collected under the skin. However, she stopped, and Kakuzu took it as a sign the medicine had finished.
He drained the tub and picked her up again, drying her off with a towel before grabbing some of his smaller clothes, knowing they would be too large but not having anything else.
He fit them on her and used his threads to alter them, but even so, her shirt was more like a dress.
Finished, he picked her up again and carried her to his bed, realizing she had fallen asleep. He removed the bloody blankets and put fresh ones on, covering her and allowing her to sleep comfortably.
Seeing there was nothing more he could do, he turned to head downstairs. However, he stopped when he head her voice.
"….Kakuzu….."
He turned and looked, seeing her eyes half open and watching him. She made a few noises, but looked frustrated as she realized he wouldn't be able to understand him.
She instead sighed and turned her head away, curling up tightly. The shaking blankets betrayed her crying, and he paused, uncertain of what to do.
Finally, he just sighed and walked to the bed, crawling in beside her and holding her close, comforting her in the only language they could both understand.
A/N: Oh no, the emoness! The first thing I have to talk about is the number of hits I've gotten for this story. Over 1,000?! Are you guys serious?! I didn't think this story was that popular with you guys! Thanks for reading this!
The next thing I'd like to say is that the next chapter will be the last. The story has to end, and now that I have the mood set up for the last chapter, now's the time. Prepare for some depressing moments.
Thank you guys again for reading this, this is my favorite project so far. Maybe if I get enough reviews, I'll write a sequel. *hint-hint* Anyways, thanks again! You guys are awesome!