EDIT, December 2011: Once upon a time, StormDragon666 was a friendless, awkward fourteen-year-old who sat alone at lunch in eighth grade every day. Throughout the school day, she looked forward to coming home to go online and gawk at how many people loved her story, Airborne. Now, August 2011, Stormdragon666 is a successful college student with friends and an actual life, (though fanfiction still triumphs) and has decided to edit Airborne all the way through to meet the bar of her current writing skills...and then update the story. YAY.
(Also, when I first posted this chapter, remember that I had just become a sophomore in high school. Do not underestimate the writing- and brain-power of the occasional capable freshman! End edit note.)
Chapter the Twenty-first!
January 16th, I think close to 6:00 in the evening. ...Sakura POV
You know what? I think God decided to give me a break today. And I am so dang thankful.
I didn't think things could possibly go this smoothly. The day has passed swimmingly. Yes, swimmingly! What a word! It makes me want to go swimming! Alas, there's no pool here! But anyway. I'm still happy.
First, after leaving Kakashi to read the walk-in closet of information on Karin's data chip, I went downstairs expecting to see Zetsu gulping down baking soda in the kitchen…but he wasn't. He, Neji and Itachi had put their two-and-two-thirds brains together and figured out how to work a microwave. When I went down I could see that it had two minutes left to go, and a rack of lamb chops or ribs or something of that shape was being heated inside it. Kakuzu had been quite emphatic about how to and how not to grill things (read: set on fire) and what foods were better cooked in what methods. They were going against his rules, but the food looked okay and they were complacent and occupied, so I let the matter alone. Already, three fewer demons to worry about.
Well, except for the implicit possibility that one or more of those three are literate enough to read instructions on a package of food, which is probably more of a con than a pro. Or maybe they ripped off the plastic and shoved it into a shiny box just 'cause. Duly noted.
So those three experiments fed themselves that way. All the others came into the kitchen whenever they pleased. All decided that cereal in a bowl with a spoon was as complex a thing as they could handle. They had left the Lucky Charms and Rice Chex boxes open but returned them to their proper shelves, and even rinsed out their bowls before putting them on the drying rack. I can't imagine that a quick rinse cleans the bowls of their fugly germs and fingerprints, but the effort alone is impressive.
Most of them found little ways like this to keep occupied and relaxed. And what did I do during this time, you might ask? I drifted in between rooms all day long. I was in the kitchen supervising the eatery activities, Kakuzu's room reading the experiment data when he was done—more on that later—Hidan's room for peace and quiet because I'd found a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in Kakuzu's room and his cousin's room was the best place to sneak some reading time, the garage because the two blonde experiments kept asking me for demonstrations on the power tools, (HAHAHA no.) the bathroom to use toothpaste and to teach Zetsu how to use toothpaste on his frigging pointy teeth and the basement because the tennis ball Kisame found fell down there and the living room because most everybody spent the day in there watching television and throwing an old football they found all around the room. Excuse me while I take a breath. GAAAASP.
Okay, the television-watching and football-throwing are the most notable things, hands down. I'd watched television when I hung out with the cousins, so the sight of Spongebob Squarepants, Judge Judy and Eric Cartman weren't quite as amazing to me as they were the first time. The guys were totally mesmerized.
They spent most of the morning getting familiar with Dora the Explorer and they answered her when she asked where the bucket/tree/house was. And they said "map" when she told them to. I bit my tongue to not laugh.
And then the football thing, because…it was just weird to see them doing this activity that was so common for boys. Turns out Sasori can catch the football in his scorpion tail and Itachi and Kakashi can catch it with their backs turned. Kisame can also catch it in his mouth without his razor teeth popping the poor pigskin, which everybody thought was pretty cool and spoke of admirable control. Even Sakura the Uptight Biotch thought so.
Sometime in between these activities, around lunchtime, Kakashi tapped me on the shoulder. I deduced it was him simply because I could hear the voices and activities of all the others, and slammed my hand backward till I hit his chest. He stood there for a moment, aware of my threat to stop his heart if he tried anything dangerous. He calmly told me that tomorrow night, once everyone was rested and we'd have the cover of night again, that a few of us should go by Karin's home, which was somewhere in this city, and try to find out where she'd gone. I thought it was wiser to go now, to not waste time and give Karin ample opportunity to escape to the ends of the earth.
Unfortunately, he's right about us needing to be rested and strong. I mean, we've been raised on food pills and water and only recently had to deal with true, genuine cold for the first time. We were still getting our strength up, for the first time in our lives. Better attack her at full strength than at a third strength and risk recapture, imprisonment, torture, punishments which include but are not limited to forced blindness and starvation and removal of limbs or even death if they feel like it and did you realize that he's right yet?
Kakashi went around telling this to his fellow experiments, instead of calling a dark, solemn meeting like I'd been sort of fearing. The plan was established, and we had the rest of the night and all day tomorrow to rest up and…do whatever else we wanted that didn't trash the cousins' house. Watching movies and playing indoor games of catch turned out to be good choices.
Feeling the need to get the male experiments attention off me for a good, long while, I fetched a movie for them to watch, something flashy and attention-grabbing that would hold their eyes for a long time...Inception it is.
I almost feel like pouting that I can't re-watch this masterpiece with them. But I need my relaxation time too, and I won't be able relax if there are clawed beasts nearby. I put the movie in and gave them a good, detailed description of what was what and how dreams were said to work in this story, and that no, you couldn't go into dreams like Leonardo DiCaprio does, not even Chambers can do that or have invented the needed technology, yes this is real life and no the movie is not, and yes, popcorn is what you're supposed to eat during movies and I will make some for you.
It was kind of a scary sight, my nightmares all sitting together in this average American room watching a movie. Kisame and Neji, the ones who really liked playing catch, got up often to throw the football to each other with their eyes on the TV screen, something I thought showed some seriously good coordination from those guys. Besides that, they tried popcorn—I think they all liked it except Kakashi who made a gagging sound—and watched the very long movie, giving me time to sit in the nearby kitchen and read my book in peace.
Sometimes I shook things up a bit and went upstairs to sit in one of the cousins' rooms to read. I switched back and forth because I couldn't decide which I liked better. Hidan's ruffled bedsheets and junk on the floor seemed amusing and homey, but Kakuzu's clean and small room felt cozy, simple, even safe.
With all this, my mind felt weirdly…at ease. I didn't usually have so little to think of. Just my book and them and their movie. (For the sake of my sanity I wasn't thinking of Hidan and Kakuzu coming home to a house full of murderers, Chambers Incorporated now probably intent on destroying all of us with their mercenaries and beyond-invincible technology, and Karin and Kabuto both alive and well and doing god knows what. One thing at a time, for now.)
But in this house, this little shell of temporary simplicity…it was really relaxing.
I actually got halfway through Chamber of Secrets before the movie ended, and I loved every word of it. Not just the story, the tale, the words that created the movies that the cousins and I had watched, but the fact that I was reading a book just astounded me. Reading the nutrition labels on the TV dinners downstairs, and the captions on movies, and the warning labels on a bottle of Tylenol just do not compare to reading a good book. It felt so good. It was so peaceful and so warm, like the day after I'd escaped Chambers and spent the morning playing in a river in the woods. So perfect it was almost surreal. I had to put a stop to it myself before an experiment did it for me and soiled it.
What I did was simply get of Kakuzu's bed and move over to his computer. I had long since seen that the data chip had been left inside and inspected it for strange fingerprints; Kakashi hadn't so much as touched it. The window full of information on us was still open. All the icons for the experiments, save mine, were grey. My white icon meant that Kakashi hadn't clicked on mine and hadn't read my information. Well congratulations on keeping a promise, Wolverine. I'll just take...over from here.
Did I just compliment him? That almost hurts inside. It hurts because that goes directly against everything I've ever thought, every belief I've ever had. But the sad fact was, that didn't matter now. I had to read my profile before Inception ended and some lonely experiment decided to come up here and pretend to be interested in cuddling and playing.
I clicked mine first, of course. I saw my own picture. My hands were bound in front of me with shackles that looked like plastic but were truly metal. The sight of my old shock collar made me want to throw up. That thing was dead and gone and in a scrap heap by now, I told myself. It couldn't ever hurt me again. It was a piece of malfunctioning crap and was gone forever. But in this picture, it was still keeping me prisoner. I still had my usual outfit of a comfy grey tee and white shorts that covered a fraction of my thighs. I looked curiously into the camera. I remembered having that photo taken some months ago. I remembered being surprised at seeing the camera. Faking my usual unintelligent face wasn't hard.
My information was nothing I didn't already know, sadly. I was a good swimmer and had mastered using my wings as paddles. I could hold my breath for some four minutes without showing any distress, had been mute all my life, and had the strength of an ox or two but was too stupid to realize and utilize it more than a few times a year. I was incredible fast and agile and none of the male experiments had ever successfully captured or pinned or even touched me in the so-called "Combat Trials" in the white rooms. Nothing about my ability to create electricity was mentioned, nor about my true intelligence. This data had apparently not been updated since I'd escaped the lab.
I went through all the males in turn, and found a new and interesting fact or two in each one. Kakashi's left eye was almost exactly the same as both of Itachi's, having the same hypnotic power that science couldn't yet explain. Sasori liked to sun himself under heated lamps, Itachi wouldn't let anyone but himself brush his hair, Zetsu could live off of sunlight and seawater if he had to, Deidara would willingly kill any creature set before him unless it was a baby bird, Neji had X-ray vision (actually I'd already known this one) Kisame caught some sort of sickness almost once a month, and Naruto was known to purr in his sleep.
There was nothing crucial, though. No life-threatening weaknesses, no horrible strengths I didn't already know about. This chip was almost completely useless except it told me exactly how tall each experiment was and how much they weighed. Each page of information had at the top the experiment's name, height and weight and I guess a fun fact from there would be that Neji was the lightest of them all at a hundred and fifty-five… I wasn't sure if that made him underweight, but it may explain why I saw him eating three bowls of cereal earlier today.
Movement on the stairs. Someone was coming up. Someone slow and heavy. Kisame, I guessed.
I turned in the swivel chair and crossed my legs and arms. Tried to look intimidating. As best a five-five girl of around eighty pounds and partially hollow bones can. Also pink hair. Okay, my intimidation factor is zilch, forget it.
And Kisame it was. He'd taken off the heavy black cloak the workers at Chambers had given him and in a rather loose and long-sleeve blue shirt with buttons. He didn't look quite as intimidating as he usually did. He came into the room slowly, twice averting his gaze from mine and that I found especially strange. I was wary immediately.
He held out to me a square thing I didn't recognize, at least for the first five seconds or so. It was a DVD case, I saw. On it was an enormous tree and a little girl. Pan's Labyrinth, it was called. I remember hearing some employees talk about it many months ago when I was still a mute prisoner. My interest had been piqued at the time. Nothing but words of praise and awe had been said, and Kakuzu had lauded it, too. "I heard Yuugao talking about this once." Kisame said. I was kind of surprised that he'd heard about this thing, probably the same time I did.
He rambled off a summary, pocketed with pauses and awkward areas. He was trying to tell me about the main character, a little girl in the war-torn Spain who is approached by a magical creature and told to complete three tasks to prove she is a princess, and all the reasons why the film is nowhere near as childish as the summary sounds, but...well...yeah, pauses and awkwardness. He's nervous. Around me. What the heck does that mean? He finished with, "What I heard about it before, made me think you would like it and I still think you would."
Well, dang. Kisame didn't give a mantra about trust and affection. That alone had my attention, and when he handed me the movie my attention was doubled. The little pictures on the back held my interest immediately and I felt sort of glad to have heard about this movie before. I also felt confused: Way back when, in the days when he thought he knew me and thought we were friends, he thought I'd like this movie, and he still does, when he knows I hate him and can't stand to be in a room with him? Why does he still think that?
"I thought that if it interested you, you might want to watch it because Itachi and Sasori fell asleep right after Inception ended and Kakashi's reading some magazine in the kitchen with his eyes half-closed. I thought maybe you'd feel kind of safer with the more threatening and smarter men unconscious." The guy grinned at me and put his hands in his pockets.
Out of politeness I gave a little grin back. "I guess you're right. And I do want to watch this. There's no end to how many people adore and are awed by it." And how to break it to him that that doesn't make him any better than the others? I'm glad the smart fellas are out like lights now, but that doesn't mean I like dumber guys better.
"Yeah, I know you still have trust issues and that's fine, you do or think what you need to. I came up with something that could go along your terms." And he said that like he was proud of it. It was a weird thing to see on burly, huge Kisame: a humble sort of pride, like he'd never been proud before. I must have looked like I was genuinely interested in his idea. In truth it was just his facial expression, the contrast between this dangerous behemoth and the idea of humility. It was like oil and water.
"My idea is…yeah, this sounds screwy but the idea is that you sit next to me at the end of the sofa, with me to one side and the armrest to your other. That way if someone jumps you or something," he said this like it was just fucking stupid, "you have a super slow-moving brute on one side and all that room to escape on the other. But I already told the guys not to touch you or anything during the movie. I don't think they would have anyway. The only ones left awake to jump you are Naruto and Deidara, who are damn morons, Neji who's got a weak spot on his collarbone, and Zetsu who…uhhm…shit. Can't think of one for him. Will you come?"
He just sounds so awkward. And dammit, he's really pleading with me. He's pleading me to watch a movie. Like that's what he really wants.
Why can't they just slice my stomach open and crush my skull and tear up my wings and claw out my eyes and get it over with?
So much for being comrades in this mission to destroy Chambers. They're ruining my peace of mind. The scraps of peace of mind that I had gathered. I liked those scraps. Another two or three of them had just blown away in the breeze again. But his plan made solid sense. It's not something I expected from Kisame. What I'd expected from Kisame always went something like "HULK SMASH!" and I could see no loopholes, plotholes or any other kind of hole in this plan. And I really did want to watch Pan's Labyrinth.
"Yes, I'll come down. Let's go set it up."
"Do you know how?" he asked hopefully. "'Cause uh…since Kakashi screwed up the television earlier today I don't trust anyone else with the DVD player."
This actually made me laugh. Genuinely, truly. "Yeah, I can do it. I'll show you, it's not hard." I walked past him, scared for my life—I brushed his arm with mine!—and heard him following behind. He started to say, "And I know this may sound really rude or incessant or something, but I don't really know how to make the p—"
"Just put the popcorn package in the microwave and set it for two minutes. Abra-kadabra."
"Thank you!" Kisame said. I could feel him grinning behind me. It didn't feel too terribly frightening. Not as much as usual. I think it was just anticipation of the movie getting to me. I guess.
January 16th, 8:22 PM, so says the wristwatch I took from Kakuzu Zashi's bedroom. ...Itachi POV
Kakashi and I were at the front door of the house and thankfully our clothes camouflaged us for the most part in the night. He was panting, had turned his back to me so he could comfortably pull down his scarf and pant like an overheated dog. He used ten to fifteen seconds for this, and then replaced the scarf over his face and nose. his red eye and black eye gleamed at me.
"Ready to go in?" he said, still panting a bit.
I glanced at the worn notepad he held in his hand like the long-lost cure for a disease. Only for first few pages had anything written on them and he'd been sure not to let his fingers touch the pencil strokes, lest they smear or fade them. All I said was, "As best I can be," for that was the truth. We didn't know what our friends would think of what we'd done these past few hours. Most had been busying themselves in the cheery American business of watching a movie or sleeping and I thought only Sasori and Sakura, attentive souls, would notice we were gone. Sakura would be scared that we were missing, but we would soothe her. We had successfully found and entered Karin's home in the city and obtained this book from it. We were successful and we were coming home again. We had seen cars and pedestrians and streetlights for the first time, so we were awed as well.
He reached for the knob and went inside. I looked around the neighborhood for witnesses, with my eyes hot and prepared to burn through the brain of any passersby. Perhaps that's too strong a phrase. I'll only put them to sleep temporarily, but thankfully there's no one to perform this on. I followed Kakashi inside and closed the door behind me. It was quite heated inside, too great a change from the cold of January outside. I unzipped my jacket and held it in my arm. Even the mass-producted grey shirt that Chambers gave me to wear seemed too hot.
The kitchen was to my right and I only glanced in that direction. Kakashi headed that way and briefly patted Sasori on the arm, who held a small and thin booklet in his hand, perhaps a magazine. Kakashi did not show our friend Karin's notepad, only took it with him to the sink as he searched for a cup to fill with water.
I turned to the right, away from the kitchen and into the living room, where the television showed a moving list of white names on a black background while a rather exquisite and sorrowful tune played through the speakers. These were the credits, and they signaled the end of a movie, the point when people stop paying attention. my friends had dissolved into talking and playing, but I listened to the song I heard. It was intriguing. Exquisite. Why did they not listen, too?
Sometime during that fine song I saw Kisame and Sakura sitting together on the large couch. Deidara sat on the smaller armchair to the side and Neji and Naruto sat together on the floor. Zetsu stood behind the armchair, nearest me, his flytrap currently disappeared from his shoulders and his eyes looking hypnotized. It seemed everyone was now entranced by the song.
Sakura's head shot up and she looked directly at me—and I could not resist purring, in fact, I relished that instinctual response—and I felt the questioning in her brilliant gaze. Of course, I saw it, too, for Sakura's eyes had always been full of vivacity and expression and what she could not put to words could more than likely be put into her eyes.
"Where did you go?" she queried gravely, having just realized Kakashi and I had been out in the streets of Portland for the past hour or two. "I...I had no idea. The others insisted again and again that I wait for you."
She longed for me, I thought, and then realized it was a foolish thought. She had missed knowing where I was, what I was planning. She does very much dislike not knowing what's going on. She hates not having all the knowledge.
"Karin's apartment, on the south side of the city," I said, moving up till only the back part of the couch separated us. The others were still hypnotized by the rolling credits and lullaby-sound. "We also dropped by Anko's home and took her cat and dropped it at her sister's doorstep on the other side of town. I personally saw her take the animal into her house. Smiling." I knew she'd think something of that. Back in the lab, when we all had done what we pleased and killed whichever Chamber employee we came across, I had secretly glimpsed her gazing at a photo on Anko's desk, of the woman and her fat cat sitting on a carpeted floor. I had suspected Sakura had wanted to make sure the cat didn't starve what with its owner being stabbed to death. So I did something to make her smile.
Judging by the look on her sweet, young face she was shocked if not disturbed I had thought and done all of that. It's probably "terrifying" to think a monster like me could have such foresight, in the name of a starving kitten. To distract her from it I added, "I know Kakashi told you a few of us would be going to Karin's apartment to see if there were any worthwhile items hidden there."
She looked away, looking sheepish, looking adorable, and looked back at me again, saying, "I—I was under the impression that I'd be going as well, or there'd be no point in telling me it was going on."
Still she had that set in her mind. That we were keeping information from her, that we harbored a secret desire to maul her. God only knew how long this would take to erase, even with seven others helping me push the message across to her. "We're all together for a common cause and everyone's help and input can be used. Why shouldn't we tell you what we're doing…?" ('Little one,' I almost added.)
Her eyes turned a shade darker and she sighed a bit. "You know why…"
She thought we knew and thought a lot of things that were utter nonsense. I told her so. "No, I don't. Your entire thought process concerning us is a lie and one day you will see that. And we will keep telling you how wrong you are until you believe us."
The expression in the little one's eyes said in bold and italic letters that she didn't believe me.
The expression in her eyes changed suddenly to shock and surprise. She raised her hands to catch the notepad which Kakashi had thrown in her direction. Sakura flipped through the notepad immediately and her eyes went wide upon seeing the information written on the first three pages. The eerie, sad lullaby still played on the DVD and the others watched the credits, transfixed, save for Kisame, who was now looking at Sakura and the notepad.
"This is her handwriting for sure. Flawless cursive, i's with no dots…" Her eyes flashed with what I knew from years of hopeless gazing as her analyzing something. The credits and the music drew to a close as she read and re-read the information scribbled on the pad.
After a minute or so she sighed again. "Six dozen professional mercenaries, I'm betting."
The notepad had six dozen names written on it, each name backed by a few letters. The first name, for example, was "Keith Griggs, GAS". Kakashi and I hadn't talked about what we thought the names were; we left Karin's apartment as soon as we could, leaving—we hoped—no fingerprints and no sign that we'd ever been there. But mercenaries had been my first thought on those names as well.
"I recognize some of these names." she noted, drawing a small finger down the second page. "Keith Griggs I've heard several times. For years. And Mustapha Mond. Vladislav Krimi. Lara Rassil." She sighed again and her wings drooped the slightest bit, barely sinking into the couch cushions and for that tiny reaction I wished to take away and hide this thing that depressed her. I could not. Not now.
Her next laugh was grim, caustic. "She's out to kill us. Or at least recapture us. Only these people here would have any chance at either one. Even if Orochimaru's dead, Karin still has her connections and people who will follow her lead. I'll have to assume all of these people are going to do what she tells them to."
'Recapture us?' I felt foolish for believing that our death was the only option. Recapture had seemed silly in my mind until Sakura herself said it. The only thing worse than death was a return to Chambers, a return to cold and cruel scientists who knew everything we were capable of, and would never allow us another opportunity to be free again. They would taunt and prod and destroy us. They would know we at last had nothing left.
"What do you think would happen if we just walked outside one day in the city and…waved to people?" Naruto was speaking now. He still eyed the moving credits. "Like, we just go into a restaurant or a bank something? Someplace people will see?
"They'd scream, I suppose." Sakura shrugged. "Large groups of humans who don't understand something are prone to mass panic. If we went anywhere public, the police station would probably be best. Anyone who saw us would be capable and marginally armed, though not enough to really present a physical challenge, I think. I think doing that might make us look...civilized. It would definitely minimize panic if people knew we were sitting in a room full of society's protectors."
"Turn ourselves in—?" Kisame gaped.
"Are you sure their training would be just...'marginally'?" Naruto asked. No one commented on his improper conjugation, though surely Sakura and I weren't the only ones irritated by it.
"I do." she said. "As prepared as any local law enforcement likes to think they are, or even actually are, it probably won't match up to the things we've challenged and beaten. Did any of you go through the snipers' trial?" Several of us nodded. Only Neji, for some reason, had been spared that trial, a seemingly endless chain of guns installed in the walls, whose projectiles we had to dodge or have our limbs shattered through by bullets. Some policemen would be simple in comparison.
Kisame stopped gaping.
All the cool confidence and composure on Sakura's face then, as she looked at me…I had an inkling most of it was false. Not that she felt her idea was weak, but her confidence in looking me in the eye was still weak. I held her gaze evenly and tenderly. When she looked away from me, whenever she was ready, I would kindly and gently allow her away. "I thought it was important that we make ourselves public before Kabuto or Karin could create horrible reputations for us. And if not that, at the very least we need the public on our side, and not wanting us dead or used for study."
With perfect clarity I recalled the news broadcast we had seen that morning shortly after arriving at this house. The discovery of the burning Chambers lab in the middle of the Oregon woods, and the dead bodies and equipment inside it. Every continent should have heard of it by now, if not most people around the world with an internet connection.
"My thoughts exactly…" Neji said absently, staring at the television. "This will be the only night we put it off. Even if Karin were spreading lies about us now, it could not reach everywhere, to every person, in only a few hours."
"For that, we're especially lucky she's laying low right now." Sakura said quietly. "And that she could go to jail for life for her crimes. This makes it a lot harder for her to spread anything publicly."
Neji quieted and his ghost-eyes met mine unsurely. He knew our plan of action was not his choice, and for him to make a decision himself, unless asked to, was frowned upon. I, however, knew what was to happen. "In the morning we'll go again to the lab and find another information source. Presently we don't know where Kabuto or Karin are, or the location of any of the other laboratories. Our search this morning could hardly be called thorough."
Sakura cocked a pink eyebrow at me. Her silent question was easy enough to understand. Was it truly necessary for us to go to the site of our recent massacre of defenseless, if appallingly cruel, humans? The last place a wolf needed to be seen was the farm where a lamb was missing.
"There's no other choice." I reminded them all. "Anko's apartment was empty of anything useful and there is no other place to learn any information we need to move on. If we don't go there soon, Karin's mercenaries will start seeking us out. Even if she is in hiding, they will look everywhere for us."
Naruto tried to halt his growling. It sounded a bit whiny to me. Complaining, frightened. It even sounded complaining and frightened when he said, "I wanna go to sleep. Sakura, can I sleep on the floor?"
Naturally she appeared surprised that he would ask to take the floor as a sleeping place. Naruto had spent most nights of his life on a cot in his cell, and there were three comfortable beds upstairs and an arm chair and sofa right here in this room. I, too, wondered why he do this. Obviously not to let his elders have the comfortable spots.
"I…Well, I think you can sleep anywhere so long as you don't tear up the upholstery or the sheets…or the carpet…" This made Naruto quite ecstatic and he rushed to the back of the living room to the closet, where there was a vacuum cleaner, several rank jackets, and a pair of blankets. I didn't stay long enough to see what he did with them but I heard a plop on the ground which may have been him dropping them. Soon enough everyone would find a place to sleep.
This night would be the most secure and comfortable most of us had ever had. Beds and blankets...beds. Such mythical objects until today.
I admit that it made me a bit giddy to finally have such luxuries. I was told how to use the shower, the washing machine, even the toothbrush. And once I had performed all of a human's nightly preparations, I selected one of the bedrooms for myself. It was rather cluttered, but anyone can tell you I am not particularly choosy in my sleeping places. Deidara was asleep on the floor of this room. I stepped over him and claimed the bed as mine.
Before sleeping, though, I stood up again and, as though it would protect me from danger, locked the door.
One last human measure...just for...fun.
January 17th, 9:01 AM ...Sakura POV
Last night had actually been kind of nice. Peaceful. How odd.
All the guys started taking up random sleeping places, from Hidan's bed to the beanbag chair in the guest room to the kitchen table to the stairs. (Yes, the stairs. Zetsu sprawled his body out on the steps and slept…diagonally.) Me? I went into Kakuzu's room and slept on his bed without covering myself with the sheets. Partially because I was warm enough, what with the bed being right next to a heating vent and also because it would be easier to get out of there without tangling myself in bedsheets. Kakuzu's room was a strategic spot, as his door squeaked terribly at even the tiniest crack of movement. Whether it was slow and deliberate or a sudden slam, it made hella noise and it would wake me up if anyone tried to come in or even bumped the door while walking in the hall.
My dream that night was absolutely weird. Usually my dreams were normal life stuff mixed in with a single weird element, for example, Karin screaming and bitching like usual but screaming and bitching in a foreign language. But nope, this was just a straight-up symbolic nightmare. Poetic evil.
This dream showed me a pair of unfamiliar blonde boys running along a road in the steaming desert. Every now and then they faded in and out like they were holograms, and they became horrified and distressed when this happened, running faster and faster till they were solid again. The first boy disappeared completely when exhaustion caught up to him and he collapsed. The second boy didn't stop running, if anything he went even faster. Even so he evaporated into nothingness and I had the sense that these two boys were the last humans, and beyond this silent road in the desert there was nothing and no one left at all. It made me want to sit in a dark room and rock back and forth.
I woke up slowly and groggily but gladly, because the sight of Kakuzu's immaculately clean room were a relief from the feeling of frightful blankness, the lack of anything, that the dream left me with. Kakuzu's bedside clock told me 8:09 PM.
What the heck. This means I slept nearly eleven hours. This...wow. And just last week, I had never been allowed to sleep for more than four hours at a time. And now I'm like a regular person! That's so cool! But moving on.
Kakuzu's bed is comfy. I completely went against my previous rule about not getting dangerously tangled up in sheets, and pulled one of them up over me. A blanket over my bare legs, my bare arms and cool wings. It wasn't quite as thick as the one I snuggled in while Hidan and I watched the Shawshank Redemption, but it was nice. It was clean. I lay covered with it for a little while longer before putting it back and lumbering outside to take a warm (looovely~) shower. My clothes had been washed in the cousins' washing machine last night (and I had to wear Kakuzu's shirt. Zetsu...hissed at me when he saw.)
Speaking of fugly little black-and-white monsters, I found one still sprawled on the staircase. Zetsu was still there, his venus flytrap-thing still gone. I was curious, I admit. Where the hell was it? Was it still there but in the form of gas or water vapor particles or something? I wanted to hover my hand around his head to see if I could feel anything that might signify its presence, but didn't dare. He could be waiting for that. I just jumped over him. Which was quite epic, since it meant I jumped over all the stairs. I landed soft, tanks to a few wing-flaps.
This left me just in front of the front door. Kitchen to one side, living room the left. Deidara and Neji were sitting on the kitchen table, muttering with their heads bowed, looking half-asleep. I stood by the stairs and pretended to be occupied with another book while the others took turns using the shower, learning what a toothbrush was, and listening as I gave them the "don't eat the stuff under the sink" lecture. Which was unproductive because I really wanted them to eat the stuff under the sink. It appeared that only I had woken up feeling even marginally rested. Maybe I was also the only one who had been forced to sleep only four hours back in the lab. It would make sense. I was the only one who'd been housed in a dog crate, after all. Luxuries are clearly for men.
Half of them looked ready to fall asleep again but since sleepy time was over I decided to be super-nice and make coffee for them. Kakuzu was very emphatic that it made you wake up in the morning and many people were thankful for it. In the few minutes that took, Sasori and Deidara appeared to wake up a bit more and only appeared half-surprised when I handed them cups full of coffee. I hadn't added anything to it, so I guess it was to be called "black," which means coffee with nothing mixed in it. Right?
"Is this the stuff that Kabuto would always drink in the morning?" Naruto had asked me when I gave him some. He had replaced his black Chambers shirt with a black-and-orange jacket from the cousins' closet. I thought it looked nice.
"Yes and no. He did drink coffee but I can't guess how he drank it. What things he put inside like milk or sugar, or something else."
"What's in it?" Neji had yawned.
The can had said "French roast." Of course, it didn't tell me what was roasted. Or what made it French. Did I just feed them snails? That would be...satisfying. "I'm not sure, honestly. Besides coffee beans."
"They make beans for this stuff?"
In the very same moment, composed Sasori and humble Kisame took a sip and spat it violently into the sink. "Blerrrgh" noises ensued and I laughed out loud. I wasn't the only one, either. But I was the last one to stop and what I heard when my silence came around was Naruto purring at me.
"Your laugh's really cute." he said, and while Kisame continuing "blegh"-ing I nodded and made some excuse to go upstairs and be away from their freaky eyes that turned my stomach into knots. I sat in Hidan's room and looked through his Pokemon book (this is a game, right? I will not actually see a Garbodor in real life, will I?) for a few minutes and then came back down.
The new scene was other experiments trying out coffee and talking about the things they'd seen on TV the day before, chiefly the news segment on our own destruction of the laboratory, and Dora and Boots. Before I went back to the living room, I saw them adding salt to their coffee while the similar-looking sugar canister sat innocently by. Well, that's what you get for not knowing how to read. Or are you just doing another one of your subtle tricks, male experiments? Whatever. I'm outta here.
I turned on the TV again and found a news channel, where a reporter was thoroughly deconstructing Chambers Incorporated after various laptops, papers and Id cards had been found in the lab, smothered with the company's data and logos. The managers of various Chambers outlet stores and CEOs of its higher branches were being harassed for answers. Unfortunately for the reporters, their ignorance was real. Very few employees of Chambers Incorporated knew of the company's secret plan to build war machines like us. I turned it off before anyone else could come see. It would be a delight to share, but we have things to do. And this'll be on the news for a frikkin' long time.
Back in the kitchen, Kakashi was stretching his arms up. He groggily said, "Ohhhh-kay. Ah. Tired. Mm. Sakura…you know the way better than any of us. I tried to memorize most of it yesterday morning but I got distracted after that second four-way intersection."
Well, of course responsibility falls on me. Bring on the anxiety and the doubt and the pressure! I could totally get into a knife fight with guys named Anxiety, Doubt and Pressure and win. But this time, if I didn't act wisely, I could cause car wrecks and property damage. Maybe I take them on the wrong route or speed them across a road at the wrong time. Pressure. Pressure. I could deal with pressure, I had always dealt with pressure. The coffee-induced laughter from minutes before was forgotten.
My voice sounded nothing like Sir Leader Kakashi's. "I remember the route, definitely. I can get us there." I said, totally not sweating at all the gazes locked on me. "Someone will have the watch all the intersections with me. It's be easier to have more than one pair of eyes on the cars."
You know what? I'm gonna keep it short on the trip to the Chambers lab. The thing is, we all traveled in shadow except for the few experiments who looked mildly human. Naruto could press his ears so flat to his skull they could melt into his hair, and it was no problem to tuck his tail into the back of his pants, so he just walked along the sidewalk some ways behind us looking like a normal guy. Neji could do just the same and walked with him and Kakashi too, since he didn't look animalistic at all. The rest of us walked in almost-single-file and alternated between super-speed walking and running so fast the other people on the sidewalk thought us an illusion. I hope. In the meantime, most of the experiments were having their first-ever experience of walking in...well, society, but their wonderment and first-time-at-Disneyworld-euphoria would have to wait. We were off. In broad daylight. Aren't I an effing genius.
I'd rather not elaborate on how we almost made a semi smash a little kid and his soccer ball, so let's just say we arrived in the Tillamook National Forest without much trouble and no witnesses seeing us. Thank. God! My heart can stop trying to climb out of my throat now.
Okay. Now, this is where we are now. Watching, because we couldn't get any closer than the tree line without being seen.
The place was much more crowded than we thought it would be. Zetsu, whose green-and-black-and-white color scheme made him more or less blend into the snowy forest, snuck up as far as he dared. The fact that he could melt into the ground was a great help. He needed that ability now probably more than he ever had; the place was crawling with the media.
Reporters and cameramen and journalists and photographers were all over the place, mixing in with guys in biohazard suits and detectives and worn-out firefighters and what looked like volunteers piling the bodies out in the parking lot, and of course police officers trying to drive the paparazzi back beyond the line of the parking lot. It looked like some sort of holocaust had happened here. And hadn't it? This one was infinitely preferable to...the other one.
There was no single space where one of us nine could waltz through and not be seen by someone, not even human-looking Kakashi or Itachi, or petite me. There were even people walking on the roof of the lab who'd see us. The lab itself looked mostly as we left it: a broken and rotting building with cracked windows and smoke still piling out the windows, which was surprising, since it'd been slightly over a day since we'd started that smoke.
The media had a reason to still be hanging around there. An entire building just up and appeared in the middle of the woods, previously being invisible, which modern science currently thinks impossible to do, and then there's a hundred dead bodies inside, blood-smeared floors and walls and cells and rooms full of needles and samples of disease and radiation and even weaponry. I'd felt all of these things on my skin at least thrice.
There was a hand on my bare arm, and from the coolness of it, I guessed Neji or Sasori. The growl was indiscernible and I didn't try to guess at whose voice it was. My eyes were trained on the black man sitting on top of a fire truck, who hadn't moved at all since we'd come here. My raptor eyes focused in and out, trying to make out the words scrawled on his chest pocket through the snowy, rough wind that kept obscuring them. I kept staring and the male experiment who had a grip on my arm pulled me closer. I felt lean muscle in his body, which still left the choices as Sasori and Neji, the lankier fellows, and it was actually a bit comfortable there—
The man's tag: Mustapha Mond, GAS.
The second I recognized his name was the second I felt the needle in my arm and saw the blast of grey. I had felt that sort of needle in me before, felt that color blast, and knew I'd be falling to the ground soon. This was Charge 350, Chambers' own perfect tranquilizer. It could fell fully-grown elephants and put them into a coma, and for me, with my heart, my endurance, my blood, I would fall unconscious and be helpless in under a minute. I had no choice but to do what I did. With my presently-unnamed male companion still holding my arm and trailing me, I walked forward out of the protective trees and into Chambers' parking lot. On my way, I grasped the needle and crammed it into the pocket of my shorts.
"Hey! Hey!" I yelled as loud as possible, but was it? It sounded faint to me. Underwater, perhaps, but surely that was...was the drug. Yes. I could still see that most of the reporters and cameramen turned. They screamed and gasped and stared and everyone was looking at me and—I saw a whisk of brown hair—Neji.
"Don't shoot, please! Don't shoot!" I said that because Mustapha Mond up there on his fire truck was still aiming at me and he probably had comrades close by with similar arms. "We're not a danger to the people, I promise you! We won't hurt anyone! Chambers Incorporated did create us, and—"
I can't remember if I was able to say just how y diabolical Chambers Incorporated was.
Probably still January 17th. Probably still daytime. Being forcibly drugged makes any more accurate guesses pointless. I effing hate drugs. Anybody who uses them, go smack yourself. ...Sakura POV
White. White. White. White.
This room is far too white.
I looked around the reflective tiles, desperate for color, and keeping quiet. My old instinct for doing so was prominent in me. I tried to sit up and found that it hurt like some thousand flames and oh Jesus Christ make it stop!
By the time I fully sat up, I was almost in tears and my wings shook like frail, silver leaves. moved my eyes instead of my head and saw that surprisingly, I was not bound with any chains and a shock collar had not been put on me. I was basically free. 'Thank you, God, if you had anything to do with this.'
And I was still wearing my tee and shorts, and it didn't appear I'd been biologically tampered with in my sleep. But one couldn't be sure of that.
The tranquilizing dart was still in my pocket. 'Good.'
To my left, there was Neji, laying flat on his back, eyes closed and breathing deep. His black coat was open at the chest, revealing the loose sleeveless shirt below. It showed off the fact that he really was a lean boy and could stand to eat a good burger or two. Perhaps he hadn't eaten enough at the cousin's house after all. I looked around the rest of the bland, white room for something to eat...and isn't that stupid. I guess I'm still a little drugged up. I laughed at myself.
The sound brought a questioning growl-purr from my right, and there was Zetsu. His flytrap appendage was attached to his shoulders right then, ridiculously stretching the neckhole of his long coat. And that's kinda silly, 'cause wouldn't they make his clothes knowing the neckhole would be stretched epically like that? The flytrap has a bullet in it. And he has two red patches on his leg. He was staring at me.
Awake, conscious, so I asked in the guise of a statement, "So I attempted to show them we're not a threat and they tried to kill us anyway."
"Some did," and the black part of his mouth moved. "It was the man on the fire truck, and others we didn't see. The mercenaries from the list. They shot us full of that damn drug, the only one that can make us sleep so quickly, the…uh…" Were it one of the cousins here with me, I might consider waiting so at to not let him feel like his memory is going and he needs my help. But I have no such reservations of kindness and patience for these fellas.
"Charge 350." I supplied him, and he nodded, now looking furious. "They shot you full of it. Sixteen darts. Nine to Neji. I blocked nine more that would have hit you both."
Zetsu had blocked Charge 350? With what, his bare hands? Couldn't be. Was he as precisely skilled as Neji, who could catch a bullet in his teeth? However he'd done it, he wasn't lying, that much I knew. I could see the other puncture holes in his clothes. And indeed, they were mostly on his arms and wrists.
"Thank you," I said, and I meant it. Zetsu gave me a smile so smooth and yet so brilliant I couldn't look away from it. Since when did he carry emotion within him? Since when could he smile like that?
"Deidara and Kakashi were going to come help you. The others had to hold them back, because you pointed, and made a hand motion," Zetsu raised his white hand and feebly, quite pathetically, tried to copy the hand motion I didn't remember making. It fell back onto the floor with a thud. Definitely still drugged. "telling them to stay away. They stayed away, and the man on the truck got down, and his friends came from somewhere…and they grabbed us and took us away. I talked to Neji a little while ago. He says he remembers us riding in a truck. With soldiers. Pointing guns at us."
He looked around slowly, like his neck was in pain and then turned back to me. "I don't recognize this room. I don't think it's part of the lab." One quick glance told me that the fear I'd woken up with was wrong. This white, white, windowless room was not part of the Chambers lab. For one, I'd seen or at least glimpsed every room in the building. Also, it's currently crumbling and filled with dead bodies and that is totally not the place any experienced assassin would stash a priceless mutant experiment. I told all this to Zetsu and he nodded.
"Yes...and I bet we're on the news right now. You, me and Neji. The reporters had time to film you and him clearly for a few seconds before the man started shooting."
And not enough time to say what I needed to say about Chambers. I had wanted to come out there spouting my peace messages. Truth. But we were shot down before I could speak a word in our defense. So I'd failed. I had wanted to verbally expose them, because even if they were hanged for genetic experimentation and fraud and embezzlement, the icing on the cake would be the fact that they'd been abusive to the experiments, too.
They had abused their genetic experiments, who were bought and created with money partially obtained by embezzlement and hidden with fraud, abused them with disease and inhuman physical labor and lack of sustenance and most everything a torture victim was subjected to. That, was something for which they needed to be burned and I know the public will soon do that to them.
"Do you think the footage of us three has gotten to news broadcasts all across the world yet? Or just in America?"
He was about to answer when a red light flashed above me, and I found myself looking into a black camera, which had been previously covered by a white panel. I saw a microphone on it, though, and the white panel probably hadn't been able to hide my conversation with Zetsu. Except—wait, yes—Zetsu and the other males didn't actually speak English, they spoke their growling, purring tongue—
"So how's life going, Sakura?" Karin's voice was unmistakable. "Conquered any new fucking obstacles today?"
She must have thought that was funny, because she erupted into such raucous laughter that the microphone that caught my voice and projected hers gave screeching feedback. Fifty nails on fifty chalkboards right there.
"What do you want now, Karin?" I adopted the tone of "My two-year-old child is being a brat again" to see where that got me. She picked up on this tone.
"I want you on your fucking knees, that's what I want!" The feedback from this screech made me wince and woke Neji from his sleep. Immediately he realized what was going on (I think?) and sat up, growling like the caracal he was and twitching his tail. His growls had little whimpers of agony mixed in, and I wondered for his sake and mine if the Charge 350 that hit us had been mixed with something else equally bad for our systems. A toxin or-
The feedback again. "Do you hear me, Sakura?" The noise hurt my ears but I stared defiantly at the camera. Her screaming wouldn't affect me now. "I want you begging to go back into your dog crate, I want you crying for the muscle cutters and surgeries without anesthesia and screaming for your shock collar again! I had a new one designed just for you, and it's even go your name on it, little pet."
No you don't. No, you don't. You don't have a new shock collar for me because good lord I would never truly live or breathe again if that thing touched me again. No.
Neji grasped something at his side and tossed it up at the camera. I realized it was a piece of tile he'd scraped off with his claw, and it thwacked against the wall near the camera with all the threat of a lion's roar. "Sakura is not your pet!" His growling was furious, enraged, menacing. "She's our pet. Ours."
Moving a muscle would have made me cry out right then. I wanted to badly to electrocute his ear, single it to a little ash mound—and I heard Karin talking again, sounding a little more sane. "So what did this douchebag say?" she grumbled haughtily, and my theory from a few minutes ago was confirmed. Karin couldn't understand their talking! She heard me speaking perfect English to another creature who was doing nothing but making animal noises. This was perfect!
"You know what? Doesn't matter. I've got business. Soon I'm coming down there to put the shock collar on you, pet." Neji and Zetsu hissed together and bared their fangs. "Those two will be put in interlocked cells, right next to yours. They'll be close enough to watch when you get electrocuted again. I wanna see how many volts it takes to make you scream. Make you talk, beg, cry. Everything! The amount you and Kisame endured the day you escaped could be a good starting point. What was that? Ten thousand? Two? Fifty? What the hell. We'll try everything. I'll be on my way in a minute!"
We heard the sounds of her scuffling around, opening and closing drawers, humming to herself. Preparing. I was so glad I still had the needle with me. It was crucial now. It could save us, and if not that, ruin Karin one last time. I would ruin her before she could ruin Zetsu and Neji. I would burn her first if I had the chance, and now I did.
Fire, lava, plasma, everything hot in existence raged in my torso and arms and stomach and made my blood pound like a stampede of wild horses, but I leaned over to Zetsu anyway. It was a long lean, as he was still laying down, and I had to whisper in his ear. "She can't understand you when you talk. This could help." I gulped, getting picture after picture of what I was going to do, the exact reason I'd put the dart in my pocket in the first place. "She's not going to kill me unless I scream for her. And I won't. I promise."
Zetsu was not a feline at all. He was human and plant, so I didn't understand why he licked my cheek then and purred against it, pressing his head close as he could. It seemed so feline, but I let him do that for five or six seconds before leaving him. I let him we warm against me and that was okay right now.
I turned—his white hand grasped mine faster than I thought the drug's pain would allow, and I let it stay there while I repeated the same information into Neji's ear. It was a little easier, as he was sitting up and had four ears to hear my message instead of the typical human number of two. When I finished I took the dart out of my pocket. Neji saw the thin, steel tip as soon as Zetsu did, and I think they understood my plan. Neji's tail twined around my arm and pulled me closer so he could effectively whisper to me.
The movement, so quick, brought the furious lava-pain again and through the pounding—the slamming, the crashing—of my heartbeat I heard only a little of what he had to say. It may have been, "love you," but my hearing was horrid at that moment, so it may have been "left you," or "lose you," and "little one" may have been in there, too. It sounded like all of them to me and I didn't want to waste time figuring which one and retreating from my plan. Karin was coming.
I moved away from him slowly and his ears pulled back in what may have been fear or anger or anxiety or all three. I slid my hand out of theirs and stood up. It was grueling, sweaty work that took more willpower than strength. Twice I stopped to breathe deep and slow and cease my panting and press a hand the cramp in my side. Zetsu murmured something quietly to me, his black side, I think, the side that was usually cursing like Hidan and talking angrily. Neji's claws scraped against the tile. I could sense they both wished for the strength to get up and stop me. I kinda wished for the strength to stop me as well.
Then again, I wished they'd keep quiet, too. Here I was doing something that would help them, doing what they'd allegedly always wanted me to do, and they were crying and whining for me to stop. Ungrateful, effing bitches.
But now, now I was standing straight up in that plain and perfect white room, holding up the dart in my left hand. Please, please, let her still be able to see. "Karin!" I said loudly. There was no response so I spat out here name again. There was a shuffling, bopping sound that I assumed was here plopping back into a chair and leaning into the microphone and camera. I heard her stammer and stutter as she saw what I had. I inwardly wondered why this hadn't been taken from me while I'd been unconscious. Maybe they hadn't thought it would be a threat in comparison to me. Well, it was.
It wasn't hard for me to draw up a diagram of the human body in my head. Lungs, pancreas, Achilles tendon, everything else. The organs in particular, I could have traced with my bare fingers. And I certainly knew where my larynx was. The colloquially-named "voicebox". My steel-tipped dart, thin enough nearly to poke a hole in my eardrum, pointed right to it.
Everyone was watching, and I knew what they were thinking. They thought I was about to live my lifelong lie. Muteness would no longer be faked with a faulted voicebox. They saw a Sakura who would truly be mute.
With perfect precision and true confidence, I stuck the needle into my neck and punctured it.
First of all, I don't actually know if the larynx is close enough to one's skin to be stabbed without stabbing any other body parts, too. I have yet to take an anatomy class and my knowledge of it only extends to quaint trivia that Dr. House gave me. So I don't know if Sakura's deed is actually possible. Please do not try to find out for yourself. I am a small humble fic writer with no driver's license.
Secondly, dang that took some time. A lot of work! But I'm done now and thankfully it's not past one in the morning so I can head off to sleep without fretting that I've lost any of it.