Chapter Twenty-Three - Curiosity Killed the Cat
Sweat beaded on Aiko's forehead as scraps of paper, a variation of five colours, circled her in a meditative pose. Every so often, a butterfly would flutter from far and distant lands, unfolding itself to add to her collection of circulating scraps.
"Can you just pick something already?" Hidan groaned. "If I don't sacrifice someone soon I'll have to pray for Jashin's forgiveness."
"Tell me, Hidan, does Jashin listen when you pray?" Aiko wondered, capturing a yellow piece of paper from her hoard with her hand and studying it with a contemplative expression.
"Course," Hidan stated, puffing his chest up in pride of his benevolent God.
"Hmm, strange," Aiko mused, plucking another yellow paper from the air, "maybe he'll get back to me on taking away your ability to speak."
"You won't get anything unless you sacrifice- hey!" Hidan scowled, lifting up his three pronged scythe in warning. "You bitch, Jashin doesn't listen to the prayers of the likes of you."
"Right, I forgot - Deidara, pray to Jashin for me," Aiko smirked, tilting her head as a blue butterfly emerged into view, prompting her to outstretch a finger for it to land upon before studying it with great interest.
"Dear Jashin - it's the bomb squad here," Deidara began, clutching his hands in fake prayer, eyes closed and a smile on his face.
"Remember to offer him a lap dance," Aiko called out, unfolding the butterfly and studying its contents personally.
Hidan spluttered, brandishing his scythe as he tried to figure out who to sacrifice to his God (who did not want a lap dance from Deidara) first. Meanwhile, Aiko pulled a brown piece of paper from the hoard, directing it towards Kakuzu along with the two pieces that were bright yellow. The immortal studied them with glowing green eyes before reaching out to study their contents himself.
"You might be best heading into Lightning, Kakuzu-sensei. These are the best leads I have, but the Two Tails knows how to cover her tracks," Aiko explained.
"Nothing solid?" the mizer repeated, unimpressed.
"I wouldn't waste your time. One of those is a sighting of a pretty impressive bounty."
"Come Hidan," Kakuzu commanded, making Hidan stop in his contemplation to turn on him.
"What did you say to me, bastard?" Hidan yelled, turning his scythe towards Kakuzu. "Do you think you can just order me around?"
Deidara let out a scoff as Hidan followed Kakuzu from the room before turning to Aiko, casually flicking down his eye scope to peer at the blue-tinged message she was reading over her shoulder.
"Another love letter from your boyfriend, un?" Deidara teased, making the girl turn to him with a deadpan expression.
"Yes, Deidara. Between all my training, infiltration and intelligence gathering, I just love to sit back and read the messages from my many lovers throughout the Elemental Nations."
"Haa-haa," Deidara breathed sarcastically, "seriously, un, what a whiner."
"I think it's rather poetic," she grinned, recalling the tibets of information to her body, allowing them to merge with her paper form. "Anyway, cover for me for a bit. I'm heading out."
"Where are you going, un?" Deidara scowled, watching as the girl twisted around to press her body against the door frame.
"Where else?" she declared breathily, her palm running along the smooth surface of the wall as she edged away, "but to meet my lover."
Blue eyes fixed on the landscape before her, taking in the expansive crater that she was confident to be a recent development within the vicinity, the broken remains of what was supposed to be the Tenchi bridge hanging over the gorge with splintered edges. From her lips came a low whistle, an indication that she was impressed at the mere destruction that left a permanent scar on the earth, a feeling of satisfaction rising in her chest with the knowledge she was on the right track.
"Nice to see you again," Aiko greeted her visitor, turning around to smile at them, "Anzu."
Despite the passage of time from their days taking part in the Chunin Exams together, Anzu's bored expression remained the same. However, her black hair was now longer and chopped in an angled bob. The most pressing change to her form was her ensemble of a deep-purple wide sleeved kimono, with a black roped belt wrapped around her waist. On her forehead, her hitai-ate bore a symbol which declared her loyalty, no longer belonging to Amegakure, but Otogakure.
"Am I supposed to be impressed, or something?" Anzu sighed with a roll of her eyes.
"You haven't changed a bit have you?" Aiko teased. "Although I must admit, I disapprove of your change of allegiance."
"They let me cut whatever I want," Anzu declared, putting little effort into the shrug of her shoulders.
"What more could you want? It's not like they threatened to kill you or anything," Aiko scoffed with a shake of her head. "So go on then, care to explain what happened here?"
"It was the Nine Tailed Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto," Anzu revealed in a bored tone, looking out over the view before them. "Orochimaru-sama faced him head on, managing to draw out four Tails before the boy lost himself."
"So the fox is finally beginning to rear its ugly head, hm?" Aiko murmured, more to herself than anything, her mouth set into a stern frown.
"Guess so," Anzu drauled, before flicking her steel eyes to Aiko, "but this isn't the only information I can offer you."
"Oh?"
"We're willing to offer you the Six Tail's location."
"And what is it you want in return, dear Anzu?" Aiko questioned, well versed in the knowledge that nothing was given without gaining something in return.
"Think of it as a gesture of goodwill," a male voice cut in.
"Well, now it's a party," Aiko dead-panned, hands on her hips as Kabuto emerged onto the scene, his mouth quirked upwards and his eyes set. "How's it going, spectacles?"
"Rather well," the boy declared, pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose to make the glass glint in the sunlight, "but not as well as things are going for you, from what I hear. Rumour has it that you've managed to snag yourselves three Jinchuriki."
"And what is it to you?" Aiko inquired, a single eyebrow lifted.
"Now, now, little child of Akatsuki," Kabuto reprimanded her, making her jaw lock, "usually when someone shows such a gesture, it's polite to thank them. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"
Aiko tilted her head, giving him a sugary-sweet smile, her eyes closed to form half-moons.
"Manners? No," she revealed, a malice poisoning her features. "How to kill someone with a thousand paper cuts? Yes."
"We have been more than generous in providing you with your ring, and the current status of the Nine Tails," Kabuto reminded her. "If you want to know the location of the Six Tails, I'm afraid you'll have to show us a little goodwill yourself."
Aiko's blue eyes filled with a torrent of blue fire as she resisted the urge to skewer him like dango. In the background, Anzu yawned, pressing the cold blade to her mouth in an attempt of politeness before continuing to occupy herself with flinging knives at a nearby tree trunk. The thuds of which cut through the silence.
"Fine," Aiko scowled, internally promising herself that Kabuto would one day die by her hand. "What do you want to know?"
Kabuto grinned.
"I've always wanted a cat," Aiko admitted, peering through the bars of the Akatsuki's holding cells to view the petite blonde slumped against the back wall.
"When I was younger, I was fond of collecting their paw prints," Itachi revealed in a stoic manner, his voice soft as he kept a watchful eye on their Two Tailed prisoner.
Aiko turned her head around to the Uchiha, blinking at his unchanging expression.
"Really?" she frowned, her facial features scrunched together as she tried to determine if Itachi had finally picked up a sense of humour from being around Kisame for so long.
"Yes, felines are fast and intelligent creatures. It was good training to capture them."
Aiko chalked that one as a firm no.
"Do you think if I chucked a ball of yarn in there she would play with it?" Aiko questioned, turning her attention back to their captive.
"Considering her current predicament, I suspect not," Itachi concluded.
"But… your Sharingan, it's capable of making a Jinchuriki, or even a Tailed Beast itself, do anything you want, right?" Aiko grinned, an evil scheme that would make the other members of Akatsuki proud forming within the tundra of her mind.
Itachi blinked, turning to the blonde with her pale blonde locks sprawled out over her face, her clothing still torn and ragged. Unfortunately for Nii Yugito, Itachi was rather fond of cats himself.
"What the hell?" Kisame breathed.
He had probably left Itachi for an hour at most to keep a watchful eye over the Two Tails. She was being held until they could get around to sealing it, Aiko having offered to take his place for a while. Whilst Kisame didn't trust the girl to not make mischief as far as he could throw her (which was the furthest out of all the members of Akatsuki - a fact recently determined in a new take upon their regular entertainment) he at least thought he could rely on Itachi to ruin her fun. Alas, when Kisame returned with the intent to use Samehada to carry out the daily drain on the woman's chakra and keep her in a weakened state, all he could do was blink at the sight of Yugito Nii through the bars of her cage. She adorned blue chakra-condensed structures of feline ears poking out from her blonde locks, a matching tail swishing in a content manner.
"Ah quick, she's going to try and headbutt me again!" Aiko squealed, prompting Itachi to tug at the ninja wire in his hands, thereby making the blonde to dart across the floor on all fours, before pouncing on the end of the wire and holding it protectively under her two hands, tail flicking.
"What the hell is going on here?" Kisame demanded, opening the door to prompt Itachi and Aiko to direct their attention towards him.
"We're playing with Neko," the girl admitted gleefully.
Kisame watched on as Itachi made small tugs on his shinobi wire, prompting the newly named 'Neko' to mimic an army crawl along the floor, hands poised to make sure the wire didn't escape her grasp.
"Are you crazy? It's a Tailed Beast, not a house pet!" Kisame exclaimed.
"Aw, don't be jealous, Kisame," Aiko taunted the man, pushing herself up from the floor to attempt to pinch his blue cheeks. "Neko could never take the place of our adorable pet fish."
Kisame smacked away her hand for the attempt, making the girl yelp and clutch her hand.
"Oh, come on, I've hit you harder than that before," the shark-man scoffed.
"I know, but I tried to pet Neko's cute little ears before and I ended up burning my hand," she admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with her uninjured hand. "I kind of forgot they were made of pure malicious chakra. But hey, who can blame me? They're so adorable and fluffy looking."
The girl's eyes shone with golden stars, hand twitching as if she wished to make a second attempt at petting them.
"You're an idiot," Kisame sighed, before directing his words at them both. "You're both idiots. Get out of here before Leader-sama decides to crush you both against a boulder."
"Why so serious, Kisame?" Aiko asked before a devilish glint formed in her eye as she pressed her palm against her mouth and giggled. "You're not scared are you?"
"What?" Kisame dead-panned.
"It would make sense," Itachi (damn Itachi!) murmured before looking towards his partner with those expressionless onyx eyes, "given fish are common prey to felines."
"I am not scared," Kisame huffed, folding his arms into his chest.
"Oh yeah?" Aiko challenged, crafting a paper mouse with a flick of her hand.
Kisame narrowed his eyes as the paper mouse scuttled across the ground, heading towards the door to prompt Neko to chase after it at lightning quick speed. Kisame's eyes widened at a blur of blonde and blue that scuttled towards him, making him jump back out the room and slam it the door shut. Aiko collapsed on her back, clutching her stomach as she rolled around on the floor. Neko was in a similar state in front of the door, rolling on her back with the paper mouse in her clutches.
"Kisame's - totally scared - of cats!" she managed to choke out through bubbles of laughter as her hand lifted to wipe the tears streaming from her eyes.
"I am not!" Kisame growled through pointed teeth.
"Then why - are you hiding," she spluttered, taking deep breaths before taking one look at his face behind the bars and cracking out into laughter all over again.
"I hope it mauls you to death," Kisame muttered, turning away to spend time with the only person with an ounce of sanity around this place - his sword.
A/N: Poor Yugito. Next time on 'Akatsuki's Child', a plot line you might actually recognise XD
As a side note, Aiko's 16th Birthday actually occurs between this and the next chapter, so here's a question for you - what gift do you think each member of Akatsuki would give to Aiko? Just thinking about the possibilities makes me laugh. That would be some birthday party, huh?