Our tainted history is playing on repeat
"Nee-san."
Ebizo called his sister's attention, only to be met in silence. They were sitting at the dinner table side by side, with untouched food laid out in abundance. He noted the large quantity of cabbages and rice balls. What a homecoming. He sighed dejectedly. He hadn't heard her speak from the moment he entered the house and he knew that there was something wrong. Chiyo was the more upbeat of the two; she quite liked to tease him like all sisters usually do. When they were younger, she spoiled him rotten. And it was something to see her still. Quiet. Hollow. Ghostly. She'd been crying. The redness on her eyes gave it away. He was at a loss. There were few instances when her sister was so openly vulnerable. The death of Sasori's parents. Hatsue's aversion. They missed the girl, truly. Almost every day, she would stop by the Puppet Brigade facility and make them a cup of tea before going to the hospital which was at the opposite direction. They couldn't help but dote on her. She gave them the opportunity to feel what it was like to have a granddaughter. He wished Hatsue was here, the girl would draw Chiyo out of her mood with nonsensical chatter like the bakery down the street had the most amazing sprinkled cupcakes and it was terrible that they stopped making it because of the scarcity of supplies.
"Sasori… he- hates me."
Ebizo snapped his head up from the surface of the table to her sister's face. "What brought this on?"
"He asked about Hatsue. Why she stopped writing."
That had been a ship waiting to sail. Or an explosion tag to go off. He sighed. They knew Sasori would take issue with Hatsue's silence. They grew close. Then drifted. Not without a fight from one side; his grandnephew tried to hold on to Hatsue's friendship despite the distance. He looked at the ceiling, there was no answer there. Still, maybe Kami was looking down on them and clicked tongue at their lack of good judgment.
"He hated that I lied about his parents."
It shouldn't be a surprise that Sasori would, but it was different when confirmed. He thought that maybe his grandnephew understood why Chiyo lied. That him being a genius made him mature enough to deal with it. Suna expected too much from them and in turn, old bones like the Honored Siblings expected too much of the next generation.
I don't know what to do.
The younger sibling didn't know what to do either at the unspoken statement hanging in the air. Throw him in the middle of the council meeting and he can sniff out deception within a second, he can uncover hidden agenda under an inconspicuous project proposal at the drop of a hat, and he might be suffering arthritis but pretty sure he can still give most of the chunins a run for their money.
This was out of his element. Familial relationships were messy.
This is why he never married. (He'd never admit that it was because of his fear of commitment.)
He would have cracked a joke if only he knew how. Though, not even the funniest of joke can lift the mood right now.
"We endure." He looked at his sister with sympathy in his sunken eyes. "We have endured a war before, we will endure this one, we have endured fools who think they can play god at the council and we will endure this… rebellious phase of my grandnephew."
At this Chiyo's mouth twitched.
"Nee-san, no one can blame you why you chose to keep Sasori from knowing of his parents' death. It was understandable. It was poor choice to keep the farce longer than necessary but then again, I did not counsel you when I could have." He placed a hand on his sister's back, patting it. The action was unusual because he was usually on the receiving end of it. He hoped he wasn't doing poorly at it.
"Do you… ever regret the choices we made for Suna?"
He gave her a thoughtful look. "I think the choices we made, some of them were the best when the alternate brought the worst, and some could have been better if we only looked for another."
"What if…" The elder sibling hesitated. "we propose to make peace to Konoha?"
That surprised him. "Konoha killed Sasori's parents."
"That's something I will never forgive nor forget, Ebizo. But if we make peace, it will prevent another child's parents to die. It will spare a grandparent, who was lucky to be old enough to retire, from choosing to lie to their grandkids."
Ebizo was calculating power moves in his head. "It would be difficult. There's a lot of unrest and anger from our village that makes it so."
"Even without your help or consent, I am determined to do so. It would be bad to be on opposing sides at the council but I'd do it." She looked at him steadfast.
"I didn't say I wasn't. I just implied that it needs careful foundation before proposal."
She nodded and stood up to grab containers for Ebizo, neither had the appetite to eat but her brother could at least take some of the food. The younger sibling stood up to help her too and then asked,
"Alright, nee-san?"
"You worry too much, otouto."
He knew that they would be alright. In time.
Just because Sasori was on break from missions doesn't mean he didn't have work to do so after a week of sulking and walking around Suna hospital to catch Hatsue only to change his mind and turn around because why was he chasing Hatsue? He had said his piece; It was Hatsue who should be chasing him, asking his forgiveness, explained to him and then maybe they can finally hang out. Sometimes when he caught a glimpse of her, it was hard not to walk up, grab her shoulders and shake her until she makes sense again.
"Sasori!"
The red head was tinkering weapons here and there on his work desk, wood shavings were all over the floor, it was quite dusty down here, at his workshop, he didn't mind though. A boy of chin-length brown hair, square jaw, moderately thick bottom lip, button nose, crescent-shape brows and green eyes approached at his side. He wore a green jacket with rolled up sleeves over a dark-grey undershirt and dark shorts. He also wore his headband on his forehead.
"Hey, hey, do you remember me from yesterday? I'm Komushi, if you forgot."
"I remember. What do you want?" He asked.
"Elder Chiyo says I have to take you out for lunch. You've been working on puppets all day and it's already afternoon! You've more than filled enough quotas for the Puppet Brigade." Komushi answered.
"Not hungry."
"There's this restaurant near the hospital-" Sasori couldn't help but stop sanding the wooden puppet leg. Komushi did not notice, instead he rattled on. "- they serve prickly pear cactus fruit ice cream, it's really sweet. I would trade an arm to eat their meat dishes forever; they use Mesquite to smoke them so it really gives that earthy flavor. Just thinking about it makes me drool. So wanna go?"
Komushi looked at the empty space next to him then at the door where he can see Sasori already on his way out. When they reached the restaurant named Yashinoki, they seated themselves by the window. A girl their age, brown hair, dark eyes and a round face approached their table with a blush.
"Hi! Can I get your order?"
"Two desert chia smoothies, one serving of pinyon nuts for appetizer, two servings of smoked barbeque, and two prickly pear cactus fruit ice cream." Komushi replied for the two of them, although the girl's attention was clearly on the red head who was looking out on the window, directly at the hospital.
"Anything for you, Sasori-kun?" The girl blushed harder when the red head turned to look at her and gave her a negative answer.
"I'll be back with your food." The girl said, quite happily.
"How does it feel to be popular with girls?" Komushi asked, teasing.
Sasori stared at his new acquaintance blankly. "You mean being a named shinobi? Okay."
"You do realize you're good-looking, right?" Komushi stared in disbelief.
The grey-eyed boy looked on blankly.
"Unbelievable." The dark eyed boy muttered. "You're good-looking; our waitress seems to have a crush on you. Your face is like, a free pass or like, an unlimited pardon. Flash your good-looks at the market and you'll get freebies. Maybe one day, your face would be given the title as the 7th wonder of Suna."
The redhead kept silent. Komushi knew he wasn't much of a talker. Maybe he has a problem?
"I kinda notice you seem like something's bothering you. Or maybe I'm wrong."
Komushi got ignored.
Sasori tensed at a person passing by the window. To anyone else, they wouldn't have noticed. See, Komushi wasn't from a prominent shinobi clan, he had no connections on his own, and so he took it upon himself to build them. He learned how to study people's expressions carefully, that's how he was able to gauge when to step back or push forward in a conversation. It was a helpful skill. Komushi followed Sasori's gaze and looked at a black-haired girl with brown eyes, walks by the window, freezes upon seeing them (more like at seeing Sasori), and then sped away with apparent guilt on her face.
"Oh!" Komushi's face lightened up. "You got girl trouble! Your girlfriend?"
Sasori's head snapped back to him, glaring. "She's not my girlfriend."
"But she's your girl trouble." Komushi looked triumphant. "So, a friend?"
The redhead slowly nodded. "We… had a fight. It was her fault. She said sorry but she didn't want to explain why."
"Hmm." Komushi nodded thoughtfully. "You gotta have patience with girls. Don't push. Draw them out. They'll explain eventually if you stick around."
Sasori mulled over his new acquaintance's words. He found it really unfair to wait though. He waited for months for Hatsue's reply, then he had to do crazy things to meet her like slashing himself with a poisoned kunai, but a week has passed and she still haven't talked to him. Maybe Komushi is right. It's better to wait around Hatsue, in speaking terms than wait around Hatsue, in non-speaking terms.
"Want me to be your wing boy?"Komushi grinned.
What-
"-in the 6 wonders of Suna is a wing boy?" Sasori hadn't meant that to be asked out loud.
"Oh, it's like the person who helps you getting together with a girl."
"I'm not getting together with Hatsue."
"Po-tayto, po-tahto."
Sasori glared at him levelly. "What do you want in exchange?"
"Be my friend."Komushi beamed.
"Only if you succeed."
"Hai."
Komushi was a man on a mission. He waited all day at the hospital (he didn't know when her duty finished) to see the girl named Hatsue. Sasori's girl trouble. He snickered. Really, Sasori of Red Sand, having trouble with a girl. Unbelievable. Komushi found out that Hatsue was dun dUN DUNN: Little Kango-hei! If this goes well, he would have two named shinobi backers for his connections. He was giddy at the thought. So many possibilities and opportunities.
"Good afternoon, sir. You wanted to speak with me?" Hatsue approached him, taking off her jacket and beret; she was wearing a white shirt underneath.
"Hey, my name is Komushi. No sir needed to call me by!" He introduced himself. "I know I'm a stranger and that your medic duty has finished and this is probably not allowed but can you take a look at my mom? She keeps saying she's fine but I have a feeling she's downplaying her backaches."
"Was she recently on a mission?"
"No, not at all, she's a civilian!" Komushi answered then he moved to hold her jacket and beret for her. "Let me carry this for you."
Hatsue handed them to him absentmindedly. Hook, Line, Sinker. One of the things Komushi learned, when asking a favor from someone, offer to hold their coat for them while asking for a favor, the chances of them saying no is reduced significantly, not only because you're nice to them but because you're holding their things hostage. Life skills. Heh. At least the dark haired boy would like to pretend so, that he had slick ulterior motive when the actual reason would be because he was taught by his mother how to be polite. He had to be sly (or at least pretend to) because reason: he's a shinobi but his mother kept babying him. Seriously. If Hatsue wanted to turn down his request, he'd never know because she walked with him towards his house.
When they arrived, Komushi hung her jacket and beret on the coat hanger by the door. Komushi felt like he had done enough small talk to ask interesting questions.
"Do you know Sasori of the Red Sand?" Komuchi asked, hiding a smile as he led her to the kitchen.
The girl stilled. "Yes."
"He's good looking, isn't he?"
"Well, yeah-"
"You know most of the girls our age are crazy about him, besides having contributed much to Suna and him being Chuunin already, his red hair kissed by fire, fair skin touched by moonlight, grey eyes like the glint on iron, perfectly shaped nose and brows on fleek." Komuchi should have won a medal at hyping up his new friend, who knew listening to rabid fangirls proved useful.
"Do you-" like him?
The unspoken question was cut off upon Komushi reading her face. "No."
"Then, are you fishing?" She asked
"What"
"You know, asking for compliments. You have a rather defined jaw, your button nose looks cute, you have green eyes which is rare, and don't sell your eyebrows short, they're thick and crescent-shaped. You're handsome on your own. Trust me, I used to do portraits."
Komuchi felt himself panic at that, he needed to stop this. "Oi, lady. I'm taken, I have a girlfriend. I'm loyal to her, and my girlfriend compliments me all the time when she's not mad. Seriously, back off. My loyalty to her is only rivaled by my loyalty to Suna. Also, she'd hunt you down."
Cough.
They both stared at Sasori. Okay, time to come clean. "So… I lied about my mom's backaches. Sasori, my good friend, wants to talk to you but he chickened out. So, as his newly appointed friend, I have the obligation to find a way to get you to speak with him. Go easy on him, Hatsue." Komushi turned around to leave the two in his mom's kitchen.
They stood silently.
"Hi." She whispered.
Sasori waited.
"I'm sorry." She apologized.
"Well, me too." He replied, and then sighed, defeated. "I'm not gonna push you. I'll wait until you're ready."
At that, Hatsue felt so relieved, as if there were wings on her back that had her jump towards Sasori and hugged him. She doesn't know why she felt like she could say it now. She didn't know what was different but she felt safe because she sees the glimpse of that friend a year and a half ago, willing to cater to her whims. The boy who would help her wipe off the paints that somehow made their way on her face. The boy who would scold her for giving his puppet a cool tattoo (to her opinion). The boy who ran out of black paint one day, and she made him more by mixing brown and blue. Maybe it was the where because Komushi's house was somewhere her parents and Chiyo couldn't overhear.
"How did I become the little army nurse, Sasori?" She asked, her face buried on his right shoulder.
"By saving a lot of patients at our age." He answered, absentmindedly rubbing circles on her back.
"By killing a lot of them." Hatsue confessed, her eyes starting to water.
Sasori grabbed her shoulders to stare at her face but Hatsue's arms grew tighter on his shoulders, preventing him from doing so. She would not cry, doesn't dare to insult her ghosts further than she already had.
"The Kazekage trained my chakra control, and I did it well." She took a deep breath. "A patient is different from separating sand particles one by one using chakra, it's different from separating sand from iron. External wounds are easy. Internal wounds were… hell. One slip of too much chakra can fry blood cells and white blood cells. Have to be concise. Precise."
He was patting her head now; honestly, he had nothing to say. For him, killing was necessary when ordered.
"The first one was… someone I talked to. He lost his arm. Disabled. They said he had an infection, asked for water at midnight only for the medical-nin in patrol told him to toughen up, just because he lost his arm doesn't mean he had to be useless. You see, he had stitches on his stomach, ripped them open from moving. He could've lived if a medical-nin saved him but instead, he became my first practice dummy."
She was squeezing him now, trying to stay right there in the moment, in Komushi's kitchen, trying not to get lost in the memory. Feeling Sasori's solidness anchored her down.
"I boiled his blood with my chakra. He twitched. He died. He didn't scream. He had painkillers. Too much to register the pain. Lucky me I didn't have to hear his scream. Not so lucky on the next, the next next and so many more. I wasn't ready; I would only kill more at my inexperience. I asked the Kazekage to reconsider. The council was impatient. Konoha has Tsunade. Suna has to have… me. They told me the patients were all dying anyway. Or broken. Disabled. They can only be useful as my practice dummy, they said." Her arms loosened.
Sasori sucked in a shuddering breath. "So you stopped writing back because-"
"I was busy trying not to think, or trying to feel okay. I was… drifting for months, like I was in a dream, a terrible one. Sometimes, I couldn't hear what people were saying. I was spacing out a lot. I was crying myself to sleep. And then I started hating everything. The Kazekage for allowing it. Grandma Chiyo and Grandpa Ebizo for not stopping it. Myself. Maybe I should have just taken the chuunin exams."
"You would've died." Sasori whispered.
"Then, I wouldn't have this much body count on my hands."
"Stop that." He scolded, this time he was the one squeezing the life of her. "You don't get to think that. I won't allow you."
"My life is not greater than any of them, Sasori."
"Not to me." He pushed her back, to stare at her fiercely. Then slowly, he leaned his forehead to hers, his gaze towards the floor. "Friends for eternity, remember?"
"Yeah." She mumbled, careful not to fan her breath on his face.
He gripped his hands on her shoulder harder. "One day, we'll leave Suna, you wanted to see the waterfalls in person, and koi fishes, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums, and snow, Hatsue, remember? When the war is over, and it's safer and we're older, we'll leave and forget about the stupid council and stupid shinybaldyhead of a Kazekage!"
Hatsue tilts her head back, laughing at that and finally, Sasori relaxes at the sound of it. They're alright.
"You still remember that?"
"Hmm." He nodded. "Wish I was there to see."
They stayed for a couple of moments in silence. They welcomed it, basking at the comfort of having their best friend back. For the first time in a long while, they felt happy. Looking back, they would not remember word for word how their reconciliation went. They would, however, remember the dust particles that floated around them at that moment due to light the setting sun gave off. Sparkles, Hatsue would say, ever the hopeless romantic. Dust, Sasori would say, ever the realist.
"We're okay, right?" The girl asked timidly, staring at him with her molasses eyes.
It still reminded him of chocolate.
"Yeah."
"Sasori?"
"Hmm"
"I know it's late but welcome home." Hatsue moved to kiss his left cheek, leaving a tingle that made his brain go fuzzy. Like when an explosion tag blew up on your face and left your ears ringing, except this didn't feel harsh, just strange. Sasori did not dwell on this unnamed feeling; he wouldn't be able to identify the strange phenomenon for a couple more years. He turned away from her, if observed closely; anyone would see he was acting shy.
"Glad to be home." He mumbled on his way to finding Komushi and thank him or not, maybe he'll just buy that prickly pear cactus fruit ice cream as thanks. On his way, some words may or may not have slipped out like 'stupid Hatsue, the things I went through for you' or something along those lines.
A's note:
Komushi has a girlfriend but like not in a serious way. Kids have girlfriend in our time but more like awkwardly hanging out together and show off to their friends that they have a boyfriend or girlfriend but they don't really do much together. Also the unnamed gf is actually Komushi's 8th gf. They'd break up in a bit because kids.
Also finally, I got Komushi in the story! Best wing boy ever!
in a non shinobi modern AU
Hatsue (painter) and Sasori (sculptor) will be art college students. Komushi would be choose Tourism, and work part time at a coffee shop where he would blast sad songs whenever Sasori drops by being mopey after he and Hatsue got into a fight. Komushi would also blast the latest love songs whenever Sasori and Hatsue would drop by, hinting at them to get together already, like it's been years.
His first song pick whenever Sasori mopes would be "right where you left me" by Taylor Swift. The big reason would be the line 'friends break up, friends get married'
To 000xx000
You left a review an hour after I posted chapter 6. Thank you. Yeah, I don't think I will delete this, rereading it actually made me a little bit impressed like I could see the plans I had for this story, also it made me feel like I was a reader. As for whether it would be a long completed story or not, I might have a storyboard for that but who knows. I'm unreliable at updates anyway. You caught me when my writing juice is still on. I really don't know if I have any of that left, I have multitude of tasks left bcoz of online classes. But yeah! Thank you! 3 Also I dedicated this chapter to you.