ii.

Chapter Thirteen: Feather Braid, Honest Lies

"The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself. To go outside oneself. To exist in, and for other people."

"Nanami-chan" Burning Earth called her attention away from False Pieces, who was once again sitting in his main form surrounded by a pile of puppet parts, working away at them. (She liked watching him work, and he didn't mind if she was quiet and stayed out of the way.)

They had come back from this last mission a little roughed up, and Nanami knew that meant maintenance work.

Nanami shifted on top of Burning Earth's bedspread bringing her full attention back to the blond man who was grinning at her like the cat that got the canary.

"I got you something while we were out." He said, startling her. Her eyes widened, anticipation and surprise settling heavily in her belly. A small breath escaped her as she considered him.

"You did?" She breathed and watched as he dug through his travel pouch.

False Pieces scoffed. "Sentimental creatures." He said it like it was a curse, Nanami ignored him.

Burning Earth pulled a pretty orange feather with red edges from his bag with a flourish. His grin widened as he took in her expression.

"For your braids, it's a good match for your hair color, un." He explained with sweep at his long bangs.

She was at a loss as to what to say. Her mouth opened, and then closed. She bit her lip, a strange tightness clawing it's way up her throat. It itched and made her heart pound like she'd been running for too long.

Oh no... she was going to cry.

She choked the sensation back, a burning in the corner of her eyes that she was forced to blink excessively at. She didn't want to cry in front of Burning Earth and False Pieces. She didn't want them to think less of her.

"Thank you." The words came out a little wet, and Burning Earth laughed; clearly pleased with her reaction.

"Come sit with me and I'll put it in your hair." He said distractedly as he dug back through the bag for what she assumed was his hair brush. (Burning Earth was the most vain of all the Red Clouds, defeating Loud Blood by a small margin)

"Okay," She agreed, making a poor attempt at hiding her eagerness. It wasn't often any of her Red Clouds offered physical contact, she wasn't going to turn it down when she craved it so much. (She tried to keep it under wraps, but she had the feeling they knew anyways.)

She crawled forward to sit in front of him, turning to the side to continue watching False Pieces do his maintenance so Burning Earth could reach the space behind her ear where she normally put her braids.

His hands reached out, adjusting her shoulders and pulling her small body to sit between his outstretched legs. The contact was shocking but not unpleasant.

He clenched the handle of the small brush between his teeth as he undid her current braid, fingers sweeping gently through her clean sandy brown hair. She shivered at the pleasant contact. (there wasn't much touching going on that didn't also involve some kind of maiming or blood letting. Usually courtesy of Loud Blood. He touched her most often, but never like this.)

She let her eyes droop. Lulled by the rare petting. Burning Earth hummed something she didn't recognize, but she found this comforting as well.

"Here." She cracked a doe brown eye open at False Pieces, who was holding out a smooth puppet hand to her. He wasn't looking at her, but that wasn't unusual. She reached a little hand out towards his, and he dropped a small wooden object into it.

"Don't mention it." He snapped before she could ask, and the words sounded like a threat so she closed her mouth with a click.

It was a plain wooden bead in a nice red color. She grinned at the sight of it in her palm, and trapped a pleased giggle in her throat. (Was it her birthday or something?)

Sentimental indeed.

She handed it to Burning Earth behind her, who took it without a word and worked it in next to the feather.

"Oi, little bitch." Loud Blood made himself known in the doorway. A look of disgust flashed behind his purple eyes as he took in the sight of the three of them in the room.

"Tch, sick. When you bitches are done with all this girly shit Kakuzu wants to see you brat." and he was gone just as fast as he'd come with hissing complaints of how he wasn't a messenger service.

Nanami's smile didn't fade, she was too happy to let Loud Blood ruin this for her.

When Burning Earth finished with a twist of the small rubber tie, she turned to look at him, he was examining her new braid with a smirk on his face, satisfied with his handiwork. His eyes met hers and the edges of his lips softened slightly.

His hand reached up and swiped a thumb beneath her eye which she hadn't realized was wet; his palm was warm on her cheek.

"Now get the fuck out, un." and he kicked her none too gently off the bed. She landed on her feet to the side of a pile of puppet parts, her feather and beaded braid trailing behind her.

She laughed, eyes sparkling in childish glee and danced on light feet out the door.

It was some months later when she saw him for the first time. Or rather, she sensed him first.

Nanami looked up from the ledger she'd been working on, her relaxed body going unnaturally still.

The pen fell from her fingertips and rolled a little in front of her- her eyes wide; startled by the suddenness of it, fearful of what it meant.

"Kid?" Beating Hearts questioned gruffly from her side.

She had never met the person this incoming chakra belonged too, but she sure as hell could make an educated guess. It slithered, slick and wet like a lie. It had edges sharp like a knife, all smothered beneath a layer of healing chakra, but it was there. She could feel it. It was disgusting.

Nanami made a strangled sound. She wouldn't let this new appearence get to her. She reached a shaky hand out and plucked the pen back up with white fingertips.

"It's nothing." She whispered.

Beating Hearts watched her movements with acid green eyes that said he knew better, but he grunted and let it go; because no one here pryed.

It was one of the many unvoiced rules of the Akatsuki.

It was at that point that the main door slammed open, smacking into the wall with a resounding crack. Burning Earth stormed in, looking beyond furious his hair practically floating in the air around him from the force of his killing intent. Blue eyes blazing with the promise of brutal murder, his mouth set in a hard line.

He went to his room and slammed that door too.

Nanami blinked, brushing off the sensation of his killing intent with some effort. She popped the knuckles of her free hand to distract her from the heavy way it blanketed around her, even though she knew Beating Hearts didn't like it when she did that.

"What the fuck is all the noise about." Loud Blood grumbled stomping from his open bedroom to throw himself down on the couch.

It was then that Sasori shuffled into the room, and right behind him was a silver haired youth with large, round glasses.

Nanami flinched violently, a cold sweat breaking out on her skin. She tried to breath normally and focus on her math. The numbers swam in front of her. Her mind began to repeat a mantra of 'oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck fuck fuck.'

Because she didn't want anything to do with Yakushi Kabuto.

Beating Hearts eyes narrowed on her, flicked up from Sasori's informant back down to the little girl.

And then the man spoke, all sickly sweet tones like he actually cared. Nanami could see how he'd managed to tick a lot of people into thinking whatever the hell he wanted them too. He oozed honesty and kindness, but his chakra didn't.

"Oh, and who is this?" She didn't look up from her ledger, placing the pen tip back down where she'd left off. She didn't need to look up to know who he was talking about.

"None of your business." Came False Pieces clipped reply. Kabuto let it go, but she could still feel his eyes on her as her Red Cloud led the snake into the kitchen. He dug through one of the high cabinets she couldn't reach and wasn't allowed to go into with a chakra string. Searching for whatever it was she assumed he'd brought this sick fuck into their home for.

"She's not for fucking sale you creep so you can stop starting at the bitch like she's a piece of meat." Came Loud Bloods scathing interruption. She was never more grateful for his grating voice than she was right now.

"I don't know what you mean?" Kabuto's very honest sounding reply was. 'I'm just an innocent bystander' his tone of voice said.

"Yea fucking right." Loud Blood quipped just over her shoulder. Her eyes left the paper she'd done nothing new on to slide up to look at him.

He held his scythe in a loose grip, the cord attached to the handle winding up his arm. He was relaxed, at ease, like a wild thing right before it rips your bowels from your belly.

She hoped he would show Kabuto just how sharp the weapon was. It would save a lot of people a lot of grief.

Nanami had never looked at someone before and thought 'I think this person would look better as a corpse.' but hey, there was a first for everything.

Beating Hearts stood from his cushion next to her, uncoiling muscles like a jungle cat as he reached his full height. It was a very impressive height, she had always thought so.

He started walking toward his open bedroom door, brushing past Loud Blood who still hovered near her. (In a casual, 'I meant to be here the whole time' kind of way.)

"Nanami, come." Beating Hearts called her. She placed the pen down with white fingertips, carefully and purposefully and then stood with all the grace she could muster.

She smothered her fear under a visage of apathy. (She probably failed, but she tried.)

She followed after Beating Hearts with a gratefulness that tightened her throat as she moved away from Yakushi's disgusting chakra signature.

"You know," the bespectacled man said to her back. "Orochimaru is always looking for new test subjects if you run out of uses for her." and she got the feeling he was testing them, walking along a fine line in a room full of predators. Clearly he was digging for information, his interest in her presence here was perked, but she trusted the Red Clouds to take care of it.

"Don't waste my time." False Pieces voice was scathing and irritated.

"She's not for fucking sale." Hidan's voice promised death, or in the very least a lot of blood.

Beating Hearts closed the bedroom door behind her.