ii.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Something out of Nothing

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for."

Kakuzu found his partner sitting in the grass, his scythe leaning against his shoulder as he looked up into the canopy. The stars shone with a cold light between bare branches.

Their breaths came out in little clouds that disappeared into nothing.

Kakuzu didn't have to wait long, for as soon as he stopped next to Hidan the man began to speak.

"This is some pagan bull shit." He said without any heat. Kakuzu quirked his lips behind his mask, because it was just like the Jashinist to deflect what was really bothering him and twist it into some religious crap.

It was quiet for a minute, with only the sound of creaking branches that groaned about their old age to each other in the wind.

"She was talking about my death wasn't she." Hidan said softly. "When she said she'd kill that clan to keep me." The last part sounded a little lost, and Kakuzu didn't like that tone coming from his partner; it wasn't like him. He kept these thoughts to himself however.

The Falls-nin folded himself onto the ground gracefully with a shrug. "Can you even die?" He asked the white haired man.

Hidan looked over at him, a slide of purple irises that seemed unsure. "I don't know." He said. "Maybe."

There was the sound of footsteps that had Hidan's scythe suddenly in his grip, and Kakuzu's threads seeping from his upper arm.

"Is there room in this party for two more." Kisame's voice broke the air around them, and the man stepped through the tree line with a grin that looked more like it was made out of habit than a true desire to be his snarky self.

Itachi followed quietly behind the blue skinned man, and leaned himself against a tree as Kisame unhooked his sentient sword from his back and laid out in the dew covered grass like he didn't care. He probably didn't.

Hidan made a frustrated sound.

"How am I supposed to protect the bitch if she keeps going and pulling shit like this." He finally spoke the thing that was really bothering him, bothering all of them.

"I thought you said she could handle herself." Kisame bit out sarcastically.

"Fuck you okay, seriously. She can fucking handle herself just fine but Leader-sama is a different fucking story. I don't think any of us can even kill that ass hole- Nanami's bitch ass wouldn't even stand a chance." He ranted, and no one had anything to say to that because they all knew it was true.

"We'll just have to be careful." Itachi spoke softly, but everyone could hear the hint of doubt behind it.

"How long will that last." Kakuzu's acid green eyes pinned the Uchiha in place, daring him to contest it.

"We can take her with us when we leave the bunker. At this point she'd be safer with us on missions than left alone. Especially now that we are moving to the Rain boarder." Kisame sounded like the was talking to himself out loud.

"That could work." Hidan hesitantly offered.

Kakuzu grunted unhappily, feeling like they were missing the point. They couldn't keep Nanami safe forever. Something was going to go wrong eventually.

But he had no alternative to offer to this negative fact, so he didn't bother repeating himself.

"I think she understands the position she's in well enough." Kisame added.

"She does seem to comprehend these things well for an eight year old." Itachi murmured aloud.

"Yea, well. Lets see how fast you grow the fuck up when you know the past and futures of a group of S-class, missing-nin, mass murderers." Hidan pointed out. "I know I for one have done some shit I'd rather the bitch didn't know about." He grouched.

That statement seemed to give Itachi pause, and a look passed over his face as if he'd just realized something important.

"Aa, so that's what she meant back then…" He murmured to himself. Kisame flashed him an irritated look.

"Care to share with the class?" He snarked.

Itachi's dark eyes slid over to his partner. "No." He said apathetically.

Hidan snorted.

It was quiet again for a while, each of them worked through their own thoughts and frustrations.

"You know." Kisame said suddenly, voice full of his usual good humor. "It's just occurred to me that the Akatsuki is basically raising a child." He managed to get out around chuckles.

Hidan cackled for a second. "Gehah that's a fucking good one ass hole." His deep purple eyes continued to stare up at the stars, and despite his words, he looked like he was considering what Kisame had said.

Kakuzu frowned but didn't say anything. This thought had occurred to him as well, but hearing it said aloud made it more… real somehow.

Many, many years ago he had once hoped… but that was a long time ago. A whim he had long ago left for dead.

"She seems to be turning out alright despite us." Itachi offered softly, as if the undercurrent of his thoughts were the same as Kakuzu's.

None of them would ever know what the others were thinking in this moment, none of them would ever ask.

Hidan made another frustrated sound. "Fuck." Was all he had to say on the subject.

Kakuzu stood up, brushing off bits of grass and dew that clung to the fabric of his pants. He turned and walked away without a word.

"We must have done something right, somewhere, to deserve the little bitch." Hidan's voice floated along behind him.

Nanami curled into her pillow, and brought her knees up to her chest. It wouldn't be long before she couldn't fit in the space underneath the sink anymore. Another year maybe, she'd be nine then, although she wasn't even sure if she was eight yet, she thought she probably was.

She wondered where she'd sleep then.

She wondered if there was even enough time for it to come to that.

Nanami felt the tightness in her chest, and her eyes stung with the beginnings of tell tale tears.

She scrubbed at her face with her hands, feeling frustrated and furious with herself for disappointing them.

The silence was so deep tonight; she thought the sound of her own heart beat was too loud. She ached, she was disappointed with herself so thoroughly she didn't know how to feel anymore.

She should have told them the truth sooner, maybe she should have never said anything at all. It's not like anything she knew mattered anyways, she had no control over anything here.

She was just a little kid, trying to find her place in the world.

And that thought made her pause, and then maybe feel a little better; because although Nanami was questioning a lot of things right now, she would never question her place within the Akatsuki.

She belonged here, with them. No matter what. She knew this with an unwavering fierceness that swept away the moisture in her eyes and left her feeling more whole.

She nodded to herself, and rubbed her cheeks with her palms one last time.

No more crying, she promised. (This was a lie, she knew.)

Even if they were upset with her now, they would come around. They cared. She knew they did. She didn't have to convince herself this, because she trusted them. She trusted in the way they treated her, the way they spoke to her.

She eased out a breath. Everything would be okay. (For now.)

Nanami blinked into the dark when a familiar chakra signature entered through the main door and made their way towards the kitchen.

The hinges to her cabinet squeaked open, and firm, warm hands were reaching in and pulling her out gently.

Nanami went, because she trusted, she loved. It was easy to do, as if she'd been born to love them and always had. (Always will.)

He lifted her, and carried her to the shared bedroom without a word.

His stitches were soft under her skin; like silk, they felt warm, alive. She sighed, comforted; and rolled her face into his chest to breath in the scent of old paper and clean water.

He laid her down next to him, and the covers rose up from the foot of the bed, assisted by long black threads glowing with chakra.

"Is he very angry?" She murmured into the mattress.

A grunt. "Not with you."

And that was all she needed, as tension she hadn't realized was there uncoiled from her shoulders.

Yes, everything would be okay. For now.

In the weeks that quickly became months that followed, Nanami's routine was completely upheaved. It wasn't a bad change though, she found.

Everyone seemed to be taking turns showing her things lately, and Nanami got the feeling they were preparing her. She got to go outside a lot during this time, the great stone room a little too small for Raven Eye's weird dance moves he called 'katas'

"To build muscle memory." He had said, Nanami just felt like it was a dancing game though. (One he was very good, and graceful at. Raven Eyes was actually quite a pretty man, the way he moved like a dancer.) She took to it with all the intensity that he expected her to have. She did so with everything her Red Clouds deemed necessary for her to know, and took the time to teach her.

She felt like their time and attention was a gift. One she reveled in with enthusiasm.

Kisame and Itachi had taken her outside at the crack of dawn one morning, and the blue skinned man showed her how he brought the oceans of his chakra to life.

There was a reason he was called the tailed beast without a tail. His chakra reserves were almost unfathomable. He was a burning star in comparison to her lit candle.

Itachi had set her down on the newly made lake surface after a brief explanation of how to water walk, his hand grasped her upper arm as her toes touched down, fully expecting her to need a few tries before she fully grasped the concept.

She didn't.

This, unlike attempting to change her chakra into an actual elemental nature, came easily to her. Nanami had no problems interacting with the elements around her, she just couldn't turn her own chakra into a nature.

Kisame had been pleased with her quick study, and as she'd skated across the surface tension of his lake under the watchful eye of Itachi, Kisame bit his thumb with sharp teeth and flattened his hand to the surface of the water.

Summoning ink lit bright with chakra and spread out around his hand, and Nanami had wondered at it. How could ink exist on top of water like that?

She didn't have long to wonder when bursts of smoke plumed up from the surface and new, animal chakra signatures arrested her attention.

She grinned, and clapped her hands together in glee, the bell in her hair chimed with her movements, adding to her glowing countenance.

These sharks were different from regular animals, and she supposed this was because they were summon animals.

They resisted her brushes at their chakra, and when they spoke to her without words it felt something like an apology, because however much they did desire to play games with her they were under contract and she was not their summoner.

When she told this to the two Akatsuki they had given her considering looks, and Itachi had summoned a flock of crows to see if it was the same with all summons.

It was, and Nanami had felt a little disappointed because she really liked the feel of the summoned crows. They were witty and observant and she would have enjoyed the opportunity to play games with them.

Their chakra speaking along hers had also felt apologetic, like the sharks had, and this mollified her to a certain degree because at least the refusal wasn't out of disliking her.

Itachi and Kisame shared a look, and Raven Eyes had wondered aloud what it would be like if she had her own summons.

She perked up at that thought like a daisy in springtime.

"What kind of summon would you want anyways?" Kisame had asked her, she had grinned at him, with sharp teeth that were mostly no longer baby teeth and given him the animal that had felt the most right in her heart.

He'd laughed at her good naturedly, and she'd been to busy basking in his enjoyment to notice Raven Eyes considering look.

Loud Blood had a very hands-on approach to teaching, just like he always had. Only now when he showed her things his movements were slower, more purposeful, and as he attempted to maim her he described how each movement might better suit a certain situation. Nanami had never realized how much thought he put into his fighting, but it certainly confirmed for her that he had always gone easy on her in the past.

Hidan showed her how to bend back at the waist and dip low under the swing of his scythe, he showed her how to flip forward through the air and roll with a fall. He was actually pretty good with acrobatics, and while he had admitted to being the slowest of the Akatsuki with his bulky weapon of choice, he was certainly the most flexible of them.

Nanami fell right in line with his teachings, finding her child's body took to flexibility very well, where her short stature didn't lend a whole lot for speed- but her chakra enhanced hands and feet seemed to make up for that.

On occasion Beating Hearts would join the two of them, his specialty being Ninjutsu, (which she had no aptitude for what so ever.) he didn't have a lot to offer her other than the basics, (which she was grateful for regardless. She'd learn anything he offered, because it was Beating Hearts and she loved him.) so he would run with her, a lot. So much running. She ran with him every day, "For stamina." He explained, and she saw the wisdom in it immediately, because the last and only time she'd gone somewhere with them she'd tired after only a few hours of walking. Let alone running.

He showed her how to consciously run chakra through her muscles and use it to keep going when she'd been sure she was at her limit. This lesson actually tripped her up for a while, because whereas before she would unconsciously use chakra in her hands and feet, now she actually thought about it. It was like learning the muscle memory to a song on piano to start with, and then having someone come along later and explain to you why it was those specific keys. All of a sudden she couldn't quite remember how to play because she was too focused on which key made what sound.

It was difficult and frustrating for a while, she had to relearn how to use her animal stance properly, but after she got used to the idea of consciously sending her chakra where she needed it, she found she had a wider range of control, and her meager chakra reserves lasted alot longer. It was a valuable lesson.

When Hidan would join them the trio worked a lot on maneuvers and formations that suggested to her that they thought some amount of teamwork would be required in the future. (Which was exciting to her, because that meant they we planning on taking her with them more often.)

Kakuzu taught her how to tell the difference between which mask was detaching from him just by sound alone. Which ones had area-of-effect abilities that would require she move out of the way in a hurry.

That searing migraine technique was nothing to scoff at, and while Hidan could take it and come out with nothing more than steaming skin, she would be barbeque.

Hidan taught her how to balance properly, and remain just outside the maximum reach of his scythe, and how to recognize when his grip on the handle changed enough to signify the use of the long metal cord that would extend its reach.

His dexterity and control over it was both awe inspiring and terrifying. He'd looked beyond pleased when she told him this.

She even learned a neat trick of how to balance on the flat of the blades when he held it out horizontally along the ground. It was fun to do, but she wasn't sure they'd ever really need it in a practical situation.

Hidan had grinned at her eyes dancing with mirth when she'd finally managed to do it without slicing her toes open on the edges.

"Well done little bitch"

False Pieces and Burning Earth worked with her both individually and as a team as well. Sasori made good on his word to show her chakra strings, which she struggled with quite a bit but understood that if she could learn to use them properly it would extend the reach of which animals and trees she could speak too. It would mean she would no longer have to be in direct contact with the chakra she was attempting to communicate with.

Deidara showed her each of his sculptures with no small amount of glee, glowing with pleasure each time she became impressed over the fine details and speed at which his hand-mouths could produce them.

He showed her how each animal and what size it was would correlate with how large the explosion would be. Or in other words, how fast she needed to get the hell out of dodge.

The first time he showed her his massive bird she'd looked at him with wide, awed eyes and breathed "We are going to fly?" with childlike joy.

He'd given her a hand up, and he'd spent an hour showing her how to grip at the clay with the chakra in her feet and hands without disturbing the explosive material inside it. That had been one of her favorite lessons. Nanami decided she loved flying.

This was also the first time she'd experienced the more passionate side of Sasori's love for his art, because where Deidara had always been loud about it, Sasori had more reserved sort of attitude- at least right up until his partner started getting mouthy about how art should be something experienced in an instant.

Sasori disagreed with that perspective wholeheartedly, and often the arguments would dissolve into bickering and then taking swipes at each other.

Nanami loved watching their dynamics. They were so alive, they had so much personality.

Sasori showed her each of his main puppets, and gave her an extended explanation of his one hundred puppets jutsu.

"You must be a god at multitasking" She told him, with a more thorough understanding of chakra strings she'd built quite a bit of hero-worship for the red haired man, because she could barely manage two strings, let alone the twenty plus strings required to maneuver one puppet let alone one hundred of them.

Her words had earned her a wide eyed look from chocolate brown eyes and roaring laughter from his blond partner.