ii.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Human (Something Else)
"The hunt is over, so the feast begins. What feast is enduring when all is said and done?" -Dreamlore Degenerate, Dark Tranquility
Nanami crouched low, sliding backwards across the sand with a feral snarl.
There was fucking sand everywhere. The wind had picked up, it blew the gritty substance into her face and eyes and even her mouth. It crunched disgustingly between her teeth.
Another sand-nin lunged at her and she pushed off with chakra enhanced feet, body turned slightly to hold her injury away from the man. For all the good that did- he body checked her smaller form and she went crashing into the piled dunes. She rolled to the side to avoid the kunai just behind that aimed for her chest. Blood filled her mouth with how hard she bit her tongue in an attempt to hold back her scream of agony. She stood quickly, body turned back at an angle.
She didn't want this enemy to know she was already injured, but his eyes alighting on her blood crusted arm wrapped in what was clearly shreds of her clothing told her it was a futile effort.
He made another lunge, kunai slipping into each of his hands, and Nanami reared back snapping her teeth at him like a wild beast.
Didn't these shinobi know that she was done.
"Fuck you!" She screamed at the adult and she bent backwards over a pathetically slow swipe at her throat, she curved her torso around in an arch and pushed off with bare toes inside the space between his chest and brandished weapons.
The nails on the hand of her intact arm were sinking into his neck and curling around his trachea before she could even register the right attack. Thank you Raven Eyes for all the muscle memory exercises.
His eyes glazed as fresh blood poured over her arm, and he fell heavy to the ground, leaving only the wet chunk of his throat that she'd stolen from him tight in her grip. She dropped it into the sand like a bit of useless garbage and snarled at his body. She was tired and frustrated and she was out of chakra again and she never wanted to see another spec of sand for the rest of her life.
"Nanami," Burning Earth called to her as he headed towards an outcropping of stone where his bird was perched, Gaara still clutched tightly in its tail.
She dragged herself to join him, stepping over bodies and kunai that were quickly becoming buried in the onslaught of wind blown sand.
She ducked under the awning of the small shelter with relief.
"Alright there?" He asked without looking at her, they both peered into the sand storm. They couldn't see much but Nanami could feel Sasori's chakra not far off.
"I'm alright, Sasori is coming." She didn't want to worry him anymore, so she deflected.
"Un." He acknowledged. His eyes slid to her for a second, taking in her black and blue arm, the way the bruises crawled up her neck and down her leg. The ankle that Gaara had grasped with his sand to swing her through the sky was swollen, the skin and angry red color.
"Nanami." He said softly his gaze skittering away from her when she looked over at him. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean for you to get involved." And for a moment she was stunned, because Deidara was nothing if not prideful, and for him to make an apology (when it wasn't even his fault) seemed kind of like a big deal.
"It's not your fault." She whispered back. "I'm just glad you're safe." He snorted at that, and his gaze did come down to meet hers. She smiled, he sort of smiled back. It was a bit hesitant, but it was something.
Nanami reached for him with her good hand and pulled gently on the fabric of his sleeve.
"Un?" He questioned, because it wasn't like her to act insecure or cling. She cried a lot, but Nanami would have never made it as long as she had within the Akatsuki if she'd truly behaved like a child.
She didn't meet his eyes.
"Can I see your arm?" He huffed and pulled up his sleeve accommodatingly. The skin was smooth, whole. He had bruises and scrapes that matched hers but his arm was there and it was attached.
"Worth it." She murmured. He did laugh then, his blue eye danced, and he brought his hand up to ruffle her hair.
It was another fifteen minutes of anxious waiting before the hunched form of Sasori's scorpion puppet appeared.
"You're late." Burning Earth called in agitation. Ouch; low blow, right where Nanami knew it would hurt the most.
Above them the clay bird flapped its wings as it waited, seemingly responding to Deidara's flickering chakra.
"Don't get so touchy." False Pieces grouched back at him in a low gravelly tone.
Deidara's blue eyes narrowed and he scowled at his partner. Nanami absently brushed her ambient chakra along his in an attempt to calm the fight she could feel building while she checked False Pieces over.
His sky blue eye flicked down to her in surprise, and she rewarded him with a small smile. She brushed her gritty hair away from her face with the muted ring of a bell.
"Let's get moving." False pieces called even as he turned to leave. "I have an additional mission after this, and Nanami needs her summons." He grumbled like it was a bother as he slid across the sand that swirled into the air.
Nanami pulled the collar of her red shirt over her nose and mouth and exited the stone lean-to.
She clambered atop it to perch herself onto the clay bird as it rose back into the air. She eyed the still comatose form of the Kazekage when his chakra gave a weak flicker.
"Good grief." Burning Earth complained as he trotted to catch up with his partner.
Within an hour they were crossing into a glorious tree line flushing with bright green leaves.
Nanami let out a relieved breath. Thank the gods, she never wanted to step foot in a desert ever again.
By mid day they had come to the precipice of a ravine back home in river country. Below them was a large round stone set into the canyon wall with a seal blocking the entrance marked by a red torii arch.
Nanami stepped from the clay bird to land lightly on the flowing water with her two Akatsuki, holding her arm close to her middle. The surface tension of the water helped to buoy any kickback the landing might of had on her injury.
Deidara made a simple hand seal, and the round stone rose into the air with a groaning, grinding protest.
Nanami followed behind them plaintively as they entered the cave. She shivered at the change in temperature; it was a lot cooler on the inside, but it felt nice on her flushed skin. The cave was large, easily the size of a football field. The lack of stalactites and stalagmites told her it had probably been made with a jutsu, but it had a nice rounded circular shape to it that she liked.
A wavering, colorful form shimmered into existence to greet them.
The body lantern jutsu, Nanami realized as she took in the shape of a tall male. It was sort of like looking at a tv with terrible reception.
He turned towards them, "You're late." Pein monotoned, and his ripple patterned eyes rested briefly on her for the first time. She didn't miss the way he seemed to make a subtle double take at her appearance. She was sure she presented quite the battle worn image right now.
She attempted a small bow to be polite, and his attention turned away dismissively. "Prepare immediately." He told the artist duo, and Deidara's bird swooped inside with their prize as the round stone came crashing back down to throw them into darkness.
"Do you have enough chakra for your summons?" Sasori asked from her side. She nodded in the dark, and then added "I think so." Because she didn't know if he could see her or not. Her rest for the last few hours had given her at least that much chakra. She'd be useless again after though.
The wavering multi-colored light of Pein's lantern body turned away and made a long string of seals, he smashed his palm onto the ground as Burning Earth's bird poofed back into the smaller compact sculpture and returned to Deidara's hand, leaving only Gaara's prone form to lay on the ground.
A massive amount of summoning smoke exploded in front of them and Nanami edged backwards a little in response to the way the sound echoed loudly inside the walls of the cave.
The figure of a large wooden demon rose before them, it had nine eyes, two of them had pupils and the rest were empty, it held two chained hands out before itself openly, as if to receive an offering.
Nanami knew it had a name, but she couldn't really remember what it was.
She made her way to an empty stretch of floor to the side while they took care of their business. Her eyes adjusted to the dark after another moment and she crept her way through all the needed hand seals with caution- she didn't need to make her arm any worse than it already was.
"Gather." Pein's voice demanded, and one by one figures wavered into existence atop each finger. Nanami would have liked to greet them properly, but she'd waited a long time to do something about her arm, and she was ready to not be in pain anymore.
She knew they cared, but she also knew broken bones weren't really anything new to her Red Clouds. She needed to learn to take these things in stride better. (She had never had a problem with pain tolerance before, but this injury had been on a whole new level for her.)
A second puff of summoning smoke filled the air as a small doe appeared. It danced from hoof to hoof, it's legs makes clacking sounds against the stone. A single brown eye turned to look at her.
"Oh, little human. What mess have you gone and gotten yourself into?" This doe was named Shiro after her sleek coat of white fur. She was a descendant of Renji's. He had told her to ask for Shiro if she was ever in need of iryojutsu.
Behind her she felt the artist duo's chakra flash up to take their places atop their respective fingers, and she gingerly settled herself onto the ground. Nanami used fingers and teeth to untie the tight knot Burning Earth had helped her make, and carefully unwound the red cloth.
Her arm looked terrible. A matted mess of dark bruises, and the puncture where the bone had come through the skin was weeping a yellowish brown liquid.
Gross.
"Shiro," She greeted softly. "Could you help me out please?" She offered her arm to the doe even as she came forward; her warm nose touching gently to Nanami's arm with a glowing green light.
She sighed in utter relief as the tension and pain started to ebb. She watched as the swelling went down, and felt the strangest sensation as the bone shifted and softly seamed back together. The puncture smoothed leaving fresh, sensitive pink skin behind.
Nanami looked up to find many pairs of eyes watching her with grim faces. A few turned to Deidara.
"What the fuck man." Loud Blood hissed at the blond.
"Things didn't go as planned, un." The blonde shot back defensively.
"That is apparent." Raven Eyes soft voice drifted down to her. Deidara huffed, his blue gaze roving down to look at her too. She smiled for him, because she wasn't upset. Things happened, she got a little hurt- but it was over and they got out intact. (mostly)
Oceans was the only one grinning at her, and she felt a flash of appreciation that she wasn't worrying him at least. She didn't want to be a burden.
"Yea, but look at the other guy." Kisame laughed, head tilting toward Gaara.
Kakuzu's red and green eyes caught hers with an unreadable look before he turned away. Nanami turned her attention back to the doe before her. The summon lifted her snout away, and Nanami flexed her fingers to test it out. The muscle felt too tight, and there was an ache in her bone but at least it wasn't white hot pain anymore.
"Be careful with that for a while, little human. The break is delicate." The doe said in a motherly tone. Nanami nodded, "Thank you for helping Shiro."
The deer tilted her head slightly, ears flicking this way and that for a moment, "Anytime." She said softly and Shiro dismissed herself with a poof.
The anxiety and stress she'd been carrying between her shoulder blade's relaxed somewhat, because now the immediate danger was over. She just had to worry about…
She looked up and over at Sasori to find him already watching her, and her gaze skittered away as she stood.
"Everyone is in position?" Pein questioned, he received a smattering chorus of affirmatives as Nanami made quick strides over to Gaara's comatose body on the floor.
Nanami crouched before him and reached down quietly to brush her hand through gritty red bangs, fingers smoothing lightly over the kanji on his forehead in a silent apology.
"It'll be alright." She whispered to the jinchuuriki boy, regretful for the pain he was about to endure. They may have been enemies in his village, but here he was just a boy. A boy who was about to die. She caressed his ambient chakra in an attempt to comfort him in his unconscious state, and was surprised to find it… damaged. Had she… done that?
"Let's begin." Pein said quietly, and she looked over to find ripple patterned eyes giving her a considering look.
His image flickered and he appeared on his own perch, leaving only a single empty wooden finger.
"From here forward it will be three days and three nights." He told everyone, his voice distorted by the body lantern jutsu. "Keep your attention on your real bodies as well."
"Zetsu," He continued. "Keep an eye out on the outside. Use the longest range."
"I understand." The plant man's soft voice floated down to her sending shivers up her spine.
Nanami didn't really like Zetsu, despite having never even met him. Just the thought of the half-Kaguya half-Senju creature made her uncomfortable on levels she couldn't even describe. She tried very hard to understand where he was coming from, but she couldn't help but feel a little resentful towards him.
She wasn't perfect. She was only human and she couldn't bring herself to accept everything.
He was going to bring about the demise of a lot of people she loved, and a part of her truly hated him for it; even as another part of her said it wasn't her place to judge.
Still… hatred was a heady thing, and she worked hard to keep it from tainting who she was as a person-
That way lies madness.
"Three days?" Kisame questioned, his silver eyes flickering down to her and then back up to their leader. "Shouldn't we consider that it might take longer since we don't have the sannin?"
"Let's just get this over with." Pein responded, sounding slightly resigned. There was a murmur of agreement from the men (Konan was quiet) gathered around, and Nanami sat herself on the cold stone below them to wait patiently.
"Child." Pein's voice had her head snapping back up to him; stiff necked and at attention. "Be quiet and stay out of the way."
She just smiled at him. She knew what her job was now, and it was exactly that. Wait quietly. She did a lot of that with her Red Clouds, she was sure she could handle it.
His rinnegan narrowed on her for a moment before he turned away.
"Sealing jutsu: Nine Phantom Dragons." He monotoned, and at the sound of his voice, each wooden finger glowed with a kanji she knew matched the rings they wore, and a mass of glowing blue chakra poured out of the wooden demon's mouth in the shape of dragon heads that were all gaping hungry mouths and viciously sharp teeth.
They crashed into the earth where Gaara's prone form lay, and Nanami stood and flashed backwards to avoid their biting maws.
They lifted the ichibi into the air, and his eyes snapped open for the first time, his agonized screams echoing through the cave. Red chakra oozed from his eyes and mouth and Nanami shuddered at the feel of it.
Chakra sort of had tier levels to her- at the bottom was elemental chakra that wasn't sentient at all, like what water and trees produced.
Then there were animals, who were sentient but didn't have that spark of intelligence. Above that she had added a level just for Samehada who was only base instincts but still sort of aware of it's own existence.
After that was summons, capable of intelligence on human levels, but still animals just the same.
Then there was of course, the human tier. Chakra she could interact with but wasn't as easy to make suggestions to like it was for the lesser tiers. Almost impossible actually.
Then again…
Her gaze wandered up to look at Gaara, and her brows furrowed.
Apparently she could force the issue.
And then there was this chakra. This mass of red boiling hatred and malice that was both like an animals and a humans without actually being either one of them.
It was a thick, viscous kind of chakra that screamed in protest in a language only she could hear, layering over it's hosts for an eerie sounding cry.
Her heart broke for the boy, because it wasn't his fault he was a jinchuuriki. He was just an unfortunate casualty of her Red Clouds desires.
She kept these thoughts to herself as she attempted to shut out the screams, and Nanami sat herself back down onto the stone and closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch him die. It was going to be a long three days.
Kankuro watched as the silver haired man known as Kakashi summoned a little pug, and offered the dog the scrap of cloth he'd managed to tear from the Akatsuki who'd poisoned him.
He winced and leaned back a little more at the thought.
Ah, he felt like shit.
At his side his sister used a cool towel to pat his forehead, and he gave her a grateful smile, which she returned.
Naruto folded his arms together at the foot of his hospital bed as the medic-nins busied themselves around the blond haired boy.
They kept shooting him irritated glances when he got in the way, but Naruto was completely obvious.
"Kankuro-kun." An old warbly voice called, and he pushed himself back up with a little help from his sister.
"Chiyo-sama, Ebizo-sama" He greeted his elders respectfully, if not a little wearily. The two approached with slow but sure steps that spoke of many years as soldiers, and grave faces that spoke of more than one war.
"I want to hear it one more time, directly from you, Kankuro-kun." Chiyo pinned him with intense eyes set in sun weathered skin.
"There is no mistake that one of the two enemies was Sasori. Is that correct?" Her pitch lowered slightly, and Kankuro could hear the hurt buried beneath the serious tone.
This was personal for Chiyo-ba-sama.
Kankuro looked away, finding it hard to meet her eyes. His chest ached and his muscles strained in exhaustion, but he pushed the sensations away for now.
"Well?" Ebizo, Chiyo's elder brother prompted him.
"Yea." He said finally, looking at his hands in his lap. "Yea. It was Akasuna no Sasori." He confirmed.
"If there's any information you can provide us…" Kakashi spoke up, trailing off when Chiyo gave him a sharp look.
She didn't like the son of the white fang. Too much old anger and prejudice left over from the last war.
Sakura's clicking heels on the tile made themselves known, and she turned the corner into the room with bright features. "Kankuro!" She greeted, and made her way around the occupants in the room, completely ignoring the serious atmosphere.
"We've finished the antidote." She told him with a smile, and handed him a small paper cup with some kind of brown liquid inside it to drink.
It tasted like absolute crap. He didn't mention it though, grateful for the momentary distraction.
"Wow Sakura-chan, you are so amazing!" Naruto exclaimed with a bright smile, and the pink haired medic grinned back at him, glowing with her success.
"We'd better rest while we can, we have a hard march ahead of us tomorrow." Kakashi said to his team, and Naruto looked ready to argue at that, obviously eager to leave after Gaara as soon as possible.
"Wait." Kankuro called before they could exit his hospital room. "There was something else." He said a little hesitantly, because at the time he'd been very focused on the S-class threats.
But he was pretty sure he'd seen…
"I think... they had a little girl with them." He told the leaf-nin, and before he could even blink Naruto was in front of him, eyes flashing red.
"Are you sure? What did she look like?" The blond aggressively demanded of him in a rush.
Kankuro leaned back- Naruto was a little too close…
"Naruto!" The pink haired medic admonished, and just like that he was backing up, looking sheepish and rubbing the back of his head.
"Eheh, sorry sorry, but this is important! Do you know what she looked like Kankuro?"
He nodded slowly, her image hovering over his brother's body flashing in his mind's eye.
"Shoulder length light brown hair, with braids and feathers. She was small, and young. I'm not sure how old… maybe seven?"
"I think she was injured…" He added absently, recalling the way she'd cried out at the touch of the Akatsuki at her side. That had been a wounded cry if ever he'd heard one.
"There have been several reports that a child was spotted on the back of the bird that took Kazekage-sama." Ebizo added, and Chiyo gave him a sharp look.
Naruto's breath hitched his attention flickering to the tall old man before coming back to Kankuro "A name? Did you get a name?"
"Why's this so important Naruto?" The silver haired jounin asked. The blond boys blue eyes flashed back to catch his teachers.
"I met her before, when I was traveling with ero-sennin. She's just a little girl… they took her." Here his fists clenched and he grit his teeth together. His blue eyes burned determination, and Kankuro could see in this moment what his brother had seen in this boy during the chunin exams.
"Ero-sennin said she went willingingly, but… but! Nanami is a good person! I know she is, They must have done something to her!" He said all in a very emotional rush.
And the sound of the name sparked something for Kankuro. "That was what Akasuna No Sasori called her. Nanami."
Surprise briefly flickered in Chiyo's eyes at this information, but Kakashi was the only one who took notice.
"Thank you for letting us know, but you should rest now." Sakura cut Naruto off, going into medic-mode. She took quick clipped steps forward and grabbed Naruto back the back of his shirt to bodily drag him away.
Naruto was not shy about making his protests known.
Kakashi gave them an awkward wave as he followed his team out.