ii.
Chapter Thirty-One: Seething
Or: In Which Everyone is Pissed Off
"There are ghosts in every hallway, in every room, behind every door. Peering through every window into the past, holding onto us in the bitterness of the mire; leaving a trace of themselves in the spaces in which they hide... but there are no ghosts here..." -Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires, Agalloch
The moment more familiar chakra signatures pierced through the cloying thickness of Tobi's chakra, and the compressing spinning sensation stopped; Nanami gasped for breath, finding herself dropped onto all fours and vomited onto the ground with everything she was worth.
"Who the fuck are you! What the fuck did you do to Nanami!" She had never been so grateful to hear Loud Blood's voice as water leaked down her face and she continued to dry heave into the puddle between her hands. Her eyes wouldn't focus, and her head was spinning in some kind of echo of the kamui she'd just been dragged through.
She never wanted to do that again. Ever.
She was vaguely aware that her throat was burning with bile, and that she was probably ruining what looked like a nice hardwood floor.
"Sasori-senpai is dead!" The masked man cried from somewhere behind her, like the thought of it truly distressed him. His calm, smooth chakra said that was a lie; but a few of the other signatures in the room flickered in surprise.
"And Deidara-senpai is missing! Maybe he's dead too?"
Nanami curled her hands atop the floor, Sasori's ring pinching the skin of her palm, and she looked up for the first time into the room she'd been transported to.
The room had nice, dark colored hardwood flooring, with plain white walls. There was a window (a real window) on the far wall. She could see the sky full of deep red and orange colors as the sun set outside.
The center of the room held the majority of her Red Clouds all either near or on various pieces of furniture. It looked like… a regular living room. It was so particular and out of place for her, being accustomed to the utilitarian stone room that she even managed to ignore Tobi's annoying voice for a full five seconds.
"This is Tobi." Zetsu stated as he melted out of the floor and rose into the room.
Oceans and Raven Eyes' chakra flickered in recognition at the name, and she recalled mentioning it to them once, in the dead of night in the middle of the forest of River country long ago when she had been much younger.
"I want to join the Akatsuki!" Tobi sing-songed.
Itachi moved towards her as she sat back on her heels and he crouched before her. His dark eyes were blank, his face empty- but she knew better.
He fished his water bottle from his hip pouch and offered it to her.
"Where is Deidara?" and her eyes met acid green in a sea of red behind Itachi. Kakuzu leaned against the wall that held the window with folded arms.
He was livid. It was all over his face, in his chakra. He had that look going right before something excessively violent happened. Hidan didn't miss this and edged a step away from his partner.
"He's alive." She offered softly, because she didn't actually know where he was and thus couldn't answer the question.
No one missed her not-an-answer.
"Tch, little shit." Loud blood made his way over to her too, giving Beating Hearts a wide berth as she took a drink from the canteen.
The water was cold, and it felt nice on her sore throat.
"Oho! That's a relief!" Tobi's orange swirled mask turned to face her and she couldn't help but notice the way chakra for strange genjutsu clung to the eye hole of his mask. She supposed that's what made it appear so dark behind it, even though she knew the red of a sharingan had a light-reflecting quality.
Like a cat's eyes in the dark. She'd seen Itachi's eyes flash that way many times.
Speaking of Itachi.
She handed him his canteen back, with a soft "Thank you." He nodded, but before he could pull away she caught the sleeve of his cloak by the trailing hem.
He paused accommodatingly, and she uncurled her tight little fist and offered him Sasori's purple ring.
He took it with a displeased twitch to his lips between his unzipped collar and made his way back over to Oceans to show his partner. Kisame sat on an end table that didn't look happy to be holding the shark man's weight.
"C'mon little bitch." Loud Blood said, and she looked over into vivid purple irises as he crouched beside her too. His white hair was in disarray, as if it was wind whipped and she had a moment to wonder what the zombie combo had been up to while she'd been with Deidara and Sasori.
He grasped her upper arm roughly and pulled her to stand. (Loud Blood had no idea what gentle was- to him, this was gentle. There was no blood involved.)
She trudged after him as he pulled her through the crowd of Akatsuki. They passed Pein, and Konan who had nothing to say and simply ignored them in favor and speaking quietly to each other.
"Ah! Where are you taking that weird little girl?!" Tobi cried with wild arm gestures. Kisame looked over at the man from speaking with Itachi and flashed him a row of sharp vicious teeth.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" He laughed at the masked man, who continued to flail around dramatically. Nanami could still feel the curiosity burning in his chakra, and she wondered for a moment why he didn't know who she was.
Kakuzu turned to follow as they passed, and Hidan yanked her around the corner of a stretch of wall that a long couch leaned against.
There was a set of pretty wooden stairs that matched the flooring and Hidan pulled her up the steps after him.
If she stumbled a few times over her own feet, or the edge of a step neither of the men mentioned it.
They ascended to a hallway that held rows of doors on both sides, and Loud Blood dragged her to the last one on the left, and kicked it open like a thug before tossing her in.
"Bathrooms that door." He said pointing to the only door other than the one they'd come through as he threw himself down on one of two beds in the room.
Behind her, Kakuzu nudged her towards it with a length of his silky black strands that were slipping from his upper arm.
She could tell it wasn't so much that he wanted to use them as it was that his irritation was affecting his control over them.
Nanami knew now was not the time to argue- and she wouldn't have anyways. She was filthy, and tired and she just wanted a place where she could cry quietly for a little while.
Kakuzu and Hidan's shared bathroom was as good a place as any.
"Are we going to kill him?" Hidan asked once the shower had turned on. Kakuzu unclipped his mask from the corners of his hood as he sat down on his own bed; threads thrashing from his bare upper arms even as he attempted to gain control over his temper.
Hidan could see the face he was making without it, and his expression was not a pleasant thing. But despite this Kakuzu answered, "No." and he sounded like it physically pained him to say it. Hidan's first instinct was to whine about it, but he figured he'd give his partner a break- just this once.
He was pretty fucking pissed off right now too.
"What the fuck was he thinking." He asked out loud, and Kakuzu's brow furrowed even farther in. "Leaving little bitch out there alone, seriously." Hidan had to stop himself before it turned into a rant.
A muffled sob sounded from behind the bathroom door barely above the water of the shower. Hidan stood from his bed with a scowl, and his partner's eyes watched the movement.
"Need to fucking teach her to cut that shit out." He grumbled, uncomfortable with the sounds of her distress.
He left the room, pushing the door shut behind him with his heel and made his way back to the lower floor.
Itachi and Kisame had moved to the low table that sat next to the kitchen door. Hidan noticed Sasori's ring now sat on the table, the two men on either side of it as they discussed something quietly.
Leader-sama and the purpled haired bitch were gone, and the weird guy- Tobi he recalled was mopping up Nanami's vomit with a rag. Served that asshole right.
He giggled at the sight. It was a mean sound. This guy was a pathetic piece of shit.
He couldn't believe Deidara had left Nanami to this fucking weirdo. He better have a good explanation, but Hidan figured it didn't matter even if he did. He was going to kill him regardless. He stifled another giggle at the thought of the blond man's carefully tended to golden locks dripping red blood. Deidara would look good as a severed head.
He'd certainly be a whole lot more useful.
"She's their pet." Zetsu seemed to be explaining to the orange masked man, who was nodding along.
"Little bitch isn't a fucking pet you creep." Hidan interjected, and Tobi turned to look at him. Hidan ignored the man and threw himself down on the new couch. He liked this couch way better than the last one, it was long enough to stretch out on without his legs falling off the side.
"Is she a mascot then?" Tobi asked, sounding curious. Kisame snorted.
"No." Itachi offered simply his face blank.
"Is she a member?" Tobi continued to nag.
"No." Zetsu answered this time in a clipped response. Tobi huffed at the lack of a definite answer.
Hidan made a waving circular gesture in the air above his head. "Little bitch is just here." He told the swirly faced idiot.
Tobi stood, and folded his arms together in front of him in thought, the vomit rag dripping down his sleeve.
So he was a moron and he was disgusting. Great.
"She must be a good girl, if Akatsuki keeps her alive." He seemed to say to himself. Kisame made a disgusted noise, and Hidan sat up to look at the man at the implied undertone to his statement.
"You better not be a fucking pervert." Hidan warned him. He didn't even want to think about that shit- if this guy made one wrong, creepy, or sick move towards her he'd-
Uhg. He would take so much pleasure in performing the ritual for Jashin on this moronic fuck.
Tobi gasped behind his mask in offense, "Tobi would never!" He cried loudly, "Tobi is a good boy!"
Kisame dragged his palm over his face with a muttered, "Someone shut this guy up."
It was then that a loud thump sounded outside the main door on the far wall, opposite Hidan's pilfered spot on the couch. Everyone looked over as the door banged open and in marched a frazzled pissed off looking Deidara.
Hidan grinned ferally. Damn, and here he was without his scythe.
Fuck it.
He leapt at the man, pushing himself off the furniture and clear over Tobi's head to land with deft feet and he decked the blond man straight in his jaw with a closed fist as hard as he could.
Deidara snapped backwards and stumbled into the door he had just shut behind him.
Blood dribbled from his split lip and he looked at Hidan from under the shadow of his bangs.
He was seething.
But so was Hidan.
Deidara snarled and moved to retaliate with a swinging kick just as Hidan dodged to the side with another rushing fist towards the man's face.
A hand landed on Hidan's shoulder, and he looked up into red spinning eyes that made his muscles feel lax.
Deidara's swinging kick smashed into the center of Samehada, who had been shoved between the two combatants.
Hidan cackled madly when his pant leg shredded on the swords sharp scales.
Deidara spat on the floor in fury and looked up at Kisame, who was much taller than all of them. Said shark man just grinned at him and shouldered his sword.
Tobi fluttered around them, wringing his hands together nervously. "Don't fight! We're all friends right!"
"Who the fuck are you, un!" Deidara snarled at the orange masked man.
"Tobi is Tobi!" He responded cheerfully.
"Not more of that third person bullshit." Kisame muttered as he followed Itachi back to the table.
"What the fuck were you thinking leaving little bitch with this fucking sick pervert?" Hidan demanded with a nod towards the idiot.
"Tobi is not a pervert!" His indignant cry was completely ignored.
"I don't have to explain myself to you." Deidara bit out and pushed himself past the Jashinist with a rough bump of their shoulders as he made his way to the stairs.
The steps creaked and Nanami stepped lightly into view before the blond man on the landing just as he approached it.
She looked up at him; eyes wide and fearful, her hair still dripping from the shower, her skin a mottled mass of bruises that were more apparent now that she was clean of the blood and grime.
"Move." Deidara hissed at her, blood still dribbling down his chin.
She did, pushing herself into the railing as he shoved past her and out of sight.
"What crawled up his ass and died." Hidan muttered, making his way back to the couch to sit. Nanami tentatively took the last step down after one last mournful look up towards Deidara, and made her way over to Hidan to sit next to him.
He shifted to accommodate space for her, and he was rewarded with a comfortred sigh when her smaller body heat leaned subtly into his.
He ruffled her wet hair grinning down at her, and her doe brown eyes blinked wetly at him.
"You cry to much." He admonished. She just smiled without words.
Suddenly Tobi was there, leaning over into Nanami's space, his mask turned so the one eye hole could peer directly at her.
She leaned farther into Hidan in an attempt to put distance between them.
"You don't seem like much." The mask man murmured, and Hidan brought a leg up to swiftly kick the man in the chest and send him sprawling backwards.
"You're a sick fucking creep, she's just a kid. Fucking disgusting ass heathen, seriously."
Tobi leapt back to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at the Jashinist. "Tobi is not a pervert!" He screeched, incensed.
"I think he doth protest too much." Kisame laughed from the table. Itachi quietly sighed in exasperation.
"Tobi." Zetsu deadpanned from where he leaned against the wall that held the sole window.
"But Tobi just wants to know!" He whined at the plant man. Nanami cleared her throat lightly.
"Know what?" Tobi whirled back around to face her and Hidan felt frazzled by this stranger's attentions over her. What the fuck was with this guy? This better not be some sick fixation.
"Who are you? Why are you here? Where did you come from?" He said to the little girl in a rapid fire sentence.
"Who are you?" She returned. "Why are you here?"
Hidan considered her for a moment, his purple gaze roving over to where Itachi sat casually at the table in the next moment. She was spending too much time with the Uchiha, her tone of voice was just like his when he was annoyed.
Flat and empty.
It wasn't like her at all.
Besides, Hidan figured she probably already knew the answers to her returned questions. Nanami knew a lot of strange things.
"Tobi is here to replace Sasori-senpai!" He clapped his hands then as if realizing something important even as Nanami went unnaturally still.
Uh oh. Hidan knew that look in her eyes.
"You must be really strong to have outlasted Sasori-senpai!" Tobi continued, completely missing the way Nanami's doe brown eyes darkened, and her features went slack.
Hidan cackled with glee. Oh, Yes. She was so pissed.
"Tobi will do much better than that weird puppet guy! Tobi is a good bo- Urk!"
Nanami leapt off the couch with a snarl in a familiar imitation of what Hidan had done when Deidara had come in.
She went for his throat, Hidan knew her movements better than anyone.
His laughter got louder.
It was going to be a bloodbath. He couldn't fucking wait to watch her rip this idiot to shreds.