ii.
Chapter Forty-Four: Ashes on Wool
This chapter was Beta-ed By: Wistfuldaydream
"I know that everyone needs to go, but don't everyone go- don't everyone go at once..." -Modest Mouse
"I wonder how they see me…" Lamb murmured softly. "Ashes on wool." Wolf gruffed in return.
"Ka-ku-zu!"
The man in question gave an inaudible sigh before pausing his forward momentum enough to turn and look towards the line of trees.
Hatake Kakashi took advantage of the short reprieve by dragging the barely conscious young girl with pink hair away from the line of fire. Kakuzu didn't care. If the man wanted to waste his time saving useless shinobi let him.
Although her strength had been impressive, her chakra reserves were garbage. Not much better than Nanami's, and that was really saying something. Pinky had much better chakra control though, but that didn't really matter to Kakuzu either.
A flock of birds burst from the treetops along with a group of four shinobi. A blond girl and a large boy had stricken expressions; the other two seemed to be holding it together better. Regardless, all of them appeared hassled and fearful.
This was a common marker for Hidan's involvement with most people.
The Kyuubi Jinchuriki called out a long string of names to the group that Kakuzu didn't care to remember.
He hoped Nanami finished quickly. He was losing his patience.
Hidan exploded through a tree, cleaving it clean in half with a powerful downward stroke of his three pronged scythe. The white haired man gave a loud whoop of excitement as he landed on the ground with light feet.
He paused briefly, violet eyes sweeping over the gathered shinobi before trotting over to Kakuzu, completely dismissing the Konoha-nin.
Kakuzu watched him approach with an unimpressed look.
"Where is Nanami." Kakuzu grunted the second he saw his nuisance of a partner open his massive mouth.
Hidan scowled at him before waving his hand vaguely in the direction he knew the Uchiha brat and the deserter were trading blows.
"I don't know what the fuck she's up to but she chased after the Uchiha." Hidan told him. Out of the corner of his eye he watched the gathering of Konoha-nin regroup, the blond girl made a beeline for the pink one and dragged her off towards the treeline. The droopy-eyed Mokuton user looked ready to follow under the direction of Hatake. A haggard looking ninkin danced from foot to foot in a small anxious movement at Hatake's feet.
Kakuzu wondered if he might have the opportunity to collect the copy-nin's bounty; at least that would make this whole thing worth his time. He had a sizable price on his head. He knew several collectors in Iwa that would pay an arm and a leg to have his corpse.
The sun would be coming up soon Kakuzu noted idly. Dawn was turning the edges of the distant horizon a dusty grey, the bottoms of fat clouds not quite ready to rain yet reflected a dull red in combination with the fires burning behind them and the rising sun.
Hidan made a distressed noise that caught his attention and acid green eyes slid over to look at the younger man.
He was making a strange expression, as if he were disgusted and shocked at the same time. Hidan's mouth opened and Kakuzu held back another sigh; hopefully the leaf-nin would get their shit together and they could continue the battle so he wouldn't have to listen to Hidan.
"You don't think she- she- fucking, likes him or something?" Hidan stumbled over his own words.
Kakuzu gave the man a flat look. "You are an idiot."
The blond Jinchuriki stepped towards them, much to the alarm of his companions. He held up a fist in a threatening motion that Kakuzu didn't find particularly impressive and started yelling.
"What does Nanami want with Sasuke?"
Holy crap, this kid was as loud as Hidan.
Not to be outdone, Hidan whirled on the boy with a cackle and a too-wide smile. "Shut your fucking face dipshit."
Kakuzu recognized the deflection for what it was; because neither he, nor Hidan had any idea what the answer to that question was. Then again he rarely ever understood what motivated that girl to do anything she did.
The blond kid didn't seem to realize this however and his blue eyes darkened a few shades; his whisker markings taking on a jagged edge.
Hidan licked his lower lip, an anticipatory gesture that Kakuzu found both abhorrent and disgusting.
"Naruto." Hatake stepped forward, away from the other jounin that had joined them in the large grassy field.
Hidan adjusted his grip on his weapon; the long chain clinked together with the chime of metal. His violet gaze intent on the group before them. Kakuzu noticed however, that his obnoxious partners gaze seemed to keep sliding towards one of the younger shinobi.
A boy with spiky hair and almond shaped eyes.
"Nanami really wants that one dead." Hidan said, turning back to him with a pointed finger at the kid. Kakuzu felt something akin to surprise flash through him, but he kept the feeling to himself. Nanami had never particularly shown a desire for blood simply for its own sake; if she wanted that kid dead she probably had a reason.
The leaf-nin all stiffened, some glances were quickly thrown at the boy.
"Shikamaru?" Naruto questioned at a slightly lower volume, to which the boy gave a disgruntled look and a one-shoulder shrug.
Hidan's grin took on a feral edge, and Kakuzu recognized it as the one he got before he did something incredibly stupid.
"She said he's the Nara."
Aa, that explained that then.
"What does the Child of Akatsuki have against my family?" Shikamaru called out to them, a calculating look in his dark eyes.
Hidan gave a bark of laughter that startled Naruto and had the exhausted Mokuton user inching back another step. The dog summons shot the two of them a nervous look before dismissing itself with a puff of white smoke under the copy-nin's direction.
"Not your family." Kakuzu humored the boy.
"Just you, you little fucker." Hidan added with a low giggle.
When Shikamaru had been a young child, whether or not he would join the ranks of Konoha's shinobi had never really been a question. His father was a great asset to his village, the Jounin Commander and a veteran of the last war. Well, to be fair most of the previous generation were veterans of the last war, but his father had played a key role in more than one battle's tactical advantage. He'd earned two field promotions in less than three years, and had become Jounin Commander shortly before he'd married Shikamaru's mother.
His mother… was a fearsome woman.
Sharp and pointed, a firm believer in 'actions speak louder than words' and at complete odds with the lackadaisical nature of her husband and son. She had never become a jounin; retiring at the rank of chunin, but anyone would be a fool to miss the deadly edge of experience to her steps.
He loved his family dearly; they were his guideposts, his light when he lost his way.
So, no. It really never had occurred to him that he could just, not become a shinobi. He was born for it, bred for it. He'd always thought he had the right mind for it .
Sharp like his mother, quick to learn like his father.
But as these things usually are, Shikamaru had been told on many occasions that it took more than just this, but he had never really comprehended their meaning until now.
Eyes wide and leaning farther back onto his elbows from his vulnerable position on the ground in a futile effort to add space between his neck and the wicked curve of the scythe.
He was cornered. The other Akatsuki's strange black elemental creatures pushing back his comrades from reaching him in time. (Somewhere he could hear Naruto screaming his head off) It was as if the two criminals hadn't even needed to speak to each other to flesh out a plan that would separate the Konoha-nin. Shikamaru had always though cooperation to this degree was a staple of his own village; he certainly hadn't expected this seamless kind of strategy from these two.
His wire traps lay in shreds around him, useless in the face of this man who hurdled forward without a thought or care for his own well being; as if death was only a nuisance he could shrug off.
Shikamaru could predict a lot of things- but this man was seemingly immortal, and that was not something he would have considered within the realm of realistic no matter how fantastic he knew shinobi could become.
It was in this moment that Shikamaru realized how arrogant he had been. Arrogant to think that he had understood what a real battle would be like, what it meant to leap at someone with steady hands and the intent to kill.
He lacked experience, he hadn't given himself enough time adjust and learn what his opponent was capable of. He'd allowed himself to become separated from his teammates.
Maybe, if he had known when he was a much younger child that he would die like this he would have chosen a different path.
He chuckled lowly under panting breaths and the Akatsuki's crazed violet eyes crinkled at the corners when his grin widened in response.
Probably not though.
Hidan enjoyed games. He liked to play with his food and play with his opponents.
This boy was no exception.
Hidan's eyes stung from flash tags and his skin hissed where it was healing from explosive ones, overall he thought the boy was probably a lot smarter than he was.
Given enough time, he could see Nanami's prediction coming true. With enough preparations and forethought he supposed this boy would be capable of putting together a plan that could exploit the only crack in his defense; this Nara seemed sharp enough to find it.
But right now, with Nanami's forewarning, the child with eyes wide with fear and sweat slicking down his brow was nothing but that; a child.
Hidan's scythe came swinging down.
In the space between one breath and the next Sasuke's mind shifted into place. There was an involuntary blink and then another that registered more fully.
His muscles were on fire. Every breath was agony as his body moved under the gentle, but demanding pressure of Nanami's chakra.
He thought he had at least two broken ribs, his left eye was throbbing and swollen shut and his right was drawing on chakra like a fish on land gasping for air. There wasn't anything left, but that didn't stop his sharingan from sucking up the dregs.
Sasuke cut the flow immediately, the pains of chakra depletion already in full swing. He didn't want to die from something as pathetic as chakra exhaustion.
The last Uchiha griped his short sword in one hand, he had no recollection of retrieving it from where Orochimaru had ripped it from his grasp at the beginning of their fight but he supposed it didn't matter now.
His ears filled with the sound of roaring fire, his one good eye seeking through the clouds of smoke and upset duty earth.
His arm trembled, fingers gripping tighter around the hilt of his sword in an attempt to control his exhausted muscles. He stumbled forward a step and a scowl immediately set itself firm onto his features over the display of weakness.
Uchiha Sasuke was not weak.
"Did you think I would meet you again so unprepared little girl?" Orochimaru's soft hissing filled his ears behind him, barely audible over the raging fire and cracking trees. The triumph in the Sannin's voice had dread dripping down his spine.
Slowly he turned, Nanami's chakra sputtering weakly in his mind and relaxing its grip enough to free him from her influence. (He bottled up the familiar rage that single realization had boiling inside him for a more appropriate moment.)
Nanami was afraid. He could feel her still, as if he were looking at the naked expression on her face, or even more than that it was as if he was producing the feeling himself.
It was hard to tell if it was his fear or hers. Sasuke gave a small shake to his head, not enough to draw any attention to himself but enough to try to dislodge the sensation of the child's emotions. (It of course, did nothing.) A cloud of soot fell from his disarrayed hair to dust gently across his already ash covered shoulders.
A dark, vicious kind of feeling that Sasuke was all too familiar with rolled through him. It was ugly, and hateful and oh so triumphant; Nanami must have something ready for Orochimaru as well. It was with this sensation permeating their link that his good eye found the two very different combatants a scant inch from one another.
They were just as filthy as he was, both torn and ragged looking. It seemed he'd come to just in time to witness the last leg of the fight.
His scowl deepened.
Nanami's hands were clapped to either side of Orochimaru's face, extended by the neck as it was with long teeth just barely removing themselves from her neck.
Black ink began to swirl across her flesh, dark and contrasting to its porcelain surface.
Blood trailed between snake fangs and the little girls skin but she didn't look bothered by it. She hardly seemed to notice at all in fact. There was a look in her eyes, a kind of expression that didn't suit her features; cheeks still slightly plump with baby fat and round, doe eyes.
The last of the chakra she had been feeding towards himself snapped away, leaving Sasuke momentarily reeling by the sudden loss of it.
And then the Sannin was shrieking, a loud keening sound like a dying animal that quickly tapered off into a gurgle as blood began to well from the snake mans mouth and spill across the girl.
"Me either." Nanami murmured, her eyes never leaving the quickly darkening gold of Sasuke's former mentor's eyes.
Orochimaru's head slipped from between her hands to land heavily on the ground, the sound it made completely smothered by the sound of a tree crashing to the ground in the distance.
Sasuke coughed raggedly, as if his body was just now realizing it didn't like inhaling a bunch of smoke. The involuntary reflex had his ribs in further agony, and he pulled his tattered sleeve in front of his face in an attempt to block the smoke filled air from suffocating him.
"Nanami." He called to the girl, taking another precarious few steps towards her. She blinked and turned towards him, doe brown eyes hazy and tired.
"Bitter Wings" She greeted him like an old friend when he arrived at her side, and he was unsure how to receive her familiarity with him. Half of him hated it, and the other half felt it was perfectly acceptable.
"I think I'm going to pass out." She told him, distinctly sounding like she was perfectly fine. But then her eyes rolled into the back of her head, just as she reached up to clap a hand over the mark that Orochimaru had gifted her with.
Sasuke was left as the only one standing (barely) with two unresponsive bodies at his feet.
He held in a sigh.
It came out more like a huff of irritation anyways.
The next five minutes found the Uchiha hacking off the Sannin's unnaturally long neck without the aid of chakra. A difficult matter with all the bone and muscle in the way. Sasuke knew a severed head probably wouldn't hinder the man on a good day, but he seemed dead enough and he supposed it didn't hurt to make assurances.
He tossed the head into the fire burning around the outer circle of the battle field; his good eye squeezed tightly shut against the smoke it spewed into the world around it.
When he reached Nanami again, he gave a few long moments of consideration to just leaving her there before deciding against it.
Why?
He didn't want to think about that right now. So he didn't. (Mostly it was because he didn't know why; he just knew that he couldn't leave her. He couldn't.)
AN: Hello everyone, been a hot minute hasn't it? Sorry for the long wait, as always nothing is abandoned I just have a lot going on atm.
So this chapter was pretty vague at some important points, partly because I'm being purposefully obtuse and partly because I want to leave you wondering. You'll get all your nitty gritty details in the next chapter and so forth.
So, what do you guys think Orochimaru did to Nanami that he was so confident about?
Also, is Shikamaru dead?
...I wonder…
Leave me a review with your thoughts and ideas because I want to eat them for breakfast.
Also a little while ago I posted a one shot story about an OC/SI I found in my google docs, it's pretty dark and grungy but if you like that sort of thing go check it out! It's titled "Fugue".
Thanks to all my readers and reviewers for sticking with me through this fic, see you at the next chapter! (Which i'm working on right now and i swear won't take 2 months to post.)
Happy Fourth of July everyone!
PS. Some of you have probably noticed I keep changing the summary, and thats because I don't like it and i figure that's as good a reason as any. I'll probably keep switching it around until i get it how i like it.
Next chapter: Sleep at Last