Summary:
Things get a little better, but not much clearer... Then they kind of seem like they're about to get worse!
Note:
This is being posted pretty soon after the last chapter .
I hope you all like it and I hope we can get to posting more often!
As always, comments and kudos help up to write! XD
What seemed like hours had passed since the blue haired woman had left Kamryn and Olivia alone. In those hours the two had talked and tried to make sense of what was happening. Olivia's emotions were all over the place while Kamryn attempted to stay calm, trying to keep them both level headed and thinking rationally.
The two had finally managed to calm down when the door opened suddenly, catching the women off guard and sending a flutter of anxiety through Olivia.
The blue haired woman appeared before them once again. Just as she did before, she stood silently in front of the cells, observing the two. Neither of the women had moved from their sitting positions on the floor, they just stared up at her, waiting.
"You have two options." The woman's voice cut through the silence. "You can help us, and in return we will help you, and get you out of these cells... Or, you spend the remainder of your days in here."
Kamryn looked away from the woman with a frown, very clearly hearing the threat in her words and knowing there was really only one option that resulted in living past a week.
Olivia took in a sharp breath, her hand clutching at the bathing suit cover-up she was now using to keep the cold off of her legs. The choice was obvious for her, she would choose to live, no matter what these people asked of her. She was sure that later on she could always make the decision to not help them, even if that meant the end of her life.
With a gulp, Olivia nodded her head at the woman, hoping that her choice had been conveyed with just that, because she couldn't bring herself to speak. The woman simply gave the smallest dip of her own head in reply, her eyes moving to Kamryn as she waited for her answer.
Kamryn bit the inside of her cheek nervously as she watched the woman nod towards Olivia's cell. When the woman met her gaze, Kamryn gave her own nod, "We'll help."
The faintest smile could be seen on the woman's face, but any traces of it were gone in an instant. "Good," she made a quick, strange, gesture with her hands and turned away from them. "You can follow me."
Olivia did not hesitate to push herself off the ground, her numb legs only giving her a little trouble as she took the two steps to the cell door. The woman did not come to unlock the door, only walked back to the exit, turning to wait. Olivia stared at the woman for a second, before she gestured her hand outward, signaling her to simply push the door open.
Kamryn listened to Olivia getting up as she looked at her wrapped foot, taking a deep breath she carefully got to her feet. Kamryn couldn't help letting out a hiss of pain as she stepped forward to her cell door.
Olivia had already begun to push open her own cell door as she heard Kamryn's sudden expression of pain. Her anxiety turned into a slight panic as she remembered Kamryn's injury, cursing under her breath she quickly made her way over to the cell adjacent her own.
Kamryn managed to limp over to the door, bracing herself against the cell wall as her foot started to throb painfully.
Olivia pushed the door to Kamryn's cell open, but did not enter, "Are you alright?" Her eyes went from her friends pained expression to her wrapped foot. She wasn't used to being the one to take care of someone else, and didn't know what she should do in this situation.
"I'll be fine, just need your help to walk." Kamryn held her arm out for the younger woman to assist her.
Olivia moved to support Kamryn as best she could and the two of them made their way out of the cell and towards the blue haired woman.
After a quick glance to be sure that they were following, the woman turned and opened the door; gracefully ascending the staircase that was behind the door.
Kamryn followed with Olivia's help, slowly and clumsily making their way to the top where their guide patiently waited. Kamryn could feel the woman's cool gaze track their slow progress.
Finally at the top of the stairs, both women were already fatigued. The little amount of uncomfortable sleep they had been getting, the stress of everything that was happening, all of it was beginning to take its toll on the two. Olivia could feel the exhaustion seeping into her bones and, glancing at her friend, Kamryn didn't seem to be doing much better as she sagged slightly against the brunette.
"I will show you to where you will both be staying. I will also send someone to look at your injury. It is clear you need to rest, so we will discuss what you need to know later."
It was quiet again as the three women made their way through the halls. Olivia nervously glanced about their surroundings as they continued through several winding hallways, noting the numerous doors they passed.
When they finally stopped in front of a door, Kamryn felt exhausted. It had taken all of her concentration to not stumble or lean too heavily on the smaller woman supporting her. The pain in her foot had built up to the point where the slightest pressure sent a jolt of pain up her leg.
Olivia grimaced as she took in the tired frown on Kamryn's face before looking up at the blue haired woman as she opened the door. The room they entered was spacious and simple: two twin sized beds, two night stands, a dresser, and one big bookshelf. There was also a window on the opposite side of the room from where they stood, it was fogged over, but a few rays of light hit it, illuminating the window panes. The room had one other door and briefly Olivia wondered if it was a closet or a bathroom, but could not linger on the thought too long as Kamryn suddenly leaned a little heavier on her.
The woman that led them to the room took note of Kamryn sagging against Olivia suddenly and Kamryn could no longer mask her pained expression, grimacing hard.
"You should probably lie down." The woman gestured to one of the beds, "If you're to be useful to us, we can't have you injured beyond repair."
Kamryn was in too much pain to react to the woman's remark, but Olivia did not like the thought of only being helped because they might be 'useful'. She had no choice though, and without reluctance, moved her friend gently over to one of the beds.
As soon as Kamryn felt her thigh bump the edge of the bed, she collapsed onto the soft surface, letting out a pained groan and closing her eyes tightly. Olivia sat on the edge of the bed next to Kamryn, grasping her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Is someone going to be here to help with her foot soon?" Olivia asked. She was uneasy in this situation and not comfortable asking questions, but she needed to make sure that Kamryn would be taken care of as soon as possible.
The blue haired woman answered from where she stood in the doorway, "I'll be back in just a moment." She nodded as she spoke, turning on her heels and briskly walking down the hall.
As soon as her footsteps faded, Olivia looked back down to Kamryn who gave a heavy sigh, brow furrowing, as she tried to relax a little. Kamryn pressed her head back into the pillow she was laying on, a hint of a smile gracing her features, "If my damn foot didn't hurt so much, this bed would be really comfortable." She looked up to Olivia, who's worried expression made her sigh again. "I'm fine. It hurts, but it's nothing too bad. If we were back home..." She paused for a second, but continued on, "I wouldn't even go to the doctor for this, because it's not that bad." She made a point of repeating herself, trying to calm down her younger friend.
Even while in pain, Kamryn was still trying to be reassuring, but this just made Olivia's frown deepen. "It's not fine. It's so deep. We'll be lucky if it doesn't get infected and you lose your foot!"
Kamryn knew Olivia couldn't help but be over dramatic and began to roll her eyes at her and tell her she was wrong, but the pair were interrupted by someone clearing their throat at the door. Both women looked over, finding a strange man standing there. Olivia's eyes widened a fraction, but Kamryn was too tired to show any physical shock at his appearance.
His skin was a deep bronze color and his dark black hair fell past his jaw line, some of it in his eyes, and he was tall. Nearly as tall as the even stranger looking man that had carried Kamryn to her cell. But those details were all relatively normal. What made Olivia pale was that the whites of his eyes were black and the distinct lack of pupils in his vivid green eyes. There were also what looked like large stitches along his cheeks, peeking out over the black cloth that was masking his face.
The man's strange eyes looked over both of the girls briefly, before landing on the tattered cloth that covered Kamryn's wounded foot. It was completely brown, from both dirt and dried blood, but the walking they had just done was causing more fresh blood to seep out onto the fabric.
The man tutted at them as he took a few steps into the room, the girls both squeezed the others hand lightly as he approached, squatting down at the end of the bed to get a closer look at Kamryn's foot.
"Do you have any idea how much medical supplies cost?" He let out an almost bored sigh, his eyes drifting back up to Kamryn's face.
Olivia was a little taken back by his words, opening her mouth to respond, eyes flickering from him to the same blue haired woman that was now standing in the door. "We don't have any money…?" Her tone wavered a little as she spoke.
The man looked at her blankly for a second, then over his shoulder to the woman in the door. "Konan, where did you get these two idiots?"
Both of the women blinked at him, confusion written on their faces. The woman called Konan just sighed, shaking her head. "Just patch her up Kakuzu," she shifted her gaze to Olivia, "You're not required to pay in money, don't worry."
Despite it sounding like that was supposed to be reassuring, Olivia couldn't help but give a small gulp, but choose not to say anything more on the subject.
Kakuzu just shook his head, mumbling something under his breath, the words too gruff and deep to make out. "This may sting a little," He glanced up at Kamryn before reaching his hand out to pull away the cloth covering the wound. It stuck to the dried blood on her foot and she let out a hiss of pain as he peeled it off, some of the scab coming with it and making it bleed a little more.
Kamryn squeezed Olivia's hand tightly, panic crossing Olivia's face as he was pulling the cloth away.
"You should make yourself useful and go get a towel and a wet rag." Kakuzu spoke without looking up at Olivia, his eyes looking over the wound. He dropped the cloth on the floor beside the bed, digging one hand in the little medical bag he had brought in with him, pulling out a glove.
Olivia hesitated, watching him, then looking up at Konan. After he snapped the glove on, his dark gaze moved to her, "Well? Do you think I was talking to myself?"
Shock crossed Olivia's face, "N-no." She stuttered out, standing from the bed and giving Kamryn's hand one last squeeze before she let go. "I just don't know where that stuff is."
His gaze on her didn't move and he didn't say anything, making her feel even more nervous. She took a shaky breath and looked to Konan, who gave her the smallest nod of acknowledgement before gesturing to the other, closed door in the room.
Olivia's mouth formed a small 'O' and she moved around the bed to go to the door, opening it to find a small, simple bathroom. She quickly located the stack of towels and rags, grabbing two of each, and wetting one of the rags in the sink.
With the armful, Olivia hurried back over to the bed, where the man had started to poke at the wound, causing Kamryn to let out periodic hisses as she gritted her teeth to stifle louder noises of pain.
The man gestured for her to set down the pile on the edge of the bed, "There should be a basin of some sort too, fill that with warm water." Olivia just nodded to his command, going back into the bathroom to fetch the water.
While Olivia was doing that, Kakuzu placed one of the towels under Kamryn's foot and started to use the wet rag to clean the wound a little.
While wiping away blood and debris from the surface he started to talk, "Young people these days don't take care of their body. You know if you don't have a foot, life is going to be very hard, right?" He never looked up from his work, turning the rag to the cleanest part every few swipes.
Kamryn barely had the strength to respond, it hurt like hell and she was busy trying not to flinch away from his hands, "I'm not usually this bad." She gave him a weak smile that probably was more of a grimace. He glanced up at her briefly, not pausing in his work. "Hm."
A few seconds later Olivia came back with a bowl full of water, sloshing a bit on the floor in her haste. She sat the bowl down beside him and he immediately dunked the cloth in it, not paying the younger woman any mind. He swished the rag around in the water a little, turning the water a murky color with flecks of dirt and rock floating around. He rung the rag out a little before going back and dabbing at the wound again.
Blood was still very slowly oozing out, but it was getting cleaner by the second. After wiping her foot this time, he just dropped the rag into the bowl and reached in his bag. "Go change the water out and get more rags." He spoke aloud, again not looking up from his work.
He pulled out a little bottle with a nozzle that was filled with a clear liquid. He grabbed up the remaining clean rag and uncapped the nozzle, "This part is going to sting like hell. Especially if the rest of this was painful for you."
Kam frowned but nodded, her eyes meeting his strange ones briefly before he squirted the liquid on the wound. Kamryn was only able to take a quick, sharp breath before she could no longer hold in a cry of pain. Her hands clenched the bed sheets and her body stiffened, letting out a whine and closing her eyes so tight she saw stars.
Olivia was just heading back toward Kakuzu when Kamryn cried out. Shocked, she looked up at her friend, stumbling a little and narrowly avoided dropping the bowl. She stood still for a moment just staring at her friend, but Kakuzu curtly gestured for her to bring the bowl to him, and her feet began to move again.
Kakuzu finished squirting the clear liquid into the wound, setting the bottle down, but the stinging still resonated up Kamryn's leg. She let out another loud hiss when he pressed a cool, wet cloth to the wound, but found some relief in it. She cracked open one of her eyes, looking down at him.
"Alright," Kakuzu snapped off the gloves, his hands going to hover over the sole of her foot. "You can go hold her hand now or whatever it is you want to do." He spoke to Olivia, who nodded quickly and made her way back to the side of the bed to grasp Kamryn's hand.
Kamryn took another deep breath, pressing her head into the pillow as she waited for more pain. Olivia watched Kakuzu's hands intently and then suddenly, they began to glow.
Just seconds after his hands began glowing, his brow furrowed. The glowing ceased and he let out a curse, "What the hell?" He rolled his shoulders and repositioned his hands and they started to glow again.
The glow increased slightly and so did the frustration on his face. Konan walked over closer behind Kakuzu, "Is something wrong?"
Kakuzu let out a 'tsk', shaking his head, "Apparently. The damn thing won't heal."
His words caused Konan to look down at Kamryn's food curiously, "That's… odd."
Everyone in the room was silent for a second, Kamryn and Olivia both looking at Kakuzu in amazed confusion, Konan and Kakuzu looking at Kamryn's foot like she had just sprouted a new one.
"Well… Itachi had mentioned…" Konan trailed off, obviously thinking over something very intently. "I think you're just going to have to stitch it closed. Give her something for the pain this time… And don't do a hack job of it, she needs to make a full recovery."
Kakuzu grumbled, "Fine." He dug into the medical bag, pulling out a little bottle of medicine and a capped syringe. Uncapping the syringe, he drew a little of the medication, "Ok, this will sting again, but you should be fine from here on out… You can both unclench…"
While he was doing this, Konan left the room in a bit of a hurry, but neither Kam or Olivia seemed to notice as they watched Kakuzu closely.
Without warning, Kakuzu pressed the tip of the needle into the flesh of Kamryn's sole. He injected only a little and in a few places. Kamryn winced a little, but the pain was nothing compared to before, and soon almost all the pain from the surface of her foot was gone. She felt a dull throbbing and a bit of pain further up on her ankle and leg, but nothing too bad.
Kakuzu set the needle down on the towel, digging into his bag to get some gauze and supplies to stitch up the wound. "Here we go." He glanced up to them one last time before he started to sew up the gash. Slight feeling seemed to rise every little bit, but he quickly snuffed it out with a few more small injections.
It wasn't much later that Kakuzu made Olivia clean up the rest of Kamryn's foot and before wrapping it in bandage. He stood slowly and popped his neck before turning to head out the door.
Kamryn sat up quickly, "Hey, wait!"
He stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her, "Hm?"
"What...what did you try to do? You know, when your hand was glowing. What was that?"
Green and black eyes narrowed at her. He stared at her for a minute, Kamryn pursing her lips as she met his gaze.
"I was trying to use a healing jutsu." His reply was gruff and curt, which just seemed to be how he was, as he turned away again and headed for the door.
Kamryn's brow furrowed at his response but she managed to call out to him before he shut the door behind him, "Thank you!"
They could hear him give a brief "Hm" before the door clicked shut behind him.
"What the fuck is a healing jutsu?"
Glancing over at her bewildered friend, Kamryn shrugged before her eyes went back to the door. "Hell if I know. I'm guessing it was supposed to help heal my foot? They seemed pretty surprised it didn't work, though…"
"His hands were glowing, Kam! What the hell is going on?"
Turning to face her fully, Kamryn gave Olivia a stern look, "Breathe, Livvy. I don't know what is going on or what that was but we need to be calm. I'm sure that Konan lady will be back and we can get some answers then, but we clearly can't do anything about the situation right now." She placed her hand on Olivia's arm and gave a gentle squeeze, "For now we should rest while we can."
Olivia took a deep breath, exhaling and giving her friend a weak smile, "Yeah… sorry, Kam. Just… this is freaking crazy."
"Extremely," Kamryn smiled. "You should go check the dressers for some clothes, if there is a bathroom we are taking advantage of it. You smell."
The brunette scoffed and shot her a playful glare as she walked to the dressers, "That's all you, you smell like roadkill."
"Oh, I don't doubt it."
Olivia opened the top drawer, a pleased grin spreading on her face as she pulled out a plain black tank top. It looked to be too big but it was better than parading around in basically their underwear. She quickly pulled out another before closing the drawer and opening the one below it. "Jackpot!" She pulled out a couple pairs of dark gray sweatpants. Olivia walked back over to Kamryn and laid the clothes on the bed.
Looking at Kamryn, Olivia gestured at the clothes, "Plain and probably too big, but they look comfy and it will be one hundred percent warmer than our swimsuits."
Kamryn smiled to Olivia, nodding, "First we should probably wash up. Was their a tub in there? I probably shouldn't get this wet." She pointed to her wrapped up foot, grimacing a little as she flexed her toes and felt a slight pang run up her leg.
Olivia frowned, watching Kamryn wince slightly, "Yeah, we can prop it up. We'll figure something out." She held her hand out to Kamryn, who smiled up at her friend from where she still lay in the bed.
Taking Olivia's hand, she pulled herself up more and into a sitting position. She let out a long sigh, "Are you going to be alright helping me in and out of the tub? If I really have to, I can just wash off with a rag or something."
Olivia just shook her head, "I'm helping. You don't always get to be the supportive mama bear, sometimes you have to let other people help you." Olivia smiled, "I'll go bring the clothes in the bathroom and make sure things are situated first. Hang tight."
Olivia quickly got everything ready and helped Kamryn towards the bath. It was a little more difficult than anticipated, but they got it done without any major incidents.
Soon, the two of them were back in the bedroom, both of them sprawled out on the soft mattresses, finally feeling like they could relax just a bit. For a brief moment Kamryn felt that she might have even drifted off, but a hard knock on the door startled the both of them.
Olivia jolted upright, her tired legs swinging off the edge of the bed, but before her feet even touched the ground the door opened.
Konan was standing in the doorway, having shed the bulky black and red cloak from before, "I see you two have made yourselves comfortable." She looked over the two of them, her gaze stopping on Kamryn last. "How is your foot?"
Kamryn nodded to Konan as she pushed herself up on her elbows. "It's still there, so that's something."
"It certainly is." Konan said back dryly, but Kamryn could have sworn she saw a hint of a smile on Konan's face. Konan took a few steps in the room, following behind her was the man that had carried Olivia to wherever they were. He had a scowl on his pale face, dark eyes glaring, but not looking at either of them directly.
"As you know, we have questions. We know that you do to. Right now, you're safe, no need to panic or withhold information…" Konan paused, having noticed the stifled horror on Olivia's face and followed her gaze to Itachi. "And he won't be able to hurt you, so no need to worry."
The woman sent a silent command to the man, his glare softening, but not changing to anything much friendlier. Olivia let out a shaky breath, trying to relax, her eyes never leaving the man, making sure to keep a close eye on everything he did.
Kamryn eyed her friend, turning her gaze towards Itachi and then Konan. She pursed her lips, not exactly comfortable with the pale man's presence either, "Alright. Let's talk, then."