°Chapter Seven°
.
Aiko felt a lingering melancholy. She had seen it from the start. The sweet devotion towards his comrades. A defensive nature that she had never seen on the men she had related to in the past. Didn't even seemed to bother how clumsy and obvious his defensiveness manifested with insults towards her. Even created actions to piss her off.
It magnetized her heart. But, the scar left in her own skin reminded her the crude nature of men. Always offering and taking. Like predators devouring the sweetness they once offered her.
She remembered her own laughter. The Nara had made her laugh. Not even herself believe it. The sweet sound of joy, not caused by one of her close children or elders. It was done by a man.
She played with her long hair.
"Dear you seemed lost in thought. Something wrong?"
A elder voice echoed in the room. A lantern illuminating. The older woman walked towards Aiko. Offering a basket.
"Thanks Oba-Chan."
She forced her gentle smile. Always did. To maintain the girls with hope. To maintain some hope to herself.
The elder woman knew it. Only she knew Aiko's scar. Her tired feet walked lazily towards Aiko. Aiko warmly embraced the elder. After all, this woman had saved her from a hell without hope.
"Dear..." the raspy voice cut deep in the wound of Aiko. "He scares you, that young boy whom you always try to fool around. It scares you so much that you know ..."
Aiko jumped. Gritty fingers touched her stomach. A sharp sensation cursed trough her. Aiko's heart froze for a minute. She pushed the elder away.
"Oba-San. Don't you dare cross that line."
"Why won't you let it be. Aiko is been almost four years."
The vicious anger in her voice sent chills in the older woman.
"You're asking me to forget how that bastard cut my stomach open! Taking my poor creature and then-" she paused. Angry tears rolling down her cheekbones. She closed her eyes. "Go away Oba-San. If you don't desire to be punished."
A command. Not a request. The elder shook his head in defeat. She exited, the creak of the wooden door shut down, the sound made Aiko flinch.
Fear began to devour her. She felt in her skin, the cold sweat. Her hands touching her stomach as if protecting something from the past. Her green orbs watching her hands slowly rubbing. A sad loss remained in her.
"I had you...He gave me love. And he took it away..."
.
.
.
Sakura cut some flowers, her fingers working in a flower-crown. Shikamaru and Neji seemed to be discussing the advancement in the experiment with the cows who didn't ate the flowers. Shiho sat next to her. Peacefully looking in the afternoon. She observed the sun sinking down as darkness began to curtain the sky.
She smiled triumphantly as the flower crown was finished. She lifted it up. A playful smile decorated her expression.
Shikamaru yawned. Unaware of his surroundings. His mind tired of all the crap that had occurred in one day. He stretched his arms. Neji glared daggers when he saw the lack of consternation from his part. Without warning he felt a heavy object being placed over his head. A familiar laughter catching his eardrums.
"The hell-" Neji smiled. Now that wasn't a good signal.
He approached the object that surrounded his ponytail. He grunted as he recognized the object. A flower crown.
"Troublesome woman."
She smiled. Neji interrupted the moment.
"Shiho might you recognize any of these flowers?"
Neji said as he offered some of the flowers he had stolen from the buckets where the cows were fed. She watched cautiously. Inspecting each flower.
"That's strange." She said looking into the colors of the flowers."they are peonies. The colors. Is really hard to tell or not but, they seemed to be a mutation. Look, the yellowing of the larger petals. Someone has altered the flowers."
Shikamaru's fingers tried to take off the flower-crown only to fail at the second attempt.
As he struggled to take off the flower crown. He contributed to the conversation.
"So, what's the reason Aiko is feeding them? From all we gather it seems she is fucking with the digestive system and only she has access to the solution of their disease."
Sakura shivered.
"I can't imagine what's she doing."
Shiho was lost in thought for a mere minute.
"It's usually things like this that are used to create an attachment to the leader. It would be more efficient to see the perspective of their leader."
Shikamaru frowned. They had to get closer to the crazy bitch? To be friendly?
His skin felt cold digits playing behind his neck cautiously. He flinched. But tried to regain composure as the fingers played where the spine started.
He turned around. Giving Neji a confused look.
The Hyūga simply glared. Shikamaru got hypnotized for some seconds. Whispering a little annoyed.
"What are you doing?"
The fingers left his skin. Neji sighed.
"Don't you notice it? Shikamaru you still-" he paused looking at the group. He raised his voice catching the attention of the two young females. "Is late. We will discuss the new strategy in the morning."
The shadow-user began to walk. Only to be stopped. A strong hand holding his left shoulder. He began to accustom to the Hyūga always cornering before escaping his grasp, his presence.
In the vast emptiness of the silence of the night, the crickets resonated their constant sounds. Shikamaru and Neji orbited around each other , the eyes magnetized by lust and duty.
"Talk." The Hyūga whispered. So soft and lethal was the request. "About Asuma. Talk."
Everything went black. His dark eyes sparkled with an old hatred awakening from the old slumbers he tried to shut down. Asuma. The name that remained in his head, reminding of his greatest failure.
His tunes were accompanied with deep disgust at the topic.
"I warned you, Hyūga." His brows knitted together, a shadow covering his eyes. "Don't cross that line."
"You're mixing your old scar with the cult. I will cross that fucking line. Before, you do something so stupid that there will be not going back."
He laughed. Watching the hand that dug the nails over his shoulder.
"Let go,Hyūga."
"You asked for it,Nara." Neji warmed. Before forcibly kissing the Nara.
The primitive delirium that passion arose on his brain, it made him succumb into the Imaginative pictures of skin against skin. A dumb expression painted itself in his face with the momentary distraction that his brain tricked him into.
Like a pandora box. A new sensation opened in his chest. Sorrow of the past and the beauty of the present with the Hyūga. It collided like yin and yang.
.
.
.
It didn't fit. Not in her head. And yet, she felt a sensation awake in her stomach. So pure and vile. The jealousy of passion. Something she had lacked. Her green orbs were glazed.
She had taken a walk around the farm to immerse her mind into distractions. Only, thing was she never expect it. The older man on long mane consumed the Young Nara like a predator. The Nara never fought back. Submission. Giving away power to the predator. She didn't understood.
She stood still in shock. The luminous light of the moon shinning bright as she watched hidden behind some rocks. Observing the two males.
Her mind and heart puzzled.
"Why aren't you rejecting him?"
She wanted to know. She had offered her love, and had gotten suffering. Something in her wished her that the Nara pushed the other male away. But he immersed himself more. Something in her broke.
She sighed.
Walking out. A rest well needed.
.
.
.
Sorry if it's short. I need to work in many things. Roots is really difficult to write. Im in a block as of what or how to do the next chapter. Thanks for reading.