52
In the dead of night, where even the nocturnal animals were asleep and the windy chill was so frigid that goosebumps grazed her skin, Anomie awoke. It was to that same dream, somewhere in the past, her and her mother were sitting by the bank and counting the stars. It was so long ago that Anomie had let it be forgotten so she could concentrate on the present. Unfortunately, the present sucked, the future was unclear, and she enjoyed certain moments of the past.
She remembered the brilliant red hair of her mother, spreading like a fire between her fingers. Perhaps that was what made the Phoenix so beautiful to her and so appealing.
"Was it a nightmare?" Kakashi asked from his place on the tree tops. She slightly jumped, not used to his delectable presence. When she glanced up at him, past the crackling logs, she smiled.
"No," she whispered, running her fingers over a stray log and placing it into the brilliant red haze.
He didn't answer, only continued reading his book with the light reflected by the giant moon that hung in the sky. The mountain top was a beautiful place to be, or it would have been if it were summer or the ending of spring. Winter travels were less than appealing since the air was much too cold and everything was dead. It was befitting that she was born in the winter.
"I dreamed of my mother," Anomie told him, glancing up through hooded lashes.
"I always assumed you had just been spawned or hatched," he said, turning a page. It made her smile.
She leaned back up against a tree branch, her lips still curled up in her own sense of contentment. She never believed much when people said being with someone you loved made you happy. However, she was happy or at least as happy as someone like her was capable of being.
"I was. Hatched right in February," she told him.
"You've never told me your birthday," he replied.
"February 8th," she answered smoothly. "I think."
"Not long away," he said shortly.
"I like crystals and gems," she said, glancing up at him only to find he was staring back down at her with that look in his eye that she could never describe since not many looked at her quite like that.
"We're in the mountain tops. Where would I possibly find one?" His incredulous expression made her smile.
"If you really loved me, you'd find a way," she said with a shrug.
He turned a page with a nonchalant raise of his brow. "Have I told you how high maintenance you are?"
She stood up, taking her blanket with her, walking closer to the tree that he rested on top. She opened up the blanket with a suggestive smirk. "I didn't hear that. You should come a bit closer and say that again."
His eye met hers from above and he quickly went back to reading his book. "Nah. Sounds troublesome."
"Genma would have taken me up on that offer," she said with a playful smile, coming across condescending considering she barely remembered what that kid even looked like.
"Are you trying to make me jealous?" Kakashi's question was met with Anomie's narrowed and suggestive gaze that drove him crazy.
"Is it working?" Anomie opened up the blanket, revealing the fact that she used a seal to change into a dress that outlined her curves. Much of that hourglass figure had disappeared from her lack of food, but what was beautiful about her body never changed.
"It's 10 degrees outside," he informed her, as if she could forget.
"Oh no. If only there were some way to get warm," she teased, running one leg up against her other.
He was still unamused when he answered. "There is. It's called wearing pants."
She raised her brow. "For someone so honest about his feelings, you're really getting on my nerves. Perhaps I should give you a list. Or perhaps you are so resistant to my charms because I don't live up to the girls in your books?"
"Petty," he answered, jumping down so he was in front of her. She opened up her blanket for him to dip inside. He only blinked, showing he wasn't amused. She rolled her eyes, motioning to drop her offered arm when he moved forward, grabbing her by both cheeks and whispering, "not exactly like the books, but it will have to do." Just with a single move of his hands, he was already pulling her forward so her lips could come in contact with his.
It was not quite so ravenous as usual, but that could be because she was freezing. However, with him she saw that he had actually discovered where to touch her to make her heart lurch forwards. His long fingers trailed up her spine and weakened her body. She felt smoldered and devoured, and she loved the way his body pushed into hers.
It did help with the cold, and when she practically forced him to sit next to her by the fire, he let out a content sigh when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. A comfortable silence settled over the two before he broke it.
"Tell me about your mother," he whispered, mostly just because he wanted to know her.
"I only remember bits and pieces," she replied, resting her head into his chest. "I was so young when she died. Honestly, I'm not even sure the dreams I have of her are real." She was silent for a moment, letting herself smile. "I do remember one thing. Her Mochi was delicious. She would make some at least twice a year, for my birthday and Christmas. I've never had it since so I don't forget the taste of my mom's."
Anomie cut off, squeezing closer to him as they sat by the fire. "What did she look like?" Kakashi's question was met with Anomie running her hand up his chest, causing him to meet her eyes. She could feel the tremor beneath her palm, likely from the cold, but probably from her other hand that rested against his thigh.
"I don't remember her face much. Honestly, I mostly just remember the red of her hair. Can you imagine me with red hair?"
"No," he stated, running his fingers through individual locks as he met her heated gaze.
She slightly smiled, and pressed herself closer. His gaze dropped down to her lips for a moment, barely allowing her to catch it. "Probably for the best. I'm not sure what caused it, diseases of plenty turned my white when I was but a child. I don't even remember much of it, but I rather like it this way. My mother was always so protective and strong, especially after. There was this one time, when the merchants came to town. Usually, they were very rude, pushing and shoving the small shop owners out of the way to sell their goods. My mom sold apples, you know, and we woke up one morning to the entire tree cut down." Kakashi frowned, wondering if Anomie's life had ever been easy. "My mom, she didn't make a sound, she just held my hand, like this," as Anomie spoke, she placed Kakashi's palm in between hers and pressed it up against her lips. "And she said that all things bleak will get better with patience and that for us, things could only get better." Anomie met his gaze, but they were both caught up in each other's lips. She loved that his mask was bundled at his neck, since the whole thing made kissing so inconvenient.
"What did you guys do next?" Kakashi asked, and she loved that he was still listening.
"Oh, we used some of our savings to buy this nice bottle of port. It was an investment, but it paid off since my mom was gorgeous," she said, running her palm up his chest and over his neck. The contact of skin was enough to drive her insane. "She seduced the head merchant, got him drunk, and stole all his profits from the town. When he awoke, he didn't even remember what she looked like, so no luck went into finding who robbed him. With a little bit of patience, life did get a little better." And then, two months later, she was murdered. Anomie didn't share that part.
"Did I ever say how much I loath you?" Kakashi asked, and she slightly smiled.
"Hm," she made a slight sound when his forehead rested upon hers. "Sometimes, what did I do this time?"
"Nothing, you're perfect," he whispered, staring so intensely that her heart lodged into her throat.
Kakashi rested his palm against her waist, moving down until he could touch the skin of her thigh. All the while, his gaze was on hers, as if he were asking for permission. She would have given it, if only she could get a word out. Instead, she just smiled as his hand moved up, the material of her dress running up her leg as he did, the fabric bunching up until Kakashi's breath got caught his throat. His eyes moved away from her lips and back to her eyes.
"Are you not wearing any-?"
Her lips curled into a smirk, "nope."
"Fuck, Anomie," he muttered, resting his forehead against hers once again.
She moved closer, her lips still curled, pressing them against his neck and trailing them up before she paused underneath his ear. "Yes please."
He didn't even get a chance to kiss her before the sound of a scream filled the night and interrupted the mood. "God damn it."
"Can't we like, ignore it?" Anomie knew that such a thing was a lost cause the moment she said it, he frowned at her, as if saying that she was crazy.
He basically tore himself away from her, standing up to stare off in the darkness of the trees with the red of his Sharingan activated. She, in the meantime, leaned back against the tree with a sigh as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Get up," he ordered, and she looked at him incredulously as if she was amazed that he dared to order her around.
"We just can't catch a break," she said with a roll of her eyes as she stood up and simultaneously used a seal to change clothes into a much warmer attire. However, when he glanced at her and the way the black pants accentuated her curves, he sighed.
"Do you have to though?" he commented on her sultry outfit with a frown, noticing the way that her top was just as tight as the pants. Normally he was able to ignore her revealing attires, but his will was weaker after the state she left him in only forty seconds prior.
She raised both brows at him, already sensing his growing sass. "I like the way my butt looks in it, don't you?" And for good measure she dropped the blanket and ran her fingers over her butt.
"Really?" Now he was entirely unamused, his eyes set in a deadpan as his face once more turned into that stoney mask.
"You're the loser who would rather fight than-" another scream broke the girl off from her comment. "Who even screams anymore? Seriously, we should just let her get murdered for being annoying."
Kakashi's deep set frown made Anomie pause and sigh, giving in to his silent demand. She chastised herself for the lack of empathy that seemed to flood so many self righteous Konoha Shinobi. She was lucky enough to skip out on it, but unlucky to care what he thought.
He ran his palm over his face, as if he were in physical pain. It made Anomie send him a flirtatious smirk that made it all so much worse as he placed his mask back up, closing her off to all access. When he jumped to the tree tops, she lazily followed until they came up to the clearing where a woman was being held by the throat by a man with a great big sword. Anomie vaguely recognized the girl, but couldn't quite figure out why that was.
"She looks like she has it handled," Anomie said in a low whisper near Kakashi's ear. He sent her a glance, eye narrowed in a clearly unamused way. "You're serious?" He made a hand motion to send her to the left. She frowned, kneeling next to him. "Do you even know who that is?"
Kakashi gave her a look that practically screamed that she was being insubordinate. Anomie didn't particularly care as she glanced down at the white haired man with the great sword still untouched on his back.
"That's Mangetsu Hōzuki," Anomie whispered, turning Kakashi's chin so he was forced to look at her. "Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly in the mood to fight one of the swordsmen of the Mist. Especially not that one."
"Go left," he said, leaving no room for argument. Anomie's lips tightened into an expression that could only be frustration. She was at a crossroads, which she hated since she wasn't good at distinguishing between right and wrong.
She went left, her body fading to smoke as birds ruffled from the leaves when Mangetsu went to strike the woman down. Anomie didn't particularly care for some random skank's life, but Kakashi was apparently horny for justice and mercy and all that other crap, so Anomie had no choice. It was risky, but she felt obligated. She turned into smoke and and possessed his hand. This caused it to freeze, not leaving him room to stop it. He glanced at his frozen arm, for it was his dominant one. His gaze narrowed as the earth began to sink in around his legs, he quickly let the woman go and jumped back. Anomie immediately left his arm to become corporeal once more as she grabbed the woman by the arm.
"Hey darling, do me a favor and run," Anomie said, shoving the woman back as Kakashi sent a blast of fire towards Mangetsu, wasting no time. Anomie felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, but it was mostly just sore, having finally closed just enough for her to fight. However, to fight Mangetsu, she was sorely outmatched.
"Anomie," Mangetsu said, taking out his blade with a sharp grin and an expression that could only be described as ready to kill. "I'm going to enjoy killing you."
She barely dodged his attack, catching Kakashi's eye as he sent her an exasperated frown. "Seriously? What did you do to him?"
Anomie, with no shortage of enemies, paused as she glanced in between the blade and the psychopath's bloodthirsty grin as he lifted his blade from the indent of the ground that could have been her skull.
"Nothing!" Anomie defended, and Kakashi frowned.
"You hesitated!" Kakashi told her and she leaned on one hip. She glanced away, as if trying to remember.
"It's fuzzy, I've done a lot," Anomie defended as if it were an excuse.
"My grudge isn't with you," Mangetsu said with a grin. "Who I want is Hoshigaki Kisame. Your partner."
"Oh," Anomie paused, glancing over to Kakashi as she weighed her options. "He's in Kojukyo all the way in Ame." She gave the information easily, causing Kakashi to raise a brow.
"Is that right?" Mangetsu's grin widened, raising his blade and causing a trickle of wonder to rush through Anomie when she noticed that his Chakra was still pouring out for a kill.
"This luck I'm having," Anomie stated, clapping her palms together and pulling out two katanas from each palm.
"You're gonna fight me with those things?" Mangetsu grinned, causing Anomie to send him an unimpressed frown.
"Kakashi, he's making fun of me," Anomie said, while Kakashi began to grab his summoning scroll in one quick motion.
"Seriously," he muttered, running his fingers over the seals. His ninkin dogs arrived with a cloud of smoke. In the meanwhile, Anomie barely managed to dodge his surprisingly strong blow to her Katanas. She hadn't thought she was underestimating Mangetsu's strength of blows, but imaging what his blade would feel like was remarkably different than experiencing it first hand.
Her arms were vibrating and Anomie had to flood them with Chakra just to keep hold onto her blades. She knew, in that moment, that she wouldn't be able to fight him with blades. That didn't mean they weren't good for defense, but defend was all she'd be able to do at this rate and yes, that scared her. Perhaps she spent too much time thinking she was simply better than the average ninja, so being so outclassed was scary. That was when she met his gaze and remembered that this time she wasn't alone. She had to remind herself of that because it had been so long since someone had her back.
Kakashi swiped forward, his canine dogs attacking both of Mangetsu's sides. It forced him away from his close distance to Anomie's vital weakness because that was exactly what it was like fighting against him. She was afraid. Kakashi was unnerved as well, mostly because she was and he glanced towards Anomie as if to tell her to get ahold of herself. This was all something Mangetsu obviously found amusing, and he let out a chuckle, shaking the dogs from his body, and Kakashi signaled them to let go so they didn't get hurt.
"You don't get it, do you Hatake Kakashi?" Mangetsu asked, and Anomie bit her lip, her face heated up in humiliation. "Your partner, Koneko, and her past riddled with blood and smoke, is useless without that blood ability of hers. I studied her since she is in such intimate proximity with Kisame. You never fight without it, do you, Koneko?"
The humiliation was terrifyingly haunting, especially when the white haired girl met Mangetsu's condescending gaze. Her lip curled, but she had nothing to say to her defense. She often thought about her own shortcomings, and one of her greatest ones was her over reliance on her Kekkei Genkai. She could fight, she could use Ninjutsu, and she would even say she's advanced in sealing ninjutsu. However, the truth was, at the slightest glance at trouble, she ended things with her bloodline ability.
"My blood type ability counters yours. You can't possess me. I simply turn into water and you die," he said, and she grimaced, catching Kakashi's glance from across the clearing. She gave him a slight shrug, hiding her own apprehensive thoughts with her resting bitch face that she had artfully perfected.
"You talk more than I thought you would," Anomie said with a smile, pressing her palms together even though she couldn't deny her hands were shaking.
Mangetsu sent her a sharp grin that didn't help with the nervous patter in her heart. Her stupid fingers didn't perform the seal in time for his next attack, forcing her to take the defensive as he rushed his blade her way. The wedge his sword left in the ground make her heart quake. She jumped back, forcing herself not to turn into smoke just by instinct when his blade came with a sharp rush of water.
She escaped, but the slash that cut across her shoulder was not spared his strength. Mangetsu stood straight, swiping her blood from his blade and running his finger against his tongue. She grimaced at his wide grin, but moments later, the crackling of birds shot through the clearing and Anomie glanced to see Kakashi had readied his Chidori.
Likely, it would miss. Anomie knew Mangetsu's speed well enough. Kakashi couldn't keep up too many blows of his Chidori and before long, he would be drained. His Chakra reserves were pathetically small, but not many enemies took advantage of his weakness because he usually made up for it with his many other strengths. She knew he was distracted and perhaps that was her fault.
She had to think. She had to be smart. For once, she had to do something that didn't end up shaming her. Her heart was drumming in her chest and her arms were still sore from the vibrations of her blades against Mangetsu's sword. His strength was that of a monster, but he had to have a weakness.
She felt her pulse slow, noticing the way the Chakra would gather around his sword, as if he were more concerned with the blade than his body. He had done that before, just before he had nearly decapitated her. She reached out her palms, moving fast, her fingers still shaking and a little clumsy but it would have to do. She couldn't let something as pointless as fear get Kakashi hurt.
She pressed her palms against the ground, causing the water in the atmosphere to nearly become visible as she used the heat from the undying birds to boil it. She caught Kakashi's eye, as if she were telling him to be quick. He wasted no time, his body tearing through the air as the sound of birds filled her ears. The crackling was a sweet reprieve from the heat that was overcrowding her veins. She could feel it spread through her skin. The atmosphere was just as deadly as she continued to keep it over the proper temperature.
Mangetsu looked to realize that she made it incredibly unsafe for him to use his own Kekkei Genkai. The fire was licking through the air, and the water vapor was nearly visible with licks of flames. If he attempted to use any sort of water Jutsu, she would merely light the air on fire.
Kakashi bolted forward, his hand crackling with concentrated Chakra. Mangetsu smirked, holding up his fingers, as if to signal. Moments later, the woman Kakashi had attempted to save had warped in front of them, as if she teleported, holding Anomie in front. Kakashi barely had enough time to avoid impaling her, reminding him of Ron's wide gaze and his palm through her lungs.
He managed to hit the trees to the right instead, his Chakra already running low.
"How sweet," the unnamed woman whispered. She glanced down at Anomie, her lips curled in amusement. "Is he your new romantic interest? You traded down from my brother then?"
Anomie's face was blank, her lips cracked, but she still let out a sweet scoff. "Sorry, who are you? I have difficult time with my recollection since you have the memorability of a literal beetle."
The woman snarled, but Mangetsu held her back with a mere clear of his throat. "You interrupted a lover's quarrel before, but as you can see, Mikka and I are allies."
"Lovely," Anomie said in an unamused tone of voice. "Kakashi, we could have been doing something so much more tantalizing. Well," Anomie smirked, her lips curling as she pulled out her summoning scroll. "I'm sure we will have many other chances." She glanced towards him, giving up a soft smile that said so much but caused a strike of fear to echo throughout his chest. "And I promise that we will."
The world disappeared the moment she touched it. She needed power. Something more tangible and real, that way she didn't weigh him down and get him killed. However, with the Ho'ou, there always seemed to be a price for power. There always seemed to be some kind of area that made everything so hard. Still, she needed it.
As it was, she would get everyone killed.
"Child of Smoke," the Great Fire Bird stared her down, she never liked doing so, but she bowed. She could draw from the bird's power at will, but as if the supply was jammed in the pipes, she never got it all. "So you've come."
"I need more."
"You have nothing more I desire," The Great Fire Bird said, causing her head to lower to the ground. Its power didn't feel like a summoning creature, for she had been around summons like Tsukasa's great lion or Kakashi's canine. No, something about the Ho'ou always felt too ancient like a demon or even a God.
Anomie finally lifted her head up. She suspected the only reason these birds didn't burn her on a pyre was because of that contract. They fed off years and life and choices that could never be made. In her thirsty pursuit of power, she had given up so much of her body to them. That was irreversible, but it wouldn't do her any good to regret every little thing that she did. She couldn't live like that and she didn't want to try.
"Anything in this world, I can get you. I'm ambitious enough to try and stubborn enough to be relentless. All I ask is that you serve me. Serve me right. Do as I request and I'll give you whatever you want. The world. The lives. Give me your power. Let me use it."
The silence was deafening.
"As you wish."
Author's Note
(桃色薔薇) Momoirobara Pink Rose Trust/Happiness/Confidence
Wow! It's been such a long time. Does anybody still remember me? No? Alrighty then.
So Anomie and Kakashi's relationship has progressed past the stage of will they/wont they. Anomie is still just as selfish as before, which is sure to cause problems for the future. She's such a power hungry character, oopsie poopsie, that's on me. The Ho'ou will be a major plot point in later chapters, so stay tuned. Team seven is still so very far away (five years to be exact). There has to be a plot somewhere to fill the gap lol!
Still, this story is gonna be so long. It's already been like 50-something chapters and team seven hasn't even shown up yet! Gonna be a long run.
