Chapter 6: Blood in the Water

Kakuzu's POV

I had woken up from a restless sleep to see the other two still out. Hidan was lightly snoring in the chair he had taken over and Jinkusu lay on the floor curled up in almost the dead center of the room. I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face as I threw my legs over the side of the bed.

"No..hurts" Jinkusu mumbled in her sleep. She had started jerking around. Nightmares? I don't know what this girl had endured up to this point, but she had already shown signs of mental instability. I wonder if this is why her bounty was so high. But then again it was an odd request for her to be alive and unharmed. People that caused the mayhem she did were always wanted dead. What made her a bit special was her abilities-though at first glace anyone would think she would be an unskilled girl. She was thin, in a 'years of malnourishment' kind of way. Her pale skin looked frail, although that was apparently not the case with her. Everything about her seemed odd. From her scattered thinking process to the way she carried herself. She had seemed on edge since we had came into town yesterday, but tried masking it with her naïve like actions. It was almost like she had two distinctive personalities that clashed. People like her weren't usually in with the normal population. Maybe she wasn't always this way. She had started shaking in her sleep, pulling me from my thoughts. She started coughing bad "Sorry...Varus" she coked out. Varus? The same name that was listed as the person who put out the bounty on her. Hidan woke up to the noises she was making in her sleep, almost like a whimper. I had made a mental not to ask her at some point about this 'Varus' man.

"What the hell is she carrying on about already?" Hidan was clearly annoyed.

Suddenly she coughed up a black liquid, startling the both of us to our feet.

"What the hell is that shit?" I had no answer. Hidan had gotten to her first as he was closer than I was.

When he leaned down to investigate, her eyes opened in an instant and she jolted up. Their heads collided knocking Hidan on his ass as they both rubbed their heads. A single stray tear fell down her cheek, probably from either the headbutt or from something entirely different in her dream. "FUCK" Hidan was going to be a very pissed man today, seeing as his day had already started roughly. He had scrambled up and had begun to slick his hair back in place from the incident, muttering curses at the girl. I had crouched down, dipping my fingers in the dark liquid and rubbing it between my fingers. It had a thicker consistency than blood and had a sticky substance that seemed to be in it. It had no odor to it that I could tell. Very curious. I glanced in her direction, but she seemed almost out of it. Her eyes held no emotion, and her face held a blank expression. It was more than likely the result of being in her own mind, though I had no real clue. The girl was like a living, breathing paradox. Nothing about her would be considered normal. I had brought myself back up to my feet and cleared my throat, but it didn't seem to catch her attention.

"We need to head out soon." The statement was simple and held no emotion as I spoke. She seemed like she hadn't heard me, making me irritated at the girl once more.

"Hey bitch, ya hear that? Time to fuckin' move." No emotion still on her face. Not a single hint that she had heard shit. What the actual hell is wrong with this girl.

Jinkusu's POV

I had the taint taste of blood coming from my mouth, although this was not the first time I had experience a coughing fit that led to expelling the dark liquid. I was in a daze of sorts, all I could hear was a loud, high pitched ringing in my ears. I had recovered a memory that had been long lost. I had black outs in my memories from the past two almost three years although I had no idea why. I was just missing pieces. But something must have triggered this to happen. It was the first instance I had of this happening to me. Maybe it was some kind of hint, I couldn't be sure of that or what it would even mean. A face came into my vision, a screeching headache followed directly after causing me to grab either side of my head in pain. What was happening to me? A familiar face in my vision, I knew I would go see this man soon. I had to. Light, soft pink hair with a single small section of white-short in an rough style- with a rounded face. Both eyes red, although the left had no white, instead it was pure black. Sharp, pointed teeth-one single golden fang that sat slightly in the right center in his upper row of teeth. A small, lanky frame with four arms and long legs standing at an almost 7 foot height. He was an odd addict. An old friend I had made in the Undercity. He always had good, reliable information. Maybe he would know what I should do or where I could find my sister. He was considered bottom of the barrel, like the rest of us but he was a sneaky, manipulative man. A male sex worker with a drug addiction. Angel was his stage name, although I knew his real name was Viktor. He had to know something, why else would I have seen him in my vision, right? It was a small thread of hope that I held onto as the ringing in my ears had started to go away-though my head still was throbbing I could manage. I had pulled myself up and heard Hidan yelling at me, though he sounded far away, not directly in my face like the reality of it was. As everything started to become more clear, I wiped to dark liquid from my mouth and rolled my eyes at the angry man in front of me. I wanted to blow this man up into bits, his voice annoying me.

"Will you shut the fuck up" I groaned. I hate headaches.

"What the hell was that weird shit about?" He crossed his arms across his chest and huffed in annoyance. The look in his eyes was something similar to hate. I got that look more than any other. People were always so quick to pass judgement and it frustrated me to no end.

"Don't worry about it." Was all I muttered in response. It's not like my thoughts were his to know anyways. I gathered myself up the best I could and refused to show any hint of emotion on my face. These men didn't deserve that part of me, they were my captors and I held a slight distrust in my heart in these two. Shady would be a good word to describe them. My mind had conjured up ghosts of my past as I like to call it. My brothers. But they weren't really them. Their eyes were pitch black holes, their mouths sewn shut. Nightmarish looking in comparison to the real them. Almost as if to mock me like they did when they were alive. I was always the odd one out no matter who I was with I guess. Maybe I was supposed to always be misunderstood by everyone around me. "Lets go and get this over with." I finished my part of the conversation. Kakuzu headed for the door-I was silently glad he had asked no intrusive questions. It was as if he had some sort of understanding towards me-though I had no idea why. Hidan voiced his complaints very clearly, to which nobody replied. Possibly because both Kakuzu and I were lost in our own thoughts. Or maybe he was just focused on this stupid bounty. Either way, I was glad for his silence. I had walked up tp stand beside him. "Can I see the bounty so I know who I'm looking for specifically?" Without a word or even a look in my direction, he pulled folded papers from a pocket inside his cloak and shifted through them till he got to the one I guessed was our target for now. He handed me the paper without missing a beat. I glanced down to see this man was indeed a rogue ninja from the Hidden Waterfall lands. He was a fairly high rank and had a high risk warning in the paperwork. He had messy orange hair and golden eyes. He was pretty easy on the eyes too, so that would be a plus in my opinion. I always liked to go after a pretty boy. They always held a certain attitude in every case I had seen. Like they expected things to always go in their favor. He was a water style user, which would be fun for me. Maybe I could a learn a thing or two from this encounter with him. We had reached the center of town and although it was fairly small, people littered the roads. I couldn't believe this many people would reside here. But who was I to judge where someone chose to stay? A small flash of orange was in my peripheral vision headed towards an exit in the east side of the town. Without a second thought, I darted in his direction without a word, silently dropping the paper containing his information.

"We got a runner, Kakuzu." Hidan sneered although I hadn't heard the response from his partner, although I was certain they would follow me. I was their captive right?

I had followed the man known as Aku towards a small running river. The sound of it brought peace to my inner turmoil for just a split second. A kunai flew in my direction at a speed that was hard to catch. Without a second thought, My left arm transformed as I lifted it in defense. Sticking out of my hardened skin, I hadn't realized how hard he had thrown it until it hit me. It didn't hurt, it honestly felt good in a sense. A warm liquid dripped from my new wound as I looked up at him, bright pink eyes flashing a crazy look. We charged each other, both of us had drawn a weapon. For me, it was a sword gifted to me by Varus. It had a pink and blue wrapped handle, the blade itself was an onyx color. It looked to be a plain sword, but it could feed off my chakra and in turn, it could form devastating water attacks. Aku had a set of Kiba's. This would be fun.

'This next kill will be easy.' Wolf had mused although he was nowhere in sight.

"And if not?" Aku looked perplexed as our weapons clashed. The power from our weapons causing an explosion and sent both of us flying in opposite directions. We had both stuck our landing though.

'More fun' Wolf had a cynical laughter that followed his statement.

We charged once more and I began to pulse chakra through my sword that I liked to call Nami. I swung at a ridiculously far space between the two of us to a normal eye, but a forceful wave of water came from Nami and hit a single mark on his right side, nothing deadly or awful-more so annoying to him most likely. Although I knew it had to hurt him, he showed no fear or pain in his eyes. Only determination and our weapons clashed once more in a rage. He drove his leg into my stomach sending me back. I quickly recovered and just barely missed his next attack. I had jumped away from him to put space between us. He quickly formed hand signs and eight water clones appeared. I was at no disadvantage to this though. I confidently finished my transformation as I summoned Wolf. He growled in anticipation of the fight ahead of us. Surely this would sate his taste of blood for the day. He and I didn't have the same style as far as a fight went, I was much more calculated in my attacks than him, but his vicious attacks were nothing to dismiss. If given the chance, he would rip his targets to shreds with not the first sign of regret or remorse. He enjoyed his kills. He almost toyed with them as if it were a game to him. He charged at them with not a single thought of caution in his head and so I followed after him. I formed my hand signs and a thick mist covered the riverbank we were on. I heard Wolf's laughter in the thick of the mist off to my right. I threw my sword up in defense at the left as blades collided once more. "Sneaky little man." I seethed through my teeth. I only had a moment to think as a figure caught my attention towards my right side and directly in front of me. I shoved the blades apart and jumped back into the water to dodge incoming attacks from multiple angles. A terrible sneaky man, huh? So much more thrilling that just killing civilians. I raised up my left arm and a powerful bolt of water shot from my hand, making one of the clones fall onto the ground and disperse into a puddle. I could hear wolf in the distance and he sounded angry. Probably because he had thought he had a kill only to find out it was a clone was my guess. The two Aku in my vision came for me once more, I had blocked one with my sword while the other was pushing his blades on my left arm, causing more blood to spill. I smiled at the measures this man was taking on my life without even speaking a single word to me. Maybe he knew I was after the bounty on his head. I felt like I had been doing well, until a third clone struck me in my right shoulder blade causing me to gasp in shock. I never even seen that one coming. Blood stained the water at our feet, and all I could manage was a laugh in both pain and pleasure. I pushed against the two in front of me throwing them back a few feet as I quickly turned and threw my left arm through the mans chest, spilling blood and a look of shock and despair filled his eyes. Bingo. The water clones had dispersed water throughout the dirt trail leading to the riverbank. Wolf let out a deep howl as the mist cleared clearly displeased he didn't obtain the kill. I pulled my blood soaked arm out from the man and he fell into the water. Blood had tainted the water source and would surely raise red flags as it traveled downstream, mixed with black and red blood. It was odd. I felt my extremities sizzle once more as they turned back to their natural state. Wolf had pulled the body to the bank of the river for me. How considerate of him. In actuality he had most likely only done it to have a taste of the mans blood. I had grabbed the Kiba protruding from my right shoulder blade and couldn't tug it out. It did go straight through, which sucked ass. Hopefully this secured bounty will convince the duo that I was of use in some ways. As the thought crossed my mind, they had came into view on the dirt path. I waved my left arm in the air waving it back and forth so they would hopefully speed it up and get this damn blade out of me. I couldn't help but smile, I had actually successfully done a task assigned to me without a major fuck up. Maybe my luck will turn around. I could only hope.

Hidan's POV

Stupid girl. Running off like that on some kind of mad chase. Kakuzu hadn't been in a rush to arrive on the scene. Maybe it was some form of test to see if she really could handle a fight. By the looks of it, she handled herself decently aside from the apparent blade sticking out from her and the blood splattered everywhere. She was waving with her left arm, blood running down it as well though it didn't look too bad.

"I told you, she's no ninja-but she isn't an average girl either." Kakuzu talked like he was in some kind of complex thought process.

"She has a blade in her and is smiling like nothing is fucking wrong." As we got close enough for her to hear us I spoke once more. "Why the fuck are you smiling like that? That shit has to hurt."

She just smiled, never skipping a beat. "It's not as bad as it looks, I swear. I just can't pull the thing out. Give me a hand?" The look in her eyes was something that was very familiar to me. She felt the pain, but the pleasure in her eyes made it clear that she enjoyed it. When we were closer, she turned her back to us. Kakuzu had walked over to inspect the body and I grabbed the weapon from her shoulder, blood spewed over her running down her back and most likely her front too. I glanced at the body to our right and froze. There was a gaping hole in the man's chest. Kakuzu was right, there was something that set her apart from any other female I had came across. I took a moment to inspect the black liquid on my hand from pulling out the sword and was curious. I wonder if her blood had a different taste than any others I has came in contact with. "Thank you, Hidan." She had looked over her shoulder and tossed a grin in my direction. Her piercing pink eyes met mine as i licked some of the blood from my hand. The taste was in fact different. It burned, and I couldn't understand why. I felt my heart skip a beat, pain filled my body like I was set ablaze in a split second. And then it was cold, freezing. It was like some kind of curse was on me. My body shivered and her grin turned to a cynical smile. "Careful, you might just get burned." She winked and turned to meet Kakuzu. "Was this satisfactory, Kakuzu? He is still identifiable."

"Yes." Was all he said in his usual monotone sounding voice. He had gotten closer to her, inspecting her shoulder. The wound had already started healing at a rapid pace. With that, we had gathered our composures and headed out, body in tow to turn in. We would be at the closest bounty station in a two to three hours depending on our pace. I had to wonder if this woman was even mortal. She seemed normal on the outside, but she has shown she was far from that. I had to spar with her at some point. I wondered if my power would have the same normal effect over her or if it would be different.

"Do you think when this is done we can grab a bite? Food sounds great." She was just as bubbly as ever, much to my annoyance. This trip needed to end and in all honesty we needed to report to Leader-Sama.

AN: I own nothing aside from my own story and my characters. I hope you guys have enjoyed this so far! This story still has a long way to go. Just when they think they might have figured her out, she raises more questions. Next chapter will be posted in the next few days. :)