Chapter 18: On Both Sides
"Good morn-"
The strong stench of rotting food, dog breath, and urine seemed to suddenly come over her like a wet blanket, her eyes tearing up the moment she stepped into the mine.
Cho held onto her nose tightly even wishing for the cover of the handkerchief Daichi usually wore around his sweaty neck. Anything was better than what she was smelling now.
"Can someone explain... why my mine smells like it could gag a maggot?"
The few workers that had arrived early that morning looked at each other warily as they lifted their own watering eyes towards Cho. It was the aforementioned man, Daichi, who began to lift a wiry finger down the tunnel, that gave any indication as to the origin of the strong, disturbing smell.
Swiping at the handkerchief that covered his nose and mouth, she marched down the lighted tunnel, the smell growing stronger and stronger the closer she approached its maker.
It was in the corner of the mine that she finally saw Kintsugi's figure hunched over a table, her own grimy fingers meticulously dusting off chunks of rock.
"The workers may not want to say anything, but girl, if you don't go home this second and take a nice, long shower, I am going to jerk a knot in your tail!"
Kintsugi momentarily turned towards Cho before lifting her head as she sniffed the air.
"I've smelled worse."
"Uh uh, not today," Cho said as a calloused hand reached for Kintsugi's collar and began dragging her towards the entrance.
"Hey!" Kintsugi yelped as she struggled against the burlier woman.
"You're a grown adult. Get, and don't come back till you've cleaned yourself up."
"I was still cataloging," Kintsugi grunted, somehow managing to land on her feet at the last second before being pushed out.
"Just cause you won't hit a lick at a snake to clean up, doesn't mean you can kill the rest of us."
"I'll be back," Kintsugi muttered brushing the residual dirt from her clothes.
"Go," Cho said holding onto the handkerchief for dear life.
A strong whoosh swept in and out through the tunnels, air circulating each crevice, bringing dust and repugnant smell to the open. She wasn't a complete savage.
Walking back to her apartment a grin broke out as she sensed a pair of familiar figures in the trees, their neat robes contrasting her own disheveled appearance.
With a pep in her step and tune on her lips, she headed back to Yami.
She had a meeting to get to.
The sun was burning at its brightest by the time she managed to get ready and away from any smothering nannies. It was still a little earlier than she had planned to meet with the two Akatsuki members, but she had decided it was best to get it over with before she was finally found. Not having chakra that any of the shinobi could sense would only help her for so long.
"Huh, glad you got rid of that stench. I would have killed you if you showed up in front of us smelling like you did this morning," Kisame expressed in a toothy grin.
"Well, it was either that, to get out of work, or fake an injury. And I already went to the hospital. I'm not going there again."
"First things first, I think I should remind you the extent of this transaction-," Itachi interrupted.
"...transaction?"
"-we're not here for comradery, we're not here to be your bodyguards, or keep constant tabs on you. You either deliver or you're done. Understood?"
"Honestly? That sounds perfect. Finally, someone who gets me," Kintsugi agreed as she stretched her back.
"Now, where's the money?"
Admittedly, it hadn't been as easy as before to continue digging tunnels as often as she had liked to safely and secretively transport the money after exchanging her cut from the mine. But after taking Yami out for a walk that morning, she realized she could just use the same tunnels she'd been using to overhear conversations and build off them to transport the 'goods' whenever she was further away.
She could have smacked herself for forgetting such an important detail, especially as the solution was literally under her nose.
"Wallah!"
A small mound of dirt the size of a plate slowly appeared in front of the two men.
"Wow, that's...great," Kisame frowned.
"Do I hear a note of sarcasm in your statement?"
"A note? More like a symphony. Where's the money girly?"
"What do you mean? It's right here," Kintsugi said as she bended the mound taller and taller until it was at least to the height of Itachi's knees.
"I swiped some gems in there for variety," she said as she watched Itachi open the exposed wooden crate with ease.
"Perfect, never had a doubt," Kisame's eyes gleamed at the reflection of blue, red, and green gems against a backdrop of Konoha currency.
"Now, how goes your end of the deal?"
There was a moment's silence as Itachi glanced up before turning to Kisame with a knowing look.
"See ya girly," the shark man said, turning to her as he gave a small nod and a wave goodbye. In a flash, he disappeared from sense and sight with the wooden crate.
"What? Don't tell me you're backing out now. Not when your boy just took my money."
Itachi was no fool. He stared at the thin cloth she wore on her feet to the way the sun's rays gave a faint glow around the top of her head. He knew she would never see the way her hair would glow in the sun or the way her eyes were shining a different color under its rays this very moment, or even the way the faint scars on her face seemed to cradle her skin like symbols of victory.
Perhaps it was the knowledge that she would also never have to deal with the visual memories of pain, past or present, that prompted him to feel the beginnings of a confusing emotion towards their 'transaction', but again, he was no fool.
"What?" She repeated as she patted her hair down, this time becoming self-aware of her own appearance as she sensed his silent head movement.
"What do you know about the Rinnegan?"
Kintsugi blinked. She had expected him to ask sooner or later, though she had definitely hoped it had been the latter.
"That's what you want to know? or 'How do I know about the Rinnegan?'"
"Both," Itachi said, cocking his head to the side as he waited for her to respond.
Kintsugi stayed silent, her lashes fluttering for a second in thought.
"You know the man. Quite the talker when no ones looking. Never heard someone talk to themselves as much as the guy, but I'd say he's kind of like you," she added, "...puts up a front of being sane and in control when in reality he's got a bit of a screw loose."
Itachi's eyes had narrowed, but Kintsugi was still able to sense the change in emotion.
"What do you think these tunnels are for? Money's not the only thing that travels under our noses," she joked, "But I shouldn't be the one under interrogation right now. I should be asking YOU about the Rinnegan."
Either way, she couldn't answer his questions completely. She didn't really know much about the Rinnegan, all except for the possibility of it being able to send her back. It was the only lead she had had since a few months back, but Itachi didn't need to know that.
"If you know that much from the man you speak of, you would know that the Rinnegan is a rumor of a rumor. It's a myth-"
"Hold on, that's not my problem to deal with. Otherwise, why even agree to what you call a 'transaction' in the first place? Even if it was a rumor, doesn't this still benefit you? I give you money, I help you gain power so that you can gain the Rinnegan...think of it as me helping you achieve world domination, or what have you."
"I'm not looking for world domination."
"Then, whatever you're looking for, I'll help you. All I want in return is for you to try, just...try.
She wasn't sure what he thought about any of this, how she knew it had to be him to find the Rinnegan, why she even wanted him to have it, or why she even bothered at all to begin with.
But he had left immediately once they had discussed the next payment date. It had been with this, that she knew he would at least think about it.
He would call for her, he said. She hoped he would.
The path was becoming familiar now, a few bushes lined the edges of it here and there before becoming a full forest of tall, thick trees.
She would have enjoyed her walk back to the mine had it not been for the one person she had hoped to avoid the rest of the day suddenly standing right in front of her as she tried to head back.
"Where were you?"
"What? I had to clean up. I went for a walk, that's all. Can't I do that?"
"Yeah, and after going for a walk into the woods no one could find you, Kintsugi."
"And?"
"And, you can't just leave whenever you want. You're still on probation."
"That doesn't mean you need to follow me everywhere I go. What if I needed to go to the restroom all of sudden? Are you creeps going to follow me while I go?"
"And did you actually need to go to the restroom?"
"That's not the point!"
"That's exactly the point."
"Whatever. I have work to do," Kintsugi miffed back as she attempted to brush past Kakashi.
There had been various times throughout her life that she had thought she'd gotten the short end of the stick and it was in that moment as Kakashi reached for her wrist to stop her and as the lines on her body started to glow a bright blue that she knew she had gotten the short end of the stick.
"Wait! Let go!" she stammered out.
She couldn't hold it back any longer as the wind picked up all around them encasing them both in a ball of air and dust. She whimpered in frustration as she began to glow brighter and brighter.
"What's-"
Whatever Kakashi had wanted to say to her was drowned out by the rushing wind that wiped across their faces and the blue light that seemed to suddenly embrace their forms.
Water, the first thing they felt was water.
It was all around her and she felt like she couldn't breathe. If she hated the rain, she loathed being in large bodies of water.
Kintsugi gasped as the shadow of bright lights burst across her vision following the voice of a young boy gurgling out a cry for help.
The same bright glow covering her own body seemed to cling to his figure, growing brighter the deeper he went under.
The same bright glow covering her own body seemed to cling to his figure, growing brighter the deeper he went under
"Kintsugi!" the boy called out with his mind the second he felt her presence.
"Aang," she mourned, helpless to what was happening to him.
She had always known his name. From the moment young flesh had met air for the very first time, she had known who he was. And now, miles and worlds apart, she had no way of physically helping him or his flying bison.
She had never truly hated him, but neither had she ever truly loved him. Looking back, she had supposed it was the Avatar in her that caused her to reach out as much as she could, mind and spirit meeting emptiness as she attempted to help him bend the water around him. She wasn't sure if it was working but as his figure slowly froze within a ball of ice miles under the water, she whispered his name one last time, the world growing darker as Aang and his bison fell into a deep sleep.
A/N: Sooooooo...yeah. In case you have questions, there is a backstory for this, it's just not covered here.
Once again, thank you everybody for reading. Means a lot.
