A/N: Song (c) Yuki Kajiura (See-saw) (Cynical World)
Need coke...Need coke.... Need coke.... !!! Rei groaned, turning over on the cold, hard ground. Her head was throbbing and the silence of the early morning was killing her. SILENCE!? She scrambled for her walkman, pulling off the back and ripping out the batteries as if she were doing it to save her own life. She threw them into her bag and felt around until she grabbed the package of battereies...only to find it was empty. She simply sat and stared at the package for a few moments before flopping back to the ground and groaing loudly as she hit her head on the stone wall of the cave, enhancing her headache. She snarled in frustration and sat bolt upright, slowly counting back from ten in order to prevent herself from exploding. They had been bouncing around the Earth country for two days now.
"Ne, not so loud," muttered Akisu from a few feet away. He opened one of his striking snake eyes and focussed on her, rubbing the other sleepily and pushing himself off the ground.
"Argh... I'm not a morning person... Let's get going, today we're goin' to the Stone."
"The Stone? Why?"
She lifted the empty package of batteies, frowning and dropping it on the stone floor. "Batteries and Coke."
She sat pefectly still for a few moments, thinking about the last few days. She had tried to ask Akisu many times, many many times, but every time Neko somehow managed to drop in as the words left her mouth. Literally, drop in. It had begun to bother her so much, that she had threatened to kill her if she didn't get out of the cave. 'CAN YOU JUST SHUT UP!? OUT! NOW! IF YOU COME BACK IN HERE I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!' She remembered her words exactly, and smiled sheepishly as she thought about it. Akisu had gone oddly quiet after, afraid to talk to her, and Neko had said nothing for the rest of the night.
She sluggishly grabbed her bag and poked her head outside, before jumping back in suprise and whaking her head again on the cave's entrance. She hit the ground hard, landing in snow that reached up around her. Above the cave's entrance was a small overhang that reached several feet past the cave's entrance, but beyond that, was a solid wall of snow. Some of it had fallen underneath the overhang, and she picked herself out of it, shivering and frowing further.
"Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." came a voice from within the wall of snow. She looked up above her just as something small and black fell from the wall, showering her with ice and snow before landing on her head, flattening her.
"Is that you, Rei-sama?" asked Neko, looking around with her eyes closed.
"Watch where you're goin', Neko!" she snapped, whacking the girl over the head. She picked herself off the ground, rubbing her closed eyes and grunting in pain.
"What's wrong?" asked Rei, examining her face closer.
"My eyes are frozen shut," she whined, rubbing them. When she dropped her hand, Rei notice blood smeared on her cheek, leaking from the corner of her eye.
"Stop rubbing it, you're making it bleed. Here," she said, placing a thumb over her eye. She felt the ice slowly melt, and Neko opened her eye as she did it to the other, freeing her of the ice crystals.
"Rei-sama is the best!" exclaimed Neko, grinning a toothy smile and jumping up, looking around.
"What...What's this?" She pointed to the wall of snow and turned back to Rei just as Akisu popped his head out of the doorway, whacked it as he jumped in suprise, and fell to the floor as she had.
"What is this?" He asked, worming further out from the cave.
"Snow," she said, remembering they had probably never seen it before in their lives. Akisu came from Konoha, where the worst weather they got was rain, and Neko came from the Rain, where it... where it rained, obviously. She raised her hands and a crystal blue orb formed between them, drifting towards the wall of snow and halting directly in front. A white light enveloped the cavern for a second, and when it faded along with the orb, there was a large tunnel leading out into the daylight. She crawled through first, followed by Neko and Akisu. Outside, the world was covered in a deep, rolling blanket of white, broken only by the hoof-prints of mountain goats and deer. She groaned loudly, thinking of how difficult travelling had just become. Edging along one-foot projections and ledges was hard enough when there was no snow. Now there would be snow and ice.
"At least the Stone's close to here," she groaned, trying to make herself feel better. But it did nothing of the sort, instead, she took a step forwards, and fell several feet directly down into the snow, Akisu's head popped over her, looking down as he grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the surface of the snow, where she was forced to use chakra to hold herself up. Even better, she thought, dusting the snow from herself and scooping up her bag again.
'Let's go. I dun wanna stay here anymore," she said childishly and sleepily, walking along the surface of the snow, the other two following her slowly. She was shivering uncontrollably- her jacket was exceedingly thin, and being her skinny self, she had no body mass to keep herself warm. Rei led them carefully along a ledge until they broke out onto the top of a flat-topped plateau, a large, white lump visible in the center.
"Is that the village then...?" asked Akisu, squinting against the sunlight reflecting from the snow around them.
"Hn," she muttered, shivering. She felt added weight on her shoulders as Akisu dropped his jacket, which was thicker than hers and still warm, over her shoulders. She turned in suprise and he smiled, dropping his hands and heading forwards in only his dark-blue t-shirt.
"Let's go, then," he said happily, turning back to look at her. The wind kicked up a large amount of snow, blowing it into their faces, and she staggered slightly as she held up a hand to prevent her hair from blowing in her eyes.
"We should take of these," she said, indicating the forehead protector she was wearing. She untied it and shoved it into her bag, running a hand through her hair and realizing it was longer than she remembered. I need a haircut, she thought, frowining slightly. She started forwards again, followed by Neko who seemed afraid to say anything to her still.
Getting into the village was easy, she produced two fake I.D. cards and made Neko use the Henge no Jutsu to turn herself into a cat before heading through the gates and telling the man standing there that they were visiting their Aunt and Uncle, that they were their neice, nephew, and pet cat. Rei knew the city fairly well, and immediately led them towards the nearest hotel, pulling the other two, Neko in her cat form, toward the lobby and clerk.
"One room, two beds," she forced out through clenched teeth. She ground them together harder to prevent further shaking, paying and taking the keys to their room. It was upstairs, on the third floor of the hotel, which was apperently very full at this time of year, room 305. Her hand shook as she shoved the key in the doorknob and pushed open the door to the room, shaking snow from her shoulders and handing Akisu his jacket back, thanking him. The room was large and had a view over the town, the two beds on opposite sides of the room with a number of neatly folded quilts ready for usage. She threw her bag onto the bed closest to the window, shaking the remainder of the snow from her jacket and turning to leave.
"You should stay here, Akisu. I need to go... take care of some things. Be back by nightfall," she said happily, waving as she left. But the cat skidded in front of her, looking up.
"Where do I sleep, Rei-sama?"
"Shh! Don't say anything, or they'll find out what you are. You can sleep where all animals sleep-on the floor. Outside. And, you can go look around if you want, just remain like that an' keep your mouth shut," she said angrily, using her foot to push the black cat out of her way and heading out, down the hallway. She ran her hand through her hair several times, her mind wandering absently as she left the building again, looking up. It had started snowing again.
She sighed, leaning up against the side of the building and staring off into space as the snow fell around her slowly. The town was dead silent, and she pulled her jacket around her tightly in an attempt to block out the cold. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that Akisu is here, she thought, shivering. If he left, where would I go? What would happen to me? Would I go back to the Cloud? No, I cannot go back there, it may seem like heaven at times, but I just can't stand it. I don't care if I'm being cynical, those people are not human. They are empty shells that haunt the dark corners of the village. I can't go to the Leaf, they think I stole Akisu probably. If I went anywhere, it would have to be another village, and I wouldn't be able to live as a shinobi... But... No, Akisu won't leave. He said he would stay. But that cat girl is annoying, I feel like ripping her head off sometimes. She should just go back to the Rain or whatever.
She shook her head and pushed off from the building, trudging through the snow towards the nearest store, where she purchased more batteries and a bottle of coke. She put the batteries into her walkman immediately, slipping her earphones back on and turning it on. She opened the coke and took a few sips before closing it and heading back into the cold. There was one more thing she needed to take care of before nightfall.
She trudged through the snow until she came to a number of apartment buildings, heading into the first one and punching the numbers 301 intp the speaker. It beeped once, twice, three times, four times... Aww, you better be home, she thought.
"Hello?" came a dark, slimy voice.
"It's me, baka," she said sharply.
"Mitsuji?"
"Yeah. Let me in, I'm freezin' my ass of out here," she said, pulling the jacket around her. Hearing the name for herself in the Stone had caused her to falter for a moment, she was used to 'Rei', which was Akisu's name for her. The door buzzed and she pulled it open, quickly stepping inside and shaking off more snow, making sure her walkman had none on it before heading towards the stairs. She took them up to the third floor, turning down towards the first door, 301, and knocking. It opened almost instantly, to reveal a young man, a few years older than herself, with silver hair that was neatly spiked. He wore a pair of light blue pajama bottoms and a sleeveless, light blue shirt, and was rubbing his eye sleepily. Yes, eye. His left eye had a deep scar running through it, directly down the center, and it remained sealed forever.
"Mitsuji, it's been a long time," he said, moving aside for her to step into the small, messy apartment.
"Hn... Do you have anything to give me, Shinji?"
He held out his hand after closing the door, looking at her expectantly. She pulled out a wad of money, and he gestured for more, forcing her to pull even more from within her jacket. He finally took it, pocketing it and leading her into the living room, where she sat one the small sofa, across from him where he sat in an armchair.
"I've got lots of info this time," he said, sitting back and folding his hands.
"Well, spit it out. I have to be back to my hotel by nightfall."
He snorted and folded his legs as well, sighing before beginning to speak. "I suppose I should start with Konoha. Orochimaru, one of the sannin, has apperently kidnapped one of the two remaining Uchiha, Uchiha Sasuke. Not kidnapped, I suppose, but the Uchiha chose to go to him. A group of gennin, Uzumaki Naruto included, was sent out after him, but failed the mission, and Sasuke is currently in the hands of Orochimaru. Just before that, two Akatsuki were spotted in Konoha, and they had a small skirmish with four of the Leaf jounin, Hatake Kakashi being one of them. But the Copy-ninja was beaten into submission, and had not a fourth jounin arrived, he would be dead. The two ran, vanishing, but they appeared a few days later in a small hotel located in a town just outside of Konoha. There, they tried to capture Uzumaki Naruto, but one of the sannin, Jiraiya, arrived and drove them off. They have not been spotted since."
"Why are they after Naruto?" she asked, confused. What would they want with her brother?
"The leader is currently building the power of their organization's jutsus, and is looking for new sources to draw from. The Demon Fox, Kyuubi, whithin Naruto is a powerful demon and is wanted by the leader."
"Any more info on the Akatsuki?"
"They were last spotted at a strange place, entering an abandoned cave outside of Konoha. But what was strange was that all nine were there, which hasn't happened since Orochimaru left their group. And another thing, the former leader, Ayame, is no longer leader, but second-in-command. She was beaten in a duel three weeks ago by one of the male members of the group. She now bears the ring of the White Tiger and is one level above Uchiha Itachi. According to the information I obtained, she is slowly heading down in the Akatsuki heirarchy due to some kind of disease or sickness that will soon kill her."
He paused here, waiting to see if she had any questions to ask, and when he got no answer, he continued on. "Then to the Cloud, I suppose. A large earthquake occured there, and the shores were trashed by two tsunami's, although not many people died. Your brother is alright. There is some kind of secret activity running through the village. My sources can't quite place what it is, but I assumed that they might be getting ready for some kind of war or battle.
"Now for what I wanted to really tell you. Konoha has seen you as a threat, and believes you were the one to force someone called Higure Akisu, the son of Higure Ayame, to leave the village. I understand that he is here in the village with you now, right? Konoha had raised you to the rank of missing-ni-"
"What!? But they can't do that until I turn sixteen!"
"I'm not done. It gets worse, much, much worse. They have raised your rank to a missing-nin from both the Cloud and the Leaf, where you will be hunted and killed if the Hunter-nin see your face. You were originally a B-ranked missing-nin, and Akisu a C-ranked missing-nin, but something happened. Information reached my ears that said you had killed a group of fifteen missing-nin wanted in several countries. That group, Demoni, originally had two, S-ranked missing-nin. What you did not know when you killed them was that there were four at the time, plus one high A-ranked. This group had killed all Hunter-nin they encountered and were almost as big a threat as the Akatsuki were, and by killing them I thought they would count that as a good deed. But apperently not. You are now an S-ranked Missing-nin in Konoha and in the Cloud, and Akisu is an A-ranked criminal. If you are found out in any village, they will not hesitate to attack and kill you."
She was frozen to the sofa, staring at Shinji in disbelief. That... That's impossible. A few days ago I was not a missing-nin, was I? How...How can it... How can thigs change so quickly? Aniki said when I turned sixteen.... But right now, right now... S ranked...
'But don't worry, the Hunter-nin are only around their own villages in thick numbers. Perhaps one or two squads from either village will be doing the actual hunting, the others have other criminals to deal with."
"You're not helping, Shinji," she said blandly. The word 'criminal' had an odd ring to it. Is that what I am? she thought, relaxing. It hadn't hit her as hard as she had expected. Perhaps because she was with Akisu, and had him to keep her company. It was now official, Akisu was the only thing keeping her from having a mental breakdown and losing herself.
"Is that all?" she asked, breaking her chain of thought and looking back towards Shinji.
"About it... In the Stone, tonight there is a festival. The Winter Festival, for the first snow of this winter."
"Festival...?" Maybe I could get Akisu to go with me and get Neko to leave us alone for a minute, she thought, her personality changing from depressed to content in a matter of seconds. "I'm gonna get going," she said, standing. Shinji remained seated, she knew her way out having been there hundreds of times.
"Be careful, Mitsuji. Watch out for hunter-nin," he warned as she opened the door. She said nothing, closing it behind her and heading back out of the building, back into the falling snow. As she looked up above the streets, she could see people securing strings of lanterns, all of which were an odd, crystal blue, the same colour as her eyes. There were more people out on the streets now, weaving in and out of stores, talking quietly on street corners, not that they seemed to notice her as she slowly made her way towards the hotel. The sun was beginning to set behind the clouds, and the world was darkening quickly, but she felt no inclination to speed up. She was thinking about the festival, and what she would say to Akisu.
Akisu sat with his back up against the wall, thankful that Neko had left him alone finally. The heating in the hotel was up quite high, and he was sweating heavily, despite the fact his jacket lay abandoned on the floor and that he was only in his dark-blue t-shirt. He groaned from the heat, leaning further back. When is Rei coming back? It's been an hour or more, and its dark out. What could possibly take her so long?
After a few more moments of sitting there, he could no longer take it. He ripped his dark-blue shirt off over his head, throwing it onto his jacket and opening the window as far as its hinges would allow. He hung his head out the window for a few moments before sighing and pulling back in, moving back to his bed and sitting at the foot. But he had only a few seconds of relaxation before the door was pushed open and a black cat darted in, kicking the door closed behind it and exploding into a puff of smoke, replaced by Neko.
"I thought Rei told you to stay in that cat form, didn't she?" asked Akisu, looking up at her.
"Rei-sama doesn't mean what she says... She's wandering around town in the cold right now," said Neko, falling into an animal-like crouch on the floor and yawning. Akisu stood, worried about Rei, and headed towards the door. But Neko stood suddenly, blocking his path.
"Please move," he said, trying to get around her. But she moved to block his path.
"I don't think she wants to talk to you right now, Akisu-sama," she said seriously.
"Wh-what? Is she mad at me?"
"No, just frustrated."
"Why?"
Neko glared at him, her face contorting in anger. He took a few steps back, confused. "Wh-what is it, then?" he stammered.
"Are you that thick-headed?" She snapped, taking a step forwards.
"...What do you mean?" he stammered, backing up until the backs of his legs were pressing into the foot of his bed again.
"Baka!" she shouted, stepping further forwards and causing him to fall back onto the bed and back up slightly. What was she talking about? Neko jumped onto the end of the bed, glaring him with her striking eyes as he squirmed further away, until he was up against the wall.
"What!?" he nearly shouted, after a long silence.
"She likes you."
"Wh-what?" he stammered, cocking an eyebrow and staring out at her. She growled angrily and jumped forwards, landing hard on his stomach and punching him in the face hard, causing his head to slam into the wall behind him.
"Itai..." he moaned, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his head. When he opened them, Neko's glaring face was inches from his.
"You're stupid," she declared flat-out. "Baka."
"What are you talking about? What about Rei?"
"Baka baka baka... She's been trying to tell you for the past few days. You really haven't noticed!?"
I...I have... "You keep butting in at the last second, so how would I know what she was trying to tell me!?"
"I do? Doesn't matter, I'm leaving today anyways. You two are boring." She leaned closer, examining him. "You really don't have a clue, do you?"
Rei sighed, turning down the hall while clutching her walkman in her left hand. She paused outside the door to their room, thinking. A girl doesn't ask a guy out on a date usually, right? I guess they could if they wanted to, right? Ugh... I'll just... tell him to go with me. She sighed again, twitching nervously before pushing the door open.
She nearly dropped her walkman at the sight before her. Neko was out of her cat form and laying on top of Akisu, who's shirt was laying on the ground beside the bed. The two noticed her enter but remained frozen, inches from eachother's faces, not wanting to turn around. But Akisu snapped out of it first, shoving the cat girl off of him and standing, taking a step towards her.
"Rei, you're back..." He took another step towards her, and she backed up into the hall, backing against the opposite wall. Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were darting between Akisu and Neko.
"Rei-sama," she moaned, slapping her head. "I forgot about you..."
Her mouth tightened into a thin line and she narrowed her eyes, stepping slightly into the room and grabbing her bag, before shouldering it and turning around fully. She brushed past the frozen Akisu and headed down the hall in silence, eyes focused ahead of her and refusing to look at him.
"Rei, please wait!" he said, dashing back inside to grab his shirt. By the time he dashed back out, she had vanished.
Rei was running, running as fast as she could until she got outside, shoving through the doors and into the streets which were filled with people from the festival. She was grinding her teeth angrily, caught between crying or screaming in frustration. But she refused to make any noise, although tears still leaked down her cheeks, almost freezing in the cold. She looked around for a few moments before running to her right, heading out of town in the snow. As she ran, the snowflakes around her seemed to be weighed down, slowly turning to slush and spattering on her cheeks.
"Rei! Wait!"
She didn't turn to look behind her, but she slowed down after another few moments of running, eventually stopping in the deep snow just outside the town. She was no longer crying, but her eyes were narrowed in anger, her mouth still a thin line. She adjusted her grip on the bag and removed her headphones, getting her mind under control before turning towards Akisu.
"Don't follow me," she said in a dangerous voice. She could see him struggle between moving forwards or baking away, and she was aware that she was glaring viciously at him.
"Rei, it's not... Neko was just telling me something."
"I don't care what you say. I'm leaving. I hate that damn cat. Tell her to go back to the Rain or whatever. Just to tell you, we're both missing-nin. I have nowhere to go, and neither do you," she said in an extremely quiet voice. It had started to rain. She shook the droplets from her hair, reaching into her bag and pulling out her Leaf hiate. She pulled off her walkman as well, holding them out before her and closing her eyes.
"Don't follow me." She dropped them, watching as they sunk a few inches into the snow before turning away and holding out her left hand. A yellow orb, its glow dulled in the rain, appeared at her fingertips. Akisu opened his mouth to say something, but she shifted sudenly, and the snow at her feet kicked up, sweeping her away quickly and replacing her body with snowflakes.
Here we stand in ravishing rain,
Joy is like pain,
It feels like a miracle.
You can't turn back, your in chains.
Never again return from a Cynical world.
If you feel you've loved me in vain,
Why not re-live your guilty love affair?
In the warm breeze you will cry,
Again and again,
That's fate for a criminal.
Good intentions lost in thin air,
You were craving for affection,
And a certain invitation,
Led you here to me
In the Cynical world.
No one but me in this cold place,
(Here we stand in ravishing rain....)
I will love and serve you criminal.
That's your final consolation
(Never again return from a cynical....)
Now hang on to me,
In the Cynical World.
