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Hating Me, Loving You
Chapter Three
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Kuro avoided me for a few days after the clay incident, though I can't understand why. It was an accident, so why would she stay away from me? At least it gave me enough time to come up with another plan and to figure out a few things.
She did a lot of suspicious things, even for one of us. Sometimes, when she thought nobody else was listening, I could hear her muttering something about "That one's on my list," or "This guy's next," and I couldn't understand what it meant. And other times, she would disappear without warning, sometimes for days on end, and when she came back, her claws would be stained with blood, and if anyone asked where she had been or what she had been doing, she just smirked and said nothing, looking very self-satisfied. We all had our secrets, I knew that. All of us knew it, and nobody asked the others anything about themselves. But for once, I was starting to get freaked out about what was up with the girl I was going after. Soon enough though, I'd find out exactly what was going on.
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Fortunately for me, Kuro had been assigned as a third partner to me and Sasori, at least for the time being, so she couldn't really avoid me too much. And almost immediately after she was put with us, she did her disappearing act and went off for a couple of days to who-knew-where.
So there we were, after her return, taking a break from work, much to Sasori's dismay. She was perched on a tree branch, like always, filing her claws into a sharper point, and I was on the ground, in the grass, preparing explosives. Sasori was off deeper in the woods, likely talking to Zetsu about the location of some Jinchuuriki or other, and scared the Hell out of me when he came up behind me and said, "Looks like the Kuro Shi brought down another one of his targets."
"AHH! Sasori-danna, don't do that, un!" At the moment, I was clinging to the same tree branch that Kuro was sitting on, having jumped into it when Sasori had started to speak. She let out an exasperated sigh and shoved me off, causing me to fall face-first into the dirt.
"Surrounded by idiots," I heard her mutter as she went back to filing her claws, though she had seemed somewhat irritated by what Sasori had said.
More out of wanting to stay where I was and not have to get up and start walking again, I pushed myself up out of the dirt, turned to Sasori and asked, "So where was it this time, un?"
"Just outside Sunagakure. Apparently, his target was in the Kazekage's personal guard, and since the other ones got in his way, he killed them, too," he answered in a bored tone, sitting down and leaning against a tree.
"And what makes you think that the Kuro Shi is necessarily male, huh?"
I looked up in surprise. It was the first time today that she had spoken directly to us, and before now, she hadn't seemed interested in talking about this guy.
Sasori shrugged. "I don't think that. For all we know, it could very well be a woman, but it's more likely to be a man."
I could swear I heard Kuro growl. "Oh yeah? Why's that?" Her signature deathglare was now aimed at Sasori, and I couldn't figure out why she was so annoyed.
"Most women really don't have the physical strength to mutilate the bodies of their victims the way the Kuro Shi does," he said, causing another growl to emit from Kuro's throat.
"Sexist little bastard," she muttered, and went back to her nails.
Maybe I should back this up a little and explain exactly who this "Kuro Shi" is.
The "Kuro Shi," or "Black Death," was the name given to a demon who mercilessly slaughtered countless families, and even entire sections of clans, for reasons completely unknown to anyone other than them. The nickname was given to the demon because they had killed so many people, it was reminiscent of the hundreds of deaths caused by the Plague two hundred years ago or so. This demon had a list of people that they had to kill, (all humans, strangely enough,) almost like some kind of assassin. Almost nobody had ever seen the demon's face and lived to tell about it, but the damage was clearly the work of a demon. Sometimes the bodies were charred and burned with flames from Hell itself, sometimes all the organs had been torn out, and sometimes, they were completely torn apart. More often than not, there were deep claw marks in the corpses, and on occasion, the Roman numeral "XIII" was carved into the flesh that remained. This demon was rumoured to be some kind of cat, and one or two people had reported seeing, on their right shoulder, and at their side, on the golden hilt of an intricately decorated katana, the very same number that they engraved into the remains of their victims: Unlucky thirteen. So it wasn't a surprise when the third nickname came up: the "Black Cat." The demon who carried that katana personified bad luck, people said, and many lived in terror, wondering if they would be the Kuro Shi's next victim.
Upon thinking of all this, something fell into place and clicked in my mind.
Kuro was a demon. Well, half-demon, but that was close enough. Most people couldn't tell the difference with just one glance, and that was all most of the Black Death's victims got. She had a katana just like the one people described. She had the tattoo as well, in the same place. She hated humans with a passion, as I had learned, and all of the Kuro Shi's victims had been human.
Could she possibly be the Black Death?
It would explain why she often vanished right before the Kuro Shi took another victim's life, and returned immediately after. It would also explain why her claws were always stained or dripping with blood when she came back. And why she had been so angry with Sasori a moment ago for the comment he had made.
I looked up at her, noticing that she was glaring down at me, and for the first time, I was afraid of her. Not a lot. Hardly at all, actually, but the fear was still there.
"Deidara?"
I was snapped out of my trance by Sasori giving me an annoyed look and speaking to me as though I was a small child or just a moron.
"Get up, and let's go."
"But danna, I-"
"Now, Deidara."
I pouted and did as I was told. Kuro leaped down from her branch and landed at Sasori's other side, giving me an exasperated look. It was better than her normal "I'm-going-to-murder-you-the-second-I-get-a-chance" look, but still not what I was after.
She and Sasori walked ahead of me, conversing in low voices about something, likely the Jinchuuriki we were after, while I remained lost in thought. Normally, I would have been jealous that she got on Sasori's good side so easily, when it took me nearly half a year to do it after I met him. But right now, I was plotting.
So, now that I knew Kuro was the Black Death assassin, was I going to give up?
If you think that, you must not know me very well.
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Wow. Deidara actually didn't make himself look stupid in this chapter.
Looking back over it, I realize that this one is a lot darker than the previous two, and I really like that. Normally, I don't like really dark fanfics/chapters, but this one is an exception. It's also not half as dark as I could have made it, had this been another story or whatever, like if it were a look into Kuro's backstory or whatever. Yes, I actually have thought that far. She's actually a character I've put a lot of thought and work into, and I actually have a bio written out. Who knows? Maybe I will put up her backstory later. If you want me to, drop me a line and tell me so, and I'll see what I can come up with.
Again, sorry for the delay on this chapter, but as I said before, Anko (For the last time, that's my computer!) died on me, so I had to get all of her data transferred into her new body, which is what I'm writing on right now. And I also didn't like what I had, so I rewrote the entire thing from scratch, which produced something that I like much better now. So anyway, as I said, if you want me to write up Kuro's backstory, I'll do that, but I have to know how many people want me to do it. If nobody's interested, there's no point, right? And now, I have to go get my nails painted, because tomorrow, I'm going to a cosplaying event, and Itachi's nails won't paint themselves, now will they?
Oyasumi nasai!