It all happened within a matter of seconds.
Seeing him there. Him seeing me. Eichi, the subordinate that made my skin crawl. He was a thick, towering beast of a man with scarred skin stretched taut over his muscles. It had always been the eyes that did it for me though. Creepy little things, black and deep-set with a small scarlet pupil in each. They glinted in a calculating way. He wore a smile and in my current state, that seemed friendly enough. Enough for me to blankly pass by him anyway. Except I didn't.
Before I could register what was happening, I was against the wall, then the floor. Something was being forced into my mouth, past my teeth, against my tongue, a thick piece of cloth maybe? It had an acrid taste and my guess was that it was far from clean. My muscles strained against him, and I use the word "muscles" generously, but it was useless. He tied the gag tightly in place, then did the same with my wrists behind my back.
'I told you so' doesn't even begin to cover it.
Literally seconds for all of that. Then I was over his shoulder and we were moving quickly.
I had been in such a mentally disconnected state to begin with that my mind was reeling and short-circuiting as I tried to just think. I needed a plan but I couldn't even process the events in the moment, let alone try to get a step ahead. My only thought was to scream, and I did, a lot, until my voice went hoarse. I tried anyway, but it came out as a pathetic muted thing through the cloth gag.
I knew once we made it outside, my chances of coming out of this thing alive were slim to none. I had read enough mystery/crime novels to know once you left the first location, odds were not in your favor. Struggling was useless, though that didn't stop me from trying.
Oh, but he didn't like that, he didn't like that at all.
The breath flew from my lungs, my back hitting the ground harshly as he tossed me off his shoulder. We weren't far from base yet, still on the training grounds as far as I could tell. Through the darkness, and only because it was so illuminated by the moon on that clear-skied night, I could just make out the sandy river bank from my position in the dirt and I immediately knew where we were. In a swell of excitement at knowing anything at all, I scrambled backwards in an attempt to get on my feet, which, as it turns out… was very hard to do with my hands bound behind my back.
"Yeah, I don't think so," The insanely muscled, red-skinned man said nonchalantly, reaching out with one massive hand to latch onto my ankle and yank me back. It was Gorzo all over again. I prayed he didn't have similar intentions.
"So apparently I'm not allowed to break your legs… you can thank Orochimaru-sama for that," he began grumbling, yanking up my pant legs to just above the knee.
Orochimaru… man, this guy just can't take a hint.
I bit my eyes closed and found myself thinking of Hidan, my brain replacing the horror of whatever was currently happening with a more enjoyable memory. Any minute now he'd be giving me a leg rub and slinging jello-related insults at me.
That was far from the case. His hands gripped me firmly, beyond firmly even. There was no warning, just a horrendous popping noise and a sharp, throbbing pain in my left knee, his thick fingers still tightly wrapped around my thigh and shin.
"So we'll just dislocate these real quick, make sure you can't get too far in case I have to put you down for some reason." He spoke pragmatically, like if he just explained what he was doing, maybe I'd be a good sport about it.
That's gonna be a hard no from me, pal. I'm not good at sports, nor am I a good sport.
Dusk was still a couple hours out. No one would realize I was gone, not for a while. This man, Eichi, a name I suddenly thought was dreadful by the way, would have plenty of time to whisk me away to wherever we were going. I got the distinct impression, based on my incredible detective skills, it would be to this Orochimaru fellow everyone had been speaking so highly of.
My other leg. Another pop. My cries were pathetic and muted on the cloth gag and he seemed to get a kick out of it. I let myself cry harder. In fact, I made a show of it, not that it was difficult to ham it up a bit, it really did hurt like the dickens, whatever those are... and while he was busy enjoying the show, I managed to hook my sock off with my other foot. The sock was on the ground and I was over his shoulder again, a stabbing pain in both my knees as they hit against him in a rhythm as he raced through the woods.
Think, Izumi.
My brain raced just as fast. I needed to come up with a plan, but what could I possibly do against this brute? Even if I hadn't been bound, gagged and had my kneecaps dislocated, it was a preposterous match. If we were pitted against each other in some sort of bizarre cook-off to the death challenge, maybe I'd have a shot, but I didn't imagine that to be the case.
Eichi must have been bored or lonely because at times he would talk to me as if we were co-workers or something, not that I could respond.
"Been waitin' for a break like this for… hooo I don't know, say nine years? Spy work is draining, ya know. Definitely looking forward to a nice cushy spot at HQ over in Sound. Had a girl out that way once..." He continued to ramble and I gained the impression that he'd been undercover with the Akatuski since Orochimauru had been a member, and while his purpose all those years was just to keep an eye, that changed when I came along. Now he was a delivery man, and I was just the package.
I felt akin to a cardboard box, frayed and gouged, every corner crushed inwards, all dented and bent and wrapped in tape that said "FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE". Something clinked inside when you shook it.
Nice promotion ya got coming there, be a shame if someone ruined it for you…
That would require a plan, remember? I scowled to myself and after a few more minutes, slipped off the other sock. At least, I thought, this would tell someone which direction I was going in… should they be looking.
Oh God, please be looking.
That's seriously the whole plan? Socks?
Yes. Socks. For now.
I could hear something rumbling in the distance, and to my delight, we were approaching the roaring noise. It was water, rushing water. The lazy river by base must wind down to where we were now, eventually becoming a waterfall. It wasn't long before we reached the jumping off point of a very steep decline leading down to the pool in which the crashing waters met the ground once more.
Eichi was going on about how his mom had wanted him to become a taxidermist and his uncle's high blood pressure.
Excellent. Stay distracted, beanhole.
Craning my neck around in an attempt to get a proper glimpse of the surroundings from my unfortunate vantage point draped over the man's shoulder, I took note of the steepness of the cliffside we were about to traverse, rife with loose rocks and twisting tree roots. The waterfall, heavily gushing and splashing into the deep pool at the base of the incline. The waterfall itself was not terribly tall but not a small one either, maybe 10 meters in height.
It looked like, based on our trajectory, that we would be crossing the river just at the bottom of the ravine, just past the point where the waterfall met it in a crashing flourish. That would mean we were going down the cliffside.
That changed things. I could work with that.
I swallowed as I hastily began planning. I didn't have long, maybe even only seconds as he began stomping and sliding down the ledge. I had something. It wasn't fancy, but it was something.
From my lovely view, upside down and between his legs, I honed in on a rather large root curling up and out of the ground. The whole cliffside was a tripping hazard, mind you, but with some concentration, I had high hopes of upgrading said hazards into unavoidable peril. You know, as one does.
I only had one shot at this. My only trump card was him assuming I couldn't do much so once he knew, he'd be on guard.
I took a deep breath, rankling my brows in concentration on the exhale, focusing on my core. Gathering chakra, releasing it with the mental command extended outward toward the root. I couldn't believe it... It actually began to move with a twitch. My heart swelled and I used the emotional burst to fuel the movement. It surged and twisted out of the ground, quickly snaking up Eichi's leg, wrapping and squeezing around his right foot and ankle.
"What in the fuck?" he growled with a start. His balance was lost and as he began to lurch forward, I struggled recklessly, bucking with everything I had to continue the momentum of his fall, and while he was held in place by the meaty, constricting root, I was not.
To be perfectly honest, I hadn't really thought about the tumble I'd have to take to get down to the water. Of course beggars can't be choosers, and while I much preferred slamming and bouncing my way down a rocky cliff face to being slung over that man's shoulder, it still freaking sucked.
With my hands secured behind me, I had no way to shield myself from the battering I sustained as I skidded and crashed through a plethora of fun things such as rocks, sticks, overturned logs and various shrubberies, to name a few. I was, however, glad to have the gag, as I felt like there were moments I was gritting my teeth so hard they would have broken otherwise.
I could hear him yelling in the distance, even as I plunged into the water. Frigid as ever but comforting in the sense that it wasn't rocks. Sometimes it's the little things.
Don't get too excited, that was the easy part.
True. This part of the plan was only good in theory because it required some actual skillful use of my abilities, not just some floundering root.
No offense, root. You did good.
I had to be quick about it. I was sure any moment now he'd be breaking out and making his way down to collect me, and likely not in the most stellar of moods. I struggled to gather my senses underwater, my brain still feeling like it was rocking against my skull. The good news was that while my knees were still killing me, the water allowed me to move without putting pressure on them, which is why I was so excited to hear the falls to begin with.
Almost out of breath and having made my way toward where the waterfall actually met with the pool, I stilled myself, blocking out the pain all over my body, the knees, every wound gained from my sharp-edged romp down the cliff, the burning in my lungs.
There is literally a stick protruding from your stomach.
Nevermind that. I had to shut it all out and focus. I allowed myself to think about Itachi for the briefest of moments, his hands firm against my belly, squeezing and urging me to gather chakra there.
The water around me began to churn and swirl in an unnatural rhythm. I gripped onto the feeling and pushed it further and further, willing it with every ounce of desperation for it to encompass me, to work against itself and ferry my body up the falls. It began to flow with its own current, a powerful one, pushing me up in defiance of the natural downward flow. My heart almost couldn't handle that it was actually working, it swelled so much I thought it might pop.
I prayed it was dark enough that Eichi wouldn't be able to make out my form in the chaos of the waterfall. I was only halfway up when I felt myself beginning to falter, the amount of energy it took to create this makeshift water elevator was wearing me down quickly, my chakra feeling like it was diminishing to the size of a pea. But it truly was life or death, and if there was ever a moment to go "balls to the wall", whatever that meant, I don't know, I heard Hidan say it once, then this felt like that moment.
Gritted teeth and clenching eyes, nails biting into my palms behind me, I forced a spurt of energy, propelling me up in a burst. To my horror, I couldn't stop there. The rapids were… well, just that... rapids. I fought against them with my physical strength, which I realize is a joke in it's own right, but it wasn't enough. My hands still bound and knees still awash with pain really put me at a disadvantage, if you can believe it. I had to pull more energy, keep using the water to push me against the current, at least until the rapids let up.
Itachi would have been mad. My nose was bleeding profusely. Not just a drop and not just one nostril. The strong, coppery taste hit my lips and spurred me on until I physically couldn't bear it any longer, the edges of my vision starting to go black, and I realized with a spiked heart rate that if I let myself pass out now, it would have all been for nothing.
There was an overturned tree partially in the water with bare branches sticking out every which way. I managed to get to it and awkwardly grab ahold, bound hands be damned. The bulk of the rapids were behind me and Eichi would be looking for me downstream for a while. He wouldn't assume I floated my way up a waterfall, and if he did, then he probably deserved to catch me.
I awkwardly pulled myself closer to the shore line so my feet could touch to the bottom. I would slowly wade up the river, albeit painfully. The frigid water provided some much needed numbness to my wounds and at least the gag stopped my teeth from chattering loudly. Silver linings.
I took a page out of Zetsu's book and maneuvered myself beneath a lily pad, wearing it like a hat as I slowly made my way upstream, staying low in the water so just my nostrils grazed the top. After another hour or so of the agonizing walk and my heart seemingly convulsing inside my esophagus the whole time, I couldn't help but cry when I came to that little sandy spot. There was the alcove where Itachi and I sat only a couple days ago. It felt like ages somehow. Had the gag not been there, my mouth would have soured into a frown.
No time to think about him.
I hadn't even gotten a proper chance to process the whole of what he had said to me. Maybe it was better that I didn't.
I had done all I could, the rest would be up to the Akatsuki. My knees would never take the weight of me walking, and the trip from shore to the base was kind of long and fully out in the open. All it would take is one glance from afar to notice me if he came searching this direction. No, I would wait. Someone had to be looking for me… right?
I pushed into the alcove, flopping onto the stone slab and scooting back as far as I could, body exhausted and shaking between the physical exertion and the cold. Lily pad on my face as I stayed in an awkward sort of slumped, semi-laying position, just enough to keep my face above water. I laid there, crying for a moment. Everything hurt, and yet even after the morning I just had, I would still venture to say my heart hurt most of all.
Dawn had arrived. I laid there with shallow breaths. I did that for hours, just trying to hold onto consciousness. I was so scared he would sense my chakra and I didn't know how to mask it so instead, I just kept using it. Every time I felt like maybe there was a grain of it, I would immediately squeeze it out as a tiny ripple of a wave. It did occur to me at one point that if Eichi couldn't sense my chakra, that meant no one could, and I had a hard time reconciling that because there were certainly people I wanted to take notice of my current position.
I had started to give up hope as the sun climbed higher into the sky and my ability to keep my eyes open and brain in working order diminished by the minute.
"Any luck?" A voice in the distance made me jump, my heart slamming against my ribcage in a swell. It sounded like Kisame. I scrambled from the alcove, disoriented but determined, flicking the lily pad off me and wading to shore with my last droplets of energy. As the water got more shallow, I found I could no longer sustain my weight so I stayed low and did my best impression of a snake, slithering up the sandy area, dragging myself forward with my chin in an awkward chest-heaving, squirming motion.
I screamed for him through the gag, but my voice was hoarse and nearly gone even before the gag. I could literally see him in the distance. My vision was blurry and dark at the edges but I could make out his form, though it looked like he might have been turned in the other direction. I desperately wormed further ashore, screaming still with tears pouring. I had never felt so desperate in my life, and when Kisame whipped around and looked straight at me, I couldn't help but dissolve into a mess of laughing sobs.
He was upon me in a matter of seconds, an urgent look painting his typically humorous features. His hands hovered over my body for a second as if he wasn't sure where to even start, but he was Kisame and he quickly regained his senses. With the quick movement of a kunai, the gag fell from my mouth and I gasped gratefully, inhaling a deep breath and coughing as I did so. I uttered his name in a long drawn out sob coated in relief. He'd finally found me.
"Good fucking lord," Kisame muttered, rolling me over to loose the bindings on my wrists as well. As soon as they came undone it was all I could do to wrap my arms around myself, hugging my shoulders. I was just so cold and so exhausted.
"Hey, kid, look at me," Kisame was rolling me back over and lightly slapping my face with one hand, holding my head up at the base of my neck with the other. I stared at him through my wooziness and tried to bring him into focus. I reached out and sloppily dragged my hand down his face to make sure he was real.
"A good fish…" I mumbled distantly in a raspy, breaking voice.
"Keh… glad someone thinks so," he said with a mild laugh. "Kid, listen, I need you to answer me. Stay with me, okay?"
"Staying with you," I affirmed by way of garbled words, petting his face once more. He maneuvered out of it with a twist after trying to blow it away like errant hair didn't work.
"Who did this?" He asked very seriously, grabbing my hand to avoid being pet a third time.
I stared at him vacantly and struggled to keep my eyes open with a furrowed brow. Was he asking me something?
"Izumi, who?" Kisame repeated.
"Who… hoo… Like an owl?" I managed, his words sounded so far away. Why was he asking me about owls?
"Oh, for fuck's sake…" he grumbled before yelling over his shoulder at Zetsu who appeared through a tree in the distance, "Hey, I got her! Tell the others!"
"Eichi? Was it Eichi? The subordinate?" He was back to asking me questions.
Everything was fuzzy. My heart was fuzzy. It felt too fast. My brain was fuzzy. It felt too slow. I heard a name I didn't like fall from Kisame's mouth and it immediately set a tremor in my bottom lip. I clutched at him to pull myself closer but I had no strength. Luckily he sensed what I was getting at and pulled me into his lap.
"You had a rough night, huh?" Kisame said, looking down at me with a sigh and attempting to smooth down my very matted, nature-infused hair.
I smiled weakly and leaned my head into his chest. "The worst… warm."
Kisame hymned and hawed, "Eh, I've been called worse."
"…not the worst warm… The worst. Period. Warm... two thoughts... also, a nice warm."
"What's this? You become semi-coherent just to chastise me?"
I patted his chest weakly with my finger tips. "A good fish."
"Guess I'll take what I can get," Kisame conceded with a snort as I slipped into semi-consciousness.
My body let out a groan as I felt him lift me up, my knees knocking together painfully. I felt like twilight had fallen in my mind, a strange in-between haziness making it hard to see or think clearly. At some point my body was put on a table, it was prefaced with a cacophony of clattering objects. I assumed they were swept to the floor in a burst of impatient urgency. But I felt warm in Kisame's arms and cold on the table so it would have been alright, had they taken the time to slowly move the salt and pepper shakers, etc.
"She's not good," Kisame's voice, albeit low and hushed, was burdened with concern and I hated the way it sounded. "She was gagged, hands bound behind her back. Almost no voice, probably spent it screaming. I found her by the water, no idea how she got there but based on her body temp, I'd say she was in there a while."
I couldn't tell who he was talking to as they did not respond. Or maybe they did and I blinked out of existence again. I was doing that a lot.
Kisame spoke again after I don't know how long. "Hey man… I know you're thinking it. This isn't your fault."
Still no response, and while I couldn't react, I felt something firm and warm against my cheek, then the other. A pair of hands cupping my face, fingers brushing into the hairline and pressing down the frayed edges. I absently wondered what Kisame was doing, was he looking for wounds? It hardly seemed efficient. I imagined his hands would be rougher.
Regardless, it was staggeringly comforting as the thumbs traced and smoothed across my eyebrows before rubbing in a delicate back-and-forth against my cheeks. The movement stilled and I felt a breath against my face, nearly noiseless, though not entirely, there was just the faintest hint of somberness to it. I had the faint urge to sneeze as something tickled against my nose and face. Was it... hair?
God, you're a mess. Would you stop trying to think for once in your life? Go to sleep, Izumi.
"Well, we've got company, might wanna get your shit together," Kisame mumbled as two more sets of footsteps approached quickly. The hands were gone just as quickly.
"Oh shit... " That one was Deidara's voice. He seemed disgruntled by something. Possibly the sight of me, possibly his favorite salt shaker smashed to pieces on the floor. I was in no state to speculate. "Was she suppressing her chakra or something? How the fuck didn't we find her before?"
"No… it's just been used. Repeatedly I would venture to guess. That blood from her nose isn't from any injury I can see… though she has plenty of those." Sasori mused with a somberness to him. "Impaled by a branch here, still bleeding. Contusions here, looks like she fell… quite a bit." Sasori went on, inspecting me for more wounds and tutting about the innate fragility of the human body.
"Izumi, I don't know if you can hear me but I'll need to be removing some of your clothing to better assess you. We really should be getting you out of these wet clothes anyway. My apologies, I do hope you'll understand…" I could hear him, he was just coming through like an old-timey radio, all small and fuzzy in the background. I wanted to let him know that it was okay, that I didn't have it in me to care about such things at the moment, not like they hadn't all seen my undies anyway...
Sasori's fingers were cold but delicate and though the air was also cold against my bare skin, it was a relief to be out of the soaking clothes. Sasori did me the service of leaving my undergarments on and I internally thanked him for being a gentleman… gentlepuppet… gentlepuppetman?
Anyway, I internally thanked him.
"What the fuck," Kisame groaned. "The fuck are those knees doing? Good fucking lord, I can't even with this girl."
"They've been dislocated. My guess would be strategically, so she couldn't walk. They just need to be reset and the swelling should dissipate in time," Sasori assessed. "She'll probably be okay to walk in a day or two."
"Alright, so do it, yeah," Deidara said impatiently, apparently not enjoying the sight of them as is.
I absently wondered what they looked like and fought to open my eyelids but all they did was flutter enough for me to see a few quick flashes of light and then back to darkness. I did, however, manage to let out an annoyed groan.
"Hey, you see that? She's trying to wake up. That's good, right?" Deidara asked with a sort of hopeful innocence.
"Well, it means she's not braindead. I suppose most of us would qualify that as 'good'," Sasori replied sedately.
"I wouldn't rule it out yet. She called me a 'good fish' not once, but twice outside," Kisame added.
"Oh, is that not what you like to be called? That's what I have as in my address book." Sasori made a joke that would have had me laughing in any other state.
Haha.
I did so inwardly.
"Please… we all know I'm a bad fish." Kisame said it in such a way that it would have been criminal had he not put his sunglasses on while delivering the line. As far as I was concerned, he did.
"If she's waking up then we need to set her knees quickly. It will be painful so we should take advantage of her current state."
Itachi's voice made my heart drop. When had he gotten there? He was always so quiet… It was like the hazy film that covered everything from my thoughts to the voices around me, all but vanished. Suddenly everything was clear and sharp, almost painfully so.
"Well, who here can do it? I am good at diagnosing because I need to know how to damage bodies efficiently. I would not trust myself to repair one, however." I could hear Sasori stepping back, clearly bowing out.
"I'm uh… not exactly known for my gentle touch." Kisame said. "I mean fuck, look at those legs, they're like toothpicks. How does she even walk on them?"
Oh boy, this is how conspiracy theories start, Kisame.
"I could try, I mean, how hard could it be?" Deidara said, which horrified me. The man adept at blowing things up, offering to give my knee caps the ol' college try.
Pass.
"I know how," Itachi spoke up and I could practically hear my heart plummet through my back, splatting against the floor.
Deidara sounds fine, actually.
I felt his fingers lightly pressing on my leg, feeling for the right position. There was something about his touch, the fact that he dared to do it so gently and sweet, that sickened me. I thought of him and the night we spent together, this touch now mirroring the gentleness then, and all I could do was let out a sob at the memory and the fact that none of it was real for him.
"So yes, I fucked you."
"I know…" Itachi said in response to my strained choking noise, thinking it had been induced by physical pain. I ignored the fact that he sounded apologetic, that would only mess with my head.
It seemed like he had found the right placement of his hands as he gripped my leg firmer in preparation to straighten it out.
"No…" I managed to groan, fighting to open my eyes once more.
"It needs to be done. It will be quick." Itachi paused to assure.
"No... not you..." I murmured with a pathetic attempt to push his hands off me, my hands just sliding off his. I couldn't stand him touching me knowing what it meant to him and what it meant to me, and the vast sea of differences between the two. I was finally able to wrench my eyes open a crack, he was foggy but even then I could see the realization strike him.
The pain was not the problem, he was.
He froze in place, trying very hard to maintain his indiscernible expression as everyone slowly turned their attention to him.
Deidara's eyes narrowed at him in an almost curious fashion with a distinct 'what did you do, Uchiha?' vibe to it. Sasori raised a brow with a similar question resting behind it, though not quite so aggressively. Nevertheless, he seemed both surprised and intrigued by this development. Kisame just cringed with a shrug, looking like he felt bad for his partner but at the same time… play stupid games, win stupid prizes?
"Kakuzu," I mumbled, breaking the tension.
"You want Kakuzu?" Kisame asked, brow cocked.
I nodded.
"Fuck if that's not the first time that's ever been said.." Kisame said to himself with a wide-eyed look, head receding into his neck a bit bewildered-like. "Regardless though, he's out sweeping the grounds for the subordinate."
I huffed weakly. "I'll wait."
"Izumi," Itachi started, pausing to release a heavy, disheartened sigh, "you need help and I'm the only reasonable option here now. I'm doing it." He moved in to touch me again and the swell in my throat managed to form into a noise of protest that somewhat halted him.
"I can wait." I formed an entire sentence, albeit a short, whiny one.
"Izumi, look at you. You're a mess. It needs to happen," His voice was raised, his frustration clear, and I didn't have it in me to fight against the tears as they started up. I quickly brought my hands to cover my face.
"P-Please don't... yell at me… I-I had a h-hard night…" I cried into them, voice hitching and breaking, shoulders shaking. The fact that I was keeping my sobs mostly silent was about all I could muster for emotional control at the moment.
When I looked at Itachi I wanted to be mad, I wanted to hate him for what he took from me without a second thought, for making me think it was something more, for absolutely destroying me... But that's not what I felt when I saw him. Just an emptiness and a terrible, impossible longing so deep it seemed like the darkness I leapt into. An unending expanse.
Is this that 'young love' everyone talks about? I'm gonna give it a 0/10. Would not recommend.
Deidara shot Itachi a glare. "Quit yelling at her, prick!"
"I'm not yelling. I'm just trying to help." Itachi said calmly, too calmly for the stern look he wore.
"Then why don't you go get some bandages and shit. You're upsetting her in here, maybe try being somewhere else?" Kisame said to him quietly on the side.
Itachi glared at him, his fingers laced behind his neck as he tipped his head back and took a deep breath.
The front door seal pinged with someone new coming in. My heart leapt in my throat when I heard his voice.
"She's here?!" Hidan shouted, audibly bounding down the hall towards us.
"Yep, in here," Kisame affirmed back loudly, giving Itachi a pointed look. "Here we go, it's damsel time," he whispered to him.
Hidan rounded the corner and skipped up to the table with a broad smile, barreling through the others standing around me, eliciting grumbles and a curt "fuck off" from Deidara. Passing by the doorway was Kakuzu hauling a hefty, squirming body behind him, bound by hundreds of black strings. It was Eichi, and they were headed in a different direction.
"Hey, there she is. Look at this fucking badass with blood all over her face." He said, scratching some of it off and continuing to smile, though his eyes gave him away. It was reminiscent of when parents downplay their kid's injury just so the kid doesn't freak out.
Pfttt, like we have the energy to freak out.
"Hidan…" I breathed his name out with relief. "Help?" I whined, my fingers weakly reaching for my knees.
"Hm, what's up?" He took a quick moment to inspect them. "Tch, easy, I have to do this all the time for myself. Two re-located knees, comin' right up," He said, nonchalantly placing one hand atop my thigh and the other beneath the calf.
"It's not gonna feel great, sweetheart. You want something to bite down on? Leather strap, bit of wood? Hey, Sasori is right there, maybe he'll lend you a finger to chew on."
I let out a flimsy laugh, shaking my head. Staring up at him through tired, squinting eyes, my heart couldn't help but feel a bit soft and fluttery. He was being silly, and that was something I desperately needed given the unfortunate array of experiences I had dealt with over the course of the last 24 hours.
"I would, Izumi, if you thought it would help," Sasori offered, all ten fingers wiggling lazily at me.
"No? Alright, alright, we'll find you something. You need something meatier, don't you? Something you can sink your teeth into..." Hidan speculated thoughtfully, looking around. "Hmmm how about Kisame's ass? I'm sure he'd love it."
"She can bite my ass after you eat it, Hidan," Kisame agreed coolly.
"Hey, don't threaten me with a good time, big boy." Hidan threw Kisame a wink. Kisame deftly avoided it.
"You sure you know what you're doing with that leg there, zombie boy? Taking an awfully long time," Kisame asked, earning a haughty scoff from the immortal.
"If you're so worried, why didn't any of you fucking do it? When I arrived you all were just standing around like you were waiting for a fucking gangbang to happen," Hidan said, absently rubbing and gently squeezing my thigh. It didn't seem like he even knew he was doing it but I could see Itachi trained on the movement.
"Well, none of us felt capable besides Itachi, and Izumi didn't want Itachi to do it," Sasori explained calmly, knowing exactly what he was doing. "Which is odd as she's always seemed rather favorable toward him," he added, the cherry on top.
Way to put me on blast, Sasori.
Hidan's brows, both of them, nearly jumped to his hairline for a moment.
"Is that fucking so?" Hidan questioned, looking from me to the stoic Uchiha who leaned against the wall, taking the scrutiny in stride.
"Yeah, can we talk about that?" Deidara chimed in, clearly having done nothing but mull that over repeatedly since it happened.
I tensed at the thought of needing to explain and Hidan's eyes flickered over me, picking up on the brief reaction.
"Tch, I don't need the fucking details, it's enough to know that he already fucked up," he murmured before giving me his full attention, tightening his grip on my leg. "Ready on three?"
I nodded weakly, grateful for the change of topic.
"One," he said before immediately thrusting my leg into a position that produced a loud click in my knee and a hoarse cry from my mouth.
"That wasn't three…" I groaned, closing my eyes.
"True, and think about all the anxiety I saved you, entire seconds worth," he said, gently setting my leg back on the table and leaning down casually to press his lips to the kneecap like some sort of finishing touch. My pale, freezing skin suddenly flushed hot beneath my cheeks. When I looked up, flustered, Itachi was leaving the room and Kisame was shaking his head. Deidara and Sasori were exchanging a disapproving look.
"Okay, come on dude. Get over yourself and fix the other one, yeah?" Deidara scolded but Hidan paid him no mind.
"Tch, get over myself? Unlikely, Deidara-kun, have you seen me? I'm too fucking pretty," he said as he rounded to the other side of the table, grin flashing the whole time. He was joking but he also wasn't, he really was pretty, though in a very masculine kind of way. His pink eyes and light, silvered hair betrayed his macho motif because had they been on anyone else, they would have looked delicate. But not really on him, there wasn't a delicate part about him… maybe with the exception of how his fingers moved over my skin. Feeling entirely drained and aching all over, I let my eyes linger on him as a distraction. I didn't want to let on that Itachi leaving the room left an upsetting pit in my belly, just another reminder of how he felt towards me.
That being not much.
I typically made it a point to somewhat overlook Hidan, not allowing myself to fully consider him as his affections were often so overblown and in a way that was far too public or crass that I had no choice but to brush them off as theatrics to cure his own unending boredom. But it was hard to continue ignoring the increasing sweetness of how he handled me at times. He was honey when he needed to be, despite being vinegar the rest of the time... but was that really so bad?
He took hold of my other leg, giving the second knee a popping click followed by a kiss as well. While the pain swelled with a flourish, there was a relief that came with it afterwards, just from my kneecaps being back in their intended positions. I closed my eyes and let loose a breathy sigh of relief.
"Thanks... Hidan," I said meekly, reaching out for him semi-blindly and finding his index finger. It was enough. I wrapped my fingers around it and squeezed, suddenly awash with the powerful feeling of truly being safe and at home. I closed my eyes for a moment to appreciate it, some wayward tears slipping out from the creases of my lids.
"I'm starting to think you keep getting hurt just so I'll take care of you," Hidan said, looking down at me with a tilted head and soft, playful expression, touching his thumb to my cheeks to wipe the tears off.
"You're not that pretty," I said, knowing full well he was, and pretending not to be entirely overcome with my appreciation for the man at that moment. He grinned back like he had some snappy comment but it wouldn't come. Kakuzu was walking in with Pain.
A/N: Poor bb Izumi... she is back and safe though... for now :3
Listen guys, I'm sorry but I gotta bring the drama... things are looking like they might get awk af in the Akatsuki house
Thanks for reading! I think I've avoided burnout so far because of all your lovely comments *frantically begins knocking on all the wood*
