Chapter 87
The strange nin cringes his nose in distaste. "Killing her is just like stepping on a cockroach."
As soon as those words are out, Matsuri closes her eyes, waiting for that three bladed scythe to strike her and snuff her life away, finally freeing her from the pain.
But then her captor snorts loudly. "Hidan, a cockroach can still survive without its head. Their will to live is that strong. That one is not a cockroach. It badly wants to die by your hands."
Hidan straightens up, gazing at the girl slumped on the floor, unable to stand on her own. "Then I shouldn't give her that satisfaction...just yet."
Opening her eyes, panicking, Matsuri implores at Hidan desperately, her tears falling unchecked, "Please... please... just kill me."
"SHUT UP!" Kouzan leans down, grabbing what remains of Matsuri's collar then he lifts her up from the floor, shouting into her face, "I am your captor! You should be begging to me!"
"Never," Matsuri retorts back, the tears glistening in her eyes. With her left femur broken in two places, she can only kick, weakly, with her right leg at Kouzan as she's suspended in the air. "I'll never beg!"
With her promise, Matsuri is suddenly thrown through to the wall, her chain clanking as it flies with her. She lands two stories down the building with a sickening thud.
Hidan follows suit, jumping from the newly created opening down to the ground where an unconscious Matsuri lay. With the toe of his sandal, he shakes Matsuri's body awake but she just remains unmoving, blood seeping to the ground from her head.
Hidan looks up at Kouzan standing by the ledge on the building. "You're no fun! I wanted to kill her slowly and painfully while she's awake."
Kouzan jumps down and looks at the unconscious girl, finding the very faint rise and fall of her chest reassuring. "Go find your own toy to play with. This one is mine."
"Why don't I just kill you and take her?" Hidan mutters then just as suddenly, without warning, he swings his scythe at Kouzan.
Kouzan's jumps back, avoiding the three bladed weapon then clucking his tongue, he proclaims, "I know how your jutsu works. You just need a little amount of blood to kill your opponent."
"Not until I inflicted pain," Hidan retorts then grinning maniacally, he adds, "Like you I savor suffering."
"But unlike you, I actually use my head." Kouzan chuckles. "You're the cockroach able to survive without that appendage attach."
"Why you!" roars Hidan as he strikes Kouzan. Instead of bleeding, Kouzan disappears and a scroll falls to the ground in his place.
Angrily unrolling the message, Hidan's eyes scan the details of his mission quickly and then he sneers, twisting his mouth into a sick smile upon reading the PS Kouzan put on the lower right corner. The asshole promises to give him the bounty in person once the mission is complete.
So it means the bastard didn't totally cower. He will have his chance to fight the other sadist. That, to Hidan, is the real reward in this particular mission.
—o0o—
Matsuri is finally outside her prison but she's too weak to even lift her eyelids so she lay unmoving, able to do nothing except listen to her captor and that strange nin's voices.
Obviously, Kouzan performs one of his tricks again, that of disappearing, and leaving her alone since the one that jumps over the ledge is actually just his clone.
Now, she's left to die at the hands of the nin Kouzan calls Hidan but...she has a change of heart. She doesn't want to die just yet. Not now when she is able to hear something important. Not now when hope has sprung that she can still fulfill her self-imposed task—that to show everyone she's not weak.
So when Hidan pierces her good leg with the first blade of his scythe, she blocks off the pain and doesn't shout nor move.
"Oh fuck you!" Hidan swears in frustration as the girl lying on the ground remains in coma-like state. Killing her now is so easy and fucking boring.
"If I kill you now, you win," Hidan spats, wiping Matsuri's blood from his blade. "I hate to loose, bitch. You'll just have to wait a li'l longer for your wish to come true."
—o0o—
With one of his eyes closed while maintaining a careful watch of the surrounding areas, the shinobi stands still behind the closed door, listening in to the murmuring voices inside Kankuro's bedroom.
Someone utters, "After two months, I finally found her."
"Where?" asks the unmistakable voice of Kankuro.
"Beside the abandoned building in the northeast before the Yugakure border," the other nin replies. "She was left out to die and it was fortunate that I spotted her when I checked the area."
"Good job," declares Kankuro. A rustle of several wads of paper later, he adds, "Here's your payment. Make sure you disguise yourself on your way out."
"Hai," agrees the other shinobi which is followed by a click as a window is opened.
As soon as the same window clicks closed, Kankuro calls out at the person behind his closed bedroom door, "Everything clear?"
Gaara opens the door after gathering his floating third eye which is made of sand and is connected to his optic nerve. With it, he has increased his field of vision, making sure the meeting with one of Kankuro's spies goes undetected by anyone. After what happened before with that one that got away who overheard that Temari's pregnant, they have become much more careful. So yes everything is clear.
Closing the door quietly, Gaara's gaze drops on the girl lying unconscious on Kankuro's bed. "Father is bound to know of her presence," he remarks.
"Relax. I have a plan," Kankuro utters, his glance too on the girl whose body though covered by his blanket, the outline still reveals how thin and fragile she is, while her face is covered with purplish bruises and cuts.
Gaara gives the impression of raising a brow. He doubts his less genius brother has a good plan for the girl who obviously needs medical attention but instead now slumbers on the unkempt bed.
Gradually, Kankuro transfers his attention to Gaara, knowing that he's waiting. "She can stay in your room and you look after her," he brashly announces.
Gaara blinks once then realizes that he indeed heard correctly his brother's latest scheme. "I can't. look. after her," he utters each word succinctly.
"Why not?" Kankuro asks defensively.
"Because—"
Kankuro interrupts, "Look, everyone's scared to go to your room. Nobody will come investigating, checking for odd females on your bed. Furthermore, you don't sleep, so you can nurse her back to health faster."
His body stiffening, Gaara glares warningly at his brother.
"The one who carried her here gave the necessary first aids but he's no medic," Kankuro just continues.
"She'll die then."
"Sheesh, you're such a downer," complains Kankuro. "She's lucky so far. Maybe her luck will hold out."
Gaara transfers his attention to the girl. Her name is Matsuri. By the look of her injuries, she should be dead but she's clinging on to life as she breathes. "Has she regained consciousness?"
"Not yet."
"Get a medic," orders Gaara.
"But—"
"Get a medic."
"Okay, okay. But she stays in your room, not mine," agrees Kankuro, grabbing a puppet—the black ant. With the puppet's barrel-like big belly, he can easily smuggle in a person into the house and then it's up to Gaara to scare the shit out of the kidnapped medic so he/she won't talk later.
—o0o—
A choked sob like a silent frightened scream from the bed spurs the nin sitting on the armchair to move quickly.
"Shhh," Gaara whispers softly, not wanting to scare Matsuri further. "You're safe now."
"You're Gaara," the girl whispers back, gulping as bile starts to rise from her stomach.
"Yes," he answers. She has been unconscious for the past three days and he has been beside her all that time, patiently tending to her wounds. Whoever that inflicted the garish marks on her body is the real monster, not him.
According to the medic, the monster knew where to strike to cause a lot of pain but he held back deliberately too so as not to elicit damage that could actually kill. It was like her broken ribs could have easily pierced her lungs but they didn't. Even her head and leg wounds look—and hurt—far worse than they actually are.
She must be really terrified of her painful ordeal. Straightening from leaning down on the bed, Gaara decides to give assurance by stepping away.
But Matsuri suddenly grabs Gaara's arm before he can move away from her. "You're not him," she murmurs, trying to tentatively smile. "You're Kamaru's brother."
"Yes."
Matsuri's smile widens. "I'm in safe hands," she concludes.
Gaara nods his head. She looks at him, not with fear but with confidence that he will protect her no matter what. Such trust elicits a strange warm feeling inside him.
TBC
—o0o—
~3 17,3 20 14AF P 3 24 14~
A/N: Theory of Happiness by FT Island and Bride of the Century make me happy these days...and of course, my two recent reviews. Me happie, more chappie!