Five years is a long time to not talk to anyone. Kakuzu had nearly forgotten what his voice sounded like, for he had long been told as to not talk back to the guards when they gave him instructions, which translated into not talking at all. If he had to say when the worst moment of his imprisonment was, it would have been at about eight months in. Elder Himura had come for a visit, with a smug grin covering his face, Kakuzu had just received his tattoos earlier that day, without the ability to receive proper care for the markings Kakuzu knew that his wrists and arms would ache for weeks to come. But the look on the Elder's face was enough to make Kakuzu forget all about his pain and replace it with dread.
"Congratulations Ex-jonin Kakuzu. Your child was born today. A healthy baby boy. Though his mother was reluctant to part with him for even a moment, I would say that he is the mirror image of you. I wonder, if he would take to the Earth Grudge Fear with the same ease that you did?" Kakuzu roared and slammed against the bars of his cell. "I am unaware of his name. I'll be sure to inform you once I have been made aware of it." And with that Elder Himura left. With Kakuzu, already showing signs of malnutrition, screaming, demanding answers.
"Ex-jonin Kakuzu, I have good news, I have finally discovered the name of your child. His mother deigned to name him 'Kazuki', using the kanji for 'one' and 'hope'. According to my Elite, she takes her son to a cave everyday since she has been cleared to walk about. I wonder. Is she still waiting for you?" Himura sneered at the kin-jutsu user.
After a year of imprisonment Kakuzu was looking worse for wear, his hair had now grown past his shoulders and was beginning to journey down his back. His ribs were once more showing under his skin, and his sepia skin had paled and taken on a grey undertone. What hadn't diminished was the heat in Kakuzu's glare, or the snap of his teeth when Himura got too close.
The elder laughed at Kakuzu's anger.
"Now now Kakuzu. That's no way for a new father to behave, you have to be a good role model for your son, what would your little chit think."
Once more Himura left Kakuzu to rage in his cell, cursing the name of the elder as he went.
At the half-way mark of his sentence Kakuzu had given up talking or even responding to anyone or anything. He simply followed his routine. He got up, ate his gruel, and spent the day out in the rock field, breaking the rocks to expose the ores inside them that could be used by the blacksmiths. Once the sun began to set Kakuzu would return to his cell. The only thing keeping Kakuzu sane was the thought of being released, counting down the days until he would see his dear Fuyuko once more. He imagined what their son looked like, he had to be nearly two now.
Elder Himura made a point of visiting at lease once a month. When he came by the Elder always dropped hints as to what his child was like, how Fuyuko was doing. The closest Kakuzu got to reacting to anything was when the Elder suggested that he was having some of his Elite force stay with Fuyuko, in an intimate manner. It was only the knowledge that Fuyuko wouldn't betray him like that, that stopped Kakuzu from reaching out and strangling the Village Head.
But his days continued on in their monotonous tone. With Kakuzu dreaming of the day he could be reunited with his love.
Fuyuko hadn't seen Kakuzu in nearly four years. She wished she had had the precognition to tell Kakuzu to not go on that mission. She wished that he had been able to visit her before he had to go to see Elder Himura. But most of all she wished that he got the chance to meet their son.
Kazuki was now a boisterous three-nearly-four-year-old, all tan skin and knobbly knees. His eyes were the same piercing green that Fuyuko had known could have only come from Kakuzu. His russet hair was entirely her own. Kazuki had asked about his father only once since he learnt to talk, and Fuyuko tried her best to answer as to why his father wasn't around.
Fuyuko feared that telling Kazuki too much about Kakuzu would either sway her son into wishing to be a shinobi and leaving her, or he would end up hating Kakuzu before they ever got the chance to meet. But it seemed that Kazuki was happy enough staying with his mother, and playing shinobi the same as any of the children of the Village.
And everyday Fuyuko took Kazuki to the cave that she would wait for Kakuzu at, and she would teach him how to survive without shinobi means. She began to teach him how to fish, or how to start a fire. For Fuyuko was all too aware of how easily she could be taken from her son, leaving him without anyone to look after him.
Fuyuko watched her son play by the side river that Kakuzu and her met. Wishing that Kakuzu was there to see Kazuki. Hoping that wherever he was, that he was alive.
As the pair began to leave the cave, Fuyuko placed something behind a secure rock, leaving it to be found on a later day.
Kakuzu had been keeping track of his time in jail. Using the angles of the sun and stars to judge the time of year, and knew that he was reaching the end of his five years. Himura had been visiting less and less over the last few months. Kakuzu was unsure whether that was a blessing or a curse. He could only assume that this meant the Elder was planning something, but Kakuzu tried to ignore the growing dread in his stomach about his upcoming release.
His guards seemed to know something, if the side-eye and smirks they gave him meant anything. His work load was increased, to an almost unhuman level. The only benefit Kakuzu could find to his whole imprisonment was that Kakuzu was likely never to be as physically strong as he was currently.
The last days of his confinement were the worst. He could practically taste his freedom. Kakuzu knew that the first thing he would do once he was released would be to rush to the side of his beloved Fuyuko. He would marry her, like had always planned, he would get to know his son. They would be a family. They would leave Taki, screw Himura, they would leave the ninja world behind.
The last day was finally upon him. His guards didn't escort him the rock field. Instead Kakuzu was taking to Elder Himura's home. Said man was standing smugly at the front of his house. The gleam in his eyes made Kakuzu uncomfortable, like the elder knew a secret, one that Kakuzu knew he'd be better off never knowing. The two other elders joined Himura in front of his house, as the Village Head addressed Kakuzu.
"Ex-jonin Kakuzu. Congratulations. Today marks the last day of you sentence. As of tomorrow morning, you will be a free man. You will be given twenty-four hours to do with as you will before you will be brought back to being your training to join my elite. As a reminder of your time in jail, I decided to give you a present. Tenshi, go get ex-jonin Kakuzu his gift." A shinobi from somewhere beyond Kakuzu's vision disappeared. When he came back, Kakuzu knew that his dread had been for a reason.
Placed before him was a shape, indistinguishable under its sheet, but clearly not moving. Kakuzu could feel his limbs shaking as he reached to lift the cover. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to see what horror would face him, the first thing he would truly see after five years would be something that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He was right.
Under the cover was Fuyuko, and who could only assume was Kazuki. Their bodies were mutilated, nearly beyond recognition. Fuyuko's eye reflected her horror. Kakuzu couldn't imagine what was the last thing she saw. He could only pray that she didn't see their son killed. That she died believing that the child she had raised by herself was still alive somewhere.
His son. His little boy. The child he never got to meet. They shared the same eyes, but Kakuzu would never be able to not see the fear that would forever remain in his lifeless eyes.
He knelt to be nearer to his love and child. His fingers brushed through two sets of russet hair, feeling the silkiness he was used to.
The ex-prisoner placed his hand on Fuyuko's face, resting it on her cheek.
Cold.
Kakuzu could feel his stomach drop.
All of his dreams vanished before his eyes. Everything keeping him sane for five-years of isolation was ripped out from under him in one swift moment.
There was nothing left.
Except rage.
Rage coursed through Kakuzu as he looked down at the desecrated remains of his only family.
His whole-body trembling as he felt the chakra suppressors release.
Kakuzu couldn't contain himself as he heard Himura laugh.
"Congratulations ex-jonin Kakuzu. You are a widower. And you get the great pleasure of burying your only child." Himura snarked, not realising that Kakuzu wasn't listening to the elder boast in his own, twisted way. He didn't notice the way that his shinobi had been rendered incapacitated under the pure crushing power of killing intent.
The other elders seemed to catch on to their impending doom, and tried to get Himura's attention. But the Village Head was ignorant of his coming demise.
"You took everything, from me. You took EVERYTHING!" Kakuzu rose to his feet, black threads escaping from between his stitches. Without raising his hand a swarm of threads attacked the elders. Once they were bound Kakuzu walked over to them, never removing his eyes from his massacred family. "You took my heart from me, it's only fair I take yours from you." Kakuzu growled, finally moving his eyes away from his love and their child.
When the Taki shinobi came back to their senses the three elders were dead, their chests ripped open and their hearts forcibly removed. The Village Heads house was in flames. And the spot where there had been bodies was now clear, and their prisoner was nowhere in sight.
Kakuzu was numb as he arrived at his destination. In his arms were the cold remains of his only family. Their lifeless bodies mocking the future he had once dreamed of. His son. The one that Fuyuko named in the hope of his return. Kazuki. A child in all ways. So horrifically taken from him.
Fuyuko, who would now forever remain twenty-seven, whose last moments were spent unknowing about the state of her only child and imprisoned love.
Kakuzu collapsed as he let loose a wailing cry. Clutching the bodies to him.
The area of his mourning as beyond the walls of Takigakure, far beyond anywhere where a patrol may come across him. The trees provided the perfect alcove for Kakuzu's cries to echo back on him, creating a sympathy of pain and sorrow. And just on the edge of the clearing was a small rock formation, not enough to be a full cave system but enough to provide shelter.
Kakuzu had come across this place long before this moment. He knew that it was rarely frequented if ever, and it would be the perfect place for him to mourn in. It would also be the perfect place for him to lay his loved ones to rest. Away from the world, untouched by the horrors that would await Kakuzu.
Once his breathing settled Kakuzu placed on last kiss on the forehead of Fuyuko, and the first, last, and only kiss on the forehead of Kazuki. He then set about to creating their final resting place.
For nearly six and a half decades Kakuzu continued to wander the planet. He horded his possessions, dogged by the memories of his days as a youth, constantly hungry and with nothing to his name. His only expenditure was unknown to his unsavoury comrades. Sasori had been the closest to finding the truth, before his unfortunate demise, surmising that it must have been something to do with Kakuzu's family history, only none of the Akatsuki knew that Kakuzu had been an orphan for near his whole life.
Now Sasori was gone, and his hypothesis into Kakuzu's life went with him. Deidara had been lost to them as well.
Kakuzu wasn't overly fond of any of the other members of the Akatsuki. They weren't his family, and has no want or need to get close to any of them, but it still hurt, somewhere deep inside of him that was inspired by Fuyuko long ago.
And somehow Kakuzu knew that he wasn't long for this world either. He didn't know if the thought pleased him, or terrified him.
To help prepare him for the oncoming storm Kakuzu went to the only place he knew that would help him get his thoughts together. Leaving Hidan behind, not that the loudmouth minded, Kakuzu went to a forest clearing just beyond the borders of Fire country, but out of the way any patrols that might have been sent from either Taki or Konoha.
The cave was still as Kakuzu had left it, a peaceful area untouched by war and destruction.
Inside the cave, out of view of any passers-by, were two tombs. They had changed over time since Kakuzu had first created them. Going from a simple stone bed, to an intricately carved marble tomb. There were carvings of two faces, one above each tomb, one of a child, a boy not even a decade old, and a woman, not a striking beauty, but carved in such a way as to show that she was dearly loved.
Around the tombs were gifts, things that Kakuzu had come across in his travels, gifts he thought that Fuyuko would have appreciated, or small things that he would have hoped to give to Kazuki as he grew up into being a man.
All of his unspent wealth was here, in this place, given to two people who could never, and would never, enjoy it. Every ryo earnt was saved, every bounty went into giving his lost family the joys in life that they had been so cruelly denied in death.
Kakuzu picked up a favourite offering of his. A crystal flower. A beautifully crafted branch of morning glories. A bittersweet reminder of their brief time spent together. It had cost him a small fortune, but in the end it had been worth it, an eternal representation of their life, however short theirs together may have been.
So Kakuzu mediated in the silent presence of his lover and his child. Contemplating what his next steps would be, the feeling that his end was near hadn't left him. Kakuzu deeply hoped that his feeling was true. He was so tired of it all.
He knew that he could never take his own life. Fuyuko would have never have forgiven him. So Kakuzu knew he had to die in a battle, as old age was never coming for him. But if he was to die in battle, then he would want to go out with a fight, he would not have endured all that he had just to give up to the first person who he came across.
No.
Kakuzu would fight. But he knew that what was coming up would be his final battles.
Kakashi looked at the mutilated corpse of his enemy. The battle had been long and arduous. And Kakashi had at several moments thought that he would die. But Kakashi had been able to avenge his friend, and rid the world of its oldest shinobi.
And Kakashi didn't know what to do about it.
He had taken the body back to Konoha, for inspection purposes. And they had contacted Taki about the death of their longest standing missing-nin.
But Kakashi wished that they had had the chance to look into his mind, to see what made him the man who he had become.
Kakuzu was pissed. He was fucking furious. This was not what he was promised. This was not the world that he should have been aware of. It was that same fucking, messed-up, world that he had left behind. And there was still a stupid war.
And even worse he wasn't in control of himself this time.
Despite it all Kakuzu was actually glad when one of his hearts was destroyed by some Konoha chit he didn't know. Even seeing the original team that helped kill him the first time just helped Kakuzu feel as though he would finally get the chance to rest.
And then he the compulsion being lifted. And Kakuzu felt himself drift away once more.
It was white.
It would be blinding if it wasn't so pleasant.
There wasn't much to see, in fact there wasn't anything at all.
Kakuzu knew that he was finally dead. There wasn't any other possibility for where he was. He just wanted know where Fuyuko was, he had endured all of his life just so that he could be reunited with his lost love. He could feel his frustration rising at the thought of all his life, his struggles, having been for nought.
"Kakuzu." A voice called. Said man turned, and there she was. Fuyuko, standing in the dress he bought her for his proposal. Smiling at him, with a gentle gaze. "My love. I've been waiting." He moved towards he, he could feel his hearts pounding with anxiety with each step he took towards her. "I've missed you. My brave shinobi." He embraced her, taking in all that she was, feeling her warmth against him. "I've been watching. I know what you've been through. And I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. I never wanted you to suffer like you did."
Fuyuko leant into his embrace, enjoying it just as much as he did. While time had no meaning in the Pure Lands, Fuyuko knew that it had been a long time since she had last seen Kakuzu.
"I have a surprise for you." Fuyuko looked up at Kakuzu, her amber eyes sparking in delight. Kakuzu felt his chest tighten as he guessed what it was that Fuyuko wanted to show him. "Kazuki! Come here my love. I've got someone I want you to meet."
In the distance a small figure appeared. And Kakuzu knew that it wasn't the light that was blurring his vision. A child ran closer, a small figure, with sepia skin, and russet hair, with emerald eyes shining. He didn't show any signs of the malnutrition that Kakuzu had suffered at the same age. In fact, Kazuki showed all the signs of having been a happy, healthy, boy before his murder.
"Kazuki. I want you to meet someone. Kakuzu, meet your son. Kazuki, meet your father. He's been waiting a very long time to meet you."
"Hi Otou-san." Kazuki chirped, leaping forward to hug the tall man. "Kaa-chan has told me all about you. She told me that you were the strongest ninja ever. And when the bad men took us, Kaa-chan told me that you make sure that they would pay. And sometimes I get new toys, and Kaa-chan said that they're from you." Kazuki then presented Kakuzu looked down to see a set of blunted kunai, ones that he distinctly remembered buying for the child, and had purposely set on a marble tomb.
"I've loved your gifts, my love." Fuyuko said, taking Kakuzu's gaze away from the boy. "I have a favourite." She then presented him with another familiar shape, a crystal flower. With blossoming blue head, and elegant twisting branches. "I love you."
"I'll love you always." Kakuzu finally managed to reply, taking in all that had happened.
"I'll love you until the end of forever." Fuyuko responded, kissing Kakuzu for the first time in seventy years. "I promise."
