Chapter Four: "Classy or Trashy?"
Ino struggled to keep her eyes open, it was late and she had reluctantly swapped seats with Kakuzu so she could have a rest. But falling asleep seemed a too difficult task to do unusually and she was left just staring out the window, taking swigs from her water bottle every now and again. All there was to look out of the glass were dull fields, toned with the shade of the night sky, stars glittered here and there but mostly, Ino could see her own reflection from the light inside the car.
The music was a faint humming in her mind, a distant thing, along with her old life really, over such a few amounts of days she had been the number one victim for an aggressive attack and now travelled secretly with a bodyguard.
Bloody fantastic.
Sensing Kakuzu sitting up straighter Ino turned her gaze to the front to see the dim lights of a little set of buildings come closer from the darkness.
Another thing she couldn't believe she was doing was staying in a MOTEL. Beautiful, rich young girls DO NOT stay in Motel's under any circumstances; it is a HOTEL at the least.
But no, Kakuzu; she had learnt, was a cheap bastard, and had gone all out to get a little room in a gritty Motel. She sighed a long, loud, miserable sigh that made Kakuzu roll his eyes wearily, though he couldn't care less to her opinion.
"You will be staying in room number seventeen, thank you" replied the lanky haired, somewhat spotted, big eyed receptionist, who; in Ino's opinion, looked to enthusiastic to be working in a place like this.
They were standing in the receptionist area of "Castan Motel" Kakuzu holding his and Ino's suitcase on his shoulder, supported by his right arm, and she stood with a supermarket basket full of empty bottles and muffin cases, and a handbag.
They both looked thrilled to be there.
Kakuzu nodded his thanks and took the keys from her thin hand then chucked them to Ino.
"Go get settled in, I will be there in a minute"
"Oh? And where the hell might you be going?" she scoffed angrily.
"Doesn't bloody matter, woman, you're too tired anyway so just…" he waved his hand in an apathetic gesture to 'just-go' and he turned away to walk round another door.
Ino sighed again and just followed his instructions sluggishly.
She made it out into the car park and walked to the set of cramped building, all lit by long tubes of fluorescent lights, some working, others not.
Walking up the stairs she walked slowly along the clinking metal platform, stopping for a moment to readjust her shoes, she wasn't in any great hurry and wondered when Kakuzu was going to be back, she didn't want to admit it, but it felt safer with him around.
Looking across the dark yard in hope to see him, she carried on walking aimlessly, eventually standing at the door of number seventeen.
She was pulling down her hair from its band when he walked in; he threw the suitcase onto one of the two single beds and kicked off his shoes.
Tired, bored, agitated and oh…still unpaid.
Glancing over to Ino who had retrieved the suitcase and was now filing through it, she made sure to spend a moment to gulp over choice of underwear, how he got this stuff pained her thoughts and she shook her head. Taking out nightwear she went to the small bathroom to get dressed.
Kakuzu removed his shirt and head wear and washed off quickly in a little sink before she came back (hen wondered why there was a sink randomly by the wall and not accompanied by the bathroom). Replacing it with a comfier one, he usually wouldn't wear a mask at night but he didn't want to frighten Miss Yamanaka.
By the time she came out she wore dark blue trousers with a pale blue polka dot pattern and the same shade of light blue in a T-shirt. Her hair was in a messy bun and she looked about ready to collapse.
Noticing Kakuzu he gave a grim grin beneath his veil at her reaction to his unhidden torso, scars and loose knotted stitches maimed his body and she looked both horrified and amazed.
"A Bodyguard isn't the only reputation I have and have had" he said sullenly and she averted her eyes with a nod of respect, and then smiled coyly.
"I know, I have my own scars, no one thinks anything of it but, I was trained to be something of a cadet...I supposed nothing fancy, it would have let me travel around though…but my father convinced me to quit, wanted me to stick with him…turns out it was only because he needed some help gaining money" she scowled the rest of the sentence.
Kakuzu's eyes widened.
"You were a...soldier?" he inquired, but not unkindly. She nodded with a shrug.
Taking in a deep breath she lifted up her top, so the skin of her stomach to the area beneath her ribs was showing. Under the untrained eye, you almost couldn't see the thin white scars over her body, slicing here and there; they looked like they could have been horrendous when first bleeding afresh.
But Kakuzu got up suddenly and knelt in front of her so his line of vision met the bare flesh, her breathing quickened at his scrutiny. She could feel his warm breath even through his veil on her stomach and it made her legs go a little weak. She couldn't imagine why, she had never been in a situation like this before, that was it.
He scanned the narrow clear lines with whatever delicacy someone like Kakuzu could, bringing up a calloused hand and now he ghosted it over the surface of flawless skin, she held her breath.
Oblivious to her, so did he, how long had it been since he had, had a woman? He thought to himself and looked at his rough, dark hand compared to her stomach and the comparison was mildly intriguing.
Tapping the flesh he smirked at the memory of her tapping his own stomach. Tracing with a finger as light as air, he sought out the physical memories embedded into her body.
Ino shivered, was there a draught coming in at all?
Looking down with eyes wide and curious, she involuntarily met his gaze, she noticed the green against a dusky crimson sclera, and she suddenly wondered how he managed to have such eyes. But her mouth was too dry to ask.
He stood up abruptly and turned away, switching on the lamp beside his bed, and then striding to the front door, turning the main light off as he stepped outside and closed the door.
Ino slowly pulled her top down and realised her cheeks were burning; she wondered how long they had been like that.
Wow, that couldn't have been more awkward.
Why did he leave so suddenly? She kind of expected him to be stronger than that, more emotionless. Yet he walked out of the situation like that.
Ino was too shaken up to care and she wandered over to her bed and slipped into the covers, it was warm and comfortable enough, but it wasn't home. She missed home, more than she could say, she knew it would get to the point where she would miss her father, and she hoped she was back in her own bed before that happened.
Turning over, she just stared at the door, a sudden hint of frustration built up within her. Why did he just have to walk out? Now she felt sick with embarrassment! Pulling the quilt up to cover her arms she tried to dig out her own sense of peace so maybe she could sleep.
Kakuzu held the railings with a fierce grip, the cool air did nothing to affect the bare skin of his chest and his eyes were stale with unknown emotion.
Why did he go and do that in there? As if things weren't already tense enough between them, this damned job! He was always cooped up with some kind of frustration, whether it is natural needs of a man, or his own unique violent urges. His breathing slowed until it was only the wind, and the faint flickering of lights audible once more in the empty silence.
A few minutes later, his grip still hadn't loosened, his eyes were darkening and he knew sooner or later he would snap into a state of uncontrollable anger. Before there was no hesitation to murder, nothing stopping him from attacking out of discrimination.
A noise awoke him from his aggressive thoughts, and when he stood up to listen again, it turned out it was coming from behind him.
Then again, a giggle and a husky mutter, room sixteen...
Moving back so he pressed himself against the wall of the neighbouring section, his eyes snapped open and his fists curled into gnarled shapes at some salacious sound uttering from the other side of scrape painted bricks.
Ino was stirred from her sleep, she had only drifted off for ten minutes and already at her early waking was she pissed, she could hear some talking and other sounds from behind her bed board and she sat up. Scratching the back of her head. Holding her breath to hear better, she screwed up her face in disgust when she realised what was happening.
"Fucking…gross" she snarled and dove back into her bed and covered her head with the pillow.
That's ALL she needed, really.
Ino suddenly wondered if Kakuzu could hear it, would he be the kind of guy to ignore it. Laugh. Or shout at them to shut up? She didn't care, she was so tired!
Hold it in, hold it in, drawing attention to himself would cause a long line of consequences for both him and Ino.
Another sound hit his ears with an intimate impact and he growled viciously.
Fuck it.
The last thing Alken and Hateli* expected was to be interrupted with the harsh slam of brittle wood against brick, looking up with nothing short of horror, the shadow against the night, was truly terrifying. Hateli screamed and Alken let out a low yell when the creature sauntered towards them with heavy strides, grabbing hold of Alken's neck, despite the situation he was in with his lover. His airways were slowly compressed and snapped almost audibly in the stone cold air.
"Alken!" she cried but she couldn't do anything about it, with a loud, sickening snap, his head lolled and he fell off the bed and out of her.
Hateli looked up in terror, trying to cover herself, it didn't matter because Kakuzu had paused and looked at the corpse on the floor. Silence passed and he hissed under hoarse breath.
"Profit wise, this was a fucking waste of time" he then turned menacingly towards the young woman.
"But you and your boyfriend just had to be here at the time where I was too worked up to give anything about profit, which means I am in a really badmood" and with that, his wires shot out and slashed her open with the penetrating threads that overcame her body in a split second, filing her with holes that seeped blood. With a choke she fell silent.
Kakuzu stood there.
He just stood there.
Sitting up, Ino yawned; her sleep wasn't half bad, after the neighbours had quickly come to a sense of silence, of course not without finishing with a scream of names.
The young woman shuddered.
Looking over, Kakuzu lay on his stomach, Cover kicked off and his fists tight into a flat pillow, he looked furious even in sleep; she hoped he hadn't taken last night too badly, what with the...scars...
Standing up carefully, she tried not to make a sound as she walked over to him cautiously. Ino saw the goosebumps on taunt flesh. Lightly picked up his quilt, covering most of his exposed body with it. She felt a bit better about herself when he let out a sigh and his body noticeably relaxed a little. She wondered when he came back in.
Ino headed into the small kitchen and looked for the food Kakuzu had collected, nothing special: bread, butter, coffee, some eggs, and a can of beans and two muffins which made her smile.
Putting four slices in the rather large toaster and getting out some plates and mugs, she filled the kettle with water and left it boiling, and then she put the beans in a saucepan and left them to heat up.
Ino wondered whether it would be worth going all out and doing fried egg as well, since she didn't think they were staying much longer here and a large breakfast might do them good depending on how this day would go.
What the hell, toast with beans, fried egg and coffee would be done. Hopefully before Kakuzu woke up and he insisted he didn't want breakfast and just wanted to get going.
Like a man.
Lucky for her she hadn't noticed the blood stains on his trousers or on his arms, speckled with small drops that didn't belong to him.
A/N: *Yeah, I thought of two original names just for this so Alken and Hateli were just built.
Violence in this (well of course you know NOW) I know Kakuzu has a pretty violent temper and I didn't want him taking it out on Ino and besides, a grotty motel needs its people :D
Keep reading, more intimacy between Kakuzu and Ino soon, but I like a good build up so beware.
#LAW09
To WolvesKey: That is kind of you to say and hopefully since I have improved it, there won't be so many errors. Unique! Nothing is more wonderful than knowing your story is like no other so thank you so much for the praise! I hope you enjoy reading the rest!
To Clumsy0132: I shall do so as soon as I can! Thank you for the review!