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For What Must Be Done
Chapter 4: Sometimes I Feel Like...
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Clawing so desperately at the endless mounds of sand, her fingers bled to the bone and her nails were gone long ago. She dug like a furious dog. Demeaned, desperate, broken... hollow. This was all she could do now.
One of her legs was broken, but she could hobble through the pain and deal with the consequences later. She tasted blood in her mouth from an internal organ that felt like it wasn't even there anymore. But she had this one chance, and she was not going to waste it. This was all she could do.
Running into a strong patrol team, strong pursuers from Konoha, and finally reinforcements from the Sand village when it seemed that despite everything that had been thrown against them... they just might make it out. But now it was nearly a full day later, everything had gone wrong, they had been left for dead, and the Uchiha was nowhere to be found... so she could only hope that he had gone on to Orochimaru-sama, but feared that he may have been recovered. And that would have been fine with her since that meant she could go back home...
... but how could she go home now when there was no one else alive to go home with?
She shrieked again, and she could feel the sting of tears in her eyes again. All pain had been blocked out a while ago. But now all that was left was that horrible feeling that she had back when she was just a young girl, first brought to Sound and with no one around. That feeling of lonliness, that hollow numb feeling put up as a defense, that feeling of emptiness that she never wanted to have to feel again. She had thought things couldn't get any worse, but of course fate now proved her wrong.
She sobbed heavily and coughed, suddenly feeling sick. Another shriek as she rubbed furiously at her eyes as if to make the tears stop rolling from them. A near endless plain of desert it felt like in the wake of the one-tailed container, son of the former Kazekage.
She was alone out here.
... And this was all she could do.
The returning feeling of pain had jolted her back to consciousness—to life—even if only for a moment, like blood circulation returning to a numb and dormant limb. Her first sign of life was a barely audible hiss blowing past her scabbed and blood-crusted lips. Her eyes slowly peeled open and were stung by the shifting rays of sun breaking through the leaves and limbs above her... much closer than they should have been. Her mouth tasted of watch straps.
She focused through the pain and blur and could hear someone grunting, straining. Then a shifting and grinding noise. Her vision and mind came into perspective and she could see Jirobu hefting a tree off of her that the Sand kunonichi's wind technique had left on top of her, leaving her for dead. And hell... maybe she was.
Jirobu himself was pale and his eyes were distant, almost gone. He looked like death warmed over and she felt concern. His eyes met briefly with hers but nothing else as he moved closer to her. She saw him lean down and heave... pain swarmed to her ribs as another tree was lifted off of her chest, letting her broken ribs move and tear around inside where they had previously been crushed together. She cried out and cinched forward in pain before quickly jolting back down as if the one action had used up all of her strength.
She looked back to Jirobu after collecting herself once more. He was very slowly going through a string of handseals, as if he was having a hard time focusing on the simple task.
He was dying.
"Hey... Jirobu..." her voice came out dry and weak. "You're hurt... don't... worry about my a-"
"I'm dying Tayuya... but I can at least save you. At least you can go back home..."
Her eyes were suddenly very much awake now. The callousness in his voice bothered her.
"No look... I ca-"
"I'm going to send you back home... I can do that. I can at least save you..." His voice droned on, like a robot that had lost all other programming.
The second time she woke up, the pain had subsided significantly and she found herself much more aware. She was in the dark and surrounded by a dome of clay and earth that she recognized immediately. It was a technique that Jirobu used most often to take the chakra from those trapped inside. But just as it could be used to take chakra, it could be used to restore it or more accurately "give" chakra from the user of the technique.
It took a few minutes, but she was able to break her way out. The normally strong and defensive barrier was weak and fragile. A few strong shoves to it's weakest area caused it to crack and crumble like plasture.
Going outside, the sun was still out and everything was deathly quiet. Her eyes beheld several acres of fallen and leveled forest around the clay dome. Around the other side, she saw Jirobu lying with arms stretched out against the curved side/top of the dome. He was looking right at her, eyes open... but not a single spark of life remained in them. But in spite of everything... his face and final expression held purpose. And achievement.
Victory even in death... and maybe that was his last lesson of Nirvana.
Tayuya's teeth ground together. And she couldn't understand why this was happening. Why did everything have to change so suddenly and without warning. Looking at Jirobu, she knew the fate of the rest as well. Sakon, Kidomaru, Kimimaro... they were all gone. It had been a suicide mission.
She sniffed and rubbed her nose when she diverted her eyes from Jirobu and walked on. She wanted to bury her teammate... her friend. But she knew that if he had another breath left, he would scold her for wasting her energy and time. Wasting what he had given her when she could spend that time looking for survivors.
... And she silently swore to him that she would find someone to take back home with her.
Tayuya walked around in a dreamstate and this was causing a problem with reality.
Shock, in the medical sense, caused by trauma. A dangerous survival instinct triggered to deal with immense pain and threat. It can do strange things to a person sometimes. The body functions but the presense of mind isn't there the entire time. It can cause a perpetual surreal feeling in one's perception of the world, no matter how serious the situation. The most disturbing of things can be taken in with almost a passive interest for several minutes, and then have the reality come around full circle again and bite harder than it would have before.
Everything was different after Jirobu had died saving her. Even when she could only find large traces of blood back where they had departed with Kidomaru... the expect emotional investment wasn't there. It was like she expected to wake up at any minute. Or like she expected everyone to start getting up, like when they would peel themselves off the ground after training with Kimimaro.
But there he laid... the remains of Ukon, looking like he had been put through a meat grinder. He wasn't rolling around with the agony of broken bones, no groaning. He was perfectly still and cold to the touch. She hung her mouth open like she wanted to say something... but no words came out. Ukon was dead. And that meant...
Sure enough, several feet away there was Sakon, eyes open and staring at her. But Sakon, somehow... was the biggest shock to her. Because at this time in proper dramatic effect... she was supposed to have found him alive.
But he didn't blink.
He didn't move.
He didn't breathe.
And his eyes stared in wide shock and horror at something that had long since came and went.
Tayuya's knees hit the ground near the boy, ignoring the pain of the broken leg screaming in protest.
"... Sakon?" It was a foolish hope. No final breath, no final words. This was as real as it got... as painful as it could possibly be.
"Hey... we have to go home. We have to make sure that Uchiha doesn't take over before you get back. And you never got to tell Kimimaro that you were in love with his pasty ass..."
It was as much a statement to herself as it was a plea for the boy to stir back to life. It was catching up to her, coming to her like the stinging and watering in her eyes. These were her teammates, the only friends she had ever had. Friends that she would never get to talk to again, never get to fight with, and in a few minutes never get to see them again. It had all happened so fast... and everything was so wrong.
Just the night before they had all formed a bond, a strong one she had to admit. One that felt like it would never be broken. Would hold them all together no matter what happened.
... And now something had happened. Something bad. ... Where was that bond? How did it get broken so quickly and so easily? Why did all of this have to happen after many days of what were, in all restrospect... fun? They all had talked of change and how it couldn't be any worse... and now change had happened.
... And it was worse. Worse than she could have ever imagined.
She choked out a cough, closer to being a sob than anything she could remember in recent years. She reached out to Sakon and rubbed a small trace of blood off of his chin and straightened his torn robe as best as she could. He had always gone to great lengths to look his best, more than any of them, and there was no reason he shouldn't look presentable wherever he was going now.
He was cold to the touch and his body was rigid and stiff. He felt fragile, as if moving him around too much would break him apart. It was horrible... it was the feel of a dead comrade, her dead friend. Horribly murdered by reinforcements that none of them should have ever had to fight off. They should have just left the damn Uchiha and let them take him. They should have...
A sob did break with the next cough, and then another. She gritted her teeth and let out a sobbing hiss, grabbing the silver-haired boy's head and pulling him to her shoulder. Tears fell down her cheek and onto his hair, dirtier and stiffer and more dried out than the fashion-sensible boy would have ever allowed it to be. It was one of the small signs that yes... he was gone. As injured as she was... if Jirobu were here, he would have been carrying her back right now, with her protesting loudly yet being silently grateful. Kidomaru would be here talking about how much worse they had gotten it than he had. And Sakon... had he still been there he'd-
"... why the hell are you all naked?"
Kidomaru, Sakon, and Kimimaro stood in front of her in the hall in all of their full nude glory when she approached from behind, mouth agape. They spared not a single ounce of modesty between them when she approached them, all of them looking at her as if she had simply just joined them for breakfast. She was Tayuya. None of them considered her a girl. And while she liked it that way... she wished that she wasn't one of the guys, just so she would be spared horrible moments like this.
"Seeing who's penis is bigger," Sakon stated bluntly and matter of factly.
"Why... are you idiots comparing your dicks?" She felt her eye starting to twitch.
"Because. The man with the biggest is supposed to be the man of the greatest power, charm, and wealth." Again, very matter of factly.
"Yeah... unfortunately..." Kimimaro was looking a bit ashamed for some reason and the next moment told the entire story.
Kidomaru raised his hand up, spread his legs, and then posed with a grin and hands on his hips... allowing his own mark of gender swing freely in Tayuya's general direction, quite proud of itself. "Mine's biggest!"
They were all of that "odd" age. When they knew about sex and all of the like but didn't "know" about it. As far as they knew, it was just one of those things. And none of them paid any mind to it. At least not for a couple more years.
As such, Tayuya wasn't really bothered as she crossed her arms and inspected. Their leader came up and pointed at Kidomaru's ninth appendage. "Unfortunately Kidomaru is clearly the biggest." He then pointed to his own for reference. And then finally over at Sakon's who had now joined them. "But I can't tell if mine's bigger or if his is..."
"Who's bigger, Tayu-chan?"
Tayuya nodded and leaned forward to inspect, she didn't seem as bothered as much as she seemed a little disgusted seeing the boys in their birthday suits. Her face looked like she was watching a frog get dissected in the name of science.
"I... well, I guess Kidomaru IS the biggest... I can't tell between you two. It looks like Sakon's might be a little longer but... no, maybe Kimimaro is-"
So caught up in inspecting and comparing and having penis' inspected... no one noticed that a pantless Jirobu had appeared behind them, causing them to jump as if they had been caught when he spoke.
"Behold."
Flop.
... ... .. . ...
... ... ... . . ...
...
... ..
.
"Wha? How... how did your's get so... so-" Tayuya's eyes looked like they were about to fall out of her head.
"NO!" Sakon yelled as if the world had just ended.
"... not allowed. Not fair." Kimimaro said, looking at Jirobu's presentation a bit undignified.
"Put that back up, Jiro! That's not fair! You're a damn horse!"
"Jirobu's going to be the next ruler of the world!" Tayuya laughed. And none of the rest of them found it funny. Except the grinning Jirobu, who looked as if he had just won the lottery.
And with that, the other three boys walked down the hall, feeling literally dwarfed.
"To hell with this, I'm going for a swim." Sakon readied up first.
"Me too." Kimimaro was already naked. And naked was the only way a Kimimaro knew how to swim, even with the general protest of others.
"Yeeeep..." Kidomaru agreed, previously soaring pride grounded hard now.
"I'll go too." And no one protested Jirobu going along. He had won the honor, even if they weren't about to give it to him.
"Hey! You guys can't just go swimming naked!"
"Yeah we can."
"We are."
"Try to stop us!"
"I will if they do..."
"You jackasses should be ashamed!"
"Of what?"
"I'm not."
"Hell no!"
"... maybe a little."
"GAH! You guys are HORRIBLE!"
"And you should join us, Tayu-chan! You gotta be naked too, though."
"What? NO! I'd never do th-"
"You're a woman if you don't."
... Kimimaro had thrown down the damn gauntlet. Tayuya growled and stomped as if she had just received the worst insult possible. "I'm NOT a damn woman!"
There were some snickers.
"SHUT UP!"
No more than 5 seconds later, Tayuya went running past the five of them, all piss and fury. Clothes gone. "The woman is the last one in!"
...
GAUNTLET! CHALLENGE! INITIATED! A fight for the right of manhood!
...
"NO! CHEATER!"
"The hell it's going to be me..."
"GAAAA-HAHAHA! TAYU-CHAN'S MORE MAN THAN WE ARE!"
" I think that I've proved that I'm-"
"Shut up, Jirobu! Go sit on her! Drop that log of yours on her!"
"DON'T YOU COME NEAR ME WITH THOSE DAMN THINGS!"
"After her! She's gaining speed!"
... ... ... ...
... times had been fun. And then they grew up. And now finally this. It was so unfair. It made her feel as if she was going to break. But she couldn't... she wouldn't. There were more important things to do. And if she ever gave up hope, she knew it would be a repeat of her early childhood all over again. That dreadful time before she was picked up by Lord Orochimaru.
She dusted Sakon's hair off again and straightened him up against a tree as best as she could. There was a sense of purpose in her eyes, as she gave her head a final bow.
"I... I'm sorry..."
And with that, she quickly rose, turning around and walking out through the woods, a limp in her step but strength in her voice.
"KIMIMARO! ANSWER ME! KIMIMARO! WHERE ARE YOU?" Her voice echoed loudly through the woods and plains. She went out and searched not for a dead comrade, but simply one who might not be able to make it home without her.
She had stopped yelling for him, her voice having gone hoarse a couple of hours ago. Those last flickering rays of the setting sun danced around as night closed in and the air grew more chill inside the sand covered "bone tree" jungle she found herself in.
Looking up at some of the pristine white bones reaching toward the heavens, higher than a lot of trees... it wasn't the obvious fact that this was Kimimaro's handiwork that gave her fear as much as it was that his opponents had pushed him this far. And it was a bad sign... because Kimimaro still wasn't in the best of health, and she had doubted that he would be able to do something like this in his conditon. But he had... at what cost?
That horrid feeling was back, the feeling of lonliness out in the cooling labyrinth plains of bone and sand. She had known it but didn't want to face the music this time. She WAS alone out here. All of this had happened, and there was nothing she could do to change it. Everyone she had lowered her defenses around and had come to trust... it had all been for nothing. Just to lose them now.
She took a few more hobbling steps before her small knees hit softly to the sand below her and she sat back on her feet. A feeling of nausea came over her as she leaned forward and braced with her hands. The sand was somehow cold yet warm to the touch as her shaking hands dug her fingers roughly into the grainy material. She choked back the sickness boiling in her stomach and ground her teeth together.
Without even knowing, her hands and fingers began to desperately dig up and throw around sand. As if desperately looking for something before it... he... sunk deeper under the shifting, swallowing sands, never to be found again.
"Damn it all..." a sob broke again as night betrayed the day. As if with the setting sun... all hope was truly gone. If anything but a solid fact before, it was definitely for sure now. Her forehead slowly leaned down and touch against the sand, ginger locks falling heavily around her face. "Not fair... shouldn't have been like this... no way..."
Her fist pounded against the soft ground, growing even angrier and pounding it several more times because it was soft enough to just absorb her punishing blows.
And finally... it happened. The perfect still silence of the night was abruptly desecrated by a wailing scream across the plains. As if the reality of everything that had happened here had just sunk in.
... Once again, she was alone. There was no turning away from that fact now. And she just wanted to curl up now and die with everyone else. A well-marked graveyard for the entire team. There was no way she could possibly go back now after all of t-
"... go home, Tayuya..."
...
All of her heavy and catched breathing had stopped suddenly, as a small and weak voice broke through to her.
And she dared not move...
Dared not utter a word or sound...
As if the weak and barely audible voice would flee if she even dared to get her hopes up and look that way again...
And for a while there was no other sound. No movements. But she could feel a presense... and the weight of the world was pulled from her shoulders when she heard pained breathing.
But she still dared not turn around... fear of what sight she may behold, and fear of what sight SHE was to behold to the one behind her.
"... Everyone's gone, Kimimaro..."
And again there was no sound, no movement or sound of breathing. As ghosts and apparations are apt to do when addressed or considered. Somewhere in the distance, the howl of a wolf broke through the silence. And as if on cue, a lively concert of crickets began to sound off around her. It was relief... because there was life in this damned place afterall. When she had all but given up hope... she could feel the unwelcome stinging in her eyes again and she had to cover her mouth to hold herself back.
"... I know. You... you were the last one I c- ugh..." The horribly pained grunt and hiss gave her the hope of abundance of life if it still had the breath and sense to protest pain. "You were the last that I could sense out there. The others they... kept slowly fading and then... just flickered out. You flickered out too... and then came back... I don't-"
"Jirobu saved me..." Tayuya turned around now and breathed a sigh of relief when the sight of Kimimaro slouched weakly against one of the bone trees was behelden by her own eyes for the first time. She felt her own breathing shake with each deep breath. "It's thanks to... Jirobu..."
Nothing was said and Kimimaro weakly turned his head to the side, as if barely enough strength to hold his head up. His eyes were tired and held the look of a broken, lost man. A man without reason to stand up again.
"Go home, Tayuya..." he said, as if there was nothing else to say. And perhaps he truly had nothing else to say. "Please don't stay here and watch me die..."
His voice held not a single trace of the authority and strength it always had. It held none of his perfection she had hated him so much for at one point. It was the voice of a desperate and pleading, scared boy who knew he had no way to enforce his request. He was begging to not be seen this way. Kimimaro was begging... and somehow that only added to the heartbreak of everything. Kicked around, manipulated, replaced, broken, betrayed... and now sitting here with absolutely nothing left. Absolutely no reason to go back home... and the scarier part was that she completely understood him.
Tayuya rose from the ground and sniffed, wiping at her eyes again and began walking toward Kimimaro, which earned a submissive stare from those tired green eyes. The sand below him was stained red, and she could tell that even as dark as it was. And he looked as if breathing itself was a task, clearly beyond the point of exhaustion and chakra burnout. He had pushed himself far beyond his own limits to accomplish this task. This task that he knew would cost him his life.
... But Tayuya was completely undeterred.
"Come on, Kimimaro... we have to go home now..."
"Don't come near me... don't touch me... go home..." His voice was still more a scared plea than radient authority.
"No. I found you and I'm not going to leave you here." The subconscious Tayuya, for the first time ever, more confident and authoritive than her leader.
He shook his head a lot faster than she imagined he would have been able to in this state. "No... no! Leave me here. There is no point for me to go back..."
"You completed the mission Kimimaro. You and I at least survived. We have to go back. This was what Orochimaru-sama would want."
Where was her infinite patience and understanding coming from? Even she didn't know. But she wasn't ready to concern over such matters. She would be embarrassed about it tomorrow after they were both safe in the infirmary.
"No, I'm not going. Why should I?" He looked at her and his gaze finally stopped her in her tracks. It was a look that she never would have expected to see from Kimimaro, not in the leader they had all depended on to be strong when the rest of them were weak. His eyes were... truly pitiful. A window to his soul that until now had been shut. He showed weakness, grief,pain, fear... and a vulnerability. And she felt that she could ask him anything and she would get a truly honest answer.
But she had no desire to exploit his moment of weakness. Despite how cold she tried to act... she was not that sort of person at all. Because she knew Kimimaro would never do that to her.
... But he was going to volunteer something, it seemed. A revelation quite shocking... because Kimimaro doesn't talk about what he feels, his concerns.
"Why should I?" he continued. "I can't even walk... I'm sick, Tayuya. My life isn't my own anymore. I'm a tool... and an old tool at that which has been replaced now. I've delivered my replacement... and there's no more use for me. And if I went home, there's no place for me. Not after I let everyone get killed..."
... Kimimaro blamed himself for all of this. And that was so unfair it hurt her for him. She couldn't imagine blaming herself for this... and she wouldn't be able to take it if she did. She couldn't even IMAGINE shouldering that blame.
"No... you aren't to blame for any of this. You followed orders and we chose to follow them as well. The other guys... they... they would want you to go back home. They would like to know right now that you made it back with me..."
"No. I am not going back. I refuse to deal with it. And what would I go back for? Just to die in a few years? Bedridden again and dying in the hospital?"
... And there it was. The thing that he had been keeping to himself that she and the others had felt was bothering him. Sakon had the theory... and he had been right. Kimimaro was dying anyway. He had not recovered fully from his illness, simply being treated so as to be of some use to Sound before he died.
And she found it absolutely disgusting.
She got up and was walking over to him again now. A brisker pace than she thought she could manage. "You talk like the goddamn future is written, and its not. You may live to be 100. But you won't know if you don't try. I'm taking you back, whether you want to or not." Assertive, commanding Tayuya was back. She was having her own rough time... but she had to be strong now. For herself, and for the first time in his life, Kimimaro needed someone to be strong for him now.
She stepped closer and he glared. Even in his condition, his glare chilled her. It was dangerous. "I told you not to come near me, Tayuya. I will hit you if you don't leave me..."
She was upon him now and kneeled down in front of him, staring him DIRECTLY in the eyes, taking his arm and trying to pull it around her shoulder to get him to his feet. "Fine, fucker. Then you're just going to have to swing away. Because I'm not leaving you here like s-"
Crack
And in the next moment her jaw throbbed painfully and her vision blurred slightly as she fell back on the sand. Kimimaro withdrew his fist, a man always good on his word no matter the situation. He was breathing heavily again, as if the simple action took everything out of him.
She tried to muster up that infamous anger of hers... but nothing surfaced. Instead she only rubbed her cheek and looked at Kimimaro who's pride was almost visibly leaving him. She was worried again. He had made to strike her. He had put everything he had had into it so as to drive her away. But there was no assertion in his punch either, all strength gone. It had still hurt and knocked her back, but this was normally a man who could crater stone walls with a single blow. For the past several years he had always gotten what he wanted through sheer physical dominance... and now he didn't even have the strength left to drive her away. He was of absolutely no threat in this condition... and for some reason, she felt sorry for him because of that. He really had nothing now... and she had nothing to tell him either. She couldn't put herself in his shoes...
He pointed his finger behind her, gesturing for her to leave, and his eyes drifted closed.
... except that she COULD put herself in his shoes. She did have something, no matter how miniscule and unimportant compared to everything else. She did have something she could relate with and point out to him. She was Tayuya, and that was all. She didn't give nice and caring words. She was selfish and bitter and abrassive and dammit... none of this changed WHO she was or WHAT had happened.
She leaned foward again now and crawled back toward him, given the short distance she had been knocked back from his greatest blow. His eyes opened again, detecting her coming near him again.
His fist balled up again and lifted, shakily... "I told you to l-"
WHAP!
His clenched fist had be wrestled easily to the ground and her own open palm struck out against his face. And he looked... absolutely stunned. A wakeup call that seemed to bring him back to where he was. His eyes were even just the slightest bit different now.
"LOOK at me!" she yelled at him now. She was done stepping around eggshells and feeling weak and helpless here.
And Kaguya Kimimaro... gave total obedience, perhaps wondering himself why he was. His green eyes met her brown, and she knew she had his full attention. Kimimaro was listening to her, and listening intently.
"I don't know who the FUCK you think you are, Kimimaro. But let me tell you... not a goddamn thing that's happened here changes who you are, who I am, or what has happened. You're going back, because good or bad, you still have things to answer for. I don't know how Orochimaru feels about you now and I frankly couldn't give a DAMN..."
She took a few steadying breathes, actually feeling angry as her voice began to crack. "Because I'm selfish. And I don't know what kind of fucking MAN you think you are. Because what kind of MAN would make me go back and report all of this myself. What kind of MAN wouldn't live on for his comrades..."
She looked away and back again, face a little softer but still red with fury. "And what the hell kind of man would tell me he's going to marry me and have a kid with me and just fucking DIE out here? TWICE, even?"
That part had come out before she knew it... and Kimimaro simply stared at her. His eyes were different... unreadable again like always and she was grateful beyond words for that. He looked away from her and sighed. He held a slight aura of shame to him now... and that pleased her. Because a dying man doesn't feel shame since he knows he won't be around to deal with it.
So she sat down on the sand next to him and there were no words that passed. Only some silent and heavy contemplation for the next couple of minutes.
"... why did they die when I didn't, Tayuya?"
Another few seconds of shared silence, sitting on the makeshift desert plains, staring out over a spansive forest of bones.
"I don't... know." Her breath catched at the end. She had been wondering the entire time why she had been the only one to live. Until she found this one, their leader, alive but far from well.
"I wanted to protect all of you..."
"But you couldn't, and you told us before that we had to take care of ourselves. You were right."
"I didn't mean it. I only wanted to protect everyone."
She looked up in the sky and let out a pained sigh that sounded as if it had to practically force its way out.
"Somehow... I know you did. And I think they did too."
After a bit more silence passed, she heard Kimimaro trying to shift around a little.
"I want to go back now."
"Okay." That's all she would say. She understood in a way, how hard it might have been for him to go back. The leader returning without all of his troops.
"Don't talk to me any. I don't want to talk anymore."
"I know." She really did understand. The pride and hardships of the one who had expected himself to get everyone home safely.
"And I don't want you to look at me." Seeing him in such a pitiful state, both physically andmentally... she knew he didn't want her to see him this way. Or have memory of him being this way, if he had any sort of control over that.
"I won't. I promise."
... Tayuya really wasn't as bad of a person as some people thought she was.
"I'm NOT a bad person! And I WILL get married to somebody!"
"No you won't! You're mean to people and you're not pretty and you're stupid... and... and... YOU'RE A GIRL!"
Young Tayuya recoiled, as if the LAST one was the biggest nail in her coffin.
"I am NOT! I'm none of that! I'm as nice as you jerks DESERVE, and I'm good at math and music and... kind of reading! And I'm going to grow up and be really pretty and have straight teeth and big boobs and smooth legs and pretty long hair and... YOU'RE the girl here!"
"Psh, YEAH right!" The young Kidomaru continued to provoke, despite the girl looking like she was nearly at tears. But she deserved it, telling him that he was putting his models together wrong. She couldn't do any better, HE was the one with four arms! She was just being mean, and he was going to put her in her place. "You won't ever get pretty and smart. And you're so mean, that ALONE will make you not get married. No man wants a mean woman! That's what Orochimaru-sama said. You know what all he said about that Tsunade lady he used to k-"
Jirobu sighed from his chair near the window as he set aside his book with some cartoon-looking cat and tree on it. "Would you both hush? I'm trying to read this."
Tayuya sniffed and rubbed her eyes furiously, getting even more mad that she couldn't make the tears go away. Only girls cried. Everyone knew that.
"You... I'm... I- I'm not-" she sniffed and choked back a sob.
Kidomaru looked a bit more guilty now, waving his hands in front of him as if to make her stop. He might make fun of her, but he didn't like it when Tayu-chan cried. And he liked it even less because HE seemed to be the one who made her all the time.
"See! You ARE a girl! And stop it! Crying just makes you uglier and meaner, you know? You shouldn't b-"
Tayuya stopped mid-sob and let out a surprised shriek that made her turn beet red from embarassment... especially when she noticed that someone had their arm wrapped around her shoulder, hand resting on her arm.
"Hey, I-" she started, but went silent when she looked over and up into the face of Kimimaro. He looked a little mad, actually. And she wondered why.
"Tayuya is mean and crying because you and Sakon pick on her all the time."
Kidomaru looked around sheepishly, being admonished by the new leader candidate. "I know. I'm sorry, okay?" he huffed out, trying to sound aggrivated, but only coming across as feeling guilty and embarassed.
Tayuya nodded her head and wiped her eyes, herself embarassed because of Kimimaro having to stick up for her. She tried to move away.
"No, he's right," she said, still quite mad. "I'm mean and ugly and no one would ever-"
"Tayuya is not ugly," Kimimaro insisted. He looked at Kidomaru to call his attention, and Tayuya was pulled back into place, letting out another surprised 'eep'. He motioned with his free hand at her. "Tayuya knows how to match her clothes by herself and they're always neat. And she made this really cool hat..."
Tayuya looked as if she was about to say something when she looked at Kimimaro and held up a finger to point something out... but he had instead grabbed her by the chin and cheeks, smushing her face up comically. He pulled her head to the side. "She keeps her hair cut neater than we do. See? It's even on both sides, too. And she obviously washes behind her ears unlike you and Jirobu."
Kidomaru "humphed" and Jirobu scooted around, wondering how HE had been dragged into this conversation.
Kimimaro's hand pulled the smaller girl's head around the other way. "Her earring is really pretty. And her cheekbones being like that says she's going to have a really pretty face when she grows up." Kidomaru nodded and looked puzzled. Kimimaro knew a lot about anatomy and body development, so he didn't doubt what he said.
Tayuya's eyes looked to the corner at Kidomaru, and a devilish grin was almost somehow visible through her face which was currently smushed up, courtesy of Kimimaro.
"Uu shee Kito-mafu? He shez all be pwitty! Eheheh!" as if she had won a battle.
Kidomaru crossed his arms when Kimimaro let go of her face now. He sniffed. "Don't get a big head, girl. You're still meaner than any of us. And no one is going to marry a mean person."
Tayuya growled and Kimimaro shook his head. "Tayuya's a good person, I think. She just won't listen to us and talks back at us when she shouldn't. She is the girl, afterall."
Tayuya glared at him and Kidomaru snickered. She would have been FURIOUS at the pale chauvenist, if he hadn't stood up for her and said that she wasn't mean.
"Yeah well..." Kidomaru sniffed again, his usual teasing grin back. "No guy wants to marry a woman who won't mind what he tells her and talks back to him. I mean... who WOULD marry someone like that?"
The tears were back, even though she knew he was only teasing. Being a young girl... such words took a toll on the mind no matter the circumstance. She gritted her teeth and walked toward him, fist balled up and shaking.
"... I would."
Tayuya stopped. Kidomaru looked absolutely shocked. And even the silent Jirobu had looked up from his book.
"You... Kimimaro... Tayu-chan... marr-"
"Yeah. I would." Kimimaro said, totally as if there was nothing wrong with that.
Even Tayuya shook her head in disbelief. Kimimaro? No way. He would surely only go after the nice, polite, beautiful, soft-spoken, obedient kind of wife that she had seen in the movies. "Shut up. You're a liar."
The not-so-horrible in actuality insult made its way to young Kimimaro's ears and registered as high up on that list as the notorious likes of "dummy-head" and "stupid-face".
As such, he spun around, an angry glint in his eyes as he pointed at Tayuya. "No, YOU shut up! I'm not a liar! And maybe you ARE mean! AND a girl!" ... the later being the worst insult any of them could give.
And Tayuya was taken back because Kimimaro wasn't one to use such insults like the others! Kidomaru laughed and slapped his knees, Jirobu snickered and turned back to his book. This only made Kimimaro look even more mad and flustered.
"All of you eat dirt! I'm not joking either! I... If Tayuya can't get married when she grows up, I'LL do it!" ... he said in the mentality of a kid, as if such was a task and having to bite the bullet. Proving himself in some way.
"Ha!" Kidomaru chided out again. "I bet you won't! You hear that Tayu-chan! If you don't get married when you grow up, you have to marry Kimimaro!"
Tayuya gritted her teeth and took the bait, the tears that were starting to surface again before having stopped now somehow. "T-th-that's fine! Kimimaro's nicer to me and he's more of a MAN than any of the rest of you! See? Look! This is how much I don't mind!"
Kimimaro looked as if he was ready to go on guard when Tayuya walked up to him and reached up to his face. But he stilled himself, and she only pulled his head down toward him. ... And suddenly she kissed him. On the lips.
For Tayuya, it was just like those nice, kind, beautiful, soft-spoken, obedient women on those movies did when they really loved the guy. Those wet sloppy disgusting looking ones that involved tongue and teeth.
She pulled away... the act having actually felt PHYSICALLY nasty to her, even though her face was flushed. Her nose was scrunched up like Kimimaro's was... both not really understanding it as a "kiss" but looking more like Tayuya had just walked up to the poor unsuspecting boy and licked him on the face.
Kimimaro started wiping his lips to get the slimy traces off of it. Except... it looked like he was startled about something. Kidomaru only looked on awkwardly.
"Hey!" Tayuya barked at him, face growing red both in embarrassment and anger this time. "You're not supposed to wipe off your future wife's kis-"
"You tried to eat my lip!"
Tayuya looked at him, startled by his mistake. ... Hadn't she done it just like on the movies? ... Nevermind the fact that Kimimaro had probably not seen those kind of "girly" movies. "Wha? N-no! I d-"
"What did she do to you?" Kidomaru had run over, keeping his distance from Tayuya and showing concern for the leader candidate.
"I didn't do a-" Tayuya started, but was drowned out.
"She bit my lip!"
"No! I gave you a-"
"Why would you do that? He was being NICE to you!" Kidomaru looked mad, and poor Kimimaro still looked like someone who had... well... been bitten for his kindness.
"NO! I gave him a kiss! Look... it's supposed to be like th-"
She reached out for Kimimaro again, but he shoved her back this time, one hand protecting his lip and the other pulled into a fist. "No! I'll fight back, I will! I was just trying to be NICE to you!"
With that Kimimaro walked away, followed by Kidomaru who offered up his advice. "We should go tell Sakon about that."
"I don't know if I'll marry her or not now! Maybe she IS mean!"
"I told you..."
"I-I'm sorry! I wasn't being mean! I was trying to- wait up guys! I'm sorry! Don't run!"
... Tayuya really wasn't as bad of a person as some people thought.