Chapter 6: Leafy and Loving It
It wasn't easy being half plant. For one thing, people tended to look at you very strangely. Ever since he could remember, people had looked at Zetsu with fear and suspicion in their eyes. They flinched backwards when he spoke to them, and recoiled when he tried to shake their hands. When he walked down the street, they crossed to the other side, pulling their children with them. His own classmates at the Ninja Academy in the Hidden Village of Grass had teased him mercilessly about his appearance.
Another tough aspect of being part plant was that one tended to feel as much empathy with plants as with other people. Since most people viewed plants as beneath their consideration, this caused some problems. A clear-cut forest could move Zetsu to tears in the same way that dozens of bodies lying in a morgue might move someone else. Zetsu didn't like the way most people crushed blades of grass underfoot without a second thought as they walked. He glared whenever he saw some woman pulling up weeds in her garden. He winced when Deidara or Kisame got angry and took out their feelings on some poor innocent tree that happened to be nearby.
If being half plant was hard, having two distinct personalities was even harder. No one was quite sure whether Zetsu's dual personality was another aspect of the bloodline that gave him his plantlike appearance. All they knew was that he spoke in two easily distinguishable voices, and that these two voices were as different from each other as night and day. One was gentle, kind, and nearly incapable of harming any living soul. The other was ruthless, harsh, and loved to fight. This made it difficult for people to interact with him, because they never knew what reaction to expect. It was also pretty confusing to have one voice tell you something, and then have the other immediately contradict it.
As a result of all these things, Zetsu had never really felt at home anywhere—until he joined the Akatsuki. Among them, he had learned that other people existed in the world who were just as unusual as he was. Kisame was half shark, Sasori was a puppet, and Deidara had mouths in the palms of his hands. Among such people, Zetsu almost felt normal. It was a feeling he had never experienced before, and it was wonderful.
What amazed him even more was that none of the other members were frightened or repulsed by the way he looked or acted. They didn't care that he had a giant Venus flytrap growing out of his shoulders. They didn't comment on the fact that his face was half black and half white. They got used to his two personalities fairly quickly, and accepted it as just another fact about him. They didn't care about what he looked like, only about what he could do.
If the other members' acceptance of his strange appearance stunned him, Tobi's reaction had him absolutely flabbergasted. The boy whom Zetsu had rescued looked up to him with something that went beyond mere admiration and bordered on hero worship. The younger man followed him everywhere, eagerly obeyed his every order, and beseeched Zetsu to teach him new jutsus. His greatest wish was to become a member of Akatsuki, for the simple reason that Zetsu was a member. Zetsu had never dreamed that anyone would do more than tolerate his presence. To encounter someone who actually wanted to be around him made him happier than he would ever admit.
It wasn't easy being half plant. But with comrades like the Akatsuki and a student like Tobi, it wasn't so bad either.
A/N: I know this chapter is kind of brief, but I'm expecting the next one to be relatively long, so it should all balance out in the end. Next up: Kakuzu. (Also, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far!)