This fanfic is set sometime between the Invasion of Konoha and Sasuke Retrieval story arcs. It is a work of fanfiction and has nothing official to do with the licensed version of this anime and manga in any way whatsoever.
The final chapter was beta read by both Twilla and Star-chan. They have my endless thanks for helping DaaGB reach its full potential. Thank you so much!
Warning: this chapter turns rather violent.
Distracting and a Great Bother
(part seven)
The urge to laugh, to roll over on my back and howl to the stars at the utter absurdity, overwhelmed me. If I hadn't taken a break from work this evening and run to the river, I never would have found Ai-kun. If I'd never found him, I wouldn't have had my den and office wrecked, wouldn't have been almost killed by him twice, and certainly would not be caught in the middle of a fight between two lethal and quite insane shinobi.
The choking laughter in my chest emerged as sobs. My eyes filled with tears.
Jirettai patted me and squeezed my shoulder in consolation. "Come now, Hime. Don't worry! I'm sure your devoted Ai-kun will show up and save you." His hand traveled to the nape of my neck and rested there, his thumb stroking my skin twice. The caress snapped me back to myself, and I violently sat up straight to dislodge him.
"Do not touch me!" I snarled.
He pouted again and removed his hand, sighing, "Awww! I suppose it is proper for a princess to save herself for her hero." He stood philosophically and walked a short distance away. "I do have one last step to prepare for him. After all, I mustn't let myself be distracted!" He turned his back to me, did something with his hands, and shouted another one of his strange nonsense phrases.
With a brief flicker, the paper slips he had secured around me and throughout the clearing vanished.
I couldn't stop myself from gasping as I glanced down at my chest where the paper had been pinned and saw that it had vanished with the rest of them, leaving behind only twin holes through the painted kitten's eyes.
I wiped the tears off my face on my shoulder and heard the distinct sound of paper crackling. I blinked and shifted my shoulders again, and heard it again. The tag is still there, just rendered invisible.
I glanced back up at Jirettai, who was smugly surveying his work. He theatrically dusted off his hands, then flashed a bright smile at me. "Now I shall douse the fire, and we will be in business!"
He strode to the small campfire and kicked up dirt and small rocks from the ground to smother the flames. He cheerfully resumed his humming while he stomped the embers, sending up puffs of dirt and ash into the night air.
My eyes adjusted to the meager light of moon and stars. The dust from Jirettai's tramping somehow sparkled even in that faint light. I tracked the glinting path upward against the dark background of night, and I held my breath, waiting for the dust's movement to gain purpose, to suddenly dart and dance in obedience to an unseen will, but it merely wafted up until the shimmers were lost into the distance.
I swallowed once. Face the truth, 'Minami-hime'. Ai-kun truly is not coming for you. I flicked my eyes back to the smugly waiting Jirettai. And when he realizes that, he'll kill you for being useless and probably for wasting his time on top of it. Of that I had no doubt.
You're on your own, Hime. So figure out how to save yourself. Somehow.
.oOo.
Jirettai was growing more and more impatient. At first he had crouched near me, eyes roving the clearing, hands trembling, face almost glowing with anticipation. As the minutes wore on, the smile faded, the hands clenched and unclenched, and he finally leaped up to stalk around me in angry silence.
As his ire increased, my nervousness grew, particularly since I had yet to think of a way to free myself. The man continuously glanced back at me, never giving me more than a few seconds of time out from under his watchful gaze. He glared at me if I did so much as shift my weight on the grass. I'd been stuck in one position for so long, I knew my arms and legs were stiff, and I had already suffered pins and needles resulting from the tiny squirms I'd dared. My body ached from earlier when Jirettai had slammed me twice into my front door, not to mention from the injuries I'd already received when Ai-kun had sent his sand whirling through my house.
All of which meant that even if I managed to untie myself, running away would be an uncoordinated farce. No, it seemed my best chance remained talking my way out of it. Except I had no idea what to say. I licked my lips and cleared my throat, desperate for inspiration.
At the noise, Jirettai whirled around and stalked over to me. I stared up with trepidation as he loomed, his baleful expression melting away to that ominous, speculative leer.
"I'm tired of waiting, Minami-hime." He bent low and caught my chin in one huge hand, stroking my skin with his thumb. "I believe what's needed here is a beautiful siren song to summon him."
"Huh?"
His grin grew impossibly wider. "A scream, Hime. Give one to me! Ai-kun needs some incentive."
I jerked my head out of his grasp and shrank back, heart pounding. "I—"
He shoved me with one powerful arm off my knees and onto my backside. "C'mon, Hime. Scream!"
I did. Or rather, I tried to. All that my dry throat could manage was a pitiful croak. I desperately swallowed at his unsatisfied glare and attempted it a second time. A little better, but not by much.
"Fine then, some incentive for you—" he reached for me again.
Fear cut through me. No! I kicked him in the shins with my tied legs and frantically started to scramble away.
He yelped in surprise, then his expression turned mean. "Bad Hime!" he shouted. With two steps, he caught up to me. He roughly threw me onto my stomach, planted one foot in the small of my back, and gripped the rope that bound my arms behind me.
I instantly knew what he planned for my 'incentive'. "Wait!" I shrieked.
"You had your chance, Hime," he replied, and forced my arms up. "Scream!"
My fright made me begin even before the pain hit. My shriek reverberated off the ground and filled the night.
Jirettai lowered my arms and demanded, "Louder! Call his name! Call for him!" He pulled my arms even higher, forcing my back to arch and lifting my torso off the ground.
Sobbing, I gasped for air and obeyed. "Ai-kuuun!"
Again and again, I screamed for Ai-kun as the man pulled my arms high, held them, then lowered them for a brief rest before starting once more. His delirious laughter mixed with my cries in a macabre counterpoint. My voice began to break, until finally I could only quietly sob. My upper body hung limp in Jirettai's grip, numb, and I desperately waited for him to lower me down for another short rest. Tears had dripped onto the grass and earth beneath me. I watched them land, glinting in the scant light that was not cast into shadow by my body above, and my eyes focused on an unexpected movement in the soil.
I blinked away more tears and saw a dark line of sand slowly rising from between the blades of grass, where the angle of my dangling body would block it from Jirettai's view. The tip narrowed and sides flattened as it grew, sharpening into four edges, until the spear of sand extended a hand span from the ground.
My breath hitched. Ai-kun.
Three things happened almost simultaneously: Jirettai released his hold on me with a delighted whoop, my body hit the ground, and the spear shot up—barely missing my neck—to pierce the air where my captor had just been.
Dimly, I heard Jirettai laugh with complete joy as he shot away, but my attention remained focused on the spear.
I…I don't believe it. Ai-kun came. Where is he...?
I had to see him, and that meant I needed to sit up. I bit my lip against the continuous burn of my back and shoulders and managed to roll onto my side just in time to see the widely grinning Jirettai flick his hands in another strange pattern and call out, "Kaze Kinryou no Jutsu!"
A terrible weight impacted my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs like a horse's kick to my breastbone. I struggled to breathe and defensively curled into a fetal position in an attempt to lessen the pressure, but it didn't work. The pressure's power began to fluctuate in random lengths from heavy, to light, and then heavy again. I took advantage of a lighter moment and forced my lungs to expand and gained a tiny breath, then exhaled on the pressure increase and inhaled again after. I could breathe. Barely, and it was awkward, but enough to keep me from passing out.
Then I felt it. Against my chin, the paper Jirettai had pinned to my chest crinkled. I stared down, amazed it was visible again, and I could read the kanji written upon it. 'Kaze Kinryou'.The paper had been creased and ripped by my struggles, and now a small tear reached from one of the pin's piercing holes and across the top of the kanji for 'kaze'.
Jirettai flashed by, catching my attention. He moved impossibly fast, chased by streams of glittering sand. He danced through the air, his feet not bothering to touch the ground, jumping and spinning, dodging Ai-kun's attacks and laughing in sheer joy all the while. It only took a few moments for me to realize the weight on my chest increased when he leaped, eased while he was in mid-air, and impacted again with a vengeance when he landed.
I gasped for more air in those fleeting moments of relief, and even in my dazed state of mind, I figured it out. I could see the paper pinned to my chest, though the others I had watched Jirettai position about the clearing remained invisible.
If that small rip in the kanji disrupted part of the spell, may a big rip will disrupt the whole thing.
I curled into myself again, summoned some saliva, stuck my tongue out, and managed to touch the paper. Carefully, I pulled my tongue back until I could clamp my mouth firmly upon the paper. I twisted my head—fighting to not to gasp from the heavy effect of another one of Jirettai's acrobatic feats—and ripped the paper off its pin.
The kanji phrase rent in two. The pressure on my chest vanished. I spat out the paper and sucked in great and delicious lungfulls of the night air. Breathing unimpeded once more felt like a miracle.
The battle raged on around me as I recovered, Jirettai continuing his unnaturally light dance, laughing and cat-calling and hooting the entire time.
I hungrily searched for Ai-kun, something within me desperate to actually see him fighting to save me. Finally, between flashes of Jirettai's gaudy red and black coat and the great swaths of moving sand that chased the man, I saw Ai-kun.
He stood a few steps inside the clearing, the fringe of trees close behind. My heart ached in disbelief. He's here! Ai-kun actually came for me!
Sniffling, I wiped the tears from my face with my shoulders and drank in his presence. He was once again dressed in his own shinobi clothes. His beautiful face shone under the pale light, red hair deepened to stark black by the night. His expression frozen in concentration, his eyes the only part of him that moved. They flicked from side to side, up and down, as he remained completely focused on his enemy. The sight of those black-rimmed eyes, flat and emotionless, as devoid of humanity as they had been when I had first met his gaze on the sandbar, sent chills down my spine.
Jirettai's description of Ai-kun suddenly echoed in my mind, unwelcome. "He's a monster. A vessel of evil. A murdering psychopathic little brat whose only purpose is to kill on command."
Those words gave voice to the very thing I had realized when I knelt there in the sand those scant hours ago: my unspoken first impression of Ai-kun.
My mind leaped to his soft apology, after he had used his sand to destroy my den in that unexpected bout of rage.
No. Ai-kun might have been like that once, but he isn't any more. A vessel of evil would never apologize and actually mean it. And he had meant it. I understood that somewhere inside me, without question. Yes, Ai-kun could be incredibly intimidating, but he was not a mindless monster. Would a monster have come for me, knowing it was a trap? A monster would have saved himself and escaped while he had the chance.
I cried out in shock when Jirettai suddenly impacted his foot on my hip and used me as a springboard to shoot himself upward yet again. I caught sight of his wild smile and laugh as he spun, Ai-kun's sand half a second too slow to cut him off.
It was obvious Ai-kun's hands were occupied dealing with the actual murdering psychopath. My continuing presence in the middle of their battlefield struck me as rather stupid, front row seat for studying my hero or not.
Groaning, I sat up and saw the sharp spear of sand that had announced Ai-kun's presence in the clearing. The moonlight glinted along its surface, limning the four edges that met into what had to be a lethally sharp point high above. My breath caught in my throat.
The sand spear is really a four-sided blade, and I am tied with rope!
A furtive glance revealed Jirettai's back was momentarily turned to me. I had to chance he would remain focused on Ai-kun.
I rolled onto my knees, turned my back to the spear, and carefully set the rope that bound my wrists together against one of the blade's edges. Hissing against the pain in my shoulders, I awkwardly moved my arms up and down once. And with only that small amount of effort, the rope split. I shook my hands until the bonds loosened, then carefully pulled my arms apart. My muscles ached now they were again free to move.
Using one quivering hand, I picked up the rope and found the cut ends. Ai-kun's sand weapon been so sharp, it had cleanly sliced through without a snag or a sound.
I shivered.
Jirettai suddenly gusted by me in a wave of wind, sending my hair flying and making me dive back to the ground. I heard the sand as it followed him, rustling with the sound of a million tiny knives. That was all the reminder I needed. I have to get out of here!
I rolled onto my stomach and carefully freed my legs as I had freed my hands.
The pin that had held the paper to my shirt pricked me. I pulled it from my top and scowled down at it before tossing it away.
Jirettai and more sand swooped closely past overhead. I ducked again and squirmed forward. Keeping low to avoid the aerial fighting, I moved a few meters from the center of the clearing before I felt it under my hand—another one of Jirettai's papers, pinned to the ground in the now-flattened grass. I hesitated for a moment. Possibly ruining Jirettai's 'jutsu' would delay my escape, but what kind of chance did I have of crawling out of the flattened clearing with him zooming about it?
If I could slow down his attacks, then Ai-kun might stand a chance. Ai-kun, who had come for me after all.
That decided it. I closed my fingers around the invisible paper and ripped it from its pin, and my hand slammed into the ground as the jutsu transferred its weight from pin to me. The paper flickered back into sight. I gripped it with my free hand and ripped it in half, right through the kanji. My arm sprang up, and the grass surrounding me and the pin began to slowly stand upright. It really was that easy.
Quickly, heart in my throat, I sought Jirettai with my eyes and found him still evading attacks with his skating on the air. He had taken the offence now, continuously charging Ai-kun and dodging waves of sand, landing a kick or strike on the boy, then shooting away.
The man could still move so quickly. Two papers clearly weren't enough. I frantically patted the grass as I squirmed forward underneath the action and located the closest paper. This time I viciously ripped it off the pin and destroyed the kanji in one move, then wormed my way to the next location.
I had destroyed the eleventh paper when I heard Jirettai bellow, "Bad Hime! No trying to escape!"
I whirled on the ground and saw Jirettai glaring at me from the edge of the clearing, directly opposite Ai-kun. His momentary irritation changed to absolute fury, and I knew he realized I'd been destroying his jutsu papers.
With a roar, the man pushed off the ground and shot toward me. I would be dead the moment he struck. My only chance remained with—
"Ai-kun!" I yelled and turned from Jirettai's livid charge to face the boy, who finally shifted his eyes from his enemy to look at me.
"Invisible jutsu papers, all around!" I desperately shoved my hands forward, brandishing the pieces of the last paper that I still held, knowing Jirettai would be upon me in a heartbeat. "It's how he's so fast! Destroy them!"
Ai-kun blinked, and then he raised his arms.
I threw myself flat on the ground and covered my head.
The night roared around me, a maelstrom of sand and debris that scoured the grass and fringing trees, ripping at my clothes and hair. I felt it spin once, twice...
With an infuriated curse heralding his arrival, Jirettai fell to the ground almost on top of me. Before I could even lift my head from my arms, he grabbed the back of my shirt in one massive hand and hefted me upright, anger fueling his strength. He clamped my body back against his and I felt something cold and sharp across my throat.
I froze.
Jirettai's hot breath ruffled my hair as he wheezed. He laughed again, but this time it was low and mean. "I have your dear princess, Ai-kun," he snarled. "Release the sand!"
Ai-kun let his arms fall. In a muffled shuffle, the sand fell to the earth to carpet the ground as a pale, shimmering blanket. Shredded bits of wood and leaf fell with it, blotting dark stars upon the even expanse of moonlit white. And finally, telltale fibers of paper slowly drifted down to dust over all.
I focused on Ai-kun. He had not taken one step from his place just outside the trees. Even at this distance, I could see he was completely exhausted. Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead. His hands trembled, and I suspected he was fighting to remain upright. That final burst of his power must have been sheer torture for him to dredge up and maintain.
"Ai-kun..." I whispered.
Behind me, Jirettai made a disgusted noise. "I'm disappointed in you, Ai-kun. The monster I tracked for weeks, whose power and cruelty even I admired, now brought to heel by an enemy threatening a hostage? Revolting! And stupid!" He made a scathing noise. "Don't you know ties to people make you weak? Can be exploited, just like this?"
Jirettai shifted his grip on the weapon he held, now pressing its point into my neck. One flick of his wrist and my throat would be sliced open. Terrified, I craned my head as far away as I could, desperately watching Ai-kun.
His flat eyes burned holes into me.
Jirettai lifted a lip in disdain. "It's almost a shame I'm going to kill you tonight, you little fool. It means you'll never have a chance to think on the lesson that lovers and friends are only weapons to be turned against you. They are nothing but a liability, Ai-kun!"
When Ai-kun closed his eyes, I whimpered.
The boy took a deep breath, then met my gaze once more. He spoke, "He is right, Minami-san." His emotionless voice floated upon the night air as it shaped the damning words. "You are a liability."
The torment his statement caused inside me eclipsed everything. I barely noticed when Jirettai's triumphant laugh changed to a bloody gurgle as three of Ai-kun's sand blades shot up from directly beneath and speared the man cleanly through. For two strangled seconds the man held himself frozen before a death rattle escaped his lips, and his body sagged upon the blades.
The success of Ai-kun's silent attack registered in my terrified mind when Jirettai's weapon fell from his lifeless hand to softly chink upon the sand-cushioned ground at my feet.
Ai-kun took a step toward me, then a second, and a third. Our eyes remained locked as he slowly approached.
"Everything he said was true."
I began to tremble.
"Ties to people can make you weak."
All I could manage were two shaky steps away from Jirettai's body before I fell, landing heavily on my side in the sand. I tried to stand, but ended on my knees again. Terror had rendered my already weakened body useless.
Ai-kun was half-way to me now; his slow steps as carefully controlled as his dead voice. He raised one arm, and I flinched back, expecting the endless supply of sand around me to obey him…but he only pointed at the corpse held aloft over a spreading pool of blood.
"They can be exploited."
My world cracked.
"You—you didn't come to rescue me," I choked out. "You came because you knew he was here."
Ai-kun nodded once, an emotionless gesture. "So you do understand. It was a trap…"
"For him." I concluded in a whisper, staring up at Ai-kun.
He had reached me. We watched each other for one very long, very intense moment. Me, trembling on the ground, and Ai-kun simply standing over me, with the moon and stars bathing us both in their cold light.
"I used you to kill him," he confirmed. "I exploited the bond you forged between the two of us." He paused for a moment, and something flicked across his face when he asked, "How do you feel about that? Me using you to kill him?"
"I…" My voice faltered, and I inwardly scrambled for the right answer. When I realized I had no idea what he wanted to hear, I was left with only the truth. "I don't know."
"Why?"
"Um…you're a shinobi. Killing people is what you do. And…" I trailed off and used one hand to wipe gritty tears from my cheeks. "…you were so beaten when I found you. You probably couldn't have survived a second fight against him alone."
Ai-kun's eyes narrowed.
I swallowed and hastily tried to explain, the words tumbling over each other as fast as my frantic mouth could form them. "I don't like being used, especially not for killing, and he tortured me, and would have killed me. But using me let you kill him, and not him kill us, and I don't want either of us to die, though I don't want anyone to die, even him, but now he's dead and he can't kill either of us because you used me for it, even though I don't like it…so…I don't know how to feel," I finished weakly.
His mouth hardened, eyes still slits; his entire body tensed as if to strike.
Held transfixed with the terrible fascination of prey facing its natural predator, I sucked in a shaky breath to ask the single question I had to know. My voice came out in a tiny whisper. "Are you going to kill me?"
He moved, tilting his head as he considered for five achingly long beats of my pounding heart.
When he answered, his own voice was a whisper. "I don't know, either."
Ai-kun crouched down in front of me with one hand resting on his thigh, the other clenching into a fist in the sand that blanketed the ground. He studied me with deliberation, his eyes roaming over me, taking in my wet cheeks, my short panicked breathing, my bruises, and my obvious terror. He finally leaned back on his heels and averted his gaze.
In seeming fascination, he raised the hand that had been clenched in the sand and opened it, watching the tiny grains fall through his fingers in a stream back to the ground. He said, voice still quiet, "I've always known bonds to people were liabilities, and so I avoided making them, but recently..." He turned his hand over, rubbing the grains that stuck to his skin. "…I think they might be worth the risk. I'm not sure. I haven't decided yet."
I swallowed and tried to speak, but Ai-kun cut me off with a hand that almost touched my lips. I could feel his body heat on my mouth, and it shocked me silent.
"Minami-san…this could happen again." Ai-kun looked pointedly over at the corpse. "I have many enemies. They are willing to torture their victims, and that can change death into an act of mercy."
He leaned forward, so close that I could count his eyelashes. Only his fingers hovering over my mouth kept his lips from brushing mine. The tension in his body underscored what I heard in his voice, even as his words and proximity held me riveted.
"I can kill you now, so fast you will feel no pain, no more fear. You wouldn't have to worry about something like this ever happening again. Do you want that?" His fingertips brushed gently against my mouth at last, as if in a promise, then fell away.
I could only tremble for several seconds, overwhelmed by the power held by the boy in front of me. I swallowed the instinctive negation and forced myself to consider his offer.
When he shifted his weight uncertainly and studied his hand again while he waited for my response, I realized the true question he had asked. I straightened, took a deep breath, and waited for his eyes to return to me so I could make my answer clear.
"I want to keep my bond with you, Ai-kun."
He leaped to his feet and jerked a step back, staring at me in disbelief.
I licked my lips and kept my voice even, willing him to understand. "You can be frightening, you destroyed a room in my house, I was tortured and almost killed by a psychopath actually after you, and you could kill me in the next moment, but…" my voice trailed off, and I concluded softly, "I do not regret meeting you." I rose to my knees and recklessly reached out to cup his face in my hands. "Ai-kun."
He started to shake beneath my touch. I smiled at him and pulled my hands away. To my amazement, he stepped into a full embrace. He dropped to his knees, wrapped his arms around me, and he pressed his face into my chest. I returned the hug, feeling the desperation in his small body, and did my best not to start crying again.
I whispered, voice thick with unshed tears, "I would like to say, though, that I'd rather not die just yet. I do have work deadlines."
He broke out a laugh. It was short, and almost a sob, but it was indeed a laugh. I committed the sound to memory, somehow knowing his sincere laugh was even rarer and more precious than his gentle smile.
I let him hold the hug as long as he wanted. When he did relax his grip, he turned his head, resting his cheek on my breast. I knew he wasn't being entirely innocent now, but to be honest, I didn't exactly mind.
"Don't move, Minami-san," he warned, and tightened his arms around me again.
I watched the sand begin moving around us. It rose from the ground in elegant waves like a shimmering mist. Ai-kun's gourd flowed to us, carried on a smaller wave, the cork already removed. Sand poured in. From the corner of my eye, I saw the sand enclose Jirettai's body in a large sphere, then hover over the ground as if waiting for Ai-kun's orders.
He's taking the body with him. Pain stabbed my heart. He has to leave immediately.
My face creased with sadness, and I hugged Ai-kun closer and concentrated on all my senses. The sight of the black sky above, the combination of the sibilant hiss of sand as it flowed into the gourd and the night insects braving our continuing stillness to sing again, the scent of bruised grass and leaves upon the air, and Ai-kun warm and close within my arms.
He slowly pulled away, face averted. He bent to retrieve his cork from where it had been deposited by the sand at his feet and stoppered the gourd. He shrugged into its carrying straps and adjusted them over his shoulders. All the while, Ai-kun did not even glance at me once.
That he wouldn't look at me in the last few moments we had together upset me greatly. The silence around us seemed to echo inside my head. Needing to meet his eyes, I spoke.
"Ai-kun, will I see you again?"
He paused for a second, then moved even further away and gestured towards the side of the clearing where he had appeared. "The trail left from my approach is obvious, since I ripped extra sand from the ground the entire way. Your house is not that far and is the trail's beginning."
I didn't remove my eyes from him. "Ai-kun?"
"I must go. This enemy's corpse has valuable informa—"
"Ai-kun!" I insisted, cutting him off. Anger and desperation made my voice as heated as my skin felt. "Answer me, please!"
Slowly, he turned toward me. His eyes seemed bright in the starlight, his face as flushed as my own.
"I do not know, Minami-san. I have…much to think about." He raised a hand, and for one breathless moment I thought he was asking me to come to him. When the sand sphere containing Jirettai's body floated into my line of vision on its way to him instead, my heart flinched.
He waited until my eyes returned to him before he continued speaking. "If I do see you again, it might very well be to kill you myself, before my enemies can reach you. You must understand that, Minami-san."
His face held no trace of a smile; no teasing lilt was apparent in his voice. His words were true, and he spoke them as undeniable fact.
I sank down in the sand that still blanketed the clearing, and this time I didn't try to hide the ache caused by his words.
Regret flashed across him, and his voice softened. "Such is the price of a bond with me."
It was my turn for a short, sobbing laugh. I wiped the tears from my cheeks with one hand and nodded. I straightened and looked at him with my head held high. "I do understand, Ai-kun."
For one last breathless moment, one as powerful as that first stare-down on my riverbank hours before, we held each other's gazes. Then Ai-kun wet his lips and said in his gentle voice, "Goodbye, Minami." Two bounds later, he had vanished within the trees, the sand sphere floating mutely in his wake.
.oOo.
I did not move for a very long time.
Eventually I lurched to my feet, and after quite a bit of stiff walking, I staggered up the steps to my back porch. I locked the door behind me. It was a symbolic gesture, for all the good it would do against any more shinobi.
The shirt and shorts Ai-kun had briefly borrowed lay in a heap on the floor of my laundry room. I picked them up and tucked them under my arm instead of tossing them in the clothes hamper where they belonged. I smiled when I realized the lunch I had made for Ai-kun to eat on his journey had vanished from the kitchen counter. He must have taken it. At least I could help him that much.
I tucked the sketchpad holding my drawings of Ai-kun under my other arm. The cold remains of our dinner I left on the kitchen table. They were already spoiled, and I didn't have the energy to deal with them tonight.
I felt the same way about my destroyed den. Ai-kun had apparently removed every grain of sand when he had left my house to kill Jirettai, and I couldn't decide if I was glad about that or not. I shuffled through the various papers containing my contracted work, for once not caring about impending deadlines, until I found the shredded Konoha Kyuubi painting. As I studied it, the practical part of me acknowledged it was beyond saving, and I'd never even found out why the sight of it had angered Ai-kun so much. I likely never would, either. And it's probably better that way, too.
Sniffling, I added the decimated painting to the stash in my arms and tottered into my bedroom. I couldn't bear taking a bath. I was too tired, and I didn't want to be forced to remember everything that had happened inside my bathroom tonight, but the true reason was that I was not ready to wash Ai-kun away.
I sat heavily on the bed. I pulled the sketchpad into my lap and flipped slowly through the pages, stopping when I reached the end of my sketches. All that was left of my Ai-kun drawings were two ragged strips of paper in the spine.
He'd ripped them out.
Why? Was it from anger that I had drawn him without his consent? Or embarrassment? Or had he simply removed the hard evidence that we knew each other, not knowing that I would chose to keep our bond?
I closed the book and began to laugh. It didn't matter about the stolen drawings. I knew Ai-kun so well now that I could draw him without hesitation for the rest of my life. Every minute of my time in his presence was permanently seared upon my soul. I couldn't forget him if I tried! I didn't care if he had destroyed the drawings. I'd just make more, and better ones, too! His enemies could blast in my front door whenever they liked. I didn't care about them!
The bond I shared with Ai-kun was mine. I was not going to hide it. I was not going to be scared of it.
I won't let anyone destroy it. Not even you, Ai-kun.
I threw the sketchpad to the floor and curled up on my bed next to the small bundle of borrowed clothes. They still smelled like him. The green tea of my body wash and shampoo, and the faintest trace of the odd spice I knew was his own scent.
For once, my final thoughts before sinking into sleep were not of my latest project for work, or an impending deadline, or even the oncoming pressure of a new job. Instead, I fell asleep thinking of sand in the moonlight, hair the color of dried blood, and of darkly rimmed eyes that were mere shadows compared to the person behind them.
It would make one powerful painting, and would be undeniable evidence of our mutual bond.
So come and get me, if you dare.
.oOo.
A/N: I finally finished it, my very first fanfic. It took me three and a half years to completely tell the story of overworked Minami and her tormented Ai-kun, but I am satisfied with the results. However my feelings about the story's quality might change in the future, I will always remember creating it with joy. This fanfic is what started me writing again. It reminded me of how much I love to tell emotional stories about interesting people. And most of all, it introduced me to fandom and to one of my closest friends.
I must give thanks to my inspiring fic sempai Star-chan, to the generous and diligent Twilaa, to Kishimoto-sensei for creating Naruto and my beloved Ai-kun, and to you, my readers. Every review, alert, and favorite has overwhelmed me with gratitude and justified the effort I've invested in writing this fic. Thanks for reading, everyone.
(completed 7-30-10, last tweaked 7-30-10)