Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 14: The Poison of Friendship
Sasori took a step forward with Tayuya's face still right smack in the middle of his crosshairs. Plowing through the loose, wet earth, his approach was a standoffish scrape, like a mad stallion pinning its ground against a territorial rival.
Tayuya raised an eyebrow – half curious, half agitated – while she took to her own leisurely tread, intending to pass him. His slender eye narrowed with deviation as it continued to follow her. For a while it seemed like he would let her go without much trouble, but as their shoulders were about to exchange, the wooded creature quickly shifted his body with a sharp enough creak to split a redwood down the middle, barring her way with about two feet on her in height, looking half eager that he might start something with her again.
She let out her annoyances in an audible huff, and with a surprisingly healthy right arm, pushed him harshly to gain way. In lightning reaction time, he wrenched his hand around her wrist and quickly turned her effort against itself, pulling her arm over behind her back and quickly ending up there himself.
"What do we say." He whispered an inch away from her ear. Even though he was so close speaking to her, it was weird that she couldn't feel anything. No breeze, not hot nor cold, no breath emitting from his mouth behind her. Even though his stoic monotone was indeed creepy, she didn't feel any unpleasant sensations along the lines of a chill up her spine. It wasn't like her superior was any better. His breath was icy cold; no amount of genjutsu brain-scrubbing would rip that little inconvenience about him from her.
She wrenched oppressively against him, trying to force inches away from his incredibly tough sternum, but as she grunted without visibly showing the effort on her face, which was now scowling even deeper than the norm, he spoke again. "I want my apology, Tayuya of the North Gate."
She gave up struggling for a moment and reacted to his demands by snapping her head as far as it would turn over to him, where she was met by the elegant, if somewhat lifeless eyes of her captor. The black auras of his pupils almost seemed to swirl, very similar to the evil chakras that she came to acquaint herself with through her Cursed Seal. "What the hell kind of an apology do I owe you? Trash!" She spattered back at his face, followed by a quick yank of her entire body away from the puppet master's tight hold. All at the same time, she spilled out forth onto the ground into a mud puddle, and in chagrin as she pushed herself out of it, her body unpleasantly chilled from the cold moisture, she realized that the wormy bastard behind her had let go just before she budged with all the might her current condition could muster.
She cringed bitterly with the nasty taste of earthly water polluting her mouth, which she was now hastily sputtering back into its pool on all fours, she gasped for breath with slight visible fatigue in her lightly painted eyes. Behind her, she heard the playful if not cruel series of chuckles where Sasori was now reacting to her misfortune. Suddenly, she forgot all about the cold, wet, and bedraggled condition, as all of the feelings were replaced by a roaring heat. Tayuya got to her feet in a flash while he was still in the midst of laughter, and brusquely replied in the same way that she always replies to the persisted juvenility of such fools: 500 joules of pure knuckle to the face.
Sasori stopped laughing immediately, catching eye of her courteous fist flying dangerously close, and he forced his way down completely, trying hard to evade the brunt of the petite girl's wrath. He outmaneuvered her for thanks of his incredibly light body and flexible chakras powering it, in addition to Tayuya's weakened condition.
"Careful!" He chided her gravely. "Fine. I already see you aren't the apologetic type. But that last moment…" He cut himself short by initiating another burst of giggles, holding his head in place with a single hand while she gritted her teeth and prepared another swing. "So…so priceless…"
"I should've known from when I first saw you! You're the sort of slime that goes and touches young girls. Nothing but a common thug." She made a grab for his black hair and barely succeeded in catching him. She then proceeded to jump his back before he could react properly, and sent her knee against his spine, nearly driving him into the ground with a ferocious wrestling move that you would expect only hardened male athletes to successfully pull. Then again – it was Tayuya.
Sasori shook her loose of her back with a vicious rumble, and brought an elbow down over her shoulder. While he wasn't especially strong, the density of the wood in his limb provided the impression that a giant knife was coming over her as he made his light, quick blow, augmented with his copious reserves of chakra. Her eyes shot alive with pain, and she collapsed to the ground, crippled and rendered officially exhausted.
"No. I've had enough fighting for today." He picked her up by the scruff of her casual white T-shirt she temporarily wore from time to time when she wasn't on duty and pulled her up to eyelevel with him. Tayuya shuttered at those eyes of his. Those slender…doll's eyes. Eyes on her.
"What?" She sneered after several small moments, scrambling away from his touch when he finally released her shirt, leaving behind imprinted creases from his tight fingers. "What the hell you staring at, princess? I hate it when people stare at me! Makes me think they wanna start something." Sasori's expression remained indifferent, although he did raise a curious eyebrow. His silent act was quickly becoming a nuisance on the kunoichi, who was usually the silent member of the Sound Four – much to practically everyone's preference. Not most people were interested to hear what the redhead had to say.
Okudo's continued silence caused a rising flush in the young girl's face, and she gritted her fangs down hard, tempted to attack him again just for props. "Oi!" She snapped her fingers in his face, which didn't flinch at the rude gesture. "I asked you 'what?' Do you have a verbal response to the inquiry 'WHAT?'?" Whether she realized it or not, she was on the edge of her toes, risen as high up to eyelevel with the Sound's mysterious new recruit as possible for her, inches away from his face, glaring.
This time he did respond. "You are a very strange person." He deadpanned as if in deep thought.
"NanIIIII? That's my line!" She slunk back to her normal height and grabbed him abruptly by the throat, appalled and highly frustrated she wasn't getting the terrified reaction out of this…this rookie that she usually got out of most of the older Oto nins, many of which were chunin – and on certain special sweet circumstances – even jounin. Tayuya loved inspiring fear. It was a hobby of hers, and contrary to her sometimes innocent size and appearance, it suited her. She wielded infamy like an axe, and she was more than proud of the fact that the power had spoiled her.
Her impending streak of terror wasn't about to stop flat on this clueless foreign monkey.
"I don't know where you came from, and I don't care." She hissed.
"Actually, I hail from—"
"Save your breath." She harshly interrupted. "If you told me you were from the slums of Konoha, I'd believe it just as little as I believe you're some exalted prince. Orochimaru may think you're useful, but in the meantime he may think that, I say you're rubbish."
"…Did you just call me rubbish?" Sasori didn't sound angry one bit, but cool and casual.
Tayuya's scowl folded up into a challenging smirk, but no friendlier. "You seem a bit slow. Should I try using smaller words?"
The boy sighed. Socializing was never at all as easy as Deidara made it seem. "You don't like me very much, do you? …Pity."
"Be honest with me. Does really anyone?" She snapped back at him, unmoved at his words.
"Hmm…" Sasori clasped both of his hands together as if in prayer and put them in front of his lips. His thinking pose. Finally, he lowered it and said something interesting.
"Okay, I give up."
Tayuya's smile faded, but she didn't answer. She thought for some reason he might explain himself alone.
"You heard me," he said. "I surrender. I guess I'm not that good with this whole acquaintance business. So tell me: what does it take?"
She looked at him with uncertainty for a while, putting her hands on her hips and staring at him, clueless as for what to say. "What does…what take?" She recoiled. "Don't just stand there gaping at me like a gift horse. Spill it."
"For getting you to accept and tolerate my existence the same way I accept and tolerate yours? A…" He almost choked on the word. "A bond? A mutual symbiosis of sorts? A way for me to get you to…'string along'?"
She could have spent energy simply yelling at him again some more, but instead, she decided to use her reserve brainpower to scramble his words together to compose a valid message of which she could understand. Sasori turned his back to her for the moment, keeping both hands cuffed behind him in a poised stature as he took a few steps away. Tayuya squinted uneasily at him when she was ready to speak again. Almost sensing this, the puppeteer stopped his tracks and brushed his greave-like shoe against the padded soil, fidgeting like a shy little boy.
"Yooooouuuuu…want to get me to…'like' you?" She fought to keep her stomach from tingling as she lamely let this sentence work itself out.
Sasori spun himself around in a miraculous burst of speed in reaction to the word 'like' and swept his arm out into a wide, wing-like arc in denial. "NO, no. I didn't use the word 'like', did I? I said 'tolerate'. How can I get you to tolerate me?"
"Oh…" The ever-faint tingling in her stomach instantly extinguished itself. "I-I was about to say," she added snidely, "no sorry-ass bimbo's ever hit on me with quite that load of shit before. A lesser woman would fall for it."
"Huh!" Sasori couldn't help but force a grin and scoff. "Oh my! You mean there are women in the world lesser than you?"
Her jaw dropped down to her chest in outrage to his question. No one ever spoke to her in that tone before. She felt like she would walk back into her village with a huge 'dunce' sign hanging around her neck if she didn't do something fast. There were probably ninjas on a patrol right now. If she was seen like this and word got out that she had walked away from someone talking to her like this…
She looked both ways as if she was on the most dangerous mission she had ever taken, and with a tightened fist and a swift resolution, she drilled a punch square into her new partner's torso. His vessel rocked back and forth once very softly in response to the force of her blow, but other than that, he didn't openly react except with a confused stare and blink.
"…What was that for?"
"Ow!" She shook the pain out of a hand that would probably be red and bruised later on. "The fuck're you made out of?" Tayuya flared her nostrils with a mix of anger and humiliation, continuing her frenzy of curses from under her breath. "Idiot! I punched you in the diaphragm! The wind is out of you! You should've sank to the ground and be spouting blood or something!"
"Why would I want to do that?" He casually replied, trying harder than he seemed to read her for a motive. "Check out the ground," he dabbed his thumb downward, "it's completely wet and filthy."
The irony got to her. "You-you think I'm not aware of that?" Thinking quick, she halted her shouting and stifled it into a whisper, holding a hand up in cover while she leaned in close to conspire with Sasori. "Look, quickly, even if it didn't hurt, quick, get...get on the ground! Quickly!" She jumped in place a number of times like a tiny disturbed dog. "C'mon! A sweet young girl is asking you!"
He tilted his head under the influence of unreadable thought. "Do I get compensated for? I hate getting dirty."
"Agh, fuck, yes, yes you get compensated for. So! Do it!" She struggled to keep her whisper down, and pointed to the spot between them. "There! Mount the ground! Mount it as if it was your lover!"
He hesitated a bit longer, his eyes rolling back and forth brief in perplexity. "Please. What is a 'lover'?"
The only way she could respond to such a question was to cover her mouth. 'Oh boy. As I thought.' But she quickly switched gears and got behind him, pushing him to the ground. "Now writhe in a crouched position and groan in pain. Preferably loud groans. I'll accept screaming."
Sasori glared uncomfortably now that he and his custom garb were both partially seeped in mud, but he begrudgedly complied. "Oooh, OOOOHHH aaaauuuugh a a a u u u g g g h h h . . ."
She stared down at him shaking her head pitifully. "The hell is that? That sounds more like bowel movement, not excruciating pain."
"Well pardon me," he whispered abruptly back up at her, "It's hard to improvise something I don't have a clue about."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, as if you've never experienced real pain before."
"Don't be foolish," he blew away a mucky brown leaf that had attached itself to his lip from his awkward position in the earth. "Of course I've experienced pain."
"Then what does that mean, 'improvise something I don't have a clue about'?"
He snapped his head around to look up at her from his twisted angle. "It means you hit like a gir—"
She instantly stomped her foot down over his mouth to cut him everything short of a muffled finish. "And LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU, MEH BITCH!" She shouted obnoxiously loud enough that anyone hiding in the trees or on the buildings nearby would surely hear. "This is what happens to poor little fucks that talk to Tayuya like so! Now tell me once more; who's my bitch?"
'Oho. …The girl is an interesting extortionist.' Sasori thought in amusement despite the treatment of getting openly stepped on, physically and verbally. 'She agreed to compensate me for this trouble, yet she insists on calling me such hurtful things. …I've got thinking to do for exactly how she should repay me for such bold treatment.' He seemed to be more interested than anything to realize that she had no idea who in the world she was playing this game with.
No idea.
There was a slight rustle in the treetops, and Tayuya, looking up from the corner of her eye without managing to shift her head, grinned triumphant. Her instincts were better than ever. Someone was with them. And her honor and dignity were assured and to be kept. You couldn't have someone ratting you out to nearly the whole village, especially marking your prestige and exactly whose village it was. In a land ruled by Orochimaru, only the strong and the ruthless survive and make their way. The thing was…well…she couldn't always be those things. There were certain circumstances where she had to improvise. Did it suck? Sure did. But while being a ninja meant you technically had to have some knack for theater, whether that meant using a poker face against a deadly opponent or some other crap, Tayuya did not enjoy the times where she had to weave her way out of things she didn't ordinarily have the power to just be impolite and smash through.
As soon as she was sure the vicinity was clear, she removed her foot from her brand new colleague's head as he proceeded to slowly rise from the muck. She stepped back, drawing a heave of breath and swept a hand over her forehead in blatant relief. "Sssssshhhhhit that was close…"
"And so it was. For you…" Tayuya turned to see the practical mudman standing out dank in front of her. Now it was her turn to laugh. And Tayuya didn't make a point to cover laughter at expense of others much like anyone like Hanabi did. Oh no.
While she pointed mockingly and openly and laughed a side-splitter, Sasori wiped the remaining sludge away from his eyes. That was the second time a red-haired bitch had found him in the mud. Were all redheaded women so incredibly…impulsive?
'Come to think of it…' he thought suddenly, 'was my mother redhaired?...' It was a decent enough question, if not proposed at a random time.
He shrugged and sent clean swipes with his hands down his reddened robes now mixed with the disgusting black of nature and barely managed to acknowledge Tayuya while she still laughed at his dismay. "I don't know what you think you're laughing about, because I've just helped myself into your services until you fulfill the compensation I declared over you."
The message drifted like a slow-flowing current as she continued to laugh, but as it started to weaken, it had become more and more apparent that it had reached her ears.
"HahahahaahahahaaaaaaaWHAT?" Her eyes were no longer closed with bliss, but opened in sheer horror. "Excuse me?"
"Our…deal." His voice dragged and hung at the word, as if turning it into a curse. A curse that a poor young kunoichi was now trapped with. "Don't forget…our deal."
"Wh-what do you mean services…? What the hell are you getting at, hey?"
Sasori stepped closer until the entirety of his shadow was eclipsed and closed over her like a dark prison. The wooded hinges supporting his vertebrae audibly creaked as he leaned his upper half to where he was down in her face with an ominous shade over his. His arms hung loosely from under their draped sleeves while he looked at her with enough soberness in his leer to bleed a clown's heart out.
"Our…deal." He repeated in the same tone. This time, Tayuya could've sworn that the reflection mirrored in his eyes shifted. "Don't tell me that you plan on backing out of our…deal?"
"Oh-okay~~ Hey. Okay. Okay okay okay, just stop…ugh, looking at me like that. You're such a creepy faggot, you know that?" She seemed to shrink away slightly from him, barely keeping one eye open afraid to stare back into those eyes of his. Honestly, how the fuck could someone look so calm and so…mad at the same time? "Listen to me," Tayuya overcame her brief fear of staring him in the peeper and recomposed herself, lifting a lecturing finger. "If I'm supposed to owe you something for this little favor, I want it done short, quick, and sweet. Try to hang something over this deal there shouldn't be…" She tightened her fist. Both of them heard the knuckles crackle. "I swear to you you'll leave this village. And your manhood won't be following you home."
This threat, and the very sincere face that came with it, would have been enough to make the most butch man in the location flee with a wet spot lining the back of his pants and a permanent reason never to go looking for any petite girl with flaming red hair ever again. But the thing about the person she was threatening…was that he wasn't infamous for being 'butch'. He was infamous for being spectacular.
Sasori didn't back down. Never.
"See? Now…why did you have to go and say that?..." He rubbed his eyes. "Now? Now I have motivation to make you regret your words. And since I have a temporary but meanwhile lasting power over you," he stopped rubbing and looked back at her over his shoulder, "I'd say I have a head start."
"Tch…" She gritted her tiny fangs at him disdainfully again and kept her nose up. "Just what do you want from me? Why did you go through the trouble to find me out here, dickhead?"
"First off, that's Okudo," he said, frowning at the apparent pet name she already picked out for him. "Secondly, the first part of the leverage I'll spend on you is really no needle prick in the skin. All you have to do is let me in."
Tayuya held her sassy accusation for what he was implying a secret and went for the response that seemed more appropriate given her position – alone, injured, with a possibly psycho client. "So as in 'trust'. You want to get me to trust you. You sound modest of yourself." She leaned towards him and narrowed her eyes evilly. "…A little too modest, maybe."
He took his head aback slightly away from hers with a cringe. "What are you trying to say? So I have character flaws. Modesty isn't one of them, I assure you." He turned himself away, grinning cruelly as took a few steps from his supposed jinchuuriki bounty. "It seems that you have compelled me to run testing of my latest jutsu out on you. I was planning to use this trick against you at a later given time and place…but you've forced things terribly, my dear."
She took a few steps away, getting her guard up. "I expected nothing less out of dirt. What are you scheming, Okudo?"
"Hm…hm…hm…I'm so glad you asked." He came close to her fast, concealing both hands behind his back, and his eyes closed, his face curled in a devious smile. Before Tayuya could blink in reaction, he launched in front of her, down onto one knee, and clapped his hands into a clasp before her. His lip furrowed into a sad sulk, and his eyes became comically circular and shimmering bright.
There was no mistaken it.
Sasori's latest secret technique.
Papi-inu no Fukigen. The infamous Puppy-Dog Pout.
Tayuya reacted respectively surprised observing his face of sorrow. His lips kept puckered even as he asked his next question with the innocence and drama of Tiny Tim. "You still don't twust me…?"
Tayuya felt a light blush streak along her cheeks. So it was true. The normal, run-of-the-mill slut would've found him…charming… He really did have a tender, gentle, loving feel about him as he looked at her like that. It looked…tempting.
His strenuous efforts to look nothing like a guy who professed in a career that piled up a body count numbering in the thousands earned him a sound smack over the head. Tayuya's aura wasn't filled quite with anger, just annoyance of a scale she found too high to bear anymore.
Tayuya finished her thoughts thoroughly as she dusted her hands together. 'Tempting to break his legs and leave him for dead.'
"Ack!" He brushed a few strains of hair out of his face. The hit didn't harm him, but honestly, how was he to expect it? "Wha-! How-! I mean…how did you resist it? The jutsu…"
She gave him an easy-going 'you gotta be kidding me' look out of the corner of her eye. "Oh? You mean your fearsome weak-shit-no-jutsu? Yeah, you know what? I have one of those too. Wanna see?" Without bothering to wait for an answer, she proceeded. Uncharacteristically, she gave a small, shy grin and batted her eyelashes like a true young beauty. Sasori sneered with chagrin at her mocking of the perks of his own image.
"That's nothing special. I use my looks to charm. You…" He pointed. "…Seductress."
"Really?" Tayuya stubbornly went along with his accusation, propping up the bangs of her hair and twisting it around her finger. "You think I'm that sexy? Hot damn! Sure, I'll take your word for that~!"
Sasori slapped a hand over his forehead. Was this going anywhere, really?
"This an utter waste of my time and resources. I have work to be done, and I won't see you keeping me from it."
Her playful benevolent features dissipated instantaneously, reverting her back to her old scowling self. "Well fine, if you wanna fucking behave like that, don't let me from cramp your britches, princey."
"Puh. If small talk is all you're good for, I could badmouth you all the way back to the village and through it. Until your ears bleed. And you can get another chance to hit me. So far your success rate to do actual damage has been rather low, but I'm sure you—"
"Shush!" She clamped her fingers together to emphasize the 'mum' gesture.
"…Don't shush me, Tayuya of the North Gate." He carried out in a low monotone.
"Fine, will 'shut the fuck up' suffice for you, then? …And that's another thing. Stop calling me Tayuya of the North Gate. It's overstating, overbearing, and just plain fucking annoying. Call me Tayuya, moron."
Sasori crossed his arms sternly. With the demeanor only harnessed by a world-class killer, he turned to acknowledge her again. "Call me that name again. …Call me moron…one more time."
Tayuya looked at him very challengingly then. Very boldly. Standing up straight, she looked him square in the eye. Sasori, observing her every feature and detail, watched her pale, delicate lips gently start to open. In a burst of speed, the incognito puppet master made a long, light, singular jab with his thumb and index finger propped together, and professionally chiseled her right on the shoulder before she realized it.
For a second she felt indifferent. That was until the sensation of her entire left side bursting into searing flames racked her mind. She fell to the ground, paralyzed, her body quickly becoming an inescapable cage with no room for her to writhe or wallow. She recognized a similar pain when she first initiated to become an official ninja for Orochimaru. Poison. The pain of the Cursed Seal he gave her was even worse than that, but this wasn't at all far behind on the suck-o-meter.
"Ugh, argh…what's…" She took deep breaths, realizing that the more she panicked, the faster her heart pumped, the more severe the effects of the toxin would get. Her eyes darkened with realization, and began to weakly work their way up towards the towering figure with a burning hot intensity.
"YOOOOOOUUUUUU…" Instinctively, Sasori took a step back to give her room while she finished a well-aimed flourish of cussing. "COCK-SUCKING. MOTHERFUCKING…"
"—Okay, woah now—" He held his hand up.
"TWO BRASS-BALLED SCROTUM-NURSING PANTY-LAYING BROTHELPRINCESS."
"Hey now that's just insulting." He pointed out half-heartedly. "Brass balls are a tacky accessory. Don't put us in the same league."
"Did you…" The fires around Tayuya's aura steadily rose. "Poison me? Okudo?"
"Hey, I told you to call me a moron one more time—"
"And I didn't." She seethed.
"Oh." He shrugged, with hardly a care less in the world beyond that which was already done. "Well. Woops."
"Yeah. 'Woops.' The deal's off, dipshit. I won't be your little maidservant if this is how bimbos like you treat them. Now take me back to the hospital. Now."
"Yeeeeeeees, about that…" Sasori tapped his fingers together a number of times as the explanation went on.
"About what?" She demanded, unable to stare at him properly from her disabled position. The pain in her body still swelled and welted like a bitch, but she held it in with severe concentration and endurance. Actually, it surprised Sasori how long she was keeping conscious. Almost impressed him, even.
"Well, both technically and medically speaking, no one alive staffing that hospital can help you. Even if they all happened to give up on their other patients for the sake of only your well-being, ridding you of my…chemical is a task well out of reach." He got down on one knee in front of her so she could hear him better. "You see, Tayuya," he patiently respected her wishes not to flaunt her title every time he said her name despite her unwelcome demeanor. "The conduct for creating an antidote to nullify the specific compounds in the poison is so complex, that even the slightest slip-up could be catastrophic. In order to nullify the set poison – a poison that's probably foreign and unofficial to your medical ninjas, I might add – you would have to have at least as much knowledge as the benefactor of that poison."
Sweat driplets were coming down her face while she continued her struggle to cope with the poison churning around in her bloodstream.
Sasori patiently scratched the side of his cheek. "I may have a way out of this whole…issue. But, then again, it's hard doing something for someone who doesn't even know who to trust… 'How could I just magically make the strain of toxin smothering every cell in her body this very moment disappear and have it benefit me if she is just going to get up and start yelling at me again?' I might ask myself." Tayuya turned to stare at an invisible object beside her in silence. "…But then, ahh, there it is." He got back to his feet and began to slowly walk away.
"Wait…"
He stopped. "What now? Does it start with an F and end with a 'you'?" He turned around to find her shaking her head weakly. "Then say what you have to say, or let me be off. I have a home to build, and a rather uncomfortable time table to see it done."
"What…" She gasped to a sudden pain shooting through her ribs, "what do you want with me?"
"I want what any newbie to the neighborhood wants, Tayuya." He paused to emphasize the answer. "…A friend." He kneeled down and set the upper part of her limp body up by supporting her shoulders and looking into her partially muddy face. "Won't you be my friend, Tayuya? I get lonely." His last statement he baby-talked to her, obviously not trying to make the message seem to intimate with how she seems to keep understanding his words.
"Yeah, I could kinda fill in that detail for myself, thanks." Tayuya murmured carefully.
"Your role will be a smooth one, provided you withhold your foul mouth to a minimum. Friends don't insult other friends, do they?" He looked away and added in an abashed mumble, "Not that I would know—still! It's smooth sailing. You just call me Okudo; I call you Tayuya. You get me informed; I get you vaccinated. You do not call me 'dickhead'; I do not call you 'poor-foolish-girl-that-insulted-someone-she-shouldn't-have-and-is-now-lying-face-down-paralyzed-in-the-mud-like-a-discarded-tool'."
"Okay, I get it, goddamn just shut up! Last thing I need right now is a headache…"
He concluded his offer with the thesis statement. "…You learn to trust me, Tayuya…and I just might return the favor one day."
"What about anything you've done so far makes me think you can be trusted?" She demanded. "I should probably remind you that you poisoned me."
He took one arm away from her while still supporting her with the other, and revealed a very small, very slender weapon, no thicker than a strand of hair. "Kakutasu needles." He declared proudly, holding it the same way he was when he pricked her with it – by thumb and index. "Not to be found at your local ninja tool retailer." He offered a more astute explanation as he put it back. "It's just that, and don't let many other people catch you telling you this, but…mmm, your name calling: nooot so accommodating." He responded honestly. "Not that I care what others think or what trouble you get yourself into, I'm only saying there are quicker deaths to meet at the hands of others as opposed to me. Or Orochimaru. Poison for poison? Danger is a simply fated rig in the grand scheme of things. How you die is a dependent variable – an option for whoever holds your life by the thread. So learn to be mindful with whom you speak to."
"And?" It was Tayuya's turn to act honest. "What's to stop me from double-crossing you after you get this shit outta my system and I leave? I am a ninja, after all."
"Apart from the fear of my tracking you down and starting over again? Nothing but your good conscience."
She furrowed her lip and looked up towards the sky for guidance from the God of Anti-Stupid Decisions. A good conscience… Did she really have one of those? When she had her brief revelation, she finally answered. "Ugh, fine. You make a valid point. Just get me off of the ground. It's cold, and wet, and that bitch-nurse says that if I'm left outside for more than an hour I'd have more to worry about than a few tiny scars."
Sasori stared at her indifferently and reluctantly scooped her body up into his arms, trying to maneuver his shoulders to support her head properly against his chest. A pleasant, indescribable scent mixed with that of damp nature crept into Tayuya's nose. Well, for facts, there were worse people for whose arms to be in. Jiroubou, for instance, was no lilac air-freshener.
"Don't pussyfoot with me, Okudo," she warned him as he resumed his stroll with an extra passenger. "I want out of your arms as soon as possible. I mean it."
"Really," He looked down towards her with a mischievous smirk, "because it seems to me that you're rather enjoying the view. Shorty."
"Hey." She warned again. "No fair. That's a legitimate name. See? You're already in violation of the name-call peace treaty. You really can't do a fucking thing right now can you."
He leered down at her with half a mind to prick her with another venomous needle, but ultimately declined. Not that she made the decision any easier. "So be honest with me," he brought up after a while, continuing down the trail as their images faded into the shadows beneath the wilderness, "you were going to call me a moron again. One way or another, you were begging to be put on the ground."
"Oh yeah?" Her voice emulated as they shrank into the distance. "Well then I guess you'll just never know, will you? Because you were just too damn giddy to stick around and take a hit after all."
"Well now," he continued to look on to their current destination. "Then I suppose the first thing you'll have to learn about me...is that I absolutely cannot stand waiting."
The sun had finally broken its way through the clouds over Konoha. Through the remnants of cloud that dusted the afternoon sky, a long arrow of birds flew over a house surrounded by an exotic, almost fluorescent garden. A garden that belonged to a single woman.
After a while, the door leading out to that garden opened calmly, and she stepped out from atop the wooden patio onto the polished trail of stones with a graceful flower watering pot in hand. Her feet patted the ground smoothly as she went up to greet and tend to each plant as was her daily procedure. Sprinkles of water drizzled from the stalky neck of her trusted tool as they lightly dappled the leaves and stems and soil around each individual herb and fern; no flower or crop was ever to be singled out or shrugged off from her tender care. With a pale, flawless hand, she lightly steered her aim, distributing the clear, cool liquid evenly amongst the flora.
Some of the water, however, had managed to seeped down from out of the troughs supporting the plants, and from there carried out around the solid stones of the path from below the gardener's feet, into the earthened soil, down…d o w n . . .deep beneath, slowly being insulated and absorbed as it carried underground.
Eventually reaching down as far as it could travel. Drawing the attention of a strange and curious creature.
From a distance too far for the woman tending her flowers to notice if she wasn't trying, a large patch of dirt slowly kicked around, crackling as it opened asunder. The spines of some incredibly large venus flytrap twisted its way out of the ground and waited, towering solitary over the quiet neighborhood as it seemed to carefully observe its surroundings.
"Ugh, what now?" A hostile voice emulated out from between the almost completely shut teeth of the stalk. "Didn't we have a job to do? Why can you never seem to leave well enough alone?"
"Didn't you feel it?" A lighter, less-menacing voice permeated out through the same spot. "Such wet dampness…cool and refreshing. I've never felt such cool and refreshing water before. I want to know… I want to know where it came from. I want to know where to find more."
"Tch, tell you what, I'll take you to the village hot springs if you just get all of your work finished now. I hear the hot springs have good water too. Just leave it be, I beg you."
The entirety of the dark green mass seemed to shudder despite itself. "No…no way, that water is too hot. Sears the seams, burns the skin… Why are you never so curious like I am? Come on, just one little peek. I know it's around here somewhere."
Zetsu.
From deep below the ground, he had since been working on burrowing tunnels, creating an advanced network of passages directly beneath the relaxed, almost sleeping village of Konoha, intent on completing his assignments as every loyal member of their family should be. With the network near completion, any applicable members, or candidates for members, could roam freely in Konoha by the safest means possible: beneath. From there, they could so much as leave the casual ramen shop, and without even going out into the open of day, enter the Hokage's private offices from there. Such was the beautiful efficiency of Akatsuki's top-temperate man. As soon as he had destroyed or 'disposed' of the last of the evidence that could throw the entire society into a roaring state of panic, he had since crept under, where even there he could continue his work for Akatsuki in peace.
Until now.
"Fine, fine…if you must take a quick look, help me open up." The pod began to slowly crackle open, and from out of the black void split down the middle, an eye flashed like a small golden moon. The first thing it beheld was the garden that the woman had been managing. With the playful ecstasy of a child crouched in his hiding place, Zetsu very slowly bore through the soil as he surveyed, a foot still connected steadfast to the ground for which case he would need to make a hasty dive and retreat if ANBU showed up. The bastards were just as good with compromising as the leafy master spy himself was.
He got close enough to the garden gate lined by white picket fences as he deemed was necessary, before using some of his famous Wood Style art to cleanly weave his way through the wood in the fences and avoid the bunny trail altogether. He followed the sound of gushing water – a sound that he was best at hearing anywhere, no matter how little or how plentiful – and burred his way slyly into a stack of hedge, where he spotted her.
Zetsu's body froze. Like a deer that thought it had been spotted for sure. He froze like an animal that had never seen a human creature before. From where he was looking, he saw the beautiful hair lingering behind the well-toned back of a woman, from who he could already tell from her healthy posture and slender frame, was already an exceptional beauty. He continued to crouch and survey steadily through the leaves hampering his surroundings, making him practically indistinguishable from an especially discriminating eye. He tilted his head left, and then a little to the right. He observed what she had in her hand, that she was now nearly finished using.
He saw the pot that she was using to water the flowers. He saw the care, the excessive care that she yet so lightly seemed to put into what many people throughout Zetsu's unnatural life had deemed nothing more than inanimate objects. But to him, those 'inanimate objects' had pulses. Lives. They had breath of their own. And throughout his life, it became difficult for Zetsu to understand that anyone could ever think as much for it as that.
Yet here was one, right in front of his very eyes. And now that he knew that such a person existed – a woman, no less – he simply had to get a look at the keeper's face. Just one look. And then that would be all he could ask for. Then he could be gone before she even noticed he ever plowed near.
Just one look.
'Come on…' His thoughts murmured as he watched her bare shoulders turn slightly to tend the neighboring row of ferns. 'The dahlia flowers need some attention.' He added silently, aware that the bright, crimson flowers lined with gold he spoke of were bedded up right next to him. He was sure to see her face if she would only acknowledge the dahlias.
'Know,' the evil in his mind mentioned, 'it would be more than easy to eat her if she came close enough. All this waiting and stalking about is so excessive. Aren't you getting…just a little bit hungry?'
'Shut up.' He could have growled aloud if he wasn't so good at eavesdropping. His glassy yellow eye widened with excitement as he watched her stop and make a sudden turn. 'Yes. Yes! Come now; closer…closer…think of the dahlias…'
But instead of complying with his mental beckoning, she turned her attention to some elegant white lilies lurking around the upper eastern corner of the garden. Zetsu closed his eyes disdainfully.
'Awww, tough break. She'd rather look at the tiger lilies than look at you after all.'
'Aauugh, I'm dying here. I know they're all important. But please! The FUCKING DAHLIAS!...' His eyes snapped open again this time to find that she was no more than four feet away. Facing right in front of him.
He held his breath. His eyes trembled timidly when he saw hers. Bright brown. Almost a crisp crimson, even. He had never seen a woman with eyes like those before. The moment to be captivated by them became brief, and he stiffly continued observing as she leaned over almost directly next to him, giving the spy an almost perfect vantage point of the cleavage right above the collar of her shirt. By now, raindrops were comically pouring down the nervous introvert's face like nobody's business. His heart quickened with a rude rush of apprehension.
'My Kami,' even his darker side was gaping wildly, 'look at that. I'll bet there's enough sap to grease up nine great oaks…'
'S-stop! Stop saying things like that at such a time…!' His innocent side became squeamish from the combined torture of both inner and outer forces.
His nerves were lightly calmed by the melody of the woman's soothing, tranquil humming as she continued to water the beautiful flowers with her eyes closed in serenity. While she moved on to the lotus flowers, Zetsu had a revelation smack him in the noggin. "I-I've gotta get out of here. This is…this is too much." He tossed and turned awkwardly in his shell, but alas, if he made any specific outwardly movement, especially if this woman was a ninja, she would no doubt catch him.
For the first time in his life, Zetsu felt cornered.
"Who…who is this girl?..." The sentence came out as if he had struggled it through a single lung. "No one has ever made me feel so vulnerable before…"
A few moments of stillness later, a voice shouted from the entrance to the garden, savagely breaking the tension. "Oi! Kurenai! Ya ready to get goin'?" They both snapped their heads to see Asuma waving his arm in a wide arc at the gate.
"Ah," the woman removed her gardening apron and threw it on an empty chair near her, and quickly ran over to grab a headband from a secret compartment somewhere close. "Coming! I'll be right there!" With a powerful leap only accomplishable through chakra focus, she jumped the fence in pursuit of the bearded man that called after her.
Zetsu was left by himself, still an accessory part of the hedge bush.
"That headband. Hmm, so she was a ninja after all. Well now that you've been to play a while, won't you just get your thick green hide back into the ground and do what you CAME HERE FOR?"
He must not have heard himself. His eyes were fixated on the distance, around the friendly garden gate that he last watched the woman disappear by. His pupils flashed fantastically.
"Kurenai…" He repeated her name as if it were a gift firsthand from God. The teeth around his face then slowly began to crackle lividly closed once more as the voice continued, "Oi! Are you listening to me? Pay attention, damn you!"
The irked voice drowned out as the pod was sealed tight enough to strangle an ordinary man. But Zetsu didn't care. Just so long as no one else in the world could see him blush.