((Hi, guys! I'm sorry I haven't been updating recently, it's been super busy! I just hoped to make this really quick and hopefully get a more sustainable chapter up this weekend. Thank ya'll for baring with me! Hope ya'll enjoy!))
Chapter: 5
Day 2: Evening
Salt and a Wound
"I'm hungry," a deep voice complained.
"You're always hungry," another voice scolded.
"You mean we're always hungry," the voice corrected.
Zetsu sat on the staircase of the base, perched upon the third step from the bottom, legs stretching down to the landing two steps below. He sat upright, as to keep his plant-like extension from slouching, which would in turn, cause his entire body to give way to whatever direction the venus-flytrap envelope happened to slant. He was waiting to leave for a mission, anticipating his orders any moment now.
"How do you think the rest of the Akatsuki will fair with the children?" the pallid side asked, trying to make small conversation to pass the wait.
"Not well," the darker side informed.
"Perhaps it's a little too early in the game?" the other portion suggested, a crooked smile plastering his face.
"You've seen the hell they've raised already."
Zetsu recalled the countless members who fell victims to the twins. Already they seemed to take a toll on four of the members, it was only time until they happened to reach the other two remaining—considering Pein was nowhere to be seen, Konan was their aunt, and Zetsu himself was going to stay as far away from the terrors as possible. So far, Zetsu seemed out of the fire when it came to interaction with the siblings.
"How many more days?"
"About five, I suppose," his darker half calculated.
White Zetsu chuckled in response. "Who do you think will be next?"
The darker portion pondered the thought for a moment, carefully deciding who he thought would fall victim next. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke up. "Hidan," he proposed.
"Really?" the lighter side crooned, lips pursing together in an act of contemplation. "I would've guessed Itachi would be next."
Black Zetsu grunted in disagreement. "Hidan's too much of a moron to not fall victim." In fact, he wasn't quite sure why the immortal annoyance wasn't the first to victim of the twins' terror.
"You do have a point there."
"Hey!" Hidan trumpeted from inside the den, overhearing Zetsu's conversation amongst himself. "Who're calling a moron, you over-sized vegetable?" he bellowed.
"You heard us wrong!" White Zetsu crooned, waving the mouthy Akatsuki member off. The other half simply stared on dully, neither in agreement or difference.
In the depths of the base, within a small room resided two children huddled around a mound of fabric. The seemingly younger of the two stared up at her brother doubtfully, her eyebrows knitting together underneath her bangs. "Kyo," she spoke dubiously, watching intently as her brother experimented on the fabric. "Are you supposed to be doing that?"
"You're annoying," the brother huffed, too absorbed at the task at hand to be scolded by his younger sister.
"What's salt supposed to do?" Kora questioned, placing her hands on her knees as she leaned forward to observe her brother's scheme.
"You know that black and white guy with the plant on his head?" He inquired, not bothering to look up from his work.
"Yeah," she responded ambiguously, not really comprehending where her sibling was heading with his plan of logic.
"And remember when we put salt on Mommy's plants?" he followed up.
"Oh," she responded solemnly. "That's mean."
Kyo shrugged in response. "Yeah, so?"
Kora pondered the thought for a while, and after not being able to come up with an answer, she shrugged her shoulders in defeat, allowing them to slouch forward. "Not too much though," she recommended, carefully eyeing her brother's grip on the container of salt in his lap.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, waving her off.
It was about two hours, almost midnight, when Zetsu had been called into action. Stopping at his room, he picked up his cloak adorned with crimson clouds and donned it before heading out.
"Hey," White Zetsu muttered once he found a desolate path in the woods that would prove to be the closest route to the next village without drawing too much attention to himself. He didn't need to be at his destination any time soon, so he didn't bother merging into the ground for a more efficient traveling method. Instead, he walked leisurely, allowing small conversation between him and his other half.
"Hm?" the other half grunted in question.
"Do you feel a little—odd?" he asked. "Almost like your skin's...burning?.."
((Sorry if the ending wasn't really clear. All I know is that I heard salt is pretty much a plant's enemy, and I felt guilty for not having Zetsu in most of the chapters, so I made up for it (slightly?). More detail will be explained next update! Bare with me!))