Hey.
If any of you've missed it, my names Serb.
Yes, I'm a girl, as most fanfic writers are.
I hate strawberries.
I enjoy long walks on the beach.
And I would like to believe my last update wasn't short, and actually was a decent size.
Ahem.
But according to a certain reader, that last chapter was…..Dare I say, short.
So, in order to curb that readers particular reading diet, I'm going to give you guys hell.
And make this chapter three times the size of the last one.
~Enjoy
Have you ever wondered why a tree has bark?
No, of course you haven't.
But I'd like you to try, if only a moment.
Try to imagine the justification the tree has for thickening its skin to such a degree.
Is it scared of some opposing force for having such a thick, rough, protective layer?
Or perhaps, it is trying to hide something within the confines of its roots?
Why does the bark peel if it is meant to protect?
How does the bark grow back, and does it regret being so easily peeled?
Just what is it hiding? Just what is it so afraid of?
More importantly, does the bark itself wish to be more than just a barrier for the tree?
Is it an entity in itself?
A knight, clad in brown wood and ready to be the brunt of physical damage done to an organism that can never voice its appreciation?
Yes, that is good enough.
Just wonder faintly these thoughts.
Because, really, no one else will.
Just as no one will question or care for the existence of the knight, nor how sadly he may fall.
Nor the tears he may shed as he bleeds dry all his blood.
Nor the name that he utters in despair.
Nor the breath that he takes as his very last.
Only meant to protect, and be used as his master will.
To protect the beautiful princess to his very last breath.
Yes, Jin had always had an affinity for romanticism.
Even as he choked on his own final gasps of oxygen.
Even as he gazed on something that he feared more than the death that awaited him.
Saya, and the tears that fell from her glassy eyes as she screamed his name in horror.
He couldn't help but smile.
Even he could not prevent those tears from falling.
Especially when it was him that caused them to fall in the first place.
….
….
….
The masked man rushed towards the three awaiting 'criminals'. Behind him, the rest of the squad dispersed in tactical formation, aligned to take on the Akatsuki men while their leader confronted their once-Sotaicho. Of course, they had been trained to take on men like these two. The training was extensive, and battered into their very beings.
After all, that was what they lived for. They had no other lives outside of taking out these criminals all over the southern countryside.
It was what they lived, breathed, and worked for. And all they ever would.
So when it's said that they took formation and attacked both Kisame and Itachi, it's safe to say they had a minimal chance of actually living through the experience.
Actually, if they planned it out right, they could probably take them and come out victorious.
At least, that was how it used to be.
Saya had little doubt that her old squads where fit and fight-worthy, but that didn't stop her from doubting their individual strength. Their ability to attack in formation was what made them what they were, and she was sure that they were stilly minimally fierce. However, she also noted that there weren't many of them present, at least, not enough to potentially cause much damage.
And if she guessed right, she would assume they're fighting was not what it used to be.
She smirked.
Especially since it was him who grouped the squads and lead them as it was.
But that's besides the point.
As previously stated, Saya had little doubt that the number of soldiers present could possibly give Akatsuki a run for their money, but they definitely couldn't defeat them. Not with the few present, and not against Hoshigake with his massive chakra support.
And they probably knew that.
That decided, it was only natural that they go for distracting both men while Jushiro assaulted her. It was probably more personal for him, the fight, and he more than likely wanted the pleasure of pounding her down.
Assuming she was out of shape and out of practice.
And he would have been right.
Actually, he was pretty much accurate.
But even out of practice, and out of shape as she was, Saya could handle Jushiro. If anything, this would be an exercise for her, something to get her back in her game.
That was, hoping Jushiro hadn't gotten too good.
The guarded man quickly slashed at Saya, who dipped and ducked under his attempts to lop off her head and jab at her torso. Dancing back, she watched the young mans eyes as they fiercely glowed with a heated flame of hatred. A dry smile was the only emotion found on her face as she turned away from another swipe, the wind catching her hair and jostling it about.
Meanwhile, Kisame stood not far off, faced by most of the soldiers, all male. Knowing full well what Kisame was capable of, they decided on a sly approach to take down, or at least take the attention of, the blue ninja. The two women were the only ones to face the Uchiha. Both had long hair, and if one were to look past the masks they wore, one would find that they were in fact identical sisters. They stood side by side, both held kunai's in each hand, and held the same stance. They were well-endowed in the art of handling genjutsu users, and with the aid of the charm beheld within their armor, they were well-equipped against this particular opponent as well.
Both Itachi and Kisame glanced at one another, a silent conversation of the eyes unreadable by anyone other than themselves.
"Hey, let's keep those beautiful eyes of yours trained on us, hun." One of the women said in a haughty voice. Both had wine-colored hair, a muddled purple/pink, and fair skin. Itachi switched his gaze to the women as they grinned back at him.
"Hey, Yuri, I think he's sorta cute." The one on the left said, bending forward a bit.
"Cute, maybe. But remember, Maru, he's a criminal." The other reminded her sister, leaning back against the other.
"Such a shame." The other cooed.
"Such a shame." The other agreed.
Itachi narrowed his eyes at the women, his bloodline already activated. Both girls leaned forward, ready to pounce, and spoke in unison.
"Scary." They giggled, launching their assault.
Kisame looked at the men before him, all wielding long katana's and glaring at the taller ex-nin. He chuckled and went for Samehada's hilt.
"So, who wants to die first, eh?" His voice carried over the group, causing them to grip their own hilts. One spoke up.
"His affinity is water. Do not let him initiate any sort of jutsu. Do not use ninjutsu. Use long-ranged attacks. Avoid sword contact." The man drawled in a monotone voice. Kisame couldn't help but grunt. Well, these guys knew their stuff, he had to admit. He threw a side glance over at Saya, who was still only dodging oncoming blows. The smile formed on her lips seemed almost cynical, but not quite so. It was almost as if she were laughing at her opponent. Kisame followed her movements, and realized she knew all of the other mans moves and gestures. It must have been from when she had previously been acquainted with the him.
Regardless, Kisame couldn't help but wonder if the woman would attract anymore trouble.
He couldn't decide if it would be annoying or….
He trained his gaze back to the hoard of soldiers before him, a long grin forming on his face.
…Or fun.
Saya leapt backwards, away from her assailant as he halted in his relentless attacks. Gulping down his air, he attempted to regain his breath as he raised his blade, glaring hatefully at her. Saya flexed her hands before crossing her arms and watching her old pupil.
"I hate you, Sotaicho." He stated.
"I know." His eyes flared again with a new passion as he swung his sword.
"You betray not only your village, but also the one closest to you!" He snarled. "How could you do it, and even so much as think to show your face around here!" Saya dipped her head to the side, and cradled her chin with her forefinger and thumb in thought.
"Well, it certainly wasn't my idea." She said innocently to herself. She then clapped her hands together and smiled. "Ah!" She exclaimed, then digging into her sleeve, she bit her lip while looking for something. Assuming she was going to attack, the man guarded himself stiffly, with an angry expression. However, he certainly hadn't expected her to pull out a row of candies that stood out colorfully, like a rainbow. "Ne, Shiro-kun, you still like candy, don't you? Perhaps this would make you feel better!" She held them out towards him, a silly grin on her face. Jushiro almost face-faulted right into the dirt, completely taken aback by her response. Then, regaining his posture, he pointed a stern finger at her.
"Bakka! Don't act familiar with me!" He screeched at her. Shrugging, she plucked a lollipop from the group of sweets.
"More for me, then." She popped it into her mouth and tucked away the rest of the candy she had gotten from the village they had visited. She had duped a group of kids, betting on a round of Top that she would land on red.
Obviously she had won.
"How can you act so simply, Ete-baka?" He swung his sword in emphasis, taking a position to attack. "I will make you atone for your sins." He said, finality sewn within his words. Saya rolled the candy in her mouth, then, taking the stick, she looked at Jushiro from behind her long bangs.
"Shiro-kun." She said, her tone making him swallow his rising curse. She looked up. "I wonder. Have you ever wondered why a tree has bark?" Jushiro regarded her dubiously.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He snapped.
"The bark is meant to protect the tree. But what does the tree have to protect?" She adjusted the pop in her mouth, her fingers sliding from side to side from the stick. "A living organism. A system of roots and leaves and branches. The bark prevents harm from befalling the tree's innards. But the bark is not pretty. The bark, in fact, can sometimes look like a parasite upon the tree, and is ripped from its base. The bark is not nearly as pretty as the fruit the trees bears, nor is it as pretty as the flower that sucks the life from the tree. A carefully hidden parasite itself." She looked up to him. "Shiro-kun. Have you ever wondered if maybe the bark is not as petty as it seems?" The man narrowed his eyes in reply.
"All the years in exile must have screwed with your brain, or have you drunk yourself to idiocy?" A slight slap in the face, Saya grimaced and rubbed the back of her head.
He had hit that right on the head, hadn't he?
Saya couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at how accurate his guess had been. Just then, without so much as a warning, Jushiro appeared in front of her, his blade singing just above her face as she swung to the side and pushed his elbow in, jabbing with open palms along the length of his arm. The clatter of his sword sounded against the suddenly softened air, which had been filled with distant battle sounds from the other two groups. Saya looked to the two Akatsuki men to see that Kisame was nearly finished with the group he had been dealt, and Itachi still faring against the two loose women. Jushiro shook his head, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.
"You stupid woman." He said lowly. Retreating to the remaining men near Kisame, he spun around to face the two girls. "Yuri. Maru. Keep the Uchiha busy." Swinging his arms in an arc, he dug his heel into the ground, Kisame just a few yards away from him. Between them lay motionless corpses of what had been his squad, only two remained breathing behind him. They both glanced at each other, then to their captain. "Both of you, can you handle the Mist Nin for a couple more minutes?" He asked in a gruff tone.
"Sir." They both nodded, hands ready for a jutsu. Itachi watched the captain also prepare a set of hand seals, his fingers spelling out combinations that seemed vaguely familiar. Just then, one of the girls appeared beside him, a beautiful smirk dancing across her lips.
"Hun, you may want to pay us a little more attention." Her sister appeared on the other side of him in a puff of smoke, a mirrored smirk.
"Otherwise we might just get tired of you." Both swiped at him with two pairs of kunai, only to reveal a substitution, one which consisted of a flock of crows. Itachi appeared behind both, their eyes wide with a surprised freight.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique." He stated, blowing a huge heated fire right against their backs.
….
…
.
The pair behind Jushiro appeared before Kisame, both initiating a jelly jutsu meant to sticky up the opponent. Grunting, Kisame slapped away the attack with Samehada.
And of course, because he did it, the solution caught the sword and Kisame's hand, sticking it to the ground and making him unable to move. Making a face, he yanked on the sword to loosen it up, but it only made him stick closer.
"Well, damn." He grumbled. With a heave, he ripped away from the gluey substance with a rush of massive chakra.
It ripped like paper.
The two men swallowed heavily, their captain still producing a series of hand seals behind them. In order to gain a bit of distance between them and Kisame, they jumped back on either side of Jushiro, now out of chakra.
Wiping away the remaining strands of the canceled jutsu, Kisame straightened up and swung Samehada around.
"That was lame, can't you do any better?" He taunted them.
Saya narrowed her eyes at the nostalgic jutsu that she knew Jushiro was performing.
She also had the sudden urge to shove his face in a toilet and drown him.
He thinks he's cool, making an appearance with such a flashy technique.
Itachi emerged from a heated combustion of scorching flames. The two women had disappeared from sight after the haze, leaving him to close his eyes and observe the current battles.
However, a hand suddenly shot out of the ground, Itachi just missing it by lifting his leg. One of the women's faces emerged from the earth, grinning.
"That was pretty hot." She giggled. Itachi slammed his heel over the woman's form, leaving only a crumbling earth clone. Instead, noticing Jushiro's hand seals and almost instantly recognizing the technique, both women appeared in a poof of swirling smoke beside both men flanking him.
Violently spitting the lollipop stick out of her mouth and whipping her hand, Saya dug her heel into the ground, suddenly appearing on Kisame's broad shoulder.
"Hoshigake, can I borrow some of your chakra?" She asked calmly. Kisame looked up to her, annoyed.
"Why the hell would I do that?" She smirked.
"You've got plenty to spare. Besides," Without moving her head, she looked down to him, " I can't let Shiro-kun beat me at Show and Tell."
Kisame hesitated before slamming Samehada into the ground. For a moment, he remembered their conversation when they had been heading out of the fishing village.
.
…
…..
"Oi, Hoshigake. Just how old are you?"
Kisame looked over to Saya, who looked back at him minus the malicious intent he thought he'd see in her eye. Instead, there was merely inquisitiveness, and something else he couldn't name.
"Thirty." He replied simply.
"Thirty?" She looked to Itachi. "You know you're hanging out with a fossil here, right?" She asked him. Something tugged at the Uchiha's lips, but it went by unnoticeable beneath the shield of his hair.
"A fossil?" Kisame narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah." She smirked. "But you're a lot younger then I thought you were. And here, I thought you were in your fifties!" Kisame couldn't hold back a twitch as he made a face. Just who did she think she was?
Fifty?
Bah!
He internally cringed at just how much he really did sound like an old person at the moment. But then, a question passed through his mind, so he turned his attention back to Saya.
"So, just how old are you?" He asked, suddenly curious. Saya froze slightly, recovering and picking at her ear.
"Ne, Hoshigake, you should know better than to ask a woman her age." She replied curtly. She looked back to him. "But just for the record, I'm twenty-seven." Kisame stopped walking, a slight wind picked up, ruffling his cloak.
"There's no way…" He began, but then once giving her a once-over, shrugged and continued. "Naw, you look old enough. In fact, I thought you were in your forties." Of course, he was trying to goad her on; In fact, he had thought she was just a little older than Itachi. Instantly, Saya bristled.
"That's not a very good comeback, Hoshigake. I basically just said the same thing."
"Can all you do is bicker?"
"Only when in bad company."
Saya pursed her lips, her previous conversation with a certain squirrel summon sprung up in her mind, along with her afore mentioned attempt to make peace with tuna-breath. Her mothers voice rang in her head.
'Saya, to make amends, you must first accept humility.'
"You know, my chakra system is pretty screwed up." She sighed. The road they were on was actually meager, and was more of a hiking path than anything. They had strayed from the main traveling system, in order to cut across the distance to Omashu. So of course, there was plenty of plants, as usual, and above average coverage from the sun. Regardless, a slight ray of sunshine fell into Saya's eyes, making her squint downwards to avoid the glare. She walked to the left of both men, looking to the side to avoid their gaze.
"Should you really be telling us this?" Kisame mentioned, wondering why she suddenly changed the subject. "We're not exactly allies, we could take advantage of that information." She shrugged.
"But we're not enemies, either. Besides, I should probably warn you now, before something dangerous happens and this lack of information proves regrettable."
"Can you use chakra?" Itachi asked. He regarded her with dulled eyes, void of Sharringan.
"Yeah." She replied. "But not very efficiently. I can only perform simple jutsu's that require little concentration."
"What happened?" Saya looked up to Kisame despite the glint of light.
"What happened to what?" She drawled. He scowled.
"What did you do to screw up your chakra system?" She looked back ahead of her, hunching her shoulders as if the memory itself weighed down on her.
"I tripped."
Even Itachi looked over to her.
"What was that?" Kisame raised a brow.
"I tripped." She repeated, then noticing their looks, she sighed. "It's a long story, one I really don't care to retell, especially to the ones I'm trying to look cool in front of."
Both men wondered how they got stuck with someone so outrageous, before a silence settled on them again.
…
…..
….
Kisame licked a dab of blood from the side of his mouth, the remaining soldiers stood in sync before him, Itachi watching not far off to the side. Saya's shifted weight on his shoulder reminded him of her request. Sliding his eyes up to her, he realized he'd yet to really ever see the woman perform any actual ninjutsu. Noting this, he also became curious as to what it was she wanted to use his chakra for, and that curiosity nipped the edges of his conscience.
"Fine." He grumbled. "But I'm not your chakra bank, ya got that, onna?" She flashed a wide grin at him, gripping the crook of his neck for support with a nod.
As her fingers brushed along his neck, it felt as if tiny shock waves tickled Kisame through his cloak and clothes. They singed his skin and danced along his shoulder, his arm, and flickered down to his legs and feet. His grip on Samehada loosened, surprised, as the pinching sensation dimmed and faded.
Where the hell had that come from? He kept his gaze on her hand as she lowered her head to his.
"Yeah," She whispered huskily, "I got it."
Her palm fanned out, and suddenly, Kisame felt as if something were sucking his being from where her hand rested. It was like a vacuum, stealing his energy from along his arm.
She hopped down from his shoulder, her hand glowing a cerulean blue, the remnants of his chakra.
Itachi regarded her with calculating eyes.
Jushiro looked up from his hand seals, closing in on the finishing signal, and noticed Saya's sudden chakra spike as she smiled at him with a crooked smirk. His eyes narrowed as he finished, his hands glued together.
"You know what technique I'm using!" Jushiro exclaimed, his teeth bared. "Just what do you think you can do to cancel out a sound technique?" Itachi's eyes narrowed: So that's why it had been familiar. Orichimaru's subordinates used sound techniques often, the hand seals usually similar to one another.
Saya watched him, her cocky smile unwavering. Jushiro trembled slightly under the effort of controlling the signal. He grinned manically.
"Are you ready, Sotaicho?" He released the seal. "Ten Vibration: Sonic Boom Technique!" He threw out his hands, and with a horrendous clap, came a sudden violent whirlwind heading straight for the three Akatsuki. It tore up the ground and sliced the rubble to bits, cutting up tree's and leaving only unidentifiable wreckage behind.
At that same moment, Saya whipped her thumb to her mouth, nipped the end of it, and performed a number of hand seals, landing on one with her right hand.
"Demon sword technique: Earth Style!" Then, as she slammed her right foot down into the dirt, crumbling rock dispersed beside her and up popped a thick bladed sword. She easily snatched it up, and with a hurl, she twirled it into a fanning motion.
So just as the sonic wave began, it instantly disappeared before the vacuum of air created by the quick motions of the blade. Saya swung the blade to her side and watched the angry Jushiro.
Itachi inspected the sword she had summoned: It seemed to be made of thick gravel, cracking pieces of boulder pieced together at the hilt. Then, scouring along the edge of the blade seemed to be a stone of some sort, onyx maybe?
At the center of the pommel was an eye, wide open, and staring out at the world with a slit pupil of black against a red iris.
Kisame looked between Samehada and the earth sword she had summoned, wondering what jutsu she had used.
"You cheated!" Jushiro growled, a pointed finger. "If you didn't have him for chakra, there's no way you would have countered that." Saya swung the sword to rest on her shoulder.
"True." She nodded solemnly. "But earth beats sound, and my sword absorbed your attack." Her eyes flashed. "Game over." Jushiro snarled back at her, but upon hearing a grunt from one of the men stationed behind him, he turned away, his mask worn and teetering on the edge of his nose. Both girls behind him sniggered at their captains obvious fail, a whispered joke ran between the pair as one of the men hushed them back to silence.
"Fall back." He ordered. Then, looking one more time at Saya, and then to Kisame, and finally Itachi, he retrieved three smoke bombs. "We will be seeing each other again." He said finally, then throwing down the orbs, he disappeared behind plumes of purple smoke.
Saya coughed loudly as the thick air spread towards them, but with a swift hand seal, Itachi blew away the remnants of the smoke bomb, revealing only an empty spot where the correction unit had once been. Even corpses had disappeared, the only evidence of their existence being the blood soaked earth and the foot imprints, along with the wrecked surrounding forest. With a grunt, Saya looked at the blade in her hand blankly as Itachi and Kisame both zeroed in on her.
"Onna," Kisame began.
"Who was that?" Itachi finished, standing beside his partner and readjusting his cloaks grips. Saya sighed and stabbed the dirt with her summon, and upon impact, it turned to rubble. She looked up, fingering a stray hair on her forehead.
"He was an old friend."
"He didn't seem very friendly." Saya looked to Kisame, a playful smirk tugging on the corners of her lips.
"Yeah, that tends to happen when a bad rumor spreads." She waved a hand impatiently and turned back to the beaten path. "Shall we go on?"
"Oh no, don't think you're walking away from this conversation." Kisame hissed. "You are going to explain exactly why we just got ambushed by a bunch of bratty kids with toothpicks and smoke bombs."
"It's to be expected." Saya said lightly. "After all, we're near the correction units base, Omashu is but a few mere miles away from it."
"That's why you were reluctant to go." It wasn't a question, but a statement Itachi made as he lowered his eyes to his flexing hand.
"Just a bit." She grinned back at them
"Leader won't be pleased that you're a wanted criminal." He added, glaring up at her.
She shrugged.
"You shouldn't be talking, Uchiha Itachi. Both you, your partner, and the rest of your organization are wanted felons. Way more wanted than me." A frog croaked somewhere far off, as the wild life began to voice itself now that the battle was over. The tension in the air had been lifted, and the sun dipped lower behind the horizon, casting long shadows among the tree's and bushes.
"It looks like we'll be walking in the dark." Kisame sighed. He threw Saya a hateful stare. She looked back at him innocently as they began to walk again.
"You will answer our questions when we arrive at the village." Itachi regarded Saya as she looked back at him. "We will have plenty of time before sunrise, and that is when we will continue with the mission." His eyes flashed back to red as he referred to the correction units sudden welcoming party. "I do not like surprises." Saya's smirk never faded. She realized just how boyish the Uchiha really was, more so, just how young he was. He could hide behind the mask of a killer for as long as he wanted, but behind all that ceramic and paint was just another 17-year old boy.
And no matter how scary he pretended to be, it was a laugh to see him try so hard. She could see it in the usage of his spinning eyes. The over usage of them revealed his readiness to put up a barrier between him and everyone else, something to frighten his opponents and comrades in order to hide what he really was.
But Saya wondered idly, just what was it that he tried so hard to hide?
…..
…..
…..
Sometimes, things don't end with a happily-ever after.
I'm sure you know this already.
It's not only obvious to the naked eye, but it seems present-day ideals hover over the notion of tragedy as not only the norm, but also a preferred topic.
Trends are always so confounding.
Regardless of the pop culture, though, we all wish for that happy finale.
That the girl gets the boy.
The evil witch is defeated.
The curse broken.
The treasure found.
But as I said before, the fat lady doesn't always sing.
There are many stories never told, many of people never mentioned in the fairytale.
Ones that never even had the smallest casting call.
These people are the real people.
They are the ones with the endings no one wants to hear.
But of course they're never heard of because, after all, who wants to hear a sad story?
Exactly.
The endings are miserable, and the wretches that survive whatever ordeal it may be are usually only shadows of their former selves.
…
We can't all be heroes.
We can't all have the power to change people, or to protect the ones we love most.
And because of that, we are forgotten.
Not worth mentioning.
Not even a side character in the greater scheme.
Saya was one of these shadows.
She was not a hero.
She was not an extra, never mind a main character.
In fact, she never was mentioned beside any event concerning the true hero.
And we all know who that hero is, so don't even try to pretend to question who I'm referring to.
She was just a someone who, in fact, was a no one.
But you see, that's not completely true.
Although Saya was never mentioned, and never will be, she was indubitably there.
Saya did exist, and she was a main character, albeit in her own story, and with a different but never the less, related plot.
She did impact the world of the true hero, remaining unmentioned.
What's more….
She was not a villain in her story, even though she wasn't a hero.
Saya could not protect the ones she loved, but that isn't to say she didn't try.
Saya sought the right path, and even though she stumbled onto a road of misery and violence, she did in fact travel the right one.
How can this be determined, whether or not the path was right?
Simply.
Saya never regretted a damn thing she did after meeting both Hoshigake Kisame and Uchiha Itachi.
Joining Akatsuki was a great investment in her opinion.
After all, she got her third chance at justice because of them.
She even made a ripple in the sea of the true heroes story through that damn group of thugs.
Even without all those points, though, it was still a great choice. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she'd say it was the best choice of her life, complying with Akatsuki.
Why?
Well, I'd think it'd be obvious.
She fell in love….
Or something like that.
…
….
…..
They settled down in a cozy room of an inn, in the middle of the slums of Omashu.
Omashu itself was a large city. It hadn't always been so big, in fact, it used to be dirt poor. This was due to the constant rogue robberies made along Omashu's major fiscal trophy: Trading. The roads surrounding it were severely unsafe to travel, and any caravan that happened to so much as think of leaving or entering the city was molested.
However, a few decades ago a small company of ninja from Mist decided to establish a bodyguard business in the dirty city, and soon the rogues were no longer a worry among Omashu's twitchy merchants.
Omashu wasn't bordered by any waterfront, which one would think would hinder it; however, it did lie right smack dab in the middle of not only the greenest part of the east containing an abundance of exotic fruits and flowers, animals and medicines, but also a hoard of smaller, less booming villages, including the fishing village from two chapters ago.
Omashu was a busy city now.
It had plenty of sights to see.
Plenty of beautiful parks and monuments.
So of course it had what most cities always did: Slums.
A perfect haven for criminals to hide among the filth of Omashu.
A place where Kisame and Itachi would go by apathetically unnoticed.
The inn was nestled between a Tea house and a brothel, made completely of rotting wood and stained rice paper doors. It had a traditional style, and was actually very small. But in all that it looked, the place was actually quite clean. The inn keeper, an elderly man, was also unexpectedly kind.
He also thought he had a great sense of humor.
Saya entered behind both Kisame and Itachi, almost to the point of sleepwalking as Itachi spoke with the owner about buying a room.
Damn cheapskates… Saya thought, irritated. They couldn't even properly buy two rooms, one for her and one for them. It wasn't like she was going to run from them, unlike before. In fact, she would be Hella screwed if she ditched them:
No money, no weapons, not even a gourd of sake to soothe her soul.
There were too many advantages to staying with Akatsuki that even the thought of running had long since hit the proverbial dusty trail.
Regardless, Itachi himself had insisted they share a single room. Something about being ambushed and an easy get away.
Pfft. The Perv just wanted to watch her while she slept. She knew he didn't sleep at night.
He only pretended to sleep.
And now she had to deal with Hoshigake's Could-Start-An-Avalanche-With snores in a small, enclosed area.
Peachy.
At this particular thought, Saya made a disgusted face and blew a strand of hair from her face.
Meanwhile, however, through all her thinking, Saya had missed the start of Itachi's and the mans conversation.
"One room, eh?" The man had to at least be touching his late seventies, 'cause there was no way anyone younger could have as many wrinkles at this guy had. Plus, his wispy white hair was barely intact on his basically bald head. His eyes were sunken into his head, hiding from the horridness of the world he had seen for so many years, and his frail form sat hunched over a small cane.
The man chuckled.
"Yes, one room." Itachi restated apathetically. The man chuckled again behind a hand that wasn't gripping his warped cane.
"Okay, so one room for two men and a lovely lady." He sang to himself in a cracked voice as he shuffled through some papers and coins on his desk. Plucking a slip of paper from the mess, he held it out for Itachi to grab. He eyed Saya.
"How much." Itachi's voice called out. The man looked back to Itachi with a knowing grin.
"Depends, will any of my furniture be damaged tonight?" He wondered idly. Kisame snarled at him in disgust.
"Don't test me, old man." He leaned forward a bit, tipping his straw hat back to glare. The old man only hiccupped a cackle and wagged his thick brows.
"Excited, are we?" He asked joyfully, his gravelly voice lightening in the unseen joke. Kisame glared with a renewed intensity.
"How much?" Itachi repeated.
Saya suddenly popped into the conversation, completely unaware of what had just transpired.
"Yeah, Ossan, how much? I'm getting tired." Saya said this with a deadpan voice. So much so, that the man gave her a strange look. Then, looking between both Itachi and Kisame, he frowned.
"Pretty, this one is." He wrote a receipt and handed it to Itachi. "But not very graceful." He nodded to himself as Itachi handed him back the amount written.
Suddenly, the man yelled.
"Hisoka! Get out here and show these guests to their room!" His yell slightly shook the fragile room, a bit of dust even dislodging itself from the ceiling above. Kisame stayed silent, about as silent as Itachi, as Saya stepped forward a bit to come between them. A threshold to their right, just beside the desk the old man rested behind, was suddenly filled with a small and petite form, akin to a young boys with a bit of feminine roundness.
A young woman, probably about Itachi's age, stood impatiently with hands on her hips, a massive scowl on her face as she growled at the old man.
"Stupid old man, what did I tell you about screaming across the house?" She harped, a lip curled to expose sharp teeth. She had a girlish look, her mousy brown hair seemed mid length, and was sloppily thrown into a small tie. Her skin, which had probably once been quite fair, was marred with various nicks and a warm mocha tan that bloomed along her limbs. "Plus, I'm getting ready to leave for work!"
She wore a simple blue kimono, dirty along the edges, and she held a thick wad of cash in her left hand.
"Hisoka," He began again, "My deepest regards, but could you please show these guests to their room?" She let out an exasperated sigh, tucking the cash into a sleeve and giving the group and once-over. She had an irritated frown on her face as she tapped her foot impatiently, a raised brow.
"What room, Boss?" She asked in a scratchy voice, straightening up and fixing her attire.
"The big one. Three people in one room would otherwise be a tight fit." Kisame gave him a snide glare again, his nose scrunched. However, the girl known as Hisoka smiled at the mans remark, but quickly wiped it away.
"Fine then." She turned and motioned for them to follow. "Follow me."
…
…..
So there they were.
The room was rather large.
Scarcely decorated, but plenty of room.
But there was still nowhere near enough room to avoid both Itachi's and Kisame's stares as they awaited Saya's explanation.
Why she was a 'wanted' woman.
"Ne, what can I say, I'm just too amazing to be legal." She sighed with stretched arms, leaning into a fluffed pillow on the ground. She propped herself on an elbow with pursed lips.
Samehada rested on a wall, recently cleaned and free of the sticky gunk the 'brats' latched onto Kisame with; Both men relieved themselves of their cloaks, both which hung from a single chair near the door.
Itachi sat near an open balcony, the wind refreshing the tense air in the room, while Kisame rested with his knees up against a wall opposite from Saya.
"Stop beating around the bush and just tell us why we're being bothered by brats with masks." Kisame crossed his arms, awaiting Saya to comply.
"It would prepare us for future attacks." Itachi stated, turning his head back to the room.
"Future attacks my butt." She snapped. "As soon you guys finish this mission and we're out of the southern area, we won't have anymore encounters with the correction unit." She flicked a beetle that was scuttling along the ground. It had flown in from the open door, and had landed in front of Saya. It squeaked as it flew across the room and back towards the door where Itachi was, quickly flying back off into the night.
"They have no legitimate reason to hunt me outside their area. I'm banished, not wanted." She added for good measure.
"I don't care." Itachi was on the verge of activating his eyes as he stared down Saya, who stared back unflinchingly.
"Then don't ask." She replied.
"That's not what I meant." He countered. "I don't care for your excuses. We will not be taken advantage of and left blind to information that may hinder our organization."
"Hinder?" She asked. "Nothing from my past should hinder you. But if you want to know so god damned bad, then I'll tell you." She fell onto her back with a huff and stared at the ceiling.
"It's not like it's a big deal." She continued softly. Kisame placed his forearm along his leg as he got ready to fall asleep. There was no way he was listening to the woman's sorry sob story.
"But after I'm done telling you what I say, no more questions, got it gakI?" She addressed Itachi, who slightly bristled at the nickname.
"Hn."
"It's simple, actually." She went on with a nostalgic smile. "In a condensed version of a melodramatic series of events, I was framed for a crime I didn't commit, but because I was the corps captain commander, they sorta went easy on me. Instead of killin me, they kicked me out of my home." Clapping her hands, she rolled onto her side facing the wall. "End of story."
"Who's 'they'?" Kisame looked over to Itachi, who had voiced the question. Kisame had expected a long harangue of a tale, as most women tended to do. Surprisingly though, Saya hadn't dragged out and dramatized her past, which took him by surprise.
He hadn't even been able to properly get comfortable to fall asleep.
" 'They' being the elders of my village." She explained. "Stupid geezers. They see but never look. It's always the same with politics." Itachi regarded Saya, a look in his eye Kisame couldn't quite read.
Was it pity?
Anger?
Sympathy?
Or perhaps…
Understanding…?
He couldn't tell.
"Anyway." Saya sighed. "That's all yer getting out of me. I'm goin to bed." She waved a lazy hand. " 'Nite, Akatsuki bad guys." Her hand dropped like lead and she began to snore loudly.
"What the hell, onna. Shut up before I shove my foot in your mouth." Kisame scolded her.
"Allergic to sea food, but the scandalous trip sounds nice." She mumbled in her sleep between a snore.
"There's no way she fell asleep that fast." He grumbled.
"She did." Itachi slid the door shut, and walked over to where the futons were placed.
"Women are weird." Kisame sighed. He suddenly caught the futon roll Itachi had thrown to him, smirking slightly. "But what's weirder is that technique she used earlier. I've never heard of summoning 'demon swords'."
"Walking down a aisle of memories is the closest thing to worship." Kisame looked back to Saya.
"I agree." Itachi's voice was velvet against the noisy silence. Kisame gave him a questioning look.
"Agree with what?" Itachi rolled out the futon and stationed himself back where he'd been sitting. Laying down, he faced the opposite direction.
"She's weird."
Kisame laughed, it's guttural tone drowning out Saya's next sleepy mumble.
"Death is so much warmer than life. Kill or be killed, either way you're dead."
…..
…
"Ah! What a night!" Saya popped her shoulders as she raised her arms above her head in a massive stretch. "And those jerks, leaving me without money for breakfast." She pouted, leaning back on her arms along the balcony of their room. "Now I have to wait until they finish that mission."
With a long sigh, Saya watched the roof opposite of the inn, the shingle's and tiles along the roof gleamed a dirty blue, and it was just a few feet taller than the balcony. However, the space between the two buildings was wide enough to allow Saya a good view of the patio below, on ground level. It was the brothel, and it seemed as if, even though it was daylight out, business was booming.
She leaned harder back on her arms, craning her neck up to watch the little strip of sky she could see. The sun lightly shined down, and a small but warm breeze shifted the dirt down on the road, along with women's dresses.
A soft and content smile lifted the edges of Saya's mouth.
She could honestly say that she was happy, at the moment.
There's this little spot inside your body, deep in the back between your lungs and your stomach. It's a small portion of your being, where all the magnified emotions come forth; in this exact spot, a warm and whole feeling emitted from her soul. She didn't know exactly why she was so at peace.
Perhaps it was simply the beautiful day.
Maybe it was the idea of her justice, so close at hand.
Or maybe, it was what the old man had told her when she had went looking for Itachi and Kisame.
She had wandered to the front room, where he had been sipping a small cup of tea. He had offered her a cup of her own, but she was more preoccupied with where her escorts had gone. When she had voiced such queries, the old man had given her a little grin, and set down his tea. He had told her that the two men had told him, that she would probably be looking for them, and that if she asked, to tell her that they would be back for her within the afternoon.
He also said that the blue one, who Saya corrected him on as 'Tuna-Face', told him to tell her that she'd better not do anything stupid. Or else.
Saya had laughed a bit, and waved away the warning, as well did the man.
After a moment, the old man added that he'd asked Kisame if she was his girlfriend.
His reaction, or so the man had said, is what made her grin.
He'd blushed and gave the man a vicious glare before grunting and wiping away any remnants of red on his face, and whisked out the door, followed by 'the quiet one'.
Saya almost couldn't stop a morbid chuckle.
I mean, Hoshigake, blushing?
Get real.
The man had to be pulling her leg.
But still, the idea made her morning, and even though she had no food, no money, and most regrettably, no sake, she was having a ball just watching the sky.
Or what she could see of it.
Just as she replayed her morning conversation over in her mind again, she heard an exclamation from below, accompanied by a slapping sound and a shriek of frustration.
Probably another tussle with a customer, Saya thought idly. However, the sound effects got more animated as time passed, and soon she could hear a mans voice too.
"What the hell is your problem?" The man said.
"My problem? You're the fucking problem you ass hole! You gypped me outta my money, and you think you can just fuck me right here?" A catty voice replied.
"I can do whatever the fuck I want with you, you fucking whore!"
Jeeze, could they get anymore animated? Saya ticked her head to the side and made a face at the invading argument. Leaning forward, she played with her fingers as it got more and more heated.
"Don't ever come back here, you jerk!" Saya wondered why the voice of the woman sounded so familiar. Lazily, she scooted herself forward and peeked between the wooden rails. She was lying on her stomach, her hands gripping the railings as she spied from above.
Ah!
It was the girl from before, who had shown them their room.
What was her name again?
Hisana…?
No, was it Hikaru?
No.
Hikari?
It was…
Oh!
Hisoka!
With a sluggish snap, she let one arm dangle down and pressed a cheek into the wood floor.
Hisoka spat with the man, shaking fist at him. He was plainly dressed, maybe a construction worker or something. Well, maybe not. He wore some sort of vest.
A ninja?
She paused.
Naw.
Too scrawny.
Suddenly, he grabbed the girl's wrist, an ugly-angry look on his face. He raised his other hand, his fist balled into a punch. The girls eyes widened as she froze at sight.
"Oi." Both looked up their eyes wandering for a moment before both spotted Saya watching them from her lazy position, both her arms now dangling limply. Her chin now touched the floor, her eyes cast downwards, half open.
"What the hell do you want?" The man demanded, his fist still stiffly quivering.
"Your voice is annoying." Saya bypassed his question. "Go away." He bared his teeth at her, momentarily letting go of Hisoka's wrist.
"Mind your own damn business, woman." Saya blew a hair out of her eyes.
"You made it my business when you started yelling and screaming in front of my room." She drawled. Training her gaze on the girl, she sighed. "Just leave her alone. It's not very gentlemanly to treat girls harshly."
"Girl my ass." He responded. "This woman's a whore, no more than trash." Saya kept her gaze on the girl, waiting for her reaction. She wonder if she would cry, or maybe flinch at his words.
Instead, she snarled back at him, and with a much firmer looking fist than his, she punched him right in the head, then jabbed her knee up into his crotch. With a suppressed shriek, the man doubled over in utter pain, and fell to the floor. The girl, Hisoka, looked up to Saya with a feral grin.
Saya looked back to her, a grin of her own mirrored back.
So….
I hope it was enjoyable.
It's a little under 9,000 words, but that's all yer getting.
Anyway, I'm gonna make the next chapter simple and quick.
Then after, it'll be the two girls grand entrance.
You know, the two weird ones?
Anyway, draw me a pretty picture of Saya and it'll make my day.
Later.
~Serb