I held a very thin branch, whip-like in nature. I gripped it in my hand, twirling it in between my fingers, allowing for the rough texture to glide against my glove before I tightened my fist and reeled back, snapping it against the trunk of the willow. There was a loud smacking sound and birds had fluttered away, rustling the leaves above us. We looked up. "Yeah, it's good." I murmured through barely moving lips, watching as leaves fell around us.

Sasori hadn't responded directly, instead turning away and walking through the mud. I glanced over, watching his backside. It was obvious he was annoyed. There was a reason though. The marker hadn't showed up when we landed in the marshes. We have been here for six days and as of yet there hasn't been a portal to open. He says there's a reason. I told him that was obvious and when I asked what, he didn't have an answer. Not one he was willing to answer anyways.

We had decided, well Sasori grunted an agreement, that we needed to arm ourselves, since I was stilled badly injured. The marshes weren't exactly a healing beach, everything was heavily humid and perhaps more than the other racers we should fear the diseases. I had to keep my cuts covered because the likeliness of it getting infected was high enough.

I began following behind. The ground beneath me sunk and squelched out murky water. I didn't wince but pain would shoot up my legs, only now beginning to dull, absently I twisted just a little which caused my bruised sides to scream in protest. That was unsurprising. The fight had handicapped me, which is why we had to get the weapon for me. For a second I wondered why we hadn't brought the swords but there were probably multiple reasons. For instance I keep falling when we land so what if I had fallen on the sword? Sasori would actually probably have the audacity to feel irritated.

I continued to watch Sasori. Not once had he attempted to sway from going straight, which is probably smart. We were only a little farther from the water, close enough to that I could look over to my left and see the thick swamp and even the other side but the trees and everything else still hid us enough.

The air around me had started to stick and create a slick sheen of sweat, slicking my hair to my neck and skin. I reached up for it with my free hand and wrapped my hair around my hand, tugging it upward and off my skin and yawned. This was getting… boring. "Hey, Sasori?"

He didn't stop but glanced blankly back at me. I nearly rolled my eyes.

"Tell me about your childhood, un."

He snorted and looked forward once more, "What so we can bond?" He asked scathingly.

I glanced up, hand still clenching my hair and twisting it, "If that's what you want to call it." He didn't respond, "Hey, I saved your life! It's the least I deserve! It's not like we have anything else to do, un!"

His irritation was almost palpable, just as the air was and there was a pause. It was a long one. "… Whatever."

"…."

"…."

"… Well?" I asked exasperated.

"What do you want to know?"

I thought about it for a moment. What did I want to know about Sasori? Was there really anything or was I just grasping for straws? It seemed like the latter. "Uh, do you have any siblings?"

"No." This time he was quicker.

"Have you wanted any?"

"No."

"What were you like as a kid?" Another pause but I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to answer and was not just thinking. "… Well?"

"Quiet." He answered witheringly.

"You're quiet now." I reminded him, unaffected by his tone and body language.

He stilled for the first time and his voice sounded distant, "A different type of quiet."

For the first time my curiosity was peaked and I genuinely wanted to know, "How so?"

He caught the change in my tone and looked at me reproachfully, "Just different." His voice was odd and he turned over his shoulder, once again walking.

I tried to follow up close behind him but every step brought pain lacing through thigh and calf. I glanced down as the mud caked itself on my leg and foot, weighing it down. Was it luck that we were in the soft marshes and not a hard terrain…? Wait it doesn't matter, "I was a loud kid, un." He snorted and I rolled my eyes, once again trying to catch up, but limping more than hurrying. "I constantly got into fights and in trouble in school with my teachers. I also vandalized a lot of the public property and stole things from whoever I wanted to."

"You were a criminal." He stated distastefully and very much like his upbringing. I almost stopped in my steps, as this was the first time he really showed that part of him. There were a lot of times when he sounded pretentious and arrogant but that was more of his character and not him being from the rich half of our planet. We were very different. He grew up privilege amongst the privileged. The kind that didn't know what it meant to grow up in my background. My eyes narrowed at the thought.

"If that's what you'd call it, un." I answered shortly.

He turned around and this time fully. His eyes cool and unpleasant, "You'd call it something different?"

I walked up to him until we were just a few inches apart. His eyes narrowed, almost to chocolate slits. "Yeah, I'd call it poor." I snapped, snapping the p on the poor. His eyes narrowed even more and I almost smirked at the challenge.

Sasori froze at the change in my expression and it was like he'd been replaced by ice and just as he opened his mouth we heard a loud snap and animals scattering from it. We stilled. At the same time we looked over at the direction before I looked back at him and he nodded, taking off towards the direction.

First off if I haven't stated how fast Sasori is then that's a crime because I have never seen someone move so fluently and quickly. He wasn't exactly overbearingly strong but his speed made him quite the formidable opponent. Second off if I haven't said before how I could barely walk then that too was belittling as it very much looked like a maimed rabbit chasing after cheetah. And with the random willows and the mud sucking up all my energy, it was adequate to say I almost lost sight of his flaming red hair within the first few moments.

The distance wasn't far but it was distant enough where I stopped several times, unable to chase after for any longer due to… everything. It was frustrating being handicapped and more so at having completely lost Sasori by the second breather. I may have even lost my sense of direction from all the avoiding trees, however I did believe I was going the right way and it wasn't until I saw his brilliant crimson hair that I started to limp/jog over to him, clutching at my side and wheezing very hard. I have never felt so weak, not even after waking up from the 'battle'.

This area had long blades of grass that if Sasori weren't on the edge of then I would've missed him completely. As it was, I was able to advance and quickly clamped my hand over my mouth as he turned to glare murderously, obviously not forgetting our… whatever that was, before he looked back to beyond the forest of grass.

I approached the area and peered next to him, the grass mostly obscuring everything but I could see two figures fighting in a similar area to this side, but there was a tree trunk that was snapped in two and he base having toppled over. The two weren't arguing as Sasori and I had been but were like fist fighting. Grappling. And they were wearing the same suits. Brown to be exact. It was Team One, my favorite team. Kidding.

Kakuzu had stood up, and it was hard to tell if he was caked in mud or if it was just his suit. I looked down at my own clearly sullied and cut up white suit which if it wasn't for the guaze then it'd show my skin. He was lucky but clearly he was worn out more than even I was. He was wobbling but punched Hidan's face, which was still on the ground. He punched him again. And again. "I'll kill you, Hidan. If anyone shows up I'll kill you before they get the chance."

Sasori and I looked at each other in apprehension before looking around to see if anyone else had shown up. As far as I could tell, we were the only ones.

"SO? WHO CARES IT'S FUCKING BORING! WE HAVEN'T FOUGHT SINCE WE FIRST FUCKING GOT HERE."

My stomach did flips and I couldn't tell if it was from excitement of nervousness as I noticed they were both covered in dried blood. My hand gripped the branch that it had been clenching this entire time.

"Do you not remember how that had gone, retard? Did you not forget having to run away? The almost dying part? Huh?" Kakuzu punched him again.

"Bah! We weren't going to die. After all I was the one fighting fucking the devil himself whilst you fought the girl, pussy." For someone whose face had been pounded, his voice didn't quiver and when he shakily stood up, he was able to wipe at the fresh blood on his lip and under his brow, leaving behind smears of it all over his face.

"She was almost enough to kill me."

"See? Almost! Stop being a bitch, if we're going to win then we need to eliminate competition."

"And if they eliminate us?"

"Don't give them the chance! We'll start picking them off! If we're lucky we'll have attracted blondie and baby doll over here!" I took a subconscious step back before realizing what I did. I could feel the adrenaline starting to pump into my system, getting ready for a fight. As if Sasori could feel it too, he shot me a warning glance. My only response was to tighten my hand around the branch even more to where I was probably losing circulation.

Through the stalks of grass, I could see Kakuzu stop bristling, resuming a thoughtful pose. "Oh yeah, the one that gave me a headache? I was meaning to get him back for that…" Me. He was talking about me after I had saved Sasori by kicking Kakuzu's head. Although clearly I was wrong that he had died, either that or these two were the Zombie Twins.

Hidan stopped stooping and stood up straight, hands coming up aggressively. "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

"… Fine, we'll wait and see. Let's get in a position where we can surveillance the place though just in case." I lost sight of them as they walked wherever they were walking, so long as it wasn't near us, I didn't exactly care. But clearly someone else did as he never lifted his eyes from their lost forms.

At first I waited for Sasori to say something but he seemed frozen. I watched him; maybe he was experiencing the raging storm I had been. Excitement, wariness, weariness, and the fear of getting caught plus twenty other emotions were all raging on within me.

I opened my mouth but he brought a finger up to his lip as if motioning for silence. We were still for another moment as he waited and listened and I waited for him. Finally his eyes slid back to me.

My hand tapped dully against the still blank screen of the jumper, the arm resting on top of my knees that were brought up to my chest as I sat within the grass blades for what seemed like an eternity a day. I breathed out heavily. I was starting to forget what it was like to jump. Well not really as I'm sure that was something I'd remember long into my adulthood but it definitely was starting to feel like I was reminiscing on the memory of the feeling. It felt odd just thinking that thought.

Two days had passed and in those two days I had been placed on watch duty, as in whilst Sasori did whatever Sasori does I was stuck watching dumb and dumber argue. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as it sounded.

"HIDAN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"BRING IT ON FUCKER! I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB BY LIMB AND SACRIFICE IT ALL IN THE NAME OF LORD JASHIN, SO I'M READY!"

If I had craned my neck I would've seen them but I didn't, instead I stooped my head against my knees, closing my eyes tightly. The air was starting to get harder to breath and thicker these last few days and it was becoming even more humid which I didn't think was possible. The wetness in the air made my aches ache more. It was as if the creeping fog had some kind of poison in it.

I glanced down into the mud and softly drew a line through it, watching as my finger dragged against the surface. Again I sighed. So much for a race.

It was nighttime when I was finally able to stand up and creep back to Sasori. The night here was ominous and an eerie gray within the night that laid over the dark and oily looking water. Sasori was sitting by the shore on a bundle of twisted branches of an overhanging, uprooted willow. I watched him as I approached. He was so still, almost like he had been rooted to the spot as much as the tree was.

I wasn't exactly wary but every time we were near each other we seemed to be in a worse fight than the previous one. I never could remember why we had fought or what even made me so riled up, maybe it was just the stress getting to both of us. The same stress neither of us were willing to acknowledge. I balanced on the horizontal trunk with him before plopping down a little behind him and allowing my leg to dangle off just above the water. It was quiet for a few seconds, as he didn't look back.

"Can I ask one more question, un?" I breathed into the air, watching as my breath disturbed the fog surrounding us. My eyebrows knotted at both my thoughts and the sights. He never answered and so I took that as an okay and continued, "When you were a kid what did you want most?"

There are times when you can feel someone wanting to respond. This was one of those. He didn't say anything. Again, I answered first, "We were poor. Just as you had been one of the richest families, I had been from one of the poorest, un. It was just my mother and she always had a hard time finding jobs, an even harder time keeping them… I think I was four when I first watched the replay of the race and seven when I saw it live, seeing the winners becoming rich and getting everything they could possibly dream, which has been what I wanted most. And now… there are other reasons, but this is still my goal." It was quiet except for my voice but when I had stopped speaking all noise ceased. There were no creatures rustling. I looked down the swamps, it continued for a very long time.

"… My parents. I wanted my parents." At first I continued to look at the water but then I turned to look at his back. He still wasn't looking at me.

"How'd they die?"

I didn't think he would answer. I'm sure he didn't think he'd answer. "I don't know. My grandmother didn't even tell me they were dead for the longest time. I had to find that out. She refuses to talk of it." He wasn't speaking in a whisper but if possible it was even quieter. The sound was rather fitting as anything above that level would've made me cringe.

My hand began rubbing absently at my chest, which had been aching all day due to the weather. We didn't speak after that. I glanced down at my jumper. There was still no marker. I hadn't known but he was looking at his jumper too throughout the entire conversation.

AN: Okay so this didn't have anything really, BUT I'M SETTING UP FOR THERE WILL BE TWO MORE CHAPTERS ON THIS WORLD. Also don't think I'm not going to have the giant world, as I plan to use that next, once Deidara has been healed ^.^

Sorry guys, just this doesn't get so much attention so like I have others, the more popular ones that I have to focus on yanno? So if you want this to be updated quicker then review. It can be anything. How much this sucks (Although I mean that won't be likely to get me to write?), the characters, the plot, what you want to happen, and just anything. I love it all… okay well not how much it sucks BUT THAT TOO WILL BE APPRECIATED.

Okay so this is overdue but Seizness: are you even reading this? Whatever, you still deserve it, oh my god, you're just too fantastic. SERIOUSLY LIKE YOU WRITE MY FAVORITE REVIEWS. I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENOUGH. ANYTHING YOU WANT IS MY COMMAND. So sorry I didn't update earlier, like life has been that sort of jenga game where you pull out the wrong block and it all came tumbling down. Heavy sigh. My biggest regret is not writing after you reviewed, forgive me? THIS IS NOW DEDICATED TO YOU! :D