~*~ Chapter 23 - Dynamic Duo ~*~
Yume-chan is more excited than she's been in a long time. She seems determined to, as she puts it, 'kick my ass into the next dimension'. Her condescension doesn't really improve my nerves, and by the following morning, I am pale white and trembling like crazy. Dei-kun comes to wake me up and he takes us to the kitchen, where everyone is eating breakfast at the table.
"So, what's the fastest way to improve Taijutsu?" Yume-chan asks the room in general, then she nudges her head in my direction, "This one's gonna need it."
I glare at her, and Dei-kun says, "She can't be worse than you, un."
"Itachi is the best one among is with simple hand-to-hand combat," Kisame-sensei says.
"Hey, what the fuck? I'm good," Hidan says angrily.
"You're slow," Yume-chan says.
Before Hidan can reply, Kisame-sensei cuts it, "It's true, Hidan. You'd be dead by now if you could die. How many times have you been ripped to shreds?"
"Yeah," Yume-chan says, and starts counting off on her fingers, "Tobi is too stupid, Kakuzu just fights with those creepy ghost things inside him, Hidan is slow as hell, Kisame mainly uses jutsus to fight, Deidara is weak and he only uses explosions, Zetsu ... well, he just spies, and neither Pein nor Konan would be willing to train us. That leaves Itachi-kun."
She ends her speech with a dreamy look in Itachi-san's direction, but he couldn't care less.
You idiot, I think to myself.
"You realise you have just insulted every Akatsuki member in one sentence, right?" Itachi-san says.
She freezes just as she was about to take a bite of toast, looking around the table. Everyone is glaring at her.
"Oh, damn," she says softly. She slowly puts the slice of toast down, and in one quick movement, got up and made to run out of the kitchen.
"Get your fucking ass back here!" Hidan yells, running after her.
"It was a rude way to put it, but she is correct," Kakuzu says from the corner of the table as Yume-chan and Hidan's voices fade down the corridor, "Itachi, you'll have to teach them. The Leader would say the same."
Itachi nods once, but he does not look excited in the slightest.
After I've eaten, I go back upstairs, get dressed, brush my teeth, and look for my dual-bladed sword. I haven't touched it since I returned from Konoha, but Dei-kun made sure that it is in good condition all this time. When I go back downstairs and outside to where Itachi-san told me to meet him, I hear Yume-chan whining. Just when I edge around the tree that would put them in view, he slaps her on the head with a bored expression on his face.
"Ow, Itachi-kun! That's mean!" she whines. I sigh.
"Stop whining," he tells her, slapping her again.
I clear my throat to announce myself, but I am sure that he knew long before that that I am approaching. Yume-chan gradually calms down.
"I'm not going to teach you today," he tells us.
"What?!" Yume-chan demands, "Then what the hell is this? Why am I here? You promised you would - ooowww!"
Itachi-san had slapped her on the head again, and I cannot help but snort with laughter.
"Do not interrupt me when I'm talking," he says, "Today you're going to improve your fitness, and tomorrow, your flexibility. Tonight and tomorrow night, Kakuzu can hasten the healing of your muscles. Every day, directly after lunch, you will do your meditation for an hour before we continue."
"Wait, we need a name," Yume-chan says.
"Why?" I ask.
"You know, so that we can be famous. For example, just imagine the headline: "The Dynamic Duo strikes again"."
I roll my eyes. "Whatever floats your boat, Loony."
Throughout the day, Itachi-san has us running laps, doing squats, push-ups, sit-ups and star-jumps. He makes us punch and kick logs until we start bleeding and then running up and down trees with chakra in our legs. The only time we took some comfort was during our meditation session. Our pain offered nearly unbeatable distraction, but now, with the marking, we can link much more easily.
When dinnertime finally came, I was sore all over and hungrier than I could ever remember being. Kakuzu fixed our skin and healed our muscles and then we went to bed.
The following day, he has us lie on the ground while he forces our legs open in a split, he has us stand up straight and then he lifts each of our legs until I swore I could physically feel it tearing. He teaches us backflips and somersaults and the weirdest flexibility exercises I have ever experienced. That night, I am even more sore than the previous, and glad for the warmth of Kakuzu's medical chakra.
"I found out what that marking is, un," Dei-kun tells me. I am in bed after having had supper, and he's sitting beside me. Yume-chan's soft snoring fills the room. "It's called a Bond Sealing. Every time, when a pair of Tsukino siblings could connect their chakra, this mark would appear, and that would seal the bond between them. Then they can link their minds in terms of battle, un."
"I figured it would be something like that," I say.
"Well, good night," he says, "You have a big day ahead, un. Itachi does not go easy on anyone."
"Thanks for making me feel better," I say sarcastically.
He chuckles, kisses me on the forehead, tucks me in and switches off the light on his way out of the room.
The following day, Itachi-san just makes us do target practices, and takes us to a machine that throws wooden kunai that we have to dodge. Both of us are rotten bad, but Yume-chan does much better than me during the whole day. We do the same exercises for two more days, by which time we can dodge most of it, and I can literally feel my body become stronger.
For the following three days, we each fight a master-level practice dummy. On the first two nights, I fall down on the floor at Kakuzu's feet so that he can heal all my injuries, too tired and despondent to try and sit down slowly and decently.
By this time, my nerves are at an all-time high. There are only two more days until we are scheduled to fight the Nibi. I cannot understand how Pein could possibly expect us to be able to defeat a Tailed Beast. In my subconscious, I hope that he only means to test us, and that he secretly told Hidan and Kakuzu that, if they think that we are good enough, they could finish the beast off and let us live.
Because that's what I think: without Hidan and Kakuzu's help, we're going to die.
For the remaining two days, Itachi-san fight's Yume-chan and me, alternating between the two of us every hour. He does not let us fight him at the same time, for some reason, and refuses to answer when we ask him. Yume-chan seems to think that he is scared that we might beat him, but I don't think so. I am glad when I have decent control over both of the blades on my sword, and Yume-chan seems fairly developed with her scythe.
At supper on the last night, Kisame-sensei makes a toast to the two of us and wishes us luck, and Dei-kun takes me outside, giving me an exceptionally passionate good-night kiss before escorting me to my bedroom and tucking me in.
The following morning, I wake up just as the first rays of sunlight start filing into the room. I can't move. My heart is pounding more furiously than it had ever done before. I am close to positive that I am going to die today, and it is as thought my heart physically agrees: it's trying to make up for a lifetime's worth of beats in the following few hours.
"Are you awake?" Yume-chan asks softly.
"Yeah," I reply.
"What do you think will happen today?"
"You don't want me to answer that."
"I figured as much."
We stay quiet for what seems like several minutes, watching the sunlight reach toward the ceiling. Eventually, there are three soft knocks on the door and Dei-kun enters, carrying a tray with breakfast and walking over toward me.
"You're already awake, un."
"Yeah," I say as he sets the tray down on my lap, and I sit up with difficulty. He kisses me on the forehead.
"Where's my breakfast?" Yume-chan demands.
"If you had made actual friends here, someone would have cared enough for you to bring you some," he says. I snort with laughter.
"Just as well, I can't eat anyway," she says, rolling over and facing the wall.
"You have to calm down," Dei-kun tells me, "I know you'll make us proud."
"We'll make you proud," Yume-chan mumbles, "We'll be splattered all over the room, just like your bombs."
I roll my eyes and start eating automatically. Dei-kun offers advice, but just as it enters my one ear, it exits the other. I cannot take anything in. Finally, after I ate the tray empty, Dei-kun takes it to the kitchen. Yume-chan and I get dressed, pack all of our weapons in a duffle bag and exit the room, my dual-bladed sword sheathed and strapped to my back, and Yume-chan's scythe strapped to her back.
"Mornin'," Hidan says brightly as we enter the sitting room. We just groan. "The Leader said you have to be blind-folded so you can't go doing anything stupid."
Before I know it, cloth is draped over my eyes, blocking my sight and, suddenly, I smell smoke, and I know that I am travelling at the speed of light toward what might just be my doom.