A/N: Well, I feel horrible for what I did during the last chapter, and I'm very glad that Tsume isn't real. I'm sorry that I made you people cry. Please forgive me. IKU ZE!
UNSPOKEN
Tsume sat there in the dark, tears streaming down her face and body shaking as she wept. She felt as if her heart had been torn from her chest. She had been pushed away by the person that meant the most to her. He had left her alone, without anyone to live for, anyone to protect. The people who had saved her and given her a new life had abandoned her, pushed her aside. What was she supposed to do? Just go back to the life of being useless and unwanted?
No, she couldn't do that.
There was no way that Tsume could ever go back to the way her life had been before Kisame and Itachi. She couldn't return to that. It was impossible. Too much had happened. Too much had happened for Tsume to just let Kisame, Itachi, Deidara, and Tobi just walk away and leave her. She didn't care what was best for her. She didn't care if she got hurt or if her life was in danger. What did any of that matter when you were with the people you loved? Who wanted to be apart from those they loved? No one. No one ever wanted to be separated from those that they loved. Tsume was no different. She had no intention of just letting Kisame leave her 'for her own good.' No; it wasn't happening, not while she still had life in her body.
Slowly, Tsume rose to her feet, wiping away her tears as she breathed deeply. She leaned her head back, amber eyes closed. Her dark brown hair hung down her back, her body loose and relaxed. Memories filled her mind, memories that she would fight for. She would fight to keep the life that Kisame had given her. No one could take that life away from her now. No one. Anyone who got in the way would be cut down without hesitation.
UNSPOKEN
All was quiet as the four Akatsuki members walked through the trees, no one saying a word. The only sounds that could be heard those of their feet against the earth. Their black cloaks and straw hats shielded their faces, but Kisame's own was by far the most shadowed. He walked as he always did, but he was strangely silent. It was usually he who talked while he and Itachi were walking along some road on a mission. But now . . . now that he had been forced to leave Tsume behind . . . now he said not a word.
His thoughts, however, were far from quiet. With every step away, part of Kisame's mind was screaming at him to turn and run back to Tsume and hold her. To hold her tight against him and kiss her once again. Ah, that kiss. Why had he kissed her? Why had he done that? He couldn't love her; that was impossible for him. So why had he done that? But the other half of Kisame, the half that knew that the life of a tool and living weapon, was not the life for the soft-hearted Tsume knew that he had done what was best for the young woman. She hated killing, and doing so had been so hard on her. Kisame's life was too dangerous for Tsume. If she stayed with him, she would be in constant danger. Tsume had never done anything wrong. But Kisame was a wanted man; and S-rank criminal. He would be targeted almost everywhere he went, and if Tsume was with him, she would be targeted as well. Kisame couldn't put Tsume in danger, he just couldn't. So he had done the next painful thing; he had separated himself from her.
"Why am I worrying over this?" Kisame thought to himself. "She'll be safe now. She can defend herself, and she doesn't have any enemies. There's no one out there who wants to hurt her. She'll be safe now." Kisame smiled sadly behind the high collar of his cloak. "She'll be safe."
UNSPOKEN
The voice that emanated from the shadows was soft and hissing, and a smirk twisted the thin, pale lips. "It seems that my little Talon is angry," the voice said. "I thought that she would die just like the others. But she is stronger than I expected." The voice chuckled in cold amusement. "Seeing as things did not go well last time, perhaps little Tsume-chan will prove useful to me. She is in Kirigakure, is she not?"
The voice that answered was young. "Indeed she is. Traveling in the company with Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi."
The thin lips frowned. "Itachi? Well that is a problem. Do you have any ideas . . . Kabuto?"
There was a smirk in the younger voice. "Of course, Orochimaru-sama."
UNSPOKEN
Tsume ignored the looks that she received as she walked out of the village, Zabuza's sword held across her back by a thick belt of leather, the hood of her jacket drawn up to hide her face. Her backpack had been tied around her waist with Haku's sash, and Tsume's face was set in grim determination. The people of the village gave her a wide birth, and Tsume encountered no problems until she reached the gate that marked the edge of the village.
"Name," one of the guards said, holding up a hand to stop Tsume. She halted, keeping her face hidden in the shadows of her hood. However, she lifted her head to expose the scar across her neck, pointing to it and shaking her head. "You don't speak?" the guard asked. Tsume nodded her answer. The guard eyed the sword. "That blade," he said warily, "it looks familiar."
Tsume sighed, and pushed the guards aside, walking past them. "I have no time for this." But a hand caught her arm. Tsume turned to shoot a burning glare at the guard, eyes saying plainly, "release me. Now." The guard shivered, his grip loosening. Tsume took the opportunity to jerk her arm away. Her hand delved into her kunai pouch, drawing out a well-sharpened blade. She pointed it at the guards, who stared at her with slight fear in their. They recognized the movements of a shinobi, and their hands twitched in the direction of their own weapons. But then, they felt the cold press of blades against the backs of their necks, and they froze. While Tsume's back had been turned, she had made several quick hand signs, executing the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu. Now her water clones stood behind the guards, their blades just as deadly as the one in Tsume's own hand.
And then each guard was struck hard across the head, falling to the ground in unconsciousness. Tsume tried to avoid all possible bloodshed. The water clones fading away, Tsume stored her kunai once again, turning and continuing out the gate. There were trees not far from the village gates, and soon Tsume had vanished among them, silent as a shadow.
Soon she was up among the branches, pushing off with bursts of chakra to aid her speed. She didn't have any idea where Kisame and the others could be at the moment, but she felt as if she was being pulled, pulled in some direction, just as it had been on the night when she first fought with Zabuza's sword. Tsume trusted her feelings, and was confident that they would lead her to Kisame. But still she worried. Strong though her feelings were, they could still be wrong. As she moved, Tsume prayed to every power that she could think of that her feelings would lead her to Kisame. To the man that she . . . the man that she loved.
"I love him," Tsume realized, faltering for only a moment. "I love Kisame-sama with everything that I am. I love him." Tears bloomed in Tsume's eyes but she did not let them fall. "If I love him, then that is another reason why I cannot be left behind. I won't stay behind and give up. Aki-obaa-chan told me to fight for what I loved, and I will. I love Kisame-sama, and I'm going to fight to stay with him. I'll find him, and I will stay by his side. No. Matter. What."
UNSPOKEN
"Tsu-chan will follow," Tobi said suddenly, making his companions falter as they leaped through the branches. Deidara looked over at Tobi, his one visible blue eye confused.
"Where did that come from, un?" he asked.
"Tsu-chan will follow," Tobi repeated, nodding sagely. Then he lowered his voice so that only his partner could hear him. "She cares too much about Kisame-senpai not to come after."
UNSPOKEN
Kabuto came upon Tsume in the brief moment that she had stopped to rest. When he landed not a yard in front of her, Tsume had straightened and swung Zabuza's sword so that the edge was mere millimeters from Kabuto's neck. Kabuto was startled by the swift wielding of such a huge blade, but he remained calm.
"You are Tsume, are you not?" he asked. Tsume did not answer, and kept the silver-haired medic pinned with her amber eyes. She tilted her head, baring the scar that had stolen her voice. Kabuto gave no sign of surprise nor shock, in fact it seemed almost as if he had been expecting such a thing. He spoke again. "Yes, I see. Well, Tsume-san, I come to make you an offer on behalf of my master, Orochimaru-sama." Tsume remained as she was. "He wishes to offer you power, and an opportunity to prove your worth. That is what you desire, is it not? To prove yourself to Kisame-san?"
That had an effect on Tsume, and Kabuto saw it. Tsume lowered her sword and backed away. Leaning the spine of her blade against her shoulder, Tsume lifted her hands and began to sign. "Who are you and who is Orochimaru?"
"You do not remember him?" Kabuto said curiously. "I would have thought that the seal on your memories would have been broken by now. The night that you lost your parents—" Kabuto had to leap out of the way as Tsume sent her sword cleaving through the air, the blade digging deep into the earth where Kabuto had been standing seconds before. He was given no time to steady himself as Tsume came at him again, rage burning in her eyes. There was a dark flickering on her neck above her scar, and Kabuto smirked. "So it's close," he thought. "It may indeed start now."
Tsume swung the blade again and again, lifting the heavy weapon as if it were as light as a kunai. The young man didn't have to say another word; Tsume knew who this Orochimaru was. He was the pale-faced man from her nightmares, no, from her memories. He was the one who had killed her defender, her father, and robbed her of her voice. And now he dared to come back and offer her strength. How could she accept such a thing? She would as soon kill the man as look at him. He had inflicted her silence, and it was all his fault.
Pain, burning, searing pain, exploded in Tsume's neck, in the very center point of her scar. She screamed silently, her arms stiffening and her sword falling from her grasp. Kabuto came at her the instant she faltered, and Tsume found herself pinned beneath him, a kunai at her throat. "The curse mark surfaces."
UNSPOKEN
A/N: Yes, I am evil. I'm sorry.