Recap: "Do you know what we are?" The black half took the opportunity to ask Clair. "Hm? No, I don't think so. Are you part flower, too?" She asked him, coming out of her thoughts. "No, we're just part plant," He replied, but the whole sentence sounded strange and foreign to him. "Oh, but you're still like me!" Clair exclaimed, smiling brightly at him. I want her to smile at us like that all the time. The black half thought. The white half agreed with him."I guess we're alike in some ways," He said slowly, remembering his internal argument. "I didn't think there was ANYONE like me!" Claire went on happily, still smiling at him."Yeah," Zetsu agreed, "We didn't either." Ahem, a shoutout to my two reviewers: MegassaTheBomber and Ashleigh131 - Thanks for the motivation and awesome reviews! Sorry about the wait, I'll try to be sooner with the updates =w='''. Rated T for Hidan, but no "bad" language in this one. Oh, and italics and underlined together is for Clair's thoughts. You also get to find out why she's so short! =w=
They were getting close to the base when another question began to form in Zetsu's shared mind.
"How did you know that there are two of us in here?" He asked the small flower girl.
"The two of you talk differently," She explained, looking into his gold eyes with her green ones, "One of you is more blunt than the other." That's a nice way of putting it. The white half smirked. Shuttup...The black half growled. It was another few minutes before he was ready to ask her another question.
"Where are you from?" In response she reached into her pocket and pulled out a strip of metal. She handed it to him wordlessly. It was a headband plate, the cloth was gone. On it was the Grass Village's symbol and a long scratch carved through it.
"You're a missing ninja?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah," She said softly, taking the thin piece of metal back and putting it back in her pocket.
"I had to leave because I was suffocating."
"Suffocating?" They repeated in confusion.
"The grass was killing me," She said matter-of-factly.
"Please explain," The white half prompted gently. She nodded once and began.
"I was born through an experiment, I'm not sure about the details. I've always been sensitive to my environment, especially the plants. The Grass Village is named for the tall grass that grows all around," Zetsu nodded at this point, he knew that.
"That grass was very..." She cast around for the right word, "...intimidating. It was like one big mind, not individual minds like the few trees that grew there. It didn't want me there." She stopped and took a shuddering breath.
"It would bother me all the time, every moment I was awake. From the moment I was born, my growth was being stunted, it was like being born in a tiny space," Explains why she's so short. The black half mused. The white half agreed.
"It was killing me. I couldn't concentrate and I had splitting headaches all the time. I accidentally killed one of my team mates," Her voice shook on the last sentence.
"We were attacked and my headache was affecting my vision, I mistook him for an enemy," She explained, clenching her tiny hands in fists.
"They would've killed me, so I had to leave," She finished, obiviously not wanting to go into further detail.
"Besides," She went on, her tone lighter, "I feel better now that I'm away from that grass." Zetsu was silent as he took all of this in. They finally broke out of the trees at the base of a large cliff. Hidan and Kakuzu were nowhere in sight. Clair looked around for them and looked up at the taller man with a confused expression, but he ignored her. Instead, he grabbed her wrist. He walked straight through the wall with her in tow and released her once they were on the other side.
"Where are we?" She asked him. She hadn't forgotten his earlier promise.
"The Akatsuki Base," He muttered.
"The Akatsuki?" She repeated uncertainly. Then, her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "You're a member aren't you?"
"Yeah," He confirmed reluctantly, unsure of how she would react. Her only reaction, though, was to fall silent again. They turned a corner to see Hidan leaning on the wall next to a door, smirking at Zetsu in an ominous way.
"Have fun," He said sarcastically, laughing when Zetsu shot him a glare. Zetsu rapped on the door twice and pushed it open when a voice on the inside said, "Enter." Here comes the fun part. The black half thought sarcastically. Perhaps he'll go easier on us since we have the girl. The white half thought hopefully. Not likely. The black half muttered. The white half fell silent. The only light in the room came from the window, falling on an orange-haired man with many piercings and a blue-haired woman with a flower in her hair. The former seated in a chair behind a desk, the latter standing behind and to the side of the chair. When the two-toned man and the tiny woman were standing in front of the desk, the orange-haired man looked calmly at Zetsu and said in an equally calm voice, "You failed." The black half wanted to say something rude and sarcastic, but the white half bit their tongue.
"Who's this?" The man asked, turning his violet eyes on Clair, who looked back curiously and without fear before saying in her soothing voice, "My name is Clair, what's your name?" Is she stupid? The black half exclaimed, trying to mask his shock at such a straightforward question. Merely curious and naive it seems. The white half said evenly, though his words also held a note of surprise. You know what they say about curiousity, right? That it killed the innocent flower girl? Smartass...
"My name is Pein and this is Konan," The orange-haired man, Pein, said calmly, gesturing to the woman when he said her name. The blue-haired woman, Konan, merely gave a stiff nod when he mentioned her.
"Why have you brought this girl to us, Zetsu?" Pein asked, turning his gaze back to the plant man.
"She's a healer, and we need one," Zetsu explained simply.
"She's a missing ninja," The white half added.
"What do you say about joining the Akatsuki, Clair?" Pein addressed the tiny woman.
"Well, if my medical knowledge can be put to use here, then I suppose I wouldn't mind," She said thoughtfully. Does she not understand that she has no choice? It's join or die. I don't pretend to even fathom what goes on in that woman's mind...The white half sighed in exasperation.
"Konan, take her to her room and see that she gets a cloak and ring," Pein commanded. With barely a nod, the blue-haired woman slipped around the desk and out the door without pausing to see if Clair was folllowing her. The smaller woman quickly followed Konan, brushing against Zetsu lightly as she turned. Even through the sleeve, he caught a glimpse of what he could have sworn were her thoughts with the light contact. She seems nice, I wonder why she's so quiet though... Why it happened now and not when he grabbed her wrist, he didn't know. That was...odd. The black half readily agreed.
"Now," Pein said, jerking Zetsu's mind back to his present situation, "About this mission that you failed..."
This one took a me a while to write because of explaining Clair's past and adding the scene with Pein and Konan in it, so I'm sorry. By the way, this story isn't going to be very long, maybe another chapter or two, at most three. A big thanks to everyone who has read this little story of mine. I bet you know what I'm gonna ask for next: REVIEWS. It really motivates me to write if someone tells me they want me to write more or just gives me a little compliment. Oh, and duh, can't forget, don't forget to check out my buddy Suyuness 's stuff, she writes South Park fics and Naruto fics and stuff, I'll send you a link if you want. Hm, I've said just about everything I want to say...Ciao!