in for the kill
note1: Ick these prompts are becoming difficult to use. They're too happy.
note2: I know I need to do a Tobi chapter, I really do. But he's pissing me off right now.
arc one: dawning
chapter: read
She's curled up on the couch, book in hand. Everybody's out today, spread across town on various missions that she wasn't allowed to take part of. (Secretly she's glad. Akatsuki may be reformed, but they're still a group of criminals.) She looks up as someone walks into the room, and eyes widen when she spots Pein's pierced face.
He raises an eyebrow at her stare and she blushes, ducking back into her book. It's a complex tome that delves into the cellular structure of plants, specifically those carnivorous in nature. (Zetsu is fucking hard to heal, with his cells switching between plant and human sporadically.) Not exactly an interesting read, but a necessary one. Pein gives a small nod of approval, and she lets her lips curl into a small smile.
He glances around, then flops onto the couch next to her in the most undignified manner. One she was most definitely not expecting from the godly leader of a criminal organization and a hidden village. His head lolls back and he closes his eyes tightly, exhaling through his nose. He looks, for a lack of better words, tense. (And human. So very, very human.)
"Long day?" she asks politely, not wanting to pry, yet still curious to what could have brought him down so.
"Mhmm," he hums in response, eyes still closed.
"You should read," she comments off-handedly, "It's very relaxing."
He rolls his head towards her and opens grey ringed eyes slowly. He quirks an eyebrow questioningly, almost daring her to continue. (Since when did petite medic-nin tell the leader of a hidden village what to do?)
"You're only human, you know," she huffs, "You can't go about trying to change the world all the time."
He tilts his head, an almost invisible smile playing on his lips. It was no wonder everyone was enamoured with her. She treated them like human beings, like normal people, something they hadn't felt like in a long time. She did it without a second thought, without some hidden agenda or plan. It was just her nature.
She's still giving him a half-hearted glare, so he hums noncommittally and pulls out a slim novel from his robe. (It's the original copy of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, but nobody really needs to know that he keeps Jiraiya's book with him at all times.) He opens it to where he last left off and Sakura settles back into her tome with a smile. She's right, he thinks. It's nice to take a break every once in awhile, not that he'll ever tell the pinkette she was right.
note3: Fluffy, no? It's okay...
note4: The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi is the book the Jiraiya wrote because he was inspired by Nagato and Naruto was named after.