Stupid Geniuses Ch 18
My head feels light when I wake up, and the entire world feels kind of fuzzy, like I've been wrapped in bubble wrap and rolled down a hill. Again. Ryuu thought it would be fun to try that out on the biggest hill in our neighborhood. I ended up with a broken arm. He didn't even get in trouble with our parents. I broke his nose "accidentally" later that month with a toy car. I won.
"Grub." A gruff voice says and food splats down in front of me on a metal divided tray. It looks disgusting but my stomach makes sounds like there's an animal drowning inside of me so I grab the plastic spoon and shovel some mystery meat into my mouth. It tastes horrible but the drowning animal sounds inside my stomach calm some so I continue. It doesn't take long to finish and I wipe my face on my sleeve.
Blinking, I look around to see where exactly I am.
In a box.
A glass box, to be precise.
It's dark outside my box. But there's a table pressed upside to one side. And there's a person at the table. Doing a sudoku. He has a tipped over snail headband. I take two steps from the middle of my glass box and press my face to the glass. He doesn't look up. Two steps from the middle of the box in any direction puts me up against the glass. His corkscrew curls cover everything but the tipped over snail and I can faintly see the outline of glasses. He's tapping the end of his pencil to his lips and I scan the sudoku for a second before knocking my knuckle on the glass. He looks up at me, his face blank. I hold up my right hand, tucking in my thumb, holding four fingers up. A smile ghosts across his face and he writes in the four in the square he had been stuck on.
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Kenshori's POV
Okay, breathe. Don't freak out. She's awake. OhmyGod she's awake. It's been an entire month of watching her lay there. Twelve hour shifts of watching her lay there. And now, she's up snarfing food down. She's way thinner than before she got here. Guess they induced a coma for a reason… I couldn't tell until she stood but now the clothes she's been laying in hang off of her like bed sheets. She steps towards my table and I look down before she notices me. I glance up through my bangs as she comes closer. She puts her hands to the glass in front of me. I put my pencil eraser to my lips and start tapping gently, trying to make it look like I had been doing this the entire time. She raps her knuckles against the glass and I give her my blankest stare. She holds up four fingers and I try hard not to smile, seeing that she solved my sudoku.
"Takai," Both she and I look up. She instinctively takes a step back away from the glass side. Ibiki is there, a slightly amused smirk on his face. "She's awake? Why didn't you alert someone?"
"I needed help on my sudoku." I say clearing my throat. He chuckles quietly, going to the entrance of the glass box. She freezes up, going instantly pale. I can see why, I did the same thing when I first met him. He's a scary man. He says something to her I can't hear but she nods and returns a few words. They start chatting it up and I try not to intrude, starting on the next number puzzle.
They talk for almost half an hour before the two of them come out. "C'mon, Takai. We're taking her to maximum confinement." I pale a little and look at Kumori. She just looks uncomfortable.
"Maximum confinement, sir? Doesn't that seem like a little much?" Ibiki gives me a strange look, calculating almost.
"What are you saying, Takai?" He asks, his grip on Kumori's shoulder tightening enough to make her wince.
"Why not let me take her?" I say before I can fully realize what I'm saying. "I can keep an eye on her. Sir," I add, trying hard not to make it sound like a second thought. He looks thoughtful then nods, slowly.
"You can take her, Takai. But if you let her loose and she makes it out of the village without you, I can promise you that you'll regret it." He says menacingly.
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Third Person POV
"Fresh, fresh fruit!" An elderly lady says waving a pineapple at Kumori and Kenshori as they pass. "Skinny girl needs to bulk up! Give her fresh, fresh fruit!" She's hunched over with a rice farmer's hat over her hair, making her face hard to see. She also whacks Kenshori in the knee by accident from how eager she is to sell her fruit. He grunts in surprise, his hand going to Kumori's shoulder as his knees buckle.
"We're good, Obaa-chan," He grumbles, pausing to rub his knee tenderly.
"A-Ah, here, let me," Kumori drops down and rolls up his pant leg. She gently puts her hand over the bruise. Within a few seconds, it glows a very faint green and Kenshori winces, as the blood recedes.
"Not bad," He says with a small, approving smirk. He flexes his knee a couple times and nods as the two continue. The older woman can hear Kumori saying how she isn't too good at healing yet but she's doing better.
The old woman un-hunches herself and picks up the legs of her cart, moving it onto its wheels. She walks with a slight limp, from age, a passerby would think. Easy enough to believe. The old woman pushes the cart down an alley, back into an abandoned building. She knocks twice on the door, two sharp raps.
"Who is it~?" A voice sings and Deidara straightens, pulling the hat off so that his hair falls out from under it.
"Who the fuck do you think, yeah? Open the damn door, Hidan, un." He growls, shoving the cart against the door.
"Naughty words!" He says gleefully. "What's the password? How do I know you're REALLY Deidara?"
"Rope, yeah." He grunts, glaring at the door.
"Nope~" Hidan snickers.
"What the hell, un?" Deidara bangs the cart against the door again, making Hidan laugh.
"Rope yeah is not the right password." Hidan says innocently.
"Rope." Deidara grits his teeth and pokes a banana through the eye slot, right into the Jashinist's left eye.
"Ow, ass!" He yelps and staggers back as the door opens. Deidara shoves his cart inside and rolls it right over Hidan, who's still shrieking obscenities.
"Report," Itachi says from his place at their table. He would look a lot scarier if he wasn't wearing a pink fuzzy robe they'd swiped off of a clothesline. They weren't able to use jutsu to disguise themselves and going out in general was just a bad idea unless absolutely necessary. So they stole at night.
"I saw her alright, yeah." Deidara sits down next to him, the slightest scraggly beard showing on his chin. Nobody else seems to need to shave. The blond tried shaving at first but doesn't bother now. It just makes him look older, and more worn. Everyone's that way. Dark circles are under everyone's eyes and they're irritable. "She's with an ANBU, un. He's one of the strongest ones in the village. Basing that on the fact that everyone around him was scared stiff by his presence, yeah."
"That's not going to make getting her back easy," Itachi says accepting the tea Tobi offers to him. He's grown quiet now, silent unless asked a direct question. He's pretty much become the opposite of Tobi. "More challenges,"
"Yeah," Deidara says taking tea as well. "Not good, un."
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Kumori's POV
"Here we are," The guy, who's introduced himself as Kenshori, says as he opens the door to his apartment. I step inside and almost instantly feel my ankles being scratched to pieces. I look down and see a fuzzy white ball of fur attacking me.
"Byakko?" I gasp and she hisses in response. She looks up at me, her eyes angry as if to say "Where the hell have you been? Hmmm?"
"You know her?" Kenshori asks, scooping a black ball of fuzz up in his arms.
"This…is my cat," I look to him, my eyes sparkling. She scratches me. I drop her and kick at her. "How did you find her?"
"Okami brought her back one day," He says scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "She kinda stayed here,"
"Thank you so much," I throw my arms around him quickly but pull away when Okami puffs up to twice his normal size. "Oh, god, I'm sorry. I made your cat…" I gesture lamely and he chuckles.
"It's fine," He says with a sort of half-smile. My heart races and I can feel blood rushing to my cheeks.
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Rawr-arr-arr-oowrr?
"Shut up tummy," I say glaring down at my belly. Kenshori covers his hand, obviously trying to hide a smile. There's a pencil in one hand and he's working on the sudoku from earlier. "Let's see you not really eat for a month and then tell me how you feel,"
"I'll get you something to eat," He says getting up, tossing the pencil down carelessly.
"Thanks," I say softly, staring down at my hands. Okami is under them. He's purring and rolling onto his back, patting at my face gently. Byakko is standing on her hind legs in the kitchen hissing at us. She's jealous. And has a weird way of showing it.
"Well," Kenshori sticks his hands in his pockets as he walks back towards me. "I'm fresh out of food."
"Huh?" I deadpan and he grins sheepishly.
"I wasn't really expecting a guest and I usually just eat out…" He trails off, giving me that crooked little smile again. "So it looks like we're going to the store,"
I freeze. The last time I went shopping was with the Akatsuki. Back in my home world land thing. My stomach clenches and I stop petting Okami. He looks up and gives me a curious "re-ow?"
"What's wrong?" Kenshori asks, hunkering down so that he's at eyelevel with me.
"I miss my home," I say, my voice shaking. I look up at him, teary-eyed and pathetic. He looks hesitant but puts his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. I stifle a sob. He pulls me into him.
"I know," He says softly. I burst into dismal, chest heaving sobs. He pats me on the back, saying soothing words until I calm down a little. "Hey," I look up, sniveling like some idiot in a tragedy. "What was your job back in your other village?" Village? I'm too upset to explain the truth to him.
"I was a librarian," I sniffle, rubbing my nose on the back of my hand.
"A librarian? That's funny." He chuckles pulling away from me, a smile dancing in his eyes.
"What's so funny about it?" I frown, crossing my arms.
"Nothing, it's just so cliché," He tilts his head back, laughing quietly to himself.
"What is?" I say starting to get a little annoyed.
"A beautiful girl being a librarian, it's so cliché," His choclate brown eyes light up and I go dark red.
"You shouldn't say things you don't mean," I manage and he chuckles again.
"What about family? Do you have any family?" He asks sitting down on the couch next to me.
"I have a brother, a sister-in-law, and a nephew." I say pulling my legs up to my chest, effectively pushing Okami away. "Ryuu is seventeen months," He nods quietly, and I thank the heavens he didn't say anything about parents. I know I would have lost it if he asked about them.
"He sounds adorable," Kenshori says seeming to relax a little.