I do not own Naruto but I DO own the all the OCs
Chapter 24: Feelings
The inside of the house was very welcoming. As soon as they walked inside the air became warm and sweet. The floors were wood in some rooms and tatami in the others. Sasori led them through the small foyer, past the kitchen, to the living room. In the living room sat a low, wooden table with crimson cushions around it. On two of the cushions sat Taemi and Erena.
"Okaeri-nasaimase," they both said in unison with a giggle.
Sasori gave them an approving smile, then he turned to the others. "So?"
"I like it," Hidan smiled.
"Yay!" Meiko cheered. "Meiko-chan gets to stay here tonight!"
She began doing a little dance around the room.
Sorami's eyes lit up, "It looks like--"
Sasori intentionally sighed as loud as possible to tell her to be quiet.
"I mean," Sorami fidgeted. "It looks like…something I've seen…on a fictional show."
"Improving," Hareta laughed. "It is a nice place though, Sasori-kun. Don't you agree, Tenko-chan?"
Tenko turned away in a huff. "…It's fine, Sasori-kun."
Hareta and Suzuki burst into a fit of laughs.
"Oh, shut up!" Tenko snapped.
The girls continued laughing.
"Hmm," Katamaru said suddenly.
Everyone tensed; Suzuki and Hareta immediately stopped laughing and Kakuzu shot a warning glare at Katamaru.
"It seems," Katamaru gave Kakuzu a proud look. "That I misjudged. It is a rather nice place, Sasori."
"Um, thanks," Sasori replied. It came out almost sounding like a question.
"You're very welcome."
With this Katamaru simply sat down on one of the cushions at the table and began texting someone again.
Taemi raised an eyebrow.
"Just ignore him," Kakuzu said, simply.
Katamaru rolled his eyes; Taemi shrugged.
"Uh, should I be getting dinner ready?" Erena asked.
"Yeah," Sasori said. "That'll be fine, Erena-chan."
But all Sasori could think of was how annoyed he was getting. That was not usual. Katamaru and Kakuzu were putting a real toll on his emotions. He felt that if he heard one more thing out of one of their mouths, he was going to wring their…
Suddenly, the thumping sound of music interrupted his rather violent thoughts. He turned to see Sorami blasting the opening theme of Pita-Ten, "Wake Up Angel ~Negaimashite ha Mugen Nari~" with Meiko's portable speakers. She'd hooked them up to her iPod.
Sasori grinned. Meiko and Sorami could sometimes be dense, but it benefited them in these types of situations.
Sasori simply sat down, listening to the song that was odd to him and noticed Sorami mouthing the lyrics as she danced around with Meiko.
"Wait a minute," a sudden realization Sasori. "Is this from some anime?"
"Yep," Sorami smiled.
"It's the theme of Pita-Ten," Meiko explained, as bubbly as ever.
"Oh," Sasori sighed. "No wonder I feel like twitching uncontrollably."
Sasori admired their ability to stay calm, and decided to use it to their advantage.
Once the song was over, Sasori turned to Sorami. "So you can actually buy anime themes?"
"Yeah!" Sorami grinned. "I have almost every anime-based soundtrack ever released!"
"Sasori-kun," Meiko said. "Surely you must have watched some anime."
"I do watch Black Lagoon," Sasori admitted.
"Oh!" Hidan jumped in. "I watch Black Lagoon."
"Black Lagoon owns," Hareta smiled.
"We prefer Gunslinger Girl," Akako and Kuromi grinned.
"Figures," Genmaru laughed.
And so the conversation continued. Sasori had accomplished what he was aiming for: a lighter mood. The success of he mission depended on minimum tension in the group. But Sasori noticed, as he observed, that Hidan, Kakuzu and Katamaru avoided talking to each other at all. He could tell Hidan and Kakuzu were on bad terms. He wasn't sure about Katamaru since he wasn't really talking to anyone except for adding a few opinions of his when he felt needed. Nonetheless, he could see the tension between them as a problem, overall. He needed to find away to fix it.
He calmly made his way over to Hidan. "Hey, Hidan."
"What?" Hidan got up from the cushion where he was sitting.
"Do you have a second?"
"Um, sure, I guess."
Sasori led Hidan to the hallway near the stairs.
"What's the matter, Sasori?" Hidan asked.
"Oh, nothing's wrong," Sasori replied. "It's just…"
Hidan looked at him expectantly.
Sasori exhaled hard. "Look, I know you and Kakuzu haven't been getting along--"
"Wait a moment," Hidan cut him off.
Sasori put his face in his hand. He knew this was coming.
"If this has to do with that idiot, I am not listening," Hidan said firmly.
"Hidan," Sasori looked up at him. "This is an important mission for every single one of us. If it doesn't go well we--and a lot of others--could really be hurt, even killed. I can easily take care of Katamaru by myself. I just want you to try to talk to Kakuzu."
Hidan stood in silence for a while and then looked up warily, "Fine."
Sasori smiled and threw his arms around Hidan's shoulders. "Thank you. I'm sure it'll work out fine."
Of course.
Later that night, some time after dinner, Hidan went upstairs to find Kakuzu with a plate of azuki shiratama Erena had just made. He found him in one of the bedrooms, meditating.
"I cannot believe I'm doing this," Hidan muttered to himself.
Well, there was no turning back now.
He began to approach. "Kakuzu?"
"Hmm?" Kakuzu turned to look. "Oh. It's you."
"Yeah…Kakuzu…are you still mad at Katamaru-kun?"
"Yes."
"Why? I mean, he may have a smart mouth but that's no different from almost everyone else we know. Akako-chan and Kuromi-chan are worse than him."
"I don't like him. He's caused too much trouble."
Hidan laughed, quietly.
"Aren't you being overprotective?" he asked.
"Overprotective?" Kakuzu stood up. "You must be joking."
"Um, no. I think what he did is basically in the past."
"Hidan!"
"Kakuzu! I never asked for you to treat me like I'm helpless!"
"I never asked to have to take care of you at all!"
Hidan clenched his fists.
"What?!" he demanded.
"Listen. If you really want to know, I couldn't care less what happened to you or your child."
"Then you lied?"
"What are you talking about now?"
"Back when Shinzouko attacked us. You told me…ugh! Just forget it!"
Kakuzu looked Hidan straight in the eyes. Kakuzu eyes were lit with anger.
"Hidan," he said, never taking his line of sight off him. "So what if I did?"
"What?" Hidan was astonished.
"I mean, so what if I did lie to you? What does it matter?"
Around this moment Sasori was headed up the stairs, hearing that an argument had started. Suddenly, he heard a loud crash. Sasori ran to the door as fast as he could. He saw Kakuzu on one side of the room and Hidan closer to the door, trembling. Kakuzu had cuts and blood on his face, neck and left shoulder. Dumplings and anko were all over him and on the floor was a completely shattered bowl, that once held the azuki shiratama.
Hidan simply turned angrily and stormed down the hall.
Kakuzu wiped a dumpling of his shoulder; Sasori sighed.
"Can things just work around here for once?" he said.
Erena was soon at Sasori's side, and, seeing what had happened, left to follow Hidan.
Sasori turned to Kakuzu. "Kakuzu, what in the world happened?"
Kakuzu shrugged.
"What do you mean I don't know?" Sasori put his hands on his hips.
Kakuzu didn't respond.
"Look. I don't know what happened between you two but Hidan is just trying to make things better, not worse. Just think about that, okay?"
With this Sasori exited the room, leaving Kakuzu by himself.
He touched the cuts on his face. They stung a lot.
That's odd. He thought to himself. It must be the anko.
Ironically, anko isn't acidic.
Thanks for reading everyone! ;D Azuki Shiratama is a Japanese dessert with dumplings made from rice flour in anko (a sweet paste/puree made from azuki beans). Okaeri-nasaimase means 'welcome home'. Erena and Taemi gigled since it wasn't really their home but used it to set a more comfortable setting. :) Seems it didn't do much good for a certain few characters, though. :\ Oh, BTW, I've never seen any of the anime I listed in this chapter. I just sought of browsed a few anime summaries by genre and matched them to some of the characters personalities. ^.^;