Ningyo (Doll)
Chapter 4
A Suitor of the Blizzard Witch
"Come." Madara said, her hand in his, as he tried to tug her into the beauty store that she full-blow refused to go into. "It's just a hair cut." He insisted, but she grabbed her long hair and shook her head, before he picked her up and carried her in, the clerk blinking,
"Um, we-welcome to our store." The Clerk said nervously, and Madara nodded, not really caring about what they had to say. He only cared about getting her sharp nails out of his neck, as she's jab them into his spine almost. Madara grunted, forcing a smile through the pain,
"We have an appoint-OW-ment." Madara said, as Saya twisted her nails into his spinal column. The Clerk and Madara exchanged a few words, as Saya glanced up, seeing a few people look at her oddly, before she glared at them. They hastily carried on with their day as her eyes followed them, before she continued sharply poking his spine, making him twitch and jerk just as sharp. "Mm, stop Saya." Madara said, dropping her in a chair, and she struggled against the hair stylists. "Sit here until they're done, and behave." He grunted, but she struggled, trying to fight back against them.
She reluctantly gave in and let them cut an inch off her hair for dead ends, before returning her to her captor. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked, before her nails raked his face and she walked off, as he stood there with the clerk looked at him with concern. He smiled, "She's a hell cat." He said, paying, before regrouping with Saya, who glared at her hair unhappily. "It still looks the same, don't be so angry." She ignored him, as he tried to coax her to talk to him, before someone intervened between them. "What the hell?" Madara grunted, and Saya stopped.
The person was cloaked, and looked at Saya, "So…there you are, Ningyo No Yuki." The person said, Madara grunting as the person reached for her. Saya flinched, grabbing their wrist and delivering a quick blow to their neck, before they fell to the ground, dead, and she darted off.
~O~Base ~O~
"Someone came to her today and tried to grab her." Madara said, returning Saya to Kabuto. Saya was shaking, as she cling to Kabuto. "She killed them and ran off." Kabuto rubbed her back as she calmed down. "They called her 'Ningyo No Yuki'." The medic flinched, and sighed, "I don't understand what they meant."
"Oh boy." He said, as Saya snuggled into him, "Orochimaru, originally, found Saya when he became lost in a blizzard and could not find his way back. When said blizzard calmed, he found Saya, chained and bleeding, to a tree on a mountain where it snows all year round. The next day he retrieved her but didn't speak much about where he found her." Kabuto patted Saya's head and she smiled, "It was a miracle that she survived the blizzards and didn't get hypothermia, considering the chains were so deep they'd ripped apart the flesh and dug into the muscle. I even had trouble repairing the areas. Though, every year for some reason, around the same time, the same band of renegades attempts to whisk her away." Madara didn't seem so happy. Maybe it was because Saya was smiling as the medic patted her hair, or maybe it was jealously that she didn't smile around him. Maybe it was the fact that other people wanted her just as much as Madara did. "It would be in her best interest that she not be returned to where she was before.
"Why?" Madara asked absently, having spaced out, and earned himself a glare from Kabuto.
"She was chained to a tree in a snow-filled mountain." Kabuto grunted, petting her as she slowly fell asleep. "Ever since Orochimaru brought her into his and my care, she has respiratory problems from time to time and collapses." Saya fell asleep completely, including her gentle, shallow breaths. "I think anything other than that place is better for her." Kabuto tucked her in. "Let her sleep here tonight." Kabuto left the room, and Madara sat on the bed and moved her hair away from her face.
As they slept that night, A man appeared in the room and picked her up before their neck was slashed by Madara, as he sat in a chair not far away from the bed. As they fell, Madara slid Saya out of their arms and back into her bed. He smirked, making himself comfortable in his chair, proud that he saved her. Once again, he fell back asleep.
~O~O~O~
"What do you enjoy about this place?" He asked, as she glanced back at him, the dark lashes curled up, tipped with the white of malnutrition- or was that snow? Yes. It was the snow. "Do you enjoy being chained to a tree?" Her fingertips ran over the snow as she walked in his foot indents in the snow. He was so much taller than her.
"It is…all I have known." She answered, stopping, eyes scanning the mountain view. "I have known of nothing else. I thought, maybe, I was alone in this world, until you came." She answered, staring at him, smiling before continuing to follow his foot holds. He glanced back at her, smirking, before looking forward again.
"There are many other people in the world. Other places. Many, many, other places. Some warmer, colder, sunnier. Some places where it rains." He told her, making her stop. Looking back, he frowned, stopping himself, as she stood there.
"Ra-in? what is 'rain'?" She asked, seeing him grin as he turned to her.
"Water falls from the sky. Technically, it's condensation falling to the ground. It helps you sleep, it's fun to watch. I will show it to you sometime." He promised, and she smiled. Her smile vanished when he walked out of the circle around the tree, and looked at her. She hesitantly followed his foot holds and tried to stepped out too, but the chains pulled on her throat, choking her, before she fell back, coughing. Blood began to taint the snow, and she closed her eyes.
~O~O~O~
Saya forced herself awake, sitting up. Both Kabuto and Madara slept in the room, and she laid back down to go back to sleep. Despite the men's presence being very assuring to her, she couldn't fall back to sleep. She tugged on Kabuto's sleeve repeatedly, trying to wake up, but he did not move. He was dead asleep. She reluctantly went over to Madara and repeated the action to him. This time, he did wake up, and looked at her sleepily. "What's wrong?" He yawned, and she frowned, "Want me to sleep with you?" She nodded seldom, and he got up, laying next to her before falling asleep himself. She grunted, moving his arm and dropping it around her shoulders, closing her eyes. Maybe He'd ward off these painful memories of hers.
Ironic, as these memories poisoned her when they use to always bring her such warm and fuzzy happiness.
The next morning, He awoke to her snuggling into him for warmth. Kabuto has left, and he looked down as her, gently moving her away from him, and giving her a pillow to hug. He got up and left the room, Kabuto coming in, "Don't leave the room." Kabuto said, "Even the slightest centimeter of space could be all they need." He said, pushing up his glasses, and looking at Saya, who looked tired and hugged herself, numbly staring at the bed sheets. The medic offered her some bread, and she flinched from the notion, before taking it and nibbling on it. "Looks like another bad dream." He pet her lightly and she relaxed, smiling softly, no longer hugging herself.
What were her nightmares? Did they involve her getting killed? Maybe the death of family members? Or were they solely based on that dead criminal? Did she ever, once, stop to think about herself, other than this boy and his dead ex-master? These thoughts raced through Madara's head, only angering him, before he left the room and left the medic to tend to her.
"Saya." Saya looked up at Kabuto, "You need to stop hurting yourself by remembering the past." She pulled the bed comforter around her, "It's unhealthy." She pulled on the front of his shirt lightly, "You know this too, right? One day I won't be here for you." Saya let go of his shirt, and looked down, "Sasuke won't either." She laid down solemnly and curled up in the blanket, her thoughts unknown to the world. "Kabuto opened his mouth to say something, before whipping around to kill another intruder, as three others ganged up on him, one picking her up and running off with her.
"Here, drink this!" The kidnapper grunted, forcing a vial of something down her throat. Her vision blurred and her skin tingled as the person ran off with an unconscious Saya.
~O~O~O~
"The Snow Doll has been retrieved at last, my fellows!" The Man declared to the Village at the base of the mountain, as she was dragged, unconscious, to her destination. "She was taken from us many, many years ago, but it will not be repeated again! This time, she will not want to leave." The grunts locked a collar around her neck and her ankles, a short chain between the anklets. "This time, we have made a small 'home for her, around the Tree!" Her wrists were tied together with a ratty old rope before her limp body was thrown on a bed in the small house they'd made around the Tree. "Let the Tree of Earth revive once again, using her life, and let the Dark Blizzards surround her once more! She is the one whose black heart will revive the Tree with her slow demise!" The grunts left her, as she slowly woke up, locking her inside the igloo like house, as she stared in horror at her surroundings before pounding on the walls. "The Snow chills her to the bone, so, she will not escape alive with her strength."
Saya dropped to her knees, the chain already ripping into her throat and opening the long-healed scars. "When the Tree blooms and this chilling weather subsides, she will be offered to the Tree as a sacrifice of good-nature!" In the town there was joyous cheering, as Saya tried in vain, to claw her way out of the solid ice door.
Outside, a man wrapped in a wolf pelt watched as Saya stood up and the snow wrapped around her, before leaving her, as she wore a dress of white with fur on it's ends and around the hem of the off-the-shoulder dress. He walked over and she watched him through the small window, her eyes changing to the color of the running water, as her hair changed to the untainted white of the snow. He moved the door aside and entered, as she watched him with untrust in her eyes. "Ningyo No Yuki." She stiffened, as he crouched in the small house, far taller than her, before kneeling down and hugging her. "How I've longed to see you once more." He said, hugging her tightly and she feral-ly scratched at his flesh where the pelt didn't cover.
"As feisty as ever." He smiled, before withdrawing from the house, looking at her. "Don't worry, I'll make sure no one lays a hand on you, before I do." He grinned wolfishly, "Your chains are of chakra and stamina-sapping properties, so you can't leave. You hardly have enough strength to make your own clothes. Rely on me, Ningyo-" Saya roared, making the man flinch, and he smiled shakily, "Yo-you don't scare me-!" He started, before he was thrown far away from the igloo and the door rolled over the entrance, icing over. He got up and went back to the igloo. "You can't avoid me for long. The ice will melt from your lack of strength and I'll be right here waiting." He grinned, "Remember my name, Ningyo. It's 'Yukamura'. I'll be the one to tame you." Words began to form on the outside of igloo.
'I've only been tamed by one and they are dead.'
"You are wrong, Ningyo!" Yukamura yelled, "I too, will tame you if they did!" The snow contorted around him, growls sounding, and he looked back, twitching. A Snow Leopard twice his own size, growled at him territorially, it's pups next to it. "Remember-! I'll come back for you, Ningyo!" He said, before running off as the leopard curled up at the entrance of the igloo, and Saya lowered her gaze, lacing her fingers together before closing her eyes. The chain that connected her collar to the Tree, snapped, and fell to the ground just before she did, as she panted heavily. She wouldn't be able to do something like that for a good while, as she reached upp and ripped the collar off, allowing her to breath again.
She wouldn't let the scars that had been so lovingly healed, ripped open so savagely has her skin once had.