Bre's POV
Worry was starting to twist in my gut as I sat at the tea house. The sun was already getting very close to the horizon and there still wasn't any sign of Hidan or Kakuzu. I looked down at the wooden stick from the dongos the tea house woman had given me and started to undo my hair. To be honest I was sure my hair was fine but I needed something to do with my hands or I would go crazy from worry. Once my hair was all down I quickly cleaned off the stick and set it in my lap as I braided my hair.
I never used to braid my hair all that often. It wasn't until I got here that it became something of a necessity, on more than one occasion I had gotten it stuck in doors and on branches. After a while I had Cass braid it for me in the mornings and then after that I learnt how to do it on my own. As I finished the braid I started to wrap it up into a bun and used to stick to keep it in place.
Looking up I let out what was probably my hundredth sigh of the evening and leaned forward, propping my chin up on a hand. I heard the curtain of the shop rustle as the shop woman came out.
"You're still here?" She asked, sitting beside me and holding onto her tray with a red and gold tea set.
"Still waiting..." She nodded slowly and passed me a cup of tea. Sitting up straight I carefully took it, looking down at the tea. This one looked much fancier than what I'd ordered earlier today and in the late evening light it almost seemed gold.
"In a way I'm glad. I was a little worried you would be gone and I would have no one to drink this with."
"Oh? Well, I might not be the greatest company but thank you." Sipping at the tea I could tell right away that this was definitely better quality than what I'd gotten before. "This tea is amazing."
She giggled slightly, making me blush the slightest bit. She looked a few year older than me and was humble in a way but still very cute. "Thank you. It's one of my newest teas. I wasn't sure if I brewed it right so I'm really happy that it turned out well." She sipped at her own tea and smiled contently, watching the sunset.
"I was wondering... Do you know anyplace nearby that would be safe to camp at?"
"Are you planning to camp out?"
"If my friends aren't back soon, yes."
"I'm not sure... I heard that...", the woman leaned closer and lowered her voice as if she was worried someone would overhear us, "some mobsters, were spotted not that far from our village the other day. I sincerely hope that your friends are ok. It would be a terrible shame if they hard run into them. And you should be careful too. Even without those criminal out and about there are a lot of dangers for pretty young girls out in the woods at night."
"I hope they're ok too... But I don't have enough money for a hotel room, so outside it is. And to be honest I enjoy sleeping outside, it's easy to see the stars."
"Well, you don't exactly look like one who would be easy to convince otherwise so I guess I have no choice. If you leave from here, go back up the path into the woods for a ways and keep to the left you should find a small path that will lead to a clearing in the trees. Off to the right of the clearing there's a small cave in the side of a hill. It's pretty hard to find if you don't know it's there so it should be safe."
I nodded, listening intently to her and doing my best to commit her directions to my memory. "When will I branch into the woods?"
"You'll have to pay very close attention but there's a small walk path. I'm sure you'll see it since you'll be looking for it."
"Alright... Thank you." She smiled at me and took my empty cup, heading back into the shop. While she was inside I quickly scribbled her directions onto some blank paper in my bag. I'll need to leave something for Kakuzu and Hidan so they can find me... But where should I put it? It can't be too close to the shop or they'll get spotted but I don't want them to miss it either. I thought it over for a while, keeping my eyes on the path in case they got back before I figured it out.
I looked back as I heard the woman come back out of the shop. Only this time she closed a door behind her and locked it and then around the small building to close up the windows as well. She stopped in front of me before she left. "I enjoyed your company. And I hope your friends get back soon." I smiled at her and waved as she walked off towards the village. Once she was gone I got up, hefting all of the bags onto my back, and started to head where she told me, only stopping where I separated with the other two to hide my directions where they could find them.
When I was sure it was in a good place I continued on the path, keeping an eye to the left to look for where I needed to branch off. It was a little while before I spotted it and then even longer still before I found the clearing. There was hardly any light left as I made up a small fire a little way into the small cave. Once it was done and I was sure I wouldn't smoke myself out I started to gather up leaves to make myself and the others more comfortable beds.
I sat on my bed, facing out of the cave and nibbled on what was left of my food from this morning and sipping on my water until it was half empty. Letting out another sigh I grabbed one of my kunai and slipped it under the mat of my bed and covered the fire in dirt. I took my cloak out of my bag and pulled it around me, inside out, before laying down and trying to fall asleep. Even though I was exhausted I still didn't drift off into anything more than a light sleep, waking up at nearly every rustle outside the cave.
After a while it seemed I was lucky enough to fall asleep more deeply because the next thing I knew I was waking up to the rising sun shinning through the trees and the loud sound of people arguing. Even with it muffled by the cave I could tell it was Hidan and Kakuzu. I sat up, still exhausted from what probably ended up only being three or four hours of sleep.
"See I told you to keep quiet! You woke her up!" Kakuzu growled as he walked up to the cave. He looked around and I could tell he was surprised by the beds even if I couldn't see most of his face.
"You sure it wasn't you loud ass voice that woke her up? I bet if you got any louder you could wake the fucking dead!" Hidan stepped into the cave and I immediately frowned. He's covered in blood...
"Couldn't you have washed off first...?" My voice was quiet but the both looked up at me, a little shocked, before Kakuzu looked over at Hidan.
"It's just a little blood."
"Gross... you better clean up before we get back to the base..." My voice drifted off as I started to fall back asleep, still sitting up.
"We saw Zetsu before heading back, Cass isn't at that base anymore. She left for the rain a little while ago." Kakuzu began making a new fire as he talked and I looked up at him tiredly.
"That base? There's more than one?"
"A lot more than one."
"Oh..." He nodded at me and made a gruff noise as he got the fire to start up. I looked over to see Hidan passed out on his pile of leaves. He looks so cute when he's sleeping... really whenever he keeps his mouth shut for more than a minute...
"Go ahead and get some more sleep, I'll wake you up when we're getting ready to leave."
"Are you going to sleep?"
Kakuzu looked over at me as he took off his cloak and mask, I looked away and rubbed my eyes to hide the fact that I was blushing. It wasn't fair for either of them to be handsome. Looking back up he seemed almost smug and I felt even more embarrassed than before. He totally noticed. "I'll get a little sleep, don't worry about me. Now go back to sleep." I nodded and laid back down, turning my back towards the fire. And now that I felt safe I fell asleep quickly and deeply.
I felt someone gently shake my shoulder and roused slightly. "Come one, Kakuzu said it was time to get up."
I groaned softly and pushed myself up into a sitting position, still mostly asleep. I sat there for a little bit, slowly waking up. Running a hand through my now horribly messy hair I pulled out the leaves that had gotten stuck in it and brushed it out with my fingers as best as I could. Once done I quickly rolled up my mat and packed all my stuff into my bag, only half listening to Hidan and Kakuzu argue. I was still hardly conscious as we started walking and mostly ended up just wobbling behind them for a good twenty or thirty minutes.
As I started to wake up fully I began brushing out my hair better with my fingers, trying to get it to something manageable so I could put it up. "Try and not to fall behind, we aren't going to be stopping to sleep this time. Leader wants you at the other base as soon as possible." I looked up at Kakuzu as he talked and nodded slightly.
"Man, the fucks his deal... doesn't he know getting there in one day is a huge pain in the ass?" Looking at Hidan I blinked slowly. Oh... he cleaned off all the blood. That's good.
"Well Hidan, I guess that's why he didn't ask for your opinion isn't it?"
"Oh shove it. You're just pissed cause you're old as fuck." Frowning as they went back to arguing I trailed back a little more and started to ignore them. Instead I occupied my time with trying to find neat looking plants.
It wasn't until what was probably past noon, guessing from the sun, that I realized just how hungry I was. I wanted to bring it up but I also didn't want to hold us back just because I was a little hungry. So instead of bringing it up I spent the next few hours keeping my growing hunger and exhaustion to myself, doing my best to keep my stomach from growling. I groaned softly and walked faster to catch back up to them so I could ask about it when I suddenly got a little light headed and tripped, nearly dragging Hidan to the ground as I used him to keep myself up.
"Holy shit!?" Hidan quickly held me up by the shoulders and looked at me, only somewhat hiding the fact that I'd scared the hell out of him. "The hell's your problem? Staring at me got too much and you just couldn't help yourself?"
"Ugh, no... I just got a little light headed was all."
"That's cold Bre..."
Kakuzu looked back at us, seeming annoyed that we'd stopped walking, and let out an annoyed sigh. "If you were hungry why didn't you say something?"
"I didn't want to be a nuisance..."
"Yeah, well you're no good to use weak either so next time say something." He pulled his bag in front of him and pulled out some kind of energy bar before tossing it at me and nearly smacking Hidan in the face with it. I fumbled with a little but managed to catch it. "There... it's not much but it'll do until we get back." As Hidan started to curse at him for almost hitting him I looked over what he'd given me. It looked like a fairly large granola bar and the side of the wrapper only said "High performance meal bar". Opening it up I took a small bite and was surprised to find that it was actually fairly good.
Doing my best to eat and walk I kept following the guys as they continued to walk in front of me. When I'd eaten half of the bar I folded up the wrapper around it and stuffed it in my bag, figuring it was probably best to save the rest for later just in case. I ended up eating the other half when we took a small break at what Kakuzu told me was 4 something am. And then after that we walked until we came to the edge of what looked like a giant flat lake.
The rain was really pouring down here and I had almost even mistook it for the other base. As we started to walk around it I noticed a figure standing on the water just ahead of us. They had on the standard straw hat so I couldn't tell who it was, just that they were also probably Akatsuki. "Oh are you fucking kidding me? They sent you out to greet us?" I raised my eyebrows at Hidan started to complain and looked back at the figure just as they pushed up their hat.
"You know you're the ones who kept me waiting right? I have other paperwork to deliver today." Cass responded quickly and looked down at Hidan with an annoyed scowl.
"Sorry... that was probably my fault." I muttered slightly and pushed wet hair out of my face. I should have thought to put my hat on earlier...
"Oh? Well then don't worry about it." Cass grinned at me before she looked at Kakuzu with a bit more serious expression. "You got some new missions... Looks like five of them, and I don't know the details on them but Leader wants you to head out on them some time today. And Bre won't be tagging along this time so he expects them done done quickly. Something about needing to catch up on things."
He groaned slightly and took the small stack of papers Cass handed to him, quickly putting them away in his pack and pulling out the file from this mission. He handed over the papers and Cass tucked them under and arm before pulling an envalope from someplace under her cloak and handing it over. "What's this?"
"Don't know. Was just told to give it to you."
"Hmph... very well..." Kakuzu looked between the three of use and walked off without saying another word.
"Man, this is bullshit... Later Bre..." Hidan let out a whine and tucked his hands into his pockets before following behind Kakuzu, complaining the whole time until I could no longer hear them.
"Alright... well now that that's done, shall we get going?" Looking back up at Cass I nodded and followed beside her a bit wobbly as we walked towards the center of the lake.