Him and Her
Chapter 4: Frozen Whispers
Hello there my fellow fanfictioners! It has certainly been… an average amount of time really ;)
I have certainly been keeping you waiting, haven't I?
Disclaimer: I do not in any way claim ownership of Naruto/ Naruto Shippuden or Bleach. They are the rightful property of Masashi Kishimoto and Tite Kubo respectively.
I do however claim ownership of any and all OC's that I use in the course of this story as well as any non-canon locations I create for the purpose of this story including any associated history with aforementioned locations.
She could feel… something. Like a voice but not a voice.
It was so soft, practically no more than a whisper.
A whisper of a thought, inserting itself gently into her brain.
"Name?"
The word resounded itself inside her head a thousand times.
She cocked her head quizzically.
She didn't understand what was going on or who said that word.
"Name?"
She moaned in distress, the sound confusing her more and more.
Where was it coming from?
She heard a familiar laugh fill the air. Looking to her left she saw her favourite phantom sitting against the cave wall with his legs crossed,
She wished she could smile like he could. Unfortunately for her the best that she could do was bare her fangs, a facial expression that denoted hostility in the barren wasteland that was her home.
Obito!
If she could she would have cried the name out to the stars in joy. Every time she saw the boy she felt that pleasant burning sensation around her hole.
The boy laughed at her, cupping a hand by his ear as though he couldn't hear what she had just said.
She growled lightly, annoyed at the way her Obito was acting.
Obito!
He gave her a cheeky grin.
"Obito!"
He winked at her, pointing at something behind her before fading away entirely.
Turning around she saw that the Hollow had woken up. He didn't seem able to stand just yet and had chosen to instead, prop himself up against a nearby boulder.
He stared at her with those piercing emeralds, as though he could see through her very being if he focused hard enough. His head was tilted as though questioning her.
"Obito? Not name…"
That voice again.
That endless echoing voice bouncing around inside her skull.
Was it coming from him?
"Name?"
When she heard the word again she saw that the hollow's head tilted in the other direction as though showing her that it was he that had spoken.
He spoke!
She couldn't believe it, couldn't comprehend it.
The Hollow had spoken to her. But he spoke in whispers, without actual words.
"Name?"
She remembered that he had heard her when she called Obito's name.
How?
How had he heard her then?
Rin
"Name?
The voice was patient, never showing any signs of annoyance with his having to repeat the question.
Rin
She had to focus…
"Name?"
She just had to focus hard enough.
"Name?"
FOCUS!
"Rin!"
She felt as though she had burst through a dam. That something had been released and had flowed into her mind. It was terrifying, exhilarating… exhausting.
"Rin?"
She didn't even notice that she had slumped to the floor or that the Hollow had now managed to push himself to his feet and was now looming over her. She responded with a weak nod even as she let the darkness begin to wash over her.
And the last thing she saw were emerald eyes.
"Rin... good name."
Gone were the echoes. This time the voice was as clear as glass, although halting as though the voice were unaccustomed to speaking.
She could feel a soft hand rub her head soothingly.
"Well done Rin."
It was Obito.
Obito's voice and touch. It was truly a wonderful combination.
With a tired croon she allowed herself to fall unconscious to the touch of her Obito.
Where is it?!
He had been caught unawares by a team of Hidden Mist Hunter nin as he made his journey through the outskirts of Hi no Kuni towards one of his other hideouts.
There had been thirteen of them in total, somehow they had known he would be there.
He imagined that they had felt quite triumphant at the moment he had walked into their ambush.
Fools.
War cries and shouts of victory soon turned into screams of terror and begging for mercy as he tore out their throats and ripped off their limbs
It took him a little over three minutes to deal with his would be assassins.
And as he stood there, in the forest surrounded by corpses and spilt blood he wondered why.
Why?
He could hear the trickle of water from a nearby stream.
Why would they continue to defy him so? They had to know that their struggle was futile, that if they resisted they would only die in the end.
He let his hands fall to his side, the appendages dripping crimson onto the forest floor.
He looked apathetically into the blank stare of one of the nearby, now deceased hunters.
That's when he noticed it.
Something was very wrong, something didn't feel right, like there was something missing.
He cursed the heavens when he discovered what was wrong.
It was gone!
It had been taken from the pouch on his back in the middle of his slaughter.
He started looking frantically on the ground for it.
Where is it!?
There!
It appeared that he had failed to perform a thorough job when dealing with his would-be assassins.
One of the fools was still alive, crawling weakly away from him and trying desperately to enter the water of the nearby river.
Probably so he can perform some form of escape using a water-technique.
The shinobi reached out desperately for the water, in his hand the prize that Tobi sought.
Well now…I certainly can't have that happen, now can I?
He made his way over to the injured man who screamed in agony when Tobi crushed his hand with his foot.
"You dare to take it from me?! You maggot! You haven't the right take what's mine!"
Tobi increased the pressure and was rewarded with another agonised scream for his efforts.
"Give it to me you worm!"
Instead of loosening his grip from fear, the ninja instead tightened his hold on Tobi's prize.
"Why?"
The question angered him.
"Why do this? Any of this?"
Tobi relinquished the pressure on the shinobi's arm.
"A fool like you could never understand my motivations."
Reaching down Tobi lifted the man off of the ground, dangling him helplessly in the air by his throat.
Ignoring the man's desperate gurgles as Tobi slowly crushed his throat, he activated his Sharingan.
The black tomoe began to spin lazily.
"Die"
And just like that, with a flick of his wrist, the ninja's neck was snapped like a twig, the last thing he saw, the eyes of a monster.
Using his other hand he pried the dead shinobi's fingers open and retrieved his possession. Without a second thought he threw the dead man away like the worthless trash that he was.
He didn't feel a thing as the corpse smashed into a tree with a sickening squelch.
He forced himself to feel nothing.
Because he was a monster… and monsters couldn't feel anything.
He looked at his prize, the thing he had killed for.
It was an entrance photo. The same photo that all shinobi graduates had to take for their Identity Photos before they could become fully fledged Genin.
He couldn't care less if it was an I.D. photo or a kindergarten one.
It didn't matter in the slightest because it was a picture of her.
The picture was old and faded, its edges beginning to yellow with age. The image itself was faded, a consequence of being traced over and over for many years.
It was one of the only things he had left of her, and it was the one thing that he truly valued above all else. Whenever he looked at that faded photo he was Obito again not Tobi, he felt like a hero rather than a villain.
"Why do I do this?" He didn't even realise that he had asked the question out loud.
"What is it all for?"
Sometimes… sometimes in his darkest of days and when he felt that there was absolutely no hope of succeeding with his plans, he could almost see her standing in front of him.
A ghostly phantom who did nothing but stand there with her arms folded behind her back, smiling gently at him.
"Why do I do any of this?"
He could almost feel her breath on his neck as her sweet voice entered his ear.
"You're really annoying you idiot."
He couldn't decide whether he wanted to laugh or cry, not that he was capable of either anymore.
"But… I guess I have a thing for idiots."
That was all he needed to hear in order to justify his actions. Because he had found her, the one person in the world who didn't view him as valuable.
Because when he was hurt she would heal him.
When he was sad, she would cry with him.
And when he failed, she loved him.
"I do this for her… it's all for her in the end."
It's all for her.
And with that he allowed himself to fade away and become Tobi once again.
Her head hurt.
It hurt a lot but when she whined she felt a hand gently place itself on the crown of her boned and helmeted head. Looking up she saw the Hollow leaning over her, an amused glint in his eyes.
"Awake?"
She huffed.
"Yes."
"Hurt? Good. Worked then."
She decided that a glare was the only response that would do for a statement like that.
"Rin?" The Hollow asked, pointing a talon in her direction as if asking for clarification.
"Yes." She replied, nodding her head furiously with excitement that she could speak with this hollow.
It didn't hurt to speak through means of thought and will, not anymore. Now the words, while limited to one or two at a time, flowed like water from the depths of her mind.
"Saved me. Why?" The question caught her off-guard.
"Not understand."
"Why? No hunger?"
Rin shook her head slightly.
"Heal you. No feed."
"Why?" The Hollow seemed to be genuinely puzzled.
Rin shrugged slightly, ignoring the slight click produced from her shoulder plates clacking together.
"Not monster." It was the truth plain and simple, Obito had shown her that.
"Not understand."
"Me neither."
"Obito… Who is?"
"A boy… Mine." Despite her best efforts she couldn't seem to put the conviction into her words although the words were definitely possessive in nature.
"Where is?"
She began to reply that he was with her always but stopped herself in time.
The phantom was not her Obito, not really and so she decided to go with the truth.
"…Lost"
At the Hollow's lost look she decided to clarify the matter more clearly.
"Not here. Obito is human."
The Hollow cocked his head as though he was pondering a decision.
"Want to find him?"
She nodded furiously again.
More than anything else
"I will help."
She could almost feel the blood in her body freeze in shock. After several moments, she managed to snap herself out of her stupor.
"Why?"
"To repay my debt."
"How?"
"Help you find human."
With that, the hollow rose to his full height and she looked on in awe as the plates on his back shifted and parted, extending out into something she did not expect.
Wings. The most beautiful wings she had ever seen, made of some kind of leathery hide and darkened to the point of being nearly as black as Hueco Mundo's Sea of Mournful Souls.
"Your name?"
Emerald eyes narrowed, not in hostility but rather as if he were giving her a slight smile.
"Schiffer… Ulquiorra Schiffer."
So… I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter, not my best work I know but I've been a little bit out of it.
There's a lot of stuff going on in my life and I guess that is translating through my writing.
Oh well in the end I can always repost it with better writing right? Besides I'm getting this story moving and that makes me happy.
I wonder if any of you figured out that it was Ulquiorra.
Please let me know what you thought about the chapter. That means REVIEW my fanfiction minions (HAHAHAHAHAHA!).
Sorry… the villain in me can be so hard to control.
For interest's sake the way I imagined the mental voices of the Hollows is exactly like the Dark Ones in Metro 2033.
Oh well, see you next time!