AN: So, this is going to be a smallish chapter since it's primarily going to be a training motage/character development. And fluff, it's going to be so fucking fluffy you'll suffocate. It's the next chapter which I am excited to write but you'll hafta read this one to the end to understand why.

mothedman: I'm happy this is the best AU you've ever read and that I'm succeeding at writing Zetsu so well. While I like writing her as a child, I'll enjoy it once she had matured also.

Cat Beats: Haha, I considered it since Kakuzu has three other partners left to murder also. If you're looking forward to that, then you're going to love the next chapter (me too!).

rarae aves: It turned out to be beneficial to everyone in a way and you're so welcomed for the chapter.

Lector Noob: Oh yes, I like the idea because I was going to incorporate something like that since each Akatsuki member is going to have their own unique chakra to her. I like the name though so I might steal it, haha. Pein is a mysterious person and is going to do a lot of questionable things, I'll just leave it at that. Thank you for reviewing!

Warning(s): Language (Low), Genderbend, OC (Original Character)

…

Wasteland

Red Dawn Arc

Chapter 36

After the incident with Gaku, Zetsu dedicated every minute of her day to training, from sunrise to sunset. If she wasn't sleeping, eating, learning or whatever else, she was training. All while reprimanding herself for her weakness and languishing over the "what-if" scenarios if she had finished her training and acquired the Mayfly like told. It was this negative, dramatic mentality which influenced her to be the best shinobi ever and perfect her Kekkei Genkai. Meanwhile, this new training routine had Kakuzu querulous.

From personal experience, he was positive she was going to going to burn herself out, doing more harm than good, and was correct when a few times, an exasperated Rājan arrived at Kakuzu's bedroom door because Zetsu had blacked out in the middle of practice due to exhaustion and the elder had to pick her up and put her to bed, only for her to be up and back at it after sleeping for two or three hours. He wanted to monitor her like he did before, but it was problematic due to his duties as treasurer for the Akatsuki.

Tonight was one such circumstance, as he heard the bedroom door beside his sliding open and the tiptapping of bare feet on hardwood, so he decided to encounter her. As he opened his door, he caught petite shape walking around the corner in the direction of the training field.

"Girl." He gruffed and Zetsu paused, hesitantly stepping back into his field of view. "Go back to bed."

"I'm ok, sir." Zetsu insisted, shuffling behind the corner as she waited for permission to continue on her way.

"No, you aren't ok. You're going to make yourself sick or hurt yourself or both." Definitely both.

"I am! Please, I just want to train." Zetsu pleaded, borderline desperation in her tone like a child bargaining to play past dark which took Kakuzu by surprise for multiple reasons, including the fact she would never talk back to him having experienced the consequences firsthand.

Due to this, Kakuzu's hardened facial expression cushioned as emerald orbs stared at her with an uncharacteristically delicate gaze. "Girl, are you ok?" He questioned her in a hushed voice, so she didn't mistake it as anything else as genuine.

After of a minute of silence, Zetsu shook her head, lips quivering. "No…because you were right, and I didn't listen to you." He had done what a certified therapist had failed to do thus far: get her to open up.

"What was I correct on?"

"That you have to be a monster to live or you'll die. It's a doggy dog world."

"Dog eat dog?"

"Yes." She whispered, voice trembling and she sniffed, her golden eyes watering as she stared back at him. "I don't want to die; I don't want to get hurt like that again."

"I…" It was the first time in a long while that Kakuzu couldn't think of what to say. In fact, he damned himself for being the cause of Zetsu's current fragility.

He had been too hard on her in the past and said a lot of things he'd take back now. That, and if he'd just tell her to go back to bed, then Gaku would've never attacked her. Though, he realized if he hadn't done it then, he would've just done so later and Kakuzu may've not had to chance to defend her like he had. Even then, it was a miracle he had because a minute later, she might've died. If he hadn't wasted time checking her favourite hideouts, he might've been able to prevent her from getting hurt in the first place. It was now, as he went through the "ifs, ands, and buts" that he realized something about himself and Zetsu.

This girl, the girl he instantly hated upon first meeting and did everything in his power to hurt and/or kill her, was important to him; it physically hurt him to think of anything happening to Zetsu. Even now, going through the hypothetical scenarios pained his five hearts. When he saw Gaku on her that night, he had a white-hot paroxysm had had never experienced before in his life except when he killed Taki's elders. Gaku might as well been trying to murder Kakuzu's daughter in front of him. It was this epiphany that gifted him the knowledge of what to say next.

"You're aren't going to die because I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not going to let you be hurt again."

Zetsu stared him with two, glistening basins of gold once hearing him say this and as Kakuzu stared back, his red-eyed gaze telling no lies, she realized he didn't hate her like he once did. That he might, like her now? She had liked him, but she never thought he would like her back.

She said nothing, just staring at him with this whimsical look and Kakuzu interrupted the pregnant silence by clearing his throat. "That includes you and you're going to hurt yourself with excessively you've been training yourself. Now, to bed."

"C…Can I train for a little bit? An itty-bitty little bit?" Zetsu pleaded and out came the patent pending "Zetsu Eyes" and fuck Kakuzu felt himself crumbling beneath their pathetic stare immediately.

"I-I…fine! You have an hour! Then, you have to go back to bed, or I'll put you down myself. Understand?"

"Understood!" Zetsu chirped and disappeared around the corner, only to backpedal seconds later, giving him a sheepish stare. "Can I train with Rājan too?"

Kakuzu said nothing, just heaving a defeated sigh and mobilizing Rājan. Zetsu squeaked a "thank you" and grabbed the heart's stringy hand, using it to guide it to the training area.

With that over, Kakuzu returned to his bedroom to work an additional hour then go to bed himself. He couldn't explain it, but it felt like a weight had been taken off his chest. His hearts felt—lighter.

…

After that, Kakuzu starting monitoring Zetsu's training sessions, permitting her three hours of training (with fifteen-minute breaks in between) a day. Once the three-hour mark hit, Rājan, her typical practice partner, would cease what it was doing, even it was in the middle of a fight, and grumble at her to go inside because her time limit was up. Sometimes she did, but sometimes she didn't the chimera would have to pick her up and hoist her to Kakuzu who give her a five-minute reprimand on how she was going to hurt herself or crash, or blah, blah, blah. Since he had to do it every other day, he felt like such a broken record and quickly ran out of new things to say. Not that it would manner anyway since she didn't listen and all he could do was continue to drag her back into the house if she tried going past her authorized three hours or sneaking back out to do. Thankfully, she hadn't yet mastered the art of being a stealthy shinobi and Kakuzu instantly caught on whenever she tried going back on to the training field.

While Kakuzu wasn't personally observing the results of Zetsu's training, he witnessed the evidence of it firsthand as one day, Rājan hoofed into his bedroom, oni mask brandishing a large crack through the middle and its snarling maw minus two teeth.

Though wasn't mad, he wasn't happy either by this since he had just paid to have it refurbished. He called an obviously guilty Zetsu in to question her what happened and while she openly admitted to being the cause and apologized profusely to him and Rājan, it surprised Kakuzu when Rājan stepped in, grunting and motioning in her defense. In fact, he perceived it displaying a pridefulness in her direction. Given she had nailed it with a solid hit, he admitted he was impressed too. So, he let her go with a warning to withhold from damaging his hearts too much and she agreed.

After that, she started petitioning her training sessions be with Daora instead and he didn't question it, presuming she still felt bad for what she did to Rājan though the heart publicized no malicious towards her. A development considering Kakuzu always considered it to be the more wrathful of the abominations but figured that like him, it had developed a weakness for the girl.

Due to the limitations on her, Zetsu had gone back to studies, spending the remainder of her time during the day doing homework or reading. With her obsessive training, she had lapsed on her schooling, a thing Konan noticed and was surprised by since Zetsu ordinarily loved learning and never turned in her assignments late or not at all. She spoke to Kakuzu about it who explained what was going on and while it helped her better understand Zetsu behaviorism, she still sat the girl down and explained to how important her education was and she couldn't ignore her homework and blah, blah, blah. Zetsu felt a little bullied by her guardians but listened—kind of. It was Konan's talk with her, that influenced her to give Kakuzu an improvised visit one day.

Zetsu first rapped her knuckles on Sir's shut door and once granted entrance, she pushed it open and walked in, finding him as his desk. She wasn't sure she had ever since him sitting anywhere else though. "Sir, are you busy?"

"Yes." Kakuzu answered, staring down as his financials and tapping his pen on his head as he wrecked his brain for a number he was missing. But, when wasn't he busy nowadays?

"Oh, ok."

"Why, girl?"

"Umm…I wanted to go to the library because when Konan gets home, it's closed, and I don't want to wait until the weekend." Zetsu explained quietly, fiddling her fingers. "Can we go?"

"It was just the weekend; you didn't go then?"

"No." She had to spend that entire weekend catching up on all her overdue assignments.

"I can't. I have to finish this. Tomorrow, maybe."

"Oh…ok."

He expected that to be the end of it, but no, because Zetsu continued to stand there and not just that, he felt her doing it to him, he hated it. He tried ignoring her, but after a minute straight of it, he glimpsed at her and confirmed his suspicious as his olive eyes met large ambers, staring back at him with pathetic gawking. Fuck him, no. She obviously realized he couldn't fight that stare and had weaponized it against him. It took him just milliseconds later to fling his pen down and push himself up.

"Alright! I'll get dressed…"

"Yay!" Zetsu cheered, bouncing in place and clapping her hands. "I'll get my books and book bag!" Then she scurried off, leaving behind a defeated and humiliated Kakuzu to get himself ready.

…

Amegakure's one and only library was a distinct walk on the other side of the capital and Zetsu had to guide him by hand to its location since he had never inspected it.

Being the only library, it was large, massive, rivaling the size an academy with three floors including a basement book shop that Zetsu blathered on about the entire walk, being where Konan purchased her books and the fabric bag she carried that on it, had a picture of a cat on a bookshelf and read "I have no shelf control". Kakuzu hated puns.

Inside, it was quiet, like any honorable library should be as a handful of people walked the beautifully organized bookshelves. At entrance was a circular counter for checking out books and dropping them off. Behind it, was seated an older, greying woman though only the bun of her hair visible as she was hunched over her desk, labouring over documenting down each book turned in for that day. Zetsu skipped over and started feeding her books and movies into the slot when the woman glanced over and instantly brightened up when seeing the green-haired girl, her wrinkled lips twitching upwards into a charitable smile.

"Zetsu! How is my favourite, little reader?" She greeted her, standing up from her chair and straightening out her dress. "You worried me when you didn't show up this weekend."

"Hello, Ms. Ansari. I had a lotta homework so I couldn't come so Sir took me today!" Zetsu explained, dumping out the remainder of her bookbag into the bucket.

"Sir?" Ms. Ansari inquired, staring up at Kakuzu over the lenses of her thin, reading glasses. "So, you're the infamous Sir? I've heard a lot about you."

Kakuzu quirked an eyebrow back at her. "Have you?"

She laughed and raised up her hands then shaking them though it was due to Parkinson's. "Nothing bad, nothing bad. Zetsu goes on about you all the time."

"Does she?" He questioned, glancing at Zetsu whose pale face was powdered pink with an embarrassed blush as she directed her eyes elsewhere.

Ms. Ansari giggled again and turned to the teenager. "So, what are we getting today? Or are you interested in something new?"

"New?"

The librarian pulled out a shipping box and opened it, letting Zetsu be the first to see the new literature inside. She searched through for a minute then picked two books that caught her interest.

After which, she thanked the older woman and left to browse the main floor which was considered the general literature section while the lower floor was the children's wing and upper floor the adult section. Kakuzu walked over to an available table, sitting down and picking up a book left behind, thumbing through it as Zetsu searched through each and every aisle for new reading material. Approximately thirty minutes later, she walked up to him, little arms stacked with her limit of ten books a week, plus three video tapes, including one she was renting for the hundredth time.

"You finished?" He asked her and she peaked around her treasure trove, nodding to him. He decided to help, taking the books from her while she carried the movies and walking them to the counter to be checked out.

As Ms. Ansari scanned each book, she and Zetsu made idle chat over the material she picked this week. Suddenly, the grandmotherly figured paused, staring at one of the video tapes Zetsu had handed her while frowning as she examined it and read the summary on it and rating.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry but I can't let you check this out."

"Why?" Zetsu quizzed her.

"Because it has an 'R' rating," She explained, extending the plastic box out for her to see and pointing at the large, letter 'R' printed on it in the back corner. "You have to be eighteen or older to check this out. That, or have a parent's permission."

Kakuzu wasn't paying much attention, being transfixed on a specific children's book for sale in a glass case when an object was pushed into his chest. He glanced down; dark eyebrow piqued to discover Zetsu nudging him with a tape. He accepted it from her, glimpsing it over though not positive why she handed this to him. When he looked at her for explanation, she gave none except the subtly switching of her golden orbs between him and the movie. It took a minute, but he figured what she wanted and investigated the film box. It was a twenty-six-part documentary on the Second Shinobi World War in colour. Kakuzu couldn't understand why Zetsu was so hellbent on wanting it until he turned it over and read the description.

'…including an examination of atrocities and depredations committed by the supernation Kusagakure and its infamous bloodline, the Mayfly.' Ah, so that explained it. Once reading this, he peered at her over the see-through box to find her staring at him expectantly.

"Girl, are you positive you want to watch this?" He interrogated her, given the material and especially as he noticed the 'R' rating printed on it.

"Please?" She pleaded him, milliseconds from giving him the "stare".

So, after a few seconds, Kakuzu let out the mightiest sigh. "…I'm a bad parent." He admitted, passing the documentary back the librarian who giggled as she took it.

She had him write his signature on a piece of paperwork that was proof he basically gave his permission for the adult orientated movie to be rented to a minor and she finished checking Zetsu out who gathered her new learning material in her bag. After saying goodbye, Kakuzu and Zetsu left the establishment. Outside, as Zetsu started walking to go home, Kakuzu caught her arm, preventing her from leaving and earning him an inquisitive look from her.

"Girl, you can watch that movie on one condition," He told her, pointing a finger up. "Do not let Konan see you watching it; she wouldn't happy if she sees you watching it." Especially not at him. "Understand?"

"Understood!" She immediately said, giving him a salute.

"Alright, let's get breakfast while we're out." It wasn't like he had to pay, being in the Akatsuki, afterall.

Zetsu kept her promise and Konan never learned of the movie. A few times though, Kakuzu would be walking to the kitchen during the late night for a cup of tea and saw Zetsu watching it and cringed at the horrible imagery playing on the television screen. He himself hadn't been involved in the Second World War, being imprisoned during the time, so viewing the footage from it left him a little disturbed. It also made him question if it would have a lasting effect on Zetsu, especially when he caught her on multiple occasions watching the part on the Mayfly, over and over.

'It's educational.' He told himself and kept walking, trying to ignore the narrator in the background as he spoke of the trenches of bodies found, eaten and mutilated by the Mayfly.

…

It was Sunday and Zetsu was taking her required fifteen-minute break, nestled in a sun patch and reading a chapter of her new book while her training partner of the day, Daora, lazed in the grass a little ways off.

It had taken advantage of the clear weather and positioned itself in the sunlight, laid out on its back with its spindly limbs in the air like a dead insect. Zetsu didn't pay much attention to it, too captivated by her novel until she heard a rustling. She glimpsed over the pages and found Daora had turned over, now hunkered down to the ground and staring at her. Or, she thought so considering it didn't have eyes and it was unknown where it was staring, if could see at all.

After a minute of the staredown, she went back to her book only to glance up a second later when she heard the motion again and discovered Daora closer than before. It didn't move, just stayed there, watching her. As of late, she noticed it doing this during their lessons where it would crawl near her when she wasn't looking, and it made her a little uncomfortable since it was like the heart was hunting her. It wasn't that she didn't like Daora (she found it funny how it would expand like a balloon when using its wind attacks) it was just she didn't have as much experience with it as she did Rājan so she didn't know what to expect from it. Typically, she took it as an excuse to go back to training but today, she was on a great part in her book and wanted to finish it first.

So, she again, tried to go back to her reading and ignore the grass swishing as the bird-like creature shuffled through it but she wasn't successful. The third time she looked up, she was face-to-face (face-to-mask?) with Daora. She flinched back, expecting it to peck her or whatever else. Instead, it bounced up from its prone position, cooking like a dove as it kneaded the fake grass with its talons and pushed its cold, porcelain face into hers in an affectionate headbutt. It walked over her lap, rubbing itself against her and by accident, suffocating her with its thick, threaded body.

Zetsu didn't know what to do but she couldn't breathe so she buried her hands into Daora's "fur" to push it off which it mistook the action as petting. Immediately, it erupted into an intense purring that made its entire being vibrate and it fell over like a ragdoll, squashing Zetsu. She squirmed underneath the critter, but its heavier weight pressed her into the ground, leaving her defenseless to the pulsating mass atop her.

In the evening, Konan came home. Ordinarily, she'd spend the day off with Zetsu, given it was Sunday, but today she decided to finish a few last-minute objectives. Besides, she Zetsu would be training and didn't want to interfere with that. After preparing the living room for lessons and getting in comfortable clothing, she decided to go searching for the teenager for her nightly schooling. She wasn't in the kitchen, having a snack or her bedroom and curious, Konan decided to ask Kakuzu of the girl's location.

"Kakuzu? Is Zetsu training still?" Konan asked the miser, pushing open his door after he granted entrance.

"Hmm?" He picked his eyes up from his paperwork to the clock hung over his desk. Upon reading the time, he cursed himself. He had lost track of time and hadn't brought Zetsu in from her three-hour training time. Daora hadn't returned either though it wasn't as dependable as Rājan. "Yes, she is." He grumbled, pushing himself up with a sigh.

"Oh, it's alright. I can get her."

"I have to get Daora." He explained. An explanation Konan accepted as she nodded and left to go the training field to find the girl.

Kakuzu was a step behind her, nearly walking into her as he wasn't paying much mind and she was just standing there, in the pathway leading to the backyard. She turned towards him, hand shielding her mouth. Except, it wasn't a shocked gesture as her ambered eyes were turned down into crescents and he could see the upturned corners of her lips peeking past her hand: she was smiling.

He piqued an eyebrow at her. "What?" She said nothing, instead stepping aside and pointing and he spied past her at what was so entertaining.

What he found was Daora, laid out like a corpse with two human legs sticking out from underneath it, obviously Zetsu. Kakuzu, on the other hand, was not so tickled pink by the ludicrous image.

"Daora!" He barked, pushing past Konan.

Daora was instantly wakened by the calling of its name, picking up its head and peeping as it searched for its master. Once it saw Kakuzu, it leapt to its feet, chirping and skipping over to him with its backside fishtailing. He shooed it aside while he checked on Zetsu to determine the creature hadn't accidentally crushed her underneath its weight. It hadn't as she was asleep, her book opened on her face to shelter it from the sun. He bumped her until waking her up. She plucked the book off her face, honeydew orbs blinking up at him with a sleepy and bewildered gaze. He asked her if she was alright, which she replied with a nod and yawn, pushing herself into a sitting position and rubbing the sleepies from her eyes.

"Training is over." He told her sternly

"Baww, but I didn't train much." Zetsu whined, standing up and dusting herself off. She hadn't even been able to finish the chapter in her book.

"It's late, so go wash up and get your books." Konan said, brushed her hand through the girl's ruffled strands as she passed her by and smiling.

Once Zetsu was gone, Kakuzu ushered Daora over to put it back with its siblings, when Konan spoke up. "Your hearts—they've grown an attachment to Zetsu?"

"And?" Kakuzu stared hard at her. "You trying to say something?"

She smiled. "Well, I think it's just interesting, is all. It says a lot about you."

Just because he had confirmed to himself that he cared about Zetsu didn't mean he was going to with anyone else, especially not Konan. So, he huffed. "It says nothing."

"'Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye'." Konan quoted with a red-lettered smirk then turned and left, leaving the elder a bit flustered.

…

Finally, after three months of grueling and intense training, Zetsu was ready.

Like every other morning, she woke up at the break of dawn but instead of going to the field, she dressed appropriately and went to Kakuzu's room, tapping her knuckles on the paper door. It took a minute, but a bedraggled Kakuzu greeted her, having just woken up a few minutes ago.

"Girl…what is it?" He yawned.

"I'm ready!" Zetsu proclaimed, flexing her developing arm muscles that were on display by her tanktop.

"For what?"

"A fight!"

"A fight?"

"I want to fight you, Sir!"

Kakuzu was taken aback by this and it succeeded in waking him up. "Fight me? You mean a spar?"

"Yes?" Zetsu replied dubiously since she wasn't positive the definition of that word but trusted it was one for "fight". "I want to show you everything I learned!"

"You can show me." He insisted but she stubbornly shook her head at the proposition.

"No, I want to show you like I showed the Firefly! Please?" Normally, Kakuzu wouldn't hesitant when challenged, but this was Zetsu they were talking about and he didn't want to hurt her, no matter how much stronger she may've gotten. It was due to this hesitation he didn't answer out right and it was this silence that drained her enthusiasm a little as her shoulders slouched and her grinning downturned into a frown as she delivered him a defeat state. "Please, sir? I just want to prove to you I'm strong now."

Finally, Kakuzu cried uncle, emitting a long-drawn sigh. "Alright, girl," Immediately, she perked back up, grinning and bouncing in place. "Let me get dressed and I'll meet you in the training area."

"Not there."

Kakuzu's eyebrows lifted to his hairline. "Not there?" She shook her head. "Then where?"

…

AN: Phew, I'm finishing these chapters like a professional. I was just excited for this one since it was an excuse to write fluff. But next chapter, holy shit next chapter, is going to be awesome. You're going to witness the fruits of Zetsu's labour.

Next Chapter: Kakuzu vs. Zetsu

Until Next Time.