AN: Next chapter! Not positive whatelse to say except it's going to be bumpy one. Zetsu is not going to have a fun time. But everyone is going to have their time of being a punching bag in this story. Kakuzu had an entire arc! Haha. The Wasteland itself and its characters are going to be making more of appearance from here on out also since I want to better establish it given it…well, it is the title, haha. And we've gotten a lot lore to go through, some of which is included in this chapter. It'll be important, I promise!

Fun Fact: The Mayfly is influenced by a multitude of things including: the T-Virus/G-Virus, the Cordyceps fungus, and Necromorph Infection to name a few. It's weakness to metal and water is based on how some supernatural creatures can be injured by iron and holy water. Their inability to disgest anything besides human flesh was inspired by Tokyo Ghoul which in it, Ghouls can only eat flesh as anything else, except coffee or in Zetsu's case: chocolate, has a disgusting flavour which makes them vomit.

ForidaAhmed: Well, in Zetsu's defense, she was told if she tried to fight Orochimaru it'd be certain death. That, and why she couldn't fight back will be explained in this chapter. And don't worry, she's still young and will be discovering a lot of new abilities in the future! Thank you for the creative criticism!

Cat Beats: It's going to be used on and off throughout the story, mainly for exposition dumps since it's going to be tied into the overall plot—oh yes, this story has a plot, haha. Oh yes, especially considering the buffet laid out for her, haha. I know right! God, I hafta hurry up and finish this story! At least I'm finally at the halfway point in the arcs. Only three arcs after this! If I don't think of more, lol.

Magmo22: Oh yes, she is! You can thank a picture I saw on Twitter for her design (with added touches). And Sasori isn't going to get any better, it's just going to be filtered through Hiruko since like the manga, he's going to spend huddled inside the puppet with occasional in-person appearances. Don't apologize! I'm just glad to hear you're still reading! Here's praying and life and work gets easier for you!

Warning(s): Language (Low), Violence/Blood/Gore (High), Mentions/Imagery of Slavery, Genderbend (High), Original Character (s)

…

Wasteland

The Akatsuki Arc

Chapter 43

After the "welcoming" introduction by Orochimaru, Zetsu and Banri were taken to the "barracks" which was a ten-by-ten dirt hole with moth-nibbled, wool blankets and pancaked pillows. Thankfully, they were divorced between two barracks so Banri grabbed a pair of blankets and pillows and ushered them to claim a corner.

Awhile later, the other prisoners filtered in to sleep, fist-fighting over the limited supply of blankets and pillows and where to sleep as it became evident this space was not made to contain the baker's dozen or so bodies now inside. It made Zetsu feel fortunate she was not by herself in the room of dirty, aggressive male slaves who made it perfectly obvious they were kill other each over a comfortable patch of dirt—also, thankful for her absence of female characteristics.

That night, Zetsu didn't sleep.

Instead, she laid awake, her head in too much pain to sleep but also too frightened to as without the chakra rod prohibiting her Mayfly and her medication, since her prescription bottle was in her cloak which was gone, she knew if she slept, she'd wake up there. Since being medicated, she hadn't gone back to the Wasteland in years except once or twice when she had mistakenly forgotten to take her pills. Each time receiving a chiding from Sir Leader given her nightmares affected him too. Each time though, it felt like she was inching nearer and nearer to the Hanging Tree like an invisible force was drawing her towards it.

As an innocent child, it had been such a mystical place to her; a perfect place for a child with an imagination such as hers. But after her diagnosis and as she grew older, she came to realize that place she had dreamt up was anything but mystical; if the blood raining from the red sky and the legion of bodies hung from grand birch tree; tongue turned blue and face gone grey, twisting and swaying, weren't a clue. That, and the Monster.

Her psychologist claimed her nightmares of the Wasteland was symbolic of her childhood with each horror she had experienced represented (the hung bodies being the children she witnessed dying, the eye-like moon because of her observation). He even claimed perhaps the Monster was Kiyoshi, her old caretaker and doctor; an entity which was malicious due to his hand in her treatments but also affectionate in his unbridled love for her. He based this off the fact she told him while the Monster frightened her and used her in the past, it had never physically hurt her and in fact sang lullabies to her like Kiyoshi did when she could not sleep after treatments. And if the Monster symbolized Kiyoshi, then who was the Priest; this new character she witnessed upon her latest visit; humming hymns while circling the Hanging Tree on a pitch black, eight-legged horse; a man of God yet carried a gleaming, golden scythe like the Grim Reaper? And Mother—who was Mother?

It was such bullshit and her therapist never listened to the fact that all of this wasn't her imagination; that the Wasteland was real. Instead, it was chalked down to her schizophrenia, a diagnosis she was starting to question. Could the illusions caused by an illness be that convincing to the point she could smell the ashes and feel the heat? Either way, she felt susceptible without her medication and more so without her piercing.

How long was it she read a person could go without sleep? A week? Six days? Four? She couldn't remember or maybe, she didn't want to remember.

In the "morning", a guard tramped into the barracks, striking his baton against the wall while screaming it was time to wake up. Everyone grumbled as they got up and organized themselves in a single-file line to leave and start their duties for the day. Zetsu walked behind Banri as they marched through the dirt and cobble hybrid hallway, guide by the orange light of the hung lanterns. They passed a section of wall that had the beginnings of a mural painted on it, the outlines of which. depicted multiple snakes bowed in worship to a grandiose tree. Underneath it was a massive, nefarious looking serpent with large, spiraled red eyes that was gnawing on one of the tree's roots. It could've been the sleep deprivation and her illness kicking in, but Zetsu could've sworn that snake stared back at her.

Outside, due to the trees, it was impossible to tell if it was morning or night to gage if was the beginning of a new day or continuation of old. Slaves from other barracks were standing outside also and everyone was herded into a line again then given water flasks and bowls to receive their "breakfast"; a breakfast which consisted of a stew that could be mistaken vomit with a putrid smell to match. A fact Zetsu learned as the "homemade gruel", as the "chef" called it, was spooned from a rusted, barrel drum and into her bowl before she was pushed out of the way by the next person in line.

It was announced that they all had ten minutes to eat and everyone fanned out in the courtyard to hide with their spoils. Those which didn't escape in time where pummeled into the earth and had their rations pried from their hands. Zetsu tailed after Banri, who had been waiting for her after getting his own breakfast, and he guided her to his own hideaway. It was an indent in one of the trees which the two huddled inside so to eat in peace.

She was curious what prevented people from just making a run for it, but soon figured it out when she saw the army of glowing eyes staring at them from the darkness. There was a rattlesnake that stared back at her and rattled its tail to caution her.

"Fos los hi minzen wah, mun?" It snarled at her, rattling its tail harder.

Zetsu placed her hand in the soil, testing her Kekkei Genkai but as yesterday, it did not trigger as her hand remained surfaced. Nor did her Mayfly spawn from her waist. "My Kekkei Genkai…" She uttered, picking up her hand and brushed her fingers to her palm to rid the dirt on it. "Why can't I use my Kekkei Genkai?"

"I don't know," Banri replied, wiping his lips with his hand after sipping his water skin. "I don't know but I think it has to be the snakes' venom because I can't use my chakra either, none of the prisoners can." So, no chakra meant no Mayfly, and no Mayfly meant no fast exit plan. She sighed and glanced down at the bowl of bubbling slop.

Banri noticed her lethargic staring after a minute. "You'll get used to the smell and taste." He said, slurping from his bowl while withholding a grimace.

Zetsu shook her head. "I couldn't eat this if even if I wanted to. Do you want my portion?" She asked, offering him her bowl which he pulled back from like he had just now caught a whiff of it.

"Oh, no, no. Whatelse are you going to eat? That's all we get until dinner."

"I'll be ok. I've got a slow metabolism, so I'm used to fasting." She explained and by slow, she meant eating solid "food" once a month besides the protein drinks she drank daily.

"I—only if you're positive you'll be ok until tonight." She nodded and Banri hesitantly accepted her bowl. After giving her one last questioning glance, he drained her portion into his empty bowl before guzzling it down also.

Zetsu stared off into the blackness of the thicket and speculated if help was coming. Sir Leader must've questioned the severance in their connection with the removal of her chakra rod and he had heard her last transmission, but the question was: how long would a rescue take? Would she survive that long? Thinking of it made her stomach curdle but it also could be the smell of the stew.

A minute later, a whistle blared, indicating the end of the breakfast period. Everyone scrambled back to the quad to stand to attention in lines for ten before the wardens shepherded them back with their batons and whips. Banri ushered them to the far end of the gathering and stood together side-by-side, a position that hinted Zetsu to its significance; affirmed when the formation was then divided into three factions: Labour, Construction and Landscaping.

The faction Banri had purposely organized them in "Landscaping" and were responsible for digging out the massive crater which the main building of Otogakure was being fabricated inside. By far the "easiest" labour as Banri whispered to her where people were "the less likely to die". The "Landscaping" manpower was put into pairs with one person given a shovel while the other a wheelbarrow to gather the soil and dump it elsewhere. Thankfully, Banri and Zetsu were put together though. After all tasks were designated, the guards walked to each prisoner and shackled a metal collar around their necks with a heavy chain that linked them to their partner. Therefore, no one could try and make a run for it without dragging the other person with them and if they tried running together, the thick, metal chair would slow them down. Then, each faction was led to start their specific duties.

Zetsu and Banri were given shovels and a wheelbarrow then were taken to the edge of the dig site for upper level excavation. This was the best outcome in comparison to the underground where there was a real threat of cave-ins. It could be luck smiling down on them, but it could also be outside forces having a hand in their situation, a theory confirmed this when Zetsu spied a familiar face amongst the guards.

Orochimaru was speaking with one of her custodians between huffs of her smoking pipe. The elder noticed the other woman staring at her and delivered her a smile and wave before mentioning something to the warden, pointing at Zetsu and Banri. The guard turned to glance at them then nodded to Orochimaru who walked off, leaving a trail of cigarette smoke behind her like a train. The same guard who had spoken to Orochimaru noticed Zetsu's continued gawking and barked at her to get to work, making her flinch and turn around to do just that; with difficulty because as she soon realized, she had never used a shovel before.

She plunged the spade into the soil and tried pushing it further with little result. It took a moment for Banri to notice her incorrect use and corrected her, instructing her to use her weight to penetrate it into the ground and demonstrating how to do so. The guards monitoring them snickered at her floundering.

Despite her newfound knowledge on how to use a shovel, she continued to struggle. Her light weight made it difficult to push it into the ground and the shoveling itself left her quickly fatigued as she wasn't used to hard labour. It didn't help she hadn't slept last night and must be going twenty-four hours without rest at this point. Whenever she paused for a break, it was met by the blare of a whistle as one of the wardens noticed and screamed at her to get back to work while snapping a whip at her heels, making her jump and go back to digging. Thankfully, Banri took up the backbreaking task of pushing the wheelbarrow to the mound of dirt to empty it once overflowing.

It was unknown how long they were out there, digging and digging. It could've been hours or an entire day as the sun couldn't been seen through the treetops and thus giving no indication of the time of day. At one point, the weather turned humid and distasteful, making everyone sweat through their clothing and guzzle down their water supply to last the day in one gulp. That's when people started collapsing out of exhaustion. As they did, the guards blew whistle or yelled as a warning and if the person didn't—or couldn't—get back up, they were beaten with batons and whipped before there bodies were dragged off into the depths of Yuagakure.

"Where are they talking them?" Zetsu asked Banri, pointing at the latest person being carried off in a short period of time.

Banri straightened up from his shoveling, wiping a hand over his face to gather the overflowing sweat. "I don't know. But wherever it is, they don't come back out." He said then went back to digging before he could be screamed at.

Zetsu observed the slave disappearing down the stairway before a guard noticed her lollygagging and yelled at her, giving her a second warning and making her go back to work also.

Later, evidence given as to how long it had been was the barrel used to create the stew being dragged out for supper and everyone watched with salivated mouths while the stew was prepared. Finally, a whistle was blown, and everyone dumped what they were doing then hurried over to be first in line for their dinner. Zetsu was so exhausted and weak that Banri had to guide her into line. Once getting their portion, they went back to Banri's hideaway to eat. Zetsu again offered up her slop to him while she kept the piece of stale bread, shaving it with her canines so she had a little bit of nutrition.

As they ate, she noticed the black-haired man's staring and paused in her gnawing in order to stare back. "Is something wrong?"

"Your head." He said, motioning at his own head. She blinked before cluing into what he meant, having forgotten of the bandages, and extended a hand up to her head but was stopped. "No, no, no. I've got it."

Carefully, he undid the wrapping and she observed the shift in his expression to that akin to horrified as he saw the state of the injury. "Is it that bad?"

"No. No." He insisted but then she spied the soiled bandaging in his hand that had a stink to it like copper and rot. "It's…yeah. It's bad. Definitely infected." The chasm Orochimaru had caused with her nail was inflamed twice its size like an indented cyst, red and oozing blood and pus.

Banri used the remainder of the water in his flask to do his best to clean it, much to Zetsu's discomfort as it throbbed and burned, a sensitive which lingered. He then tore another section of perspirated bandages from his arm to dress it. At this point though, it did nothing except cover it and may be doing it more damage than good. But they couldn't go having the guards see it and taking her to the clinic again. Otherwise, he may never see her again. Once finished, dinner time was over and they gulped down what they could before running to join everyone else as they were herded into the underground quarters to sleep—sleep, something Zetsu did not do again.

She remained awake, listening to the snoring of the other slaves and fighting her eyelids as they tried to fall as if weighed by anchors. The insistent pain in her head like that of migraine and painful contractions in her muscles helped her in remaining conscious. Though, she blacked out on and off throughout the night like a switch to a light being flickered on and off. Each time, jumping awake seconds later, disoriented and confused.

Zetsu awakened in a cold sweat the hundredth time, this time by a whistle being blown by the guard kicking up the prisoners sleeping on the floor. She wasn't positive how long she had been out that last time but however long it was; it had not left her feeling the least bit rested.

…

The second day was worse than the first.

She was in pain from the day before, both from her injuries and hard labour, and exhausted. She was sweating twice as yesterday though she suspected it to not just be a factor of humidity but also fever caused by the infection. The bandages were heavy on her head with pus and precipitation. Her muscles were like gelatin and made the spade in her hands feel twice its weight. She had to take a lot of breathers due to this, earning the heat from the wardens.

Banri did his best to help her, picking her up when she suddenly slumped or stopped by giving her his water after she guzzled down her own without a manner of hours to moisten her dry throat. She received a warning from the administrators then a second by the third, a lashing to the back. The whip ripped through her shirt and she felt the warm blood springing from the laceration, dribbling down her back and soaking into the fabric. If anything, it succeeded in waking her up and the rush of adrenaline temporarily muted out the pain.

She wasn't one of the unfortunate that day which were hauled off into the mouth of Otogakure, never been seen again, but something told her that her luck wasn't going to hold out forever.

Afterward at supper, Banri again did his best to tend to her head, only to find the lesion increasing in size and was turning black, an indication of the flesh dying. He didn't want to panic her and kept insisting it wasn't getting worse, but she knew he was lying, not by his face or voice but the fluctuations in his chakra.

"Everything is going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok. They're going to come get us soon. We'll be out of here soon." He said over and over but she could tell that he didn't even believe himself.

That night, she shivered in icy sweat yet burning from fever, delirious from the pain and like a child, silently crying for Kakuzu or Konan or anyone to find her and take her from this hell.

…

By the third day of her imprisonment, Zetsu became convinced she was going to die here, and no one was coming for them.

She was zombie, going approximately seven-two hours without sleep except the microsleeps her brain fell in throughout the last two nights and her infection to her head was chewing through the flesh of her scalp, making it black and rancid—this is when the hallucinations started.

As they were funneled through the outstretched hallway of Otogakure for another day of blood, sweat and tears, they passed by that portrait again which was being steadily finished each day. This time, when she glanced at the leviathan underneath the tree, it didn't just stare back but it physically turned its head towards her and smiled with needle-like teeth. This brought her to a complete stop as she blinked at it, mystified.

"Zu'u drun hi, dreh hi mindok daar? I made you, do you know that?" It spoke in the language the snakes spoke and she nodded while strangely understanding it. "Zu'u drun lein, ahrk zu'u fen kuz nii pah hond! I made everything, and I will take it all away!" The spiral in it eyes began spinning like a kaleidoscope while it cackled maniacally.

Just then, her arm was snatched, and she was being dragged away, casting her out of whatever hypnosis the portrait put her under. "Why were you staring at the wall like that?" It was Banri who pulled her back into line before the guard leading the pack noticed.

"The painting…" Zetsu drawled, blinking slwoly. "It was…talking to me?"

"Talking to you?" He looked back at her and frowned once he got a good look at her face, namely, the black, puffy bags underneath her bloodshot eyes. "Hey…have you been sleeping?"

She shook her head, the motion leaving her sleep deprived brain dizzy as she stumbled a step. "No."

"Why not?"

"I can't sleep. If I sleep, I'll go…there…"

"There? Where?"

"Hey!" Their shepherd snapped at them, overhearing their chattering behind him. "No jabberjawing!" Like that, the conversation ended but the subject didn't drop.

At breakfast, Banri tried to push Zetsu to eat as it was obvious, she was deteriorating fast, and she had to keep her strength until the extraction came. She physically pushed the potpourri away when he tried handing it back and accidentally spilled her bowl into the grass. It put an end to that back-and-forth as Banri decided to leave her be at the moment.

Whilst their landscaping, Zetsu was on autopilot, her arms creating the motion of digging with the shovel but picking up less and less dirt until she was just scraping up the tor soil and rocks and dumping them into the wheelbarrow. Her face was drenched in and when she wiped it from her eyes, her hand came back not with sweat but the pus and blood dribbling down her face from the weighted, old bandages on her head. As she stared blankly at her hand, there was a breathy chuckling and she glanced in the direction of it to find a brown and black snake watching them, sat a few feet away and coiled up with its head laid comfortably on its own body like a pillow.

"Losei viir, mun. Zu'u vis sahlon nii," It said, flicking it tongue. "You're dying, human. I can smell it."

"I am?" Zetsu inquired, staring at it without breaking beat though at this point, she was just shoveling air.

"Geh. Yes."

"I am. I don't want to die."

"Los hi ahraan? Are you scared?" She nodded. "Hi rul ni kos. You should not be. Faal Nidhogg lost unadaan hi. The Nidhogg has chosen you."

"The Nidhogg?"

"Hey," Zetsu felt herself being nudged and divided her eyes from the loitering snake to Banri's concerned blue eyes that were staring at her. "Are you ok?"

She nodded, stabbing her spade into the dirt over and over. "Yes. We were talking."

He blinked at her. "Wait, you can understand them?" To which she blinked back, her lethargic brain taking a minute to realize this too.

Wait, how could she understand what it was saying? Not just that, where had she heard this language before? It was so alien and yet, so…familiar. She couldn't put her finger on it. It wasn't here, but something else.

"Oi!" Both jumped as a warden came stamping behind them, having noticed their slacking. "This is your third warning, boy!" He straightened out the whip in hand, snapping it against the dirt then against Zetsu's back for her disobedience.

She instantly crumbled, striking her head on the ground and temporarily blacking out. As she came to, she was seizing, eyes rapidly blinking like a camera shutter and eyes spinning circles. Her ears rung with a hellish scream, though she couldn't tell if was her own or someone else's.

Banri tried picking her up to get her back onto her feet when a second guard came behind him, nailing him on the head with a baton. He fell beside her, instantly unconscious, and when he didn't reply to the administrators' orders to get up, they took turns hitting him for trying to get in their way. In a daze, Zetsu succeeded in pushing herself back up to her feet and blinked, blurry-eyed down at Banri who laid crumpled and motionless beside her, a blood puddle under his head. His firefly's light was flickering. She couldn't process what had just occurred or muster up the emotions to care.

Due to this, she didn't say or do anything as the guards unbuckled his collar and picked him up, hauling him off, into the deep, dark belly of Otogakure. Instead, she picked up her shovel and went back to dredging, earning no other warning for the remainder of the day.

She never saw Banri again after that.

…

On the third night, every part of her being was desperate for sleep she refused as she laid awake, alone and seated upon her cot with her back against the cold, brick wall. Whenever the microsleep hit, the falling of her head and made her jump back awake. It was her strategy to remain conscious but sooner or later, it was bound to fail. She was going to die at this pace, if not from the sleep deprivation then her injury, but whatever it took not to go to the Wasteland, whatever it took…whatever it took.

In the wall on the other side of the room was a crack and through it out popped a mouse, white as snow. She noticed and stared at it; overcome with the inkling that she had seen it before but not using what little energy she had to search for the memory. The mouse saw her too and gazed back with beady, red eyes.

The red eyes integrated into one like that of two droplets of blood. A large red eye with bizarre, black markings and when Zetsu blinked, it wasn't an eye she was staring at, but a moon: The Moon.

She blinked and shifted her gaze downward to find she wasn't in a dark, suffocating room and prisoners were gone. Instead, it was miles and miles of black sand, littered with dead trees and skeletons. In the distance, a world-sized white tree, decorated with corpses, hung by their necks with rope. The Wasteland…she was in the Wasteland. Sleep had finally claimed her.

Once she realized this, the panic claimed her, but she couldn't do anything. she couldn't run, she couldn't wake up, she was frozen in place like a statue. The Monster must be asleep because it was quiet, too quiet as she could hear the circulation of her own blood in her head and the palpitations of her heart. By the Hanging Tree, she saw the Priest, sat upon his black steed with his golden scythe. Except, he wasn't circling the tree, like she had witnessed him doing, over and over again like a children's toy train on a track. He was still and staring at her. She was too far to see this, but she felt his gaze on her, penetrating her.

"Hush now, oh dear child,"The Priest started chanting, so far yet she could hear it perfectly. "For death is upon us, the ending of times. Welcome blood red skies, and in the light of the dying day, the waking of a world in an endless night." The bodies hung from the tree hummed to the haunting hymn in blood-chilling chorus. This psalm she had heard him harmonize a dozen times now, yet never failed to cause shivers down her spine.

She blinked and like that, the Priest was in front of her, so close she could smell the smoke billowing from the nostrils of his horse and could every detail of his face. She had never seen his face before and thought if her therapist was correct, she would recognize him as being symbolic of someone she knew in real life. Her best guess being that of Sir Leader given his holier than thou persona. Except it wasn't, he was no one she knew and yet…in the deepest, darkest parts of her soul, she felt like she did know him.

His golden orbs stared at her, emphasized by the crimson blood draining down his face from the spires of the antlers ingrained in his head. "You've been here awhile," He said in a deep voice and then grinned at her with canines much longer and sharper than hers. "Better wake up before you forget how to." A siren blared again, deafening her and blackening her vision. The last thing she saw was the Priest's face though it didn't resemble that of a human, but that of the Monster's smiling face that peeked out from under the Hanging Tree.

…

"Shut the fuck up!" A prisoner barked to whoever was moaning and breathing laboriously, disturbing his slumber. When the person didn't stop, he sat up, glaring into the blackness of the barrack in the direction of the ghastly noise. "I said—"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence as his face was met with a mouthful of razor teeth.

…

AN: A dundun dun dun! Phew, this chapter took a while, but I'm so, so satisfied with it! Especially with the ending and hints of original lore! Also, from here on out, Elderspeak is going to be translated when a person can understand it but I'll include the literal writing too for fun.

Who is the Priest? How can Zetsu understand Elderspeak? And…what is the Nidhogg? You'll just have to keep reading to find out!

Next Chapter: Extraction.

Until Next Time.