AN: New chapter, new member. And fight scene. I believe I am getting better at writing them, though. The Akatsuki is coming together now. Not much else to say except, enjoy?
Cat Beats: Happy Thanksgiving to you too! And Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year, haha. Celebrate with this new chapter! Thank you for another year of being a reader!
p.s. no beta, too lazy to edit. Please excuse any jank.
Warning(s): Violence/Blood/Gore (High), Language (High), Genderbend (Mid), Out of Character
…
Wasteland
The Akatsuki Arc
Chapter 60
Biwa Jūzō integrated into the Akatsuki surprisingly well. No one expressed grievances over the other Swordmen's enlistment, and he got on well with everyone as if old friends. Even Kakuzu couldn't think of anything to begrudge him outside saying he was, "obnoxious to listen to,". Though, so was Sasori. Unfortunately, the peace was brief as just days after Jūzō nestled into the organization, Pein ordered a meeting to discuss hunting down another new member and potential partner for Kakuzu.
"I don't need a partner," Was the first thing Kakuzu said upon learning this development.
"Yes, you do," Pein immediately quashed that without so much as glancing up from his paperwork at the elder.
Kakuzu huffed, crossing his arms. "I don't want a partner,"
"That is too bad. I may have finally found someone on par with your skill,"
Kakuzu opened his mouth to obviously dispute this outlandish claim but was interrupted as Kisame and Jūzō made their grand entrance into the office, having been christened to this mission alongside Kakuzu. They kept whispering and cackling with each other before hushing down when Pein finally finished his latest signatures and put down his pen to address them all.
"Thank you for your attendance. I have gathered you here today because I have lead on a new mark and possible Akatsuki member,"
"Ohhh, already? Feels like we just Jūzō here yesterday," Kisame said, thrusting a thumb back at his partner who just smiled and giggled as if it was this big secret.
"We did," Pein confirmed. "But this new member to be Kakuzu's partner,"
"Fuck no," Kakuzu barked, much to his leader's immediate exasperation. "I don't need a partner; I don't want a partner. So, fuck off with it!"
"Kakuzu, I do not remember the part when I asked you for your opinion," Pein deadpanned and either Kisame or Jūzō snorted in the backdrop, Kakuzu wasn't sure which but shot a glare at them both for extra measure. "To start off with, Sasori nor Zetsu could find much on this individual outside the fact they are a member of the Chinoike Clan, and may be the last,"
"The Chinoike Clan?" Kakuzu inquired with a piqued eyebrow, uttering what they were all questioning as Kisame and Jūzō exchanged glances and shrugged to indicate they hadn't heard of the clan either.
"Zetsu, if you may?" Pein looked at Zetsu who had been standing silently next to his desk to listen and wait to speak so she may part her knowledge on this subject.
"The Chinoike Clan is centralized in the Steamlands. However, they dawned from the Skylands but were driven out due to politics. It is speculated the clan may've been instituted by stray members of the Uchiha clan though due to their Kekkei Genkai, the Ketsuryūgan, being so alike to the Sharingan in their specialty in Dōjutsu and genjutsu. Ketsuryūgan users can also manipulate liquids with high iron concentrate like blood, thus the translation of Blood Dragon Eye,"
"Holy shit. So, like, they fuck with your head and your blood?" As Jūzō so eloquently put it and hugging himself as he quaked. "Yikes, dude," Kisame nodded in agreement with the statement.
"Yes. Not just that but the clan had a custom of…drinking blood and were suspected of being of having been cannibals…" Zetsu tapered off. She felt like a hypocrite judging others on such a taboo topic given her own bloodline's history of the exact same.
Sensing her discomfort, Kakuzu ushered them past it. "So, it was said this person may be the last of this Chinoike Clan? What the fuck went on there?"
Zetsu perked up again at the accepted subject shift. "It is unknown, but it is theorized they killed each other. Yugakure had the Valley of Hell, where the Chinoike lived, impermissible, but a Yugakure Genin trespassed into the valley and discovered all the clan slaughtered. He reported back and when they investigated, they determined in-fighting led to them murdering themselves. So, the clan was declared extinct and the valley again, prohibited,"
"Thank you, Zetsu," Pein said after the woman's little history and nodding, she stepped back to lurk in darkness. "That is, until Yugakure learned one of the Chinoike survived and has put out a one-million ryō bounty out for them to be captured alive,"
"Captured? What for?" Jūzō asked.
"Hmmm, I had to guess, so they can slap them with the genocide of an entire clan," Kisame said with a shrug. There was a collective mumbling for that being the definitive answer.
"So, it is imperative that we find her first and—"
"Wait, her?" Kakuzu intercepted and Pein internally groaned at his slipup, having tried but ultimately failed to smuggle through the sex of this new member. "You want to partner me with a woman?"
"And what is so wrong with having a woman as your partner, Kakuzu?" Pein interrogated him. Konan briefly paused in her own workload to listen in.
"Oh, I'll tell you what's fucking wrong! They're hormonal, weak and a handicap!" Kakuzu listed off whilst ignoring the fact he was in the presence of two women, one of which he was fighting to stay partnered with. Though, neither let it offend them nor even blinked as by now they were long used to the old man's misogyny.
Kisame and Jūzō, on the other hand, having not experienced this level of sexism, looked horrified and looked at the two women while shaking their heads to communicate they did not share these backwards opinions. Konan just smiled and went back to what she was doing.
"I am sorry you feel that way, but this is my decision, not yours,"
"Bullshit, it isn't!"
"Back to that which I was saying," Pein broadcasted lest Kakuzu had an opportunity to interrupt him again and they be squabbling forever. "Sasori tracked her down in the Firelands with Zetsu confirming her position just hours ago. Her pathing is leading her towards the Fallands so you should be able to intercept her at the border between the two nations,"
"Oh, it isn't enough that you're going to stick with a woman but send me out to fucking Taki to get her too?" Kakuzu bellyached.
Pein brushed off his grievances or "grievances" as he saw them. "Any questions?"
Instantly, Kakuzu's hand launched up, but Pein ignored him in favour of Jūzō's own timid hand. "Yes, Jūzō?"
"So, like, is it goin' to be like, just the three of us?"
"Yes, it will be you, Kisame and Kakuzu,"
"Do you like, think it'll be 'nuff against the chick with murder eyes and a blood fetish?" On the other side of the office, Konan unexpectedly hiccupped with laughter at the new sentence of "murder eyes and a blood fetish" and cupped a hand over her mouth to muffle it while Jūzō looked at her and grinned. Pein frowned.
"My suggestion is do not look her in the eyes and do not let her touch you. Anything else?" Pein said, matter-of-factly, as if it was so easy. Jūzō fell his hand and Pein looked to Kisame who had so far been the only quiet one to which the ningyo shook his head to indicate he had nothing. Again, Kakuzu was ignored despite his hand borderline being thrusted in the ginger's face. "Then you are dismissed and are to leave immediately. This is a capture or recruit mission. If she does not accept the Akatsuki's invitation, she is to be captured alive to be passed onto Yugakure. You have my blessings." With that, he swiveled backwards in his chair to wait for them to leave his office. Kisame and Jūzō were out first, scurrying to the elevator like mice while Kakuzu stayed back.
He punched his hands down onto the arms of the chair which he had been sitting and pushed himself from it. "This is bullshit, Pein, and you know it!" Pein didn't dignify him with an answer nor faced him. Zetsu glanced nervously between her employer and guardian in case she had to step between them. Kakuzu wouldn't try anything if she was in the way, or least she hoped so.
Thankfully, it never came to that as instead of getting aggressive, Kakuzu marched out of the office like a tantruming toddler. Zetsu looked desperately at Pein who just nodded to indicate she too was to leave, and she sprinted after the banker. Kisame and Jūzō had taken their leave out of the building so there was no fighting over room on the elevator as she boarded with him, deactivating her Mayfly since she couldn't fit otherwise with it. Kakuzu punched a button, and they went down.
"Bullshit," Kakuzu uttered indignantly to himself, arms crossed.
"I'm sorry, Sir,"
He glared at Zetsu. "And you knew about this? And didn't tell me!?"
Zetsu slinked into her oversized cloak like a turtle withdrawing into its shell. "I-I was just sent out to track her. Sir Leader never told me she was a candidate for your partner," As previously established, Zetsu never lied and when she did lie, it was obvious. So, he trusted her this once.
"Either she dies or goes to Yu. No way in hell I'm being burdened with a female partner. I'll make damned sure of it,"
…
"So, what's, like, the plan, my dudes?" Jūzō inquired once the three of them were out of the murky swamps of the Marshlands and walking through grassy, green fields of the Firelands to intercept their latest target.
"Hmm, I think Kakuzu should have say on that since it is for his new partner," Kisame said, gifting said banker a smug-ass smile when Kakuzu obviously glared at him for that damning statement.
"Unfortunately, Pein did not give us a name so I cannot find her in the Bingo Book, nor could I find anyone under Chinoike, so I do not think she has a published bounty," Kakuzu started with, snapping shut his newest edition of the Bingo Book which he had been thumbing through and tucking it back into the inner pocket of his cloak. "All we know is she is of the Chinoike and in possession of the Ketsuryūgan which is the Sharingan's removed cousin. Also, they have a jutsu for blood so long-range is idea if she fights us. I'm guessing neither of you are long-range?"
Jūzō held his hands up on a pleading motion. "Sorry, dude, but Kurouchi is up close and personal, and I don't have any, like, long-range jutsu,"
"Samehada too," Kisame parroted his partner. "Ohhh, but if we can get her in area with water, I should be able to use my Suiton,"
Kakuzu huffed. "You two are backup. If she tries to run, break her fucking legs. If I don't do it myself. Bootleg Sharingan or not, she shouldn't be an issue, being a woman, afterall,"
Oh, how badly Kisame wished to criticize the old man's brazen misogynist ways but neither he nor Jūzō did if just to keep what little peace there was. "After you, Boss Man," The ningyo said instead. With another Kakuzu, marched off down the dusty, dirt road while Jūzō and Kisame stayed back, whispering to each other behind the elder's back.
By next morning, they were through the Firelands and nearing the border to the Fallands but paused to commiserate with each other and Zetsu who had rendezvous with them with information.
"She's within two kilometers northeast on this path so you should be able to intercept her by cutting through the forest," Zetsu debriefed them all. "Female, mid-to-late thirties, long hair, grey with black highlights, lavender eyes and wearing civilian clothing: white overshirt without sleeves, bandaged arms, black pants with a pouch on left flank and black heeled sandals. No headband. She is alone,"
"Oh, so she's a hottie?" Jūzō exclaimed and Kisame elbowed him only to say, "I was thinking the same thing!" and the two erupted into juvenile giggling. Kakuzu sighed and rolled his eyes so hard they may be whiplashed.
"Oh, and Sir, I got you the item you requested," Rustling around in her flytrap, Zetsu presented said item out to the man, and he plucked it from her hand. When he tried to look at Thing One and Thing Two behind him, he was brandishing a pair of sunglasses on his face.
"Ohhh, is that, like, so she can't hypnotize you? Fucking smart, bro,"
"Hmmm, sunglasses can't negate the effects of Dōjutsu. Otherwise, everyone would be wearin' them,"
"I'm not a fucking idiot!" Kakuzu barked at them and Kisame held his hands to plead innocence while Jūzō tactically used his much larger and stronger partner as a shield. "It's so she can't see my fucking eyes and know if I'm looking at her so she can't use her eye fuck bullshit!"
"Fucking smart, bro," Jūzō echoed, erecting a thumb's up over Kisame's shoulder.
Huffing, Kakuzu charged off into the treeline so they may blindside their pigeon with a shrewd Kisame and Jūzō walking after him, the latter still staying behind the other man. Zetsu went back to her lookout to keep an eye on this Chinoike woman until the male members were in position.
Within the hour, they spied her, trekking obliviously down a beaten path by her lonesome and Kakuzu signaled for them to hunker down and observe for now. She did not clue in on the fact she was no longer alone and only then did they lurk out from their hiding place to surround her. Immediately, the white-haired woman paused upon Kisame and Jūzō stepping out in front of her and when she stepped back to turn around, she discovered Kakuzu at her flank. Immediately, she drew a kunai from her boot and fell into a defensive pose.
"Woah, woah! We ain't here to fight," Jūzō said, ushering for her to put down the weapon which she did not, obviously.
"We're just here to talk," Kisame elaborated further with his own hand on Samehada's hilt. Jūzō mimicked him.
"Talk?" She spat out, glancing incredulously between them and Kakuzu over her shoulder.
"Yugakure has put out a bounty on your head for the death of your clan and we're here to collect," Kakuzu said, matter-of-factly.
"The Chinoike? Hmph. And they think just because I was the only one to survive that I was the one to murder my brethren? My own parents? My sister? My fiancé?"
"Damn, this shit's gettin' heavy," Jūzō uttered to little too loudly as the female's head instantly snapped towards him and she glared, causing the man to flinch in anticipation of her Dōjutsu.
"We're not here for your bounty," Kisame insisted.
"So long as she doesn't deny our offer," Kakuzu said, immediately smudging whatever lame attempts the other man was making at calming the woman down.
"Offer?" She predictably asked next, purple orbs twitching between the two.
"Ohhh, the Akatsuki. We're a mercenary organization that does the dirty work for governments,"
"So, you're soldiers of fortune?" Kisame confirmed this more or less with a shrug. "And you want me to join you? Why?"
"Our leader has something of a—fetish for strong shinobi and rare Kekkei Genkai," Kakuzu replied. Jūzō giggle-snorted which earned him an elbowing from his partner who was also trying not to laugh.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we're taking you back to Yugakure," Kakuzu grunted. "Either or, you're coming with us,"
There was a moment of silence as the Chinoike looked between Kakuzu at her back and two men at her front and one could practically hear the gears in her head turning as she analyzed the deal or figured an escape plan. Another tense second came to pass, then two and upon making her decision—her eyes bled red.
Fortunately for Jūzō, he had been looking elsewhere in the split-second of the Dōjutsu's activation. Unfortunately for Kisame, he had not been and immediately over to the ground upon slightest glance with the Ketsuryūgan. "Kisame!"
Jūzō wasn't graced with time to check on his partner's wellbeing as the Chinoike was barreling straight at him. With hand still grasping hilt, he drew Kubikiribōchō from his back. As he swung at her, however, she passed the blade's arc by leaping over it. As she flew on his head, she slapped him on the shoulder and using all his strength, he hauled the gargantuan sword up and over to hit her midair. Unbeknownst to him, that smack hadn't been a friendly pat of the back.
Blood Art: Contraction!
All of sudden, a horrendous cramp plagued Jūzō's arm, the muscles twinging and writhing. The intense, burning pain paralyzed his hand and his weapon fell to the ground with a thundering, metallic crash in a plume of dust. He fell next to his unconscious partner, swaddling his spasming limb. The woman fled and Kakuzu lunged himself over his two, fallen comrades in pursuit.
"Daora! Teo!" The two hearts emerged with Teo taking lead while Daora hugged herself to Kakuzu's hip to which he grasped onto the threading of her back.
Looking back, the woman saw her stalkers, gnawing at her ankles and lurched into the treeline in attempt to lose them. Teo clumsily bumbled into the bushes after her with Kakuzu and Daora not straying from the path. She leapt, tree branch to tree branch to create distance but the threadbare behemoth was on her every step of the way, bulldozing through the thicket and flattening the foliage underfoot. Unfortunately, her Kekkei Genkai did nothing as she realized a little too late that its "eyes" were in fact empty circles drawn onto its smiling face and yet, bizarrely it possessed sight. It wasn't going to stop after her either, negating any chance at a quiet getaway. So, instead of fleeing from it, she turned on heel and jumped straight at it, hand extended out to make physical contact.
Teo skidded to a lengthy stop and spying the invasive hand towards him, opened his mouth and belched a fireball at her. Nothing too large as his intention was to frighten, not harm. And frighten it did as the woman immediately twisted her body mid-flight out of the trajectory of the flame where it skirted past her by mere inches—no, millimeters, the white-hot heat sizzling the skin of her face like a burning caress. It flew on until smashing into an unfortunate tree which then erupted into an explosion of brimstone and a hail of knife-like splinters.
A new flame danced between the heart's clay lips but hadn't the chance to fire as the woman, unable to cast it under her genjutsu nor could get close enough for her Kekkei Genkai, did the only thing left which was to retreat—again. Teo—no pun intended—was hot on her heels once more. Try as she might, she was losing him either. Eventually, the woods ran out and she was back on the road again where Kakuzu was waiting, having intercepted her in the meantime.
The Chinoike glared at him so he may too be incapacitated by her Ketsuryūgan. However, it failed as Kakuzu neither flattered nor fell unlike the other male.
'Damnit, is due to the sunglasses? No, can't be.' It wasn't the sunglasses, it was. . .then, she acknowledged the other stranger beast at his side and the way which his hand was weaved within its faux fur like one did with a seeing-eye dog. No, he wasn't looking at her at all.
She backpedaled from the elder and Teo pounced from the trees behind her, successfully pincering her between the two parties and squishing any idea of secondary escape.
"This is over," Kakuzu announced, stepping in her direction. Instinctively, she paced back and Teo snarled out in warning. "Give up quietly and maybe I'll let you keep your legs to walk with back to Yu,"
He wasn't immediately gifted an answer. Instead, she glanced betwixt them, back at Teo then to Kakuzu in silent consideration. Finally, after a moment of the back and forth, she silently put up her hands in surrender. Kakuzu felt Daora ease underneath his fingertips and let out the breath he unknowingly smuggled in his chest. With the winged chimera's guidance, Kakuzu approached the pale woman with the intention of apprehending her. She placed her arms behind her back to cooperate but as she did, her palm brushed against Teo's mask who was standing guard at her back. Using his thread, Kakuzu bound her hands together and with a harsh hand on her shoulder, pushed the Chinoike forward to start walking. As she stumbled ahead, he only caught the last of her handsigns and by then, it was too late.
Blood Art: Transfusion.
Teo crumbled to the ground, writhing, with thrashing legs kicking up dirt. Dark blood gushed from his red lips and through the seams of his mask, emptying into a crimson puddle which he splashed in like a suffocating fish, spraying all that surrounds, thing and person, with gore. It was just seconds later, that with a laboured wheeze, Teo fell still, his threaded body melting into a black ooze with only his mask and dead heart left in its midst. Daora squealed out in grief for her sibling while Kakuzu grimaced, clinching his chest in pain. Neither noticed the split blood dividing up into multiple rivers which streamed in a guided path past them and straight to the Chinoike woman, gathering at her feet and leaking into her boots.
Upon hearing the distinct snapping of his threads, Kakuzu looked up only to have a fist delivered into his cheek which succeeded in causing him to stumble a step and his sunglasses to slump down into his nose but not fall, thankfully. Immediately, he retaliated, swinging his own fist back at the offender but it was caught. He swung his other, Doton infused but with the exact same outcome. Bewildered, he snuck a peek at the woman to find she was…different—and it wasn't a little difference either.
She now mirrored him, not just in behemothic size but strength as sweat-stained bandages distended thin over bulging muscles and pants ripped to furnish legs as thick as tree trunks. With this newfound physique, she pushed him back as Kakuzu dug his heels into the dirt with no success, even with the additional tonne from his Doton. Now wanting to lose this impromptu round of tug-of-war, threads spawned from his wrists and jabbed and stabbed at the woman's hands where she had them intertwined with his own in a bruising grasp. Even that, however, did not get her to relent. So, he whistled to Daora.
With an enraged scream, Daora launched herself over his head and spewed air bullet after air bullet at the Chinoike in vengeance for the death of her brother. Immediately, the salt-and-pepper haired woman released Kakuzu as she bobbed and weaved through the pellets. While none hit her directly, one struck a nearby tree, ejecting a branch. As it flew past, it nicked her arm before lodging itself upright into the ground. Though it was a superficial cut, a high-pressured jet of blood spurted out, painting nearby foliage with a gruesome backsplash. She slapped a hand over the wound to cease the bleeding, but it was too late as Kakuzu clued into the secret of her sudden powerup.
'She absorbed the blood from Teo,' He thought, noting the loss of muscle mass in her arm from the blood loss then scrutinizing what was leftover of Teo which was bizarrely emulate without so much of a speck of blood.
He wasn't going to squander his opening with her distracted as he charged her lest she recover. Seeing this and with one arm down, the Chinoike made the split-second decision to let herself bleed out the pilfered blood in favour of blitzed through the essential hand signs for her jutsu.
She thrusted a bloodied hand outwards, squeezing it into a fist. Blood Art: Arrest!
Immediately, Kakuzu's attack was interrupted as he stumbled onto his hands and knees as he was struck down by a grisly pain in his chest, so noxious that his lungs laboured for oxygen as he wheezed for breath. A numbness infected his arms, skulking through them into his chest and he slumped into his elbows, so he didn't fall facedown into the dirt. His hearts hammered off-key with each other, pumping and pumping harder as if using his ribcage like a drumset until they felt on the edge of being pulverized into dust. A heart attack…she was inducing a heart attack! Or heart attacks, in this case.
Paralyzed and in a ditch effort to save not just himself but his hearts, he ejected his two extra hearts. Unfortunately, it was a little too late as while Amatsu clambered free, her heart surrendered to the jutsu and the liquidized black fluid of her very being streamed out from underneath his cloak as well as her mask and dead heart. Rājan desperately punched at his master's cloak to escape before he too met a similar fate with Daora clawing at the fabric on the outside to help. Thankfully, they were triumph as Rājan emerged through the tattered cloth and fell onto the ground, respiring while clinching his chest with Daora squeaking and pushing her paws down onto her sibling's back so his heart didn't seize up too.
Once on his feet, Rājan bellowed in rage, threads crackling with electricity and Daora parroted his yell with her own. However, before either could attack the woman, there was a rustling of leaves and then, from the woods out sprung Jūzō.
He swung Kubikiribōchō downward, smashing the mammoth broadsword into the ground next to the Chinoike, quaking the earth itself. His intention wasn't to hit her, just scare her and it did, interrupting the jutsu she had on Kakuzu. As she fled to the side to avoid being cut in half, Kisame jumped from the bushes where he had been lying in wait after regaining consciousness. With Samehada, he connected a hit to the woman's side, slashing through her blood-soaked fabric and flesh like tissue paper. The impact sent her twirling whilst a disturbing amount of blood sprayed free akin to a sprinkler. As she fell, Jūzō looped her head through the hole in Kubikiribōchō with Kisame planted Samehada into her back, the sword happily gulping up her chakra, so she hadn't enough to cast another jutsu.
"Stay down," Kisame instructed the Chinoike quietly, earning a glare in reply and despite having no chakra to use her Dōjutsu, he flinched.
Meanwhile, Rājan had hurried over to Kakuzu who laid, motionless in the dirt with no pulse as his last heart had failed just seconds before the jutsu could be cancelled. With an electric shock to the chest from the thunder element, Kakuzu's body jerked and the elder gasped, sputtering and hacking as his heart was restarted. Daora pushed herself underneath his back to get himself into a seated position so he could breathe easier while Rājan was on standby for the chance he collapsed again.
"Yo! Are you, like, okay, Kakuzu, dude?" Jūzō asked him, dividing his gaze between him and the laid out woman.
After swallowing down a few gulps of air, Kakuzu snarled out, "That bitch…that bitch offed two of my hearts!"
Jūzō did a doubletake. "Hearts?" He looked at Kisame who looked just as, if not more puzzled by this statement which he expressed with a shrug.
Not elaborating, Kakuzu pushed himself onto his feet with Daora wrapping herself around his legs to steady him and Rājan setting a hand on his shoulder that was rudely slapped away. After withdrawing his last two hearts, he walked over to the leavings of Amatsu and Teo. If it wasn't bad enough that the two hearts had been slain, to his further displeasure, he discovered the fragile porcelain masks sullied with hairline fractures. It would later cause them to fall apart and thus, would have to be replaced. Yui was going to chew him a new one for this.
Outraged, he crushed Teo's mask into a clay powder in his palm then threw the other, smashing it into the Chinoike's head which dyed her grey roots auburn. "Those are coming out of your bounty!" He barked, pointing a finger in the woman's bleeding, lacerated face.
She just glared at him for a moment then with a deep breath, calmly said, "I accept,"
Kakuzu snorted. "What? Accept that we're dragging your ass to Yugakure to the gallows?"
"No, I accept your invitation into this…Akatsuki, was it?"
"Excuse me?"
She sighed, as if speaking to a toddler and flicked her head to cast a few droplets of blood from leaking into her eye. "You offered me to join your mercenary group,"
"Which you refused," Kakuzu notified her.
"I did not. I asked, 'and if I refuse?' but I did not refuse,"
"Was that before or after she mindfucked me?" Kisame inquired aloud, massaging the back of his head where there was a bump from where he had fallen and struck it on an unfortunately placed rock. Jūzō whispered, "after I think" with a shrug.
"But you attacked us so that was a rejection," Kakuzu pointed out, getting frustrated with this fruitless back and forth. He was a second away from tearing out her tongue, so he didn't have to listen to her bullshit anymore.
"If I like, may?" Jūzō timidly spoke up and despite Kakuzu glaring a hole through his head, went onto speaking anyway. "This dudette, like, took us all out. Don't we like, want her to join us? She's fuckin' bitchin', bruh!"
"Jūzō is correct. Big Cheese sent us to invite her into the Akatsuki 'cause of her Kekkei Genkai. Wouldn't it better to let her join instead of sellin' her off to Yu? Hell, she kicked our asses!" Kisame cackled.
"Are you fucking serious? Like hell I'm taking her back to the Akatsuki after she destroyed two of my hearts! She's just accepting to save her own pathetic ass from Yugakure!"
"Didn't we all accept so not to be sold off too?" Kisame shrugged with Jūzō nodding in agreement despite being the exception.
"She is going to Yu and that is final!" Kakuzu exploded and before either other man could get a word in sideways, the miser stepped towards them with the partners tensing up in preparation for a fight. Thankfully, it didn't escalate that far as their knight in shining armour arrived—or instead, knight in shining…flytrap?
"Sir," Upon hearing the voice, Kakuzu paused mid-step and glimpsed over his shoulder to see Zetsu half-emerged from the ground behind him after failing to hear her Mayfly. Kisame and Jūzō let out a collective breath and eased their weapons back into the Chinoike woman. "Sir Leader has requested she be brought back to the Akatsuki,"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Zetsu shook her head to indicate was not, in fact, fucking kidding him. "Bullshit!"
"I'm just telling you what he told me after I updated him on the situation here," She explained. "I'm sorry," With that, she phased back into the ground to avoid further argument with the man.
Now with not only Kisame and Jūzō denying they take the Chinoike to Yugakure but also Pein after Zetsu tattled to him, with a maddened yell, Kakuzu turned and marched off while yanking off the frazzled leftovers of his cloak and undershirt. Deciding that was their cue, Kisame and Jūzō pulled the Chinoike to her feet and after tying her hands behind her back again, pushed her forward without neither relinquishing their swords. Begrudgingly, she walked and thus began the grueling travel back to Amegakure.
If there was any bright side to it, at least they didn't see Kakuzu again until back in Pein's Tower.
…
"So, you are the one which humiliated my members?" Pein asked. The Chinoike didn't answer him as she just leered at the ginger silently from where she was kneeling. Jūzō cleared his throat and tugged on Kubikiribōchō where it still circled her neck to quietly incline her into speaking. "Would you speak to me if I had them release you?"
"Err, I don't think that's an akaw idea, dude," Jūzō offered up but Pein lifted up a hand to silence him.
"It is ok. Her Ketsuryūgan has no effect on me due to my Rinnegan. Go ahead, let her go," After a nervous glance between partners, Kisame and Jūzō finally withdrew their weapons and stepped back, moreso out of safety for themselves. Once liberated, the Chinoike woman kneaded her neck throat was coloured a bright red from the metal of Kubikiribōchō rubbing it raw. "Now then: answer my question, would you kindly?"
"I did," She corroborated, eyeballing the man seated behind the desk. "It was self-defense,"
"You do not have to justify it to me. If information is correct, I am just impressed you held your own against them. I am glad you have decided to join the Akatsuki,"
She huffed, flipping the hair out of her face. "I wasn't given much of a choice,"
"Oh, you still have a choice, if you would like. I am sure Kakuzu would still love to drag you to Yugakure," As he said this, Pein glanced at Kakuzu who was seated off to his left, face coloured an angry scarlet with arms crossed and knee bounced so hard he was practically stamping the floor.
"I'll pass," The Chinoike said, she too gifting a glimpse in the unhappy miser's path. Feeling her gaze, his bloodshot eyes glowered back at her.
"Then, you agree to joining the Akatsuki? Otherwise, it would be shame to sell you off; the last of the Chinoike,"
"Sure,"
"Perfect. I have paperwork for you to sign. Afterward, Konan shall measure you for our cloak and uniform. Once you have finished with that, I can explain to you the goals of the organization," As Pein leant over to fetch said paperwork, Kakuzu all of sudden straighten up. He picked up the metal chair which he had been sitting up and lifted it over his head that he then chucked towards the Chinoike.
Kisame and Jūzō drew their swords to deflect the flying furniture but Pein, having anticipation such an underhanded attack from the likes of Kakuzu, used his Shinra Tensei to repel the chair where it loudly smashed into the stone wall on the far end of the office before then crashing to the floor. Everyone flinched from the sound.
"Kakuzu. What have I told you about attacking your partners? I thought you would be pleased that I found someone whom you cannot kill. That was our agreement, was it not?" Pein rebuked him as if he were a child. With his behavior as of late, however, he might as well be. Kakuzu didn't reply.
Instead, marching off towards the elevator. Zetsu looked at him then to Pein who quietly nodded, and she ran after her guardian who had booked the car after emitting his frustrations onto the control panel, leaving it in sparking pieces. Inside, he delivered her a harsh dressing down for reporting to Pein during the mission and interrogated her on, "whose side are you on!?". Zetsu just apologized until blue in the face. Her ears rang for the rest of the day.
Once the elevator departed, Pein waved Kisame and Jūzō off to indict they too were dismissed before looking back to the Chinoike who, despite having an attempt on her life via furniture, looked irked but unimpressed. Though, it was moreso due to the day as a whole. "I apologize for Kakuzu's behavior,"
"Are you seriously going to make me work with him?" She obviously inquired, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder.
"Unfortunately, yes. But trust me, he knows the consequences of inflicting harm on his partners. Now then, here is that paperwork," Pushing a packet of paper over his desk in her direction, he extended out a pen for her use also as she hesitantly approached. "Oh, by the way, what is your name? It was never listed in the manifest,"
"Gine. Chinoike Gine."
"Welcome to the Akatsuki, Gine."
…
AN: Oof, I never do enjoy writing fight scenes, but I thought this was one wasn't bad. Maybe it was too out-of-character to have everyone getting their asses kicked, especially Kakuzu, but seriously, you've got a Kekkei Genkai not only on par to the Sharingan with their Dōjutsu but can also manipulate blood after touching someone? That's just overpowered in general and its canon! So, it thought she was a perfect foil to Kakuzu.
Anyway, we're going to be taking a break from the drama and fighting for some wholesome content next chapter! Trust me, it's going to rot your teeth.
Next Chapter: The Visit.
Until Next Chapter.