Stitched || Kakuzu

Ch. 8 - Father, Father, Tell Me Where Have You Been

For an hour, Nozomi sat on a rock with Kakuzu still by her side on the ground. They were not far from site where the trio was approached by Hideki. Hidan, unsatisfied with what was going on, left the two behind and scoped out the area to see if the ninjas were still around.

Kakuzu sighed and closed his eyes, starting to mediate and possibly think about a new job to do. There were no official orders from the leader to go catch another Jinchuriki so that kept options open for another bounty job. The only problem was that he was still stuck to this girl next to him.

As Kakuzu was stuck in his thoughts, Nozomi was stuck in her own as she started to question her own identity. Was she put on earth to be a vessel for her mother? Did she do something wrong and now the heavens were punishing her? If so, what did she do?

"Maybe I should just die." She murmured out loud to herself.

"Then I'll rip the stitches now." Kakuzu answered back.

Nozomi nearly jumped at the sound of a voice outside her conscience. As she had turned to look, Kakuzu was standing up, nearly hovering over her as she was still shorter than him, even while she was sitting on top of the rock. She stared into his odd eyes, which seemed a little more fierce than usual.

Suddenly, something cool touched her wrist, which nearly made her jump out of her skin. As she looked down, there was a kunai in position to cut her hand off. Eyes growing wide, she tried to move away, but Kakuzu held her steady in place.

"W-What are you doing?!"

Kakuzu continued to look at her, eyes unwavering. "Die now or die later."

Throughout this mission, Kakuzu had been nothing but cold to her, but his words did have some meaning to her. Maybe she was just a masochist and she liked these kinds of things. Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts away and looked back at Kakuzu. He was giving her a choice for once - the first time since she had met him.

"I don't want to die." Nozomi answered quietly, her voice wavering as tears welled up in her eyes. Kakuzu removed the kunai from her wrist and sat back down beside the rock as she started to cry. He wasn't one to sympathize, but he wasn't going to say anything either. Instead, he just let her sit there and cry it out.

Hidan came back at the sound of her voice and looked between Kakuzu and Nozomi. The male seemed to have gone back to meditating, despite all of the noise that the woman was making. Nozomi, on the other hand, looked a mess. She was crying with big red, puffy eyes and a flushed, tear-stained face. The least she could do was cry a little, dare he say, better.

"Shut up already. You've been at this for the past hour." Hidan grumbled. "All this sniffling bullshit needs to stop. Kakuzu, how long are we going to sit here?"

"No one said you had to stay here." Nozomi retorted, wiping her eyes.

Hidan glared at her. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you, you little shit. I'm part of the reason why you're still alive now."

Kakuzu stood up quietly while they bickered. Since Nozomi was back to fighting with Hidan, he assumed that she was feeling just fine. "Let's go." The two stopped their bickering, still glaring at each like children, and followed Kakuzu. As they walked, Nozomi was sure that they were going in the same direction they had just been in. Why, when she told him that she specifically wanted to go home?

"Um, excuse me... We're going the wrong way." Nozomi cleared her throat, looking up at Kakuzu. "Home is the other way."

"We're completing the bounty." Kakuzu answered for her.

Nozomi's eyes widened and she shook her head, stopping in her tracks immediately. "We can't do that! Your mission now is to take me home! I said I'd pay you."

"Look, my man Kakuzu.." Hidan sighed, looking to Nozomi, but she refused to listen to him and ranted on and on about how she was going home. Kakuzu, fed up with her stubbornness, turned and looked at her.

"Only those who work get paid." Kakuzu spoke up, silencing her. "You requested the bounty. I accepted it and will do as I see fit. This may not be turning out how you see fit, however your private life is of no concern to me. I'm unsatisfied and I won't stop until I'm satisfied."

Nozomi looked up at him and frowned, still standing in her spot. Kakuzu, not caring about her reactions anymore, threw Nozomi over his shoulder like she was a dead body and started walking again. The whole situation in itself was weird to him and he wanted to get to the bottom of it - including knowing the jutsu that held him captive to the female on his shoulder..

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The trio had been traveling for days and quite frankly, Nozomi was tired of it. She dragged her feet behind Kakuzu as they continued to travel since he'd gotten tired of carrying her and set her down a while back. All she had wanted was to go home and enjoy whatever time she had left of her life. before it would be taken from her. Soon enough, she found herself falling into the back of Kakuzu, then to the ground with a groan and a thud.

"You sensed it too?" Hidan asked Kakuzu as he looked around. Nozomi, not knowing what he was talking about, stood up. Looking around, she noticed something very wrong herself. The forestry around them was dying, or pretty much dead already. The trees were bare and wilting and there was no grass. All life had been sucked out of this place.

Nozomi frowned and stayed close to Kakuzu. "What happened here?"

"We're close." Kakuzu started walking again. It didn't take long for them to find the source of the complete death around them. There was an entrance to a cave and Kakuzu's eyes narrowed as there was something very wrong here. The cave reeked of chakra and you could definitely see the chakra seeping out as it was eating away at the rock. He hadn't seen this much chakra since he had hunted the tailed beasts with Hidan, however this chakra felt different from a Jinchuriki's.

Hidan frowned and placed his hand on his hip. "This looks fucking sketchy." Instead of feeling wary about the environment around them, he grew excited as he looked to Kakuzu. "My man, if this turns out great, I might take back what I said before about you being a useless money-obsessed mad man."

Kakuzu wasn't paying attention to the fanatic behind him. He knew the man was just restless because he hadn't killed anyone lately. Kakuzu, however, took a more calculating approach. There was too much loose chakra, which meant this was going to be more than he thought. He might have been okay by himself but he still had the girl attached to him.

"This is bad, isn't it?" Nozomi looked up at Kakuzu. The male didn't answer her and walked into the cave with Hidan following behind them closely.

Hidan grimaced as a terrible odor consumed them the more they walked into the cave. "What the fuck is that smell?"

Nozomi buried her face into Kakuzu's arm as they walked to keep herself from throwing up. The stench was nearly unbearable and if she smelled it anymore, she thought she was going to pass out.

Finally, the cave opened up to a huge crater. Kakuzu, Hidan, and Nozomi quickly walked out to the edge of the crater, grateful to get out of the disgusting smell, however what they saw next put the smell on a whole new level. There were thousands of bodies lying in the crater - men, women, and children. The chakra could easily be seen seeping out of the bodies and into a huge ball in the middle of the crater.

"Oh my god.." Nozomi's eyes widened as she stared at the bodies. Never had she seen so many dead people at once in the same place.

"Just in time I thought I was going to have to come and get you." A voice called from the other side of the crater. Kakuzu's eyes narrowed and Hidan grabbed a hold of his scythe as the group made eye contact with Hideki, who was smirking back at them in satisfaction. Another man, who looked like the older version of Hideki, walked up and stood next to him. Nozomi's eyes widened as she stepped in front of Kakuzu to get a better look at the man. Her eyes burned as they filled with tears.

"Daddy?"