For Nobara

Chapter 18: Kakuzu

When Kakuzu brings her to the inn, she is delirious and soaked in tears. He lays her down on the futon, but she refuses to let him go. She clings onto his cloak like he will leave her, but he doesn't blame her for thinking that way. After all, he was the one who left her in Suna in the first place, the one who always found ways to disappear for hours without a word.

"Don't go, Kakuzu," she almost pleads with him as she grips his sleeve closer to her. "Don't go..."

She can't think straight. She can barely even see him through her blurry vision. To her, he is only a hazy silhouette under the sharp light of the room's single light bulb.

She squeezes her eyes shut as a few tears escape.

In the beginning, there was only a sense of calm, but then the pain came like a curse.

It hurts.

It hurts.

"It's an aftereffect," a voice speaks as the green-eyed man sends a kunai flying towards its direction. But it only lodges on the wall, only narrowly missing the intruder who spoke.

"What are you talking about...?" Kakuzu asks angrily, turning to glance at onyx black eyes.

"It was written in one of the archives," Itachi answers as he approaches despite the hostility in Kakuzu's gaze. "A child's body like hers can only withstand so much..."

That's right. Kigura is still a child, so why are they treating her like this...?

"Here."

"This is..."

"Sasori made it," Itachi says distantly. "It will put her to sleep."

For a moment, Kakuzu looks at the object in the boy's hand. Then, his eyebrows furrow at the realization before he takes a grab for the boy's cloak, but the Uchiha barely even flinches from the green-eyed man's sudden aggression.

"You want to drug Kigura to sleep?"

Kakuzu himself finds the words strange when they come from him. He has ripped hearts out of people, murdered innocent shinobi for the sake of their organization's personal goals. He has exchanged their bodies for bounty money, and yet... and yet the idea of forcing Kigura into induced sleep doesn't sit well with him.

"Do you want her to suffer longer?" Itachi responds back without blinking.

Kakuzu is already seeing red, but the Uchiha's words alone are enough to make him still. Because regardless of morality, he knows it too―that what Itachi said is far better than seeing Kigura whimpering half-conscious. So, despite his reluctance, he shoves Itachi out of his grasp and takes a step back, even if it takes a lot from him.

He can only do so much for her, and somehow that brings an unpleasant taste in his mouth.

"Sasori made it purely to induce sleep. It shouldn't harm her," Itachi says, as if to make the situation any better. He spoke so calmly, and yet when he seats himself beside Kigura, he finds himself pausing a little. The reality feels all too real all of a sudden, the words through the pages of the archives they have stolen from the Koori affiliates.

That, and the fact that to him, children weren't supposed to suffer. Her tear-stained face and flushed cheeks, the vulnerability in her glassy eyes―they all make him falter.

But after a pause, he crushes the pill in his hand nonetheless.

"No!" The child coughs as she feels the liquid spill to her mouth. And instinctively, she pushes against Itachi, something about the sensation making her remember the bad things. "Kakuzu!"