Human Value || Kakuzu

Ch. 3 - Happy Born Day

Incessant knocking at the door woke Kakuzu up out of his sleep. An enemy wouldn't have the audacity to use the front door like this, so there was only one person he could think of. Breathing a heavy sigh, he rolled out of bed and stumbled out of his room, heading towards the front door. With a deep frown, he opened it to see a chipper Risa on the other side.

"Good morning! Happy Bir-"

Immediately, Kakuzu closed the door, but not before she could stick her foot in the doorway to stop it. Furious, she pushed the door open and barged inside.

"Rude, aren't ya?" She crossed her arms as she looked him over. With a smirk, she picked up a strand of his unkempt hair. "Ya look absolutely terrible. Is this really how you're bringing fourteen in? You're not sick, are ya?"

To say terrible was an understatement. His hair was sticking out in all different angles, his eyes were a bit red, and he looked like she could knock him over with just one touch.

"Today is our day off." Kakuzu swatted her hand away. "I'd rather have a quiet morning for once."

"We always have quiet mornings. You meditate, I meditate. You stretch, I stretch. I could go on and on." Risa exaggerated. "Don't you know why we have today off?"

The boy simply stared at her before heading back to his room to get back in his bed. If she wanted to sit around, then he'd leave her to it. The way she always came in made it practically her second home anyway. Risa watched him retreat with a frown before having an epiphany and deciding to change her approach.

He'd only been asleep for an hour before he was woken up by the loud clattering of plates. Feeling the blood rushing to his head out of anger, he left his room to see what the bothersome girl was doing now. Stepping into the kitchen, Kakuzu took in the sight of dishes everywhere, the messy counter tops, the smell of something burning, and the culprit in the middle of it all.

"Okay, so... I'm not the best cook, but-" Risa smiled innocently before handing him a plate of slightly burnt sunny-side up eggs arranged to be eyes with a sketchy tomato slice smile. "I wanted to try my hand at an omelet but I ran out of eggs..."

Kakuzu took the plate out of her hands and resisted the urge of slamming it on the counter. Not only was she in his space, but she had also wasted the majority of his food. The last thing he wanted to hear after all this was her mouthing off about his temper. "...Get out."

"But there's a schedule-"

"Get. Out. Now." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the door. Before she could say another word, he slammed the door in her face. Finally there was silence and he could breathe. There was no point in going back to sleep now since he had a whole kitchen to clean. Glancing at the discarded food, he walked back over to the counter and tasted one of the 'eyes' on his plate. Bland and bitter... but surprisingly not a total waste.

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Risa sat by the water hole, skipping stones along the top of its surface. She told herself she wasn't going to stop until a stone made it to the other side. After a while, she stopped counting all her missed attempts and groaned. This twelve-year-old was bored out of her mind.

"I didn't think you'd actually be following orders." Bashira approached her daughter, a bag of groceries hanging off her shoulder.

"The great Lord Tatsuo said if I used chakra to do anything other than breathe today, I wouldn't have to worry about just holding a rock over my head."

Her mother let out a hearty laugh and sat down next to her, placing her bag beside her. "Sounds serious enough. Where's Kakuzu? Aren't you like two peas in a pod or something?"