mint limeade

mint sprigs to garnish

"He might be right about some things. You need a hobby, and you probably need to get laid."

"Is anything worthwhile going to come out of your mouth or should I shut you up by ripping your tongue out of your head?"

Sakura stood up from her seat on the cheap plastic chair bolted into the ground.

"You would miss our engaging conversations," she deadpanned. He snorted quietly as they walked to one of the few cars left in the parking lot. "But your info was good. Chaz Morris, fifty-two, face disfigured, teeth pulled, fingerprints burned off all after death. A blood sample wouldn't ring him in any system and he deleted all social media presence under his real name."

As she slid into the passenger seat, her phone buzzed.

Itachi: pick up @ marina's, side door, 03-27-01 [6:42 pm]

She flashed the screen to Kakuzu and waited for him to shift the gear into drive to continue.

"I found one picture of him on his sister's inactive Facebook account, fishing trip in '98. The tattoos on the right shins match."

She watched the sun begin to dip past sharp building angles, a nuclear orange glow in the sky courtesy of the thunderstorms rolling in for the weekend. Claire had invited them all out for a movie night on Saturday, something about a new slasher series they all had to watch because she already roped Chris and Leon into it and it'd be so much more fun if you guys came too please, please, pleaseee?

"So yeah, your mark was murdered before you could get there first," she said. "You should have a word with the client about hiring multiple hitters for the same target."

Kakuzu bared his teeth as they pulled onto the freeway. "If an idiot doesn't understand what it means to sign a mercenary contract, there shouldn't be a signature on the contract to begin with," he growled. He zipped past some cars over twenty past the limit, and she was thankful it was after rush hour so she wouldn't have to wrestle the wheel out of his road-raged grip. "Fucking idiot. I'll kill him."

"Unless a third hire we don't know about kills him first."

She ignored the glower he turned onto her as she hooked her phone up to the car. Kakuzu was old—not old enough to refuse to use new tech and apps as they came and went, but old enough enough to scowl at the price of memberships and premiums while refusing to pay them.

She pressed shuffle on a classical playlist and settled to watch the scenes pass by out her window.

Or at least, she would have if she wasn't surprised by the next topic that didn't leave her to it for the rest of the drive.

"Were you talking to your boyfriend?"

Sakura slowly turned her head back around. Kakuzu's grip on the steering wheel had eased from his previous irritation and his eyes kept on the road ahead of them. His hair was still impeccable in its low ponytail and he didn't look at all worn out in his tailored suit despite the fact she knew he'd been around the city all day meeting with contacts, checking in with purchases, managing Jade Vine's storage warehouse on the other side of town when the pre-winter customer uptick would pack his shop in the upcoming weeks. She'd been splitting her time between there and Hiruko's as of late to help with the influx.

She narrowed her eyes. He kept driving.

She didn't want to say their relationship was complicated for the simple reason that it wasn't. He worked with her the same as everyone else, threatened her the same as everyone else, and she supposed he never got physical with her like he and Hidan were with each other because none of their conversations ended with her telling him to eat shit and die.