Living a Lie

Chapter Twenty-one - Let's Go Shopping, Kakuzu!

"Okay, Tobi. What about this one?"

Tobi stopped looking at the bathing suits lined up on the rack and turned to look at me. "Tobi likes it! Very pretty, and it brings out Sakura-chan's hair and eyes!" Tobi exclaimed, clapping his hands in a decidedly happy-schoolboy manner.

"Kakuzu?" I asked.

He turned from staring at the price tags on the perfume bottles to look at me in my bright green bikini.

"Too expensive," he said curtly, and turned around again after eyeing the pink and orange retro designs on the suit I was wearing. He looked about ready to have a stroke.

"What? It is not! It's only- holy cheese. Never mind." I returned to the dressing room, shut the door, and proceeded to paw through Tobi's and my other choices, tossing the ones that cost equal to or more than the suit I was currently wearing.

Soon, I found that I was left with nothing. "Come on!"

I heard Tobi rush to the stall door, and could picture him waving his arms about in a rather comical manner while jumping from one foot to the other. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" he cried.

I could hear him jumping from one foot to the other, and the frantic swishing sound on the other side of the door was probably him waving his arms about like a fool.

Deciding not to hold back my irritated sigh, I exhaled in a most annoyed and loud fashion. "According to Kakuzu, every suit you and I picked out is too expensive! He's so stingy!"

I nearly died of fright when I heard his deep voice on the other side of the stall door. "I am not stingy, Sakura. I'm merely trying to instill in you an appreciation for the price and actual value of things. Also, I don't want to pay for something you'll only wear while we're at this base for only Leader knows how long and then never wear again. It's a waste of my money."

I blinked. "Must I repeat? Stingy. That one really looked good on me."

I heard him sigh quietly, and I became very worried that he would reach over the top of the stall with his tentacle-string-things and snap my neck. I've seen him do so to Hidan, and I'm not immortal.

After a few silent, anxious moments, I heard Kakuzu's footsteps come back to the door. How had I not heard him leave? Oh, right. Probably because my heart was the only thing I could hear. That, and Inner screaming rather profane words in my head about how I've doomed us both and that Kakuzu would kill us without warning.

I saw his hand reach over the top of the stall door.

'Oh, dear God! That thing's detachable, I've seen it!' Inner squealed in terror. 'We're all gonna die!'

The bathing suit that he held over the door effectively put the proverbial cork in her imaginary mouth.

"Are you going to take it, or what?" he asked in an annoyed tone.

I reached up tentatively, still not sure if I could trust him not to kill me. A finger brushed the smooth fabric, and when he didn't move, I snatched it.

"Thanks," I said, holding it up in front of me. He pulled away and mumbled what sounded like, "finally, someone who knows how to be grateful."

The suit was a little more conservative than the others: it was a white- and green-striped halter top cut off and fitted a few inches above my belly button, with solid green boy-short style bottoms with a white waistband. There were little white tropical flowers on the green parts, and little green flowers on the white.

I put it on, looked in the mirror, and grinned. This one fit my style the best. For one not as… shall we say 'gifted'… in the breast department, it showed off my tom-boy side as well as my girly side. I really liked it. I looked at the price tag, and found not one, but three different clearance stickers on it. Each markdown, in the end, added up to a staggering 90% off the original price.

Geez, that guy sure knew how to bargain shop!

I stepped out of the stall to show it off.

Tobi clapped more enthusiastically than the last ten or so times I had done the same pose in different suits, which made me wonder if he was actually being honest all those times I had asked, 'does this one look alright?' or 'does this one make my butt look big?'

Kakuzu looked at me for a while, and I squirmed inwardly under his intensely calculating stare. Did it look okay? Was it really as good as I had thought it was? Was that a blush I saw creeping up from under his mask?

He looked away before I did, walked up to the cashier and said, "I'll take it."

No haggling, no threatening, no nothing.

Which all made me wonder, did I look that good in this thing?