Akatsuki Kittens

Chapter 15: File 2 [Section A] - Kakuzu

With the knowledge he has over his 80 plus years of living, Kakuzu wasn't the least bit surprised whenever he saw something "suspicious" pop up from within the shadows of the building. Most of the objects were bats or random dust bunnies rolling around, but he hadn't found anything to be thoroughly suspicious of.

The long corridor he walked down was dark and had many curves. He barely saw any doors or windows, which was rather strange. But then again, finding such an impressive looking mansion out in the middle of nowhere was strange in its own way.

His tail swished back and forth, ears twitching in order to stay on top of things. He listened for anything, footsteps, whispers, something he could use as a lead, but so far, he came up empty handed.

One thing that did slightly bother him was the lack of the yapping, bad-mouthing, Jashin follower. He would never admit this out loud, but after so many years of having the silver headed man by his side, he almost felt lonely without Hidan.

Of course, it was a blessing to have some peace and quiet for a change, not having to constantly scold Hidan for dragging him into his long bloody rituals. Still, it felt rather pleasing when Kakuzu had to scold him for complaining about the smallest of things.

While his thoughts wandered, surprisingly, Kakuzu wasn't paying attention to where he was going and ran into a wall, head first, his nose being the first to take impact.

He immediately backed away and let a hiss tear from his throat, fur standing on end and glaring at the wall that had interrupted his train of thought.

What an annoyance. There are too many walls and turns in this corridor. I don't even understand why this is annoying me. That's what's annoying me!

Kakuzu was starting to get extremely impatient and out of annoyance, he turned around and faced the other wall, smashing his head into the marble wall, a kick of pain exploding in his skull. But something peculiar happened.

The marble square he had pushed against went in the wall. And it started to glow a light green. A groan could be heard from the current wall he was facing as it suddenly went in and slid to the left, revealing a spiral staircase that lead upwards.

Dust poured out of the area as cobwebs were located in every corner. Torches were lit and hanging on the walls, but he could hear nothing more than trickles of water dripping into small puddles as well as the crackling of fire.

His ears twitched slightly as he gave a soft sigh and looked around to make sure there was no one around. Thankfully, he was alone; he wouldn't want to be watched or followed by a creep from the estate.

Kakuzu's paws padded forward as he hoisted himself up each stair and started up the spiral of nightmares. Nothing strange could be seen from his view. There were no trip wires or cameras or even trap doors anywhere, which led him to believe no one would think of looking where he was.

Making his way up to the 20th stair and he felt the ground rumble underneath him, ears twitching to hear better as he deducted that the rumble was the entrance shutting off. It didn't make the path any darker but a small shiver did run down his spine. He was getting a weird feeling, something a normal human would call "the creeps". 

He felt as if something like this had happened before, as if he'd done the exact same thing he was doing now, except in his normal body and not that of a cat's. Kakuzu simply couldn't shake off the feeling of deja vu; he was almost certain he and Hidan had a mission similar to what was going on here. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was there in his memory, but it was out of his reach.

Short images would pass through his mind, but nothing that could help him figure out which mission it was. But there was something he was certain of. At the 75th stair, there would be a block he had to push in order to open a door.

If memory serves correct, he was currently on the 56th one. He simply had to keep counting, since he couldn't rely on his chakra to help him.

A couple of times, his paw would splash a puddle and give him another chill down his spine. But why? Why was a water puddle making him so nervous?

There was something he was missing, something he should remember about these puddles, for they were only on certain stairs: the multiples of 7.

Curse this wretched little feline body of mine. I can't even count money with these "cute" paws. Disgusting.

A sudden rush of wind passed by him, causing for his fur to stand on end as Kakuzu stood frozen in place. A shimmery white image appeared in front of him, the air rushing around it as it took the form of a human body.

It looked like the ghost girl from before, but this one had short curly hair as well as a bigger stature. She was wearing only a shirt it seemed, reaching down to her mid-thighs. Her eyes though, they were the same as the other ghost girl. Wide open with terror. She opened her mouth and seemed to be saying something, but Kakuzu didn't know what she was saying. She was banging her fists against her legs, pulling on her hair and seemed to be screaming.

The only thing that she was able to voice out was a simple word, but it was enough to cause the 80 year old shinobi's small heart to skip a beat.

"Torture!"

What did this mean? The previous ghost girl was a child and she said "run". This woman before him was saying "torture". He tried to connect the two pieces, but there were so many ways to interpret it.

It could mean that the ghost females were trying to warn them of being tortured and run. It could also mean that they were tortured and tried to run. There was also the thought of Kakuzu being tortured and he should run. But neither of the options seemed to be the right ones.

Another wave of air rushed through as it seemed to split the woman in half, but her eyes were still the same, wide with fright.

What's going on here? What's with all these ghosts?

Kakuzu didn't have much time to think about such thoughts as he finally reached the 75th stair and looked left and right, trying to find the block he needed to push. He decided to simply push the ones he could reach and see if he could get some sort of reaction from the mansion.

And that's exactly what he got.

The fourth brick up on his left opened up the wall on his right as it led to a rather dark room, but brighter than the corridor still. He stepped inside and had to immediately reel back, holding both paws over his nose and growling under his breath.

An extremely floral stench reached his nostrils: nothing similar to perfume or such. It was a knock-out gas. He was smart enough to know that and knowing the small body of his, it would definitely be affected by the poison.

He stood with one paw still over his nose and looked around the room, the gas being colorless, as he searched for a way out of the room, seeing as how the wall immediately closed up once he entered the room.

He could see a desk as well as a lamp next to it, a bed on the other side of where he was, and finally, a door leading out of the room. But Kakuzu couldn't get far as he wasn't paying attention to his footing and tugged on a trip wire.

His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, quickly looking left to right to see what would happen, but nothing came. Until he released the wire.

A net fell on top of him and out of shock, his paw was removed from his nose as he tried to get out from under it. Had he been in his normal body, it wouldn't have bothered him, but for some reason, he felt panicked. Much like what a normal human would feel if they were in the same situation.

Kakuzu got a good whiff of the gas, making his nostrils itch and letting out a small sneeze, his head already becoming fuzzy. His vision was blurring by the second while his body went numb from the effects. He fell against the ground on his side, green eyes scanning the room once more while his eyelids drooped. As he fell into unconsciousness, he could feel the disappointment run through his body.

He had walked right into a trap, and there was nothing he could do about it.

I will never... admit this... but at this point in time...

I wish Hidan were here...