Snow fluttered down to the ground from dark clouds as the winter night trudged on. Fire crackled in a nearby fireplace, illuminating the room with a warm, yellow flickering light. A woman with long dark blue hair sat on her knees in front of the burning fire, her green eyes reflecting the moving flames making her eyes seem to be aflame themselves. Behind her, three men stood and chatted quietly about something that she couldn't hear.
"She doesn't remember anything about her past, un?" A boy with long blonde hair asked softly.
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Dancing bears
Painted wings
Things I almost remember
And a song someone sings
once upon a December
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"No, it appears she doesn't seem to remember anything." Another man with red hair said.
"How do you know her?" The third man asked with dark blue hair like the woman who was sitting on the floor by the warm fire, oblivious to what they were discussing about her.
"She was a partner of mine in Suna when I was on a squad." The redhead answered, hazel eyes moving to look at the girl. He still couldn't believe that it was her. She looked so different, and age only seemed to add to the beauty...
"You were on a squad, Danna?" The blond asked curiously.
"Back in Suna before I left, yes." He answered, slightly irritated by the blonde’s snooping. The brat had no right to just ask all these questions so freely, most of this information was private. There was no reason that Deidara should know about his past, including who was on his old squad back in the old days of Suna.
"Sasori, what happened exactly?" The raven haired man asked.
"We were heading back after collecting information on the One-Tails when we found her collapsed on the ground, knocked out. We took her with us, and she doesn't seem to remember anything after she woke up not to long ago. She seems to have amnesia, Itachi." Sasori said to Itachi, the raven-headed man.
Itachi nodded before leaving the two men to report to a mission he was just recently assigned. The blond looked at Sasori, then to the woman, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Sooo Danna... you were just partners?" He said in a way that showed he was suspecting them to be something more.
"Deidara, you brat. That's none of your business." Sasori hissed, his hazel eyes flashing in annoyance at the blond.
"Alright, alright. Jeez, your so uptight." Deidara smirked.
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Someone holds me, safe ans warm,
Horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully,
across my memory,
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Sasori walked swiftly across the room to where the woman sat, her eyes watching the wavering flame. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she craned her head to look at him. "Who are you?" Her head cocked slightly to the side as she said that, a look of puzzlement on her face. The man didn't look familiar at all, she had not the slightest clue as to who he was.
"My name is Sasori." He said to her calmly, searching for the faintest flicker of recognition. None sufficed. Inside of him, a small hope that had flourished died an insignificant and meaningless death. That's what he got when he became hopeful, a cruel slap from reality.
"Sas..ori..." She said quietly, testing out the name. She liked the way it rolled off her tongue, and repeated it several times before another question popped into her mind. "Who am I?" She asked him, the question repeating itself inside her head, bouncing off imaginary walls. Who am I? Who am I?
Sasori looked momentarily surprised by that, then quickly regained his composure. "Your name is Kiru. Mosugi, Kiru."
"Mosugi... Kiru...?" She asked, feeling unsure as she said her name. It sounded different, sounded strange in her ears. Foreign.
Sasori nodded, then moved to sit down next to her. He looked behind him to see Deidara standing there, smirking at the scene before him. It seemed like his master was enjoying the woman's company, whoever the woman was. He just found it funny that his Danna, who was always so emotionless, seemed so intrigued by such a simple woman. It made no sense, but it was surprisingly humorous.
"Brat. Leave." Sasori ordered. Deidara chuckled before finding something else fun to do. Annoying the Uchiha seemed like something fun enough to do. So, he left the room to find the stoic Akatsuki member...
When Sasori turned back to Kiru, he noticed she had started staring at the flames again, transfixed. He couldn't fathom why she was so intrigued by the dancing fire, but he could tell it meant something. He didn't know what, however, and the feeling of not knowing was starting to eat away at him. What happened to her?
"Where am I?" She asked, not looking at him. Another question that had surfaced in her mind when she stared into the flames. She couldn't stop herself from gazing into them, still not sure why they were so important. What meaning did they have to her? It made no sense, none at all.
"The Akatsuki lair. I found you unconscious. So, I brought you here." He gestured around him with spread out arms.
"Oh." She said softly, as if she didn't believe him. She really didn’t know what to believe anymore. It didn’t make any sense.
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Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Once upon a December
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The woman sat in front of the fire with a look of wonderment on her face. Green eyes stared blankly through the dark bangs that had once again fallen in front of her eyes. Sasori moved his hand from her shoulder, where it fell into his lap. He didn't know if she needed comfort or not. He couldn't get a read on her blank expression, not a single flicker of emotion surfaced on her face. It was as if she not only forgot her past, but how to feel anything. She wasn't acting cold toward him, but instead her voice sounded empty to him. Hollow.
She's changed... He thought, staring at long, dark hair that reached all the way down to her elbows. It reminded him of an Uchiha's hair, at least color wise. The only difference that made it clear she wasn't an Uchiha was the somewhat tan skin and her green eyes. It had been over twenty years since he had seen her last, when they were just ignorant teenagers. Now she was all grown up, but it was clear to him that something had happened to her. He wondered if she would hate him if she still remembered who he was.
The woman, Kiru, closed her eyes, hiding them from the flames. She willed herself to remember everything, her past, what happened, who this man, Sasori, was... But nothing surfaced through her memories. Except one thing, one thing she immediately wished she didn't recall:
The world around her was ablaze. Fire was everywhere, the violent colors of reds, oranges, golds, yellows, and blues indicating the destruction of the world as she knew it. The culprits: a few measly criminals who were drunk out of their freaking minds. Kiru's older brother and father tried to stop them, but the 'measly criminals' fought back with sharpened kunai, even though the men were unarmed. The result was some of Kiru's family being slashed to pieces in front of her. Crimson pools shimmered as firelight illuminated in them.
Then the two drunks used special fire-style jutsu on her home. The screams that erupted when people's homes caught on fire, the owners and their families trapped inside, fuel for the inferno that was consuming the Mosugi Clan. Kiru felt tears dry up in her eyes as the intensity of the flames swallowed up every last bit of water in the air. It was dry as a bone and hotter than a sun. She couldn't figure out what to do in all the madness.
So, splattered with the blood of her family members that were hacked to pieces by the drunken criminals and wearing clothes that were beginning to singe at the edges from the heat of the fiery inferno, she ran. She ran away from that dreaded and doomed place with two goals in mind: Get help and survive. Even if it meant doing anything, she had to survive and find somebody that could help her. She ran for what felt like miles.
But as she ran into the desert toward Sunagakure, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her leg. She toppled into the sand, turning her head to glance at the wound in the back of her leg. One of the drunken criminals had cut her leg while she was running away to find help. She watched the blood dye the sand around her crimson, and saw black spots appear before her eyes. Her senses fought for consciousness as the pain overthrew her. Ahead of her, two shadowy figures came into view.
"Oi, Danna, look over there, un." One voice floated up to greet her. It sounded a little young and for some reason, he seemed to grunt at the end of his sentence. Maybe it was a habit?
"Hm?" Another man's voice, this one familiar unlike the other. "What?"
"Over there. A woman's collapsed, un." She could practically hear the smirk and bloodlust in his voice as the next thing he said echoed in her ears. "Can I kill her?"
"No," The familiar voice scolded, and she heard the sound of sandals crunching against the sand. "Kiru? Is that you?" His voice had dropped from the stern tone it used against the other man into something softer, more secretive. She remembered him.
"Sas...ori..." She choked out, still fighting for consciousness as her sight began to fade away. "Help..."
"Deidara, use your stupid clay and make a bird, we're taking her back with us." Sasori ordered the other man, watching as the woman fainted.
"But-" Deidara began to protest. He didn't think that Leader-sama would approve of bringing a non-member to the Akatsuki lair. He wasn't about to be yelled out by him for an entire night because of what Sasori no Danna told him to do. "I'm not going to do-"
"Just do it!" Sasori threatened darkly, his hazel eyes narrowing into a fierce, menacing glare. Deidara winced at the look and begrudgingly jammed his hand into the clay pouch on his hip. Within seconds, he formed a small clay bird. He threw it up into the air, holding up a hand-sign.
"Katsu, un!" He said, and a cloud of smoke appeared. As it cleared, a larger clay bird came into sight. It landed onto the sandy desert floor and bowed, waiting for its new rider to claim a seat aboard it. Sasori scooped the woman up quickly, jumping on top the bird. The bird raised its head and flapped its large wings, hovering about ten feet off the ground.
Sasori placed her down gently before sliding off the bird and joining Deidara in the trek back to base.
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Someone holds me safe and warm,
Horses prance through a silver storm,
Figures dancing gracefully across my memory...
----------------------------
“Kiru!” Sasori’s voice broke through her thoughts, bringing her back to reality. The faded away, replacing the desert with the dark, dingy room that was lit by pure fire light. “You alright? You didn’t answer for over five minutes.”
“Oh, g-gomen. I-I just remembered something I wished I didn’t.” She looked away from the fire to position her gaze over at his. “So you did find me and bring me after all. My clan is dead. Everyone is… I know it. We were attacked by drunken criminals. Nee-sama and Oto-san, they went to confront them without any kind of weapons. The criminals… they slashed them to pieces. I-I watched it happen.” She was stuttering over her words now, unable to keep her voice under control. Sasori let her continue on, interested as to what she was saying. “I didn’t know what to do, then they attacked everyone with fire-style ninjutsu. They were relentless. I ran away from everything, the screams of my family, the drunken laughter of those two men, the raging fires… I ran away from it all.”
“So that’s what happened to you.” Sasori sighed, closing his eyes. He remembered the desperate and frightened in her eyes as she begged for him to help her. He didn’t even know what she needed him for, what was so urgent that she was begging him, a traitor to Suna, for his help. Though he left Suna and betrayed his Village, he truly never felt any kind of hatred for his old teammates. At least not for Kiru.
She nodded solemnly, lowering her head and falling silent. After a second, her eyes went wide and her head snapped back up, alarmed and somewhat terrified. “Does abandoning my family like that… make me a murderer? Am I a killer?!”
“Of course not.” Sasori objected. “You did nothing wrong. You went to find help, you did not abandon your loved ones. If anything, I should be in trouble.” He said, looking away. Kiru looked at him sideways, placing a hand on his wooden cheek and forcing him to look at her. His hazel eyes bore into her blankly, but she didn’t care at all.
“Why is that, Akasuna no Sasori?” Mosugi Kiru whispered to him softly. “Why should you be in trouble?”
“I left you behind. I should have never done that, and maybe none of this would have ever happened if I was there. You would still have your family and wouldn’t be all messed up in this situation. Kiru, I apologize.” He said almost robotically, brown eyes still holding nothing.
“You don’t need to apologize,” She said to him, tears forming in her eyes. “Because I don’t remember. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where I am, I don’t know anything. All that I know is that my name is Mosugi, Kiru. I am 35 years old. My clan is dead and that you’re Akasuna no Sasori. You found me unconscious and brought me here. I forgot everything of my past, every moment and memory aside from a select few; mostly of my clan dying. That is all.”
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Far away, long ago
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Things it yearns to remember.
----------------------------
“Then why don’t you stay here?” Sasori asked, placing a wooden hand on top her real hands. “We’ll recover your memories and you will remember your lost past, bit by bit.”
“I don’t know…” The woman murmured, looking down at his unreal hand.
She gasped quietly as arms constricted around her tightly in a hug. His head rested on her right shoulder, eyes staring ahead at the fireplace. She felt her tense under the movement, muscles rigid, before she slowly allowed herself to relax. She knew what to do now.
“I won’t let you go again,” Sasori whispered to her as she relaxed. “I promise.”
“Sasori…” She pulled free of his hug and pressed her lips to his in a silent and soft kiss. “Thank you.”
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And a song someone sings,
Once upon a December
----------------------------