Flight [collection]
Title: Flight
Characters: Kakuzu, Yugito, Hidan
Words: 1104
Summary: The trio is pursued by ANBU.
The ANBU were a problem, Hidan soon realized. It was not the fact that they were hunted, but that their stores were almost depleted. And this bunch was persistent, as fuck not to say. Following them like glued to their steps and catching up. Coming closer day by day and mile by mile with mechanical accuracy.
It was Kakuzu that made them run, ordered them wimp out like frightened hares. They took sharp rabbit-turns, fleeing first south, then ever west towards where the land grew harsh and overgrown with too many, too tangled plants and soaked in the water of countless wells.
He hated it. The way his throat constricted from lack of water, the way the trees became in places too small and sickly to support his weight, sending him flying into the underbrush. They fought through it, past nettles and willows suffocated by other plants. Ivy and honeysuckle, lichen and shit.
The ground was muddy, ridged by many small streams. He knew that when they’d halt at one of those he’d just let himself fall face down and drink like a horse.
The girl was miserable, he could tell. Small and kind of becoming more hunched over every time he looked at her. Tiny scratches from too many brambles forming on the not quite sweaty skin of her arms.
And throughoutly he hoped Kakuzu was suffering, too, because it was at times like this that he truly despised the man. Because -reason aside- he wanted to take apart their pursuers and knew that they could if they only tried. Tried hard, that is.
Bark slipped away from rotting wood where he had made contact with the branch he had just landed on. He touched down on the ground which gave away far too easily, before he propelled himself upward again towards his leader.
•
They were gambling with time. It was as simple as that. Time meaning in this case how much longer their energy would last which would be, Yugito estimated, not be for much longer. So she felt relieved when Kakuzu ordered them to split up.
As soon as she was alone the forest turned silent. Just her fast-going breath and the occasional chipper of birds. The stillness was something that pressed against her ears and only broken by a faint prickle at the very edge of her consciousness when cloaked chakras passed her.
She drew the nekomatas energy over her own like a mantle, mingled it with her own and let its flame burn low until she might be mistaken for some forest beast.
She killed the first man silently. After she had sat down beside an uprooted tree, leaned against his gnarled roots to just breathe for a second. He looked at her, for a moment seeming surprised that he had actually caught her. He must have been still young, still a rookie and as much as a fool as you were allowed to be in such a squad, she thought later. Standing there like that in his once pristine white armor now covered in mud. When he lay at her feet, she looked at his headband, saw the edged in Cloud symbol and felt showered by something cold and cruel.
•
She channeled chakra into her feet as well as into the sapling, so it would support her as she was - for one single fluid-seeming moment - pinned to it almost horizontally. Then she flung herself towards the men now coming at her and felt blue burning strength lap at her skin.
As the last man fell the trees to her right exploded into a roaring inferno of fire.
•
She found Kakuzu on something akin to a clearing. The trees had drawn back here somewhat, creating a place where their high, now burned crowns were not quite big enough to shadow the ground anymore. Morass reached up to her ankles as she neared him, red spots already dissolving in the forest water.
One of the masks dangled from his fingers. She looked at him, then at the tangled mass of threat at the ground. The thing seemed very still now, deformed and not at all full of that frantic, golemish life it had once possessed.
She knew the force those things could develop, had experienced it first hand in fact, so the sight puzzled her.
Her leader gazed upon the mask in his hand for a moment, almost pensive. Then he shuddered, as if something large and alien had stretched inside him.
“Let’s go” he told her and headed towards where the demon made her aware of something that was moving, but slowly, alive, but barely so.
He moved with long, powerful jumps, crouching deep to gather strength for the next. For a moment the lines of his face deepened in what might be dark anticipation.
She followed him. Her limbs hurting with the deep ache of exhaustion. Something that became sharp and tearing when she flexed her fingers the wrong way or had to balance herself on uneven ground.
Catching the man was not hard. She stood silently as the eagle-masked thing dropped on him from where it must have been over the trees. Just let itself fall, breaking through the treetops in a mass of splintered branches and torn-off leaves. Shattering bones just then as the man collapsed under the weight, later hacking at his chest turning it into something bloody and open, not dead and disgusting.
She saw Kakuzu reach down, his hand coming upward again covered in burgundy red, the fluid running down his naked arm in one thick drop, falling to the ground just shy of reaching the elbow.
The beaked beast came towards him, took the heart carefully between its jaws and let it slowly glide down to whatever deep caverns it possessed inside itself, making it eventually part of its master.
•
At night they didn’t even set up a fire. The late summer air was filled with the light droplets of drizzly rain, but for now not enough to chill them.
She stiffened as Kakuzu lay down next to her, gradually forcing herself to relax. His arm rose, rubbing at that part of his chest where the destroyed heart must have been. Not at all where his actual heart did beat, but slightly lower and much more to the right.
And for a second it was alright. In the hours just before dawn she woke, feeling how the slight rain had soaked all through her cloak and Hidan’s legs were pressed much more tightly against hers than they had previously been. But until then she slept.
Characters: Kakuzu, Yugito, Hidan
Words: 1104
Summary: The trio is pursued by ANBU.
The ANBU were a problem, Hidan soon realized. It was not the fact that they were hunted, but that their stores were almost depleted. And this bunch was persistent, as fuck not to say. Following them like glued to their steps and catching up. Coming closer day by day and mile by mile with mechanical accuracy.
It was Kakuzu that made them run, ordered them wimp out like frightened hares. They took sharp rabbit-turns, fleeing first south, then ever west towards where the land grew harsh and overgrown with too many, too tangled plants and soaked in the water of countless wells.
He hated it. The way his throat constricted from lack of water, the way the trees became in places too small and sickly to support his weight, sending him flying into the underbrush. They fought through it, past nettles and willows suffocated by other plants. Ivy and honeysuckle, lichen and shit.
The ground was muddy, ridged by many small streams. He knew that when they’d halt at one of those he’d just let himself fall face down and drink like a horse.
The girl was miserable, he could tell. Small and kind of becoming more hunched over every time he looked at her. Tiny scratches from too many brambles forming on the not quite sweaty skin of her arms.
And throughoutly he hoped Kakuzu was suffering, too, because it was at times like this that he truly despised the man. Because -reason aside- he wanted to take apart their pursuers and knew that they could if they only tried. Tried hard, that is.
Bark slipped away from rotting wood where he had made contact with the branch he had just landed on. He touched down on the ground which gave away far too easily, before he propelled himself upward again towards his leader.
•
They were gambling with time. It was as simple as that. Time meaning in this case how much longer their energy would last which would be, Yugito estimated, not be for much longer. So she felt relieved when Kakuzu ordered them to split up.
As soon as she was alone the forest turned silent. Just her fast-going breath and the occasional chipper of birds. The stillness was something that pressed against her ears and only broken by a faint prickle at the very edge of her consciousness when cloaked chakras passed her.
She drew the nekomatas energy over her own like a mantle, mingled it with her own and let its flame burn low until she might be mistaken for some forest beast.
She killed the first man silently. After she had sat down beside an uprooted tree, leaned against his gnarled roots to just breathe for a second. He looked at her, for a moment seeming surprised that he had actually caught her. He must have been still young, still a rookie and as much as a fool as you were allowed to be in such a squad, she thought later. Standing there like that in his once pristine white armor now covered in mud. When he lay at her feet, she looked at his headband, saw the edged in Cloud symbol and felt showered by something cold and cruel.
•
She channeled chakra into her feet as well as into the sapling, so it would support her as she was - for one single fluid-seeming moment - pinned to it almost horizontally. Then she flung herself towards the men now coming at her and felt blue burning strength lap at her skin.
As the last man fell the trees to her right exploded into a roaring inferno of fire.
•
She found Kakuzu on something akin to a clearing. The trees had drawn back here somewhat, creating a place where their high, now burned crowns were not quite big enough to shadow the ground anymore. Morass reached up to her ankles as she neared him, red spots already dissolving in the forest water.
One of the masks dangled from his fingers. She looked at him, then at the tangled mass of threat at the ground. The thing seemed very still now, deformed and not at all full of that frantic, golemish life it had once possessed.
She knew the force those things could develop, had experienced it first hand in fact, so the sight puzzled her.
Her leader gazed upon the mask in his hand for a moment, almost pensive. Then he shuddered, as if something large and alien had stretched inside him.
“Let’s go” he told her and headed towards where the demon made her aware of something that was moving, but slowly, alive, but barely so.
He moved with long, powerful jumps, crouching deep to gather strength for the next. For a moment the lines of his face deepened in what might be dark anticipation.
She followed him. Her limbs hurting with the deep ache of exhaustion. Something that became sharp and tearing when she flexed her fingers the wrong way or had to balance herself on uneven ground.
Catching the man was not hard. She stood silently as the eagle-masked thing dropped on him from where it must have been over the trees. Just let itself fall, breaking through the treetops in a mass of splintered branches and torn-off leaves. Shattering bones just then as the man collapsed under the weight, later hacking at his chest turning it into something bloody and open, not dead and disgusting.
She saw Kakuzu reach down, his hand coming upward again covered in burgundy red, the fluid running down his naked arm in one thick drop, falling to the ground just shy of reaching the elbow.
The beaked beast came towards him, took the heart carefully between its jaws and let it slowly glide down to whatever deep caverns it possessed inside itself, making it eventually part of its master.
•
At night they didn’t even set up a fire. The late summer air was filled with the light droplets of drizzly rain, but for now not enough to chill them.
She stiffened as Kakuzu lay down next to her, gradually forcing herself to relax. His arm rose, rubbing at that part of his chest where the destroyed heart must have been. Not at all where his actual heart did beat, but slightly lower and much more to the right.
And for a second it was alright. In the hours just before dawn she woke, feeling how the slight rain had soaked all through her cloak and Hidan’s legs were pressed much more tightly against hers than they had previously been. But until then she slept.