Sutures || Kakuzu

Ch. 9 - The Sky and The Sea

Nozomi and Hidan stood outside the Land of Fire Bounty Station. It didn't take long for Kakuzu to return with the funds from the bounty, along with a seal of alliance from their employers. Now that their bounty was done, she wondered what they would be doing next. Were they going to return to Amegakure?

"Hey, blondie! Let's fucking go!"

"Coming!" Snapping out of her thoughts, Nozomi looked to see Hidan and Kakuzu already walking away from the station so she ran over to meet them. The trio started the next part of their journey, Kakuzu walking between Hidan and Nozomi. She looked up at the tall male, who was holding a sack of his earnings from the bounty. "Where are we going now?"

Hidan put his hands behind his head. "To fucking kill someone, in Jashin's name of course. I've been waiting on some damn free time for a while now."

"I've been wondering this for quite a while now, but why are you a bounty hunter, Hidan?" The female raised an eyebrow as she looked around Kakuzu at the Jashinist.

"I'm not." He rolled his eyes. "If I had my way, this old, money-hungry ass-backwards bastard-" He was cut off as he jumped back to avoid a black eye. "Ha, bitch, you missed!"

Kakuzu ignored him. "We're going back to your house."

"Why can't we ever do anything I fucking want?" Hidan crossed his arms. "We always have to follow your bullshit. How do you know if the bitch wants to do that?"

"Wait, why can't you just call me by my name?" Nozomi frowned. "I don't mind going back to Kirigakure because I still owe Kakuzu-san and it's only right that I pay him for his services."

"Are you satisfied now?" Kakuzu turned to Hidan.

The silver-haired male let out a huff of anger and started walking again. "Fucking hell. You don't even know if there's actually money there, but of course you would fucking take his side. What a load of bullshit, I tell ya,"

"What if we go back to the hot springs first? I think it would be nice to-"

"I'm not going to that pacifist shithole."

"Since you want a say so bad, your options are Kirigakure or Yugakure."

"I swear to Jashin, I fucking hate you."

In the end, Nozomi got her wish and the group stopped for the night at an inn by the border of the Land of Hot Water and the sea. The mix of hot water from the spring and the slight breeze from the sea felt serene against her skin as she relaxed. Finally, she was able to see why all the tourist books said the springs were so magical. It may not have been in Yugakure, but she couldn't complain. Her bruise was healing from her previous fight and everything just felt nice. It would've been nicer if her family was here to enjoy it with her.

Frowning, Nozomi got up and went to go change; she'd been soaking in the water for a while now anyway. Although things ended with her father and brother on a note she could've never imagined, it didn't change the fact that she missed them and thought about them a lot. She wanted to believe that there could've been a way where their relationship would've been better.

Her room was a short walk from the springs so she started on her way. Distracted by her thoughts, Nozomi almost didn't hear a discarded twig break behind her. Eyes widening, she pulled out a kunai from her pouch and turned around. There was nothing behind her, but as she looked from side to side, the surrounding forest started to look less and less familiar.

There was a bird sitting on a low branch in front of her and, weirdly enough, it looked as if it was staring directly at her. Out of curiosity, Nozomi cautiously moved towards it. Where did it come from? As soon as she got too close, the bird jumped and flew away, its feathers flying everywhere around her. Suddenly, it was like her consciousness shut off; she saw a flash of red, then everything went dark.