Sasori wasn’t really in the mood to look for anyone.
The mood had started right from early in the day. Considering their before mission of a large battle had been one that really sent the adrenaline running through Deidara's body, the fact that afterwards they didn’t have a lot to go on sent him into a downward spiral of withdrawal symptoms. The only thing they had been told was to head back to the hideout, and though they had been some groaning from Deidara at first, it hadn’t been so bad until they had actually reached Pein and been told about the mission. Then things just got worse.
Normally the fact it was a mission consisting mostly of searching for someone wouldn’t have mattered, and he could deal with only a little fight at the end of it, even if he was a little impatient. But when you had Deidara—who was bored out of his mind and in a whiny mood—to work with on a mission involving it, it became a big thing to deal with. In the end he dismissed Deidara from the room, telling him to wait outside the building and he’d tell him everything once he joined him, focusing back in on Pein as he began again about the mission.
“His name is Tanju. He’s got a lot of connections to a lot of people, and it’s his influence that’s been affecting many of our missions for a while now. I need him dead; and this is along with a lot of other people who’ve mentioned his name to me about assassinations. I don’t know his exact location; no one does. I only know some coordinates and various areas he’s been spotted in lately and regularly. From there...you’ll have to search alone or see what you can get off of other people.” He explained, Sasori nodding in agreement back at him, thinking over the mission one last time.
It was going to be hell. He knew it. Maybe if there had been something to distract Deidara, then his mood could disappear, but if they were heading into a rather dull, empty area with no one but a few villagers and Sasori himself to keep him company...it would only continue. And he would have to be the one to have to put up with it, with no other escape in sight. Which is why Sasori could do nothing but ignore him as he recounted Pein’s instructions, and then turn and head out of there as fast as he could in the coordinates he’d been given.
He just had to hope this guy wouldn’t bother to hide from them.
Or at least give him a good fight to let out his anger.
So the mission began, Deidara moaning at any little interval as they walked on through the forest. It was only after the first hour or so that Deidara realised Sasori wasn’t about to cave to anything, in a more cantankerous and vicious mood that Kakuzu could pull off on a bad day. From there it was only every now and again that he moaned, Sasori having reduced himself, at this point, to nothing more than grunts and snapped comments at his attitude.
Even as the day went on, using the excuse of ‘go and scout ahead on one of your birds’ didn’t work for long before Deidara came flying back a minute later saying he hadn’t seen a thing. Yes, even Sasori himself could admit it was kind of annoying that all they had to go on was coordinates and a general area, but Deidara could at least help out in some form, considering Hiruko was exactly the speediest of things to travel in. But it wasn’t like he needed that advantage in battle—he had all that he needed. He just needed something to kill or order to prove that fact...
Mikansei jogged through the trees, her mind too much in turmoil to truly understand where she was going. She hadn’t stopped to rest the entire night, instead wandering around like some deluded ghost, trying to find somewhere to stay. Her eyes remained cloudy with colour, leaving her abilities and chakra incredibly near the surface and ready to burst out with the slightest change in emotion. She had never thought Tanju would do something like that, and as such hadn’t considered her emotions resurfacing. But now they had, she hadn’t a clue what to do with them, merely causing them to get out of control slightly.
The one part of her mind that remained rational knew that the contacts Tanju had had would see he was dead and follow her instantly. She had been too panicked to remember to take food, her abilities affecting her thought process too much to realise she wasn’t covering her tracks and leaving a clear path for them all to follow. But it didn’t matter. She had to get away. All the bad things that had happened to her over the years were repeating themselves in her head, and she needed to find somewhere new to start again. To find a life for herself.
To figure out who she really was.
Or at least, to start with, deal with her arms. True, Mikansei had been angry and Tanju for doing that to her, but he had been right about one thing. She wasn’t complete; an unfinished creation that couldn’t be truly used until it was fully done. Not only was that a mantra that had been bored into her mind from when she was very small, but it was true in a literal sense. What he had been planning to do to her was something that he wasn’t going to give up on and stop doing if it became too troublesome. It was something that became a true focus of Tanju’s, and he wouldn’t have stopped at anything to leave her incomplete.
Of course, he hadn’t counted on her breaking free, but now that she had...it meant that he couldn’t finish what he had started. It meant that what was meant to completed was left with only a little more left to go. But this hadn’t had a backup plan. There had been no other option for Tanju. So now that Mikansei had been left hanging with only her arms left to change, her body didn’t know what else to do. It began turning against itself, and with every step she took pain shot up her arms, leaving her willpower and apathy the only things that could override it and force her arms to move.
Glancing down at them for another time, she noticed slices and cuts had begun to appear all over her arms, and scowling at that fact, Mikansei shook her head and forced herself onwards. She couldn’t think about that now. People could be arriving after her at any moment, and standing there gaping at what her arms were doing wasn’t going to help her at all! Just a little longer and then she could rest. Then she could check over her arms and figure out what was truly wrong with them.
Maybe then she’d be able to figure out a remedy for the pain.
It didn’t help that a moment later something slammed into her from the side, causing her to roll along the ground a few metres. Jumping back up and falling automatically into a defensive stance, Mikansei glared over at the four guys facing her, knowing they were after her because of what she had done to Tanju. There was no way they’d listen to anything she would have to say; all that mattered was that their boss was dead. That meant no pay for them, and no favours if they got into any trouble.
Not that Mikansei would have been able to explain in the first place.
It was only now, faced with Tanju’s men, that she truly realised just how much damage he had done to her life. She had worked for him for as long as she could remember; did what he said, trained in the way he wanted, said things he wanted to hear and kept out of his way. She had been the underling he had always wanted from the beginning, and had moulded her to the exact specifications he wanted. It was why he had made that whole idea to reinforce her skeleton and give her immortality—she would be merely a weapon and he could control her. But that was the problem in the first place.
All her life she had been trained to be a weapon that was controlled by the owner; she felt uncomfortable not having that consistency in her life.
But when she truly thought about it, without an owner...
What good was a weapon?
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