It had been a while wandering around this place, and still Sasori and Deidara had come across nothing; to both of their irritations. The village they had passed through had given the same kind of information Pein had--not very specific. All they could do was walk in a vague direction and hope something would come out of it. There hadn't even been any buildings or any signs of human life in general. After a while, it began to seem like there wasn't any guy they had to kill. That Pein was just doing this for kicks and he was sitting somewhere watching it all with a grin on his face. (We all know Leader-sama is a prankster at heart xD.)
Snapping his head round to face Deidara, Sasori snarled another insult at him along with a swing of Hiruko's tail, telling him once again to shut the fuck up and stop whining. He hadn't stopped once while the mission had gone on. Not even when Sasori actually let him stop to get something to eat and to rest a little while. And overall it was really beginning to piss him off. But seeing Deidara merely raising an eyebrow back at him in amusement, Sasori growled viciously and turned back to the path, simply walking onwards with a scowl on his face.
But the third time he heard the sound of clashing metal he paused and realised just what was going on. Once he did realise, he concentrated solely on that. If it got his attention away from Deidara, away from the irritation of the mission not coming up with anything, he would cling onto it with all his might. Halting slightly, he glanced over at Deidara and saw he had noticed it too, and as such they continued on towards it slowly. Having a battle in the middle of the forest was a little unusual, when there weren't many ninjas in the area to begin with, and Sasori couldn't help but hope that this might be a connection to Tanju, speeding up a little as he thought this.
However, he remained silent, unsure whether to reveal his presence yet or not, and told Deidara to do the same in a hushed whisper. There was no point ruining things now they might actually have a lead on this mission--or a distraction from the boredom, at least. Creeping forward once again, Sasori turned back round and peered round past the cluster of trees in front of him, blinking in surprise at what he now saw to be the source of the noise.
A young girl, who looked about thirteen or fourteen, was facing up against four other guys. Watching her fight, it was clear she was a high level ninja, Deidara letting out a quiet whistle of admiration at them as she slammed a palm into a guys face, causing him to curl up into a ball with the pain as the poison extended throughout his body. A cloud of purple smoke appeared a moment later, engulfing another guy and making him disappear, only for him to appear again high up in the air a little while afterwards, his body hitting the floor to reveal his corpse completely maimed and mutilated. Regardless of what age she was, it was obvious she could take care of herself.
But that wasn't what Sasori was looking at. With deep purple hair and completely purple eyes, she had a petite form and a very pretty face, the lack of emotions visible something that caught his eye along with the purple coloured tattoos that placed themselves over parts of her body. Though as she fought, he also noticed the cuts up and down her arms, making Sasori narrow his eyes in confusion. With the way she was fighting, none of her opponents could touch her or hurt her in the slightest--especially not with kunai or shuriken. So how her wounds had appeared in battle was unknown.
And then he spotted something else. In a similar way to how his limbs joined to his body--as a puppet--she almost had artificial joints, like her body had been created to be the way it was. It wasn't like Sasori's in the sense that her appendages weren't flesh and bone, but there was something about her that had been...created, almost. Now suddenly he wanted to meet her; to find out what it was about her that was so special. She was different, and Sasori couldn't take his eyes off of her; it was like watching an art form.
"Leader needs to see her," Sasori whispered a second later, never taking his eyes off of her. Deidara blinked in surprise, glancing over at Sasori, but watching how powerful she was, it didn't seem like such a bad idea.
Even if it did seem like there was a hidden reason for Sasori doing it.
A minute later and the last body had fallen, leaving Mikansei standing there, staring down at all the bodies around her. The colour faded from her eyes, leaving them dark blue once again, and gently running her fingers over the cuts on her arms, she frowned at the pain that still existed even after all that time. Sasori took the chance, now that she was calm and recovering from the battle to step forward quietly, waiting until he was closer before calling out softly,
"Why were they fighting you?"
Freezing in surprise, Mikansei span to face him and fell into a defensive stance, pausing slightly as she saw who he was. It wasn't his real body, that much she could tell--he was hiding within it, like an armour. There was something unusual about him that made her stop, making her less inclined to try and fight him. Sasori had been expecting it all along, and so halted where he was, explaining calmly,
"I don't want to fight you. I have no reason to. But why were they fighting you?"
His voice was deeper than it should be, and she could sense something deeper within him that connected him to her, and as such, she paused, and then said quietly,
"I killed Tanju--their boss."
Narrowing his eyes in surprise, Sasori recognised the name as the guy they had been looking for to begin with, unable to stop himself from smirking at now having another reason to bring her back with them. Nodding slowly with this knowledge, he quickly asked her name afterwards, and though still confused as to what this guy was doing, why he wasn't fighting her and just asking her questions, Mikansei responded,
"Mikansei Doku--why do you want to know?"
"We need you to come with us." Sasori instantly returned, causing Mikansei's arms to drop to her sides in shock.
She had no idea who these people were, or why they had decided to take her with them, but as she glanced up at the other man who now joined him, a blonde boy with blue eyes, she narrowed her eyes in utter confusion. Whether she would agree or not was lost to her, her eyes flicking from one to the other in uncertainty until he spoke up again,
"Your abilities interest us. We'll give you a job--a place to stay. Pay you for it."
Now Mikansei was completely frozen. A minute ago she had been fighting for her life after killing the person who had trapped her for the entirety of her existence. She had been worrying about how things would go from here, having been a weapon and been controlled, only to lose everything that she had thought she knew--that was a constant presence to her. Having someone like these two guys show up and offer her a place to work and stay hadn't been something she had been expecting in the slightest. But it had been something she had been thinking about--that she would be nothing without anyone there.
Pausing, she glanced away, closing her eyes for a second to contemplate it all, before looking back up, her face set, to state firmly,
"Al--alright. I'll come with you."
YOU ARE READING
