No Room for Another Heart (Kakuzu fanfiction)

New Leads

Ikari's p.o.v.

I woke up in the early hours of the morning. The sun was hidden behind storm clouds today and rain was gently tapping at my window. I smiled looking out at it, I always loved storms. Maybe this was a good sign; thunder rumbled in the distance as I got up and dressed for the day going through my morning routine. I yawned and rubbed the sleep from my eyes as Fukushu spoke up. "Should we talk to Kakuzu today?" I paused there in the middle of my room thinking. I did say give him until today...maybe I could see if he'd be willing to help. I nodded and headed out into the hall before hooking left down towards Kakuzu's room. Sasori's door was slightly open leading me to peek in out of curiosity. The room was empty save for the puppets he must have been working on. Looking over, Deidara's room was also empty. Hm...maybe Sasori got Deidara to help him dig for information.

I continued on knocking gently on Kakuzu's door before it swung open revealing Kakuzu. His hair was down over his face once more as his mask still hid his mouth. He seemed shocked as he gave me an odd look. "Can I help you?" I nodded before motioning my head forward as a means of requesting entrance. Kakuzu looked back into his room for a moment, scratching his cheek with a finger. "Fine, make it quick." Kakuzu stepped aside and took a seat on his bed, scooting so his back was to the wall. I entered into the small room and my mouth dropped open. Stacks of money lined the left wall with only a space to enter the bathroom door. The right wall was littered with pages ripped from his bingo book and pinned up by kunai. A few had their faces marked out while a few others were circled. Kakuzu's desk was covered with bingo books and loose change. He really was good at this.

I took a seat gingerly in the chair making sure not to knock over any book stacks or stacks of money. I can only imagine how angry he'd get if I messed up his counting. "What do you want Ikari?" His deep tone drew my attention back to him. I began fidgiting in the chair, looking down at the floor. "I...need your help...if you're willing," There was a pause before Kakuzu pulled out a bingo book he must have had tucked into his bed. "Help how?" I took a breath to steel myself before looking up to him with tears in my eyes. Kakuzu stopped flipping through his book, locking his eyes onto me. "Help me find who killed my parents."

The room fell silent as a tomb as Kakuzu stared at me. He seemed stunned, unsure of what to say. Finally, Kakuzu nodded. "Alright...how can I help?" I smiled letting out a sigh of relief. I explained once more the whole situation Fukushu had explained to me, this time, not skipping the sentimental things. Tears streamed down my cheeks once again. Why I wanted to tell Kakuzu I'm not fully sure. Maybe it was because he trusted me with his pain so I wanted to give him the same honor. Maybe I wanted to get held. I'm not sure. What I do know is Kakuzu never took his eyes off me. He saw just how much it hurt me and gave the same care I gave him when he spoke about his past. It made me happy, it felt like everytime I talked about it just a little bit of the weight lifted. I had this bottled up for years like he had, sixteen to be exact. It felt good to just, vent it.

After the explanation I told him how Sasori had agreed to dig some for me and told me in a week to ask again. Kakuzu nodded as he moved to the edge of his bed, resting his chin on top of his hands as he began picking his brain. "So Fukushu doesn't know any other names?" I shook my head no. "He only saw them, they never said names or revealed what villages they were from. They made sure to keep that information secret. He thinks they weren't operating under the blessing of the Hidden Sand and were having to do things under the radar," Kakuzu gave a puzzled look for a moment before directing his eyes to me. "Does he remember exactly what they looked like? I'm eighty years old, I've seen a lot of people in my time. Maybe I will recognize them."

"There are four that I remember well enough. One was a slender man, about five foot six. He wore a mask that covered his mouth but I remember he had blond hair that was in a ponytail. He had cow print arm and shin guards and some sort of gloves on. They looked weird. Another man was abnormally tall, about six foot seven. He had a massive scar over his right eye which was glossed over. He wore all black to my memory but he had a teal blue line on the right side of his flak jacket. The third was a short man, around five foot nothing. He looked bug like, big eyes from behind glasses and an annoying face. I remember he had a buzz cut but the hair that was there was a mint green. He looked like he was from the Hidden Sand with his beige outfit. The last one had garnet red hair and stood about five foot five. This one was actually a woman if memory serves correctly but her voice was very deep. She had forest green clothes but no flak jacket. Those are the ones I remember aside from Yoki."