Akatsuki Truth or Dare

Kakuzu

You stared at the ground, trying desperately to keep your eyes open.

For some reason you were always tired. But you weren't lazy. Far from it, you were actually very conscious about your job and took your work very seriously. You got along with most of the Akatsuki, but some of them, particularly Hidan, got p*ssed off when you slept for too long.

"____!"

You blinked sleepily, someone was calling you? The voice sounded distant...You were listening, but you weren't taking any of it in. The voices were sort of blending together.

"Is she asleep again?"

"It looks like it..."

"Wake the b**** up then!"

"____! Are you playing this or not, hm!"

You lifted you head slowly, yawning several times in the process. "Wha?" You whispered, as the blurred image of your fellow Akatsuki members came into focus.

"She's awake now..." Murmured Sasori. He was sitting in the corner of the room, presumably adjusting Hiruko. He was one of the people you got along with, mainly because you spent so much time sleeping that you never bothered him about his work.

"Sorry..." You whispered drowsily, sitting up, "I'm awake now...What are we playing again?"

Deidara face-palmed in exasperation. "Truth or Dare, hm! I've been asking you for the past half an hour!"

"Calm down...I choose..." You paused and thought.

Truth? Dare? To be perfectly honest, you didn't want to do anything except rest. A lazy grin swept onto your face. Actually...Why not have both? You were tired as h*ll anyway and as far as you were concerned, that was worse than anything a bunch of criminals could dish up.

 "...Both." You finished, resting your head in your hands in an effort to keep awake.

"Finally! An answer, yeah!" Cried Deidara, raising his hands to the heavens in gratitude.

You rolled your eyes.

"____, how about the truth first, hm?" Asked the blonde.

You nodded warily.

Deidara opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so, he was interrupted by a deep voice from the corner of the room.

"I'll take this one, Deidara..."

Everyone turned to the owner of the voice.

Kakuzu stood up. Until now he had been counting his precious money while half listening to the conversations going on around him. As soon as he heard the word 'both' he had a brilliant idea.

"What, un?"

"I said, I will take this one." Answered the miser, walking over. His green eyes scanned the circle of Akatsuki members before resting on you. You returned his gaze with a lazy smile, followed by a loud yawn.

Kakuzu blinked. "Truth first. Would you rather count money, or complete one of his pointless rituals?" He asked, pointing at Hidan. The Jashinist immediately called Kakuzu every single offensive name under the sun.

You grinned. "That's a stupid truth."

"Yeah, hm! Couldn't you have come up with something better than that, Kakuzu, un?" Asked Deidara, frowning. But he was instantly silenced by Kakuzu's harsh glare.

"I'd rather count money." You said, "Now what's my dare?"

Kakuzu smirked beneath his mask. "I dare you to count my money...Even if it takes all night..."

You groaned. Trust him to come up with something like that, and just because he didn't want to do it himself. He knew you were tired! Why would he do that? Seriously, why?

He continued. "...The money is in my room. I don't fully trust you. But why count it myself, when someone else can do it?"

"Why didn't I think of that?" Mused Sasori, studying his puppets intently. "It would be useful to have a...slave."

You gave him a blank I-am-so-not-amused-with-you look, before slowly getting up and following Kakuzu out of the room and towards his own.

As you entered, the first thing you saw was...some sort of desk? But that wasn't what scared you. What scared you was the fact that it was piled with high with cash. Both bills and coins. You knew Kakuzu went on bounty hunts and you knew he had an unhealthy obsession with money, but man was this a lot of dough!

Your jaw dropped and you turned to Kakuzu, a pleading look in your eyes. "Please don't make me do this Kakuzu, I'm so tired..." And you added a cute yawn at the end for good measure.

He gave a short, hollow chuckle. "Nice try. I will be back later and I expect it to be done."

And with that he was gone.

You sighed and sat down at the desk, staring forlornly at the stacks of money in front of you. As you continued to stare at them, they seemed to multiply and it was only after a couple of minutes that you realised you were starting to see double because you were so sleepy.

Slowly, you reached out and began to sort the cash into neat piles. It was a mind-numbing task and after a while (You couldn't tell how long) you couldn't even keep your head up. You blinked groggily and gently placed your head on the desk, sighing lightly as the bills formed a soft green pillow around you. Gradually, your eyes began to close and each time you tried to keep them open, it felt like more weight was added to your eye lids, until eventually you gave in.

Sleep...Was anything better ever invented?

~A few hours later~

Kakuzu walked casually into his room, taking off his mask and placing it to the side.

Then he saw you.

You were resting on the desk, fast asleep, with towers of money around you. Your hair lay strewn around your head, the strands mixing with the bills.

He frowned. His first reaction was to wake you up and send you on your way. The miser reached out intending to shake you awake. But something stopped him.

He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Unbelievable. Now he was starting to care. Why?

Being as careful as he could, he scooped you up, being careful not to touch anything...unnecessary, and walked towards your room, intending to leave you there and return immediately to his own. Instinctively, you curled towards him and he gave you an aloof look, placing you on the bed and turning to go.

Then he heard something.

He clenched his fists in an effort to retain his temper and closed his eyes. Such high maintenance.

You were shivering in your sleep.

Taking a deep breath, he clenched his jaw and whipped round to face the bed. He relaxed slightly. You had curled into a ball in an effort to shield yourself from the cold and you were trembling. Silently, he pulled the bed sheet over you.

Why was he doing this? Just, why? Why did he care? He had better things to do, surely? Couldn't he just leave you here?

No.

No matter how much he questioned himself, he couldn't just leave. Kami knows why. When the sheet fully covered you he stepped back.

Are you happy now? He thought incredulously, gazing at your slumbering figure. A faint smile had appeared on your lips.

Just before he left, he paused in the doorway and sighed almost inaudibly.

"Good night...____..."

"Night, Kakuzu."

He spun around straightaway. You were wide awake and looking up at him from the pillow, grinning at him with that trademark lazy grin. He stared at you disbelievingly.

Your grin widened. "Yeah, I can pretend to sleep..."