No Room for Another Heart (Kakuzu fanfiction)

United

Kakuzu's p.o.v.

I watched as the question processed in her head. I felt my chest tighten in the silence of the room. She fidgeted in place and cast her eyes down to the stone floor. That was her answer. I knew it, this is why I shouldn't have asked. I sighed and shook my head, lying back down and turning over away from her. There was silence for another handful of minutes before I heard her feet on the floor approaching me. Once I could feel her presence over my bed I looked up slightly to see her face covered in a red flush. "You aren't a monster...I...I think you're amazing. You're strong and...and you're smart. You are...well you're amazing and skilled and anyone would be lucky to know you and get to see your more open side. I'm glad you opened up to me and it made me feel happy. You hugging me felt like I was...home. You say you aren't good with comforting but you have been able to calm me when nothing else could and...and I don't think anyone else could ever do that. Not even Fukushu."

She paused for a while before eventually blurting out all at once. "I think I love you and I've not known how to go about it for months and its been eating me away inside because I know you would never feel the same about me!" The outburst seemed to take energy out of her as she stood there panting for a moment. As for me, the words had left me stunned and dumbfounded. She...she loved me? With me unresponsive she began crying before going to her bed and balling up under the covers. Still, I couldn't find the resolve to move my body and my mind was drawing a blank. I panicked, I didn't know what to do or say. I quickly got up and grabbed my things before rushing to my own room and shutting the door. Damn it! Why did I come in here? I should have gone over and told her I felt the same. Damn it! Why am I like this? Why can't I understand how to function about such a simple subject? Damn me!

I slammed my head into the door a few times for good measure to make sure that my head was still functioning before plopping down on my bed and rubbing my face. This whole time...she was feeling the same things this whole time. The number of times I didn't ask her because I was scared of the answer. The amount of times I was an asshole to her. I groaned as I smacked myself on the forehead with the palm of my hand. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could I fix this? Is it possible to fix this? I was such a mixture of emotion from joy to anger. One heart was telling me to run back in there and confess while another was yelling at me about how stupid I was. I looked around the mostly empty room of Hidan and myself. I wished it was her sleeping in here instead of that moron. Pein said we could bunk however we wished but I doubt Hidan would go for it since I'm the source of his money and even if he did, he'd tease me relentlessly over it.

My eyes fell on a small red book I had resting on my desk which sparked an idea in my spinning head. The Chameleon. I jumped up and flipped back to the picture of her. I hadn't had time to save any of the research I had done trying to track her down before the old hideout was destroyed but I remembered where I was in it. She was last known of in the Land of Lightning under my old informants name but reports were that she was killed by a group of shinobi from the Hidden Cloud Village. All I needed to do was to look for missing persons in the Land of Lightning and I bet I could figure out who she was currently disguised as. She wouldn't dare walk around like herself. I put my cloak on and went back out into the Hidden Rain to search around. Most of the shops were closed by this point but a few inns and bars were still open. All I needed was to find someone quick who could get me reports from the Hidden Cloud of any recent missing person reports.

I searched around but found no one who could do the job, just a bunch of drunks and run of the mill shinobi. I sighed as I stood out in the torrential rain, annoyed with my failure. I made a few quick hand signs and cut my thumb before placing it onto the ground. In a puff of smoke, Takai appeared before me. I groaned as he climbed up my leg and onto my shoulder. "Kakuzu! It's been ages! How have you been buddy?" I picked the small red octopus up off my shoulder and placed him back onto the ground. "Not interested in small talk Takai. I have a job for you, think you can manage?" The small creature gave a salute with four of its tentacles. "Look I just need you to get to the Land of Lightning and get reports of any missing persons within the last five months. Got it?" Takai nodded his bulbous head at me and hopped into the nearby canal before shooting off into the distance. I hated summoning him, I learned how back when I was a Chunin but he's always been an annoyance.