Puppet Strings// Naruto Shippuden Sasori Fanfiction (Complete)

Goodbye

*Chapter 17*

*Sasori's POV*

Kivi started hyperventilating as she choked on her own tears. I dropped to my knees and hugged her, pulling her face away from her dead friend and into the crook of my neck. I felt her sniffled and hiccuped as she whimpered Aki's name. My arms just stayed around her as my mind thought of ways to comfort her but I couldn't come up with any. Comforting someone, especially the one you loved, was not what I'm used to when there was no one I can love after my parents died.

"Aki..." Kivi whimpered before hiccuping. Her voice brought me back to reality and I quickly brought her closer to me. I closed my eyes as I kissed those quivering pink lips of hers.

*Kivi's POV*

Aki's dead...because of me.

No. She'd asked for it.

No! It's all my fault.

She was going to kill you but we got her first.

I would never kill her. Why are you doing this to me?

I'm here for you.

What...are you saying?

My eyelids flew open and slowly focused to see Sasori's closed eyes a few centimeters away from my face. Something warm and soft pressed against my lips and I realized what Sasori was doing. A big part of my pain flushed away as I felt my face warmed from blushing and gently kissed him back.

My lips stopped quivering as Sasori kissed my pain away. His tongue wet my lips, begging for entrance and I slowly let him in. It felt so different from our usual kisses as Sasori explored my mouth with his warm tongue. I shut my eyes tighter and blushed from the intensity as my mind was about to go blank.

Sasori broke the kiss, leaving a small distance between our faces. I could feel his hot breath on my face as I panted for air from the crying and his addictive kiss.

"Sasori...I killed Aki...My crystals killed Aki..." I felt tears brimming at my eyes again as those words slipped out of my mouth. It felt so painful to say them out, as if I'm confessing to a crime that I didn't do but I don't have the choice but to take the blame.

Sasori cupped my cheeks and wiped my falling tears away before giving me one of his rare smiles. "You didn't kill her, Kivi. It's not your fault." Hearing that, I bit my lower lip to stop my tears before wrapping my arms around his neck; feeling his warmth and scent to lessen my guilt.

I felt his arms wrapped around me as if to try to squeeze the pain out of me. "Let's go home, Kivi." Sasori laced his long fingers with mine as we stood up, eyes never leaving each other. "We'll talk to Chiyo-baasama about this and asked them to collect the..." Sasori hesitated. "Body." I completed his sentence before giving him a small smile that I could mustered.

As I held onto Sasori's hand, it almost feels like everything is going to go back to normal. Of course, I'll need to explain myself to Chiyo-baasama, Takahara, the Kazekage and my parents about Aki. But at least Sasori will be right here beside me, holding my hand.

As we were about to leave, I glanced at the red head puppet version of Sasori. I gently let go of Sasori's hand and jogged towards it. Sasori joined me and stared coldly at the puppet. "Leave it." I heard his emotionless voice behind me. I shook my head and lifted up the puppet's head slightly. "It's Aki's puppet. I'll keep it." I murmured.

As I was about to seal it away in a scroll, something shiny caught my eyes. I moved the puppet gently to see the shine was from a string attached to the puppet's mouth. "Kivi! Stop!" I turned around to see Sasori's widened eyes as he tried to reach out for me.