Suteta - (Akatsuki fanfic)

Part 9

 “Panda? Panda!”

         Zetsu startled awake when he noticed a rough tug at his sweater sleeve. He hadn’t noticed he dozed off, but he did notice his neck and shoulder felt sore. Dammit. Falling asleep upright seemed to cause this all the damn time, and Zetsu found it extremely irritating. Sitting up, he stretched his shoulder until the joint popped and then rubbed the back of his neck to relieve the knot. “What?” he asked glancing around the room. He was expecting something to be out of order since he unintentionally fell asleep instead of keeping an eye on the toddler, but… Is it just me, or does the room seem…cleaner than before? Either that or we were robbed. Both sides laughed inwardly. No one would be stupid enough to rob the Akatsuki even if they were smart enough to find the base. But seriously, what the hell happened? Then he remembered the toddler had been “cleaning” earlier. That had to have been it.

The girl was next to Zetsu on the couch, sitting back on her heels and the toy bear she held close with one arm. She raised her free hand as if she needed to make sure she had his attention. “Kesschen!”

That having made no sense whatsoever, Zetsu had to stall a few moments to figure out what that word was supposed to be. Speaking “little kid” was definitely not his forté. What could the word have been? It didn’t take much longer to realize it. Oh! She meant ‘question’! Why couldn’t she have just freaking said that?! Well…he guessed she did say it, just not in a way he understood at first. So he couldn’t get mad at the girl for it. “Alright, what is it?”

She swung her legs over the side of the couch and carefully slid off the cushion until her feet touched the floor. “C’mere!”

Sighing, Zetsu stood. Damn, this brat has a short attention span… You don’t know that. Yes I do. Do not. Though it did seem her thought process had changed. Regardless, he followed the toddler into the kitchen and then the hall.

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Only turning around once or twice to make sure Zetsu was following her, the toddler looked both ways before stepping quietly into the hall. She remembered when the person with red eyes had chased her from this hallway and she didn’t want to run into him again. He was scary.

         Scrunching her toes as she walked on the cold floor, she tried to remember which way she wanted to go. This place was so big it was easy to get lost. The girl continued down the dim hall, keeping her hearing trained on Zetsu’s heavy footsteps. Having him behind her made her feel a little safer. And since she was actually allowed in the hallway this time, she didn’t have to worry about him being mad at her again.

Pausing, she realized she might have gotten turned around. Stopping at a turn into one of the halls, she briefly ran through her memory on where she had already been and pieced the images together. Then she imagined herself walking through them to see if she could get to where she was now. Oh! She smiled. Now she remembered where to go.

Hearing more odd sounds, every few seconds the girl looked back again to make sure Zetsu was following her. Some of the sounds seemed to echo in this hallway so, in her mind, it was only natural to be sure she wasn’t alone if something jumped out at her. Like…a monster or something. That would be scary.

When she came to the hallway she was looking for, she poked her head around the corner. The familiar variety of scents made her smile briefly, then she looked up at Zetsu. “Wha’s down there?” she finally asked her question in a loud whisper.

Zetsu had a confused expression for some reason, but the toddler quickly forgot about it when he responded. “Would you like to see for yourself?”

The toddler smiled wide and nodded, squeezing her teddy bear tightly in excitement. “Yes p’ease!” She noticed she raised her voice and, to ‘correct’ her mistake, pulled her toy’s head over her mouth.

“This time, you follow us. And don’t get distracted and wander off.” Zetsu stepped around the girl and started down the hall with her close behind.