Rise From The Ashes (Kakuzu Story)

Chapter 24 (The End)

Suzaku's body was glowing.

Kakuzu hadn't known what he was expecting as he turned round; doing so slowly and almost considering not doing so at all, knowing doing so would affect him when he was doing his best to push everything to the back of his mind, but as his gaze passed from Hidan to where he was looking, his eyes instantly narrowed at what was going on. At first, when his eyes grazed over Suzaku's body, he didn't think anything was going on. It wasn't as if she was moving. But the longer Kakuzu kept his eyes on her and the more noticeable it became. It started as a mere sheen of light that emanated from her body, as if she was glowing, shimmering. Like there was a light inside of her that only now had been awakened. And then, slowly at first, the light seemed to grow brighter. A shimmer soon became a full-on glow, enough to light a room in darkness, and it didn't appear to be dimming. Suzaku's power had come from fire, Kakuzu knew that, but as he watched it was like the fire was inside of her, generating its own heat and light.

Why it was happening, Kakuzu had no idea, but he couldn't look away—and it didn't seem as if any of the others could either. Kakuzu wasn't sure whether to be hopeful that something might change or upset that it might do something to her body, leaving him standing frozen as the light within Suzaku's body grew brighter and brighter. Soon it became hard to look at directly, like facing the sun head on, but it was with this thought that something occurred to Pein, causing him to look up at the sky. In the same way the solar eclipse had affected Suzaku the moment it began, it appeared to have the adverse effect now it was ending. Of course, it wasn't a simple matter of merely returning her abilities to her considering she was dead, but something was definitely happening—whatever it might be.

A few moments later and it was clear it had climaxed, as the light abruptly increased greatly, causing the wind to whip up around them—it couldn't hold back anymore. Instantly everyone retreated, just about avoiding the explosion that swirled into a huge burst of flame that enveloped Suzaku and everything around her. Everyone all stood back, with no idea what to say or do at what was going on in front of them, having not expected it in the slightest, and not knowing what to do now it had occurred. The flames were churning around in the air, hiding Suzaku's body from view—or at least what was left of it. Was it because of her abilities that it had happened? Was it the solar eclipse that had affected her and awakened this? There didn't seem to be an answer, and so the Akatsuki simply watched the flames whirl around in front of them, wondering if they would ever stop.

It was the amount of flames and how they had engulfed the nearby area that meant it was hard to see a thing; to make out details. But the more Kakuzu stared at the fire in front of him, the more he started to feel there was a shape forming ahead of him. Dismissing it at first, when it was natural to form shapes with how the flames grew and shrank, a few seconds later and Kakuzu couldn't help but consider the possibility that there was actually something there. It wasn't a person—or at least, not exactly. The shape was vaguely human-shaped, true, with what looked like two arms, legs and a body and head to go along with it. But it wasn't human—it was just flames. Like a being made out of fire itself, having been created from the life that Suzaku had once had. How that was possible, how it had happened, Kakuzu didn't have a clue. But it was there—and it was coming closer towards him. Every step it took left a black footprint behind as it burned the very ground itself, but just when Kakuzu felt he should start to respond, either to attack or retreat, something else occurred to him that caused him to stay where he was. The flames seemed to be shrinking, but not merely dissipating; rather, they were being absorbed. The fire circled round the being in front of him, growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.

Leaving something else behind—or better yet, someone.

No one said a thing, not even Suzaku, without having the words to explain this occurrence. They merely stared back at each other, the silence overwhelming everything until it was broken with the one thing that made sense at the time:

"What the fuck is going on here?"

Finally managing to snap out of their stupors, everyone now began to talk and turn to each other in confusion, when something occurred to Kakuzu, and caused him to absentmindedly murmur to himself,

"A phoenix can still shine even in a day of black sun..."

Taking a few moments longer to try and establish and accept what had happened, Suzaku eventually took a few steps forward, as if to test everything was still working, before Pein came to her, questioning as to whether she knew just what had gone on.

"I'm a phoenix, after all. It's part of my clan's abilities," she responded quietly, in awe at the process herself, and hiding a smirk at this knowledge, Pein stated simply in reply,

"I brought you along here to see what you could do—to decided whether I wanted you to join or not. But after everything that's happened, it's been easy to make the decision."

Raising an eyebrow as she gathered what that meant, Suzaku merely nodded in response, and with a few congratulations thrown her way, the Akatsuki turned and began to head back to the hideout, needing some time—and a few drinks—to recover from it all. Suzaku didn't follow, knowing it wasn't over yet, and turned to face Kakuzu, who had now come to stand in front of her. For a few seconds there was silence between them, not knowing what to say, before Kakuzu eventually growled softly,

"If you'd told me this would happen I wouldn't have gotten so angry, you know."

Glancing down, Suzaku was unable to hide the smirk that flickered onto her face at Kakuzu's words—and at knowing he'd been so affected by her death. It wasn't something she was used to, having spent most of her life alone, and as a rogue ninja, at that. Still, she'd never wanted it before, though, so it hadn't particularly affected Suzaku much—she could live without it. But like with everything else, Kakuzu had to change things, and she couldn't deny she liked it. At least when it came down to Kakuzu, anyway.

"It's not like I'd known it was going to happen either. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to you. Longevity had been one thing, but resurrection? So don't start blaming me for your temper tantrum," Suzaku shot back a moment later, raising her eyes to meet his as she did so—only to find she couldn't look away once she had.

Kakuzu had changed things right from the start, and Suzaku cared about him. She wasn't about to deny it, but even if she had it wouldn't be true. Those feelings were there, and Suzaku couldn't do anything to get rid of them. Then again, after everything that had happened, Suzaku didn't want to. All this time they'd been working together for the mission, getting to know each other, getting closer...physically, as well as emotionally...Suzaku hadn't been sure how to handle things. Emotions were not her strong point, and they only got in the way. She hadn't come up with an answer for how to deal with their situation, especially after last night, but things had happened since then. She'd died—in a sense. And looking back over it all, realising how the situation might have been if things had turned out otherwise, it was clear to Suzaku how things should be now, so she didn't hesitate as she stepped closer and pulled Kakuzu's mask down, sliding her hand round to his cheek as she murmured softly,

"You shouldn't have done a lot of things, Kakuzu. But if there's one thing I've learnt recently...it's that there are some things you definitely should do."

As Suzaku pressed her lips against his, Kakuzu did nothing to fight it, instead responding by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Moving to wrap one arm around his neck, the other went to his head, slipping the hood off and burying her hand in his hair. Kakuzu's hands teased their way across her skin, sliding underneath her shirt and rising up, making her shiver. Suzaku responded by nibbling on his lip, before moving to explore the stitches around Kakuzu's mouth, drawing a soft, guttural moan from him until he planted his lips against her neck, exploring carefully until Suzaku gasped, attaching himself there and replacing the one he'd made the night before. She continued to moan softly the longer he remained, causing her to move her hand to his chest, pulling apart his cloak and riding his shirt up to massage at the skin on his abdomen, smirking as she felt him tense and growl into her neck.

He could certainly agree with that.