Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shikotsumyaku ❯ The Wasp ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.

 

Author's scribblings/notes: Man, this one was a hard slog. Every page, a desperate battle of staring and patience. But here it is! The Wasp. In which the importance of honorifics are discussed, why stalking people is never a good idea, and how Kimimaro learns how difficult it is to rebuild a man.
Thanks to all of you who R&R'd...ed. You really helped get me through it!

 

 

 

Kimimaro stood stiffly in the Hokage's office with his usual impassive stare while Tsunade thumbed through a small stack of paper on her desk. She wanted to get through the last little bit of paperwork before she…talked to Kimimaro. And once that was taken care of, she would have more, larger stacks of paper to look at. Such were the affairs of state.

She decided the stack was of little interest, and gently dropped it onto a precarious stack of paper next to her, that somehow managed to avoid falling over. She rubbed her eyes, brushed some hair out of her face and examined Kimimaro critically. The new clothes made him look less suspicious and he also looked healthier than the last time she had seen him. Granted, he had virtually been on his death bed at the time, but he looked less…like a zombie, she supposed- more lively. He had regained a healthy amount of body fat too.

`How are you feeling today?'

Kimimaro made a face as though he was reliving a particularly annoying memory, but it lasted only a moment before his face relaxed into an impassive mask. `Well' he said after a moment's consideration.

`That's good to hear. No burning sensation where the Cursed Seal used to be?'

Kimimaro bristled slightly at the question but remained silent. She took that as a “No.” She hadn't really considered the possibility that it would be this hard to get him to open up. She should have, but she hadn't. Sakura almost made him sound like a pleasant, but quiet individual, so she hadn't put much thought into it. She needed to crack the mask somehow.

And then, it came to her. Like a vision. A totally natural-sounding -and subtle- way to make him feel that this little talk was less about him than was actually the case.

`How is Sakura?' The question took Kimimaro off guard, and while he was still wondering what was going on Tsunade added `actually, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about. I'm worried that Sakura might be feeling a bit depressed.' A ripple of understanding passed over Kimimaro's face briefly. It was a flat-out lie, but he accepted it, and seemed less on-edge now. `So, has she been acting strangely at all?'

Kimimaro looked at the floor and pondered the question seriously. His eyebrows were lowered slightly in the effort of digging through the events of the last few days, a look of genuine concern in his eyes. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all… No, it was dangerous to think that way, but maybe she could trust him a little more.

Eventually Kimimaro said `I don't know' uncertainly. The Hokage thought through her next move carefully. The way she delivered it would be important.

`Well then, I'd like you to do something for me. Consider it your first mission.' She waited a few seconds, and then pretended she had just remembered something important. `Oh- that is, assuming you intend to become part of this village…'

Behind the stony expression, Kimimaro was surprised. He hadn't expected to get a chance like this so soon. He made a show of straightening up a little and standing to attention.

`What is the mission, Hokage-sama?'

`I'd like you to keep an eye on Sakura for me, make sure she isn't actually getting depressed.'

`I will do so.' He turned to leave.

`Oh, by the way, I don't think we need ANBU to follow you around anymore, do you?' She could see in his eyes that he suspected it was a lie. Oh well, she'd just need an ANBU squad or possibly a skilled Jounin to follow him more discreetly. `I'll see you another time, Kaguya-kun. You can pick up your forehead-protector outside.'

 

-----

 

Even though the Hokage had said that ANBU wasn't going to be following him anymore, he expected them to still be there, but even more invisible than they had been before. So, it was odd that he kept getting the feeling that someone was staring at him from behind. He turned around quickly and sure enough, someone behind him ducked into an alleyway. He caught a glimpse of green and orange. He had a feeling he knew who it was.

He walked on. A few minutes later he turned again. This time his pursuer was better prepared, as he didn't see them at all. He walked a little more and then broke into a run. He turned a corner, stopped and leaned against a wall. A few seconds later Rock Lee came tearing around the corner, and gasped when he realised he had been discovered.

`What do you want?'

Lee jumped backwards to the opposite side of the narrow alley, nearly knocking over a passer-by as he did so. He hadn't planned to be caught, so he had to think on his feet.

`W-what are you planning?'

Kimimaro blinked carefully at this question. `Planning?'

`Well…the Hokage did say you were allowed to be here- but what are you going to do to Sakura-san?'

`Sakura?'

Lee was mildly outraged at his failure to use an honorific after Sakura's name. He was an enemy, so why was he acting so familiar towards her?

`Don't play dumb! You were from-' he stopped and looked around to check if anyone was around, which they were. He had forgotten about not mentioning that Kimimaro was from Otogakure. `You're not from Konoha- so I don't trust you. And I will not let you hurt Sakura-san.'

Kimimaro paused. This was either going to be an annoying or a fortuitous meeting. On one hand, he could just ignore Lee -he was a trash shinobi, as long as he didn't have any alcohol- and let him scurry around until he thought that he had no ill-intentions. On the other hand, if he made Lee trust him, that could ease the difficulty of being accepted as a Konoha shinobi, if only slightly.

Kimimaro weighed up the options seriously, not realising he was still staring at Lee, who felt as though the stare was passing straight though him like he wasn't there. And he didn't much like that feeling. It was almost insulting.

`If you prefer, I can just defeat you here' Lee said, bristling indignantly. Kimimaro refocussed his eyes on Lee, and decided on the latter option.

 

-----

 

`So, Lee was following you around?'

Kimimaro nodded. Sakura didn't really need to ask why. It would have been for a number of reasons.

`Did anything else happen?'

Kimimaro didn't answer. He put his finger to his lips and stood up. He silently moved to a corner of the room. As Sakura watched, he raised a foot and kicked the wall. The dull “thud” of his foot striking it was echoed by a “thump” from outside the window. Sakura glanced at it in time to see Lee picking himself up before he ran away. She could have sworn he was crying.

`Wait, did he follow you here?'

`Yes.'

`And…he was out there the entire time?'

`Yes.'

`So…he would have seen me coming in?'

`Yes.'

Oh god. Her face must have betrayed what she was thinking, because Kimimaro gave her a questioning, if indifferent, look. His nonchalant attitude was getting on her nerves.

`Aaah! If Ino finds out that I come here on a regular basis she'll never shut up! It was bad enough before! Why didn't you make him go away earlier? Why! Why do you always have to be like that?'

The thought of stopping didn't cross her mind until she already had. It had all just blurted out. Kimimaro was watching her quietly. He knew better than to answer a rhetorical question.

Sakura's mouth moved wordlessly for a few seconds while she came to terms with what she had just said. `…Sorry…forget I said that…' she trailed off and put her face in her hands. She could deal with Ino, and Lee, but she was still getting worked up over it.

The stress was finally getting to her. Ever since Sasuke left she'd been trying to keep it to one side, to keep it all safely hidden where not even Inner Sakura could get to it. But there was only so much you could fit into that space. And when it came out again, it all came out at once. She didn't want to cry. She had sworn to herself that she wasn't going to cry anymore.

 

It was hard for Kimimaro to understand Sakura on a day-to-day basis, so when she acted differently he was completely thrown off balance. And this was acting differently in a big way, so it was more like someone had kicked out his legs from under him and punched him in the face so that he swung around awkwardly in mid air and landed on his shoulders. Figuratively speaking, of course.

He stood uneasily, trying to think of what he should do. Ever since he had come to this village he had been getting the acute impression that he didn't understand other people enough. And right now was one of those times he wished that everyone else would be more simple. Or, if that was too much to ask for, that he was a little more complex…

It took a good ten seconds for that thought to sink all the way in, but once it did he decided what to do in record time.

If he ever wanted to get out of this place, he needed to make everyone believe that he genuinely wanted nothing more to do with Orochimaru-sama -Orochimaru, he corrected himself (he did believe in the value of solid groundwork). So, that being the case, how could he -quiet and straightforward as he was- deliver such a good act? The answer was: he couldn't. It was simply impossible.

However, someone more “complex” would be able to do it and do it flawlessly, he reasoned with the logic of someone ignorant of such conflicting phrases as “people don't change easily” and “people change.” But right in front of him was some pretty convincing evidence that people could change. He called it Sakura. Or he had, until it changed. But now he would call it Sakura again, and still call her Sakura when she changed again. And she would call the new him “Kimimaro.” Maybe that was a little on the existential side of things, but that wasn't the point. The point was it made sense in his mind.

Step one: start acting like one of them- but ease yourself into it.

 

Sakura had just about managed to calm herself down when Kimimaro moved again. She hadn't moved her hands away from her eyes, so she couldn't see his face, but she heard him sit down in the chair on the opposite side of the table. There was a small noise that sounded like fabric moving against fabric and then a quiet “knk” when something was placed on the table. It was an interesting enough noise to get Sakura to spread her fingers slightly so she could see what it was.

In the fading light and between her fingers she could make out a vague shape. She couldn't tell what colour it was exactly, but it was a dark colour. Still curious, she removed a hand and looked at it more carefully. The polished metal of the forehead protector was awash with the amber glow of the setting sun from outside. He must have spent at least a little time polishing it before she arrived to check on him because she had never seen her own one sparkle so much.

`Kimimaro-kun…did Tsunade-sensei give this to you?' The incredulity of her question made him forget that he was trying to act like a Konoha shinobi barely two minutes after deciding he would.

`Yes.' Remembering to be more…unnecessary, that would be the wasp in the ointment.