Chapter 6

"Surely you must have had a good reason to come out here..." Nozomi mumbled to herself as she followed Kakuzu around in the forest. She sighed and looked around. It was getting to be sundown and Nozomi was most definitely sure that the forest was not a safe place at night.

Kakuzu, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to her at all. He kept his senses up as he looked around, trying to spot anything in his radius that moved. There was something watching them and he was going to find out what.

"Will you..." Nozomi started out before Kakuzu covered her mouth again, signalling for her to hush. She pried his hand off of her mouth and glared up at him. Deciding to whisper this time, she stood on her tiptoes and leaned towards his head to where she thought his ears were... if he had ears. The man doesn't listen to a word she says anyway.

"Will you at least tell me why we're out here?"

Kakuzu ignored her and pulled her along. Nozomi, deciding to be stubborn, dug her heels into the hard forest floor, refusing to go anywhere. The male turned back at her with his red and green eyes narrowed. He stepped closer to her and looked down at her.

"Your life is in my hands, runt. I have more hearts than you ever will."

Nozomi looked up at him, trying to match his angered look but her eyes were faltering. She was still scared of him, and everything could back that up. No matter what, she didn't think that was ever going to change.

"I want to go back to the inn and sleep, using the room I paid for to the fullest. I'm not moving anymore."

Kakuzu's gaze softened slightly and almost held some humor. So she wasn't going to move? Using his other arm, he picked up her, slung her other his shoulder, and started walking again. She looked the same as she weighed - like nothing. For a moment, he could barely tell that he was holding something. Maybe it was because he was so used to carrying dead weight.

"Put me down! Put me down and take me ba-"

Nozomi tried to yell at him as she kicked her feet. Kakuzu, annoyed by her, finally used his stitchings and tied them around her mouth and ankles so she couldn't move. Nozomi, who was quite annoyed as well, continued to hit him with her free hand until that too was restrained.

"Are you done?"

"Mm!" Nozomi glared at him, continuing to squirm until she got tired and her wrist hurt from the movement.

Kakuzu looked around again. He'd heard the rustling sound once more and stood still. Nozomi, who had heard it as well, became still and looked around with fearful eyes. It was finally night time, so it was heard to see through the darkness. Nozomi felt drops hit her cloak so she assumed it was starting to rain.

As Kakuzu stopped looking around, assuming that the ninja had moved away again, a large sound interrupted the silence. The Akatsuki male jumped out of the way as a bomb exploded near where he was standing. Nozomi screamed, although it came out in muffles, and squeezed her eyes shut.

Tension in the area was on high as Kakuzu's attention remained focused on the crater in front of his feet. There was no sense of chakra anywhere as the assumed ninja had fled. Kakuzu's eyes narrowed and he looked around again before putting Nozomi down. The crater was too big to jump and there was no telling what was around the area.

Nozomi, who was finally free of bindings, stayed very close to Kakuzu, burying her face in his cloak. Kakuzu looked down at her shaking figure and sighed inwardly as the downpour of rain began and it was quite heavy.

The male started to walk in the opposite direction of the crater with Nozomi walking close to him. There was a cave not too far away that could give them shelter for the night.

"Make yourself useful and make a fire."

"Ok."

For the first time, Nozomi obeyed what Kakuzu said without any argument or attempt of defiance. She walked back out with him, grabbed some semi-dry twigs and a rock and came back into the cave. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Nozomi finally got a small fire started.

The two sat in silence against the cave wall. Kakuzu looked out at the rain while Nozomi's eyes remained focused on the fire.

"Are you hurt?" Nozomi asked, breaking the silence. Kakuzu didn't respond, as she expected, so carefully moving, Nozomi sat up onto her knees and looked over at Kakuzu. She looked him up and down until seeing his sleeve. It was burned at the ends as she had probably slowed him down a little from the extra weight. Slowly reaching, she pulled up the sleeve to see the stitching coming undone on his arm.

"Leave it alone."

"But your arm..."

"Leave it."

Nozomi, gaining her stubborness back, frowned. "Your arm will fall off soon. This is sort of my fault, so I should be able to fix this."

Kakuzu looked at her and looked away. Who was he to deny free help? Deeming that as an okay, Nozomi tried to push the big wet sleeve out of the way so she could start working, but it ket falling down.

"Can you take this off?" Nozomi asked as she reached into her pouch and pulled out her emergency sewing kit. "And I'll need your help with this."

Kakuzu simply shrugged one side of his cloak off, knowing that they were going to be here for a while since the rain was coming down so hard. Nozomi threaded the needle and moved over to her work station. Using both of her hands as best as she could, she started to sew Kakuzu's arm back together. The male watched her stitching pattern, which he noticed was very different from his.

"Did you... do these by yourself?" Nozomi asked as she worked. It was a little hard to do so as the light was dim from the fire, but it was doable.

"Yes."

Nozomi nodded, actually quite astonished by how he could do it. As she worked, she asked him questions and some he answered, most he did not, which was more than what the woman expected.

"Done!" Nozomi smiled at her work as Kakuzu moved his arm a little to make sure it was movable. He nodded and looked outside again. The rain was not stopping at all and looked like it was coming down even harder.

Nozomi put away her sewing kit and looked at his arm. She couldn't help but wonder what other stitches the male had.

"Can I... see more?"

Kakuzu turned his head and looked at the blond in front of him with her ever so curious blue eyes. This woman must have forgotten who she was around. Was she so familiar with him that she doesn't realize he is a criminal? Well... in her defense, she only knows he's a bounty hunter and she doesn't know anything about him being a criminal. To his luck, she most likely doesn't even know who the hell the Akatsuki are? She's too oblivious for that.

"Stitches?"

"Yeah... Your stitches."

Kakuzu looked at her, trying to interpret what her face was saying. "No."

"Please? I'll tell you my life story if you at least let me see what's behind your mask." Nozomi frowned. "I won't bug you for the rest of the trip. I'll stay out of your way."

"We're bound together. You'd be in my way regardless." Kakuzu rolled his eyes.

Nozomi sighed. "Is this going to require money?"

Kakuzu thought about it for a moment. He could always just add money to her bill. She needs him more than he needs her. "Add ¥1,000,000 and I'll show you."

"That's unreasonable!" Nozomi glared at him. "I'll just take it off myself."

She reached for the mask, only to have Kakuzu grab the wrist of her free hand with his free hand and pin her against the cave wall. Nozomi looked at him, surprised at how quickly he moved.

"Is there a secret behind your mask?"

"There's nothing to see."

Nozomi squirmed a little in his tight grasp. "Then let me see. The curiosity kills me, you know. I've already seen your eyes and those are peculiar enough. You can kill me whenever you want to and I can't do a thing to you. So before I die, can I see?"

Kakuzu let her go and sat back against the cave wall. Nozomi, who shivered in her wet clothing, pulled her legs to her chest and laid her head on her knees. Sighing, she started to fall asleep. After a few minutes, she was fast asleep with her head leaning against Kakuzu's body. After seeing the female asleep, Kakuzu let her lay against him. He reached up with his free hand and pulled the mask off his face.

All that was there was a stitched up mouth. Why would she be curious of that?