Ojos Asi [[private -- nyrax]]

"Oh don't even get me started on those young people," Kakuzu said in a joking tone before dropping the argument immediately. He gained a tiny smile as they walked, knowing that at the very least things were okay with them. "Do you think that we should stop and rest for the night soon? You've had quite the busy past few days," Kakuzu pointed out.

Kaliegh hadn't really considered that she hadn't slept that much over the last few days. But, after thinking on it, she was rather tired and could probably sleep with considerable ease. "Alright." She agreed, glad that the two of them could come to such an agreement. "Let's find a hotel a little away from this village. We should let them celebrate and I think seeing me would unnerve them considerably. I could use something to eat and some sleep."

Kakuzu nodded as Kaliegh agreed that they needed to get some sleep, especially since she had been working so hard the past few days. She deserved to get a belly full of food and some good rest. "I know of a hotel just a few miles from here, if we increase our speed by just a little we can get there soon enough," Kakuzu said as he looked at his partner. "Let's go," he said before increasing his speed and changing directions slightly.

Kaliegh watched him change direction and soon after ran after him. Since he was leading the direction, she made sure to be running at his side, but just slightly behind him so if he turned, he could see her with ease, yet if he changed direction, she could change almost instantly. "I wouldn't be surprised if you knew where everything was ever built in this area." She said, wondering how much had changed geographically since Kakuzu was born. it was strange to think about, since he was the oldest living shinobi, and he probably would always be the oldest living shinobi.

"So are you treating me to something nice?" She teased.

"Oh not everything. I may be intelligent but even my brain has its limits. I've traveled all across the globe, but remembering it all isn't as easy as you might think," Kakuzu commented with a laugh. "Normally before a mission I quickly look up some of the geographical information, along with whatever buildings may be nearby that could prove useful," he added. "It's an imperfect system, but it's helped me survive up to this point."

As they went farther he glanced over as Kaliegh asked her question. "Well...I do believe that a bit of a celebration is in order don't you?" he asked as he glanced at her. "It was a flawless mission after all."

Kaliegh nodded. Normally, Youki always had them keep track of where they were going and landmarks around the area. All of the maps of Konoha, ANBU, and various other locations that were kept secret inside the village (such as blue prints of enemy villages) where all done by Heisha shinobi. The clan as a whole had a log history of keeping rather meticulous records of everything they were a part of. Maps and organizing information was one of the things that made Youki so dangerous. He remembered everything and had a remarkable memory, without the aid of maps or papers. That was the one thing Kaliegh admired about her brother.

However, she knew that the way she was trained to do things wasn't normal. Whenever she did missions, she drew out her own maps, and being forced to do such things greatly improve her memory of places and aid her ability to manipulate the geography to her advantage. Yet, she still remembered the frustration of doing it in the first place, especially when she had been young. It could be perhaps the only thing she truly thanked Youki for.

"Does this celebrating mean you're going to buy me hookers too?" She asked in a teasing tone, yet couldn't help but wonder if that was something Kakuzu would do had she been a man.

"Ha, I didn't figure you the type but if you insist," Kakuzu said in a very light joking tone. Kaliegh had always joked with him about topics of a sexual nature, but it had stopped bothering him long ago. Now he was able to laugh with it, as he now saw that she wasn't making fun of him, rather she was just laughing with him.

They continued all the way to their destination, soon seeing a hotel in the distance. IT looked lovely, even had an ocean view as it was overlooking a cliff area. "I've had to stay in many hotels in my time during the Akatsuki, but this one is by far my most enjoyable," he admitted as he glanced over at Kaliegh. "I think you'll enjoy yourself immensely."

Somehow, when the hotel came into view,Kaliegh found that she couldn't disagree with that statement. The hotel was beautiful in and of itself, but the location was far better than the building's architecture (which she admittedly knew very little about). "It's beautiful." She commented, a smile coming to her face, bringing a light to it that had not been there before. "My family lived in an abandoned hotel for a while, and I wish it had a view like this one."

As they approached it, the air took on a light salty quality, something that Kaliegh had always liked. Even though her family was from fire country and dealt largely with masses of land without water, she, like most of her siblings, loved the water. It was an amazing thing to experience. "Looks like the perfect place to leave a string of broken hearts behind me."

Kakuzu was also a great fan of the water. Other than Earth it was probably one of his favorite elements to use in battle. There was just something calming about the peace that came with water, along with how destructive it could be if it wasn't respected. Many sailors had lost their lives at sea because they did not respect the ocean. A good sailor was one of the toughest non shinobi that Kakuzu knew, he respected their profession.

Kakuzu glanced over at Kaliegh and raised an eyebrow as she mentioned about the string of broken hearts. "Is that how you always plan on celebrating your victories?" he lightly teased.

As they entered the village, Kaliegh stretched her arms above her head, cracking the bones in her shoulders and upper back. "Well, I suppose it's not completely out of the question." She said, not sure if that would be the best way to spend the next few days. Ideally, she wanted to sleep, since she knew that there was a very little chance that she'd want to be with anyone else when Kakuzu was around.

Although she did greatly respect him, she knew that there was no one she wanted to be around when she was with him. He was one of the strongest shinobi she had ever met and she felt honored to be with him at all, and to learn from him was like a dream.

Kakuzu glanced at Kaliegh out of the corner of his eyes, now not entirely certain if she was being serious or not. "I see," he remarked as they continued to approach the hotel. "If that is your wish I could rent out two rooms. Akatsuki is permitted to do whatever they wish in their free time, you are no different than the rest of us," Kakuzu remarked as he thought about how much two rooms cost. Surprisingly he knew that it would be expensive, and yet he seemed sincere in his offer to get two rooms if she planned to have men over.

Kaliegh stopped walking and lowered her arms. "Hey... you know I'm kidding right?' She asked, suddenly concerned that he thought less of her. There had always been a stigma attached to women who were either comfortable with their sexuality or had numerous sexual partners. Men were often celebrated for these qualities, but still, she couldn't help but feel uncertain that he had honestly expected her to do something.

Truth be told, she did want a man to share her bed, but she was sure it was not who kakuzu expected it to be.

Kakuzu held up a hand. "Forgive me, I wasn't certain. Sometimes I'm not the best with catching jokes or sarcasm. As I told you before I used to have idiots for partners, I used to have to tune them out for my own sanity," he said as he attempted to lighten the mood. He had meant no offense or disrespect to Kaliegh, he just wasn't sure what she wanted. All he wanted of her was to enjoy herself and be happy after such a hard mission.

"Relax Kaliegh, you look at me like I think less of you. It's far from the truth, you know what a high level of respect I hold you to."

Once he explained himself, she walked back to his side and sighed softly. "I know that you tend to tune them out, but I like to think you don't do that to me." She explained, yawning softly. As they walked, she glanced toward him, wondering how he could read her so easily. Then again, she shouldn't be that surprised... Kakuzu was much older and had far more experience with people. It wasn't shocking that he could read her after an extended period with her.

She could read him too, even if he had his mask on. His eyes told her everything about him. They told everyone really, but she noticed that the abnormality of his eyes made people less likely to look into them: they did a great job of striking fear in people.

"I'm hungry. Can we start with food? Does the hotel have food or should we go to a restaurant?"

Kakuzu quickly turned his head towards Kaliegh. "You misunderstand, that was not what I meant to implied. I just meant...sorry," he finally said as he scratched the back of his head. "That wasn't what I wanted to implicate at all, just sometimes I fear that I don't fully understand what people mean. So I usually take them as being serious unless I confirm otherwise," he said as he looked down at the girl. "Forgive me, I meant to disrespect."

"Oh do not worry," Kakuzu said as he aimed to switch subjects. "The food here is very good, especially the seafood. They bring it in fresh everyday, but there is a large variety that could please anyone," he assured once again.

"I would think they'd bring in seafood everyday." She commented, gesturing out to the ocean. It was strange that sometimes the two of them said rather obvious things to the other, just to confirm that the other had noticed it. Sometimes, it reminded her of herself and Xerion, but she knew that it wasn't the same thing at all. But it felt similar. It made her happy.

As they made their way through the village, she could smell food and started to head in that direction.

"Just figured I'd mention it anyway," Kakuzu said as a smile appeared beneath his face mask. The relationship that Kakuzu and Kaliegh had were unlike any other that he had before. None of his partners had shown him this level of respect, they had all just looked to him as an old man that had passed his time and prime. He hated it. Kaliegh on the other hand actually valued his opinion and made sure that she sought his approval before undertaking a task. He appreciated that she was willing to respect him while also standing on her own, it showed strong character.

He saw her begin to take the lead as they got closer in to the village. "Smell something you like?" he asked curiously as he was beginning to smell the aroma as well. It was quite good indeed. He let her take the lead, but he wasn't far behind.

Kaliegh nodded. "It smells like baked and fried fish. We should go try it. All of it." She had always been one with expensive eating habits. Most places rarely served raw fish unless you asked for it, but she liked it both raw and cooked. It depended on the texture she was in the mood for. At the moment, she wanted something warm, so she wasn't against something fried.

Then again, she could always order something hot like ramen and have sashimi with it. Anything was a viable option really.

"You're right, it does smell like that," Kakuzu said as he took a bit more time to sniff the air around him and get the aroma once again. He was a fan of fish although he always preferred to eat it raw rather than cooking it. Kakuzu just kept moving forward until he came to the restaurant that seemed to be the source of the smell. "Ah yes, I've eaten here before actually," he commented as he looked to his partner.

"Believe me, it's fantastic."

Kaliegh turned back to face him and smiled. She nodded easily and took his hand. She then went inside with him, rather glad that she would be able to eat good food after such a tiresome mission. It's not that it was hard, just that it was overtiring and somewhat technical in its execution. She felt great about the results, but needed a good meal and some rest before she could enjoy their small break between missions.

Kakuzu glanced down in surprise as Kaliegh took his hand and lead him in to the restaurant, apparently intent to make sure that they both ate well in celebration of the mission. It would be okay to splurge tonight right? After all, the loyalty from that village would probably bring in a lot more money to Akatsuki than anything else.

"So what do you feel like having?" Kakuzu asked as they eventually moved in to a seat. "I can recommend several fantastic options. They prepare the greatest puffer fish here."

Kaliegh nodded, after ordering close to the entire menu for both of them, which made the waitress ask if anyone else would be joining them, she left to put in their order. It didn't take long for the food to arrive and for Kaliegh to be immediately satisfied with the preparation. She tried almost everything before picking a dish and sticking to it. After eating for close to an hour, Kaliegh was finally able to relax and leaned back against the booth.

"Thank you." She said, smirking at Kakuzu and had the waitress wrap their few leftovers.

After leaving the restaurant, they went to the hotel and got a room in one of the highest rooms, so they had a good view of the area. Of course, that excited Kaliegh and she was at the window as soon as they were in the room. "I want to pull my bed to the wall." The entire wall on one side was made almost completely of glass to allow light in from the sunset and sunrise.

They enjoyed a good rest of the night together, eating the food, laughing, and enjoying themselves. It was like nothing could touch them right now, they were invincible. They spent several more hours that night, spending time with each other and recalling past experiences and times, which lead Kakuzu to talk about several missions that he had done in this area before.

The night was good, and they had even sat down to watch the sunset in the distance at the ocean. It seemed like a great end to the mission that they were on, and things were at peace.

However, as Kakuzu well knew the Akatsuki were never at peace for long.

---

Kakuzu slid back several feet, holding his chest in pain but not averting his gaze from the men in front of him. He was bleeding right from where his primary heart was, a bolt from a crossbow having pierced all of his clothing and skin to enter the heart.

Stupid stupid, should have expected some sort of an attack here. This is their territory after all. The Darkwraiths never let their feuds end. It had been so many years though....I didn't think that they would still be looking for me.

"Come on Kakuzu, we know that's you," one of the men said as they stepped forward. Right now there were about four shinobi standing opposite of Kakuzu, but many more seemed to be flooding in from every side as the moments dragged on. Kakuzu was quickly becoming outnumbered. "You thought that we'd forget what you did, how you murdered my brother in cold blood?" the man asked.

"Your brother was a pig and a monster in terms of any human. He took girls and shipped them to the different villages, knowing that no one would ever find them. You slave traffickers, I should have killed you all when I had the chance," Kakuzu said bluntly as the men continued to enter in to the village and surround their position.

"Well, it looks like you're going to get the chance now, that or we're going to kill you first like we plan," the brother said before making a quick motion. Two men came in from the sides, each of them aiming to stab Kakuzu through from opposite sides. He quickly side stepped out of the way before punching both of their necks and crushing them instantly beneath his strength. None of them were near enough to hear what he said next.

"Kaliegh, get out of here. I'll meet you outside the village," he said in a stern voice as if he was giving an order. And with that said, he quickly charged forward, immediately preparious to fight several of the men coming towards him. Some he fought with his fists, others he shot various jutsu at. Kakuzu was an Akatsuki and he wasn't going to go down easily, especially not when he had a partner to protect.

But as Kaliegh knew, they had launched their sneak attack and taken out one of his hearts. That meant he only had four left.

Kaliegh, on the other hand, wasn't as good of a listener as Kakuzu would have liked her to be. The lightning attack, which they no doubt stole from Kakashi, that was used to take out Kakuzu's first heart, had scared her probably more than it scared Kakuzu. As she watched them surround her, she slowly started to count the number of chakra patterns moving around her. Although she had absolutely no tracking skill, she could identify the difference in chakra in those around her using one of her clan jutsu which was usually used to enter someone's mind.

However, she had found another use for it, which was counting enemy's based on the flow of chakra to the brain. It was the most effective method, since no matter how powerful a shinobi was, they only had one brain. It was also the only way a shinobi be counted as living, they had a supply of chakra to their brain.

Without moving she found that there were forty-five men. The leader was in the center, the speaker. There were eight men surrounding him, ten men north of them, twelve men south, nine men to the east, and four men to the west. They all seemed to be powerful from what she could tell, but she knew that there was no way they could kill all of them. They were vastly outnumbered, even if the two of them had significantly more skill. Kakuzu wasn't at his peak yet, even she knew that.

But she didn't count him as out of the battle. There was a heavy pattern in the grounds of this area. This area was mostly infertile because of the sea, sand and clay were mixed in with the ground, so only a small group of trees that needed little water and sustenance could grow here. That was good for Kaliegh, assuming she could trick them into doing what she wanted. The man who fired the lightning shot wasn't the leader of these men, and from what she could tell, many of them had water affinities, which made sense considering their trafficking of women overseas.

"Holding a grudge?" one of the men yelled. "You sent us back his head as a reminder! To honor his name, we will take this women with us as a trophy, since you seem to care for her so deeply."

Kaliegh didn't take that lightly and attacked the man that said it, knocking him twenty feet back with just a punch. "I won't leave you here." Kaliegh said, after Kakuzu told her to run. "I will never run." She drew the sword on her back and went forward to kill the man that dared say they'd take her. Kaliegh would never be so weak as to allow herself to be used as a tool for revenge. She would help Kakuzu kill these men or die at his side.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that," Kakuzu said with a chuckle to himself. It had been part of the contract to try to stop any of the men from taking the women of Ame ever again. He killed their leader before sending his head back to discourage them from attacking again. It was a hard mission and Kakuzu made the critical mistake of letting them figuring out who he was. They had sought revenge ever since, and now that he was back and in a weaker body they decided that now was the best time.

As Kaliegh rushed forward to fight, Kakuzu just watched for a moment in surprise. Despite the insult that was shot at her, this wasn't her fight. Why would she throw herself against such odds when death was most likely the answer.

Was it possible that....no, it couldn't be.

Kakuzu pushed these thoughts aside as he rushed forward, immediately ramming one of the men that was about to attack Kaliegh on an exposed side. After that he quickly grabbed her and used his limbs to launch her at a group of men who didn't see it coming, this had become one of their signature moves.

Afterwards Kakuzu went back to fighting, starting to use his limbs and hardened skin in order to fight off all of the men. There were still a lot of them though, and they had come prepared. They had a lot of lightning jutsu to pierce Kakuzu's skin, and he only had four hearts left.

What scared Kakuzu though was the fact that Kaeligh only had one.