"Well, what are you waiting for, old geezer?" Hidan's voice sounded. He had finished his massacre earlier and now lay impaled in the center of his ritual circle. "I have no idea what you are talking about." Kakuzu replied emotionless and turned to walk off in the opposite direction. "Hey asshole, if you don't hurry, you won't catch up to her. She's quite fast." Hidan yelled after him. "And why on earth would I want to run after her?" The bounty hunter asked without turning around. "You don't usually let your target get away. And she already escaped twice. Not like you at all, man. It almost seems to me that you are afraid of being near her." The Jashinist teased. Immediately, Kakuzu came to a halt. Without a comment, he turned around and passed Hidan with god-speed, running after Tiara into the darkness. Hidan gurgled amused. 'Oh well, Kakuzu is just a man like any other. And that little one really seems to bother him. Hopefully, he will be less annoying with her around.' Grinning he continued with his ritual.

Branches and leafs flew by her. It almost seemed as if the devil himself was hunting her, so fast was she racing through the woods. Unfortunately, her senses were not able to hold up a hundred percent with her speed, which is why she had to do some very close avoiding maneuvers. Warm blood ran down from the wound on her throat and over her décolleté. Involuntarily, her hand wandered to the cut. 'Damn it, it's deeper than it appeared at first.' In the very moment as she felt his chackra behind her, Kakuzu grabbed her hand and pulled her around abruptly. His handle seemed to be of steel. Thus, her efforts to break free were meaningless. "Let go!" She hissed immediately. No reaction. Although she had no problem sensing his presence in front of her, she could neither get a peek at his emotions nor his thoughts. Meaning, she was completely in the dark. It annoyed her to have no clue about his state of mind. Back then, she had been naïve enough to think he might actually feel something like affection and warmth towards her. 'Stupid! I was nothing but credulous and desperate!' She rebuked herself. The longer she was close to him, the harder it would be to get back into her every day schedule without him. Determined, she put more power into her attempts to break free. She was surprised to feel her hands slipping through his handle. Not even wasting another heartbeat, she turned away to run and to put as much distance between Kakuzu and herself as possible. "Tiara!" Even before she was able to really accelerate, his right hand caught her left upper arm and again turned her towards him. Right off, his left hand went up to dodge her right, which was ready to punch. Too late. Without slowing down, her hand buzzed sideways and hit his cheek. The loud slapping sound echoed in the dark of the woods. "Just leave me alone! Why can't you understand?" Kakuzu's confusion reached her effortlessly. His walls seemed to have been broken down by his confusion about her slapping him. Now, a huge wave of emotions threatened to bury her beneath it. Her knees gave in beneath the sudden burden. It was only thanks to Kakuzu's tight grip that she didn't fall to the ground. "I can't… not like this…" Desperation and exhaustion strained her voice. "What is it that you can't do? You have to talk to me." Kakuzu said urgently. "After all, mind reading is your job." He added quietly smiling. His attempt to calm her worked and slowly she regained control over the intruding emotions and thoughts. Although her legs were steady now, Kakuzu wouldn't let her go. With a little difficulty, she calmed her mind and tried to make her voice sound reasonable and neutral. "This wave of emotion… Yours is the only one with such intensity. As soon as you are angry and your walls are, unlike usually, down, all of that fury reaches me although we have no body contact. Only with you… I share this kind of attachment only with you." Quickly, she corrected herself. "I shared!" Kakuzu seemed to have lifted an eyebrow at the sound of her stubborn voice. "Past tense?" Involuntarily, she tried to wind herself to once again break free. "It took me one year to get over it and a few more months to get back to my daily routine, so don't you dare to give me that attitude! Just let me go! You got rid of your burden and that's it. You can leave now, just like last time." She added bitterly. She hated herself for sounding so hurt and weak. The last thing she wanted was to give him another reason to think of her as an even more ridiculous person. That, however, was exactly what she had just done by revealing to him just how much it hurt to see him. Suddenly, he grabbed both her shoulders and shook her. "What are you talking about?! You think I chased you simply to get rid of my burden? I do not need something like that." He seemed to believe that she thought of his hidden und suppressed feelings as a weakness. How was it possible to misunderstand one another to such an extent? Instinctively, she put her hand on his cheek and granted him an insight at her feelings. Her mind kept complaining that she was just as stupid as before if she believed he would see her any different. Pushing those thoughts aside, she enjoyed the warm feeling, which spread in her. It was the first time that she revealed her feelings and thoughts like this to somebody else. She hadn't been sure that it would work at all. Kakuzu was totally overwhelmed. The feelings which suddenly wrapped around his heart were so warm and gentle. It took him a few heartbeats to understand that they were Tiara's. But then, his heart clenched frantically as he felt the pain and loneliness which had ate her up inside as she had decided against her heart and left. She had believed to be nothing more than a depot for him. 'How absurd! As if I had talked to her, would that have been the case!' He thought. But how would she have known any better, his subconscious whispered back. Regret started to pound through his veins as he understood that she only left because of him. The thought of being nothing but a depot to him had hurt her to such extent. "Only you…" Her whispering voice got through to him. "The others didn't matter to me, only you. Since the time I first met you, back then on the clearing, I knew you were different." Clearing? A picture of a clearing appeared before his inner eye. It had been a night of new moon but despite the darkness the picture was clearly visible to him. Then he remembered. A few details changed in the picture and it became darker. 'Sorry, details aren't really my thing but at least my light was far better, don't you think?' A comforting smile wrapped around him. Again the picture became clearer and brighter. Back then, he hadn't been able to get a good look at the young woman and her sudden appearance had almost frightened him (although he would never admit that). He had been so deeply absorbed in his thoughts and memories that he had been oblivious to his surroundings. By now, both of her hands rested on his face while his hand had wandered to her back. Carefully, her hands palpated over his face to create her own picture of the man before her. Smiling, her hands moved over his mask and slowly pulled it down. As her soft fingers moved over his lips, he shook inwards. Suddenly, he became restless. After all, she didn't know that he had already lived a few lives thanks to his technique. How would she react… He had seen far more years than she. A giggle tore him from his thoughts. "Don't worry, Kakuzu, I am not that superficial. I already know that you are older than me." Almost admiring, he looked at the young woman standing before him. Her body looked so fragile and the fact that she was blind strengthened that image. But he knew better; He should know better. He had seen her fight, knew of her precision with weapons and her strong character. 'Anyone, who is even a little weaker than her, would not have dealt with his loss of vision as well as she did.' He thought satisfied, knowing that he could rely on his woman in any battle. 'Your woman?' Astonished, he noticed that she blushed and slightly turned her head, which was a habit rather than a necessity. Slowly, she pulled back her hands and the very moment they no longer touched his skin he wished for their warmth. His hand grabbed hers gently frightened she might pull back completely from him. "Isn't it me who should be afraid of that?" She whispered, her voice sounding hoarse. "Everytime you hid behind your walls… it… I… I was so lonely…" "I can't promise you to never do that again." He said honestly. It hurt him to see her in pain but he couldn't lie to her. Not now, when he had finally found her. The last two years, he had tried to catch up to her- in vain. He had dragged Hidan to every bounty office, they had passed by on their missions, hoping to find out some news about her. But everytime he was close to finding her, he had pulled back. His (stupid) ego had kept him from running to her like a junkie, who needed his drug. That seemed like a fitting description. She was his drug. Only used once but immediately addicted to it. However, it was not only the sharing of his emotions; that's what he had thought at first. It was her natural behavior and her way of treating people. Not only her unabashed behavior towards him but also her way of dealing with problems. She was strong in body and in mind, stood her ground and despite her blindness she could keep up (almost perfectly) against the other members. How could he have ever let her go? "And I know that I can't ask that of you." She said quietly. Her voice pulled him back to reality and he quickly remembered what they had been talking about. "I will have to put up my walls. That is the only way to protect myself from enemies." Silence. It took him a lot of overcoming to put even a fraction of his feelings into words. Words have never been his thing and expressing his feelings even less. "I didn't know what to do back then. After you fell asleep, I stayed by your side for a few more minutes but Hidan and I were assigned a mission. I didn't want to wake you. You didn't get much sleep the night before anyway because of the nightmare. And you looked so peaceful… Whatever…" Before he could continue, Tiara interrupted. "You could have at least left a note! I had no idea what was going on with you! How could I have known that I was important to you? I can't smell it after all!" "As I said before, mind reading is YOUR job!" His voice got louder. "And what was I supposed to write? What if one of the others had gotten their hands on that note? Had you stayed and not run away, we might have had the opportunity of a conversation. But you didn't want to wait and instead formed your own opinion…" Again she interrupted. "You could have written where you and Hidan were off to and how long it would take you. Then maybe, I would have waited. But you have hidden behind your walls far too many times for me to figure your feelings out! For example, on our way to the HQ when we were walking through the desert!" Defiant, she turned away and walked a few steps. She didn't want to argue with him, especially because she knew that he was right. Had she not escaped right away without giving him a chance, she might have saved herself the last two years of agony. How could she have been so weak? Remorsefully, she walked towards him. He had not moved an inch and seemed to watch her closely. As she approached him, he turned around. 'Is he a child!?' She thought, irritated from his inappropriate behavior. Her anger vanished even faster than it appeared. 'It is after all my fault.' She lifted her hand and her fingers stroke gently over his back. Despite his cloak and the clothes beneath she could feel his muscles. There also seemed to be something like masks. Kakuzu showed no reaction and kept completely still. Eventually, she decided to screw her rational mind and put her arms around his waist. Her forehead rested against his back and the continuous heartbeat she felt calmed her. "I am sorry" She murmured into his cloak. As his hands gently joined hers, a wave of relief went through her. His feelings and thoughts danced around her and she pleasantly cuddled closer to him. Suddenly, without a warning, he turned around in her embrace, took her face in his hands and put his lips on hers. Surprised by his sudden action her hands slid off his waist, just to join again around his neck. A cozy sigh escaped both of them. The warmth of Tiara's body seemed to be enough for both of them. Kakuzu still had trouble believing that miracle, which was happening to him. He, who had already survived so many human lives, who had already given up on his human emotions, was now granted feelings, he had never even dreamed of. Thinking again of the comparison to a junkie and his drug, he grinned. Tiara, as well, grinned, having understood his path of thoughts. Eventually, he reluctantly pulled back from her sensual lips. "So, I am your drug?" Innocently, he shrugged. "Not my fault, you are highly addictive." Not ready to give up on her warmth, yet, he pulled her closer again. "But only with you. After all, I, too, am a junkie." She meant mischievously. Only then they noticed the blood on their hands and Tiara quickly covered her neck cut. "We should cover up the wound and then get back to Hidan." The young woman said and pulled out a piece of cloth from one of her bags. Kakuzu took it and bandaged it. Then his hand touched her face one more time. "So, you're not going to run away again?" Playfully, she punched his side. "How could I… now, that my addiction has returned." "When I put up my walls…" She felt his apology before he said it out loud. "When you put up your walls, we will have to learn some control, don't you think so, too, junkie?" Her smile triggered a pleasant tickle, which coursed through his body. With pride he looked at the woman next to him and knew instantly that his life would be a lot more interesting from now on. "I totally agree, junkie." He replied, taking her hand into his to enjoy the last moments with just the two of them before returning to Hidan. No sum of money on earth would bring him to let her leave again…