Chapter Text
Things Kiba never fully explained about eating sea urchins:
- everything after tastes strange
- physical skills get a major upgrade
- hallucinations happen, often and intensely
- the unfamiliar seems hilarious
- finally, after you come around from passing out there’s a volcanic deep-sea vent that’s just moved into your brain case and wants you evicted.
Maybe the headache came from the toxins or maybe from something she did/bumped into/collided with—possibly did battle against (she hurt that bad)—all Tenten could do was flop over and groan.
Never doing drugs with Kiba ever again. Hinata was not to be trusted. Shino probably would have been a helpful deterrent but they had already spiked his food with jellyfish spices. This’ll be fun! said Kiba. Don’t worry, Hinata is watching! Oh yes, Hina was watching. All the way up to the point where a certain blond-haired hunk cruised by asking to join in and then Hina was promptly not watching anything but the backs of her main lids. The party devolved rapidly from there.
Pressing her hands against her temples, Tenten keened a low whine. Between one breath and the next, she realized not only was she breathing, she sounded tinny. Meaning she was out of the water—Great Mother of the Sea what was she doing dry-scaling while high? On top of her brief flash of self-awareness, she finally noticed that there was someone sitting on the floor just a smidgen further than a tail length away.
To be honest, the only reason she realized she wasn't alone was because he spoke.
“Finally, you're awake. Get up. You've got some explaining to do.”
Opening her eyes, Tenten could see the speaker, a grouchy one. For all apparent appearances, she’d have thought him an Earth walker, what with the legs and the leather. However, on the floor, just by her hand, open for the world to see and her to be damned, was Sasuke’s infamous obsidian notebook. The one on demon raising. The one with the silly phrases.
Next time, if there would ever be a next time, she was going to bind Kiba with a rabid baby great squid and avoid anything he brought to the festivities.
Gritting her teeth against the aching in her bones, Tenten pushed herself up, never taking her eyes off from her... uncommon cave mate. When she was properly balanced up on her tail—and oh did the dryness itch—she brushed hair from her eyes and took a breath.
"I'm really sorry, did I pull you from anything—" Well, obviously she had pulled him from his daily life and any of that would be more important than watching over her passed out fins. "Um. I'm sorry. I'll send you back?"
For the moment, coiled as she was, Tenten stood taller than her obligated guest, and she could see an open-ended pool just behind him. Faint sunlight reflected off the white sand, tracing flickering blue lines over the surfaces of the grotto. Back lit and still as stone, she couldn't make out much of his expressions other than a pair of intense bright green eyes.
They weren't very impressed.
"You're fortunate I don't take deals from intoxicated individuals seriously," he said, leaning forward and looking down his nose at her. "Or else you'd be burnt to a crisp from your delivered star and without a soul."
"Oh hell..." Shrinking down a few inches and fighting the urge to laugh hysterically, Tenten rubbed her nose. "Yeah, uh, thank you so much." There had been a running joke at the party, something about how Hinata's hair was so shiny... "Um... I did mention sending you back, right?"
A low glow flickered to life between them and she got her first real look at him. Brown leather, dark skin, black hair, his eyes were the only bright points of colour to him. That, and probably his teeth, if he ever smiled. He had heavy brows and a firm square jaw, which didn't seem to go with the slim nose and thin lips.
The light he had conjured sat in a single hand, sharp-tipped fingers half curled around a smooth round pebble. A cage to a miniature moon. Or a dying sun.
Oh.
Something she hadn't noticed earlier, Tenten was right up against a craggy wall, while the demon sat between her and the only exit.
His brow went up as her back hit rock. "I'll give you a less fatal alternative," he said, hefting the light. "Now offer me something a little less than your soul."
"Wait, wait." Tenten shook her head, half remembering something Sasuke had been ranting about a few weeks back. Equivalent exchange? "What is that, exactly?" she said, pointing at the light. "Will that just kill me and everyone around me eventually or just go dark in an hour?"
It was a pretty rock, no question about it. It was brighter than an angler's lure, for sure, but not so bright that she had trouble seeing the way he tapped a nail against its milky surface. Either it was a deadly weapon that would seep poison into the water or it was a harmless, though interesting, rock.
The demon tilted his head. "It's less harmful than a healthy star."
"Yeah, I can see that." Tenten straightened up, spines lifting slightly despite the tightness of parched membranes. "I just can't give you something as good as that if I don't know what it is. You know, other than what it obviously isn't."
For a long pause, he didn't reply, only watched her. She stared right back and waited. Finally, he scoffed and tossed the pebble at her.
Split decision right there: catch it and potentially die or avoid it and—Oh. Tenten looked down at the glowing stone in her hand and sighed. Weren't reflexes supposed to save her in precarious situations, not commit her to worse?
"It's a light spell." She looked back up in time to see the black shape of him stand from his seat on a small boulder. "The vessel..." He waved an ebony-tipped hand at the pebble-strewn floor.
Sagging down to the floor, Tenten opened up her hand, the released glow bringing back with it details she hadn't been able to see. Like how the shadows at the corners of the demon's mouth were now deeper and that he had already taken a few steps towards her.
"So, it's harmless then." She rolled the smooth stone in her hand, watching as he settled to stand at the tip of her tail as it flicked and curled in front of her. "How long will it last? If I split the stone, will both parts glow?"
One brow quirked as he studied her. "Longer than your lifetime, I'm sure, if you don't break it. If you do..." He paused to frown. "Yes, for half a day, but not more."
A trinket then. Something easily made or found and just as inconsequential to sell. Hmm...
xXx
"You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kakuzu held up the grit-encrusted metal coin and stared. It was a miracle his eyes didn’t fall from his head as he turned the trinket around in his hands.
Dipping a hand into the pool, Tenten scooped up some water to appease an itch creeping across her back. “No joke,” she replied with a satisfied sigh as sea water trickled over the dry spot bringing instant relief. “I’ve got a whole handful of those down there.” Wrinkling her nose, she glanced at the disc he was now trying to free of its grime. “I don’t see what the big deal is. They stink.”
It seemed that the material world had resisted his initial attempts, as the demon huffed and snapped out a claw. The insulating jacket of sediment, corrosion, and seafloor muck was quickly sheared away under the careful application of the otherworldly.
To Tenten, the uncovered glint of metal didn’t compare to the pale cool glow of her treasured moon stones, but judging from the way the demon held his breath and brought the coin closer to inspect, Kakuzu appreciated it more.
Only after one side was completely uncovered did Kakuzu speak again. “You said you had more.”
Canting her head back to peer at him down the length of her stubby nose, Tenten waited. Demons and their deals. Always a stickler for when it seemed they were being cheated...
Either the extended silence or her smug attitude prompted Kakuzu to look away from the recently-made-shiny coin. Of course, he scowled. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Mimicking one of his own facial quirks at him, Tenten raised a brow. “Pay me first.” The agreement was one coin for one magical rock. Nothing said about anything else. “And I’m upping my prices.”
“What? You want two rocks now?”
Tenten tried on another expression, this time letting her secondary lids slip up and down again in a slow slide. “Oh no,” she sang at him. “I want twenty.” And then smiled because even as Kakuzu swore and pitched a softly gleaming rock into the tide pool, she knew she had won. He’d pay the higher price and he’d do it gnashing his teeth all the while.
“You are a fucking bitch, you know that?” he grumbled, kicking through the rubble of the grotto. Earlier they had agreed on the size of the stones, uniform to avoid contention. Now, he probably regretted that. Finding nineteen tiny sand grains to infuse had to be right at the top of his mind.
Shrugging slightly, Tenten shook her head. “I can guess, but I don’t know what that phrase means.” Derogatory, for sure. Though… sometimes Kakuzu used words in different tones, which changed the interpretation entirely.
Kakuzu snorted, chucking a decent sized stone back towards his perch of a boulder. “Bitch? It means you’re a highly unpleasant woman, one I’d rather categorize as a lower life form than respect your species.”
A surprisingly straightforward response. "And what's the life form?"
"Female canine, domesticated dog." Another two rocks joined the first as he abandoned one alcove, moving on to survey another.
Huh. Tenten reached out to uncover a smooth stone near her as she thought of a reply. Kakuzu seemed to be more agreeable when she returned his efforts. "We have a similar type of insult," she said, half to herself. "It's more for mers who marry for reasons other than love."
"Oh?"
Clicking in a soft undertone, Tenten pried up the rock and rolled it into the pile. "We call them a grasping, mindless, devouring creature unmoved by the pain they cause. A thing wanting nothing more than nourishment and pain from the bodies of those they ensnare."
Kakuzu stepped back into the main part of the grotto, brows arching. "That's impressive. You call them cannibals?"
"White anemones."
The barking laugh was startling. Usually he kept to low tones or malicious expressions of amusement. This was... bright in comparison, despite the context.
Tossing two oblong rocks into the growing cache, Kakuzu cocked his head. "Why white?"
Tenten pursed her lips. How to explain... She held up the glowing stone he had brought. "Why is this white?"
Narrowing his eyes in irritation, Kakuzu turned his head slightly to watch her off center. "It's for light," he replied blandly. "I didn't care for a colour or—" He waved at the shimmering walls of the grotto. "—ripples. White is the most efficient value."
"You chose it because it holds no value other than its blankness," Tenten said in satisfaction. "It's an opaque version of transparency. Of nothing."
Kakuzu frowned. "There are opinions that would call white a pure colour," he argued. "It's that not a value? A universal blank slate for everyone to work with."
Nodding, she placed the light on a boulder beside her. "That's why we pair it with anemone. White has nothing to offer and can only take on a value, and because it's a creature that only devours, it can't even change to improve."
Shaking his head, Kakuzu scoffed. "Then eat the damn thing. You'll take in its nutrients and end its pointless existence."
Now it was Tenten's turn to laugh even as she grimaced. "Have you had anemones?" she asked, waving a hand and chortling. "They're so nasty. Either they're still alive enough to choke you by clinging to your throat or dead and slimy, bloated and fermenting at the core."
"Ever heard of cooking your food?" Kakuzu asked, leaning against his boulder.
Spines twitching in irritation, Tenten answered, "Of course, but I don't think it's worth the effort when there's so little nutrition. Some like them, true. Still." She curled her lips back from her teeth. "There's no helping the slime that goes everywhere."
Amusement deepened the corners of his mouth and he huffed a low chuckle. "Right. A deep sea dweller is disgusted by ooze."
Narrowing her eyes, Tenten huffed. "It's vile."
"Uh huh." Smile still skirting the edges of his lips, Kakuzu resumed looking for pebbles.
Stifling the urge to fling a rock at his head, Tenten slid back into the water with all the dignity of a moray eel. Besides, her dorsal was drying out and there were probably better stones under the water than above.
In a few minutes, she found herself coiled at the bottom of the grotto, comparing two pebbles, and wondering what the light would look like coming from the one with a hollow crystal chamber. She'd seen them before, but they were hard to find without first cracking them open. Was it necessary at all to be looking for smooth round rocks?
Then, what about those made of clear glass?
At that sudden thought, she surfaced just to the neck. "Kakuzu?"
"What?"
"What if we used glass? Would the light be brighter?" A sharper light. One that could be directed perhaps.
Emerging from the gloom of an alcove, green eyes narrowed as he raised a brow. "And that is more interesting to you?" He looked around the cave. "I would have thought the subtle light would be more to your preference, considering your eyes."
Pressing the tip of her tongue to a fang, Tenten nodded. "We do prefer our dark, but it could be useful." If she could hide a stone's brightness under a wrap or encased in a shell, she could use it to startle prey or warn away berserk sharks. To disorient enemies.
Kakuzu watched her in silence, expression still and blank, before breaking into a pleased grin. "You've thought of something," he said, stepping closer to the water's edge and crouching there. "Something beyond just looking at a pretty light."
Something about the way he moved, how he held himself... In the way he watched her. Where before he was mildly indulgent, and no doubt he was indulging her, now he regarded her with anticipation. Expectation.
With a hint of victory.
As if he had won a bet and was looking forward to collecting.
Raising her chin, Tenten flicked her tail and glided forward. "I'm a practical girl. Anyway, can it?"
Kakuzu nodded. "It'll cost you."
"Of course it will."