Flight
You've been toying with it since you started walking many hours ago at midday. But you can't decide which is worse: the incessant rubbing of the tight bandage wrapped around your feet and legs with every step. Or the knowledge that Kakuzu had fished the shoes you are wearing off of some dead man from the bounty office.
You hadn't even known that was a thing before and not only was the thought completely disturbing to you but they were many sizes too big and you kept tripping and falling onto your hands and knees. They were raw and wounded too from last night's attempt at changing your fate, the bandages did nothing to stop the pain. You had taken to marching as a means to keep the shoes on and to keep your face off the ground.
The moon is already out and the humid heat of the day is starting to subside finally as the sun wanes ever so low in the sky. Yellows, purples, and crimson shades paint the way in front of you and the sun is so big and low it looks as if it's ready to swallow you. It is undeniably one of the most beautiful sunsets you have ever seen.
You had memorized their names along the way as Hidan seems to have a keen interest in conversation. Though never with you, not that you were interested in talk of fights and religion. A couple of yards in front of you walk the mild Itachi and the disquieting looking Kisame. A couple of yards behind you are Hidan and Kakuzu, the latter of whom you learned quickly does not like “idle chat.” They were giving you plenty of space surprisingly and you took the opportunity to sightsee.
You had never been so far away from home. Where your sister would go on business trips with your father, you were left to try your hardest to see them off at the gate. You or your 16 half sisters were never welcome. The farthest you had been was the edges of the city that was about a half mile outside of your family's compound. Though after starting your march and hearing the men refer to the massive city you woke up in as a town; you aren't sure if your familiar city can even be considered a town now.
The land of water beyond just what you knew of it is quite beautiful though. What had started out as a hill had gradually turned into round, grassy mountains. When you looked up you could see higher, rounder peaks. When you looked below you could see beautiful valleys with clear springs and ponds running through.
Like that, it suddenly dawned on you: A grasping fear of how far you were going and how you would find your way back home.
It was a strange feeling that bubbled in your chest and an anticipation in your sore feet that made you feel as you needed to move. A feeling growing increasingly familiar. An idea tickles the back of your head and you scratch at it inconspicuously. You start to wobble slightly, unnoticeably worming your heels out of the back of the dead man's shoes. It would be easier to run with them off.
You watch the back of Itachi and Kisame's heads for what feels like forever, gently grabbing hold of the inside of the too big cloak Hidan gave you with both hands as if it were a dress. You look longingly down the side of the round mountain and to the bushes far below you. It would certainly hurt.
Your steps falter, you brace for the run, for rolling down the mountain, for the pain. “Don't even think about running, Sweetheart.” The harsh tone stops you before the motion could hardly start. You stop in your tracks, a cold stone of reality weighing down your stomach. Your shoulders start to shake.
Kisame mentally chides himself, he was always too brash, too scary, too loud, he always-
“Well what do you expect me to do?” You're looking down at your feet but there's venom dripping from the very cadence of your words. It seems for a moment the entire world pauses and simultaneously stares at you. “You expect me not to run, to what- to give up?” There is an anger there, inside of you. One you had never felt before. The men around you seem taken aback, it makes you more angry.
Angry at these men for having the gaul to kidnap you and expect you not to fight back, to lay down and take it. Yet, there's anger at your family for expecting you to take your sister's ill fate unto yourself simply because you were born second. Still, most debilitatingly, there's anger at yourself. You try to run in the clutches of these men but you never even attempted to escape your family. You didn't even complain.
Not when your father and his bodyguards came to you in the middle of the night, ripping you away from your mothers and sisters. You corrected your poster as you froze, hardly dressed, as they informed you of your sister's fate. You said nothing of their plan. They painted her mole on your face, they dressed you in uncomfortable clothes, they sprayed you with irritating perfumes, you couldn't even bathe yourself; you didn't even say anything when they cut your hair.
They wouldn't even let you say goodbye.
By now your knuckles were white and the inside of your cheek was bleeding. Tears welled in your eyes and the beautiful sun had set. Night had come and brought along the unflinching realization that you were stuck, trapped, a rat in an owls nest. Not only with your fate, but with the knowledge that you did nothing to change it until it was too late. You are powerless.
You don't even know how Kisame and the others knew you would run, they would have to have had eyes in the back of their heads. Incredibly keen eyes at that. Would they kill you if they had to? If you screamed for help?
The thought of running crosses your mind again despite the fact that the night has grown so dark you can't really see. You kick off your shoes right in front of them. You look at Kisame and Itachi, then to Kakuzu and Hidan who grins. A deranged and excited look in his eye. For some reason, it makes you want to smirk too but you don't.
“Don't make me break your legs, Girl.” Something snakes its way around your ankles and up your legs, Kakuzu is far, far too close behind you now. “You're lucky that you're only worth the money alive.” His solar plexus presses against your upper back and shoulders from behind. You can smell soft, earthy musk as he towers over you, one of his large hands curls around your upper arm hard enough to bruise.
Fear has frozen you, you look down and back; trying to glimpse what he's got your legs with. His cloak is slightly open now. There's something shiny there.
Without thinking, you go for his kunai knife.