#murderpuddle

And....there it is. The reaction he more or less expected. Mangetsu is getting more and more difficult to hold onto. Not that  he’s applying any serious pressure, anyways. 

The puddling is when he knows it’s over at least. He made his attempt, he was unsuccessful, he didn’t really want to, and now neither of them have to worry about it.

Hopefully.

Well. He’s there. Wishes he brought his bike instead, but here we are. Suigetsu’s getaway car.

He’s slowing down outside said barn and revving up the engine hella loud. Gonna honk that horn too. He figures Suigetsu will recognize it.

txt; I’m here

… He’d planned on having the evening to himself, so… It’s a bit of a ruined date for him, too. But that’s what the take-out and booze and bath bombs in the back seat are for.

So much for keeping things on the down low.

Suigetsu sure does recognise the sound, and comes dashing out to jump into the passenger’s seat. He has a rapidly-swelling black eye, and looks amazingly relieved right now.

“Holy fuck, thanks,” he says, hastily buckling in, as somewhere behind him comes a shout and a string of swearwords, including some slurs worth breaking a man’s face over. And Suigetsu winces a bit, grins sheepishly, and adds, “And that would be Lina’s ex. Well, an ex. She has more today than she did yesterday.”

There’s more shouting, a babble of voices from closer to the house, and the sound of breaking glass.

If she was uncertain about the request, then he was doubly so. He didn’t really know her story. Never really asked. He understood that people had their secrets, and he respected their right to want to keep some things to themselves. He actually kinda wished people would do the same when it came to him, too—leave him be with his secrets, that is. But he left people to their own: spoke to them on what was necessary, what needed to be done, but otherwise, he let them keep their secrets. Just as long as he wasn’t eventually clued into those secrets being a threat to him or Kirigakure—that would be when things became a problem.

But what he can glean from this is that… she’s a stranger to vengeance?

He ends up taking a good long look at her profile from where he’s sat. It’s silence on his end for a good half a minute or so (long enough a silence to classify it a Very Awkward silence), and it’s just the crackling of the fire they had going on in front of them to fill in for the lack of words being spoken.

Eventually, Mangetsu speaks up.

“Yer kiddin’ me, right?”

He looks away for a bit, opting to poke the fire with a stick in the meantime. In a matter of moments, though, he’s tossing that stick into the fire altogether. Once again, he’s looking at her– surprised, curious. Not entirely sure what to think. Incredulous, maybe.

“Ya never…?”

Kaeko didn’t really know for sure how she ended up here with him. The motions and actions that led her were straight forward enough, but... the thoughts... the justifications for all of this... that part was quite obscure to her. She wasn’t a vengeful person... was she? Why was she seeking guidance for something like this? It felt wrong and, yet, so right, so overdue.

She stared into the flames of the fire too and rationalized that she wasn’t trying to kill anyone. She just wanted to make them pay. She wanted them to feel her pain and her loss. She wanted them to understand was all. She didn’t want to ruin lives. She just wanted to give those who’d caused her to feel so lonely and lost a little rattle, a little shake, a little reminder that they were vulnerable too.

She didn’t respond when he suggested that she wasn’t serious, as if she just couldn’t be serious. Her cheeks warmed up slightly. She started to feel embarrassed for some reason, as if not being vengeful brought some kind of a shame to her name. Her brows crinkled and her fingers started to crackle very quietly with lightning as she considered shocking him... gently, of course, but enough to make him regret embarrassing her. She knew it wasn’t really his fault if she felt this way, though. Maybe it was just because she wanted to be more like him, and anything that made the gap between them more apparent was the real spark for feeling ashamed.

/  @murderpuddle

ಠ_ಠ:  what is your biggest pet peeve?

I … don’t actually know. I have several pet peeves, but I don’t think I can give THE biggest pet peeve. 

Though, well, I can’t stand slow walkers. When I walk, I walk with a goal in mind. I wanna get somewhere. And I hate walking behind people who, idk, want to look around or chat with one another while blocking the road. 

Another one is that I cannot cope with the sound of someone cracking their knuckles. It sends shivers down my spine and makes my toes curl.

In terms of rp? Probably when people approach me for shipping and nothing else. Meaning, when a stranger whose url I’ve never seen before asks me to insta-ship because they ship Sasuke x something. It irks me because most of the time I know said person doesn’t care about how I write Sasuke as long as he’s hot and sexy. 

@murderpuddlex – Starters: Send an icon to find my muse in various situationsUnder cut for lenth~

“Oi!” Suigetsu called out. He picked up his pace, calling out to the familiar back of his brother’s head once more. “Oi!!”

Nothing. As if the fucker didn’t recognize his own brother’s voice. Suigetsu got close enough to touch his brother, so he grabbed Mangetsu from behind.

“Mangetsu–” He cut off when Mangetsu turned around, looking like a startled animal.

Slipping his shoulder out from Suigetsu’s grasp quickly, Mangetsu’s brows crinkled together in a confused expression. His eyes narrowed, as if really scrutinizing Suigetsu’s face for some sign of familiarity. He wanted Suigetsu to be familiar, to be one thing that made sense in this unfamiliar world, but he just wasn’t.

“Quit fuckin around,” Suigetsu said light-heartedly, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He raised his fist to nudge Mangetsu’s shoulder playfully.

Mangetsu shifted out of the way swiftly but said nothing. He just... stared.

“Oi, what’s up?” Suigetsu asked, his voice quieter now as he sensed Mangetsu’s state of unrest, which was really unlike him. Suigetsu automatically reached out to touch Mangetsu again.

Mangetsu shifted once more, deftly avoiding the contact and taking a step back this time.

“Quit fuckin around,” Suigetsu demanded more seriously, lips turning down into a frown now. “What’s your deal?”

Mangetsu just continued to stare silently, brows still crinkled and muscles tensing as the bizarre interaction went on.

“Mangetsu--”

“Mangetsu,” Mangetsu repeated. He touched his own chest. “That’s... me?”

Before he dropped her off at home, he reset her phone. Completely. Now she only has a few numbers in it – his, her foster parents, the school. Suigetsu. All the ones he thought were important enough to carry over, but nothing he didn’t personally decide she needed. 

She could reinstall the apps. Log back in. But it’s nice having her phone so empty right now. Even as she pokes around, no amount of searching is going to reveal to her anything about the night she just had. All she has is a few texts from Suigetsu. The one Mangetsu sent that just says his name. Everything is empty, empty, empty. 

No pictures. 

Nothing.

It’s nice.

Karin’s putting on her pajamas when she remembers she still has his number. She wrote it down on a piece of paper in case she had her phone taken away again. She didn’t want to be unable to contact him, didn’t want him thinking she had forgot, didn’t want… 

She finds the note in her journal, tucked away at the end, behind the few pictures and drawings she’s kept over the years. There’s a name with the number, a name she decides that she hates. 

She tears the paper up into little pieces and throws it in the trash. Then she crawls into bed, closing her eyes and willing herself to fall asleep before Mangetsu is done talking to her parents outside. That way she can avoid the conversation just a little bit longer. 

She pulls her phone out one last time, remembering what he told her before he walked her to the door. She had been panicking again, worried that someone else would come and find her and take her away. 

They’ll never find you. 

She hearts the front door close and curls up under the blankets.

Growing up in Kusagakure, it was a weird period due to the village being in flux after the Third Shinobi World War, the Academy in the Grass was small and in the process of being rebuilt. Being the battlegrounds for the Great Five Nations, a lot of lives were lost as casualties and rebuilding took three-times longer compared to the larger villages.

Jakuren met Karin when she and her mother moved to the village during the finalizing of the rebuild. Jakuren was 9 years-old, about two years older than her. The village’s leader, Noboru, held a huge welcoming ceremony. It was the first time he heard of the ‘Uzumaki’ and seen their signature bright red hair. They were polite but quiet. Blending in was easy for them in terms of picking up the life of the Grass. However, that striking red hair made them stick out like sore thumbs.

When they started the Academy was the first time they ever interacted. He admired her skill, she was a skilled kunoichi but he also could see the fear that laid beneath the surface. And he exploited it. Jakuren was the only child, his parents were victims of war and suffered from varying psychosis—it reflected in his behavior. He was pretty mean to Karin. You could call him a bully. But not a ‘push her down on the ground’ type of bully. He didn’t know how to interact with her so he called her names instead of letting her know how cool she was.

After completing the Academy, they were eventually partnered in the same three-man cell but it wasn’t long lived. Jakuren kept picking on her – because he believed everyone could perform to his ability – and it resulted in him being removed from the team. He eventually had to be set aside to be tutored one on one due to his aloof demeanor. He’s always admired the silent strength of Karin, however. She never gave up, despite having being called ‘Crybaby Uzumaki’ the entire time she remained in the village.

When Karin went missing, after Orochimaru kidnapped her, Jakuren thought she might have run away due to the name-calling. He tried to visit her mother, to see if she knew what happened to Karin but her mother was essentially a mute; he was sure it was due to grieving so he didn’t press anymore. It sent him into a slight depression but also solidified his ‘nobody is as strong as me’ ideology; making him fully isolate himself and become the weapon that he is now.