"Her." Sasuke corrects. Interesting, maybe he isn't as repulsed as I thought. "Murasakino is a her." He even knows her name, I'm impressed. "Whether or not you like her, at least be civil and courteous. Who knows, the Spiders might save your life one day." He turns to me.
"That being said, a warning next time would be nice."
...
I roll my eyes, the gesture is lost on them both. Stupid mask. "Fine, while out of combat situations I'll give you a heads up. I reserve the right to ask the same of each of you if you two have some strange power that freaks me out."
"Deal." Sasuke says. I don't think anything he has would ever be able to creep me out that much. Only the Snakes or going level two possibly could and I don't have an issue with them. As long as they aren't trying to eat me or attempting to spear out a heart again.
Sasuke goes over to his hammock and climbs in. "Oooh, this is very nice. Pass on my compliments next time you summon her. We should do this for every mission we go on, this would be easy to set up outside too. Much better than the ground."
"I know right?" Finally, someone sees the value of my Spiders.
"They can't be that good. I've never seen anything that's better than the beds back at Sound." Tayuya haughtily says as she stomps over to my hammock. She lays a hand on it and I can see her eyes glaze over. Oh Kami no. I see her legs tense.
"Tayuya no!" I shout at her. She ignores me and leaps into the hammock with me. "Bad Tayuya! Bad!" We scuffle around, each of us trying to evict the other.
"Mine!" She says in a crazed voice while trying to shove me off with her feet. "Get out now!"
"Ahem." Sasuke's voice cuts through the air, Tayuya and I freeze in place. We are a tangled heap of limbs at this point. Somehow during our brief scuffle she managed to end up on top of me with my hands on her hips. "If you two lovebirds wanted some alone time all you had to do was ask."
"Mmmm... Not how I imagined today would go, but I find myself enjoying it." Tayuya says from on top of me. She tenderly runs a finger down my mask. "Too bad this is here, you look much better without it."
"Nope, this is not going to continue." I let the Jiongu out and use it to toss her halfway across the room.
She expertly lands on her feet. "Hey that's cheating!"
I climb out of the hammock. "If you aren't cheating you aren't trying. I win, the hammock is mine. See ya in a few hours!"
With those wonderfully inspiring words I bravely leap out the window to avoid the situation. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the mighty Alvarcus, the Hearth Thief, the Jiongu's host, the first Spider Summoner in generations is fleeing from a girl barely two years older than him.
Sasuke turns to Tayuya in my absence. "What do you see in him? It isn't his physique you're attracted to, no one has a thing for stitched on masks and overly scarred bodies."
"I don't know, his scars give him a rouge-ish look. I kinda like it." She jumps into my recently evacuated hammock. "It's still warm." She mumbles to herself.
"You didn't answer me." Sasuke presses onward. He's determined to know, she has his full attention. "I want to know why him. Of everyone you could have possibly chosen you picked him. Why?"
Tayuya raises her head up to give Sasuke a irritated look. "Why do you care?"
"He's my only friend." Sasuke says in a deadly serious tone. "We protect each other, both on and off the combat field. And you are practically throwing yourself at him, I want to know why."
"Oh my Kami, is this some weird form of a overprotective brother complex? Isn't that usually for sisters?"
"Tayuya!" Sasuke bellows. "Answer the question."
She withdraws into herself. Her bravado deserts her, she isn't the mission leader right now. She's an insecure young woman, not the deadly kunoichi she usually is. She's vulnerable, exposed. She barely whispers out, "He isn't disgusted by me."
Sasuke patiently waits for her to continue.
"You know how the curse seal has multiple levels?" She asks him. He nods, he has a hazy memory of spearing his best friend in the heart. Certainly not his best moment, it is one of his worst. "He's seen me go level two." She takes a shaky breath. "Do you know how he reacted?"
"No. Tell me." He urges her to continue.
"He laughed. He said that he's the monster, not me. His exact words were 'what's a couple of horns and a new skin color when I have a literal monster inside me?' He wasn't phased at all, not even for a moment. But that isn't all, he's actually a nice guy. He doesn't flaunt his power, he doesn't abuse his strength. We joke about who would win in a fight between us, but after seeing him train I know I'd lose badly. He knows it too, but he's never challenged me once. He's humble, he treats everyone with respect. I've only heard of one time he's actually lashed out at someone."
Sasuke grimaces. "The Suna nin, how he earned his title. The day he became like me."
"Yeah. That. Al- Green sees himself as a monster, a murdering piece of filth that is the lowest of the low."
Sasuke's whole body coils in anger.
"Quit that, that's how he sees himself! You see him for who he really is, I do too. A friend, an ally, a human. I want him to look at himself the way we see him. We don't see a monster, we see a good person."
"Okay." Sasuke says.
"Okay? Okay what?" Tayuya asks from Alvarcus's hammock.
"You have my approval." Sasuke states in a no nonsense tone.
"Kami I was right!" Tayuya's spunk is back now that she's not being questioned. "It is an overprotective brother complex!"
Sasuke huffs in mild irritation. "That's what he is to me, a brother. If you hurt him, you face my wrath."
Tayuya laughs. "Please, I'd have to go all out just to stand a chance in a fight against him."
"There are other ways to be hurt. Believe me, I know from experience. Physical pain isn't always the worst pain." Sasuke says in a distant voice.
"Way to kill the mood." Tayuya grumbles.
...
That Night
I stealthily open the door to our hotel room. I'm confident in my stealth skills that I can sneak past a sleeping Sasuke and crash in my hammock. Easy.
There is just one minor problem.
"You're back." He's still awake, he's sitting at the table sipping on a steaming cup of liquid. Tea, it is too late for coffee. "I was wondering when you'd show up. What were you up to?"
I sigh in defeat. My grand plan of sneaking past him is already foiled. "I summoned Shirokumo and we went around town checking up on the spy network. It was rather boring to be honest."
"Really? You have it in place already?" Sasuke sounds surprised.
"For the most part. Word is traveling that I'm in the information business now, the spiders of this world are eager to help out. They all should know to go to Shirokumo if something important comes up, otherwise I can just ask him about things. He's planning to manage all of it with some help from me on the side."
"How long until you have all of Kusagakure covered?" Sasuke says over his cup.
"A week at the most. He's very efficient and charismatic, spiders naturally fall in line for him." I quietly walk over to my bunk and change out of my elaborate get up into pajamas. Just because Sasuke is up doesn't mean Tayuya is too and I really don't want her to confront me.
"Impressive. He doesn't look like much but he's good." Sasuke just complimented my summons. Is the world ending soon? I thought not for another few years at least.
"Anything else you want to talk about? Cuz I've been looking forward to sleeping in my hammock since it was made." I plop down into it and pull my blanket over me. The weavers are amazing.
"Nothing that can't wait. Sleep, I'll be quiet." Sasuke says.
"Night."
I get a few blissful hours of sleep before I'm awoken.
"Pst! Alva- Green!" Something pokes me in the shoulder. "Pst!"
I groggily crack open an eye to see Tayuya standing over me. "Whadda want?" I yawn out. "It's sleep time, talk later."
Tayuya cutely plays with the hem of her nightshirt. It's a familiar yellow one. "I can't sleep. It's too cold here, do you have any spare blankets?"
"No, I don't have any. Just brought the one." I somehow form a coherent sentence. "Use my coat?"
"Ew gross. You wore that thing the entire day!" Tayuya exclaims.
I lethargically raise my head up to give her a stern look. "Unless you want to climb in the hammock, I've got nothing else for you." I shut my eyes to try to go back to sleep. I can't believe she woke me up for that.
The hammock tips over to one side. My eyes snap open. "What are you doing?"
Tayuya climbed in.
"Taking you up on your offer." She lifts the blanket up and snuggles against me. "Whoa, you're really warm."
I sigh, I doubt I'm getting out of this one. "It's a Jiongu thing. Don't know why though. You do realize that I was kidding right?"
She pulls my arm around her so she can use my chest as a pillow. "I know, so I cheated. 'If you aren't cheating you aren't trying.'"
"I really need to stop saying that. You know, if Sasuke sees us he won't let us forget it." I try halfheartedly to get her to leave again. At this point I'm not really against it.
"Yes. Now shut up. I'm tired." Tayuya orders. It isn't a terrible idea, I'm tired too.
We both drift off to sleep.
...
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