Living a Lie

Intermission: Ask Akatsuki

The following chapter was first uploaded on Fanfiction.Net on September 2nd. I apologize for the delay; I had been debating whether or not to even share this portion on Wattpad, as it was directly influenced by my FF.Net readers and truly has nothing to do with the (nearly non-existant) plot of the main story. I figured, if anything, you all would enjoy some more humor.

This chapter will be the only chapter written in the third person, as opposed to the first person in Sakura's point of view. I hope you all enjoy this silly intermission.

XO

<><><><>

It was a calm, comfortable afternoon in a small tourist village at the border between the Lands of Sound and Hot Water. The largest building in this small town was the family-owned Mizushima Inn. Taking up a good portion of the main street (directly adjacent to a small clothing store and an even smaller ramen shop), this decently sized establishment boasted natural hot springs and an all-you-can-eat buffet, and just so happened to have zero availability on this particular Sunday afternoon (and not because of the thriving population of tourists).

If one were to ask the current owner of the Mizushima Inn – that is, Mizushima Hiroshi-san – why his inn was completely booked, he would excitedly reply that a rather important man was holding a very important business meeting and reserved the entire inn for himself and his colleagues. His excitement, while a bit odd from another’s point of view, was completely justified given the two simple facts that no one quite as important had ever stayed at his family’s inn before, and no one had ever requested to reserve the hundred-and-three suite, three-and-a-half star establishment before.

If one were to ask precisely who this rather important man was, Mizushima Hiroshi-san would reply, “Why, the Tsuchikage and his Counsel, of course!”

<><><><> 

All was calm and quiet in the hot spring as a group of eight men and two women relaxed in the nearly-too-warm waters of the pool. Now, before you get uncomfortable with the co-ed sharing of the pool, please keep in mind everyone was clothed in their own bathing attire to provide a (slightly) more professional environment for the proceedings. Ahem, now where was I? Ah…

All was calm and quiet, until a certain silver-haired man suddenly straightened and shouted, “Wait, what the fuck?”

As if a spell had been broken, the other nine individuals also sat up from their various relaxed positions and proceeded to murmur confusedly amongst themselves.

“Where the hell are we, un?” asked a man with unnaturally pretty blond hair.

“Tobi doesn’t know! Have we been kidnapped? Tobi was kidnapped!” cried an oddly masked man.

“Weren’t we just in Kawabe… on our way back to the hotel?” asked a young, pink-haired woman. (Yes, it was her natural color.)

“We had just run into my foolish brother,” replied a beautiful man with absurdly gorgeous long black hair.

“Forget your brother – where’s my fried squid? I just had it!” grumbled an oddly blue man with even bluer gravity defying hair.

“Screw your squid. Where’s my money?” growled a tanned man with an uncomfortable amount of stitches covering his body in strange patterns.

An equilaterally bicolored man and a blue haired woman both sat in an awkward silence, eyes jumping in various directions to ascertain their surroundings.

“Silence,” ordered an excessively pierced man with orange hair. Despite the lack of volume in his voice, the entirety of the group reflexively responded with a sudden and obedient hush. Seeing that all eyes were trained on him, the man nodded and proceeded to answer (most of) their questions. “We are sitting in a hot spring at an inn, located in a small village on the border between the Lands of Sound and Hot Water. I have had us transported here for a purpose that I will expound on shortly. As for how we arrived here and the lack of memory regarding the past few hours, I—”