NOTE: All chapters can be found by going to the labels gadget on the right side of the page and clicking on the label of the chapter number you wish to read *example: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, etc.*
DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to own Naruto or any of its subsidiaries. This is simply fanfiction. However, I do own my OCs
Hello peoplz! Finally got Chapter 10 up. We're into double digits! YAY! This chapter is also the second longest in the entire series, second only to Chapter 1. As always, here's the dictionary:
Kuchiyose no Jutsu -- Summoning technique
Katsu -- a command Deidara accompanies with a hand seal in order to implode one of his creations
S-rank -- highest rank
B-rank -- third highest rank, after A-rank and S-rank
C-rank -- fourth highest rank, after B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank
Hi no Kuni -- land of fire. A country in Naruto-verse. Home to one of the five great shinobi villages: Konohagakure
Kaminari no Kuni -- land of lightning. A country in Naruto-verse. Home to one of the five great shinobi villages: Kumogakure
Yu no Kuni -- land of hot water. A country in Naruto-verse. Home to a minor shinobi village: Yugakure. Origin of the Akatsuki member Hidan
Shimo no Kuni -- land of frost. A country in Naruto-verse. Home to a minor shinobi village: Shimogakure
Chapter 10
Apologizing had never come easily to Kyo. She was the kind of person who would ride out the aftershocks of a disagreement until the other person would come to her. And then, and only then, would she admit that she had done anything wrong.
But in this one instance, she felt like crap. A big pile of extremely apologetic crap.
Sunlight filtered into her and Deidara's shared hotel room. Their backs were still facing away from each other, and their mats were still placed on opposite sides of the space.
Both were awake, and both knew the other was awake, but neither was willing to make the first move.
They just lay there.
Apologetic.
And even though she felt like a big pile of apologetic crap, Kyo wouldn't give in. This was Deidara's fault and he knew it.
Her fingers twitched at the lack of sound, but she stood firm.
It was only a matter of time before he cracked.
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Deidara stared out the window, gaze wandering to the side every so often in a futile attempt to see if Kyo had moved.
She was awake.
He knew it.
She most definitely knew it.
So there.
Yeah, he felt sorry, but if he were to show such a feeling, he would never hear the end of it.
His blue eyes narrowed.
Besides, the silence was probably killing her. She'd explode soon. Just like his art.
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Now, most people may not know this, but maids in the shinobi lands were horribly underpaid for the work they did. I mean, sure they were paid well for the maid part itself, but the things they found? The things they walked in on? Not a chance.
Keiko was a simple woman. She worked hard as a hotel-maid and made a suitable living for herself and her unemployed husband. And, as a hotel-maid, she'd seen absolutely everything, most of which was stuff that she actually never wanted to see.
There was one time where she walked in on two green-spandex-wearing men hugging and crying in front of a sunset backdrop and, to this day, she had absolutely no idea where that thing had come from.
Oh! And there was another time where she accidentally walked in on a white-haired dude who was attempting to slash down a red-head girl with what appeared to be a giant carving knife while being watched calmly by some guy with hair that put a duck's-butt to shame and another man who was so freakin' tall that his bright orange hair brushed the ceiling. The the duck-butt haired guy's eyes turned red and the white-head screamed and sprinted towards the window. Keiko closed the door.
Another instance worth mentioning was when she walked in on a pair of men who were arguing rather loudly. This is worth mentioning because one of the men was on the floor with his body impaled by a three-bladed scythe while his silver-haired head was rolling on the floor a few feet away. . . .still arguing. She had quickly closed the door on that one as well as removing tomato juice and red salsa from all her grocery lists.
But jobs were hard to find and, with her husband unemployed, she had to put the bread on the table. So, here she was, standing outside the door of room 137 with her cart of maid-tools, ready to face whatever this dang hotel had to throw at her.
With something akin to reverence, Keiko cautiously slid the bamboo door open.
“YOU %@#!@$#! APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT YOU DID!”
“OH, FOR WHAT I DID? IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT, UN!”
“I WAS JUST ASKING WHAT YOU WERE DOING! WHY WON'T YOU EVER TELL ME ANYTHING WHEN I'M JUST TRYING TO GET INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE?”
“I DON'T WANT YOU INVOLVED IN MY LIFE! IT'S MY LIFE, UN!”
“I RAISED YOU! I DESERVE RESPECT AND A CHANCE TO BE INVOLVED IN MY CHILD'S LIFE!”
“I'M NOT YOUR CHILD, UN!”
“THAT'S NOT THE POINT! NOW APOLOGIZE!”
“NOT IN A MILLION YEARS, UN!”
“Fine. KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!”
“RAWR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“WHAT THE $%@#, UN? IS THAT A DRAGON?”
“ATTACK!!!”
“GAH! KATSU, UN!”
BOOM!
“TAKE THAT YOU—“
Keiko calmly closed the door, and, as she turned towards the next room, she sighed. She was so demanding a raise.
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Deidara and Kyo trudged along the dirt road, each pointedly looking away.
The hotel manager had not exactly welcomed the pair's little 'scuffle'. So now, here they were, hungry and battered and hungry. Did I mention hungry?
The greenette gnawed on her lip and nervously cracked her knuckles (well, the knuckles on her good hand.) Her eyes shot to the left as if searching out some shred of noise. Why did everything have to be so freakin' silent!
Deidara glanced over at his anxious companion, unintentionally catching her golden eye.
“Well. . . .” The greenette began as she locked onto his gaze, refusing to flinch in the slightest.
“What now, un?”
The blonde's cold, yet reassuringly harsh question cut through the noon-time air.
Her lips turned upward in a slight smile, and she turned to stare forward, rubbing her good arm across her tensed neck muscles.
What to say, what to say. . . .
Answer him already. It's impolite not to.
Will you shut up?! Both of you are so freakin' annoying.
Aw, don't be such a stick in the mud!
Why you little—
“—Kyo-kun, Kyo!”
“Ah!” The greenette started as Deidara's face came into view, causing her to skid backwards at the sudden interruption, her hand flashing instinctively to her side for her kunai pouch—
“What the hell are you doing, un!”
Her hand paused as the blonde's voice jarred its concentration.
Deidara wasted no time. In the millisecond after her focus-lapse, the blonde had pinned the greenette to a nearby tree with her good hand pinned above her head and her legs immobile against the scratching bark.
Golden eyes blinked as they met with furious blue ones.
“What the hell, Kyo, un!” he snarled as he pressed her harder to the trunk.
“Huh—wha'?” The greenette glanced up at her taller companion, confusion written on her face. She attempted to move from the uncomfortable position she found herself in, only to find her limbs immobile. “What happened?”
“What happened, un? What happened? You just tried to freakin' attack me!”
Her brow puckered. “I did?”
The blonde snarled. “Yeah, ya' did, un!”
A grin of cheeriness threw the Akatsuki member's rant off track. “I must of spaced out, then!” Just like it was the plainest thing in the world, which to her it probably was.
He stared at her.
“Now, would you mind letting me go, Deidara-kun?” Kyo fidgeted in clear discomfort as she eyed the elbow placed precariously at her throat, a pout replacing the previous smile.
Deidara snorted, cautiously stepping back. However, his stance did nothing to relax itself and even jumped subtly as the greenette fell forward in an attempt to regain her balance.
After achieving some medium of balance and straightening her clothes, she stood to face her companion. “Well isn't it obvious? I need an arm don't I?”
While the blonde certainly wasn't slow or dense, he was an S-ranked missing-nin after all, her statement held no sense whatsoever. “And this is relevant, how, un?” To his knowledge, they didn't import replacement parts from the Big House up in the Sky.
Her face screwed up in contemplation. Abruptly, she snapped her fingers. “Ah!”
Deidara raised an eyebrow, biting the inside of his cheek. “Ah what, un?”
However, Kyo was far from listening to her companion as she suddenly started twirling joyously around the path. “Oh, this is so wonderful!” She clasped her good hand to her heart as she beamed at the sky.
Deidara got the feeling she wasn't talking to him and took an unconscious step back.
“I'll get to introduce you to everyone and we'll get to play so many fun games and Onee-chan will bake us her special cookies and. . . .” The greenette's face was wound in the expression of a toddler who had just been informed that they would be getting a candy store for their birthday.
And it really concerned the blonde.
And I mean really concerned, because when Kyo gets happy, bad things happen.
Very bad things.
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Teme.
Deidara glared at Kyo out of the corner of his eye as he reclined against the wall next to the window of the pair's shared motel room.
The greenette was sprawled across her futon, eyes obnoxiously darting back and forth as she examined their room. Every few seconds, she would switch positions. Side. Back. Stomach. Side again. Diagonal. Etc.
Why couldn't she just sit still!?!
He snorted and unconsciously twitched his fingers in annoyance.
Deep breaths.
His advice, while wise, was surprisingly hard to abide by. Kyo had a talent for driving people over the edge (kind of like she herself was.)
One truly does blurt out the truth when not thinking, no?
The blonde smirked, though it quickly reverted to annoyance once more.
The gaki had dragged him to this stupid hotel, refusing to answer his inquiries about why and where they were going. She insisted that it should be a surprise. However, based on their current trajectory, he had surmised that their destination was Kaminari no Kuni or one of the surrounding, smaller nations. And, seeing as Kaminari no Kuni's shinobi village, Kumogakure, was one of the most militarized and crime free settlements in all five great shinobi nations, he had narrowed it down to one of the smaller countries. (They'd be dead in under a millisecond if they stepped anywhere near Kumo.)
So that left Yu no Kuni and Shimo no Kuni, both of which were more demilitarized than their less-than-benevolent neighbor. Of the pair, Yu no Kuni had more of a reputation for missing-nin. After all, Hidan had originated from the nation's shinobi village, Yugakure. However, Yugakure had, after Hidan's defection almost demilitarized completely, leaving a collection of farmers and merchants. Not a prime location for Kyo.
So that left Shimo no Kuni.
Deidara's brow puckered.
He knew little about the land other than the name of its shinobi village, Shimogakure. The village was known to be rather secretive and wasn't a very impressive force in the shinobi world. Every once in a while you'd hear of some C- or B-rank mission completed by a couple of their shinobi. Nothing remarkable. They had remained neutral throughout the Great Shinobi Wars, never taking a side and rarely becoming an unintended battle-ground due to their remote location. By comparison to its neighbors, it was a far more likely destination, however unlikely it was over all.
A sigh escaped his slightly parted lips.
“You alright, Deidara-kun?”
He glanced over at the curious greenette. “Hai. Just tired, un.”
Her mouth quirked suspiciously, yet she made no comment. “Hm. Well, I'm going to bed.” And with that she unceremoniously flopped to her side, her back to the blonde, and promptly started snoring.
He rolled his eyes, turning back to face the window. “I'll be outside, un,” he muttered to no one in particular as he slid open the glass pane. Taking no hesitation, the Akatsuki bomber leaped from their second story balcony, silently rolling on the balls of his feet as he landed effortlessly on the dew-laden grass of outer Hi no Kuni.
Slowly standing, Deidara gazed at his surroundings before purposefully striding into the nearby forest. Every few seconds, the blonde would pause, allowing silence to return to the wood, before marching onwards in a slightly different trajectory.
Finally, the tell-tale rumbling of a distant river greeted his ears. A grin etched itself on his visage and he quickened his pace. Gradually, the sound grew until it became a dull roar, pounding at the blonde's eardrums. Though, he took no notice, his hearing already accustomed to far louder noises.
Deidara skidded to a halt as the ground dropped abruptly away at his feet. Staring down at the water-carved ravine, his grin grew as he spotted the tell-tale gray streak at the base of the opposite wall. Focusing chakra to his feet, the blonde leaped from his perch, doing a flip mid-air so as to maximize distance, and touched down on the water, seemingly unperturbed by the rapids beneath his feet.
He snorted in quiet disdain as he noticed his target several feet away. Prolonged torture truly did take a toll on your skills.
Quickly readjusting his position, the blonde raised one hand to trail across the glistening gray streak. Sure enough, it did not disappoint.
“Oh, how I've missed you my friend, un.” His eyes widened in what could only be described as joy as his hand-mouth chomped down on the naturally occurring clay layer.
After a few moments, however, a grimace fluttered across his face. “Gritty. How inartistic, no? I'll have to fix that, un.” Nonetheless, his hand continued to chew, the blonde artist waiting with patient irritation.
“Finally,” he muttered as a gray glob was spat into his hand. Closing his palm around the still-wet substance, he began to massage it with his digits. After a minute, his fingers unfurled, revealing a perfectly shaped, miniature falcon. A slightly deranged smile appeared as he stared down at his latest work.
And what a lovely work it was, especially for having been created with such inferior materials.
Slowly, almost reverently, the blonde raised his index finger to the bird's back and began to trace the characters of a message, using a code exclusive to the Akatsuki. His eyes widened in glee as he finished. The code had no key. It was uncrackable, learnable only by pure memory. It was impervious to outward spies. A true mark of the Akatsuki.
“Katsu!” With a single hand-sign, the bird sprang to life, wasting time only to glance around at its surroundings before it sprung into the air, catching a breeze on outstretched clay wings.
Deidara grinned as he watched his art soar away until it was reduced to a tiny white speck in the distance. Now, hopefully, he'd make use of some well-deserved vacation time to spend a few days with a 'childhood acquaintance.' Though, there was the fact that the Akatsuki didn't have vacation time. . . .
Oh, well.
Shrugging off the traitorous thoughts, he turned back to the layer of clay embedded in the water-worn rock. And, as he reached out his hands, the grin returned.
His art couldn't wait.
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To be truthful, I'm very proud of this chapter, especially the length. It feels good to have written something so long after so many short chapters. Also, the completion of this chapter brings the total word-count up to 19,361. Almost to 20,000, people! Anyways, hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to get Chapter 11 out relatively soon.
Peace out peoplz,
KobaltWolf
