Tainted Blood of a Ninja

It wasn’t that Mitsukai hadn’t gotten used to waking up in weird unknown places. No, that wasn’t the problem. Her problem was waking up with Itachi’s face less than a foot from her own with his wide, red, somber eyes boring down at her. “GAH!”

Itachi managed to move out of the way in time to prevent Mitsukai’s forehead slamming into his forehead protector. “You move fast for someone who’d just slept for seven hours.”

Mitsukai ignored him trying to calm her heart down. The blue one sat across the fire from them guffawing loudly. “Itachi-san, did you see her face? She looked like she’d have a heart attack!”

Mitsukai shot Kisame a sour look then eyed the pan positioned over the fire. “What’s for dinner?”

Kisame smiled. “Fish.”

Mitsukai bit on her bottom lip and, after failing to summon the self control necessary, asked, “…I thought you didn’t eat fish? …Isn’t that cannibalism?”

If Itachi still hadn’t been sitting next to her, the kunai Kisame had swiftly thrown would have caught her square in the throat. “Kisame.” Itachi murmured in an urgent tone dropping the kunai to the ground. Mitsukai blinked a few times then slowly brought a shaky hand up to her throat. She honestly couldn’t remember the Fish Head being able to move so fast…

“….stupid girl….stupid assumptions….” Kisame muttered angrily poking the fish around the pan.

Itachi moved into an Indian style sitting position and seemingly watched the flames dance around in the fire. Mitsukai watched the flames illuminate Itachi’s face. She’d never paid much attention before, but Itachi had long eyelashes, the kind one would picture a model having. His cheeks were rounded, not as plump as she remembered Sasuke’s having been…maybe with age they thinned out? She was tempted to touch the tip of his nose playfully but thought better of it, wanting to keep her fingers. His expression was blank as usual…but something was different about it. He didn’t seem to actually see the fire blazing in front of him. She noticed then that he didn’t have his Sharingan activated.

“Itachi-san?”

“…..Yes?” He answered after a few minutes passed.

“May I ask what you’re looking at? Or thinking of? Since you don’t have your Sharingan activated and it doesn’t seem that you’re looking at the fire.” Mitsukai stumbled over her words realizing how insignificant her questions were to him.

Itachi took his time composing his answer and even longer to answer her. “Nothing really.”

Mitsukai sighed inwardly. She expected such a response. “Okay.” It was better to leave it at that and not push the subject any more.

After Kisame had served them their plates, Itachi startled her. “I was thinking Deidara is dead.”

She wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly. She wasn’t sure if she even responded. The only thing she knew for fact was the explosion that she assumed had knocked her out.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The ground shifted ominously, miles away from where the large crowd of shinobi gathered. Deidara emerged from the ground with a scowl on his face and landed on his feet in a low crouch, then stood slowly. “Jeez…I can’t believe that even my self-destructing clone was eaten up like that…Although, I guess it did create enough of a diversion for me to escape.”

He shook his body a little to free the bits of dirt and gravel that still clung to his clothes and hair. He looked towards the general direction of where he had been trailing the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. “Hmm…the only part I lost for good was the part of my arm around the elbow. Better start looking for my right hand and the ring that I dropped…hm.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bodies littered the area…or what seemed to be bodies. Puppets were everywhere. Zetsu stood over the only puppet that mattered, Sasori. ‘Looks like this is the real Sasori…’

“I found it!”

The oddly child-like yet young adult voice rang in his ears and Zetsu turned to see what the strange man had found.

“I found it, Zetsu-san!” Tobi eyed the ring then began flipping the ring up into the air as if it were nothing more than a coin. “So do you think I’ll be able to become a member o the Akatsuki now?”

“You moron. You don’t really think you can join that easily, do you?” One side of Zetsu hissed with disapproval at the question.

“Oh come on…we can let him in. Tobi is a good boy.”

Tobi was such a good boy that he missed catching the ring he was flipping into the air and had to spend an extra fifteen minutes searching through rubble to find it again.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After finding Sasori’s ring, Zetsu declared that they had to locate Deidara and his ring. At this suggestion, Tobi was thrilled because he favored Deidara. However when they arrived to the portion of the forest that Zetsu had last sensed Deidara, evidence didn’t seem to be in his favor.

“What’s this?” Tobi stared at the object. “It looks like Deidara-san got himself killed too.”

At his feet lay part of Deidara’s right forearm and hand, complete with his assigned ring.

“I’ll be you anything that his cause of death was an explosion, Zetsu-san. I wonder if there are pieces of him laying around here somewhere.” Tobi chortled picking up the hand to eye the ring.

“Keep your hands off, moron.”

Tobi froze and looked up to see the blonde-haired person emerge from the bushes looking exhausted, breathing heavily. “Oh! You’re alive!”

“What happened to the jinchuuriki?”

“Hey, I’ve finished my assignment already. Remember?” Deidara snapped.

“What’s this? Look at you, you’re just barely hanging in there, Deidara-san.” Tobi looked at Deidara with one would think was concern. “You ok? Er…” He looked at Deidara’s arms. “I guess not.”

“……” Deidara only stared at him. “Tobi. Even my tolerance has limits. Just try saying something else. I’ll assign you a cause of death, hn.”

“What’s that? Death by explosion again?”

There was a nice breezy silence before a voice spoke. “You just broke….his limit.”

“DEATH BY SUFFOCATION, HN!!!!!”

Tobi’s only reply was the sound of choking.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

‘There is nothing worse than having to be stuck with a five year old trapped in’—“Hey Tobi, how old are you?”

Tobi stopped talking and paused to ponder this question. His final answer was a shrug.

‘He doesn’t even know his age.’ Deidara huffed becoming increasingly annoyed with the sound of Tobi’s persistent chatter and the flapping caused by his (now) empty sleeves in the night breeze. It was one thing for Sasori to allow himself to be killed by a teenager. One thing he was still dealing with since that did leave him no one to argue about art with. However, it was a totally absurd issue for Zetsu to declare that Tobi—who cannot recall his age to save his life—as his partner. It was quite possible that Tobi had no earthly idea as to what art truly is therefore eliminating any possible art arguments.

“Hey sempai?”

“Please let it be important Tobi.”

“I see Itachi-san and Kisame-san up ahead…with someone else.” Tobi stopped. “Should I go ahead and check it out for you? You know, since you’re an invalid now.”

Deidara bit his lip so hard it nearly bled holding back a stream of profanities he was sure would add color to Tobi’s twelve count crayon colored world. “…No…thank…you.”

“Are you sure?”

“If Itachi and Kisame are there surely the third person is there by force or choice.”

There was a pause before Tobi’s hushed voice spoke again. “Do you think it’s one of their girlfriends?”

Before Deidara could ask what the hell Tobi was babbling about, the subtle scent of lavender reached his nose on the breeze becoming a bit stronger with each step. Soon voices from the campfire could be heard.

“Someone’s coming.” Kisame’s gruff voice announced as he shifted to bring his blade into a defensive position.

“Relax.” Itachi spoke softly not even twitching as he continued to gaze at the fire.

“Who is it?” A feminine voice cut the silence and it made Deidara pause for a moment. The possibilities ran through his head and he increased the pace of his steps.

“Ah, sempai! Why the hurry all of a sudden? Cripples like you should take it easy.” Tobi pulled on Deidara’s sleeve.

“Let me go, hn.”

Mitsukai inhaled sharply and held her breath, realizing that company was coming from behind her.

“Why the rush?” Tobi asked in a whiny voice. “If you hurt yourself any more, Leader-sama will blame me—“

“Shut it.”

The pair emerged from the bush. “Ta da!” Tobi cried out dramatically posing causing all eyes, even Itachi’s, to look up. “We…are…HERE!!!”

Deidara then wished for arms and hands solely to either cover his face or choke the moron.[/p][p]Mitsukai looked past the swirly masked man and saw a beat up, tired blue eyed blonde staring directly at her. “D-dei—“

“Mitsukai.” Deidara whispered taking in the older Mitsukai. He couldn’t deny that she had matured physically. However, she still held the same spark of innocence he’d found in her eyes the day he met her for training. They were a deep midnight blue (almost black in their current setting) that looked at him with awe, respect, and sibling love. Her hair had grown a bit, almost reaching her waist. He immediately remembered Itachi’s complaints about her hair length and knew she’d end up losing a few inches, more if Itachi wasn’t in a good mood.

“Nii-san.” Mitsukai had her arms around Deidara’s waist within seconds, outright sobbing into his chest. “I thought you were dead!”

Tobi rubbed the back of his head. “Well, if you really want to be honest, he might be. He has no arms and that blast cleared a five mile radius from the center…not to mention that scowl makes him look a bit zombie-like, don’t you think?”

Deidara looked down at her tears of relief and fought a smile. This was no way for members of their organization to act. They were supposed to be more serious…emotion-less…yet it made his heart both ache and rejoice. He hated that she had be dragged back into his hell, yet ecstatic that he had someone to share the burden with. Granted, he knew that it was highly unlikely he’d get to spend much time with her, but knowing that he’d get to see her wearing a cloak again and be partially held responsible for her presence there did make him happy. “Hn…if you don’t watch it, you’ll end up acting like Tobi.”

Itachi watched the reunion and it grated him. He watched from the corner of his eye as Mitsukai chatted with Deidara answering all his questions about her past three years as if he were only asking her name. He watched as she found clay in his pouch and carefully molded replacement arms so that he could set to work on making new ones. In all his years of knowing her, never had she shown that kind of dedication and care for anyone else. ‘Weak. She’s weak for even allowing such a bond to form.’

Deidara fought to keep his emotions under control. He wouldn’t be able to stand hearing any of the Uchiha’s “emotions make you weak” lectures. Yet, it was a challenge. He missed her so much…and hated the idea of her leaving again for any reason.

“Let’s go.” Itachi stood finally. Tobi had been leaning against a tree having a silent one-sided staring contest with Itachi. Kisame, Deidara, and Mitsukai had all fallen asleep.

“Huh? What?” Mitsukai muttered rubbing her eyes.

“Seriously Uchiha. A few more hours won’t hurt. We’ve just sealed one jinchuuriki, hn.” Deidara glowered at him.

Kisame didn’t bother to complain. He had learned a long time ago that it made little difference in Itachi’s original command.