Okay I really really really wanted to write this! The idea of writing about a cute little five-year-old Deidara was too irresistible! And I've been wanting to write a story about his past for quite some time… I'm trying to keep it as canon as possible, but I might change things if it goes with the plot better. Anyways please read and review telling me if you want more!
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, then I would get many angry letters because I am horrible at drawing.
Summary: That redheaded man was like an angel… I knew he was nice because he had saved me from the villagers once, but he told me he was a bad person that belonged to a bad group. I don't believe him.
Warnings: Child abuse, some swearing, violence, Orochimaru bashing, and that should be it… I'll post warnings in later chapters if that chapter contains something to be warned about.
Chapter 1
Deidara ran as fast as he could, panting heavily as he tried to escape the older boys that were quickly gaining on him. He dodged around several houses to try and lose them, but to no avail. He focused his gaze on the dirt path before him. If he could make it to his own house, then maybe he'd have a chance…
Deidara cried out as his foot connected with a pothole, effectively causing him to lose his balance and trip. He caught himself with his hands and tried to stand up again. A swift kick to his back quickly changed that though. The blonde gasped in pain as he hit the ground, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the beating that was sure to come.
"Good job, you three. I'm proud of you for catching that sneaky little devil," a voice said. A foot prodded at Deidara's side, none too gently. "This freak needs to be disposed of, once and for all. Kyon, you carry it and follow me back to the center of the village."
A pair of hands roughly grabbed Deidara by the arms. He whimpered as he was slung over the older boy's shoulder, trying to squirm his way out of the grip.
"Don't even try, you disgusting creature," the one named Kyon said, loathing obvious in his voice. "You're going to get what's coming to you soon enough."
Deidara opened his eyes and stared numbly at the ground as it passed by. What had he ever done to deserve this? All he'd ever wanted was a normal life, a normal family, normal friends, but he had gotten none of it. His parents had disowned him after they discovered the mouths on his hands and left him to fend for himself. After word had spread, nobody would even go near the blonde. But soon it escalated into beating him whenever he came into sight, and calling him dirty names that he only half understood. And it was all because of his hands.
A tear slowly rolled down Deidara's cheek and onto the ground as he trembled with fear. He had a feeling that this time the beating would be so much worse than usual.
Sasori scowled as he entered the village of Iwagakure, moving fast so he wouldn't be seen. He'd sent Orochimaru around to enter from the other side, mostly not wanting to deal with the snake's chattering right now. Of course Pein had to send them on a mission to the most bloodthirsty of the Five Great Nations to retrieve a stupid scroll. It seemed that all they ever did was steal scrolls anymore…
The redhead stopped as a large, yelling mob came into view up ahead. He rolled his eyes, figuring that they were probably rebelling against the Tsuchikage for passing a new law or something. He stood there for a moment, and curiosity got the best of him as he pushed his way to the center of the crowd.
Deidara cried silently as the kunai ran across his flesh once more, the burning pain making him want to scream. But he'd never give these sick people the satisfaction of seeing him break. Never.
"You're a tough one, aren't you?" Someone shouted.
"To Hell with you!" Another yelled.
"Kill the bastard already!"
The chuunin that was standing in front of him dropped the kunai and grabbed Deidara's hair, pulling him up to his feet roughly. "I'm not going to give you the escape of death until I get the satisfaction of hearing you scream, little freak."
He sent a swift kick to the blonde's right knee, making a sickening crunching sound. Deidara let out a strangled gasp, breathing labored as the pain started to make his vision blur. He fought to stay conscious, struggling to remain strong in what he knew would be his last moments.
"So that won't work either, huh? How about this?"
The kunai was drove into his broken leg and twisted around mercilessly. Deidara bit his lip so no sound would come out of his mouth, squeezing his eyes shut. Why wouldn't they stop?
Sasori froze at what he saw. It was a little boy. They were torturing a little boy who couldn't have been more than six years old. The sick bastards…
The redhead watched numbly as the blonde boy was thrown to the ground. The chuunin that was beating him grabbed a torch from one of the people next to him and started burning the boy's arm, charring away the flesh. "How does that feel?" The torturer spat.
Sasori snapped. He lunged forward, wrenching the torch out of the chuunin's grasp and twisting the nin's arm around into a painful position, hearing it snap. He threw the worthless trash in front of him and sent a glare around at the crowd.
"If all of you pitiful excuses for humans don't get out of my sight right now then you will face the wrath of the Akatsuki." After a few shouted curses and dirty looks, the mob slowly dispersed, including the injured chuunin, leaving Sasori alone with the boy. He turned around and kneeled down, gently taking the blonde into his arms. "Let's get you out of here," he murmured absently to the unconscious figure.
Deidara cracked open his eyes slowly and wearily, blinking rapidly. He tried to sit up, but then fell back down again and hissed in pain. "Ow…" he muttered, taking in his surroundings. It looked like he was in some sort of clearing surrounded with tall trees. The green grass was long and looked like it hadn't been tended to in a while.
"So you're awake at long last," a voice said. Deidara's heart immediately started pounding faster, and he backed as far away from the voice as he could despite his injuries. He started shaking, fear shining in his eyes as he tried to find the person who had spoken.
"Whoa, hey it's okay, I won't hurt you." Deidara finally caught sight of a redheaded man sitting on the other side of the clearing. He was wearing a black cloak with red clouds embroidered on it, and had his arms folded over his chest. He looked calm and non-threatening enough, so the blonde let himself calm down a bit.
"W-who are you?" Deidara asked hoarsely. He hadn't used his voice to talk in quite some time. The redhead chuckled.
"I don't think I need to answer that. The question is: who are you?"
Deidara looked at him curiously. How did one respond to that question? "Well… I'm Deidara and I'm from Iwa, and according to them I'm a freak, or a devil spawn, or a monster, and a whole bunch of other things! I don't know what those words mean though… But they're compa… compla… complim… comp-li-ments, right?" he asked, stumbling over the long word.
The redhead stared at him for a few moments. "Such innocence…" he muttered. Deidara tilted his head to the side.
"What's innocence? Can you eat it?"
"In a way…" the man responded, sighing.
"Good, cause I'm starving!" Deidara announced, grinning. In response, his stomach growled loudly. The redhead rolled his eyes, reaching inside of his cloak.
"I don't think I have any food with me but I'll check." Deidara cautiously leaned forward, and then letting out a quick yelp as his leg burst out in pain. "Try not to move, your leg is pretty messed up."
"It's okay, it'll be fine," the blonde said. "This isn't really the first time this has happened, I'm used to it by now."
The man looked up, narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean that wasn't the first time? How often does this happen?"
Deidara shrugged. "It happens almost every day. This week I've been lucky, they've only caught me three times so far."
The redhead muttered something under his breath, then finally pulling something edible out of his cloak. "Here, eat this." Deidara cautiously took the food, looking at it closely.
"It's not poisoned, is it?" he asked, looking at the man with wide eyes. "Because poison really tastes yucky and it makes me feel sick."
The man's eyes softened a little. "No, it's not poisoned."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Okay!" The blonde said cheerfully, taking a bite out of it. His eyes lit up. "This is so yummy! What's it called?" he asked, taking another huge bite out of it.
"It's called bakudan. It was the only food that I could find to bring on my mission," he said. "But I'd slow down in eating it before you choke yourself."
Deidara stopped with his mouth full, half of the bakudan gone already. "Buff ith fo ghurf!" He swallowed. "I've never tasted anything this good!"
"Well now you have." The redhead stood up, stretching out his arms and glancing around. "Where's Orochimaru?" he muttered absently.
"Who's Arashimori?" Deidara asked, butchering the snake's name.
"My stupid ass partner," the redhead replied.
"Oh I see." The blonde nodded sagely, finishing off the last of the bakudan. "Is he around here somewhere?"
A rustling noise answered that, and a tall man with long black hair emerged from the forest. "There you are. What are you doing all the way out here?"
Deidara, assuming this was Orochimaru, waved vigorously. "Hi stupid ass partner!"
The redhead's mouth twitched, but he covered it up by facepalming. The pale man cast the blonde an interested glance. "Oh, who iss thisss?" he asked, dragging out the "s" sound.
"I'm Deidara and this nice man saved me!" Deidara said, pointing at the other man. "He even gave me food!"
Orochimaru smirked, turning to the redhead. "It lookss like sssomone is going ssoft. You know we can't keep him though, right?"
"I only saved him because those Iwa villagers are completely deranged," the redhead said in an irritated voice. "They were going to kill him."
"Iss that sso?" The black-haired man turned to Deidara again. "Now why would ssomeone do that to ssuch a preciousss child?" This new man was starting to creep the blonde out. He slowly stood up, ignoring the pain in his right leg and favoring his left. Eventually he pulled himself into a standing position and looked at the redhead.
"Thank you for saving me mister, but I have to go back now. My house will get lonely if I don't keep it company."
The redhead shot him an incredulous stare. "You can't be serious."
Deidara tilted his head to the side curiously. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I'm not going to let you go back there. You're coming with us."
"But what about my house?" the blonde asked worriedly.
"It doessn't matter becausse he'ss not coming with usss," Orochimaru said, narrowing his eyes at his partner. "You know that Pein will never allow uss to bring him into the basse, right?"
The redhead shrugged. "Well boo hoo, he's going to have to make an exception. I'm bringing the kid with us." He walked over to Deidara and picked him up. The blonde automatically flinched away from the touch, but calmed himself down by telling himself that this man was nice and he wouldn't hurt him. He was gently placed on the man's back, and Deidara reached his arms around the redhead's neck and held on tightly.
The blonde sighed as he rested his head against the man's shoulder. "Hey mister, you never told me your name," he said in a muffled voice.
"And I told you it was of no concern," the redhead replied. "Just call me Danna or something, I don't care."
"Okay," Deidara yawned. "Are you an angel, Danna?" He chuckled.
"I'm the farthest thing from it."
Sasori glanced over at his partner as the blonde fell asleep on his back. "So did you get the scroll? I hope you did because I got a little distracted."
In response Orochimaru pulled a scroll out of his own cloak. "Yesss, I actually managed to remain focussed on the misssion."
"Good. Let's head back to base then. We're already a day behind schedule because of that little fiasco in the last village."
Sasori turned around and started walking, Orochimaru following him. The trip was silent, which the puppeteer was thankful for. He started thinking about the boy he was carrying.
Why would anyone do that to someone as innocent as him? he wondered, frowning. It makes absolutely no sense. And to beat him like this nearly daily? What the hell was wrong with Iwa? From what he said, I'm guessing that whenever he leaves his house the villagers chase him down and attack him. And he's also been poisoned before, most likely more than once. Why had no one ever said or done anything about it? There had to be at least one kind-hearted person in that dump. And what about the kid's family? Did he not have any? I can sympathize with the kid there.
As he continued to think, he froze as he felt something wet on his neck. Sasori grimaced as he realized that the kid was probably drooling on him in his sleep. Disgusted, he went to remove him from his neck but then stopped again when he saw the blonde's hands.
Mouths. There were mouths on his hands. What. The. Hell.
"Iss there ssomething wrong?" Orochimaru asked, stopping beside the redhead. Sasori blinked as it all started to click together in his head.
"So that's why…" he muttered, narrowing his eyes at the strange hands. "But still…"
A yawn interrupted his thoughts, and then a voice. "Why did we stop, Danna?"
Sasori turned his head so he could see Deidara, and held one of the blonde's hands up. "You never told me about these."
Deidara's eyes widened, and he started trembling again, whimpering. "Y-you're g-gonna beat me u-up now t-t-too…" He started crying, and tried to squirm out of Sasori's grip.
The redhead was shocked at the kid's reaction, but his suspicions had been confirmed. It was because of his hands that the villagers attacked him the way they did. Orochimaru was now looking at the blonde's hands, seeming very interested in them.
"We might have a reasson to keep him after all," the snake said, smirking. Meanwhile, Sasori was trying to calm Deidara down.
"Ssh it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I really don't care that your hands are different," he said quickly. "I'm different too. Where we're going everyone is different."
Deidara sniffled, looking at the redhead. "Do you mean that? You're not going to hurt me?"
"Yes, I promise," Sasori said soothingly. "I actually think your hands are pretty cool."
"Really?" the blonde asked, looking surprised. "You're the first person to ever say that to me. Usually when people see my hands they get angry."
"I find your handsss very… interessting asss well," Orochimaru said, still inspecting them.
"Thanks Danna, thanks stupid ass partner," Deidara smiled. Sasori couldn't help it this time, he started laughing. Orochimaru sent him an irritated glare.
"Why doess he keep calling me that? I have a feeling it hass sssomething to do with you."
The redhead shrugged, still laughing. "Wasn't me."
"Yeah huh, Danna, you said Arashimori was your stupid ass partner," the blonde noted.
"Who the hell iss Arashimori?" Orochimaru asked.
Sasori shrugged again. "No clue."
"But I thought stupid ass partner was Arashimori!" Deidara said, pointing to the snake. "That's what I heard you say. Danna, you're confusing me."
Orochimaru growled irritably, starting to walk again. Sasori grinned, following him. Deidara blinked. "Did I say something wrong? Is stupid ass partner mad at me? I'm sorry stupid ass partner!" the blonde yelled.
Sasori chuckled. "Okay, you can stop calling him that now. It was entertaining while it lasted but he's going to take it out on me later."
"Aw, I liked calling him stupid ass partner." The puppeteer gave him an amused glance.
"Keep that up and you're going to sound like Kakuzu."
"What's a cuckoo zoo?" Deidara asked curiously.
"Never mind. Just call my partner Orochimaru, nothing else."
"Okay, Arashimori it is!" The blonde said, nodding. Sasori smirked, deciding that it was no use trying to correct him. This might turn out to be very interesting.
What did you think? Continue, don't continue? This is actually the longest first chapter I've ever written, believe it or not. Anyways review if you want a continuation! I don't want to spend time on this if no one is reading it!
