Black Water

Summary:

All it took was a betrayal too close to home. Deidara X Oc

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Warnings:

Swearing, Violence, Ect.

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Prologue

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Hachiro Yamagata knew crooked.

Hell, he'd be lying if he denied being a twisted fuck himself. Sue him for honesty. That's one thing he had on those shinobi pricks, at least he is honest. Unlike those holier than thou assholes who turn their noses up at his establishment in broad daylight, but come stumbling in said establishment at the dead of night with an all to eager "friend", or two (He's not one to judge), hanging on their armored sleeve.

He just could not comprehend the need for semblance. Which is probably why Goro Ibaraki is his most cherished customer, and Jiro Ito is well … not.

Goro Ibaraki is a boisterous, assured man in his mid thirties who simply did not have a filter. On numerous occasions he could be seen chatting animatedly with his not so enthusiastic companion, Kenta, about a brothel across town or the latest sleaze fest he had partook in at some shady joint, which on numerous occasions would be Hachiro's "establishment". The villagers thought the man beneath him for his lecherous nature and yet imagine their surprise when said man saved a nobles daughter from a costly kidnapping. Goro just simply wasn't afraid to be himself, and Hachiro respected the man for that, and the copious amounts of money he made from Goro alone of course. Jiro Ito is a different story.

Jiro Ito is the epitome of pride. Then again Jiro had many things to be proud of, if it wasn't his only son making Jonin at nineteen it was Jiro's continuous Jonin promotions himself. Jiro's wife was beautiful, no one could deny him that, and they had a seemingly perfect marriage, so in love those two, or so it seemed. Oh, how Hachiro wished he was so low, how he wished mindless gossip was not beneath him when low a behold his eyes Jiro, in all his drunken glory, canoodling with a prostitute. Oh, how Hachiro wished.

The moral of these two disparate lives is that there is more than meets the eye.

"The same nin you see on the village streets are not who they portray. They are empty smiles and soulless murderers with too much fallacious hope" Hachiro had told his own son countless times, but the boy was rather persistent, something only Hachiro had himself to blame for. The boy wanted to be a nin, and badly, so Hachiro had let him. He thought maybe the boy could be scared out of the lifestyle, but the outcome only gave Hachiro another reason to despise shinobi.

Yet here he is, serving the "soulless murderers" in his establishment. They are ninety percent of his profit. They are the reason his establishment runs, he has food, and a decent home. Hachiro hates it.

"Konnichiwa Yamagata-San" Normally Hachrio would grimace at such a formal greeting and scold it's owner, but one glance up from his leaning stance over the bar tells him that the other person might be too exhausted for their usual banter. So instead he grins lazily at the shinobi before him and drawls out.

"What'll it be tonight Suko-Hime?" A twitch of her eye at the nickname lets Hachiro know she's just fine, tired yes, but not about to pass out from overexertion. Despite her shinobi status she was the closest thing Hachiro had to family, besides his brother,but he didn't really seem to care for Hachiro these days.

Hachiro would never forget the day he met Etsuko Uzumaki. A little red head girl that always wore a butterfly clip to hold her too big bangs back with long eyelashes and big hazel eyes that his son so adored. She was too loud, too nice, but no one noticed the weighted mask she wore. Hachiro noticed and it was only because of his son's fondness of the girl that he decided to give that mask a firm push back into place every so often. It was only right of course.

"Water, please" Of course Hachiro already had a cup of water ready just for her arrival,but tonight she would not slump in a stool and stare off into the blue out of the nearest window, completely ignoring the water. At least if the scoff that sounded at the end of the bar was anything to go by.

There was a small pause as Etsuko glanced at the cloaked man at the end of the bar, clutching a shot of sake. He downed the shot quickly then pointedly shot a look in her direction, silently challenging her. For the first time in years Hachiro acknowledged a deity and prayed the Etsuko was not foolish enough to actually take him up on that challenge.

Hachiro Yamagata knows crooked, so of course he knows who the man is.

If his stiff posture was anything to go by Hachiro instantly knew he was a shinobi. When the man waltzed up to him and demanded free sake until he see fit that's when Hachiro really knew. Blonde hair peaking out through the hood of the cloak, piercing blue eyes, and a small speech impediment; Deidara of the Akatsuki.

Hachiro was not frightened, nor was he foolish he simply allowed the man his sake, and them both peace in this day. Besides who was he to alert the foolish village nin of the man's presence. He knew his place. Besides, if Hachiro, a simple civilian, could make out a wanted rogue nin and the fully "capable" village nin couldn't, then maybe they weren't so capable after all.

"I'll have what he's having" Hachiro pretends he doesn't hear her intrepid request, but the blonde is still smirking rather intently at the pair sake raised to his mouth, and Hachiro thinks the nerve.

"But you won't" Because, dammit, it's his job to protect her, and while it may be part time he takes it very seriously, and it's what his son would want, and Hachiro would be damned if he denied the boy that. If so much as a stray lock of luminous red hair on that head of hers is out of place Hahciro swears he'll slit his own throat or he'll piss Jiro Ito off enough to the point where maybe he'd do it himself.

She ignores him, stalks down the bar and sits directly next to the blonde glaring at him in what he suspects she thinks a menacing way, but even Hachiro, a simple civilian isn't taking her serious.

He wishes he was a fortune teller, Hachiro does, so maybe he could foresee the outcome of what appeared to be a simple drinking contest. Oh how he wishes, but unfortunately this is reality and he still bores the same drab civilian garb as he has all his life. So he lets it be.

He let's Reno slide the sake shots in front of Etsuko, he lets a criminal down talk the closest thing to family he has left (Maybe he should write his brothers, it's been a while), he lets Etsuko drink herself into a stupor and yet it's twenty shots or so later and the blonde prick can still see straight.

He lets Etsuko stumble out of the bar tripping over her own two feet, he lets the eerie blonde down the sake bottle in one swig and toss it at the back of some helpless patrons head, and, damn, is he going to need stitches and maybe medical attention, now, or whenever someone seems fit to actually care. He lets the sinister, blonde prick leave, following Etsuko's trail.

Maybe he stopped breathing, or maybe he just couldn't think straight, or maybe, just maybe he let this happen.

If only he could fathom why.

Then it comes to him, and he's grateful, really. He's tired, Hachiro is.

He's tired of people like Jiro Ito thinking their better than him, that he's beneath them, lower than dirt, and Hachiro didn't think anyone could get lower than that but not according to Jiro Ito. He's tired of living without his son, because not a day goes by that he doesn't think of his son, and his heart aches in the strangest way and he thinks maybe he's lucky enough to be having some sort of stroke.

He's tired of shinobi pricks, he's even tired of the civilians, hell, he's tired of himself. Hachiro is just tired. It's his time to go he thinks, so what better way to die than by the hands of someone you love?

Oh, how Hachiro loves his little Etsuko-Chan, and he'll be so grateful when she relieves him of the aching in his bones, because when that man, that criminal with blue eyes too crystalline and blonde hair too vibrant for a murderer is finished with her she'll be more crooked than Hachiro's familiar with.

If that doesn't make the most ominous of shivers rack his body, then maybe the fact that it's his blood he will come after eventually does.

Hachiro Yamagata knows crooked and so the day he met Uzumaki Etsuko he knew she was destined for the darkness, and if it was to consume her ever so slowly who was he to deny her that fate?

He'd let the water flow and if it became to dark for her to see, if it became so black, then so be it.

Besides, Hachiro Yamagato is tired.