(A/N: This story is dedicated to MyFinalFantasy! I hope y'all like it. I guess since Deidara is alive and this doesn't follow the plot of the show/manga, its kinda AU-ish. I'll try to post a chapter once every two weeks, and they'll be longish. Don't really have much else to say today…
Pairing: ItaHinaDei
Ages: Hinata & rookie nine: 18, team Gai: 19, Deidara: 22, Itachi: 24
Features ideas from: MyFinalFantasy
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.)
Mysterious Captivation: Chapter 1
The full moon shone down on the midnight haired girl who was dancing on the surface of the water below. The clearing, located a half hour's walk from Konoha, was the perfect place for her to train.
Her weak body pushed the chakra from her fingertips, lifting droplets of liquid from the waterfall to make them dance and shimmer in the moonlight.
She had recently been sick, and only that night had she awoken from her previously fitful slumber and felt well again. She had been so feverish that she had retreated into the cocoon of her covers to the point where no one could see her. Servants had even begun to leave her water and broth on her bedside table, for they could not make her leave the warmth she had created.
When she woke in the middle of the night, feeling as healthy as she had the weeks before she had caught her sickness, she realized how much time had passed. Over a week! She hadn't been able to train within that period of time; the pale, long haired girl hadn't worked to grow stronger in such a long time. It felt wonderful to her to be outside, training under the light of the full moon.
She had almost forgotten how satisfying it felt to train, to feel her body growing marginally stronger as the droplets of water flew through the air in a mystifying pattern of movement.
Her clothes, discarded on the banks of the pond, were the only reason that she did not wish that someone were there with her. She dearly wished that someone could witness her beautiful, graceful display of power, but not so much that she was willing to invite someone; the fact that she trained in her under garments prevented that.
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His blonde hair flew in the wind created by his desperate dash through the trees. He grumbled as he leapt from branch to branch. "Stupid Leader-sama." He cursed, allowing his thoughts to be swept away by the wind.
He had been kicked out of the building after blowing up one of the walls. Of course, it wasn't his fault! There was no way anyone with a bomb could resist blowing up the orange masked man who acted as though he were a five year old.
Tobi was the most annoying member of the Akatsuki. By far, he was the one most prone to being hurt, yet it never seemed to faze him. Nothing about the man ever changed.
But how could Leader-sama have kicked ME out instead of that annoying brat? He ranted to himself, his blue eyes clouded with rage. Now he had to go find his own place to sleep.
He had been running for at least an hour (on orders to be nowhere within several dozen miles of the hideout) when he heard a noise.
It sounded almost like a waterfall.
His pace slowed, and he put up his guard upon sensing another presence. Though it didn't seem to have much chakra, nor did it seem even slightly aware of his being there, there was no way for him to tell whether the person was truly dangerous or not.
He should know; he put up with Tobi daily. Yes, the man was annoying, but he was a force to be reckoned with when he needed to be.
The blonde haired, blue eyed man stopped near the edge of the clearing, far enough back to be out of sight, but close enough that he could observe everything that was taking place.
His eyes widened as he beheld a seemingly young –mostly naked! – woman dancing on the surface of the water. The dance, however, wasn't what caught his attention. It was the way the water danced and flowed around her, as though it were merely an extension of her own body. It was breath-taking and impermanent. Art at its finest, yeah.
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The midnight haired girl flinched inwardly, but not visibly, as she saw a person approaching. Her pearly eyes, with their nearly three-hundred-sixty-degree vision, picked that person's chakra out of the darkness that surrounded her.
It wasn't tough, really. After being surrounded by the shadowy figures swaying in the nighttime breeze, it was easy to pick out the bright flash of light given off by another person. In all actuality, it nearly blinded her for a moment.
Hoping they would pass by her, she nearly panicked when the person stopped moving near the edge of the clearing; they would have been inconspicuously hidden had she not possessed the Byakugan.
The enormous chakra reserves of the person behind her almost made her falter. I can't let them know that I know that they are here. I have to keep training as though I'm oblivious. If I let them see that I know they're here, then I'm sure they'll attack me. I have no back up, no one knows where I am! Her terrified mind screamed, while on the outside, all signs of internal debate were nonexistant.
The person took a step closer. Looked down, seemed to search for something at his feet. The person's posture changed, tensed. They moved another step closer, into the moonlight.
His blonde hair caught the moonlight ever so slightly before his face lit up. He seemed to have found what he had been looking for. He picked his foot up, then put it back down, slightly further forward, but not really a full step.
A crack sounded throughout the clearing. She recognized that he knew she was aware of his approach. Giving up on making him leave, she allowed her hands to fall to her sides and crossed her arms over her chest, allowing her hair to fall over her chest bindings, before turning to look at the man standing at the edge of the bank.
His black cloak billowed in the wind. As he stepped fully into the light, crimson clouds were caught in the gaze of the moon's beam. Akatsuki! The girl's thoughts immediately flew to the most feared organization of the ninja world.
She decided to play the ignorant part. "Can I help you, sir?" She asked in her most demure voice.
"No, not really. I was just wondering what a beautiful young lady like you would be doing out in the middle of nowhere at midnight, yeah." His eyes narrowed. She didn't think he believed her ignorance, but it was best to try to stick with it anyway.
"Well, I was just getting away from my family for a little while, venting, you know?" She was trying the exhausted-with-her-famliy act also.
"You know you shouldn't be out late. That's when all the dangerous ninja lurk in the woods, un." His cloak was once again billowing with the zephyrs. His hair floated around his eyes in a fashion that covered one of them completely, while it left the other to shine with a startling blue light.
Her voice shook as she answered. "But, surely you wouldn't hurt me. I'm just an insignificant gennin," she hoped her lie wasn't apparent in the way she moved during her training, "and could do no harm to anyone of your caliber. I can barely do harm to my own younger sister." This wasn't an entire lie. She hadn't been able to beat her sister in a spar a few years ago. Now, though, her abilities had improved and made her a chunnin, also ensuring her position as heiress of her clan.
"What is your name, girl?" His voice was a deep growl, demanding and forceful. Giving her no time to think up a lie, he repeated himself in a finalizing tone.
"Hinata, Stranger-san." She hoped he wouldn't press for a surname. Even wished such a thing on a star above her.
"You are from a clan, though. I can tell by your mannerisms. What is your full name." It wasn't really a question.
She sighed. "Hyuuga Hinata." Looking down at her feet, she wondered briefly if she would be able to run from him. Immediately throwing the thought away, she realized that he was directly behind her.
"Nice to meet you. I am Deidara, formerly of Iwagakure, yeah. Now, I am of the Akatsuki. Silly girl, you should have fled when you first saw my chakra signature approaching, un." His hand met the pressure point in her neck, and the last thing she saw was his face looking down at her as he caught her body before it fell. "Not that it would have helped you, yeah."
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He looked down at the soft face of the woman he held in his arms. Briefly, he wondered at how her skin was so soft, despite the fact that she was a warrior, a ninja, a killer. He tossed it from his mind as he hefted her onto one of his clay creations and grabbed her clothes from the shore.
He hoped the Hyuuga Clan wouldn't find out about what he did until he could get permission from Leader-sama to keep her. If he couldn't, then he would just knock her out again and place her in her bed; when she woke the next morning, she would think the meeting was only a dream.
That was how he justified taking her back to the hideout with him that night. She was his pass back inside. Hopefully, that is. He thought, looking at the gaping hole that was still present in the outside wall.
He slipped into the hideout and headed for the leader's door. He knocked quietly, knowing the man would hear him.
A disgruntled Pein looked out from the crack in the door when he opened it. Immediately, Deidara saw that he noticed the fact that:
a) Deidara was back, and he had ordered the blonde away from the hideout for the rest of the day and night,
b) He had brought a girl back, and
c) That girl happened to be wearing only panties and chest bindings.
"The least you could have done was not leave her in her underclothes." The red haired man spoke. "What if she gets sick?"
Deidara frowned. "Well, I'd much rather put them on inside the hideout than have to sleep outside tonight, yeah. She's a Hyuuga, by the way."
Pein's Rinnegan eyes widened as he fully opened the door to his room. His anger was palpable. "How did you capture her? I ordered you to leave, not to kidnap a sleeping girl from her village!"
"She was out training, nowhere within a kilometer's walk from Konoha, un. She saw me with her Byakugan before I felt her presence! I figured either you wanted the Byakugan bad enough to keep her, or I could take her back and make her think it was all a dream, yeah."
The anger faded from the room, but to Deidara's surprise, Pein spoke immediately following his speech. "Keep her here. Don't take her back to Konoha. We need the Byakugan to keep the Akatsuki strong. We've lost far too many members already. The one condition that I put on her staying is that she is under your supervision, and if she escapes, we will recapture her and execute you."
The warning caused ice to chill his blood. He had no idea what this girl was capable of! For all he knew, she was an ANBU. He had picked up on her lie of being a gennin, but he wasn't exactly sure what rank she was.
Suddenly, a thought struck him: What if this was an elaborate plot to find the Akatsuki hideout? He inwardly shuddered, but knew he could no longer back out of the deal. "Fine, un," he uttered, sealing his fate to the svelte girl in his arms.
"Good. We will test her skills in the morning. Now, you will return to your room, leave me alone, and let the rest of us get some sleep." The man's voice took on a mere hint of its previous anger, so Deidara felt he had better disappear quickly.
Carrying the small Hyuuga girl's body down the hall, he made his way through the twists and turns of the hideout before finally making it to his own room. There were few furnishings in the room, but the space that should have been taken up by the missing furniture was filled with clay sculptures. The statuettes were on all possible solid surfaces of the many shelves in the room.
There were two beds with a side table in between them (Deidara still had no idea why their rooms all held two beds, but now he was rather thankful), a large dresser with a mirror hanging above it, and the shelves upon shelves of his clay sculptures lining the walls.
He tossed the Hyuuga girl's unconscious body onto the spare bed after sweeping some unfinished figurines out of the way. Throwing some covers over her mostly naked body, he tossed her clothes beside her.
He grumbled quietly to himself about having to be the one who constantly watched her, then blinked when a voice spoke back to him. "Where am I?" It was a soft voice, somewhat melodic, and definitely close to panic.
He turned to find that the girl had awoken and was sitting on the bed, lifting the sheet over chest to provide what little covering they could, with wide white eyes and pale, almost white skin; a look of understanding came upon her face when she spotted his cloak. Her eyes immediately dropped to the floor as her body followed, only stopped by the bed beneath her. "Never mind." Her voice dropped to a pitch that he almost couldn't hear while her skin began to turn an unnatural shade of red.
He turned his back to her once more, giving her outright disrespect by showing her that he knew she was no match for him and wondering what she was thinking. "You are in the Akatsuki base. I can't tell you anything more. You are to stay near me at all times, for your protection, yeah. Only Leader-sama knows of your presence here. If you leave my side, you will die, un." His voice was not cold, but neither was it friendly. He made sure to keep it neutral. He didn't want to frighten her so badly that she would run at the first chance she got, but neither did he want her to count him as a friend.
"Hai." She submissively allowed him to set the rules. To him, it seemed as though she were uncannily agreeable.
He turned back around and opened his mouth. Nothing passed by his lips, however. Eventually, he gave her an in a harsh tone: "Put some clothes on, will you?"
The girl 'eeped' in embarrassment and her face turned an even brighter, cherry red. She spluttered for a moment before finally making words pass through her vocal cords. "Anou, w-where are m-my clothes?" She quietly squeaked.
He almost missed her question in his observance of the way her face lit up. He rolled his eyes at her discomfiture. "There," he said as he pointed to the area beside her on the bed.
She ducked her head and awkwardly tried to slip on her shirt over her bindings without uncovering, rushing as though she could erase the image of her body from his mind. Quickly doing the same with her pants, the Hyuuga girl stayed still, sitting and waiting for further orders.
He smirked at her acquiescent nature. "Now lay down, yeah." He watched as a look of horror crept into her eyes. "You'll have that bed to yourself." He smirked as the horror didn't leave her eyes, but some of the panic did.
He would be furious if Tobi showed up here in the morning. It was a good thing the hole in the wall they' made had been in the foyer and not his room, because he really didn't want to have to worry about fixing it tonight.
He sighed, walking to one of the two doors in his room, he slid it open and stepped into his bathroom. He slipped into his sleepwear and headed back through the doorway.
The girl's breathing was steadier, but he could tell she was not asleep. He figured that she would be up for most of the rest of the night, but he was sleepy, so he tried to think of a way to keep her from leaving while he was asleep.
Searching his room for an object that would make her stay, he noticed a leather-banded bracelet that he had kept for years.
As a rule, shinobi did not move about in their sleep. Maybe he could tie it around her ankle? He nodded his head, sure that his plan would work well.
"Get up." He instructed her. She flinched into the bed and warily sat up, looking no sleepier than she had before. "Now come here, yeah."
Her eyes widened even as her legs moved her toward the man whom she was sure would kill her, or worse.
He held out his hand with the bracelet dangling from his fingertips. "I stole from a shop in one of the towns we ransacked. I thought I'd be able to sell it, and the others, to someone for some extra money, but Kakuzu told me it was close to worthless; I kept it as a memento of the attacked village and sold the others that were worth the money." Attached to the leather strip was a small silver bell that tinkled at even the slightest movement.
"I'm tying this on your ankle. If you move even slightly out of that bed tonight, I will hear you and find a cell to lock you in, yeah." He bent down to wrap the thing around her ankle, pressing his hands into a series of signs to ensure that it could not be removed and would jangle only when she stood.
Some of the tension left her face when he backed away, though he waited until she was in bed to begin moving, himself.
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After his breathing had steadied and she was sure he was asleep, she moved to sit up. In the fetal position, she tried to clear her head to think.
I've been kidnapped by an Akatsuki member. My family thinks I'm still sick, at home, curled in my bed, inside my cover-cocoon. How long will it take them to realize I'm not there? Will they miss me? What is he planning to do to me? She wondered, inanely hoping that her kidnapping would make Naruto realize how much he would miss her. Though I may not ever have to worry about romance, if this Akatsuki has taken me into his room for other reasons.
Thinking back on the moment the blonde man had given her the anklet, she shuddered. She had been so positive that he was going to begin to do horrible things to her, or injure her in some way. But he had only looked down at her and given her a device to wear so that he could sleep and keep track of her at the same time.
She remembered feeling the relief that she was not going to die. She remembered seeing a look of bewilderment pass through his eyes, though he didn't actually show it. Hinata was simply good at reading the facial expressions of stoic men.
The midnight haired girl wondered at why he needed to keep track of her. Of course she was his prisoner, but why not just keep her in a cell, then? She carefully stopped her thoughts when they began to again wander to why she was being kept in this man's room. She did not want to go there, to even consider being forced into becoming a toy for these men.
Instead, she moved her thoughts on to safer, but equally worrisome topics. How would her teammates, family, and friends react to her being gone? Would they care? Would they send out a search party like they had done for Sasuke?
Tears slid slowly down her cheeks as she silently sobbed. She lay down, burying her head in the strange smelling pillows and burrowing under the coarse covers.
What will become of me? Her last thought before succumbing to the silent world of nightmares was as gruesome as the dreams themselves.
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The next morning, she was awoken by a storm of shouting and the small sound of a small explosion.
The first thing that registered in her mind was that her head hurt. She had woken several times during the night to find that it was still dark and her kidnapper was still resting lightly. Each time she awoke, she again succumbed to the light, fitful sleep that seemed to be her only respite from the day.
The second was that the bell around her ankle was rather loud whenever she moved.
Scrambling out from under the covers, she raised her arms in the Hyuuga style fighting position. She blinked at the sight before her.
Strangely enough, the unemotional blonde Akatsuki member from the night before was furiously yelling at a man wearing a swirled, orange mask with only one eye hole. That man's spikey, blue-ish black hair and Akatsuki cloak were slightly singed. He was also currently in a chokehold, courtesy of the blue-eyed man whom had kidnapped her.
This gave her a moment to fully analyze her captor. His grey-blue eyes were duller than Naruto's, but his bright shock of blonde hair was almost the exact same shade, though ever-so-slightly darker. It matched his personality, to her mind. Of course the evil man was going to have duller, gloomier features than her love from Konoha.
She watched him slowly turn after the split second where her thoughts and observances had taken place.
"Ah, the little Hyuuga girl is no longer sleeping, yeah. Way to go, Tobi." Deidara hissed. "I was getting ready to head to the kitchen for some food, you idiot, but now I've got to drag her around." In his anger, his blue-grey eyes flashed to a darker color, similar to that of a storm cloud. He turned to the midnight haired young woman, smirking as her empty white eyes widened. "Breakfast, un." He growled.
"H-hai." She dropped her stance and ducked her head as she approached, every other step causing the bell around her ankle to chime. Deidara looked ready to strangle the next person to annoy him, so she decided to keep her speech simple, and not use her soft, stuttering voice much. Her stutters had gotten on her family's nerves often when she was younger, so she resolved to try not to do so around the most feared criminals of the ninja world.
She waited for further instructions, and was rewarded by a glare and a motion to move out the door ahead of him. She complied, taking advantage of the fact that he was behind her to allow her look of dread to cross her face.
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He watched as she slowly made her way down the hallway, careful not to move too far out of his reach, while still being as far away as she could get from him. He gave the instructions as she moved and she immediately conformed to them. Deidara was almost positive that, had he ordered her to walk into a wall, she would have.
Her stiff gait and upright posture kept him from reaching out to guide her with his touch as he would have normally done. There was just something about the meek girl walking in front of him that made him want to keep her calm.
He mentally shook his head. He hadn't ever met a submissive woman in his life. It was just the newness of the experience that had him messed up.
When he had woken that morning to find that she had been asleep, he wondered how he could have been wrong about her staying up most of the night. Surely she hadn't been that tired. He had knocked her out, so she had kind of rested some on the way to the Akatsuki lair, and she had been out training, so she couldn't have been that sleepy.
He had made note of that in his mind and decided he'd allow her the small comfort of sleep after kidnapping her for his petty reason of being allowed back into the hideout for the night and explaining nothing to her. He had decided he would allow her the small escape of sleep from her world of newly-created nightmares.
After Deidara had dressed and was in the middle of pulling his hair back in its usual ponytail, Tobi burst into the room and began to shout.
Deidara had pulled the last loop of the ponytail through and immediately threw one of his smaller, less dangerous bombs at the childish man. He hadn't wanted to blow another hole in the wall and have Leader-sama furious at him again.
So the bomb had hit Tobi and the orange-masked man had been singed enough that Deidara was able to get him in a choke hold.
That was when he had heard the tinkling of the bell on the anklet he had given the girl – Hinata, his mind vaguely recalled.
He had ordered Tobi from the room. Surprisingly enough, he obeyed. Deidara hoped he didn't go through the hideaway telling the other members that he had a girl in his room. That would be just like the idiot. His mind had growled, and so his words had come out also.
He had watched her bearing diminish in confidence at the sound of his anger, and he had wondered at what was running through her mind.
Now, he was still curious of that, but he had another problem. What was he going to do when the other Akatsuki in the hideout found out about her? It was his job to keep her, but he was the youngest, and most inexperianced member of the organization. Of course, if it came to a fight with the others, Pein and Konan would be on his side, so he would win the fight, but he didn't want it to come to that. His mind returned to the present when they arrived at the door to the kitchen. "Stop here, yeah." He ordered aloud, looking at the door rather than her.
She instantly halted, and the bell around her ankle chimed loudly, then became quiet. He nearly ran into her, but gracefully sidestepped her frozen body. He came face to face with a door, which he quietly slid open. Upon seeing that the room held no one, he placed his fingers on her shoulder and shoved her into the room.
He heard her breath leave her at once when he touched her. He winced faintly, forgetting his resolve not to frighten her by his touch. He could tell she was terrified of him. By her actions, he assumed that she thought she was going to die – or worse – every time he spoke to her.
"Breakfast, un?" He asked her, sitting her at the kitchen table and moving his hand away from her.
She shifted away from him as though she had been burnt, then looked up at him with an empty look. "What?" She asked softly.
"Food. What do you want to eat, yeah?" He emphasized the statement by gesturing to the kitchen.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. Instead, a hacking cough escaped, which she covered with her jacket sleeve. When she finally caught her breath, her voice was hoarse. "Only water," she said keeping her eyes glued to the table.
"Look at me." He ordered, his voice not as harsh as earlier that morning. "I know you're hungry. Get it yourself if you want. But you do have to eat, and it'll be my tail on a plate if you die." He watched her eyes light slightly at his weak attempt at a joke, or what she must have thought was a joke. She had no idea he was telling the truth. "You been ill recently, hm?" He squinted at her and raised his hand to feel her forehead, wincing again as she immediately flinched away from him.
Her cheeks flushed a rosy color. "H-hai. I was out training for the first time in a week last night. I was trying to regain my strength after I woke up and was feeling better," she whispered, thoroughly ashamed.
At this, Deidara laughed. "Stupid girl." He couldn't stick to the masqurade any longer. He was not only a hard-core evil ninja. He had a life outside of his crimes. In fact, he was one of the nicer members of Akatsuki.
He had tried to keep the Hyuuga girl from finding out, so that she would not attempt to appeal to his nice side all the time (like some other prisoners of whom he had been forced to take charge).
He could see that he had stunned the younger girl with his mirth. "Even bad guys get to have lives when we're not on missions."
He watched her absorb that information with an unsure look on her face. When she looked back up at him, her eyes were cold with determination, but her voice was still as soft as ever. "I-Is that why you kidnapped me? Because of a mission?"
He didn't answer immediately, but wanted to choose his words carefully. As the pause lengthened, he watched the determination fade from her eyes as worry entered them; he could almost hear her thoughts. Did I say something wrong? Or maybe What is he going to do to me?
He shook his head slightly. "We need someone with the potential to become a major threat to strengthen our organization, yeah. Leader-sama always wanted a Byakugan user to fill that need. When I saw you last night, despite the fact that I didn't know what Hyuuga position you were in, be it branch or main, I knocked you out and brought you here, hm. Leader-sama was pleased. But the truth? I was not ordered to capture you."
He left out the reason he had been outside that late. He thought better than to tell her that it was a mere whim and hope that he brought her back only to gain entrance to his own room. She seemed to take his answer as the full truth though, as she only nodded and laid her forehead down on the cool marble surface of the table. "Grits?"
She reluctantly nodded her head against the table
Deidara fixed a pot of grits. Though not a traditional Japanese breakfast, and definitely not what she was used to, she had to admit, albeit quietly, that the blonde Akatsuki cooked well. He merely laughed at her again and denied it.
"I'm no chef. But I do like praise, hm," he smiled. He grew serious again when a thought struck him. "After breakfast, I have to take you to meet Leader-sama," he explained.
The girl's face lost all color. He wondered what ran through her mind at that moment. "You'll be fine, trust me." He couldn't resist messing with her a little with that last bit.
Her eyes were shadowed as she bent her head, staring into the space under the table. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He wanted to help her.
It was just guilt; that was all. He merely wanted to make up to her what he had caused her to lose. His conscience was acting up again. Stupid conscience.
She brought her eyes back to his face and plastered a small, clearly fake smile on her ghostly pale face. "I will be fine." Clearly a lie, but he was willing to bet that she wanted to seem strong to an almost infinitely strong organization.
He nodded silently and laid their dishes in the sink before directing her on how to lead the way to the designated meeting room, the faint tinkling of a bell sounding in front of him.
(A/N: Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Mysterious Captivation! Review if you'd like; I love feedback. Tell me what I can improve, what you loved, whatever!