This is my new story, and will be DeidaraxOC. This is just the prologue, but after this, the story will be set just after Sasori's death, and will go on up to Deidara's death at the latest, if I don't decide to end it sooner on the Naruto timeline. Unlike SCARS, I have no outline for this one, so I honestly don't know where I'm going with it.
I chose to do WAVES first, because Akayou's story is loosely connected to Kinshin's but I won't say how until later. No, the two never meet, and if they did, they probably wouldn't know how they were connected.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any affiliated characters or landmarks. I do, however, own the Kai family and The Scarlet Dagger.
WAVES
Prologue
Akayou skipped down the stairs, long red hair swaying behind her small body. This was the day her father would be returning from a months-long journey at sea, and she was excited to see him. She could hear her younger brother's clumsier footsteps following her down to the kitchen, where their mother was making breakfast for them.
"Mama, is Papa here yet?" Akayou asked as she climbed onto a chair to look out the window. From the kitchen window, a person could see the harbor, which was, to Akayou, the whole world.
Akayou's mother turned tired eyes to her daughter and smiled weakly. "You know how your father is. Don't be upset if he doesn't return for another week." The woman collected Yuurei from the edge of the chair, where the toddler was attempting to climb up next to his big sister, and took him to his highchair.
Akayou ignored her mother. In her five-year-old eyes, her father, unreliable as he was, could do no wrong. "I'm going to wait right here until I see him," Akayou declared, pressing her face closer to the glass.
Her mother only shook her head and went about trying to get Yuurei to eat something without making a mess.
Akayou stared at her dark ceiling. She'd have rather been watching through the window than sleeping, but her mother had forced her up to her bed nearly an hour before. She could still hear her mother moving around the house, though. On the other side of the room, she could hear Yuurei snoring.
And then she heard the back door slam. Akayou climbed out of bed and crept down the stairs, stopping halfway down and peering through the banister. She couldn't see the kitchen, but she could see two shadows, and she could hear two voices.
"It's getting worse," she heard her mother say. "You need to take them before it's too late."
"A pirate ship is no place for children. You know that."
"Then give it up. Your children need you, and I don't know how much longer I've got. It hurts more every day."
"One more raid," the man said. His wife was about to protest, but he took her face in his hands and silenced her with a gentle kiss. "Just one more, and then we can afford medicine for you," he begged. His eyes were full of hope, but she couldn't muster any. She had been plodding along on nothing but hope for years, and she was completely out of it now.
"No, Obake," she protested. "I can't do this anymore. I'm ready to be done now."
Captain Kai Obake was nothing if not an optimistic man—venal, yes, but optimistic nonetheless—and hearing her give up like that was heartbreaking for him. "Okay," he swallowed hard and nodded solemnly. "I'll take them with me when I go."
"Thank you."
Akayou smiled, recognizing her father and hurried down the rest of the steps. "Papa, Papa! I missed you!"
He smiled and swooped his little girl into his arms, "That's nice, but who are you again?"
Akayou giggled, "I'm Akayou, Papa."
"No! You're too big to be my little swashbuckler!"
She continued to laugh as her father teased her, completely unaware of the look he gave her mother, and too young to understand it, anyway.
Akayou leaned against the rail as The Scarlet Dagger came into port. Sure, she loved the sea, but there were just some things that the ocean couldn't offer her. Like shopping.
"Are you sure you don't need someone to come with you?"
She rolled her eyes, "Dad, I'm fifteen, and I live with twenty men. I think I can handle anything that town might throw at me."
Obake sighed, "Okay, okay. Take your brother with you, then, Miss Can-Handle-Anything."
"Dad!" she whined, "That's not fair!"
"That's 'Captain' to you, and as captain, I don't have to be fair." He scowled as he was called to by one of his deckhands. "Just be back before dark," he commanded before hurrying off to see what the problem was.
Akayou exited the shop triumphantly, gesturing to her brother, who had waited outside, to follow her back to the ship. It had taken nearly two years of saving, but she finally had it: a dagger just like her father's. Well, admittedly not just like her father's, but awfully close. The dagger in her father's possession had been passed down to him from his father, the previous Captain Kai, and was made of gold. Akayou's was made of steel, but aside from that minor detail, they were the same.
"Why did you have a knife made?" Yuurei asked, looking at the shiny new weapon.
"Because," Akayou told him, "You'll get the real one and the ship when you turn eighteen. I want something to show for being part of the Kai family."
Yuurei wasn't all that interested in becoming the next Captain Kai. Of course, he'd do it because his father wanted him to, but he'd have been just fine handing the position over to his sister. "Will you be my first mate?" he asked her.
"Sorry, can't. I'm going to be too busy with my own ship."
"No one is going to follow a girl captain."
It was times like that that she missed being able to scowl down at him. With him almost taller than she was, she felt more like a pouty child than a peeved older sister. "You would."
"Only if it was you. You're scary."
She laughed egotistically, "I am, aren't I?"
"That is an interesting weapon," said a woman from beside the two young teens, making them jump. She brushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear and smiled at them. "Any specific reason for the design?"
Akayou puffed out her chest. "It's just like my father's, the greatest Captain who ever lived."
"Oh, you're Captain Fukato's daughter?"
"No! I'm Captain Kai's daughter!" She pulled her mouth to one side, "Who is Captain Fukato?"
The woman hummed. "You've never heard of him? He's anchored on the East Dock."
Akayou thought about this. The Scarlet Dagger was at the West Dock, which would explain why she hadn't seen the other pirate yet. If the man really was 'The Best Captain Who Ever Lived,' what did that mean for her father? He was getting old, yes, but not that old.
The woman could practically see the wheels turning in the girl's red head. "Well, have a nice day," she said, blue eyes flashing mischievously as she adjusted her cloak and walked past the Kai children on her way to the West Dock.
"That was weird," muttered Yuurei, watching the woman go.
Akayou gave her brother a worried look. "We need to go check this this Fukato person out," she said, hurrying off in the direction of the East Dock.
The woman walked casually along the deck, only stopping when she reached The Scarlet Dagger. She knew this ship by heart, having been studying it for the last week in preparation for her mission. A quick check to make sure no one was looking, and she swung herself under the dock, using chakra to crawl along the side of the boat until she reached the captain's cabin window. Climbing inside of the empty cabin, she removed her cloak and took a seat in the man's chair.
It didn't take long for Captain Kai to enter his quarters and when he did, she hand a kunai at his throat before he had time to react. With her free hand, she reached over and closed his door.
Calmly, she said, "You've taken something valuable from my client, and he wants it back."
Obake swallowed hard, the movement of his neck causing the kunai to make small cuts on the skin. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied.
"The amulet. Where is it?"
"I don't have any amulet," he lied again.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Okay, we'll do this a different way. Tell me where the amulet is, or my friends kill your kids."
Obake's eyes widened and he frowned, looking away. "In my desk, bottom drawer on the right," he confessed.
She pulled wire from her pouch, wrapping some around his neck and the other end around the kunai, before stabbing the point into the doorframe above his head. Leaving him like that she went to his desk and retrieved the object she had been sent to collect, ignoring the other precious items completely. "There," she said, holding it up. "That wasn't so hard, was it? But I have to confess, your children were never in danger."
He glared at her, but the more he struggled, the tighter the wire got around his neck. "You bitch," he choked out.
She grimaced, "But there is a second part to my mission. My client has a thing about taking the hearts of the people who do him wrong, so I'm supposed to cut yours out and take it to him."
He wheezed and struggled, only further tightening the cord around his neck, as she approached him, preparing to finish her job.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Neechan," Yuurei protested, when he finally caught up to his sister. "We're supposed to be back by nightfall, and it's already sunset." They huddled behind a stack of shipping crates, looking at the moored boats there, searching for any pirate flag that one might be flying.
"Oh, don't be a baby. We're just gonna get a look at this guy, and then we'll go." She looked down the pier, but didn't see any pirate ships. Quite a few cargo ships, and even some daimyo's convoy, but no pirates.
"Maybe that lady was lying," Yuurei suggested.
Akayou sighed, "I'm so stupid! I should have known it wasn't true. I mean, who's a better pirate than Dad?"
Yuurei stood and began his journey back to the West Dock. "We'd better hurry, or we're going to be in big trouble."
Akayou nodded to her brother and the two of them scampered back to The Scarlet Dagger. "We'd better check in with Dad first thing when we get there. He'll be mad enough as it is," Akayou instructed as they hopped up the gangplank a made a beeline for their father's office. When they got to the door, they found it unlocked, but were unable to open it. Looking down, they saw blood pooling out from the crack below the door, and Akayou got worried.
"Something's wrong with Dad. Go get Bankyu-jii!" she said to Yuurei, still pushing the door as hard as she could. She finally got it open just far enough to squeeze through, and wedged herself inside. Below her, her father's corpse stared up at nothing in particular, bloody and mangled. And as she looked up, she saw the woman from earlier putting her cloak back on.
The woman said nothing as she jumped out the window, swan diving into the water below. What caught Akayou's attention in that half-second before the woman disappeared, though, was the metal plate strapped to the woman's head. Akayou would never forget the symbol engraved on it, and she silently swore to her father that if she ever saw that kunoichi again, she'd kill her.
A/N: No, Akayou will not be fifteen throughout the whole story. Chapter one will be set eight years after this, I just figured I'd get her backstory out of the way now.
Deidara shows up next chapter.