A/N: If you want more info on the fanfic, I have a more complete summary on my profile.
Regular narration
Thoughts(POV)
"Emphasis when speaking or white zetsu"
"YELLING"
"Harsh tone when speaking or black zetsu"
onomatopoeia
Flashback
"Dialogue"
I do not own Naruto. The characters in this fanfic belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Nice to meet you all! Please review if you'd like!
Discomfort
BOOM
Birds in the vicinity of the blast immediately retreated, escaping the fiery blaze that erupted from the undergrowth of the damp forest. It was mid-day but there was no sun, replacing the rays were dark clouds raging with thunder. The rain poured hard onto the earth, soothing the scar that had blown it's way into the forest. The tiny fires that started were quickly put out, leaving only the blackened brown scorched skin of the land visible for all things to see.
You'd think that nothing had survived such an event.
The nearby bushes ruffled, out of it's damp greenery revealed a small blonde child wearing a green robe. His eyes were wide, gasping for breath as he quickly leaned against a tree for support. After a few moments spent resting, he limped forward towards the road ahead. His lungs ached, he felt so tired...his mind was hazy from the previous events that happened that day.
I hate them...
He was tired...so tired...
Master...
The world faded to black.
(Naruto Shippuden OST 1 Track 17 – Rakujitsu[Setting Sun])
Click...
Clack...
Click...
Clatter...
What's that? Consciousness returned. The boy shifted slightly, noticing the warmth that engulfed his body. It contrasted from what he expected, a cold damp and muddy floor.
Clack...
Clack...
...
He shifted his weight again, a cloth laid on top of him as he moved. A soft material, much like the stuff he was currently sleeping on. The child took a steady breath, cautiously forcing his heavy eyelids to open. The darkness of the room was what immediately caught his attention, however balanced out with a small flicker of gentle orange light in the corner. The floor was visible, illuminated by the glow of a candle pressed up to the wooden wall. By the light, a figure leaned over a desk, busying itself with some unknown task. By now he was sure that the clacking noises had come from there.
Click...
Clack...
Click...
Clatter...
"Uh...?" The words were meant to be thought, but had accidentally come out as a whisper. The figure sitting on the desk paused. More clattering continued, before the blurr of a figure suddenly rose in height, indicating it had stood up. A mass of red was visible on its head, stirring a memory from within the boy. Where had he seen that before?
Promptly, the figure made its way over to him and knelt down, face hidden from view. There was a silence, only the child's own breathing could be heard over the quiet crackle of the candle. The boy blinked slowly, he could only hear his own breathing? What of the other's breath? A gentle hand rested on his shoulder before shaking it, a low voice whispered, "Hey, wake up. Come on."
The child groaned softly and blinked a couple of times before moving on his own. Rising from the bed, the boy noted the soreness of his body, hands coming up to rub the sleep out of his eyes while the other continued to speak.
"You remember me?"
Letting his hand drop, the boy tilted his head towards the speaker, groggily staring at the features of the other. A person, much older than himself, though one could still consider him quite young. Brown eyes stared back, lidded in a bored expression with messy raid hair to top it off. For a reason he couldn't quite recall, the boy was quick to put a name to a face. He cocked his head, a gentle glow from the candle illuminating his face.
"Sa...Sasori?"
"That's right."
'Sasori' shuffled on the spot as the boy continued to rub his eyes and blink, hoping to get better view of the area he had been brought to. After nearly a minute, the world finally cleared up. The room was fairly-sized, beige tatami mats lined up perfectly on the floor while he himself sat upon a futon bed. Considering the windows next to the candle it was a night, the world beyond was a pitch-black.
"Found you laying around in the middle of a rainstorm."
The boy turned his attentions to Sasori, suddenly alert of what he was hearing. The redhead seemed to notice this, taking a moment before going on.
"Makes me wonder what you were doing out there. Don't usually find kids sleeping in the dirt. You didn't even have an umbrella when I checked."
The redhead got up and walking back to his desk. He laid his hand on a cylindrical object, seemingly made of wood with a gentle curve carved into it. Sasori eyed the object in the cold silence, expression hidden in the shadows. Sasori seemed to consider his words carefully, as if uttering the wrong word would spark some sort of trouble.
"You have anybody to go back to? A parent? Or teacher? Some home?"
Teacher? The boy pondered the question. He felt as if he should have known the answer immediately, but found he couldn't quite reply in the way that most like him should have. A memory popped up, causing the child to frown deeply. No, he didn't want to go back, not to that. A tapping sound awoke him from his thoughts, realizing that Sasori had been tapping the table, impatient with his reply.
"I don't want to go back. No, I think."
"You think?"
The boy cocked his head. "I mean, I don't think it'd be good if I went back but I'm not sure."
Sasori turned his back on the child, more clicking and clanging sounds emitting from the table as the redhead continued to do something on the desk. The boy blinked, visible eye wide with a sparkle of curiosity as he wondered what Sasori was doing. Picking up a silver object, the older faced him once again a tool in hand, a blade-like thing however barely resembling a knife. Bored brown eyes stared squarely into his own, a mild surprise coming over his features, mouth opening slightly agape. Even as his vision had cleared, his mind was still slightly clouded by grogginess.
"What are you doing?" The boy asked slowly.
Abruptly, Sasori discarded the tool onto the desk and made his way back to the child. A hesitation seemed to plague him, however, an emotion showed on his face that the boy couldn't quite read, something he had never really seen. It felt familiar, as if he had seen it before, but some other aspect of it...was in the dark to him.
Knelt by the futon, Sasori kept going with his barrage of questions.
"What's your name?"
"Deidara," Said child looked down, pulling his hands from his blanket. An immediate relief came over him at the sight of finger-less gloves, still dirtied and stiff from the rainwater and mud. Looking himself over, Deidara noticed that he had been put into a different set of clothing, though rather large, they would do. Over next to him, his dry clothes were folded neatly, mesh under-shirt hanging on the wall.
"I couldn't get those gloves off no matter what I tried. I figured you couldn't catch a cold from wearing them so I didn't bother. To answer your first question, you're at an inn. I'm on my way somewhere but I had to make a pit-stop because of you. Be grateful I even brought you."
Deidara furrowed his eyebrows, scanning Sasori over. A black cloak looked baggy and loose, paired with a low collar; uncomfortable. What kind of clothes are that?
"Where do you come from?"
The blond hesitated. "...Iwa," He paused and replied with a question of his own. "Where are you from?"
Sasori was quiet for a moment. "Who knows?"
"Hmph.."
"You've been asleep for about a day, you still want to stay in bed?"
Deidara opened his mouth but was interrupted as a sound emitted from the outside. Adult voices barked out orders followed by some laughing and shuffling noises. The boy froze, body stiffening as glowing lights appeared from the corner of the window. An old sense of dread tugged at him, trembling slightly. Sensing his apprehension, Sasori tried to relax himself and explain away the fear.
"There's a festival going on."
"A festival?" The blond repeated, eyes following Sasori as he stood up to get back to work on the desk. Deidara looked down at his blankets, tone rising in excitement and wonder. "They don't have festivals in Iwa..."
"It's just a bunch of noise and pointless stuff. You wouldn't like it."
A thought barely stirred at the comment, mind still pondering the idea of a festival. He heard they were fun, full of great activities and delicious food as well as entertainment and other things. A festival seemed all sorts of excitement, considering how people seemed to like them so much.
"It's actually morning, but it's pretty early. The people outside are setting up."
Deidara looked at Sasori curiously and nodded. Scooting to the edge of the futon, the child slipped out of his covers, only then realizing as something stiff clung tightly to his body. Glancing over, a bandage covered his upper arm, a red colour staining the white gauze. The boy barely noticed the sharp pain that resulted, lifting it to eye-level.
"You were wounded too, I wonder why that is," The question was raised in a passive manner, but the child caught on quickly having heard this pattern of speech before. In attempt to clear the enquiry, the boy pulled a straight face and answered.
"Cat."
"Really? Pretty deep slash for a cat. What kind of cat was it? A tiger?" Sasori spoke sarcastically.
Deidara growled and clenched is blankets. "I'm telling you, it was a cat!"
"Cats tend to leave at least three parallel marks in the skin, as well as being shallow so they're not serious. Your wound however," Sasori made eye contact with the child, a suspicious air coming about him, "Was a single clean cut that went at least a centimetre into the flesh. Not the work of any cat I've ever known."
Deidara huffed and crossed his arms. "It was a cat."
"Nice try,"
"Dog."
"No."
"Crow."
"That was a cut wound brat, something cut you. Like a knife or kunai, I want to know what. Like I said, you don't usually find kids sleeping on the dirty dirt in a rainstorm."
Brat!? The boy snapped his head towards Sasori, offence evident on his face. He had heard his fair share of insults and names, but not once had anyone called him that. It registered to him now that the name had been used, words barely processing a few moments ago.
"So what happened?"
The child frowned. "What are you gonna do if I tell you?"
Sasori paused his work, mildly astonished to hear a comeback. Deidara watched as the redhead spun in his chair to face him. He tried his best to push fear to the back of his mind. He was always told that being scared was a bad thing, especially in these kinds of situations.
"That depends. As of now, what happens depends on you, but that doesn't mean I don't have a word to go by."
"That's a lame answer."
"What happened?"
The question was repeated in a harsher tone, an icy warning glare directed itself at the child with full-force. Deidara scoffed at it. He'd seen worse. Even then, it was probably best to answer the guy anyway. Sasori didn't seem like the type who could wait through a sea of lies.
"Ninja's chased me out of Iwa," The child explained briefly, smiling mentally before the child began to force his eyes to water. Time to test what this one was made of. "I-I...I don't know what I did...but they tried to hurt me."
His lip quivered and he whined, blinking more than usual to appear as if he was on the verge of tears. This emotion stirred a reaction with the redhead, who looked momentarily confused and uncomfortable, satisfying the boy's desired result. Deciding to go further, Deidara recalled on the days before, picking and choosing the supposed 'saddest' moments to reveal as he forced the tears to flow. It wasn't hard to cry, just required some manipulation in breathing. Just breathing the wrong way was enough to get tears going. If he made it clear enough he was on the verge of bawling, crying wasn't at all necessary.
Sniffling ensued, hands coming up to his eyes in attempt to rub away the water only heightened the effect. Deidara smiled for a split-second, Sasori would be at his beck and call pretty soon.
Sasori stiffened. "U-um, you okay?"
Don't say anything, Deidara sensed the discomfort his tears were bringing. The redhead made a puzzled sound, slightly panicked in a way that didn't derive from fear. Getting up from his seat, the redhead sat down next to the child, taking the silence as his cue that he was supposed to do something.
"They hurt me..a-and it was hard to get away, an-"
The sudden feeling of an arm wrapped around his torso, pressing the small body to lean against the others in a hug. Head rested against his chest, which was abnormally hard and stiff since it felt as if the blond had just head-butted a wall. W-what the...Deidara glanced upwards, trying his best to refrain from snapping right then and there. He didn't like being held and sure as hell didn't feel like it right now. Sasori's eyes remained averted in a poker face, staring at the wall while the boy felt an eye twitch in irritation, panic rising.
"Am I making you feel better?" Sasori muttered.
Who is this guy!? Deidara reminded himself of his current facade, gulping slightly while both arms dropped to the blanket. "...Y-yeah..."
Twitch...
Twitch...
When is this weirdo gonna let go?! If anything, the child should have expected this kind of result. A hug wasn't far from what he expected, but this wasn't any hug he'd felt before. If anything, the redhead didn't even look at him, staring straight at the wall as the boy was left to contemplate his next course of action. Well he certainly got pity on his side...but now what?
Suddenly, the hug seemed to tighten. Deidara now squished against the redhead's chest as Sasori continued to lean further towards the bed. The child's eyes widened as he made a grunt of exasperation and extreme annoyance. What the hell was this guy doing now? This was anything but comforting, since the guy preferred to stay quiet and make an already awkward situation even more cringe-worthy.
"Do you feel okay now?"
"...Uh...huh..."
