Chapter 2: Deidara Returns with a Story

'Come on, Kimi-chan!' Kisame whined. 'You've got to find him! You said you had his scent!'

'I did.' The black wolf replied. 'But it faded. I've no idea where it's gone.' Kisame groaned, and ran his hands through his hair.

'I'm sorry, Kisame-kun.' Kimi murmured. 'But I've tried all over, now.'

'How can the scent just disappear like that?' Tobi growled, kicking a tree. 'It can't have!' I activated my sharingan, and took a look around.

'No signs of his chakra, either.' I paused. 'But I have no idea what his chakra is like...' Kimi looked up at me, and sat onto her Haunches.

'I can sense chakra too.' She growled, and lowered her muzzle so her nose was pressed into the soft, moist ground, then snorted, and raised her head again. 'but I do not sense his.' She paused, and jumped up.

'What is it, Kimimaru?' Tobi said, kneeling down to the young wolf.

'I sense a chakra. Not Deidara's but someone else's... No... there's more...' She started to growl. 'We're surrounded...' We suddenly acted simultaneously, and jumped into a small triangle, Kimimaru standing infront of Kisame. Sure enough, we were soon surrounded by Shinobi.

'Where's Deidara?' One of them demanded.

'No! Where's Itachi Uchiha?' Another screamed.

'There he is! It's Kisame Hoshigaki!' A few bellowed.

'Guys...' Kisame murmured. 'I think we stumbled into a red herring...'

'A red what?' I replied, looking back at the shark man.

'A misleading piece of information.' Kisame sighed, and put on hand into the middle of our triangle. 'Now, grab hold of my hand.'

'Why?' I turned to look away from him, and a huge explosion shattered the forest, and the people surrounding us went flying, and others ran away. Kisame looked around, and Kimimaru's ears perked.

'It's Deidara! I sense his chakra, now!' I didn't realise it until the wolf said it, but I did too.

'Sempai!' Tobi yelled, and lunged forwards. I grabbed the masked man around to waist, and he squealed. 'Let go of me!'

'Tobi, no!' I yelled at him. 'You don't know what's in the smoke!'

'Rennie's right.' Kisame growled, standing next to me. 'You don't know what's in there.'

'Who's this "Rennie" character, hmm?' A rough voice murmured from up ahead. 'Is she my replacement..?' A slim blonde haired man emerged from the smoke. My heart started to pound out of my chest, and my hands started shaking. I stared at the floor, but I still felt his azure eyes staring me down, as if challenging me.

'Deidara, where the hell were you?' Kisame growled, and put a hand on my shoulder.

'I was out seeking greater stimulation... hmm...' The blonde murmured. 'And I swear, Kisame. This is the last time I'm saving your ass, yeah.' I couldn't hold back a small chuckle.

'Whatever, Blondie.' Kisame growled. 'You have better of come back with a better attitude than last time.'

'It's not my fault Sasori-no-Danna decided to be an ass... hmm.' Deidara's voice turned slightly sullen, and I looked up at him. He was about Five foot seven... that's about two inches taller than me. I can't help being short...

'Sasori's dead, Deidara.' Kisame murmured.

'Exactly.'

'What?' Kisame's face dulled. 'What do you mean, you brat?'

'Sasori said art was eternal. He said he himself, was eternal, hmm.' Deidara murmured, a smirk appearing on his face. 'But it's not! Art it fleeting! Hm!' I wanted to say those four words so badly... He looked at me, and I held the eyes contact hesitantly. I wasn't a pussy, but this guy made me weak in the knees.

'So.' Deidara murmured. 'Who the hell are you, hmm?'

'Uh... My name's Renai Itonami.' I murmured, and Kisame looked at me. Of course... I hadn't told him my surname... Deidara snorted.

'Your surname is bullcrap. Hmm.'

'E- excuse me?' I murmured, my eyes wide. I certainly hadn't been expecting that.

'Itonami means life.' Deidara's eyes were suddenly dark, and he looked a little terrifying as he lowered his head. 'And life is a lie. Everything ends eventually. Hmm.' I sighed. Kisame squeezed my shoulder.

'Deidara, you coming back with us?' He murmured.

'Why not.' Deidara shrugged, and as we turned, I mumbled;

'Art's a bang...'

Myself and Tobi were sat in our room, and we could hear Deidara's screams down the hall. This upset me, because I didn't expect him to have such a shitty attitude. He didn't like me, either. Maybe he'd like me more as he discovered I had similar interests. Tobi kept mumbling things I could make out. I lay back on the bed and released a sigh. This caught the masked mans attention.

'Hey, Renai?' He murmured.

'Yeah...?' I replied dully.

'You said you knew who I was disguised as?' I propped myself up onto my elbows at looked at him.

'Yeah, why?' I raised an eyebrow.

'Prove it. Who am I?'

'Uh.' I blushed a little at this. The rumours around the internet suddenly got to me. What if he was Obito? 'Mada-' The door slammed open. I sweat dropped.

'THAT BASATRD!' Deidara yelled, slamming the door behind him and falling onto the other bed, jamming his face into his pillow and screaming. Me and Tobi just stared, and I didn't know about him, but I was most certainly insecure at that moment in time. I didn't know what Deidara was saying, his voice was muffled. But it was probably something unintelligible.

Tobi looked at me anxiously. I gave him a reassuring smile, and swung my legs off the edge of the bed so I was facing Deidara, who had quietened down. I thought he may be sobbing.

'Deidara?' I said softly. 'Are you okay?' He rubbed his face against his pillow, and pulled the hair tie out of his hair, letting his hair fall down around him. Only then, did he sit up; red eyed and looking extremely pissed.

'What's wrong?' I asked.

'Only that I have to put up with you and Tobi for the rest of my god damned life. Hm!' He growled, and gave me a menacing glare. I was taken aback. He truly didn't give two shits about me or Tobi. Tobi hung his head and turned away from us.

'D- Deidara...' I murmured, and met his glare again. 'What inspiration did you get for your art earlier today?' His expression softened, and he strangely looked hurt, yet slightly surprised.

'I... I wanted to create something new... yeah...' He folded his arms, and swung his head away, staring at the wall. His hair swished around his shoulders. 'Why should you care, hmm?' I smiled at his attitude.

'Well. I'm sorry for being interested.' I stood up, and turned to Tobi. 'Come on, Tobi. Deidara doesn't need us talking to him about his art.' I knew this had gotten to him. I saw his body tense in the corner of my eye, and apparently Tobi had seen it too, as he stood up also.

'Yeah. Sempai doesn't need us.' We both walked out the door, and All I heard Deidara murmur, was "n... nani...?". (A/N: Nani means "What" in Japanese. :3)

Later on that evening, I discovered what a huge flirt Hidan was. He kept asking me questions about my life, and seemed highly interested I was only 17.

'Really?' He murmured. 'Only 17... Ah, I wish I was that young.' I smiled at him.

'You seem awfully interested in me.' I murmured, and Hidan grinned.

'Just wondering if you'd make a decent sacrifice for Jashin-Sama.' He teased, but I took it seriously.

'What?'

'Just kidding. You're too cool for that.' Hidan bit his lip. 'Jashin will take away my immortality for saying that...'

'Isn't there anything you can die from?' I ask, changing the subject from me.

'Ah. Only old age.' He grinned again. 'But if Jashin takes away my immortality, then I could die a horrible death...'

'Uh. Great.' I murmured. I looked down at my feet, where Tobi was sat; leaning against the sofa we were sitting on. I had to say, he was actually a really good friend. He liked to stick by my side, but I guess that was because I was new, and Deidara rejected him a lot. I twisted his short messy hair around my fingers, and he jumped.

'S- Sempai.' He gasped, and I laughed a little. Something touched my shoulder, and I realised Hidan hand his arm around the back of the sofa, his fingers brushing against my shoulder. I turned my attention back to Tobi, and he was looking up at me, his head resting between my knees.

'Did I make you jump, Tobi-san?' I murmured, and he shook his head.

'Not really.' His one eye viewable seemed to smile. 'I was actually just falling asleep.'

'Ohh.' I leant over him and wrapped my arms around his neck, and pressed my cheek to the top of his head.

'I'm sorry, Tobi-san...' I murmured, and then Pain walked into the room. He was a graceful man, he walked through the room as graceful as a swan. If he hadn't of kicked a table and yelped, I don't think I would have even noticed him. We stared at the leader, who had gone down onto one knee and was rubbing his foot.

'You okay, Leader-Sama?' Hidan murmured. Pain gave Hidan a slight grimace.

'Yeah. Just... Yeah.' He stood up, and limped out of the room. The three of us exchanged confused looks before we burst out laughing.

'What do you mean, Sempai?' Tobi murmured. We were sat on one of the beds in our room, cross legged, and parallel to each other.

'I think Deidara's just shy.' I replied, and Tobi raised his head.

'Oh.' A thought crosses his mind. 'But then why does he act like he hates me?' I sighed. I couldn't deal with this right now. I was tired, and was still so overwhelmed the characters actually existed. Deidara walked into the room, closing the door quietly behind him. He briefly met my eye contact, then sat at a desk in the corner of the room and pulled clay out of his pocket. Tobi looked at me, and mouthed "What?" at him. He pointed at Deidara, and motioned for me to go over to him. I rolled my eyes and sighed, before turning off the bed, and walking over to Deidara.

'What'cha doing?' I murmur, and stand behind him. He turns his head slightly, and gives me a small grunt.

'Sculpting.'

'... I can see that.' I paused. 'Let me be more specific. What are you making?' Deidara tried to hide a smirk. I still saw it, though.

'Some sort of clay creature... yeah...' He murmured. He seemed slightly friendly now.

'So you don't really know?' I asked, and Deidara shook his head.

'Nope. I generally do this so no one talks to me. Hm.' He turned his head again, and He didn't look too impressed.

'Oh... Sorry...' I murmured, and retreated back a few steps. He sighed, and stood up.

'I'm going to bed.' He said in a small voice. I wondered if I had upset him.

'There's a thought.' I murmured. 'There's two beds, there's three of us.'

'You can sleep with me, Renai-sempai.' Tobi murmured, and I took a sidelong glance at Deidara, whose expression was slightly pissed.

'Fine with me.' I replied, and Deidara walked away and slid into his bed. Tobi was already half under the covers, so I just slipped in next to him.

'Goodnight, Sempai...s...' He yawned, and I chuckled.

'Yeah, Goodnight Tobi, Deidara.'

'Hm.' Was all that Deidara said before he switched off the light and the room turned black.

I'm sure a good few hours passed, and I felt Tobi turn beside me.

'You awake, Renai?' I paused. That wasn't Tobi's voice at all. I sat up and looked down at the masked man, although his mask was off at this point, and he had a piece of material covering his face, all but his eyes. But his eyes were closed. I looked across the room, and saw a shadow hunched over itself. I activated my sharingan, and I sensed Deidara's chakra in the shadow. He looked up at me with curious azure eyes.

'I'll take that as a yes, then. Hmph.' He stood up, and walked over so he was stood in front of me. 'Can we go out for a walk?' he murmured huskily, and I retracted my Sharingan. Walking out at this hour?

'Sure...?' I reply, and walked out of the room with him.

We walked through a sullen forest. Not a sound was heard in it. Deidara trudged on beside me, staring at the floor and not seeming to desire to lag behind or keep away from me. Actually, he seemed rather content.

'Why exactly did you want to come out here?' I murmured, a puff of steam emanating from my mouth. Deidara looked at me, and his eyes seemed sad.

'I felt like I could talk to you, Renai.' He said softly, and looked at the floor again.

'Talk to me?' I murmured. 'What about?'

'About everything.' He seemed rather upset. He looked at me again. 'You look cold.'

'Well, It is 3am, and I'm only wearing a T-shirt and jeans.' I whispered, hugging myself. Deidara blinked, and slid his cloak off.

'Here.' He stopped walking, as I did, and he put the cloak over my shoulders. I looked at his fishnet shirt.

'And you're not going to get cold?' I murmured, and he shrugged in response.

'Personally, I don't care... yeah...' He murmured, but I saw his teeth begin to chatter. I sighed, and put the cloak around his shoulders as well as mine.

'You suck at lying.'

'Heh...'

'So... What is it you wanted to talk about, specifically?' I asked. Deidara then walked up to a nearby tree, then up it, and sat on a branch.

'Come on up.' He murmured. And I gawked at him.

'M- maybe I should tell you a little about myself, first...' I stammered, and he raised an eyebrow. 'Even though I'm Uchiha, which I didn't know about until earlier today, I have no ninja skills, and can't even control my genjutsu.' Deidara paused.

'Can you control chakra?' He murmured.

'No idea.' I replied. Deidara nodded, then made the hand sign of tora.

'How many hand signs do you know, hmm?' He said. I paused.

'Uhh. Tora, inu, Hitsuji, tori, mi, uma, u, i, Ushi, Tatsu, Saru and Ne...' I paused. 'That's all of them, isn't it...'

'All of the basic ones.' Deidara nodded once. 'Now, focus your chakra to your feet.' I did so, and the energy felt like bursting out of my shoes. 'Good. Now focus onto that tree, and climb it. Hm.'

'Climb it?' I repeated. He nodded again, his hair falling over his shoulders.

'Yeah. Just walk up it.' I stood a steady breath, and began walking up the tree, I was just about to step onto the branch when a bird snapped out from one of the high branches. I jumped, losing my focus, and the chakra left my feet and began circling my body again. I began to fall, but Deidara jumped up and caught my hand. I breathed out heavily, and Deidara's face turned stricken. I wondered why, as he lifted me up onto the branch beside him, and I couldn't help noticing his other hand fell to my waist as he pulled me beside him. He moved that hand up around my shoulder, as if not to let me fall again.

'Okay...' He murmured. 'That was good, if not for that stupid bird, you would have made it...' I looked at him. 'Anyway...' He sat down on the branch, and I sat down next to him. 'I want to tell you about my past.' I stared at him. He wanted me to know about his past? Not even Kishimoto himself knew about that... apart from Deidara being forced into Akatsuki, we were told nothing..!

'Okay... So, um...' He started. 'Wh- When I was younger... This explains my ratty attitude... My... My father... Yakuma Kichami... He... He hated me; all because of my Kekkai Genkai... My mother, Tsunichi Akebori... I don't remember her well, but she was one of the most beautiful things in the world. She had waist long, light blonde hair. Her eyes were a stunning pale blue, and her face and figure was just perfect. She loved me, and I loved her. My father, as I previously mentioned, hated me. When my mother wasn't home, he'd force me into such things as washing up, laundry, ironing...' He paused, and held out his hand. On the back of it, was a jagged scar from his middle knuckle to halfway down his hand. 'That was what happened if I refused... I got brutally beaten up... That or whipped. Mother didn't know. When she found out... Father killed her...' Deidara's eyes turned sullen, and a tear fell down his face, but he quickly rubbed it away, as if to disguise his sadness. 'What makes it worse, is that it was my fault... I'm the reason why mother is dead. I ran to mother one time after she came back from work, and she went to talk about it with Father. Father dragged me into the same room by my hair after she mentioned it. He tied me to a chair, as he had already done to mother, and I was forced to watch him beat her to death... I didn't sleep that night; or the night after... Or the night after that... Her screams haunted me night after endless night... The pattern of her crimson blood intertwined with her hair kept me weeping.

'After my grief and sorrow, I started plotting. I wanted to kill that man for what he had done. Mother was the only thing I had left of my family. Yakuma wasn't my biological father. Lest, I do not know who my biological father is... was...

'I later discovered that if I mixed my chakra with my special moulding clay I could create explosives. I thought I had finally found my purpose. This was how I was meant to kill that dreadful man. I successfully killed him. I made sure it was painful for him.

'I blew off his arms with small clay spiders, and towered over him.

'"This is what you deserve." I said. "You killed my mother, my only family. You looked down upon me because of my Kekkai Genkai. You used me as your slave, and I was only free when mother was home. This is what you deserve. Death. Death is your reward." My father, for once looked petrified. I knew I had won. I took a kitchen knife, and stabbed him through the left lung, missing his heart. This way he died a slow death...' Deidara's face was pained, and I felt so sorry for him.

'After that...' He continued. 'I turned suicidal. I had no reason to live. I began to take the temporary career of a suicide bomber, thinking if I were to die, I was to die with my art. I worked for anyone who needed to fight against another country. Then after two years, when I turned fifteen, the Akatsuki came. They forced me into Akatsuki.' He looked at me. 'Why I was gone earlier... I went to where I made a memorial of my mother. I didn't want to tell anyone... But I feel I can trust you. You seem different to Tobi, Pain and the rest... hmm...' I smiled at him.

'Yeah. Tobi would probably tell the world...' Deidara swung his leg around the tree, and sat so he was facing me.

'You won't tell anyone, will you, yeah?' He murmured. He seemed a little shaken now.

'Of course not.' I replied, and he gave me a small smile. Deidara looked away for a moment, then briefly met my eye contact.

'R- Renai... Will you...' He paused. 'Will you be my friend... hmm?' I couldn't help widening my eyes a little.

'Your friend...?' Did he honestly have to ask? 'Of course I will.' I smiled at him.

'R- really?' Deidara stammered. 'You'll be my friend, yeah?'

'Yes!' I laughed, and leant forwards and hugged him. Deidara appeared a little bewildered. He hesitated before hugging me back. When we pulled apart, he stared at me.

'What's wrong?' I asked.

'I've never had a friend before... yeah...' He murmured.

'I bet Tobi wants to be your friend.' I suggested.

'Maybe.' Deidara replied. We both looked at the horizon where the sun had begun to rise. That moment we had right there. It was just so perfect. I was a massive fan of this one anime character. Nothing had changed this for a year. I had grown so attached to him, that I had posters, Plushies, all books with him in... and here I was. Sat with the real thing, after just claiming we were friends, watching the sun rise. I yawned, and rested my head on Deidara's shoulder. I felt him breath out heavily, then rest his head on mine. From there, I fell asleep on my new friends shoulder.