Chapter 2: Intro Arc - A Whole New World
If you have any questions about the story, please let me know! This is my very first time writing a Naruto fanfic, so I'm terribly sorry if I do something wrong!
*Edit: Shoutout to May525 for telling me that Tobi does not say that he is a good boy all the time. I went back and fixed the chapters, so he hardly ever says it. Thank you so much! \_(^w^)_/
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the plot and my OCs!
Deidara's POV
I woke up with a start, slowly opening my eyes. I had already planned the day out, with the majority being time for training to capture the One-Tail. Smirking like I did in battle, I rubbed my eyes with my paws.
Wait, I realized with a jolt. Did I say...paws?
I looked down at where my hands were supposed to be, and sure enough, they had turned into paws — cat paws, to be specific — though my hand-mouths were still there. However, they were much smaller than before. Actually, everything about me was much smaller than before.
Upon catching sight of the other members, I gasped. Somehow, they had all been turned into cats. I had no idea if somebody was pulling a prank on me or not, but if they did, well, I'll make sure to turn them into grand artwork.
Stretching, I padded over to a red-furred cat that was sleeping under the window, who I guessed was Sasori-danna. He resembled an actual cat, and for once, not a puppet. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary for him, besides the fact that he was a dark red cat. But then again, there were some cats of that color, too.
Spotting a mirror in the side of the room, I raced over to it, curious to what I looked like as a cat. Sure enough, I resembled most of my human self — one blue and one gray eye, yellow fur, a bang in front of my gray eye, and a white muzzle. Suddenly, I realized that the reflection was missing something very important: my art. But of course, the bag which I had used to store all of my clay was gone. Without clay, I could no longer make my art.
I sighed, wondering exactly what to do without my art, when a familiar lump of fur latched onto my head.
"Senpai!" the voice squealed. "Tobi is bored! Can Deidara-senpai play something fun with Tobi?"
"Like what, un?" I hissed in annoyance. "Tobi, do you even know where we are?"
I took the chance to observe what Tobi looked like: a dark gray kitten with an orange face, along with one onyx-colored eye. Where the other eye was supposed to be was a small scar.
"Tobi has no idea!" he exclaimed, bouncing up and down. "How about we play 'Tobi is a good boy'?"
I groaned. "What kind of lame game is that, un?"
"Tobi made it up himself!" he meowed proudly. "All senpai has to do is to tell Tobi that Tobi is a—"
"Stop!" I cringed, if a cat could do that. "You're lucky I don't have any clay on me right now, un. Otherwise, you'd be in your grave."
Tobi backed up slightly in alarm, and I smirked. "No, senpai! Don't kill Tobi!"
"If you're such a good boy," I muttered, "then find me some clay somewhere in this place. I bet there's got to be some around here."
At that, he resumed his bouncing. "On it, senpai! Tobi will go look for some clay!" Within seconds, he had dashed off, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of dust.
"Well, that takes care of that, un," I sighed in relief. "Maybe Konan or Leader-sama knows something about this place. Maybe I should go talk to one of them."
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted what I assumed was Konan, sitting on the windowsill. I ran up to the window, leaping up to the spot beside her.
"Konan?" I asked, making sure it was her and not Kisame.
She turned around and stared at me with the same, emotionless expression, even as a cat. Her amber eyes depicted a stern gaze, while her blue pelt glittered in the sun. "I see that you have finally woken up, Deidara," she said, not a hint of emotion laced between her voice. "What did you need?"
"Where are we, un?" I continued. "I don't remember anything about how we got here."
"Nothing, huh?" she responded. "You were fully awake when that powerful jutsu hit us. But when you became a cat, you became completely exhausted and passed out right away. Sasori had to drag you here, through the rain."
"I see," I replied, then moved on to another question. "Is Leader-sama awake yet?"
She shook her head. "He was soaking wet from the rain and fell asleep immediately after he entered the house. I could tell how exhausted he was. But yes, he's still asleep."
Konan waved her tail from side to side, as if something was making her uneasy. "Is something wrong, Konan?" I inquired.
"You see," she explained, "there are humans inhabiting this house. All appear to be children, and there is no sign of any adults. They were the ones that let us in, thus saving our lives. But still, the weird thing is that I can't sense any form of chakra within them."
My eyes widened in shock. "No chakra? How do they fight, un?"
"It appears that they aren't trained to be ninjas at all," Konan confirmed. "I will try and observe them more today, but all of them are fast asleep."
"Maybe I can observe them, too," I offered. "After all, we need all of the information we can get about this place. Besides, all my clay is gone, so I might be able to find some while I'm at it."
"Very well," Konan agreed. "You may search around the house and see what you can find. If you find anything interesting or out of the ordinary, report back to us immediately. Is that clear?"
"Yes," I nodded solemnly. I knew better than to upset Konan. The last time somebody did that, well, let's just say that it did not go very well. In fact, Kakuzu was complaining for days about having to clean hundreds of blood splatters off of the carpet.
I tried to leap back onto the floor, but instead, I tripped and plummeted towards the ground. Luckily, I landed on something soft, which cushioned my fall. I sat there and sighed happily, wondering how a cushion could be so warm, fuzzy, and soft.
Hold up, I thought. Cushions can be fuzzy and soft, but not warm! What am I—
"Get the hell off of me, brat."
Yelping, I jumped off of Sasori-danna's back before he could slash me to pieces with his claws. "I...I'm so sorry, danna!" I stuttered out. "I...I swear, I didn't realize that it was you, un!"
He sat up and dusted his pelt off with his paws and tail. "Whatever," he growled. "Where are we, anyway? This isn't our base."
"I'm trying to figure that out right now, un," I said. Quickly, I explained Konan's observations to him, and he only nodded in reply.
"I might as well explore this place as well," he decided, "since all of my puppets are gone."
"You too, danna?" I inquired, now slightly more curious. "All of my clay is gone, too."
He shot me a look. "So what? It wasn't going to become anything close to eternal beauty, anyway."
I glared daggers at him. "Says the one who lost all of his puppets, un!" I countered. "How can something so dispensable and easily misplaced be considered true art? Art is an explosion, danna!"
"Wrong," Sasori growled. "Art is something that is meant to be preserved and last forever. Even if I misplaced my puppets, they're still considered intact. On the other hand, without a way to figure out where your clay is, they will not be able to explode and must stay as eternal beauty, brat."
I unsheathed my claws angrily. "Shut up, un!" But before I could pounce on Sasori, a paw slapped both of us in the face.
"Ow!" I exclaimed in fury. "What the—"
I was cut off by the intimidating glare coming from Konan, who had heard our entire exchange from the windowsill.
"I'm very disappointed in you two," she hissed, and I backed away in fear. "We are currently in a dire situation right now, but yet, all you two do is fight. Deidara, if you're going to volunteer to search the house, then do it. Sasori, you are not to bother Deidara until his report is complete. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Konan," we both said at the same time.
Shooting us one final glance, Konan leaped back onto the windowsill.
I turned to Sasori-danna again, and he nodded, motioning for me to go on with the search. After all, going through with a mission was much better than offering to go on one and not doing any of the work.
But before I could even take one step, a loud shriek filled the entire room.
"Kittens?" a little girl was squealing. She then gave what I assumed to be her brother a big hug. "Thank you, nii-chan! Thank you!"
The boy smiled and shook his head. "Kagami-chan, it's not me. Thank Naoki and Kaiya. They were the ones who let them stay at the house overnight during the rainstorm."
"But aren't they cute, Yukio-nii-chan?" the girl named Kagami asked. "Look at how adorable they are, just walking around!"
Suddenly, her eyesight focused on me. Unfortunately, I realized that a second too late, and before I could run away, the little girl ran towards me and scooped me up into her arms.
"This one is adorable!" she squealed. "Where did Naoki-nii-chan find her?"
I twitched. Hard.
Even as a kitten, somebody had mistaken me for a girl.
I wanted to claw her so badly, but she was hugging me so tightly that I could barely breathe. My arms and legs flailed around uselessly before I decided to give up and wait for her to put me down.
"Kagami-chan," said Yukio," I think you're suffocating the kitty. Put him down."
"But it's a girl!" Kagami protested, causing me to twitch even more.
"Whatever," sighed Yukio. "But just put the little ball of fur down, okay?"
She nodded, and gently placed me back on the carpet. Immediately, I took a breath of fresh air, glad that I was finally free from her tight grasp. But unfortunately, that was also the same time Tobi came flying in from nowhere, tackling me.
"What the hell, un?" I spat angrily, throwing him off of me. "Watch where you're running, Tobi!"
"Look, senpai!" he chanted, running around in circles in an attempt to catch his own tail. "Tobi did what senpai told Tobi to do and woke up all of the kids to help senpai find his clay!"
"What?" I growled, but stopped as soon as another boy and a girl walked into the living room. The boy, I guessed, was the one called Naoki. Next to him was who I assumed to be Kaiya, his older sister by a few years.
"Remind me why we took in the kittens again?" grumbled Naoki moodily. He pointed to Tobi with a grimace on his face. "This annoying little brat woke me up."
Kaiya only laughed. "Silly otouto. Kittens are supposed to be playful. Feel lucky that unlike most of the rest, this one is hyperactive and adorable at the same time."
Adorable? I cringed, just thinking of Tobi's name being in the same sentence as that word. There's no way!
"Look, kid," I growled, turning towards Naoki. "Can you please tell us where we are, un?"
But what came out of my mouth must have sounded more like "meow, meow", because the next thing I knew, Kaiya was lifting me up with her hands. But still, I was relieved that she didn't squeeze me as tightly as her little sister.
"This one is quite cute as well," she admitted, petting my head. At first, I tensed up, ready to claw at her for petting me, but that feeling from being stroked like that — it felt rather...nice. "I wonder what breed he is."
At that, I smiled. At least, everybody else knows that I'm not a girl…
"Whatever breed these kittens are," Naoki said, "I think they are pretty rare breeds. They're all rainbow-colored, like our fireworks!"
That last line really interested me. I gave them a smug grin, thanking them for mentioning the fact that there were explosives in the house. Kaiya noticed and smirked at her brother in return.
"Good job, nii-chan," she teased her brother. "You got one of our cats interested in explosives. We don't need any pyromaniac cats, do we?"
Naoki glanced at her skeptically. "Our cats?"
"I was thinking that we could adopt them all forever," she suggested. "They seem happy, and I really think our white firework led them here. Naoki, I think that the kittens were meant to be the company I wished for."
"You really think so?" Naoki responded. "Well, I guess they're okay to have around. I don't think any of us mind them being here. Look at Kagami and that bratty kitty who woke us up. They seem to be getting along."
I turned around, spotting the annoying little girl from earlier. She was jumping up and down happily with Tobi, who also seemed to be very happy that he had found a friend.
Good, I thought. That way, he'll be too busy playing with her to bother me again.
"Very well," Kaiya said, smiling. "Let's welcome these kittens into the Hoshiyume family."
A/N: If you are curious about the story's timeline, this story takes place a little before the sealing of the One-Tail. Deidara hasn't kidnapped Gaara just yet.
Thank you, and please review! I'll give you a cookie!
Who stole my cookie jar?
Eek! S-s-scary! Don't hurt me, S-Shukaku-san! You too, G-Gaara-san! *tosses jar to readers* Review!
— Tenshi —
