*EDIT 2014*:
Just fixed up some dialogue for this one. I also changed the dates to match the 2012 calendar, rather than the original 2010 one the story first started out as.

Also, just as a side-note, while it is 2012 in Aoi's world, it's obviously not 2012 in the Narutoverse. (At least, I don't think their world is that far into future...) Only the dates match up. (So, though, in this chapter, it is November 26th in the Narutoverse, it might not fall on the same day as it does in Aoi's world, even though it is Nov 26th there, too.) This sounds really confusing, doesn't it? Whoops, XD.

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EDIT 2012:

I rewrote this chapter to match my new style. I also changed Obito's interrogation technique, as well as Deidara's and Sasori's concern for Aoi. (She's still just a source of information for them; it will take awhile for them to consider her a person, XD.)

Welcome to Chapter Six! This chapter takes place a week later than the last one. This is because I wanted time to progress a bit faster.

Thank you to all who reviewed; all of you make my day, and I'm so glad that people actually like this story.

*Warning: This chapter has violence, frightening moments, and language*

I don't own Naruto (If I did, the Akatsuki would have lasted longer, XD.)


-Chapter Six: Suspicions-

A week had passed since Aoi had been summoned to the Akatsuki lair. She was starting to feel at home with the S-Class missing-nin, and was surprised (and a bit disturbed) at the fact. Yes, she liked the Akatsuki, but she'd never imagined she'd feel comfortable around anyone, especially not a group of murderers. Sure, she was still very wary around Obito, but as long as he kept up his Tobi persona around her, she was fine with him. She considered Deidara and Sasori to be the closest thing to allies, though they (and by 'they', it was mostly Deidara) mostly spoke to her only when she spoke to them first. However, she wasn't completely miserable. In fact, she found that she was more comfortable here than in her own world. She was, in a strange way, content.

The brunette was sitting on the floor in her, Deidara's and Sasori's room, drawing yet again. Something dawned on her, and she put her pencil down and closed the sketchbook. "Hey, Sasori-san? What day is it today?"

The redhead looked up from working on his puppet. "It is November 26th. Why do you ask?"

Aoi's eyes slightly widened. "November 26th? That means…I missed Thanksgiving."

Sasori merely raised an eyebrow, which prompted Aoi to give a better explanation. "It's a holiday where someone's entire family gets together to eat a huge meal and be thankful for the year. It's on the last Thursday of November, which was the twenty-second. Four days ago. Though I wouldn't have missed much; I would have celebrated it with just my parents this year." She laughed hollowly. "My birthday was also yesterday. I'm eighteen now."

"You are upset? I thought people were supposed to be happy on their birthday," asked the puppeteer, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"I've never cared for my birthday. It's the same thing every year: my parents and I go out to dinner, and afterwards I open some gifts that I never even want. In a sense, instead of being homesick, I'm relieved that I can finally have a birthday where I can just do what I want to do."

"Which is?"

"I just want to stay here and draw. It's relaxing,"

Sasori curtly nodded. The brunette realized that he probably knew the feeling, since he loved to work on his puppets so much.

Aoi went back to drawing, while the redhead went back to working on his puppet. The peaceful silence was broken when Deidara walked out of the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He was wearing nothing but his Akatsuki pants, and his hair was still wet from the shower he just took. Aoi shook her head at the loudness before focusing back on her sketch.

"Like what you see?" joked Deidara, wearing his ever-present smirk.

Aoi didn't answer; she was too busy trying to get the eyes of her piece to look symmetrical.

"Come on, Aoi-san! Don't make me miss dinner." Deidara hastily threw on a shirt before tying up his hair. "Kisame's making it tonight; it should be better than the crap Hidan usually cooks for us, un."

"Where's Hidan-san?" Aoi asked. She hadn't seen the immortal for awhile, and was curious about where he was.

"Oh, he and Kakuzu-san are on a mission right now," the blond answered. "They're just gathering information and money, so I doubt they'll run into any trouble. And if they do, it would be Hidan's fault for acting stupid, un. Sometimes I wish Kakuzu-san would just sew his mouth shut."

Aoi nodded, gently closing her sketchbook and placing her pencil back into its case.

"Come on, let's go! I don't want all the good food to be gone!" The blond tapped his feet, obviously getting impatient.

"All right, all right!" Aoi rolled her eyes and stood up. Without another word, the two left for the kitchen.


Once they got there, they saw that Kisame had prepared shrimp and crab.

"It smells delicious!" Aoi tilted her head. "I didn't know Kisame-san could cook."

"Neither did we," responded Deidara. "Pein-sama assigned each of us a day to cook, but since we got lazy, we made Hidan do it just to annoy him. His cooking is shit, though, so I have no idea why we still make him prepare our meals. One day, Kisame no danna got tired of burnt food, so he cooked instead. Let me tell you, his meal was one-hundred percent better than Hidan's."

"Damn right it was." The shark-like man smirked and cracked his neck. "Just don't expect this all the time; I have better things to do than live in the kitchen like a wife."

"I'm glad you chose today to cook," Aoi said quietly, so quietly that Deidara assumed that she was talking more to herself than to Kisame. "I'll have a nice birthday dinner. Well, belated birthday dinner, since it was yesterday."

"It was your birthday? We should celebrate with explosions!" The bomber smiled, itching for an excuse to blow something up.

"If you do, I want to be there for when Kakuzu rips your limbs off because of all the money he'd have to spend on damage repair," Kisame snickered.

Deidara grimaced at the image. The Taki-nin was relatively quiet, but if his precious money was messed with, the best-case scenario was that someone would be severely maimed. He decided that now would be the best time to change the subject. "So your birthday was yesterday, Aoi-chan? Homesick?" He didn't see the brunette display many emotions, and was interested to see her reaction. His smirk drooped a bit when the girl's eyes hardened, making their grey color seem steely.

"Homesick?" she chuckled. "I'm actually not sure. I miss my parents, of course, and my freedom, but everyone else?" She paused, tilting her head. "You probably already know this, but I really wasn't liked in my world. I was the school weirdo, the freak. It's my fault, I suppose, for preferring the arts instead of being obsessed with the latest fashions and the hottest guys." She looked straight into Deidara's visible eye, the intensity of her stare surprising him. "Don't pity me, though; I'm not some whiny damsel in distress, nor some brat looking for attention. I didn't cry over the fact that I didn't have friends, nor did I complain. I embraced the solitude, and used it to advance my artistic skills." She paused, clenching her fists. "As for me being here, I guess it's destiny. I know you really don't care about me, and I should feel the same about you, but I do care. I know too much about you to be apathetic. I might be only a tool for this organization, but I accept my fate." Some of the ice left Aoi's eyes, and she lowered her head.

The blond was, for once, speechless. He expected Aoi to cry, or at least complain that she was celebrating her birthday with a bunch of criminals who didn't give a damn about her, but instead, her response was so…cold. Despite his supposedly-uncaring attitude, Deidara was good at picking up on the emotions of others. He knew that, in contrast to her words, the constant loneliness hurt her deeply. She must be desperate for companionship if she's so willing to latch onto us.

"Dinner's ready!" Kisame's voice boomed, shattering the emotionally-heavy moment. Aoi blinked the remaining coldness out of her eyes and cracked her neck.

Soon, everyone who ate walked into the kitchen, and sat in their usual seats: Pein and Konan sat next to each other, Kisame sat across from Itachi, and Aoi was sandwiched between the Uchiha and Deidara. Tobi, of course, sat next to Deidara, while Zetsu sat across from him. Hidan and Kakuzu's seats were empty, reminding Deidara of how much quieter the meal would be without the immortal's constant swearing.

The blond—as well as the rest of the organization—was shocked when he saw Sasori enter the room. He never came to meals; he didn't even have a seat at the table. But the redhead just walked over and sat in Hidan's chair.

"Nice of you to join us, Sasori-san," said Pein. Deidara saw that even his leader was surprised.

"Yes," he said. "I wanted to see what you actually do at meals."

Deidara narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to make of this situation. He started to have an idea, but the notion was so unlike his partner that he dismissed the thought and concentrated on getting the most shrimp he could before Kisame took it all.

After dinner, Sasori decided to go back to his room rather than help clean up. The rest of the Akatsuki—minus Pein and Konan—cleared off the table. Since Kisame cooked the meal, he didn't have to do the dishes this time. Instead, that duty fell on Deidara and Itachi.

Great! I'm stuck with Uchiha? The blond shook his head angrily. I have no luck!

Neither the bomber nor Itachi noticed that Aoi had left the kitchen, with Tobi leaving after her…


Aoi really didn't want to get dragged into washing the dishes, so she decided to leave before Deidara and Itachi saw her. She found herself walking down an unfamiliar hallway, and realized that she had made a wrong turn somewhere.

"Looking for your room?" a deep voice asked.

The brunette whirled around, coming face-to-face with Tobi. "W-what do you want, Tobi-san?" she stammered. Obito decided to make himself known to me. This is bad.

"Cut the crap, Aoi-chibi, I know you know who I really am," stated the masked man.

Aoi decided to play dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about. What's the matter, Tobi-san? What happened to your voice?"

Before she could even blink, the older Uchiha had one hand tightly grabbing her neck and the other on her forehead, forcing the back of her head against the wall. "I know you know who I really am, so why don't you stop acting dumb and tell me what else you know. I have a feeling Itachi held back some information he gleaned from you. While he might be good at lying, I could see it in your eyes the moment you started talking. You know all about the bijuu, and my plan."

Aoi shook her head. She told herself that she wouldn't reveal anything to Obito and damn it, she would stick to her word.

The hand around her neck got even tighter, and it was becoming difficult for her to breathe. "I could always use Mangekyo on you," Obito pondered aloud, "but what fun would that be? I want to make you scream in reality, telling me what you know when you can't take the pain anymore."

"Reality? Like when Kakashi killed Rin?" Aoi managed to cough out. She realized she went too far when the slightly bored look in Obito's visible eye twisted into one of pure rage. Before she had time to brace herself for pain, the masked man threw her against the opposite wall. Her head spun, and she found that she couldn't get up.

"I wonder how your leg would break if you fell down the stairs. What would the angle be?" Without hesitating, Obito stomped on her leg, grinding the heel of his foot against the now-broken bone. Aoi screamed, her vision going blurry from the severe pain. She reached her arm out as a weak gesture of defense, but it was kicked away. She screamed again when her leg was moved, feeling the bone poke through her skin.

"Scream all you want," sneered Obito. "This particular hallway is soundproof. Now be smart and tell me everything!"

Even though she was in pain, she shook her head. She didn't want to betray Konan, Nagato, or the jinchuriki.

"Are you masochistic, or are you just stupid?" hissed the older Uchiha. "Pein won't let me kill you, but he said nothing about interrogation."

Aoi still shook her head. She was not going to let herself be the weak captive who ruined her allies' plans because she couldn't take a little torture.

Suddenly, a burst of pain exploded in her stomach, and she realized that Obito kicked her. Coughing violently, Aoi felt her head spinning, and her vision blurring even more.

"It seems as though you're more loyal to Nagato than I thought you'd be." the masked man mused aloud. "I'll try again later."

Aoi felt herself being kicked in the stomach once more before passing out.


Once Aoi was unconscious, Obito roughly picked her up and carried her into the main hallway. This would have been the perfect opportunity to deliver the girl to his contact, but since he wasn't with the rest of the Akatsuki, he would be placed under suspicion if she were to have disappeared. Soon I will get what I asked for. I just need to wait for the perfect moment to send her to him. The masked man stopped thinking when he reached his destination: the stairs leading up to the storage closet hallway. He carelessly dropped the girl at the foot of them, making sure she was facing the proper way before leaving. Grabbing some towels and a bucket of water from the nearest bathroom, he proceeded to clean up the blood from his unsuccessful interrogation.


Deidara was annoyed. Not only did he have to do the dishes with Itachi, he also was roped into watching some stupid documentary about sharks with Kisame. Then again, everyone else watched it too. Everyone but Aoi. He was puzzled as to where the girl went; he expected to hear from her sooner. "Hey, Sasori-danna, do you think the girl got lost, un?"

The redhead, who was walking with him, just shrugged. "How should I know?"

The bomber was about to say something else when he saw something, someone, lying at the foot of a staircase. "What the hell?"

Aoi was unconscious, her leg bent at an impossible angle. Deidara noticed that some of the bone poked through her pants, and that her injured leg was surrounded by a small pool of blood.

"Trust the stupid girl to fall down the stairs and knock herself out." Sasori rolled his eyes, nudging the brunette with his foot.

"I don't know. Would her bone break that severely if she just tripped, un?" Something in Deidara's gut told him that she didn't just fall. He knelt down and picked her up. "I'm taking her back with us."

"Do what you want; just don't bother me."

When the two got back to their room, Deidara placed Aoi on the ground on her back. He wasn't a medic-nin, but he wanted to look at the wound. He rolled her bloodstained pants up to her knee and tilted his head. "Hey, Danna? Could you come over here, un?"

"I told you not to bother me, brat!" Despite his supposed indifference, the puppeteer ended up walking over to the blond. "What is it?"

"From this wound, doesn't it look like someone stomped on her leg, un?"

Sasori knelt down, narrowing his eyes to study the injury. "You are correct. Are you suggesting that someone broke her leg and dropped her by the stairs to make it look like an accident?"

Deidara nodded. "And look at her neck. It's all bruised." He pointed to the dark, finger-shaped marks encircling the girl's throat like a demented necklace. "Isn't she supposed to be our source of information, un? Why did someone want to hurt her if she could be of use to us later?"

"I do not know. All I know is that everyone watched the documentary with us. Everybody but one."

"That's right. Tobi wasn't there. You think that idiot did this?"

Sasori stood back up and shrugged. "He's an honorary member of this organization for a reason; he has to be dangerous. Maybe the childish act is all a façade. Or maybe he thought he was helping us out by trying to interrogate her himself. Whatever the reason, I will bring this up with Pein-sama; I doubt he will be happy that one of his rules was broken. None of us were supposed to harm her."

"Can you at least fix her leg before you go, un?"

"I am not as good of a medic-nin as Kakuzu-san, but I will try." Kneeling back down, he placed his hands on the wound and closed his eyes. Slowly, the bone slipped back into its proper place, though the area still remained swollen. "That's the best I can do, at the moment. She'll have to wait for Kakuzu-san to heal the rest." He shook his head. "Stupid girl."

"I don't think it's her fault, un." Deidara was puzzled as to why his partner was more irritated than usual.

The redhead said nothing, only getting up and sauntering out of the room. He slammed the door behind him, and Deidara just rolled his eyes. What a drama queen.


*EDIT 2014*:
Now the story is starting to reach a point where I am editing less and less, since, once the 2012-edited 2010 chapters end, I'm happy with the way the chapters were written in 2012/2013.

Anyone else peeved at Obito right now? I know I am. …Then again, Aoi taunted him with the whole reason he became corrupted, so that was a stupid idea on her part. I hope everyone was in character, and I hope this didn't suck.

Also, I hope Aoi doesn't seem too emo-ish. I just wanted to make her seem cold because she conditioned herself to act that way.

Kisame's favorite foods are shrimp and crab, so I decided that he'd cook a meal with both shellfish.

I had Deidara address Kisame as Kisame no danna because he uses this honorific in one of the Shippuden omakes. I thought it was really adorable, so I wanted to include it. ^^