Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters within the series. That magnificent privilege goes to the amazing Kishimoto-sensei.
"Look who's come back to the world of the living," Kisame taunted good-naturedly from the living room. I had gotten used to his teasing rather quickly, so I just sighed and trudged over to the cereal cabinet. For an evil organization, this place was pretty normal looking.
I grabbed a box of cereal, a bowl and a spoon and set them all on the counter, tiredly rubbing my eyes to get them to focus. The past few days had been especially trying. Deidara and Tobi had gone out on a mission, and Hidan had gone to meet up with his partner, Kakuzu. All four of them came back within minutes of each other, and two of them were wounded (need I say who? Obviously it was the two most reckless members: Hidan and Deidara).
Hidan's wounds were the less serious of the two, but they were enough that they would've killed a lesser man. It didn't help that he also just had to do his masochistic ritual right after the battle, so he was even worse off than he was before. Of course, since he was immortal, he could heal gradually and still live through the blood loss.
Deidara. Reckless? Yes. Immortal? Not so much. So his wounds weren't as serious to begin with as Hidan's, but the blood loss was substantial enough that he was weakened. When he and Tobi came in, he was being carried in by the masked nin. Tobi was in hysterics, crying that Deidara had lost his cool in the battle and had consequently been critically injured. I had dropped what I was doing and healed his wounds, having him brought to his room so he could sleep and regain his energy.
When Kakuzu and Hidan came in, however, Hidan was walking just fine (well, he limped a little, but he brought it upon himself, so no sympathy from this kunoichi) and boasting how he had single-handedly killed a large group of ninja in Grass Country, to which Kakuzu landed a well-placed and well-deserved punch in the face. The green-eyed nin then proceeded to leave the bleeding and groaning Hidan on the floor in the hallway for one of us to take care of (namely me).
So, I healed Hidan (grudgingly). Seeing as I had to heal both guys from numerous and serious wounds, my energy and chakra levels dropped dramatically. I hadn't even finished my lunch before Deidara had come in, and it was only about twenty minutes later that Hidan had arrived. Exhausted, I stood up from my kneeling position, walked shakily to my half-eaten sandwich, sat down, and proceeded to fall asleep at the table.
After that, I guess it was Kisame that had brought me to my room, because I woke up wrapped in my blankets about twenty-seven hours later.
Which was when I decided I was hungry and I got up, retrieved my breakfast (more like late lunch), and sat down to enjoy a bowl of cereal at four in the afternoon.
"You were out for a long time, Sakura-chan," Tobi noticed.
I nodded, concentrating on eating. When I had swallowed, I said, "It took a lot out of me."
Deidara came in and sat next to me, followed by Hidan (who stood leaning against the doorway). I looked up at the blonde questioningly. "Thanks, un," he said.
I nodded, chewing my energy-giving cereal with fervor.
"Hidan would say thanks, if he wasn't such a stuck up bastard, un."
I snorted and nearly spewed milk out my nose. Tobi admonished his sempai, saying, "Deidara-sempai, that wasn't nice!"
Hidan cussed energetically at Deidara and stormed out of the room.
Deidara grinned.
"Let's play truth or dare!" exclaimed an excited teen on the television. Every one of her friends nodded enthusiastically, giving the affirmative. I looked around the dark living room at the five other shinobi sitting in various spots around the room. Kisame was starting to doze off; Itachi looked like he was already asleep; Hidan glared at the television set; Deidara rolled his eyes and looked at the clock perched on the wall at the far left of the room; and, lastly, Tobi was leaned forward in his spot next to me, staring intently at the game being played out on the television. Kakuzu was nowhere to be seen (I figured he was probably either sleeping or counting his money in his room), and Pain was never downstairs with us anyways (most of the time, everyone thought he was away on a mission or something, because we weren't all allowed to stay in the same place at once. Seven out of the now ten was pushing it).
I sighed.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say Tobi was trying to learn from the young actors, probably plotting up a game of Truth or Dare for us otherwise unsuspecting shinobi.
Ugh.
In any case, it would be interesting to see what would happen.
I walked around the corner into the kitchen to find Deidara and Tobi whispering excitedly. "What the heck are you two plotting now?"
They jumped. For ninja, they certainly weren't very observant of others.
"Uh, uh… Deidara-sempai and Tobi were discussing what we should have for dinner!" Tobi hurriedly explained.
"Y-yeah, dinner, un…" the normally mature blonde stuttered childishly.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, what did you want? I was just thinking about cooking myself something to eat, anyways." This was true. Even though we all lived in the same house, it didn't mean that we all ate together. I normally made myself some dinner around six, and the guys would just pop something into the microwave a little while later.
That made them pause, not long but noticeably enough. I smirked inwardly. Tobi quickly blurted out, "Ramen! Tobi and Deidara-sempai want ramen for dinner tonight!"
I stared. Ramen? "All we have is the instant stuff. But, if that's fine with you…"
"Ramen is definitely what we want, un," Deidara said hastily.
"Okay then…" I went off to find the others and propose the meal plan.
"Kisame?" I called as I knocked on his bedroom door. A muffled 'what' reached me through the door.
I heard scuffling before the door opened, revealing the freakishly large blue nin. "What?" he asked, looking rather tired.
"Well, Tobi and Deidara wanted ramen for dinner, and we have enough instant stuff to feed a small army, so I was wondering if you wanted to join us for dinner?" I asked. It was true. We nearly had a whole cupboard filled to the top with ramen packages.
He blinked once, twice. "Sure, why not." He stepped out of his room and into the hallway, closing his door behind him, to follow me to the next bedroom along the long passage, which happened to be Itachi's.
I knocked once, "Itachi?"
The door opened a few seconds later. "Hm?"
"We're having ramen for dinner… you wanna eat with us?" I asked.
"Aa." I took that as an affirmative, since he did the same thing as Kisame and followed me to the next room, which was Kakuzu's. I followed the same procedure, and, surprisingly, he decided to join the growing entourage. I ended up gathering everyone who was in the house. I even went so far as to invite the leader, but he wasn't home.
I went back to the kitchen, my line of shinobi following me, to find that Deidara had already gotten some packages out of the cupboard. He looked up, startled, at the line of people who flooded into the kitchen behind me, sitting down at the table.
"I should probably get some more out, un…" he muttered thoughtfully.
"Probably. I'll cook them," I offered.
It had been a simple meal, and I found that, even though I was a spy in this strange house full of strange people, it was a rather enjoyable way to spend dinner.
I hadn't realized that it was so unusual for them to all eat together. "We haven't all eaten together… ever. It's… different," Kisame said around a mouthful of noodles. A few of the others nodded.
"Really?" I asked, intrigued. These guys all got along so well together, and yet they hadn't eaten together…at all.
"Tobi likes it!" Tobi volunteered.
After everyone had finished, I said, "Now we just have to figure out who's doing the dishes." Everyone looked around at the mess of bowls and the huge pot that had held the vast amount of noodles.
The same thought entered through my mind as it did Tobi's. "Not it!" We shouted, touching our noses (well, he touched where his nose would be without his mask on, but I digress…). A few quizzical glances from the others and most of them followed suit… except for Deidara and Hidan, who were obviously too manly to even consider such an un-manly act.
"Well, we need a tie-breaker or something," I said.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Tobi shouted cheerfully.
"Aw, hell no!" both Hidan and Deidara said at the same time (only Deidara's ended with an 'un').
"Come on! It's just one round! Loser washes the dishes," I said, then a brilliant idea flashed through my mind. "Unless, of course, you're both a couple of wimps. Afraid of a few dishes, are we? What lame excuses for shino-"
"FINE!" they both shouted rather irately. I tried not to giggle.
They faced each other, glaring menacingly.
"Ready? Set… Go!" Tobi shouted, quivering with amusement. "Uh-oh, Sempai… Paper beats rock…"
"Aw, come on! The soap tastes freaking nasty!" Deidara complained bitterly.
I smiled apologetically. "I'm sure Tobi will help, right?" I turned to Tobi.
He sat still, looked at Deidara, then jumped up. "Of course! Tobi will do anything for Deidara-sempai!" Then he started gathering dishes, muttering something to Deidara when they met up at the sink that sounded an awful lot like "the sooner it's done, the faster we can play… you know".
I blinked, confused and a little worried. That sounded a little… strange.
Haha, I loved that last part! :3 I purposefully meant for it to sound somewhat...un-straight. Just for any of you DeiTobi fans... Which, admitedly, I'm not one of... Anyhoo, I liked this one, but I LOVE the next one. Get ready for awesome over-used cliches! Haha!
Thanks for reading, please review!
Much love,
child_of_the_moon
XO
