Love is Blonde
By Maria Szabo
Chapter Ten
(Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and his publishers. This is a work of fanfiction, and no profit is being made save that of enjoyment.)
Something was up. Something was up and she was in big trouble. Something was up and Yamanaka Ino was going to have to use all her wits to get out of this one. It was her own fault, she admitted to herself ruefully. She'd been distracted by her attraction to Dei-san and had forgotten that these two strangers, friendly though they seemed, were still shinobi from another country and potential enemies.
Possessing Tobi had been easy but staying in his mind was proving to be a real trial. He was strong. Physically strong, mentally strong, and a lot stronger than he looked. His mind roiled under the blanket of her jutsu. There was amusement, at first, and then a frightening burst of power, but he couldn't quite throw her out. She had Sakura to thank for that, she supposed. Ino had swallowed her pride after the first Chuunin exam and had asked Sakura to train with her, because she'd never heard of anyone breaking the Shintenshin no jutsu before. Her father had said that it had only happened to him a couple of times, and always, it seemed, with people he knew quite well. Tobi's mind was bursting with anger, but Ino was able to hold onto it, if barely.
It took a few minutes to get used to the long stride of his larger form and it seemed that he had some sort of eye jutsu, for his vision was one of the oddest things she'd ever experienced. She wondered briefly exactly what exactly his power was. On a weaker subject, she might be able to delve a bit into his memories and see what information she could extract, but with Tobi, it was all she could do to maintain control of his body.
Don't panic, she told herself. Just get yourself out of danger and then report these two. She might not be able to handle them by herself, but there was no way these guys could stand up to a team of Leaf ninja.
"So where are we going, hmm?" Dei's voice broke her train of thought. He was trailing behind Tobi, sticking to the shadows. The red light of his mechanical eye glimmered through the curtain of his hair.
She felt the blood rush to her face when she saw her body cradled in his arms. Thank the gods, she thought, that Tobi likes to wear a mask. It would have been more practical for him to sling her over his shoulder, but instead, he nestled her gently against his chest. "The hospital," she replied.
"Are you insane?" Dei stopped and shifted her to a more comfortable position. "You idiot! She might not have recognized us, yeah, but don't you think someone else will?"
What's this? She thought. "But it's just a hospital…"
"Yeah, and who do you think gets the most injuries? The jounin. You may feel all safe with that mask and all, but you can damn sure bet I'm going to be recognized. Didn't she say Kakashi was there?"
At Kakashi's name, Tobi's mind went into high turmoil. Ino concentrated hard to keep from being thrown out. "Sempai…"
"Shut up. Just shut up." A frown creased Dei's handsome face. "It's Kakashi you're after, isn't it, hmm? You were asking plenty about him earlier. I don't know what kind of grudge you have against him, but it's gonna have to wait. Let's get back to the hotel. We can't stand in the street arguing about this all day, yeah."
"But the girl?" She had to get away. Even if they just dumped her in the street, she could release Tobi and then get some help.
"She comes with us, yeah," Dei smiled down at her unconscious form. "If anyone asks any questions, she just had too much to drink."
Ino cringed inwardly when she saw where they were going. The Five Frogs Ryokan was not one of the more reputable inns in town. Then again, the good ones were filled up with all the people who came into town for the Chounin Exams.
The rather sleepy-looking old man who was sitting at the front desk suddenly perked up with interest as they came in. She recognized him as one of her uncle's shogi buddies. Surely he'd recognize her…
"What's this, then?" his eyes slid suggestively over Ino's sleeping body.
Dei gave him a knowing grin. "My friend had too much to drink. I'm bringing her back to sleep it off, yeah."
"Uh-huh. And you?"
Maybe it didn't matter what Tobi and Dei planned to do with her, because the minute her father heard about this, she would be dead. "I'm…helping."
"I'm sure you are." The old man ducked his head a moment, as if in thought, and then he looked up at them with a shrewd smile. "That's the Yamanaka girl, you know."
Dei actually dropped a kiss on her forehead. "Yeah, I know. Pretty, hmm?"
"I'd hate for her father to find out about this…"
"How much?"
"300 ryou and I never saw a thing."
In her anger, Ino almost let Tobi's mind slip from her grasp. He reared up, punching, jabbing, seeking escape. She concentrated hard, pushing his consciousness back down. A kick on the leg interrupted her.
"Pay the man," Dei hissed.
Frantically, she patted down Tobi's pockets. Surely he had money somewhere? Nothing in his pants pocket, but she felt a bulge at his chest and pulled out a wallet. She pulled out 300 ryou. Should she say something? She should say something…
"You owe me, Sempai."
"Oh, don't worry," He winked at her. "You'll get your share, yeah."
The old man at the desk gave them a friendly wave and Ino swore that she'd find a way to get him back once this whole episode was finished with. She glared at him behind Tobi's mask and followed Dei to the stairwell.
"Tobi! Up here! Did you forget where the room was?" Dei's voice sounded annoyed, and he shifted her body in his arms a bit. "Open the door for me, hmm?"
"Yeah, of course." Tobi's voice was a bit strained. Ino hadn't quite gotten the timbre of it, but she hoped she was close. "Do you think the landlord suspected anything?"
"Hell, yeah. Why do you think he asked for extra money?"
"Then he'll leave us alone…"
"No he won't. He'll report us. I would, too, if it were me. We need to grab our stuff and get out of here."
"What about her?"
"Leave her here, yeah," But Dei's voice trailed off as they entered the door.
The room itself was unremarkable, a plain room of medium size, but standing by the window was a tall figure, swathed in the same kind of black-and-red cloak that she had seen Dei and Tobi wearing when they first met. However, it seemed like the man's head was engulfed within a large, leafy collar and his face was bisected dark green and white.
"Took you long enough, " the man said in a whispering echo. Then his voice changed to something almost metallic. "What do we have here? Did you bring me some supper?"
"Nothing for you, Zetsu-san." Dei kept a tight hold on her body, despite the fact that he was standing next to a chair where he could have set her down. "So have they arrived or not?"
"Yes," the whisper again, and then the growl. "Is that a hostage of some sort?"
Ino thought she had better say something to get the man off of the subject. "We were gathering information," she offered, "about the mission." Not that she knew what was going on, but it seemed a safe lie.
"Mission? Here? Are you angling to go after the Kyuubi again, Deidara-san? Itachi won't like that, not at all. He's rather possessive of that creature. Home village advantage and all that."
"Screw what he thinks, yeah. Besides, I thought our esteemed Leader had assigned Hidan and Kakuzu to take that on?"
"That has yet to be decided. So this girl knows something of the Kyuubi then?" The green man slid closer, a hand gently reaching out to touch her unconscious face. "Something we could use?"
Dei yanked her body away, fiercely. "I told you, the girl doesn't matter, yeah. Now where are we supposed to meet?"
Zetsu looked bored. "There's a stream-bed with a waterfall, some three miles from the village."
"That monument, you mean? The two guys in stone?"
"Gods, no. That's way out of your way. No, I meant the one off the road going towards the Mist Country. Kisame and Itachi are waiting for you there."
"Got it. And you?"
"I go where I am sent."
"What if I told you to go to Hell?"
Zetsu just laughed in a queer, hollow echo. "You'd be too late, Deidara-san."
The shadows of the room seemed to deepen and engulf the man.
"Whatever, yeah."
"Tobi-kun, you should keep an eye on this one." The metallic laughter hung in the
air long after his body had disappeared.
Dei finally set her body down, draping it gently on the chair. He rubbed his left arm, scowling fiercely. "Well, now that's done it. We gotta get going, yeah."
Her mind was reeling. Deidara. His name was Deidara. She knew that name, but where had she heard that name before? He said they were meeting Itachi and Kisame—the meeting earlier this week, the Hokage had mentioned them. And there were two others mentioned: Deidara of the Earth Country and Sasori of the Red Sands. But Sasori had been killed and his partner Deidara had fought Kakashi and was presumed dead.
Of course. Dei. As in Deidara. He was part of Akatsuki. She'd stumbled on something huge.
"Tobi, what did you do with my clothes? I had them on the balcony…" Deidara of the Earth Country did not look so dangerous now, as he stripped off his yukata and stalked across the room, passing her by to peer into some baggage set in the corner. He actually looked a bit vulnerable, naked except for the red loincloth covering his privates. A part of her smiled at that. The girls were always making bets, trying to figure out what kind of underwear the men were sporting. Dei didn't seem like a traditionalist to her, but one never knew…
And then she stopped herself right there. This man wasn't Dei, wounded bodyguard of the Tsuchikage. He was Deidara, of the Akatsuki, and everything he told her was probably a lie. She needed to take him down and get her information to headquarters.
"Here they are, finally!" The clothes had been laid across the bed, along with the colorful cloaks the two men had been wearing when she first met them. "I guess you found a dryer then, hmm?"
"Um," she answered, just to have something to say. How to manage this? Tobi was fighting her, so she couldn't use jutsu. He was bigger than Deidara, so she might be able to beat him in a physical fight, but she had no idea of his power and she was not that familiar with Toby's body. Plus, she would still be vulnerable after the transfer back…
"What the hell are you staring at, hmm?" Deidara had dressed quickly and was pulling his hair back into a ponytail. "I thought I already told you, I'm not into men. Get your things together! We need to go!"
There was another pile of baggage a few feet away from the things that Deidara had been looking through, so she assumed those were Tobi's belongings. She rolled them up neatly into a bundle and then took the larger of the two cloaks on the bed. Deidara grabbed his own cloak and swung it about his shoulders. He fastened it from the inside. Ino saw the fixture in Tobi's cloak and got it secured.
"Don't forget your hat, stupid."
She looked around, and Deidara, growling in exasperation, threw the hat at her, that strange, conical headdress that looked like something from out of the Rain country. She slipped it on and then looked down at her own body, slumped on the chair.
"Grab her, will you? I gotta concentrate for a moment, yeah."
"What? I thought we were going to leave her here, sempai!"
"Zetsu saw her."
"So?"
"So? You know what he's like!" Deidara glared at his partner and then shook his head. "We'll take her with us, yeah. We can dump her on the road. Those Leaf shinobi have got plenty of patrols around, someone is bound to find her. She doesn't know anything important." He almost sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
Ino wasn't about to argue, so with Tobi's large hands, she picked her body up and slung it over her shoulder. It was an odd feeling, toting herself around, but there was no time to think. She followed Deidara out onto the small balcony.
He had pulled some clay out of a bag slung around his waist. He closed his hands around it and she could hear chewing sounds. Of course, she thought, the mouths on his hands. He closed his eye in concentration and then opened up his fist to reveal a small clay bird. The detail of the sculpture was exquisite. He set it down and made some hand motions and the bird began to grow.
"Here, gimme the girl."
"Sure, sempai."
He took her body and carefully set it on the tailfeathers of the clay bird. He pushed them around her, securing her. He climbed on the back of the bird and held his hand out to Tobi. "C'mon."
"I'm supposed to ride that thing?"
"Don't be such a pussy. We can't get good altitude with all this weight, but it'll get us over the walls and to the meeting spot. It was just dumb luck that we got into the village in the first place, hmm? We can't be seen leaving, yeah."
She followed him up and nearly lost her hold on Tobi as she concentrated the chakra in his knees so that he wouldn't slip off. A few hand-signals later and they were in flight.
"Keep a good grip," Deidara cautioned as the bird lifted rose high above the village. "If you fall off again this time, I am not going to go pick you up, yeah."
"I won't fall, sempai." She muttered as she concentrated both on controlling Tobi's chakra and his mind. His mask hid the tears that ran down his face with her effort.
Deidara, on the other hand, seemed relaxed. "I kinda wish I could have flown over this place by daylight. The lights make an interesting pattern, don't you think? That first Hokage of theirs must have been quite the artist."
Tobi's rage magnified. Ino choked as she struggled to keep him in check.
"You know, if we're going to continue to work together, you have got to do something about that airsickness of yours, yeah."
Ino realized just how fortunately she was that Deidara's contempt for Tobi kept him from picking up on her possession. She glanced behind to see her inert body wrapped in the tailfeathers of the flying sculpture. Her hair was whipping in the wind—it would take her hours to comb it out properly later. They flew in silence for some twenty minutes, until they closed in on the clearing that Zetsu had mentioned.
Deidara adjusted something on his mechanical eye. "Okay, I see them, just ahead," he shouted to her over the wind. "It won't be long now, yeah."
No, Ino thought, not long at all.