A/N: You guys have no idea how terrible sorry I am.
it's been like, amost two weeks.
I'm a horrible person, I know, my deepest apologies.
I do have an excuse though! (however frail it might be)
It's getting close to summer, meaning exams, the end of the spring sports season, exams, banquets, exams, school assembly planning meetings, summatives, rich assessment tasks, AND exams!
How horrible is that?
plus my computer died for a couple days.
SO not my fault.
Anyways, skipping by that.
I really dislike this chapter.
It's important yes, but I feel I have rushed it (greatly)
But the girl introduced, I HAVE mentioned her before.
Check chapter three, middle-ish if you're confused.
This is slightly longer though (:
And my reviewers seem to have dissappeared again.
-Sigh-
Thanks for those who reviewed,
and thanks for tolerating my super long author's note.
Enjoy number 12.
Disclaimer: nuh-uh.
"Stop right there, ladies. Hand over all your money and we won't break your pretty little necks."
Layuki glanced up from her conversation with Kyoko and stopped in her tracks. In front of them were four rogue ninja, presumably bandits. She smirked. "I wondered when you bastards were going to come out. If you guys want to try stealth, I suggest you learn how to, you know, be stealthy."
A vein popped in the closest man. He was heavyset, but would have a handsome face if it weren't for the mud. "Cocky, aren't you, little bitch? I like my meat like that."
"Disgusting." Kyoko snorted, shaking her head. Then to Layuki, "Should I take them, or do you want to?"
"Pleasure's all yours. I'm not in the mood." Layuki yawned and stretched as she sat down next to a conveniently places tree beside the path they were on. "Plus, I wanna see what you can do."
The four men laughed, sending sneering remarks their way. Kyoko took something out of her pouch, threw it, and did a hand sign. There was a blinding flash of light and within the minute, the men were unconscious on the ground, their clothes scorched.
From the tree, Layuki gaped at the scene for a moment, and then shut her mouth. She stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder again. The other girl was already several paces ahead and she jogged to catch up. "That was pretty sweet. Interested in telling me what you just did?"
"You could call it a type of gunpowder." Kyoko grinned and took out a small bottle to demonstrate. "It's a hell of a pain to make, you don't want to know the details. But with the right amount of chakra, it goes boom."
"Boom. Yeah, that's for sure." Layuki said, vaguely reminded of Deidara's explosives. Then she remembered she needed to ask Kyoko something. She'd ask later. "I knew someone who worked with explosions. They're really pretty."
"They are. I love the colour they make. It's like art."
With a feeling of déjà vu, Layuki said, "Really now? I've heard that somewhere before. It's quite an explosive art."
"Mmhm. Art is a bang."
Now where had she heard that before?
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Four days after they left Sunagakure, and two after the bandit incident, the two girls could start to see the thick forest of the Fire Country slowly turning into the grassy fields of the Lightning Country, meaning that their destination was close.
Layuki sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Hey Kyoko, since we're here, do you wanna ditch the mission and say we did it anyways?" When she got no reply, she waved her hand in front of the other girl's face. "Hello…? Anyone home?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. What did you say?" Kyoko replied, apparently coming out of her daze.
"Never mind, it was nothing." Layuki put her hand over her eyes and squinted. "Hey, I think I can see a village. Let's stop there and ask the people, you game?"
Kyoko nodded, and they stopped at a large rock, putting down their backpacks. Ten minutes later, they were dressed in kimono's – different from the one that Kyoko originally wore – their hair, in Kyoko's case, was down, and they began to walk to the gates, like normal un-shinobi travellers.
"Hey Layuki, can I ask you something?" She began quietly.
"You just did, genius. But I will allow you to ask me one other thing." Layuki replied, trying to pay attention and not trip over the hem of her long robes at the same time. "Jeez, how the hell do you walk in these? They're like freaking death traps."
Ignoring the last part, Kyoko said, "Can you keep a secret?"
Layuki paused for a moment to think. "That's a pretty general question. Are you asking if I'm able to keep a secret, or if I will?"
"Er, both?"
"Then yes. I can. And assuming that you're going to tell me a secret, think of this. I've known you for four days. I don't know your past, you don't know mine. We're not exactly friends yet, mere acquaintances." She paused to let her words sink in. "How many people are in on this secret?"
Kyoko grinned sheepishly, "Well, Layuki, I only want to tell you the secret because of something that you said earlier. And…well, if I tell you three people will know. I think." She said.
Layuki regarded the brunette wearily. "I don't want to know." She said, looking up to the sky. "Because, I'm assuming this secret is important – three people can only keep a secret if two of them are dead. (1)I'm not liking those odds, sorry."
The other girl giggled. "You make no sense."
She smiled. "I do in my head. You shouldn't trust people so easily."
Kyoko stopped laughing and adorned a serious look. "What if I tell you the secret is about Deidara?"
A heavy silence fell over them. "Well, see, that changes things." Layuki said, in an equally serious voice. She looked over in the direction of the village; it seemed further away to start with. Obviously, they weren't going to make it before this conversation ended. "If you want to tell me, then shoot. I'm all ears."
"My real name isn't Hashigiwa – well my surname is Hashigiwa, but anyways – my real name isn't Kyoko." She paused and looked at the other girl with piercing green eyes. "I'm Hashigiwa Aniki."
Layuki tilted her head. "What's that got to do with Deidara?" She looked directly into Kyoko's – Aniki's – eyes, and her mouth suddenly made a near perfect circle. "Oh."
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"Deidara-sempai! Deidara-sempai! Let's stop here!"
The blonde sighed and put his head in his hands. "Tobi we don't have time to stop, yeah. We still have to find your jinchuuriki, yeah."
Tobi frowned – well, Deidara assumed he frowned, but the orange mask allowed no facial expressions. "But Deidara-sempai," He whined, "we've been walking for days and I'm tired. I don't wanna sleep outside again."
"Fine." He grunted. "We'll stop here. Only until tomorrow though, yeah."
After both putting on their straw hats, the duo walked into the quaint little town on the border of the Lightning and Fire Countries.
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"Right, so – " Layuki started.
"Anyways – " Aniki said at the same time. Both girls looked at each other and gave a crooked smile. "You first then."
Layuki nodded and tried to choose her words carefully, which she usually never did. "So you're Aniki, not Kyoko." When the other girl nodded, she put her head in her hands and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh Kami, this is problematic. I wondered why you looked familiar. Seriously though, I never wanted to meet you. Ever."
"You're so sweet." The brunette replied dryly. "It's still a mystery to me what he sees in you. You're just a little brat that can be found on any street."
Layuki scowled deeply. "Should you really be calling me a little brat? You're fifteen too, aren't you?"
Aniki furrowed her eyebrows. "What gave you that idea? I'm nineteen, the same age as Deidara."
The other girl's eyes widened. That was unexpected. "Well then. So I'm actually kinda surprised that you haven't, you know, attacked me or anything. Or are you still in the process of planning that?"
"Nah." Aniki smirked. "I don't care. Me and him are though."
"Really?" Layuki said quietly, "Because you're still the most important person to him. You should have seen the face when I was you."
"Excuse me?"
Layuki smiled weakly. "Oh right. The first time I met Deidara, I henge-ed into you. It's kinda a thing between my and my sister, we're sorta the types to make people feel bad about themselves. 'Cause if you had a special bloodline, you might as well use it, right?"
"Yeah, me and Deidara…we kind of have a history." Aniki started. "Well not really, but we were really good friends when we were your age."
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"Dei-kun?" A slightly younger Aniki called out. She stopped in front of a closed door and hesitantly opened it. She sighed when she saw Deidara. "What are you doing now?"
The blonde stopped halfway out the window and grinned back sheepishly at her. "I'm going out, yeah. Okaa-san took away my clay again."
Aniki sighed and leaned her thin body against the doorframe. Her hair was shorter – just past her shoulders – but it was still styled in honey-brown curls. The tan of her skin was only slightly lighter than the mahogany wood behind her, which made her green eyes even brighter and more catlike than normal. She still wore a fighting kimono, except now it was longer and a pale green rather than white.
Fifteen-year-old Deidara looked virtually the same. Slightly shorter and minus the Akatsuki cloak and nail polish. His hair was shorter as well, but still in the same high ponytail. He wore a simple netted shirt and pants, both in a neutral bluish beige colour. Yet his Iwagakure hitai-ate hung slightly off his belt instead of on his forehead.
"You're going to get in trouble again." Aniki said, sighing. "You're mother is going to kick you out soon."
"That'll be an improvement, yeah. At least then I'll be able to make my art in peace, yeah." He said, stepping off the windowsill and back into his room. "What kind of mother is she, anyways?"
"She's better than having no mother at all."
Deidara looked over at the girl. "Sorry. I forgot, yeah."
Aniki rolled her eyes. "Like you so often do. Besides, where'll you go if you do get kicked out? Last time I checked you haven't heard from your father in years."
"I haven't, yeah. Though I wish I could contact him to figure out what good these things are for, yeah." He leaned against the wall and held up on of his hands, making the mouths open in a vicious grin. "Other than biting people's ears off, yeah." The girl giggled at the memory of their last mission. "And as to where I'll stay, yeah, I'll move in with you."
"Then I'd better make some space." Aniki said jokingly. "Because now that you're a chuunin, it won't be as easy to lie about your missions as before. Why don't you just tell her anyways?"
Deidara scoffed. "Cause she'll disown me for sure, that's why, yeah. You know okaa-san hates shinobi, yeah." He looked out the window six stories above ground, which overlooked the Village of the Rock.
Aniki tilted her head and walked over to him. She grabbed his arm and led him out. "Come on. I'll buy you some clay, my treat. Besides," She grinned. "You'll get in trouble it you steal anything else."
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"Aniki!"
The sixteen-year-old girl looked up from her work on her exploding concoction at the sound of her name. Deidara had burst through her door and was breathing heavily. Taking off her work goggles, she said, "What is it now?"
"I found out, yeah. I found it out!"
"Found what out?" She was genuinely curious now. Deidara grinned and proudly showed her a clay model of a bird – much better than usual, even when they were usually nearly flawless. "Wow, how'd you do that?"
Still grinning, he held out his hand and showed her the mouths on them. "They're finally good for something, yeah. The kinda just eat the clay and spit it back out like that, yeah."
"Sweet. I bet you could make money out of that."
"I could, yeah." He grinned. "But that's not all I figured out, yeah."
Aniki tilted her head. "What else?"
Deidara grinned and re-swallowed the bird. Once the mouth spit it back out, he did a hand sign and said "Katsu." There was a large red flash and a wave of heat. Aniki had to practically throw herself in front of her gunpowder so it wouldn't get over heated and explode.
"Shit, Dei-kun, that's some fancy business." Aniki said, dusting herself off.
If possible, his grin widened. "Art is a bang, yeah."
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"What do you mean you're going away?" Aniki said asked quietly. The two were eighteen now, and much had happened in the last two years. First of all, Deidara's mother had found out of him being a shinobi, it wasn't pretty. After a year or so, he disappeared for a while, and returned as a terrorist. Aniki on the other hand, was a jounin and a successful one at that. "You mean you'll be back, right?"
Deidara shook his head. "Nah. I'm joining the Akatsuki, yeah. There's no coming back from that." He grinned, but sadly. "Take care of yourself, yeah. I hope we'll see each other again, yeah."
"Yeah…" Aniki repeated with a weak smile. She stepped forwards to hug him. And then moved her face up for a kiss. Nothing unusual, they'd been together for nearly a year. "I'll see you.
"Look happier, won't you? It's not like the village will miss me, yeah." He said, patting the top of her head.
She snuggled up next to him. "No, but I will."
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"We saw each other again a couple times, two or three. The last time was almost a year ago, and I called it off then. And that's that." Aniki finished. She sighed. "Looks like we're finally here."
Once inside the village, Layuki said, "Then I guess that only leaves one course of business left uncovered."
"And what's that?" Aniki said, stretching her arms above her head.
Layuki smiled wryly. "To decide which one of us will have the honours to finish this mission."
A/N: (1)"Three people can only keep a secret if two of them are dead." That's actually a quote my Benjamin Franklin. I liked it, so I put it in (:
Anywayssssss
I know, it's a twist.
What happens now?
And what about Gaara?
OOooh the suspense!
Thanks for readingggggg!
I will try to update soon!
And the more reviews I get the sooner I will update!!
Ciao,
fanny-kun
