A/N: I'm interested to see what you guys think of this next chapter.
Threw in some fluff here for fluff-lovers and also got some of Kiri's evil plan unfolding. She has her reasons, but they are yet to be revealed… Anyone hazard a guess?
I don't own Naruto, only my OCs.
Spreading Suspicion
Akira woke up abruptly to the sound of Kiri screaming bloody murder.
'DAMN IT, KISAME, YOU TWO-FACED SHARK MUTANT! GET OVER HERE!'
She sat up, startled, rubbing her eyes quickly before hurrying to her feet, swaying slightly as the blood rushed to her head at her sudden movement. The teal-haired girl blinked slowly as she took in her surroundings. She'd been lying on a soft patch of grass by a small, burnt out camp fire, which she figured had been lit until the early hours of that morning.
Judging by the height of the sun right now, she guessed it was around midday.
'How are you feeling?'
She flinched at the sudden voice, soft as it was, and turned her head to find Itachi leaning casually against a tree.
'I'm alright, thanks. A bit dizzy… What's going on?' She glanced around her, finding no other Akatsuki member in sight.
'I'm trying to avoid getting involved, but I think it goes something along the lines of Kisame taking Kiri's clothes while she was washing in the river over that way.' The Uchiha pointed through the trees behind her, rolling his eyes.
She stifled a laugh at his unimpressed expression and sat back down, wincing as she knelt on her injured leg. Folding the sore leg over the other as she leaned forward to examine the damage.
'We bandaged you up, but it didn't look too bad. Probably some light scarring.' Her companion commented, moving to sit beside her and offering her a clean set of bandages from his pack as she unravelled her current ones.
'Thank you…' She mumbled, concentrating on wrapping them neatly enough to stay in place. 'Where are we?'
'On the border between the Hidden Hot Water Village and the Hidden Sound. We arrived late last night and have been resting ever since.'
Akira's cast her sapphire eyes around the remnants of their camp, her mind wandering to a certain blonde Akatsuki member, whose absence was significantly noticeable. At least it was to her anyway. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as her curiosity deepened, subconsciously stretching her chakra outwards in an attempt to find his familiar signature.
'Deidara's not here. He's gone on ahead to the Hidden Sound to stock up on food.'
The girl raised an eye-brow. 'You left him in charge of food?'
'Not my idea, believe me.'
She smirked at the unspoken mistrust in their comrade, especially where responsibility was concerned. As much as she relied on the blonde in more ways than one, gathering a reasonable amount of food that was both non-perishable and easily transportable, not to mention something that everyone liked, was not his forte.
Two hours passed of lazing around in the cool shade of the forest. Kisame was bored out of his mind, taking every opportunity to annoy the hell out of the redhead, who was still managing to find the time to glare daggers at Akira in between being harassed. Itachi remained impartial to their situation, purposely sitting out of arguments and barely batting an eyelid when the Shark man tried to pry a reaction out of his partner.
Akira couldn't help but feel sorry for herself, trapped in the middle of no-man's land with this lot as her companions.
Not long after the third and final 'discussion' about how tall Kiri actually was had begun, Deidara showed up, throwing Akira a grin when his icy blue eyes landed on hers.
He inclined his head to the side, gesturing for her to follow him and therefore saving her from the two bickering members. If anyone cared, she agreed with Kisame, because there was no way that Kiri was taller than 5'0, although Kiri argued that she was at least 5'1. Itachi watched them go silently as he debated on his own excuse to leave, being thoroughly annoyed by the constant and irritatingly pointless argument. To him, it was obvious Kiri was about 4'9…
Akira followed Deidara as silently suggested, stumbling over an overgrown tree root as she did so and earning herself an eye roll from the bomber. He led her deeper into the trees and across the river that Itachi had mentioned earlier, neither of them speaking as they went. Curiosity getting the better of her, she caught him up to walk casually beside him, sneaking several glances at his expression, though it gave nothing away.
He smirked, knowing the suspense would be killing her and finding it highly amusing that she had so far resisted questioning him.
Finally, letting out a long, audible sigh, she cracked. 'Alright, where are we going?'
He chuckled and shook his head. 'Nope, wait and see, yeah.'
She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. 'We're almost there anyway, I spotted it when I was flying back from the hidden Sound, hm.'
Frowning suspiciously, she gave him a sideways pout but remained quiet, wondering absently how long they'd been walking for. No more than ten minutes, she guessed. Her thoughts travelled to their journey home, which would be when exactly? Had they abandoned their mission in the Land of Lightning? She was pretty annoyed that she'd been knocked out and had to be carried off to safety again, but at least she wasn't totally useless this time, right? She made a mental note to find out what their next move was later and continued to mull over the fight in her head. None of them were exactly prepared for an all-out battle with the Cloud.
She was broken out of her thoughts when the blonde stopped abruptly in front of her and her head collided with his shoulder blades. She stumbled backwards, slightly stunned, and scowling when he raised an eyebrow as if to say 'you're never going to get over that habit, are you?'
'We're here anyway.' He grinned, moving to the side to show her his discovery. Her eyes widened as she gazed upon the scene before her.
In a word, it was tranquil. A neat little clearing had been naturally carved out of the overgrown foliage to make way for a small waterfall pool. She lifted her head to see the top of the rock wall where the water was trickling over. It wasn't a great, rushing waterfall with a series of rapids leading up to and away from the fall, but she liked it. It was thin and quiet, spilling over a pale limestone ledge and into the small round pool at the bottom, which had two narrow streams leading away in opposite directions.
'So pretty…' She mumbled, wandering towards the falling water and leaping delicately onto a rock in the rippling pool. She reached out a hand tenderly until her fingers met the water, pulling back slightly in surprise and turning to Deidara.
'It's warm!' She exclaimed, grinning.
'Well what did you expect? We're right near the Hot Water Village, yeah.' He had moved to sit beside the edge of the pool, with one knee raised and the other folded sideways underneath it.
She jumped down from her rock and knelt down beside him, leaning forward to stare at her reflection.
'I suppose flying comes in handy sometimes, huh…' She muttered, reluctant to admit the benefits of his transport method.
He smirked triumphantly in response. 'If you didn't have such exaggerated issues with balance you'd be much more comfortable in the air…'
'Hey! It's unnatural to be so high up for so long!' She stuck her tongue out playfully, before shoving his arm as well, just to get her point across.
'Whatever, yeah. Call yourself a ninja…'
'Oh yeah?' She patted the water with her hand, flicking it sideways just enough to splash over his leg, laughing when he failed to dodge. 'Well you're reaction times could use a bit of work!'
'Like this?' He half-growled as he jumped up, wrapping his arms around her waist and hoisting her into the air easily, dangling her threateningly over the poolside.
She flailed as she giggled, squealing when his grip loosened 'No, don't! I take it back – I'm sorry! I'm sorry!'
'That's what I thought, yeah…' He sneered, placing her feet back on the ground cautiously, meeting her gaze as she spun in his arms to face him.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she realised how close their faces were, her sapphire eyes locking with his.
For a moment, neither of them dared to move. The smiles fading from their faces as they stared, somewhat calmly into each other's eyes.
Breaking the serenity, Deidara reached up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. 'I, erm, wanted to thank you by the way. For what you did, you know, in the Hidden Cloud, yeah…'
She smiled warmly, eyes softening as she replied. 'I guess I kinda owed you for the last few times you saved me…'
'Try few hundred times, yeah.'
'Har har.' She rolled her eyes, but his expression suddenly sobered as he spoke again, touching his forehead to hers and causing her to freeze.
'Seriously though. Thank you.'
'N-no problem…' She mumbled, feeling her face flush at the contact and suddenly very aware that his arms were still wrapped around her waist.
His eyes slid closed, moving closer so that his lips hovered over hers, brushing against them so softly and so quickly that she wasn't sure if it had actually happened. And then he pulled back, eyes open and glinting playfully as he commented on how easily he could have dunked her in the water if he wanted to.
'Y-yeah, whatever…' She muttered, still recovering then added more playfully. 'You wouldn't have done it anyway…'
'Right, that's it!' Without giving her a second to react, he shoved her backwards into the water, howling with laughter when she rose to the surface, throwing him an incredulous look which swiftly changed to a glare.
'Deidara!' She hissed, making a grab for his arm and successfully tugging him in after her.
She scrabbled to her feet and clambered awkwardly out of the pool before he'd even registered what just happened.
'Get back here!' He yelled, hot on her heels as she made a dash for the forest, picking up her pace as she ran like her life depended on it back towards the camp.
********** Meanwhile **********
'I'm telling you, she can't be trusted! No one else saw that map, she could have been directing us straight into a trap the whole time!'
Itachi rubbed his temples as Kisame snapped back at the pacing redhead. 'That makes no sense! She'd be leading herself into an ambush too if that were the case! Besides she jumped in front of that lightning jutsu willingly, in case you've forgotten!'
'Well maybe that was just to cover for herself, she knew she wouldn't die from that but could see that we were stronger than she originally thought!'
The blue man threw his hands up in exasperation. 'Kiri, you're overreacting. Just drop it already.'
'No, I'm not. Think about it, it all just seems too convenient that a whole army load of jounin were up there waiting for us to arrive. The village was evacuated and everything! Will you just admit that it's possible?! And what about our stealth skills? How else could they possibly have known we were there?'
'Well I'll admit you have a point that it was strangely well put-together… But it's highly unlikely that Akira would have anything to do with it, right Itachi?'
'Please don't involve me in your petty arguments, Kisame.' The Uchiha glowered at his partner, who brushed off his irritated response and turned back to Kiri when she spoke again.
'And the whole thing with the Mist! Why do you think leader really sent us out on this mission? Not because he trusts her with something this important at all, but because those damn kunoichi had been sniffing around the hidden rain for their lost comrade! She has new ties now, given the choice who do you think she'd help? A gang of S-rank, murdering, criminal missing nin, or her new, loving, welcoming family from a village fighting for 'the greater good'?!'
Kisame had to admit, Kiri made a good argument. But despite everything, he just couldn't bring himself to believe that Akira would go behind their backs like that… Could she?
His train of thought was broken when the girl in question darted wildly through the bushes at the edge of their temporary campsite, followed closely by their blonde group member, both gasping for breath and soaking wet.
'What the hell happened to you two?' He laughed, all ponderings on Akira's loyalty forgotten.
'She started it, yeah…' Deidara muttered, ringing out a handful of yellow locks.
'Liar!' Akira accused, crossing her arms. 'He pushed me in first! It was self-defence!'
'Self-defence by pulling me in after you?' The bomber scoffed, scrunching up his nose.
'Well, it was only fair…'
They continued to squabble as Kiri glared, turning on her heel and stomping over to disperse the last of the evidence of their campfire into the forest. Kisame watched her curiously from the corner of his eye.
She couldn't be right… surely? He shook his head and pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Maybe he would ask Pein for his opinion when they got back. It couldn't hurt to be suspicious he supposed.
After all, two years had passed and a lot had changed since then. Everything has changed…
A/N: I was kind of nervous about posting this one, didn't want it to seem too cheesy or rubbish, so let me know how it was and if I could improve!
Till the next time!