To Immortals, Love Lasts Forever
Well, hope this'll be fun… I think I have a trick for Deidara to play… hehe… And problems aplenty for both of them…
Note: If you paid for this, you got ripped off. Where's my cut of the cash, Kakuzu?!
Chapter 25
Short recap: "You're on."
They shook hands, and then settled down to discuss the terms.
"Alright." Chishio started. "First rule. Nobody can know that we're each other. If someone figures it out, then the revealed person loses."
"Okay, un. Second rule: We have to do each other's jobs, chores, and duties, etcetera."
"Yes. Rule three: We'll sleep in each other's beds tonight, and use the Henge-no-jutsu tomorrow morning."
Deidara nodded, but then thought about it. "Hey, you don't have a bed in your room, un!"
She sighed, "I'll take mine out for you, okay?"
"Un. Okay, rule four: You can't ask for each other's help with any daily thing, yeah." He claimed.
"Final rule: You can't do anything… inappropriate with the other's body."
He smirked. "That rule applies to you too, un. And I didn't know that you thought about such things, hmm?"
"I know it applies to me! God, Deidara! Like I'd wanna do anything to your body anyway."
This time he really looked appalled. "Oh, you know that you would've if the rule didn't apply to you, un!"
"Fine, you caught me. Anyway, you agree with the rules?" She asked.
"Agreed, un." They shook hands again, and she stood up.
"Well, I have dinner to make now, so you go… do whatever you were doing. Dinner should be done about six. That's only about twenty minutes. Spread that around." She walked into the kitchen, tootsie pop still lodged in her mouth. She surveyed all the produce and ingredients in the kitchen, while murmuring to herself.
"Frozen shrimp, dry noodles, rice, instant ramen, I don't wanna know, ew, chicken broth, random seasonings, and garlic… Shrimp scampi it is!" (Yum.) She decided, and got the shrimp out to thaw. She pulled out the bag of dried noodles and the cloves of garlic. "I'll have to go without green onions and parsley though." She sighed. "Holy crap there are a lot of mouths to feed… I'll have to make about twelve servings…"
She checked the cupboard, and found a pot, a colander, and a saucepan that looked very rarely, if at all, used. She pulled them out, avoiding an avalanche of other miscellaneous stuff.
She washed them all out to avoid what might've been a plague, and filled the pot halfway with water. Setting that on the stove, she turned the burner on high, and set the saucepan on the next burner. She poured the whole 3 pounds of half-frozen shrimp into the colander, and ran them under hot water to speed up the thawing. While the hot water worked its magic, she poured the 1 ½ pounds of pasta into the boiling pot.
Chishio set the burner to medium-high, and poured in 5 ¼ cups of chicken broth. While that warmed a bit, she smashed and minced six cloves of garlic. Into the broth went the garlic, the shrimp, and ¾ teaspoon of lemon-pepper seasoning. She occasionally stirred the simmering contents of both pots, until the shrimp were fully cooked, and the noodles were right.
She rinsed out the colander, and let the noodles drain while she found a bowl big enough to hold all of the ingredients. She washed the bowl, and poured the drained noodles into it, followed by the contents of the saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, she stirred it all together.
"Simple, and three minutes to spare." She found a cupboard with plates, and pulled down eight of them. "Itachi, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Tobi, Hidan, Kakuzu and Zetsu… Okay, I believe that's all the present members."
She covered the meal with foil to keep it warm, stacked eight pairs of chopsticks on top of the plates, and walked into the dining room to set the table. She found that Itachi was already sitting at the head of the table, reading The Bad
Place, and Deidara was arguing with Sasori across the table about what art really was.
"Chishio, un! What is art!?" Deidara called as she began setting the table.
Without looking up, she answered, "I believe that there are about nine technical dictionary definitions." She said one for every place she set.
"1. My favorite. The creation of beautiful or thought-provoking works, for example in painting, music, or writing.
2. Beautiful or thought-provoking works produced through creative activity.
3. A branch or category of art, especially one of the visual arts.
4. The skill and technique involved in producing visual representations.
5. The study of a branch of the visual arts.
6. Creation by human endeavor rather than by nature.
7. The set of techniques used by somebody in a particular field, or the use of those techniques.
8. The skill or ability to do something well."
She stood at the head of the table opposite the stoic (And still dressed in pink. ^.^) Uchiha, and finished, "And 9. The literary definition: The ability to achieve things by deceitful or cunning methods." She smirked.
Deidara's eye twitched at the flawless, straight-out-of-a-dictionary (Really.) definitions.
"And you can recite that… how?" Sasori asked.
"I told you before, I have perfect recollection." She smirked as she walked back into the kitchen. She grabbed the bowl, pulled off the foil, and tied her hair back into a low ponytail. She also found one of those slotted pasta spoons, and walked out after giving that a good washing.
"Ebi Sukanpi. That's Japanese for shrimp scampi." She announced as she walked into the now-full dining room. Chishio walked around the table, giving them generous amounts. When she finished, there was one shrimp left in the bottom of the bowl.
She stood once again at the empty head of the table, picked up the shrimp, and announced, "Itadakimasu." She tossed the shrimp in the air, and caught it in her mouth.
There was a chorus of "Itadakimasu," And they all dug in. They murmured praise between bites, and soon finished.
"How was it?" She asked them.
"Dude, you're better than Sasori, and that's saying something." Kisame admitted.
"Thank you, Kisame-san." She nodded, and picked up the plates, as they scattered throughout the base.
She dumped the dishes in the sink, and sighed. Just then, Hidan decided to make another appearance.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I'm stuck with dishes now," She answered simply.
"I'll help, I guess." He sighed.
"Thanks…" She said awkwardly.
They washed and dried in an awkward silence. Finally, he couldn't take it. "Chishio, you know I still love you, right?"
She chewed on her lip before answering. "That's what I thought… But now I'm not so sure, Hidan."
"Well, what was it that I did to make you doubt me?" He looked her in the face.
She didn't meet his stare. "I suppose… I was just having a bad day… and the whole thing with Deidara made me realize, maybe I don't love you. I mean, for as much as we've been through, what we've said, what we've done… I've only known you for about ten days, and you might've figured out I'm not the type of person to rush into things… I'm starting to wonder whether joining the Akatsuki was a good idea in the first place. I mean, I've had a lot of fun here, but one of my recent talks with Leader made me realize, this organization, 'Akatsuki,' was created for the sole purpose of capturing the jinchuuriki, and extracting the bijuu. And for what? To use them as threats for world domination."
By now, all the dishes were done. "I guess… I see your point, and understand how you came to that conclusion. But you can't quit Akatsuki now. If you were to even try, you'd be hunted down, held captive, and eventually they would try to kill you."
"You know, I considered leaving Akatsuki very seriously that night. I eventually decided against it, and I'm not sure just how much of that decision was influenced by guilt. Half the time I spent curled in a ball, hoping for a death that wouldn't come. I'm sure you've had times like that, too.
"You realize that everyone you know is dead or dying, while you stay the same, never changing, and having to move a lot because of it. You're lucky if you can stay more than a few years in one place. it gets troublesome and annoying, especially waiting for a village to forget about you, so you can re-enter it… though I guess you didn't really have to deal with that much, since you were a criminal already, huh?"
She was surprised Hidan could wait so quietly through her rant. When she finally looked into his face, his eyes were distant, and he wasn't seeing her, but another far away memory. She decided against seeing it with him, and turned away, headed for her room.
"Hey, Chishio! Is that a tattoo?" Hidan called, snapping out of the trance.
"Hidan, after all the time we've spent together, you just realized the giant tattoo on my back?" She asked, surprised.
"Well I'm sorry I don't spend my time ogling you like a certain artist. Can I see?"
"Come to think of it, Deidara hasn't noticed, either… anyway, we'd have to go to my room if you want to see the whole thing."
"No objections here," The silver-haired immortal smirked.
She glared at him, but continued toward her room. As they reached the door, she unlocked it and stepped inside.
,`~,`~,`~,`~,`That's chapter 25,`~,`~,`~,`~,`
No W00T for short chapters… so busy lately… can hardly type… YaY cookies… next one… should be longer… need straight A's… Gotta go… Bye!!!