Deidara had been in the Akatsuki exactly one month, to the hour. The blonde stared intently at the clock on the wall before him, tapping his finger on his knee impatiently. He'd never been one for anniversaries before, but somehow he thought that this one would be more…special.
The Akatsuki itself wasn't all that special, that was for sure.
He sighed, eye still on the ticking hands. In thirty-three minutes it would be a full month since he got in. A full thirty-one days. One full cycle and four days of the moon.
One month in this hell.
"Deidara-kun?" There was a soft knock on his door. Even without the voice, he knew it was his actual partner (not that stuck-up redheaded bastard); she was the only one who ever knocked. Sasori just walked in like he owned the place, Kisame and Kakuzu would kick the door down, the one time Hidan came into his room he cut through the door (with his scythe which he somehow had gotten back), and no one else ever came in.
"Yeah?" He called back, not moving from his position. At three forty-two it would be one month. Thirty-one minutes to go.
Life in the Akatsuki was…surprising. Surprisingly docile, surprisingly domestic, surprisingly quiet, surprisingly casual, surprisingly boring. Deidara had done absolutely nothing for this past month, aside from bicker with Sasori and the orange-masked freak. (Whose name turned out to be Tobi. The Iwa-nin was still trying to figure out what kind of name it was.) Sasori had done nothing but argue with him about art and complain about his 'total and utter lack of any fighting ability', and none of the other members had disagreed. As the newbie of the organization, he felt like a black sheep.
But the Hyuuga girl had made it bearable. Officially, she was his subordinate, as she couldn't be in the group itself. It drove him crazy on a regular basis, but he'd have to live with it. At least until some other member died and left an opening behind. Unofficially, however, she was still his true partner.
The kunoichi in question opened and closed the door quietly behind her. She stood nervously in front of him for a few moments, twiddling her fingers, then stepped hesitantly over toward his bed and sat down on it beside him. Her dark hair was yet again tied back, unlike his own. (He was lazy that morning and left it down. Every member he'd met in the hallways and random rooms of the hideout had been sure to comment on it.) "Are you…alright?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Twenty-seven minutes.
Deidara sighed and hung his head. He then allowed himself to fall sideways, leaning on her shoulder and wrapping his arms loosely around her waist. "This is not what I had expected, yeah. I liked the no-rules thing of being out of the Akatsuki. And I haven't even gone on any missions or anything. My art is suffering because of it, yeah!"
"Well…it hasn't been that long. You're still new to it. It will get better." The Hyuuga said slowly, as if unsure.
Then again, how can she be sure? She's not the one who wanted to get into the Akatsuki, he thought with a mental sigh. He felt pretty selfish, dragging her into all of this. But she hadn't left, right? That had to count for something.
"How are you faring?" The blonde asked, rubbing his head against her side.
"Well enough. It seems I've been recruited for kitchen duty more often than other members…not that I'm complaining." Her voice had a smile in it, at any rate. That alone made Deidara smile as well. At least someone was having fun here. "And I haven't seen Itachi, so that's good." She added in a lower voice. He winced; so she was still having nightmares…
"Nightmares still, yeah?" He asked, sitting back up to look into her white eyes. "I thought you said that they stopped."
"They've been…slowing. I don't have as many, I mean…" She looked down instantly, biting her lip. He noticed the dark rings around her eyes, and wished he knew some sleeping jutsu for her. "It's really alright. At this rate, they'll stop soon."
"Didn't you say that you don't have any nightmares with me, yeah?" He asked, adding this to the long, growing list of why he hated Uchiha Itachi. She nodded, looking shyly up at him. "Then just sleep with me tonight. I'll talk to Itachi tomorrow to see if there's some way to get rid of emotional trauma caused by his eyes. That's if he hasn't died on this mission, yeah." Deidara snickered evilly. He was fond of the leader's 'killing allowed' rule, though he'd just have to train a bit longer to get on par to where he could enforce it.
"N-No, I'm fine. Really." She blushed lightly, frowning. "You shouldn't talk that way about your comrades…"
"Comrades that have tried to kill us, yeah. Plus Leader-sama said that we can kill other members, anyway… That Uchiha has been bugging me since day one." He glanced at the clock; twenty minutes to go. The navy-haired kunoichi followed his gaze, though clearly didn't catch on to the countdown. "Have you seen Kabuto at all?"
Her gaze hardened into a glare, but she kept her eyes on the clock. "No. I haven't, and I hope I don't ever again." Both of them were still pissed at the medic, needless to say. Sasori was sure to mention him at least weekly, if not daily, and point out the fact that they were both naïve enough to trust him so flippantly. It only rubbed salt in the wound. It went unspoken between the two that the next time they saw him, it wouldn't be pretty.
"I wonder if he's dead yet…" He murmured idly, sliding back down to lean his head on her shoulder. "Aren't you bored, yeah?"
"It's not boring, really…it's more…docile. It almost reminds me of home…" She bit off the end of the sentence, feeling him stiffen. He didn't need reminding of such things now. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that, you know that…" She hastily added. "It reminds me of a real home. There are people you like, and people you don't like, but they're all together on it, and there's always more complex and deeper relationships and rationales beneath it all…"
"Yeah, I guess." He said shortly, still irked. Deidara sat up once more, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly. "Do you still miss Konoha, yeah?"
"I can get used to it here." She replied simply, avoiding the question. "It's nicer than what I would've thought."
"Do you miss Neji?"
The kunoichi looked down into her lap. Slowly, she nodded, her dark hair shielding her face from his view. The blonde looked at her for a moment, head cocked. Then he reached down and pushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear, trying to look into her eyes. He was bored enough to attempt this.
"Wanna find him, yeah?" The Akatsuki member asked in a casual voice.
She jolted up, white eyes locking with his own blue one. Unspoken gratitude, shock, and a blender full of other emotions streaked across her face, and she hesitantly ducked her head once. Whether or not it was a nod or merely the beginning of tears, they would never know.
"You have someone else to find, brat." Sasori stood in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the frame. The redhead looked as bored as always, but then again, they'd only known him a month. He probably always looked that way, and they just couldn't discern his emotions and expressions from one another. "Leader-sama has given us your first mission."
-.-.-
The mission was simple.
In theory, anyway.
Sasori informed them both of it, and the way he made it sound, it would only take a few hours. In reality, it could easily take days. They were to infiltrate one of the five great shinobi villages, and kidnap the Kage. He would then be assassinated with one of the leader's techniques; the puppet master was vague on that part. Get in, capture the target, get out alive. It sounded simple.
But of course, kidnapping a Kage wasn't going to be simple.
What made it worse was that it was the Kazekage. Of Sunagakure. Gaara of the desert. Hinata had seen his skills and power first-hand, and it was terrifying. Three years would've only given him more strength, and then there would have to be the ANBU and the jounin protecting him and the village to contend with.
"A-And we have to complete this with the th-three of us…?" She asked in a whimper. Gaara was a demon in a fight. He was a thing of nightmares. How were they going to take him down?
Sasori gave her a withering look. From the while she'd been with them, it hadn't been hard to notice that he didn't like her. (Then again, he didn't like Deidara, but he seemed to loathe her.) "Oh. You're going to be coming along, then. That will make four of us, though I doubt you'll be much help in a fight."
"Who's the third, yeah?" Deidara broke in irritably, scowling at the redhead.
"That would be me." A new voice replied, and Sasori rolled his eyes. The other two looked over to the doorway, which was, again, open to reveal someone they didn't want to see. Adjusting his glasses, the silver-haired medic smirked.
Hinata and Deidara didn't waste any time. Neither of them had been lying when they said that the next time they saw Kabuto it would get ugly. Sasori noticed his blonde partner getting up and restrained him before he could do anything, but once again underestimated the Konoha kunoichi. She jumped to her feet, took the two steps needed to cross the room, and glared up into the spy's eyes. Kabuto raised his eyebrows expectantly. He received the hardest slap across the face she could manage, and then for good measure, a Juuken strike to the chest.
She felt someone's arms around her shoulders, restraining her from further harming the medic-nin. Kabuto straightened back up, wiping blood from his mouth, smirk gone and glaring. "I hadn't expected my return to be very welcoming, but I hadn't expected the sweet little Hinata to brutally attack an ally."
"You're no ally of ours, yeah!" Deidara shouted from behind her, still held back by Sasori. Hinata looked up to who was restraining her. The heiress held back a shudder; it was one of Sasori's many puppets. It looked down at her with blank, dead eyes.
"According to Sasori-sama I am." He replied coolly, running a healing hand down his front to fix any internal injuries she might've gotten lucky enough to give him. "I am going to be needed not only as the medic-nin, but also for information and infiltration. Though…with Hinata here, Sasori-sama, we may not need to risk that."
"What are you saying?" The monotonous Akatsuki member asked, his voice dangerously low. There was a dull thud, and then he added, "You can hit me all you like; it won't hurt me."
"I haven't even accepted this mission, yeah! And I'm not going anywhere with that traitorous bastard!" Deidara shouted, "Let me go!"
"I don't think so."
"What did you mean, Kabuto?" Hinata asked, morbidly curious about what he meant as well. The puppet's grasp on her slowly loosened, and when its arms finally dropped, she stepped back to show that she wouldn't attack the spy again. Yet.
"As far as I know, Konohagakure hasn't broadcasted your kidnapping to any of the other villages. So as far as Sunagakure knows, you could be visiting the village on your own mission or for political reasons. After all, as the Hyuuga's heiress, I'm sure you have enough political power to stop a lot of people from asking questions." He explained, the smirk returning.
Evidently Sasori had released Deidara, because the blonde's sandal flew across the room and narrowly missed Kabuto's head. "You really think Suna-nin are that stupid, yeah?" In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Hinata had to suppress a giggle.
"And why are you defending Suna-nin, Deidara?" Sasori asked calmly, though there might've been a hint of amusement in his voice.
"I--uh--I'm not! Yeah!" He snapped, though he was obviously flustered by the question. "Jeez, I thought you would've said something like that, anyway!"
"Deidara, you're an idiot. We're missing-nin. None of us like our home villages, aside from you and possibly the kunoichi." There was a definite tone of amusement now. Hinata turned and pushed the puppet aside, sitting back on the edge of the bed on the other side of Deidara. They weren't going to get anywhere like this, but it was almost funny how the world's worst killers could argue about such stupid things.
"Yeah, well…this organization is crazy, yeah. I'm not even going to try to argue with any of you." The Iwa-nin stuck out his tongue, then turned away and crossed his arms. "Let's just get this stupid mission over with."
"Deidara, you haven't even asked who the target is. You only know that he's the Kazekage. You have no knowledge of his skills, jutsus, allies or even what he looks like." Kabuto pointed out, amused. "You're going to need a bit more preparation, don't you think?"
Hinata once again tried not to laugh. The Akatsuki was quite surprising about how laid-back it was outside of missions. "Kazekage-sama's name is Gaara. He has the ability to control vast amounts of sand however he pleases. His brother and sister are his main bodyguards when they can be, one of them is a fan-wielder and the other is a puppet user." Sasori smirked at the last sentence. "Gaara is about average height, red, spiky hair, and light green eyes with dark rings around them. He usually carries a large gourd made of sand on his back that can be disintegrated down into that sand to be used as a weapon." She recited, knowing it was severely lacking, but at least she had the basics down.
"Yes, most people could discern most of that at a glance." The redhead said dryly. "You're missing the key points, though."
"Hey, at least she tells me the stuff, instead of talking in circles." Deidara defended her instantly, giving Sasori a push. He received a glare but nothing more.
"We can explain on the way. Sunagakure is about three days away, so we'll be there in two." Kabuto chirped in his normally cheerful voice. (He too received a glare.)
"Yeah right. I don't know about you two, but Bya-chan and I are flying, yeah." The blue-eyed artist sniffed primly.
"You are not to leave your partner, and it would be unwise anyway." Sasori retorted. He crossed his arms, idly examining the nail polish on one of his hands. "And I am not flying on those unstable monstrosities you call art."
The conversation dissolved from there. The pair bickered about art, Kabuto just watched, and Hinata was alone with her thoughts. Their first mission in the Akatsuki…or rather, Deidara's first mission. She wasn't in the organization, and frankly, she didn't want to be. She was fine just the way she was.
This mission wasn't going to be easy, though. Gaara was one of the strongest shinobi she knew, and she'd only seen him fight in Konohagakure. Which meant that he had a limited amount of sand there. In Suna…he could use the whole desert. Plus, he was the Kazekage now. Was that why they wanted to capture him, for informational purposes? The Hyuuga sighed mentally, telling herself not to try to figure out the Akatsuki's reasons. It would no doubt be dangerous to try.
I wonder…just how dangerous will this mission be? she couldn't help but think. As with every mission, there was a chance of death or serious injury, but the mere thought of Gaara seemed to increase that risk tenfold. True, there was two Akatsuki members and a highly skilled medic…but she was just a weak Hyuuga chuunin. She had only just completed her first Kaiten a few weeks ago. If it came to a fight, she wouldn't stand a chance, and she knew it. But there was also little chance that she would have to.
That's what she told herself, anyway.
-.-.-
Sasori had said that they were ordered to leave immediately. So basically he forced them both to pack up their things as he watched, and was hurrying them out the door immediately afterward. Deidara glanced backward behind him, looking back at the clock.
Three forty-two.
The Akatsuki member smirked, and allowed the shorter Suna-nin to shove him out the door.
-.-.-
Next Chapter: The dragon and princess finally have their first mission! Unfortunately, its with a man who's already betrayed them once before, and a Suna-nin neither of them like. But taking down the Kazekage, Gaara…is that possible? How will they fare, or will they be murdered by the demon of the sand?