Chapter Five

'I really just wish they would stop, I don't think I can take much more of this.'

"Nakiro, you're doing it again." Nakiro blinked dumbly, her red eyes shifting and meeting a pair of onyx ones.

"Doing what?" she questioned.

"Shifting." the boy replied.

She groaned quietly, focusing her thoughts on calming down before her chakra copied her actions, her hair changing back to the cobalt blue color she'd grown accustomed to wearing over the past few weeks. She raised her head from her shoes, finding those same onyx eyes on her again.

"Nani?" she pressed, Itachi merely tilted his head to the side as he stared at her.

"I've noticed you do that when you're lost in thought." he stated, she nodded a little in agreement.

"I guess I'm just stressed out." she mumbled, swinging her legs in the air.

"Nande?" he pressed. She didn't respond immediately, unsure of how to word it but smiled when Itachi placed his hand on hers, he always knew just what to do to put her at ease. "Kiro."

"Oka-san and Otou-san." she admitted. "I feel like they're mad at me or something."

"For what?" he asked, sounding concerned. Nakiro sighed softly, shrugging her shoulders halfheartedly. "As far as I know, you haven't done anything."

"I don't think it's that kind of mad." she started, her smile widening when he squeezed her hand. "It's like, I feel like they're mad because their pacifist child is the prodigy."

"It's so much pressure." he commented, moving an arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah." she agreed. She scooted closer to him, leaning her head against his cheek as they stared out towards the water together. "They keep yelling at Kuriko, telling her to get it together because she should be stronger than me. It's not like she doesn't try, she trains all the time. It just..."

"Comes easier for you." he finished, squeezing her shoulders.

"Exactly." she sighed. "No one gets it."

"I do."

"I know, you're the only one that does." she pondered, playing with a strand of her hair. "Why do you think that is?"

"Because we're the same." he replied, his voice calm as always. "We have the same curse, we understand the world for what it is."

"I feel older than people our age." she murmured, Itachi nodded in agreement.

"I graduated the Academy at 7, you graduated at 8. I may be promoted to Anbu soon and you're going through the Chunin Exams. There's a reason for that, there's a reason why we are the way we are." he stated. She blinked curiously and turned her eyes to him, hoping that he knew the answer. "I don't have the answers Nakiro."

"Demo Itachi-"

"I know it's unnerving." he whispered, cupping her cheek. "We'll figure it out the way we do everything else, together. I'll always watch out for you."

She felt her cheeks heat up under his hand, flushing darkly when she saw the warm look in his eyes. She could see the way he understood what she was going through, how much pressure she was dealing with, he was the only one that could after all. He was dealing with the same things back at home, all the pressures of growing up too fast, they weren't even able to act their age when they had the chance to, it just felt abnormal to them at this point in their lives. She knew he felt the same way that she did, older than what they really were. They'd already seen more than their fair share of horrors in the world and knew what the life of a shinobi was truly like, it was pain and suffering.

"Itachi?" The young Uchiha turned his eyes to his best friend, watching the small smile come to her lips.

"Hai Nakiro?"

"I'm here for you too, forever. Don't forget that." she said, a smile came to his lips.

"Never." he agreed.

Nakrio opened her eyes tiredly when she felt a light prod against her side, turning over on her side. She let out an inaudible groan when she saw the time and closed her eyes, burying her face in her pillow. It was far too early and she wanted to go back to that place in her dreams, back to when things were perfect, back to him. How was a girl to win?

"Kiro-chan."

She felt a shiver run up her spine at the soft voice, her body froze when she felt a hand placed on her lower back, fingers tracing her spine through her clothes. She managed to move her face out of the pillow and turned, blushing darkly at the sight of Deidara. No matter how many times she'd told him not to wake her up this way, he still did it every morning, he was always in her bed when she awoke.

"Ohayou love." he purred, running his fingers over her side.

She felt her cheeks going warmer when he wrapped his arm fully around her waist, pulling her to snuggle up next to him. She sighed silently and nuzzled her head against his chest, smiling a little at the thought of his sweetness, at least he'd try to make sure she woke up in a good mood.

"Sleep alright hm?" he murmured, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. She shrugged at the question, managing to find the courage to meet his gaze, immediately regretting it when she saw the cocky grin on his lips. "I would've slept much better if you would've been next to me hm." She shook her head, she had drawn the line there, he would not be sharing the same bed with her any time soon. He chuckled softly at the look on her face, seeming slightly amused. "Can't blame me for trying hm." he chuckled. "So, I figured today we could try to meet up with some shinobi for another contract, we've been laying low for a while hm."

She nodded in agreement, knowing that they needed some type of work relatively soon. Considering they were going to be working together regularly and always traveling together, they'd need more money to keep up to par with their expenses. The last contract had been especially easy so she assumed that there would be very few, if any, that had any sort of risk to them. Their biggest enemies were shinobi that knew them as missing nins, Deidara being the one that was more easily recognized, they just needed to keep avoiding anyone that would ask questions. Speaking of questions, she was curious what he'd managed to gather about Orochimaru back in Yamagakure. Nakiro scooted away from Deidara, tapping her throat. She pursed her lips when he let out a groan, tugging on her waist.

"Can't we just cuddle for a few minutes hm?" he whined, she shook her head.

He let out another groan before releasing her waist and moving up from the bed, crossing the room to the table she'd left her book on the previous night. She quickly sat up in the bed, running her fingers through her turquoise hair, trying to untangle it as best she could while Deidara retrieved her book for her.

"Things would be much easier if you could talk hm." he commented, offering the book to her. She nodded in agreement and flipped to a clean page while he resumed his seat on the bed next to her, she began writing.

Once I find Orochimaru then it won't be a problem anymore.

She moved her eyes from the page when she felt a soft tug on her hair, smiling softly when she noticed Deidara was carefully running a brush through it, she'd never had a man brush her hair before. She could feel a blush rising to her cheeks when he moved his visible eye from her hair, blushing even darker when he met her eyes, an overconfident smirk on his lips. She swallowed the lump in her throat and showed the page to him, trying to defuse the awkward situation as best she could. She watched the confused expression come to his face as he read over her statement, his sky blue eye flicked to her red ones.

"Matte, he did this to you?" he guessed, she nodded once. "I didn't think it was possible to take someone's voice from them hm." She shrugged, unsure how the Sannin had managed to develop a jutsu capable of that but she was determined to make him release it when she found him, she wasn't going to be mute forever. "What happened hm?" She turned her eyes back to the book, writing.

I'm not entirely sure of the handsigns he made for it, I didn't even know he was there until I turned around but when I did, there was this green light around his hand. It was different than the light from medical jutsu, off in a way but he wrapped his hand around my throat and after the pain subsided I realized my vocal chords didn't work.

Deidara furrowed his brow as he read over her words, looking deep in thought as she watched him. After a long silent moment, he raised the brush, going back to running it through her hair.

"It has to be something advanced hm." he noted. "It's not just that you can't talk, you can't make any type of sound. You don't make noise when you cough, yawn, even when you look like you're giggling there isn't anything but silence hm."

So the more we find out about him, the closer we are to finding a way to reverse this.

"Right." he agreed. "We'll have to see what we can find out in each village we pass through hm." Nakiro bit down on her lower lip in thought, had he managed to find out anything worthwhile back in Yamagakure? She turned her eyes to his face and moved her hand from her lap, pressing a finger to his cheek to gain his attention. "You won't be happy, it's not anything really extravagant hm."

'I still need to know, tell me.'

She poked his cheek again, urging him to tell her what he'd found out.

"All I was told was he joined some group not too long ago hm. I'm not sure where it's home base is but they've been seen traveling in two, sometimes three man teams, take on contracts like we do, I'm guessing everyone in the group is considerably strong hm." he began saying, pushing his bangs off to the side. "That's all I managed to find out hm."

She nodded a little, this just made things all the more complicated for her. If he was part of some group, then that meant that she'd have to go through the process of keeping them all out of the way while she dealt with the Sannin, she wasn't so sure they would just allow her to kill off a member within their ranks. It looked as though she was going to have to deal with quite the volume of people but that wasn't going to stop her, she was determined to make her goal a reality no matter what it took.

"We'll find out more hm." Deidara's voice snapped her back to reality, she lowered her eyes to the bed when she realized he had finished brushing her hair and had taken on the task of braiding it for her. "Shinobi that are well known like he is always have people talking about them, we'll figure out where he is and get your voice back hm."

She nodded halfheartedly, unsure that it would ever happen but she had to stay positive. Deidara was more than willing to help her and it helped relieve some of the stress she carried, if they did this together then she was sure that they had a good chance of defeating him. She'd get justice for her family as well as getting her voice back, all she had to do was be patient and wait for the right time.

"So what do you think of finding some work today hm?" She nodded in agreement, a small smile coming to her lips when he draped the braid over her shoulder, the longer layers of her hair framing her face. "Kami." he murmured, tilting his head to the side. She blinked curiously, her cheeks going pink when he ran a finger down her cheek, moving some of her hair from her face in the process. "You are so beautiful hm." If it had been possible to choke on air she would have, the sincerity in his voice had her stomach flipping, was she growing attracted to him? She cast her eyes down to her book, quickly writing.

I need to go ahead and get dressed if we're going to look for work.

He nodded in agreement after he read over her words, a grin coming to his lips.

"You always change the subject when I compliment you hm." he chortled, sounding amused. "Fine, go ahead. We can get some breakfast beforehand hm."

She nodded again and handed her book off to him, bouncing up from the bed to collect her clothes for the day. She rummaged through her bag, a small smile coming to her lips when she happened across an outfit she used to wear during her off duty hours back in Konohagakure. Being in the Anbu corps hadn't allowed it, she'd had a specific uniform to wear during her missions but had she been able to wear anything, this would've been her first option. Perhaps it was time that she started feeling like a shinobi again, rather than a refugee. She quickly grabbed her clothes and entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind her before ridding herself of her sleeping attire, going about putting on her old outfit. She turned her attention to the mirror, looking over herself curiously, it'd been at least a year since she'd worn this outfit.

Her dark violet top had no sleeves or straps, wrapping around the top part of her chest in the way a sports bra would, completely covering her breasts but showing off her torso and stomach. Connected to the back and sides of the top was a longer cream colored part that fell behind her to the backs of her knees into a point, it covered her sides and part of her hips as it angled behind her, there were strings positioned under her breasts that she had tied in a bow under them. She was wearing a pair of dark violet shorts that fell above mid thigh length, she used to put her headband around her hips over her shorts. She had wrapped some bandages around her right leg where the shorts cut off so she could attach a weapons pouch there if need be. She had on a pair of knee high cream colored socks with her shinobi sandals on her feet, she had a dark violet arm band wrapped around her left arm above the elbow to complete the outfit.

She smiled a little in approval, feeling a little more like her old self and pushed her braid over her left shoulder, usually she didn't wear her hair in any specific style but Deidara had been kind enough to do her hair, the least she could do was wear it for a day. She exited the bathroom finally, peaking around one of the walls at Deidara. She watched him silently as he counted out what they had left of their earnings, they hadn't spent too much so she was sure they could make it by for a good while but that didn't matter, the more contracts they took on, the closer they would get to Orochimaru. She knocked against the wall, Deidara looked back over his shoulder at her face since it was the only thing visible to him.

"Ready to go hm?" he questioned. She nodded a little and stepped out from behind the corner, trying not to be self conscious about her outfit. She felt her cheeks heat up when Deidara's visible eye widened, his eye darting in all directions over her, studying her appearance. "Wow, didn't know you were going to dress up for me hm." he mused, a cocky smirk forming on his lips as his eye found hers. She lowered her eyes shyly and scurried across the room, grabbing her book and held it tightly to her chest, Deidara was at her side in an instant. "Let's go."

She nodded in agreement and they exited the room together, making their way down the hallway of the inn and out the front door side by side. She could've swallowed her tongue when Deidara's arm wrapped around her waist, his hand resting on her hip as he pulled her to walk closer to him, her face was burning. She took in a slow breath as they walked side by side down the street and glanced up through her bangs, watching Deidara look around the area, observing the small village. They weren't very far from Kusagakure but they hadn't wanted to chance entering a larger village considering that Iwa shinobi were still scouring the lands, looking to bring Deidara into custody, they'd just have to settle with a small contract this time. She tilted her head to the side as she watched some shinobi enter a smaller pub on the road, she turned her head to the blonde bomber and tugged at his hand.

"Nani?" he asked, she pointed towards the building. "Good idea, it looks like more of a place for travelers hm."

She nodded in agreement, walking next to him in the direction of the small pub, hopefully they could find some decent work in there. Her cheeks went warm when Deidara's arm tightened around her waist as he opened the door, leading her inside. Her eyes wandered around the room, it wasn't nearly as loud as the pub back in Yama but it was definitely crowded, there were mercenary looking shinobi from wall to wall. She glanced up when the bomber tugged on her waist, walking across the room with him to a smaller booth area, taking their seats side by side. She wasn't sure how Deidara planned on going about finding a contract to take on but at least one of the shinobi in here had to know who he was, especially since he was a rogue shinobi.

"Any ideas on what you want Kiro?" She shook her head and turned her eyes to the menu sat on the table, looking over it curiously while Deidara ran his knuckles up and down her arm. "Kiro-chan." he purred, she felt her stomach flip. "You're attracting quite the amount of attention hm." She felt her cheeks flush hotter, wishing she could sink under the table and hide until the place emptied out. "Would you like me to take care of it hm?" he murmured next to her ear.

She nodded a little, wanting nothing more than people to stop gawking at her, the unwanted attention put her on edge. She felt her heart stop in her chest when Deidara slid an arm around her back and pulled her closer to him, his lips pressing against her cheek once, her face reddened just as quickly.

'He made it worse, the flirt.'

She bowed her head, resisting the urge to glare at him behind her bangs, that wasn't 'taking care of it' in the slightest, he'd planned that. She pursed her lips and pointed out what she wanted to eat, the cocky grin on Deidara's face widened when she met his visible eye. Try as she might, her legs were trembling at the look on his face, how did he manage to look so seductive all the time? She blinked dumbly when he leaned in close to her face, her face growing hotter as he grew closer to her before finally stopping a few inches short of her lips.

"Good job." he murmured, almost too quiet for her to hear. "We've got company hm."

'What does he-'

"Ooi, we want a word with you." Nakiro moved her eyes from Deidara, finding the faces of a few mercenaries gathered around their booth, all of their eyes were locked on the blonde. "We heard you take on contracts."

'Jackpot.'

Author's Note: And there we have it! Another chapter done! I seriously can't even contain my excitement for all the future chapters I have planned for this story. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Till next week lovelies!