Chapter 26: Clay Sculpture Arc - The Broken Pencil Issue
Okay, it took me waaaayy too long to finish this chapter. However, I ended up missing my yearbook deadline, which completely sucked me dry of my motivation for writing literally anything. However, I'm back, slowly recovering from my major writer's block.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except for my OCs and the plot!
Kaiya's POV
"Just great! Another one broken after just six weeks?"
I glared angrily at the broken mechanical pencil in my hand, which I had accidentally pressed too hard on. The force of my grip was enough to snap the fragile thing in two, like I usually ended up doing every single year in some way. However, I was especially upset about this pen, since not only did I manage to break it in such a short time, but it had been my favorite out of all of them.
Oh yeah, and it was my only pencil, other than a stubby wooden one that I kept in my backpack for emergencies only. Which meant that I needed to get a new pencil before school started again.
It was almost the end of October. In addition to my need to replace the broken pencil, we still had to pick Halloween costumes. The Akatsuki probably needed some, too, since I thought that it would be a great night to spend with them.
And that, my friends, was exactly how all of us ended up at the local mall. Although there were other malls, I absolutely refused to drive, no matter what the father malls had to offer.
"What is this busy place?" asked Deidara. "There are so many colorful shops everywhere, and the place looks like it's packed with people, un. Is something going on?"
I chuckled. "Nothing's going on, silly. This place is the mall, and it's a perfectly normal day right now. There are not that many people here as I had originally thought there would be, so consider ourselves lucky."
Kisame's eyes widened. "You mean that there could be more of them? Don't all of the shop owners have trouble keeping track of everything?"
"Not really," stated Naoki plainly. "There are usually more than two workers, so they should be just fine. Besides, this is their job until they get fired or quit. They should be used to it by now, unless they recently got hired or something."
Kagami, who had dressed up in a soft white dress and had her hair styled in pigtails with a colorful flower garland, paid no attention to the conversation. Instead, she was running around a nearby fountain happily, dipping her hands in the water every now and then.
"Whee!" she trilled, a delighted smile on her face. "Tobi-chan, come join me!"
"Tobi-chan will come join Kagami-chan!" The masked boy clapped and cheered, and was about to rush over to Kagami before Deidara and I restrained him. Naoki and Yukio reluctantly walked over to the fountain and grabbed Kagami, who pouted in protest.
"Look," I told Tobi, "I know you and Kagami-chan want to play right now, but we've got to buy new utensils for school before we play, alright? In addition, we still need a few more things for the house. If Harumi-san and Mayu-chan come back to our house again, then we'll need dusters and stuff to make you guys sneeze and turn back into animals. In addition, we can't keep using those glass bottles in order to spray perfume. In case you guys accidentally sneeze out in public, we'll need portable plastic spray bottles to quickly return you back to normal."
"What onee-chan just said," muttered Naoki to his little sister. "We're almost out of instant ramen and other food as well, so we need that. In addition, the Akatsuki might like the idea of Halloween. They can't go trick-or-treating without costumes, right?"
Upon the mention of the holiday, Kagami's spirits lifted again. "Oh yeah! Naoki-nii-chan, can I be a fairy for Halloween? Please?"
He shrugged. "Whatever you want. I don't know if I want to trick-or-treat or not, but if we're going to, then I'll dress up as Luke Skywalker or something like that."
"What's Halloween?" piped up Tobi, now curious about why his little pigtailed friend and her older brother were so excited about the holiday. "Tobi thinks it sounds fun."
"It is super fun, Tobi-chan!" squealed Kagami. "Halloween is a special holiday where everybody dresses up, usually in scary and pretty costumes. Then, we all go door-to-door and ask for candy by saying 'trick-or-treat'. We usually get a lot of sweets every year!"
Kakuzu seemed to like the idea of Halloween. "So basically, you're conning people to get free candy?"
"I wouldn't say that we're conning people," I answered. "But technically, we all are getting free candy each year. No matter how old people are, it's quite nice to chill out and stuff your face with sugar for just one old-fashioned fright night."
"Can we scare the s*** out of everybody?" asked Hidan, a smug grin appearing on his face.
"Well," I muttered, "I guess you can. After all, it's also a holiday about scaring people and giving them candy, just as long as you don't permanently traumatize little children that are younger than Kagami."
"Count me in," he said, smirking.
"Anyway," I said, "we need to get our supplies and leave, before anybody gets suspicious. Getting through a bunch of teens were easy, but here, there are adults who have watched all of Naruto that are going to question your appearance. I mean, they're probably going to say that you oddly resemble the Akatsuki. And whatever you do—" I gave them all a threatening glare— "Do. Not. Sneeze. Got it?"
They nodded, and I motioned towards the direction of the nearby craft store. "Let's get going, then."
After we entered the store, I showed everybody the two halves of what used to be my favorite mechanical pencil. Studying the broken pencil a few times, the Akatsuki and my siblings immediately began looking for a similar mechanical pencil. Before I joined them, I grabbed a basket from the corner, just in case I found other interesting items in the store.
"Do you want it in the same color as well?" asked Deidara, scrolling through the aisles for the mechanical pencil.
I shrugged. "It doesn't matter, really, but I would prefer another yellow one. Looking at yellow makes me feel happy for some reason."
Deidara held up a light blue mechanical pencil. "Is this one okay, Kaiya? It's not yellow, but it's a mechanical pencil, right?"
Examining the pencil, I hesitantly shook my head. "Yes, but that isn't the correct kind. It uses 0.5 lead, and I need one that uses 0.7 lead. I've got hundreds of 0.7 lead refills, but not a single refill of 0.5 lead."
Somebody tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned around, I found myself staring into the blank eyes of Sasori. In his hand was a large pen with a feathered ornament at the end.
"This isn't a mechanical pencil," he muttered emotionlessly, "but will it do?"
"That looks really nice, Sasori," I told him, "but that's a pen, not a pencil. We aren't allowed to write on our homework by using pens, and I already have a ton of those."
Guiltily, I walked down the nearest aisle, which was filled with small, clear bottles of paint. Picking a yellow one up, I observed the hue that the bottle had to offer, finding myself being drawn to it.
I guess buying some paints as well isn't going to hurt, I thought, placing the bottle and some of the others into my basket. Kagami would probably want some too, since she loves colors so much.
Deciding to grab a few paintbrushes as well, I nabbed a couple and moved on to a different aisle, which contained boxes of crayons. But before I could take a good look at any of the boxes, Deidara tapped me on the shoulder again, holding up a different pencil.
"Is this one okay?" he asked, holding up a purple mechanical pencil that was slightly bigger.
I shook my head. "It's too big, Deidara. It takes 0.9 lead, so any 0.7 lead will spill right out."
He nodded, then walked back towards another aisle to keep looking. Once he disappeared, I returned to looking for a box of crayons for Kagami and Yukio, finally settling on a sixty-four-pack of crayons that contained many different shades of the same colors. I smiled, remembering how much Kagami loved colors.
I was just about to head further down the aisle before a different hand tapped my shoulder. Turning around, I found myself face-to-face with my best friend.
My face turned pink. "Um, hey there, Daichi-kun. W-what brings you here?"
"I was looking for colored pencils, since a few of mine broke recently," he responded. "You?"
"Well, I-I also broke my mechanical pencil," I sheepishly admitted. "I pressed too hard on my homework, and, it just snapped in half."
Daichi snickered. "Exactly how hard were you pressing on that sheet of paper, Kaiya-chan? I've definitely experienced those annoying times when your lead just breaks without warning, but the whole pencil? That's insane!"
I rubbed my head nervously, then showed him the broken halves of what used to be the pencil. "Yeah, I guess I got frustrated on the math test and ended up slamming the lead onto my answer sheet in frustration. And since we also needed some supplies for home, my siblings and I just decided to go to the mall. But still, it's really all for the pencil…"
He smiled at me, taking a mechanical pencil from his pocket and handing it to me. "Here, you can have this one, Kaiya-chan. I found it in a random aisle and bought it for Hideki-chan, but I think you need it more than he does. It's yellow, too. Isn't that your favorite color, Kaiya-chan?"
"Y-yes, it is," I confirmed, blushing even more. "Thank you, Daichi-kun!"
He smiled, beginning to walk away. "You're welcome! See you around, Kaiya-chan."
I stared at the yellow mechanical pencil in my hand, which also used 0.7 lead. As I observed the gift Daichi had given me, I felt a smile come back to my face.
"Kaiya!" shouted Deidara, rushing back into the aisle, another mechanical pencil clutched in his hand. "I found another mechanical pencil, un. How's this one?"
"I already found one," I told him, and his face fell in disappointment, but quickly returned to normal. "Come on, let's go pay for all of the stuff we're buying."
Deidara called back the Akatsuki, and I called back my siblings, telling them that I had managed to find a new mechanical pencil. Walking back over to the counter where the clerk was waiting, I paid for all of the items in my basket, and we all filed out of the craft store.
But as soon as we exited the store, we immediately encountered a problem.
"Just great," whispered Hidan. "I've got to f****** sneeze!"
My eyes widened, and hearing what Hidan had just announced, all of us grabbed Hidan and shoved him along, running out of the building as quickly as possible, trying our best not to attract too much attention. Once we were outside, we ran towards an alley that there seemed to be no people around, just in time for Hidan to sneeze and fill the alley with smoke.
Quickly, I whipped out a glass bottle of perfume that I carried around in my pocket, and sprayed towards where the smoke explosion had occurred, trying to spray Hidan. A second explosion of smoke followed, confirming that I had sprayed him with a blast of lavender perfume just in time.
"That was close," I breathed in relief as the smoke cleared to reveal a rather ticked Hidan.
"Whatever," he growled. "But why does it have to be d*** lavender?"
I shrugged. "It was just whatever worked at the time. Since this was the same perfume that initially turned you back into humans, we kept on using it, just to be safe. I don't want you guys to accidentally spill the beans by not being able to change back by accidentally using citrus or oceanic perfume instead."
"Can Tobi see Kaiya-chan's new pencil?" Tobi asked, looking at the pencil that I was hiding in my pocket.
I nodded. Handing the pencil and a folded sheet of paper to him. "Go ahead, Tobi. Why don't you draw something with it?"
Tobi clapped excitedly. "Yay! Tobi will draw Deidara-senpai with the pencil!"
Taking the sheet of paper and placing it on the ground, Tobi immediately began sketching shapes on the paper, and I laughed slightly, seeing how messily he was drawing. Twenty seconds later, he had finished, and proceeded to show everybody his drawing.
Kagami, of course, praised him, but Deidara grabbed the paper and pencil in anger, his face reddening. "That monstrosity is totally not me, idiot! Work on your drawing skills, un!"
I laughed harder, my eyes fixed on the deformed stick figure that was supposed to be Deidara with two tiny eyes, a squiggly mouth, and a bulbous nose, all out of proportion. The head was about four times too large, and there was absolutely no hair, save for one wavy strand that appeared to be so long that it went off the sheet of paper. The body resembled more of an ant, and included neither feet nor hands.
Tobi shrank back in fear, then took back the pencil and began to edit the drawing. When he finished, he handed it back to Deidara, who paled even more when he saw what modifications Tobi had made.
"A...miniskirt?" he roared, and most of us flinched at the volume he was using before bursting into laughter. "And a hair ribbon? This is not funny, un!"
Without warning, Sasori stepped in and took the mechanical pencil. "If you brats are going to be so childish about a drawing, maybe I should just draw my own version of eternal beauty, for neither one of you possess the skills to make it."
"Give me that pencil, danna!" growled Deidara, snatching it out of Sasori's hands. "I need to show Tobi what a good drawing of me looks like, un!"
"No! Tobi wants the pencil!" the masked boy cried, grabbing the pencil away from Deidara. "Tobi wants to draw something else!"
"Hey!" I growled, attempting to place myself in between. "Knock it off, you guys! I can just get you other drawing tools at home! There's no need to fight over one pencil and rights to a drawing! Stop it!"
"No way," grumbled Sasori, shoving me away. "Not until this brat learns what true art really is. A simple drawing can be eternal beauty, if preserved well."
"I'll show you true art!" Deidara retorted, his hands forming some sort of hand seal. "Katsu!"
An explosion rocked the alley, sending dust and soot flying everywhere. A few of us screamed, but I was too busy yelping that I couldn't determine whose voices they were.
As soon as all of the smoke and dirt cleared, I opened my eyes again, revealing the aftermath of the explosion.
Sasori and Tobi were covered in soot and dust, and so was Deidara, but to a much lesser extent. The Akatsuki were partially covered in soot, but my siblings and I had backed away just in time. Luckily, we had been turning Hidan back into a human in the alley behind some very loud store, so it was likely that nobody had seen or heard the explosion. But rather than the remnants of the smoke that were rising into the air, I was more focused on what was in Deidara's hands.
In his hand was the mechanical pencil...or at least, what was left of it, as well as a tattered piece of paper that Sasori, Tobi, and Deidara had attempted to draw on.
"Dei...da...ra…" I growled angrily, and he slowly backed away from me in fear, realizing that he had definitely gone too far with his squabble with the Akatsuki.
He shot me a nervous smile, which seemed to quickly resemble a smirk. "Uh, I'll get you...another one, un?"
"You better!" I roared, and he flinched at the volume I had used. "Do you realize how hard it was for Daichi to find that pencil in the craft shop? Thanks to one of your silly squabbles, you somehow managed to blow it up with a small pile of clay that you...stole? I don't recall handing you any clay, but whatever! Ten of Daichi's dollars down the drain!"
"Alright, I'll go find it in another craft shop around here, un!" Deidara retorted. "Just let me know when I can stop backing up!"
Huffing, I stopped him, grabbing his shirt collar. "Oh yeah, and take Kagami-chan and Tobi with you!"
Deidara scowled. "Why should I? They'll only jump around and cause trouble, those idiots."
"Are you calling my imouto an idiot?" I thundered, watching him wince. "Just take them with you!"
"Fine!" he growled. "But don't blame me if they get all of us lost!"
I glared at him to show that I was being serious. "I swear, Deidara, if you lose Tobi and my imouto while you're shopping for the items on the list, I will not hesitate to castrate you with a rubber band! Is that understood?"
The boy immediately cowered in fear, and he shivered violently. "O-okay! I'll take care of them, un! But was that death threat really necessary? Do you even know what you—"
"Of course I know what I said!" I retorted, fury blazing in my eyes. "I'm a freaking seventeen-year-old! Now take care of my imouto and Tobi or else!"
He raised a brow at me. "Why Tobi as well?"
"I don't want him causing so much trouble in the costume shop," I responded. "And besides, he and Kagami are hard to separate. He seems to look up to you as well, so you might as well treat him nicely. Perhaps this shopping trip might help all three of you bond better and become friends."
"Friends?" Deidara questioned, as if the word was completely foreign to him. "As if I can be friends with that little idiot, un."
"Just do it!" I growled lowly at him, and he shrank back in fear.
Kagami clapped and cheered, then grabbed Tobi's hand. "Come on, Tobi-chan! Let's help Deidara-san go shopping!"
Deidara sighed, glaring fiercely at me before whipping his head back around and heading towards a different section of the mall. On either side of him, my sister and Tobi bounced up and down, seemingly unaware of what was going on.
As I watched the group disappear towards another section of the mall, Naoki tapped my shoulder, his brow raised.
"You know," he muttered skeptically, "I think that Deidara was right. That death threat kind of wasn't necessary, onee-chan."
I sighed, then looked at the remains of the pencil that Daichi had bought for me. "Perhaps I was a little too rough on him. After all, he was only trying to help me find the pencil the whole time, wasn't he?"
Naoki nodded solemnly. "But then again, being the person he is, it's very common for those types of accidents to happen whenever you bring up art around Deidara, and it gets much worse when Sasori is nearby. Still, maybe you should apologize to him."
"Maybe," I muttered, feeling very guilty all of a sudden. "I definitely was being too harsh, but I don't know how I can apologize to him, Naoki-chan. He looks like he's totally ticked off at me."
"What's wrong with a simple—" Naoki started, then stopped. "Oh yeah, forgot that he's an S-rank criminal. It might take a little more than just the s-word to be able to accept your forgiveness. Plus, that threat you gave him...oh geez, onee-chan. I didn't even know that you could come up with something like that."
I shivered, remembering what I had said to Deidara. "Neither did I, honestly. Was I really that angry over a mechanical pencil?"
He nodded again. "You even scared me, onee-chan."
Suddenly, my gaze averted to something that was just sitting by a glass window of a shop. Instantly after seeing it, my eyes lit up, an idea forming inside of my head.
"Naoki-chan," I announced to my brother. "I think I know a way to apologize to Deidara."
Deidara's POV
I'm going to strangle Kaiya later for leaving me with these two hyperactive idiots.
Well, Kagami wasn't really an idiot. She was happy and cheerful, but at the same time, being around Tobi was rubbing off on her. Except for school, the two were pretty much inseparable, and did everything mischievous together. Tobi, on the other hand…
"Senpai!" he begged, tugging on my arm as I shot him a glare. "Tobi wants some candy! Tobi wants some candy!"
I was about to punch him in the head like I usually did, but remembered that Kagami was there. "Shut up, Tobi!" I hissed. "We're here in order to get a new mechanical pencil, origami paper, and instant ramen, and that's it. They were Kaiya's orders, and remember what she said will happen if I fail, un?"
Recalling the death threat that Kaiya had given to me, I shivered, though I still wondered how it was even possible. I quickly shook my head, not wanting to know.
Kagami decided to give it a try, tapping my shoulder and flashing a pair of baby-doll eyes. "Please, Deidara-san? Tobi's been a sweetheart to all of us! Am I a good girl, Deidara-san? Am I?"
She looked so cute and innocent at that moment, I was very tempted to buy candy for her, but I was able to restrain myself at the last second.
"I can't, Kagami," I replied in a sad voice. "Your sister wanted us to get the shopping job done quickly so that we could take care of what we need at home."
Huffing, she crossed her arms and turned away from me. "Hmph!"
As we neared another random store, Tobi suddenly jumped up and down in excitement, spotting some items in the window. "Tobi sees some origami paper in that little department store! Tobi is going to go check it out!"
Without warning, he rushed into the store, leaving me alone with Kagami. We stood outside of the store's entrance in silence, until she decided to speak up.
"You know, Deidara-san," Kagami began, "I think that you should say that you're sorry to onee-chan."
I raised a brow. "Why should I, un? She's the one who exploded in my face and gave me...um, death threats. I still don't understand why she did all of that over just a measly pencil, though. Can't she just get a third one or something?"
"Onee-chan saw it as a very special pencil," Kagami responded, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm not sure if you saw, but he was there, and helped her find the mechanical pencil that you accidentally blew up. I watched the whole thing from the end of the aisle, and she didn't even notice me."
"Who are you talk—" I started, then stopped, realizing exactly who she was talking about. "Oh. I didn't know that he was even there. So he gave her the pencil, then?"
Kagami nodded. "Yeah, Daichi-san found it for her. Even more, it was also yellow: her favorite color out of all of them. Usually, onee-chan is a very kind and maybe shy person, who cares deeply about the things she admires, likes, and loves. She can display a playful and teasing side every now and then, though she usually prefers to spend time with her siblings and read books. But when you broke that, I don't think she could control herself. Onee-chan sometimes gets irritated like that, but maybe she didn't expect it to come out that harsh."
I shrugged. "Well, she seems to like hating me a lot. That crazy girl...making me wear a girl's uniform, not letting me blow up anything, and refusing to give me her opinion about true art…"
"Onee-chan doesn't hate you, Deidara-san," she reassured me. "Hate is a very strong word, Deidara-san. Kaiya-chan isn't the type of person to hate people. Like I said, she can get easily irritated when somebody does or says something that involves her family, or if they break something important to her. She was just acting without thinking. Same goes with you, Deidara-san. You were in the middle of a heated argument with Sasori-san and Tobi-chan about art, so you probably didn't have the time to think about your actions, either."
"I guess," I answered. "But what about the other times as well, un?"
"She wasn't hating you during those times either," Kagami told me. "Although she may have looked like she was trying to restrain your limits on fun, it was just her way of caring about everybody else. Remember the time when she forced you to wear the girls' uniform? She wasn't really trying to be mean to you, but she knew that Kosaki-san was running out of the supplies to make boy uniforms. Since you can easily pass as a girl, she just decided to do it. Sasori is an obvious no, since everybody will be able to see that he's a puppet without the male uniform. Itachi and Hidan...well, I'm pretty sure both of them would have killed her at that instant or something."
I sighed. "I presume it's already way too obvious why she banned me from using bombs, then. But honestly, I think Itachi should have passed as girls as well."
Kagami giggled. "That actually seems agreeable, Deidara-san. I mean, Itachi wears a ponytail, so I guess that could work. But perhaps onee-chan just thought of him to be better off as a man."
Suddenly, Tobi approached me from behind, completely surprising me with a sudden one-armed hug. "Senpai! Tobi found some instant ramen and origami paper!"
In his other hand, he held up a box of noodles, with a large, wrapped stack of colored, square-shaped paper on top. Quickly, I released myself from his one-armed grasp and grabbed the stack of origami paper, making sure that it didn't drop. Tobi and Kagami held up the box of instant ramen, carefully placing it in a red wagon, which Tobi had also bought, for Kami-knows-what. I didn't even want to know where he got the money for all of that, either.
"Tobi got all of the stuff on the list!" he chanted, proud of himself. "Now Tobi, Deidara-senpai, and Kagami-chan can find the mechanical pencil for Kaiya-chan!"
Kagami jumped up and down, clapping her hands happily. "Yay! Let's find a colorful pencil for onee-chan!"
I blinked at the seven-year-old as she began chasing Tobi around playfully in circles, wondering if she really was the girl that had given me so much mature advice. Because at that moment, I had a very hard time believing it.
Suddenly, I found my attention being grasped by something else: a lump of a very familiar material that was just sitting by a window.
Clay, my mind told me, and a smirk returned to my face. Should I buy it? Or even steal it? I mean, Kaiya isn't watching me, so...
Shaking my head, I looked up at the shop's sign, realizing that it was another craft store, similar to the one we had initially gone into.
"Listen up, little idiots!" I told Kagami and Tobi. "Now that I know where to buy clay, and have almost all of the items we need in the wagon, we just need to find a new mechanical pencil in that shop over there. Then, we can all return and play games with Kaiya and the others. I'm not a game person, but still, maybe it would be nice to apolog...wait, guys?"
There was no response.
"Kagami?" I called, beginning to panic. "Tobi? Where did you guys wander off to? Answer me now!"
Still no reply.
I turned around, expecting the masked idiot and his little pigtailed minion to be standing there, giggling silently. However, to my surprise, they were nowhere to be found. Not one trace of chakra was left behind, only one of the flowers from Kagami's garland remained where she had originally stood, along with the wagon full of supplies. Picking up the flower, I panicked even more about what could have possibly have happened to her and Tobi.
All because I had decided to look at a small pile of clay.
Oh no, I thought, Kaiya really is going to kill me...
A/N: I'm sorry if the chapter was lame...but at least I was able to write it, and quite a long one, too.
And for the people who are wondering where the romance is, it's coming soon. However, I'm accustomed to writing romance slowly, as I do not believe in love at first sight, so it might take a while before you see a kiss scene. I'm terribly sorry in advance.
Question: If you had to be trained by one of the Naruto characters for a week, who would you train under?
Peace out!
— Tenshi —
