Chapter 42: Akatsuki Christmas Arc - Welcome Aboard
Holy mother of Alfalfa...I hate writer's block so much. This was supposed to be a more exciting chapter, but sadly, I couldn't get my creative gears to work anymore. Hopefully you all still enjoy it, though! Now please excuse me while I go curse double deadlines in Yearbook...
However, I do have a tendency to write longer chapters while I have writer's block. At least that's a plus!
Disclaimer: I own nothing! I only own my OCs and the plot.
Deidara's POV
I sighed in my kitten form, then glared at the sighing brown-haired lady standing in front of me.
"Why must I be like this, again?" I complained to her, staring at my paws in an attempt to get my message across to her. "How can being a human on that stupid plane or whatever you call it hurt at all?"
Kaiya returned the glare as she gently picked me up. "Deidei-chan, didn't we already go over this? All of you will have to remain as kittens throughout the entire ride, or else we'll have to pay more to allow you on the flight! It's not like we have a private jet, though I wish we did, otherwise we wouldn't have to go through all of this trouble in the first place."
I flailed around wildly, lashing my tail. "Fine, then! Have it your way, un! But don't blame me if you feel uncomfortable with all ten of us cramped on that one plane that you bought tickets for. Besides, there's nothing wrong with me being myself, right? Didn't you say something like that the other day?"
Obviously, I didn't care if she had understood me or not. Once again, she simply sighed again, then set me down beside Hidan and Kakuzu who were currently inside another banter that was full of curse trains.
"Look," she grumbled, "I know it's going to be slightly uncomfortable for you, but learn to bear with it for just half an hour. Thirty minutes! Is that too much for me to ask? As long as none of you cause trouble on the plane, then we'll all be perfectly fine. Is that clear?"
I opened my mouth to protest, but decided to just nod in resignation at the last moment. Kaiya had been acting strange ever since I had taken her to Prism Grove, as we now called it, but she seemed to be quite normal that morning. She yelled and complained at me as usual, but mostly after the visit to the flowery forest, she avoided me a little bit more and spoke less. Something was definitely up, but I decided to keep it to myself. Besides, who would have understood me other than the Akatsuki? At the moment, I was a cat, for Kami-sama's sake.
Sasori prodded up beside me, a displeased expression drawn on his face. Kisame and most of the others also wore the same expression, not thrilled at all to be cats again. Sure, it was nice to be small, furry, and swift for a while, but at the same time, I preferred my human form.
In addition, the fact that other kids and families were going to be riding on the same plane sent shivers ringing up and down my spine. My teeth chattered as the thought of being suffocated in a toddler's arms crossed my mind yet again for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"But still," Kaiya continued, dragging along a heavy suitcase, "I think you have it better on this trip. I would spray you with perfume in order to have all of you help us load the car, but for some reason, I feel like taking the entire workload. Perhaps it's because I'm in a better mood today…"
Sasori waved his chakra strings around with his right paw and attached them to the luggage, then tried to tug it towards him. I watched as he struggled and strained, but the suitcase refused to budge an inch and he eventually had to release his grip on them.
What the hell could be in that burdensome thing? I wondered as Kaiya began dragging it towards the garage slowly. But then again, maybe it was just our chakra powers getting slightly weaker. After all, not many of us trained with our powers that much, even after what Kagami had told us the other day.
"Well?" barked Kaiya, motioning towards the garage. "All of you, get in the car. I want to get all of the stuff in the car as soon as possible, and don't worry, none of you have to do anything. Leave it to us."
I raised my paw to protest against that. "You know, you can just spray us back so that we can leave earlier if you want to—"
"I said get in the car!"
Sighing, all of us shuffled into the garage, then ran over to where Kaiya had left the door to the backseat open. However, it was slightly hard for some us to reach, since not all of us could fly like Konan or use strings like Sasori and Kakuzu. However, a little friend of ours flew right into the rescue.
Actually, I wasn't able to sense her presence until she fastened her claws around my back and lifted me into the air. My first thought was to jolt in surprise, but from the familiar flapping and cawing, it was quite obvious who the culprit was.
"Thanks, Akane," I said, lightly tapping the bird on the head with my tail as she set me down on the chair. "Can you help everybody else up as well?"
"Awk!" she responded, then flew back down to help the other kittens get inside of the car. A few seconds later, she flew back up, carrying a swearing Hidan in her claws.
I could tell immediately from the way they were looking at each other that neither one liked the other. At least the feeling was mutual, unlike what I felt for...the girl that I liked. Yeah, let's leave it at that.
Even after I had taken her to see Prism Grove, Kaiya had still shown barely any signs of liking me back. If it had gone the way that I had originally intended, she would have fallen in love with me the moment I had placed the flower crown on her head. Even more, she hadn't even seemed all that flustered when I had told her that she was pretty, no matter what she looked like.
Well, she questioned my identity when I did that. Still, it didn't really count.
As Akane continued to lift the remaining Akatsuki members into the car before climbing inside and shutting the door, I scooted towards the other end of the car, mentally lamenting over my actions.
Why didn't I just go straight to the point, like I usually do in conversations? I questioned myself. That was the perfect place to tell her how I really felt about her...perhaps I haven't made it all that clear? I mean, we do end up arguing a lot, though Kaiya isn't that impatient when she's around other members of the Akatsuki or her siblings. Plus, she's much kinder to them as well, but like she told me many times already, she doesn't hate me. Still, we argue so much that it's sometimes confusing to me what kind of relationship we're supposed to have. Nevertheless, I don't know why I'm so soft on her...that just isn't anything like me at all.
I sighed and leaned against the cushion, my tail swaying back and forth in the middle of the air. My eyes were fixed on the windshield, waiting for one of the four siblings to get in the car as well.
But of course, the one I was waiting for was Kaiya. Not because of my feelings or anything, but because I knew that she was the only person who knew how to drive the car. If Naoki was too young to drive, then so were Kagami and Yukio.
Silently, I prayed that Kaiya wouldn't scream or go offroad while on our way to the place that she called the airport. It seemed rather interesting, though I wished that it was within walking distance instead of a rather far drive.
Suddenly, Kisame ran up to stand beside me, and Sasori — with a begrudging expression on his face — followed, his tail quivering. The large blue kitten, however, greeted me with a toothy grin.
"How has your love life been?" he asked, causing me to jolt out of my seat in surprise. Well, I knew well that Kisame was aware of my growing feelings, but the way he had worded the question had sounded as if Kaiya and I were dating.
Which we weren't...yet.
"Nonexistent, un," I responded, hanging my head slightly. "Well, I still like her, but I doubt that she feels the same way towards me. I mean, she's been ignoring me for the past three days, after I took her out to train Akane with me."
Kisame cocked a brow at me, though I could easily tell that he was in Love Whisperer-mode. "Did you two get into an argument while flying through the air? And not just your usual childish squabbles, but an actual, serious disagreement?"
Rapidly, I shook my head. "We've never really had a serious argument, now that I think about it. The only thing we did other than train Akane was watch clouds and see what shapes they made."
"Seriously?" Kisame mumbled, and Sasori nodded in agreement. "Cloud-watching? That's not the best thing to do on a date, ya know. Sure, it's nice if you see any romance-related cloud shapes, but is that really all you did while you were out on that date?"
"I told you already," I responded, my eyebrows crunching down, "it wasn't really a date, un. Yes, both of us were alone, if you don't count Akane, but she didn't behave romantically at all towards me. I even called her pretty, and what did she do? She questioned my identity, without even blushing! Well, if she did, it was way too small for me to even notice. But my point is that she didn't even seem to realize that I like her!"
At that, Sasori raised his eyebrow. "Why didn't you just straight-up tell her, then?"
My face turned red, heating up by the second. "So what if I didn't? There really isn't any need...right? I mean, I thought that I made myself very clear with my feelings after I told her that she was beautiful just the way she is."
Kisame scratched his head — with sheathed claws, of course — and continued staring at me in confusion. "Alright, I think the problem here is that you're stalling this way too much. Really, it's pretty unlike you, considering how outgoing and overly honest you are. I don't recall anybody ever trusting you to keep a secret, and you aren't the type to even conceal any. Based on your personality, I would have expected you to at least tell her how you really felt by now, or maybe even back in October, when you fell for her. But here we are now, in December, and you still haven't told her the three words."
"I...like...you?" I inquired, wanting to make sure. The blue cat simply nodded, while the red cat kept silent, his eyes making him seem as if he was bored.
"Correct," said Kisame. "Look, I talked to Kagami-chan about Christmas a little bit more, and I learned that gifts and family aren't the only things that it's about. Love — as in romantic love — plays a pretty key role during Christmas, since many kids that are Kaiya's age invite their crushes over to spend time with them during Christmas. Also, it's the best time of the year to present them with very meaningful gifts that you know that they will cherish forever."
Upon realizing it, my eyes flew open, surprising Kisame. "Oh geez, I forgot to buy her a gift! Same with pretty much everybody else!"
"It's okay," Kisame said, rather politely. "You've got a couple more days, and if I'm not mistaken, the Charcoal Mountains will have plenty of stores that sell Christmas gifts. You just have to shop while wearing a disguise, that's all."
I sighed. "Alright, I'll use the Henge while I'm up there, un. But I refuse to dye my hair again, and I could skip that dumb high school, for all I care. The only thing that I really like about it is Art and spending time with her, both of which I can already do back at home."
Before Kisame could respond, the door to the driver's seat opened, and Kaiya stepped into the car, followed by Naoki, who sat in the front seat. I mentally wondered what happened to Yukio and Kagami...until both of them jumped into the back seat, prompting almost all of the Akatsuki to relocate.
Once they closed the doors, I jumped on Yukio's shoulder and buried myself underneath the hood of his jacket, where I knew that I would be safe. Akane flew in the same spot as me, and together, we just sat there as Kaiya slowly moved down the driveway in reverse, showing that we were finally on our way.
"Hang tight," I warned Akane, recalling the near-train crash incident. "Like before, this is going to be a long, bumpy ride.
And bumpy it was. Kaiya ended up making many sharp turns along the way, one of which catapulted me out of Yukio's hood and onto Kagami's lap, right next to Tobi. Like always, the kid freaked when he suddenly saw me land right next to him, my claws outstretched in surprise.
"Good morning, Deidara-senpai!" he squealed happily, lightly batting my ears with his paw. "Where did senpai go all morning? Tobi thinks that senpai was stalking Kaiya-chan—"
"I am not stalking the girl, you idiot!" I roared at him, causing him to yelp and jump into Kagami's arms in fright. The girl immediately perked up, then frowned in disapproval when she saw me with my claws out. Sinking slowly, I sheathed them, not wanting to accidentally scratch her and get Kaiya upset.
"Bad Firework," she reprimanded me, poking my forehead with her finger. "Fuzzsticks is only saying hi to you because he hasn't seen you all day! Be nice to him for winter break, please?" Kagami added emphasis to her final statement by flashing baby-doll eyes at me.
Sighing, I shook my head, already used to being able to resist cute things. "As if! That little pest annoys me to hell and back, un! Now can I please get off of your lap and go back to my spot with Akane so that I can take cover if Kaiya accidentally makes a horrible turn?"
Hearing my words, Tobi slumped his shoulders, prompting Kagami to caress his fur affectionately. "There there, Fuzzsticks. If Firework said something bad, then he didn't mean it, okay? Now cheer up, because we're almost at the airport! Five more minutes to go!"
Instantly, Tobi's mood changed back into happy, and he wiggled playfully in delight as I begrudgingly sighed on her lap, suddenly feeling too comfortable to move. The other Akatsuki members watched the exchange with slightly amused looks, while some just laid asleep in random areas of the backseat.
Five minutes later, we eventually arrived at the airport: a huge, wide building with what looked like hundreds of windows that didn't even seem all that necessary. A huge, empty parking lot was where we were headed, but I couldn't take my eyes off of what was on the other side, near the opposite end of the airport.
Planes.
From the sky, they looked so tiny, and the thought of them being able to carry more than forty passengers had made me laugh. But up close, they were massive, made of metal and having a wingspan that was longer than Akane's, even in her expanded form. The glass windows went in two neat rows along the middle of the plane's sides.
"We're here!" exclaimed Yukio, quickly opening the car door as Kaiya removed the keys. "Yahoo! Way to go, onee-chan!"
Kaiya rubbed her head nervously. "Thanks, but I really don't deserve that. I still screamed a few times, and I think that I catapulted poor Firework out of your hood at one point."
So she noticed, I thought, smirking to myself. Maybe she really isn't ignoring me, like she seems to be doing.
We all exited the car, some of us leaping onto the shoulders of the four Hoshiyume siblings. Hey, we didn't want to be left to walk on that dirty asphalt, even though we had done that for most of our lives. Still, there was what looked to be cigarette butts and litter everywhere, so most of us wanted to avoid it all. Even S-rank criminals like us liked being neat and tidy on occasion.
Kaiya slowly unloaded the suitcases from the car, six of them in all. I was about to ask her how she planned to lug those heavy bags onto the plane, which was so far away, until she surprised me by exposing a handle on the luggage.
"It's pullable," she informed me as soon as she caught me eying the handle in surprise. "It wouldn't exactly roll into the garage, so I just dragged it without using the handle. But now that we're on flat ground, we can use it. Feel free to sit on it as well, if you want."
I tilted my head at her. "But what about the current weight?" I inquired, even though I knew that she couldn't really understand me as a cat.
She shook her head, somehow managing to translate my train of meows and purrs. "Don't worry about weighing down the suitcase. There won't be much of a difference, unless some idiot were to spray you with lavender perfume right now."
Grinning, I leaped onto the luggage and perched right on top of it, while Akane simply flew onto Kaiya's head. At that point, I didn't know who had it better, though I could have simply asked Akane to lift me onto her head.
I was about to, but remembering that being able to drive for so long without getting into an accident was both scary and surprising to Kaiya at the same time, I decided to just let her be for now and sat on the luggage, sighing happily.
Eventually, we reached the doors of the airport, and immediately we walked in, though most of us were unprepared for the sudden temperature drop.
"Ugh," I heard Kakuzu groan on Naoki's shoulder. "If these people can afford planes and all these light fixtures, then why don't they have the money to buy a freaking heater?"
I shrugged, even though he wasn't even looking my way. Indeed, it was freezing in there, but I just wrapped my tail around myself and curled into a small ball on top of the suitcase.
Kaiya stopped suddenly, then turned around, only to notice me still freezing my tail off. "Are you cold, Firework?"
Immediately, I shot her an are-you-kidding look as I continued to shiver. "What does it look like to you, un?"
Smiling, she slowly unraveled the pink scarf that was around her neck, then draped it over me, to my surprise. Instantly, my mood boosted, and I wrapped myself in her scarf like a burrito. It felt nice and soft, without any annoying fabric strands or loose strings.
"Better?" she asked me, and I nodded, though my cheeks were heating up faster than any other part of me. Catching my smile, she turned around and began walking again, just as an announcement rang through the air.
"Flight 101 to Charcoal Mountains will be departing in fifteen minutes," it said, causing my eyes to widen slightly. "All passengers aboard that flight are to proceed to Terminal 5B immediately. Thank you, and have a great day."
"Oh, no!" cried Kagami, who was holding Tobi in her arms, while Kisame perched on her shoulder. "Onee-chan, are we going to make it on time?"
"Not if we don't hurry!" said Naoki, answering Kagami's question truthfully before Kaiya could while picking up the pace. "This way, imouto!"
Panicking slightly, we dashed towards the respective terminal, the luggages rolling across the tiles swiftly. Finally, after about a few minutes of running, we eventually arrived at the terminal, which Kaiya had mentioned being usually crowded. However, to my surprise, barely anybody was there.
"What happened to everybody?" asked Yukio, his jaw dropping slightly.
"They probably already boarded the plane," Kaiya answered. "Come on, the clerk is waiting to punch our tickets. Let's go before we miss it."
Quickly, we ran towards where a female clerk was waiting, standing by a podium near the huge windows, where I could get a close look at the plane. Even at that moment, it was much bigger than what it had looked like from the parking lot. When we approached the clerk, she turned her head to us and uttered one word that caught all of our attention.
"Tickets?"
Kaiya nodded silently, handing the tickets to her. Taking a hole puncher, she punched all four in rapid succession, then motioned us to head through the tunnel that was supposed to lead us onto the plane. "Go ahead," she said, and we entered the tunnel.
At the very end of the tunnel was the door to the plane, which made me gasp...and cover my ears at the same time. I had never imagined that the engine and wind form outside could roar so loudly before, and even Akane couldn't roar that loudly even if she wanted to. Once we finally got inside, I unfolded my ears and sighed, thankful that the noise quieted down as we headed towards the back of the plane.
"Ooh! Ooh!" squealed Kagami, taking a spot over in the corner. "I get the window seat! I get the window seat!"
Kaiya giggled at her sister's playful antics, then motioned for me to get off the luggage. Reluctantly, I obliged, jumping onto the seat as Kaiya placed the suitcase someplace above our seat. Naoki helped her with the second baggage, and then each and every one, until they could no longer fit. Shaking her head, Kaiya just took the smallest suitcase and moved it to the other side, where there was another row of empty seats.
"There we go," she said, sitting down next to Kagami and taking the scarf from me. Yukio and Naoki sat on the opposite end of us, taking around half of the Akatsuki with them. I had prayed that I wouldn't end up stuck next to Tobi on the plane ride, but of course, that idiot and Kagami stuck together like glue.
"Stay still until I tell you otherwise," she instructed us, as the pilot began speaking through another loudspeaker. "That way, you'll be able to evade as much trouble as possible. Keep in mind that there are other passengers on this plane as well, even though it's actually pretty small for a plane. But I guess that was what it had to be, since it was a pretty small airport as well.
I blinked at her in disbelief, waving my arms as if I was pointing at every part of the plane at the same time. "You call this thing small?"
Before she could answer, the pilot spoke again, and I sat down in my seat at the engine roared to life yet again, this time even louder.
"Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for takeoff."
Since I had no seatbelt to fasten myself with, I just curled into a small ball like most of the other Akatsuki members were doing, folding my ears yet again in order to block out the loud noise.
And just like that, the plane lurched to life, nearly throwing me out of my seat, had Kaiya not have caught me in time. She held me, Sasori, and Konan tightly together as the plane began to back out of the area, onto what appeared to be the runway.
That was when the engine roared even louder, making my ears pop slightly, even though they were already tightly folded. The plane zoomed forward, dashing across the runway at what seemed to be the speed of light. Then, after a few seconds of acceleration, I felt my stomach leap into my throat as the plane somehow became lighter, with the engine sound gradually fading. The nose of the plane angled upward slightly, towards the sky.
I didn't need to be told that we had lifted off of the ground.
However, Kaiya wouldn't let me or anybody else go until a few minutes later, and being slightly curious, I ran over to the window and placed both of my paws on it...bad idea.
"Ow!" I shouted, shaking my paws in an attempt to warm them up again. "How did these windows get so cold this quickly? We haven't even been in the air for that long!"
"Perhaps it's because we're already so high up," suggested Konan, pointing at the view outside of the window. I stared out of the glass and gasped, spotting a huge field of clouds that were getting smaller and smaller as the plane's altitude slowly increased. It looked pretty safe to bounce on...not really. They were simply vaporized water, after all.
"You can move around if you want," said Kagami, releasing her grip on Tobi and Kisame. "Just don't wander off or do anything naughty, okay?"
Nodding, Kisame leaped out of her arms, and I followed him as he began to dash down the corridor, as if he was in search of something.
"I'm thirsty," he muttered, licking his lips. "Kagami-chan told me that there was ice on the plane somewhere. I'm going to go look for it."
"What happened to you jutsu, un?" I growled at him. "Can't you just use that? I've seen shinobi drink their own jutsu before, as long as they desalinate and purify it over a fire first."
He shrugged. "I feel kind of nauseous right now, so I'm afraid I might throw up if I try using it. Besides, there should be plenty of ice on this huge plane, no?"
Sighing, I continued tailing him as we ran down the corridor. "There probably is...somewhere. I guess I'll just go with you as well. Perhaps my ears will pop again if I crunch on a little bit of ice."
Zetsu and Hidan came up beside us, their tails lashing wildly in the air. "We're coming to get some ice, too. Of course, we'll just take all we can find by any means necessary."
"That little s*** finally fell asleep," Hidan told us about Yukio. "I don't like him restraining me like that at all, especially next to that old b****** Kakuzu!"
"Hey," I said rather optimistically, "at least Yukio can't kick you where the sun doesn't shine in that form. Seriously, it looks painful every time he does that, especially since he does it quite often, too."
Together, we sprinted down the corridor, just as a flight attendant passed us by, pushing a huge cart filled with what looked like kitty food. When she noticed us, she stopped and smiled at us...well, until she realized that we were charging straight at her and couldn't stop.
"Whoa!" she cried, desperately trying to move out of the way. "Watch out, little kit—"
Before she could finish, we had crashed right into the cart, making it slide across the corridor as she jumped away in horror. The small bowls of kibble scattered everywhere, with one having the nerve to bonk me on the head. Kisame, on the other hand, happily caught one, while Hidan growled at the flight attendant.
"B****!" he spat at her angrily, even though the flight attendant was running towards the front of the plane, hopefully to get a broom. "Thanks a lot for splattering kibble on my head!"
Suddenly, I froze. "Wait, these aren't all kitten food, are they? This scent...it's more of beef, chicken, and pork, not fish."
"But didn't Kaiya give us chicken-flavored food when we were kittens, long before she found out who we were?" said Kisame, tilting his head slightly. "And don't we eat all of that?"
"Cats don't eat beef or pork, even though we do," mumbled Zetsu, before his light side paled slightly, if that was possible. "D-dogs do."
"So what you're saying," I continued, "is that if there's dog food being carried on this flight, does that mean that—"
"Aaaaaaaah!"
We all turned around towards the front of a corridor and screamed in terror as soon as we saw the group of dogs approaching us, barking loudly. Most of them were puppies, but there were a couple of large, burly dogs in that small group as well.
"Dog!" shrieked Kisame, sprinting back towards our spot. "Run for your lives if you don't want to become a furry chew toy!"
Immediately, all of us ran back towards our seat, the dogs instantly giving chase. Hidan paused a few times to flick a few kibbles at their faces until Zetsu stopped him, but he had already managed to tick off the large dogs by pelting them in the face.
"Now look what you've done, un!" I rebuked him, as we continued fleeing from the dogs. We would have used our ninja powers if we could, but still, Konan and Kaiya had largely warned us against doing so, especially since our identities as the Akatsuki at that point would have been obvious.
Kisame motioned towards an empty row of seats with his tail, then dived underneath it without the dogs seeing him. "Quick! Everybody get under these seats!"
Nodding, we slid under the seats, letting out a sigh of relief when the dogs suddenly stopped a few feet away. I trembled slightly as one of the larger ones began to sniff the air, trying to track our location. But after a couple minutes, he simply turned around and charged towards the kibble instead, the others following him.
"Phew," I whispered, breathing a sigh of relief. "That was so close."
"No kidding," responded Kisame, whose whiskers were twitching. "I think we should just head back to our seats now. All of a sudden, I don't feel thirsty anymore, and I definitely don't want to challenge those dogs again."
Hidan pouted, his teeth bared in anger at the blue cat's decision. "Oh, come on! Just when I finally managed to escape the son of a b****!"
"You can just sit with Kagami…" I said, smirking slyly, "Twinkleshine."
"Shut the f*** up, blondie!"
Once I was certain that all of the dogs were gone, I crept out of the hiding spot, the three other kittens following me. Luckily, the siblings were nestled in the seats in front of us, so we just ran back to our respective spots, though Hidan followed me to the girls' side.
I guess he'd rather cuddle with Kagami than Yukio.
Kagami was fast asleep, however, with Tobi snoozing along in her arms. Kisame perched on her shoulder again, and I leaped onto Kaiya's though unlike Kagami, she was still awake. Suddenly, she held up a cup of ice to my face.
"What the hell?" I hissed at her, rubbing my face where the cold ice had touched my muzzle. "Oh wait, is that ice?"
"If the engine was too loud," she mumbled, "then chew on this for a while. It'll make you feel better." As I took one, she then held it up to Kisame, who gave her a surprised expression. "You can have some too, if you want."
Happily, Kisame began gnawing on an ice cube, satisfied that he had finally managed to get his paws on one. I began to suck on my piece of ice, feeling the cold numb my jaw slightly.
For the remainder of the fifteen minutes on the flight, I sat on Kaiya's shoulder, gnawing on the ice cube while she occasionally stroked my pelt. Every time she did so, I purred, trying to see if she would do it more. However, I didn't think that she noticed it at all.
Finally, after what seemed like a long time, I felt the plane hit the ground, no longer angled. Unfortunately, my poor ears were not ready to hear the noise of the engine again, so my ears popped again as soon as we landed.
At the sudden jolt, Kagami and Tobi woke up, then immediately began cheering as she peered out the window. "Onee-chan!" she shrieked, tugging on Kaiya's arm. We landed! We landed!"
"I know," she giggled, patting her little sister's head just as the plane stopped. "Come on, imouto. Help your brothers and me unload as soon as they turn off the seatbelt sign right about...now."
Quickly, we all left our seats, with the siblings motioning for us to go on ahead to the terminal. Glancing back at the children, I shot them a pitiful look as they began removing their luggages before running to catch up with the others.
I really want to help with that stuff, I mentally said to myself sadly. But I can't…stupid feckless paws of mine.
Padding up by Sasori, I shot him a look. He turned towards me, acknowledging my presence with a mere nod.
"Where do you think they're going take us next?" he asked, tilting his head towards the windows of the plane. "We can't live at the airport. Do they have a house up here or something nearby?"
I nodded in confirmation. "Kaiya told me that we were going to stay in her parent's private winter home, un. I don't exactly know how well this is going to turn out, since I'm not used to seeing snow…"
"Neither have I," he deadpanned, leaping inside of the tunnel that led back to the terminal. "It never snows in Sunagakure, and I usually don't get sent on missions anywhere else, really."
Copying Sasori's actions, I leaped inside of the tunnel, just as the siblings caught up with us, dragging their luggages right behind us. Glancing back up towards Kaiya, I couldn't help but send her a look of slight pity, noticing that she was carrying two suitcases instead of one.
"We're here, everyone," she announced, as if it wasn't already obvious. "All we need to go through now is a short ten-minute walk, and we can have as much winter fun as we want. Come on, everybody!"
And with that, we excitedly followed her out of the tunnel and into the cold airport, on our way to our vacation home...and another adventure.
Kagami's POV
As we exited the airport, I gasped, discovering the snow that littered the ground everywhere.
Icicles hung from the rooftop, looking as sharp and shiny as ever. There were piles of snow the surrounded the asphalt around us, and there were clumps sitting on top of the windshields of parked cars.
"Wow!" I shrieked, my eyes sparkling as if it had been the first time I had ever seen snow...well, it was. "Onee-chan! It's so pretty!"
"Indeed it is," she agreed, nodding her head. "Kagami-chan, is this really your first time seeing snow in real life?"
I immediately nodded. "Yeah! It looks so white and fluffy! I wanna just dive right into it!"
Giggling, Kaiya shook her head. "Not yet, imouto. We have to unload all of this stuff at our house first, and then we've got to turn the Akatsuki back to normal so that they can have fun, too. You want Tobi to have fun as well, right?"
"Of course!" I answered, clapping my hands together cheerfully. But inwardly, I was sweatdropping slightly.
Well, anything to keep him from thinking too much about his plan, and anything to keep me from keeping on thinking about that stuff…
Sometimes, I disliked hiding my intelligence from my siblings, but I really didn't have a choice. Childhood was precious, so I wanted to maintain it for as long as possible. Furthermore, all of my siblings had some sort of childish aspect to them, with Yukio's mischief, Naoki's addiction to the television, and Kaiya's childish banters with Deidara.
Oh yeah, and I also wondered when they would finally admit to each other that they liked one another.
Three days prior to the trip, when I had the dream of Shisui and Rin, I had overheard Deidara telling my older sister about taking her somewhere secret. Deciding that I absolutely needed to see where both of them were going, I had stealthily followed them outside, listening in to their conversation with a smirk on my face.
Wherever they had gone, the grove filled with flowers sounded extremely intriguing, and it was a classic move in romance novels for the boy to shower the girl with flowers. Perhaps Deidara had done just that, but only they knew what really happened there.
I was tempted to ask one of them about what had happened there, since Kaiya hadn't exactly been like herself after she had gotten back. She had eaten less, talked less, and on Sunday, she had gone to bed immediately instead of setting off fireworks, like the rest of us had. The weirdest part, however, was the fact that she avoided Deidara like the plague, but didn't seem to have any problems talking to anybody else.
Still, I decided to shove that thought aside for now, and instead focus on the joy of finally being able to see snow in real life. I wanted to touch it, slide in it, and maybe even throw it at somebody, but I did not want to drop the suitcase that I was carrying. In addition, we were still a little far from the house.
"Are we there yet?" I asked Naoki, tapping his shoulder impatiently as we trudged through the snow. "Naoki-nii-chan, I wanna play in the snow with everybody! Please? Can we just stop and have some fun?"
He shook his head, sighing as he dragged his suitcase. "No we can't, imouto. Remember what onee-chan just said? We have to unpack all of this at our house, and besides, I don't know if it's the best idea to let the Akatsuki loose."
Crossing my arms in protest, I pouted. "Oh, come on! What harm can they possibly be, nii-chan?"
"You'll see," he mumbled as he continued walking along. "For now, let's focus on lugging our heavy bags across to where we'll be staying for about a week. We can all play later on."
Sighing, I found myself at no choice but to oblige, huffing as Fuzzsticks leaped onto my shoulder. Gently, I stroked his fur, and he nuzzled my cheek, as if he truly was a kitten and not a killer.
We continued along the path for a few more minutes, until we finally reached our new neighborhood. Each of the houses on the block had spacious yards that contained a ton of snow, which I was pleased by.
"This is it, right here," Kaiya pointed out, approaching the first house on the block, which was a huge two-story cabin that also had a large amount of snow out in the front. "I've got the key right here, so let's hurry inside so that we can all play."
Setting her two suitcases down, Kaiya ran over to the door of the house, inserting the key — which she had retrieved out of her pocket — inside of the slot and turning it. Then, she pushed the door open, motioning to us to come inside.
Cheering, I swung my suitcase over my shoulder and ran inside, but not before I wiped my feet on the welcome mat first. The kittens followed me inside, and began rushing towards literally every corner of the room, taking in all of the details as we just carried the bags inside.
Suddenly, Fuzzsticks batted my ear playfully, prompting me to turn and face the kitten. He then made a motion with his tail, something that even I couldn't comprehend.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked him. "Are you trying to tell us to change you back to normal?"
He immediately nodded, confirming my theory. "Alrighty, then," I told him, setting him down on the ground, "I'll go get the perfume."
Slowly, I unzipped my case, reaching inside and feeling around for the portable bottle of lavender perfume that we had packed in every one of our bags. Quickly, my fingers located it, and I whipped it out and immediately sprayed Fuzzsticks with it.
A loud puff of white smoke appeared in the middle of the living room, attracting the attention of all of the Akatsuki members. Lining up in front of me, they all sat down, waiting to get sprayed as well.
"Don't think that I've forgotten any of you!" I teased them as I squeezed the nozzle. "Let's play outside, everybody!"
As soon as the columns of smoke cleared, the majority of the Akatsuki cheered, then headed back towards the front door to see what the yard was like. Akane, who had stuffed herself inside of Kaiya's suitcase, flew out behind them, though I wasn't sure if many people noticed her or not. I was just about to follow them out, but Kaiya grabbed my shoulder, tugging me back.
"You can play in the snow," she scolded me, "but you must put on your snow boots and gloves, Kagami-chan. This is so you don't get frostbite."
Rapidly, I donned the clothes, the smile never leaving my face as I did so. All I could really feel at the moment was excitement and happiness, though I wasn't so sure about everybody else.
Well, I thought to myself, remembering what I had learned from watching so many videos of winter sports, I think that it's time to teach the Akatsuki yet another style of fun. Let's do this, Kagami!
As soon as I slipped on the gloves and put on my jacket, I rushed outside, squealing as I spotted the Akatsuki staring at the snow curiously.
Suddenly, I spotted Deidara, his back turned towards everybody as he looked at the opposite end of the yard. My inner smirked, and collecting a small pile of snow, I dashed over to Obito and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Listen," I whispered into his ear, and he leaned towards me so that he could hear me better. "I've got a massively fun plan right now…"
Slowly, I explained what I planned to do, and he responded with a nod and a thumbs-up. Then, he bent down and scooped up a pile of snow, then carefully shaped it with his hands. Looking at the way he did it, I mimicked his actions, using my hands to round out the snowball.
"Come on," I told him softly, "Deidara-san won't be an easy target for long."
Snickering, we got into position just a few yards behind Deidara, and once both of us were certain that he wasn't going to turn around, we chucked the snowballs right at him.
Even better, that proved to be the perfect time for him to turn around, only to get hit in the face by two incoming lumps of white snow.
"What the hell, un?" he growled at us, though Obito and I just broke down laughing. "What was that for, you idiots? I'll show you!"
He bent down towards the ground, firing it straight at us. However, we had already anticipated this, so we ducked and watched the snowball fly over our heads...and landing right on Hidan's head.
"The f***, blondie?" he growled at Deidara, raising his fist. "Watch it!"
Hidan grabbed a huge mound of snow, and without shaping it into a snowball, he threw it at all three of us in a fit of anger. Unfortunately, due to his bad aim, he completely missed all three of us, and the snow ended up hitting both Kakuzu and Kisame, who had just been observing the snow.
However, Hidan didn't seem to care who he hit with the snow, since he just kept on throwing fistfuls of it everywhere. Although most of them just broke into pieces in midair, they began landing on nearly everybody's heads, except for me and Obito, since we were ducking behind a large mound of snow.
"Did you just hit me, Kisame?" roared Deidara, as tons of snowballs continued to fly at him.
The shark-man shook his head, then proceeded to throw a snowball at Hidan, which missed and slammed into Sasori, knocking him down as well as Pein, who was right behind him.
A tick mark appeared on Sasori's forehead, and using his puppet strings, he attached them to Hidan, making the surprised Jashinist faceplant into the snow.
"Stop it, puppet-b******!" he thundered, throwing yet another snowball. This time, it spiraled straight towards Yukio, who had been minding his own business until the snowball landed on his jacket. My brother immediately spun around, glaring at the Jashinist.
"Oh, you are so going to pay for that!" he growled, preparing a giant snowball with what appeared to be a pinecone inside of it. "This is war!"
And just like that, hundreds of snowballs began flying through the air, nobody even caring where Obito and I were until we decided to join in on the fun as well. Taking another snowball, I chucked it as hard as I could at my sister, giggling at her surprised expression when she spotted us.
She decided to return the smirk, holding a fistful of snow and throwing it towards us. Obito, however, slapped it away and threw his own snowball at her.
"Tobi got Kaiya-chan!" he cheered, and both of us doubled over laughing as she continued to fire snowballs at us.
"You know," I told him, "I don't think it's all that fun hiding behind this mound of snow. Let's go challenge Zetsu-san!"
Nodding, we dashed towards where the plant-man stood, dodging the various snowballs as they came flying towards us. Zetsu's light side was currently aiming snowballs at Kakuzu, but his dark side was chucking them at us, telling me that he had already known what we were planning to do.
"Watch where you're aiming that snowball," the dark side growled at us. "You better not be— oof!"
"Whoopsie!" I cried innocently as Obito and I chucked the snowballs straight as he face. As he sent us two different looks, we ran away laughing, proceeding to make some more snowballs to challenge other people with.
"Heads up, Sasori-san!" I shouted at the boy, who turned around, only to get hit in the face by a ton of Obito's snowballs. Both of us giggled as he glared at us, but once again, we darted away, effectively dodging nearly all of the snowballs. A few of the snowballs hit us, but it was all for fun, after all.
The snowball fight raged on, with every single person joining in, though some of them had already developed favorite targets. For example, Yukio continued to pelt Hidan with snow as the Jashinist cursed angrily at him, and Zetsu and Obito were currently challenging each other. The one that I had found the most amusing, however, was the fact that Kaiya and Deidara seemed to be targeting each other, very much like they had in badminton.
"Ha!" he teased her as he dodged yet another one of her attacks. "I'm not getting hit by another snowball!"
She just responded with a sly smirk. "We'll see about that, Deidei-chan!"
Just like that, they continued throwing fistfuls of snow at each other while simultaneously dodging each other's assaults. As tiring as it looked to attack and dodge at the same time, nearly everybody was laughing, including Kaiya and Deidara, whether it was at each other or just for the fun of it.
Smiling, I gathered a ton of snow in my hands and threw everything into the air, giggling playfully as it landed on my face. The cold tickled my cheeks, and I spun around, happily cheering.
Winter is the best!
A/N: Please know that if I'm overwhelming you with long chapters, it's just an effect of writer's block. I promise to trim them down a bit from here on out, unless you like chapters that are 20 pages long. Which this chapter is.
Question: Favorite thing to do when it snows?
See you all later!
— Tenshi-chan —
