Chapter 46: Snowdrift Arc - Snow Way Out
Please don't kill me! I didn't get writer's block this time, but I've been so excited to write this chapter for a while! The words flew out on their own, I swear!
I'll start this one out again with Sasori...I haven't written in his point of view for a while. Besides, he is a pretty interesting character...for the one who is killed off first. Darn it, Kishi-san!
Disclaimer: I was granted permission to own Naruto...nevermind. I still don't own it...
I didn't know exactly how to react to the fact that my partner and the second youngest member of the Hoshiyume family had just taken a path that led to a double black diamond slope and were probably plummeting to their deaths as I just stood there at the top of the intermediate slope with Itachi.
As I saw it, I had about three main options at the moment. One: continue to stand there and do nothing, which was the choice that I had gone with most of the time when we went on missions. Two: roll my eyes, then casually ski down the intermediate slope with Itachi as if nothing had just happened, then force myself to laugh about it back at the house. Three: be some sort of goody-two-shoes, chase after them, and rescue both of them with my chakra strings before they crashed into random pine trees.
Was it bad that I was leaning towards the first two?
"Sasori," murmured Itachi, who was still staring at the sign with the two black diamonds with his red, red eyes. His Sharingan whirred, as if he was analyzing information. "What are we going to do about Deidara and Yukio?"
Shrugging, I sighed at the very thought of myself becoming a savior. "I don't know, honestly. Sometimes, the brat finds a way around the situation, and other times, he doesn't. He usually figures out how it'll work out in his favor while on missions, but I don't know what he's going to do about something that he's never tried before."
I turned my head back to the calm Uchiha, but Itachi didn't seem to be paying attention. His gaze flickered towards the sign, which he continued to stare at for some unknown reason.
Curious, I approached the double black diamond sign to see what had fully caught the Uchiha's attention. Everything about the sign seemed to be perfectly normal, aside from the cracks here and there. The corners were smooth, just how they were supposed to be.
Suddenly, a gleaming object on the edge of one of the corners came into my view. At first, it irked me, especially since the thin sunbeams were reflecting off of it and blinding me. But the more I looked at it, the more I recognized it.
"Isn't this the necklace that the brat was wearing?" I mumbled to myself, almost completely forgetting about Itachi's presence at the moment. "It's got the same exact bird pendant and chain type…"
Reaching out to snag the necklace as if it was a scintillating fragment, I zipped open one of the pockets on my jacket and swiftly pocketed it, closing it tightly so that it wouldn't fall out. After I had stowed away the piece of jewelry that Deidara had dropped, Itachi quit staring at the sign and prepared to ski down the intermediate slope.
"I'll be going down," he muttered, and I responded with a curt nod. "Are you planning to keep the two boys out of trouble?"
Sighing in resignation, I huffed, turning my skis towards the path by the sign. "Very well, then. But still, I don't want to get in trouble with the group and jeopardize the safety of the Akatsuki in this world, so I'll go check on those brats."
Pushing off with my ski poles, I headed down the snowy path that led to the slope past the sign, which already seemed to look steep, based on the small area of inclined snow that I saw from where I was standing. Taking a deep breath, I focused my chakra into my fingertips again, waiting for the strings to form.
"You better thank me for doing this, brat," I growled to myself as I whipped out my chakra strings on all ten of my fingers. It was slightly more tiresome to use chakra nowadays, but then again, it didn't take too much chakra for me to make attachable strings, unlike the techniques of the rest of the Akatsuki.
Swiftly, I took the ski poles — deciding that I wasn't going to use them at all on my way down — and attached the strings on my right hand to a nearby pine tree. From there, I let my skis separate, allowing me to go faster...though I did not expect the sudden drop at all.
The incline suddenly went down to a very steep drop: one that could have definitely broken the heels of normal people. Luckily, I wrapped my left hand chakra strings around a nearby pine tree and was able to slow down.
As I began to slow down, I pointed the front of my skis together, forming a wedge. It was something that I had observed other skiers do to slow down while Yukio, Deidara, and I had gone up the ski lift. Unlike them, I hadn't been all too focused on trying to spot members of our group, since I didn't really care about their location. Instead, I had studied the motions of all of the skiers on the slopes.
Once I was sure that I had lost most of my speed, I released my strings, allowing them to fly freely through the air as I continued to speed down the mountain. For a short distance, the slope became leisurely, allowing me to relax for a little while. That was, until I spotted yet another steep incline.
And this time, I could hear some sort of familiar shouting coming from below it.
"Help! I'm pretty sure that I might be able to get out on my own if I try, but for the sake of Alfalfa, help me!"
Yukio, I realized, remembering that he was the only person I knew that talked like that. Did he get trapped down there? Where's Deidara?
Sighing, I attached my threads to another tree, pulling myself towards it as if I was bungee-jumping. The tree bent under the burden of my weight, as if it was a lion preparing to pounce on me or something. Turning my skis towards the tree, I tugged harder with my strings, then just as I was about to crash into the tree, I released the threads and attached the ones on my left hand to a tree on the other side of the slope.
I felt myself get tugged in the other direction, allowing me to turn just a few feet away from the previous pine tree. My skis tilted in the other direction, kicking up the snow at my feet as I skied towards the left. Once I felt that I was getting too close to the tree, I released my grip on it, then moved it to a tree back on the right side of the slope.
It was almost as if I was a superhero from that movie that I had watched with Yukio and Naoki a few weeks back...what was it called, Spiderman? Something like that. Whatever the name of the movie was, it featured some man who swung from building to building by releasing spider threads.
For some reason, repeating the process of attaching my chakra strings to different trees and releasing them again made me feel like I was the superhero in this case, setting out to rescue Yukio and perhaps Deidara. What irony. All my life, I had never truly played the role of the hero, simply as a villain. But really, no villain usually considered the fact that they were a villain, so technically, they were a hero in their own way.
Back when I was little, my friends — if they were considered that — and I would play games with each other, where we would reenact wars. Usually, all the good guys hated the villain, and we often threw insults at whoever had the role of the evil shinobi. But it wasn't until much later on that I realized that maybe both leaders, good and bad, were heroes.
Still, I wasn't a hero. I was a villain.
So why did I begin to soften up ever since the Akatsuki managed to land in this world, by the front porch of the four Hoshiyume siblings?
It wasn't like I was a happy little child or anything, suddenly transported back into a joyful world. Based on my observations of the children, this world was still as dismal as the shinobi world. There was still death, fighting, wars, and worst of all, hate.
Not like I valued peace and tranquility or anything. I still killed people. If anything, there wasn't a single person in Sunagakure who hadn't heard of how I had brought down an entire village single-handedly, not to brag or anything.
Most of all, I killed the Third Kazekage. They just didn't know that yet.
Anyway, I continued skiing down the steep slope in the same fashion, using my chakra strings and the surrounding pine trees to slow down and change direction. The ski poles were secure under my scarf, providing not as much of a burden as I had thought they would have been.
"Hey, don't leave me here!" Yukio's voice rang, growing louder as I swerved my way down the slope. "Somebody get me out of the snow! Please!"
What an impatient little brat, I thought, shaking my head as I threw the threads around a nearby lamppost that stood off to the side of the slope. Perhaps I should have just left him there and gone done with Itachi.
Still, a large part of me didn't want to. Because as much as I would hate to admit something like that, especially in front of the Akatsuki or pretty much anybody, skiing a double black diamond was actually really fun.
Zooming down the slope, I headed in the direction where I had last heard the shout come from, trying to avoid other people on the slope. There had been barely anybody at the top of the peak when I had skied down, but now, more and more people were beginning to come into view.
And I despised them all.
Still, I tried my best to avoid crashing into the younger ones, who looked to be about at least five more years older than Yukio. All of them were moving gracefully through the snow, demonstrating that they had probably been skiing for years.
But in case they saw me use powers that weren't natural, I retracted my chakra strings and took my poles out of my scarf, just as I crossed the sight of one of the older skiers. He must have thought that I was insane, since he gave me a funny look before proceeding to ski away from me.
I could tell from his expression that he was wondering what a "teen" like me was doing on the slope. At that moment, I could easily predict what his expression would have been if he had spotted Yukio on the snowdrift.
Picking up the pace, I separated my skis further away from each other, making me speed up. However, I let my poles drag on the snow, keeping me from going too quickly.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Yukio, his skis planted in the ground next to him, like a marker. He was buried pretty deep — I could only see down to his shoulders — in the snow, struggling to get out.
I stopped immediately, and I was about to head over until I noticed Deidara already sitting next to him, on his knees. The brat was currently trying to dig the boy out of the snow, but based on how much progress that he had made, I largely doubted that he had been there for a while.
"What happened?" Deidara was asking as he tried to get Yukio out. "How did you end up getting buried so deep in the snow?"
Despite being trapped in the snow, Yukio shot the boy a sheepish grin. "Um...well, I attempted to do a double flip once I got off the slope, like those professional skiers that I saw on TV. Maybe it wasn't exactly the best idea to attempt it after going down one of the steeper drops."
"You think?" Deidara responded, shooting a skeptical look at Yukio. "Even I'm not that stupid, un. Feel lucky that Kaiya doesn't know anything about this…"
Rolling my eyes as Deidara continued to dig Yukio out, I decided that I just wanted to get off of the slope. Looking around to check if anybody was nearby, I sighed, then extended the chakra strings on my right hand, attaching them to Yukio's shoulders. Digging the pole in my left hand into the ground to stop all of my movement, I tugged on the threads, causing Yukio to let out a small help of surprise. Even Deidara looked slightly confused on why Yukio was suddenly being lifted into the air by some sort of invisible force.
Smiling, Deidara turned to face me, his expression brightening. "You found us, Sasori-danna!"
Huffing, I shot both of the boys a glare. "Listen up, brats. Don't feel happy or anything that I rescued you or anything. Because I don't really consider it to be that, especially since I originally planned to follow Itachi down the intermediate slope."
"But you saved us!" protested Yukio, as I hoisted him out of the snow with my chakra strings. He then proceeded to dust all of the snow off of himself, as if he had just tripped on a field of sand. "Come on, Sasori! Don't you feel heroic at all?"
Yes.
"No," I responded plainly, releasing my threads. "I don't feel anything like a savior or anything, if that's what you mean. Something inside me just kept on nagging me, not wanting to face the wrath of your older sister if she finds out about what happened. Now let's go, since I'm getting tired of standing on this mountain."
But even the truth was that I kind of liked it, I resolved not to tell anybody. So instead, I wordlessly helped Yukio to his feet as Deidara helped put the boy's skis back on.
"Alright," said Yukio, his grin having resurrected again. "What are we waiting for? Let's go down the mountain!"
He pushed off violently in order to get some sort of daredevil boost forward, but I tugged on the strings again, holding him back so that he didn't roll off the slope and crash into something. "Not this time, brat. We're going slow."
Yukio huffed childishly, turning his head in the opposite direction before taking a slower start. Deidara looked like he was about to pout as well, but nodded sternly in the end, using his ski poles to control his movement as he steadily followed the boy.
With the free strings on my left hand, I wrapped them around a sturdy-looking tree in order to support myself, then skied down the slope as slowly as possible. From the tension that I felt on the strings on my right hand, I could tell that Yukio was still attempting to accelerate his way down the dangerous double black diamond. However, I made sure to keep him in check, my movements very much like that of a snail.
After about ten minutes of trying to traverse the continuously rolling hills on the slope, we finally made it down, causing Deidara and I to heave a sigh of relief. But Yukio, still retaining his daredevil grin, shouted, "That was beyond awesome! Let's do that again!"
"No!" both of us quickly shouted, visibly disappointing the boy.
"Admit it," he scoffed, heading back towards the intermediate, where everybody else, including an irritated Kaiya, was waiting for our arrival. "I know that you liked going down that slope, Sasori and Deidara."
I glared murderously at the boy. "Shut it, brat. Don't you realize that your sister is pretty upset with you right now?" I pointed towards the upset girl, whom Yukio had not noticed until then.
As we approached the group, Kaiya's killing intent grew, though I could tell that she wasn't going to actually kill any of us. I had known her well enough to understand that she was not the type to carry out the threats that she proposed, despite making lots of them.
Yukio was the first to dip his head towards Kaiya in apology, a sheepish and nervous look on his face. By the looks of it, there was no way out of that one.
"No more skiing today," Kaiya announced, disappointing the majority of the group, who had most likely enjoyed the skiing trip. "I am very disappointed in you, Yukio. You should know better than that."
"I-I'm sorry, onee-chan!" Yukio said quickly, waving his arms. "I just wanted to have some fun!"
Kaiya's glare intensified, and beside me, I felt Deidara begin to shiver in fear, even though she didn't look all that threatening to me. "Fun does not need to involve getting yourself nearly killed, otouto. Itachi informed me of everything that had gone down up there after we couldn't find you."
The boy proceeded to point an accusing finger at the Uchiha, who was paying no attention to the conversation at that point. "Traitor!" he spat, still not taking the situation seriously.
"That's not funny, Yukio-san," she responded, showing how serious she was by using a different honorific. "Look, I'm not trying to stop you from enjoying yourself, but don't you realize that you could have gotten killed up there? What do you think would have happened if Deidara and Sasori had not come after you? According to Itachi, he saw you attempt to do a double front flip and end up getting yourself buried about three feet deep in the snow with his Sharingan!"
Yukio's gaze began to turn more gentle, and Naoki shot his brother a look before patting his shoulder. He then proceeded to whisper something into his younger brother's ear, causing the boy's expression to further soften.
"Oh," he whispered, though we could all hear them. Suddenly, he ran forward and gave his sister a hug, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, onee-chan! Oh no...please forgive me, Alfalfa...I think I'm crying…"
She returned the hug, patting the boy softly on the back. "It's alright, Yukio-chan. Even the heavens cry sometimes. Nobody's perfect; what's important is that you learn from your mistakes and resolve never to do them again."
After that rather emotional moment, we began to prepare to leave the resort early, causing both Kagami and Tobi to complain and protest.
"But onee-chan!" Kagami wailed, stomping her feet in displeasure. "Tobi-chan and I want to go on the bunny slope again! We've only been on there three times! I wanna try going on the tiny ramp on the slope, too! Please?"
Kaiya looked as if she was about to agree for her little sister's sake, but in the end, she shook her head. "I'm sorry, imouto, but we can't. I've taken enough drama for one day already...how about we let you and Tobi watch Pokémon and eat some more of the candy that you got for Christmas?"
Her eyes immediately lit up, sparkling with excitement. "Yay! Isn't that great, Tobi-chan!"
"Tobi loves Pikachu!" the masked man squealed, grabbing Kagami's hand and following us back to the cabin.
But once we arrived in front of the cabin and took off all of our ski gear except for the clothes that we were wearing, Deidara suddenly volunteered to return everything to the clerk, while everybody else went straight home.
"Are you sure?" asked Kaiya skeptically, raising an eyebrow. "Do you know the way home, Deidara?"
He sent her a confident smirk. "Of course I do, un. I should be home in a little bit, right after I give all of this stuff back. Besides, I kind of want to surprise a couple of you with some cool items that I saw while I was walking into the store."
She continued crossing her arms. "I don't know...but why do you need to buy stuff for us? Christmas was yesterday!"
"Nah, I just realized that I forgot to...buy something for Yukio!" Deidara quickly countered, causing the boy to grin. "I'll meet you back in about an hour, okay? You can head back to the house, if you want."
Shooting him one last wary look, Kaiya and the others began walking back to the house, though I could tell that she wasn't all that sure about the idea. I followed her last, glancing back at Deidara to see what was the matter. But he had already gone inside the cabin, so I just walked back to the house with the group.
About ten minutes later, we finally made it back to ourselves, and we all quickly went inside, wanting to escape the sudden change to nippy weather. For some reason, the air seemed to get colder, as if it were a bad omen.
"Feel free to do whatever," sighed Kaiya, clearly exhausted both physically and mentally. "I'm going to go pack up my stuff."
Kagami and Tobi immediately squealed in response, racing into the kitchen to grab the box of assorted candy. Before I could comprehend what was happening, both of them were already on the couch, the television turned on.
"Pokémon! Gotta catch 'em all!" they sang along to the theme song, although both voices were pretty off-key. Maybe Kagami was alone, she would have been a better singer, but when Tobi was placed in the mix, then...no.
Naoki sighed exasperatedly, then ran up the stairs and into his room, probably to watch something different than the childish animated show that the Hyperactive Duo was blasting at full volume. We had never really referred to Kagami and Tobi by that name, but it was something that stuck whenever we brought both of them up in the same conversation.
I decided to go upstairs as well, not really wanting to watch Pokémon like the others. Even though I knew that neither Kagami nor Tobi was absolutely obsessed with the show, hearing them scream every time a cute creature crossed the screen was downright annoying.
Sighing, I entered Kaiya's room, which I also happened to be sharing with her. As I walked in, she gave me a funny look, but it returned back to normal as soon as I grabbed my toy puppets and art supplies that I had received for Christmas and quickly left the room, closing the door behind me.
I proceeded to head to the nearest empty room, which happened to be the empty bedroom on the far end of the hall. Judging by the size of the bed and the fact that it was a master bedroom, I assumed that it had belonged to the siblings' parents.
Nevertheless, wanting some privacy, I entered the room, turned on the lights, and locked the door behind me with a swift rotation of my fingers. Placing the box of supplies on the bed, I took out a paintbrush, a small easel, and various bottles of paints that I had received from the Hoshiyume siblings, mostly Kaiya.
Although I liked puppets — which pretty much everybody else had gotten me for Christmas — ever since I had first met the siblings, I began to take a liking to painting. The idea had interested me for a while, but I felt reluctant to be like Deidara, who had begun painting his creations a couple of months back. However, the thing that made me a bit more hesitant was the fact that painting was neither eternal nor fleeting.
But still, it was considered art.
Before I began, I carefully opened the window blinds in the corner of the room, letting the daylight flutter inside. Even though the room was already bright enough, the daylight seemed to out me a little more at ease. Dipping the end of my paintbrush into a bottle of apricot-colored paint, I began working on what my mind wanted me to draw.
Many hours passed, and I could easily tell that they had, even though I had no clock with me. From the darkness that had engulfed the window, I could tell that the evening had begun. By then, I had finished about five paintings, taking as much time as I needed to get all of the details for each one in. Even though it restricted my movements, I kept my jacket on, still feeling cold, for some reason.
My first painting depicted the deserts of Sunagakure, the village where I was born. I had no idea why my mind made me draw it, but looking at it made me feel somewhat...nostalgic. The others were also of the vast desert, just of different angles and aspects. For instance, one of them had an oasis covered in lotus blossoms, but another was of rolling sand dunes and a puma.
Even though I had deliberately run away from my home, I was no longer afraid to say that I occasionally missed Sunagakure. I was well aware that my grandmother was still alive, since I could sense her chakra every time I had to pass by the village for a mission. As much as I disliked her, after staying with the siblings for a while, it would have been kind of nice to see her again.
Emotions were rather weird, honestly. For most of the thirty-six years of my life, I had struggled to hide them, although becoming a human puppet made it easier to avoid them. But still, until that moment,
I had no idea that I had been pouring out emotions as I made my art, conveying my thoughts and feelings as I made my puppets and paintings.
Maybe, after all, I did have emotions. It didn't matter that I had a prosthetic body: inside, I had to admit that I was still a human.
Curious about what Deidara was doing, I decided to take a break and head downstairs. In addition, I wanted to know what he had bought for Yukio...even though the expression that he had worn during that time suggested that he probably wasn't buying a gift after all.
As soon as I reached the bottom stair, I decided to ask the nearest person where the brat was, who just so happened to be Kisame.
"Have you seen the brat?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. Now that I thought about it, I narrowed my eyes at quite a lot of people whenever I talked to them.
Kisame looked at me funny, then pointed towards the couch. "Yukio? He grew bored and began watching Pokémon with Tobi and Kagami-chan—"
"Not him," I growled sternly, "I meant the other brat."
His eyes widened in realization. "Oh...Deidara?" Suddenly, his irises began to well up with slight panic. "Hm...now that I think about it, he never came back to the house, did he? Perhaps whatever he got Yukio is hard for him to lug home. I didn't really pay attention..."
After that, my expression began to turn more serious. "I'm going to talk to Kaiya about this. For some reason, I'm getting an odd vibe that Deidara isn't doing what he had told us earlier."
Sighing, I trudged back up the stairs, then made a beeline for Kaiya's room again. I wasn't sure how she was going to react to the fact that Deidara had still not returned, but remembering that Deidara liked her and that she probably liked Deidara in return, I decided to inform her anyway.
"Did you need something, Sasori?" she asked as soon as I stepped into the room. She was sitting on the ground, a nearly full suitcase right in front of her, as well as a cup of instant ramen that she had probably eaten earlier for lunch. For some reason, she too, had all of her winter clothes on, though the room wasn't all that cold.
I responded with a nod. "Where is Deidara?"
"Probably messing around somewhere in the house," she replied. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"According to Kisame, the front door has never swung open once," I said, causing her eyes to widen slightly. "I was busy doing stuff in the empty bedroom, so I decided to take a break and perhaps talk about the idea of painting with him. But I can't sense his chakra anywhere inside of the house."
Her jaw dropped. "You're telling me...he never returned home?"
"I guess," I said calmly, unable to lace emotion in my voice. "Based on how much time he's taking, he probably isn't looking for Yukio's surprise gift."
Kaiya seemed to be deep in thought for a moment. "Perhaps he's looking for something else?"
The realization hit me like a bullet, and quickly, I unzipped the pocket on my jacket and took out the necklace that Deidara had lost, giving it to Kaiya. "He lost this after chasing Yukio down the double black diamond, though I forgot about it. Still, I don't see the brat as the type to...go up and down the peak just to search for it."
Before I had even completed my statement, Kaiya was already done, sprinting out of the room like a flash. Seconds later, I heard a very loud shout of pure anger come from downstairs.
"That dim-witted, feather-brained idiot!"
Seconds later, I heard the front door slam, and she was gone. Just like that.
Sighing, I left the room and headed downstairs, where all of the Akatsuki members were staring at the front door curiously.
"What just happened?" asked Kisame, who stood closest to the door, "Where did she go?"
"Looking for the brat," I answered, crossing my arms.
Naoki responded with a worried look. He was about to run out the door as well, but I restrained him in time with my chakra strings, not wanting to cause more worry.
"Let me go!" he roared, struggling against me. "Onee-chan needs to come back! It isn't safe out there anymore! Why didn't she check the weather forecast like she usually does?"
"What do you mean?" asked Zetsu. "The weather right now must be bad, isn't it?"
Kagami, who stood next to her older brother and Tobi worriedly, nodded, then pointed at an open window in our living room. "Look! There's a small flurry of snow coming down outside the window!"
I turned to look towards the window, expecting to see a light drift of snow like Kagami had said. However, in that moment, I forgot that Kagami had never seen snow before the trip, and was surprised to see the danger that was really outside the window. Akane, who had been watching, took one look out the window and without hesitation, opened the door and flew straight out. However, nobody seemed to care about the clay phoenix at the moment, focused more on how incorrect Kagami's comment was.
"Imouto," breathed Naoki in a serious voice, "that's no small flurry…"
"That gosh darn baka! I'll show him!"
My teeth gritted together and my fists clenched at my sides, I continued running, reaching into my pocket for the small flashlight that I had stored for emergencies, like that situation. Quickly, I flicked it on, pointing it in front of me as I sprinted through the snow.
Okay, I was probably the baka in this case for going after Deidara, especially since I wasn't exactly prepared. In my haste, I had forgotten my gloves, though I still had my puffer jacket and beanie. The snow fell as I ran, breathing icy wisps in my face as I headed towards the mountain.
Suddenly, a loud, familiar noise from behind me made me freeze and turn around, expecting to see some random stranger trying to harass me. However, when I heard the voice again, I decided that it was not a human.
"Kaa!" screeched Akane, somehow in her full form. I gasped upon seeing her: not because she managed to escape, but how she had managed to transform on her own, without her master's help. By the day, she seemed to be growing more and more independent. However, that was no longer the focus at the moment.
"So you heard," I said as she perched next to me, cooing sadly. A stern expression returning to my face, I quickly climbed on top of her back, and she wasted no time in lifting back up into the air.
"Go as fast as you can!" I ordered, trying to sound as polite as possible. After all, it wasn't the bird's fault that her creator was so dim-witted. "And don't stop until you reach the ski resort!"
The phoenix nodded, and I felt her pace pick up. Instinctively, I reached out in front of me to grab onto Deidara's waist like last time...until I remembered that he wasn't there. My arms continued to flail in the air uselessly until I managed to clasp them firmly around Akane's back.
"Scree!" screeched Akane, zooming towards the ski resort. "Da-da! Da-da!"
Realizing that she had just come up with that nickname for Deidara, I nodded sternly. "Right. Deidara might be on that slope right now, looking for the necklace. I've got to find him before he freezes!"
As we neared the slopes, the weather began to intensify, the snow roaring beside me. It fell in large quantities, like the ones that were often displayed in rescue movies. By the looks of it, a blizzard was coming in just a little bit.
I pointed towards the destination one more time. "Hurry, girl. There's no time to lose! A storm's on its way!"
She beat her wings furiously, desperately trying to fight against the cold weather. I released one of my arms and used it to shield my face from the incoming array of snowflakes. If anything, snow was pretty, but it was still cold and nasty.
"Keep your eyes peeled," I told her as we began soaring above the slope. "He could be anywhere at the moment, conscious or not. It's been so many hours, after all."
Akane obliged, and I watched as a thin layer f chakra flew towards her eyes, engulfing them as if her eyes were on fire. Subsequently, she scanned the entire terrain below like a radar, just without the pinging noise. Instead, she simply let out a caw from deep in her throat, slowing down as we neared the snowdrift.
I looked around as well, though I could not see as well as she could, especially with all of the falling snow in the way. My flashlight had been pocketed again, since I had been afraid that it was going to fly out when Akane had offered me a lift.
"See anything?" I asked her frantically. Akane shook her head sadly every time, unable to detect anything in the snow. "Try detecting a chakra presence, like Zetsu. Can you do that?"
She miserably shook her head at that as well, then returned to her search for her missing master. We continued looking for about five minutes, and eventually, I felt my body begin to shiver due to being in the blizzard for so long. In addition, I grew drowsy, probably an effect caused by the weather.
I was about to fall asleep on top of Akane, had it not have been for her sudden outburst.
"Da-da!" she screeched, beginning to descend towards the ground. My eyes fluttered wide open, and I quickly wrapped my arms around Akane as she prepared to nosedive through the blizzard.
"Where is he?" I asked worriedly, getting a queasy feeling as I realized that we were heading towards the snowdrift. "Oh no, don't tell me that he's—"
I trailed off, spotting a small, huddled figure beneath one of the pine trees. Nobody needed to tell me who the person was as we approached the figure, my stomach feeling even sicker than it had been in the beginning.
Akane landed right next to her master's body, allowing me to get off and rush over to him. Panicking, I quickly placed two fingers on the side of his neck, silently wondering how long he had been stuck in this condition.
There's a pulse, I sighed in relief, feeling the familiar throbbing sensation beneath my fingertips. But I need to get him inside…
Suddenly, Akane let out a pained wail, as if something had struck her or if a tree had fallen on top of her. All of a sudden, a cloud of smoke went up by her feet, causing me to jolt as I kneeled there, my eyes wide. When the smoke cleared, there stood Akane, in her normal form. She looked rather sickly.
"Are you...running out of chakra?" I asked the shivering phoenix, who nodded in return. "I'm sorry about this...I forgot that you aren't meant to be out in such freezing weather. Let me get you to the nearest place."
That was when I looked around and spotted the ski cabin, the lights off and door closed. Deciding that we didn't have a choice, I lifted Deidara off of the snow, making sure that he was still breathing steadily.
As I tried to carry him down the slope, I nearly fell over, for I was not used to carrying people or so much weight in general. The only person that I had ever carried was Kagami, so I was not the most prepared person when it came to that situation.
Akane summoned a bit of her strength and flew onto my shoulder, burying herself in my scarf. I heard her begin to cough, prompting me to try to hurry and get to the cabin as fast as I could.
Luckily, Deidara had fallen unconscious at a pretty close distance, so it was much easier on all three of us. However, the moment I reached the front of the cabin, I collapsed from exhaustion and dropped Deidara, causing Akane to let out a squawk.
"I'm sorry, Akane," I apologized, then approached the door and tried to open it. As I had expected, it wouldn't budge. "It's locked...darn it!"
The phoenix hopped out of my shoulder, a layer of chakra surrounding her body. At that moment, I felt so bad for her, since she looked so tired and overworked as she waddled up to the door. Without warning, she coated her wing in chakra, leaped up, and slammed it into the door, hitting the part where the lock was.
After she backed away, I heard something click, and the door opened, just like that. Not wasting any time, I ran inside, dragging Deidara in behind me as Akane pushed the door shut to prevent the snow from flying inside.
Engulfed in darkness, my hands touched the walls until they found the light switch, though it was due to Akane still glowing blue with a small amount chakra surrounding her. Swiftly, I flipped the lights on, the entire room illuminating all at once.
After that, I ran over to where I had dragged Deidara, grabbing random coats from the racks and draping it over him. Carefully, I placed one underneath his head as a makeshift pillow, in case he woke up and found himself in the cabin with me and Akane.
Taking a scarf off of one of the hooks, I wrapped it around the clay phoenix, who immediately snuggled into it. Seconds, later, she was already out like a lightbulb, totally exhausted from flying in cold weather that she had not yet adapted to.
I sat down by Deidara, who seemed to be breathing more steadily. A remorseful look crossed my face as I stared at him — all dirty and tired — just from looking for a necklace that wasn't even lost.
Digging into my pocket, I pulled out the necklace, unhooking the silver chain. Like I had on the day before, I returned it to him by placing it around his neck, though it didn't cross my mind to flinch from how cold the necklace was.
Because as soon as I placed it around his neck, he jolted awake, causing me to jump back a couple steps.
"Wha…?" he asked, sitting up and looking at his surroundings. "What happened? Why am I here?"
He turned his head, his eyes meeting my worry-filled gray eyes. As soon as our brains registered the fact that we were likely going to be stuck here, with each other, the worry in my eyes faded, replaced by nothing but anger.
"You idiot!" I growled darkly, and he backed up slightly as some sort of invisible red aura radiated from my body. "What the heck were you thinking?"
Deidara looked shocked for a moment longer, then returned the glare. "I was looking for the necklace that you gave me, un! Where was it all this time?"
"Your partner had it!" I retorted, a surprised look appearing on his face. "Why didn't you ask Sasori to see if he had it, rather than just wandering off on us for...what? At least eight hours? Did you even eat anything out here?"
A low growl that came from his stomach answered the last question. "Look, I didn't want anybody to know that I lost it, okay? That necklace is important to you, isn't it? You said that it belonged to your father—"
"So?" I yelled a little too harshly. "It doesn't matter in this case! Don't you realize that you could have died out there if you weren't careful? It's just a simple chain of silver!"
"It's not simple!" he spat, crossing his arms and seething at me. "You said so yourself! That necklace was the reason why you were born, right? I thought that the bond with the necklace led to your mother and father loving each other!"
I returned the glare again. "Do you think they would have wanted you to do something as stupid as that? If I wasn't so tired of all this drama and packing up, I would have been even more worried sick! If it gets to the point where your partner has to personally question me, then of course they're worried! And look at you now!"
"Does it look like I care about what situation I'm in right now?" he countered.
"Well, I do!" I snapped, feeling nothing but complete rage. "Don't you realize how desperate Akane and I were, trying to search for you? And look at her now! She can barely move anymore after flying through that blizzard! Actually, if it wasn't for you, then we wouldn't even be stuck here for pretty much the rest of the night! And I haven't even eaten dinner yet!"
Deidara's expression seemed to soften, but that just meant that his glare was no longer as intense. "Well, I haven't even eaten lunch yet—
And that's when I punched him in the face. Hard.
He looked taken aback, rubbing his cheek in surprise. Even I had a surprised expression on my face as I stared at my own fist, my inner questioning me why I had just done such a thing in the first place. For all the times that I had been going around and threatening people to leave me alone, I had never actually carried out any physical harm until that moment.
That was the moment when I had also realized that Deidara and I had just had our first serious argument. Up until that moment, all of them had been on silly topics, such as physical contact or just teasing each other. But this one was a full-on argument and disagreement, just like those kinds that my parents used to have every now and then.
Before I knew it, tears began to well up in my eyes as they laid fixated on the hand that had punched him, completely filled with remorse. The guilt slammed down on my body like a jackhammer hitting an iron nail.
Moments passed by like subway trains, the only thing breaking the silence being the roaring of the snow outside and the crickets that had taken shelter in the walls of the ski cabin. It wasn't until much later that Deidara decided to speak up.
"I kind of deserved that, didn't I?"
Part of me felt like blowing up again like I just had, but I managed to suppress my anger. Instead, I grumbled another, "You idiot."
Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and I didn't even need to look to see who it was: there was only one other person in the building, after all. Deidara just held me close to him, attempting to comfort me as if we had just had another near-train crash.
Let go, I wanted to say badly. Let me go. Don't touch me right now. Leave me be.
All of those thoughts floated around in my head, yet I decided against initiating any single one of them. So instead, I did the thing that my gut was telling me to do: embrace him back.
The tears began pouring out like the blizzard that raged on outside as I rested my head on Deidara's shoulder, wanting nothing but to just let him comfort me. Both of us had experienced rough days, even for the day right after Christmas, which was supposed to be full of a fun-filled skiing adventure.
Of course, nobody had expected that it would wind up like this.
"Dummy," I sobbed, no longer holding the truth back. "I really thought...that you were going to die up there...we had no idea what happened to you…"
The guilt rolled out of my mouth like a carpet, though Deidara seemed to simply be taking it. He patted my back reassuringly, the same way we did when Akane did something benign.
Suddenly, I sneezed, causing Deidara to jump away. He grabbed a nearby box of tissues, and I immediately blew my nose.
"You should wrap yourself in some more jackets," he advised, handing me a few from the nearby rack. "If we're spending the night here, then at least keep yourself warm."
Nodding in gratitude, I proceeded to wrap myself up in more puffer jackets, then handed the rest to Deidara as I made my own makeshift bed, while occasionally glancing at the door to watch the blizzard outside. Looking at it, I felt glad that we had managed to get inside: it looked like an avalanche was happening.
I laid down underneath a coat rack, as if it were a palm tree. Deidara laid down on his bed as well, a good distance away from me. I assumed that he was respecting my usual privacy wishes, though I didn't mind the fact that Akane was sleeping next to me.
At first, I was tempted to turn the lights off, but since they provided heat, I decided against it, using my beanie instead to shield my eyes from their luminescence.
Yawning, I flipped over on my side, pretending that I was hugging my stuffed fox, Kitsune. Silently, I hoped to cat with Yahiko in the Pure Land again, maybe to wish him a belated Merry Christmas.
"Goodnight, Deidara," I whispered, not knowing if he would get the message. However, just before my eyes fluttered shut and engulfed me in darkness, he whispered his response back to me, from underneath the coat rack he was sleeping under.
"Sweet dreams, Kaiya."
A/N: Aww...Kaiya got another hug. But once again, it is out of comfort and not attraction, like the one eleven chapters ago.
Question: On a scale of 1-10, how much do you ship DeiKai? (Deidara x Kaiya)? Just curious! :D
See you next time, everybody!
— Tenshi —
