Alright, here comes chapter three. And a special shout-out to Ereneviana, my first reviewer ever on TYA, and for all of your input!
Same goes to you Reidluver; I loved all the input you gave me! And thank you SO much on telling others about me! I swear I'm the happiest girl in the whole fricken world! As a reward, you get request a happening for my story! I will try my best to incorporate it!
I love you all! And I'm glad that you enjoy my story Narutoboyluver! I shall convert you to loving the Kia's Akatsuki! For reason's I told you in the PM. Thank you SOOO much! Woo! Here's another cookie! All constructive criticism, praise, ideas, whatever is cherished! (If you can't tell)
Also, because I'm curious, I want to know how many people actually read these author notes. So, just to see, at the end of your review, type un. A tribute to Deidara, and a test!
So, here's chapter three!
Kumori was thoroughly confused. She, and all of the Akatsuki, well…since she was now technically an Akatsukian…
All of the Akatsuki were standing on a fairly fast flowing river, in front of a humungous bolder. The dense forest behind them hooted, squawked, and howled in the night. Stars twinkled overhead, causing one of the members to appear even more confused than she actually was. She looked over to the blond Akatsukian, Deidara. He chuckled slightly at her confused expression. It contrasted so much to the animosity filled gaze that had consumed her being only two days before, it was almost unbelievable. Almost.
Of course, she had to be carried a huge chunk of the way after her 'fun'. Apparently, she had gotten on Orochimaru's bad side, by refusing to let him transfer into her body. So, as punishment, she was locked in a pitch black, damp, chakra enforced cell that attacked her at the slightest movement. So, after barely moving for a couple months, (Kumori wasn't sure how many exactly) Kumori wasn't to fit again. She's lost a lot of muscle mass, and was only just now getting back into the swing of things. Of course, having seals that did unexpected things as they merged didn't help much. Kumori had only been released a few days ago.
Although, Deidara found it absolutely hilarious when Hidan was forced to carry her. Basically, Leader had wanted to leave as soon as possible, since the caves had apparently been found, and Machi's screams most likely gave them away. (Leader glared at Kumori, who grinned sheepishly/apologetically) But, since Deidara was out of clay, and they needed Kumori to navigate them out of the cave, (Leader had been a little ticked by not realizing this sooner. Kumori just hadn't thought of it, seeing as she was used to echolocation, since all the Facility experiments…or ex-experiments learned how incase of blindness coming along)
Hidan had been the one to carry her in the end, because of his outburst about Jashin to Kakuzu, who had mumbled something. Of course, Leader had just finished telling them all to be silent, and on alert, so Hidan had a passenger. The funniest part was when Hidan had tripped and fell out of the tree. What kind of ninja falls out of a tree, with no interference?! That alone was funny.
But when Kumori began to beat on Hidan's head for falling, yelled at him for being a klutz, and made Hidan run into a tree trunk…It had taken awhile for the Akatsuki to move again. Even Itachi had smiled, or course, he tried to hide it. But unfortunately for him, Tobi had seen it, and declared it to the world. To Hidan's relief, she wouldn't suffer muscle damage when she was fit again.
Kumori was definitely making things a lot more interesting.
Leader put his hands into the Tori seal, causing the seal that had been placed in the middle of the boulder to peel off, deactivate, and for the boulder to diminish. After everyone had followed inside, Leader formed the Inu seal. The boulder, this time resumed its massive form, and the seal was replaced.
Kumori automatically began to use echolocation. The sound waves that bounced back told her that they were in a large cavern, which was basically it. Hidan was looking around for something, and cursing as he tripped, stubbed a toe on a rock, and other things like that.
"Um…Hidan…what are you doing?" Kumori questioned, trying not to laugh at him.
"Trying to find the f-ing torch so we can see!" He spat through clenched teeth.
"Did you forget that I can use echolocation…or are you just that stupid?" Kumori stated with a straight face. It didn't really matter though, considering nobody could see her.
"Idiot." Kakuzu snorted.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY BAS-"
"SHUT UP!! IT'S HARD USING ECHOLOCATION WITH ALL OF YOU YELLIING!!" Kumori screeched. Of course, with them being in an empty cave, it echoed, and echoed, and echoed, and echoed, and echoed, and echoed, and echoed, and echoed…
"You call us loud, un?" Deidara grumbled rubbing his ears as the final echoed died away. Kumori let out a growl, and Deidara chose to stay quiet, not wanting to know what animal form she would (not could!) use.
Everything was quiet again, so Kumori let out high pitched squeaks that the others couldn't hear. After a few seconds, she trotted over to where the sound waves said a lantern was, and lit it. After that, it was silent.
"So…now what?" Kumori said looking around.
"TOBI IS A GOOD BOY!" echo, echo, echo, echo, echo, echo, echo, echo…
"Tobi, un."
"Yes, Deidara-senpei?"
"Shut up."
"Deidara-senpei didn't say un at the end of his sentence!" Tobi gasped.
"Holy shit, Tobi's right!" Hidan tossed in, not passing up a chance to argue.
"SHUT UP!"
"He did it again!" Tobi said in total, and sadly real, aw.
"Kakuzu."
"Yes Kumori."
"Hidan is an idiot."
"SHUT THE HELL UP BITCH!" Hidan wheeled around, challenge glinting in his eyes. Kumori, who do to her animal instincts (and being an idiot) never, backs down.
"WHO YOU CALLING A BITCH!"
"THE THING I'M LOOKING AT!"
"Hida-
"I AM A LIVING PERSON, NOT A THING SHIT-HEAD!"
"I'M NOT A SHIT-HEAD!"
"Kumo-
"REALLY?! I COULDN'T TELL! YOUR HAIR LOOKS LIKE SUN-DRIED BIRD SHIT WITH ALL THAT GEL SLICKING IT BACK!"
"WHY YOU LIT-"
"HIDAN! KUMORI! SHUT THE HELL UP!" Leader snapped. Kumori immediately stepped down, but the challenge never left her eyes.
"Sumimasen, Leader-sama." Kumori nodded her head. Leader sighed, and nodded back. Hidan just mumbled something about sacrificing.
"As I was saying, we'll stay here for tonight, tomorrow we'll all head back to the hideout in the Rain –a few groans were silenced with a gray eyed glare- and get Kumori her cloak."
"Oh yea! Leader-sama, sorry, but here." Kumori reached back and grabbed something out of her kunai pouch.
"When Oro-teme had applied one of my seals, this ring fell out of his pocket. I grabbed it. Later that day when Oro-teme realized that it was gone, he went into a frenzy trying to find it. He killed several people, and beat me, but I kept it just to piss him off… Later on, when I'd gotten on Oro-teme's good side by not dieing, I read some of his files on missing-nin, and ninja to be wary of. It was then that I found that these rings were apart of your uniforms. Anyway, I think you would want this." Kumori explained while laying the ring in Leader's palm.
"Thank you, I just hope he didn't beat you to bad. He tortured you enough." Leader smirked at Kumori, who just grinned.
"Glad I could help, it's the least I could do."
"What do you mean?" Kakuzu looked at the white-haired kunoichi confused. A few of his tentacles twitched restlessly.
"I'm not sure what you mean…" Kumori responded, tilting her head to the side like a confused animal. The other members got the feeling she had many animal like behavioral patterns.
"What do you mean it's the least you could do?" Kumori smiled in understanding.
"Well, since you guys took me in, didn't kill me when I attacked you, and hesitated somewhat whenever you thought I'd attacked Leader-sama, I feel like I owe you for your help."
"Why do you feel that, whenever you'll constantly be putting your life in harms way for the organization?" Kisame questioned. Kumori turned to look at the blue shark man.
"We're shinobi, out lives are always put at stake, whether for a village, family, personal beliefs, or those who take you in."
"Well put." Itachi monotonously stated.
"Thank you, Itachi."
"Hn."
"Jeez Kumori, un! You got Itachi to talk! That's a feat, un!' Deidara said in fake astonishment. Itachi glared at the blond, who shrugged it off, and released his sleeping bag from a scroll. Kumori giggled, and got out her scrolls. The other Akatsuki members did as well. The cave filled with the sound of popping, which echoed, and echoed, and echoed….
"Shit." Kumori grumbled. She pulled out the scrolls, witch were totally ruined. The ink was all smeared from Machi's blood. Kumori wouldn't be able to release her things. Kumori's eyes widened in alarm, she quickly looked through all of her scrolls. She sighed in relief when she saw that the selected scroll was still in good shape.
"What's in there, un?"
"My art supplies." Immediately Deidara and Sasori looked up at her with interest.
"You like art?" Sasori said. It was another one of those annoying questions-that-aren't-a-question. Kumori nodded. All of the other Akatsuki members groaned, except Tobi. Tobi was ecstatic that Kumori-chan liked art like his senpei, although the others were annoyed with having another artist around.
"What's your view on art, un?" Kumori looked at Deidara, to Sasori, and then into open space. She seemed thoughtful, and even though some of them would never admit it, they were curious as to how she would respond.
"Art to me, art to me is a way to relieve your feelings and thoughts in a way that is harder to understand than words, and thus more secretive. A piece may mean something to you, that nobody else could understand, because it would seem like something else to them. So really, art is a topic that is so vague; it is a never ending depth of meaning. Art could disappear, and only last within the memories of those who witnessed it. Or it could be eternal, a piece that was made to defy time, and last to show its beauty for vast periods of time. It also could be expressed in many ways; through taste, sight, sound, and even smell. Art can be completely opposite, or so similar it's near impossible to find the distinctions that separate them. I guess to sum it up; art is something that varies upon the person, and his or her moral beliefs. If you study someone's art close enough, you can basically me inside of their mind, and get an idea of what they were thinking about when making it. Of course, you can never completely understand the complexity, seeing as you would interpret it in a way that is unique to you."
Deidara and Sasori seemed to be taken aback by her answer. They couldn't help it, but they realized that hey were expecting some sort of animalistic response. But who could blame them? It was as if Kumori had been raised by (evil) animals.
They had no idea how right they were.
"You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?" Sasori questioned/stated. Kumori's eye twitched in annoyance at the red-head's style of questioning.
"Nope! Nobody had ever asked me, or even mentioned my art before. I just came up with that on the spot." Kumori said her eyes were still fogged over from immersing herself so much in the thought of art. Deidara and Sasori looked slightly taken aback at this, but shrugged it off. Kumori really was an interesting Kunoichi.
"What about you guys?" Kumori said cheerfully, coming out of her daze.
"Art is a fleeting image that reaches its peek in the height of the destruction. ART IS A BANG, UN!" Kumori smiled at Deidara and his excitement at the talk of destruction. Kumori turned to Sasori, what about you?
"Art is a way to last for all eternity." Sasori said simply, not really elaborating. She understood what he meant, considering she had just finished talking about that.
"How do you express your art?" She questioned. By now the other Akatsuki members had tuned out the conversation.
Deidara grinned, and stuck his hand in his clay pouch. Sasori sighed at Deidara's antics. Kumori eyed Sasori, and, curiosity killing the cat, walked over to watch Deidara. She gasped slightly when she saw that Deidara was chewing clay with mouths, on his hands! Deidara smiled at her, and she looked with curiosity and awe. Taking the hand that wasn't busy with clay, she began to play with the mouth. Deidara was taken aback by this, since most people wouldn't touch them. Of course, Kumori was different. She was tracing the outline of the skin colored lips, and squeaked when the hand licked her. After that, she found it was fun to antagonize the mouth, by poking the tongue, and then moving her finger out of the way before it was caught and playfully bit. The mouth tried to look irritated, but the corners of the mouth that turned up into a slight smirk gave away its enjoyment. Kumori came to the conclusion that the mouths acted of their own will, but had a personality like Deidara's.
"Kumori, un." Kumori turned away from her game with Deidara's hand, and saw that the other palm mouth was spitting out the clay. Kumori grinned at Deidara, who turned slightly pink at the close proximity. Thankfully for his pride, the lantern wasn't bright enough to allow anyone to see.
Kumori watched as Deidara closed his hand and moved his fingers in a familiar pattern. Her eyes lit up when she saw the little bird that was simple, but beautiful in his palm. Her entire face was in a moment of pure bliss when the bird, blinked, looked at her, and flew onto her shoulder. Deidara grinned at her action, bursting with bliss and pride that someone finally understood the wonder of his art. He allowed for her to pet he little birdie, before using his chakra that was flowing throughout the birds artificial chakra system, and having it fly up into the air. Others didn't know this, but all living things have to have a chakra system. So there was more than meets the eye to his sculptures, making chakra systems is not an easy feat.
He smirked as he saw Kumori look up at confusion, and then look to him questioningly. Putting his hands up to his face, Kumori quickly looked up to see the bird.
"Katsu!"
Kumori's eyes widened as the little bird swelled, erupted into light, and exploded. Her eyes danced with wonder and delight as the orange, yellow, and red flames reached out in all directions, with tiny little pieces of clay raining down.
She looked over at Deidara, to the vanishing fire, and at Deidara again. Said blond began to get slightly nervous, she had loved everything so fat, but he wasn't so sure now. He wanted to impress her, and have her enjoy his art.
Several more seconds went by, and the blond grew even more nervous.
"Awesome!" Deidara let out the breath that he realized he'd been holding, and smirked.
"Art is a bang, un." Kumori laughed a light hearted laugh that echoed throughout the cave in a beautiful mixture of a meow, bark, howl, and growl. All of these usually funny or frightening sounds combined the way they were, made such a harmonic tinkle, that it even brought the other Akatsuki members out of their thoughts, and look over surprised. It was a laugh that none on them had heard yet, and it sounded so much more real compared to the others.
"Kumori-chan has a pretty laugh!" Tobi chirped. Kumori just laughed harder, and the entire cave seemed to come to life. Her laugh apparently was infectious to. For within a few seconds, Tobi began to laugh. Followed by Deidara, then Hidan, the Kakuzu, then Kisame, white Zetsu, black Zetsu, Konan, and amazingly, Itachi and Leader! Sasori, being a stick in the mud, (literally) wasn't really affected, but chuckled anyway, seeing as it slightly amused him that she was able to infect all of them so.
After several minutes of laughter, and joy, everyone settled down, though a slight twinkle was in all of their eyes.
"What about you, Sasori?" Kumori said, smiling ear to ear.
"Puppets." He said, being the man of many words that he was. Kumori tilted her head in that cute manner, her body language saying that she didn't quite understand. Sasori, got up, and walked over to her, he pulled down the cloth that covered Hikaru's mouth. Her eyes widened as she saw the mouth was separated into four different parts.
"I use my puppets as a way of defense, attack, and my art. I'm a puppet master." Kumori nodded in understanding.
"The real you are inside, right?" Sasori nodded. Kumori got the drift from the aura around him that he wasn't going to come out, and she nodded again.
"Like I said, you can tell a lot about someone from their art. Deidara is probably outgoing, a prankster, rational, and sarcastic. Lively. While you are probably more reserved, weigh the outcomes of decisions, and prefer to stay out of crowds." Sasori nodded, showing that she had her assumptions correct.
"I would be unable to go any further on that however, seeing as my own mind would interpret your art styles in a different way than you see it." They nodded again.
"What's your style, un?" Deidara questioned. He was very interested in this new girl. She didn't shy away from is hands, freak out by his art, or anything. She had done the opposite of others, she was interested in them She played with his palm mouths, adored his art, and wasn't an art critic. She was different. The good kind of different. Deidara smirked at her jumping around and looking at him, surprised.
"What, un. Did you really think that we weren't going to ask you?" The Kunoichi grinned sheepishly.
"Ah, well, I didn't really think that you would have an interest in me. I'm nothing special." All of the members raised an eyebrow at her, saying they all thought otherwise. Except for Tobi, he had fallen asleep. Kumori blushed at all the attention, but it wasn't visible due to pour lighting.
"Seriously, what do you do, un?" Kumori pulled out the scroll that wasn't ruined, and released the items. Charcoals, paints, sketch books, a few musical instruments, clay, easels, bags of sand, and matches laid in a messy pile on a large table.
"I never really could decide what I enjoyed best, so I just have a bunch of supplies so me and do whatever, depending on my mood. Deidara was surprised at all of the items, but happy none the less.
Said blond walked over to the table, and began to look at some of her sketching. He found amazingly simple, but beautiful pictures of the moon, different types of animal, cities, and pictures of her newly acquired seals with notes saying where they were located. Probably so she can remember where they were, incase they merge too much. Sasori had joined Deidara, and was looking through some of her paintings. They were more detailed than some of her drawings, and colored in a wide array. Yet again, they were pictures of the outside world. The colors giving them a sense of longing freedom.
Deidara set down the sketch book, and grabbed a huge notebook, that on the cover said it had one thousand pages. Right as he was about to open it, Kumori snatched it out of his hand.
"Hey, un."
"Um…please, you can look at anything else, but please don't look in this one; it's like a diary…" Kumori said uneasily. Deidara understanding now, nodded.
"Its fine, un." He reassured. Kumori sighed in relief, and put the book under her arm.
She couldn't ever let anyone see what was in there. Not unless she trusted them completely and totally. And even though she didn't show it, Kumori doesn't trust easy.
Sasori and Deidara continued to look, and complemented her on her work. Kumori kept on saying that it wasn't that great, and Deidara said she sounded like one of those anorexic girls who say they're fat, when they obviously aren't. Kumori hit him on the head for comparing her like that, which caused Hidan and Deidara to argue when Hidan teased him.
Eventually, Leader told Kumori to pack up her things, and for everyone to go to sleep. Kakuzu kept watch, and later switched with Hidan. Kumori slept in the form of a small cat next to Konan, seeing as she could no longer get her sleeping bag.
Everyone slept well that night, except for a restless boy whose thoughts kept running through the day's events.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The next day, everyone sealed away their things, and headed off for the land of Rain. Kumori transformed into a monkey, and swung through the trees doing a series of acrobatics. She said that if she did this, she would build up her muscle mass faster. Deidara shivered at the thought of her at full power, not only was she feral, but had super human strength to back it up.
Note to self: Stay on Kumori's good side.
After a while, Kumori became too tired, and turned into bunny on Tobi's request. The return was that he'd carry her. After an hour or so, she turned into a monkey again, and began her swinging adventures. Deidara of course took this as a chance to torment Hidan about falling out of trees.
"Look at Kumori, she's missing muscle mass, and is still flipping and twirling through the trees, and NOT falling un!"
Of course, Hidan always cussed at Deidara, and said blond would just continue pushing it until Hidan swung his scythe at him. Leader intervened at this point, telling them to shut up and keep all weapons to themselves.
Thirty minutes they were at it again.
So the day continued on as such. Not much really happening, just a group of missing-nins who are known for ruthlessly killing hundreds of people traveling as if they were all one huge family. Totally normal.
"Everyone, we'll sleep here tonight." Leader's weary voice commanded. Konan more than once had to stop him from killing Deidara and forcing Hidan to do something he would hate.
Once again, everybody released their sleeping utensils, and Kumori went out and hunted a deer for the others. Then she left again later on, and came back with a bloody muzzle. Apparently she ate an entire deer on her own. Leader didn't believe her, and thought she'd killed someone. So, he made her keep watch all night long, as punishment.
He was really embarrassed the next day when they found the bloody corpse of the deer that Kumori did infact eat. Proven by Zetsu.
Kumori, of course was tired from keeping watch all night, and wouldn't let Tobi hold her because he was too loud. In the end, Deidara was carrying Kumori, who was in the form of a raccoon, asleep. Deidara didn't think he'd ever see a stranger animal than an albino raccoon. But was proven wrong when Kumori turned into a frog to jump out of the way of Hidan's scythe a few ours later. Kumori couldn't go back to sleep after
"Kumori un."
"Hmm?"
"Are your entire range of animal forms white un?"
"Yes, it's because of my hair color. They all also have red eyes for the same reasons."
"Would you be different colors if you dyed your hair, un?" Everyone looked at Kumori; this was a stupid but good question.
"Ha-ha, I have no idea, I want to try that. I'm pretty curious to that myself now."
The Akatsuki sweat dropped.
"You're always curious." Black Zetsu pointed out.
"I am not!" Kumori said offended.
"Um… Zetsu-san is right, Kumori-chan. You're as curious as a cat!" Tobi chirped. Kumori 'hmphed' and gave them all the silent treatment.
"Did Tobi say something wrong?"
"No, the bitch is just PMSing."
SMACK! SMACK!
"What the hell!" Hidan yelled, rubbing his head where the two furious Kunoichi punched him."
"You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut." Konan growled darkly, shadows covering her face, cracking her knuckles."
"Especially around us" Kumori said, same position as Konan, only on the opposite side.
Hidan shut up, and the others laughed.
That night, Hidan kept watch, under Konan and Kumori's orders. He kept watch for the longest time, but still got a couple hours of sleep since he couldn't turn into a small animal and be carried like Kumori.
The rest of the trip went along like that. Tobi annoying Deidara. Deidara annoying Hidan. Hidan annoying Konan and Kumori. It was a vicious circle that drove Leader up the wall.
One big happy family.
I'm not sure if Kumori had already found out about Deidara's hands, but if so, just forget that part, and go with this. Also, Hikaru is the name of the scorpion puppet right? Reviews are cherished, and don't forget about what I told you!