Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto-sama owns Naruto!! I don't own it!!
It is currently 3:02 AM on June 28, 2008.
Yeah I just started putting dates and times for when I start a chapter and finish it recently, I have a thing about time… I'm constantly looking at the clock but I hate time, I hate it with a passion yet I can't stand not knowing the time, it drives me crazy!! Not that I'm not already crazy as it is, lol. Onto the chapter!!
… Ok now it's 6:44 on October 17, 2008 and I feel really bad for not updating, sorry. I just moved to out of Toledo Ohio (against my will!!) to New York, not New York New York though… I'm a freaking Quaker now, our mascot is the freaking oatmeal dude!! (gotta keep that T rating =3) Not cool. I hate this move but I did meet some cool people but my old friends pwn. I lubs them. DX I misses joo!!
"Nee-chan!! Nee-chan!!" Hotaru yelled excitedly as she jumped on Deidara's bed to wake him up.
"I wish you wouldn't call me that, un." Deidara said as he rubbed his eyes, he'd been awake since she'd entered his room but he thought she might let him sleep. He had been very wrong, she'd immediately climbed onto his bed and started jumping on it to wake him up then after five minutes she'd started to yell Nee-chan over and over while he tried to sleep through it.
"Hotaru-chan, you don't act like you're thirteen, you act like you're five, un." Deidara teased sitting upright. Hotaru plopped down on the edge of his bed and stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'm thirteen and a half thank you very much." Hotaru said crossing her arms. Deidara chuckled, she hadn't changed much.
"Guess what Nee-chan?" She asked grinning once again and falling back so her head was on Deidara's lap. Deidara laughed and gently shook his head while fiddling with her hair. Just like old times.
"What, Hotaru-chan?" Deidara asked smiling down at her.
"I'm going to the chunin exams an Leader-sama said that you're coming too!!" She said excitedly waiting for approval.
"Leader-sama gave you permission, un?" Deidara raised an eyebrow skeptically as she began to fiddle with the ends of her shirt.
"Yeah… you don't want to go, do you?" she asked disappointed and looked down at the shreds of her old shirt.
"No, I want to go but I'm shocked that Leader-sama's letting you go, un." Deidara said then smiled at her, "…going to be a chunin eh, un?" Deidara asked smiling nostalgically.
"Yeah… I guess…" She said unenthusiastically and turned her head away from Deidara.
"What's the matter, un?" Deidara asked looking at her with concern.
"Nothing I just…" she trailed off fiddling with a thread that hung lower than all the rest on her shirt.
"something's wrong, don't try to hide it, un." Deidara said then mentally smacked himself, they had just kidnapped her, of course something was wrong, "You can always talk to me about anything, ok, un?"
"I was supposed to go to the Exams with Gaara-kun." She confessed as Deidara soothingly stroked her hair.
"I'm sorry Hotaru-chan, we never meant for you to get hurt, un." Deidara whispered sincerely.
"I know but I don't understand, Why couldn't I stay with him? I promise I wouldn't do anything wrong." Hotaru sat up and looked Deidara in the eyes, he had to look away. He couldn't bear to look into her hurtful eyes, brimming with unshed tears, and know that he'd help cause it.
"Because, if you were to tell any body about us then all our plans would fail, un." Deidara said with a serious tone.
"Then why did you even let me meet him?! Why didn't you just take me away when you had the chance!? I loved him you know!" Hotaru flew at Deidara limply beating his chest while sobbing uncontrollably. After a few seconds she was reduced to sobbing and clutching to the front of Deidara's shirt.
"I'm sorry." Deidara said hugging her and gently rocking her.
"N-No! I c-can't!" She said suddenly struggling against Deidara who instantly released her.
"I c-can't! I-I'm betraying G-Gaara-sama! I c-can't!" Hotaru yelled between choked sobs, "You-You are th-the e-enemy, y-you hurt us!"
"If he's any good for you he'd want you to be happy, aren't you happy with us, un?" Deidara demanded, "Or aren't we enough anymore, un! Is he more important to you than your brothers!?"
"I love him Deidara! How would you feel in m-my situation!? Yes, I missed you guys, yes you're my brothers, but he's so much more than that to me!!" Hotaru wiped her tears in frustration, "Can't you understand!?"
"No I can't, un!" Deidara yelled back, "I can't understand how after only a couple of years with that guy he's already more important to you than your brothers!"
"You aren't even my real brothers!! Gaara's been my family since he rescued me! Gaara is everything to me! We both saved each other and then you guys came back into my life and destroyed that and now I might never see him again!"
"weren't we there for you when you were little, huh un? Weren't we always there for you, un!?"
"You weren't there when I needed you! Gaara was always there!" Hotaru shrieked, "where were you when I needed you!? Where were my BROTHERS when my Dad sold me!? Can you tell me?! Where the fuck were you when that bastard beat me in his basement and I was too scared to even scream!? Where!?"
"We were trying to find you're ass, un!! And It makes it pretty damn hard to find you when the guy who bought you got splattered all over the walls by that monster!!" Deidara didn't even realize what he was saying until it was too late. Hotaru stood in front of him, eyes covered by her hair and fists clenched tightly at her sides.
"Hotaru-" Deidara started apologetically.
"Shut up, Deidara." Hotaru hissed venomously, "You've said enough."
"Hotaru-chan, I-" Deidara was cut off again when Hotaru slapped him across the face.
"Shut up!!!" Hotaru screamed at Deidara, "He's not a monster!! It's not his fault!!"
Deidara stared at her dumbstruck with his hand placed gingerly on his abused cheek. Hotaru glared at him for a few more seconds before storming out of the room and towards her own room. when she turned the corner to her room she unexpectedly ran into a hard wall of flesh.
"Ow, mother f-"
"Hotaru, you shouldn't swear." The human wall said emotionlessly.
"What the hell?" Hotaru glared up only to find that it wasn't really a wall but it was Itachi, "Oh, I'm sorry, Itachi-sama." Hotaru said and bowed politely then rushed over to her room slamming the door loudly and leaving a mildly bewildered Itachi in the hallway.
"Damn it!" Hotaru whispered as she sunk to the floor, "I cried to him just like a helpless little kid!! And then I hit him! Even worse I betrayed Gaara-sama." Hotaru muttered to herself, "Gaara-kun…" she whispered wistfully. Suddenly Hotaru burst out crying again and buried her face in her knees. After half an hour Deidara came looking for her.
"Hey, Hotaru-chan, wanna go train, un?" He asked gently pushing her door open.
"Sure, Nee-chan," Hotaru standing and whipping her tears, "just let me change first."
"Ok, un." Deidara said and quietly shut the door.
"I wonder who did the shopping…" she wondered aloud pulling open the top drawer of the dresser and revealing a wardrobe consisting of mainly black, the first shirt she saw was a black Tank top that was hanging halfway out of the drawer. She shrugged discarding her old torn shirt and pulling on the clean black tank.
Hotaru opened the second drawer reveal an assortment of shorts, skirts, pants, and capris. She smiled and took out a pair of black shorts that were a little bit darker than her shirt.
"Itachi-sama and Deidara-nee-chan." Hotaru thought out loud. She swapped out her old shorts for the new ones and debated on weather or not to put on her old jacket, she decided not to and tossed it on her bed before opening the door. Hotaru was mildly surprised to see Itachi and Kisame standing outside her door along with Deidara.
"Itachi-sama, Kisame-nii-san, Deidara-nee-chan," Hotaru acknowledged each of them with a nod in their direction, "are we all training together?"
"Yeah." Kisame answered first slinging his sword over his shoulder.
"Where at?" Hotaru asked curiously as she followed them down the hall.
"Outside, un." Deidara answered this time.
"I'm allowed outside?" Hotaru asked stopping and giving them her an are-you-fucking-stupid look. (so much for my T rating resolve º.o ( it's crooked))
"You see that charm your wearin' kid?" Kisame pointed to the charm bracelet that Leader-sama had given her, bearing only the silver feline, "It works as a chakra seal, I won't tell you how it works but it only responds to the charka of the members of the Akatsuki. In other words if you try to run, little sister, we seal you." He finished shooting a sadistic smirk back at her where her feet were rooted to the floor.
"You coming, un?" Deidara said turning his head so he could look at her.
"Hm? Oh! yeah, I'm coming." Hotaru snapped out of her temporary shock and ran to catch up with them.
'They've changed.' Hotaru thought to herself remembering how Kisame had not so indirectly threatened her
"You can't expect them to stay the same forever, child," Nibi pointed out, "after all, they are criminals and they're dangerous, be careful."
'I will Okaa-sama.' Hotaru responded thankful for the reminder and the comfort of knowing Nibi still cared about her and worried about her safety.
"I don't think you'll need the seal, I won't run." Hotaru told them like they should already know the information.
"And why wouldn't you run, Hotaru?" Itachi asked finally speaking up.
"Because, you'll come to get me again, me and Gaara obviously didn't stand a chance last time," Hotaru explained looking downcast as she thought about the one person that had showed her kindness without having orders to and how she had just basically insulted him, "and I refuse to let him get hurt if I can help it. And who's to say that Leader-sama wouldn't have you kill him if I try to escape? He'd probably torture him, that bastard lives for that kind of stuff. I don't know why you guys didn't just kill me and him before but I'm assuming that you want something and it has to do with our demons. It's obvious after the way that you only avoided his attacks last time, only used genjutsu on us to separate us instead of killing one or both of us, and finally the fact that I'm still alive and so is he." 'hopefully' Hotaru added in her head.
"Now that's an interesting conclusion… why did it surprise you that we didn't kill you?" Itachi asked somewhat curious as to how she'd come to a conclusion that was pretty much dead right.
"You said that I knew too much about you guys and what better way to keep me from telling people about you than killing me, after all, a dead girl tells no tales." Hotaru smirked knowing she had them.
"Smart, un."
"Best damn strategist in the genin of the sand." Hotaru bragged but her heart wasn't really in it, she could always figure out her opponents motives but it wasn't the same without Gaara, he was always the only person she answered to and the only person she accepted orders from. Hotaru shook her head and cleared away her thoughts about Gaara to be dealt with later on in private.
They reached the exit and Itachi flew through the hand signs so quickly that Hotaru couldn't even tell what they were or even how many. He slapped a hand to the stone and the exit was revealed. Deidara walked out first tossing a clay bird into the center of the cave. They all climbed on and the bird took off landing in a clearing not to far from the hide out but it was a place that people rarely traveled through.
"Here?" Hotaru asked seeing that the clearing looked to be perfectly circular, unnaturally circular.
"Did you guys clear this place out?" Hotaru pressed curious as to why there would be a perfectly circular clearing in the forest.
"No, someone found this place all burned up with a corpse that was burned beyond recognition, un. Everyone says it was some type of a forest spirit seeking vengeance on the people for building in it's home, because, strange as it is, it rained saltwater for a two days before he was found and for five more days after that, un." Deidara explained watching as Hotaru tensed.
"No one comes through here anymore, but we know better." Kisame said smirking at Hotaru.
"Ok, ok, I get it," Hotaru said putting her hands up in surrender, "this is where I went crazy and saw you guys for the last time… and said a bunch of stuff I didn't mean, I'm sorry guys, I really am so get off my back."
"Let's train." Itachi commanded before Kisame or Deidara could respond.
"I thought I was the team leader, un." Deidara protested but did what he was told..
"First off, let's see what you can really do, Deidara, Spar with Hotaru so we can see what we're working with." Itachi instructed leaving no room for question.
"Can I have a kunai real quick?" Hotaru asked looking to Itachi.
"why?" Itachi demanded rather than simply asking in a more polite way.
"All my other clothes were clothes I customized with Velcro, I need to make slits in the back of my shirt so that my whole shirt doesn't fall off." Hotaru explained semi-politely. Itachi wordlessly tossed her a kunai which landed about an inch from her foot. When she finished she tossed it back to Itachi who caught it without so much as batting an eye.
"Prepare yourself Onii-sama." Hotaru said grinning wickedly at Deidara.
"Aim to kill, go." Itachi said and then waved a hand lazily.
During the time that Hotaru had taken to cut the holes in her shirt Deidara had gathered enough clay in his hand-mouths to last a fair amount of time in the mock battle and now launched three explosive flying bugs at Hotaru who smirked jamming her hand in her pocket and unleashing her wings. She propelled herself into the air with a single pump of her powerful wings, then withdrew her hand from her pocket throwing three small glass shards at each of the bugs, the shards exploded on contact activating the explosive properties of Deidara's clay and creating a large cloud of pitch black smoke. Hotaru floated above the plume of dark gas for a few moments before diving backwards and doing a mid-air backflip, barely dodging Deidara on his bird, tendrils of black smoke clung to the bird and it's rider dissipating as they came to a stop facing Hotaru in a flourish of white wings. Hotaru threw a handful of shards into the air then quickly flew through some hand signs.
"Desert hail!" Hotaru yelled and the shards instantly stopped there falling and shot upwards surrounding Deidara before sharply turning and falling quickly towards Deidara from all angles. Deidara unleashed a handful of his clay bugs and commanded them and his bird to fly at Hotaru, Hotaru used this opportunity to shoot fire at him from her hands. Deidara and his clay swarm spun diving down and swooping low under her with a steady stream of fire at his back and glass shards exploding around him. A shard exploded right next to his arm, burning him and painfully embedding tiny slivers of glass in his arm making him wince. He looked at it briefly to assess the damage, his cloak had a hole singed in it about three inches above his elbow, the skin beneath it was burnt an angry red color and blood trickled down his arm slowly, he could see the very ends of the slivers sticking out of tiny puncture wounds in the burn, Deidara cringed as he thought about how much trouble it would be to get them out.
"I win." Hotaru announced, Deidara looked at her confused before a wave of dizziness over took him causing him to fall off the bird and plummet towards the ground. Hotaru flew towards him and managed to awkwardly catch the larger man and lower him to the ground.
"You take after Deidara, kid." Kisame said as he walked over to where Hotaru had gently laid the disorientated Deidara on the ground.
"I thought we took all your weapons." Itachi said looking down at her menacingly.
"You didn't, but these are useless unless I can use charka." Hotaru said holding up a shard for Itachi to see. Itachi took the shard and inspected it seeing that it was crystal clear and surprisingly warm, it also had a strange presence to it and it seemed to have chakra flowing through it.
"It's normal desert sand made into glass by my chakra fire, during the process of making them I infuse them with my chakra which let's me control them," Hotaru explained busying herself with removing the slivers from Deidara's arm, "Once they're inside someone I can force that chakra out of the shards and into the person in a few ways, what I did just now was one of the least lethal ways. Or instead of releasing the chakra I can force the tiniest slivers into someone's blood stream and work there way towards there heart then detonate them, instant termination. Quiet and effective"
Deidara groaned, "'the fuck happened, un?" he asked putting his uninjured hand on his forehead.
"I made your temperature go up." Hotaru said regretfully, she wasn't proud of hurting her brother, "I could've killed you if I wanted to... If he was here I would've." She added the last part in a whisper.
"Then why dun you jus' bust outta here, un?" Deidara asked disorientated as Hotaru frowned it his wound.
"You didn't take me seriously," Hotaru said then stood up, "if you took me seriously then I would've lost. And even if I some how beat you, there's still everyone else." She sighed dusting off her legs and sucked her wings back into her back, "for the rest of them, I'll need tweezers, let's go back." Hotaru looked to Itachi for approval. He nodded and Deidara called the bird to his side, it had fallen moments after he had landing a few yards away, and he managed to get on with minimal help from Kisame.
"Why not just "control them" out of his arm kid?" Kisame asked sarcastically thinking about what she'd said earlier.
"I told you, I had to force my chakra out of them, they're just normal glass slivers now." Hotaru said annoyed that he hadn't been paying enough attention, "I'm sorry, nee-chan, I'll take care of it, I promise." She turned her attention to Deidara who had raised a part of the bird so he could lean on it.
"'kay, un." Deidara said forcing an answer, he would've just nodded but he decided to answer instead.
They arrived at the cave with little problem and Deidara was still feeling pretty weak but he managed to get to his room before collapsing on his bed. Hotaru set down the medical supplies that she'd picked up from a supply closet before closing the door. She picked up the tweezers, a bottle of peroxide, and a towel and walked to his bedside.
"I think I gave you a fever, I'm sorry Deidara-nii-chan." She said remorsefully, refusing to look him in the eye.
"'S ok, I should've taken it seriously, un." He said unenthusiastically and smiled a little.
"You'll need to take your cloak off so I can do this properly." Hotaru said setting the supplies back down and moving to help him take it off.
"I got it, un." Deidara said as he gingerly pulled it away from his wound and then finished taking it off. Hotaru took it and folded it neatly.
"I'll fix it after I clean you up, do you guys have any sowing things?" Hotaru asked as she poured some peroxide over the glass-laden burn and into a bowl beneath it. Deidara hissed as the cool liquid fizzed over his burn and helped to start working the slivers out.
"In the supply closet, un." Deidara said through clenched teeth as she dug into the sensitive skin with the tweezers to get the glass out. Hotaru gave a grunt to show that she'd heard him and pulled out a sliver dropping it into a paper cup that she'd found in the supply closet. Hotaru diligently worked on removing all the slivers from his burn for an hour straight then she applied burn ointment and bandaged his upper arm before she noticed a few miniscule scabs on his forearm and sighed. Hotaru took another thirty minutes and a safety pin to remove the remainder of the shards and after many groans and hisses from Deidara, she was finished. Hotaru picked up the medical supplies including Deidara's cloak and tossed the cup in the garbage before smiling at Deidara and bowing. Deidara smiled back and mumbled a thanks before falling asleep.
Hotaru closed the door silently behind herself and turned only to be eep in surprise and nearly drop all her things when she saw that there was someone standing right behind her.
"How is he?" Sasori asked curiously as Hotaru regained her composure.
"H-He's fine, Sasori-Onii-sama, He's sleeping off a fever right now." Hotaru said still not completely recovered from the scare he'd given her.
"I see… when will he be better, we can't do anything if he's sick, we're a two man team." Sasori inquired staring at the door.
"When Deidara-Onee-sama wakes up he should be fine." Hotaru said dejectedly, she hadn't really meant to hurt him, she thought that he'd block all of her shards but when he hadn't taken her seriously at all she felt angry and she let her anger get in the way of her better judgment and actually used a lot more force than she'd meant to when she released her chakra from the shards.
"I'm sorry, Sasori-Onii-Sama, it's all my fault that he's sick." Hotaru said and bowed before hurrying off to fix Deidara's cloak.
Once she was back in her room Hotaru opened up a large box full of sowing things and got out her MP3 player and switched it to the radio.
"And now here's Three Day's Grace with "Gone Forever."" The announcer said as Hotaru got her sowing stuff out and cut some black fabric from her already ruined black tank top turning it into a belly shirt.
--Meanwhile In Suna—
((Gaara POV))
I decided to sit all alone in my basement with my radio on so it wasn't so damn quiet today. Hotaru's been on my mind ever since they took her, I can't stand it. I still can't believe that she's actually gone, it feels like I've wasted so much time not looking for her.
"And now here's Three Day's Grace with "Gone Forever."" The radio announcer said and momentarily distracted me from my depressing thoughts.
"Don't know what's going on, Don't know what went wrong. Feels like a hundred years, I still can't believe you're gone"
I growled, everything I heard lately seemed to be connected to Hotaru or remind me of her. God, it's so annoying, I want to get her back but I don't know where they took her.
"So I'll stay up all night with these bloodshot eyes, while these walls surround me with the story of our life."
I'm already just about ready to sand coffin the radio and it just started playing the song, what does it know?! I really do stay up all night but usually I'm killing people but right now I am surrounded by walls that held the story of me and Hotaru's life. This singer guy has no room to talk and needs to just shut the fuck up.
"I feel so, much better, now that you're gone forever!"
Yeah right, I feel so much worse, what the hell were these people thinking when they wrote this?
"I tell myself that I don't miss you at all."
"Sounds like you're trying to convince yourselves that you don't miss her." I commented, I'd done the exact same thing earlier after walking out of the hospital, "It doesn't work."
"I'm not lying, denying, that I feel so much better, now that you're gone forever."
"Like hell you aren't lying." I growled again and the sand around me stirred a bit. God Damn songs, why the hell do they all remind me of Hotaru?!
"Now things are becoming clear, and I don't need you here, and in this world around me, I'm glad you disappeared."
I don't need Hotaru here but I want her here, she's the only thing I… love? Yeah... I hate that word. I though about the other words and decided that I was kind of glad that the people in the world around us couldn't hurt her now but what are those god damn Akatsuki bastards doing to her? They better not lay a finger on my Hotaru.
"So all stay out all night, get drunk and fucking fight! Until the morning comes I'll forget about our life."
Hell yeah, I'm going to go out all night tonight and I don't give a fuck who I kill!
"I feel so much better now that you're gone forever, I tell myself that I don't miss you at all, I'm not lying, denying that I feel so much better now that you're gone forever."
I actually feel a lot better knowing that I'm going to kill people tonight, I'll pretend I don't miss her. I can't let anyone know that I'm so weak that I fell in love… Technically I'm not lying about denying that I feel better about her being gone though. I deny that I feel better. Finally I can agree with the damn song.
"First time you screamed at me, I should've made you leave, I should've known it could've been so much better."
What the fucking hell?! If I would've made her leave the first time she screamed at me I probably would've killed her. I shuddered, I don't want to kill her, Shukaku did but I didn't let him. What is up with this song?! Nothing could've been better than Hotaru, she was my angel, my firefly, my light. I sound stupid, I sound like a damn school girl.
"I hope you're missin' me I hope I made you see that I'm gone forever, and now it's becoming clear, that I don't need you here, and in this world around me, I'm glad you disapeared"
"Fuck you." I spat and commanded my sand to crush the radio. I 'm so pissed off right now, I'm going to go kill someone. I don't care who but someone has to die. I'm alone now… Again.
--back with Hotaru--
((Normal POV))
"I feel so much better now that you're gone forever, I tell myself that I don't miss you at all, I'm not lying, denying that I feel so much better, now that you're gone forever. And I don't go forever, and I don't go forever…"
Hotaru frowned switching the radio off and setting it to shuffle. Cartoon Heroes speedy mix by Aqua came up. She smiled and finished the stitching on Deidara's cloak and stood up to carry it back to his room. Hotaru neatly folded it then took off towards Deidara's room.
"We are what we're supposed to be, illusions of you're fantasy, all dots and lines that speak and say what we do is what you wish to do! We are the color symphony we do the things you want to see frame by frame to the extreme. Our friends are so unreasonable, they do the unpredictable, all dots and lines that speak and say what we do is what you wish to do! It's all an orchestra of strings doing unbelievable things frame by frame to the extreme one by one we're making it fun! We are the cartoon heroes, wuh oh, We are the ones who're gonna last forever, we came out of a crazy mind, uh woah. Here comes spider man, arachnophobia, welcome to the toon town party! Here comes super man from never never land, welcome to the toon
town party!"
The song ended just as she reached the door and she took the earphones out before gently pushing the door open a tiny bit. She stopped when she heard a voice and she silently cursed thinking she'd woken up Deidara, but she didn't recognize it as Deidara's voice, it was Sasori's. Quickly she masked her presence, making it fade away like she'd walked past his room.
"Deidara, I think our clumsy sister just passed your room." Sasori chuckled quietly as not to wake him, "You made me worry earlier, Kisame-san said that you "got taken out by a little girl" and I thought that you died. God Dei-chan, you scared the shit out of me."
Hotaru looked resentfully at the door as she listened, she wouldn't kill Deidara. Hotaru had said that she'd kill him if Gaara was there but she knew she couldn't, even if they were criminals and her current captors, the Akatsuki were the closest thing she'd had to family when she was a little kid. They were important to her and she loved every one of them, except Leader-sama, , and the money grubber that is.
"Sasori-dana?" she heard Deidara mumble.
"Oh, Sorry Dei-chan, I didn't mean to wake you." Sasori's apologetic voice came through the crack in the door, "I guess I'll leave."
Hotaru heard the shuffling of a chair being scooted and froze. Then she heard a sort of a slapping sound and couldn't help but peak. Deidara was leaning halfway off the bed holding onto Sasori's wrist, preventing him from leaving. Sasori turned back around and was pulled down by Deidara. Hotaru blushed as she watched the two share a gentle loving kiss. Wait a minute… her brothers were gay?! Since when?! And why didn't Deidara tell her?!
"You need to rest koi." Sasori whispered and Hotaru backed away and tore off down the hallway so she wouldn't be caught peeping. She rounded the corner and put her back to the wall and waited until she heard Deidara's door open and then close again then footsteps headed her way and she swore under her breath, if she was found hiding then it would be obvious that she'd seen the whole thing. So Hotaru put on her best clueless and hopelessly lost face on and walked back around the corner.
"Oh! Sasori-Onii-sama! Can you tell me where Deidara-onee-sama's room is, I forgot." She said smiling sheepishly .
"Yeah, it's the door right there." Sasori pointed to the door that he'd just come from.
"Oh, thanks Onii-sama, I fixed his cloak see?" Hotaru said proudly showing him the part that she had stitched.
"You did a good job Hotaru-chan, I can't even tell it ripped…" Sasori paused and raised an eyebrow, "is there a reason that you're is wearing such revealing clothing?"
"O-Oh, ano, I used the other half of my shirt to fix the hole… it was already ruined anyway." Hotaru said fixing her eyes on the floor and blushing embarrassedly.
"That sounds like our clumsy little Hotaru." Sasori said ruffling her hair.
"Hey!" Hotaru cried puffing out her cheeks and pouting, "I'm not clumsy."
Sasori chuckled and ruffled her hair again before walking passed her. Hotaru giggled and walked to Deidara's room and knocking before coming in. Deidara was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling blankly.
"Ohayo gozaimas, Onee-sama." Hotaru greeted cheerfully (Good morning, big sister. (politely))
"Oh! Hotaru, I didn't hear you come in, un." Deidara said snapping back into reality. Hotaru smiled.
"I fixed your cloak." Hotaru said holding it up for inspection.
"Wow, you did a… wait a minute, un! Where is the rest of your shirt, un!?" Deidara yelled spastically, "You can't run around half naked in a place crawling with men!"
"Hey! I'm not half naked and no one here likes me like that." She replied sticking her tongue out at Deidara. Deidara smirked holding up both his hands and sticking out all three tongues at her.
"You cheat." She stated as she set her cloak down on his nightstand. "Hey, do you guys have a kitchen?"
"Yeah, but no one ever cooks, un. Why?" Deidara asked as Hotaru placed a hand on his forehead to take his temperature.
"I'm gonna cook, any requests?" She removed her hand and took a wash cloth from Deidara's side table, "This clean?"
"Yeah, un." Deidara yawned and popped his knuckles.
Hotaru nodded and did a few hand signs before blowing on the cloth and putting it on Deidara's forehead.
"Steam? How's steam gonna help, u- cold! Un!" Deidara was surprised by the sudden shock of the freezing wet material on his bare skin.
"Uh-huh, I'm good with both fire and water, cold and hot because my natural Chakra is Water which includes ice and with Nibi I get Fire, so right now I've got two elements that I can use freely." Hotaru explained while putting her hands over the cloth and pumping a small amount of heat into it so Deidara could tolerate it for longer.
"I'm gonna make you some soup, your allergic to garlic right?" Hotaru asked picking up a few clay sculptures off the ground and placing them on the wooden shelves screwed into the wall.
"You remembered, un?"
"Uh-huh, it's kind of hard to forget that Kisame practically killed you with his sad attempt at shrimp scampi. That stuff was horrible." Hotaru shuddered and picked up some Ramen cups and chip bags off the floor.
"Is this stuff all you eat?" Hotaru asked holding up the trash.
"…yeah, un. Nobody can really cook so…" Deidara hesitated while answering. Hotaru sighed.
"I've got my work cut out for me." She said before asking Deidara if he had any requests. He said what ever she made would be fine and she hurried off to the kitchen.
"Repent child." Hidan said calmly as he passed her in the hallway.
Hotaru sighed, Kisame the fish man, the crazy holy-man, the money grubber, Sasori the living puppet, Tobi the identity confused ninja, and Itachi and Deidara, the gender confused Ninjas. It was going to be a loooong wait.
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Ok so I forgot to finish this chapter and started writing the next chapter… finished it and started writing chapter nine before I finished chapter seven…oops.
It is 5:11 AM on Monday, November 24, 2008