Chapter 3: Distance and Familiarity

They started to make their way away from the hideout when she suddenly remembered that she should probably heal the cut she made on his arm, just in case there was a trail of blood behind them. She had no idea if his partner was a good tracker or not, but having a trail of blood would make it possible for even a genin to track them. She totally forgot about it, as she healed hers instantly after she'd put more blood over their 'battlefield'. She stopped abruptly and he did the same almost immediately after, undoubtedly because he hadn't taken his eyes off her since they stopped fighting which she hadn't failed to notice.

She kept her blank facade up and reached for his arm, and he showed no signs of turning down her touch or hesitating. She knew she shouldn't look at him, out of fear of what she would see in those piercing blue eyes that she hadn't seen in so long. She healed the minor cut within a few seconds, before turning away, still telling herself not to look in his eyes, when he reached out and gently grabbed her arm to get her attention. She heard him inhale before he started to speak, and seemed to hesitate for a few moments before he finally spoke.

"Uh...Hitori..." he almost whispered to her before even thinking about what he was going to say. He also noticed how she didn't seem phased by his sudden contact either. He didn't even know why he had to take a hold of her arm. Maybe just to confirm to himself that she was actually there, that this was real. He didn't want to admit even to himself that he may have doubted his sanity for a moment. Not that he had much of that left.

"Yes?" she asked as bluntly as possible, while glancing down at his hand on her arm, and turning her head enough to look out the corner of eye at him so he could see the side of her profile while waiting on an answer she knew wouldn't come. She had already felt his tight grip on her arm, and assumed that he just wanted to see if he was hallucinating or something, and needed to reassure himself that it was actually her.

"...never mind" he said reluctantly before releasing her arm and watched as she turned back in front of her, and started running again.

#

When they arrived back at her place that was set in the middle of a small clearing, she walked straight through the front door and left it open for him to follow suit. He was still a little confused and shocked about the situation, and especially about the fact that her house was right here, in front of him.

After all the years he spent wondering where she was, she just happened to be here, all of a quick trip away from the hideout. She headed straight for her bedroom and started collecting up as many things as she could, and stuffing them into the pack that was thrown carelessly across the room a few days ago after returning from getting supplies in town. She sighed quietly and thought that this definitely made up for the monotonous days she had been having recently.

Deidara was still standing just inside the front door and looked around the very small house that he had been lead to. He was still very unsure of what was going to happen here, and if he knew her well enough, she probably didn't even know what she was doing. He set out to find where she went, and saw her through the doorway leading into what seemed like her room, throwing things in her pack and putting things in her cloak pockets. His eyes followed her every move, and he still couldn't believe it. He absent-mindedly wondered if Tobi had finally driven him completely insane and he huffed in a mix of frustration and amusement.

She cleared out as much of the small medical cupboard she has stocked full of medicines, syringes, herbs and poisons and started laying a few medical scrolls out on the bed, and storing some of the medical supplies in them with a few quick hand seals.

"Deidara. We can't stay here. It's too close to the hideout. We're going to head towards the east." she inwardly snickered as she seen him flinch almost imperceptibly out the corner of her eye when she spoke, clearly breaking him out of his thoughts. "You should get yourself something to eat as well. We'll be doing some hard running until later on tonight. Go and help yourself to whatever is left. I'll be out in a minute".

She turned to look at him when he didn't answer, and noticed how intense his gaze was as soon as she made eye contact with him. Bad move. She thought before sighing internally and seeing him almost tear his eyes away from hers and nod once almost imperceptibly before strolling back out to where he saw what looked like a small kitchen before.

While he was gone, she dared to dwell on the matter. He didn't seem to have changed much, not that she had noticed just yet. He just seemed smugger, and has truly developed his 'art' well. Since he was in Akatsuki, she knew he was strong and was glad for it. She could feel him holding back just as much as she had in their quick scuffle, and resisted the urge the chuckle when she remembered the look on his face when she moved with her full speed. He had not expected that. Shunshin no jutsu was a speciality of hers, being an assassin.

Deidara allowed himself to think about the situation as he almost mechanically looked through the cupboards for something quick to eat for the both of them. He could see that the kindness that used to be in her eyes so brightly had faded away completely. Her eyes were more of a dull grey than he remembered. He could tell how guarded and cold she was, even with him. Her expression had not softened yet, but since she was probably unsure of how to treat him since he was Akatsuki, he couldn't blame her. He thought that he personality finally matched her namesake now. Though he wasn't sure what was happening, the voice of a younger version of himself told him to follow her wherever she went.

"Deidara. Snap out of it, yeah." Hitori said before clicking her fingers in front of his face, and raising a dark eyebrow in amusement at his failed attempt at hiding how lost in thought he was.

"Sorry, I was just..." he trailed off and exhaled deeply in what was almost a sigh before continuing to look around for food, almost thankful for her interruption and stopping him from admitting something to himself he didn't want to think about right now.

"Never mind about the food, we've wasted too much time here. We'll just have to buy something on the way, yeah." Hitori said, while picking up her pack, and putting it on, before going through the minimal amount of cupboards and stuffing some random items of food as she could fit in another one and giving it to him, before walking towards the front door.

"Let's go" she said, turning towards the front door and reaching out to open it, but stopped when she heard him speak.

"Hitori?" he said, a lot more confident than he actually felt, and inwardly scowled at his own, dare he say it, nervousness.

"Do you actually have something to say this time...Deidara?" she asked a little less monotonously than usual, with a hint of amusement, and when he saw the upturned corners of her mouth and slightly raised eyebrow, he realised that she was teasing him, and for the first time since he saw her, he smiled genuinely and was glad that she hadn't completely lost her sense of humour.

"You became a medic nin after all. Seems you've gotten pretty strong too, yeah" he replied, and allowed herself to smile a little when she saw the flash of pride pass behind his eyes. His eyes softened at her smile, glad to see that she didn't hate him and his smile quickly turned into a grin. He didn't seem to notice the minor raising of her eyebrow as she recognised her own speech quirk that seemed to have become his own as well.

Hitori could see the huge school boy grin on his face, and she knew that he would start scowling if she pointed it out. She mused on the fact that he had seemed to pick up her speech quirk. She wasn't sure where she had gotten it from, but he always used to tease her about it. It made her a little bit happy to see how proud he was of her strength, though he hadn't seen anything yet. It wasn't like she really had a choice to become a medic and utilise her jutsu.

"I could say that you don't seem so weak anymore." she retorted teasingly and her smile turned into a devious smirk and widened a little when he snorted in amusement at her insinuation that he used to be weak.

His grin became a little roguish when he realised that she must have been testing him before, when they 'fought' and that she obviously would have been holding back during it. That seemed to interest him and he wondered whether she was holding back with her speed, because if she was, he would be even more impressed than he was before. He could barely follow her movement as it was. It also seemed that she had perfected her Kage Oni no jutsu as well.

She opened the door, and shut it after he walked out. She turned around to face the house, and felt his curious gaze on her. She quickly glanced at him and he saw the smug 'Check this out' look she had in her eyes. She quickly made a few hands seals and pushed her hands up against the door of the house, which a large seal appeared on almost like a summoning jutsu, and then the whole house disappeared into a huge puff of smoke, and when the smoke cleared, there was only a medium sized scroll left sitting on the ground. She took off her pack, and fastened the scroll to it, and then put the pack back on before turning to him with a shadow of a very smug smirk on her face.

"How the fuck did you do that? Since when does a jutsu like that even exist?" Deidara asked, still quite surprised.

"I know someone who has Moku natured chakra, same as the Shodai Hokage. He made this place for me using it, and we figured out how to store it in a scroll so that I could move if I needed to, yeah." she replied simply as if she was talking about pouring a glass of water.

"That's pretty cool, yeah. And really convenient." he just looked at her and shook his head in amusement and awe.

Hitori just looked at him with a tiny smirk and a raised eyebrow, which quickly turned into a scowl after he spoke again, and he figured that she didn't bother, care enough, or couldn't hide it for the second that it was there.

"Hitori...what happened after we were separated?" He asked hesitantly, and looked up at her with curious and piercing blue eyes, and she looked right back with pale grey eyes that spoke volumes of what happened. She quickly composed herself and spoke after a moment of trying to decide whether to tell him, and having a staring battle with him to try and get her to tell him all that happened in the years they'd been apart. She had no idea how long it took her to speak again.

"I could say the same for you, Deidara. But those are stories for another time, yeah. We should have left 10 minutes ago." she had her eyes slightly narrowed at him while she spoke, something which he didn't miss, then she turned away and began to start walking towards the trees.

"I would say that we could use my clay bird for transport, but we should do that after we're a fair way away from here. Tobi would recognise it immediately if he saw it, yeah." he said, trying to lighten the mood and break the tension a little.

"A clay bird for transport?" he nodded and she looked confused for a moment. "Innovative. But you're right, for now...we travel on foot" she jumped into the trees, and he sighed and shook his head, before following and leaping mechanically through the trees as if he was on autopilot, as they headed in the opposite direction to the hideout.

He decided not to press her for answers right now, because she was right, they did need to leave, but the look that quickly appeared and disappeared as quickly as it came when he questioned her about it, only seemed to provoke his interest more. He would ask her again later, maybe when they settled down for the night.

The blond had so many things he wanted to ask her. What happened after they got separated? Where did she go? How did she get so strong? How was she still alive? Not that she couldn't look after herself, but she would have had to find somewhere safe to settle down since she was on her own after they got separated. There was a few incidents over the years that he suspected that might have involved her, especially something that had happened in Iwagakure. He knew that he should just be happy that she was alive for the time being.

She noticed that he looked like he was in his own world, and inwardly scolded herself for allowing herself to scowl, which no doubt piqued his interest in the matter. He always was pretty curious as a kid. She knew that he would ask later on, and she had no idea when or what she was going to say to him about what happened after they parted.

It was memories that she acknowledged, accepted, and blocked out. She knew that it was a part of her which she couldn't erase, and that it definitely wasn't as bad as what some other people might have been through in their life, but it was still something she'd rather forget. And then there was the matter of what she and Deidara were going to do to make sure that his survival wouldn't be found out by the Akatsuki and where they were going to go.

Time would tell...