Chapter 5 – Memories And Rain
Deidara woke up several hours later when everything was dark, aside from a small light from a lamp that was obviously left on somehow, and he noticed that it was raining slightly. He hadn't moved from his spot of laying his head on Hitori's lap with his arms hanging loosely around her small form, and her hand still hadn't moved from it's position either, tangled gently in his hair.
He shifted his head slightly, and looked over to the tiny kitchenette, and he saw a small shelf which looked like it had a hitai-ite with the Konoha symbol on it. It was scratched out. What the fuck?...
He decided that he couldn't hold it off any longer. He was going to ask her now. When he went to move to a better position, she stirred, just as he expected and she growled her dissatisfaction of being woken up. She quickly went quiet when Deidara unconsciously snuggled closer to her, almost in apology for waking her. He figured that now would be a good time to speak, before she was awake and alert enough to somehow strangle him with his own hair for waking her up to do such a 'trivial' thing. Normally, he would have laughed at the mental picture his thoughts provoked if he didn't seriously think that she would find a way to do it if he pissed her off enough. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath in preparation.
"Hitori, I'm sorry for asking now, but I noticed the hitai-ite. There's a Konoha symbol, but it's scratched out. And please don't strangle me with my own hair for asking this again, but I've got to know...what happened in these past years? I just want to know what you went through." he almost unconsciously cringed when she growled low in her throat in obvious frustration at his question and he sat up swiftly to try and make sure he could see her hands properly.
"I wouldn't have said that if I were you. You've just given me another idea on how to kill you if you piss me off enough, yeah." she said with a raspy voice, and they both huffed gently in amusement. "I knew I'd have to tell you sometime, so now will have to suffice I guess. I'm only going to go through the whole thing once, so you better pay attention." she glared at him in warning and he gave a small nod, and watched her intently as he waited anxiously for her to fill in the gaps of the story he'd been trying to fill ever since they were separated.
"Well, we always promised each other to become ninja, so that's exactly what I set out to do, yeah. I had to figure out what hidden village to go to, since I knew that I couldn't become a decent enough shinobi by teaching myself. I only knew of Iwa, Suna, Konoha, Kumo, and Kiri. I definitely wasn't going to Iwagakure since that would be completely counter-intuitive to you letting them take you there, and leave me. I knew that would be the quickest way to see you again and know that you were safe, but you'd probably be really pissed off if I did that." he nodded, agreeing with her that he would be angry if she chased them to Iwa.
"So that was out. I had no fucking clue where Suna or Kumo was exactly, only that the Land Of Wind is mostly made up of deserts and Kumo is high in the mountains, and I knew that Kiri was across the ocean which would make it incredibly difficult to get to, but I didn't really like the sound of it anyway. Especially when it was nicknamed Chigiri no Sato." Deidara scrunched his noise a little, remembering the member of Akatsuki who was more fish than man.
"So, that left Konoha. I figured that from what we'd heard about it over the years that they would probably take me in, and I wasn't going to give up on the possibility that they might not. I didn't know exactly where it was, or how I was going to find out it's location, I guess that I just kind of hoped that I'd stumble upon it by luck and become a kick-ass shinobi, get you back somehow, then everything would be fine and fucking dandy, yeah." she snickered slightly and turned her head to look at him when he spoke.
"That was a good choice, heading for Konoha, yeah. Pretty smart thinking I'd say" Deidara said in slight awe of the logic that the girl sitting with him made that decision based upon when she was probably only 11 or 12 years old. Hitori smiled a little and continued on.
"After wandering for a while, I ended up coming across a small village a fair distance inside of the border of Land Of Fire. Keep in mind, that I had no clue where I was exactly and when I asked someone where I was, I bet you can imagine my reaction when I found out that I was in Land Of Fire, let alone the fact that I had been for a while now, yeah." she laughed a little and shook her head at the memory of being told that she was closer to her destination.
"I kept walking through the town, and noticed a man wearing clothes that looked like something a shinobi would wear. I walked a little closer to him, and the instant I saw the symbol on his hitai-ate, I swear I nearly passed out. He was a Konoha shinobi. I collected myself and basically ran up to him, and I could barely speak I was in so much shock. I still didn't even know if he would allow me to go back with him or not, but I didn't care less either way. I would have probably ended up pestering him until he did agree to take me to Konoha anyway." she continued on as she got up and headed toward the kitchen.
"I asked him if he really was from Konoha, and when he said that he was, I couldn't help but almost dance around in joy. He looked pretty surprised and confused...well, as confused as he could look with basically only a third of his face showing."
That description rang familiar in Deidara's head, and he had a feeling of what was coming up next in this epic tale of events.
"He asked me why I wanted to know if he was from Konoha, and I told him that I wanted to go there and become a ninja. I don't really know how, but he managed to look even more shocked at that point of the conversation, yeah. We started to walk again, away from the more crowded areas of the village, and he asked me why I wanted to become a shinobi, when I clearly didn't come from a hidden village. I gave him the most simple explanation I could without revealing too much. I said that I had promised a friend that I would. He eventually said that I could go with him, since he was heading back home after a mission anyway, and I can't even describe how happy that made me, yeah." she said, with a small chuckle at the end and a small grin.
While she was talking, she made tea for them both, and came back to sit down and had to stifle a giggle when she noticed that Deidara had laid back down while she was making tea, so she put down her mug on the small coffee table and gestured for Deidara to sit up, which he did reluctantly before handing him his mug and sitting down herself. He smirked at her lazily in thanks, and she realised how much she missed that smirk that always told her that he felt pretty damn content right now. She went to start talking again, but paused as the rain outside suddenly got a lot heavier.
"On the way back he told me that his name was Hatake Kakashi, and we had heard that name a few times before, and usually in the same sentence as the nickname 'The Copy Ninja'. I'm pretty sure my eyes were as wide as saucers when I realised exactly who I was talking to, yeah. He told me a little bit about the system that Konoha had with their shinobi, and said that I should probably start out in the academy and that he had a feeling I'd do pretty well since I seemed to be keeping up with his moderate pace quite easily even though I clearly didn't have any prior training. When we finally got there, we went to the Sandaime Hokage and he helped me figure out where I would live, and when I would enter the academy. He seemed to take a bit of shine to me and my tenacity to become a shinobi." she smiled faintly at the memory of the kind old man.
"At first, he told me I should just wait until the next semester, but I wasn't having that, yeah. I knew I didn't have time to sit around and wait a few months for the next semester to start, since most kids my age were already genin. He was such a kind old man, and thought my determination was pretty impressive, so he decided to let me start the next Monday. I was put in a first year class, and most of the kids thought it was really weird that I was so much older than them. I didn't get how the kunoichi class was full of girly things, so I just didn't bother with most of it, and went off by myself and trained with a kunai, or something like that which never failed to piss off the sensei."
She paused for a few moments to drink some of her tea, and Deidara noticed that she seemed to be reliving the whole experience in her mind like it all happened just yesterday. He still had a score to settle with the Copy Ninja, and him being mentioned was a reminder of that, but it was an easy task for him to reign in his temper around her.
"The senseis always tried to get me to participate in the activities they did, but I only did that when I absolutely had to. Eventually, I got fed up, and went to the Sandaime, insisting that he either put me in the boy's class, or let me pass the first year. Obviously he wasn't going to put me in the boy's class since that would just be way too odd, so he let me pass the first year after my senseis said that I could perform the skills required to pass. When I went up another year, it started out nearly exactly the same as the first-year, so I waited to see if it changed, and when I realised that it wouldn't change, I went back to the Sandaime again, for the exact same purpose as last time, but only demanded that he let me pass the second year, since I knew he wouldn't put me in the boy's class. And this process continuted until we finally started having co-ed classes, because we finally started learning more practical skills instead of flower-arranging, and all that bullshit that nearly made me gag, yeah. The Sandaime thought it was pretty funny when I said that to him in those exact words."
She quietly finished her tea with a small wistful smile on her face, which made Deidara's eyes soften at the sight of it, and when he had finished his he got up and took both the mugs and put them in the sink, came and sat back down, and waited for her to continue. He figured that she probably hadn't talked this much in the past few years combined.
"Anyway, he was really impressed with how quick I was going through the academy, and I ended up graduating about a year and a half after I first entered. I didn't realise that was a really rare and impressive occurrence until Kakashi told me that barely anyone goes through it that quick. Iruka-sensei taught the sixth-year class, and he said that I was pretty good with chakra control, so somehow after I graduated, instead of joining a team, I was immediately taught medical jutsu." she said with a slight hint of smugness, before her expression quickly turned a little more serious.
"No one asked me whether I wanted to learn medical jutsu, but it seemed that I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. I wanted to get through it as quick as I could, so I mastered all the medical techniques I could, and I specialised in poison making and antidotes, and quite often made poisons for various shinobi in the village. It took me about a week after I'd finished my medical training to finally convince Kakashi to teach me ninjutsu, and I soon found out that he could be a bit of a hardass sensei when he wanted to be, yeah. In our first training session, we just started off just sparring, so he could figure out where I was at. He was a bit shocked when I used my jutsu, which I'd been slowly gaining more and more experience and talent with, and he eventually helped me master it. When the next chuunin exams came around a few months later, Kakashi and I had already gone on a few A-rank missions together, and a lot of C-ranks and D-ranks. I was quickly becoming better than some of the shinobi who were already chuunin, and Kakashi actually had to use his Sharingan once when we were training together, which may I say, I was damn proud of, yeah." she finished with a smug look in her eye and a small grin present on her face.
"I have to say, I'm impressed by that, yeah. I know that guy is incredibly strong." Deidara said, also quite proud of what Hitori achieved at such a young age, but the mental image of the Copy Ninja 'disposing' of his arm was threatening to push it's way to the front of his mind and release the now strangle-hold he had on his anger.
"Damn right he is. It took me ages to at least be able to not lose to him in a few minutes. After a good while, I was actually able to fight hand-to-hand with him pretty evenly." Deidara's eyes widened, knowing that even though he didn't experience Kakashi's taijutsu, he knew that he was very proficient.
"We realised that I didn't have a team to go through the chuunin exams with, and so I plodded off to the Sandaime to tell him to figure something out, because, I quote 'Kakashi told me that I have the strength of a moderately-experienced chuunin, so I want my proper rank, yeah'." She said with a small laugh.
"He eventually convinced me that if I waited until the next one came around, he would let me enter them by myself, without a team. I had no idea why he said that, but it definitely stroked my ego that he was confident enough that I could do that, so I agreed, if a little reluctantly that I'd have to wait so long. When the chuunin exams came around again, I went back to him to make sure that the old bastard hadn't forgotten what he said to me. He hadn't, so I entered them by myself, as planned." she spoke with a hint of amusement, and Deidara figured that she had a lot of respect for the Sandaime as well as Kakashi.
"I passed with flying colours so to speak, excelling in the one-on-one combat that was in the second and third round. I soon found out why he told me to wait, and it was because he wanted me to try and take the jonin exams which were coming up only a month after the chuunin exams. I was pretty confident that I'd go alright but I didn't expect that I would pass since I had only became a chuunin a while ago, even if I did pass easily enough, and you and I both know, that the lifestyle we had, we never expected anything just in case we didn't get it. I really don't know how I did it, but I managed to pass, even though it was kind of hard. I started getting sent on more and more A-rank missions, and the rare S-rank mission and started doing most of them on my own." she took a deep breath and ran her hands through the shorter part of her hair, almost in preparation for the next part of the life story she was recalling.
"Then...I got offered to go to the ANBU all of a sudden. I was making a pretty decent name for myself around the village, so I shouldn't have been too surprised, but it was quite...unexpected. Two ANBU showed up at my doorstep at about 7am in the morning saying that I had to go see the Sandaime, who I had no qualms about telling the old guy off for making me get up so damn early the day after a mission. I still didn't know that much about a lot of the village workings, so I was pretty clueless about ANBU at that point aside from knowing that Kakashi was pretty famous among the ANBU ranks, so the Sandaime explained the vague gist of it to me. I had a revelation at that point. The ANBU was exactly where I wanted to be if I wanted to come and get you." Deidara watched her intently as she spoke.
"I wouldn't exist any longer in the village records, even though I barely did anyway, yeah. So I became the fourth member of Squad 9, and ended up becoming buntaicho after a while, when the guy that was buntaicho when I entered the squad died on the job. I become fairly well-known in the ANBU as being a captain who used complex strategies that always managed to work, and I always got the job done...I fucking hated it. And I hated that I was so well suited for it even more. It was just all assassinations for my squad." she held her hand over half of face as she spoke.
He noticed that she spoke with a lot more anger in her voice than before, and he realised, that while she could probably be pretty ruthless, that even in the end, she was still a human, and no matter who you were, doing some of the things that the ANBU do would effect you. He looked at her with a look in his eyes that said that he didn't like that she had to go through what she did, even if was exactly where she wanted to be.
"Kakashi was pretty damn impressed with how quick I'd grown in such a short time and he had to start using his Sharingan quite often when we were sparring, even though most of the time I told him not to because I didn't want him collapsing from using it too much. After we had a training session together one day, he told me to go to the Sandaime's office. We had received a request for a mission that was so unranked that you could have cried or laughed or screamed in shock about what the person was asking, if you could actually believe it." she shooked her head incredulously at the memory.
"It actually took me a few minutes to collect myself after the Sandaime told me what it was. I asked him, still trying to catch my breath after a minor laughing fit in disbelief over the whole thing, why he was telling me. He just looked at me seriously, and with as much reluctance as I've seen anyone show, he said that was asking me to take the mission, but considering the nature of it, he would allow me to say no, if I chose to." she spoke very seriously at this point, and Deidara already knew what was coming up next.
"I knew that he was pretty upset to have to accept the mission and try and find a shinobi willing to complete it, but he told me that he was outnumbered by the village elders, just because of the sheer amount of money that we would get for even attempting to complete said mission. It was probably in the millions or billions, and we'd get triple the first given amount if we succeeded. I'm sure you could probably guess what it was." she looked up at him, and waited for reply whilst looking at the knowing expression on his face.
"I knew it. You were asked to assassinate the Tsuchikage. But that still doesn't explain why your hitai-ite is scratched out." he said with minor confusion. He had suspected that she was involved in that somehow when he heard about it, since Iwa had been attempting to hunt down someone know as the 'Kage Oni' even since that incident occurred. And she was the only person he knew of with abilities that could apply to that title. She narrowed her eyes at him in irritation at his lack of common sense.
"What if they managed to track me down back to Konoha? That would be instant war. You should know even better than me about the warmongering and militaristic nature of Iwa shinobi, the Tsuchikage in particular. They've always wanted to get a chance at Konoha. As an ANBU member, I wasn't on the village records any more. I had to become a missing-nin in case someone miraculously tracked me down, although I already planned to make sure that even if I got caught that they wouldn't get the chance to question me, if you get my meaning, yeah." he nodded in morbid understanding.
"And besides, I didn't give a shit about becoming a missing-nin. I was never planning on staying in the village and doing the ANBU shit and every A-rank and S-rank mission that was thrown my way. I wasn't interested in any of that. I just wanted to get back to how we were and fuck off all this shinobi shit. Then..." she turned to glare at him with cold murder in her eyes, and he may have actually flinched, even though he'd never admit it if he did and it seemed that she was too pissed off to notice, care, or bother bringing it up.
"I heard you defected from Iwagakure, and a while later, started to prance around with those Akatsuki guys. It didn't surprise me that you left. In fact, I was pretty damn pleased that you did. But I'd already accepted the mission at that point, and I was planning to use that as a way to get you the hell out of there, but it seemed I was too late for that. I figured that since you were in the Akatsuki there was nothing that I could do to get you out of there. So I gathered that you were fucked unless I somehow found a way to fake your death and drag your sorry ass back into the shadows with me." she pursed her lips together and stopped glaring at him.
"The Sandaime suggested that I leave in about a month, after doing a lot of heavy training in re-con, espionage and assassination. I ended up taking every single assassination mission that I physically could in that month, and I never failed one of them. My jutsu seemed to exist for the sole purpose of being used for assassination." she stopped for a moment and looked up at the ceiling of the jutsu-made house with resentment, as if cursing the gods.
"I hated that I was so good at it. I was one of the village's youngest, yet one of the top assassins and I couldn't stand it. So eventually, I basically became a different person on the job. No emotion, no conscience. Just duty and determination to complete the mission no matter the cost. You saw a small taste of that side of me before I realised it was you the other day. But that's what I needed to be to complete the mission. I knew I would have to cut down anyone in my way to even have a slight chance of succeeding. The day finally came when I had to leave to make my way to Iwa, and probably wouldn't come back to the village even again. And if I did, it would most likely be in chakra sealing handcuffs or dead. The Sandaime and I had it sorted so that when I left the village that would be it, yeah. I'd instantly become a missing-nin because my 'plans' for the Tsuchikage had been found out and I was supposed to be arrested, but before they could arrest me I fled the village."
"The ANBU and everyone else was put on strict orders to capture me alive or let me go if they couldn't bring me back without killing me because I had 'classified information' that was extremely important to Konoha and I couldn't be killed until they got their hands on it. Kakashi was undoubtedly able to put two and two together, since I have ran into him a few times over the past few years and he seemed to show no confusion about it, or questioned me on it..." she trailed off as her gaze turned inward as if she was remembering those times. Her head snapped up and Deidara just raised an eyebrow at the random action.
"By the way, I heard about the confrontation between you and Kakashi and Naruto, the kyubi jinchuriki. I noticed the work his Mangekyou Sharingan technique Kamui did a real number on your arm. How the fuck did you manage to re-attach it? " she asked him with a slight hint of sadistic amusement. She had only seen that technique used on a person once by Kakashi, and he basically sucked away their whole mid-section, leaving them in two pieces.
"Don't sound so sadistically amused by that. It was Kakuzu in Akatsuki. But the Zombie Twins are dead now, so I hope you can re-attach limbs." he answered with an sardonic chuckle at the end. Hitori laughed as well and smacked him upside the head playfully.
"I may be an awesome medic ninja and everything, but if you hadn't noticed I'm not a zombie. Moving on...I'm not sure who else knows that I'm the Kage Oni since I could count on two hands the amount of people who have seen my jutsu and lived, but as far as I know, no one aside Kakashi a few others, and you has figured out that the Kage Oni and Sokkenai Hitori are the same person. Even less people would know about my existence if I succeeded in my task of killing the Tsuchikage and gotten away. Well, I clearly got away which I admit had nothing to do with skill and everything to do with pure luck. When I got to Iwa, I just went into my work mode and found the Tsuchikage tower just by using a simple henge clone. I slipped in there and used my jutsu straight away, and concealed my chakra. I made my way up to his office, and I don't know how I didn't get caught, seriously. When I snuck inside his office, I just waited in the corner for what I thought would be the best chance to strike and hoping to the gods that he wouldn't use his damn Jinton jutsu that I'd heard about. I knew this was going to be on a whole new level compared to any other assassinations that I'd done in the past. I wasn't just going up against anyone, this guy was a fucking Kage with a shit tonne of battle experience. I was still quite young, and he was getting pretty old. He was probably not as fast as he used to be, but the guy certainly still had some speed." Deidara nodded, knowing a bit of what his old village leader was capable of.
"We fought for about 3 minutes flat, in his tiny little office space before 5 of his best jonin turned up just before I was able to pin him and finish the job. That was honestly the most insane experience of my life. I don't think anything even your battle with Gaara could compare. Just me, the Tsuchikage. Fighting for our lives in an office. We could barely use any ninjutsu because we may have ended up injuring ourselves as well. Any time before that, if I got stuck fighting in a tiny little clearing or something like that, I'd be pissed off. But ever since then have I never once complained about the terrain I get stuck with."
"I wouldn't do too well against a Kage fighting in an office. Long range for me, thanks." Deidara admitted with a shake of his head.
"Are you saying that you are a terrible close range fighter, hmm?" Hitori asked leaning closer towards him and looking at him mischievously.
"I can certainly hold my own, it's just not as good as my long range fighting. I can't really use my jutsu at a close range unless I was going to blow myself up as well. And besides, where I lack in, you make up for. You probably have some of the best taijutsu I've seen, and you weren't even trying to kill me when I saw it. I could barely predict your movements. And now with the chakra boost that looks like that pink haired chick that killed Sasori technique, it's just even more insane. And I bet you are pretty good with that katana of yours, even though it's the biggest sword I've seen a female wielding." he said, with pride lacing his voice.
"It is the same technique actually, I learnt it when I met Tsunade a while back before she became Hokage, yeah. It's quite a speciality of mine now. Maybe I'll teach you some of my taijutsu if your up for it. It would give us something to do. Maybe I'll even teach you to use a blade. And I don't mean a kunai, either." she gestured to the wall of the bedroom that they could see from where they were sitting, where several katana of various different sizes were hanging with a devious look in her eye.
"I think I might take you up on that. It will certainly be good to see your skill. And you've got a fair collection there. But we've gotten off track, keep telling me about the mission." Deidara replied, but becoming a little more serious again when he realised they'd gotten distracted.
"That's true. Anyway, when the five jonin turned up I just instantly used my jutsu to try and take them out before they could do anything, which didn't work unfortunately since somehow one of them managed to find me when a kunai that they were just flinging in every direction cut my leg. Just enough to spill blood. Then one of them used a Doton jutsu and basically crushed my left forearm, which I still have problems with occasionally." she subconsciously rubbed the area where her arm was crushed and ran her fingers over the pale scars that were barely visible any more thanks to her medical training.
"I knew I'd be dead if I didn't get out of there as soon as possible, yeah. I used a Katon jutsu to create confusion and lower visibility, which worked just long enough for me to jump out the window, climb onto the roof, and get the fuck out of there as quick as I could. I knew that there was a big chance that I wouldn't survive against the Tsuchikage, but with five jonins as well, I was screwed. Especially when I'd been fighting flat out for the past three minutes against Ryōtenbin no Ōnoki. I just barely got out of there and I knew that if I stopped anywhere in Land Of Earth, I'd be found. So I ran for ages, only able to keep going on adrenalin and willpower, until I got out of there. I ran through the country that Takigakure is in and straight into Land Of Fire, yeah. I knew it was not the best of ideas since I could be caught really easily since I was still so weak and drained, but I knew that I wouldn't be killed, which was better than nothing." she shrugged indifferently and Deidara nodded in acceptance of her logic. She was right though. Even if someone from Konoha caught her in that situation, it would be difficult for her to fight them off, even more so when she wouldn't be able to kill them since she was still very loosely affiliated with them, so she probably would be taken back there.
"When I had rested up enough to keep going, I headed for the Land of Rivers, which seemed to be a good place since it was a decent sized country with a decent economy and with no hidden village, even though it's directly between the Land of Fire and the Land Of Wind which both have one of the five biggest hidden villages. Konoha said that they had no idea who commissioned it, no matter how hard they tried to track them down, so they told me not to bother going back and trying again. I was given the scroll with this place sealed inside before I left Konoha so I just found the best area to set up in, and began my life as a missing nin. Even now, I still occasionally get a rare unclassified mission from Konoha, since I am in a way still allied with them. And I couldn't care less since it helps me support myself. They can track me through the house since it was created with a jutsu. They'd never be able to find me otherwise. And I get updates from Kakashi every now and then about what's going on in the world, which is how I found out about you and the Akatsuki shenanigans, yeah. That's pretty much it, I guess." she said with a shrug and began to wonder how long they had been talking for. Her throat was a little scratchy since she never talked this much at once.
"I'm sure you don't need to tell me about your life as a missing nin, yeah. My time as one would have been exactly the same, and when I was in the Akatsuki, I was hunted as a internationally wanted criminal, instead of just an S-class missing nin." Deidara offered with a slight grumble of irritation at the end.
Hitori was about to speak again when there was a large rumble of thunder in the distance. They both stopped and looked off into space, listening to the sound of rain getting heavier, and turning toward each other when the thunder stopped.
"Seems like there's going to be a bit of storm, yeah. Maybe we should just get something to eat, clean up and get some rest. I'm still a bit drained from running so damn much." she said, whilst getting up and heading to the kitchen again and began searching through the packs with the supplies in them that they had left on the counter.
"Do you want first shower?" Deidara asked while summoning his pack and rummaging through it.
"Uh, no. You go, I'll make dinner and have one after. There's towels on the rack, just use whatever one you want. And there's shampoo and all that kind of stuff in the shower." she said, slowly getting louder as Deidara made his way toward the bathroom, while getting some rice ready to be cooked.
"Alright. Thanks. And dinner better be good, yeah. I'm feeling pretty hung – AH!" He exclaimed as he saw a chopstick go flying past his head which he barely dodged. He looked back to Hitori, who was barely repressing an evil smirk.
"You'll get what you're given, bastard. I might decide not to feed you since you are basically free-loading off me." Hitori said deviously and narrowed her eyes at him, still trying desperately to repress the smirk, and turned back towards the kitchen counter and pretended to busy herself with dinner preparations until she heard Deidara laugh softly and shut the bathroom door.
Around 20 minutes later, Deidara emerged from the bathroom, and instantly the smell of dinner hit his nostrils. Hitori was just serving up dinner, which was miso soup and sushi. He smiled and watched her intently for a few minutes before putting his dirty clothes over his pack, and walked over to her and put his hands on the counter on either side of her, and sat his chin on her shoulder and watched her serve up the food.
"That smells really nice, yeah. Oh, and speaking of that, can we get some other body wash that isn't so...girly? I don't think that maintaining my masculine image will work to well if I smell so...fruity..." he snorted in amusement, and laughed when he received a gentle, but still firm slap on the forehead.
"Like I said before, you'll get what you're given. And that was the only decent stuff I could find the last time I needed to buy it. Here, go put these on the table. I'll fix us some juice to have. I usually don't get much in the way of drinks, aside alcohol." He raised his eyebrow at the last part and she handed him two plates and he took them and placed them down on the small table in the living room, and came back to get the two bowls of soup and placed them down as well and sat down. Hitori brought over two glasses of juice and sat them down on the table before sitting cross legged on the table. They barely spoke throughout dinner, mainly just Deidara just teasing Hitori that the food 'tasted like it had been dropped in the dirt' which granted him a punch to his arm which went so dead that he basically had to eat only using one hand.
"That really hurt you know. I was only kidding, it's actually quite nice, yeah. You're a pretty decent cook. Better than me anyway." Deidara said while rubbing his arm and sitting back in the chair, feeling quite satisfied.
"It was supposed to hurt, idiot. Next time I might just decide to aim it at your head. And I'm only good at this kind of basic stuff because that's what I usually eat unless I can't be bothered to cook and just go and get take-out from the closest village. Alright, I'm going to jump in the shower. And since I cooked..." she turned to look at him with sadistic amusement all over her face, "you clean up." She walked into her bedroom and grabbed a few clothes before heading into the bathroom and poking her tongue out at him as he sat on the couch glaring at her playfully and shaking his head.
"Don't try that on me, you know I win by default!" he yelled after her as she shut the door.
Hitori came out about 20 minutes later to find the dishes done, and Deidara sound asleep on the couch. She was going to tell him that they could share her bed since didn't have a problem with it since they'd done it nearly all the time when they found a bed to sleep on when they were kids. His loss. She thought before grabbing an extra blanket from a draw and walking over to him, kneeling down and unfolding the blanket to put over him. When began to put the blanket over him, he stirred and groaned and shifted over closer to the back of the couch, and grabbed Hitori around the waist and pulling her onto the couch to lay in front of him. There was barely enough room for Deidara alone to sleep comfortably, let alone Hitori as well.
"Deidara, we are not sleeping on the couch, seriously. Just get off your ass and we'll go sleep on my nice, warm, comfortable, bed that is big enough for the two of us." she said as she pulled Deidara's arm from around her and got up from the couch. He made the move to pull her down again, but she anticipated it, and instead used the opportunity to pick him up, and throw him over her shoulder and began walking towards the bedroom.
While Deidara was slung over Hitori's shoulder, he opened his eyes to notice he was eye level with her rear end. She felt him tense and instantly knew why, but luckily they were already standing at the end of the bed. Hitori proceeded to chuck Deidara down and shook her head as he flopped down onto the bed like a rag-doll before walking over to her side and pulling down the covers. She lazily slid under them, and kicked Deidara in the side and told him to move and that she didn't know how he could have possibly gotten so incredibly tired in the 20 minute period that she was in the shower. He mumbled something about having a stomach full of good food made him feel drowsy, and he slowly shuffled further up on the bed and eventually got under the covers and settled down.
She flicked off the bed side light and snuggled further into bed and eventually fell asleep for the second time that day to the sound of Deidara's even breathing and the rain outside.