Chapter 9 - Discoveries
Deidara woke to the sound of Hitori growling low in her throat. He opened his eyes to find her three feet away from him on her bed. He raised an eyebrow while watching her tossing and turning in a vain attempt to try and get comfortable. She ended up laying in on her side, facing away from him, and from what he could see in the light of the moon shining through the trees, from her tensed form, she looked like she was about to tear her pillow to shreds with her bare hands.
Before he gave her a chance to actually think of doing that and go through with it, he spoke. "Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?" he said pointedly, his voice still a little raspy from not using it since for a while. She turned her head so that he could see only the side of her profile, and anger was stamped all over her features and her eyes said murder.
"I have been waking up everyhalf an hour since I fell asleep hours ago. I am thoroughly displeased with my inability to go to sleep and stay asleep." she retorted sharply and turned her head back flat on the pillow again, and they both knew that the anger in her voice was obviously not directed at him. Deidara didn't bother replying since he knew that nothing he said would help and since he didn't feel like going back to sleep yet, he just laid there quietly, staring at the ceiling.
He was in a rather placid mood until he remember what happened between them several days ago, and he promptly became 'thoroughly displeased' as well. She noticed the abrupt change in his demeanour and wondering what the hell his deal was, she rolled over to face him and give him a questioning look. He was laying on his back, with his arms crossed under his head, and it took him a moment to decide what to do when he guessed that she was looking at him, and waiting for him to explain why he was mad all of a sudden.
In that moment of indecision, he toyed with the mature and less mature option. The mature one being, explain to her what was the problem in a civil and adult manner. The less mature one was much simpler; walk away. For all his hot-headedness, he actually was considering the first option for a few moments before realising that Hitori seemed to have no problem taking the second option the other day, and that thought alone made his mind up for him.
He uncrossed his arms from under his head, sat up and leant back on them for a few seconds, just trying to exaggerate the vindictiveness of his walking away the next moment. With a barely audible sound in the back of his throat, he got up, still a little stiff from sleeping, and walked straight out of the bedroom, leaving a now rather confused Hitori lying in bed, looking at the spot Deidara was laying in just a few moments ago.
She laid there for a good 10 minutes in her half-asleep state wondering what the hell his deal was, and then it hit her. He seemed to be rather livid after she basically rejected him indirectly the other day, and realised that was probably the cause. It would make sense, even if they were sitting down on the couch, enjoying sake and a good conversation last night. But she did kind of come home battered and bruised, just hanging onto her consciousness, so it would be fair enough if he decided to forget the issue for the night, or the more likely reason was that with all the fuss, he was just worried and forgot to be angry at her.
Meanwhile, Deidara was sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning his back against the wall and with his right knee propped up and his right arm sitting on it. Yes, he was insanely annoyed with Hitori, but he knew that if he bottled it up, someday he would snap and it would turn out much worse. But on the other hand, he had no idea how to go about talking it out with her, and it's not like she'd be interested in the confrontation. She had become more closed off than he was now, even with him.
Then there was also the odd feelings that had been stirring up in him lately. He was absolutely clueless (which seemed to be happening quite a lot lately) and hated that these things had to happen at what was most likely going to be a huge turning point in his life. Hitori was feeling the same. She was as knowledgeable and understanding as a brick wall when it came to these things, and quite often had the emotional capacity of said brick wall, but these new odd feelings were ruining her idea of being emotionally impenetrable.
At the same moment, they both threaded their fingers into their hair tightly, and pulled, enough to make it hurt, so that hopefully these ridiculous notions of unnatural feelings and thoughts about one another would get the hell out of their heads and stop confusing them so much. After a moment of gradually pulling tighter, as the irritating voices in their heads got louder and more unbearable, Deidara started hitting the back of his head up against the wall behind him, and Hitori just started hitting her forehead with the heel of her palm. Hitting themselves wouldn't solve the problem at all, but hopefully it would kill enough brain cells to make them stop thinking about such illogical nonsense. It was too much for them right now. Deidara stood up and stared at himself in the small bathroom mirror.
Even though the life of a mission nin was surprisingly easy for them, it was all thanks to Hitori's luck for being in Konoha's favour because of her talent and for her earning so much money by nearly dying and also the possibility of being captured and tortured to death. She had taken so many high ranking and huge money making missions that most shinobi wouldn't have been able to complete successfully. She was earning money to feed them both, risking her life to kill anyone after them, and not just for her own sake, but to protect him as well.
In the next few minutes, Deidara would make two different discoveries that would change the direction of life he would take more than he could ever realise. And it was then that Deidara realised what or whom was the problem in this scenario.
It was him.
Hitori had to work harder to support them both and be more careful so that his being alive wouldn't be discovered by anyone, the Akatsuki in particular. She didn't have to worry about that before he came into her life again. When they were kids it was easier to have someone else there to help out, but now, when they were both infinitely capable of looking after themselves, they didn't really need each other to survive any more.
He never realised how much things had changed until now. He couldn't believe how much trouble he was putting Hitori through. Suddenly, he remembered what she said long ago, and realised that it couldn't be truer.
"Silly Deidara, without my jutsu, we would barely be able to eat! You are just the one who creates the distractions, not I need them..."
She was right. If it wasn't for her, they probably wouldn't have survived. They would have more than likely starved to death. It was with the jutsu that she hated so much that allowed them to get their hands on enough money and food to support themselves. And nothing much had changed.
Fuck, I can't put her through this. I have to leave. Knowing my luck, she'll end up getting killed for my sake. And that's the last thing I want. This sort of feeling is strange, but I wonder what it is. Do I love her?
A part of his brain that he had not heard from in a long time piped up to answer.
Yes. I do love her. I always have.
That revelation surprised him much more. He had never thought of it in such simple terms, and had tried to over analyse his thoughts and feelings. Since these things were out of character for him, it had not really come to mind. He knew that when they were kids that he had always taken some liberties with lingering looks and he could always tell when he felt closest to her, even when they were children.
He recalled the feeling of a certain smile, one that he had plastered on his face almost all the time before they were separated. It wasn't a huge grin, or one of his trademark arrogant smirks. The corners of his mouth tilted upward slightly, but the depth of the feeling showed in his eyes. His eyes shone so much brighter since he had found her again, more of sky blue now, compared to the blue of a shirt that had been left out in the sun for a year and faded to a dull memory of the colour it used to be.
His blond bangs fell over part of his face, and he stared at the man in the mirror. There was so many things he thought of that proved his theory of his falling in love with Hitori. He had moved closer to his in his sleep, not to mention the pang in his chest he had felt a few times recently. He felt absolute terror to see her injured the day, and the constant worry he felt when she was gone.
Deidara was also reminded of how odd he felt when Hitori told him that she had not been intimate with someone before. He had felt upset that no one had noticed her, but he knew simultaneously that he would have been incredibly envious if someone had been with her before. He had thought a few times about how lucky he would be to be the first one to make her feel pleasure so intensely, if he ever got the chance to be with her physically. He already knew that he desired her, which was evident in how much he wanted to continue kissing her, especially when she had returned his affection. The feeling of her hands grabbing his shirt made him grip the basin harder, and he felt her phantom warmth against his chest. That all too familiar pang was there again, and he rubbed his chest where his seal was.
For the next few minutes, he thought about whether he should tell her, or just leave while she was asleep, and decided on the second option instead so he didn't have to face her. He could just leave a note instead. He got up and went back to the bedroom, to find Hitori sound asleep again. This was his only chance. If he stayed any longer he would probably end up changing his mind, and he couldn't put Hitori in any more danger than he already had. She had risked enough for him already.
Quickly, and with all the silence and stealth of an S-class shinobi, he collected up his things, packed a few small items of food and wrote a note. His resolution wavered when Hitori rolled over and then moved all the way over to his side of the bed and snuggled herself into his pillow looking more like a contented cat than her usual permanent scowl or blank faced self. He walked over to her and gently brushed some of the hair out of her face before pressing a soft, chaste kiss to her lips knowing full well that it was the last time it would ever happen. He tried to commit the moment to memory as best he could, as it would be all that would get him by without her around.
He left the bedroom and walked out towards the front door, and with a small sigh, closed it behind him and walked out into the small clearing. He leapt up into the trees and with a lingering glance over his shoulder and a pain in his chest, he took off and disappeared into the night.
#
The next morning Hitori woke up on Deidara's side of the bed. It slowly occurred to her that Deidara not there. She stilled and listened for a moment to figure out if where he was in the house. He might have just been making breakfast for them again. She couldn't hear him, and decided to be lazy and use a quick flare of chakra to search for him in the area just outside the house.
Nothing.
She thought it was odd that he left without a word, and when she bothered to open her eyes and roll over, she noticed that there was a note on the dresser. Guessing that it said something unimportant and that he'd be back later, Hitori didn't bother to get up and read it, instead deciding that she could warm up and train a little for a while so that they could spar when he got back.
Gradually, she dragged herself out of bed, and had a quick breakfast before getting changed and taking a few kunai outside, as well as some targets that she hadn't bothered using in a while. They were old, and had so many holes in them that they were most likely going to fall apart any day now, but she figured that getting the use out of them was the best idea. It would be a troublesome task to get more shinobi gear while being so far away from Konoha. Usually, Kakashi just sent her anything she needed in a storage scroll, but it was usually one of his ninken dogs that would bring it, and Hitori always felt bad for making them come so far just to bring her some stuff she could probably live without, even though she gave them special treats.
After finally realising that she had been standing in the middle of the clearing, thinking for a few minutes, she quickly set up the targets, in the oddest positions possible, and made herself a goal that in one hour, she would be able to hit the bullseye every single time on every single target. She accomplished this feat in roughly half an hour, and set them up again, and repeating this process until she got seriously bored. She trained with some ninjutsu for a while, and when she finally got bored of that it was roughly half way through the afternoon.
By then, she had a sinking feeling that something might have happened and that he might have been found. As high ranking shinobi, as well as infamous missing nin, they were both excellent at not leaving a trail, or making false ones so the idea that they had been tracked there was almost preposterous, but the idea that whoever was tracking them waited until they were separated, since they worked together very well and would be almost impossible to beat lingered mercilessly. Also, if he didn't leave a trail, she wouldn't be able to follow it earlier.
The idea of checking the note came to her mind, just in case he was going somewhere in particular, and that he might be taking a little while longer than she first anticipated, so with an irritated/worried huff, she waltzed on inside and into the bedroom. When she saw the note, the heart she convinced herself every day that she didn't have jumped into her throat, and almost stopped beating completely.
Kage-chan,
I've been a burden to you. I hate to admit it, but I care too much about you to continue putting you in more danger than you already are. I have no idea how it happened but the only way I can explain it is that I think that I'm falling for you, and it's even more of a reason for me to stop risking your life to protect not just your own, but mine as well.
Don't worry, I'll be fine and I'll try to contact you soon.
Thank you for everything, and I'm sorry.
Your artistic bomberforever,
Dei.
Without a second thought, not even bothering to grab her katana, or anything else, she simply dashed outside, stored the house, attached it to her back quicker than she ever thought she could, and bit her thumb hard enough to draw blood before throwing her left hand on the ground.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
When her summon appeared in front of her in the usual puff of smoke, it took all she had to compose herself as much as possible.
"Hey Pakkun. Long time, no see, yeah."
#
Deidara was absolutely exhausted. He hadn't stopped running until all of five minutes ago, and now he was just sitting in some random bar that he couldn't even remember entering, trying to stay upright, let alone conscious while he relaxed for a few minutes before dragging himself to an inn and sleeping for a week.
He knew that he wouldn't be able to go back in the direction that they had just come from if he wasn't going to risk getting caught, so he went directly east. As usual, he had no idea where he was, but it was hopefully far enough away so whatever trail he might have accidentally left behind in his haste was covered up now. Naturally, missing nin usually got into the habit of not leaving a trail especially in a rush, but there was still a possibility that even the smallest clue could be used. He knew that Hitori was quite a capable tracker, especially with her experience as an assassin, decent tracking abilities were pretty much a given.
He'd been trying his darnedest not to think about leaving her behind, convincing himself that it would be safer for her to not have an ex-Akatsuki member and S-class missing nin around that was wanted by basically every existing hidden village, Iwa, Suna and Konoha in particular. However, if he was around, he could protect her and keep her safe. He knew that when they worked together, they were a very formidable team and could hold their own against mostly anyone, and that thought made his newly discovered heart sink down to his feet, and his usual smirk was nowhere to be found. Almost instantly, he started to regret his decision.
It was too late to go back now. He figured that if she was awake, that she had either not seen the note, or had read it, got pissed off and started to move somewhere else so that he wouldn't find her. He inwardly hoped that she either hadn't seen it, or that she had decided to stay where she was to see if he would change his mind and come back. Unlikely, since that would make her feel vulnerable if he did come back and the idea would probably be a little too sentimental for her taste.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the bartender asking him if he wanted anything, to which he replied with a grumble of something unintelligible and a shake of the head. With an exaggerated sigh, he lazily dragged himself out of the seat and walked out of the bar to find an inn and some food.
After about half an hour, he was settled in a shitty room, with a single bed that barely had any springs and dirty shower with a large container of take away that he got from the cleanest looking place around. He ate ravenously and wished that he was bothered enough to go out and get more since he was still hungry. Eventually, he laid down on the mattress and crashed out almost instantly.
#
"Pain..." the stoic feminine voice belonging to Konan spoke above the sound of the rain.
The man named Pain leapt up from his seat on the tongue of the large building that looked more like a massive statue of a man, and walked over to his blue-haired partner. They stood silently side by side, and a faint tingle crept through their bodies as their rings began to glow, and after a moment they appeared as coloured silhouettes in the dark cavern. A few minutes later, the silhouette of Zetsu appeared, shaped like a large plant with golden eyes peeking through the darkness. All three figures stayed silent in wait for the other members. The one known as Tobi popped up next, but surprisingly stayed quiet until the last two, Kisame, and the red-eyed Itachi flickered into view.
"I have verified the information about the incident Itachi and Kisame gave us at our last meeting. It seems that it was correct, and the profile matches Deidara all too well. Deidara may not have been killed, but captured. Since we have not heard anything about him being captured, it is unlikely that it is a hidden village. We shall find out everything we need to in due time." he turned his hypnotic, ringed eyes to Tobi, "Tobi, you are to investigate this personally since Deidara was your partner. You should also check surrounding villages for any signs of him. Any information is to be reported directly to me."
"Hai! Tobi will do his best!" Tobi said in his usual cheerful voice.
"Heh, Tobi is a good boy" Zetsu's easy going white side spoke up before everything went silent again for a few moments.
"As for the rest of you, report anything you find. Dismissed." Pain said, before he disappeared along with Konan.
And with that, the remaining silhouettes dissolved into darkness once more.
#
"Hey Hitori-chan, what can I do for you?" Pakkun asked to his old friend in his usual gruff voice that didn't quite suit his appearance.
"I need you to track a scent for me. But I may just be thinking too much, so it's not a big deal." Hitori answered trying to cover up her lie as best she could while still being happy to see Pakkun. She held out piece of the note, which she had carefully turned around so Pakkun wouldn't be able to read it.
"Is that okay? It might smell a little like me since it was off a piece of paper I was using" she questioned, again trying to cover up her little white lie. Pakkun was quite smart and she just hoped that he wouldn't be able to discover her lie. The small ninken sniffed the bit of paper for a few moments, closed his eyes and opened them suddenly again.
"I've got it. It's very faint, and you're lucky it isn't too windy so that there isn't more smells mixed in with it. Smells male to me. Is that right?"
"Yep. That would be correct. Shall we?" Hitori said before starting off towards the trees, but Pakkun's voice stopped her.
"Is this male a good friend of yours? I might have to tell Kakashi about this...I'm sure he'd find it rather intriguing." he spoke with a teasing tone, knowing that Hitori would be incredibly embarrassed if Kakashi found out her being 'involved' with a male of any sort.
He chuckled quietly when Hitori stopped dead in her tracks and stiffened like suddenly all her muscles in her body tensed up and he restrained his laughter when she turned around to glare at him as icily as she could, even though she couldn't hide the truth in her eyes from him. The ninken decided not to press the matter any further as he hadn't seen her in a while and she did always make him special treats when he dropped off packages to her occasionally.
"Behave you, or no special treats when I see you next, yeah." she spoke with a low voice that indicated she was serious, although she guessed that Pakkun probably knew that she would have a triple serving for him next time they saw each other.
They both started into the trees and they glided through them with ease and made conversation about random things such as what had been happening in the village, what Kakashi had been doing, and Pakkun may have pushed his luck a little more by bringing up this new 'male friend' of Hitori's, to which he received an attempt at a glare, but Hitori could never stay mad at the little ninken.
As it got later into the day, the scent began to gradually get a little easier to pick up and Pakkun estimated that they would probably have many, many hours travel before they got to their destination, hoping that the 'male friend' (which earned a glare from Hitori) didn't continue travelling.
When evening, and eventually night came, Hitori told Pakkun to go home and get some rest while she travelled further and that she would call him back tomorrow morning first thing. He hesitated, wondering if she would lose the trail, but she assured him that everything would be fine. They bid each other goodnight, and Hitori continued in the direction they had been heading in most of the day.
Deidara must have made an extremely hasty decision if he was distracted enough to not cover his tracks better, make his route a little more erratic and harder to follow, or at least leave a false trail of some sort. She couldn't deny the fact that she was worried about him. Without her there, she couldn't help look after him. He'd have to stay in some backwater inn, or sleep outside in a cave. He would have to eat crappy take-away from stores that don't look too clean but are the only ones around for miles.
She knew he would hate that. After getting out of the Akatsuki and accompanying her, he probably would have assumed that he'd never have to resort to that lack of having somewhere definite and mostly safe to stay the night with decent food again. She couldn't believe that he made some stupid decision to piss off to nowhere because he thought he was a 'burden'.
If only he knew how wrong he was, she thought to herself sadly, slowly coming to terms with the fact that she may never see him again, except this time he wasn't taken away by stupid fucking ass-hole shinobi. It was him that made the decision to leave.
To abandon her.
When that last thought sunk in, she, rather ungracefully, tripped as she was trying to land on a branch and began to fall to the forest floor. Luckily, yet unluckily, she landed painfully on a rather large branch diagonally for a second long enough for her to flip herself around and grasp onto the branch aided by chakra. She quickly corrected herself and started off again.
Attempting to shake off any dwelling on that last thought, she tried her hardest to make any thought not relevant to jumping through the trees in the direction she was supposed to be travelling in. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work too well, as the strangle-hold she had on the lid of that Pandora's box of royal mind fucks found its way open and every single thought came flooding to every part of her consciousness.
In the next few hours of travel, her pace slowed dramatically as she did everything she could to try and ignore the pathetic thoughts drilling at her mind. After another hour or so, a wonderful, almost miraculous thought came to her. Whenever she wanted to blank her mind, all she did was recite something from the various medical tomes she had stored in a scroll somewhere in her makeshift house.
Luckily, it worked for the most part, and in the next hour she had recited nearly a whole three books with only a few thoughts making their way through the barriers of ridiculously boring medical information that she honestly had no idea how she managed to remember and recall at such odd times, but was infinitely thankful for right now. Her pace was still slowed, and she had a feeling that she had gone a little off track so she decided to quickly summon Pakkun to reconfirm her bearings.
He appeared in a puff of smoke, looking like he had just woken up and she apologised before asking him to make sure she was going the right way so that he could sleep a little longer before she called him out again. He agreed with her logic, and woke himself up for a few moments before pointing out that she just had to start heading the smallest bit south for the next kilometre before continuing her east-ward route. She apologised again, even though he assured her that it was a pretty good idea and that he didn't mind before returning back from whence he came.
She headed off again, and after another two hours of travel, she had gone through every medical book she had and was now starting to recite hand seals for various jutsus, which to her disappointment didn't last too long at all. Most of her jutsu was all fire based, with a few lightning natured ones, the majority of which based from Chidori, and a couple very basic water jutsu which she had learnt just for the sheer hell of it, but was absolutely terrible at.
As the late hours of the night drawled on by, Hitori began to feel signs of fatigue, dehydration and severe hunger. She scolded herself, knowing that as a medical nin she should have at least brought a soldier pill to keep herself going for a while longer. Thankfully, there was a small village directly in her path with what looked like a bar, which judging by the lights and cacophony coming from the place, seemed to still be open.
Dragging herself in the place, there was music, and drunk men and women conversing over beer and spirits all over the small but cosy bar. She sat down at the bar, and pull out some emergency money which she always had stashed in a small inner pocket of her shirt before throwing it down on the counter and asking the barkeep to fetch her the biggest glass of water they had, and the largest meal they had.
The bartender seemed to realise that she was travelling, so he quickly got her a drink, which she skulled down in record time, before giving her a re-fill and getting one of the other staff to start cooking her meal. After about fifteen minutes or so, a massive meal filled which on a normal day could easily feed three small adults came out, and it seemed that for a moment everyone in the bar seemed to stop and look at the small girl with hair as dark as the sky outside ravenously munching down on the various food items on the plates and bowls in front of her.
One of the men sitting near to Hitori at the bar, who had undoubtedly had more beers than he could count and was unquestionably drunk, cheered and patted her on the back before saying something loud and quite slurred before yelling 'Kanpai!' and downing whatever was left in his glass. Within ten minutes, and four glasses of water later, Hitori had finally finished her meal, and even though the quality wasn't the best, the quantity was something to be praised.
Coming back to reality now that there wasn't food to concentrate on eating, she turned around to look at the other patrons in the bar, and one woman seemed to notice that she had completely devoured the gigantic meal and proceeded to cheer and raise her glass in Hitori's direction. In a rare display of emotion in a public setting, Hitori gave them a silly grin and a laugh before pulling a few more bills out of her emergency money pocket and handing them to the bartender and nodding thankfully to him.
She made her way of the bar, feeling quite a few pounds heavier than she did when she went in, Hitori began to walk slowly out of the village before gradually picking up the pace back to even faster than when she first started, her thoughts again set on getting that stupid, mad bombing idiot back. After two hours, she called Pakkun back, who she woke up again, but he seemed well rested and assured her that he would be fine to continue with her.
As it got closer to daybreak, he told her that they were getting very close to where the scent was a lot stronger. Hitori sped up unconsciously, something that did not go unnoticed by Pakkun. He had also noticed that she was acting a little...odd today. Granted that she was a psychologically scarred and troubled alcoholic, there usually wasn't a time where the word 'odd' wouldn't be appropriate for describing her. But something just seemed different.
She flinched almost imperceptibly occasionally when he spoke randomly and that she seemed kind of cheerful instead of her usual 'piss off' kind of attitude. And that in itself was an anomaly. If she was going to the extent to summon him to track someone, then something was going on. Something quite serious.
He was snapped out of his thoughts, which involved what treats she might get for him next time he saw her, when they made their way into a village and slowed to a casual walk.
"The scent has gotten much stronger. He may have been here for a while, but with all the smells of the markets and other people, I can't tell whether he's moved on or not. I'll just track the scent as best I can and find out." he spoke after sniffing the air for a few moments.
"Alright. You tell me where to go." Hitori said with anticipation that she hoped Pakkun didn't pick up on, although that wasn't likely.
They walked around the small village, Pakkun concentrating on the smells, and Hitori searching her hardest for that chakra signature that she'd come to recognise just as easily as her own as well as keeping a sharp eye out for that blond mop of hair and perpetual smirk that she couldn't say she didn't adore.
After a few minutes, Pakkun picked up a stronger scent leading into and away from the town's only inn. He told Hitori that the scent changed when it was coming out of the inn, but there was still the same overall smell. She offered that it was probably just a change of using the inn's shampoo and soap.
He decided not to bring it up, but he noticed that the scent of Hitori mingled in had faded drastically as well. Since the paper she gave him smelt like her as well, it didn't really click with him. But now that the scent had changed, it was easy to realise that this 'male-friend' had some involvement with Hitori, and he was sure that he would be able to figure it out by keeping tabs on Hitori's body language. After being with Kakashi for so long, he had gotten pretty good at reading body language since Kakashi had only one eye showing and he'd had to figure out what he was thinking and feeling going off just that and the faint shadows showing on his mask as well as what his hands were doing.
Hitori used her jutsu and made a quick check inside the room Deidara was staying in, just to make sure that he had gone and to see if he had left anything behind just in case it would help her find where he was going. Unfortunately, nothing turned up and it looked like he'd left for good. She didn't dare ask the receptionist about how long ago he'd left because Pakkun would undoubtedly hear, and she couldn't have that since he would easily recognise the description.
With barely covered haste and anxiousness, she met back up with Pakkun and Hitori got him some water and something to eat before sitting down for a bit while he restored his energy. She felt no need to do so as there was adrenalin was pulsing through her veins even while she was sitting, and she had no need for assistance from her medical jutsu for that. After a few minutes, they finished up and Hitori tried to restrain herself from flying off into the distance which she succeeded at...for the most part. Again, Pakkun decided not to bring it up and knew that he was right, that something big was happening and she just couldn't figure out how to react.
They walked through the rest of the town and into the trees again and Hitori's pace was almost a little too fast for the little pug, but he made no move to tell her to slow down, knowing that she either would try to tease him about being slow to change the subject, or she would be too wrapped up in her own thoughts to not realise he was speaking. They ran for the next two hours, and their pace barely slowed at all in that time. Hitori was starting to feel worn out, but would never let her body tell her what to do. She sent some chakra through her, clearing out any lactic acid that had built up, which made her feel better physically, but her emotions were running amok. She had hoped that after a while she would calm down a little, but she was only getting more worked up in the hour after hour that they trailed after Deidara. Her chest felt tight while she wondered what had happened to him.
After a while of travelling in silence and growing darkness, Hitori suggested to Pakkun that they use the same system as yesterday, and that he should get some sleep, and that she would call him again in a few hours to confirm her direction of travel. Reluctant to leave her alone in this state, Pakkun refused, saying that he was able to go for a few more hours and that when he gets some rest, so should she. Hitori carefully ignored the last part and says that he'll go get some rest in two hours whether he likes it or not.
Roughly two hours later, Hitori questioned him again, saying that she'll be fine and if he doesn't get some sleep, she'll tell Kakashi he was pushing himself too hard. Kakashi never liked it when Pakkun tired himself out, and got in trouble when he did. And all credit to Pakkun, the smart pug he is, said to Hitori that he'd simply tell Kakashi about her 'male-friend', which shut her up instantly.
Glad that the mood had lightened a little, he ran and talked with Hitori, allowing her to de-stress slightly and when she had calmed down enough for him to be satisfied, he decided after about an hour that it would be okay to leave her. He was quite exhausted, but he vowed that he would help her out as much as he could so he didn't mind struggling to keep up with her for the last hour. When he left, Hitori stopped for a moment to gather herself, and went she started up again, her pace was just as fast as before, and she thanked her emotional turmoil for putting her in enough shock to continue the flow of adrenalin so that she could continue going at such an inhuman pace for such a long time.
As organised, three hours later, she stopped for a few minutes to summon Pakkun so he could make sure she hadn't gone too far from her path, and luckily, she was basically dead on. The pug also mentioned that the scent is getting stronger, suggesting that they are catching up, which made Hitori's stomach do an unfamiliar flip. Pakkun left as quick as he was summoned and Hitori began to get really sick of drawing blood from her thumb for summonings but she knew that there was no point whining since Pakkun was the only reason that she was on Deidara's trail.
With a deep breath and exhaling with a sigh, she took off into the night.
#
"Tobi has found out about Deidara-senpai!" exclaimed the more cheerful than usual voice behind the orange swirling mask with the single eye hole.
"Very well. What have you found out?" asked the emotionless voice of Pain, vastly contrasting to Tobi's.
"Tobi found out that Deidara-senpai was seen in a village a day away from the village that he was first spotted in. But he hasn't been spotted since." Tobi said in a voice that started out happy, but then kind of faded to melancholy on the last part, making it obvious that he was upset that he couldn't find out where his 'senpai' was.
"And did you find anything out about the girl he was seen with?"
"She was with him! They checked into an inn for the night and they left early in the morning. That's all Tobi could find out."
There was silence for a moment as Pain registered this information, before he spoke again, his tone giving away nothing about his thoughts or feelings about the predicament.
"I see. Thank you for the information Tobi. If there is any further developments, you will be notified. Dismissed." Pain said with finality.
Tobi just gave an enthusiastic nod and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Pain just sat there for a moment, thinking quietly, and as his irritation grew, he hid it flawlessly as always, but not from the woman standing in the dark corner of the room, concealing her presence. He may have given her a barely there smirk as the beautiful blue-haired woman with the pale complexion stepped into the light, looking straight into his eyes with the disguised but caring look that he could always see in her grey-blue and amber flecked eyes.
"You seem to be rather angered by this news. I think we should consider the possibility that Deidara is with this girl for a very important reason. He was never the type to put up with having a companion unless he had to." Konan spoke calmly, trying to reason with her male partner and make sure that there was room for consideration in this matter.
Pain understood and accepted the truth in her words. She usually was always right about these kind of matters, matters of the heart.
"I concur. From the information, I think we could gather that it is not a professional, or hostile relationship between them. It seems that there is a possibility that it is not just friendship either. We have no knowledge of Deidara's past, so there is no way of knowing if he knew her before joining the Akatsuki." he said quietly, thinking about the possibilities.
She nodded faintly before replying, "What course of action do you think would be advisable to take then?"
"I think that we should solve this matter ourselves. I believe the other members of our organisation would be unsuitable for the job considering their lack of personal bonds. If Deidara and this girl are in fact involved I would not feel comfortable separating them, even if Deidara does have an obligation to serve the Akatsuki." he answered with complete honesty, knowing Konan would feel the very same.
"I agree entirely. We both know that we would dislike circumstances that would force us apart, and I would prefer to keep them together if that is the case. It would be quite hypocritical for us to separate them. For shinobi, a life with love is a blessing." Konan said with one of her small smiles, almost in itself explaining her philosophy.
"Then we will leave tomorrow. I will ask Zetsu to scout for us first thing. I would like this matter to be resolved as quick as possible so that we can get back to our normal duties." Pain ran his fingers down the small of her back.
Konan nodded once, and Pain stood up and gently ran the back of his fingers down her soft cheek and watching her blink slowly and heard her breath hitch in her throat and led her out the of the dark room...
#
Deidara was really getting over running and wished that he didn't decide to run for three whole days before properly resting. He was a little more calm now, and was able to cover his tracks a lot better than before, even though he secretly wanted Hitori to pop out of nowhere, punch him (Hopefully not too hard) before pulling him into her arms and telling him how much of an idiot he was for making her worry so damn much.
He hated that he couldn't convince himself that he didn't miss her, and this lack of control over his feelings and thoughts was rather infuriating for him. Mostly all shinobi had a decent control over their emotions, at least when working, so something like this, especially for a hardened missing nin, and ex-Akatsuki member, was almost unheard of.
Although, he did have his suspicions about Pain and Konan being together, which would probably make sense since they never left each other's side. But Pain loving someone was probably more shocking than the idea of him loving someone, his childhood friend at that, so it might make a little bit more sense.
After stumbling upon a small crappy village, he finally found a crappy inn to crash in for about a few hours before he had to get moving again, and he proceeded to drag himself to his crappy room, barely bothered to clean himself in the crappy shower properly before falling onto the crappy bed in a tangle of limbs and random items from his pack spread out on his crappy mattress and very quickly fall into a crappy sleep.
And when he was falling into a fitful asleep, his last thought was;these last few days...have sucked.
#
Meanwhile, Hitori was doing the exact opposite of Deidara. She was leaping through the trees at break-neck speed, trying to do everything she could to catch up to him. She hadn't slept since she left, and was kind of surprised that she hadn't fallen asleep while summoning Pakkun earlier on. As a medic nin, she knew how bad a lack of sleep was. But all missing nins, good ones anyway, were light sleepers and usually got used to sleep for barely 4 hours before getting up and going again. That kind of thing wasn't uncommon at all. Most ninja just adapted, as they should be able to in any situation. She already had problems sleeping before she became a missing nin, or a proper shinobi, because she just couldn't seem to get her mind to stop reeling with thoughts.
She couldn't convince herself that she didn't miss him. Strangely enough, she knew what missing someone felt like, since she had felt it nearly every day after they were torn apart all those years ago. But now, she missed him more than ever. He was such a fool for thinking that he was a burden. He should have known that she had been so happy having him back.
The voice in her mind right now, that sounded quite strangely like the more-open, and optimistic version of her which used to exist several years ago, had gotten louder, and she could no longer deny the truth it spoke...
Didn't he hear her pleading those few days ago when she thought that she might lose him again?
Didn't he know how much she cared about him, be damned if she'd ever admitted it?
Didn't he figure out how much it had torn her apart when he was taken away from her?
Didn't he realise that she'd always loved him so much?
Wait...Loved him?
#
Don't let go of the hand I held out for you.
I can't stand to see you go.
You made me feel what I thought impossible.
I'll hold you in these hands so stained with blood.
And I'd forever walk a path of pain, just to be by your side.