Chapter 10 – New World, Old Life
The bright light of the sun shined on Hitori's face through the trees, and she slowly woke up from what felt like an eternity of rest. She had been unconscious ever since she passed out last night. With no idea what was happening, and why her head and body hurt so much, she gradually rolled over onto her back, and tried to sit up. It took her a few minutes to achieve this, and she spent the next few minutes just sitting there, on the ground trying to figure out what the hell happened.
"Hitori, I'm sorry..."
Like that small explosion happening all over again, everything that happened came back in a moment like a shock wave. She remembered Deidara using some strange jutsu that she didn't know about. She had no idea how that creative little prick had learnt it, but it certainly helped. But now he was gone…
But unfortunately, it wasn't enough. She had vaguely heard the other nin say something about the Tsuchikage, and if she remembered correctly, he was the leader of Iwagakure. The Village Hidden In The Rocks. They had heard a fair bit about the various hidden villages from just wandering around, and if she recalled correctly, Iwagakure was a militaristic and warmongering village that used their shinobi like they were tools. Nothing more, and nothing less. And it was that thought that terrified her. She knew that Deidara was tough, but he was still controlled by his emotions and quite oftenly didn't think things through as much as he should. Usually that was her job.
She was scared that they would train him up to become a great shinobi, but then just allow him to be killed in some stupid battle that he had nothing to do with. They had promised each other that one day they would become shinobi, but they had never intended on having any loyalty to a particular village. She was kind of happy that he was fulfilling his end of the promise, even if it was in inconceivably terrible circumstances.
With that thought in mind, Hitori decided what she was going to do. She would go to a hidden village and become a shinobi too. The small, dark-haired girl slowly got to her feet, wincing slightly, and picked up the packs that they had thankfully left on the ground last night in all the fuss, and began to drag herself back to the village that they had been in last night. On the way there, she thought about the hidden villages she knew of. She only knew about the five main ones, Konoha, Kiri, Suna, Kumo, and Iwa, but she knew that there was a bunch of others in different countries.
Hitori knew what countries the five main hidden villages were in, but she didn't know where in the land itself they were located. Kiri was out, since it was across the ocean in the Land Of Water. Suna was in the Land Of Wind, amongst the desert, which would make it near impossible to find for someone who wasn't used to that kind of terrain. Kumo was high in the mountains and she wouldn't be able to travel somewhere so cold without proper clothing, which she didn't have and couldn't get. Iwa was automatically out, even though she would see Deidara again, it would defeat the purpose of him allowing himself to be taken there to save her.
Konoha was all that was left. Out of all the villages, Konoha seemed like the best option for someone like her. She and Deidara had been in the Land Of Fire plenty of times before, but they never ventured far into a country or stayed there for too long. They basically already acted like missing nin. She got back to the village while she was musing, and she found a small stall with some cheap food that she very reluctantly paid for, but the man gave her an extra serving for free because he felt sorry for her.
She guessed that looking like she had just been in some sort of small scale war helped. After she ate, she strolled through the small marketplace that was still filled with people who had most likely come here to watch the fireworks display the previous night. It was perfect for a small girl who could conceal herself in their shadows to steal food. Even though the people at the stalls called out to everyone announcing how good their products were etc, they were very, very good at keeping an eye on whatever they were selling. Unfortunately, Deidara wasn't around to help her out any more, so taking extra precautions, she stole a few items of fruit from one stall, running away before releasing the jutsu.
After she had stolen enough food to last her a few days, she filled up her and Deidara's old canteen and put both packs on her back and started trying to get her bearings for where she would have to go to get to Konoha. Giving up, she asked a middle-aged woman if she knew what direction the Land Of Fire was in. The woman seemed to take pity on her, and gave her a new shirt to wear that most likely belonged to her daughter or her niece or something, and pointed her in the direction she needed to go in. Luckily, it was black and it would help Hitori blend in better than her old blue shirt that was a little too big for her even with her growing, though she had probably stopped growing now she was about 5 foot tall.
Hitori thanked the woman kindly and quickly changed out of her old torn and bloody shirt and put the new one on behind a building out of sight and put the old one in her pack. They had learnt to never threw anything away that could be used again in a tight spot. It could be ripped and used as a makeshift bandage, for example. She took a deep breath in preparation and started off on her journey to get to the place that would hopefully allow her to become strong enough to get back her best and only friend she'd ever had...
#
Deidara woke the early next morning, with the sun shining right in his face. He realised that he had overslept, and he rushed to get ready for yet another monotonous day of running away from something he probably shouldn't have. He hoped that he could find a way to make some money soon. He could try doing shinobi missions, but it would be very hard to do so and also make sure that he didn't get busted about being alive. He could use something as simple as henge, but that would be a pain. Figuring that he could worry about that later, he paid the fee for the room which used up most of the money he had left, and he decided that he wouldn't eat that day to save the little money that remained.
He walked casually through the village, careful to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to himself and when he got to the forest, he started running, getting a little quicker as he got further away. For half a day, he kept going and it was around two in the afternoon when he decided to stop at a small fresh water creek. He filled up his canteen before draining its contents and filling it up again and sighing satisfactorily at feeling hydrated again. Guessing it wouldn't hurt to rest for a little while, he laid down with his arms behind his head, looking up at the blue sky that was dotted with small, white fluffy clouds.
Trying to stay awake and distract his mind from an annoyingly persistent train of thought, he tried to count the clouds, which didn't last very long. He couldn't help but regret leaving now. It wasn't possible for him to convince himself otherwise any more. He'd left, without thinking it through and now they were both paying the price. Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to get in contact with her ever again even though he said he would, he left her alone again. He abandoned her when she had almost begged him a few days ago to not leave her alone again.
Quickly becoming more and more frustrated with himself, he wished that sometimes he was able to keep his emotions under control and make decisions based on rationality and pure logic. It wasn't that he couldn't make rational choices, it was just that he had never needed to think very much about anything he did before. Unfortunately, the only time when he needed a sudden boost in his logic, it completely ditched him. Left him alone with all the anger and worry about putting Hitori in danger. Left him alone to make a stupid decision which would yet again push his path of life in a direction that he shouldn't have headed in.
He started thinking about what happened after they were separated the first time. Loyalty had never meant much to him, and he never really understood why some people blindly followed others and stayed under control. Was it because they had nothing else? Did they find something to believe in? Did it give them a purpose in life? Or was it that they didn't have the strength to be independent? When he was in Iwagakure, he wanted nothing more than to get out of there, but he knew that if he did, he would have hunter nins after him.
When he finally had enough of being ridiculed for his art, something that had always made him instantly flare to anger, and not having the chance to use it often enough, he left. He blew up a few things as a parting gift too. He became a bomber for hire. He had never cared about what he did, or who hired him. He just did it to use his art. To fulfil his artistic and destructive desires. To slake his lust for chaos and havoc. It only took a while for his name to be known and for the four people wearing black clouds, decorated with red clouds to visit him.
It was his arrogance and inability to recognise that his art was not superior to everything in existence that caused him to be forced into becoming a member of the Akatsuki. That day was the reason he hated the Sharingan and the Uchiha, Itachi in particular, and he had trained hard so that he could one day defeat Itachi and prove that his art was superior to the skills and talents of the emotionless red-eyed bastard. To make Itachi and every other Uchiha recognise him as the shinobi who wouldn't be fooled by the Sharingan that insulted his art, though he had to admit, at least to himself how incredibly powerful it was.
He certainly didn't expect to be found by the pale-skinned, black-haired girl who he had stuck with for several years before being taken away to Iwa. The girl that he whose grey eyes he had never forgotten had turned up in front of him, literally. At first, she had attacked him and they had eventually run away, faking his death so that he could get out of the Akatsuki. He had no idea what to think or do, but he knew that if Hitori was bothered enough to go to all the effort of trying to keep his survival hidden, that meant that she wanted him in her life again.
That idea made him a little happier, but when she treated him with such a cold and heartless disposition that he almost forgot about the old, innocent and sweet Hitori that used to hit him for doing reckless things and making her worry about him, he thought that being alone for so many years might have changed her to the point where there was no trace of the Hitori he once knew left in her. She was like a complete polar opposite of the girl who gave him the last of the water in the canteen, or stole him a new shirt after he ripped the one he was wearing right down the middle.
And then he got absolutely flogged by said girl, who seemed to have no limit to her massive physical strength. To anyone else, it would have seemed like she did it to release her own frustration at his stupidity and punishment for allowing his ego to get in the way and force him to get involved with the Akatsuki, but he knew her better than that, even though she had changed. He knew that it was her way of saying that he was such a fool for allowing himself to be put in so much danger and making her worry, even though she'd probably die before admitting it. That's why she communicated with fists, not words.
Suddenly realising that he'd probably been laying on the ground thinking for at least an hour now, he quickly jumped up and drank from his canteen before topping it up again and setting off again.
#
The four coloured silhouettes stayed silent as they waited for their leader to speak.
"Based on the information I have received about Deidara, I have decided that Konan and I will confront him. Itachi and Kisame are busy, Zetsu is not here as he is currently locating Deidara and Tobi is not fit for this job. We will be heading out as soon as Zetsu finds Deidara, and what I decide to do with him is final. I will inform you all of the outcome. Dismissed." Pain said with an emotionlessly authoritative voice, and no one dared to contradict the man with the hypnotic Rinnegan eyes.
With a single nod, Kisame and Itachi wordlessly flickered out of sight, knowing that there was nothing to say. Tobi didn't seem to have the mental capacity to understand the situation, or maybe he was just too excited that he might get his senpai back to realise the ominous under tone of Pain's words. He also stayed quiet as he disappeared to leave nothing but darkness where his hologram stood a few moments ago.
Pain and Konan returned and opened their eyes to once again see the dimly lit room that Pain worked in most of the day. Konan looked directly in his eyes, and she already knew that he had come to a decision about what he would do with Deidara.
"If we have assumed correctly about the relationship between Deidara and the girl, we are going to leave them be, are we not?" she asked, for confirmation, even though she knew him well enough to not need to.
"That is correct. As you said before, it would be quite hypocritical of me to separate them, and I am sure you know that I have no intention of becoming a hypocrite." he replied quietly, a hint of kindness evident in his tone when speaking to the woman he had known and loved for most of his life. "We will head out when Zetsu notifies us of Deidara's location."
Konan nodded in reply and gave him a small smile, which he returned faintly before getting back to work...
#
About two hours before sunset, they received a message from Zetsu saying that he had found Deidara and gave them the location. Pain and Konan immediately set out, hoping that they could catch Deidara before he noticed Zetsu's presence, which was doubtful, but with shinobi, you never knew what they had up their sleeves. Or concealed in the palms of their hands. Even with someone as straight forward and blunt as Deidara.
With Konan's jutsu, Shikigami no Mai, she was able to keep up with Pain's inhuman speed without using much energy or chakra, and they got to where Zetsu said he spotted Deidara within a little over an hour. Zetsu said that he'd been keeping an eye on Deidara and that he hadn't lost him yet. They began to follow Zetsu and when they came in view of Deidara, he stopped, immediately recognising the chakra that Konan was exerting to use her jutsu. Zetsu took his leave as Pain and Konan approached Deidara.
Fuck. If Konan is here...that can only mean one thing...Pain, Deidara thought, and he knew he was in deep shit. He would probably be killed within the next few minutes. It sucked even more because he couldn't ever say a proper goodbye to Hitori now, not that the last one he said in the note was decent enough. He regretted his earlier decision even more now for that reason, but at the same time he didn't because he knew that if Pain and Konan found him when he was with Hitori, she would have most likely been killed as well.
"Deidara." Pain's voice resonated even though he spoke quietly. "Where is the girl you have been travelling with?"
Deidara's eyes went wide as he realised they already knew about Hitori, and that they were probably going to hunt her down after they'd finished with him. He instantly went on the defensive, his temper going through the roof at the thought of them involving her when he did everything he could to prevent that.
"She has nothing to do with me anymore, so don't go near her! She's of no concern to the Akatsuki!" he yelled at the orange-haired man angrily, even though he knew that it was probably no use.
Konan looked at Pain's expressionless face and knew that he was angry. Deidara was not with the girl any more, and by the sounds of it, she had either left him, or he had left her. They had both noticed that the girl wasn't there as soon as they saw Deidara and if his defensive tone was anything to go by, it was clear that something happened between them, and Konan knew that Pain would be angry at this, and he was. Konan couldn't deny that she wasn't even a little angered by this. She looked over at Deidara, who was glaring at them with as much murder in his blue eyes as he could muster with a defiant expression.
With a quick glance back at Pain, she activated her Shikigami no Mai jutsu and rose above the ground on beautiful angel-like wings made of small squares of paper. And the battle was on. Deidara opened his clay pouches that were still attached to his utility belt, and the mouths on both of his hands instantly set to work creating his art. He knew that to attack Konan would probably piss Pain off and he would be killed brutally within a second by the man with the numerous piercings, but he definitely wasn't going to go down with a fight, and damn good, artistic one at that.
In a few seconds, the first of his explosions were ready, and he let them out of his hands, and sent them towards Konan. She retaliated by using her Kami Shuriken jutsu and flinging them at Deidara's explosive birds and stuck them fast to whatever was behind them. Meanwhile, Deidara began creating his clay bird so he could at least try and escape, although it was probably useless to try and escape from the man who was called a 'God' and his partner that was dubbed an angel.
Before he had a chance to create the bird, Konan used her Paper Stream and aimed it at Deidara. Even if they were only pieces of paper, Deidara knew that in a jutsu used by an S-class shinobi, they were deadly weapons. Weapons used to kill. He ran full pelt out of the way and thankfully avoided them all. He used some more explosives and hoped that his clay bird would be ready any second. Konan came back down closer to the ground and began avoiding the small clay birds flying her way.
Pain stood by watching the fight between Deidara and his partner, making sure that no harm came to her. He knew that she was a fantastic shinobi and that she wasn't ranked as S-class for no reason, but he couldn't help but worry about her. Suddenly, he thought he felt the faintest tingle of chakra for a second in the distance, but with the two large chakras doing battle in front of him he couldn't concentrate on it properly, and he brushed the thought aside, thinking it was just Zetsu travelling.
It certainly wasn't Zetsu...
#
Hitori was running along with Pakkun at the normal moderately fast paced. She could see that Pakkun was getting tired from running for several days straight, even though she had sent him to rest as much as he would allow himself too. She had made sure to not push the little pug too hard and so they were going at a speed that was comfortable for both of them. They had talked a little on the way and Pakkun was glad that Hitori didn't seem as stressed as when he was with her yesterday. She did seem a little down, but she had no problem talking to him about random things as they ran through whatever country they were in right now.
All of a sudden, about a hundred metres ahead, Hitori saw a head pop out of the ground. Pakkun noticed it too, and they both slowed down dramatically to a cautious walk. When they saw the orange swirling mask, Hitori was instantly on her guard. She told Pakkun to leave, who refused at first, worried about her going up against an Akatsuki member alone, but she told him that she'd be fine and that she wasn't planning on fighting him. Reluctantly, Pakkun left, but not before telling Hitori to be careful.
When the Akatsuki member fully came out of the ground, she could see his black cloak with red clouds, just as she expected. She had heard about this Akatsuki member somewhere before...
"SENPAI'S FRIEND!?" he yelled happily before prancing, yes, prancing over to Hitori, who was quite stunned at the sudden cheery outburst from the man in front of her. "Are you Deidara-senpai's friend?" he asked, still with a scarily eager voice and Hitori shrunk back slightly out of being thoroughly weirded out by the person who was supposed to be an Akatsuki member, but seemed more like the member of a 'Yell Loudly And Obnoxiously At People You Don't Know' group. Then it clicked with her.
"Wait, did you say Deidara?" she asked the man, or boy, or whatever, realising that Deidara's second partner called him senpai and was apparently quite goofy and annoying.
"Yay! You are senpai's friend!" he said happily and threw his arms around the unnerved Hitori.
"Yes, I am Deidara's friend. Do you know where he is?" she asked with urgency that he didn't seem to pick up on, and continued to hug Hitori, who was trying to pry him off, however when she asked, he stepped back and put a finger to his chin, as if thinking.
"Leader and Konan-chan are going to meet up with Deidara-senpai. That's all Tobi knows..." Tobi said, as he tapped his finger against his chin.
"Leader?...Pain..." she said to herself quietly as she realised who 'Leader' was. And she then realised what 'going to meet up with Deidara' meant. "They're going to kill him...Tobi! Pain and Konan are going to kill Deidara, don't you get that?" she yelled with a voice full of worry and anger.
Tobi immediately stopped moving around and shifting his feet happily and stood dead still. His aura went from happy to utterly dejected in an instant. "Why are they going to kill senpai? He didn't do anything wrong...I don't want them to kill Deidara-senpai!" he said quietly at first, but increasing in volume, with a hint of anger in his voice.
As if on cue, she felt the tingle of chakra in the distance. She lowered her head as she concentrated. Two. One of them she didn't recognise, but the other one...after a sudden surge, she recognised it as easily as her own. Deidara!
"Tobi! He's this way. If you don't want him to die, come with me. NOW!" she yelled before running faster that she had ever done so before. Tobi was running a few metres behind her, struggling to keep up and she thanked the stars for her medical jutsu which allowed her to be extra sensitive to chakra. Deidara's chakra had always had quite a rough feel to it, and it was the complete opposite to her own, which was very smooth and flowing.
She could hear explosions, getting louder and louder as she nearly flew through the trees and felt like she was gliding more than running. Within a few moments, the explosions sounded like they weren't far off, and she turned to the right slightly, so she could attempt to flank whoever was fighting him. When they started getting close, she stopped and waited for Tobi to catch up. He seemed to have his chakra masked, but with someone like him, it didn't hurt to reinforce the seriousness of the situation. Tobi landed beside her, and looked at her with what she assumed was a questioning expression.
"Tobi, they're just there. I'm going to go around to the right and try to sneak up on them, and you should go around the left. But don't come out until I call you. This could save Deidara's life, okay?" she said, trying to be calm but firm in what she said to him.
"Hai, Tobi understands. Tobi will do his best!" he whispered quietly and saluted to her before stalking around to the left. Hitori only hoped that he messed up enough for him to be noticed so that she could use the opening, or stayed put and out of the way.
She continued to make her way around to the right, in line with where she felt the unfamiliar chakra signature coming from. When she was close enough, she could see through the trees that he was fighting a woman, made out of...what looked like paper. She assumed that was Konan, the only woman in the Akatsuki who could turn her body into paper at will as well as use it for weaponry. Thank the gods for Deidara telling her about the Akatsuki members and any abilities they had that he knew of. She took a deep breath and nodding once to herself before grabbing three kunai from her leg holster and jumping out, flying at Konan.
Konan was taken by surprise since she was having a hard time dealing with Deidara as it was, and she just barely moved out of the way of the kunai that Hitori had aimed at her with chakra forcing it to go faster. Konan made several more Kami Shuriken and sent them at the woman who had just attacked her. Hitori hit the ground in time to dodge and threw another kunai at the paper woman. Again, she dodged it and created more Kami Shuriken and Hitori reacted a second too late when she was half-way through throwing the last kunai, and the paper shuriken hit her left arm.
What was supposed to be Hitori disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Konan, Pain and Deidara all realised that it was a Kage Bunshin. The real Hitori had concealed herself in the shadow of a tree, which was getting longer as the sun went down, and she used the clone to buy her a few seconds of time as she moved to make sure that Konan would be in range. She did the seals for her biggest Katon jutsu which was taught to her by the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen himself. She took a deep breath and dropped her Kage Oni jutsu, and no one noticed her standing there until she yelled out the name of the jutsu.
"Katon: Karyu Endan!" she yelled and exhaled as the almost white-hot flames flew out towards Konan who unfortunately didn't notice them soon enough, and some of her left side got burnt.
Hitori landed silently on the ground aside Deidara, who was frozen with shock. First, he saw a Kage Bunshin of Hitori, and now the real thing. And she actually injured Konan. Before anyone could react, Hitori ran over and stood next to Deidara, but didn't take her eyes off the two people in front of her wearing Akatsuki cloaks.
"Pain, Konan. Deidara has nothing to do with you anymore. He is of no concern to the Akatsuki." she said loudly to them both, trying to make her voice as low and toneless as possible, indicating that she was serious.
Simultaneously, both Pein and Konan realised how much what she said sounded like what Deidara said when Pain asked about the location of the girl he was with. Almost word-for-word, in fact. They quickly glanced at each other, knowing that this was the girl, and that probably meant that Deidara would have left her, and she must have been following him. Also, it seemed like the girl's abilities were certainly not anything to sneeze at, as she was able to take all three of them by surprise as well as use a high ranked Katon jutsu with extreme proficiency, and use a concealment jutsu that neither of them recognised.
"Hitori! What the fuck are you doing? Get out of here! You aren't a match for Pain and neither am I!" Deidara yelled at her, finally snapping out of his surprise.
She turned her head slowly, and glared at him with every ounce of anger she had about what he did to her, which was quite an immeasurable amount. He flinched almost imperceptibly at the look in her eyes, but then glared back defiantly. She stepped closer to him, and swiftly smacked him upside the head.
"You're an absolute fool, Deidara. We always had each other backs years ago, and I never wanted that to change." she was quiet for a moment, then turned away from him, but not so much that she couldn't keep a close eye on Pain and Konan, who seemed to be just idly standing there, watching the exchange. "Besides, I don't doubt that neither of us are a match for him as well as Konan, but I love you too damn much to stand here and watch you get killed while I do nothing." she said quietly, and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the plunge.
Before he realised it, she was charging full speed at Pain, with a kunai in each hand. She felt like she'd been punched in the gut as she flew backwards to land back where she started. She dropped to one knee to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her and watched Pain with confusion. He wasn't close enough to touch her, and she was one of the fastest shinobi she knew, so she doubted that he used Shunshin no jutsu without her being able to follow his movements. His voice took her by surprise.
"What is your name?" Pain asked emotionlessly, but inwardly, he was rather interested to see who this girl was.
Hitori narrowed her eyes and stood up to her full height, but answered nonetheless. "Sokkenai Hitori. Better known as the Kage Oni."
"The Kage Oni who made the assassination attempt on the Tsuchikage a few years ago, I assume?" he said, instantly recognising the name that had unnerved even some of the most hardened shinobi ever since the event. Attempting an assassination on a Kage was something only the Akatsuki had made a thing.
Hitori smirked faintly and huffed in slight amusement that he knew her reputation. "You know it."
"And would you also be the woman that Deidara has been seen with recently?"
She quickly glanced at Deidara before answering. "That would be me. Why do you want to know?"
"Then we have no more business with either of you." Pain answered without really answering and turned to Konan, but Hitori's voice calling his name stopped him.
"What the fuck does that mean?" she said loudly, thoroughly confused at how quickly the situation changed. "Answer me!" she screamed at the orange haired man.
"It would be hypocritical for me to separate the two of you, who clearly have a very strong bond. I have no desire to become a hypocrite by breaking that bond." he said, while walking over to Konan, who had a large hole in her cloak and part of the sleeve burnt off.
"For shinobi, a life with love is a blessing. We have fleeting, uncertain lives and having a thing such a love in it should be protected at all costs. We had previously decided before coming here that if the two of you had such a bond, that we would take no further part in your lives. And I believe that you have that bond." Konan spoke up, her usually apathetic and calm voice hinted with pain, but also with respect for Deidara and Hitori.
"So, you're saying that because we care about each other, you are going to leave us alone?" Deidara asked, still confused and shocked at what all this meant.
"No. We are saying that because you love each other, we are leaving you alone." she said slowly and glanced at Hitori, who abruptly remembered her earlier confession and she turned away grumpily and crossed her arms as her cheeks reddened slightly as Deidara looked at her as he too recalled her confession.
Konan just smiled and repeated her words. "Remember what I said. For shinobi, a life with love is a blessing. Protect your bond, Deidara, Hitori."
Hitori looked over at them and nodded once in respect and acceptance. Pain returned the gesture and Konan smiled faintly again. Deidara smiled and nodded at them both before Pain picked Konan up carefully, bridal-style and used a transportation jutsu to take them back to the Akatsuki headquarters in Amegakure.
Deidara looked back over to Hitori and began walking over to her, even though she defiantly looked away from him, her face pulled into a slightly forced scowl. All he could think about was pulling her into his arms, and not letting her go ever again.
Instead...he got something else.
"SENPAIIIII!" yelled the shrill, happy voice of Tobi who flew out of the trees and landed on Deidara. "Tobi is so happy that Deidara-senpai is okay!" he continued to yell with a happy voice as he squeezed Deidara, who just stood there in shock after stumbling backwards several steps.
After a moment, Deidara was able to shove him off. "You certainly haven't changed Tobi. Just as stupid as always." he said, with as much anger as he could, but the soft laugh didn't go unnoticed by Hitori, who smiled and shook her head at the sight of seeing their antics first hand.
"What will you do now Deidara-senpai? Are you going to marry Hitori-chan?" Tobi said bouncing up and down with excitement. At the prospect of marriage, both Deidara and Hitori tensed up and Hitori just huffed awkwardly, before looking away with a blatantly shocked and flustered expression.
"I'm not sure what we'll do now, yeah. I don't think we're getting married though." Deidara said, scratching his head awkwardly and glancing at Hitori, who was almost doubled over with her jaw dropped and eyes wide and looking very embarrassed. After she recovered, she walked over to stand next to Deidara.
"Yeah, marriage isn't on the cards Tobi. I think we're just going to go home." Hitori confirmed as she started to realise how exhausted she was.
"So, this is goodbye Tobi. We might see you again sometime." Deidara tried to cut off Tobi before he could say anything else weird.
"Goodbye Deidara-senpai! Tobi will never forget you!" Tobi said loudly, as he hugged Deidara again tightly and sobbed. Deidara pushed him off and Tobi latched onto Hitori, still sobbing. Hitori already had problems with people being in her personal space, even with Deidara, and this was probably going to take three weeks of keeping a one metre radius around herself that no one could enter to make up for this.
"Tobi is glad that he met Deidara-senpai's future wife! Tobi won't forget you either Hitori-chan! Thank you for helping senpai!" Tobi was still latched onto Hitori, who just patted him on the back a few times before finally pushing him off her and laughing awkwardly, even though it sounded more like she was going to cry from over exposure to Tobi.
Tobi finally stood back, and said goodbye again before disappearing into the ground. Deidara turned to Hitori who was looking at the hole in the ground that Tobi went through and shaking her head and shuddering slightly.
"You okay?" Deidara said, looking her over for any signs of injury.
"That's my line." Hitori answered, and looked at him as if to say 'You were the one fighting Konan for a few minutes before I rocked up'.
He just huffed in amusement in reply. "What do you think we should do now?"
"Well, I just want to go home, get drunk and sleep for a week. I haven't slept since you left, and I've only eaten once." she said and rubbed her face with her hands tiredly.
Deidara just laughed and threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as they strolled off lazily into the trees.
#
Three months later...
It was a cold evening that Hitori returned home on after being away on a three-day mission to some place that she had already forgotten the name of to do some lame retrieval mission of some fancy item that she had also forgotten about, that had been stolen from a nobleman whose name and face she had forgotten as well.
"Deidara! I'm back. Get out of bed you lazy bum! I bet you've barely moved all fucking day." Hitori said loudly as she walked back in the house. Her mission was so boring, and all she wanted to do was come home and have a drink and not move for at least the next 48 hours.
She walked into the bedroom to find Deidara curled up in bed, under the covers, just as she assumed, even though it was only around 7pm. He smiled happily when she came in and he held his arms out, gesturing for a hug. They had both been working on opening up to each other over the last few months, and they were a lot more comfortable around each other now. Hitori had made an affection limit a day, and certain things were worth certain points and Deidara had to work within those boundaries, even though he broke them every other day, much to Hitori's chagrin, even though they both knew she didn't really care. She really only kept the 'rule' so Deidara could break it. Hitori gave up and rolled her eyes and laid down on the bed, and Deidara pulled her close and nuzzled the back of her neck.
"You know, since you were away for three whole days...does that mean that we have to catch up on everything that we missed out on?" he asked mischievously as he pushed himself up and hovered over Hitori on his hands and knees with a smirk and slightly clouded eyes.
"Yeah, it does actually." she answered seductively as she could and wrapped her arms around his neck and gently pulled him down closer to her. But just before his lips made contact with hers, she unwrapped her hands and pushed him back abruptly. "Which means I have three whole days of drinking to catch up on! So I'm going to go get me some sake." she said loudly, trying to ruin the mood she had created for the sole purpose of bringing it crashing down again.
Deidara growled with mock irritation at her teasing, even though he totally loved it. He figured that within the hour, they would probably both be well on their way to being drunk and Hitori would be telling him about how easy and boring her mission was. Ever since the incident on the mission where she was supposed to take out Sozoku, who ended up being a bigger target than they had first expected, Tsunade had apologised and taken it on herself to thoroughly check and double check any mission she was going to give Hitori.
He lazily got out of bed, and walked out to the kitchen to find Hitori choosing between two bottles of sake. He walked up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist, and tightened his grip when she didn't flinch or resist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and watched as she looked between both bottles in indecision. He laid kisses along her shoulder and up her neck, smirking as she inhaled sharply when he nibbled her earlobe gently. Her singlet was promptly moved aside as he continued his kisses and caresses making her stop what she was doing and bit her lip to hold back a pleasured moan.
"I missed you. The house was so quiet without you." he said quietly and he smiled as she leaned her head against his sleepily.
"You know what? Screw it. It's bed time." Hitori put both bottles back in the cupboard and strolled back to the bedroom, with Deidara still clinging onto her like some sort of parasite. He had become such a lovesick puppy with her, and she had no problem ripping him off about it.
Hitori managed to pry him off her and got changed, much to Deidara's pleasure, and turned around to see him sitting up, leaning back on his hands, displaying his well-toned torso wonderfully. She took in the sight for a few seconds and walked over to the bed, swinging her hips teasingly, and laughing inwardly as she watched Deidara's eyes follow their movements like a hawk.
She got to the end of the bed and crawled on all fours towards him, hovering over the part of him that was already under the covers. He was staring straight at her with lust clouded eyes, and smirking so sexily that Hitori swore that any woman in their right mind who had the pleasure of seeing that smirk would instantly pounce on him. She leant forward as if to kiss him, but pulled back at the last second and sat down on his lap, and his looking like he had to bite back a moan, didn't go unnoticed by her. She finally gave in and let him have his way for a while before getting up and laying down next to him.
"Oh no you don't." was all he said before they made it so she couldn't be called a virgin any more...
Later that night, they were snuggled up to each other, and Deidara mumbled something that Hitori couldn't understand. She sat up to look at him, and asked him to repeat what he said.
With a sigh, he gave up, knowing that it was too late to take back what he said. "I said...I-I love you, Hitori."
Her eyes went wide at his words, and she had to blink a few times before it fully set in. Then she smiled a smile happier than Deidara have ever seen on her face. "I love you too, Dei." she said, if a little awkwardly and looking rather embarrassed. They hadn't really discussed the 'love' topic in detail since their run in with Pain and Konan, but it was silently acknowledged by them both.
Suddenly, he remembered something and sat up. He moved over so he could get up off the bed and he went to the dresser and started rummaging through his pack for something. Finally, he found it, and held in his hand so Hitori wouldn't see it. He walked back over to the bed and sat cross-legged in front of her with a smile on his face. She raised her eyebrow in question and he just took hold of her hand and dropped the item on it.
Looking down, she saw a silver necklace. The chain was thin and the pendant was the kanji for shadow. She held it up in front of her to look at it properly and smiled at the sight. Deidara's smile grew when he realised that she really liked it, and she put it on, and looked at him thankfully.
"What's this for, yeah? And where did you get it?" she asked, still in awe of the kind gesture.
"Well, actually I saved up when we were kids and bought it. I was going to give it to you on that night, but yeah, you know." he admitted and scratched the back of his head, not wanting to bother elaborating on the memory of the night that had separated them for many years.
"Thank you." she said quietly and gently kissed his cheek before laying back down.
Deidara joined her, and pulled her close, and they soon fell into a calm and happy sleep...