Chapter Eleven: Falling out with a plant man bears its consequences.
Itachi glanced over his shoulder through the corner of his eye at his partner. The older man was lost deep in his own thoughts. That worried Itachi. This mission was important, they couldn't afford to lose focus now. The tiniest hint of a frown etched it's way across the Uchiha's face and he picked up the pace a little. Best to get to Konoha as soon as possible.
The day lagged on from afternoon to evening, the birds began fleeing to their nests as darkness drew in after them and badgers and foxes began to emerge and snuffle through the undergrowth. Itachi came to a stop in the tree boughs. Kisame almost leapt into his back, but managed to stop himself in time. "We will set up camp here tonight." The Mist-nin eyed his partner, he seemed to be receiving the cold-shoulder from him and he didn't like it all too much. What did it matter though? He dropped down to the ground, Itachi had chosen a suitable place; large enough for a camp fire and two people to lie down, but encircled with a close enough proximity of trees for their minds to be at ease about being found. Any enemy ninja would first look for clearings for them at this time. Kisame looked over the ground in the fast-diminishing light for dried branches and kindling. Itachi was off scouting to the west, so he went in the opposite direction to find wood. By the time everything had fallen pitch black, Kisame had managed to collect an armful of branches, extracted of moisture from days under the dry sun. He stumbled back into camp clumsily, trying to find his way without any light to guide him. A tiny flickering flame came into life, hovering above Itachi's palm, and guided the missing-nin safely into camp without him making any more ruckus. Kisame dropped his load down and the small fire tumbled out of Itachi's hand at the faint caress of his breath, catching onto the kindling and leaping up at the fuel. The two ate and sat in front of the fire until it burnt itself out, then Kisame took the first watch of the night.
The stars shone brightly up in the sky that night, gleaming out from the dark blanket that held them shackled so high up. Kisame Hoshigaki stared up at the stars, on guard but still enraptured in his own thoughts. They kept drifting on back to Natsuki, sleeping with her cute face smushed into her workbench. He chuckled at the image, then abruptly strangled the noise in his throat. She was cute? He could feel a light heat in his cheeks and rubbed at them. He was not going to think that about Natsuki! It would only lead to trouble. Leader-sama didn't allow relationships and it was't like Natsuki would like a big blue freak like him anyway... He huffed and rested his chin in his hand. Rustling from below alerted him to movement. Before even the second was out, Samehada was in hand and he was calling out for Itachi. The Uchiha glowered up at him. "You are too het-up in your own thoughts to realise that I was turning over?" Kisame blinked. He lowered Samehada and blinked again. "S- sorry Itachi, I was just, um..." Itachi huffed, he hated being kept up at night. He still needed to sleep too, just because he was a prodigy didn't mean he was some kind of God. Jeez, ninja these days... "Save it. Are you going to do your job or are you going to keep daydreaming about her?"
"What?" Itachi's brows furrowed further towards his eyes with every passing syllable.
"It's quite obvious Kisame, though I would have thought that you would be able to keep your thoughts from showing on your purple face."
Wow, Uchiha's really do get insultive when their grouchy. I wonder if weasels get grouchy too... Maybe there's a connection or-
"If you're making weasel jokes in your head, you'd better stop it now!"
He's a mind reader.
"Stop it before I sharingan you!"
Then again... maybe not.
"Anyway," Itachi brushed off one shoulder and in an instant, his stoic demeanor was back. He seemed to have inhaled the scent of some tea. "You really should work on keeping yourself to yourself, you're letting yourself slip Kisame. There's an old saying, One who guards his secrets has complete control over his affairs. I think you would do well to remember that as Often the utterances and expressions of your face leak out the secrets of your hidden thoughts."
"... Itachi! Stop talking in riddles!" With a chide smirk, the Uchiha flopped back onto his bedroll and fell asleep. Or at least, Kisame thought he was asleep.
Whatever...
"Natsuki, I have another mission for you." Natsuki glowered through the darkness at Leader-sama. He said it so nonchalantly, as if she was always out on missions. She could almost rip his head off. But then she'd have to clean up the mess and she didn't want to deal with that, or have his ghost come to haunt her, so she had to make do with just pretending to torture and kill him in her imagination. "You will be going to Sunagakure with Deidara." The blonde's name tore Natsuki out of her sweet daydreams and she returned her glare upon the man in the shadows. Lilac, foreboding eyes peered out above steepled fingers. "You will be leaving within the hour, Deidara will find you when he is prepared." He deftly flicked one hand out, shooing her from his office. Gladly, Natsuki complied. She didn't want to stand in that stuffy room any longer than she had to.
Natsuki didn't know how long her mission was, nor what it entailed. What she did know, however, was that Suna was hot. Very. Hot. She didn't much like the heat, and Chikakon detested it, so Natsuki decided to leave him at the base with Sasori. She did that first, not wanting to be gone if Deidara came along. If he did, then she held no doubts that he would blow her door off it's hinges and probably steal her clothes again. Sasori took Chikakon in with no protests, telling her to watch out for Deidara's pranks, before she left to finish getting ready.
Her katana strapped horizontally at the base of her spine, the sleeves of her top pinned up as if she were working and a hidden spanner tucked inside the fold of her kimono, Natsuki was ready and prepared to go. Physically. Mentally, she was a tumultuous sea of murderous intent. Why the hell did she have to go on a mission with Deidara? I bet it's some stupid plan of 'Leader-sama's' just to irk me off-
"Hey, un! We're leaving now, so hurry it up!" Deidara. Huffing, Natsuki stalked out of her room, letting the door thud shut behind her. Not quite a slam, but almost. They participated in a mini glaring contest before turning their heads and storming down the corridor. Perhaps it would have been more dramatic if they hadn't had to go the same way, but a mission was a mission. And what a gruelling and painful one it would be.
"A scouting mission?" She deadpanned, most of her voice getting whipped away by the wind. Deidara gritted his teeth and amped up his glare. Natsuki doubled hers. "Yes, a scouting mission."
"Why not Zetsu then? It's his job!" At this Deidara finally averted his glare, looking instead out at the clouds to his right. A snippet of words flew by her ears, buffeted beyond recognition by the howling wind. "What?" The blonde whipped his head around to yell at her.
"I pissed off Zetsu!" Natsuki's face drew a blank.
"You stupid God-damned-" She threw herself at the younger man's neck, the clay bird they were riding on took a dodgy swerve to the left, dipping and plummeting to the ground.
Ah yes. The joys of falling out with a plant man.
I am SO sorry! I had No inspiration for this chapter whatsoever, I originally wanted to go more into the two missions, but it just wasn't happening.
Anyways, I still have to revise for what... four exams? Whoop-di-doo...
Sorry for the short chapter and I really hope it won't take so long for me to upload next time.