Akatsuki Issues
By Magewriter
Chapter 5
Disclaimer: I own nothing by Masashi Kishimoto and the plot wouldn't have developed this way if not for Suzimi.
Well, I started out this chapter by writing "Akatsuki Issues," so I guess I don't need to start with Deidara. I want to do Ritonno this time. Since this story is mine and I control it, that's who this chapter is going to start with.
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That day, or rather that afternoon because Leader wasn't a morning person, they painted each other's nails. Ritonno was, unfortunately, paired with Leader.
She redid her nail polish in her room and notified everyone else that she was going to be gone for the next few days. Leader was okay with it, so she packed her old sleepover bag and left, leaving Deidara a few recipes so that he wouldn't have to do laundry and the Akatsuki wouldn't have to eat fish, and left.
She knew that Leader was following her; however she had no objection since he was nowhere nearby when she set up camp at night.
Finally, she arrived in the Grass village, her former home. Her friends being civilians and not involved with the Akatsuki at all, she had known that they would be safe when she left; however, they had left soon before she disowned her village because she had become violent and angry. It would be nice to see them again.
Before she came to the entrance of the village, she tied on her Grass headband from a few weeks before. Then, she told Leader to go home. She held a conversation with him in his invisible state, not wanting to force him to expose his identity, then entered the village.
At least now he wouldn't be so obvious.
She went to their old hangout, a restaurant that sold inexpensive but relatively healthy and good-tasting food. They had always gone there after training (they were in the same group under the same Jounin master) to talk and act like normal teenaged girls.
They always got there at 4:07 in the afternoon. At 4:05, Ritonno, now acting like a normal girl her age, ordered a plate of gyouza, which had nine pieces on it, very easy to split between three people.
Surely enough, her old friends wandered into the restaurant exactly two minutes later. They were shocked to see Ritonno there, especially since they hadn't seen her in months and she had been depressed then.
They spent at least half an hour catching up with each other; they had all sorts of stories about their training and she told them about Deidara, blowing up the Christmas tree for Chrismas, and all of the crazy things that had happened to the Akatsuki members. Leader was in the opposite corner, but she wasn't about to expose him.
Finally, they came to the questions that she had avoided.
"So… what's the name of this organization you joined?"
Ritonno couldn't give a verbal answer. They had been too close before her depression to say that she was evil now.
Instead, she slid her new headband across the table.
"Are you crazy, Ritonno?! How could you?"
"I was messed up. You know that. I was angry. So I went somewhere where there were other violent maniacs who wouldn't take any of the stuff I said. I got better. I'm functional now. I don't expect you to join or accept that I joined, but I wanted to see you two again. Is there any chance I could spar against Jounin-danna one last time?"
"Tomorrow, I guess… This is awkward. I don't know whether I should give you a sympathetic hug or try to kill you."
"Please don't make me hurt you. It would ruin today."
"Okay, but I can't make any promises about tomorrow."
"Fine with me. Just let me fight Jounin-danna first. Now that I'm okay, I'm actually a really good fighter. You have no idea what your mental state does to your control."
"You haven't changed at all, have you, Ritonno? It's so hard to remember that I'm supposed to hate you now."
"I know! …I wonder where I should sleep tonight."
"You can stay at my place! Remember, I'm a year older than you, so I have my own place now."
"Oh, yeah. You were always the independent one… That would be great, thank you."
"Do you want to see it?"
"Sure! What time do you wake up? I get up at five-thirty nowadays to go for a run in the morning."
"That's nice. I still get up at seven. You can take one heckuva run in an hour."
"Oh. No, I don't eat breakfast before I go running; I'll eat with you. I'll get up at six or so and eat with you."
"Okay. Come with me!"
Just outside of her friend's apartment, she went back about a block and told Leader that he could stop watching them, she wasn't going to give away the position of the Akatsuki building or say anything other than silly stories about the Akatsuki.
Leader was gone the next day as she walked to their old meeting ground. They met up with their other friend and their Jounin teacher soon followed. She was surprised that Ritonno was there, but with no knowledge of Ritonno's Akatsuki membership, she was more than happy to spar.
This was where Ritonno was surprised. Before, her teacher had always been better than her. By the time she had gotten anywhere near strong enough to defeat her, she hadn't cared enough to try hard enough to beat her.
Now, she quickly defeated the Jounin, meaning that she would stay at least one more night to be made an official Jounin.
She had no idea that it would be that easy.
Not wanting to impose, but not having anywhere better to stay, she stayed overnight with her friend again. That afternoon, she had helped to teach the less experienced girl effective moves and how to identify the position of any person, no matter how well concealed.
At the end of the day, she was a bit tired and when she went back to talk to Leader, she told him that he really could go home and she wasn't going to tell any Akatsuki secrets. He was mad at her for teaching her friend how to fight her, so she told him to send someone else to fight in the Grass village.
The next day, she got her Jounin vest. It wasn't particularly a point of pride for her; it simply proved to other people that she had the skills that she already knew that she had. The ceremony happened in the morning, so she ran home with Leader. They arrived a little bit before dinner would have happened.
Back in the Akatsuki commune, Deidara welcomed them home and Leader dragged her up both flights of stairs to talk.
"…So, you're a Jounin now."
"I always wanted to be. It's not about the vest or anything; I just wanted to know that I had the skills."
"Of course you have the skills! But, now you're on the Grass village's list of elite ninjas!"
"Yes. The Grass village, my home, which no longer holds my clan, has my name as one of their elite ninjas. They don't have any information about my leaving."
"Oh. You're right. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because you didn't want another of your Akatsukis to leave and you like me."
"Will you stop that?!?!?!?!"
"No. It's part of who I am. I answer rhetorical questions all the time."
"Heh… You didn't tell your friends anything while I wasn't watching you, were you?"
"No! Of course not! What kind of person do you think I am?!"
"Just checking…"
"The thing is, once you've been in enough fights with someone, you know exactly what they're like. We were always fighting Jounin-sensei, and we were perfectly coordinated. There wasn't anything keeping us from beating her except for our skill level. My other friend, too. We're all really close, and they know little enough about the Akatsuki that just leaving my city makes sense, considering how emo I was when I left. Trust me, if she was mad, she would have told me."
"Okay."
"Anything else?"
"No."
"Good. Deidara should be making dinner right about now."
She went down both flights of stairs and changed into her plain black yukata, tied with her informal Akatsuki obi. She went up to the kitchen (Itachi got a little bit mad at her for being so slow on the stairs, so she bunny-hopped up the rest of them. It wasn't graceful, but it worked) and saw that Deidara was successfully making sukiyaki. Everyone grabbed a bowl, Ritonno took Leader's portion up to him, and they had their dinner.
Deidara's sukiyaki was actually relatively good.
She told everyone about her trip to the Grass village, which forced her to tell them that it was her hometown and she had three friends there, including two who she was really close to, and Deidara apologized for blowing up their Christmas tree. Ritonno laughed and told him that it was okay, it was nice to laugh at your own village every once-in-awhile.
They watched their soap opera and went to bed. Ritonno felt good knowing that she was at Jounin level, her ankle no longer hurt, and she had seen her friends again.
Life was good.
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I'm officially ending this story. I only expected to have a few chapters in the first place. The fact that I've written nineteen chapters is amazing. I know that I never really got Ritonno and Leader together, but if you look at the license I use on these stories, it's a share-alike license. That means that, if you ask me, I'll let you use this story, Ritonno's name, this plot (different points of view can change a story drastically), my characterizations, or even write a sequel to this (or Deidara's Troubles) as long as you give credit to both me and Suzimi, and perhaps Goldenrodfairy, who gives us Akatsuki: the Musical on Youtube. If you want, you can see her DeviantART account at goldenrodfairy. and see her… Well, I think she only has favorites. No pics or stories or anything yet. Too bad, she has great cosplays!