Sculpting for Dummies
Chapter 15:
Tobi watched Deidara tense as he spotted their captors. The artist turned back to him stiffly and grabbed one of his sleeves. He slid down to the ground, pulling Tobi down with him.
Tobi's left sleeve was torn and bloodstained where the Sound Ninja's shuriken had cut him. Deidara gave the fabric a quick jerk and it ripped off, sliding down Tobi's blood-streaked arm, revealing the wound.
"Hold still, dumbass, un," Deidara murmured. He struggled for a moment ripping a strip from his shirt (the artist's hands were still bound). He wiped the excess blood away with the mangled sleeve and bandaged the cut with the piece of his shirt.
The pink girl that had been guarding him approached them quietly. "I can do that," she offered.
Deidara growled at her and pulled Tobi a little closer to himself. "You're the bitch that killed Sasori-no-danna. I'm not letting you get my second partner too, un."
Was that who she was? Tobi decided not to mention to Deidara that she had been the one to bandage Deidara's wound when he was unconscious.
The blond tied the strip of cloth a little too tightly. The girl would've healed him more gently, with real supplies rather than makeshift bandages…but Tobi didn't mind that it was Deidara caring for him and not her.
"Thank you, but sempai can take care of it," he told the girl. He didn't see any reason to be impolite to her; she wasn't the one who had captured them and put a knife through Deidara's side. The girl frowned, but backed away to give Deidara room to work.
Deidara reached for one of Tobi's hands. He gripped Tobi's wrist tightly in one hand and his throbbing thumb in the other. Without any warning, with none of a healer's gentleness and all of an artist's impulsiveness, Deidara wrenched the bone back into its socket. Tobi whimpered. 'Fuck, that hurt' he thought. He hesitated to give Deidara his other hand when the blond gestured for it. The artist reached out for it expectantly. It needed to be done, so Tobi readied himself and let Deidara take his hand.
"You shouldn't have hurt yourself, un," Deidara told him as he snapped the thumb back into place. Tobi held the swollen finger up to the blond's face.
"Kiss it and make it better, sempai?" he asked. As soon as Deidara was finished patching him up, the Konoha ninja would separate them again. He wanted his sempai to stay behind him as long as possible.
Deidara batted the hand away. "It's better for you if they don't think we're together, un," he whispered.
Tobi looked from his sempai to his captors and back again. He didn't say what he was thinking: 'I think they already know.'
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According to Sai, the Sound Ninja had stumbled onto their camp by accident. The young artist reported that they had almost apologized and left, but had caught sight of Sai's Konoha hitai-ate and decided to engage them.
The young man also added that Deidara had helped him fight off the attackers. Sakura wondered why the Akatsuki member hadn't just sat back and allowed Sai to be killed.
"He's probably trying to win our sympathy," Yamato told her as she wondered aloud. "He'll try to fool us into letting him go. Just remember, he's a dangerous criminal."
"Who knows where Sasuke is!" Naruto added.
Kakashi gave them orders to guard the prisoners while he looked around to make sure there were no other Sound ninja around. He charged Yamato with 'dealing with' the ninja that had been defeated. Sakura averted her eyes and started preparing dinner for her team.
"I'll take a plate over to Deidara and Tobi," Sai offered. Naruto huffed.
"Why're you bein' so friendly with them? Don't you know what that jerk did to Gaara?" Naruto asked. Sai shrugged.
"We need to know what they know, and my book says establishing trust is the best way to get someone to tell you something," the artist explained.
"Oh," Naruto said, and let Sai pass. The dark-haired boy took one of the plates Sakura had prepared and then turned around to the blond.
"Besides, he's pretty hot, don't you think?" he teased. Naruto blanched.
"You…you pervert! You're worse than old man Jiraiya and Kaka-sensei combined!"
Sakura giggled as Naruto fumed.
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Deidara strove to stand as his creepy guard approached with a plate of food. It was too late to pretend that Tobi was just his partner, but he could at least keep his captors from thinking the masked man was anything other than a fuck-buddy. The more Tobi looked like he had been taken advantage by Deidara and coerced into a life of crime, the better his chance of survival.
But damned if he hadn't messed up enough all ready. He could pass off his bandaging Tobi to his mistrust of the girl, but he couldn't change what he'd shouted during the battle. Maybe, with any luck, they'd think he thought of Tobi as a possession.
Standing up with cuffed hands was harder than it looked, and when he finally managed to get his weight on his feet, he felt a sharp stab of pain in his wounded side. His black shirt became even darker as it dampened, and when it was soaked, red beads dripped out of the fabric and onto the grass.
"Sempai, you're hurt!" Tobi shouted. The idiot tried to steady him, (was he swaying?) with broken thumbs and a wounded arm. Stupid. The Konoha ninja weren't supposed to know.
"Sakura, we need you over here," the freaky kid yelled to his companion. The pink girl and the kyuubi left their food and came over.
"Damn it, he opened up that cut again. Naruto, bring me my pack. Sai, get his shirt off of him. And you, Tobi, stand back and give me some room," the girl ordered. The boys jumped at her commands…scary bitch. Deidara wondered if his creepy guard only listened to get his hands on Deidara to strip him.
The artist saw black spots in his vision. How much blood had he lost? Not all that much, but added to the amount that had leaked out when he'd first been stabbed….His vision began to tunnel. The girl guided Deidara to sit down, and he didn't protest.
"You're going to be okay, sempai, don't worry," Tobi chattered nervously. What, Tobi was allowed to break his thumbs and put himself in the way of a flying shuriken, but Deidara wasn't allowed to bleed?
A warmth spread through his side through the haze of pain, different from the hot wetness of blood. He could half see the girl placing her hand over the injury.
"Are you supposed to heal him, Sakura-chan?" the kyuubi shouted with his annoying grating voice.
"I'm not going to waste all of my bandages on him if he's going to keep reopening the wound and bleeding on them," she reasoned. The pain faded from a sharp stab to a faint cramping of newly healed muscles. Deidara's vision stopped swimming, although the lightheadedness remained, and would until he ate something and rested.
The blond tried to sit up, but had to steady himself with his arms. The kyuubi came and dropped a pack beside the pink girl. She rifled through it and pulled out a bottle.
"Eww, look at his arms," the kyuubi exclaimed. He prodded the wrinkled flesh of his right forearm. Deidara glared at him.
"Stop that!" Tobi shouted. He swatted the jinchuuriki's hand away.
"What? I was just looking at it," the kid argued.
"You're being rude. Sempai is very sensitive about his arms, and you aren't helping." Stupid Tobi, making assumptions again. Deidara wasn't sensitive about anything. Sensitivity implied that he cared, which he didn't. Idiot. Deidara wasn't weak enough to care.
"Shut up, moron, un," he murmured. He needed sleep. Things would be a whole lot easier if he could just go to sleep and not wake up. Deidara's eyelids slid closed.
"What're you doing?"
"Getting sempai a shirt to wear."
"Kaka-sensei said we can't give you anything from your packs until he's searched them. Sit down before we tie you up again."
"Then he can have mine."
Damn it, why did they have to talk so loudly? He just wanted to sleep. His ears were ringing and his head throbbed with exhaustion.
"Sempai…" Tobi whispered near his ear. Deidara opened an eye. His partner hovered there, too close to convince the Konoha ninja that they weren't together. His mask was still in place, but his shirt was off, revealing his pale, slightly muscled chest. Ugh, it looked so perfect, it made him want to cover up his grotesque arm even more. Deidara hated the imperfection; he was an artist, he was supposed to be beautiful. He'd spent too many years relying on his physical appearance for survival to accept the ugliness of his arm.
Tobi held out his own slightly sweaty black shirt for Deidara to slip into.
"Wait," the pink girl ordered.
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Sakura blushed a little when the two prisoners turned and looked at her. They focused on each other so intensely that she felt like she was intruding.
She thought about what Sai had said about winning their trust. If they did something nice for the captives, the captives would be more likely to return the favor. Sakura reached out and placed her palm on the dead skin of Deidara's arm.
"Hold still," she ordered. Charka flowed from her hand to the skin cells, stimulating them into new life. Soon the shriveled flesh was whole and smooth, with only the black stitches and a slight scar to mar the artist's limb.
Deidara, still woozy from blood loss, blinked at the healed skin. "Why…?" he mumbled.
"We need to know where Sasuke is. We can help you if you're willing to help us," she told him.
"We'll see, un," he said. He turned away from her and back to Tobi. The masked man still hadn't put his shirt back on (he had a nice chest, though pale enough to suggest he never went out in the sun).
"If we tell you what you want to know, will you release Deidara-sempai?" the dark-haired man asked. Sakura thought.
"He's an S-ranked criminal…I don't think we can just let him go. We might be able to get him life in jail instead of execution if he cooperates with us," she said honestly.
Behind his mask, Tobi was silent. Deidara's eyes were closed, although Sakura wasn't sure if he was asleep or not.
"Who has the power to authorize his release? Your Hokage?" Tobi prodded. Sakura nodded.
"I guess she would, but she's not likely to…"
"Then we'll wait until we can speak with the Hokage directly. I won't trade away any information that might help save sempai."
Shit. Now Tobi was withholding his information. Sakura just hoped he had intelligence worth sharing. If they dragged him back to Konoha and Tsunade-sama wasted her time interrogating him only to find out he knew nothing, the Hokage would be pissed.
"We'll discuss it more when Kaka-sensei comes back. Do you want me to look at your thumbs?" She asked. Tobi's hands still looked swollen and painful.
The masked man looked at Deidara. The blond didn't stir, so he nodded. Sakura took his hands without a word and prodded a few chakra points to take down the swelling.
"You must really care about him, to break your thumbs for him," she mentioned. She took the bottle she's pulled from her bag and poured a few drops onto the skin above the broken joints. A strong herbal smell filled the air. Tobi's fingers twitched.
"Does it still hurt to move them?" Sakura asked. Tobi wiggled his thumbs.
"A little," he admitted. She nodded.
"Good, then you won't do it again."
He shook his head. "For sempai, I'd cut my thumbs off if that's what it took. I won't let you hurt him."
Sakura wondered why the blond inspired such devotion from Tobi. If he was as evil as Sakura thought he was, why was this masked man willing to sacrifice himself to save him? She hadn't missed the way Deidara had looked at him, either. This situation with the Akatsuki wasn't going to be as black and white as she'd hoped.
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As he circled the forest and searched for more Sound Ninja, Kakashi kept thinking back to the strange masked shinobi that waited back at camp. What kind of man what is that could resist his sharingan eye and use the Fourth Hokage's personal jutsu? What was he hiding under than orange swirly mask?
He found the Sound Ninja camp easily enough, and none of the signs suggested there were any more around. Kakashi disposed of their supplies and swept leaves over the tracks they'd left to mask their presence. A quick patrol later, he was back with his team, ready to question the mysterious prisoner.
Yamato was still out, disposing of the bodies. Naruto and Sai were arguing amongst themselves (Sai kept flashing inappropriate pictures he'd drawn, and Naruto blushed and growled and tried to destroy them with shadow clones, as usual). Sakura watched the prisoners. Deidara appeared asleep or unconscious, and the other man watched over him. The ninja's shirt was off, covering the blond like a blanket; the man had a pale scar almost straight down the middle. His thumbs were bandaged, but his wrists were free of their cuffs. Kakashi frowned at his team's negligence, and clipped a pair of chakra-cuffs onto him.
He paused before binding the unconscious artist with a second pair of cuffs. Kakashi lifted the shirt up off of Deidara and placed a hand on his stomach.
"What're you doing?" the masked prisoner demanded.
"Confirming a theory. I don't think your friend can use his chakra any more. I think he's helpless," Kakashi said, wanting to hear the man's response.
"Sempai isn't helpless!" the captive shouted. Then, not wanting to confirm what Kakashi already knew, added, "and what makes you think he can't?"
"When you freed yourself, you didn't try to get him out of the cuffs, even though he could've ended the battle with his clay. He hasn't made an attempt to get free either. He didn't try to blow us up when we captured him, while you trying to remove a seal. So correct me if I'm wrong, Deidara's chakra is sealed and he can't access it." Kakashi waited. Tobi didn't respond.
Kakashi let a tendril of chakra flow from his hand to Deidara's stomach. The inky black characters of a Five Element seal stained the warm skin.
"I thought so. Care to tell me who did this?" Kakashi asked.
The masked man met his gaze through his single eye-hole, but said nothing.
"It's Tobi, right? Either you put this seal on him, or you chose to leave it on. Is this man your prisoner? Who are you?"
"I'll tell you anything you want, if you release sempai," Tobi replied. Kakashi shook his head. "Then I won't tell you anything. You won't know anything about us other than what the bingo book says."
Kakashi looked up sharply. "You're not in the bingo book."
"Yes I am," Tobi argued.
Kakashi shook his head again. "I have the newest edition here. I don't see any 'Tobi' in it. Is there another name you go by?"
Tobi gestured for Kakashi to hand the book over. He flipped through it. "Where am I? I have to be in it," he muttered. He flipped to the table of contents. "I don't understand. I'm Akatsuki. How can I not be in the book?" he wailed.
"So you're Akatsuki too? You don't have the ring or the cloak," Kakashi pointed out. If Tobi was distracted enough and started answering his questions, there was no telling what sort of useful information he might get.
"I don't any more. Sempai and I left. But I should still be wanted! I feel so unloved…" He continued flipping through the book in vain.
"Did you leave the organization before you fought Sasuke?" Kakashi casually asked.
The name made Tobi freeze. "I'm not telling you anything about him until you promise to let us go."
Kakashi ignored Tobi. He turned when Yamato walked back into the camp.
"You finished?" he asked. Yamato nodded.
"Why's the prisoner got your bingo book, Kakashi-sempai?" he asked. The jounin sat down beside Kakashi.
"He says he's in it. He claims to be Akatsuki, but he's not in the book. He's probably lying," the Copy Ninja said. He waited for Tobi to react.
"I'm NOT lying! I replaced Sasori-san, and I was Deidara's partner and I caught the three-tailed turtle. This book must be missing pages," the masked man insisted.
Yamato paused. "I think I've heard something about you." He reached into his pack and searched. "There was an article in a magazine some friends gave me. Here it is." He flipped through the pages of a crinkled magazine and showed it to Tobi. A rough sketch of Tobi's masked face was pasted beside the headline, 'Tobi: Newest Akatsuki Member-the Man behind the Mask'.
"Ha!" Tobi proclaimed triumphantly. "I told you."
Kakashi leaned over and read the article aloud. "'The newest addition to the elusive criminal Akatsuki, replacing master puppeteer Sasori of the Red Sands, was spotted yesterday outside of the presumed Akatsuki hideout in the Village of the Hidden Monkeys. But who is this masked man? Tobi, the mysterious dark haired shinobi, is according to reliable sources, the love-child of Otokage Orochimaru and the monkey-king summon, Enma. His mask hides his half-monkey features, and rumors say he has a tail hidden beneath his clothes…' Half monkey, huh?" Kakashi chuckled.
"Wh-what the hell?" Kakashi held up the cover of the magazine for Tobi to see.
"The Ninja Inquirer!" he moaned.
"If you're not Orochimaru's monkey love-child, then who are you?" Yamato pressed.
Tobi shrugged. "I don't know where I'm from. But I'm not a monkey. I don't even grow facial hair. I'm sure I had nice, normal parents."
"But you don't know?" Kakashi asked. Tobi seemed stranger and stranger with every bit of information he discovered about him.
"No, I don't. I don't remember any of my past. Talk quieter or you'll wake sempai," he scolded. The masked man folded his arms defiantly over his chest and refused to say another word.
Kakashi stayed where he was, watching Tobi's every move and wondering why the man seemed so tantalizingly familiar.
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An: God, this has got to be the slowest moving part of the story (at least, writing wise. I've mentioned before, Kakashi/Tobi confrontations are hell to write). But, Tobi in the anime is inspiring at least…even if he sounds kinda weird. I like the crazy color scheme of his clothes. (And his voice actor did Vahn in Legend of Legaia, and so many other obscure yet awesome voices!!)
Anyways, thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I love reading what you think, and it lets me know that people are actually reading my story, and that I need to stop being lazy and get the next chapter out.
(Next chapter might take a little over the usual week, as I'm stuck doing theatre crew for a dance event all week, efficiently murdering and disposing-of-the-corpse of my evenings and weekend.)
