Triple update as promised :D and a little sooner than usual, GO ME!!
once agin dedicated to my ickle sis, and my most awesome of beta readers; come on people, give manu-chan a big round of applause here, she's in the middle of monsoon, has been flooded out and can still find time to edit my scribblings, if anyone deserves a gold she does!! places gold medal around manu-seme's neck
and much love also to everyone who has written such lovely reviews - you all know who you are - so consider yourselves well and truely hugged then buried under a mountain of cookies :D
xox
"Excuse us; we'd like to get past." Itachi said, glaring at the man.
"No, you aren't going anywhere yet." The guy folded his arms with a smirk. "My name is Orochimaru, and I'm here from Pein. You see, he has a bone to pick with you. He's not happy, not happy at all!"
Itachi frowned, not quite sure why Pein would be that pissed off with him, he didn't even know the guy!
"What's his issue?" He let his disinterest colour his voice, still holding Sasuke back.
"You are his issue." Orochimaru answered, with a nasty smirk. "When you had your little bitch fight over Blondie-" He nodded towards Deidara. "- last week, you got a little...tetchy. Infact, he's saying that you've put a curse on him."
Itachi stared. Beside him Deidara stiffened, and Sasuke let out a loud 'what?'.
"What makes him think I'd do a thing like that?"
"With your track record? We all know you've cursed and killed before. And Pein would rather like his to be taken off before he ends up hanging from a lamppost."
Deidara put a hand on Itachi's arm to get his friend's attention. "You said you didn't curse Pein." He said quietly, with a frown.
"I didn't..." Itachi glared at Orochimaru. "You can tell the high-and-mighty Pein that I haven't cursed him." He snapped. "And now, if you don't mind, we'd like to go please."
Orochimaru tapped his fingers on his folded arms. "You aren't going anywhere. Pein has spent the past week being tripped up, having things dropped on him and experiencing freak accidents. And we are here to make you stop these things from happening."
"But I haven't done anything!" Itachi was getting pissed off now, and he could sense Deidara's growing confusion next to him.
"Well, Pein says you have, and Pein's the one I listen to, hence; Pein's the one I'm going to trust here."
Deidara decided to question his friend later, since defence seemed to be a better option at this precise moment in time.
"And if Itachi refuses?"
There was a general cracking of knuckles and tightening of fists in Orochimaru's gang.
"There's your answer genius!" Sasuke snapped. He turned to glare at his brother. "Why must you always drag me into your problems?"
"I didn't drag you into this one." Itachi looked at Deidara, who was already rolling his sleeves up in readiness. "Two fights in a week, is this normal for you?"
"Pretty much."
The Uchiha sighed. He really hated resorting to violence, but there was no way he could talk sense into the thick heads of the gang opposite them, so it seemed his only option.
"Fine then. Sasuke, the moment you get the chance, run. We'll deal with these guys."
Sasuke twisted out of his brother's grip. "Fuck that! I'm not running away like a pansy. And don't think I'll fight for you either, I'm staying out of this!"
Itachi growled something under his breath that was most likely very offensive, before glaring back at Orochimaru.
"You can tell Pein that I haven't done a thing, and I don't intend to help him." He said icily. "If you have a problem with that then I suggest you leave now."
Orochimaru sneered. "That's not the answer we want Itachi, and we'll make you see reason if it involves beating you into next week!"
There must have been some hidden signal in the sentence since at that, the entire gang instantly lunged at the trio.
"Bugger..." Deidara dropped his sketch book, and slipped his rucksack off of one shoulder to use it as a weapon. He had seen his way through many street fights thanks to a handy bag, and he was a pro at using his rucksack to cause maximum damage. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing he'd spent so many of his younger years getting into fights – if he wasn't incapacitated straight away (like that time in the alley, Damnit!) then he was considered a good melee fighter.
The heavy wrestler-type guy came at him, and he swung his impromptu weapon at the man's face. It connected with a solid 'thunk' that should have sent the guy down. Instead he just paused, and – in a true strong-but-dumb henchman fashion – merely blinked stupidly before lumbering on again. Deidara backtracked a few paces, surprised that the combined weight of all his art supplies and two history text books at terminal velocity hadn't floored the man at first strike. That left his other favourite move, which worked no matter how hard his opponent believed himself to be.
Juugo wasn't the smartest bloke in town. Screw that - you'd be hard pressed to find someone stupider, but he did find it slightly disconcerting the way the small blonde infront of him just grinned as he raised one shovel like fist to send the guy flying. And then Deidara's fast and above all heavy bag came up like this, and Juugo found that, while there were worse things in life than getting a whack in the balls, it was difficult to think of any when you're on the ground in the foetal position in agony. Then Deidara's combat boot connected with his head and he lost all train of thought entirely.
Deidara nodded in the happy satisfaction of a job well done, and turned to face the twins, who were approaching with a little more caution since seeing what had happened to their colleague.
Sasuke meanwhile, despite not wanting anything to do with his brother's issues, had found himself confronted with the woman. She smiled at him, all nicotine-stained teeth and smudged lipstick, before lunging forward to rake her nails down his face. Now a gentleman would have a problem in this situation, since the only way out was fighting back; however, Sasuke was no gentleman, and had no qualms about hitting a lady if she seemed intent on ripping his eyeballs out for no reason.
He grabbed her hand just before it made contact with his face, twisted her wrist, and spun on one foot so that his momentum flipped her over onto the ground. She landed with an undignified squeal next to the unconscious Juugo.
Sasuke snorted, hardly impressed with the pitiful fight, and looked up to see if there was anyone else who was going to bother him. Deidara had now dealt with the twins, and was also standing unchallenged, which meant the remaining four guys had gone after Itachi...
As if on cue, both the blonde, and the younger Uchiha turned to see how the elder was faring. Deidara was expecting to have to jump in and help, since he doubted Itachi had ever actually been in a fight as such. Sasuke wasn't half as worried; not because he knew his brother would be okay, but more because he genuinely didn't care right now.
However, the sight that met them wasn't one either expected.
Only Orochimaru was still standing, and he looked like he was having trouble. The other three lay on the floor groaning, and – in Kimimaro's case – looking for their teeth. Itachi seemed to be a high-speed blur - kicking, twisting, punching and dancing around his opponent like Jet Lee on crack. Orochimaru was having a hard time merely blocking the insanely quick attacks, let alone hitting back.
Then Itachi seemed to slow down, his last kick that sent his opponent stumbling backwards was actually visible to the naked eye. He stopped his attack and watched disdainfully as Orochimaru tried to stagger towards him again.
"Give up; you're not going to win this." He stated coldly.
The greasy-haired man snarled, before lunging forwards again. As he did so, his hand went to his sleeve, and there was a flash of light.
"He's got a knife!"
Itachi didn't hear Deidara's warning until too late, as he brought his arm up to block the attack. Both he and Orochimaru froze, locked in the combat position.
Blood began to drip down onto the concrete between them.
He stumbled back, staring down at his arm. A long switch blade was embedded in the soft flesh of his forearm, and only now as he watched the blood seep out of the bone-deep wound did the pain begin to register.
Then there was a shout from behind him, and he saw Sasuke run up to his side, Deidara close behind. Orochimaru shook himself out of his horrified stupor as what he'd just done began to register. Calling up his gang, he fled the scene.
Itachi watched in detached interest as Sasuke wrapped a scarf - Deidara's by the look of it – around his upper arm as a tourniquet. He pulled his arm away from his little brother's not-so-gentle-ministrations and clutched it to his chest, trying not to disturb the knife that remained embedded. His mind was beginning to go fuzzy, and he wondered if it was shock setting in. He needed to make sure he dealt with this correctly; keep the wound above his heart, don't remove the foreign object yet as it is stemming the blood-flow. Yes, he'd done the two important things, was anything else necessary?
God his mind was just refusing to work!
Sasuke saw Itachi begin to pale and forced the older Uchiha to sit down on the kerb, wrapping his own coat around his brother's shoulders.
"Deidara, call 999!"
Deidara looked panicked. "What? But it doesn't look that bad; can't we just take him to the doctors?"
"No! Call an ambulance now!"
The blonde didn't ask again and flipped his phone open. Tapping in the three digits no one ever wants to have to use, he held the handset to his ear.
"Hello, this is Nottinghamshire emergency services, which service do you require?"
"Am-Ambulance." He closed his eyes and forced his voice to stop shaking. "We need an ambulance." He was put through to the new line, and a second voice came on.
"Where are you?"
"Bingham, Mill Hill Road, we're on the street." Damnit! His voice was still wobbly, and his hands were shaking. In the back ground he could see Sasuke wasn't doing too great either. It seemed the only one not panicking was the injured one!
"Okay, calm down son, we're sending someone out to you. Now can you tell me what happened?"
"My friend's been stabbed."
There was a small intake of breath on the other end of the line.
"Where?" The man's voice was harsher; he had immediately assumed the worst.
"Lower arm." Deidara looked over at his friend as Itachi lifted his head and muttered something. "His – what? Oh, okay – his main artery has been cut, but he said he's keeping it elevated."
The man talked him through a few basic principles – keep him warm, head between the knees, keep his arm above his heart – and managed to calm Deidara down enough that he was confident to end the call. The blonde crouched down infront of his friend, placing his own jacket on top of Sasuke's.
"Okay, the ambulance said they'll be here in about ten minute give or take." He said, rubbing Itachi's knee reassuringly. He got a small pained smile in return.
"It really isn't necessary, it just needs stitches." The Uchiha muttered.
"It's necessary and you know it!" Sasuke snapped. "When did you last have the injection?"
Itachi grimaced. "Too long ago."
"There we go then. You've severed your main artery, you haven't had a shot for God knows how long, this is bad!"
Deidara looked between the two hopelessly. "What injection? Why's that not good? What's going on?"
Itachi sighed, rubbing his eyes with his uninjured hand. "There's something I didn't tell you Deidara." He muttered finally. "Another little genetic screw up I've got." At his friend's worried and pleading expression he sighed. "Dei...I'm haemophilic."
Deidara stared blankly. After everything that had just happened his friend was throwing scientific jargon at him and expecting it to make sense, he wasn't a flipping doctor! The word sounded familiar though, and he frowned, trying to think where he'd heard it before. A history lesson flashed across his mind accompanied by the evilest pair of eyes he'd ever seen on a human being. Why was he thinking of Rasputin? Ah, wait a minute...oh...
"Blood clotting disorder!" He exclaimed in sudden comprehension. Of course, now he remembered – they'd covered the death of the Russian royal family in history last year, the Tsar's youngest son had been haemophilic.
Itachi nodded once, glaring down at the tarmac of the street like it had a personal vendetta against him.
"I'm missing a blood clotting factor ix; it means I'll just keep bleeding." He had been gripping his wounded arm tightly, but now removed his uninjured hand to look at the cut.
Deidara winced at the sight of the ugly gash.
"Shouldn't you remove the blade?" Sasuke asked.
"No, it's actually staunching some of the flow." Itachi clutched his arm back to his chest again with a hiss of pain. "Bloody hurts though!"
Deidara had to smile sympathetically at that. "What's this injection you mentioned?" He tried to keep his friend's mind off of the pain; he didn't want Itachi to go into shock.
"It's just a shot of the missing factor; my body can't make it, but if I have it artificially administered it will work." Itachi recognised what the blonde was trying to do, and smiled slightly at him. "But since I don't do much that involves the risk of bruising or injury I decided I didn't need the injections as regularly. I didn't count on getting caught in a street fight."
"Well, so much for being psychic!" Deidara laughed. "Is this why you refused to play football or rugby?" He got a small nod in return.
"I hope you realise how much trouble we'll be in when Dad finds out about this!" Sasuke butted in angrily. He glowered at his brother. "If the media get hold of this they'll have a field day – both you and me in a street fight! You actually getting stabbed is just the icing on the fucking cake!"
"Why should the media care?" Deidara asked in confusion, looking between the brothers. It was Itachi who answered.
"Our Dad is the head of the Nottinghamshire county police force."
"Ah. Okay, problem then."
"Yeah, problem!" Sasuke snapped. He stood up as the sound of sirens reached them, and went out to the middle of the road to wave the ambulance down.
The ambulance crew were quick, friendly and efficient; splinting Itachi's arm, securely bandaging it, and ushering all three teens into the emergency vehicle. The journey to the Queen's Medical Centre Hospital was a silent affair, with Itachi seemingly off in another world as he stared broodingly at the floor, Sasuke alternating between glaring at his brother and brother's friend, and Deidara was trying to keep out of the family feud.
When they reached the hospital Itachi was bundled off into one of the doctor's surgeries, whilst his friend and brother were left in the waiting room. True to hospital tradition, there was bad music playing, the nurses wouldn't tell them anything, and about half an hour after arriving the police came by to take a statement from each of them. Okay, so maybe the police don't feature in most people's experiences of hospital, but they did in this case.
Sasuke disappeared for a few minutes to call his Mum and explain what had happened, before storming back in with a scowl.
"She's refused to pick me up until Itachi's ready to come home! He's going to be hours, it's not fair!" He didn't care that he sounded like a whining child. Deidara wasn't all too happy with the news, but any company is better than none, and he didn't want to leave without his friend. He broke a chunk off the end of the chocolate bar he'd purchased – and damn were those vending machines expensive! – and handed it to the sulking teen.
"Here, it might make you feel a bit better."
"I feel fine."Sasuke muttered, but he didn't decline.
They spent the next few minutes finishing off the chocolate bar in silence. Then Deidara cast a glance at his still-sulking companion.
"Okay, we've got time to kill, so I might as well ask," He said conversationally. "What's the deal between you two? Why the animosity?" At Sasuke's blank expression he repeated the question changing 'animosity' to a simpler term.
"He's a twat, that's all there is to it." The Uchiha muttered.
"That's not really an answer."
The teen looked at him appraisingly for a moment or two, before sighing.
"Yeah, I guess it isn't." He kicked his heels against the plastic chair. "Fine, if you must know; it's because of all those weird things he can do."
Deidara frowned, not understanding what the kid meant. "You're jealous?"
"Hell no." Sasuke glared down at the floor. "Look, he's never been a real big brother to me, and I've learnt not to trust him. You'd be better off learning that too. He has a habit of hurting those closest to him."
This was unexpected. Deidara hadn't thought to hear such a thing about his friend. Sasuke saw the confusion on the older man's face, and felt a better explanation was needed.
"Okay, long story short." The young Uchiha sat up properly. "When my brother was eight years old his...powers-" The word was spat. "-manifested themselves. He had no control over them and as a result poltergeist activity began around the house."
"Whoa whoa, what?" Deidara held up a hand to stop the kid. "Poltergeist activity? As in real poltergeist activity?"
"Yeah. Apparently it's quite common if someone has untrained abilities, at least, that's the bullshit Itachi told me when he came back to England." Sasuke said bitterly. "I was only five at the time, I was bloody terrified! It wasn't too bad at the beginning, just weird knocking sounds, moving objects, the normal stuff associated with ghost activity. Then it began to get bad. We'd wake up to find all the furniture in the dining room turned upside-down, or objects would physically fly round the room before our eyes. It came to a head when I was pushed down the stairs on multiple occasions, and lit matches dropped out of nowhere. We had to move twice since two house fires broke out. In the end our uncle Madara from Japan called and offered to bring Itachi up and teach him how to control his abilities. Itachi was thirteen by that point, I was eight." Sasuke shrugged slightly. "He terrified me. I kept thinking that one day he'd kill me, even if he didn't mean to. And when he came back last year...I didn't know him, he was a completely new person."
"Didn't you try giving each other another chance?" Deidara asked softly.
"Where was the point? I thought uncle Madara was supposed to be stopping all the weirdness, instead Itachi's now twice as freaky as before!" Sasuke shrugged again. "So that's the big mystery."
There was a long pause, a silence that stretched out between them. Deidara had no idea what to say. He had a hard time trying to imagine his friend causing such problems.
It ended up that he didn't have time to say anything, since a shadow fell over the floor infront of them. Looking up he smiled to see Itachi standing next to his chair.
"Hey, sorry it took so long, the police insisted on getting a statement once the nurse was done." He said with a tired grin. His arm was now in a white cotton sling, a neat bandage wrapped around the wound
Deidara stood up and stretched. "It's fine, they've only had the same six tracks playing on repeat for the past three hours." He laughed. "How's your arm?"
Itachi glanced down at the sling. "It should be okay. The nurse stitched it up, and I've been given a shot of the clotting factor. I didn't lose too much blood, so yeah, it should be fine."
"Bloody brilliant. Can we go now?" Sasuke snapped. He stood up, pushing Itachi out of his way as he did so.
Deidara saw the scowl that passed over the elder brother's face, and now knew a little about why it was there. Knew why, but still couldn't quite understand why. He just couldn't see what was stopping the two from sitting down talking about the whole issue between them. Well, okay. So Sasuke was a hormonal kid and Itachi was as stubborn as an ox, neither wanted to make the first move, so the animosity would last. He rolled his eyes; Uchihas!
Whilst he was considering this, another argument was brewing between the siblings next to him. Sasuke was complaining that he wanted their mother to pick them up, and Itachi was arguing back that they should take the bus. Pushing both warring factions apart, Deidara stood between them.
"Okay guys, quit it! We'll take the bus, it saves your mum a trip."
Itachi nodded and his brother sulked.
The bus stop was just outside the hospital, and one was drawing up as they got there. Itachi paid for both himself and his brother whilst Deidara searched his pockets for loose change. When he finally had a handful of coins he handed them to the driver;
"Single to Bingham pl-" He stopped and the driver stared back.
"Deidara! What are you doing at the hospital?"
"Uh...Hi Dad."
Itachi had stopped halfway up the aisle to see what was keeping Deidara, and is jaw dropped when he heard the greeting. Deidara's father?
There was a queue behind him, so Deidara couldn't really explain in any great detail what had transpired that day.
"My friend was hurt and needed stitches, don't worry, I'm fine." He shoved the bus ticket he was handed into his pocket. "I'll have dinner ready when you get home, see you."
His Dad nodded with a smile, and Deidara followed Itachi up the bus to a spare pair of seats. Sasuke sat as far away from them as he could and jammed his earphones in his ears.
"That was your father?" Itachi finally asked once the bus was in motion. When Deidara nodded he frowned. "You've never mentioned he's a bus driver."
"It's not something that's ever come up in conversation." Deidara muttered.
Itachi cast a sideways glance at him. The blonde was slouched down in his seat, arms folded across his chest, and body language stating that he was embarrassed. The Uchiha thought he knew why; a bus driver was neither a glamorous nor high paying job. Sure, it was a necessary occupation in society, but not one to really boast about. It also explained why Deidara lived down in the old council estate – they couldn't afford better.
The Uchiha hadn't ever really noticed the social gap between them up until now. His own father was the chief of the county police, his mother a high-flying business woman, and he himself ran his own business. Then you had Deidara at the other of the scale; school dropout, no real ambition in life and brought up by a single parent – not that there was anything wrong with that, it just meant that money was tight.
"Look, I know it's not great, but he works so hard." Once again Deidara seemed to have unconsciously picked up on Itachi's thoughts. "Leaves at half seven in the morning and doesn't get home until nine in the evening, I hardly see him." He shrugged hopelessly. "Mum was always the big earner in the family; she was the head of the local primary school. Things have never been the same since she died and dad works himself to death so that I'll be able to go university next year. It may not be the most amazing job in the world, but it brings home money!" He finished defensively.
"I never actually said anything."
"You didn't need to."
Itachi nodded, more to himself than anything. No, it seemed that he really didn't need to say something for Deidara to hear and react to it. Interesting.
"You look a lot like him." He commented, trying to lighten the conversation.
"Hardly."
"Same facial structure, and the hair goes without saying"
Deidara looked to the front of the bus. They'd reached another stop so his dad was turned to collect a passenger's fare. Okay, so he'd copied the long pony tail, but his own hair was a golden blonde, not mousey brown like his father's. It was hard to say about the face shape though, since he didn't have a beard and his dad did.
"I guess so, I've always thought I took after my mum more." He pulled his pencil case out of his bag and dug around in it to produce a laminated passport photo. He passed the rather dog-eared picture to his friend.
Itachi smiled at the sight of a young Deidara – around six years old if he had to guess – with a blonde woman sitting next to him, her arm round his shoulders. She wasn't looking at the camera, her focus was on her young son and she was laughing as he waved both hands at the photographer. It looked like there was a light breeze, as her long hair was blowing around both of them, a protective curtain shielding them from the rest of the world.
"She was beautiful." Itachi said softly. Deidara smiled sadly.
"Yeah, she was. And funny, kind, loving, so many things. She always made us laugh, she could make anyone laugh. And she cooked the most wonderful dinners..." The blonde looked away; Itachi suspected it was to hide tears. "I have to cook now. I'm not too bad, but nowhere near as good as she was. Dad never complains though. We muddle along." Deidara scrubbed his hand across his face quickly and turned back to face his friend, a smile now on. Apart from a slight redness around his eyes he looked happy again.
Itachi didn't say anything, but put his hand on his friend's shoulder with a small smile. He looked back down at the photograph.
"You had short hair when you were a kid."
Deidara laughed. "Yeah, I grew it out when I was about fourteen."
"It suits you more long."
The blonde flicked the end of his pony tail over his shoulder. "I'm certainly more used to it being this length. Although after they bought the Lord of the Rings films out I was called Legolas for months!"
Itachi sniggered quietly. "Take it as a complement."
Deidara shrugged, then a curious gleam grew in his eyes. "By the way, where the hell did you learn to fight like that? I've seen many brawls, and I have never seen someone fight like that. You looked like you were out of a martial arts film or something!"
The Uchiha looked faintly smug. "My uncle taught me that. He always said there was no point in me being able to perform exorcisms and banish demons if I fell to pieces when someone tried to hit me. I guess he was right."
The bus had left the city by this point, and was barrelling down the main road to the village. Deidara glanced out of the window as a police car overtook them, sirens blaring.
Itachi also saw it, and lateral thinking made him remember that his dad was not going too pleased with the days turn of events.
"I really hope Sasuke doesn't blow everything out of proportion when dad asks us what happens." He muttered. "The fact that I got him involved in a knife fight won't go down well."
"Will he be going after Orochimaru and that lot?"
"You bet. Nottingham already has the highest rate of knife and gun crime in the country; dad's been doing his best to reduce it."
Deidara nodded gloomily. "By the way, did you mention Pein to the police?"
"No, why?"
"Because he didn't send those guys after you."
Itachi turned an appraising look on his friend. "How do you know that?"
The blonde shrugged, playing with the ends of his fringe. "I don't know. It was just kinda obvious that he was lying. Pein had no idea they were there, I'll bet anything."
Itachi tried to think if there had been any visible sign that Orochimaru hadn't been telling the truth. He couldn't think of any actual points, but apparently Deidara had seen some. Or had the blonde just thought that it had been obvious, when actually only he had picked up on it?
Whatever the answer, it didn't really matter since they were drawing into the village. Deidara's stop was one before the Uchihas so he said good bye to Itachi and kicked Sasuke on the way out.
"Try not to be late home dad. Dinner's lasagne" He said with a grin as he passed the driver. His father nodded in return as he jumped onto the path, and he waved to Itachi as the bus drove off.
The Uchihas got off at the next stop, and walked in sullen silence up the hill to their house. They didn't even need to open the door, as Mikoto was waiting for them from the front window. She came rushing out of the house with a small squeal.
"Itachi! Oh my God, are you alright? Your father called an hour ago and told me what had happened!" She pulled her startled eldest son into a tight hug. "Sasuke, you should have told me why you were in hospital! You never said Itachi was hurt!"
Itachi managed to disentangle himself from his hysterical mother, and glared at his little brother, who glowered back.
"I'm fine mum, really. It's just a few stitches, and I've had the injection." He sighed.
Mikoto ushered the two of them into the house like a fussing hen. "Really, now! 'Just a few stitches'? Itachi, you were in a street fight, plain and simple!"
"Yes but-"
"And dragging your brother into it as well!"
"I didn't exactly-"
"What will your father say when he gets in?!"
Itachi held up his hands to get her to shut up. "Mum, please just stop!" He sat down on the stairs to take his shoes off one-handedly. "Look, we were attacked, I just defended myself. It wasn't my fault one of them had a knife, I didn't notice until too late. And besides," He added, well aware of the lie he was about to spin. "They were muggers, I had to fight back."
Mikoto was busy fussing over Sasuke, so just nodded distractedly. Itachi rolled his eyes.
"I'm not hungry, I'm going to bed."
He picked up his school bag and trailed upstairs. The laptop on his desk was still on from when he'd left it that morning and a quick glance showed him that he had three new emails – all from SPR.
He'd look at them tomorrow, right now the day's events had caught up with him and he just wanted to sleep.
He didn't even bother to turn the laptop off.