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.
There was an incessant beeping noise.
Itachi groaned and rolled over, away from the sound, then yelped as that put pressure on his bad arm. The pain woke him up enough for him to reach over to his alarm clock and smack the 'off' button. There was no difference and the sound continued. He grumbled something incoherent and looked blearily around his room for the source of the noise.
His laptop had reverted back to showing his desktop screen, and an icon was flashing on the tool bar.
"Wha' the hell?"
Pulling the duvet around his shoulders, the Uchiha crawled off his futon and over to the low desk. He rubbed his eyes to see the screen better, and clicked on the flashing symbol.
"Morning sunshine!"
Itachi stared at the webcam image that had popped up, still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes.
"Mai-chan? What the hell do you want? It's..." He glanced at the computers clock. "...Urgh, it's half four in the morning!"
The girl on the screen laughed. "Yeah, I know, Naru told me that you called him at some ungodly hour of the night, so asked me to return the favour. It's half one in the afternoon here."
"Figures." Itachi yawned and tried to force himself awake a bit more. At least he didn't have to use his brain when talking to Mai, as long as he remembered not to use English. That was no problem though, Japanese came easier than English when he wasn't concentrating.
"So, how's life? All fun and excitement? You must be busy if you aren't answering your emails." Mai chirped happily.
"Well, I got knifed yesterday and the town's most notorious gang is baying for my blood."
The girl laughed for a few seconds, then stopped at the look on Itachi's face. "Oh my God! You're serious?! What the hell did you do?"
Itachi managed to get his brain in gear enough to explain the past week's events. By the time he'd got to the end of it, Mai was looking horrified.
"Did you put a curse on that guy?" She asked.
"Of course not." The Uchiha said tiredly. He rubbed his arm, as a twinge of pain shot up from the wound.
Mai opened her mouth to say something, but another person got there first.
"Can you be certain?" Naru pushed his assistant out of the way and took her seat. A small smile crossed his face. "You look like hell."
"Hi to you too!" Itachi grumbled, scowling blearily at his cousin. "I take it I have you to thank for this wakeup call?"
"Yes, now answer the question."
The Uchiha couldn't be bothered to snap back at being treated like he was younger. "No, I can't be certain." He ran a hand over his face. "I don't think I did, but hell I really don't know. Oh God Naru, I don't know. I...I was angry. I suppose there's a chance that I did, I've used my powers accidently before, but I'd really thought I'd gained enough control to stop that from happening!" He brought his fist down on the table, making the laptop wobble, and causing Naru to jump.
"Okay, calm down Uchiha. Freaking out won't solve this."
"I am not freaking out! I'm just in pain, I'm worried, and I've not had enough sleep." Itachi took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to centre himself. "I don't want to cause another death, accidently or not."
Naru worried his lower lip for a moment. "You still blame yourself for Shisui." He stated finally.
Itachi nodded tiredly, although this seemed more an emotional fatigue than physical. "Of course I do, wouldn't you? It still haunts me every day when I see my brother glare at me, and my college peers avoid me. I don't want someone else to die from sheer stupidity." He didn't need to add that this time it really would be his fault.
"It's unlikely you're the cause of this." A third voice came out of the speaker, and Naru glanced up in surprise as a hand fell on his shoulder.
"Hi Lin." Itachi greeted with a small smile as the tall man drew a chair up to get into view of the SPR webcam.
Lin just nodded his head in return, before turning back to the case in hand. "If you're this adverse to the curse, it would have dissipated already; you're strong enough to subconsciously cast and remove it."
Naru gave his assistant an odd look. "I don't think it works like that Lin."
"Hey, you aren't the curses expert around here!" Itachi snapped. Naru glared at him, and the Uchiha smirked back before turning his gaze to Lin again. "What were you saying?"
A flicker of amusement crossed Lin's face before he went into rapid-fire Mandarin. Naru glowered between the man sitting next to him and the face on his laptop screen, as Itachi replied smoothly and faultlessly in the same language. For all that Naru prided himself on being a know-it-all genius, he had a huge hole in his knowledge when it came to languages. It explained why he'd lived in Japan for a good few years and still couldn't read or write in kanji.
"Are you even certain it's a curse?" Lin was asking.
"I'm about 80 certain. From the information I've got I know this guy is in serious trouble, and whilst I don't really care what happens to him, I'd rather it wasn't my fault." Itachi drummed his fingers on the table. He'd woken up a little now; at least, he'd woken enough to coherently employ his language skills and remind himself of his Mandarin. "What should I do?"
"For now? Nothing." Lin smiled at the confusion on his friend's face. "Look, from what you know, the accidents are merely causing minor injuries – painful, annoying, embarrassing, but hardly dangerous. Hold on for a while longer. You need confirmation that you're the cause before you make a move."
The Uchiha nodded slowly. "And I'll know how?"
Lin shrugged. "Do I look like a teacher? You'll know. You need to figure these things out for yourself Itachi-san, you can't keep asking for help all the time."
Itachi frowned. "I hardly keep 'asking for help'! And if you'll recall, I was the one who gave you the breakthrough on that case last month."
"So we have a mutulistic relationship, it doesn't mean I'll always have answers for you." Lin switched back to Japanese, causing Naru to perk up again. "That's all I can say, sorry." He left the screen, presumably to go back to his own desk.
"No conclusion then?" The SPR director asked grumpily.
"No." Itachi sighed, putting his head in his hands.
Naru smiled unsympathetically. "Well, I'm sure it will all be clearer in daylight." He glanced at his watch. "And sunrise is still another four hours away, plenty of time for you to sit and worry. I'd better go, so have a good day."
"Yeah, thanks for the absolutely brilliant help and support you've given me." Itachi snapped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "See you round, Narcissus." He added in English.
"Yeah," Naru switched to their second common language as well. "Have a good day, Weasel."
They both grinned before Naru hit the off button on his webcam, causing Itachi's laptop to revert back to desk top. The big clock in the top right corner of the screen proclaimed that it was five o'clock in the morning. He sighed heavily. His arm was hurting like a bitch, his brain was now wide awake: there was little point in getting up. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't too lazy to just play solitaire for a few hours. Looking up, he couldn't be bothered to move, so expended a little energy on twitching the curtains aside using his ESP.
It was raining. Again. You really had to love Britain in October. It was still as dark as a tomb out there – as Naru had said, he still had about four hours until sunrise. Not that the light would get through with such heavy cloud cover.
What a simply wonderful start to the day!
No milk in the house again, bloody typical! So much for having porridge for breakfast! He sighed grumpily; time to pop over to the news agents then.
And of course, it was still raining. Lady luck really HATED him at the moment!
Puddles soaked his boots, and drenched the bottoms of his trousers as he splashed along the pavements. The day was still barely dawning, and the world was a dingy grey that hid the houses and street lights behind a mantle of murk.
It also muffled the sounds of the early morning.
He looked both ways and stepped into the street. The sound of the car engine didn't reach his ears until far too late.
The silver sedan hadn't bothered with turning its lights on, so never saw the figure in the road until it was nearly on top of him. The brakes were hit, and the tyres squealed on the wet tarmac, too little too late. The young man hit the bonnet with a cry of pain and was thrown under the car chassis, one front tyre clipping his side and the following back one catching his out-flung arm. His scream cut short as his head impacted with the road surface.
Deidara couldn't understand what was up with his friend. Itachi seemed worried about the whole situation with Pein, worried to the point of actually asking if they should get in contact with the guy.
Of course, Deidara had no intention of helping the man who had taken his best friend away from him. The numerous fights he'd since had with the gang leader just strengthened the bad blood between the two of them.
The blonde was now sitting in his art lesson, happily doing what he did best – sculpting. The class of eleven was somewhat depleted this lesson, with three on a geography field trip, and another two off ill with the traditional winter flu. Even so, the pupils had – by habit – taken their normal seats which had spread them pretty thinly around the large room.
Silence reigned supreme, broken only by the slap of a wet paint-brush on a canvas, or the hum of someone's MP3. The teacher – as usual – had just popped her head into the room at the start of the lesson to see if anyone had any questions, and then had buggered off back to the staff-room. That left the class to work as and how they liked – a perfect atmosphere for the budding young artists.
The serenity was shattered by a sudden rendition of Blackmore Night's 'Old Hanging Tree.' Konan sighed and pulled her mobile out of her pocket, irritably flicking her eyes over the caller ID before answering it.
"What Pein? I'm in the middle of a fucking lesson here!"
Deidara had glanced up at the mention of the girl's brother, so saw Konan look surprised, then apologise quite politely – apparently it was someone else using Pein's phone. She seemed worried; questioning the caller's identity. Then it was like an electric shock had gone up her spine and she sat bolt upright, all colour draining from her face.
"What?!" Leaping up from her seat, Konan pocketed her phone. Her chair fell over as she dashed from the room.
Deidara didn't actually think why he ran after her, but he found himself out in the corridor, running behind the blue-haired girl. He found Konan bent over one of the rubbish bins, throwing up. When she finished and looked up to glare murderously at Deidara her cheeks were wet with tears.
"What do you want you bastard?!" She screamed at him.
The blonde was taken aback by the ferocity in her voice.
"I came to see if you're okay." It sounded pathetic even to him.
"Okay? Like you fucking care!" She stormed towards him, sobbing and snarling at the same time. "That was the hospital calling, Pein's been hit by a car!" She shrieked. "He's in emergency surgery right now, he could be dying!"
It was like an iceberg hitting the gut. Deidara hadn't expected to hear something like that in a million years; he had no idea what to say or do.
Konan was pacing the width of the corridor, one hand at her head, the other clenched around her phone.
"Oh God, I've got to be calm." She was still sobbing, hiccupping slightly as she spoke. "Okay, okay, calm down girl, calm...I've got to get to the hospital. Oh God...!" She dashed back over to the bin to throw up again.
"Uh...do you want a lift? I've got my car with me." Deidara really had no idea how to handle the situation, so opted for being helpful. Konan may have annoyed him incessantly, and he hated Pein, but he knew how awful it was to have a loved one hurt.
Konan stared at him with red-rimmed eyes. Black trails down her cheeks showed where her mascara and kohl had run. "I wouldn't get a lift with you if you were the last person on earth!" She spat. "It's your fault this happened! You and that freak you call a friend! Well congrats; you've succeeded in adding another victim to Itachi's body count. I hope you're happy!"
She turned and ran from the building into the pouring rain, leaving a silent Deidara behind her.
Deidara stayed in the class-room for the next three hours. The room was specially set aside for sixth form only, so there was no real limit for how long he could stay there. Technically the fact that he had an RE lesson should have made him realise it was time to go, then logic reminded him that the lesson would just be boring, and Itachi would take decent notes that he could copy.
A collection of small birds and insects was beginning to hem him in to the desk, as his hands worked mindlessly with the wet clay. His brain was trying to focus on anything but the fact that his nemesis was currently in surgery, and that he was somewhat to blame.
It wasn't working very well.
He ran out of clay after a while, so picked up his sketchpad and began to draw, letting his pencil create what it wanted. By the time his frantic mind had wound down from a mad whine to a more comfortable purr he'd filled a good half of the book. Flicking through the new pictures he was greeted with a collection of sketches that Salvador Dali would have had trouble coming up with even with the help of LSD.
So it seemed that his current mental state wasn't all that good. Guilt maybe?
Looking at the clock the blonde realised that it was only an hour to go until the end of school, and he was surrounded by hundreds of models, sketches and paper aeroplanes. Hmm...Probably time to leave then. He abandoned his stuff and went off to hunt down Itachi.
Deidara found the Uchiha in the library, pouring over a book on the Socio-political Highlights of the Late Seventeenth Centaury.
"That looks dull."
Itachi lanced up at him with a smile, before moving aside a little to give his friend room to sit down.
"Actually it's rather fascinating. And where were you in R.E.?"
Deidara frowned, dumping his bag on the table. "I was in art."
Itachi put the book down to fold his hands on the table top. "You sound troubled, what's happened?"
"Pein's in hospital."
"What?!" His reaction was almost identical to what the blonde's had been.
Deidara quietly explained what had occurred earlier that morning with Konan. "Look Itachi, this is getting really serious now, are you sure you haven't done this?"
Itachi scowled, clenching his fist. "Sure? No, I'm not sure. I spent about half an hour this morning talking about this with my cousin, and all I can say is I don't think it's me." The flower pot with its plastic plant in the centre of the table began to wobble violently. "I don't know."
Deidara glanced at the flower pot – remembering his talk with Sasuke yesterday – and put his hand on his friend's uninjured arm. "Calm down, freaking out won't help."
The Uchiha nodded slightly, well aware that Naru had told him exactly the same thing. "Okay, I'm calm."
"Good. Now is there anything you can do to find out if the curse is yours?"
"No." He shook his head. "I tried this morning," – after about six games of solitaire – "But I need something of Pein's, like a hair or such to focus the spell on."
"And you can't use one of those voodoo doll things?"
Itachi sighed heavily. "Hitogota, not voodoo, and no, I'd be using a charm for a charm on a curse; it would all cancel out. And I know that because I did try it. The Hitogota didn't do a thing, and the curse paper I used caught fire."
Deidara smiled slightly. "That must have been entertaining."
"It was certainly a challenge to stop the fire alarm from going off."
A sudden shrill noise made both of them jump and look around.
"Damn! That's mine." Deidara fished his phone out and flicked it open without checking the caller ID. "Hello?"
"Hello Deidara."
The blonde pulled his phone away from his ear and stared at it blankly for a moment, before bringing it back.
"Sasori? What the hell? I didn't think you still had my number."
"Well I do. We need to talk, meet me in the park in fifteen minutes."
The line went dead, just as the librarian scurried over to tell him to put the phone away. At least he managed to finish the call before being thrown out of the library.
"I'll call you later." He muttered to Itachi before holding his hands up in surrender and letting the little bantam of a librarian shoo him out.
There were actually three parks in the town, but Deidara knew which one Sasori meant. As kids they'd commandeered the one next to their primary school to play in, and over the years it had just become a place to hang out. Deidara hadn't been back there since their fall out.
As expected it was still chucking it down as the blonde drove through the water logged streets. His little second hand Corsa did its best, but the windscreen wipers were having trouble keeping up with the downpour. He reached the park and found a handy place up along the pavement to stop the car and kill the engine. Through the driving rain he spotted someone lurking under the trees, and recognising the profile he waved them over.
Sasori got into the passenger's side, soaked through and shivering. He merely nodded to his one-time-friend and proceeded to blow on his hands to warm them up. Deidara rolled his eyes at the dramatics and turned the car's radiator on.
"You should have brought an umbrella with you."
"Whatever."
There was a pause as both tried to think of a way to start the necessary conversation without causing an argument.
"Your grandma doing okay?" Deidara asked finally.
Sasori nodded. "She's got a bit of a cold, but she's doing fine otherwise."
"Good."
Another, longer pause.
Finally Sasori shifted in his seat. "I take it you heard what happened."
"Yeah. Is he okay?"
"Concussion, a broken arm and some internal bleeding. On the whole it could have been a lot worse." The red-head glared at Deidara. "And it very nearly was worse! Do you have any idea what would happen if he died?"
Deidara shrugged. "The town loses its mafia boss?"
"Don't be pedantic! Pein's parents are both in jail with life sentences for murder, he's all Konan has. He's her legal guardian, and if something happens to him God knows what will happen to her!" Sasori snapped. "And it looks like something will happen to him thanks to your little friend!"
"And did you know that Itachi was nearly killed yesterday?" Deidara shot back. "We were attacked and he got knifed!"
"Yes I do know, and Orochimaru is no longer welcomed by any of us, Pein had never told him to attack you!"
The two were nearly touching noses, both yelling at the tops of their voices. Sasori seemed to realise this as he backed away a little.
"Look Deidara, I didn't ask you here for a shouting match." He said in quieter tone.
"Then what do you want?!"
"I...I came to ask for help." Sasori muttered.
Deidara bit back the insult he'd had ready – it wasn't like Sasori to admit needing help, the guy was fiercely independent. And judging from how his cheeks now matched his scarlet hair, the red-head wasn't happy with the situation either.
"There was a time when I knew I could trust you. We promised to always be there for each other." He said finally.
Deidara snorted. "Yeah, back when we were friends." He spat.
"Dei, you aren't making this any easier!"
"Good!"
"Dei, please just listen!"
Deidara folded his arms, but gave a short nod to show that Sasori could continue.
"Thank you." The red-head fiddled with his damp sweater cuff. "I wanted to ask you to talk with your friend, the Uchiha. Pein is in trouble, and he's too proud to do anything to stop it."
"Itachi's not to blame, he hasn't done anything. I don't know where this curse has come from, but I know it's not Itachi."
"I'm not saying it is, but it's well known that Itachi knows about these sorts of things. Maybe he can take the curse off."
Deidara had to admit that that hadn't occurred to him. "Why should I want the curse to be taken off him?" He asked coldly. "You recall that he tried to beat seven types of crap out of me just under a fortnight ago? Not forgetting the fact that you were standing next to him and seemed quite happy with it."
"Yes, I know. If it helps; I wasn't actually all that happy."
"And that makes me feel so much better!"
Sasori rolled his eyes. "Whatever. All I'm asking is that you see if Itachi can do anything." He sighed heavily. "I failed my best friend in the past, and by doing so lost his friendship. If I fail Pein then he'll lose his life. I can't let that happen. Losing one best friend is hard enough."
Deidara was silent for quite a while. The car's old radiator hummed gently in the background until the blonde's sigh hid the noise.
"Fine then. I'll talk to Itachi." He said quietly, finally admitting defeat.
Sasori smiled slightly. "Thank you." He moved to open the car door. "I'd better get going, Gran will be worrying."
Deidara looked out at the driving rain and sighed. "I'll give you a lift."
Itachi was in his room working on an essay when his phone rang. Putting it onto speaker so that he could continue working, he pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
"Itachi? It's me, can we talk?"
"Go ahead."
"I just spoke to Sasori, he says Pein's alright, mores' the pity." Deidara's voice carried a trace of amusement. "But he also had a favour to ask you."
"To ask me?" Itachi stopped typing to concentrate on the conversation.
"Yeah. Even if you didn't cast the hex, can you still remove it?"
"In theory." He drummed his fingers on the table. "I must admit that it hadn't occurred to me, but yes I can."
On the other end of the phone Deidara sighed. "If you can, then will you?"
"Well...I don't know...I hadn't intended to ever go near the guy again." Itachi said with a frown. "But doing nothing when I could do something is as bad as just walking up to the guy and shooting him."
"Do you own a gun?"
"No!"
"Sorry, but you gotta admit it's tempting." Deidara laughed. "So, can and will you help him?"
Itachi sighed. "Well, he tried to beat you up, one of his cronies knifed me, and the whole gang hate our guts...I suppose it might help things if I sort this mess out. It wouldn't look good for me if he dies."
Deidara snorted. "Ooh, getting moral are we? Okay, I'll give Sasori a call and tell him it's a go."
Itachi affirmed it and pressed the end call button. He looked at the half finished essay, then saved it and shut his computer down. Looks like he had some preparations to do.
Deidara lay on his back on his bed, eyes lazily tracing the posters on his ceiling as he punched a familiar number into his mobile. It rang twice before it was answered.
"Well?"
"Hello to you too Sasori."
"Yeah, whatever, did you talk to him?"
Deidara twirled a lock of hair around his finger. "Yes I did, and he's agreed to help."
There was a relieved exhale on the other end of the line. "Good. That's good. Can the two of you meet us tomorrow?"
"I guess so. Where?"
"Do you remember where Pein's house is?"
The blonde rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. What time?"
"Well, he'll get home tonight, so say...um, eleven tomorrow morning?"
"We'll be there." Deidara ended the call and drummed his fingers thoughtfully on his thigh for a moment. Then he picked the mobile up again and texted a meeting place and time to Itachi.