Konichiwa my dear readers! I'm extremely sorry for the late update, but i've had a lot of work for school, and just to make things worse, i've been having this annoying author's block...
biut anyway, i finished this chapter after having some good ideas in my dreams, hope you like it!
As one of my reviewers asked, i put more moments with the twins, and some more action!
Disclaimer: i do not own Naruto nor any other anime, i just own the ideas!
Please review at the end!
Chapter 13
Ryuuki got up and walked to the door, tiptoeing, he opened said door and peeked into the hallway. It was dark and empty, like a hallway probably was at night.
He looked back at the bed to see his twin snuggled under the covers, only a small lump visible. Looking back at the hallway he walked out of the room.
He walked down the hallway for a while, and then peeked into a room where some faint light could be seen. Sasu-nii-chan was there, sitting on the windowsill, a small lamp in the table next to him, a book in one hand, his other hand busy writing something.
The small boy frowned, why couldn't the grown-up just admit he was sad? Everyone could see it, well… he could, at least.
He slowly slid into the room without being noticed, he was really good at sneaking around and being unnoticed, that's why he was usually quiet, because that way he could 'disappear' without being noticed, but anyway, back to the matter at hand.
He walked closer to the eerie man and then just stood looking at him, trying to come up with a plan of attack.
"You should be sleeping." Ryuuki blinked, he thought he had been doing a good work at not being noticed, ah man.
Sasu-nii-chan turned to him with a blank look, and he suddenly just wished he had stayed in his room, because the man had something that could make anyone uncomfortable, maybe it was his eyes.
"I… um… well…" he mumbled, and then shut up and looked up from his feet when he heard a chuckle, an amused one. Blinking, he stared at the man, so he could laugh, or chuckle, at least.
"Go back to bed." He crossed his arms in front of himself and frowned, he didn't like others ordering him around, kaa-chan told him he got that from his father.
"I don't wanna." He mumbled under his breath and kicked the floor lightly.
Sasuke eyed the boy curiously, he could have sworn that it would have been the girl to have these attitudes, not the boy, seems he was wrong.
"Go back to bed." He repeated, and the boy huffed, turned his head away and stomped his foot. He smirked in amusement, somehow, it reminded him of when he was a kid and his brother told him to go back to bed when he didn't want to.
He put his book and pencil down on the windowsill and got up, then squatting down to the boys' level.
"Go back to bed." He repeated, and the boy faced him with a stubborn look.
"I don't wanna, besides, you're still up too." The small boy mumbled the last part under his breath, but he still caught it. Interesting.
The boy let out a small yelp as he grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder.
"Small gaki like you should sleep when they're told." And he never thought he'd say something his brother had told him so many times to someone else.
"But I don't wanna go to bed." The boy whined, and he let the boy slip forward so he had him in his arms. "Kaa-chan let's me stay up when I want to." He raised a brow at the boy, that was clearly a lie, he could tell.
"I doubt it." the boy glared at him with a pout, which made him remember Naruto, but not quite. He chuckled again.
"I hate you." The boy suddenly said, and he once again raised a brow.
"So? Should I care?" the boy turned away from him and crossed his arms.
"I like Dei-nii-chan better than you." The boy mumbled under his breath, and once again, it sounded like something Naruto would do.
"You've been hanging around the dobe too much." He mumbled and the boy glanced at him.
"Naruto-nii-chan isn't a dobe." He rolled his eyes, only a kid, or Hinata, wouldn't consider Naruto a dobe, but he could understand, Hinata loved him (how, he never knew) and since he acted like a kid, he could be considered cool among kids, somehow.
There was silence as they… he walked down the hallway with the k- Ryuuki in his arms. And then suddenly, Ryuuki turned to him with a serious look.
"Ne, Sasu-nii-chan, why don't you want to admit you're sad?" he stared at the 4 year old and slowed down his pace, again with that?
"I'm not sad." The boy frowned.
"Yes you are, and it's alright, kaa-chan gets sad too, and she said that it's not a bad thing to be sad."
"I'm not sad." He looked at the boy with an annoyed look and Ryuuki looked down mumbling a sorry.
He finally reached the room where the twins slept and got inside putting Ryuuki down.
"Go to sleep." The boy nodded silently and walked to the bed, and then he climbed on it and disappeared under the covers forming a second small lump on the bed. He stayed there a few seconds to check that Ryuuki didn't get out of bed again, and then got out closing the door behind him, to then walk back to his office to finish doing what he had been doing.
He looked at the plate in the centre of the table where one last home made cookie with chocolate bits lay, begging to be taken, begging to join its fellow cookies that had already been eaten.
His eyes scanned the table further, there were half empty mugs with warm chocolate milk, steam coming out of them.
He sighed, today was one of those crappy days where if you went outside you'd freeze to death with the ice cold wind, the hard pouring rain and the dark grey clouds hiding the sun, and it so just happened he had a visitor, said visitor was sitting on a chair, eyeing the cookie, and opposite of his visitor, his guest sat on a chair, eyeing the last cookie as well. Another sigh, they looked like kids.
Deidara sat on a chair, and opposite to him sat Sakura, both eyeing the last cookie, that had been what she had done for tea time.
They looked up again, now staring at each other, and their staring contest soon turned into a glaring one.
"A gentleman would give the last cookie to the lady." Sakura said innocently, but still glaring at him. Deidara snorted.
"Tell me when you see one." Her eye twitched and her hands clenched. "Besides, the person with more power always gets the cookie." She raised a fine brow at him.
"Tell me when you see someone like that." His fingers twitched.
Fay sighed, they had become silent and were now glaring at each other, again and still. Their hands were slowly inching closer to the plate, and he honestly hoped they would solve their little problem (if you could even call it that) without resorting to violence.
"It's mine." They both shouted, making him lightly jump in his chair in surprise, he hadn't been ready for that, neither that they would both launch themselves into the table and start wrestling for the cookie.
He closed his eyes and counted to ten, telling himself that when he opened his eyes they would all be having a civilized afternoon, with no childishness about a cookie, which could easily be shared.
He opened his eyes slowly and had to fight the urge to rub his temples, Deidara had Hikari (he doesn't know her name's Sakura yet) in a headlock and was trying to take the cookie from her, while the girl had one of her arms outstretched, the cookie in her hand, evading Deidara's hand. Her other hand was at his neck, partially strangling him.
"Give it to me damn it, hn." Deidara hissed, to which she snorted.
"It's mine, and I'm not giving it to you." She taunted, and he was seriously getting annoyed, his best friend wasn't so childish, not with other people at least, and certainly not with girl. The only exception was Tobi, but it was never like this, as if he was 6 again.
"Will you two stop it already and share the stupid cookie?" he almost yelled, and the couple looked at him, stopping their wrestling. There was silence, and then they spoke together.
"NEVER." And the wrestling continued.
"Oh Kami-sama, give me patience." He mumbled while rubbing his temples, and leaned on the table, taking a sip from his warm chocolate, what had he done to deserve this?
The twins shared a look and walked closer to the girl lying on the couch, curled into a ball, a distant look in her eyes.
"Kao-nee-chan." Kyuuki called and tugged on the girl's sleeve, only to get no response.
"Kao-nee-chan." She called again and tugged harder. "What's wrong?" Kaorin blinked and then stared at the small girl.
"Kao-nee-chan, what's wrong?" Kyuuki repeated, knowing she had the older girl's attention. Ryuuki watched from behind his twin, being as curious as her, but preferring to be on the background than to be in the front lines, or so to speak.
"I'm fine." The twins shared a look, and then looked back at the teen.
"That's not true, you usually play with us." Kyuuki started.
"When Dei-nii-chan isn't here, but you've been there all morning." Ryuuki finished.
Kaorin looked away from the twins, why did they have to be so smart? She just wanted to be alone, she had to think… a lot.
"Is it because of Jin-nii-chan?" she snapped her eyes to the usually quiet boy who had been the one to speak. She blinked when the boy simply stared at her with a serious look. For a moment, she though she was seeing Sasuke.
"…" she tried to answer the boy with a no, but she would be lying, and somehow, she couldn't lie to them.
"So, what did Jin do to make you like that?" she sat up abruptly and stared at the door, where Ryo stood leaning against the frame.
"Nothing." She answered too quickly. Ryo raised a brow at her, his purple/grey eyes examining her. After a few seconds he looked down at the twins, who were looking up at him with wondering eyes.
"I'm Ryo." The twins nodded slowly and he walked closer to them. "And you?"
"I'm Kyuuki."
"And I'm Ryuuki." The twins answered and he smiled, to then squat down at their level.
"Can any of you tell me what Jin did to Kao-chan?" he tilted his head lightly and watched as the twins shared a look and looked back at Kaorin, who shook her head with a pained expression on her face.
"Jin-nii-chan kissed Kao-nee-chan so she would forget." He stared at the small boy who had answered his question quietly.
"Oh, is that so." he looked up at Kaorin to see her blushing madly, her head bent down. And from what he could see, she was at the verge of tears. Stupid Jin.
He patted the twins heads and smiled.
"Thanks for the intel." They nodded and grinned, he guessed they liked him. "Could you two do me a favour and let me talk to Kao-chan alone?" the twins shared a look and nodded slowly.
"But we're bored Ryo-nii-chan." Kyuuki whined. He tilted his head.
"Then I'm gonna give you a mission." From what he had heard Deidara say, the twins liked everything related to Shinobi. And they sure looked excited. Their eyes were wide and curious, shinning in anticipation. "With as much stealth as you can, find Jin and follow him around, but don't tell him it's a mission if he finds out ok?" the twins nodded excitedly.
"Hai Ryo-nii-chan!" and they were running out of the room in excitement.
He looked back to Kaorin, and he made a mental note to tell Kai about this so they could beat the crap outta Jin. He got up and the sat down next to the girl.
"Wanna talk about it?" she looked up at him and shook her head slowly, her eyes shinning with unshed tears. With a sigh he wrapped his arms around her frame and pulled her closer.
"Then I'm not here." She nodded and buried her face in his chest while her hands fisted themselves on his shirt. Seconds later she was crying silently, low sobs could be heard, and he made a mental note to ask Deidara and Kisame to help him and Kai beat the hell outta Jin for this.
He glared at her from the couch he was sulking on, she'd eaten his cookie, when he had been the one to want it first. Her stupid superhuman strength was the cause, because for how good of a ninja he was, if he didn't want to blow up his best friends' apartment, he had no way to counter her stupid strength.
"Stupid Sakura, hn." He mumbled under his breath and kept glaring at her.
"Did you say something Deidara-kun?" she asked so sweetly that it made him sick, adding the –kun just to emphasise the fact that she had heard him and wasn't happy about it. He didn't say anything and kept glaring at her.
"Gee, at least answer." She muttered, and his glare intensified, if that was humanly possible.
"You ate my cookie, hn." He mumbled under his breath, like a kid would do. She raised a brow in indifference.
"I didn't see your name on it when I ate it." he sniffed and slumped further into the couch.
"You're mean, yeah." She, once again, raised a brow at him.
"Look at me caring about what you think." And to emphasise her point she took her cup of tea and took a sip, ignoring him completely.
"Baka." He muttered under his breath, and she raised a brow at him, taunting him. "I wanted the cookie first." She put her cup down on the small table and got up.
"So?" he pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them, hiding the lower part of his face behind them.
"I bet you're a lousy mom." Her eyes narrowed at his comment and she walked closer, stopping in front of him.
"Like a pyromaniac can have an opinion about it." he sniffed.
"I'm not a pyromaniac, I just like explosions, and let me remind you, I had a mother too." She rolled her eyes.
"I bet you were an orphan, abandoned because you had those things in your hands." And she didn't have time to react, because the next seconds, she was in the air, his hand around her neck holding her up. He didn't look at her, letting his eyes face the wooden floor and his bangs shield his face.
"Don't ever talk about my mother." She stared at him in shock, suddenly so very much scared for her life, because it was as if he was a completely different person, and when he looked up, even his eyes looked different, instead of being a nice sky blue, they were silver blue, almost white, and the look in his eyes frightened her.
"Ever, got it?" she nodded, not managing to speak due to the pressure in her throat, but she was frozen in place. Right now, she was realizing why he was Akatsuki, and just how dangerous he could be, because until now she had seen him harmless because he acted like a kid, but now… now… he was frightening. And everything was starting to turn black and white, and her lungs were starting to burn, urgently needing oxygen.
"What the hell are you doing Deidara?" it was Fay, screaming at him best friend and rushing to stop him from killing someone.
"Stop it." the silver in his eyes told him she must have said or done something to make him snap, which was really hard to do.
"Deidara, snap out of it." he grabbed his wrist and pushed the blond away, straight back.
The pink haired woman fell on her knees, gasping for air and holding her throat, where the mark of Deidara's hand now stood.
"What's gotten into you?" the blond artist didn't say anything, but the dangerousness in him remained there, as well as the silver blue look.
He took a few steps forward, getting closer to his best friend, and glanced back, Hikari was still holding her throat, her body shaking, in fear, he supposed, he himself got afraid of his best friend when he got like this.
"Snap out of it." and his answer was a punch that made him stumble back.
"Don't get in the middle of it." Deidara hissed, and he sighed, so it had to be done huh? He looked back at his best friend and lunged forward, managing to land a punch on him too. And then they started fighting, and he was glad he didn't have many breakable things in his living room.
"Deidara, snap out of it." he evaded the kick coming towards his gut, but didn't manage to evade the punch that sent him flying backwards. He landed painfully on the low table with his back, making the glass table shatter under the impact.
She watched as they fought, not really watching, but when Fay landed on the low table and the glass shattered, she snapped out of her trance and remembered she was a talented kunoichi, and before Deidara managed to do any more damage to his best friend, she stepped in front of him and landed a hard blow on his stomach, followed by a soft touch, seemingly harmless, on his shoulder, that resulted in him falling to the floor, almost throwing up. He had been so busy with his fight that she had gone unnoticed and managed to touch him long enough as to cause him to be nauseous and cut of his main chakra points.
She watched as he coughed and clenched his fists, his head down. She looked back to se Fay getting up. Both males were bloody and battered, and she still had some trouble breathing.
"How'd you do that?" she looked back at Deidara, who was still coughing, and stayed quiet. It wasn't that she liked to see people suffering, on the contraire, but he deserved it.
"I'm a medic." She mumbled softly and folded one of her arms, holding her other elbow with her hand.
"Don't…" the blond coughed some more. "…ever… talk…" he took a deep breath. "… about my mother." Fay looked at her and then at the coughing nin.
"So that's why…" he mumbled under his breath.
"I'm sorry." She whispered and kneeled down next to the blond. She reached her hand to touch him but he just slapped it away.
"Let m-" he didn't even let her finish.
"I don't need your help."
"But-" she shut up when he looked up at her.
"Leave me alone." She looked down and let her hand fall.
"I'm sorry." Fay watched them, not knowing what to do, but then again, when it concerned his best friend, he never knew what to do exactly.
"Stop being an idiot and let her heal you Teme." He slapped the back of Deidara's head, to which the artist looked up with a glare, but his paleness and the fact that he looked ready to throw up made it as intimidating as an old lady without any teeth.
"Dobe." Fay gave him a look and the nauseous blond sniffed.
"Fine." He looked at the female to his left and then sat up, fighting the urge to cough or worse, throw up.
"Do your thingy Haruno." Her hands reached up, and, somehow, she didn't even register the fact that he had called her by her family name.
"Breathe slowly." She instructed as she settled one of her green glowing hands over his upper torso and the other over his forehead.
He ran his eyes over the dinning table and raised a brow, it was like there were groups or something. In one side of the table were the twins, at the edge, then at their right were Kaorin and Kisame, and to their left were Deidara and Ryo, all of them close together.
Then on the other side of the table, the edge was for him, to the right was Jin and to the left was Suigetsu. It was as if the others wanted to be as far as possible from either Jin or Suigetsu. Something was going on, and he was in the dark about it.
He stood next to his seat, his eyes scanning the table once more.
"What's happening here?" he demanded. The twins looked up at him with innocent eyes, Ryo and Deidara looked away in stubbornness, Kisame shrugged, Suigetsu was clueless about everyone's behaviour and Jin was pissed, as for Kaorin, she just looked down.
He sighed and sat down, by the looks of it, he wasn't getting any answer soon, but still, he didn't like being left in the dark.
The atmosphere was tense while everyone ate dinner, even Deidara and the twins were quiet, which was suspicious and meant that the twins knew something, which someone probably told them to keep as a secret.
With further observation of everyone he concluded that Suigetsu had nothing to do with it, that Kisame just followed who he knew and trusted best, that Ryo and Deidara were protecting Kaorin and that Jin had done something to piss them off, probably something that had to do with Kaorin.
So, to avoid being left in the dark any longer, he went straight to the subject.
"Kaorin." He called, and without any suffix, it meant it was serious. The girl looked up and faced her Leader.
"What is it leader?" she asked, and her quiet and weak tone confirmed his suspicions.
"What did Jin do to you?" He saw Jin snapping his head towards him and glare, which didn't affect him in the least, and Kaorin just stared at him in shock, her face turning a deep red. The twins also looked at him, and then directed a glare at Jin. Kisame kept eating, only casting a glance at the other end of the table. As for Deidara and Ryo, they glanced at their Leader and then looked back at their meals, as if not to look at Jin, as if the teen was a monster.
"So?" he waited patiently for an answer and eyed everyone in the group.
"Jin-nii-chan made Kao-nee-chan sad." Kyuuki announced.
"And he didn't apologise." Ryuuki finished. And the twins seemed to be against Jin too.
He turned his gaze to the blond teen, demanding answer with only a look.
"I didn't do anything." Jin stated and resumed his meal. Coughs were heard from the other side, 'liar' was also heard between said coughs.
"Jin." He saw the teen drop his chopsticks and face him.
"Fine, I kissed her ok? It's no big deal." He got up abruptly. "I just did it to get what I wanted, which I did, period, she should just get over it." he glared at the teen, and then snapped his attention to the other end of the table, where a sob was heard.
"You seriously need some social classes." That was Kisame. The group of six got up, Ryo taking the twins by their hands, and Deidara and Kisame leading Kaorin away as if shielding her from Jin, who, by the way, was boiling, his fist clenched at his sides and his eyes cast downwards.
He sighed, just what he needed, a quarrel between everyone.
A few minutes passed and the only ones left on the dinning table were himself and Suigetsu.
"This isn't to piss ya off, but that kid looks like your fuckin' clone or something, looks and personality." He gave Suigetsu an annoyed look, to which the blue haired male raised his hands over his head.
"Hey, it's just what I think, maybe not now, but when you were with Hebi you were a lot like that, you did what you wanted without caring about the consequences, even if you hurt a lot of people, you didn't care."
Suigetsu's words echoed through his mind, and they were true, and unlike what Suigetsu thought, he was still like that.
But going back to the matter at hand, Jin would be having a mission that consisted in ending this little quarrel, especially because Kaorin was the central focus of said quarrel.
The blond looked down and tapped his fingers on the table. His face said that he was in deep thought, and the fact that he was so calm meant… it meant something bad would happen.
"Let me see if I get it." he muttered and then looked up, his eyes settled in something akin to accusatory and pissed. "The Akatsuki, an organization that hasn't done anything for more than 5 years, decided to make a move now, when all the countries are at peace, and just like that, kidnap Sakura-chan's kids." He faced the 2 males at the end of the table. "Not to forget considering that the Leader of Akatsuki is now someone that we haven't heard of in around 7 years, Uchiha Sasuke, and that Sakura-chan when after him to get the twins back. Did I miss something?" Silence greeted him and he got up.
"You gotta be kidding me." He muttered and rubbed his temples. "Is there anything else I should know?" he faced the other 2 again. "Aliens? Intergalactic war? Conspiracy?"
"Don't be stupid." He crossed his arms in front of himself and raised a brow at them.
"Well, excuse me if I don't full out believe you 2, but it's just a weird theory." The red haired man rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"It's not a theory Naruto." The blond sighed and sat down again.
"Fine, it's not, but seriously, the Teme's the new Leader of Akatsuki?"
"Yes." He grinned and looked outside at the village.
"I knew he'd do something big someday."
"Care to come back to the matter at hand?" he rolled his eyes at Sai's annoyance.
"Yeah, but what would he want with the twins? It's just weird."
The room became silence, until a sigh was heard.
"We need a plan."
So? ow was it? Please do tell me your opinions, it really helps, especially because i don't have a lot of ideas right now... but no worries, it'll come, i won't let you down!
Please review, as always, and, isn't that little purple button with the 'Go' on it tempting you? So what are you waiting for?
Love you all, Kaori-chan!
P.S.- I was thinking about chaging my pen name to Tsukimi, what do you guys think?