Thanks for reviewing everyone! It's great to read them!
I know I left some loose ends in the last story (Itachi – the early years) and I'll get to them eventually. It just seemed like if I took care of them all at once it would seem contrived, so they'll come up at different places in the story.
Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Kishimoto.
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Chapter 13 – The Impasse
"We need to find out more about Root." Madara was reclining in a white, egg-shaped chair in Rain. Nearby Pein sat with his legs crossed and Konan stood leaning against the back of her chair with her chin resting in her hands. The whole building was like a giant battery and one could feel the energy surging through the walls and floors and hear the humming of machinery from every direction. Madara occasionally wondered if being inside Pein's building would be anything like being inside a living being.
Pein sat calmly as he took a few minutes to consider Madara's words. "Don't you trust your kinsman to destroy them?"
"Hmm. Fugaku is competent in that regard. However, he is rather heavy-handed and there are rebels fighting back inside the village. Stone is preparing an offensive against the village and Waterfall would love to join them. Cloud is, for some reason, standing by and so far showing no intention of attacking."
"So he has his hands full and you want to help. Akatsuki has better things to do than run your personal errands, Madara." Konan spoke bitterly.
Madara scowled, "This is no personal errand. Root is too large and too organized to be operating below the radar of any village. They are hiring a lot of missing nin. We need to find out what their plans are and who their leaders are."
"Then assign Itachi. He should be able to find out quickly enough." Konan stated simply. "What's the big deal?"
Madara breathed out in frustration, "We can't trust Itachi to completely follow our instructions anymore. In fact I'm wracking my brains to think of a way to keep him from betraying us. If he would have wiped out the clan he would have had no where else to go, as well as two or three other reasons to stay. Now… I'm not so sure."
"Kill him then. Kidnap Sasuke and bring him here. We can raise him to be loyal to us." Pein added. His voice held a hint of impatience.
"I don't think that would work as well as you think it would. Sasuke is rather devoted to his big brother and would probably spend that time trying to figure out a way to kill you instead. However, I do want Sasuke eventually." Madara leaned back and closed his eyes. "When the time comes, Fugaku will be more than willing to give me Naruto, of that I am certain. Itachi, however, had no intention of handing the Jinchuuriki over."
"Your thoughts are all over the place Madara." Konan sat down in exasperation and stretched as her black and red robe fell back at the seam revealing two shapely legs.
"Hmm." Madara sighed in agreement as he glanced appraisingly at Konan's legs through half-opened eyelids. "Pein, are you almost ready for your coup?"
"Yes. Give me two weeks and everything will be set."
"Then I believe when you attack Hanzou's clan's village I will have a few people in attendance. When Itachi and… Deidara for that matter… see what you are capable of it should inspire some increased level of loyalty. Besides… he's been sniffing around a lot lately, hasn't he?" Madara turned his gaze back to Pein as the thrumming in the background increased for a minute, as if a heart was pounding.
"Hanzou is suspicious of this building, that is true. It is in the middle of his capital city after all. We have killed many spies in the last few months, twice as many as the same time last year. It would definitely be better if we didn't have to hide." Pein paused in contemplation before turning to gaze at Madara with a determined stare, "Give the word and I will take control of Rain."
Madara gave a short laugh, "Rain is yours, Pein."
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Sasuke walked hesitantly into the classroom. The room looked the same as it had last fall, so much so that for a moment the young boy had a sudden feeling that time hadn't passed at all and the coup had never happened. The early spring sunshine brightened the room and a cherry tree bloomed pink outside the window as birds chirped and chased each other around its branches. That feeling was quickly abandoned though when Sasuke looked closely at his classmates as he walked up the risers to his desk. He sat in the back and tried to keep a low profile. Fugaku had told him the night before that there could be trouble from the other students, children often struck out at the first thing that they believed caused them pain, whether it actually did or not, and Sasuke might become the source of their pain. It was a disturbing thought. While he had never sought popularity, he didn't particularly want to be hated either.
A couple rows down from him he saw Shikamaru Nara refuse to allow another kid to sit next to him. He was protecting the spot quite diligently and after a couple minutes Sasuke remembered why. Shikamaru was Choji's best friend. He was saving the seat for him. For a ghost.
"He knows Choji's dead, right Sasuke?" Naruto whispered as he sat down. He had stopped off at the restroom before coming to class.
"Yeah. I'm sure he does. He's just… I don't know…" Sasuke's voice faded, unable to give words to his feelings.
"There's a lot of new kids here." Naruto said in his normal voice.
"They're from the clans dad brought in to help. Their families moved into the village last week from the hideout. They're the ones living in the tents, remember?" Sasuke watched as ten kids looked hesitantly around the room muttering to each other, as if they didn't know what to do.
Sasuke stood up and walked down to the group, "Hi."
"Hi… um…" A boy with white hair and blue eyes spoke in a confused voice. He was about the same height as Sasuke and wore what appeared to be a semi-formal yukata and hakama pants. In fact, all the kids were dressed up.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. My father wanted me to help if you needed it." Sasuke smiled and tried to speak cheerfully, but he saw a couple girls in the front row glaring at him and cringed.
The boy sighed in relief, "My name is Ji Kim." He looked back at the kids standing around him, "We've never been in a school before. Our parents or grandparents would teach us instead. So… what… do we do?"
"Oh!" Sasuke was surprised by that and several people in the room turned around to watch. "I guess… find a place to sit and wait for the teacher. He'll talk to us and stuff and then give us homework. I guess I never thought about it."
"Must be easy then." The stragglers found seats and Ji decided to sit next to Sasuke.
"Why did you guys dress up?" Naruto asked, smiling broadly.
"Even though we are all from different clans, our mothers got together and decided we should make a good impression. The girls liked dressing up, I guess, but if I get dirty my mom'll kill me. This really sucks." Ji was very honest about his feelings and seemed relieved to have someone to talk to. Sasuke found himself relaxing a little bit as well.
Class started when Iruka walked hurriedly into the room and slammed the door to get the students attention. Everyone jumped in alarm and then relaxed when he gave them a warm smile. "I am relieved to see you all here." He paused and continued to look around the room, "And grieved over those who will never return. We have been through a lot, but with the death of Danzou, we have been given an opportunity to build a new, stronger village."
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Sasuke and Naruto carried their boxed lunches out of the building and onto the school grounds. The sun was warm but a brisk wind kept everyone in their jackets. The two boys saw Hinata sitting under the cherry tree with Ino, Shikamaru and Sakura and Naruto insisted on joining them.
"You're being sociable today, Sasuke. What gives?" Shikamaru said sarcastically.
"My dad told me to be." Sasuke muttered, "He isn't the kind of person you say 'no' to."
"That's for sure. Have you seen all the heads at the front gate?" Ino added. Everyone nodded, being careful not to make eye contact with each other.
"Sakura, my mom made you these." Ino passed a couple riceballs to the pink haired girl. "She was worried you might not get enough to eat."
"Thank-you Ino." Sakura said quietly, "We get enough, I think. I'm not hungry. It's not as good as your mom's food though… or… mine…" She sniffed a couple times as she busied herself with eating. Her own lunch was in a cardboard box and consisted of some rice, carrots and boiled eggs.
"So what happened to your parents?" Naruto asked, then ducked as Ino hit him over the head.
"That's mean! Don't ask!" Ino yelled.
Sakura ignored her friend, "We got separated into different tunnels and theirs fell down on them. I live here at the school now with the other…orphans." She said the last word in a whisper so quiet the others barely heard her.
"Why don't you live with Ino?" Naruto scrunched his face up in concern.
Shikamaru answered, "Ino and her family and Choji's dad are staying with us because Inoichi needs help moving around and dad didn't want Chouza to be by himself. He's still really depressed about his wife and Choji dying."
"But I come over here everyday to see her." Ino added.
"I'm glad you do." Sakura smiled, then spoke in a stronger voice, "We've been training, Sasuke. Ino and me. We're not going to stand around and watch you anymore. We're going to be good Kunoichi's and protect Konoha so this doesn't happen again."
"That's right!" Ino gave a big smile as she raised her arm in the air to show her resolve. "We were dumb to stand around staring at you. We could have been training and when they attacked we could have helped instead of hiding! But we're not going to do that anymore!"
"That's right! Me too!" Hinata added firmly.
"And me!" Naruto gave everyone a big grin.
"I've been training everyday too. I'm going to help my brother so he doesn't fight alone and protect his kids…when he has some." Sasuke added.
"How troublesome." Shikamaru smirked, "I've been training hard too. I got a lot to learn if I'm going to be as good as my dad. And… I've got to live for Choji."
"And Ami." Sakura added. "I hated her, she always made fun of me, but I cried when I found out she died. I guess I didn't hate her as much as I thought."
"Yeah, me too." Ino and Hinata said at the same time.
"Hey let's sit with Shikamaru and them!" Kiba ran over and plopped down next to the small group. Shino walked over at a more leisurely pace and quietly sat next to him. The two boys appeared to be complete opposites. Kiba was outgoing and boisterous with wild, shaggy brown hair and red "fang" tattoos running from each side of his face below his eyes to his chin. Shino, on the other hand, was quiet, kept to himself and always wore a long coat and sun glasses. The other kids often referred to him as "creepy".
Sasuke sighed at the new arrivals. He was started to feel uncomfortable around so many other people. As the youngest son of a clan that had no other children he wasn't used to being around other kids. He turned to look away and saw Ji watching them uncertainly. He waved him over, "Come on Ji, might as well join us."
Ji ran over. "Thanks!" He sat down next to Sakura.
"Not eating with your friends?" Shikamaru asked, curiously.
"Nah. Not my friends. My clan is from the other continent and we speak a different language, have a different culture. We aren't very well liked because of that and when we came here none of the hidden villages would let us join. We tried seven of them over the years." Ji explained quickly as he bit into his riceball.
"That sucks." Kiba said, "But you're here now!"
"Yeah!" Ji gave everyone a big smile that was eagerly returned. "I really love it here!"
"Hey! You want to train with us after school?" Naruto asked.
"Sure do! But… right now I have to help my clan build our houses so I don't have free time. I'll ask though… if it's training maybe they'll let me stay for a couple hours."
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Sasuke had to smile as he walked down the road on his way home; his first day back to school hadn't been as bad as he thought it would be. Of course there were quite a lot of kids staring… or was that glaring… at him. Naruto walked beside him, also smiling. No one had teased him and today had possibly been the best day of his school career. Neither boy was on guard as they walked down the dark street, oblivious of their surroundings.
Two sharp "crack's" were heard as two thin sticks hit the boy's heads and split. Both Sasuke and Naruto stumbled to the ground and turned around to see what was going on, rubbing their heads to ease the pain. The street lights brightened the road, illuminating six older boys who appeared to be from their school.
"Where do you think you're going?" One of them spoke harshly.
"Home. Where else?" Sasuke replied sarcastically as he stared up angrily at them. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to beat your ass." A different boy said. It was too dark to make out any distinguishing features, but Sasuke didn't care. He could recognize them from their voices. The two boys who had spoken were a couple years ahead of him and known throughout the school as bullies.
Standing up, Sasuke and Naruto held their ground. They were both smaller than the others and outnumbered; but their chances of running away successfully seemed slim to none. The older boys closed in around them in a circle and began punching and kicking. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and got a few kicks in of his own, but there were too many for him to fight off. He wasn't that experienced yet and he didn't dare use his fireball jutsu – as upsetting and painful as the whole situation was he knew that killing them would not work out very well in the end.
After about five minutes the boys backed off, leaving Naruto and Sasuke on the ground, bruised and bleeding. "Huh. Too easy! See you here again tomorrow kiddies!" They wandered away, laughing.
Sasuke wiped his face with the back of his hand and found that he was crying. He sniffed loudly and buried his face in his knees as the tears continued to fall. Next to him Naruto was also crying.
"They… they won't get away with that…" Naruto sniffed. "We… we'll tell your dad and he… he'll beat them up!"
"No." Sasuke sniffed and sat up, "We'll take care of it ourselves."
"Why? Lord Fugaku could fix them…"
Sasuke interrupted him, whispering, "What if he kills them. You saw all those heads, Naruto. I mean, I don't like them for hitting us… but… I… I don't know. I don't want to get them in trouble. Dad is… different lately. I'm kind of afraid of him now."
"Yeah. Okay." Naruto agreed quietly. "Me too."
"Boys? Sasuke, Naruto? What have you been doing?" Both boys cringed as they recognized the voice of Fugaku Uchiha not ten feet in front of them.
"Training." Sasuke replied.
"Looks more like you got beat up." Fugaku added. "Who did this?"
"We'll take care of it, father." Sasuke said politely, and bowed forward a couple inches to show his sincerity. "And I… we apologize for loosing and hope it does not cause any embarrassment."
"Hn. See that you do take care of it son." Fugaku spoke sternly as he motioned for the boys to walk in front of him. "Itachi would never have lost of fight like that."
Sasuke clenched his fists in anger. Despite his vow to help his brother, it still pained him greatly to be compared to him. And, of course, he was also embarrassed that his father was the one to find them. As hard as he tried to appear strong and capable in front of the man, he always felt like a failure. Sasuke hardened his resolve and silently vowed to reduce those boys into six piles of quivering flesh, torn, broken and bleeding. They were not going to get away with this.
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The medium-sized village lay sprawled out along the banks of a marshy lake. Very little planning had gone into the design and the residents had built houses wherever they felt like it. The result was a very confusing system of roads that wove their way randomly between a mixture of run-down shacks, middle-class dwellings, market areas and a swampy field that was probably supposed to be a playground. It was cold and old looking, and every house – no matter the income of the family that lived within its walls – had a dilapidated feel to it. The rocky, mud strewn road was littered with puddles and stones.
The assembled group watched silently as an ox cart slowly made its way into the village. It bounced into one puddle, then bounced out in a steady rhythm that both the ox and the driver seemed to accept without second thought. Silent to the hardships of their existence because they no longer had the will to change them.
"This is where Leader told us to wait." Itachi said calmly as he stepped onto a bluff that overlooked the village. He leaned up against a blooming cherry tree and closed his eyes as Kisame, Sasori and Deidara joined him. The four men wore hats to keep the rain out of their faces, and while their black and red cloaks were waterproof, but their feet and legs were wet and muddy.
"This is where Hanzou's clan is from, un?" Deidara wrinkled his nose in disgust as a fetid smell wafted up the hill from the village. "Figures he'd choose to have us wait in a graveyard. Aren't they supposed to cremate or something? Or at least bury them?" Deidara and Itachi walked about twenty feet to an open grave. Inside appeared to be five people in various stages of decomposition.
Deidara's eye (the one not covered by his scope) opened wide in shock, "There's children in there!"
"Probably all died of a virus of some kind and the villagers were too scared to stick around long enough to cover the grave. Or they are expecting more people to die and want to fill the grave up before covering it." Itachi stated solemnly as he covered his nose with his arm. He watched as Deidara tried to disguise the look of sorrow that covered his face. The blond turned around and walked to the edge of the cliff and stood silently looking over the village. He kept wiping his arm across his face.
"There aren't any people out on the streets, un." Deidara finally remarked.
"Might be a plague then." Itachi added as he joined him.
"Pathetic. Hanzou prospers as his village dies." Kisame was angry. "Reminds me of Water country. What are we doing here anyway?"
"You are here to witness a God's retribution." A tall, orange haired main with multiple facial piercings walked onto the bluff, followed closely by an elegant blue-haired woman with cold eyes and porcelain skin. They stood side by side looking sternly at the four Akatsuki assembled before them. "What you will see here today is among the ultimate of my jutsus, the pinnacle of punishment rained down on the sinners of the world."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Deidara fumed.
Itachi had activated his Sharingan as soon as Pein and Konan had appeared, instantly on guard. The Rinnegan user was not someone to be taken lightly, the chakra that emanated from him was filled with such power and intensity as to make one feel as if it was a god that stood there and not a man.
Moving forward with confident strides Pein approached the two teens. Deidara took a step back, moving to the side in an unconscious attempt to stand behind Itachi. He stopped himself quickly, though, not wanting to appear weak. His action did not go unnoticed by either Pein or Itachi, though neither showed any indication that they saw it.
Reaching the edge of the bluff Pein stopped and looked down at the teens. They were the same age, but both were small with Deidara being a couple inches shorter than Itachi. Pein bent down and placed an arm around each boy's shoulder. He then whispered so only they could here, "What you see here today… consider it a warning. Both your loyalties are in question for reasons each of you understand without me having to explain any further." He stood up straight again and patted each boy on the shoulder before moving his hands in a series of signs that lifted him up off the ground.
Both Itachi and Deidara gulped as they watched Pein drift out over the village. Subconsciously, Deidara reached out and grabbed Itachi's arm, forgetting for the moment that he hated the teen and had secretly sworn to kill him one day. Itachi made no move to disengage the wayward hand as he concentrated on Pein's body, now hanging motionless in the air. He had gotten the message, whatever he was about to do to Hanzou's village, Konoha would suffer the same fate if Itachi failed to serve Akatsuki. He could feel his heart drop down into his stomach as he watched the village, drenched in rain and sorrow.
Looking around Itachi tried to sense Madara's chakra. He had to be around here somewhere; no doubt this whole thing had been set up by the elder Uchiha. He had wondered over the last few months how Madara was going to keep him in Akatsuki. As a functioning member of the Konoha shinobi he was passing information to his father. Madara knew this. Now that Fugaku was Hokage it would have to be a concern of some level. The new Hokage might be in a position to act against Akatsuki, using Itachi as an inside source.
'He's probably hiding his chakra.' Itachi thought to himself, 'But he has to be here somewhere. Gloating.' He felt Deidara's grip on his arm get tighter. He wondered what the boy had been doing that would cause Pein to give him a warning as well. Whatever it was, Deidara was obviously terrified. He considered pulling his arm away, but, even though he hated the other teen, he suddenly felt a small measure of companionability toward him and stood still.
Pein raised his arms in the air; his cloak billowed out behind him as his motionless, stoic form was held aloft over the village. He suddenly called out his jutsu in a strong voice that seemed to echo from the heavens, "Shinra Tensei!"
A ball of white light suddenly appeared and exploded several feet off the ground; quickly growing to engulf the entire village in less than five seconds. Building were blown outward from the epicenter, falling over into rubble only to be covered by soil and rocks as a deep crater appeared directly under where Pein still hung in the air.
As the dust and smoke cleared all that remained was a large crater. The lake began draining into the hole, first as a trickle then growing quickly to a deluge. A few people crawled out from under rubble at the edge of the crater and stared helplessly at the destruction and the man who had caused it.
That was when Itachi felt it. Madara's chakra. He looked to the east and saw the masked Uchiha sitting in a tree a few hundred feet away. He looked relaxed, one leg hung over a branch while the other was bent in front of him with his elbow resting on his knee. He turned his gaze from the destruction to look directly into Itachi's eyes, capturing him instantly in a Tsukiyomi.
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A black and red world opened up before the two Uchihas as they stood in a bare clearing staring at each other. There was no wind, no sound, no scent. Madara had created this world and he had failed to include those senses.
"Itachi, you now see what will happen to Konoha if you fail to follow my orders." Madara's deep voice was all business and left no room for discussion.
"Yes." Itachi stated simply.
Madara waited a couple minutes, obviously expecting the teen to say more. When nothing appeared to be forthcoming he continued speaking, "You and I, Itachi. We do not need to be enemies. I did not raise you just to see you die by my hand, but I will not hold back if that is the only option you give me. Remember that."
"Yes."
"You have nothing more to say?"
"Our agreement…" Itachi started to speak but was interrupted quickly by Madara.
"Was void the moment you failed to kill the Uchiha clan in Konoha. If you had succeeded there would have been no reason to threaten Konoha like this to keep your loyalty."
Itachi stared up at the man in front of him and smiled. "Are you afraid of me Madara?"
The man straightened up as if he had been slapped in the face.
"Because… you should be. Everyday I get stronger. I learn more and more about my gifts. You attempt to threaten me, but at the same time you forget that I know who and what you are. So does Fugaku. And someday, so will Sasuke. You love Sasuke don't you? He is your son and you must, on some level, want him to remain safe. But who does Sasuke love? If he had to choose between you… and me… I believe I would win." Itachi was silent for a few minutes as he watched Madara silently seething behind his mask, "I believe this is what they call an 'impasse'. Neither of us can move forward while the other is alive, nor can we kill each other."
"You think I cannot kill you, Itachi? I could do so right now with no effort." Madara snapped.
"Yes, but the fact that you haven't tells me loud and clear that there is a reason you don't do it. A reason that you can't throw away. For now, you and I are stuck together facing each other on a one-lane bridge. One day, one of us will be able to push the other off. One day…" Itachi's voiced faded.
"Humph. You are perceptive. If only you had been alive eighty years ago to stand by my side when Izuna and I lead the Uchiha. Things would have been very different." Madara's forced his voice to sound wistful, but Itachi could tell and gave the man a small smile.
"As a matter of curiosity," Itachi asked quietly, "what is Deidara so afraid of?"
"Huh? Oh… um… he's kind of like you when it comes to killing civilians. Wants to blow things up, but at the same time he wants to be the good guy so everyone will compliment him on his 'art'. He thinks that if he evacuates a building before he blows it up they will tell him how great the explosion was because they are alive to see it. Or that's the story he gave Sasori. You saw his reaction when he saw that grave a few minutes ago though. In reality, he doesn't want to see innocent people get hurt. His art is at odds with his conscience. Frankly, it's going to drive him insane one of these days." Madara suddenly laughed, an odd sound in the otherwise silent world, "But then all good artists have gone insane. Maybe he'll cut off an ear or two?"
Suddenly Itachi was back in the real world; only a second had passed. Deidara was now gripping his arm with both hands. And it hurt. He moved it a little and Deidara stepped back in shock.
"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to…" Deidara's face turned bright red. That was the problem with fair skin, it showed blushes so much easier than darker skin.
"It's okay." Itachi gave him a half-hearted smile that didn't reach his eyes, "I probably have a nice bruise now. You should feel lucky, it's probably the closest you'll ever get to hurting me."
Deidara nodded, silently relieved that Itachi wasn't going to use his Sharingan on him again. The memory of his indoctrination was still clear and right now he didn't feel like a repeat performance.
Pein drifted back to the bluff and landed next to Konan. "You four may leave now. I do not need Akatsuki's help for what is to follow." He turned around and walked off. Konan looked over the now-extinct village and Itachi could swear he saw a look of remorse pass over her features before she also turned around to follow Pein.
"I don't think I want to hang around for this coup anyway." Kisame broke the silence.
"Nor me." Sasori added in his gravelly voice. "Something about this… my puppets are destructive. I have killed tens of thousands of people… but this… somehow it's different."
"It's exactly the same." Deidara muttered. "Dead is dead in case you hadn't realized."
Itachi nodded once before he caught himself. He really hadn't wanted to get in the middle of this conversation.
Sasori groaned in frustration. "True… true… that is the first thing we are taught when we are born as ninjas. And it's the last thing that goes through our heads when we die as ninjas." He turned around, "Come on Deidara. Let's go someplace warm."
Itachi couldn't take his eyes off the village and continued to gaze down at the destruction. Kisame walked forward to stand next to him, then squatted down in a relaxed position.
"You okay Itachi?"
"On the surface, it looks like Pein just wiped out an entire village. However… if there was some sort of plague here they would have died anyway." Itachi said quietly. "Pein's way… the death was quick instead of lingering. Does that make it right?"
"Itachi… you are a strange sort. I think the real issue here one of Hanzou ignoring his own people's pain. They needed him today. They needed his protection, they needed medication, they needed food. But what will Hanzou do when he sees this? Frankly, I don't think he'll give a damn. What a waste."
"Let's get out of here." Itachi grabbed a branch of the cherry tree as he passed and yanked it off. He gazed at it as he sniffed its flowery fragrance. The blossoms lasted for a short time, but a branch placed in a vase would last just as long as if it had been left on the tree. Sometimes, the branches would even sprout roots while in the water. Yet people weren't like that. When placed in confinement, whether prison, or the shackles of poverty, they always faded and died before their time.
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Okay, it's a little shorter than usual, but I found a stopping point and… stopped. A good thing too, I just realized it's dark out and according to a popular book there are vampires living a few hours from here so I should probably close the curtains. That'll stop 'em! You know, I suspected something when I went to Starbucks at 5am and the servers were all cheerful and awake. I mean, no one is happy and alert at 5am. They had to be vampires, right? o_O
Itachi is a little more tolerant of Deidara because he doesn't have his dead clan hanging over his head. Also, this is a scene I see happening only because Itachi didn't kill his clan. It gave him a small introspection into Deidara's character. I'm not trying to show Deidara as a good guy, he does love to blow things up and wouldn't necessarily feel too much remorse over "collateral damage" but another author on fanfiction wrote a perspective of Deidara that made me think – when he dropped his bomb on Sand he didn't worry about anyone dying because he knew Gaara would catch it. Of course, we'll never know for sure, which makes writing Deidara's character difficult.
Please review!