Stupid Geniuses Ch 5
My heart is swelling with happiness from all the amazing reviews! I really love you guys~ *chibi tears* You're the best reviewers I could ever ask for! I can't even begin to say how much you guys mean to me. I see stories with twice as many chapters as mine but half as many reviews. You guys are the best!!
SuddenEclipse: XD Yeah… I've been wanting to do that forever but I haven't been able to put it into any of my stories until now. *eyes sparkling* I really happy that you said that~
Likes to Smile: ^^ I've been getting a lot of complements from that, so I'm guessing it's a good idea. Really? It's an adorable name and I love it~ I doubt that 'Mori-baka would let that happen. This chapter is going to have a ton funny moments I'm hoping. *glittery eyes* I really love your reviews Smile-chan!
Piper: Yay for awesomeness! You're amazing Piper-san! Orochimaru is a really creepy guy though, isn't he? Ryuu is my favorite OC so far. :3 And Byakko is TEH EVIL! Well… since you asked politely, I shall update!
Chibi Angel of the Uchiha: ^^" I think most cats have some evil in them. Hopeful the ending for this chapter will make you happy too!
SnowsShadow: Of course not! Itachi's an UCHIHA so the rules don't apply to him. Kya~ Yesh~ He wuvs sushi! If Snows-chan is content, then I can continue writing! I love your reviews. Tee-hee…maybe… Yeah. In my stories the Akatsuki aren't really the bad guys so I can only use Oro-chan as a steady villain. Fluff is love. Fu-fu-fu-fu… Tea… Grinning. Fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu.
Maiumaora: OwO You just did for the first time! Hopefully there shall be more fluff ahead, since the next chapter or two will be fluffy since they'll mostly be stuck in her apartment. Aww~ Mai-chan! *hug* Don't worry about it! I can't wait to see it, so I know that it'll be worth the wait! DUN-DUN-DUUUUN! I like to throw you for loops.
Thanks to Rika Tetnomi for the favorite, HearItXxI'mScreamingIt for the alert, and Maiumaora for the favorite and alert!
Okay! I'm going to be gone from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-ninth. So that means no updates for that long. I'm turning sixteen on the eighth so YAY! ^w^ Happy birthday to me… Happy birthday to me! Lol! If you have a birthday coming up, tell me and I'll make you a birthday oneshot! And yes, I do take request fics.
I all but have to pry Tanaka away from Ryuu. She's almost sobbing when she leaves but Ryuu doesn't seem like he could careless.
"Call me if anything happens, okay?" She says and I slam the door shut, locking it.
"Finally," I sink down onto my a$$ with Ryuu cradled in my lap. He looks up and claps his hands happily. There's a huge grin on his face and he reaches out to Itachi.
"Da?" My heart stops when Itachi picks him up, his face emotionless.
"No. Itachi," He says and Ryuu tilts his head to the side.
"Chi?" Itachi sighs a little.
"Close enough,"
"I can take Ryuu back," I offer and Itachi shrugs.
"I have him," He says and walks back into the family room, sitting on the couch. I crane my neck to make sure he isn't mugging the infant before going to start dinner.
"Have you seen Itachi, yeah?" Deidara snickers, hoisting himself onto the counter next to me. "He's playing, un!"
"Why's that so funny?" I ask, chopping some veggies for a stir fry.
"Haven't you heard, yeah?" He asks putting his hand up to hide a smile.
"Um… No…?" He puts his hand down, turns off the lights, and gets out a flashlight as he jumps off the counter for dramatic affect.
"It was a long, long time ago, un. Back before Itachi was in the Akatsuki. They say one day he snapped, yeah. And he killed his family. For no reason at all, un!" He flickers the light on and off a few times, obviously trying to be creepy.
"So?" He deadpans and slowly takes the flashlight away from his face.
"You're supposed to be scared, yeah," He grumbles, crossing his arms and pouting a little.
"I work at a library. The guy who signs my paychecks is nicknamed Pron Boss. I'm single and I have a devil cat named Byakko. Nothing really scares me."
"That's sad, un," He says looking a little disappointed. "You don't scare easy?"
"Uh-uh," He sighs and I grin. "Sorry, Deidara-san,"
"Just Deidara, yeah," He gives me a toothy smile and I feel a blush working its way into my cheeks.
"O-Okay," I mumble and go back to working on dinner.
"Can I help you, un?" He asks and I nod.
"If you can finish this up that'd be awesome, I can get started on the meat." He nods with a slight grunt and continues from where I'd stopped. We fall into a pregnant silence, neither of us wanting to talk. Focusing on the task ahead, I sigh a little. It's going to take a lot of money to feed these guys. They've already started cleaning me out and it hasn't even been three days.
"You okay, yeah?" Deidara looks at me out of the corner of his eye with a slight smile. I nod.
"You guys are going to eat me out of house and home," I inform him cheerily and he sweatdrops.
"You're worried about that, un? We're S-ranked criminals who haven't been this close to a chick in years, let alone one that hasn't run screaming at the sight of some of us, yeah," He snorts, pausing from the rhythmic chopping to put his hands on his hips. "We ravage people 'n' sh*t. You should be freaking out, un,"
"You won't hurt me," I say scraping the chicken into the hot wok.
"How do you know that, yeah?" He challenges, leaning closer to me so that I can smell the shampoo (my Head and Shoulders) he last used on his hair.
"If you wanted to kill me, I'd be dead by now," I say and hold my hand out for the plate with the veggies. He puts the edge in my hand and I chase the chicken around the wok, making it sizzle before I throw the veggies in and cover it. "If you wanted to hurt me, I'd be hurt by now," I tilt my head to the side so that the bangs fall over my glasses and smile. "You're fascinated by me, Dei. Admit it," I tap his forehead and close my eyes, still grinning. A light blush stains his cheeks and he turns his head to the side.
"So what if we are, un? We have had little human contact besides ourselves in years. You're not afraid of us; you're actually housing us and feeding us. You're a game for us, yeah. A curiosity,"
"How so?" I frown a little and he closes his eye, sticking his tongue out with a grin.
"You can't know, un!" He singsongs making me giggle as I pick up plates and chopsticks enough for me and my 'guests.' I chunk them down on the table and Tobi scurries over to set them out. Looking up, I realize he was over by the couch. Where the rest of the Akatsuki are.
Curious, I walk over and see all these big, tough, epitome of manly men… huddled around my nephew. Watching him sleep. I bite my lip hard enough to draw blood to stifle a giggle. As soon as the irony smell hits the air, all the ninja-muggers in front of me tense. Kakuzu looks up from holding Ryuu and his eyes narrow a little at the sight of the blood. He passes the sleeping baby to Kisame, who cradles him gingerly.
Kakuzu mumbles something I can't understand under his breath and gets off the couch, his joints popping. He takes a second to crack his back and neck before starting towards me, slowly I notice. So not to scare me. Smart man.
"Hold still," He says quietly and reaches out to touch my lip. I flinch away out of instinct but the look he shoots me makes me go rigid with fear. He reaches into his sleeve and pulls out a… a hanky. Okay, seriously? I don't say anything and fight hard to keep my face bland as he presses it to my bleeding lip. He keeps dabbing at it cautiously for a few minutes, like I'm going to explode and eat him or something. I'm hungry, but not that hungry. He pulls it away and pockets it, darting back to the couch without another word. He's sitting before the breeze from his motion hits me.
"Thank you," I say quietly and turn back to the kitchen to finish up dinner.
…line…line…line…line…
Later, after dinner has been eaten and Ryuu put down for the night, I find myself smooshed between Hidan and Tobi. There's a photo album on my lap and Tobi's opened it up to the first page. It takes a second for me to realize it's mine.
"Who's this, 'Mori-chan?" He asks tapping his finger over the first picture. It's me and my brother. I'm about four and he's around eight. We're both dressed in summer clothing, wearing twin purple-stained grins from the popsicles that Mom had brought for our picnic.
"Me and my brother," I say with a slight smile. "He's four years older than me… That was over the summer. Mom took us on a picnic to get us out of the house for a little while," The memory of the old townhouse we called home flashes across my mind's eye and I smile a little more.
"What about this one?" He asks. Mom… wow…
She's young in this one. It's one of my favorites. Her silky black hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she's sitting on the back of Dad's truck. Her stomach is swollen, obviously pregnant with Riku. Her eyes are closed and she's leaning forward slightly, her hands planted on either side of her legs. One flip-flop is almost falling off but she's laughing with her eyes closed. She looks beautiful.
"That's my mom. She's pregnant with Riku in this picture. D*mn… must have been taken almost twenty-four years ago."
"You're twenty?" Itachi's voice makes me jump. He's looking at me intently as I nod.
"Yeah. I've always been pretty short,"
"Who's this? Tobi persists pointing to a picture of my dad. He's in mid-run with an infant Riku on his shoulders. The rest of the picture is dark but I can just barely make out the shapes of our old family room. His black fly-away hair is coming out of his head at all angles and his glasses are skewed but he looks blissful. He's holding onto Riku's ankles and both are laughing.
"My dad and Riku again; that's back at our old house before I was born," We fall quiet for a little bit before Kisame looks curiously at the picture of me and Yuki standing next to the clown in Osaka. There's this one clown that everyone gets their pictures taken next to. My index fingers are in her mouth, forcing her to smile, as hers are in mine. The clown looks cheerful as ever and I notice we can't be more than twelve. I jabber about the clown happily, dreading the pictures that are to come.
"This one's cute, yeah. You look good." Deidara says pointing out a picture of me and Riku at the beach. That was taken four years ago, I notice looking down at the date. I'm in a swimsuit, holding a beach ball over my head. Riku's arm is looped around his shoulders and he's kissing Tanaka on the cheek. He proposed to her later that evening.
"Thank you," I say with a slight blush.
"Why aren't you smiling in this one? You look really f*cking good," Hidan says tapping on one a few pages down.
I swallow hard, pushing down emotions. "This was taken about two years ago. At my parents' funeral,"
"Sh*t," Hidan says quietly, sensing that he shouldn't have brought it up.
"How'd they die?" Zetsu's white side asks gently. He hesitantly reaches over and squeezes my shoulder, trying to be comforting.
"They were riding home from work together, like they did every night." I say tracing my finger over my parents' features in the previous picture. That one is of them at their twentieth wedding anniversary the night before they died. My father's arm is around my mom's waist and he's wearing a suit and tie even though he hated both of them. Mom's wearing a cocktail dress and her salt-and-pepper hair is twisted back into a bun. She's leaning into him for the picture with a smile. "A bunch of teenagers decided they'd be cool and shoot out the passengers of their train. Dad tried to protect a pregnant woman from a bullet wound, trying to get the gun out of the teenager's hands. He shot him in the head. The train driver figured out something was wrong and opened the emergency doors. Mom stayed behind to help an elderly man off the train. He got off okay but when she went back for my dad, the shooter shot her too." Tears start to blur my vision but I shove them down back to wherever tears come from.
"I was in college at the time, so was Riku. He was just about to graduate." I continue, determined now. "I dropped out because I was so shocked that they were actually… you know, dead. He graduated and went on to become a vet's assistant. He loves his job and I can tell he doesn't regret staying in college. He called me up the night after they were killed and offered to come home to be with me but I wouldn't let him. I'd already resigned from Tokyo University and refused to let him do the same. Pron Boss gave me a job at the library and I've been working there ever since," More emotions and memories bubble up, unwontedly. This time it's harder to push them away.
"Were you sad?" Zetsu asks again, his hand still on my shoulder.
"I wouldn't let myself be sad," I say putting the album on the coffee table and bringing my legs to my chest. "I knew I couldn't do that. I had to be strong for them, to prove to Riku that I was a big girl and that I could handle my own." I guess I really didn't cry over them. Emotions are… MY emotions are extremes. I couldn't let myself be sad then and then I never had time. Huh… never thought about it that much before.
"It's better if you mourn for them then keep it all inside," He says gently, his fingers brushing my shoulder before going back to their place in his lap.
That's when everything that's happened, the death of my parents, the stress over the last two years of living on my own for the first time, the pain of loosing my family, comes crashing down on me. It's like a slap to the face and I do something I haven't allowed myself to do in a long, long time. I turn my face into Itachi's chest and start bawling like a baby.