Stupid Geniuses Ch 21
I've been back two weeks and things are weird. The Akatsuki has been acting like they're walking on eggshells with bombs under them. They totally freak out sometimes when I sneak up behind them, especially Hidan. He almost sliced my arm off once.
I look down at the sewn up part on my upper left arm. I'm lucky, it's not my lead-hand… arm… thing. "Stitches out day after tomorrow, right?" I ask looking at Kakuzu, who's pouring over some bills across the table from me. He grunts and pounds his finger against the calculator's number pad. The result makes him growl and throw the calculator against the wall behind me, shattering it.
"Pst! 'Mori-chan!" Tobi says behind me as I take my sip of my tea. He's hiding behind the fake bamboo plant that looks almost as pathetic as the real one next to it that hasn't been watered in weeks. "'Mori-chan!"
"I can see you, Tobi," Kakuzu says not looking up from the bills. "If you want to talk to Kumori, take her from the room, and talk to her there before I kill you," Tobi makes a quiet 'eep!' noise and tackles me from my chair. I start to protest but he puts one gloved hand over my mouth so I can't talk.
"'Mori-chan! Let's go to the grocery store together!" Tobi says, a small rainbow flying out from behind him. "We have to go back to Kumori's world to get them, 'cause everyone here is after 'Mori-chan!" I deadpan and sigh, nodding
"Sure, let's go," I say and Tobi gives a happy "squee!" before flouncing off to make sure the portal is open. I walk after him slowly, shoving my hands into my pockets and looking around. I wonder what my parents were like when they were here… I think, honestly never able to envision them as fighters, especially Akatsuki.
"Let's go, 'Mori-chan!" Tobi grabs my hand excitedly and I mental curse the gods above for whoever let him eat sugary cereal for breakfast. The portal's been opened in my room. Kisame's standing guard near it, making sure to hold it open. There's a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead from how hard it is to keep a portal open. He smiles slightly at me and the portal flickers. Must take all his concentration…
"C'mon!" Tobi says and pulls me through. It feels like cold water is being poured over me as I step through. I'm in my old apartment… It's still empty. I sigh as Tobi bounces through as well. It looks exactly the same, just a little unused.
"Let's walk to the store!" Tobi says eagerly, and I'm almost sure that his eyes are glistening behind that mask of his.
"We can just take a cab…" I grumble but he's already flouncing ahead of me excitedly. We both walk in silence for a little while before Tobi bounces off the side of the sidewalk into a patch of grass. "Tobi what are you-?" He's already headed back towards me, both hands behind his back.
"'Mori-chan?" I look over at him and he thrusts a couple wild flowers at me. I smile, blushing a little.
"Thank you, Tobi, that's really sweet of you," I say taking them from his hands. "You're so generous," He beams down at me and takes my hand, walking next to me all the way to the store.
"Let's get one of everything!" He says as I put the flowers in my purse, careful not to crumple them.
"We do have a budget, you know," I say deadpanning a little. "I don't think we can get one of every- hey, where are you going?" He's already running down the aisles with a shopping cart, sweeping everything into it.
"'Mori-chan should get another cart!" He yells over his shoulder and I sigh, doing so and following behind him. This is why I said I'd never go shopping with an Akatsuki again…
…line…line…line…line…
"Tobi is a tired boy," Tobi says slumping over my back as I start to pick up the bagged groceries.
"We can take a cab home," I say as he picks up a few bags. I grab the others and hail a cab, shoving the groceries into the trunk. Tobi hops inside and tells the cabbie where my apartment is. I get in and Tobi scoots over to me, laying his head on my shoulder.
The ride is fairly short and Tobi gets out before me, sleepily wobbling around back to get the groceries out of the trunk.
"See you soon," The cabbie purrs flicking his hand to the back of his car as I get out.
"Uh… bye?" I mumble getting rest of the groceries out before the cab peals away.
"'Mori-chan let's go!" Tobi waves from inside my apartment as I climb the stairs. "Tobi has to get going! There's something bad going on back with the Akatsuki!" He shoves the groceries at me and disappears in a puff of smoke. I bite my lip hard and put the bags on the floor, running through the portal. They'd be okay until later, right?
I'm back at the base when I open my eyes and shake off the cold water feeling. I can hear the faint sounds of combat. Running towards the source, my heart sinks.
Tobi runs up behind Itachi and my world seems to move in slow motion. Without even looking, Itachi whirls around, a kunai in hand. It makes contact with the side of his head and he crumples, surrounded by blood. A strangled scream catches in my throat and I can't stay. I can't, the trees seem to be closing in on me. I turn on my heel and start running.
Portal, portal, My mind screams at me as I race through the forest as fast as I can. It's starting to flicker when I push through it. This time the cold water feeling is more like cold jello. When I turn back around, the portal flicks shut with a quiet "zzz-shoup." I fall back on my couch and curl into a ball pathetically. My phone is still on the charger where I left it and I slap my hand around a couple times before I make contact with the phone.
"Yuki? Let's meet for drinks," I say, loving how she doesn't question me. Running to the corner, I easily hail a cab, and one pulls right up.
"That bar on Main Street, please?" I ask, closing the door.
"Oh, you're not going to the bar tonight," The cabbie says and meets my gaze in the rear-view mirror.
Yeah, that's the end of Stupid Geniuses. I have another story coming up, kind of an expansion on Bottom of a Bottle. Yeah… the sequel to SG is gonna have to wait a while.