Stage Twenty Five: Confrontation

I looked at the girl standing before me. "Yeah, I'll believe that when my mother walks out of her grave. She isn't my sister; she's a disgrace."

I heard a sigh from behind me. "What evidence do you have to support this, my man?" Deidara looked jaded, hazed from the confrontation that he was about to witness.

Hidan stepped forward. "I can confirm that this is your sister, Brat. She was the one who was there-"

"That was ten years ago, Hidan!" I shouted. "You don't know what she would look like now. How do you know this isn't just someone poised to be her? You said yourself Pein was doing everything he could to undo me. This is just another of his ploys."

"Tsuki, I understand-," she started to say.

"Don't even speak, wench. You're the girl who called me out on the streets of Suna. You didn't like me then. I don't trust you; you have no validity with me."

The saying, 'If looks could kill,' rang through the whole situation. She glared at me, I glared at her, Kisame glared at us both, and Hidan was glaring daggers. A war was about to be waged, dividing the entire Akatsuki. At the time, I was sure of it.

Itachi ran a hand through my hair once more. "There is a simple way we can confirm or deny any relation between these two," he said softly. He walked up to the girl before me. "A hair, if you please?"

She reached up to her hair and pulled a strand free. He had taken one of mine without me even knowing, and with both of ours, walked from the room.

Deidara interjected, "What is with all the hairs?" He glared at me. "How's my clone coming along?"

"Not now, Deidara," I growled. "I'll speak to you about that shortly."

She looked at me once more, having reverted to acknowledge Deidara. "What happens while we wait?"

"Cat fight," Hidan whispered hopefully.

I threw a kunai into his kneecap. "Remember what I told you, Hidan, about the swords? I'm still considering it."

He sighed and left the room behind Itachi. Clearly, he didn't want to relive that conversation when his pride was at risk.

I returned to the girl. "You are going to stay away from me. Confront me, and I will spill your insides on the ground. Have anyone else confront me, and I'll torture both of you. Do you understand?"

Hurt filled her eyes. "Look at what hatred has done to you," she whispered, before fleeing the room.

Confusion filled the room in her void. I felt like a raging monster. I had to remind myself of the girl in the market streets, poised to attack me, urging Kankuro to kill me because I was a danger. That wasn't my sister. Umi and I didn't get along, but we would never resort to killing each other.

Kisame approached. "That was a little overboard, kid." He looked at the closing door. "She can't defend herself against you. She only knows the basics of what is expected of a shinobi. She never graduated the academy."

I looked at him. "If she didn't graduate, she wouldn't be alive." I crossed my arms. "That's the protocol in your village. You have to fight to the death for the title of genin."

He looked me in the eye. "This is why she dropped out just before the final. She couldn't bring herself to kill someone after seeing her parents slaughtered. It would make her just as bad as the bastard who killed them."

"You fucker," Hidan swore as he walked back in. "I'm that bastard." He grabbed his scythe from its resting place against the wall and left again.

"Well, that would explain a lot," Kisame mumbled. "Regardless, she couldn't hurt you. You're all she has left."

I arched an eyebrow at him. "You seem to know a lot about her, Kisame. Should I be concerned?"

"Look, Yahara's just some brat who ran around the village. She bothered me a lot. I wasn't used to being a role model, okay? Most kids were frightened of me. I didn't understand why she wasn't afraid until now."

"Yahara," I asked.

"That's the alias she went by: Yahara Usami, orphan of the Mist; just showed up one day. I know, because I had to check her files to make sure she wasn't a threat."

"And you didn't realize that the name she gave you was a fake?"

"Look, she had the file from Suna. Ten years is a long time to remember a name you used once. She asked me to give her a new name. I just forgot the old one, okay? It didn't matter to me. It happened all the time." He put a hand on my shoulder. "You're turning your back on the only family you have left." He followed Hidan out the door, as well.

I fell onto the couch, not caring to support my own weight. Deidara looked at me cautiously. 'Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not fucking okay." I glared at him. "My world is trying to come out from under me."

He held his palms up in a sign of surrender, appeasing my hostility. "Don't worry so much. So what if she's your sister or not, hmm; it doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything, Deidara." I leaned back against the couch. "It means that I'm no longer the last one left. I'm no longer alone. It means that everything I have done to make sure the Dentsu name is remembered is for nothing."

"Bull shit," he answered. "She merely survived when everything was lost. You thrived." He regarded me with a smile. "Un." He paused. "You're the one people will remember after both of you die. That's what you set out to do, hmm; be remembered?"

"I wanted to do more than remember," I answered. "I needed to prove I was stronger than they were."

"You've survived Hidan, so far," he stated.

"So has she," I replied.

He chucked. "You didn't hear her go off on him. She swore to avenge her parents' death by killing him, shredding him apart for the horrors that she endured at the expense of his sick pleasure. No, she won't survive Hidan."

"Hn," I cooed.

He sighed. "What did you do with that hair?"

"I have a better question, Deidara." I looked at him, meeting his gaze.

"Hmm?" His eyebrows rose.

"What were you doing in Otogakure; more specifically, my bedchambers?"

Kabuto

I was searching for Orochimaru in Konohagakure. I had disguised myself sufficiently, but if he saw me, he would know who I was. No doubt he would approach me, wondering what I was doing here, when I was told to remain hidden in the lair. The thought of his reaction to what I had to show him brought a smile to my face; Tsuki would pay for this mistake, oh, yes she would.

So far it has been two days, and I haven't seen him. This did not worry me. I had travelled in the traditional Shinobi manor, as I was a Sand shinobi. He was merely walking, enduring the company of Tsuki, which couldn't be pleasant at all. I would rather cut off all my fingers and toes at each joint that endure a trip with her for company, my only companion. Which is why he asked me to stay home, I'm sure.

I saw him enter Konohagakure a day later. He was foolishly disguised as the same Jounin from the Chunin exams, but then again, I don't think anyone really put those two faces together. I searched for the girl who seemed to be accompanying him, but I couldn't tell if there was one. He walked into a crowd immediately. I never saw who Tsuki transformed into, so there was no hope. I would just have to follow him, and if she was with him, I would know her then.

It was nightfall when I caught him alone. He entered down an ally behind the inn he was lodged at alone; I assumed she was still inside. He instantly recognized me, as I knew he would.

He turned and looked at me. "Matsura, how nice of you to join me."

I feigned a look of startled surprise. "Oh yes, how nice it is to bump into you. I wasn't expecting to see you here at all."

He smiled in astonishment. "Heh, nor did I." He gestured toward the doorway. "Would you care to join me inside? I have a feeling there is information to share."

"I would enjoy that, yes," I answered, and followed him into the golden lantern light of the Inn.

Inside

"What are you doing here, Kabuto?" Orochimaru asked with vehement anger. "I ordered you to remain behind."

"There is something I caught on the security cameras that I thought you should see, sir. I would not have come if it were not of utmost importance."

"Well, what is it, Kabuto? Do not keep me waiting."

I dug around in a pocket for the stills of the footage captured. "Our security has been breeched, sir, and Tsuki is to blame." I handed him the pictures, and he accepted them.

I watched his expression change from confusion to astonishment to horror and finally to fury. Each picture depicted one of three men, each entering her wing of the lair, surviving her traps, and emerging unscathed. Never did they enter together, and they were spaced within one week. There was one man who was clearly seen with her, conversing idly as though they were long time friends.

"Do you recognise them, my Lord?" I asked, smirking to myself. This was it, he was finally going to kill her for her insolence. There was no way he could ignore this. She was turning tricks in her bedroom, and with his enemy, all under his nose.

"All except for this one," he answered, holding up the photo of the blond male.

"Perhaps I can help you identify him, sir. That is Deidara. He hails from Iwagakure, and joined the Akatsuki after you left. He is now Sasori's partner. He's roughly nineteen years old, and was a for hire terrorist bomber before joining the organization."

"He's certainly her type, of the three, he's the one she's confiding in. She wouldn't dare confront Hidan. He killed her parents and sister. Kakuzu wouldn't allow her to rely on him."

"How do we confront this?" I asked.

"We wait for her to return, and surely, one of them will follow."

My eyes widened. "You mean, she left again?"

Orochimaru held up the photo of Hidan. "If this man was in her rooms, then she didn't just run away. He took her from us."

I pulled the picture of them talking rather calmly from his hand. "Then how do you explain this, my Lord? It seems conspiracy was built behind our backs."

"She wouldn't go with him."

"How do you know, sir?" I asked.

"Because he was the one who kidnapped her the first time. When they need someone to force her to comply, it's him. If they wanted her to go freely, they would have sent someone else."

"They would have sent Deidara."

"So it would seem." He closed his eyes out of exasperation. "So, I can conclude that she didn't leave of her own free will."

"Yes, Orochimaru sama. We wait."

Akatsuki

Deidara sighed. "The reason why I was there is simple," he replied. "I was curious."

I lowered my gaze. "What were you curious about?"

"Yeah, when you were here last, I was gone. I was on a mission tracking my Jinchuriki."

"Gaara," I interjected.

He just looked at me. "Okay, you know who he is. Anyway, when I came back, the entire Akatsuki was out of sorts, and when I asked people what happened, they said it was you. I wondered what kind of girl could uproot all order among some of the most hardened of criminals."

"Hidan mentioned that you were obsessive about it," I commented.

He rolled his eye. "I wouldn't say obsessive."

"Deidara, you broke into my bedroom." I looked at him sceptically, enhancing my point. "You can't tell me that wasn't a little obsessive."

"Over the top," he corrected, "I am never obsessive."

"Just over the top?" I asked.

He chucked, "Always."

I think he may have winked, but I couldn't see his other eye. It was frustrating, really. I couldn't see half his face, which meant I could only see half of his expressions. The tone of his voice is what led me to believe it, so I assumed that was what it was. I got rather irritated because of it.

"Wouldn't you want to know?" he asked.

"I would have waited," I honestly answered. "I wouldn't have see it as worth my time." I slouched a little lower on the sofa.

He shook his head, causing his hair to cascade around his face, lending a glimpse of something mechanical over his left eye. "You don't understand, do you?" he asked. It was a simple question, and he paused to allow me to consider it. "You escaped us. That is a rare miracle in itself."

"I had help," I reminded him.

"Sure, sure; but it was still a miracle you didn't get both parties killed. You got out, proving you could best us. It was not guaranteed that you would return. It wasn't even likely. With Itachi and Kisame leaving on their own, as well as the parting of Kakuzu and Hidan, it wouldn't be suspicious for me to wander off alone, either. No one knew what the guys were supposed to be doing. No one would know that I wasn't assigned a mission, either."

"So you felt your only chance would be to find me?" I asked.

"No, not find you," he clarified. "Just find out as much about you as I could. I never expected you to know. I knew you were perceptive. I used Kakuzu's scent to cover mine, but one hair got away."

"Kakuzu did his best to hide his scent. Yours was the most prominent."

"And then there was that hair," he muttered. "I got careless. I don't even leave hairs in my own house."

"You are the most meticulously clean person I have ever come across," I groaned.

"Always over the top," he reminded me.