Harumi glared daggers at him, and began to mentally prepare herself for whatever was to come. The only thing she truly feared is that he would accidentally blow off one of her limbs. He was petty and childish, she could bet that he didn't understand the true extent of his power. Her eyes darted to the doors Kisame went through. She wanted to get out, but she knew if Deidara caught her running, whatever he was about to do would be twice as bad. It was a big building, maybe there was a back door.
With that thought in mind, she looked back at the confident boy and had to refrain from letting the fear she was feeling be shown. She made sure he didn't notice that she was healing her arm, turning in an angle which hid it. Her feet would be next. She wanted to have the worst of the injuries healed first, so that when she ran again, she could do it efficiently.
"Let's see what you and I can do together, huh? Here, I'll give you three options. One, I put a few bombs around you and you have to guess which one is the fluke. If you guess wrong, all the other ones will explode and you'll probably crash into a wall," he said. "Two, I give you five minutes to hide and I have ten minutes to find you. If you manage to stay hidden, then you win and I'll give you a ten second head start to run. I'm generous, I know. If I find you first, then we fight hand to hand again. And I will win this time."
"What's the third option?" Harumi asked.
"Huh?"
"You said there was a third option."
"No I didn't."
"You did, you said you'd give me three options. What's my third?"
"I never said that."
"Yes you did. Did you really forget already?"
"Hey! I'm in charge here! Keep this up and you won't get to pick!" Deidara frowned, tired of going back and forth with her. He knew that he was going to win either way. For the first one, there was a very small chance of her getting it right and even if she did, he'd just make her go again until she lost. For the second one, in the off chance that she did manage to stay hidden, she couldn't really run in her condition. He could easily catch up to her. Either way, she'd pay for what she did.
"I'll go with the second option," she spoke up. It would give her a lot of time to heal her wounds, and then she would be able to either take him down or run. Not to mention it would give her time to look for a different exit. She wondered for a second if he even considered that this was very convenient for her.
"Don't bother looking for any other exits either. If I catch you trying to run, I'll make you wish you were blown up by my art earlier," he threatened, looking at her warily. He wasn't really worried, but she was an Uchiha like that stupid Itachi. He didn't know if she was going to accept her fate or continue to fight it. He had a feeling it was the latter, but he had already made preparations in case it was.
"Go on, your time started ten seconds ago," he said, watching as she struggled to get up and slowly walked away. He smiled to himself, this would be easy. Not only was she trailing blood, but she was also really slow. He continued to count the time, wanting to get it over with already so he could show her that he could beat her in taijutsu.
The moment she got out of his line of sight, she sighed in relief. She had already gotten started on healing her legs when he was giving out the options. She quickly started walking faster while working on stopping the bleeding for her bigger cuts, mostly the one on her arm and the one on her stomach. She quickly looked around for a hiding spot, but was getting nervous. If he was counting fairly, she only had two minutes and forty three seconds left. She was able to tie a cloth around her arm that she found on the ground. She also found a drywall nail, ribbons, and salt that she decided to keep, just in case they came in handy. She already knew the place was abandoned, but a small part of her wished someone would come to her aid.
She began to move even faster, ignoring the severe nagging pain her body felt. She looked for a small place she could fit in, somewhere hidden.
She had only one minute left.
An idea suddenly came to her. She infused chakra into her feet and jumped up against the ceiling of the lobby-now standing upside down. She began touching it, looking for any hollow spots.
Thirty seconds left.
Her anxiety grew when she wasn't finding anything, the time she was keeping count of slowly coming to an end.
Ten seconds left.
She suddenly knocked on one part and it sounded hollow. She quietly sent concentrated chakra to her finger tips and cut open a hole big enough for her to enter and climbed up. There were pipes in there that she had to avoid touching, and they made a sharp turn so she had a little room to move as she was in a corner. She put the drywall nail through the top of the cut out circle, and tied the ribbon around the nail and to a pipe, keeping it in place. She heard footsteps through the sound of her blood pumping in her ears.
She could hear him saying something, trying to taunt her into coming out, but it didn't work. When she heard his footsteps trailing off, she sighed in relief. She continued to heal her deep wounds. She then realized her chakra was especially weak not only because of the damage she had taken, but Kisame must've taken a lot more than she originally thought. She managed to stop the bleeding on her knuckles and waist, but she was having a hard time with her arm.
Samehada had cut her deeply. After about seven minutes, she managed to stop most of its bleeding and finished up her preparations. She didn't want to waste chakra on bruises, small burns, and small cutts. She would need that chakra to get out of there.
Deidara was getting frustrated, where was she?! He only had three minutes left. In a fit of anger, he punched the wall. Suddenly, the ribbon collapsed and the piece of the ceiling Harumi had cut, fell to the ground, making a loud THACK sound. Her eyes widened, oh no.
Her heart momentarily stopped when she heard him say "I found you."
Deidara was now looking up at the hole, seeing a shadow-like figure curled up in the back. He told her to come down, but when he didn't get a response, it annoyed him.
"I said come down!" he yelled again. Harumi tried to calm herself, but the words ringed through her ears. 'I found you' was an everyday sentence for some, but it was very triggering for her to hear it. I reminded her of the time she tried to run away from that man but he caught her.
*Flashback*
The young Harumi ran as fast as she could, hoping she'd be able to make it, to find her parents and feel their warmth. She could hear footsteps behind her, and tears began to fall from her eyes. She'd be punished severely if they caught her, but she just wanted her mommy to hug her and tell her she was okay.
The place was like a maze, she kept making turn after turn. They were going to take her back to the white room, so she freaked out and escaped. She didn't want to go back there, all the needles and painful tools they used on her left in pain for hours after. Not only that, but they wanted her to fight someone again today, and she wasn't ready for it. Why couldn't they understand that she couldn't control her power without harming herself?! She didn't want to fight anymore, she just wanted to go home.
She heard footsteps coming from up ahead as well as behind her. Oh no, she was trapped! Cornered once again, she had no choice but to run into one of the rooms and hide in the closet. She covered her ears and closed her eyes as she rocked back and forth. She hoped it was all a dream and that her mom would wake her up any second. The tears continued to spill from her eyes and her body shook like a leaf. She heard the room's door screech open, and she covered mouth with her hand. Maybe he would leave and check another room.
When she heard silence, she slowly peeled her eyes open with the intention to peek and see if anyone was there, but she was met with the sight of shoes. She slowly looked up to see the black eyes of her tormentor's right hand man.
"I found you."
*End Of Flashback*
Her body shook as she re-lived the memory. What happened after it scarred her, even thinking about it would cause her to lose control. She tried to control her hyperventilation, but it felt like her throat was closing. She looked around frantically. The words circled her head as she covered her ears. Breathe, just breathe. It's over, you're safe. He won't hurt you anymore. Her nails dug deep into her palms, causing blood to come out. It began bringing her mind back to the present. She took a deep breath, she couldn't afford to lose it right now. She pried her nails out, hissing at the marks that were left in.
Just as she was about to get down, she heard Deidara say, "Well fine, I'll just have to force you down."
"No stop!" she yelled but it was too late. One of his mini bombs was thrown up through the hole and exploded. Her scream was inaudible with the sound of all the pipes and other things breaking apart. That part of the lobby roof broke apart, her body with it. Thankfully, she was able to land on her feet, but just as she did, she fell back over as she was extremely dizzy. Everything was spinning, but her head slowly began setting itself straight.
"I warned you," Deidara stated, as if to excuse what he did.
She saw him approaching her, but out of the pure anger of nearly scaring her to death after a painful flashback, when he bent down to taunt her, she sent her foot flying into his face. It was irrational and a very bad idea, but he deserved it so bad. He held nose in pain, standing back up and cursing everything.
Harumi touched her forehead, and as suspected, it was bleeding. She didn't know how bad the cut was, but she assumed it wasn't too deep as it didn't bleed much. She just fixed her hair in a way that blocked the cut from view. She got up and saw Deidara giving her a fuming death glare.
"I hit you out of instinct, okay? My senses were disoriented because of your blast," she defended as she began to back away. Deidara didn't know what to do. He knew she was probably right, but his nose hurt, and his pride! Again! He was about to let it go when he felt a drop of blood come out of his nose. Did…did she break it? Or did she hit it hard enough to make blood come out? Either way, his logical thinking of letting it go faded away.
"Did you break my nose? Are you being serious right now?" He glared. He began walking towards her, and telling by his body language, it wasn't to make peace. She did the only thing she could think of at that moment. She grabbed the salt, took it out of its small container and threw it into his eyes.
He cried in pain, holding his eyes and shaking his head, trying to get it out. She used that opportunity to run. She didn't want to risk his wrath again, and running was the thing she did best. She saw the front doors and it was as if they were calling her beautiful name. She quickly opened them, and the fresh breeze made her heart flutter. She made it, she made it out-
Something wrapped around her waist and lifted it into the air. She was so confused, but then she looked to the side to see Kisame, and a hunching old man who was about to open the other door. She was awestruck, how bad could her luck possibly be?! She looked down at her waist to see a metal, bony-like tail holding her up, and it seemed to be attached to the ugly guy.
"I told you she was still trying to leave," Kisame told the old man. He only grunted in response and looked at her annoyed. Still, she was not about to let this chance go.
'Lightning Style, Signal Fire!' she thought before she sent the jutsu firing into the sky. It meant any ninjas in the area would see it, and even though she didn't know if she was still in the same town, she hoped Hido would see it too. Not only that, but if the ninjas did come and check, they would see her and Kisame who were both in the bingo book and call for backup. She felt the tail tighten immeasurably around her stomach, causing her to squirm in pain. She was dragged right back into the building despite her attempts to pry it off, kicking and punching while squirming.
7