A/N: I've written this when I've finished my examination! I don't believe this chapter sounds better than the previous ones, but I hope it does to others. You know what? I thought writing or Literature was my forte (not only me but my friends and teachers thought the same!) and when I received my scores was was just as shocked at Kurotsuchi was when she watched Deidara fleeing Iwagakure! Of all my scores (including Math, Literature, English and Specialized Subject which I chose English also and which seemed to be the hardest one), my Literature score was the lowest and was the lowest in my school (5,75/10) But I managed to get into the gifted school in one way or another due to my relatively high scores in other subjects and especially my Specialized Subject.
Yep, probably now you've understood why this fan fiction seems so absurd o(TヘTo)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
"Oh gosh you look absolutely ravishing with your eye bags today, you know." Naime grabbed the face of an extremely exhausted Kurotsuchi. "Yeah" She replied lazily "I always look gorgeous, even with eye bags." Her brown-haired best friend chuckled.
"Didn't you sleep on Christmas?"
"I didn't know damn why but on that harrowing day I kept tossing and turning and ended up sleeping very little with a weird posture and woke up feeling restless and ached in my whole body. Life sucks." She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, is that so?" The girl with nice green eyes smiled "Didn't you miss him while you're trying to sleep?"
Kurotsuchi's eyes twitched. "What are you asking? Miss who?" She knew full well what the answer was, yet she didn't want to talk about him right now.
"Come on, you can never lie to me. I know you always miss Deidara."
"Well, I admittedly sometimes do, but not 'always', okay?" She glared at her friend.
"Okay, 'sometimes' - but yesterday you must have! He and you invariably went to the festival every single Winter and in this year's, you didn't even come to the festival! You couldn't have stayed at home alone and not reminisced about the past." She went on and on with her simple but logical explanations for her presumption. "I can never lie to you, Naime", the black-haired exhaled with tiredness. "But I really didn't want to talk about him now. I'm jaded enough."
"Yeah, so are you. Would you like to go training with me instead?"
"Grandpa has suggested I should revise more on taijutsu a little, and damn yes I feel so sleepy!"
x-
She felt so grateful Naime hadn't said a word about him in their two previous battles.
Kurotsuchi avoided a punch from Naime and successfully dodged several shurikens coming at her from nowhere. "Your technique is great, albeit a bit too slow for me." She came back with a sharp kick. "Oh yeah but not as slow as you realise you guys were not merely friends."
"Me and who?"
"Come on, Deidara."
"I believe I've said I didn't want to talk about him now?" Naime accelerated the speed at which her weapons were thrown. "As if I cared about what you said." The black-haired parried all the attacks with her kunai, and she wiped out her sweats before responding with a grumpy huff. "I know you will never stop after the moment you start talking."
"Wow, you're quite perceptive!"
"Indeed, I always am. Now what? What do you want me to wake up to?"
The brown-haired suddenly appeared behind her friend, intending to give another blow. "Like everyone noticed that but you guys," "Noticed what? Make yourself clearer!" Kurotsuchi hissed when her shoulders were nearly hit.
"That your relationship didn't stop at friendship."
"Oh shit, was that what everyone thought?"
"Yeah, we talked about that all the time before he left."
"Argh," she managed to sidestep another wave of shurikens and came running to punch Naime but missed her target, "We were friends only. Close friends probably. But that means nothing now that he's left. Why are you talking about that now?"
Her friend was injured after another blow in the leg. "I don't know but yesterday's festival made me think about you and him. I saw couples visiting the place together and I thought like, yeah why hadn't you two been one, right? Our friends noticed a lot of things in the way you guys treat each other. Really gentle and different compared to the way you treat us – your supposedly best friends! And to be honest I did have a hard time pretending I had slept after your grandfather opened the door the night before he left."
The black-haired paused. 'The night before he left?' "So that means…" She was mortified.
"As if I hadn't seen you guys hugging and kissing crazily as fuck!" The sounds of their kunais clashing set her teeth on edge. "I thought Deidara would be really good at noticing whether one was asleep or not?", "That was because his eyes were glued to you, and only you, you moron." The girl sighed, waving her hands to stop the fight. The fun was enough for her then.
"Hey but now he is Iwagakure's enemy now – I detest that kind of person and I know you likewise do, and another thing I had to correct you is that cheek and nose kissing are for friends!" Again, she could distinctly feel that the more words she uttered, the more silly they became. "Not something lovers would do."
"Same difference – no normal friends would do that. Yeah but I won't mention his name anymore - I see your point. By the way, would you mind coming to have some dango with me and Kaoto?"
"Urgh, maybe yes but don't kiss in front of me, you know."
"Of course," Naime smiled, "he'd be too shy to do so." Kurotsuchi pulled a long face. She had just woken up on a boring day with no mission and no friend available to spend time with other than Naime and her boyfriend Kaoto. The black-haired had considered refusing, but then she realised if she continued staying alone she wouldn't be able to stop thinking of a boy. Surely, the girl wanted no more of hurting and useless thoughts produced by her own mind, so she simply accepted. Whatever silly things Naime talked with her boyfriend, Kurotsuchi knew she would enjoy it more than the memory of what happened yesterday.
x-
She didn't even bother to wonder if it was a dream. Her window was fucking broken and although she was thankful for the mercy that he hadn't broken it with a bang, she made sure he had to pay back every coin she had to wring from her pocket to replace it with a new one the next time he came.
'The next time?' She vaguely asked herself. She didn't know if there would really be a 'next time' as he had promised. 'Hey what the hell I'm thinking? Why do I even remember and almost believe in the words of a traitor?' Much as her old sentiments for the blond had yet to disappear completely, nor had her contempt for missing-nins died down after what had happened.
"Well, let's go?" Naime nudged her friend who was miles away thinking about something she had no intention of finding out about, oh and probably it was about Deidara – she chuckled inwardly. The girl usually had an image that if Deidara hadn't left the village he and Kurotsuchi would have been a perfect match then. However, she soon casted it off and reminded herself that the reality remained the same – he had left, and they could do nothing about that.
x-
"Well, I hope my presence does not ruin your time together." Kurotsuchi rolled her eyes. She was frustrated by the fact that the thing couples talked about was nothing fun and all shallow and that she had just found out about her low boredom threshold a few minutes ago.
"No, not at all." Kaoto waved his hand. "Yeah, he never objects to what I do." Naime told her with excitement. "Even if it's inviting you to our private, intimate meetup" The boy with an orange head gently patted his girlfriend back, him giving her a loving smile. She fed him with another stick of dango and he happily received it.
"What do you mean when you say 'even'? I have no intention of encroaching upon you guys' moment and you were the one who invited me. Okay this is not what I expected but okay anyway."
"I mean you should appreciate it."
"Yeah I do. But…" Tschuchikage's granddaughter found it churlish to complain about the banality right in front of the couple who had kindly invited her. "Yeah just do what you want. I don't know but I find you guys really entertaining when you're comfortable with each other even when I'm here." She shrugged her shoulders.
"What do you mean by saying 'entertaining', huh? What's funny here?"
'Nothing is funny. Why wouldn't she realise I'm being sarcastic? But I guess I just have to make something funny.' It was then that Kurotsuchi decided to up the ante by doing something. It was so boring she couldn't let it be boring any longer. "Everything." The black-haired grinned. "Look, I can do that just like you do." She too fed Naime with a stick of dango and stuck out a tongue at Kaoto. "Hey, she is my girlfriend."
"So what? Getting a bit jealous of me? Don't be so possessive - I only offered her food and she ate it."
"Stop guys, what the he-" The brown-haired was stopped when her mouth was filled with dango again by Kaoto.
"You want to compete to know who can feed her more? Let's see, open your mouth a bit quicker, Naime."
"Hey I thought this would be a friendly, cordial get-together?" As she was caught off guard, the black-haired managed to put more dango into her mouth. "You're not that childish, are you?" While her dango-filled mouth was unable to articulate words clearly, Naime's eyes directed at her lover with desperation.
"Sorry but yes I am, I suppose." More dango was put into her mouth.
"NO, this is intolerable!" She ran into the restroom.
x-
"This is what I mean by saying 'funny'." Kurotsuchi folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe. "Not funny whatsoever!" Naime came out from the toilet, giving both her best friend and boyfriend an livid look.
"Well sorry, I mean I didn't know it would go that far." The boy pulled her close and kissed her.
"Ew, I thought my friend had asserted you would be too shy to kiss her in front of me? But forget that, I knew it would go that far and I know we both knew that. But we're ninjas so it was trivial stuff, yeah. Like having more than one stick of dango in your mouth."
"Hey, it's an overgeneralization. Don't think I'm one of your kind! That idea of you is outrageous!"
"You two are both childish and foolish!"
"See, you're not so different from me!"
"Hey!"
The black-haired took her friend's arm and pulled her out of the dango shop. "What about Kaoto? You're ruining our time together!". She rolled her eyes, giggling, "Sorry but that's my sole intention when I come." Naime tried to look back to catch sight of the boy but she was forestalled. "I mean he has been ruining our time together for a while, Naime." She shot back a questioning look.
"Since you had your lover you've almost forgotten me."
"You think so?"
"Yes. Absolutely yes. Ask yourself when was the last time you went out and had snacks like this with me? I fear you couldn't recall that clearly. Not to mention our supposed-to-happen meetup last month slipped your mind real easily just because you had another with Kaoto." Kurotsuchi stood back looking at Naime with arms akimbo.
The brown-haired flushed. How could she unwittingly abandon her friend in such an awful way? Anyway, it had never been straightforward for one to balance and manage since they had more than two relationships to handle.
"I know Kaoto is a sexy guy with a pretty nice personality who is willing to indulge you in whatever you want till the last day of your life. That doesn't mean you should stop caring about those who also love you but don't indulge you, and for example, ME!"
"Oh, yeah… it is, to all intents and purposes, my fault. I'm so sorry about that. But you too are too wrapped up in your work and missions you spend so little time for yourself, let alone with me. And Kaoto did make efforts to make me happy and not lonely, so I truly appreciate every minute he spends with me." She suddenly realised, "Man, I'm so careless I forgot that, too. Okay, I also have to say sorry. Yeah, my evil grandfather has had more than his fair share of work and he had no one to share it with other than my father and his small, poor granddaughter." She snorted. "But your fault is still bigger than mine and sorry is not enough, Naime. Do something more."
"Another meetup this month with some other friends? I swear I'll not be so careless as to forget it." The girl smiled.
"Yes and 'some other friends' should not include Kaoto, okay? By the way, do something more to redeem all your indifference towards me for the whole four months." She almost chuckled when she demanded. "Aw," Naime hugged her friend and put a small kiss on her cheek, "I know we like physical contact.", "Yes, all your wrongdoings have now been forgiven. And you say this is not what normal friends would do? As if we hadn't done this before.", "I did, but it's another matter if your friend is of the same gender as you."
"No, gender does not matter."
"Okay but Deidara does. It's not only gender that matters, you know."
"Shit."
x-
"Wait Naime you are the one who took the money along, aren't you? Hey? Why are you guys leaving me? Hey, why do you two even kiss each other? HOW COULD I PAY THE BILL IF I DON'T BRING MONEY? HEY!"
x-
"What were you doing last night?" Sasori looked at Deidara with suspicion. "Wow you didn't sleep, mmm, Sasori-danna?"
"Nor did you. But I don't need to sleep – I could live eternally without sleeping. That's why art is eternal. Again, what did you do after 1:00 AM? You don't seem to have collected any amount of clay."
"I did what I felt like doing and I will do whatever I feel like whenever I feel like, un. By the way, I respect your opinion but art has to be fleeting, whatever your stubborn, deeply ingrained prejudices in your head tell you." He was toying with and observing his detonating clay, trying to advance his creations so that one day he would beat all those stupid philistines and kill them with his superb art. "Why didn't you stop me when I left, yeah? You could ask me right then instead of staring at me with those annoying eyes this morning, danna. I won't betray Akatsuki or something– I'm not stupid and I know better than that."
"It's good you know that. And I did not stop you because I couldn't care less."
"Okay, thanks, whatever you say, hmm." The blond turned away and turned his focus to discovering new bombing techniques again.
Deidara hated restrictions and it didn't matter where he was, he wanted it to have no restrictions. But it seemed that if there had been no restriction, no organisation could have operated properly as an organisation. Yeah that was why it was an 'organisation' and it was an organisation because it had to have things organised so that it could become an organisation. And unfortunately, nothing less than restrictions could help it achieve that.
Anyway, Deidara loved freedom. And unlike Kurotsuchi who seemed to have quite a lot of conflicting thoughts and been battling with herself over her own beliefs and actions due to restrictions in her own mind and been dithering over giving way to her emotions, he didn't bother to deny what his heart told him so he simply came to her.
Love was love, obsession was obsession, they were all natural and he found no reason to suppress or ignore them. Therefore, the blond held that everybody should encourage and let them run their course or if not, at least people shouldn't try to hinder others' way to achieve that.
x-
… Unless they themselves clash, which he himself had yet to find a solution to.
You'll soon have to get used to these kinds of silly conversations and lame jokes because that's exactly what I do with my friends at school to entertain ourselves. Haha, like much of this fan fiction is based on my real life and I think it sounds okay (at least for me). But Naime is a bit more tender and polite than my real best friend, and Kaoto in my real life is in fact non-existent cuz my best friend doesn't have a boyfriend at all (and so do I ◉_◉). Remember Kurotsuchi's friends, because they'll appear in some important chapters (but actually you don't really have to because their participation is only for fun anyway).
Again, honest feedback and brutally honest feedback is welcomed!