"The mission is completed. Kataoka Isao is dead and his body is disposed", Itachi reports.
Pein nods, "Good. You two are dismissed. Rina, I need to speak with you."
I nod and watch Itachi and Kisame bow, then head for the door.
Before they could leave, Pein coughs, "Kisame. I believe you owe me 200 ryos."
I gape. He was a part of the bet, too? Ugh.
Kisame grumbles, "Yeah, yeah. I'll get it to you after you're done with Rina."
The two exit the room, leaving me, Pein, and Konan alone. I huffed in frustration. Why are people betting on me and Itachi?
"I don't appreciate everyone making a bet on me and Itachi", I state, clenching my teeth.
He clearly hears me because amusement flashes before his eyes, but as quick as it came, it disappeared before I could actually process it.
Pein ignores my issue with the bet and continues, "I have some things I have to discuss with you."
"So you said", I drawl. His eyebrow twitches and Konan chuckles.
"Your deal with Orochimaru", he states.
I frown, "Oh, yeah... Sorry, I forgot."
I'm not even going to ask how he found out about that. No one but Kabuto and Orochimaru knows.
"How long are you working for him?" he asks.
"A month, unless he dies soon, then the deal would be annulled", I answer, hoping that would be the case.
"Unless that happens, you will spy on him and assassinate him if the situation seems appropriate", Pein orders.
"Yeah... Because there'll be random days where I feel like murdering the snake", I mutter to myself.
"Will you be okay?" Konan asks, worried.
I nod with a smile. I was used to protecting myself. It should be fine, but one month with that creep makes me shudder.
"Since that is settled, we have to talk about your appearance", Pein moves on.
I narrow my eyes, "Is there something wrong with the way I look?"
"Do you want people to recognize you as the Princess?" he asks, countering my defensive stance. I shake my head.
"We don't either. We don't want extra attention on the Akatsuki, especially not now. There are already rumors that the Princess is a member of the Akatsuki. You have a higher bounty than anyone here. People will soon be trying to hunt the Akatsuki down in search of the Princess", he explains, "Just like you, we don't people knowing the Princess is here. We don't want the attention and you don't want the controversy when you lead the Hidden Crystal."
"Then what do you want me to do? I refuse to dye my hair or change my appearance permanently", I mutter stubbornly.
"You will wear a mask that will match your... character", he states, tossing the mask at me. I catch it and examine it.
It was probably made for a masqurade ball or something. It had pretty lace covering black satin. It covered only the top half of my face. When he said "character", he clearly meant for my Siren.
"Is that fine with you? We can go buy another one for you if you want", Konan offers.
I shake my head, "No, this is fine. It's beautiful."
"Good", Pein says, "You are dismissed."
I bow and quickly leave the room. As soon as I enter the main room, I was greeted with a majority of the members fighting. I sigh and walk past them, into the kitchen. I pour myself water.
"RAWR!"
I yelp and catch the glass that had slipped through my fingers in midfall. I turn around to see Deidara with Hidan and Kisame behind him. My heart raced. Normally, childish pranks like these did nothing to me, but I was in midthought.
"I'll give you 5 seconds", I state, "5... 4... 3..."
"I'm sorry!" Deidara quickly apologizes, "We just wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out to eat with us."
I smile, "Sure! That sounds great."
"Itachi's going too", Hidan smirks, "We're going to a dumpling shop to... recreate memories."
I choke on the water I was sipping. I set the glass down on the counter and give Hidan a threatening glare. He chuckles nervously and I tackle him down. I hold him down and place a kunai dangerously close to his neck.
"Want to say that again?" I seethe.
"N-No", he stutters.
"Good", I state, standing up.
I brush myself off and fix my messed up hair.
"What is with you people these days?" I grumble, "I'll have to knock some sense into them."
---
We walk to a nearby dumpling shop, possible 1 mile away from the hideout. It was small and meant to be a rest stop for travellers. Nevertheless, it was warm and inviting.
"I can't believe Pein still made me disguise myself", I mutter, looking at my straight brown hair from the transformation jutsu.
I look in my reflection and saw an entirely different person. Hidan insisted I look 'smoking hot', but I hated it. It wasn't my body or appearance.
"Hn. You still look good", Itachi states. I avoid direct eye contact , but still nod.
We still haven't clarified our "relationship" and to be honest, I didn't really know what I want.
"Thanks", I reply, still not happy with my temporary appearance. I let the brown hair slip through my fingers.
"Stop complaining. We don't want the same thing happening again as it did in the Hidden Village of Lights", Kisame says calmly for once. I nod.
"Should we get training done while we're out in the woods?" Deidara asks, "I believe it is my turn to train our little princess."
"Sure, sure. What will we be learning about today, 'Deidara-sensei'?" I ask jokingly.
"Speed. Maybe a little bit about explosions because explosion---"
"---is art", I interrupt, "Yes, Dei. You have told us more than enough times."
"It's about time you start believing it, too", he grins, passion shining in his eye.
I shake my head, smiling. Why do I even bother with these people?
"Eat faster. I want to start training!" Deidara cheers happily.
Hopefully training with him won't be like Hidan's training.
---
I was wrong. Deidara's training is just like Hidan's training. He would throw explosions down my way and I would have to dodge them in time or else I'm dead, but everytime I would barely make it out alive. There was no time to fight back.
"Your problem is that you're not one with speed", Deidara explains in the air. Unlike Hidan, he was cryptic when it came to explaining techniques or concepts.
"What's that supposed mean?" I pant.
The clay bird he's riding lands on the ground, beside me. Deidara pulls out a bag of kunais. He throws a kunai at the tree about 30 feet away from us. The kunai digs deep into the wood. I raise an eyebrow confused. What was the purpose of this?
"You can use whatever attack you would like, but that attack needs to hit the tree before my kunai. Got it, un?" he explains.
I nod. I make handsigns for a water bullet jutsu and held it, waiting for Deidara to throw the kunai.
He launches the kunai and I let the water bullet go flying. At first, my attack kept up with the kunai, but gradually, you could see the water lagging behind. The kunai digs hits the tree. There was a 2-second delay in my attack.
"Again, un", Deidara states, grabbing another kunai.
We repeat the exercise over and over again, but there's no luck. My attack would always lag behind, whether it be less than a second or more than 2. I huff in frustration.
"Wanna know a secret, un?" Deidara whispers in my ear.
I look at him curiously. What secret? He grins and beckons me forward.
"Art is living. Break free from any barriers", he states cryptically before walking away from me.
I throw my hands up in the air out of frustration. Deidara. What is that supposed to mean? I'm not a decoder for Kami's sake.
"10 minute break", he says, walking off the training field.
Art is living. This training has nothing to do with his art or explosions. He said something about breaking free from barriers?
I groan and sit down. What the f**k, Dei? Can't you be more straightforward?
Ok. The best way to figure this out is to analyze it one by one.
How do I 'break free from any barriers'? When was a time I felt free of burdens? That cliff at home. Those times with my family.
I grasp the feeling it brought me. He wants me to use that feeling when I fight. Deidara wants me to loosen up and free my attacks.
"Art is living."
By 'art', he refers to my jutsus. He wants me to think of my jutsus as living beings.
That makes more sense. If that's not what he's saying, then I have no clue what he's talking about.
"You ready, un?" Deidara grins.
I nod and push myself on my feet. I position myself into an attack stance and glance at the kunai in Deidara's hand.
The weapon was thrown out as well as my water jutsu. I watch my attack catch up to the kunai and hit the tree before the weapon could.
"That's a start, but it wasn't fast enough, un. You're starting to get a grasp of what I'm trying to teach you", he comments, running his hand through his hair.
He finally sighs, "Again."
I nod and prepare to use the same attack.
---
"Again!" Deidara shouts.
I pout and sat down, refusing to do anymore. He was making me use my chakra like it was nothing.
"Deidara, let me take a break", I demand, laying myself down on the hard floor.
He sighs and looks down at me. I give a sheepish smile, hoping that he would be nice.
"No, get up."
I grumble and pull myself back together. Goddamn that Deidara. I position myself in the stance for the thousandth time and nod at Deidara.
The kunai launches out of his hand and I was quick to send my attack flying. It breezes past the kunai with ease and hits the tree way before the kunai could. Of course, this was all within seconds, but you could tell the difference. Deidara being... well, Deidara, thought this was too slow and insisted on more training.
"I suppose that's good enough, un", he mutters, scratching his head, "Hey, how much chakra do you have left?"
"Give me a 30 minute break and my tank will be half-full", I negotiate with a grin.
He shakes his head, chuckling, "Yeah. Go ahead and take your break, then we start the real training."
I resist from groaning. When he said training, he really meant training. I lay myself back down in the soft grass, ready to take a nap, when I feel a shadow loom over me. I open one eye and see the familiar Jashinist.
"Oh, you", I mutter, tiredly.
I wasn't quite fond of Hidan when I'm tired. He's loud, obnoxious, and he ruins any chance of sleep.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?" he shouts.
I reposition myself onto my side, facing away from Hidan.
"Go away. I'm tired", I state.
He nudges me with, what feels like, his foot.
I growl, "I can turn you into crystal powder within seconds, Hidan. Don't tempt me."
"I'm bored. I wanna fight and shit", he complains.
He started rambling on about Itachi ignores him and how the other Akatsuki members make fun of him. I fell asleep listening to the complaints and woke up to them as well. He didn't seem to have noticed that I fell asleep.
"Break over! Let's train!" yells Deidara.
I grumble curses and prop myself up. I glare at the Akatsuki members in front of me and stood up.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed", he snickers.
"How could I wake up on the 'wrong side of the bed' if there was no bed?" I mutter.
He ignores my statement and continues, "You will dodge the explosions again and hopefully, we'll see an improvement, un."
I nod, watching Deidara get on a large clay bird and take off. Here we go again.
I watch the first bomb fall down to earth and before it could explode, I contain it in crystal, rendering the big explosion that was about to happen.
"That's better, un!" Deidara shouts.
He releases bigger explosions that dropped faster than the ones before. I quickly dodge them before they can hit the floor and make a crystal wall to block the impact of the explosions.
He throws a few simple bombs which were easy to dodge or block. Deidara lands by my side with a huge grin on his face.
"You did great. That's it for today", he says.
"Praise", I mutter before descending down to the ground.
The feeling of lack of chakra was starting to kick in. Deidara offers a hand, but I shake my head. It'll be a while until I can actually walk.
I feel myself being picked up. Goddammit, Itachi. Why do you always have to do this?
Darkness takes over.
---
What is high school? Why do we go every week for 4 years? Gah. I hate this. But finally winter break.
///
Went to my rich friend's house for the first time. I'm never leaving. They're gonna have to adopt me or something bc house goals.