Silver Lining

Such an amazing response for the first chapter! I’m glad I caught your interest, and thank you to everyone who reviewed. Just to let everyone know, I do plan on doing some art for this fic too, so look forward to something within the next chapter or two.

For the AFF readers, this story is also being posted on FF.net, so if you want to read it over there please do, that way you can put it on alert for new chapters and sometimes there are notes there (for fanart and such) that dont make it over here. Also, if you review or have questions there, I have a way to reply, whereas I dont here.

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Chapter Two: Reunion

He watched her as she slept, the quiet and even rhythm of her breathing the only sound in the room. He leaned over in the chair he had pulled up beside the bed and rested his elbows on his knees, tilting his head a little as if he still couldn’t believe what he was looking at. Or rather; who. He could only think of one reason why she would be in a place like this, and he could barely believe that either. Apparently the universe had a wicked sense of humor.

He reached out and carefully brushed her hair from her face so he could see her features better. Or maybe he just wanted to touch her again and confirm she was indeed real and here. Her soft coral hair was different; still short but a bit longer than before, just touching her shoulders. Her bangs were parted on the side rather than in the middle, falling softly over her brow. Her hitai-ate was gone, and that small detail told him a lot about the current version of the woman asleep on the bed. He guessed that just like him, she still had it somewhere. Ninja didn’t give up their hitai-ate. Ever. It was a symbol of what they were, even if they scratched it out and held no loyalty to the village whose icon was engraved on it. Her face was different as well, but that was to be expected after so many years. The roundness of a young girl barely out of childhood was gone, her softly angular features thinned out and elegant. She was a grown woman now, and far more beautiful than he remembered, but memories became clouded with time and pictures in the Bingo Book never did anyone justice.

He took in the rest of her appearance, letting his eyes wander slowly and casually over her figure. He noticed with small amusement that she didn’t seem to have gotten any taller. Her clothing was similar to what he remembered her always wearing; a sleeveless shirt with a high collar that zipped in the front, fingerless gloves that now reached her elbows, formfitting mini-shorts under a short buckled apron he knew held her medical supplies and a few more sinister items, and those same knee-high leather boots with the metal shin guards built in that he had secretly always thought – and still did - were just about the sexiest accessory he’d even seen a woman wear. Everything she wore was black, even her apron was a faded charcoal color, and he remembered her preference for dark colors that didn’t clash with her bright hair. There were small changes about her figure as well. In some places she was leaner and more toned, due to natural loss of baby fat or more intense conditioning or perhaps a bit of both. At the same time in other places she was softer and rounder, more developed and feminine. But the change that interested him most he couldn’t see yet, for her brilliant jade eyes were still closed as she slept off the remnants of the drug she had ingested. What would those eyes look like now? Did they still burn with that inner fire? He knew something of what she had been through, and that brought up another set of questions. What would she say when she woke up and saw him? What would she do?

It looked like he was about to find out, because she murmured softly and began to stir. He sat up and leaned back a little so she wouldn’t be too startled and try to break his face before she got her bearings. It had been almost two hours since he’d brought her back here. He could tell that whatever was in her system, there was a lot of it. He’d seen her from the air, stumbling along the road until she passed out behind that shop. At first he wondered if she was drunk, but when he landed and reached her she was out cold and he could tell she had been drugged. As always her chakra and healing abilities were incredible, and even while unconscious the filtering she had set in motion before passing out had burned off the effects of the toxin in half the time it would take a normal person.

She murmured again and stretched on her back, her head falling to the side as she regained consciousness and her eyes cracked open slightly. The room was dim, only the fading light of dusk through the window illuminating her surroundings. She realized this was definitely not where she had passed out, but she felt no alarm at the moment; something in her subconscious told her there was no reason to be on edge. However she did sense another presence near her, and she cracked her eyes a bit to try and make out the half-shadowed figure. An eerily familiar silhouette and long pale blond hair were all her half-adjusted eyes could make out. “Deidara…” she half-whispered at the unclear image of the man.

The man gave a small huff of amusement and smirked at her subconscious recognition.

Suddenly her eyes adjusted and her mind focused and she shot up in the bed in shock as she realized this was neither a dream nor a hallucination. “DEIDARA!?”

She gaped at the blond man sitting next to her, wide-eyed and beyond bewildered. Deidara simply grinned at her. He couldn’t find anything particularly cool or clever to say in such a surprising situation, so he settled for the only thing he could think of, “Sakura,” and let his tone convey the rest.

She reached out her hand as if to touch him and make sure he was really there, but then dropped it in her lap. She also couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t come out a sputtering mess, and she shook her head in confusion. “I…I heard you were dead…” she breathed in awe.

His smile softened a bit and he shrugged. “I heard that too. Looks like that rumor was a false one, yeah.”

So many things were racing through her mind it was making her head spin. Or maybe it was just the drugs. But the main thing was that Deidara was here, in the same room with her after eight years of never thinking to see him again and despite reports that he was long dead. Her heart did a little flip when she heard that casually mumbled ‘yeah’ from his lips and she felt overwhelmed by relief and a jumble of other things she couldn’t name. She had mourned for him. Despite everything, when she heard he was dead she had cried a little once alone. But he wasn’t dead; he was here!

She flew at him and flung her arms around him in pure relief and happiness to see him. “I’m so glad you’re alive!” she exclaimed.

She was squeezing him so hard he could barely breathe, but he didn’t care. He returned the embrace gladly and nearly as tightly and gave a short, breathless laugh. “So am I, yeah. And I’m happy to see you too.”

She hugged him tighter, but then he emitted a small cough and she let go sheepishly. She looked around to see she was in what appeared to be a cheap hotel room. Then a few things clicked in her still-fuzzy brain and she sat back and looked at him in confusion. “You brought me here?”

He nodded. “I saw you from the air, but by the time I got to you, you were already passed out, yeah. What the hell did you take?”

She recalled the large shadow passing over her and realized it must have been him on his bird. And then the sound…and she thought she saw…Her thoughts were still a bit clouded, but she frowned at his question. “Fucking bartender in the local tavern drugged me and sent some guys after me. It doesn’t take much to guess why.”

Something flickered across his face briefly, but it soon vanished. “I don’t remember you being that careless.”

She glared at him for a second, but she couldn’t be mad because he was right. “I’ve had a bad day,” she muttered, almost pouting.

He smiled at her petulance. “Hmm. It could’ve been worse, yeah. You’re probably lucky I’m the one that found you.”

She nodded sullenly. “But…what are you doing here anyway?”

He smirked mischievously. “I’m on a mission.”

She stared at him for a moment, and then it dawned on her. “You…no way…You’re my partner!?” she exclaimed loudly.

His smirk widened to a grin. “Looks that way, yeah.”

She shook her head, still wide-eyed. “I can’t believe it,” she laughed curtly. “What are the odds?”

“Maybe it’s fate,” he shrugged.

She stared at him for a long moment, and really took in his appearance. He didn’t look much different; slightly older though still youthful, his fine-boned features more defined. His hair was still long, with a large portion covering his left eye. It was still half up in the back, but the slightly ridiculous topknot had been replaced by a more modest and simple tie, and his hitai-ate was gone. He had a thin scar on the exposed side of his face that ran from his earlobe along and under his jaw, stopping just below his chin, but it was faint and wouldn’t even be noticeable from a distance. He wore a dark grey shirt with a low neckline and a black mesh tank underneath, and black pants that were still tucked into stirrup leg guards only now they were grey instead of white. On the whole he looked better, and seemed happier than she remembered. But she knew he was a rebel and a free spirit, and she supposed being tied to a group like Akatsuki had weighed upon him quite a bit.

The cloak and ring were gone of course; he wasn’t Akatsuki anymore. There were no Akatsuki anymore. But as they looked at each other she couldn’t help but think it; that’s exactly what he had been. Akatsuki. The ones ultimately responsible for the destruction of her home, the devastation of shinobi society, and the loss of everything and everyone she had ever loved. But this was Deidara in front of her. This was her friend. What happened wasn’t his decision or his doing, and it wasn’t fair to make him a scapegoat just because he was the only one left. But he still wasn’t blameless. It was their overambitious goal to control the Bijuu that had eventually led to all that destruction and chaos, and he had been an active part of that early process. But he hadn’t even been there during the war; he had already been declared dead. Her thoughts and feelings about him were confused and racing in circles; torn between the Akatsuki member and her close friend from long ago. They were really one in the same, weren’t they? But how could she hate Deidara?

That’s when he saw it; the hardness in her eyes that spoke of everything she had been through. It was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to see in those once-bright depths. That fire he had so admired about her was still there behind the wall, but it was dim and dying, suffocating under the weight of her sorrow. He hated that. And she was looking at him as if she didn’t quite know what to make of him, and he knew why.

This intensity and complication wasn’t how she wanted her unexpected reunion with Deidara to go, so she gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes and decided to not bring it up. Although, she knew someday they would have to talk about it, because she needed to hear it from him. What ‘it’ was, she didn’t know, just something, anything to explain and shine a clear light on her mixed up feelings.

Mixed feelings or not, she was happy he was alive, and she wouldn’t deny she was very glad to see him again. He was the only person she cared about that was still alive, although she hadn’t known that until ten minutes ago, but he was and now he was back in her life and somehow she didn’t feel so alone anymore. They were still staring at each other, neither one really knowing what to say next, and it was starting to get awkward.

Deidara could see she had a lot of questions, but she was reluctant to go there. He couldn’t help but feel a little relieved by that, so he went along with keeping things lighthearted for now. “I guess now that you’re awake we should go over the mission details, yeah,” he offered casually.

She gave him a small nod. “I still can’t believe you’re my partner for this.” Then she blinked as it dawned on her exactly what that entailed. Their cover was as newlyweds. She was going to be playing the part of the adoring bride…to Deidara. Could this get any weirder? They hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in eight years, but now coincidence or fate had thrown them together again in the most unlikely situation. They had to get used to each other again, and they had to do it while pretending to be a couple in love. This mission just got a whole lot more complicated, and she couldn’t help but think that it may have been easier if her partner was a creepy stranger after all.

He seemed to be thinking something similar, and the silence was beginning to stretch again. However a moment later they were saved by her empty stomach growling loudly. He laughed, and she frowned but gave a small embarrassed chuckle as she held her arms over her midsection. “I haven’t eaten today,” she explained sheepishly.

He smirked and stood up. “Let’s talk about the job over dinner then.”

She got off the bed and stretched her legs a little, and then followed him out the door.

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Sakura scraped the last morsel of food over her plate and onto her fork, and then shoved it into her mouth. Deidara sat across from her with his own empty plate, watching with amusement as she gorged herself. They hadn’t talked about anything specific since leaving the hotel and finding this small out of the way cafe, and evidently she was too hungry to manage conversation while eating. It reminded him of the first time they’d ever really talked; in the kitchen of his family home while she’d stuffed her face with tempura.

“So, Yotsuba…” she began, swallowing the food and washing it down with her drink, “he said he gave you all of the reservation info and other details?”

He nodded. “He did. He also gave me quite a bit of pocket money, even though this resort’s supposedly all inclusive. I guess he figured we might need it for something, yeah.” He reached into his hip pouch and withdrew some folded paperwork and passed it to her. “That’s the reservation and the cover. We check in tomorrow night at seven, and the exhibition is being held next weekend. He left it to us to figure out the execution.”

She looked over the documents as he talked, scanning the reservation and their cover names and stories. “Yamada…Tarou and Ayame. Isn’t that a bit too generic to really avoid all suspicion?” she said, glancing up at him.

He shrugged. “A little, but some people do have boring generic names, yeah. I doubt it will make a difference.”

“I guess. Figures that even undercover I can’t escape being a flower,” she mused dryly.

“Being a flower suits you.” She looked up at him, not sure exactly where he was coming from with such a comment. He had always been like that; saying what he thought in such a frank way that it was sometimes hard to figure out what context he intended or if his words meant more than plain observation. “Though I think you’re more like nightshade than a cherry blossom, yeah.”

She gave an indignant snort, thinking of the long list of severely unpleasant effects that plant had on people, including rashes, intestinal problems and death. “Oh, gee. Thanks. What exactly are you implying?”

He smirked playfully. “Well, the flowers are unique and pretty and the berries are sweet. It has hallucinogenic properties and you’re good with genjutsu. And it even has medicinal purposes. But if you don’t understand the nature of it, if you underestimate its potential or handle it carelessly, it can seriously fuck you up.”

She stared at him and couldn’t help but smile a little. As strange as the context was, it was probably the most thorough and well-rounded compliment anyone had ever paid her. “You and your metaphors,” she teased with an amused shake of her head.

“I can’t help it if I’m clever and think in artistic ways, yeah,” he shrugged.

He was always so cocky but somehow it had never been annoying to her. She smirked at him and went back to perusing the papers he’d given her. Inside the brochure was a flyer for the black tie exhibition being held next weekend, the night they would steal one of the showcased items. “So we’re supposed to just sit around the whole week before the exhibition and what, work on our tans?”

“I guess so. It’ll probably only take a couple days to figure out how to steal it, so the rest of the time I guess we kick back and maintain our cover, yeah. It seems more like a vacation than a mission.”

She nodded and continued looking at the pamphlet, frowning a little at the pictures that were typical advertising for a tropical resort; white sand and clear turquoise waters, snorkeling with colorful fish, attractive couples embracing on a beach at sunset…Then she thought about what Deidara had just said and how it closely echoed what Yotsuba had teased her about when she accepted the mission. The glossy images in the brochure reinforced that thought and she forced herself to switch gears before she thought too much about that implication. “Yotsuba’s sure going to a lot of trouble and expense for one antique sword, don’t you think? This cover of ours has got to be expensive, and he’s paying us a lot of money for a job that seems so simple. And then there’s the fact that he’s a former shinobi…” she said suspiciously.

He nodded. “I thought the same thing, yeah. But he’s not really going to that much trouble if you think about the fact that it would probably cost him a hell of a lot more to try and buy the thing from our target than pay us to steal it, even with how extravagant our side expenses are. And as far as him being a former nin, well, I’m sure you noticed too that he’s not a very powerful one, yeah. He’s not like you and me who can make a good living by being a ninja. He probably retired a long time ago to try and make more money as a businessman.”

“You’re probably right, and I’m just over-thinking like usual. But still, we should keep our eyes open,” she warned casually and handed the paperwork back to him.

He took the papers and put them away while giving her a pointed look. “Who do you think you’re talking to, hmm?”

She made a conceding gesture and sat back in her chair. It was true; he was probably better at watching his back than she was at watching hers. He is who he is, after all. She tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “You were reported dead to everyone who had an interest in the matter over six years ago, Deidara. How is it you’re still alive? What happened between then and now?” she asked quietly.

He looked at her for a long moment, deciding what to tell her and how to go about doing it. Not that he had any secrets; he just didn’t want to go into something that may be awkward to talk about. “When the sealing jutsu failed and the statue broke I wasn’t there. I was on a scouting mission, yeah. I heard about the demons getting loose and went back to find out what happened but there was nothing left of that place, they totally destroyed it, and everyone was gone.”

Sakura could only imagine the chaos and destruction of eight pissed off, gigantic primordial demons suddenly set loose together in a single enclosed space. But she couldn’t help but wonder, “What about…Kisame? Do you know what happened to him?” she asked cautiously.

He gave a small laugh. “Kisame was with me, yeah. You knew the Akatsuki always traveled and did missions in pairs.”

She blinked in surprise. “So he became your partner…after?”

“After we both lost our previous ones? Of course he did, yeah. I thought you would have known that.”

She really should have guessed. “So he’s alive now?” she asked hopefully.

He snorted amusedly. “Oh yeah. That old trout’s got more lives than a cat. When we saw what happened we weren’t sure what to do from there, and we heard a few weeks later that the organization was broken and all Akatsuki were reported dead. I thought about it for a few days and decided I wasn’t going to try and find Leader or anyone else, that I was done. Things in the end got totally out of control and went to shit and now our goal was shot and there was no getting it back. The statue wasn’t the only thing getting unstable in the last few months; there were problems within the organization as well, yeah. We always knew Pein was a madman, but it was always in a controlled and calculating way, you know? And that was ok with us because hell; it’s not like the rest of us are entirely sane.”

She had to laugh a little at that. “I couldn’t have put it better myself. But I think we all have to be just a little crazy to do what we do and be ninja in the first place,” she said with a small shrug.

He smirked and continued. “Anyway, Pein didn’t like his vision of world domination going to hell and things started to get really intense and unpleasant, if you know what I mean. Even Konan had a hard time dealing with him sometimes. When the war started, Kisame and I both felt a little wary about the way things were going, yeah.”

“Wasn’t the Akatsuki goal to gain world domination through a monopoly on warfare?” she cut in.

He glared at her interruption but let it go since she had a right to be unpleasant about this particular subject. “Yes, but the original intention was to do it through political manipulation; taking down the shinobi governments one by one and pulling the strings from outside, using the absolute power gained through the Bijuu to influence things. That’s not what we were doing in the end; Leader started a world war not to take over the shinobi nations, but to wipe them out completely. He wanted to kill everyone out of spite that his plans failed. I may be a killer, and I may be a bad person and a villain, but that level of evil wasn’t something I was comfortable with, yeah.”

She was quiet for a moment, looking into his pale blue eyes thoughtfully. “I understand. And you’re not a bad person and I never really thought you were a true villain. You’re more of an antihero,” she smirked.

He laughed quietly. “Maybe. And the thing is…you know that I was forced into joining Akatsuki, yeah. I didn’t want to belong to any sort of establishment but I didn’t have much choice in the end. And the only way out is to die. So when it became widely believed that I was dead, I decided to let everyone keep thinking that and go my own way. I knew Leader wasn’t dead; he wasn’t there when it happened. He was almost never there where we could see him. I only saw his face twice, and I didn’t even learn his name until close to the end. Kisame and I were there, but we left just before it happened, yeah. But Leader broke contact before that so he didn’t know we were already gone when the jutsu failed, and he didn’t know we had survived. I told Kisame I wasn’t going back to participate in Pein’s insane vengeance again, and he eventually made the same decision. So we disappeared for a while, yeah. But we still heard about things happening in the shinobi world. I heard you and the Sannin Tsunade killed Konan, for example.”

She gave a small shake of her head. “We did, but it was hard. I couldn’t have done it alone. I almost died. If I wasn’t a medic, I would have. She was incredible.”

“Just like you thought she would be, yeah.”

“I’m surprised you remember that conversation.”

“Why wouldn’t I? It eventually turned into a pretty big argument, yeah. I wouldn’t forget calling you a hypocritical bitch,” he grinned.

“And I called you a sadistic lunatic,” she answered wistfully, remembering that time in the cave with a strange sort of fondness.

He nodded. “And we were both wrong.”

“I was wrong. You were exactly right,” she said after a moment.

“Not really. You weren’t a hypocrite; you just didn’t know differently back then,” he said.

Their eye contact was getting more intense than she liked again, and she didn’t have an answer for him, at least not one she wanted to voice aloud. She wasn’t so sure he was right. Wasn’t she being a hypocrite right this minute? He had been Akatsuki, yet she couldn’t hold anger toward him simply because he was Deidara and he had always been good to her. If it had been another member, one she had no history with, she would have driven her fist through his skull, not be sitting here reminiscing of old times and feeling more laid back and pleasant than she had in a very long time. She didn’t want to bring any of that up so she turned the conversation to the only other Akatsuki she wouldn’t try to kill on sight. “So where is Kisame now?”

He blinked, knowing she had purposely ignored what he said and changed the subject, but he let it go. He seemed to do that a lot with her. Some irritating person might try to tell him it was guilt. Thankfully there were no irritating shark men around at the moment. “The old bastard retired from shinobi life, yeah. He said he was tired of sticking his neck out for shit he didn’t really give a damn about and planned on finding somewhere near water to get drunk and fish for the rest of his life.”

She snorted and gave a small dry laugh. “Now there’s something I never would have thought about him. Except maybe the drunk part. When was the last time you saw him?”

He thought about it for a second. “Ehh…a little over a year ago I think.” She looked surprised it was so recent, and he elaborated. “Well we both stayed there while we were lying low, yeah. I still go back every so often.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Where’s ‘there’? And why did you leave?”

“‘There’, is a small sparsely populated island south of Mist, and I left after the first couple years because I got bored sitting in one place and doing nothing. It’s fine for an old man, but I needed some excitement, so I went back to working as an independent nin, yeah.”

She smirked. “That doesn’t surprise me about you. I am a bit surprised he would settle so close to Mist, considering he’s a missing nin. If they ever find out he’s alive they’ll be all over him.”

He gestured indifferently. “Nobody looks for missing nin anymore unless they have a personal grudge or are on some glory trip. It’s the same for everyone in the Bingo Book. You should know, yeah.”

“Oh I do. But he’s not just some missing nin, he’s Hoshigake Kisame. He’s probably the most wanted missing nin in Mist’s entire history. They may make an exception for him.”

He gave a small conceding nod. “Maybe so. If it happens, it happens, yeah. He doesn’t worry about it, so neither should we.”

She watched him for a long moment, and he noticed her appraising smirk. “What?” he asked.

Her smirk widened into a small smile. “You two became friends after all.”

He emitted a small huff. “That surprises you?”

“Kinda.”

He shrugged a little. “We went through a lot of shit together as partners. I told you things got ugly for the organization in the end. Besides, I didn’t really know him back when we had you, yeah. Let’s just say that even within a group as small as Akatsuki there were…cliques.”

She nodded in understanding; knowing a little of what he was talking about. And she knew that a large part of it had to do with him and Itachi disliking each other, naturally leaving Kisame –Itachi’s partner- off the list of potential buddies. She recalled that time so many years ago when they had all been a forced and surreal but ultimately cherished part of her life. She hadn’t thought about Itachi in a while, but her memories of him and their brief but profound relationship were always fond ones, and to this day she felt grateful for the things he had taught her and special for knowing a part of him no one else ever had.

Deidara noticed her nostalgic expression and smiled a little at knowing those memories were pleasant for her. She probably didn’t have too many happy memories that weren’t attached to painful ones as well anymore. “Hey…maybe after this job is done I’ll take you to see him, yeah. If you want,” he said casually.

She looked up at him in surprise, then her features softened and she nodded. “I’d like that.”

The activity on the street outside the café was growing quiet as the residents turned in for the night, and they realized they had been here talking for so long they were the only patrons left in the place. “It looks like they’re gonna close up soon, yeah. We should head back and turn in.”

She nodded her agreement and they both stood up. A minute later they paid the bill with Yotsuba’s pocket money and left.

When they got back to the room Sakura removed her gloves, apron and boots, but it wasn’t until Deidara took his shirt off leaving only the mesh tank underneath that she realized the reality of the situation. Strangely she found herself looking at his arms and shoulders and thinking his muscles were a lot more defined than she remembered. Well, duh. He’s a ninja, what did she expect? They all had well built muscles. Especially the men, and some are built better than others, Inner Sakura pointed out wickedly, and was promptly shoved back where she came from. Her inner voice hadn’t been very active for several months, and she wondered why it was coming out now.

She noticed he was now looking back at her, and she self-consciously refocused her gaze elsewhere. But he picked up on her demeanor and seemed to share some of the awkwardness she was feeling. “You can have the bed, yeah. I’ll just uh…” he said quietly, gesturing to the floor.

She gave a small ironic laugh, remembering a time she’d been in a similar situation, when she had been forced to share a room and a bed with Itachi. And look how we ended up after that, Inner Sakura piped up again. Shut. Up. She growled inwardly. She also remembered thinking at the time that she would rather have shared the room with Deidara since she was more comfortable with him. How perfectly ironic this was. The universe was one sadistic bastard. “No, it’s ok,” she said, and he looked at her in slight surprise. “I mean were gonna have to get used to it right? We can’t do something like that once we get to the resort, so…I mean it’s not a big deal…It’s not like we haven’t slept close together before…” Eight years ago. Fully clothed and wearing heavy cloaks. In a cold, damp cave with a bunch of other people.

“Right,” he said in a casual tone, but a bit too quickly to pull it off.

She continued to watch him as he moved about the room. She focused on the fairly heavy scarring on the lower half of his left arm, and the very noticeable one that encircled his right bicep where his arm had been reattached. She knew how he had gotten them, and it was entirely too obvious that they weren’t normal scars and couldn’t be explained away as some random industrial accident. At first glance he looked like a regular man, but those scars gave him away as a ninja or other militant type, and that would not do for their cover. “Um…I should try and do something about those scars on your arms. Maybe try to erase them or at least fade them out a little.”

He looked over at her with a small frown. “Why? I’ve had them for so long I don’t even notice them anymore, yeah. Do they bother you or something?”

Now it was her turn to frown. “No. That’s kind of a stupid thing to think about me, Deidara.” His frown deepened, and she gave him a pointed look. “I’m a medic, and I’m a ninja. I’ve seen and dealt with a lot worse. It’s just that were going to a beach resort, and I don’t think you’ll be able to get away with wearing long-sleeve shirts all the time. Those scars give you away as a fighter of some sort, and we can’t have anything make us look suspicious.”

He looked slightly contrite at her explanation. “Alright. You want to do it now, then?”

She nodded and gestured for him to sit with her on the bed. He did, the springs creaking slightly with the added weight, and crossed his legs under him. She sat the same way at and angle to him and took hold of his left arm first, looking it over a moment before flooding her hands with chakra and setting to work.

It was silent for a few minutes, and when he looked at her he could tell by the set of her features she was unhappy with something. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced up at him in a brief glare, but didn’t answer right away, instead focusing on her task until he began to wonder if she planned to ignore him. “It’s just…what you said about your scars bothering me…” she sighed irritably. “I may have been that shallow when I was a little girl, but that was a long time ago, and-”

“I didn’t mean it like that, yeah. I just meant…well, I don’t know what I meant. But I don’t think of you like that at all, ok? Sorry,” he muttered. He felt like an ass for offending her in such a way, and that was something he wasn’t used to feeling. But it really had been a stupid thing to say; she was one of the most accepting and nonjudgmental people he’d ever known.

She looked up and met his eyes then. “Don’t worry about it,” she said softly after a moment. Her chakra stopped and she slapped his arm lightly. “Next.”

He looked down at his forearm and blinked several times in surprise. The worst of his scars from the Kazekage were now faded and smooth to a point that they wouldn’t be noticeable unless you were looking up close, and the lighter ones were completely gone. “Damn,” he said, impressed. He absently lifted his right arm toward her as he stared at his left, and she scooted around his front to get a better position for that arm. That hadn’t taken long at all. She really was something else.

The other arm took a bit longer, even though there was only one major scar. The random little ones from a lifetime as a ninja weren’t that important or noticeable anyway. She couldn’t erase it, but when she was finished it was much paler and thinner and not as blatantly attention grabbing as before. They hadn’t really bothered him all that much, but he couldn’t help but be pleased with her results.

“Sorry, I can’t get this one to fade completely; it’s too thick and the scar tissue runs completely through the skin,” she said.

He shrugged. “It’s ok. It looks a lot better than it did, yeah. Maybe I’ll get a tattoo to cover it or something.”

“That’s a good idea actually. But speaking of tattoos…” she said slowly, looking at his left shoulder at the long-faded ANBU tattoo. “Anyone who’s a ninja or has worked with ninja will know what this is, but…”

“Just do it, yeah.”

She looked up at him. “You sure? I mean it’s sort of significant…”

“Not to me. I cut those ties a long time ago, yeah. It’s nothing but faded ink. Go ahead.”

She looked at him for another moment, but then nodded. She got up and walked into the bathroom to grab a small wetted towel and came back. She focused her chakra and slowly began to push the old ink to the surface of his skin and out through his pores, using the towel to wipe the ink away, then repeated the process until the skin was unmarked and smooth.

He looked at her handiwork and made an amused sound then glanced up at her, noticing her features were drawn and her eyes slightly bloodshot. “You look pretty tired, yeah.”

She nodded. “I’m exhausted. Nothing like walking all day through a jungle in hundred degree heat, ingesting the equivalent of a livestock tranquilizer, passing out in a filthy back alley, and then waking up in a different location to see an old friend you thought was dead to wear a girl out,” she quipped.

He simply gave her a boyish grin, one she had always loved and reminded her of happier times long ago. “I still can’t believe we met again like this,” she said softly.

“Me neither, yeah,” he said. He stood up and grabbed the ink covered towel and turned toward the bathroom. He paused and looked at her as she began to crawl under the covers on the far side of the bed. “But I’m glad.”

She looked at him with a sleepy expression. “Me too.”

Deidara tossed the wet cloth into the bathroom sink and finished his business. He came out and with a little hesitancy got into ‘his’ side of the bed, making sure to leave a good deal of space between them though the bed wasn’t very large. Hearing her soft breathing he glanced over at her and then smiled; she was already asleep. He turned on his side with his back to her and lay there, remembering the past and thinking about fate until he too drifted to sleep.

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Look forward to chapter 3 next Friday!