Sculpting for Dummies 17
Sculpting for Dummies
An: So, this is officially my longest fic, both chapter-wise and word-wise. But the end is coming up in the foreseeable future. And for all of those readers who think I’m going to do the artistic thing and have a beautifully touching tragic ending reverberating with social commentary and beckoning readers to stand up to and fight the circumstances that drove the characters to their demises (war, poverty, etc.), just know that I’m not that artistic. I loves the fluff, and my endings are always happy and fluffy. Have faith, dear readers (and who knows; if ya’ll are terribly disappointed, maybe I’ll do an alternate ending of the tragic type…we’ll see. I’ve got KakaIru Christmas themes coming up soon, so I’ll be busy)
(previous chapter)
Chapter 17:
Tobi looked up at the looming wall that surrounded the Hidden Village of Konoha. This was it. Soon he’d meet with the Hokage and bargain for his sempai’s life. Tobi’s stomach churned with nervousness.
“We shouldn’t be seen escorting you inside. We’ll have to sneak you two in,” Yamato told them.
“If you take off your mask, no one will know who you are and we’ll only have to worry about getting Deidara in,” Kakashi commented.
“I’m not showing you my face for free. Only if you let Deidara go,” Tobi declared. He was going to need every bit of bargaining power he had to keep the blond off of the execution block, and Kakashi’s fascination with his face was something he was more than willing to exploit.
Kakashi sighed. “Naruto, Sai, wait out here. The prisoners can enter disguised as you. I’ll send out shadow clones to tell you when to come back in. You can say you dropped something by the gate and needed to retrieve it.”
The two teens nodded. Kakashi approached Tobi while Yamato drew closer to Deidara. The jounin used a jutsu and Tobi saw himself looking at Sai instead of Deidara.
“Why do I have to be the creepy one, un?” his sempai’s voice asked from Sai’s body.
Tobi looked down at himself. He was clad in orange and black. “Because I’m too hyper to be a convincing Sai, and you wouldn’t be able to bounce around like Naruto.”
“At least you still look like an artist,” Sakura consoled. Deidara/Sai looked away and snorted.
“Let’s go. You don’t have to stay like that for long. Just keep quiet and don’t blow our cover. We won’t able to negotiate for anything if the villagers find out you’re here. They’ll demand an execution,” Yamato warned.
Tobi concentrated on walking how he thought Naruto usually walked. He couldn’t afford to give them away. Yamato stayed close to Deidara, cutting off any route of escape. Kakashi followed closely behind Tobi. Sakura stayed at a distance, where she wouldn’t get caught in the middle if a fight were to break out. The group walked through the gates of Konoha.
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Kakashi wished he could have seen Tobi’s real face, but he settled for watching his facial reactions projected on Naruto’s face by his jutsu. The Copy Ninja monitored his prisoner carefully. Every response Tobi made to Konoha might offer clues to his identity.
Naruto’s blue eyes were wide, and they swept across the streets quickly, calculating. They wouldn’t find any hope of escape, if that was what they were looking for.
“Have you ever been in Konoha before?” Kakashi asked. Naruto/Tobi hissed at him.
“Shh! I’m supposed to be Naruto!” he whispered sharply. Kakashi looked around. The sun was barely up, and there was no one on the streets on the outskirts of town. They probably wouldn’t see a soul until they were in sight of the Hokage’s mansion.
“I won’t give you away. Besides, Naruto is never that quiet. People will be suspicious if you aren’t talking.”
“What do I say?” the man asked, trying his hand at a Naruto-like voice. He had the growl down right, but the pitch was too deep. People would probably think he has a cold.
“Whatever you want. No one ever listens to what Naruto says. They hear him talking and ignore him,” Kakashi explained.
“So you can just be yourself, un,” Deidara snickered.
“At least I won’t have to comment on people’s penises if they talk to me,” Tobi shot back. Deidara/Sai blanched.
“Hurry up and you won’t have to talk to anyone,” Yamato snapped. The group hurried down the road toward the center of the village.
“There’s the Hokage Monument. What do you think of it?” Kakashi asked Tobi. The man looked up at the faces on the mountain and stared for a moment.
“It looks crowded up there,” he remarked. Was that what Obito would think? In his time, there had only been three faces carved in the rock…
“That’s where we’re going,” the silver haired man whispered and gestured to the large building that housed the Hokage’s offices. “Run a little bit ahead and act impatient.”
Tobi followed his orders and flung open the door to the building. He turned and waved at the others to hurry up. The man made a convincing Naruto, all in all.
The three Konoha ninja and two former Akatsuki members entered the building and waited for judgment.
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Iruka sat on Tsunade’s left side. Shizune was on the right. They all sat at a long table, waiting for their audience with the Akatsuki members and the lost Uchiha. Iruka didn’t know what to expect of the encounter.
Team Kakashi entered the room, and Iruka noticed that Naruto didn’t smile at him and beg for ramen. Something was amiss.
“Tsunade-sama, is this room secure?” Kakashi asked. Beside him, Tsunade nodded. The Copy Ninja made the signs for the dispelling jutsu. Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving a man in an orange mask standing in his place. Yamato did the same with Sai, who morphed into Deidara. He looked…young. Older than his wanted picture, which had been taken a few years ago, but still…too young to be a wanted criminal. Then again, he was probably around Itachi’s age.
“I’ll send clones to bring back Naruto and Sai,” Yamato said. He summoned two shadow clones, which he transformed into the likeness of the two students. The clones hopped out the door and away on their mission.
The two prisoners stood and waited for Tsunade to speak. The sannin leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands.
“State your names,” she ordered.
“Deidara, un,” the blond stated.
“Tobi,” the masked man muttered.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. “No last names?” she asked.
“I don’t remember. Tobi is the only name Zetsu-san gave me,” the dark haired man offered apologetically. The blond huffed.
“My parents never did anything for me. Why should I keep their name, un?” he scoffed. Iruka recognized the anger of the reaction; he’d seen many orphans direct anger at dead loved ones, rather than accept the loss. God, this Akatsuki member was just a child, a hurt child.
“I see,” Tsunade replied. “Yamato, Kakashi, escort them to the basement and tell Kotetsu and Izumo to guard them. Tell them it’s a code 14, they’ll understand. Then return and we’ll discuss the prisoner’s interrogation.” A code 14, Iruka recalled from his training, meant that his chuunin coworkers would stand outside of the room and guard the high-security prisoners without ever seeing their faces or knowing their identities. It was usually used when doing interrogations that the Konoha administration would never acknowledge.
Tobi fidgeted as he was led away, but Deidara walked steadily, with a strange sort of dignity. That young and already resigned to death. Iruka’s heart hurt just thinking about it.
“Tsunade-sama,” Sakura began when her team leaders ushered the captives out, “if I could have a word with you…”
“Go ahead, Sakura. Shizune and Iruka-kun are my trusted advisors,” Tsunade said.
Sakura took a deep breath. “Tsunade-sama, I don’t think Deidara and Tobi are evil and they care about each other and if we execute Deidara or put him in prison and they can’t see each other any more, it’ll ruin both their lives and it wouldn’t be fair.” She made her entire argument on that single breath, and when she finished, she was flushed.
“Tell me why you think this,” the sannin ordered. Sakura explained what she’d seen on the journey home from the Land of Forest. The young medic noted the way they interacted with one another, how they protected each other from harm, and offered her opinions on what should be done with them.
“I’ll consider what you’ve told me. You’re dismissed now. If you see Naruto or Sai, send them here. I’ll need to hear what they think as well,” Tsunade said. Sakura bowed and left the room.
Waiting for Yamato and Kakashi to return and brief them on the Akatsuki’s capture, Iruka felt a stab of pride for his former student. Despite the training she had undergone, she hadn’t become a heartless tool. Sakura had held on to humanity enough to believe that even an S-ranked criminal could be redeemed. The chuunin hoped that the Iwa ninja wouldn’t give her reason to regret the faith she placed in him.
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“We’ll, this basement is considerably nicer than the last one we were in, sempai.” Tobi paced the length of their new prison. A futon lay folded in one corner, and there was a single chair pulled up to a desk built into the wall. The accommodations were more fit for a single person than two, but there was light and no immediate threat of splinters.
“Shut the hell up, un,” Deidara growled. Tobi shouldn’t have been in this basement at all. He should’ve escaped when Deidara had given him that opening.
“And at least this time you aren’t unconscious,” Tobi murmured.
Deidara thought he’d spent far too much time unconscious since he and Tobi had left Akatsuki. “When I get my chakra back, I’ll make sure you’re the one who’s knocked out, bastard,” he vowed. But he doubted he’d ever get the chance.
“I wonder what they’re talking about up there,” Tobi mused. He unfolded the futon and flopped down on it.
Deidara snorted. “You haven’t figured it out? They’re talking about you, idiot. That bastard Sharingan Kakashi has been trying to figure out who you are since he caught us, un.”
“Is that what he’s been doing?” Tobi asked. Could he be that oblivious?
“You know he has. And you’re going to use that, Tobi. Be who they think you are and get your ass out of this basement, un.”
Tobi scooted over to the far edge of the futon and patted the space beside him. “Come sit down, sempai,” he said.
“They could be watching,” Deidara protested. The Konoha ninja could be listening, too, but that couldn’t be helped. If he didn’t spell it out to Tobi what the masked man needed to do, Tobi would mess it up and get himself killed trying to save Deidara.
“Where are they watching from?” Tobi asked skeptically. Deidara nodded toward the only decoration on the Spartan walls; a small framed mirror.
“It’s a two-way mirror. They could be on the other side and see everything that happens in this room, un,” the artist explained.
“Don’t be paranoid, sempai,” Tobi chided. Deidara walked over to the mirror and tried to take the mirror off of the wall. The frame was built into the room. He raised an eyebrow at Tobi. “Ok, maybe it is. But does it really matter? I just want you to sit down so we can talk without me craning my neck,” Tobi whined.
Deidara’s legs were tired from the walking they’d done all week. The chair looked hard and uncomfortable.
“Fine, un,” he said. The artist sat gingerly on the edge of the futon. He tried to keep his body from touching Tobi’s, but the taller man latched onto him and made his struggles futile. Deidara let his muscles relax and sink into the cushions.
“Sempai, just let me take care of dealing with the Konoha ninja, ok? I have better…people skills, and if they think I’m someone they know, that’ll work in my favor. All you have to do is be polite when they speak to you and stop trying to make them hate you. Can you do that?” Tobi asked. He brushed Deidara’s hair out of his eyes and made the artist look straight at him. Deidara frowned and looked away.
“I won’t pick any fights, but if those Konoha nins start something, I’m not going to put up with it, un,” he growled. Tobi nodded.
“I wouldn’t ask you to do that, sempai. If anyone insults you, I’ll be the first one to start throwing punches,” the dark-haired man smirked. Deidara didn’t doubt that he would. And if anyone other than himself did anything to harm Tobi, Deidara wouldn’t hesitate to kick their asses. It was strange; before, Deidara had never had anyone who would stand up for him, and he would never have guessed he would risk himself to help another person. He wondered if Tobi even realized how much he had changed Deidara.
“I…I…” Deidara stuttered, realizing after he spoke that he didn’t know what he was trying to say. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to finish what we started in the forest, un,” he settled on.
Tobi’s hand slid from its perch on his hair onto his chest and kept heading south. “We could fix that right now, sempai,” he murmured into Deidara’s ear in a low voice.
Deidara seized Tobi’s wrist, still encircled with chakra cuffs, though they weren’t linked together, and ceased its movements. “Two way mirror,” he reminded his partner.
Tobi sighed. “When we get out of here, then,” he promised. He snuggled closer into Deidara’s side and began toying with his hair again. And only because he knew his death was inevitable and there wasn’t a point in worrying about his pride or what the Konoha ninja thought of him, Deidara let his arms snake around Tobi. This could be the last opportunity, after all. The artist let the masked man’s body heat warm him completely.
………………………………………………………………………….( next chapter)
An: short, I know. These chapters are slow to write. I can only take the Konoha/DeiTobi interaction in small amounts. It’s draining to write, although I couldn’t tell you why.
Fun with spell-check: DeiTobi changes into deltoid.