fire drill | naruto

5. The Freedom and Imprisonment of Birds

Sixteen-year-old Deidara had never liked Iwagakure. The shinobi were too tough to crack, like boulders, the terrain was too rough for his body, and he couldn't see anything past the mountains surrounding the perimeter.

He knew they would never appreciate what true art looked like.

Yet before he could do anything to pursue his artistic career, he needed the kinjutsu the Tsuchikage held so close to his chest. He knew just how much he could accomplish, if only he obtained the knowledge he needed. He tried to tame his patience as much as he could.

One day, when the old geezer let his guard slip, chuunin Deidara would take what he wanted.

He knew his dream, although it felt as far off as land without mountains, was steadily getting closer to becoming a reality.

So, he told himself that was the reason he was on some stupid mission in the Land of Birds, the small nation surrounded by the Land of Mountains to the east, Land of Stone to the west, the Land of Earth to the north and the Land of Wind to the south.

It was just a B-rank— The blonde and his teammate on the Explosion Corps, a kunoichi with a name too basic for him to remember, were sent to reinforce one of the land's border patrols as they were being continuously attacked by a small unknown gang. The two were ordered to discover the threat's main base and put a stop to their destruction.

So, in short, find the gang and either intimidate all of the members to never attack their patrols again, or kill them all if they refused.

At the thought, Deidara's lip quirked up in a way that could only be described as a smirk.

Elevated in front of him, Satsuki Takeyama turned back to face him. "Hustle." Her face was as blank and smooth as rock, as every Iwanin was expected to carry themselves. Any crack of the stone was nothing short of social suicide, especially within the heiarchy of their ranks.

Deidara tried his best to smooth over his expression as well as she did. At the sight, Satsuki did her best to not let her face soften.

Every day they continued on their mission (the travel itself took around a week round trip) she was reminded again and again that he was just a kid.

Just a sixteen-year-old kid— Half her age, and just double the age of her son.

"Apologies, Takeyama," he replied, tone even and smooth as he quickly leaped up the rocks.

The woman in question turned her back to him once more, and took in the view from the summit.

Iwagakure and the Land of Earth itself were both surrounded only by mountains. Since they were born, their citizens were constantly being told the mountains were blessings from the Divine, shrouding them in security and keeping them safe for as long as they remained. Since they were born, their view of the horizon has always been bordered by the spiked peaks of the distant mounts.

Although she would never let it show, Satsuki felt unease at the sight of such unbordered land below them.

Thank goodness my son was born into the safety of Iwa.

Deidara stood beside her.

He had never felt more alive in the presence of what felt like true freedom.

He couldn't have been more ungrateful that he was born in Iwa, having to be trapped in a cage of sharp rock for what felt like all eternity.

For a moment, there was silence between the two. A peaceful silence.

But through all of their differences and similarities, they could agree on something.

This peace wouldn't last.

If there was one thing Shōnetsu could decidedly take away from her whole experience so far, it was that Iwagakure sent too many shinobi on patrol on the border of the Land of Earth.

When she finally arrived on the border of Iwa, she knew she could never make it across on her own without being impaled by a rock, falling to her death or dying of starvation or dehydration.

So instead, she took refuge the farthest she could climb, to escape the fate of death that she convinced herself laid in wait. She climbed and climbed and continued to climb until her feet and hands were raw from the rock and her clothes were drenched in her blood, sweat and tears.

Whenever she felt herself close to tears at the thought of her home, burnt to the ground, she climbed.

Every once and a while, strung between the rocks in the mountains, she found trees.

She would have to get it together eventually.

She liked to believe those she knew back at home didn't want her dead.

Her palms burned, but she gathered the courage to scrap up supplies for some sort of makeshift shelter. Nothing too extravagant— She wasn't planning on staying long. Just enough for her burns to heal and her bones to regenerate and her strength to come back so she could go down the mountains and escape her rock prison.

Yet the border patrol didn't make it easy to lie low like she wanted to.

The second night of staying in her half cave, half shelter of branches, she stepped outside and realized she was perched up higher than she thought, because a pair of shinobi passed around twenty meters below her.

Every single day, she spotted a patrol every morning and night with no fail.

So the morning of her fifteenth day in the mountains of Iwagakure, it wasn't unexpected to see two shinobi on patrol.

What was unexpected was that one of them was her upperclassman from two years ago.