A Little More Than This (Discontinued)

Chapter 48

Deidara moved quickly through the foliage, slowly and silently making his way towards the village ahead of him. He jumped a fence and dropped into a large bush, pulling out little clay spiders he had been working on the entire way to the village. He dumped them into a pile and individually pointed them in a direction, telling them to 'report back' when they had found Mei.

He nestled himself into the bush and waited, prepared to stay the night if he had to. He sighed and waited, watching the sky above him twinkle with stars. Suddenly a little clay spider jumped up onto his knee and gestured for him to follow.

Deidara jumped up, following the spider deep into the village. They skidded to a stop outside of a fairly large house, which most likely housed a clan-head and his family. Deidara growled lightly and began snooping through the windows, looking for the ginger girl he missed so. He heard a whine from a window and peeked through, finding the person he was looking for and an unfamiliar boy with black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

Mei sat on a rather large bed, her hair styled in the same way Deidara always did, reading a book but occasionally whining when the boy would move her to get a better grip on her or to get a better view of the book that they were reading together. Mei would wriggle into his body everytime the stranger moved to get comfortable in his lap and Deidara had to resist the eurge to jump in there and bloodily murder the boy.

Suddenly Mei's head snap upwards and their eyes locked onto each other, Mei letting out a gasp of surprise. This caused the boy to look up and stare at the blond in the window. Deidara noticed two things; one, Mei's eyes welled up with tears and her grip on the book tightened to the point of turning her knuckles white and two, the boy's grip on her torso tightened and his fingers where rubbing soothing circles through her shirt. Deidara growled at the boy and Mei stood up and ran over to him, hugging him through the window. He smirked and sent a dirty look at the boy who was watching the pair silently.

"You fucking idiot! You're gonna be seen! You're gonna get caught! I knew you'd do something stupid!" Mei sobbed quietly as Deidara hugged back, still giving Shikamaru a dirty look. Deidara climbed in and glared at Shikamaru, wrapping his arm protectively around Mei's waist, and watched as he wriggled uncomfortablely. Shikamaru sighed and said nothing as Mei hugged the blond again, trying not to let his presence bother him as Deidara was being far to clingy and touchy-feely for Shikamaru's liking. 'She sees him as a brother. Nothing weird is gonna happen' He told himself, crossing his arms as Deidara smirked at him over her shoulder.

'He's playing with me! I knew he'd be troublesome!' Shikamaru thought, growling lightly as Mei walked back over to him, shaking her head as the two glared at one another. "Deidei-Nii, this is Shikamaru Nara, he's my, uh~, boyfriend" Mei introduced, turning red as Shikamaru protectively wrapped his arm around her waist.

The two males glared at each other and Mei lost her cool. She whacked both their heads and glared at them. "Stop acting like children who have to share a fucking toy. Deidei-Nii get over that I'm 16 and allowed to have a relationship, Shika-kun he's my brother, like ew" Mei hissed at them, an irk mark pulsing as both bowed their heads in shame.

"Since when were you so scary?" Deidara whined, rubbing his head in pain. "She's kinda always been like this" Shikamaru replied, oddly feeling way more comfortable around the S-Class criminal bomber than he thought he'd be. Deidara sighed then chuckled, looking up at Mei with proudness shining in his single blue eye.

"Kisame was complaining about a white-haired chick almost beating his subordinate. That you?" Deidara asked, a small grin on his face. "Subordinate? I thought that was actually him and he used a high level substitution jutsu at the end" Mei deadpanned, earning a chuckle from Deidara. "You're not that good yet. By the way Itachi and Zetsu are acting weird lately, any remedies?" Deidara asked jokingly.

"Well, they seemed normal when they were training me" Mei replied, placing her pointer on her chin in thought. Deidara stood, hugged Mei and pecked her on the forehead before moving towards the window. "W-where you going?" Mei asked, watching him in surprise.

"To beat them up. Shikamaru, right? You seem like a decent dude. You break her heart, I'll break your neck. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Deidara finished the conversation with those words and jumped out the window, making a quick break towards the forest and disappearing.

"I swear they're normal" Mei sighed, sitting back down on the bed. "D-did I just get his blessing?" Shikamaru asked, unable to figure it out himself. "I have no idea" Mei smirked, picking up the book again.

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Orochimaru paced quickly around his study, hands folded neatly behind his back as his eyes skimmed around the room. He sighed, collapsed into his chair and stared at the small and dusty picture frame he hadn't touched in over 3 years. It was a cute one too.

Mei had theived one of his shirts and had run around the base pretending to be him. What made everyone laugh was that it was spot on and Orochimaru had sulked the day away in his room. The picture was near the end of the day when the shirt was falling off and sweaty and Meg's hair was fizzing in all different directions. She had a big grin on her face and was waving one of her hands, the sleeve flopping in all directions.

Orochimaru sighed and dusted the picture off, fondly remembering the memory. He quickly put it back in place when the door creaked open and Sasuke stepped in, a bored look on his face as he ruffled the back of his hair. Orochimaru gestured for him to speak with a wave of his hand and Sasuke spotted the picture frame behind the man's shoulder.

"Why do you have a picture of Mei?" Sasuke asked, pointing to the picture. "She's an old friend's daughter" Orochimaru replied honestly. "You were friends with Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, tilting his head in suspicion. "No, in fact I've never truly met the man. I was however, loosely, friends with Kisame Hoshigaki" Orochimaru informed, sighing as his young vessel-to-be eyes widened with surprise.

"Now what did you  really come here for?" Orochimaru asked, pressing his pointer to his right temple. "Kabuto sent me to tell you dinner is ready. You helped raise Mei?" Sasuke asked, moving out of the way as Orochimaru walked out of the office, heading towards the promised food. "Yes, lovely girl. Bit of a troublemaker but, what can you do?" Orochimaru replied, disappearing down the corridor.