All These Things I Hate: Deidara Love Story

Chapter 4

Deidara summons his huge clay bird and motions for me to hop on. I oblige and sit near the tail while he controls it. I thought about the riddle long and hard.

"What do you think the answer is?" Deidara asks.

I shrug, "I don't know. Do you have any paper?"

He nods, getting out an old, empty scroll. "Here," he says, tossing it to me.

I hurriedly write down the riddle and study the first line.

Sometimes it glitters, but often not.

"Okay, Deidara, what glitters some of the time but not all the time?" I ask.

Deidara thinks. "Um...glass? Water?"

I jot his answers down and think about it myself. Hmm...what sparkles? Metal and gems sparkle. Tile sparkles. Deidara's eyes... I blush and shake off that thought. I jot down the first three options and go to the next one. "Okay, I wrote down metal, gems, and tile. What about something that can be hot or cold?"

Deidara grins. "Water. Or your personality."

I roll my eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that you can have a real fiery hot temper or you can have an icy cold glare." Deidara grins turning around, sticking all three of his tongues out at me.

I chuckle, and shake my head. "Let's be serious. What else?"

"Well going from what you wrote down for the first clue, metal fits."

"Rocks can be hot or cold," I pipe up. 'And your eyes,' I unconsciously add in once again.

"Right. So...the answers we have that fit line one and two are water and metal."

'And your eyes,' I think, blushing. What was I doing? Always thinking about him. And in a strange way. The strange way that suggested my so-called hate of Dei was a teeny weeny little crush. But that was preposterous. It wasn't me. I hated Deidara and our accordance was temporary.

Deidara turns slightly, studying me. "You're awfully quiet back there. You okay?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to unravel this thing."

"Okay. Well read the next line and let's see if any of our guesses line up with the clue."

I nod. "Right. Of course. The next line says 'Ever changing though the eye can't measure'. So that means that this object is changing but our human eye can't see it. So..."

"Well I guess that would knock water out, right?"

I nod, "Yeah, I think so. But metal might work. Like the rusting or corrosion of it."

"Right. Next?"

"'Concealed within are many treasures.' But...there isn't any treasure inside of metal. So..."

"Hmm...maybe we should back track a little bit. I think we're missing something big."

"Yeah...I agree. Maybe we're just not thinking hard enough. Let's go through the rest of the riddle and make some predictions first before we study the first few again. 'Some find safety beneath it's gates, while some may die beneath its weight.' Metal doesn't work for that one either. But water does."

"Okay, what else could work?"

I think long and hard. What could work? "Um critters live under rocks. And rocks could crush us. So that could work."

"I can't really think of anything. So rocks work for this one. Water does too."

"The next one says 'Old and broken, it brings forth life.'" I study the words, perplexed.

"That one...I'm dead," Deidara jokes, "my brain can't even function right now. This riddle has rendered me brain dead."

I shake my head but smile. "So...skip this one?"

"Yeah, let's skip it and see what answer matches all of the clues," Deidara says.

I look over all of the riddles and slouch in disappointment. None of them were consistent. "We have to go back through it. Nothing matches," I say.

Deidara sighs. "Okay, let me land." He flies to a tree and lands his bird on the top. He turns around and walks to me, sitting beside me near the tail of his bird. "Okay the only semi-consistent answers are metal and water. But they don't fit for all of them."

I reread the riddle. Suddenly it hit me. Not literally but it hit me. "It's a rock."

"How do you know?"

"Okay, for the first clue, some of the answers we came up with were tile and gems. Both of those are rocks. For the second clue, obviously rocks can be hot or cold. For the third clue, rocks are aways changing because of erosion. Fourth, sometimes rocks hold treasures like gold, crystals and other things. Fifth, critters hide under rocks and rocks can crush or cause damage to other things. But...the last one...I don't know how that would work," I explain, everything synthesizing together to create a perfect explanation.

Deidara smiles. "Wow, that was amazing. You figured that out just now?"

I nod. "Yeah, I put the pieces together and it made sense."

"Okay, well let's find a rock then. Pein said it would be obvious when we found it." Deidara stated, stepping up to man his bird again. "You ready?"

I nod and brace myself for take off. Deidara flew about 2 minutes before I felt a strong chakra. He could feel it too, for he stopped his bird again, this time next to a moderate-sized rock. "I think this is it," I state.

Deidara looks at the rock. Just a plain, grey colored rock. The only thing that stuck out about it was the strong chakra presence. "You're probably right." Deidara grabs the rock and studies it.

"Want me to put it in my bag?" I ask.

Deidara continued to stare at the rock and slowly his glance slid to me. He was deep in thought and obviously troubled. "Akemi, why do you hate me?"

I am speechless for a minute before I open my mouth and speak back. "What?"

"Why do you hate me?"

I gulp. "Can we talk about this later? That's kinda random and uncalled for..."

Deidara shakes his head. "Tell me or I will blow the rock up and we will be stuck with each other." Deidara looked serious but I didn't understand his change in character.

I look down and mentally curse. What would I tell him? I think for a but before looking up and saying, "Deidara...what if...what if I said I don't know?"