A Life with the Akatsuki [ABANDONED]

The Misadventures of Nagareboshi: Chapter Twelve

Out of all of them, Kakuzu seems the most true to the character I saw in the anime, as his personality is still very serious, even if he is more inquisitive than I remember. Tobi, well, why he unsettles me is too obvious to even bother pointing out. While I have yet to meet everyone in an informal setting where I can have a face-to-face conversation with them that doesn't involve my tricks or business of some sort, I am almost certain these two are the ones that I should watch out for the most, Pein being the neutral ground. So far he has played both the evil boss and the nice guy, but he is leaning more towards nice guy, so I'm not so sure about the level of concern I should have towards him.

As time wears on, I grow more and more restless, because with each person who enters the room comes a small gust of cold wind that keeps me from getting comfortable. The momentary adrenaline from being tackled has long since faded, leaving me alone and shivering in a room full of men who don't seem the slightest bit bothered by the cold. Even Yukiko, who is wearing the bare minimum, doesn't seem effected. Either they are very good at hiding it, or it's just me who is cold...

The air seems to drop more the longer we wait and before long, I am shivering. It isn't very obvious yet, as only my hands are shaking, but it probably won't be long before my entire body is shaking. Deciding that a distraction is in order, I raise my gaze off my plate and slowly search the faces around the table.

My eyes land on Yukiko, who is the only one not staring at their plate or glaring at someone else...unless you count Tobi, who is whining to Itachi and Kisame, who are promptly ignoring him. For some reason, she seems to have taken an interest in me and is staring at me with unconcealed curiosity. When I meet her gaze, she only becomes more interested. However, I get the feeling Tobi is also looking at me and turn my attention away from Yukiko to assess the threat.

He might be chatting away in his one-sided conversation, but I can feel his only visible - slightly visible - eye watching me through the mask hole. Tobi grabs my knee and squeezes, startling me into sitting up straighter. He squeezes a little harder the second time and I realize I am staring at him. Slowly forcing my gaze off him to scan the rest of the group as if he didn't worry me, I feel his hand loosen before entirely disappearing from my knee. Though, instead of leaving me alone, his hand, which feels odd without his glove, finds my forearm under the table.

However, instead of squeezing it like I expected, Tobi starts to rub slow, but firm circles on my arm. I turn my attention back to my plate as I try to figure out why he is rubbing my arm, but nothing comes to mind. While I am tempted to pull away, his hand is incredibly warm and makes the shivering on that side of my body slowly subside to a less noticeable level.

I'll admit I am confused as to why he is doing this, but if it chases the cold away, I'm willing to subject myself to Tobi's odd behavior. I would rather be scared than freezing any day. By the time that Deidara finally enters the room, my shivering has subsided to goose bumps and I am able to almost completely relax, which is a great relief. All the tension from fighting the cold has made me sore.

Strangely enough, the moment that Deidara sits down, everyone starts to dig it. It was confusing yesterday, too, but I'm guessing breakfast is less formal than dinner, so I hastily start to reach for food to put on my plate. Though, it is hard since Tobi refuses to release my arm, even if that means he has to use his left hand to serve himself.

The meal is pancakes, eggs, rice, fruit, and sausage. It doesn't seem like the typical breakfast I would have at the Kimura household, but it was probably foolish of me to expect them to eat the same food even though they are from different regions. Shimogakure had less food they could grow because of the cold, so it only makes sense that a place that appears to only gets rain would have more crops. Which also means I should probably be more cautious, considering my violent reaction to the food two nights ago.