Spellbound Chapter One: First Day

Chapter One: First Day
Tell me who you are
I am Spellbound
You cannot have this control on me
Everywhere I go
I am spellbound
I will break the spell you've put on me…

The song filled Aqua's wolf-like ears as she walked through the forest next to the person she hated. Itachi. She couldn't believe what she was about to do. She was on her way to the Akatsuki base. She was going to become a member. She didn't want to think about it. She focused on Lucana Coil's voice and not the fact that she was now walking with the man she use to love and admire, but who later hurt her and betrayed her. She tried not to focus on the fact that she would soon be part of an organization that she should be fighting against. She looked at the ipod in her hand and considered turning it up. Just then a large building came into view. Aqua took one headphone out and fixed her red eyes on Itachi.
"Is this it…?" She asked.
The rogue didn't look at her but only nodded. "Yes. Follow me, and stay close."
Itachi walked up to the door and slowly opened it. Aqua peered inside from behind him. He walked in and Aqua followed behind him. She stayed close only out of the fear that she would get lost in this giant place. She looked around. When they passed the main living room there were several men there. Strange men, Aqua thought. Few of them seemed really human. One, in fact, looked like a venus fly trap. Another one looked like a ragdoll version of Frankenstein. He had stitches everywhere. Aqua fought to keep her composure as she walked. Soon they came to another set of doors. Itachi reached up and knocked twice, and the doors opened. Aqua was surprised at the sight of the man who was now standing before her. He had orange hair, only a little darker than Naruto's, and piercings. Many of them, all over his face and up his ears. The man looked down at her then smiled at Itachi.
"Nice work, Itachi. It seems you've held true to your word."
Itachi bowed his head, and Aqua looked at him. Itachi raised his head and looked at his younger sister.
"Aqua, this is Pein. Our Leader."
Aqua's body tensed and she looked up at the man again. Even their leader's name was horrible. Pein…
He grinned at Aqua. "Hello there. I must say it is a pleasure to finally meet you, miss Akurano."
The girl's eyes widened. "Y-You know my name…?" She stammered.
Pein chuckled. "Yes. Itachi has been talking about you quite often as of late."
This embarrassed Itachi, and he didn't look at Aqua. He felt his temperature rise only slightly.
Pein smiled. "Heh… Well, that doesn't really matter now. Come, we must get you ready for your initiation." He turned his back on the young girl and began to walk towards the training hall.
"Initiation…?" Aqua thought, feeling just a tinge of fear. She knew something like this would happen, but that didn't stop the horrible feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach. She followed Pein obediently.
"Better get this over with quickly, I guess…"
As they neared the training hall, they passed most of the members. They all stared at Aqua as she passed with Itachi, who continued to stay close to her. Pein pushed open the doors to the large hall, revealing the vast amount of training equipment and some of the members inside. After the "Leader" and Aqua walked in, the others who were outside followed. When Aqua heard the doors slam shut she couldn't help but jump, and a small gasp escaped her lips. Then, Pein turned to her again.
"Alright, Aqua. This will be pretty simple and easy to understand. For your initiation, all you have to do is defeat one of our members."
Aqua looked around the room at the current members of the Akatsuki. Out of all the people there, she only spotted one other girl. She was pretty, with blue hair. Aqua glanced at Pein.
"And I'm guessing I don't get to pick who I fight, right…" She stated more then asked.
Pein grinned. "Correct. I will be picking your opponent."
Pein's odd, water ripple eyes scanned the room. When he had seemed to find a satisfactory opponent he pointed at the lucky Akatsuki.
"There."
Aqua turned and followed the Leader's gaze. He was pointing at a boy with long blonde hair, and soft blue eyes. The boy looked up, surprised, and pointed at himself.
"Huh? Me?" He asked.
The Leader nodded. "Yes. You, Deidara."
Aqua was a bit confused as to why he was acting like this.
"B-But I don't even know her, un! Why should I have to fight her?! Why doesn't Itachi fight her?!" The blonde pointed to Itachi, who glared at him fiercely. That seemed to shut him up.
Deidara looked at Aqua and sighed. "Fine…" He stepped into the middle of the room and waited.
Aqua moved to the middle of the room as well and stood opposite of him.
"BEGIN!"
Pein shouted, and Deidara charged at her. Aqua pulled out two kunai knives and braced herself. Deidara reached his hands into the two pouches he kept at his sides.
Aqua figured he was about to pull out a few shurikin and was ready to deflect them, but when he pulled his hands back out from the pouches he didn't throw throwing stars at her, but some strange white substance.
Aqua stared at it for a moment, confused. She had never seen anything like it before. However, using her common sense, she figured it must be bad. So she quickly backed away from it. A few seconds after that, it exploded. Aqua's eyes widened in shock.
"Bombs?!" She thought.
The boy charged at her again. Aqua ran and threw her two kunai back at him. Deidara dodged her attacks effortlessly. Aqua decided that she needed to keep her distance from him, and prepared to use one of her jutsu. While she ran she began to form hand signs. She had to concentrate. However, her thoughts were interrupted.
"Oh no you don't!!"
She heard the blonde boy shout and when she looked up he was only inches away. Aqua gasped and tried to get away from him, but he had already thrown something at her. Aqua starred in a mix of terror and awe as the clay he had used before took the form of a bird and actually flew towards her. Once it was close he detonated it and she was sent flying back with a scream.
Itachi, who was watching from the sidelines, had to bite his tongue to keep from calling out to her. She tried to get up, but her legs were shaky and she was still in shock from the impact of his attack. Things only became worse for Aqua when, after finally rising to her feet, she saw what looked to be a clay snake slithering towards her and hissing at her. Her eyes went wide and filled with fear.
'A-A snake…?'
Her eyes narrowed and she took out another kunai.
'It had to be a snake…' She tried to get away from the snake and then destroy it, but somehow she wasn't fast enough.
The snake wrapped itself tightly around Aqua's entire body, then tightened its hold even further. Aqua cried out in pain as she fell to the ground. Everyone was in awe as they watched her struggle. She tried and tried to break free from the snake's grasp but it was useless. She looked up and saw the blonde boy coming towards her and her heart began to sink. This was it… She was done for…
She heard some of the other members cheering. They were enjoying this… They said things like "Alright Deidara!" and "Way to go!" but mainly they said things like "Finish her off!".
Aqua hung her head in frustration and bit her lip, fighting back tears. The shouts of the other members echoed in her ears.
Finish it… Finish it…
'These Akatsuki members are all the same…' She thought as her tears began to overflow. 'They're all ruthless and cruel… Criminals and killers…'
She looked at Itachi one last time, the one who had brought her here. It seemed he looked as terrified as she felt. She didn't blame him for this. After all, she had left with him on her own, of her own free will. Still, she couldn't bring herself to smile at him or tell him it was alright, that she forgave him. Because, she still hadn't forgiven him for everything else he had done. She had admired him so much and looked up to him, and he betrayed her and the one she cared about most. Sasuke…
Sasuke…
She didn't want to die here. She wanted to live, and save her best friend. That was why she had come here, but now it seemed she would never get the chance…
She laid her head on the ground and gave up hope, accepting the fact that she was going to die. Her dark bangs covered her eyes as she closed them and one last tear fell.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke…" She muttered softly.
At that moment, Pein's voice rose above all the other noise.
"Finish her off, she is weak."
After that another voice was heard. It was a man with red hair and an uncaring expression.
"Do it and get it over with, Deidara." He said, sounding bored.
On the other side of the arena, Deidara seemed confused. He looked around the room at his fellow members then back at Aqua.
"You all want me to kill an innocent girl, hm? Well…" He shook his head and the snake released her.
Aqua felt the weight of the snake fall off of her and her eyes snapped open in shock. When she looked up she saw the boy who she had been fighting walking calmly over to her. Then he surprised her. He bent down a little and offered his hand to help her up. She hesitated a moment, then took his hand. Deidara helped Aqua to her feet and gave her a small smile.
"You're strong, yeah! You'll definitely become stronger with us!" He said enthusiastically.
Aqua was taken completely by surprised. He was actually being kind to her…
"B-But I lost." She said, sounding ridiculous even to herself.
"Maybe so, but you've too much potential to get rid of!" He replied then ruffled her hair. A faint blush tinted Aqua's cheeks as he did that. Next Deidara put an arm around her, ignoring the stares from the other members.
"C'mon, let's get inside and do something fun now!"
Aqua was even more shocked now, nearly speechless.
"O-Okay…"
Deidara led Aqua inside, looking around.
"You hungry or anything, hm?" He asked.
Aqua looked down and touched her stomach. She realized she was. She hadn't eaten since before leaving the Hidden Leaf with Itachi.
"Uhh…"
Not even waiting for a reply, Deidara pulled her towards the kitchen.
"How about I make something, yeah!"
Aqua's eyes widened. "You can cook…?"
"Of course! I'm awesome with my hands, yeah!" He began moving around the kitchen, gathering food and supplies. Aqua watched him, feeling both surprised and impressed. He made her a meal of orange chicken and fried rice. Once he was done, she sat down and began to eat.
"Is it good, hm?" He asked, looking at her with expectant eyes.
Aqua's eyes widened and she smiled.
"This is amazing!" She kept eating, having felt starved before. It was a long walk from the Leaf Village.
Deidara grinned. "Glad you like it."
Aqua chuckled a bit and finished eating. Deidara leaned against the counter and looked around the room.
"What shall we do now, un?" He asked.
Aqua leaned back and shrugged, her usually slim stomach bulging slightly from the food.
"We can do whatever now~" Deidara smiled and sat across from Aqua.
"Well… What is there to do around here?" She asked.
Deidara bit his lip, thinking. "We could train… Hang out… Or make art!"
"What kind of art?"
"Any kind of art, yeah! Painting! Clay! Art!!" Deidara grinned, excited about art. Aqua chuckled a bit.
"Okay, let's do that!"
Deidara stood up. "I've got all the stuff we need in my room!"
Aqua stood up as well.
"Okay."
For the first time since arriving there, she actually felt a bit calm, maybe even happy, maybe.
Deidara linked arms with Aqua and led her towards his bedroom, causing her to blush again. Once there, Deidara opened the door for her and she peeked inside.
"Sorry it isn't the cleanest…" Deidara said a little nervously as he stepped inside.
"It's okay." Aqua said, looking around.
It definitely was not the cleanest. There was a desk off to one side, and it was covered with painting supplies and clay. The clay from earlier... Except instead of menacing bombs, they were in the form of sculptures. That was not what disturbed Aqua. What really unsettled her were all the puppets that were lying around the room. They seemed to be only on one side of the room, but there were so many... Aqua counted eight, but in a small room like this, it seemed like dozens. Deidara had noticed her looking at the puppets and an annoyed expression came across his face.
"That junk isn't mine, un. Those puppets belong to Sasori-danna."
Aqua glanced at him. "Sasori...?"
The blonde nodded. "Yeah. He's kinda my partner in this organization. Everybody has one."
Aqua nodded, showing she understood. She thought back and remembered that Itachi always had that shark guy with him.
"You might have seen him earlier, in the training hall. He's the red head."
Aqua's eyes went wide. She'd seen him alright. His cold, indifferent words echoed through her mind.
"Do it and get it over with, Deidara..."
Deidara rubbed his chin thoughtfully, not seeming to notice Aqua's reaction. "Since you're new here, and everyone else is already paired off, I wonder what they're going to do with you... Hmm..."
Aqua tensed up a little. She didn't like the sound of that. In fact, now that Deidara had given her a chance to breathe, she felt very anxious. Here she was, inside the lair of a horrid organization filled with rogue ninja, standing in the room of one of these rogue ninja who had been attacking her not thirty minutes earlier. For a moment she considered leaving Deidara and going to find her own room, or at the very least going to find Itachi and have him explain things to her. She doubted she would be able to stay after losing her "initiation" battle.
Just as Aqua contemplated leaving, Deidara walked up to her, holding a small clay sculpture and some paint. He held them out to her.
"Here. You can paint this if you want."
Aqua looked at the small sculpture. It was a butterfly. It looked delicate, and had a lot of details on it. Aqua hadn't noticed it on his desk earlier. She looked up at Deidara.
"Did you make this just now?" She asked. He nodded.
"Yeah! Like it?" He asked as he placed it in her hands, looking at her with expectant eyes.
Aqua nodded and looked down at the butterfly, a small smile forming on her face.
"It's incredible..." She murmured quietly before looking up at him again. "How did you do that so quickly?" She asked, astonished.
Deidara winked at her. "When it comes to my art, I can whip up almost anything in almost no time, hmm."
Aqua couldn't help but giggle a little. Deidara handed her the paint and pull out a chair at his desk for her to sit down and work, while he went over to his bed and worked there.
She stayed with him in his room for a few hours, painting her butterfly and waiting for it to dry. They were interrupted when Itachi flung open Deidara's door, causing Aqua to jump.
"There you are..." The Uchiha muttered.
Aqua turned and glanced at him over her shoulder. "Itachi..."
"Come on. I'm going to show you your room now so you can get some rest." He told her then glanced at Deidara. He was a bit surprised to see them together after their battle and more than a little annoyed.
Aqua stood up to go with him and looked back at Deidara. "T-Thanks for everything today, Deidara-san... I'll see you later."
He nodded, smiling at her. "No problem. I hope you sleep well."
With that Itachi took his "little sister" and showed her to her room. She laid down in her bed and stared out at the night sky for a good while before finally managing to fall asleep.