Meeting Deidara

The two woman sat contentedly, in silence: processing what they had heard from Mai. Until....

"It was pretty obvious that you were attracted to him."

Mai sputtered out some unintelligible words before she sat up to glare at the source of her distress.

"Kikuuuuu...."

At the sound of her drawn out name, Kiku grinned nervously at her 'kind' sisters' killing intent: she had to admit it was fun yet scary messing with her rather serious older sister.

"It was obvious that you were attracted to him. Admit it, you had the......"

Mai quickly slapped her hand, on her sisters' mouth to muffle out the sentence. Kiku sighed at her short tempered sister and tugged at the offending limb. Kiku knew that this was a subdued gesture of "shut up". She shivered at the many methods that her sister handled embarrassment: especially "shut up". Yup, definitely subdued.

Mai, not knowing her sisters' trail of thoughts: ruffled the brunette hair. She missed her, out going, cheerful and bright Kiku. Mai was here to stay, she was loved and safe. Her eyes softened and grinned slightly.

They had apparently forgotten about Konan, even if the said, woman did not mind in the least. The sight brought the normally solemn woman, a small smile. The familiar sense of nostalgia came with that sight. The bluenete half expected Mai to shove some of the sand into her throat.....then again, Mai always had a soft side. The source of her discomfort was also her sister, who Mai had cherished and protected when all was gone.

While Konan hated to intrude on such a heart warming scene, her story was far too intriguing to be left unsaid.

"I hate to intrude but, I believe the day after this was when Deidara called you a..."

"Bitch?"

"I was going to say an obnoxious woman, but that works as well."

Mai chuckled and stretched out her arms. Not that her arms ached, but it was one of the many habits that she had developed.

"That morning..."

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Mai woke up, not to the sunlight nor birds chirping. She woke up to an unfamiliar silence, that was her room. It was unsettling, since she was used to some sort of sound waking her up. She never had a hard time waking up, but this country had an unique weather: constant rain. She had jumped out of her bed in a panic, throwing some shurikens and kunai at the walls: before she remembered why she was in a closed space that was called a 'room'.

"Ugh..... god damn it."

Mai stalked to the walls that was pierced in her panic and proceeded to stretched out her entire "short statue".

Mai blinked.

Wait.... why did she refer to her perfectly normal height as "her short statue".

Right.... damn that man to hell.

Why was she thinking about that arrogant annoying man. The Uchiha insulted her height and her status as a kunoichi. He also ruined her view and stirred up memories of her sisters' death. All in one night!!

'Now is not the time to be thinking about my past."

The navy haired woman shook her head and slapped her cheek. She picked her thigh length robe and put her arms through the rolled up sleeve. She tied her rough textured sash across her hip and slipped into her faithful and trusty ninja shoes. While she was slinging her weapon pouch against her hip, she heard a even paced knocks.

"Mai."

Mai barely suppressed a growl when she heard that-that....arrogant voice.

Speak of the Uchiha....

"Give me five minutes."

She grabbed her brush and started to rake through her knotted and ruly hair.

The sound of hair snapping and shuffling reined in the spartan room.

"Alright."

Mai tied her hair into a low ponytail and went to the lone sink to brush her teeth. While she was tempted to leave her morning breath to be, even she had levels that she would never stoop to. Morning breath was one of them.

With out taking a second look at her room, Mai swung the door open, only for her eyes to come in level with a red cloud and black cloak.

"I was expecting you to take longer than five minute."

Mai felt several veins throb around her forehead, and glared up at source of her irritation: Uchiha Itachi. She ignored the 'insult' and decided to state the obvious.

"Why are you here Uchiha?"

The Uchiha stared at her with the obsidian eyes, and started to walk away.

"Follow."

Mai silently swore before she proceeded to follow him. It took a lot longer to catch up to him, since his strides were longer compared to hers. They both walked in a awkward silence, not even glancing at each other. Mai wasn't expecting him to talk, much less, at his own free will.

"Why did your walls had imprints of weapons."

The question seemed more like a statement, as if through he was mocking her. Through it was hard to tell by his monotone voice.

Mai managed to suppress some of her blush, but the red still appeared on her pale cheeks. She bit her bottom lip and walked right past him. Mai thought she saw amusement in his eyes, but she dismissed it as her paranoia.

"You are going in the wrong direction."

Mai stopped, turned 180 and saw that she had walked right past Itachi. He was currently standing in one of the many hallways, turning to the right. Grinding her teeth and failing to control the scarlet splash on her cheeks, she stalked to him and turned the damn corner. This time, she definitely saw the flicker of amusement in his eyes.

'What a beautiful and glorious morning.'
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The meeting was longer than expected, and so far she was introduced to almost all the members. Mai knew that she on thin ice with all of the members. The blonde insane kid and the silver hair idiot was her least tolerable.

"Hey unn. The new informant."

Mai stopped and slightly turned her head to see who had called her.

Deidara, rouge ninja from Iwa-gakure-no-sato. Supposedly he has a kekkai genkai....

Mai turned her whole body to give him more attention.

"What is it you want."

Blondie grinned (it looked very stupid and creepy) and holds out his hands. Mai is revolted at the sight of the mouth, teeth and the tongue hanging out of his palm. She can say that she has seen much worse though. Still, it was quite disgusting. Now that she saw his hands, she recalled hearing about his clay...

"Let's spar. I want to see if your 'steam' is a match again my 'art'."

Mai scoffed and turned around to walk up to the roof, until...

"Of course, unless your short height is a disadvantage..."

Mai stopped abruptly and turned her head slightly to glare at the smirking blond.

He did not say that. Seriously, what is it with people mentioning her as "short".

She stalked toward him until she stood a few feet before him.

"You want me to spar with you?? Fine, I'll fight you right now."

Mai really needed to get out of the building and vent out her frustrations anyways. This was perfect.

"Good. I'll lead you to the sparring grounds unn."

The confident blond and the furious blunette both left the building and stepped into the drizzling rain. Little did she know that many members were already placing bets on the 'spar'.
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