Work Text:
There was never much to do between missions. The hideouts weren't equipt for entertainment and leisure. And while many of the adults had their own ways of keeping themselves occupied, in ways Itachi wanted no interest in, there was little to do but wait, train and eat when appropriate. Now wasn’t the time to train or eat, which left waiting, so that’s exactly what the boy was doing, simply mulling past things over to himself in a sort of meditation.
That was until he was rudely interrupted by the sound of lots of clackering noises at his feet, looking down he could see many small white marbles, something that required no further analysis, because the only thing it could mean is that he was around. And he was bored, terminally so. Itachi swiftly and nonchalantly stepped out of the way before they could set off, watching from a few feet away as they fizzled and popped, nothing more than glorified firecrackers, what a waste of time, energy and chakra.
“OI Uchiha, what's the matter? You scared?” Itachi hated being called that. He’d made it very clear he hated being called that, which is likely exactly why that blonde kid insisted on calling him that.
Because it seemed like he was that kind of person who got kicks out of being as annoying as possible, like Hidan, only the blonde at least had the benefit of still being a kid. So with any luck and time he’d grow out of it, hopefully sooner rather than later. It was a little frustrating having a noise machine around with the uncanny ability to always make Itachi’s headaches worse.
The kid was standing a little while away with his hands on his hips and a smug smile on his face. Clearly trying to make his smaller frame look as big as possible, which was a little difficult given he’d discarded their uniform cloak somewhere (and will likely have to traipse around the woods to find it again later). But the smile faltered after a few awkward seconds of silence, and slowly curved into a frown, clearly out of frustration for Itachi’s lack of response.
What a bother. Itachi was about to make his leave before the kid yelled out “NO FUCK WAIT! I mean um, just wait there a second, don’t run off I have something for you!” and immediately started scurrying over. Well as as long as he intends to be quick about it
Stopping a metre or 2 away from the other, the kid looked around hastily, checking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping before repeating “Yeh I have a thing for you”
“Is it important?” Itachi replied, voice entirely unwavering and disinterested
“YES! Well no, I guess? Wait obviously yes! Of course it’s important, it's from me! J-Just gimme a sec” the kid then proceeded to shove the fingers of one hand into the mouth on the other, trying to coax it to spit something out. And after a few seconds too many filled with strange mouth noises and awkward laughing from the blonde he finally said “Ahah!” and the tongue rolled out, unveiling a clay figure of a crow.
“That's not going to work. Your attacks never work.” Itachi was seconds away from activating his sharingan and being done with it.
“What? No I'm not trying to blow you up idiot, not this time anyway, it’s a gift.”
“And why would I want it?” Itachi was becoming more frustrated by the second, and the kid getting equally more flustered
“B-because it's a crow? That’s like your whole thing right? You have all those crows that live in your brain or whatever? So you’ve gotta like them right” what a painfully reductive way of describing a genjutsu, this guy might actually be more stupid than Itachi thought, he was slowly becoming red as a beet, like he himself would explode any second, or at least like he wanted to.
“Right. Yes I do enjoy the company of crows. More so than the company of people” Itachi had no idea why he was entertaining this.
“Awesome! So you love it and will cherish it forever right? Once again my genius art continues to be loved by all haha!” The kid was clearly doing his very best to uphold his bravado as Itachi’s void-like eyes bore into him with apathy.
“If I take it will you stop shouting?”
“Ah yeh, sure, course, whatever…” the kid was obviously making an attempt to be quieter and after failing to condense whatever words he wanted to say into a sentence, ended up shutting up entirely for the next few minutes. They both stood in silence with their backs against the wall, the kid’s eyes darting between the crow in Itachi’s hands, Itachi’s eyes and the general surroundings. He clearly wanted to say something but Itachi wasn’t exactly eager to find out what, being instead content to fiddle with the clay figure.
“Can I blow it up now? Not while you're holding it I mean, obviously! I mean I could clearly beat you in a fight without using underhanded tactics like that and-”
“Stop. Why? You just said I could have it.”
“Y-yeh but it feels wrong right? Like my art is the explosion! I'm getting antsy just thinking about it, I can’t just leave 1 of my best works incomplete right? Cus-”
“Ok. Again. Stop. Do what you must. It's none of my business” Itachi tossed the figure back to its maker.
“YES! Thanks man you’re not gonna regret it, just watch this!” The kid then proceeded to throw the figure as hard as he could at the nearest tree and yell “KATSU” . There was a great orange and red explosion and the tree erupted into flames, charring the bark and practically evaporating a chunk of the leaves.
“HAHA! Yeh! Did you see that? Another flawless work, I’m gonna go take a look at the details up close, you coming?” The kid was flailing his arms around erratically and his voice progressively getting louder. At least it was fun for 1 of them.
“I saw, and no thank you I have things to be doing” Itachi said with almost a sigh.
It was no loss, Itachi had no need for things like gifts or trinkets. Sure that’s what he’ll keep telling himself. He didn’t care in the slightest about the first gift he’d received in years.
“Okay, suit yourself!”
Deidara smiled and as he ran off, he proudly thought to himself “That went well I think.”