Chapter Text
A noise rang out – it wasn't loud, more like plastic had fallen to the ground, but it was enough to startle Deidara awake, one clay-covered hand pointing in the direction of the sound and the other reaching for a non-existent kunai.
"Sorry." Itachi apologized softly, picking up the cup he had dropped on the floor.
The blond stared at him for a while, calming his racing heart.
His ninja instincts were still ingrained in him. Although they had somewhat dulled with the quiet life he had been leading, he found it impossible to completely rid himself of them, as they were such an intrinsic part of his being.
"What time is it?" Deidara asked groggily before letting out a yawn.
Itachi sat down beside him. "About five in the morning," he replied softly.
The blond's eyes widened. "Five in the morning!? Where are my parents?" he asked, starting to get up.
However, the Uchiha grabbed his wrist and pulled him back, causing him to fall to the ground in a sitting position with a scream.
"What's up, you shitty Uchiha, hm!" Deidara whispered-shouted, seeing as it was still early.
Itachi stared at him for a moment, before giving a small — almost imperceptible — smile. "Your verbal tic is back." he stated.
"Thanks for letting me know, Captain Obvious." the blond replied with a frown. "And here I thought I was out of the loop, hm." He sighed, before nudging the other boy. "So? I'm here at five in the morning for…?"
Itachi looked at him with a hint of reprimand in his eyes. "You fell asleep while we were discussing a plan. I asked Kushina-san for you to sleep here with me."
"Nobody told you to be so annoying, hm!" Deidara replied angrily, before falling back onto the futon. "So what? What are we going to do?"
"If everything goes like the old timeline, the Kyuubi's attack will happen in October of next year. That…" The black-haired boy paused, carefully studying the blond's face. "…is when Minato-san and Kushina-san will die."
Deidara was silent for a moment, slowly sitting up.
"What do you mean!? I… I don't want them to die, hm! Not again…" He burst out in a shaky voice, feeling thick tears streaming down his eyes. He tried frantically to wipe them away, using his hands to hide his face — though it wasn't very useful due to their size.
'Stupid body! Acting like a child. Am I really going to cry just because of this!?' He thought in disgust.
He hates himself for getting so attached. Who would have thought a former S-rank missing-nin would be demoted to something as pathetic as a spoiled brat so dependent on his parents?
The blond had already endured losing his parents once, why couldn't he endure it a second time? It would only give him more freedom.
(Despite how much he tried to convince himself, salty tears still streamed down his face, regardless of what he thought.)
"Deidara," Itachi's voice called, and that was all the warning before the other boy approached the blonde and pulled him to his chest. "It'll be okay," he said, though his voice also sounded a little shaky. "We'll stop this. We won't lose our family again."
Deidara buried his face in Itachi's shoulder. "I'll hold you to that." he whispered, his hands lightly gripping the fabric of the Uchiha's shirt.
They stood like that for a moment, before the blond roughly pushed the brunette away. "Now let me go, you damn Uchiha, hm!"
The black-haired boy stared at him for a moment. "I think it's time to plan." he said blankly, before sending Deidara a firm look. "Don't fall asleep."
“Fine, fine,, how insistent, hm.” The younger boy complained, before nodding. “Go on, speak up.”
"As I said before, the Uchiha clan's ideas of rebellion against Konoha arose shortly after the Kyuubi attack. If Minato-san remains Hokage, I think tensions might ease, since he and my father are friends." He paused. "But with Danzou out there, there's no telling what he'll do. But we have problems that come before that. We need to stop Tobi, or rather, Uchiha Madara, from breaking Kushina's seal and freeing the fox." Itachi said.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Deidara exclaimed, feeling like his brain cells were melting. "Tobi? Akatsuki's Tobi? That childish idiot!? He's Madara, huh!?!" He said, speaking louder and louder — but not loud enough to pass through the walls and wake the other residents of the house.
Itachi looked away, staring into space. "Well… I have my doubts about that. But that's how he introduced himself back then. It was…" He swallowed. "He was the one who helped me… destroy the clan." he finally said.
Deidara was silent, digesting this information. A pang of betrayal rose within him against his will.
"That idiot... kept acting like a child. On purpose. He's been deceiving me this whole time, hm." He said, his voice brimming with anger. "I always thought there was something wrong with him, but I never imagined it was this." He sighed deeply. "How did this guy stay alive for so long?"
Itachi shrugged. "That's a question I don't even know the answer to."
Silence reigned once more, before the blond spoke hesitantly — something unlike him. “You know… there’s not much we can do with our three and five-year-old bodies, right? We’re more harmless than a rabbit in this state.”
“I still have the Sharingan and the Mangekyou… I can…” The Uchiha began, but was quickly silenced by a slap on the back of the head.
"Not only will you hurt yourself badly by doing this, but you'll also give away that there's something different about you, hm!" Deidara scolded, before giving a victorious smile. "I hit you! Hehe."
"How do you know it'll fail? Did you even try?" Itachi asked, exasperated, ignoring the other boy's proud smile.
The blond blushed slightly. "When this body was a year old, I tried to mold clay and infuse it with chakra. The normal amount I'd use for a small sculpture. It exploded in my hand. My dad nearly fainted, and my mom was super mad." He explained quickly. "My chakra control is back to what it was before, when I was a kid in our past life. But since then, I've been putting only small amounts of chakra into the clay, and I'm fine-tuning my control, hm!" he exclaimed, before wilting. "But it's not enough to compete with that damn eye of yours."
Itachi stared at him as if he had grown a second head.
"What's wrong, you bastard!?" Deidara demanded after the other boy stared at him for a long time without saying anything.
"Infusing chakra into objects, or in your case, clay, requires very good control. I think you could invest in medical jutsu," the other boy said absently.
“And leave aside my beautiful art!? Never, hm!” The blond denied, crossing his arms.
“I'm not talking about setting your art aside, but rather adding to it. Not all your art has to be deadly. What if you accidentally hit one of your parents?”
A thoughtful silence hung in the air, before Deidara clicked his tongue.
"I'll think about it, hm." He finally spoke, before becoming a little more serious. "So... what are we going to do?"
Itachi stared into space once more. "Wait. First, let's see if everything plays out like it did in the original timeline."
Deidara was about to answer, but stopped when he felt a presence approaching the room. Itachi seemed to have sensed it too, as he quickly changed the subject.
"We should go have breakfast." the black-haired boy said, standing up.
The blond followed him. "It's barely six in the morning, hm!" Despite his words, his tone was excited. "We could eat dango later, hm!"
Itachi's eyes shone almost impossibly as he stared at him, which caused Deidara to be shocked.
“I think so too.” That's what the boy replied.
'Looks like someone's a dango fan. ' Deidara thought with a smile, already thinking about how he would use this to his advantage in the future.
A knock on the door was heard, breaking him out of his thoughts. The Uchiha responded with a small 'come in' and the door was opened by Mikoto.
"I see you're already wide awake." the woman said softly. "I'll make breakfast. You can come wait in the living room, or you can wait here if you'd like." she suggested with a gentle smile.
Itachi smiled back at his mother. "We'll go in a bit."
Mikoto nodded, leaving the room and closing the door again.
The boys looked at each other, a silent pact being made.
Minato didn't expect his son to cling to the Uchiha heir right after they met.
It wasn't a bad development, but it was completely unusual. Especially considering the way Deidara seemed to hate Uchihas — if his behavior toward Obito was any indication. Or how he seemed to hate anyone close to his age.
His son always seemed to pay attention to Team 7's Uchiha, as if trying to figure something out, but quickly frowned when the boy came over to play. And Obito acted as if he were normal — and there was always a hint of something in his eyes at those moments, which he could never quite identify as anything other than a good feeling.
And yet, here Deidara was, playing — or, as he put it, fighting — with Itachi, who seemed increasingly amused with each exploding clay figure the little blond threw at him. Even without the Sharingan, the Uchiha possessed incredible reflexes. His son was no slouch, though he was a bit more sloppy, given that he was barely four years old.
Minato couldn't help but think the two of them were too advanced for their age. Almost unnaturally so. He didn't complain, however, as he didn't want to doubt the boys' intelligence.
He remembered Deidara asking about medical jutsu and he briefly wondered where the boy had heard of it, since the blond man and Kushina were doing their best to keep him away from the ninja life for now.
(He knew it was inevitable that Deidara would experience this life very soon, but he wanted to delay it as long as possible, especially when the Third War was still fresh, just finished.)
Minato told his son that he might learn more about it in the future, and thankfully, the boy didn't insist. He simply nodded and returned to his sculptures.
Deidara seemed to have an obsession with clay sculptures coupled with explosions, a fact that he and Kushina discovered very early on, when the little boy – who was one year old at the time – almost blew his hands away.
What frightened the couple most was the fact that their son wasn't screaming like a child, just making a grimace. As if it were just a minor annoyance. At the hospital, they explained that this was part of his kekkei genkai, and because of it, he seemed to have some resistance to high temperatures and explosions in general — but not completely.
But that didn't stop him and Kushina from being absolutely horrified.
They wanted to forbid him from making any more explosions, but they couldn't fight his puppy dog look, so they made a deal: until he grew up, only small explosions and always accompanied by someone.
After that little scare, Minato and Kushina began to pay closer attention and saw that, despite the volatility, their sculptures were indeed beautiful. And they became even better when the boy began adding color to the small explosions — which were more like smoke signals at this point.
Minato was pulled from his thoughts when he felt a small hand tugging at his pants. He looked down and saw Deidara staring at him with his big blue eyes.
"Can we have bakudan?" The boy glanced at the Uchiha briefly, before turning back to the blond man. "And dango?"
The Fourth Hokage didn't have the heart to say no, so they were soon heading towards a small family restaurant that sold both foods – a place they had been frequenting a lot since the friendship between Deidara and Itachi sparked.
Minato just watched fondly as his son jumped onto the Uchiha's back, who, despite the grimace, made no move to get him off of him.
He hoped it could continue like this for a long time.
"You and Itachi get along really well, don't you, Dei!" Obito teased the blond, taking a handful of his cheeks between his fingers. "Why can't you get along with me too!?"
The fingers were quickly bitten, causing the Uchiha to pull away with a small cry of pain.
"Get your hands off me, hm!" Deidara shouted angrily, though his expression was smug.
"Honestly… you don't know anything about personal space… you idiot," Kakashi scolded without taking his eyes off his book, although he seemed much softer than usual.
"At least I'm not the one reading that kind of book in front of the kids, Bakakashi!" Obito shouted back, disgusted.
Deidara sighed as the two boys dissolved into their usual arguments.
Still, he'd be foolish not to notice how much their relationship had… not exactly improved, but softened. They acted much more like teammates now than they had before.
This happened right after Obito and Kakashi nearly died on a mission.
Apparently, someone was trying everything to steal one of the black-haired boy's Sharingans, and apparently, they almost succeeded. Kakashi had interfered, and Obito had to save him from certain death, and they both had to flee. Although they returned mostly intact, the Uchiha had seemed worried and paranoid ever since.
The black-haired boy didn't know who had tried to steal his eye, as the person was completely covered by a cloak. However, something told Deidara that he probably did.
But no one insisted, and that was it.
Furthermore, everyone decided to focus on the fact that Kakashi finally started to value teamwork more than rules – probably because the silver-haired boy had died and the Uchiha had apparently come back to save him.
And since then, Team 7 has been taking off. Rin hadn't been left behind: she was studying at the hospital to become a good doctor, avidly reading anatomy books and practicing on injured people — with the approval of her teacher and the hospital.
She was already a great doctor, and Deidara had the right to speak, considering all the times he had blown himself up somewhere or when he had blown up Obito by accident .
He was pulled from his thoughts when the only girl on the team walked up to the two arguing boys and lectured them, causing them both to stop and apologize.
They stopped for a few seconds.
“But I didn't do anything…” Kakashi said, looking away.
Obito glared at him. "I was arguing with a wall then!?" He asked, approaching the other boy.
The silver-haired boy gave a falsely friendly smile. “It would be preferable if you did.”
And… they started arguing again.
"Shut up, hm!" Deidara shouted, crossing his arms, making everyone look at him.
Obito stared at him for a moment. "Just like Kushina-nee…" He whispered.
The woman, who was not far away in the kitchen, heard him and approached. She didn't seem angry, however. "Of course he's just like me! He's my son, dattebane!" the redhead exclaimed proudly, taking the blond in her arms. "He even got a verbal tic from me..." she said, shaking her head slightly.
The Uchiha smiled. "I'm going to start influencing him to be a mini-me!" he exclaimed.
Kakashi looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Never."
And they, once again, dissolved into arguments once again .
'They’ll end up dating. ' Deidara thought with a hint of amusement.
Sometimes they were annoying and the blond wanted to do nothing but blow their faces off, but…
If this was what having a family was like, he couldn't say he hated it.
Deidara didn't know what to do.
For a year, he tried to prepare for the Kyuubi's attack.
During this time, one of the most shocking things he discovered was that Naruto, the Jinchuuriki of Konoha, is the son of Minato and Kushina and, consequently, his younger brother.
He had only discovered it by chance, as his parents, late in his mother's second pregnancy, had decided to name the baby Naruto, after the book written by Jiraiya, their godfather. He hadn't even known the Sannin had any books that weren't obscene!
Deidara only knew one Naruto. And now that he thinks about it, the boy was a miniature copy of Minato, and his personality was entirely Kushina's. It should have been obvious to him long ago.
The blond boy pestered Itachi after learning this, since the Uchiha hadn't told him. The other boy, however, just snorted and said, "I knew you'd react like this."
What a bastard, really.
The two boys kept in close contact, always updating each other on every situation they could.
Itachi informed about how tension was starting to appear between the Uchiha Clan, but said that it was not something to worry about depending on how the Kyuubi's attack went.
In return, Deidara talked about how Minato had been having "discussions" - which were more like subtle jabs from both sides - with Danzou, who still didn't support him being the Hokage, despite it already being decided.
When the Uchiha asked him how he managed to learn this without being caught, the blond proudly proclaimed that he had invented a way to make his sculptures function as a sort of microphone, thanks to chakra vibrations, which could be translated into the vibration of the vocal cords. The sound was a bit off, sure, but it was almost completely understandable. Deidara also informed him of his plans to create "chakra cameras" someday, though he wasn't yet sure how to do that.
Itachi just looked at him with a hint of shock, before applauding him, which made the boy smug.
However, knowing all of this didn't help him at that moment: the Kyuubi's attack.
Normally, Deidara would stay away from the delivery room in case something went wrong, but he made the biggest fuss of the century until they let him stay there – although they only allowed it if he stayed close to Minato.
The blond man was covering Deidara's ears, though it did little to muffle his mother's screams of pain — and the anguish seemed to roll off his father in waves.
The boy was hoping internally that nothing would happen. That soon Naruto would be born and they would get out of there without the fox being released and the village being half-destroyed.
That was not the will of the universe, however.
It all happened very quickly: one moment he was in his father's arms, the next he was being held tightly by a creature, after which it placed an explosive tag on Naruto's blanket and threw him away, forcing Minato to move away.
It was an inhuman creature, half white, half black, with something resembling a plant around it. A very familiar creature.
It was Zetsu .
‘Why?’ He wondered as (the man? the plant?) teleported him and Kushina away.
Deidara tried punching, kicking, biting, exploding — but nothing worked. All his attempts did was make Zetsu stare at him with interest.
"What are you doing here, Deidara?" White Zetsu asked in a deceptively soft voice, as he sent a clone toward Kushina.
“It's none of your business, hm!” The blond retorted, trying to free himself from the creature's grip.
Black Zetsu made an irritated noise. "How did the timeline get so messed up?" he asked in a deep voice.
"Well, never mind. Let's get the Akatsuki back together," White Zetsu replied, before smirking at Deidara. "This time sooner."
The blond felt as if the blood in his veins would freeze. "I'm not going to be part of your shitty organization, hm!" he shouted. He couldn't help but be thankful that his mother was half-conscious at the time and didn't seem to be listening, but he scolded himself for having such a thought two seconds later.
"What a foul mouth," White Zetsu scolded lightly, before a wide grin spread across half his face — which was quite a macabre sight. "Then we'll have to get rid of you."
And with that, a mass of pure chakra erupted from Kushina's stomach, taking the form of a massive fox. As soon as it did, Kushina fell, though she was now more awake.
“Mama!” Deidara shouted, still trying to free himself.
It didn't take much effort, though, for Zetsu soon dragged him away and threw him into his mother's arms, who held him as tightly as she could.
"I-It's going to be okay, Dei…" She whispered, hugging him to her chest. The blond held her tightly, afraid she would disappear if he let go.
White Zetsu whistled. "So you're still alive. Uzumaki vitality is truly remarkable." he said.
"It's a shame that doesn't matter much now," Black Zetsu added, reaching out to the fox and sending a stream of chakra through it. "Kyuubi. Wouldn't it be an honor for you to kill the former jinchūriki and her offspring?" he asked in an amused voice.
The fox's eyes glowed with a yellowish light, before returning to a deep, hateful red.
There was no more time to think about anything, as soon the fox's claw came towards him at high speed and Deidara closed his eyes, squeezing the redhead, who squeezed him back.
However, nothing happened.
The familiar sensation of the Hiraishin being used permeated his being, and he closed his eyes. A second later, he opened them and found himself face to face with a room in the safe house, and beside him was Naruto, wrapped in blankets and crying profusely.
Deidara looked at his mother, who looked extremely tired, and then looked back at Naruto, before walking over and sitting next to him, bringing him onto his lap.
‘He’s so small… ’ The older boy thought briefly, shaking him in hopes of shutting him up.
"Can you give him to me, Dei…" His mother called, approaching. Deidara quickly passed the baby to her.
Perhaps only a few minutes had passed, fifteen at most, before a burst of chakra appeared outside the house and the blond quickly identified it as the Kyuubi's chakra, along with his father's chakra.
Kushina grimaced before placing Naruto on the bed and standing up. "Stay there, Dei. Take care of Naruto." she urged before running outside.
Deidara bit his lip, feeling tears welling up in his eyes, but he pushed them back into the depths of his being – which was a tough task for his four-year-old body – and stood up.
However, before he could leave the room, two very familiar people appeared at the door.
"Itachi! Obito?" The blond asked, approaching them. "What are you guys doing here, hm!?" He questioned, deliberately mispronouncing a few words as he usually does around anyone other than Itachi, so they don't think he's older — or, worse, more of a genius than they already believe.
"You didn't think I'd let you deal with this alone, did you?" The younger Uchiha spoke softly, before looking at Obito.
"You don't have to pretend you're four, Deidara. I already know," the older boy said, smiling sadly.
"It was just to confirm, hm." Deidara stated, before pulling them both out. "We'll clear everything up later, we don't have time!"
With that, the three ran outside, towards the fight that was taking place right in front of them.
When they got close enough, they noticed that the fox seemed out of control, becoming even more furious when Kushina used chakra chains to tie it to the ground.
As he got closer, he heard his parents arguing.
"Minato! Let's seal the fox inside me! You need to live!" The redhead shouted. "I don't want you to die because of me!"
Minato disagreed with her, however. "I will use the Reaper of Death Seal to seal the fox's Yin chakra into myself and the Yang chakra into Naruto. You are the one who must live to care for them."
His parents started a small argument, but Deidara's attention was drawn to Obito's frown.
"If Minato-sensei uses that seal, he'll die." the Uchiha whispered.
The blond boy ran towards his parents as soon as the older boy said those words.
"Papa! Seal the fox completely inside Naruto!" Deidara shouted, clinging to Minato's leg, who stared at him in shock.
“I don't want you guys to die, hm!” The little blond screamed, starting to sob against his will.
'I already knew that no matter my mental age, my body would act like a child. But... why does it hurt so much? ' he thought. 'I should never have gotten attached .' he thought again with a dark look. 'Maybe going back to being a missing-nin isn't such a bad idea. Fewer things, or rather, people, to lose.'
"If you leave, I want to go with you!" He finished with a shaky voice.
Minato and Kushina looked at each other with pained looks.
The redhead placed a hand on Deidara's cheek, wiping away the tears. "Never say such things, Deidara. You’re very precious to us, 'ttebane." she replied with teary eyes.
"I… can try." the blond man finally spoke. "But we need to find a way to weaken the fox…"
The redhead lowered herself a little, already sitting on the floor. "I don't know if I can hold on much longer." she whispered.
As if on cue, the fox turned its gaze toward them, filled with hatred. Suddenly, a large, sharp claw came toward them.
The blonde's eyes widened and his heart raced.
' There's nothing I can do. ' he thought. 'I'm useless in this situation. But… ' He rushed forward, reaching out to try to make use of the little clay he had left hidden away. ' I have to do something! I'm not going down without a fight!'
But just seconds later, he felt a burst of chakra erupt from him, and he closed his eyes. He was ready to die, but he was shocked when he looked around and saw reddish-gold chakra chains embedded in the ground, creating a barrier and blocking the Kyuubi, who growled, trying to break through.
'This… isn't an explosion .' Deidara thought in disbelief. ' This isn't clay. I didn't even use a hand seal .' As he thought this, he slowly turned to look at his mother, who was staring at him in shock.
Kushina smiled. "Adamantine Chakra Chains."
Taking the opportunity, Minato used the Hiraishin to bring Naruto, using some hand seals to summon an altar, carefully depositing the baby there.
However, the barrier was beginning to break – both Deidara's and Kushina's, both breathing heavily.
Unable to hold on any longer, the blond boy fell forward, only being prevented from colliding with the ground thanks to his mother, with his chains retracting into his back.
Deidara thought it would be the end when his barrier broke, but he was shocked once more when a voice came from behind.
"Stop!" He ordered, and the Kyuubi was promptly paralyzed.
The blonde had kind of forgotten that Obito and Itachi were there.
The older Uchiha had his Sharingan activated, controlling the fox, which gave Minato enough time to make some hand seals and seal the fox completely in Naruto, who began to cry.
Still in his mother's arms, Deidara felt his body grow warm. His vision blurred, and his ears felt like cotton wool. He wondered if he would die again.
He wouldn't know how it is, even though he'd already died once. The other time, it happened in the blink of an eye; he didn't even feel it. In this moment, he's hyperaware of every sensation in his body: his racing heart hammering in his ears, obscuring the voices around him; his heavy, labored breathing, his throbbing skull. Everything.
As he closed his eyes, a very familiar face entered his vision, a face he would recognize anywhere. Itachi. A pair of red eyes stared at him, his expression filled with worry.
As he drifted into unconsciousness, a single thought crossed his mind.
‘Finally, these satanic eyes were useful to me .’