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THE impostor is not anywhere near Iwagakure or the Land of Earth like he had expected, nor does the impostor have the symbol of his village or any other village like he had also expected.
Instead, the impostor is a foreigner.
They are not even taller than him and they look nothing like a shinobi. Why people thought it was him wreaking havoc in some no-name village he had never heard of in the Land of Wind, he has no idea. But at least, he considers that the impostor does have rather impressive explosives and blond hair. That is, however, where the similarities end. He knows that he left Iwagakure at a very young age and became notorious even before he left as well but him—Deidara the S-Rank missing-nin from Iwagakure—getting mistaken for a child who walks around like a literal target practice? Red, of all colors? Even a kid still studying shinobi how-to knows better than to wear bright colors when alone.
A blond child with bombs. Short too. Somehow, the Akatsuki figured that it made sense that the rumors were talking about him even though he had spent most of his time recovering from the recovery of the Ichibi and getting his missing arm stitched back up by Kakuzu, even though he clearly is not short but simply young. But to think of the audacity they had to mistake Deidara one of the youngest S-Rank missing-nin and the youngest among the elusive and infamous Akatsuki—him, mistaken for a literal child who barely went past his waist—
“Klee’s name is Klee!”
—a kid with a foreign name too. How does he even pronounce that? ‘Ku-rē’? He tries to play it off at the tip of his tongue but fails one attempt after another, failing to mimic the strange tilt of the little kid’s tone. Whatever, he decides, ‘Kū’ is a close enough name. Better a nickname than to make a fool of himself. But! He is not supposed to be worrying about nicknames. He is supposed to be worrying about this kid who appeared out of nowhere and began tarnishing his reputation. The last time he went to the Land of Wind was when he snatched the Ichibi out from the little Kazekage. The Leader said it will be convenient for him to use the impostor as a misdirection for Suna-nin and Konoha-nin who will no doubt follow the rumors like a hound, but really? A kid?
‘Klee’ apparently came out of nowhere, according to the villagers and at first, they had thought that she was Deidara as well (until Deidara himself showed up and threatened them for information about the kid). And other things to note about Klee is that she speaks in a strange accent, her clothes are even stranger, and those pointed ears… maybe a kekkei genkai?The point is that maybe, Deidara knows that if Suna and Konoha, ‘good village’ or not, are anything like his oh-sobeloved Iwagakure, they will definitely snatch up Klee and try to create a Deidara 2.0 which is definitely not what he wants. Deidara is irreplaceable and can never be replicated. But he still does not know when a ‘quick mission’ turned into ‘grabbing a kid and throwing said kid someplace else so nobody tries to replicate him’, but it still does. He does not know when and how he asked for a longer time from the Leader and the others, but he still did. Does he know why he wants to ask? No. Is this perhaps some kind of excuse to linger in this disgusting place they call the Land of Wind after Sasori got himself killed by that pink shit? He neither confirms nor denies, but he grabs the child by the collar, ignores her excited squeal, and flies away.
That is his explanation for this whole debacle. But that does not mean that he himself likes his reasoning. He, however, does not think that his on-the-spot reasoning is enough to justify hearing out ‘Klee’ and her endless questions. “I’m from Mondstadt! Is it anywhere near here? Are we in Inazuma? Jean-danchō said that Inazuma is closed because someone made the Archon angry! Is that true? Are we really, really in Inazuma? How did I end up here, then? Did the Archon let me in? Did I accidentally sneak in? Or is Inazuma just open for today—”
“Never heard of it. No. I don’t know. No. Why don’t you know? I don’t know who and what an Archon is, un. You should ask yourself that, not me. For the last time, I have no idea what—...”
Deidara lets the bird down as they land away from the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire, two of the countries that are hunting him down more than anyone else. The Land of Lightning is not his favorite country, not by a mile, but he settles with it for now. This place is too moist, too cloudy, so misty that it may as well be Kirigakure, but there are little sensors in the Land of Lightning and it is likely that no one will recognize him here despite its close distance to the Land of Fire. Konoha, too, has a bad relationship with Kumogakure, so the chances of Konoha-nin somehow passing by? Zero. Now, to think of where to drop off this kid because the Land of Earth, Land of Wind, and Land of Fire, are out of the question, and since they are already in the Land of Lightning, may as well—
“Wah—!” The kid has somehow gotten a hold of his pouch, palming the stolen bombs with her tiny hands. He never expected this kid to be weirdly agile, and since when did she get out from the little cot Deidara painstakingly built for her? “Bombs made of clay? Klee’s never tried to make bombs with clay! Can you teach me? Please, please, please!”
Deidara pushes the kid away before she can get any closer. She barely manages to blink as Deidara swipes his bombs away from her. “Ha? I can’t just—this isn’t just bomb-making! This is art, un!” The kid’s lower lip wobbles but Deidara remains firm. He has no responsibility to teach her anything in the first place, and besides, he plans on leaving her in the next nearest village and scramming. He still feels uncomfortable with his new arm because of the half-assed work that Kakuzu did with it. Getting a medic-nin to take a look at it will be a chore and a half, and will probably get him more trouble than it is worth, but that Kakuzu just had to scam him off his money even though they are technically coworkers. He has no time to teach an impostor who apparently makes bombs just like him—... alright, maybe, he has a bit of time.
He takes a peek at the kid’s corner in the forest, leaning against a tree and fiddling with his ridiculous-looking ‘bombs’. But he has to admit, compared to his own bombs, the kid’s bombs are more intricately decorated, which he can respect. He crouches down right in front of her and grabs one of the bombs. The kid gasps. “This is pretty good, un. You made it yourself?” He twists it around. “How do you light it?” All he can see is a flower where the tick should be, the body resembling more of a stuffed toy than an actual bomb. It will be useful for reconnaissance but too distinct to be used frequently.
“Like this!” The kid brings a book, patterned the same way as her backpack, her bombs, and her outfit. Whoever raised this kid is doing a horrendous job. Any shinobi knows better than to look like this, and she certainly is far from a civilian. Or maybe, she is one of those civilians who are rich enough to have expensive shinobi-like hobbies. The foreign clothes and soft hands will explain that. At her age, Deidara already had hands so calloused he could barely feel his own skin. “Look, look!—” She flips open the book and the luxurious-looking pendant by her waist glows. With a hand occupied with a bomb, she throws it up towards the branches and—an explosion. One Deidara has never seen before. “And I can do this too!”
The book is too big for her hands despite the personalized-looking appeal it has against her. Deidara does not even bat an eyelash at the burning branches or how fast it is growing, because Klee lifts a hand, a sparkle of a clover-shaped visage gleaming brightly, and as if it is aiming carefully and gathering Chakra, the light pulls, the pages flip and there it goes again—another explosion that sends Deidara’s heart racing. An explosion from a bomb he has never seen before. And all Klee does, amidst the charred grass and the growing fire, is smile toothily. She shows off her pearly whites, dimples digging into her cheek as the points of her ears twitch in excitement. Just as fast, her face drops. “Ah!” She pales. “Klee’s not supposed to use explosions in forests! Jean-danchō’s going to be mad—”
“What do you mean you can’t!?” Deidara exclaims and he does not catch himself when he picks up Klee, a little heavy from whatever is inside her bag but easy enough. He reflects the smile Klee had given him earlier. “That was art, un! Show me again!”
Klee blinks blarily. “But we’re in a forest…”
“So?”
That is all it takes to convince Klee, and Deidara realizes quite a few things as Klee shows off one bomb and then another—a large bomb that scatters into her more normal-sized ones, a more centralized ones that she says is really hard to do and she needs lots and lots of energy (Chakra, Deidara concludes, but it is pretty odd for a kid her age to not know much about Chakra, rich civilian or not) and she insists it can follow anyone anywhere when she uses it. Deidara realizes something about Klee’s name. Klee’s name means clover! That’s what Klee’s Mama said!—which explains the decoration on her clothes and the clover-patterned everything that she owns but, “‘Klee’ also means ‘clay’, un!”
Deidara does not believe in destiny. Not at all. He does not want to believe that it was his destiny to be used up and spat out by Iwagakure and get forced to work for the Akatsuki because of that damned Uchiha whose eyes are all he has going for him. Deidara does not believe in destiny but Klee shows up out of nowhere with clothes that are unfamiliar to him, with a name that resembles his art, with explosives dancing around her, with blonde hair that was mistaken as his—he found Klee in a no-name village in the Land of Wind, the same place where Sasori-no-Danna died and made him one-limb lacking. Akatsuki are supposed to work in pairs, go out in pairs, and fight in pairs. He knows someone will replace Sasori soon. That is how the Akatsuki works but as much as he and Sasori did not get along, there was no one in the Akatsuki he respected more than that man, someone who held art in such a high regard it reflected on himself and he adapted it into himself.
Art is fleeting. Art is eternal. And yet only one remains. Deidara does not believe in destiny or the coincidence that a kid who uses explosives and looks a bit like him, whose name is shared with the same material he makes his bombs from, who he found in the same country his partner died in. He does not believe in destiny but this coincidence sends chills down his spine. “If ‘Klee’ means ‘clay’ and ‘clover’, then what does Deidara-nīsan’s name mean?” He ignores the flush on his cheeks and the thrum in his chest with the way Klee addresses him.
“Have no idea, un,” he shrugs. He was an orphan who was raised in war and missions. He had no time to deal with the details and intricacies of himself when he was busy escaping Iwagakure.
“Oh,” Klee mumbles. She suddenly turns around to reach for something in her backpack. She swerves back to him, presenting the little keychain that was hanging on her backpack. “This is Dodoco! Ask Klee what his name means! Ask, ask!”
Deidara scowls. “What, un?”
“Klee’s best friend!” Klee giggles. “Mama gave it to Klee! She said as long as Dodoco and Albedo-nīsan are with Klee, Klee will never be alone!”
Strike one. It is the third day Deidara spends with Klee and it is also the first time Klee mentions this ‘A-ru-be-do’. Maybe Klee just mispronounced the name, maybe Klee really is a foreigner from outside the other lands. Klee, too, has a strange accent when talking and uses simple sentences that are grammatically wrong sometimes and Klee claims that ‘she knows a librarian who knows lots of languages and gave her a tip or two about Inazuman language’. Deidara, however, is not curious about that. He is curious about the ‘A-ru-be-do’ character more than anything—Klee’s blond, kind-of long-haired older brother who she says makes weird drinks and can make floating flowers. He was supposed to take Klee to go explore outside their village but Klee got distracted and ended up in the village where Deidara found her.
Strike two. The guy lost the kid?
To be fair, Deidara was planning to leave Klee in a random village before he decided to bring her to—bring her to where?Akatsuki? In the Land of Rain? Then what? And then what? Now that he thinks about it, the Land of Lightning is as suspicious as the other villages: they have the habit of snatching clan children to their village, after all. Kirigakure is no better being the exact opposite of Kumogakure, new Mizukage or not. The smaller villages are most likely going to take advantage of Klee just like Konoha, Iwa, and Suna are going to so—what? Deidara is going to bring Klee to the Akatsuki? Make her his partner because she uses bombs like him? Because her name means ‘clay’ and he just happened to find her in the same country his old partner died in? Because for once, Deidara is getting along with someone? Because she looks like she was abandoned just like him? Because his old partner is gone, and he is alone? Because she calls her fondly with that nickname—
Strike three.
No, he tells himself. He is taking Klee to the Akatsuki because he cannot just leave her in some random place. This is that ‘Albedo’s’ fault. He lost Klee and Klee ended up here. That guy’s lucky Deidara found her because if it was anybody else, Klee would have been forever stuck in that village with Konoha and Suna pecking on her. “Dei-nīsan! Where are we going?” She asks excitedly. “Are we gonna fight monsters? Do you fight monsters? Oh, oh, oh! Is Dei-nīsan an adventurer? Like—like the Traveler? Are you a knight like Klee? This is the first time Klee’s met an adventurer who uses bombs too! Amber-neesan uses bombs too but it’s not like Klee’s, you know?”
He blames Sasori-no-Danna for this. If he did not die, Deidara would not be worrying about his next partner, and he would not be considering a kid for a partner. But Klee is a good partner. (Kind of.) She uses bombs like him, does not argue with him, is eager to learn, and follows everything he says. He crosses his arms and decides: “Kū’s—”
“Is that Klee? Is that Klee?”
“—going to stay in the inn for a while,” Deidara has spent a whole week debating on this. He just has to go back to the Land of Rain, show his face and do such a good job on the next mission the Leader will give him, then maybe, he can pitch grabbing Klee as his new partner. It is clearly a half-assed plan, but he cannot stay in the Land of Lightning for such a long time. “I’m going to be back in less than a week. Can you do that, un?”
Klee nods eagerly. “A commission, right!”
“An A-Rank mission,” Deidara decides. With enough threats to the innkeeper and some money here and there, Deidara leaves the Land of Lightning.
His decision is further cemented when he sees his new partner: some guy named Tobi who he has never heard of in the Bingo Book and looks and acts like an idiot. Even Klee is easier to deal with than this guy. He doubts this guy can even survive an encounter with the Uchiha’s younger brother. It will be hard to deal with Uchiha Sasuke on his own with baggage to deal with, but Deidara needs to get this job over and done with. Going all the way back to the Land of Rain and Land of Lightning will be a chore, and will take him more than a week as he promised to Klee. But Uchiha Sasuke is just a shadow of his brother—
—but an Uchiha nonetheless. That eye—that fucking eye—the reason why he ended up in this situation, in this predicament, why he was forced to join this organization. His cloak has long been shed, and though the new arm is uncomfortable, all he needs is one more push, and he can kill this brat—the brother of the man who damned Deidara in this fucking position but he cannot use that technique, can he? He cannot use his most powerful technique, the one he had been saving up for the longest time now, the one he had painstakingly crafted to rid of the Uchiha walking around in the land. He still needs to get back to Klee, after all. He even has somewhat planned the way he is going to justify the whole ‘Klee’ thing.
Does he even need to use his strongest technique to beat that Uchiha? Uchiha Sasuke does not deserve his strongest. And besides, Deidara still has much to do. Like getting back to the kid who is still walking like a target. The moment he gets rid of this Uchiha, Deidara will suggest some new clothes to Klee.
THE Traveler was always looking for crystalflies so Klee took it upon herself to catch one. Maybe it was a bad idea to get separated from her Albedo-nīsan when she knew very little of this part of Mondstadt, but all she could think of then was getting crystalfies for the Traveler as a thanks for always playing with her. She knows she does not have the best sense of direction which is why she is always accompanied by either Kaeya-nīsan, Amber-neesan, or anyone who is free, but this must be the worst case of her getting lost. She somehow ended up in a completely different country! She has never heard of the ‘Land of Wind’ before but they wear clothes similar to the ones from Sumeru. And even stranger, they speak the language of Inazuma!
Klee only knows the most basic of basics when it comes to the Inazuman language but she communicates well enough, even though Deidara-nīsan likes to correct her a lot. Oh, right! Deidara-nīsan! She cannot wait to tell the others about him! This is her first time meeting someone who uses bombs like her, and not to mention, he never scolds her when he uses them! He does not mind it when she uses bombs in the forest, or when she stays up at nights making more and more and more bombs, and he knows how to tie her hair better than Albedo-nīsan, and Albedo-nīsan is even better than her own Mama. Deidara-nīsan seemed really happy when she told him that and he even let her play with more of his bombs after.
But Deidara-nīsan hasn’t been around for a while… The innkeeper said that they have not seen anyone with the cloudy cloaks and just told her to stay put but she does not like staying put that much. It reminds her of solitary confinement whenever she messes up. She did not make a mistake, did she? Deidara-nīsan promised to be back so maybe, there were just more monsters on the way that he had expected? What if he needs help? Deidara-nīsan does not have a Vision and only uses manually-made bombs, right? Jean-danchō said not to underestimate people without Visions but Klee cannot help but be worried. It has been more than a week after all!
Klee will probably fail Deidara’s commission of ‘staying put’ but just like Kaeya-nīsan likes to say when he meets up with the scary man with red hair, he may have lost the fight, but he will definitely win the war—or something like that! So she picks up her things, tugs on her pigtails and—oh! Just as she opens the door, a figure wearing the same black cloak with pretty clouds stands before her. She looks up curiously and sees a swirly mask. She tilts her head. “Are you Deidara-nīsan’s friend?” She asks.
The masked man crouches in front of her and Klee has a feeling that he is smiling too. He tilts his head the same direction as she did and wiggles his fingers like a wave.
“You must be Kū-chan!”
- klee is pronounced and written as 「クレー」in japanese or 'kurē', hence the nickname 'kū'.
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imposter syndrome