Appreciation

Behind the mask

I and Tobi have been travelling for a few days and things have been fine so far between us, sure I yell at him 70% of the time and all he does is annoy me, but at least he respects me. He is always right behind me or beside me, coming up with topics to talk about but I give him short responses in order to restrain from telling him about me too much.

Since we are on the road, we have stopped by multiple inns and even had meals together, however, the weird thing is, he NEVER takes off his mask.

It's as if he isn't allowed to.

Every meal, he would turn his face sideways and flip his mask open, so that I don't see his face. If we are in a restaurant itself, he would just order take away and said he'll eat it at the place we are staying at. That goes the same for when he is asleep, which he also keeps his mask on. How does one live like this? or a more suitable question would be WHY does one live like this?

Since the abduction of the Kazekage, Gaara, has spread the word to the other nations, everyone is slowly becoming more and more aware of the Akatsuki, which makes it difficult for me and Tobi to wander off aimlessly. We keep away from big towns and we settle for smaller, quiet ones. Towns like these usually receive news the slowest.

One day at one of the inns, I decided to take a dip in the hot springs available. Its been a while since I've finally gotten the time to properly unwind, I've had my head wrapped around a lot of issues lately, some personal and some of the Akatsuki's mission planning..along with my ninja clay supply and how to find the three-tail beast, which does not have a Jinchuriki.

"DEIDARA SENPAI!"

a familiar voice called out, and just like that my unwinding session came to an abrupt end.

I looked over to see Tobi getting into the water, the steam from the water made my vision blurry but I can see that toby is wearing his mask still. Even in here? You have got to be kidding me.

I closed my eyes and slowly opened them to look at Tobi.

What is he hiding behind that mask? I'm his partner..shouldn't he show me what is under his mask?

I know it's his face but..you know what? I don't care. I don't care for this idiot.

My eyes wandered from his mask down to his chest, noticing  his skin, which looked smooth, was slightly tan. One more noticeable feature was that he is slightly muscular, surprisingly, I barely have seen him work out or train.

"Deidara senpai, are you staring at me?" Tobi giggled, now looking towards me. I shouldn't have stared at him for too long, now he knows I'm looking at him.

"Tobi I have a question," I said, leaning my head back. I could hear Tobi mutter something like 'oh deidara senpai has questions for me' as he slowly makes his way towards me. I let out a sigh and felt the movement of the water as Tobi walked to sit next to me. The sound of splashing water becoming louder as he finally stops beside me. My right eye twitched to open and check out his body just one last time, but he had already sat down in the water.

"What is it Deidara Senpai?" he said, now facing me as if to show I have his full attention.

"Why do you hide your face with that mask, hm?" I said bluntly, trying to sound uninterested as possible, pointing at his mask. He looked away for a second, adjusting his mask before looking back at me, I could almost feel him smiling behind his mask as if me acknowledging him makes him happy. What is this prick so happy for.