The familiar voice made Deidara freeze. Then he looked to his left.
"Kurotsuchi? What are you doing here?!"
Surprise and disbelief showed in his voice. Kurotsuchi, who had been looking over the menu, tossed it onto the table and strode over to Deidara, studying his outfit with a puzzled, strange look.
"Big Brother Deidara, what are you...?"
Under Kurotsuchi's gaze, Deidara symbolically raised his right hand and straightened the Konoha forehead protector on his head. He brushed aside the bangs covering half the Konoha emblem, revealing the full symbol.
"See that? I'm a registered jonin of Konoha now. Life in Konoha is damn comfortable."
"Come on, let's sit over there and talk. Don't block people from watching Kisame kill fish. Otherwise, he might regret it later and refuse to treat us. That'd be a huge loss."
As he spoke, he dragged Kurotsuchi over to a table, and the two of them sat down.
"By the way, what are you doing in Konoha? What kind of nonsense is that old man cooking up again?"
Before Kurotsuchi could speak, Deidara fired off his question first.
But Kurotsuchi ignored it and countered with a question, using a question to defeat a question, like opening with Shell against an opening Shell.
"I should be asking you that!"
"Even though I don't know why the Ninja Association revoked the wanted notice, why would you rather join Konoha than return to the village? Do you have any idea how worried the old man and I have been about you all these years?"
Kurotsuchi's words silenced Deidara outright. His fairly good mood was wiped away by that question.
Just as Kurotsuchi braced herself for Deidara to angrily snap back and scold her, Deidara merely gave a bitter laugh.
"Go back to Iwagakure? Go back to the place