A/N Sorry I went away. Thankyou loyal reviewer people over the years. This will be finished. A rewrite is necessary, however. Chapters 1-2 heavily revised - 3 is revised but similar, different plot point at the end though. There will be a major plot divergence starting from 4

He was forced to pause his retreat, exhausted and giddy with blood loss.

Deidara grasped his kunai in his mouth; it was his only weapon for he was now missing both of his arms. Grimacing, he imagined the things he would do to the Konoha shinobi who were pursuing him.

Under normal circumstances, he'd show them some real art - up close and violent. They would run for their lives, the blast would scatter their bodies, the light from it would would bleach the sky, would...ah...

No.

He suddenly began to feel very light-headed. The right-side of his vest and cloak were completely soaked, sticky with blood from where his arm had been severed.

That strange, terrible jutsu had pierced his arm away. The Sharingan user hadn't even touched him! But somehow...

Fucking Sharingan.

Deidara could only stare dumbly at the blood that he could not staunch, dripping from his tattered sleeve.

Shit, shit. He couldn't bandage it, not as he was. There had not yet been an opportunity with Kakuzu to even reattach his other arm. Sasori had used some simple first-aid and basic medical jutsu on the other, after they left the Sand country. That had all been planned; but he hadn't planned on losing the other one too. And this one was bleeding a HELL of a lot more - the way it had been cut, it wasn't normal.

He was getting chills, and there was a numbness creeping in on his body and mind...was he going to faint?

Oh, but that would be just perfect wouldn't it?

What would the others say if he were captured by the enemy because he fainted! Hidan would be such a dick about it. And Itachi, Deidara would never look weak in front of that Lord-superior-Itachi Uchiha again ; ever!

What he wouldn't give for one one of his creations to fly out of here. If he could just use his jutsu, this would all be different...

"THERE!"

That Byakugan boy had seen him.

Deidara heard them fast approaching. He had contemplated for too long.

"He's slowing down, don't let him escape!"

Slowing down? Hmpf. I'm just warming up.

Deidara sprang forward to another branch - It snapped. No problem; he thrust his foot down as it fell away to launch upward and keep going, to reach that next branch - but as he reached it, his strength to completely left him...

Everything went black.

"...dead?"

"No, see - He's breathing ."

"He passed out, I think. The injury from Kakashi's Sharingan..."

Deidara stirred, he must have been unconscious for only a few moments. He tasted new blood in his mouth, and felt it from his nose where he had slammed into the ground. Face in the grass, his hair around him like a curtain, he couldn't see a thing.

He couldn't move either.

There was no strength left in him, he wouldn't be able to run. The realisation that they could simply pick him up as if he were a bird fallen out of a tree dawned on him. They had already killed Sasori, and they were admittedly stronger than he'd expected. In particular the Kyuubi jinchuriiki and that Kakashi with his Sharingan were certainly a force to reckon with.

They didn't give up, either, this group. They had been driven to catch him no matter what - surprisingly enraged with him for killing that jinchuriki. Most of the people he'd encountered thought they were being done a favour when they took the cursed ones away.

Hmm...they were not ordinary.

"Ah - he's awake!"

A foot slammed down, hard, on the back of his neck.

"Hey, hey, un." he murmured quietly around the kunai, still somehow in his mouth, but it was barely audible. The offending foot pushed down on his neck even more harshly and he began choking hoarsely; he'd been winded too, when he fell. Damn it.

"Steady there Gai, he's not going anywhere".

One of them knelt in front of him and lifted his dishevelled hair away from his face to look at him. Deidara squinted in the light at first, but he met the eyes evenly. Well, one eye - it was the 'Copy-nin' and was covering his Sharingan side now, so at least Deidara have to look at that on top of everything...Deidara gave him a fiercely hateful glare, anyway.

This guy was that Konoha big-shot, and he'd used a Sharingan technique that Deidara hadn't even seen Itachi pull out before...

He really couldn't get away. He'd have to be patient, for now.

"We've brought you down to our level. That was quite the chase you lead us on, but you've been grounded," said Sharingan-Bastard, matter-of-factly. 'Grounded'? was that supposed to be funny? That was crap... "You are under arrest, we will be taking you in for interrogation. It would really be easier on both you, and us, if you didn't resist. So, this is your only warning to co-operate." Deidara was sure the guy was gloating, but he sounded bored at the same time. Couldn't tell with that mask on.

He then reached out and took a firm hold on the kunai in Deidara's mouth. Uhgn.

This was infuriating.

"Just yank it from him, Kakashi." another voice said. But Kakashi just held it, waiting for him to let go. Fine. Fine, whatever. Deidara would just kill them all later, Yeah. It would take a while for them to let their guard down, but he'd just need patience - the right moment. This didn't even matter. He released the kunai and licked the blood around his lips, glaring defiantly at Kakashi.

"Very good."

Deidara twitched in annoyance.

Kakashi stood up. Deidara hissed quietly. This wasn't happening, none of this was really happening to him, no way.

"Be obedient on our journey. We'll treat you humanely - unless you give us reason to treat you otherwise."

"He already gave us a reason," said a voice bitterly. The Kyuubi boy who had punched him, still crazy angry..."He killed Gaara.'

'We need to operate smoothly from this point onward, Naruto. Gaara is gone, I understand how you feel..."

Blah blah, Gaara, blah. Deidara didn't want to hear. Why were they still discussing the dead jinchuriiku even though they had HIM, a S-Rank artist, literally underfoot? Show some excitement you bastards. "Hmph," he found his voice. "To hell with this...all of you, useless, little...unappreciative un...ah..can't even..see..." Shit, it wasn't coming out right. He was babbling - blood loss had effected his speech or something. He had to stop. And he was going to faint again, right where he already lay on the grass. He closed his eyes and breathed into the ground, trying to gather together his thoughts and strength.

They noticed.

"He needs medical attention. You very nearly killed him with that technique, Kakashi."

"Nearly. We must be careful not to lose him now. Sakura, come here.

"Yes Sensei," said a girls voice. Ah hah, it was that little girl who had taken part in killing Sasori. Oh, how he would laugh at Sasori for that later...no, wait. Crap. Shit. This was getting worse.

They surrounded him, and with satisfaction he noticed that they were all breathing as heavily as he was, the chase he had lead them on had totalled nearly four hours. They were determined, he'd give them that.

The one behind him - Mite Gai (the tall jonin with the ridiculous green outfit -their taijutsu expert ) hauled him onto his knees. He held him by the shoulders and pulled his Akatsuki coat down. Deidara remained stone-faced it rubbed down over his arms. It was just pain.

Then Kakashi searched him and took everything away. His ammunition, his scope, his concealed kunai's, his pouch with the tiny remainder of clay. The girl unravelled some bandages, while the green jonin guy kept a grip on him; and some crazy strong grip it was - shit, this guy could easily break his bones. His strength had to be comparable to that of Kisame. It was embarrassing - if he weren't being supported, Deidara knew he would have collapsed straight back on the ground.

He hated the way all these inferior guys were pressed so close around him. He didn't belong down here with them, he belonged high above, looking down upon scenes such as these, scenes of shitty amateurs and little weaklings screwing up their missions and getting captured by their enemies. He cringed.

Creepily, all of them were staring at him now, really staring, eyeing him up and down.

Deidara remembered that this was their first good look at him. They were curious about their 'catch', about what he looked like up close. Akatsuki rarely - okay, never - were captured. (They would all mock him forever, if they didn't kill him. Hidan especially would never, ever, let this one go.)

Particularly with Deidara, it was rare that people got to see him at all. It would normally require binoculars just to get a glimpse. When he was on the ground, he preferred to wear his Akatsuki hat most of the time, coat closed all the way up the collar; even his hair covered most of his face. It felt professional.

Hmph. Well enjoy this intimate close-up while you can.

Deidara studied them back. He knew of, but had not encountered Kakashi Hatake, Mite Gai and Naruto. He did not know these students with them; It would be a good time to observe all of them, at least.

"He was so fast, despite those handicaps," said the ugly Eyebrows kid, who was staring at his injuries with intense interest. Kind of morbid of him? "I'm impressed."

Of course he was fast , despite everything. Deidara could take a beating like this kid couldn't even begin to imagine.

Then medic-girl (Sakura?) came close to him, careful not to make eye-contact with him. Hmm... When she examined his arm, he noticed her fascination, and a little fear. "Kakashi Sensei, this isn't normal, the cut! I've never seen this, what on earth was that?"

Deidara looked at the ruined remains of his arm...the edges straight cut but not clean, there were tiny craters, there were burns around the centre - weird. Maybe it was not something on earth that happened?

Kakashi put a hand to his covered eye, "I was aiming to severe his head, if I'm honest. This is a much more useful outcome, however."

"Aiming to severe his head' - Oh, NICE. Made sense. Deidara liked to draw out fights for fun and show, but if he'd been chasing a target through the damn trees for too many hours, he'd go in for the kill. His agility had saved him this time.

"But this wound looks so strange! I - "

"I'll explain later, we don't want him him to know our secrets now, do we?"

Sakura used a light medical jutsu and secured a tourniquet tightly around Deidara's stump of an arm. It stopped bleeding immediately, to his surprise. "That's the best I can do for now Sensei, without knowing more."

"Whats this?" it was the other girl's voice. She was picking up his scope from the confiscated pile.

"That is not a toy..." Deidara began, annoyed.

"Cool." She put it on, started playing with it. Oh for fucks sake. He saw that this one carried a particularly varied arsenal of weapons, probably found his gadget interesting (it was very interesting).

"Bet you wish you never went for our friend Gaara now, do you eh? You'll pay for this!" hissed the jinchūriki, thrusting himself into Deidara's line of sight suddenly.
"Naruto..." began Kakashi, warning in his voice.

Deidara found himself smiling a bit at the jinchuriki, Naruto, so brash, so confident that he was safe from Akatsuki! His refusal to except that he was doomed was quite amusing to Deidara. He would follow the fate of the other ones they had extracted, one way or another.

"You are next... perhaps not right now, but you are next," he didn't bother to look up.

"Looks like you're in no position to say that are you? huh?" Naruto yanked his head back. Deidara just smiled at him.

"Naruto!" said Gai.

Kakashi took hold of Naruto's arm. "Do not touch him, and don't distract Sakura either. Come away - go and help with Gaara. ". Naruto released Deidara's hair and moved back. Yeah, listen to your teacher, shitty kid. Naruto returned to where the old woman had been quietly kneeling all this time over the other jinchuriki, the dead one. Why they were bothering with the corpse so much, he did not know- the guy was dead. He'd been fun to fight, though. The first real challenge that Deidara had faced in a long time.

"Tenten - careful with that, we need it for evidence."

That girl was still playing around with his scope.

God, these Teenagers. This was why Deidara only kept older associates.

"Yes... Gai-sensei, this would help with my ranged attacks, I haven't seen a scope like this before - different settings, the quality is incredible. It's a work of art."

...Tenten was OK.

It had take him some time to get the scope right, he was on the 15th or 16th version. Sasori had criticised him for making new ones instead of usupgrading and improving the old, like he did with his puppets. Sasori didn't get it.

"He has a fractured rib there too," the Byakugan boy spoke for the first time and pointed at him. That explained the pain in his chest. Interesting power...it was this guy who had tracked him, this guy who got him caught.

"So you're a Hyuuga, hmm?" Deidara had never seen the Byakugan, but he'd heard a little about it. It did not cast genjutsu, but it gave the bearer unique vision. How did the world look, through those eyes? How would it be to view his art through them, to see through it at every angle. How did it look to destroy, with those...

Byakugan folded his arms and returned to his silent state.

Oh, fine then. Little shit was ignoring him. And Deidara had had enough, now, of this invasion of his personal space. "Hmm, I know you guys are enjoying looking at me, but if you hang around too long, you'll be sorry, un." Even as he said it, he wondered why the hell was he giving them , he couldn't help but give tips,as he hated it infuriated him when people were idiots.

"We'll decide that," said Gai.

"Your healing skills have really improved, Sakura-san!" said the eyebrows boy, as the girl continued with her healing jutsu. Little suck-up.

Sakura just smiled at him. Eyebrows was too damn ugly for her, but then he was really too ugly for anyone; it was a bit sad really. It might make Kisame feel better to see this guy though, as he was not remotely successful in that department either.

Everyone grew quiet after a while. Still upset over that Sand jinchuriki, it seemed. Pathetic. Although...the silence did unsettle him somewhat. Deidara was never stuck around to see the aftermath of his art for long, or if he did it was from a great distance away. If he got too close, it was just annoying, like this.

It was getting late. Akatsuki had to know what had happened to him; the leader always knew everything, somehow. There could even be some of them nearby, watching, but he had no way of knowing. If he escaped these guys quickly, it should be OK - but if he did not...would Akatsuki hunt him down and eliminate him for this? Worse - would they forget him completely? And his ring! That was lost too, with his arm in the forest somewhere. When would he be able to get his arms reattached? Sasori said Kakuzu would reattach the first one, but not if Akatsuki dropped him for being a weakling...

Would he even recover the use of his arms at all - would he ever be able to use his art again?

Why was he thinking about all these things? His situation was beginning to feel less and less like a minor set-back as it sank in that he would not be escaping today, or anytime soon.
Finished looking at his wounds, Deidara was relieved when Sakura finally dropped his vest back down and then pulled his coat back up over him, careful of both his wounded arms. He thought of making a joke - What, you don't want to take my pants off and check there too? but stopped himself, because he really, really didn't want them to actually do that. She took a cloth and began wiping away the blood from around his nose and mouth. He was very tempted to bite her as she did this, but decided there would nothing to gain.

They were all speaking to each other now, about the dead one, Gaara, about what route to take back...but...

They were talking about returning to the Sand Village first.

Wait, so was he going to be taken to the Sand, and then to the Leaf...or, would they leave him with the Sand village? They had not specified where they planned to take him, but he'd assumed Konoha.

If it was the Sand village, then those people would rip him apart for what he did to their Kazekage! He remembered how much he had angered the entire city, he would be their most wanted man... it would be near impossible to escape from there, it was impenetrable and inescapable from the ground.

He felt thrown and unsteady at the idea of being taken to the Sand. The sky was his battleground - He could swoop and glide high up in the air and keep his head - but down here; stationary on the ground like this, he was helpless. He felt suddenly dizzy, as if everything were too still, too restrictive. Was this fear? Was he actually scared? He found himself thinking of Sasori, again, for some reason, though he was dead. He was thinking what Sasori would do to these guys, if he were to appear right now. Would any of Akatsuki show up? It would be fucking humiliating but still...better than, than...

"Hey. Leaf guys." He tried to retain a calm voice, "So are you taking me to the Sand or t-to the Leaf, un?" he wavered slightly. They all ignored him, didn't even look at him! "Hmm! Talk to me, bastards! Where are you taking me first!" He could hear the hysteria in his own voice.

"Sensei, he's really freaking out..."

Deidara's forehead protector was being untied. "We've already asked you to be quiet", said Gai firmly. He took the forehead protector and gagged him hard with it.

"Wait, no...Mmmph!"

Now he really could do nothing, not even protest! He closed his eyes, not wanting to look at any of them any more.

Something was happening to him, and he couldn't control it. It was an involuntary feeling- like being trapped in a genjutsu, but he knew it was coming from within himself. The frustration at his situation was maddening and a panic rapidly in his chest - he started shaking. He tried to will himself to stop, but that only made it worse. He had been able to keep his composure pretty well until now, and he didn't want them to see that he was losing control. Able to feel his legs a little more now, he thrashed weakly against them for the first time, which was stupid because it was futile and Gai just tightened his grip on him even more in response, which made it worse.

He growled loudly in frustration. He was aware that he must look pitiful to them and it was driving him crazy. He was badly defeated, mutilated, outnumbered and abandoned by his organisation. Just earlier that day, he'd been THE terror of the skies!

Evidently, Gai must have been thinking so too, because with fake sympathy (or whatever Leaf mind games they were playing) Gai then leant in close (far too close) by his ear and spoke to him very softly, as if Deidara were a nervous animal like a frenzied cat or bird stuck in a net or something. "Hey, now. Quiet down. Stay still and try to relax, or you will succeed only in doing further injury to yourself. Your partner put up an impressive fight back there..."

How DARE he talk about Sasori!

"...as did you. I will readily admit that you are strong - but realise that even the best would be rendered powerless in the condition you are in. Remember basics - breathing exercises."

Even the best would be rendered powerless? I am the best, fuck you. Breathing exercises - that's what kids learn at genin level. Telling an S-rank nin to remember how to breathe right!- But he was getting worse, he felt like he was suffocating.

Kakashi grabbed his numb legs and bound them tightly around the knees and ankles, this was surreal now, the level of helplessness that Deidara was feeling.

Gai took Deidara easily up over his shoulder, seemingly careful of his just-bandaged-wounds, and hooked an arm over his bound knees.

If you could die from humiliation...

A/N How can I explain this entire fic? It's is basically a manifestation of my self-indulgent fantasy thing of wanting to see a character like Deidara being made vulnerable; being taken captive and tied up etc. I am weird. That's always been my disclaimer for this being out-of-character. There was originally no intention to explore character development or maintain a narrative. But...it developed a certain way, and now I feel that I can do better, with a better story (It's still all primarily about my thing for a vulnerable Deidara though)

Personal : I finished the Naruto manga finally, and Itachi inspired me to face responsibility and finish this because its my destiny or whatever.

What has changed?

I feel that my fic got lost after chapter 3. It climaxed with Chapter 3 and then meanders. I had a good ending for it - but over complicated things on how to get there. I cant even read some of it, its so difficult to follow.

I feel that I can now write a much better and coherent story. Its been changed - some bits added, some bits removed. There are weak parts I just..blegh *snip* gone. The original fic will be unharmed. I will not insult my readers who enjoyed those chapters or my younger self who enjoyed writing them by saying they are badly planned, but it got so tangled up I didn't know what to do, and now have an improved direction to take it in. I literally cant understand what is going on in the original version of my own fic, and who is where anymore o_0