Loves Artwork - Has been a fun writing task, ending with 26518 words at last count. I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. However, I do own Leiko Sanigaku and the ANBU Special Forces Team. As you read on, you will find that Deidara does not say 'un', this is because I felt it interrupted the emotion prevailed by my writing, and adding in 'un' was going to be a death sentence. Yes, Hidan does swear a lot, but that's him. To be able to tell the difference between flashbacks and realtime, they are separated by '---' also flashbacks occur in italics. In total this has taken just under a week to complete. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

She watched as the elegant clay bird fly over her head, she saw the strange man sitting upon the creature as it landed in the clearing on her right. She looked away as the dust flew up and pricked her neck, the stabbing pain clearing her thoughts of everything but Deidara.

She could hear Deidara growing closer, she kept her eyes shut and and took a deep breath as his arms wrapped themselves around her, his hands nipping at her bare stomach. He's breath grew closer as he nibbled on her ear.

"Deidara..." She softly moaned.

Deidara's carefree expression changed dramatically "I thought I told you not to come back here!" He yelled pushing away from her.

"But Dei! I wanted to see you... Before you left..." She whispered in a small voice.

"I know... I just don't want you getting caught up in this!" He yelled, he was glad she had come really, he didn't want to leave her.

"I don't care if I get involved! I love you!" She said, her whisper becoming more of a cry

"Well, I don't think I love you." Deidara said, with a uncaring tone, it pained him to say it, but if he got her to hate him, it would be easier for her to get over him.

Hurt spread across her face, and she could feel her heart break in two.

---

She now found herself walking towards Tsunade's office, the memories of her past flooding her memory. She had always wondered if what Deidara had said was the truth, or whether he had merely said it to make her hate him, so that he could leave and so she could easily get over him. But which ever way it was meant to mean, she hadn't forgotten about him, all these years later and the memory still lived on in her mind as if it was yesterday.

"Leiko! Have you been drinking? You seem more out of it then me!" Tsunade had called out, stopping the thoughts in her mind.

"I don't drink." Leiko said shaking her head.

"Oh, so I'll just put away the sake then shall I?" Tsunade said shaking the bottle in front of Leiko's face.

"I have no problem if you have some, but personally I will not be partaking in your pastime." She said taking a seat on the opposite side of Tsunade.

"Good, because I was going to have some anyway. Now what is that you need to talk to me about." Tsunade said pouring herself some sake.

"I've decided to resign as captain of-"

"YOU CAN'T!" Tsunade yelled over the top of Leiko.

"I've had enough with being captain of my special forces as part of the ANBU" Leiko said shrugging.

"Leiko, you love your job. I've seen you on the hunt. There's something bigger here, I saw and heard reports off various ANBU captains and team members that you were reluctant to take the case of tracking down one Deidara of the Akatsuki as he was spotted not to long ago." Tsunade looked up and saw the pained expression on Leiko's face, "Have I missed something here?"

Leiko remained quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath, "I can't... I can't do it..."

Tsunade looked at Leiko for a moment, "Leiko, you refused the mission. I need to know why. If you're afraid, I understand, but the Akatsuki Organization have to be aware that we will send our best ninja up against them."

"I'm not afraid of anything." Leiko said through gritted teeth, "Just I think I'm ready for a change..."

"I don't believe you." Tsunade said pushing further, just as Tsunade opened her mouth to say something else, Shizune ran into the room, "What is it?"

"Kakashi is here to see you. He says it's important." Shizune said

"Send him in, I'm not done with you yet Leiko, you can stay here." Tsunade said as Kakashi walked in.

"Oh, Leiko, I also need to talk to you." Kakashi said in a stern voice.

Leiko sighed and looked at the floor, "Why am I so important today? First I just want to leave the ANBU but apparently I'm not allowed to do that either."

Kakashi looked at Leiko stunned, "Why... Why would you leave? You're so good at it."

"YEAH WELL WHY DID YOU LEAVE?" Leiko snapped back, she picked herself out of her chair and walked out the door.

Kakashi and Tsunade watched as Leiko stormed out of the room, "There is something very wrong with her lately Kakashi. You seem to know her the best... Go see what's wrong with her."

"I can try. But I don't know her very well." Kakashi said facing Tsunade.

"What? From all the reports I've heard, you were always together." Tsunade said slamming her hands down on her desk.

Kakashi shook his head, "We only really started being around each other when she came back from one of her trips to the Hidden Rock Village with her mother. There was a boy there, one that knew her the best... She told me his name once."

"KAKASHI! Think, what was that name!" Tsunade said hoping that this could give her some insight into why Leiko was acting like this.

Kakashi thought for a long time, running through possible names, his eyes opened wide as he remembered the name, "Deidara!"

---

There she was, running back through the rocks on her way back to the Hidden Rock Village, tears streaming down her face. She could hear the faint sounds of Deidara leaving on his clay bird, he was leaving her and everything he knew behind to join the Akatsuki. She arrived at the gates of the village and ran into an ANBU on guard.

"Watch it." The ANBU had said to her, pushing her out of the way.

She had glared at the ANBU for only a moment before running away to find her mother, tears streaming down her face. To think that this could have all been avoided if she had done what Deidara had said, and not tried to see him off.

"MOTHER" She had screamed at the top of her lungs when she reached the place they had been staying.

"What is it dear?" Her mother had said pulling her into a hug.

"I want to go and never come back to this place." She had said, hate filling her voice.

"But I thought you loved coming here to keep me company while I wasn't working." Her mother had said holding her tight.

"I did." She had said running up to her room, and throwing everything Deidara had given her onto the floor. The clay bird they had made together smashed into thousand of little pieces.

"Leiko! What was that?" Her mother had called from downstairs.

---

Leiko was looking at the broken clay bird on her bedside table, she had managed to put it all back together, except for one piece in the tail that Deidara had put so much effort into making perfect. She sat down on her bed and wished that she hadn't broken it, she felt unbelievably bad knowing that she couldn't get the tail right after all the work Deidara had put into it.

It was now that she decided that if Tsunade wasn't going to let her leave the ANBU she'd just get up and leave. She picked herself up off the bed, packed away some clothes, some solider pills, a few meals, her various weapons, she looked at the clay bird next to her bed. After a moment of thought she picked it up and put it away in another scroll, and with that she pilled everything else away into various scrolls.

Leiko found a piece of paper and wrote a note to the one person she knew would come looking for her. Kakashi.

She finished writing the note as there was a knock on her door, "Leiko. Let me in!"

Leiko did a check around the house, once she was certain she had everything, she picked up the last of her scrolls, equipped herself with her kunai, senbon, and sword and opened the front door.

Kakashi was standing in front of her, Tsunade on his right, and one of her ANBU team members on his left.

"If I had known this was going to be a party, I would have written notes for everyone." Leiko said putting the note in Kakashi's hand and running off.

"You go back to ANBU tower and get the rest of your team, and Tsunade, please don't go anywhere closer to Leiko's house. Who knows what traps she's set up in there now." Kakashi said opening the note in his hand.

"What does the note say!" Tsunade said trying to read over Kakashi's shoulder.

"Tsunade... Please, some space?" Kakashi said moving away, in the background he could hear Tsunade complaining about not being able to see the note.

~ Kakashi

Don't come after me.

It'll end in heart ache. I should know.

I went after a friend once. Look where that got me.

Captain to my own ANBU squad, and now hunting down the very man who made me this way.

Knowing you, you'll have worked out who that is. I'm going to find him. Make him change his mind. Make him leave this village alone.

Whatever it takes. Even if it means my life to save the village I have fought to protect for so long. Even if I make it back. I'm not sure if I'll stay here.

Maybe go abroad. Go back to the Hidden Rock Village. See my mother you know.

Oh, send anyone after me. And I'll have to take matters into my own hands.

Consider this my resignation from the ANBU squad, and Konoha.

~ Leiko

(Oh, P.S. Art. Is. A. Bang!)

"TSUNADE GET DOWN!" Kakashi yelled as he ran backwards, the house he was moments ago standing in front of was now ablaze, burning down around him. This had been Leiko's family home, her father had died and she had inherited the house as there was no way her mother could get her to go back to the Hidden Rock Village with her.

"Kakashi, how did you know that was going to happen." Tsunade said picking some rubble off her shirt.

"Well, I told you her house would have traps... And it says so right here." Kakashi said pointing at the note.

"What else does the note say?" Tsunade said watching the house burn down.

"We now have an S-Rank Missing Nin on our hands. But I'd say that she's long since gone by now." Kakashi said watching Tsunade's jaw drop.

---

She found herself at the gates of Konoha, clutching the small clay bird in her hands. She knew her mother would be somewhere behind her, so she ran towards her house at the other end. Along the way she ran into someone. It was a boy, a few years older than her. He helped her back up and saw the broken bird in her hands.

"I didn't do that did I?"

She had shaken her head, "No I dropped it a little while ago. And I tried to fix it. But it didn't quite work."

"Well, even though it is broken... It still looks magnificent." The boy said looking at the clay bird.

"Thanks... I made it a long time ago, with a friend of mine... I'm Leiko too by the way." She said holding out her free hand.

The boy took hold of her hand and shook it, "I'm Kakashi."

---

Kakashi was right when he told Tsunade that Leiko would have left the village, but what he didn't know was that she was just standing outside Konoha's gates. As one hyper active ninja had found her leaving and wanted to know why.

"Where are you going?" Naruto had asked seeming perfectly innocent.

"To find the Akatsuki lair. Now please, if you could get out of my way." Leiko said through gritted teeth, trying to get past Naruto.

"What's the rush? And why are you going by yourself?" Naruto said trying to see what Leiko was looking at.

"I need to make good ground before nightfall, and if I take my team of ANBU operatives, I think that we might just stand out a bit." Leiko's eyes opened wide as she saw Kakashi strolling towards herself and Naruto.

Naruto turned around to be face to face with one stern looking copy ninja.

"Naruto, would you mind stepping away from Leiko." Kakashi said in a chilling tone, it was now that Naruto noticed Leiko's forehead protector which hung around her neck, through the leaf village insignia was a long scratch. He looked up at her wide eyed,

"Leiko... Why?"

"None of your business Naruto." She shot back, watching Kakashi carefully.

"I think it is. You are now my enemy." Naruto said taking on a fighting stance.

"Naruto. Go tell Tsunade that I found her, tell her something like 'Kakashi is trying to get her to change her mind.', she'll know what you're on about." Kakashi said taking his eyes off Leiko for a split second.

In that split second, Leiko had taken off running, jumping through trees trying to make some distance between Konoha and herself. She didn't really expect to get all that far before Kakashi caught up, but in Leiko's mind, some ground was better then none.

"LEIKO! STOP!" Kakashi yelled out, bounding after her.

Leiko took a deep breath and came to a slow stop, "I told you not to come after me Kakashi."

"I didn't, I as actually looking for Naruto. But when I was told they had last seen him following you towards the gates of Konoha, I thought the opportunity to good to pass." Kakashi said catching up to Leiko, "Why are you doing this?"

"Change?" Leiko sighed thinking of her actual reason

"So, you're change is to go from ANBU Captain, to S-Rank Missing Nin?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, bit of a change isn't it." Leiko said with a stifled laugh.

Kakashi looked at his friend for a moment before laughing, "Leiko come home."

She shook her head, and looked at the ground "I can't... Not while..."

"Not while Deidara is our main target. I understand, I do. But to become a missing nin just to escape?" Kakashi said trying to get closer to Leiko.

"It was the only way... Tsunade wasn't going to let me leave the ANBU, especially with Deidara hanging around. And I thought... That maybe I could get Deidara myself..." Leiko said taking another few steps away from Kakashi.

Kakashi gave up on trying to get close to her, "Then what were you going to do Leiko?"

"I was going to tell him... Not to come around the village anymore. And if that didn't work. I guess I'd work something out as I went along." Leiko said with a sigh.

"But why would he listen to you? You don't look anything like you used to... Would he even remember you?" Kakashi asked, he did have a point, why would Deidara even listen to her now, after all those years.

He was right, Leiko looked nothing like she had when he last saw her. Back then she had opted for short spiky hair, just so other ninja's couldn't grab hold of it. Now, she boasted long dark hair, with a side fringe and ponytail towards the top of her head. If anyone was to see her from behind, it was possible that she could be mistaken for a dark haired Deidara.

"I think he'll remember me... And if he doesn't, I'll just show him this." Leiko said pulling out the broken clay bird.

Kakashi's eyes opened wide, "The broken clay bird... The thing you treasured the most was made by him..."

Leiko nodded, "It's true. We spent hours making it. Only for me to throw it against the ground when he left." She said with a bitter tone in her voice.

There was a long silence between the two ex-ANBU operatives, before Kakashi looked up at Leiko and opened his mouth, "Come back with me. Please. I'll make sure you don't have to work in the ANBU ops anymore, I'll make sure you have nothing to do with finding Deidara." It was was almost as if Kakashi was begging her to go back to Konoha with him now.

"I can't. I'd feel useless, and I'm a missing nin now. I've made up my mind, I'm going to find Deidara myself." Leiko said shaking her head.

Kakashi watched her put the clay bird away again, "You're doing this for Konoha aren't you. To keep it safe... Away from the Akatsuki."

Leiko nodded, "Yes. I figure this way I can be of some help. I guess this is goodbye then Kakashi." she said putting out her hand just like she had done all those years ago.

Kakashi nodded and shook her hand, "Next time we meet... I guess it'll be in battle." There was a pause between the two, "Although... I hope you change your mind before it's too late."

The two smiled and bounded off in different directions, Kakashi back towards Konoha, and Leiko off in search of Deidara.