Deidara wandered the lonely streets of the miserable little town. He knew he wasn't alone. The civilian he had passed earlier who had eyed his gold necklace had been following him for some time now, but it wasn't as if it were anything to worry about – after all, he was only a civilian.

Deidara sniggered to himself. This should be fun, yeah.

He found a small alleyway and lit up a cigarette. He could feel the man draw closer and closer, his untamed chakra running wild with excitement. Deidara loved that about normal humans; unlike ninja, their chakra was crazy, and gave away every emotion they felt. Most people knew that, so they didn't like associating themselves with ninja, as they saw them as cruel mind readers who would use their emotions against them. It amused him, so he never wore his forehead protector anymore, as it found it fun to play games with unsuspecting mundanes.

As the smoke filled his lungs, Deidara wondered if the man would still be attempting to attack him if he were wearing his Akatsuki robes. Over time he came to realize that when he wore them, no one ever approached him, or even looked at him for that matter, but now that he had to leave them behind for missions more and more trouble had been arousing. He missed the uncomfortable black and red robes for the very reason that people cowered in fear when they spotted him, and it angered him that he had to leave them behind. It was that stupid Kyuubi brats fault, ever since he went missing, leaf and sand ninja had been searching every corner of the damn world for him, meaning the Akatsuki had to lay low to not attract attention. Deidara hated that; if it were up to him, he'd be turning each and every one of those sad excuses ninja into works of art, but orders from above prevented anyone from making any 'rash' moves.

A laugh sounded from behind him. And the fun begins.

Deidara ducked, just in time to dodge the crow bar flying at his head. In one swift movement, he spun on his heel and butt out the cigarette on the man's face, his groan of pain cut off by Deidara grabbing his neck and slamming him against the cold wall.

"You were aiming that for my head, yeah?" He growled. "That kills people, you know?"

Deidara could feel the man tremble underneath his grip. He looked as if he hadn't bathed in weeks, and the concept of shaving had eluded him for all his years. By the looks of him, he supposed that he didn't have a great life himself, but by Deidaras logic, if he was sneaky enough to go for an attack from behind he would probably be the kind to attack children or people who had no means to defend themselves. Deidara, on the other hand, was perfectly capable of putting up a fight, and the fact that he already had blood on his hands meant that to him killing a corrupt member of society was like stomping on a bug; if it got in his way, there would be no second thought to crushing it.

With his free hand he reached into his clay pouch and chewed up a little clay bug. C1 would do the trick.

The bug leaped onto the man's frail looking shoulder as Deidara let go of his neck. The feeling of relief that filled the man's eyes nearly made him feel guilty for what he was about to do, but he reminded himself that if he hadn't attacked Deidara today he might have gone after someone helpless, so Deidara was ultimately doing the right thing.

A smirk graced his lips as a sense of anticipation grew within him.

"T-thank you!" Stammered the man, oblivious to the clay sculpture that graced his shoulder.

"Shut up." Deidara rolled his eyes. After taking one last look at the man, Deidara muttered 'katsu' under his breath, eyes widening at the sight that unfolded before him.

The high started from his very core and spread through his body like a wave. He felt warm inside, and it reminded him that being a cold blooded criminal really wasn't that bad if there were no restrictions on what he could do with his art. Although the explosion was small, it sent shivers down his spine with the fleeting image of the little clay sculpture erupting into a powerful destructive force. It was over in mere seconds, and yet in its wake it left a scene that anyone else would call tragic. He couldn't help the smile that emerged on his face. Beautiful.

It was over, and Deidara's thoughts were finally on the situation on hand. The man had fallen to the ground, screaming. His whole face was twisted in pain, apart from his eyes, which were so wide and fixated on the arm that lay by his side in a pool of blood that they looked as if they would pop out any second. Deidara grinned at the mess he had created, but figured he had better get moving or else someone might notice him there.

"Get off the ground and get some help, or else you'll die. I hope that losing an arm will prevent you from attacking anyone else who's done nothing to deserve it, hn." Deidara began walking away from the dying man, readying a bird for quick getaway.

"Monster!" He yelled.

Deidara ignored him and jumped on his clay bird.

"I'll get you for this! I swear I will!" He continued.

"You couldn't even touch me with two arms, what makes you think you'll be able to get me with one?" He taunted. The man muffled a reply back, but Deidara ignored it, taking flight and fleeing the bloody scene.

Kakashi and Sakura had been running for two minutes already. The large bang followed by shrieks of pain could be heard from miles away in the desolate town. The pair navigated their way through deserted factories and half destroyed houses to try and reach the scene of the crime in time to save whoever had been hurt. Sakura could feel the victim's unrefined chakra beginning to wane, and the screams had died down, meaning that there wasn't much time left to get to them.

"We have to speed it up," she ordered.

Kakashi nodded. She wasn't usually the one giving orders to him, but in a situation like this which meant life or death for someone, he stepped aside and let her do what she had to.

They had finally reached the final stretch, and they sped up as fast as their feet would allow them. The smell of blood hung in the air, and their eyes searched for any clue to what would've happened. A pool of fresh blood was oozing through the cracks in the street, flowing out steadily from a laneway in between two tall, grey buildings.

"Nobody can lose that much and survive," noted Kakashi, grimly.

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Sakura was a good medic, but she doubted she would be able to fully heal this person with the current tools she had on her. She could ease his pain, maybe, but it was the end of the road for this poor soul.

They finally reached the alleyway. A man, presumably in his late 30s, lay in a pool of his own blood next to his own burnt, tattered and detached arm. Sakura rushed to his side, ignoring the blood that soaked into the fabric of her clothing. She propped him up on her lap to get a better reach of where his arm once was. He had busted a few arteries, hence all of the blood, but if she was able to slow the blood flow, he could survive for another half hour at most. That would give them enough time to find out what had happened to cause the bloody scene.

She placed her palm over the affected area and willed her chakra into him, expertly weaving it through his veins, and adding a little extra to dull the pain. Something that would usually be simple to her was now requiring her full attention, as her chakra was running low from travelling for 5 days with minimum rations. A ninja needs food to maintain power, it was a basic rule, but Sakura had been naïve whilst planning for the mission on hand. Kakashi and herself had taken the route that ensured the least amount of human contact as possible as they didn't want to risk getting seen; if word got out about their plans, the mission would be ruined. Sakura's mistake was forgetting to pack extra food as she wouldn't be able to buy more at town stop offs. Kakashi was kind enough to give her some of his share, but it was still not enough for Sakura to stay in her prime form.

"Kakashi, when he wakes up, I want you to ask him what happened here. I can't do two things at once right now," she instructed.

"Okay. Whatever you need, don't be afraid to ask," he replied.

After a few minutes, the man stirred beneath her. "My… arm…" he murmured. He tried to move, but Sakura held him down.

"Don't try to move. You may feel okay now, but you're not. I'm doing the best I can to keep you alive as it is."

Kakashi spoke up then. "We have a few questions we would like you to answer, so whenever you're ready please let us know."

The man gave Kakashi the best icy glare he could manage in his current state. "Why should I?"

He smiled back, eyes crinkling at the sides. "Because right now your life is in our hands."

"You wouldn't even dare," his voice was barely a whisper, yet he still managed to convey enough attitude to piss Sakura off.

"Sakura?" Kakashi looked at her expectantly. She really didn't want to do what he expected her to. All he was asking her to do was give the man a little bit of pain, but even so he was a dying man. Admittedly, he seemed like a rude one, but he was still dying. She didn't want to have to do this.

Whatever you have to do to complete this mission, do it. Tsunade's words echoed in her mind. She knew in the long run if this man was in fact related to what they were investigating it would help the mission, but was it worth it? If he had nothing to do with their mission, which he most likely didn't, she would be inflicting crippling pain onto an innocent civilian in his dying moments.

Sakura took a deep breath. She was a jounin now. She wasn't as experienced as the others, and compared to other ninja she led a happy, successful life. Tsunade always told her it made her soft and too compassionate for her own good. She knew if she was serious about her job she would do it, but…

Sighing in resignation, she withdrew a little of her chakra. The man's eyes widened and he clenched his jaw. She could tell now he would be feeling an incredible amount of pain, although he was stubborn and refused to show it. If he kept this up, his body would go numb by itself from loss of blood, but that wouldn't be for another ten minutes or so with Sakura still slowing the blood flow. She hoped that he wasn't that stubborn, partly for the sake of the mission and partly for his own sake.

A minute passed, and the man finally gave in. "Fine! I'll talk." Sakura smiled to herself and numbed the pain again.

"Good," Kakashi said. "Now, tell me, what happened here?"

"I got into a fight," he replied, tiredly.

"Clearly. Be more specific." His words were cold. It was a side of him Sakura wasn't used to seeing, but for missions this serious she could see why he had to do it. She knew it must have pained him saying it, considered it pained her just hearing it, but at the same time she felt the urge to cringe away from this Kakashi she didn't recognise.

The man exhaled and let out a halfhearted 'hmph'. "I tried to attack a guy for his necklace. I needed the money. He choked me and put a white bug on my shoulder. It exploded on my arm. He flew away on a bird that came out of nowhere," he explained, half hoarsely, half sarcastically. "It isn't exactly the most believable story."

For those few moments, she felt like she could cut through the silence with a knife. The tension in the air was palpable, and Sakura had to do her best not to lose focus. It was all too familiar, and with the look on Kakashi's, face, he felt exactly the same. She shook herself off. It's just a coincidence. Lots of people use similar jutsu. No big deal.

Kakashi cleared his throat, regaining his cool. "What colour was the man's hair, and how long was it?"

"Long, blonde," he strained his voice to answer, "side fringe, half ponytail."

It was the answer she didn't want to hear. The revelation came to quick, leaving her to get lost in her own thoughts at the worst of times. She was half aware of the man starting to cough violently, but she didn't care anymore. No, who he just described was Deidara. The hair matched. The jutsu matched. The Akatsuki hadn't been active for two whole years, it couldn't be right…

… But if it was right, there was a chance of her finding Naruto.

Naruto, who had gone missing two years ago, the same time that the Akatsuki became inactive. She refused to believe that he was dead. When Naruto went missing, the Akatsuki had control over four tailed beasts. In the next two weeks, they had gained possession of another 3, and after that, they went dead. Some people believe they got their clutches on Naruto, but Sakura hadn't given up hope. There was no solid proof that Naruto was dead, and as cheesy as it sounded, she felt that if she lost him, one of her best friends, she would know deep in her heart that he was truly gone, but the thread of hope was still there, so she wouldn't give up as easily as everyone else did. She was going to find him, even if it meant she had to turn the whole world inside out.

She didn't care about the mission on hand anymore. All that mattered was finding Naruto.

"Sakura!" she woke from her intent thoughts to Kakashi shaking her violently. The man who she had been treating was coughing up blood and was obviously in a tremendous amount of pain. Without realizing, Sakura's flow of chakra had decreased to a bare minimum, meaning that blood was flowing more freely than before. He had mere minutes to live.

"Shit!" she exclaimed. She needed to stabilize this man or he was going to die, but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't concentrate. Finding Naruto was the only thing on her mind. Nothing else mattered…

Eventually he went limp, and rolled off of her lap.

Crap. "What have I done?" she whispered to herself.

"He was going to die anyway, Sakura. Its fine, we got more important information than what we bargained for," he tried to reassure her, but it wasn't going to work. The guilt of letting this man die filled her brain, along with her thoughts of Naruto and the Akatsuki. Her mind was reeling and her emotions were all over the place, so she did the only thing that seemed right at a time like this; she put her head in her hands, and cried.

She felt a hand on her arm pulling her upward, and suddenly Kakashi's arms were around her.

"It's okay," he said, "we'll go get you cleaned up, and then we'll find Deidara. We'll be one step closer to Naruto. This was all worth it, I promise." Each one of his words just made Sakura sob harder into his chest. Gestures like this were rare, but Sakura didn't find them strange. After all, they were the final two original members of team 7, over the past couple of years they had grown closer, confiding in each other with things that would never grace the ears of anyone else, and despite the fact that she was crying like a baby, he truly did make her feel better. He was like the big brother she never had.

"Come on," he urged gently. "We can go find a motel to check into." Sakura nodded silently, and they went on their way.

Deidara looked out of the window of his motel room. It had been a boring week so far. He and Tobi were on business in town meeting some guy who wanted to fund the Akatsuki for a little bit of power. Deidara hated these kinds of missions; it was usually Hidan and Kakuzu who took care of money business, but ever since they both died, teams had been taking turns doing the missions that would usually be assigned to them. Deidara hoped that leader would hurry up and find some new rouge ninja to join with them; he said he had been looking for nearly a year now, but nobody met his incredibly high standards yet. Deidara just wanted someone to take care of these stupid, boring money jobs.

They had been here longer than usual, which really pissed him off. It looked like a dirty old town, but the large, windowless factories and seemingly deserted houses made for great underground businesses and drug trade. Deidara was seriously tempted to try some of their shit out, he was that bored. He knew if he really wanted to, he could get some without even having to pay a cent considering his status as a member of the most feared criminal organization in the ninja world, but that tiny little piece inside of himself that was still slightly civilized told him it was best not to get into those things, especially at such a young age. Plus, he had an early start tomorrow, and he wouldn't want to be going out looking half dead the next day.

He focused his attention on a couple walking along the street, probably going for some romantic night walk. He figured this would be the best place to take one in this foul place anyways; they were on the outskirts of town, and the other side of the street was just a long plain of grass stretching out as far as the eye could see. Not the prettiest place, but a nice change of pace from the usual scenery around here.

It looked pretty normal from far away, but at a closer inspection Deidara realized something strange; the couple was covered in blood. What the fuck? He thought to himself. Getting closer to the window and squinting a little bit, he noticed that yes, indeed, the woman was covered in blood. Clearly not her own, which made it even weirder. The man had a little patch of red on him now and then, but it wouldn't have been totally noticeable had he not been accompanied by the girl. He watched them, and realized that they were heading to the motel, too.

He stared at them intently, and then something clicked. Deidara's eyes widened and he ducked down from his windowsill as fast as he could. He had to get Tobi, and fast.

He raced out of his room and flew down the stairs as fast as he could. On the first floor of the motel was a bar that was surprisingly packed for the small size of the town they were in. His eyes scanned the room for Tobi, who couldn't be that hard to find considering he was probably the only one in the bar wearing a bright orange mask. Sure enough, he was one of the first people Deidara spotted. He was sitting at a table by himself, with a full plate of food just begging to be eaten.

He nearly delayed what he was going to just to see Tobi take his mask off to eat, but he thought that it probably wasn't the best time for that, so he made his way through the crowd as speedily as he could, earning himself a few annoyed glances from some of patrons that he'd accidently knocked.

"Deidara senpai! What brings you down here? Ooooh, have you come to eat with me?" he danced around, his oversized sleeves dipping in his food dish a couple of times without him realizing. Deidara suppressed the urge to gag.

"No. We need to get out of here now, yeah." he tried to give Tobi the best 'I'm not freakin' kidding right now' face he could manage, but by the looks of things it wasn't working.

"But s-senpai! I just got my meal, that's no fair." He crossed his arm over his chest, and Deidara could sense the pout that was under his mask.

The bell signalling that the front door was opening rung and Deidara gave the quickest glance to confirm his suspicions. Damn it, they're here. He gazed at Tobi who was still acting like a fool as always. We have no time for this. Deidara grabbed Tobi by the arm and dragged him towards the stairs. They were mostly ignored, considering that all eyes were on the bloodied up pair that had just entered, but he could almost guarantee that the two people that they were trying to avoid would've seen them anyway.

"Get your stuff and meet me outside," he ordered. "I trust you saw who just entered the bar."

"I didn't see anyone, but I trust my senpai to be guiding me the right way!" He gave Deidara a salute, before heading off to his room.

Deidara rushed off into his room too, and gathered all the stuff he could, while simultaneously munching up a chakra bird to carry it all. Once he was finished, he launched the bird out the window and jumped on. Scanning the area, he deemed it safe and landed his bird behind a large cluster of bushes, concealing himself from anyone who would otherwise be able to see from the windows.

"Deidara-senpaaai! I'm stuck." He didn't even bother trying to look. They had no time for this.

"Tobi, you fool. Get down already."

Tobi giggled and appeared next to him. "Kidding!"

"Jump on the bird," Deidara instructed. "I'll explain everything while we're making our escape."

"There isn't going to be an escape to make," a stern voice spoke from beyond the bushes that they were concealed it. Ducking his head around, Deidara cursed himself for not realizing that the two of them had pursued them outside of the hotel. The Akatsuki's cover had been blown.

"Deidara! Look, it's the copy ninja and his little pink student. What are they doing here?" Tobi cried.

"That's what I was trying to warn you about, yeah," Deidara sighed. "What kind of joke is this? Staying in the same motel as some goody goody leaf nin that we've avoided for two years? Ridiculous."

"Actually," started the girl who had spoken before, "We came here because we sensed your chakra. We've been looking for you all day, but we weren't expecting to find you with your partner."

What? Deidara's eyes widened, but he regained his calm in a matter of seconds, and put on his signature smirk. "Hn, so I guess you're looking for a battle, but seeing the state you're in now I wouldn't think you'd put up much of a fight." He looked her up and down. Up close, although it was still clear the blood was not her own, but it was also clear that she was fatigued and tired, probably from an intense battle that used up large amounts of chakra.

"No," she murmured, "we don't want to fight. We want to know about Naruto, and what you've done to him. After that, we'll let you go." Her voice was low, and you could tell she wasn't fond of the idea. Heck, Deidara wasn't even fond of the idea. He did want to keep Akatsuki's cover and actions on the down low, mainly for fear of what would happen to him if he didn't obey the rules, but if there was a chance to fight then he was going to be one to turn it down.

Still, he might still get what he wanted. "I don't know anything about what that pathetic little monster is up to these days. I want to find him just as much as you do, little girl." Deidara grinned, seeing the pinkettes facial expression grow grim. Just one little push would do it. "If you asked me, he's probably lying dead somewhere, yeah. Wouldn't you agree, Tobi?"

"Don't lie to me!" She growled at him from deep in her throat and her blood covered fists were clenched tightly by her sides. She looked as if she were about to launch herself at him, but Kakashi put his hand on his shoulder, stopping her. Taking a deep breath, she regained her cool and continued on. "You're more of a monster than Naruto will ever be. The demon inside him doesn't define who he is, his actions do, and if you ask me, the Akatsuki's actions are far more monstrous than any jinchuuriki's ever were."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "If you say so, yeah. Well, if that's all, I think we'll be on our way." He glanced behind him to Tobi, who started making his way toward Deidara and the bird.

"If you don't tell me what you know about Naruto, I swear to the heavens that I will beat it out of you." It was obviously unexpected and not part of their plain, because the copy nins face lit up with surprise, but when he opened his mouth to say something, she stopped him with an icy cold sidewards glance.

Deidara grinned as excitement rose inside him. He was finally getting what he wanted. He rose up on the bird, leaving Tobi to fight his own fight.

"Let's go then."

Authors note: So I'm hoping this has basically set the scene for the rest of the story. Everything will of course be explained in more depth the further we get into the story, but hopefully I've made it mysterious enough so far to keep you guys interested. I may be a little rusty as I only just went back to school this week, so my writing will probably be a little unrefined, but I checked over it a few times and tried to make it to the best of my abilities.

Its M right now for blood, gore, ect but I may put smut in later chapters.

Any rates and reviews would be appreciated so I know what I can improve on for future chapters.

Just a side note, as its set two years in the future Sakura is now 18, Deidara is 21 and Kakashi and Tobi would be early to mid-thirties I believe. I set this up so Naruto going missing was after Kakuzu and Hidans death and before Deidara's (as you can probably tell), which means any event after their death didn't happen, apart from the collection of three new tailed beasts as I stated in the chapter.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading it! Xxx