Hi! Me again XD Yeah, this is a really AU fic. It's kind of a what if, fic, because, like, this doesn't happen in the RP XDD Me and Rin ( who has an account! General Rins, check out her stories! She writes really well XD She also owns Irezumi and Ryuu, two characters mentioned in the story) were just discussing how everyone would react if Ryuu died, which inspired me to write this XDD

Naruto: Masashi Kishomoto

Hitsuji: My friend Jay!

Ryuu and Irezumi: General Rins

It was raining when I stopped looking. I knew. I had known what I'd find since before I had even left the hideout.

The pain, and scarring that comes with Ryuu's bloodline limit are always a worry, and her wounds sometimes like to open up, which is inconvenient, as Gin, not knowing the properties of Ryuu's markings, has to fix them up the good old fashioned way: Chakra-lessly, with bandages. After a especially bad incident about a day earlier, after Ryuu'd passed out, Gin had been quite uneasy when it took the last of our stock of bandages to keep Ryuu's blood where it belongs: In her, and not on the ground under her.

"I've really never seen anyone go through medical supplies like Ryuu Sama does," She had joked lightly, realising that if Ryuu's wounds opened again, there'd be nothing she could be sure was clean to fix it with. Gin's own injuries she had gotten taking down the Sanbi, which had been pretty damn serious, had been dealt with ages ago, and she had been sure she was more than up to a short trip to the little town a ways from the hideout.

There'd been no doubt that she could go alone, it wasn't that far off, maybe a two hour trip, tops. And Gin was definitly in good enough condition, injury wise, and back to her old self. Besides, one person is less likely to be recognized.

One hour went by... Two... Three... By four hours, Deidara had begun to worry. I told him to cool it, joking that maybe she'd found a guy in town. Five hours... Six... Seven. Deidara pretty much parked himself by the entrance, waiting for her to get back. By this point, even I was beginning to think something was up. Eight... Nine... Here's where the pacing started. About every ten minutes, Deidara'd pass by the door to my room, heading one way or the other. Ten...Eleven... Twelve... Deidara couldn't take it by this point, and decided to go look for her himself. He convinced me to join him.

I hadn't wanted Deidara to be the one to find her. I had realised it, and I'm sure he had too, though he was too stubborn to admit it. Gin wasn't coming home.

I had found her, only about ten minutes away from the hideout, off the side of the main road, lying on her side, eyes open and dull. I had sighed, knelt down, and placed a hand on her wrist. Cold. The kid'd been dead for hours.

Her Kusari kama was in pieces, chain strewn across the ground, broken, the Kama a few metres away. A struggle. A strange one, though. There wasn't a scratch on her anywhere, and the only blood I could see was the bit that had come from the corner of her mouth. There was a package of bandages scattered everywhere too. She had been on her way back.

I frowned thinking of the short walk to the hideout from here. She had been so close.

I'm not the kind to get choked up, but I won't say I wasn't sad. In the couple of months she'd been with us, I'd actually gotten kinda attached to the kid. Not the way Deidara was, oh no. But she was good company, nice sense of humour, fun at poker nights... That kind of thing. I'd miss that.

Out of all the Akatsukis, I'm probably the least unlikely for her to have talked with the way she did, I swear. I'm like, a thirty year old guy. Ryuu was female, Deidara, and well...Most of the others were closer in age. Weird that she'd confide in me like she did. I was like her therapist for a while, I swear.

Guess it makes sense. Nobody really talks to Senpai, she was afraid of Hidan, Ryuu hated her guts, I don't think she'd ever actually had a conversation with Itachi, it's weird when half of zetsu agrees with you, and the other doesn't, Tobi... Well...Is Tobi... Didn't want to piss off Kukazu... Even if Orochimaru was here, I doubt she'd want to interact with him at all... And most of the time, it was Deidara she had talked about. That just left me. Kisame, the fish-man.

The first time I'd really spoken with the young kunoichi, Itachi and Ryuu had been out drinking together, and I had suggested we play cards. Well, basically, I ended up teaching her how to play poker, but anyways. I'd changed the subject to Deidara halfway through the conversation. I had noticed the way she smiled when she saw him. The look on her face when he'd hug Ryuu. She had loved him. It had been funny to watch. I myself had never really had the time for romance, so I couldn't really identify.

Gin had never said anything to him about it, though. She had too much to prove to the rest of us to do something like that. If I had learned anything about Gin, that was it. She didn't want to seem weak. Useless. Afraid of being tossed away, I guess. She'd said a lot of stuff to make me think that.

"Think about it, though... Ryuu Sama's bloodline limit... She's irreplaceable. No one else can do what she does. Look at Deidara... One of a kind, definitly. Itachi's Sharingan is amazing, by what I've heard about it. And you, for examply: an almost limitless Chakra supply, amazing strenght, speed, not to mention Samehada... They'll never find anyone else like Hidan... Or Kukazu for that matter. And Zetsu's ability makes him invaluable. What am I? Medic? They're a dime a dozen, Kisame. I'm... Expendable. I had thought that completing my mission and defeating the Sanbi would prove my worth... But all I've done is worn out my usefulness."

"I'm like a goldfish, Kisame. If I die. they'll just go out and get another one. No sweat."

Deidara... Poor guy. I remember looking at her remains, wondering how he'd react when he saw them. There went partner number three. Deidara was a friendly guy, so it had been hard to tell what he thought of her. More than once, the two had gotten into Ryuu's sake, and I'd found them snuggled up together in the morning, after having passed out from the alcohol. How he'd worried when the Sanbi had hurt her... How he had panicked when she hadn't returned. There was something. But I guess I should say there had been something. Gin was dead.

"You found her then." I turned, surprised to hear Itachi coming from behind me. "Hm. Just as Ryuu Sama always said," He declared evenly. "Pathetic and weak." He turned to look at me. "She's begun to worry that you and Deidara Sama are wasting your time. She wanted me to come find you, before either of you got sick in this rain."

Without saying anything more, he stepped forward, an knelt down next to the body for a moment. "Someone opened up the injuries she sustained fighting the Sanbi." That explained why there wasn't any blood on the outside. She had bled out internally.

"That's what killed her, then?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Asphyxiation."

"Somebody strangled her?"

"No." He got to his feet, heading back in the direction of the hideout. "Someone slashed her throat without breaking the skin." He assessed indifferently.

"How the hell do you do that?"

"Chakra scalpel technique," Of course. Itachi, the human jutsu encyclopedia. "A medic-nin did this. I'll go inform the others," He said before leaving. "Ryuu Sama will be pleased. They should chose the next replacement more carefully, though."

So somebody had opened up Gin's old Sanbi wounds, to slow her down enough to get at her throat. A medic... A medic with something against Akatsuki. Shit.

Even if he was dead, Sasori had been giving Gin trouble since the day she joined. And now, one of his spies had killed her. The irony was too much.

The real question was why? Kabuto had probably been skulking around the town looking for any information on us he could give back to that moron, Orochimaru. If he'd spotted Gin... It made sense. Probably tried to follow her back, find out our location and all, and she'd spotted him. But who knows. Maybe this was some weird kind of retaliation against Sasori, and had nothing to do with Orochimaru himself at all. The guy had a reputation for being a bit of a loose cannon.

Itachi had reacted like I'd have expected him to. He didn't react.

It was weird. Ryuu Sama WOULD be pleased Gin was gone. Ryuu wanted her partner out of her life, however it happened. Here's the strange bit... If I understand Deidara's explanation of the fight with the Sanbi, Ryuu had fallen in the water, and would have drowned if Gin haden't stopped what she had been doing, and saved her. The massive injuries Gin had gotten, only happened, because Gin had difficulty getting on the thing's back again, which if she hadn't saved Ryuu, she wouldn't have had to do. Here's the question... If Kabuto hadn't been able to slow her down by reopening her injuries, would he have been able to kill her? Maybe not. If Gin hadn't saved Ryuu, she wouldn't have those injuries. If Gin hadn't saved Ryuu, Ryuu'd have drowned.

Gin had died because Ryuu had lived. For Gin to have lived, Ryuu would have to have died.

I wonder If Ryuu'd realised that. I doubt she'd cared if she had.

Kukazu'd be upset that now those bandages were useless, and complain that it was a was waste of money.

Hidan't be disappointed she was in one piece. Death didn't really bother that guy.

Senpai'd do what he had done when Sasori died. Send somebody out to get a new one. Heh... Gin had been right. Just like a goldfish.

Tobi'd be glad at another shot at joining Akatsuki.

And Zetsu... He'd probably wanted to eat the corpse.

"'Same?" I didn't have to turn. I knew what I'd see.

"I'm sorry, Deidara." I said, placing one hand on the rain-soaked blond's shoulder, before turning and starting back for the hideout. He'd needed some time alone.

I let Deidara say whatever he had to in private.

I reentered the main room of the hideout, where the others were sitting. Guess Itachi had already broken the news, because there was an unusual silence, and a heavy feeling clinging to the air. Only Ryuu was in a good mood. Better than usual.

Deidara returned a long while later, passing quickly past us in the main room, not looking at us, or saying a word. There was a sound of a door slamming, a moment later. It had been like that After Sasori had died. Dei'd holed himself up in his room for a few days, refusing to come out, and throwing things at anybody who tried to come in, occasionally setting off small explosives.

After three days, when I hadn't heard anything go Boom, I began to worry, and risked knocking on his door. No answer.

I pushed the door open, and nothing flew at my head.

I had expected to see Deidara sitting cross-legged on his bed, frowning angrily as he had last time, but I couldn't see him at all. Then I saw it. A foot on the ground, the person attached to it hidden behind the bed. "Deidara?" I stepped over to the far side of his room, to see the rest of the blond, lying motionlessly on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

I had thought that he himself was dead for a long moment, until he blinked at me. "Go away, un." He answered spiritlessly.

"Why are you on the floor?"

"Rolled off the bed,"

"Hey... Have you even eaten anything?"

"Not hungry, un."

"Water?"

"Not thirsty."

I frowned, then left to get him something, wether he said he wanted it or not. I returned a few minutes later, with some Anpan, and a glass of water. He was exactly where he'd been when I'd left.

I placed it on his dresser, taking a quick scan of the room to make sure there was nothing he could possibly hurt himself with, before leaving, taking his bag of clay with me as an afterthought. He didn't protest at all.

"She was cold."

I turned, poking my head back into his room. "What?"

"Sasori Danna was cold... Because he was a puppet, un... Whenever I had to pass something to him... Or anything like that... He was cold. Gin was never cold, un...And now..."

His voice trailed off, and I left. Not knowing what I could possibly say.

About a week later, Zetsu found one of Orochimaru's subordinates wandering around with his ring. She was strong, and supposedly hated Orochimaru as much as we did, so he brought her back with him.

Zetsu's return with the new addition, named Irezumi, was the first time Deidara had managed to drag himself out of his room.

She introduced herself, and things went pretty well, for a while.

"You guys lost one a while back, right?"

Deidara's hand clenched.

"Yeah, Orochimaru wouldn't shut up about it. I dunno. If Kabuto took her out, she couldn't be that strong, right?"

Deidara gets this weird look in his eye when he really wants to blow something up. I was suddenly really glad I had taken his clay away.

"I agree." Ryuu Said calmly.

Deidara and Irezumi don't get along. Period.

Deidara retreated back to his room again, but at least he was eating. He slept a lot now.

Then Zetsu found Hitsuji. Definitely Akatsuki material. And there was only one spot left. I was the one they asked to tell Deidara.

"Hey, Deidara?" I asked, pushing his door open. He was in bed, facing a way from me. "You awake?"

"Yeah,"

"Deidara... Remember how you once said, that Gin wasn't really replacing Sasori? She was just, you know, joining, and it didn't mean you were forgetting about him?"

"Yeah." He answered a little more sharply.

"Well...Zetsu's found someone else." He didn't answer so I continued. "Her name's Hitsuji...It's official... She's a member. And the only empty spot is..."

"Gin's."

"She's going to be Irezumi's partner." I think he nodded a little. "Deidara...Just think, Deidara... We can finally have all ten people again... That'll make things so much easier..."

Deidara had kept Gin's ring somewhere, I knew he would have. He knew we'd need to find someone else eventually.

"In the first drawer over there." He said, pointing behind himself to the dresser.

I took it, and began to leave, but stopped at the door. "Deidara... You have to move on, or you'll be like this forever."

I barely heard what he whispered as I closed the door behind me.

"Nothing lasts forever, Kisame Sama. Nothing."

XDD thanks for reading, and for putting up with me! XDD I had a hell of a time thinking up who'd killed her XDD It still doesn't make sense, does it? Sorry. Oh well... Please review, and thank you so much for reading this XD