AN: This is the first chapter of a what I am currently planning on being a 4 to 5 chapter story...though nothing has been finalized yet!! And just so you know, this takes place during the timeskip.

Yes I know Deidara is dead. In my world none of my favorite characters die...lol

Anyway, enjoy! Reviews are love :D

Tolerance

(Daze)

There was a very peculiar crackling sound. The noise had been tugging at the shadowy edges of Tenten's unconsciousness for quite sometime now, noticeable enough for her to somehow blindly acknowledge it, but too faint for her to wake by it. It flicked over and over again, sounding continuously somewhere in blackness of her numb mind, as if prodding her to stir from her sleep. Then it would fade, as if it had never been there. It went on like this for what seemed like decades, but after awhile, the sound grew in volume, and soon she was roused into awakening. As she groggily struggled to open her eyes, her vision was overtaken by something flashing a startling bright orange-yellow, causing her to quickly shut her eyes again. She felt splashed with smooth heat which evenly coated her whole body. At first, it was comforting to be greeted from cold, dark unconsciousness by warmth, so much that she considered falling back asleep. However, when she took note of the rough, bumpy surface she was lying on, the sensation puzzled Tenten, and as she felt something smoldering lick her elbow, her eyes immediately snapped back open.

The crackling sound was actually coming from the sizzling embers of a strong-looking fire. The inferno blazed in Tenten's honey-tinted eyes, and momentarily she thought she was being roasted alive. Her dazed inquiries on the situation were quickly enveloped with fear at the thought, and she made a sharp intake of a breath which sounded like a partially strangled gasp.

Her noise caught the attention of a certain someone sitting across from her, on the other side of the fire.

Her ears perked at the low, ominous voice.

"Ah, finally awake I see, un."

The statement seemed to shoot a total realignment of reality through Tenten. She twitched on the ground, realizing she was in bindings. The thick rope bound her wrists and ankles together. Going on her first instinct, she struggled wildly within them, desperately trying to free herself. Though there were several other things another shinobi might have done at that point, like ask questions or scan the area, the fact was that in Tenten's mind, she had been dominated, and she didn't like that at all. No questions asked, the first thing she wanted to do was liberate herself.

However, as hard as she tried for freedom, her attempts were futile, something that her captor didn't hold back on letting her know of.

A laugh came from the other side of the fire.

"I would tell you that's useless, un," drawled the voice humorously, "but the way you pointlessly try and break those bindings is sort of cute."

Freezing at the voice, Tenten's body went stiff and she laid motionlessly on the ground. Too weak to try and hoist herself up, she tried to look through the fire to match a face to the what had been spoken, but the glowing flames only made her eyes burn. She squinted her eyes when she finally decided to talk, and as hard as she tried to speak in an even tone, her words came out sounding quite fatigued.

"Wha…what happened?" she asked in a whisper, "Where am I?"

Another chuckle was heard.

"What's that?" said the mystery voice, "Speak up, un."

Tenten's brow furrowed in annoyance.

"I said," she repeated, "Where am—"

She didn't get a chance to finish since the abrupt action of the mystery man dragging her around the fire towards him cut her off. He had grabbed her by her collar, and for the split second where his fingers had brushed up against her neck she near-shivered when she felt incredibly thick calluses. When her body came to a halt, she found herself staring at the back of a dirty ninja shoe, and slowly, she looked up into the garish smile of a madman.

"We're in a cave, un!" he exclaimed happily, as if his announcement was like some rewarding surprise for the currently miserable Tenten.

"Wha—?"

Obviously, this madman enjoyed interrupting her.

"Oh I see," he said, expression changing from completely ecstatic to mildly contemplative, "you must be confused, un."

She could only nod.

"Well, the two of us were having a little date you see, un…"

"A date?" she inquired. Tenten scrutinized the man's face. It was slender with strong features, one sky blue eye and the other hidden by a large tuft of flaxen hair.

"Yeah, un," he chirped, "it was going really well, at least until…"

She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Until your damn friends ruined it, un." he said, almost pouting. Her mind was racing. What the hell is he talking about? she mentally asked herself.

"You looked so cute leaping about with your scrolls too…" he said, amidst in his own nostalgic fantasies, "like a little ballerina, un."

Then at once, memories flooded back to her like a rushing river, crashing onto the shores of her brain. She was soon engulfed in a spontaneous recollection of everything that had happened. As thoughts of before ran through her mind, the exhausted ache she felt all along her muscles and limbs suddenly made sense. She had been on a mission. Team Gai had been tailing a rogue ninja through the forest outside of Konoha's main gate, which could only mean…

"You're the Akatsuki member?" Tenten exclaimed, though her words were more of an annunciation of rage rather than a question. She had not recognized him since his signature rice-picker hat and cloak had been discarded, but now it was all starting to make sense.

The man nodded, seeming satisfied that she had finally put two-and-two together.

Tenten, on the other hand, could only stare in shocked disbelief at him. She remembered quite clearly. The Akatsuki member, who's name was listed in Tsunade-sama's bingo book as Deidara, was a specialist in explosives. During the battle, he had injured Lee with one of his bombs. According to Gai-sensei's orders, she and Neji were to chase Deidara down and leave him to tend to Lee's wounds. They followed his instructions of course, but Tenten made the almost-fatal mistake of thinking that with both her and Neji against the missing nin, they could take him down rather easily.

She was gravely mistaken, and though she fought to the best of her abilities and was able to shake the ninja somewhat, in the end she remembered being swarmed by tiny little birds, which exploded one by one.

The last thing she could recall was Neji's desperate call of her name, and then it all faded into black.

Tenten struggled to speak as anger was slowly building up inside her.

"But…why?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Why what, un?" said Deidara, wearing a grin which infuriated Tenten even more.

"Why did you take me?" she asked, almost yelling, as anger became more and more present in her tone, "Why didn't you just leave me?"

Deidara blinked at this. Then, as if to further tease Tenten's temper, he burst out laughing. For moments, she could only stare at his hysterical form, moments that she passed with thinking of various ways to skewer, maim, and mutilate him with her weapons.

"Leave you, un?" said Deidara, finally recovering from his laughter, "Why would I do that?"

"It seems like a filthy criminal like yourself would have better things to do than kidnap a little girl." she spat, knowing she was being far more caustic than usual. Though, it hardly mattered, since all her remark did was put a smirk on his face.

"You're not that little, un," he said, "you're fourteen, aren't you?"

"Yes, I believe I know my own age." Tenten hissed sarcastically.

"Well good, un!" he said, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand. She immediately jerked away. Unable, to control herself any longer, she let her mouth loose.

"Listen you dirty, clay-spitting piece of shi—"

"Hey now!" Deidara reprimanded, lightly slapping her cheek, "That's no way for a lady to speak, un."

She winced, not because he had actually hurt her, but because she felt repulsed every time he touched her. As for the way she was speaking, Tenten realized that with her little pixie voice she was never really that intimidating, but she also knew she had a bad habit of cursing when she was angry—and she was really angry right now.

"Quit touching me, jackass." she muttered.

Deidara grabbed the front of her shirt and yanked her upright so she was staring right into his face. His happy expression was gone. Now he was only glowering threateningly at her.

"You're spunky, and I like that," he warned dangerously, "but if you want to make it out of here alive, un, you're going to have to watch what you say to me."

She fought his glare with her own incensed eyes. She didn't show a bit of fear, but she realized that he was right.

"Whatever." said Tenten grudgingly. Deidara threw her back to the ground. She flew face-first into the dirt. Coughing out the dust from her throat, she slowly turned back around to look at him. Tenten wasn't really surprised to see his expression had changed once again, and that he was back to being all charm.

"Well, now that that's all cleared up," he said gleefully, "we can resume our fun little conversation, un!"

Tenten scowled at him and turned her face towards the fire, not wanting to look at Deidara's face for the moment.

"I still don't understand," she said with a more solemn voice, "why did you capture me? If you're thinking of a ransom then that won't work."

He chuckled, "I don't care for money, un."

"Then why? Why couldn't you just leave me with my teammate…or if compassion isn't your style, you could've just killed us. But why did you take me?"

He ran a finger along the contour of Tenten's hip, then trailed it down her leg. Under the fabric of her pants, her skin went cold with goose bumps.

"The fact of the matter is, sweetheart," he said, "when you're an S-class criminal, and everyone hates your guts, un, you get lonely. My partner isn't with me right now, so you could only imagine how much more boring it is for me. It just seemed that my battle with you was a perfect turn of events, un. It gave me a new playmate to past the time with!"

Tenten was staring at him incredulously with wide-eyes. Playmate?

"Are you kidding?"

"Nope, un!"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Let me make something clear for you," she growled, "I'm not going to start a fight in an attempt to escape, but I am most definitely not your bitch. I'll bite your ear off if you try anything."

"Bite my ear off, un?" he said with a wry smile, "That's kinky."

TBC.