Itachi had always been a pretty flexible person. He was able to handle any mission Pein could throw at him with barely any problems at all, considering he even killed his clan under orders. Today however, he thought, may have been a stretch. Kisame, he was used to, and he'd taken some getting used to to put it lightly. So, he was never too excited to go on missions with anyone other than the shark man. The two already worked flawlessly together, and the time it took adjusting to the abilities of other Akatsuki members was a nuisance. Deidara was no exception.
Itachi wasn't oblivious when it came to how Deidara felt towards him. Not that it really mattered to him at the end of the day. The problem was, he found that it took more of his will power than he would've liked to ignore the glowers and glares he was almost constantly getting. Apparently the blonde wasn't above letting an opportunity pass when it came to making Itachi feel uncomfortable.
Their leader thought it'd be a good idea to pair the two together for this particular mission. There was no team better suited, Pein had said, for assassinating the mysterious ninja under wraps that'd been spying on the Akatsuki for the past two months now. He'd been gathering confidential Intel in the process as well as info the Akatsuki could use themselves. Itachi would have no trouble squeezing out all that was necessary using his sharingan, and Deidara wouldn't hesitate when finishing the guy off.
When they found the man, they wasted no time in fulfilling their orders, but as Deidara rose his hand to set off the killing blow in another explosion, the weird look the dying man gave the two before his eyes lost their light didn't go unnoticed. Before he had wheezed his last breath, before he was blown into a billion pieces, he'd chocked out;
"You... will soon come to realize..." The two obviously had no idea what the crazy man was talking about and simply ignored the comment.
Later that day as the sun was setting, they were already heading back to base. Because of the threat of unwanted attention, no clay birds could be flown, making their travel longer. Deidara hadn't bothered asking Itachi about the new info he'd stolen from the man. Deidara had missed out, as what went down between the enemy and Itachi stayed within their brain's with nothing spoken out loud. The artist was too irritated with him at the moment, in other words, all the time, to ask him. No matter how curious he was. He was still feeling sorry for himself as he walked alongside Itachi, when he suddenly began to feel a strange itch on his scalp. It wasn't something he was used to. It felt something like a burning tingle that came, and then faded. Then, came back with greater intensity. He tried to ignore it at first, but the sensation became too much, and he was soon scratching at his scalp relentlessly.
Itachi continued their path paying the bomber no mind at first, but his attention was slowly drawn back to him as he realized his abnormal scratching. He knew Deidara's head couldn't have been THAT dirty, since he had an unhealthy love for maintaining his hair. Always threatening his partner, Tobi with in an inch of his life when the masked man would hide his shampoo at night just to mess around. Unless...
"I find it hard to believe you would develop something as pesky as lice, Deidara. If I'm not mistaken, we've only gone a day without showering." Itachi was never one for pulling one's tail just for fun, and knew he was probably making Deidara's hate for him grow ever stronger, but he didn't want to seem too curious about his behavior. It did bother him slightly, especially since lice never came so quickly. Right?
Deidara abruptly ceased his itching, forcing his hands to his sides, fingers twitching as the itching wasn't going away. In fact it was getting worse and worse by the second until it was nearly border-line unbearable. He glared bitterly at the Uchiha who looked about as interested as a four year old stuck in a tenth grade history class. "I don't think so Itachi, seeing as I've never had one set of lice in my life, hm. I guess you wouldn't know how that feels," he muttered, searching for something more snide to say, but was having more trouble than usual from the distraction of his scalp that he could no longer cease to scratch. He scraped savagely at it.
Itachi, finally realizing something was really wrong, slowly turned his head, eyebrows rising at the blonde who was clawing at his head as if his life depend on it. Deidara fought to look as if nothing was wrong, reminding himself to walk forward and resist stopping in his tracks to focus solely on the scratching but failed miserably.
After watching this a little longer, Itachi took a step towards him. "Perhaps you should hold still for a moment," he reached out a bit hesitantly, and tried to get a closer look at Deidara's hair. He ignored the growing itch in his own head.
"Perhaps you should back the hell off, hm, " Deidara tried blocking Itachi's ascending form as the Uchiha tried to peer over his head, but his movements felt half-hearted to Itachi. He pushed passed the blonde's stubbornness, and Deidara finally stilled for a moment, waiting for Itachi's response. "Well, what's going on?!" The artist got out between his clenched teeth, frustrated. "And...a little to the left, will you, un? If you're gonna touch my head at least scratch it, you're making it worse, hm!" Deidara hissed, attempting to smack Itachi's hands away. Itachi sighed, brushing Deidara's fingers out of the way so he could see better. Full of surprises the artist was. There was silence for a second longer, then, Itachi suddenly stepped back gravely, his dark eyes wider than usual.
"Its a trap." He said in the most calm voice he could muster. What that man said, he thought, wasn't just a bunch of nonsense after all. It must have been... The trigger words.
Deidara glared at him exasperated, some surprise twisting his face. "What the hell are you talking about, Uchiha, un?" Ignoring him, the weasel quickly scanned his brain, no time for deep thinking. Suddenly he took a deep breath, holding it as he concentrated the majority of his chakra within a single point, letting it spike. He always did this when he needed to focus. Although he seemed to be fighting the effects of whatever this was better than his current companion, the intense crawling sensation was turning quickly into a harsh burning one. Almost as if his scalp were on fire. There wasn't much time. He wasn't quite sure he knew how, but he needed to stop this. Now.
He began making numerous, blurring hand signs, reminding himself to stay calm as they were getting sloppy in his haste. With his hand glowing red with chakra, he brought it up and placed his palm firmly onto a slightly startled Deidara's forehead after sliding the forehead protected out of the way. Hopefully, his chakra would shake the genjutsu before it got any worse. With his sharingan, Itachi was able to see that there was absolutely no sense of life such as lice or anything like it roaming the bomber's scalp. That's how he knew there was a problem.
"Hey- what are you do-?!" Deidara recoiled at first, then stilled once he saw the look on Itachi's face. When he looked into Deidara's azure eyes, he saw what he had feared deep in them. Something that shouldn't have been there. A disturbance. He knew this wasn't just any ordinary genjutsu. It was pulling Deidara somewhere else. He was surprised that even he, a master of genjutsu, hadn't noticed it before . He grunted, summoning more chakra to his palm. Deidara stumbled back a little from the pressure rushing to his head, getting dizzy. Forehead protector clattering to the ground near his staggering feet after it slipped out of his hair. Itachi fought his growing apprehension. He knew the jutsu was already pulling the Deidara in, and if that happened... He couldn't let that happen.
"I need you to stay with me, Deidara," Itachi murmured but Deidara was already becoming unresponsive. Sweat began to collect, sliding down Deidara's temples and forehead, wetting Itachi's palm. Itachi knew that he had to stop soon. Too much more chakra would cause permanent damage to Deidara's brain. Itachi's eye lids were fluttering. Although he was elite in almost everything he did, chakra control was never one of his strong points. This 'surprise attack' didn't do much in preparing him for the sudden practice. He was having a bit of trouble keeping a steady flow of chakra to both his head and Deidara's as well. He felt as if something was pulling his conscience, his being, his very soul, into somewhere unknown. Forcing him into an unfamiliar, dark place. It felt different from being pulled into deep sleep in the midst of night. He couldn't put a finger on it. But whatever it was, he wasn't planning on getting the grand tour. With one last determined spike, he summoned more chakra to his hand. He could only hope it was enough to reach Deidara.
Everything seemed to freeze in that single moment. Itachi's lips became a tight grimace. He'd reached his limit. It was too late. Deidara was lost, body collapsing forward as Itachi caught him, lying him down onto the dirty grass in a numb haze. Deidara lay there; lips slightly parted, blue eyes staring glassily above, looking at something, but nothing.
Itachi couldn't bring himself to believe this turn of unfortunate events. He knew there was something odd about the man he'd interrogated with his eyes. The way the man's chakra seemed to be drawn to the genjutsu, how the man didn't seem to put up much resistance to the oncoming invasion of his brain. Almost as if he wanted to be connected with Itachi. Now it all made sense. Ever since he was little, he'd heard of a mysterious clan that could pull this near impossible jutsu off, but he never paid it much mind, believing it to be nothing but a myth. Just like almost every shinobi believed.
They were apparently, a reasonably new clan that came to existence about fifty years ago. The Sutsukuji clan; the clan that possessed the forbidden Kekkei Genkai known as the Owatsusumo. The Owatsusumo was said to be capable of doing a number of things. The jutsu was especially built for countering the most powerful genjutsu, and that's what it did at times, but just like with the sharingan, some clan members were able to extend the jutsu. When that happened, the clan member, when under an enemy's genjutsu, could secretly leave a virus that worked like a trap within the brain of the caster, unbeknownst to them. Once set, the virus was said to be dormant for a certain period of time, but like a ticking time bomb, it eventually went off. It would cause a strange genjutsu to start up within the original caster's brain, in this case, Itachi's.
The jutsu is said to suck the victim into a temporary universe, cut off from the real world. Although the universe and what happens there remains unknown, it was always thought to be a place that was less than pleasant. Only a couple of unfortunate Shinobi who'd apparently crossed paths with a member or two and lived to tell the story were never the same. No one listened to them, thinking them to be absolutely delusional. A haunted, tortured look in their eye, holding an unspeakable secret that no one would ever believe.
Back then, Itachi didn't k know whether or not to believe in the existence of the clan, and now he'd fallen right into one of the member's traps. He and Deidara thought they'd walked away leaving a dead man behind, blown into oblivion, but now it'd obviously back fired. Whether the man was dead or alive, the jutsu was still in effect and that's all that really mattered. Itachi's heart sped up as he tried his best to resist the strange genjutsu now overpowering him, his vision blurring. His throat and nose burned, his whole body was soon on fire. His head throbbed. It felt only one second away from bursting, and his hope was unraveling by the second. His mind raced, but he was no longer thinking straight.
His legs became jelly and ceased to support him, and now sprawled out on muddy grass, he managed to lift his head up. He could just make out the unmoving artist a ways from him, staring blankly up at the the sky frozen in time. At this point there was nothing he could do to save Deidara. He knew releasing him from the jutsu, as strong as it was, was near impossible at this point. The Uchiha also knew he couldn't just wait for Deidara to wake up. By then, the damage could already be done. More importantly... He knew he couldn't let him face this alone. If he wanted to at least have a chance in saving his teammate, there was only one option left. Itachi felt one last thrumming within his ears and breathed one last breath, finally letting himself go. He saw darkness.