EDIT: Good grief, people seem to REALLY like this story so far and the pairing. Who would have thought yeah?
EDIT 2: OH NO am I starting to say "yeah" at the end of my sentences! CURSE YOU, MY DEIDARA COSPLAY! GAHHH!
------
Part 2 - "Bitterness"
------
Ino was busy healing Deidara's wounds, focusing on his right shoulder when Itachi came into the base, staring at her uneasily. She had been around for two days now and was used to people coming and going, but she had never met this one. As she finished the last of the cut, her eyes glanced up absently at the stranger, but her breath caught when she looked into his eyes. The Sharingan, and that black hair... Sasuke? No, this one was different.
Deidara noticed the confusion on her face and supplied a name. "Uchiha Itachi."
Her brow quirked curiously. "Uchiha? Like Sasuke?"
Itachi frowned, but showed no other sign of emotion. "My pathetic brother? He will never be a match for me." He turned on his heel and passed by the door with haste.
"Itachi... I remember now. He's the one that slaughtered the rest of the Uchiha clan... and then Sasuke left to kill him."
But Deidara grinned at her, finally comfortable enough to share what he thought. "Don't let that prat get to you, un. He's a vain, cocky pretty boy with a stick up his rear, un."
She grinned maliciously. "Sounds a bit like you, Deidara."
He pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "He still doesn't understand art. He'll never understand the majesty of a good explosion, un."
Pein walked by the door and stuck his auburn haired head through the open door. "Deidara?"
Deidara and Ino both looked up at the same time, mirror images of each other. "Huh?"
Pein's eyebrow twitched slightly. Damn, but the similarity was scary! "When Sasori gets back, I need you to steal a scroll." He tossed a small scroll describing the mission objectives to Deidara's quickly reacting catch. "Try not to kill anyone this time."
Ino glanced up at the leader cautiously. "Maybe I can be useful for this mission? I could use my Mind Transfer technique to possess one of their ninjas and steal the scroll unhindered."
Again, that same eyebrow raised. She, a Konoha captive, was volunteering for a mission? No, he couldn't risk it. She might try to escape. It would be a perfect plan, but he was a bit too quick for her. "No, I'm afraid not. Deidara and Sasori will complete the mission."
She tried to protest, but Deidara cut her off with a sideways glare. "Of course, Leader-sama." When Pein finally left, he whispered to her carefully. "Don't get on his bad side, un. If there's anyone you don't want to piss off, it's him. Why the hell are you trying to help us, anyway?"
"To be perfectly honest... I was planning an escape."
He nodded after a second. "Danna's right not to trust you, un." But he smiled, that signature wide grin covering his face. "He doesn't always trust me either, though. Maybe he has the right idea, un."
"You wouldn't abandon Akatsuki, would you? Or abandon him?"
He scoffed. "Of course not. We disagree all the time about art, but I'd never stab him in the back, un. He's a loyal person, though a bit reclusive. You just gotta know how to handle him, un."
She leaned back, staring at him for a moment. Sasori finally returned inside Hiruko, and paused at the door to step out and send the large puppet back into a scroll. His eyes drifted lazily over his partner and Ino, then paused on her. "Are you done healing him?"
Deidara spoke up before she could. "I'm fine, Sasori Danna, we've got a mission from Leader-sama. Another scroll stealing mission, un."
Sasori paused in something resembling disgust. "Again? That's the kind of crap that Itachi and Kisame get all the time. You always end up killing everyone, I don't know why he doesn't give us solely assassination missions."
"He leaves those to Hidan and Kakuzu, un. You know how they get. I can at least restrain myself a little, un!"
"You better, brat." He took the mission specs from Deidara, glancing them over. Steal the scroll from a castle in Iwakagure, stealth mission. Deidara sucks at stealth... His eyes again flicked to the young kunoichi, and he frowned slightly. "She's coming too."
But Deidara shook his head. "Leader-sama said no. We can't have her running off, un."
Sasori's head tilted to the side with a hint of arrogance. "She's not going anywhere." With a flick of his hand, he raised her arm with his chakra strings experimentally. "Even after being away for a while, I still have influence over her. Even if she does somehow escape, I'll know it right away and return her to us. She can be of some use."
"What, use her Mind Transfer thing? She'd just run away in a new body, un."
"Idiot, she can't do anything if we have her real body under our command. Even if she goes to a new body, she can't live in it for long."
Ino decided to cut in for the sake of ending the argument. "I won't run away."
Sasori paused, then nodded. "You won't." He smirked slightly and flicked his hand again, raising her up off the ground. "You're mine now, and you'll do as I say."
------
Two days were spent to find the castle in Iwa, the tall spires creeping into the shallow night long before they were in range. The tall mushroom covered trees shot high into the canopy, the enormous growths looming over their heads. Deidara led the way, knowing quite well where they were going, and he waved them forward from his position on a cliff. In the narrow cleft of a valley, the heavily buttressed compound crouched precariously over the rift in the earth, patrolled by a ridiculous amount of shinobi.
When they neared his side, Deidara spoke in a whisper. "That scroll is really important, un. I know about this place... The security is ridiculous. We'll have to let her try out the Mind Transfer. We'll never get in quietly."
Sasori didn't hesitate. "Right. Ino, go ahead. We'll watch your body."
She did hesitate, but realized this was the only way to earn their good graces. "Alright. We'll have to wait until one gets close enough. If I fail, my body would be useless for a while, so be patient." Her eyes scanned the ramparts and then the terraces, looking for one that was within her range. Finally, a female Iwa nin walked out beyond the door, her form standing quietly at ease. It was now or never. Ino held her hands out in triangle formation, focusing on the Mind Transfer. Success! She had the fortune of picking a fairly weak minded kunoichi, and the transfer went off without a hitch.
Now inside this stranger's mind, she casually wandered back into the compound, searching through the halls for the door that Deidara had mentioned. She was to look for the one with a red painted frame, near the interior of the castle. The dank, musty halls were barely lit enough for her to notice the door, but her wary eyes found it quickly. With a glance around her to make sure she wasn't being followed, she checked the door for traps. The idiots had left the door completely unguarded and no traps lay around it. They were so confident of their shinobi outside! She had no trouble whatsoever in pilfering the small scroll, hiding it away in her vest. With a glance outside the door, she walked through the hall innocently, walking back outside as if on patrol.
Act natural... She ambled back into the cold night, stretching absently. As if on a whim, she moved her host's body near the woods, looking around to see if anything was amiss. Her comrades would find nothing odd about that. Then she forced her host to trip on a rock, flinging the scroll into the forest with as much force as she could without attracting attention. None were the wiser, thinking the poor girl had merely stumbled. As her jutsu faded, she guided the kunoichi back to where she had first trapped her, leaving her mind with such ease that the girl wasn't even aware of being possessed.
"Good work, Ino." Sasori's compliments were rare, but she returned to her body to see him looking down with a complacent gaze. His glassy green eyes flicked to watch as Deidara sent one of his small birds to claim the scroll before they left the scene.
As they crept out into the forest, Deidara smirked at her playfully. "Leader-sama will be pissed that we let you come along, but he'll have to at least recognize that the mission was a success, un."
Sasori watched her closely as she walked beside them, not even seeming like she wanted to escape, and he was completely puzzled. He expected her to try and escape at least once in these days she had been with them. Out in the wilderness there were plenty of times she could have crept away while he was arguing with Deidara, or distracted by making repairs on Hiruko. Maybe she really knew that she wouldn't be beyond his grasp, always drawn back to the puppet master whether by his will... or by hers.
------
Pein greeted them back at the hideout, frowning at the kunoichi as they entered. "Sasori, Deidara... you better have a good explanation for disobeying me."
Sasori stepped forward, handing over the scroll. "She was never beyond my influence, and her skills helped us accomplish our mission without any flaws. It would be in your best interest to leave the matter alone."
The leader was unperturbed by the young man's rudeness; this was simply how Sasori was. "Very well. As long as she is under control... then I will leave it up to your discretion as to how you will use her." With one final shrug to himself, he left the three to heave a collected sigh of relief.
Deidara grinned down at Sasori triumphantly. "You sure gave him a thing or two to think about, un."
Sasori glared out from under his long crimson bangs. "Shut up, brat. I have more important things to think about." He stared up at Ino, who looked just as exhausted as his partner. "Go on to bed, I'll be up working tonight."
Deidara yawned, going to his own room. "Yeah Danna, don't overdo it, un." With one final stretch, he disappeared, but Ino followed Sasori carefully.
"Hey, wait, don't you need sleep too? You shouldn't work if you're too tired."
With something akin to a smirk, his glazed eyes met her icy ones. "I don't need sleep."
She frowned down at him defiantly. "Of course you need sleep! We've been walking for seventeen hours straight! You can work in the morning."
His smirk faded into a frown. "No, you don't understand." He lifted up his long sleeve, revealing his wooden joints and each compartment in his arms. "I don't NEED sleep. I'm not even human anymore..." That next look on his face... resentment? Regret? "Never mind, you are the one that needs sleep. Go." He gave her a glare that meant this was the end of the discussion, and she was left alone to think about what he said. No longer human... replaced by cold wood and metal parts. He felt nothing, needed nothing... what the heck was he?
------
Pein had changed bodies, picking the summoner. For some reason he needed to alternate from time to time to give each one rest. His long bangs drifted over on the left side of his face, and he entered the kitchen where Deidara and Ino were seated side by side. Itachi waved absently over his shoulder as he cooked breakfast for all the team members currently at the base, and Pein sat down next to Deidara. Though he was the leader, he still sat down at the same table, listening to whatever his subordinates had to talk about. Communication was important, after all.
Hidan lazily entered, his eyes barely open. "Leader-sama, where are you?" He glanced over at the table and his eyes widened in shock as Ino, Deidara, and Pein looked up at the same time, and he swore for a second that he was seeing triple. "HOLY JASHIN WHAT THE FUCK!" With one last look of terror, he fled the kitchen, screaming something about clones invading the planet. What a way to start the morning.
------
A/N: Second chapter is over, it's kinda long huh? Well I did promise! Third chapter will come fairly soon, I don't have all the time in the world, you know, so please don't send reviews asking me to update. I'll do it when I can. Other reviews are read, overjoyed at, an appreciated.