Chapter One

Desert of Kaze no Kuni; Sada and Onin squad

'Hmm, I wonder how everyone's been doing since I've been away? Hopefully well, I'll have to give Gaara-kun a big hug as soon as I see him. He probably won't like that too much since he wants to be seen as a strong Kazekage and all, but I know he won't get angry with me. Because I'm...me.'

I giggled quietly to myself in amusement, continuing my journey through the desert towards Sunagakure. The sun was beating down, making the dry and barren desert seem more sweltering hot than it already was. The heat didn't really bother me too much though. I didn't understand why I liked the desert as much as I did, especially since I loathed the sun but it was something that I didn't question too often. I knew I was a complicated person, my thoughts were just so contradicting over half the time, so I knew better than to question my own beliefs or I'd wind up confusing myself.

"Taichou...is everything alright?"

I blinked dumbly, looking to my right. I smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head nervously.

"Eh, heh heh. Gomen." I apologized, still smiling a little. "I'm fine, no reason to worry about me."

"Because giggling at random doesn't mean a thing." a female voice teased, I looked to my left.

"I was thinking about some things." I replied, hating how I was going to more than likely wind up speaking thoughts I would've rather kept private.

"As in...?"

I rolled my eyes, looking in the direction of the third voice.

"Thing's I'd like to keep to myself." I replied, being honest but extremely vague.

"Don't goad her into telling you something she doesn't want to." the first voice said, I smiled appreciatively. "It's fine Taichou, you don't have to tell us anything you don't want to."

"Stop flirting with her."

"I'm not flirting with her."

"It sure as hell looks like it."

"Nande? Does it bother you?"

"Why I outa-"

"Eh, get over it. She'll never fall for either of you anyway."

"What'd you say Aio?!"

I lowered my head, trying to ignore the arguing going on around me. I should've been used to this, after at least a half a year worth of hearing it on a daily basis, it shouldn't have bothered me as much as at originally did. I honestly thought it had gotten worse though, oh joy. I stared at the ground as we walked, trying to occupy my thoughts with something other than how much this bickering bothered me.

"Okay, I'm so kicking your ass."

"Try it, I'll take you out."

"Yeah right."

"Guys."

All the arguing stopped, I knew all heads turned in my direction when they heard my soft spoken voice. I twiddled my fingers nervously and looked up from the ground, meeting my team's masked faces.

"Can you all stop arguing, please?" I asked quietly, Shigeo nodded.

"Of course Sada-Taichou, I apologize." he said, sounding sincere.

I smiled a bit, moving my gaze to my other two teammates. Aio nodded in agreement, letting me know that she would stop as well. Jurou made a 'tch' sound, jerking his head towards the clouds. I lowered my head to the sandy ground, holding my hands infront of my body self consciously.

"Sure thing Sada." he mumbled, sounding a little annoyed.

I looked up from the ground, smiling brightly at the three of them. Even though they didn't know I was smiling, I was sure that they had some idea about it. They knew I could be a happy and carefree individual at times, I was more happy and sweet than I was lonely and sad. When my sad side came out though, they always tried their hardest to keep my spirits up. I never had thought that I'd have a team that would try so hard to keep me from feeling lonely, maybe that was the reason I was on this squad, rather than a different one.

"Alright, let's get back to Suna then." I instructed, the three of them nodded. "Kazekage-sama will be wanting the report from our mission as soon as possible, we need to make it back within the next few hours or so."

"Hai!" the three of them exclaimed, sounding respectful.

I walked passed the three of them, leading our squad. As a Taichou, it was my responsibility to take charge of my squad and look out for them. I didn't really understand why Gaara had given me this title since I was an extremely soft-spoken individual, but my squad listened to me nonetheless. I thought it might've been only because of how sweet I was, and that they didn't want to hurt my feelings by being disrespectful. I was looked at as though as I was extremely fragile, breakable in fact. They probably listened to me for that reason, or maybe it was because the Kazekage was my best friend. I didn't think I'd ever know what my squad honestly thought of me, I was too nervous and shy to ask in the first place.

I'd been living in Sunagakure for a good year now, maybe longer. Originally, I'd set out from Konohagakure about two and a half years ago to do some solo training. My goal was to rescue my best friend, Uchiha Sasuke, from Orochimaru's clutches. He'd left the village in search of power, trying to kill his older brother Itachi for murdering his clan. Before Sasuke had left the village though, he'd confessed to me that he was in love with me. Literally, in love with me. I hadn't known about my true feelings for him until he'd kissed me that night, and now I was torn to make a decision. You see, I have a boyfriend already, for two years and seven months to be exact. His name is Iwagakure no Deidara, and I am madly in love with this boy. I love him with all my heart, soul, and being. He's like my other half, and I have no idea what my life would be like without him. Deidara, he helped me find myself again. He helped me find the happiness I hadn't known in years, he helped show me what love was. Sasuke though...I also didn't know what I would do if I didn't have him in my life. He helped rescue me from myself, he helped show me that I wasn't alone in the world, and he showed me that there was someone I could trust.

I was in love with both of these boys, and they have one major thing in common...they're both Criminals. Sasuke, he works with Orochimaru now. In exchange for the power to be able to defeat Itachi, he has given up the ultimate price, his freedom. It didn't seem like Sasuke cared about what happened to him anymore, I sometimes think that he believes there's nothing left for him to live for except killing Itachi. Orochimaru has his own plans for Sasuke, he wants to use his body as a new vessel for himself. He's all about sustaining his own life and mastering all jutsu of the world, I refuse to let this happen to Sasuke. I'm determined to rescue him from Orochimaru, whether he wants to be rescued or not.

Deidara, on the other hand, works for a group of S-Ranked Criminals called the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki consist of some of the most dangerous criminals the world has ever seen, they have nine members in their ranks at this time. I know Deidara never wanted to join Akatsuki, he was forced into when he lost a battle against one of their members...Itachi. Before that though, Deidara was still a criminal. He was a terrorist bomber for higher, taking on contracts just to blow things up. He wanted everyone to know of his art, that's what he lived for back then. Behind all that though, he's an amazing person. He's everything I could've ever wanted in a man, and so much more than I deserved. I'd never thought that I would be able to find love again after I lost my first love, Haku. Deidara, had managed to fill that place in my heart and show me that there was a reason to live. He was my reason.

But, I have more than one reason now. I have him, as well as Sasuke. I know I'll eventually have to make a decision, I'll have to choose between the both of them. I have no idea what I'll do but until that time comes, I'll just have to listen to my heart rather than my head.

Getting back on topic. After setting out on my journey almost three years ago, the first place I'd went to was Sunagakure. I was extremely close to Sabuka no Gaara, and his siblings Temari and Kankuro liked me pretty well. I lived with them for about two months or so, before setting out in search of other villages. I made sure to visit some of the most important hidden villages; Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Takigakure. I didn't stay in each village too long and after I'd finished all my traveling through them, I went straight back to Sunagakure. Gaara gave me the rank of a Taichou for an Onin squad after a good while, perhaps seven months worth of being there. I'm an extremely talented girl though, being trained by Momochi Zabuza had perks. I'd gained a good amount of power and control over my abilities. With the help of the Suna shinobi, I'd managed to reset all the mental blocks to keep my chakra draining ability under control. Thankfully I was able to make skin contact with people again, I'd need to make sure never to release them again. But, I'd been living in Suna for a total of a year and three months now, and I knew I'd eventually have to go back to Konohagakure to speak with the Hokage about my rank and such…even though I'd rather stay in Suna. Until then though, I planned on staying in the village with my best friend.

I glanced up from my charm bracelet, looking around at my team. Aio was the only other female on my squad and she had a pretty big mouth as well, it didn't surprise me that the boys were annoyed with her over half the time. Aio had perfect tanned skin, not too dark but not too light. Her hair was white blonde, glossy and extremely soft. Her hair had soft waves in it and fell to the bottom of her back when she wore it down, but she normally tied it back in a braided ponytail. Her eyes were bright green and her figure was...overly developed. Guys swooned at the sight of her, but her loud and obnoxious mouth was what turned them off about her.

Shigeo was the more polite one on my squad, and he was extremely respectful towards me. I knew exactly why he was as well because of Aio's big mouth, apparently he was crushing on me. I was going to feel like a real bitch when I had to turn him down, especially since he was so sweet but I did have a boyfriend. Shigeo was dark complexioned like most people from Suna and his hair was a medium brown color. His hair wasn't long but it wasn't short, it had a little bit of length to it but not too much. His hair was always slightly messy looking, curly and tousled all the time, it looked adorable on him. His eyes were blue and he was pretty athletically built, but he tried not too stand out in the crowd too much.

Lastly, there was Jurou. He was pretty much the rebel of my squad, always having this bad boy attitude about almost everything. He wasn't really a bad guy at all, he was rather sweet once you got to know him but he tried to protect himself with his bad boy image. Jurou was a little lighter skinned than your average Suna civilian, but his skin tone wasn't quite ivory. His hair was a light green color and it was perfectly straight. His hair fell down below his shoulders with his bangs pushed off to the side, and he tied it back in a loose/messy ponytail more than half the time. His eyes were hazel and he was athletically built like Shigeo, just a little more developed. Girls were all over him half the time, the poor guy. I felt bad for him, getting all that unwanted attention. Sometimes it winded up reminding me of Sas-

"Sada."

My head snapped up from the ground, and I looked back at my squad.

"Nani Jurou?" I inquired, he pointed up towards the sky.

I tilted my head up towards the clouds, looking in the direction he was pointing. It looked like a bird was heading in our direction, a rather huge bird at that. I bit down on my lower lip, trying to determine its species. It looked something similar to an owl, a huge owl. I blinked, furrowing my brow. That couldn't be right. Owls were creatures of the night, they were barely ever seen during the day. If they were seen, it was normally only when they were sleeping. Why would an owl be flying around during the day? There was no possible way that an owl could be that huge as well. What was going on?

I moved my eyes from the sky, looking at my team. I couldn't see if they were confused or not, but I had a feeling that they had the same confused expression on their faces that I had on mine. I knew they were all thinking along the same lines as I was.

"Something's not right." I mumbled, Aio nodded in agreement.

"Why would an owl be flying around, its late afternoon." she pondered, I shrugged.

"This doesn't feel right, something's going on." I murmured, Shigeo tapped his foot against the sandy earth.

"What should we do Taichou?" he inquired, waiting for orders.

Jurou groaned in annoyance, pulling out a kunai.

"Kami, it's a fucking owl. Just kill it and be done with it." he complained, my eyes widened when I finally realized what was going on.

"Jurou don't!"

Too late. He launched the kunai towards the owl, aiming right for it's chest. I watched the kunai for half a second before flicking my eyes to the owl. It easily dodged the kunai and a figure jumped down from it's back, landing infront of my squad. I took a step back in surprise, black cloak with a red cloud pattern.

'Akatsuki.'

The owl hovered in the air where the man had left it and he straightened up, tilting his bamboo hat down in a mocking way. I gasped quietly, when I saw a movement of blonde under the bamboo hat. It was him then, this wasn't looking good for my squad.

"Who...are you?" Aio breathed, sounding shocked.

"Akatsuki." Shigeo whispered, Jurou cursed.

"We're fucked." he mumbled.

"Fall back." I instructed. "I'll handle it."

"Taichou you can't." Shigeo exclaimed. "What if-"

"That's an order." I interrupted, whipping my head around to them. "Get to Suna, now. Report this to the Kazekage."

"Demo-"

"Do it!" I ordered, they all nodded grudgingly.

I watched them run off at lightening speed and turned to face the Akatsuki member, moving my hand up to my Onin mask when I knew my squad was out of sight. I easily took my mask off and tossed it to the ground, looking up through my bangs at the Akatsuki member. He chuckled to himself, moving his hat off his head, and let it fall to the ground. I bolted across the sand as fast as my legs would carry me and landed in the arms of...wait. Arm...? What the hell had happened?

"Deidara?" I questioned, he chuckled quietly to himself.

I smiled a little at him, looking over my boyfriend's physical condition. His hair was still beautiful. Long, blonde, pulled up into a high ponytail sitting atop his head, with his bangs covering the left side of his face. I noted he had a mechanical device over his left eye, that was something different than I was used to, it looked like a scope of some sort. His right eye was still a beautiful bright blue color, still so entrancing. He had one arm rather than two, what had happened to him?

"Sada-chan."

I looked away from his missing arm, my red orbs meeting his visible blue one.

"Nani?" I asked curiously, he smiled a little.

"Don't ask about it hm." he asked of me, I nodded.

"Fine...what are you doing here?" I inquired, he rolled his eye in amusement.

Even though I'd promised not to ask about his missing arm, he knew I would ask about things retaining to it. After years of us being together, he knew me better than I knew myself at times. He understood my ways of thinking and I knew that he would also intercept my questions as best he could, he didn't want me involved with any of his work with the Akatsuki. He wanted to keep me as uninformed as possible, only because he wanted to keep me safe though. If I knew anything about Akatsuki, I knew that it would be extremely bad for me if someone found out about my knowledge of them. Whether it be the shinobi villages or Akatsuki themselves, things wouldn't look good for me. That's why Deidara didn't tell me anything about his missions and assignments, all so he could keep me safe from harm.

"A mission." he replied simply, I nodded a bit. "Don't ask what."

I wrinkled my nose in amusement, not surprised that he could read my mind as well as he could. He chuckled, pressing his lips against my forehead. I smiled serenely and leaned as close to him as I could, hugging him tightly around the torso. He chuckled again, pressing his lips into my hair.

"I've missed you Sada." he told me, I nodded in agreement.

"I haven't seen you for ages, and you suddenly show up here. I'm so happy to see you, it's been so hard not being with you everyday." I said quietly, hating how I was beginning to get all emotional. "Deidara I-"

"I know Sada-chan hm." he interrupted, holding me close to him. "I don't have much time though, gomenasai."

I nodded sullenly, hating how he wouldn't be able to stay long with me. I still understood that it wasn't safe for him to be out in the open like this, since he was a wanted Criminal and all. Even though he was a Criminal, I couldn't help but love him as much as I did. I loved him before I knew what he was, and I loved him just as much afterwards. He was such a good person, I just wished people would be able to see in him what I saw. I didn't know what I would do without him in my life.

"It's okay, I'm just happy to see you." I told him, he smiled his perfect smile at me.

"I know, me too hm." he agreed, I giggled softly.

"When can I see you again?" I asked, he chuckled quietly in amusement.

"Miss me that much hm?" he teased, I felt the blood rush to my cheeks.

"I-I-I...ano..."

He laughed heartily and pressed his lips against my cheek, running his fingers through my long blue violet hair. I smiled to myself and kissed his cheek, giggling again when he rubbed his nose against mine. Even though Deidara was two and a half years older than me, he knew how to be gentle with me. He had never pushed me into doing something that I wasn't comfortable with, he even always asked me if he could-

"Sada, would it be alright if I kissed you hm?" he asked, I nodded eagerly.

"I've missed your kisses." I said honestly, he chuckled softly.

"And I've missed you." he whispered next to my ear, I felt my cheeks burn hotter.

He chuckled again before gently pressing his lips against mine, holding my body close to his. I smiled into the kiss, moving my lips against his in one of the most innocent kisses we'd ever shared. I slid my arms around his neck, not wanting this moment to ever end. I didn't like the idea of losing Deidara, but I knew that within merely a few more seconds-

He pulled back from my lips and leaned his forehead against mine, his forehead protector against my head and sighed softly to himself. I stared up into his eye, hating how my emotions were beginning to get the better of me. I knew what was coming, and it was one of the hardest parts about our meetings.

"I have to go now hm." he murmured, I nodded sadly.

"Just...kiss me one more time." I whispered, he nodded.

He tilted his head to the side, pressing his lips back against mine. I kissed him again, showing him through the kiss how much I cared about him. Although I missed our passionate and heartfelt kisses, I needed just gentle ones right now. I knew that if we started, then I wouldn't be able to stop. I'd missed him so much, that I wouldn't be able to control myself if we started out passionate kisses. It tore me up inside at the thought of having to leave him, it literally felt as though my chest was being pulled apart. I moved my lips against his once more before pulling back and hugging him tightly.

"Sada-chan, please don't cry hm." he asked of me, I nodded.

"I won't, only for you." I whispered, he sighed quietly.

"Gomen, I have to leave now." he said sadly, I nodded against his shoulder.

"Come back to me." I pleaded, he chuckled at my request.

I pulled back from him and looked up into his face, feeling rather confused. He smiled softly and kissed my forehead, moving his arm from around my waist.

"I have no one else to come back to hm. No one I would be willing to go back to, only you." he told me, I nodded in agreement. "I'll see you again, soon hm."

I smiled softly and nodded, watching him place his hat back on his head. He jumped up, landing back on the huge owl, and looked down over the side. I giggled and waved to him, he said

"And Sada."

I looked at him confused, he grinned.

"I love you hm." he said, I nodded in agreement.

"I love you too Dei."

He grinned again and took off in the direction he'd been heading before the kunai incident. I sighed sadly and picked my Onin mask up from the ground. I dusted it off as best I could and covered my face with it, taking off at lightening speed in the direction of Sunagakure.

'I love you Deidara, more than you'll ever know.'


Author's Note: There you are, Chapter one is officially up. I hope you enjoyed it and was happy that Deidara was immediately introduced into the story. Having to wait for him to show up would totally suck huh? Chapters worth of chapters worth of waiting...urg that would frustrate me. So I decided to be nice and let you all see he and Sada together in the very beginning. You all know I have a policy right, just like for my other stories. No reviews, no new chapter. And none of that simple stuff like "awesome" or "cool". I'd like to know what exactly you liked about it and if there was something you didn't like. Remember, writers like to know if they're doing a good job or a bad job so let me know =] FIVE REVIEWS=NEW CHAPTER!!!!


PREVIEW OF CHAPTER TWO

"Kankuro!"

I bolted to the puppeteer's side and knelt beside him, lightly placing my hand on his back. I could tell that his breathing was irregular, something was wrong. I placed my hand on his shoulder and moved the other from his back, to his side. I carefully turned him over from lying on his stomach, to lying on his back. I could see that he had a chest wound, it didn't look deep but it wasn't just some tiny scratch either. He'd been stabbed by something, but it hadn't been by a kunai or katana though. I hovered over him and placed my ear against the uninjured part of his chest, listening for a heartbeat of some kind.

'Please, please, please. Don't let him be dead.'