The woman had set up camp. There was her clothes' line, consisting of a thousand different stolen kimonos. She herself was stripped down to white and a skinny belt. Nothing like the fat, heavy obi suspended upon the string, like a one ton koi fish hung up for the whole village to see.

Puff.

Those emeralds stabbed him like a snake bite. One look at her and you knew who she was. The paper white flesh. Dark black hair. Expression full up with a special kind of venom. The girl wore her father like a layer of skin.

All the scratching in the world and he wouldn't leave her face.

"I have to be honest." A step closer. "I didn't think you'd be so easy to find."

"Which one are you?" The end of the cigarette burned red hot amber and then, ash. "He never mentioned a blond." Her feet squeezed amongst the pebbles just under those worn out toes.

"Deidara." His sandals made some progress on the ground. "I'm sure you can guess why I'm here."

Grunt.

"I'm insulted they only sent one of you."

"Don't be. I'm sure Leader thought you'd want to join. You do, don't you? You did knock out half of our hit list in about three days. No Jinjuriki though."

They were next to one another, just before the small and lucid river running past.

"Ashita, wasn't it?"

"That's right."

Deidara took a moment to notice the state of her feet. They were torn to shreds and bruised, as though her shoes had eaten away pieces of her flesh in a vast effort to run away.

She probably hadn't stopped in days.

The look in her eyes was tired.

Then he noticed the scar on her face.

"Did you get that in a fight?"

"What?" Her hand bushed past it, like it was something she wasn't used to having. Even though it sketched from her left cheek bone down to her lip edge. "I got it from Sasuke Uchiha."

A sort of snort. "Those Goddamn Uchiha are nothing but trouble. I hope you kicked him in the balls for that."

"I can't remember if I did."

"Tch." Deidara didn't say anymore for a while. Those liberated blue eyes caught the liberated blue sky and his lips sunk into each other a second. "So, you'll come with me, right? In all honesty, I just got back from a particularly exhausting mission and I don't feel like fighting. So if you could take pity on me and just come along, I'd really appreciate it."

Grunt.

Ashita took a short time and thought. "Alright. Just let me finish my laundry."

"Absolutely."

So Deidara waited patiently as that pale thing washed her clothes, all those vibrant hues strung up on a line. Somehow, she got all of those kimonos to fit inside her bag. The fat, heavy silks shoved into that little sack like clowns squeezing into a car.

It probably took half an hour.

And then the blond man created an enormous bird from clay, and Ashita watched with a little bit of shock and awe the entire time. It was so unique, to have a mouth on your palm that can bring animation to earth. Ashita caught his wrist and stared long and hard into his heart lines, looking with scrutiny and bent eyebrows and lips worked into a conundrum. Then she let it go, without saying a word, while Deidara laughed.

And the two S-Class criminals left the river side.