Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto just my OC.

The next update should be Saturday or Sunday.

Chapter Four-Troubled Sleep

Deidara lay awake in his bed a repeat of the night going on in his head over and over; tormenting him. He couldn't close his eyes anymore his brain seeming to betray him as he saw the dream version of the old woman who had died that night; he kept seeing Suki's face. That dark twisting rage that filled her. He kept seeing his mothers dead body with Suki huddled in the corner weeping and then it would shift to the distress on Suki's face, the howl she gave when she saw the dead child. A child with hair just like red wine, a child with eyes just like her. When he saw that it was like the night she was brought to his home, battered and bruised, the blood of her friends and family still staining her clothes.

It ate away at him, she didn't even glance at him. It was like she was alone but when she turned to that woman her face was like that of a demon. Some part of her, some innocence that Deidara had always seen in her had disappeared with that look. He wanted to go see her of course but she was hidden away in a concrete chamber far away from the other members, their leader had thought they had found a true power when he saw what she could do. He was now getting Konan to nurse her back to health and of course there was also her knowledge of the rebels he wanted.

Apparently she was healing herself in her sleep which ultimately meant she didn't need stitches and her bones seemed to reset themselves. Alls she did was sleep but when he saw her picked up off the concrete bloody blacked out he had seen that piece of innocence once more in her relaxed face. What he really needed was to see her well again and smiling, laughing, like she did as a child even when things got tough. She had been a constant in his life, always happy and easy to depend on and he didn't want the life of the Akatsuki for her but that's what she got and it tore him apart inside.

Some part of him though hoped that she would be happy again but he knew deep down that she would curse them all just like she had the woman she ultimately butchered. He had never known she could throw her powers out like that but it was truly horrific, the blood had splattered over walls and her bones had been crunched into tiny fragments and dust. There wasn't much left of her and she couldn't go away in a body bag she would have to be brushed up and washed away. It made him shudder just thinking about it, that Suki could do that. She had been like an odd protector in parts of his life and he never knew that she could go that far, that she had to stop herself from going that far even by mistake.

He forced himself to shut his eyes and he saw the darkness in his dreams, serenity and peace there and he tried to relax. He needed to fall asleep; he needed to stop thinking about what had happened. It would drive him insane to think about it. When he saw Suki well again and sane he would be able to rest soundly but for now he had to force himself into dreams so that he could get away from the racing thoughts of his mind.

Of course he did sleep and he waited, a part of him was telling him that the usual dream was going to happen. That the woman who plagued him would appear once more but something changed…

He was standing in an open field like the one from his childhood where he would venture just outside the boarders of Iwagakure as a child with Suki and when he was young enough, his mother. In the centre of the field was a large tree. Its trunk spun and it branches came out in odd angels so that you could climb easily and on the bottom branch a swing had been set up. A swing he remembered setting up with Suki as a young child. Knowing that he spun around to take everything in to decide if it was the field from his childhood…It was.

His feet were bare and the flowers that sprung up were bright yellows and soft pastel colours making the place more surreal as he moved his toes in the grass. It was day light in his dream which was odd for him but he didn't think anything of it and looking down at himself he was dressed in what he had worn for bed.

He began to walk towards the tree and as he got closer her noticed the woman, her hair as black as night tangled and messy, two crimson tracks down her pale cheeks, which flowed fast as the crimson tears spilled out of her eyes. Her eyes the same colour as blood stared at the sky as she hugged herself, her clothes were those of a ninja now a belt hanging around her waist with scrolls decorating it. A black pair of shorts and a red tank top with black fishnets thrown over the top. Her ninja boots black also but what he noticed was her headband. She was someone from Iwagakure and he seemed to stare at her face more now. Looking at her she seemed empty, almost like she was dead but some torment was still etched across her face. A look that a dead person couldn't possibly have.

"Hello un?" Deidara reached out for her but when she span around she seemed utterly confused, shock was written clear on her face and she just stared at Deidara without blinking. That's when he heard laughter, a child's laughter. It was a perfectly innocent sound and he spun around to see two children and their mother. He recognised the first young blond child, it was Suki and she looked around six. The second child was older at around nine and her hair was a chestnut brown like her mothers who ushered the two onto a newly spread picnic blanket. They all had the eyes of a Kotone, all sunny yellow and that same glow of knowledge and spark of mischief that they all held. The two children were laughing poking at each other as they sat down fidgeting on the spot.

"You shouldn't be here." The woman in the tree spoke down to Deidara and suddenly his mind leapt to a conclusion as he stared at her. The woman looked so close to Suki and he wondered if her kekkei genkai would allow her into others minds and into their dreams but he had saw this woman out of his dreams. He kept telling himself that Suki couldn't change like that, he could see past genjutsu and that woman wasn't a disguise of any kind she was real and definitely not Suki.

The chatter of the group behind him continued and the woman's eyes were fixed on them as if searching for something.

"How did you manage to enter my dreams?" She didn't turn to face Deidara but the question was obviously directed at him.

"I didn't mean it." Somehow he had thought that she had done this, he felt like a small child all over again trying to explain himself but the woman didn't seem to find his answer unusual.

"I see, you should leave now."

"I don't know how un." That made her sigh and it wasn't a sign of impatience more like she didn't believe him, her fingers drummed at the bark of the tree and then suddenly the dream changed.

They were in a familiar place again, the Kotone compound. Deidara had followed Suki here quite a few times when she had gone wandering off on her own, he never told her this but he knew that she already had knowledge of his following of her. She just didn't bring it up and that was fine with him, some things were supposed to be left unsaid.

The clans symbols were hung and painted everywhere, there was obviously a festival going on as coloured paper lanterns with the clans symbol were hung up everywhere along with stalls set up and over head fireworks were going off. People walked in front of the two and passed through them, everyone wearing special outfits and masks which made your head turn as an interesting unknown figures would pass.

"Looks like you're along for the ride." The woman didn't pay attention to him now but walked through the crowd her outfit morphing into a white kimono with cherry blossoms decorating the surface anda tiger mask decorating her face. She seemed to blend in and it took Deidara all the concentration he had to follow her and keep up as she mingled with the laughing crowd.

Then she came to a house, the doors were open and people were milling in and out. Playing games and buying different treats made by the owner and her family. As she walked into the house she stopped at a kitchen and in the centre around a table were four girls. He recognised Suki and her sister instantly but around the table were two other girls they were clones of the other obviously twins and hair the same colour of red wine tumbled down their backs in delicate waves. They looked extremely breakable, more so than Suki and her sister and the twins bone structures were delicate making them seem younger than the other two but it was obviously that they were the same age from the chatter that came from the table.

"Aren't you going to go out and enjoy the festival?" Suki's mother entered the room, smiling down at her children like they were the whole world and more. Deidara had seen that same look on his own mothers face and it made him soften towards the woman he never knew.

"We're waiting." Suki's sister told her mother her voice just a little higher than necessary and her smile stretching across her face showing most of her teeth.

"Waiting for what?" Her mother inquired but the younger woman reply was broken off by screams and then sirens. That's when Suki's mother jumped into action. "Everyone get into the basement!" The children went without a word not even realising the danger and that's when Deidara noticed the burning homes outside the window. Screams of panic echoed around the streets but some were hiding and he realised that was how some had survived this night which was clearly the clan's massacre.

Children were being pulled into homes but instead of looking at this they followed the young Suki to the basement. The four girls huddled in the arms of Suki's mother who held them tight and kept her eyes closed trying to block out the screams and keep up the barrier she had created as well as whispering reassurances to the children in her care.

"Please no! Not my children please!" A male voice screamed and that's when Suki seemed to become alert the young girl dashing from her mothers arms and out of the barrier as her mother screamed in protest behind her. Calling out for her youngest daughter.

They followed her and soon they were racing through the streets of the compound, now everything was burning and there were bodies of the dead littering the ground their blood everywhere you turned and that's when Deidara spotted the man ahead. His blonde hair matted with blood and his body littered with scratches, the resemblance to Suki uncanny and she raced towards him. He was on his knees pleading, five others facing him and that when Suki screamed. It pierced the night itself and all eyes were on her.

"SUKI! NO!" Her father screamed now on the floor forgotten after a sharp kick to the stomach. That's when Deidara saw that power again, flaying skin away from muscle, muscles from bone and then the bone and organs just seeming to explode.

Her father just lay on his side staring at her as she collapsed, her chakra drained and that's when everything went black…

Deidara practically fell out of bed, his head drenched in sweat and his breathing laboured. Even his dreams kept reminding him and he realised now that Suki had never been truly innocent, even when she had been with her mother in those fields having a picnic, and when she had gave part of herself away to save her own father. A man who probably died the same night but some part of him was nagging him, telling him that there had been other Kotone's alive so maybe there were more. Maybe even Suki's father was alive.

Quickly he pushed that idea away as he got to his feet, his body still shaky from the dream. Somehow he managed to shower and dress, getting himself to walk down the concrete corridors surrounding him and get something to eat. He could manage that at least.

As he walked down the corridors he kept his face blank trying to guard his emotions but when he turned into the main room and saw who was eating breakfast at the table he couldn't help but show his shock.

"Morning Dei," Suki mumbled in-between bites of cereal.