Chapter 4

The young man grinned as the silver haired medical nin sped past him, straight towards the ball of fire. 'Heh, I guess there really isn't that many of them, un...' After a few hours of careful planning and analysis of the information he had been provided with Deidara had come up with, what he hoped would be, a plan with a reasonable chance of success. He raised his fingers and whispered his favourite word.

*BANG*

It was as simple as a plan could get. Create a large distraction, act while they were unprepared and then run away. His art was perfect for it. Knowing that there were only 3 nin inside the base meant that, with several strategically placed bombs serving as a distraction, at least one of the nin would have to leave the base to check it out. The streak of silver would suggest that that job had been handed to Kabuto. Deidara was also pretty good at sneaking around when he put his mind to it, so creeping his way into the base and towards the scroll room wouldn't be too hard. Hopefully the store wouldn't be guarded either because a) although his distraction was just that, no one would risk the chance of it actually being an attack so someone would definitely be sent to check it out, therefore that would be one man out of the equation for a bit, b) he had been told that Sasuke was a bastard who probably wouldn't get involved unless provoked, so Deidara seriously doubted that he'd be guarding the room and c) everyone knew the Konoha ninja were after Sasuke and Orochimaru was a target in himself, so why would anyone suspect that the infiltrator would be after a scroll?

If all went to plan the blond would be able to get into the scroll room unnoticed, find and grab the right one and then get the hell out of there unscathed. He knew his distraction would only last so long but he figured it would be enough time to complete the first parts and, even if someone did find him on his way out, he could use one of his birds to quickly get away. Plus, he had his speciality as backup.

xxxxxxx

'Un. I'm in. So far my plan is working!' He grinned triumphantly. 'Wait! I shouldn't be so shocked at that...' He frowned at his accidental self-deprecation. 'Damn. Danna's insults must be getting to me...'

Shaking his head, he checked the map again. 'Ooh. I'm nearly there, un'. Turning the corner he found the door he was looking for. Slipping inside and closing the door silently, he scanned the room and groaned in dismay. 'How can he have so many?! And how the hell are they organised?!'. Frustration coursed through Deidara's veins, he wasn't exactly known for his sense of organisation and patience. 'Unnn! Even if I did have the patience for this, I don't have the time! There has to be some kind of system!' The bomber groaned again as he set the last of his bombs off. Now that his distraction was over he would have to hurry or he would be definitely be found. He just couldn't fail.
Starting from his right he scanned the titles on each of the many shelves, realising it was something he should have done before he started his internal rant. 'Hn? The shelves are titled with village names? Wha- Ah! Where he took them from! Of course! But... I thought he created this one?' Deidara's face contorted into a confused frown as he tried to work out where on earth the scroll might be.

'Crap. I suck at this. But I can't search each shelf!'

'You're an idiot'

Deidara blinked at the voice. Well wasn't that just funkydory. Deidara was even being insulted by Sasori in his head. This wasn't the time or place to be having a mental breakdown.

'Always missing the obvious...'
The ex-Sunagakure ninja's belittling words, spoken after Deidara failed another complex training exercise, flickered in his mind.

"The obvious?"

Deidara looked at the first shelf again.
"Something obvious... obvious..." He muttered to himself.
"OF COURSE!" Deidara mentally smacked himself.

"Amegakure is first. A! I really am an idiot." He sighed at just how right Sasori was.

'If the shelves are alphabetical then the scrolls probably will be too. So... would Orochimaru still class himself as a Konoha ninja? Un, of course not. He wears that damned Otogakure symb-... Otogakure!'

He span round to the shelves behind him and scanned them until he found the one marked Otogakure. "Wow. He really does put them there". Deidara was surprised that he had figured it out. Who knew Orochimaru's organisation would be so... simple? The Akatsuki data rooms were ridiculously complicated with passwords and code names everywhere. Deidara avoided going there whenever possible as he was hopeless at remembering every damn had argued vehemently against the system when it was first introduced, but everyone else just ignored his protests and went ahead with it. "It's not like someone would be able to get in here anyway, un, let alone be stupid enough to try. Why do we need something so... irritatingly time-consuming when it will just be us using it, un?!" he had made the same complaint to his red haired partner several times but all he ever received was a blatant ignoring or a cold stare.

Deidara grinned as he snapped out of his reverie. Although there were far more scrolls in the Otogakure section, they were definitely in alphabetical order again. 'So...un... a scroll for rasising the dead. R for raising? D for dead or death? R for resurrection?' They were the only letters he could think of, so he hoped one of the two would be right. He knelt and set to work.

"Un!" He groaned in frustration. It was probably a matter of minutes until he was found and there was no sign of the scroll in D or R!

'What the hell! Where is it then!?' He slammed his fist against the shelves, knocking several out. He had to hold in further frustrated cries as he realised he would have to put them back in the right place to lessen the chance of Orochimaru noticing what he, hopefully, will be missing. Putting them back alphabetically he noticed an interestingly titled scroll. In fact, it wasn't even titled properly, it just said 'Kimimaro'. 'Kimimaro? Isn't that the kid who was too weak to be Oro's next body? What kind of scroll is this?!' In his curiosity he unrolled the scroll... and had to clamp his hand over his mouth to contain he shreik at what he found.

'THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE FUCKING SCROLL TO RAISE MY DANNA!' He couldn't believe it. The scroll he had been looking for had originally been created... for Kimimaro? Had Orochimaru intended to raise Kimimaro back to life? Or use it to somehow heal him? 'Un! Who cares! This is what I need!'

He quickly shoved the rest of the scrolls back into their correct places and shot out of the room, not bothering to check if anyone was around. This was the run-the-fuck-away-as-quick-as-you-can part of the plan. Skidding out of the base he expanded one of his birds, jumped on to it, and narrowly avoided the sword of kusanagi aimed at his throat.
"Shit, un!"

Deidara was just in time, Orochimaru had found him but he had already made it out of the base. The bird flew upwards with such speed and at such an angle it forced him to cling to it to stop himself falling as he attempted his retreat. He cringed as the pressure from the upwards flight tore some of the stitches in his still healing arms. It would be a while before they would be perfect again and he wasn't suited to healing jutsu so was having to put up with the natural healing times. At least his 'mouths' were growing quickly. However, escaping was more important than the status of his hands and arms. He managed to twist his body to kick away several kunai, thrown at him by Kabuto, and regain his balance before launching several pre-prepared smaller bombs at the snake like nin and companion. He could see the hate in the black haired man's eyes, the intent to kill every member of Akatsuki he could get his hands on. He definitely didn't want to get stuck in a fight with him right now. Deidara cursed again as he was forced to swerve the bird at a dangerous angle to dodge a mass of snakes propelled at him. The bird barely missed a group of trees as it swerved back to its usual angle and continued trying to get away. However, the snake wasn't giving up, and Deidara's escape would be further hindered if he had to keep dodging.

'Un, I guess there's no choice...' Undoing his pouch he pulled out his speciality. He grinned before spinning the bird round, soaring over Orochimaru and dropping the bomb directly above him.

"KASU!" He screamed, not waiting around to see the impact of the bomb; he knew Orochimaru's only option would be to flee and he wouldn't waste time watching where Deidara was headed, so the ex-Igawakure finally made his escape.