Act Four

Captured

Gai stared miserably at his two students resting fitfully in their beds. His mind wandering to Tenten, hoping, praying that she was okay. Fortunately for Gai, the large chunk of flying rock that had hit in the head, after Deidara's blast would not leave any lasting damage, but for his delightfully youthful students…who could say? Gai of course had left his students to the medics capable hands and had debriefed with Tsunade.

At this point, Tenten had been labeled a missing nin. Now there were different types of missing nin, some were fugitives, some were believed to be dead without the actual proof needed to back it up, and some were abducted and never seen again. Unfortunately, when most people heard the word they automatically assumed criminal.

The Hokage had sent out a search team insisting that Gai stay there and rest. Gai didn't like that, didn't like not being able to help search for his missing student, though he knew she was right of course, he had sustained some serious wounds himself, not fatal or crippling but bad enough to know that he would be no good to Tenten in his current state.

My heart was thudding loudly as that crazy son of a bitch turned that bird into a barrel roll! I was flipped upside down in the air and landed heavily onto the bird, sweat rolling off my face and panting with sheer terror over his crazy aerial maneuver. I gripped the bird in terror with my chakra as we flew on into the darkening sky. We finally landed and I noticed that the redhead had already made camp.

I couldn't understand what the Akatsuki would want with me? To force them to stop pursuit? That would never happen and the Akatsuki knew it. I wasn't worth much monetary-wise as a ransom. Were they going to torture me into leaking information? That was a possibility, though I couldn't think of any information I knew that would be vital to the Akatsuki.

The redhead reminded me a bit of the Kazekage, except his eyes were brown and in some ways he looked younger then Gaara did. He stared at me for hours on end and I glared back at him hatefully. I hoped fervently that my teammates were alright. I wasn't entirely sure what had hit Neji, but he had looked pretty badly burned from the blast. The way Lee had begun convulsing told me that that weird tail on the redhead was poisonous. It made me want to cry! But I refused to give that satisfaction to the likes of these two!

I watched her glaring at me silently from across the campfire, her eyes filled with loathing. For some reason, instead of making me angry I felt oddly at peace. For now, just having her here was enough. She was like a rare bird that had eluded me, but that I had finally caught.

My eyes slowly began drooping, I couldn't keep it up anymore. Gai-sensei's training was always grueling, often driving me to utter exhaustion. We had pushed ourselves past the limit just to track them down and…and…

My eyes snapped open! The redhead was leaning over me. His strange, empty eyes peering at me from the dim starlight. His hands caressing my shoulders tentatively, tracing his fingers down my throat, skimming across my breasts, down my stomach and legs. I wasn't sure how long I'd slept, but I was suddenly angry and afraid! I was tied up with chakra leaching rope and completely at his mercy! His lips brushed mine and I stiffened in shock! They were made out of wood instead of flesh! My heart began pounding furiously in my chest when he spoke.

"I will not be able to experience this but-perhaps you will enjoy it." He said quietly, uncertainly; his voice spoke as intimately to me as though we were lovers.

I gaped at him in stupefication before finding my voice and snarling angrily.

"If I wanted to screw a piece of wood I would have started masturbating with my staff a long time ago!"

His partner howled with laughter at my outburst and Sasori glowered angrily at me.

"That's no way for a lady to talk." He informed me before standing up and shooting the blonde a nasty look.

"We will have to work on correcting your manners." He said.

I wanted to make a snide reply to him, but angering an Akatsuki member was a good way to get myself killed. So I swallowed my pride and outrage and began formulating a plan to either kill them or escape from them. This kidnapping could turn out to Konoha's advantage if I could find valuable information on the Akatsuki.

I was determined to hold off on sleep as long as possible, difficult since the ropes were a constant drain on my chakra and we only camped till daybreak. It was taxing my strength quickly, even if they didn't keep up the grueling pace Gai-sensei kept us on.

For three days straight she never slept, managing to keep up with us. My respect for her had greatly increased and even Deidara was in grudging admiration of her stamina. But she was slowing us down with her refusal to sleep or eat. At some point I tried to force feed her, but she was proving to be even more stubborn then I had initially believed. I ignored Deidara's suggestion to just throw her on the bird and head to our next destination. What the brat said did hold merit, but there was only room on the bird for two and that meant that I would have no choice but to stay on the ground. The idea of anyone touching what was mine made me furious! Finally after three days, her body gave out and she collapsed. I was both pleased and worried, though I wasn't sure why I would be worried about her. Giving a mingled sigh of exasperation and relief, I bent down and picked her up.

I was puzzled yeah. I had believed that once my Danna had gotten his prize he would go back to being his old self. But his behavior continued to get odder by every minute that he was in the girl's company. Where Sasori would have snapped at me for slowing us down, he was incredibly patient with her. Though the Weapons Mistress had certainly impressed me with her stamina un. Now he was cradling her against his chest by the campfire, the way that a parent would cradle an exhausted child.

The kunoichi had slept for nearly half the day now, her body desperately trying to make up for the lack of sleep. I was also surprised that he hadn't started making plans for turning her into one of his battle puppets un. It was true that he had pushed us to lose the ninja in pursuit but, even then I could often see the wheels of his mind churning out ideas. There had been none of that with her in his eyes un. It was…odd.

I opened my eyes slowly, feeling groggy and disoriented. I was surprised to find that I was in his arms. The morning sun was rising, making his hair glow like a fiery red halo and he looked at me and blinked slowly with large, childlike brown eyes. The look on his face was a strange but potent mixture, one that left me feeling confused and dismayed at my body's reactions to him. On one hand he looked so innocent, like a little boy that had just woken up; on the other hand, the half-lidded gaze was seductive and very sexy. I mentally cringed at the odd direction of my thoughts and gave him a fierce scowl. Sasori may have been handsome, but he was still my enemy and captor.

We walked slowly, resting during the heat of day and moving out at night when it was coolest. Even though it was only May Suna was unbearably hot! I hated to think about what it would be like in August!

"Hey Tenten?" Deidara said out of the blue.

I opened my eyes wearily and glanced at the bomber in front of me. The sun seemed to glare in my eyes, even with the protective canvas covering us.

"What's your opinion on art un?" He asked me.

I frowned, "This guy woke me up just to ask me my opinion on art?" I thought groggily. I wanted to snap at him, but I had seen firsthand how volatile he could be. I noticed that Sasori had turned his head towards our conversation in sharp interest.

I stifled a yawn before answering him.

"Art's whatever you want it to be, there's no rules, no boundaries. A child who scribbles on the wall with crayons is creating art just as much as a professional painting a beautiful landscape."

My answer was clearly not what either man had expected and I was almost asleep when Sasori leaned over me and for one crazy moment, I was sorely tempted to kiss him, though I shook myself out of it remembering that Sasori was a human puppet and even more importantly that he was an enemy of Konoha.

Her complete switch of personalities frustrated me. She had gone from being stubborn and defiant to complacent and biddable within days. I often found myself attempting to start a fight with her. When I had pushed far enough; her hands would clench into fists and her eyes flashed fire and she snapped at me. Often the things she would say angered me and I often wondered why things escalated so quickly. Things were beginning to get way out of hand, as she switched back into a defiant state of mind. Deidara was already sick of the daily bickering and fist fights between us. My prize was sewing discord into my carefully ordered world.

One day, she and Deidara began arguing about something and he made a rather scathing remark which pushed her over the edge. Quick as a flash she grabbed him by his cloak and slammed her knee into him.

"Why you little bitch!" Deidara snarled and swung hard. She leapt into the air quickly and he followed suit, grabbing her throat and slamming her back into the ground, pinning her under his body. She grabbed a handful of hair and bit him-hard! Hard enough to draw blood, but Deidara had suffered worse injuries then this and didn't even flinch.

"Deidara! Watch out!" I warned, noticing that one hand had slipped into his pocket and had withdrawn a handful of shuriken.

Too late! She kicked him and leapt up, suddenly she was everywhere! Bouncing up, down, diagonal and side-to-side, she rolled out, the shuriken suspended in the air for just a brief moment before they came slashing down on us from multiple directions. We managed to escape by using the substitution jutsu.

Tenten, severely depleted of chakra though she was, had taken off running.

We took off after her, Deidara on his bird and me on foot.

"Danna! You have got to get her under control! This is becoming too much of a hassle un! It's putting us off schedule and Leader's already pissed!" Deidara shouted angrily as he flung a stone at her head and knocked her out.

I sighed heavily, realizing then that she had finally forced me to do something that I swore I would never do with her. I used my chakra strings to bend her to my will when she woke up. Her eyes had been full of shock when she found herself no longer in control of her own body, then they filled with black rage and deep humiliation. I was becoming more and more troubled by her hateful glares and I couldn't understand my own thought processes. She was doing exactly what I wanted her to do. I wanted obedience from her and I was unsatisfied. Then I wanted her defiance and I quickly grew sick of it. What was it that I wanted from her? More importantly why couldn't I get it?

Authoress

Told you it wouldn't be too as long

between acts as it was last time!

Hope you enjoyed Act Four Capture.

It will probably take a while

before I get the next chapter up loyal readers!

Mainly because I had this chap

partially written beforehand!

After this intermission will be

Act Five Orchestration