Ch.7

Art of Battle

A warm wind howled through the rocky crags of the mountain they stood upon, two people, their gazes locked dangerously, waiting for the other to make a move, slip up so they could take the first lead. Itachi, his eyes blank of expression but still the bright red of his sharingan blinked at his adversary not so much focused on the battle as to what the hell Deidara was…he didn't move but looked Deidara up and down and then shrugging assumed it a very girly man and slowly looked up through his dark hair as Deidara made a dart for the right to come at him from his flanks…Itachi simply looked to the side and ducking under two or three thrown clay bombs slunk up close to him and exchanged a flurry of blows, countering every one of them to the anger of his foe.

Deidara hissed and drew back, opening his hand and creating yet another clay bomb "this makes no sense" he growled as he looked at the boy in front of him "how can he deflect all of my attacks so easily?" Then as he took another glance, his body taut with tension he saw something that just pissed him off

Itachi yawned.

Kisame decided as soon as he saw Deidara's face go bright red with rage that the battle was already over, so he picked his teeth of previous meals and glanced at Itachi whom now looked as if he seriously was going to flay the skin off the man in front of him. Deidara ran head long at Itachi, a bold move by him,

Itachi smirked and prepared to humiliate him again but instead of attacking directly he vanished, Itachi blinked on the edge his nerves now as he looked up.

Deidara, his blonde hair loose from its pony tail and his black eyes wide in the anticipation of the art of his kill opened both of his arms and let a booming barrage of clay bombs he had secretly been making since their battle started.

Itachi flipping over to doge the first couple rolled and skidded out of the way, scraping up the top of his shoulders and one elbow but in the process directing a large amount of chakra to the palm of his right hand and as he saw them coming, quickly shot them back as if playing a game of volleyball, sending the bombs straight back at the dropped figure of Deidara.

Deidara surprised did the only thing he could and ran; diagonally he dodged his own bullets until the last of them came for him from where he was running.

He choked and skidded to a halt as he saw them coming and raised his right hand and at Itachi's amusement they disappeared into his palm.

Itachi stood straight, his right hand poised to parry any attack the man might have and with his left wiped off some of the dust and blood on his arms and grimacing licked his lips, dry from his hard breathing. "Damn this little upstart!" Deidara hissed to himself as he held his right hand before his face the skin of his palm twisted and writhed becoming a bloody rip of a mouth, jagged teeth pricking from its twisted jaws, from the mouth however came dark oily smoke, it had choked down its own bombs.

Itachi winced at the sight at which both beheld but took the deep chuckling coming from Kisame that his doing so had been a good turn for him, fact told. Itachi looked up again, his eyes a darker red and the wheels in his eyes turning slowly "this could be a good time to practice." Deidara swiftly on the wings of his rage that he couldn't use his clay raised his hands and as he did Itachi copied his movement and the exact jitsu but it simply didn't matter…he knew he was better!

His eyes widened as he finished the last seal with his foe and sucked in a large breath "Katon, Goukakyu no jitsu!" Kisame surprised as he had first been when he had first encountered that technique jumped back as the two massive fireballs collided with each other with a colossal bang sending bits of rock and things flying forcing the large man to resort to hiding behind his sword for cover.

Then as suddenly as it came the eruption of sound was suddenly sucked back into the crater of the collision and became a thick curtain of smoke tinged with blood making a demon out in the smoke for a split second before it vanished.

Seconds passed, and then a few minutes…Kisame looked up from the edge of his sword and squinted into the smoke, who's blood was it he smelled?...Deidara's or… Itachi's?

A harsh choking sound came from the smoke and then followed by the same person having the voice choked from them.

Kisame raised an eyebrow and as the smoke cleared he picked out the outlines of the two men very close together, and as the smoke thinned further he made out the strange and alarming scene before him.

Itachi, his eyes strangely bright but still narrowed had his hand upon a clearly shaken Deidara's throat, nearly lifting him an inch off the ground with his own strength; those strange killing eyes of his swirling around in the mangekyo sharingan. Kisame realized then that the blood he had smelt in the smoke had indeed been Deidara's own as he watched it dripping in a slow trickle from his lips.

A growl sifted between Deidara's bloodied lips, his eyes glaring daggers into the man who had mysteriously and in no time at all ripped the art of battle from his soul and left him defeated and hanging at his mercy.

Itachi raised one eyebrow, a flashy show of expression for him at this point "you seem to be rather fond of those little evil eyes"

He murmured to his hanging foe,

Deidara took a double take and looked again at Itachi's loathsome face only to find that the blood red eyes that had baffled him into such a world that he had lost had gone, replaced by the cold black ebony mirrors that were him.

He sneered "not as much as those freakish eyes of yours…what the HELL did you do you asshole?"

That got him a glare, but as swiftly as it came it was gone replaced by a sickly sweet and smug look and a shrug of Itachi's thin shoulders "well…its somewhat a curse to have and then sometimes its fun…" he slowly raised his right hand, his index finger and middle finger poised right above the stricken mans right eye.

Kisame widened his own little eyes at the scene before him "would he actually do it? To Deidara a member of the Akatsuki"

A scream confirmed his question and as he watched a stream of blood splattered and soaked into the the sun bleached landscape on which they stood.

Itachi had taken Deidara's right eye as payment.