Naruto barged into Sasuke's room and looked around frantically. It was nearing morning and Naruto woke up suddenly. Maybe he was hungry or maybe he needed to pee but when he went to knock at Hinata's room to see if she wanted to talk—which was a bad idea cause he thought she was asleep but the heck with it—and she didn't answer, he forced himself in and found that she was gone.

So, the only logical place that maybe she'll be in was in Sasuke's room. Maybe.

But seeing his annoyed looked at being awoken so early and no Hinata, his nerves begin to go haywire.

"What are you doing, you idiot?! It is early morning and I'm trying to rest for our journey ahead of—"

"Hinata's not in her room," cut off Naruto, eyes wide with panic. "I don't know where she is."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and got comfortable on his bed once more. "She's a Hyuuga. She'll be okay."

"A what?" Naruto has heard Sasuke call Hinata that for a while now but never found the opportunity to ask about it.

Sasuke sighed heavily. "A Hyuuga. It's her last name."

"Her last name…" repeated Naruto, wonder in his tone. Why didn't she ever tell him?

Hearing his silence, Sasuke sat up and stared at Naruto's curious gaze. "Did she never tell you?"

Sheepishly, Naruto responded, "No. Is it a secret or something?"

Sasuke chuckled. "Maybe it did scar her after all…"

"What?" Naruto asked in a hurry. "What scarred her? Is she okay?"

It wasn't Sasuke's place to tell someone else's story. That was up to Hyuuga to do it herself.

"Let me go back to sleep. She's probably training or—"

Suddenly there was a loud explosion down the street. Naruto ran to the window and opened it. Looking to his right, he saw smoke from around the corner. This did not feel good at all. Another explosion happened and the few people awake at this hour ran in a panic, screaming and tripping over each other.

"Sasuke, we have to check out what's happening!"

"That's none of my business."

Naruto gripped the frame of the window and gritted his teeth. Okay, he had enough!

He jumped on the bed and grabbed Sasuke around the collar of his shirt. Both young men stared each other down until another explosion and screams happened.

It wasn't the sound, however, that made them look towards the window.

It was the muffled scream of Hinata.


Deidara laughed as he flicked his hands towards Hinata's running form. The ground shook and trembled underneath him and a sudden shake caused Hinata to topple over. So far she's been invading Deidara's attack. From what she can tell, Dediara's power consists of creating earthquakes or at least creating some kind of seismic waves. However, Gaara has yet to make a move. He just simply stared as she tried to evacuate the nearby citizens.

She looked around and realized that Deidara caused the nearby electricity poles to block any kind of escape. The hotel was around the corner and she didn't know whether to call for help or not. She can use her family's signature visual power but…

She shook her head. She can do this without that and her other power.

She summoned her sword and poised to fight.

The cries of birds made her turn around and Sasuke easily destroyed the poles blocking her.

"Hinata!" Naruto ran to her side and grabbed her shoulders. He looked her up and down and sighed out of relief, his shoulders slumping. "Are you okay? What happened?"

All three of them turned to the Akatsuki members. Deidara was frowning.

"No one told us she was in a group, yeah."

"The Akatsuki…" whispered Sasuke. Lightening began to dance on his fingers and his Sharingan was activated. He dashed towards the duo ignoring Naruto's yell.

"Hey, are you Itachi's little brother?" Deidara smiled widely, placing his hands on the ground. "I'm going to have fun with you, yeah!"

Gaara suddenly raised his arm, stopping Deidara. His palm extended towards Sasuke's running form. Sasuke, on the other hand, was glaring at them, his hands with raw power raised to strike.

"Sand Wall."

The dirt underneath the concrete rose to a considerable height but Sasuke struck it anyway. The dirt sucked his hand in and Sasuke pulled back hard, jumping back to Naruto and Hinata.

"Deidara," commanded Gaara, staring at Hinata. "I'll take the Hyuuga and you take care of the other two."

Deidara raised a brow. "Where are you taking her, yeah? Are you planning on leaving me behind?"

"No." Gaara smiled, teeth suddenly looking sharp, and eyes wide with malice. "She's going to be my dummy for a while.

"Leader never said to bring her back with a few scars."

Gaara crumbled into dirt and a few seconds later emerged behind Hinata.

"Let's go, Hyuuga."

He grabbed her throat and they both disintegrated into dirt.

"Hinata!" Naruto looked around before settling on glaring at Deidara. "Where's Hinata?!"

"Oh?" Deidara slammed his palms together and watched with delight the buildings next to Naruto and Sasuke sway before plummeting towards them. "You should be more worried about yourselves than your dear Hyuuga, yeah!"

The collision echoed throughout the city of Moni.


Hinata was thrown onto concrete stairs leading up to a building. She coughed, gasping for air. The sudden transition of locations caught her extremely off guard. She didn't have time for that. This was serious. And if what Jiraya said was true, either she's going to be a captive or she's going to die.

She can't afford either.

She summoned her weapon once more and stood shakily. She looked around and noticed a cloud of smoke a mile or two away. Where were they? This place seemed more neighborly with the people opening their windows from their apartments to look down at them with curiosity and worry.

"As you can see," began Gaara, looking around at the people slowly coming out from their houses. "We're in a more populated area in Moni." His smile sent shivers down her spine. "We have families living there," he gestured to his left, "and there," he gestured to his right. "But most importantly." He pointed behind her and she turned around.

There, in bold letters, read MONI'S GENERAL HOSPITAL.

It finally dawned on her what he was going to do.

"Please," she begged. 'Forgive me, Naruto. While I do have a duty to protect you and fulfill your promise…I can't allow this.' "Just take me! Don't hurt others!"

"I used to think like that," he whispered before closing his hand into a fist. She heard a scream from the side and watched as dirt wrapped itself around a man. The man was pulled next to Gaara instantly and from the side a woman clutched onto a child as she cried.

"But then I realized in order to create a new Iyatora, people have to be sacrificed." Gaara stared at the man who struggled to get out the cocoon of dirt. Gaara turned to look at Hinata. Once again killer intent flooded the area and the nearby people screamed, running out from their homes.

"Please! I'm begging you! Take me! Leave him alone!"

Gaara hummed before caressing the guy on the face.

"No."

The man's body slumped and the dirt disappeared, dropping the unmoving body on the ground. Hinata couldn't look away from the dead body. Just with a touch that man died.

Was he…

"You seem startled. Have you never done this before?" Gaara kicked the body and smiled. "It's fun."

"What's going on here?" A nurse came out from the hospital and instantly regretted it when Gaara turned to look at him.

"Evacuate the hospital!" shouted Hinata, the nerves suddenly gone. She got into a stance. "I'll hold this fight here! Take the people far away and notify the officials of Moni that The Akatsuki are here!" When the nurse didn't move, Hinata turned to look at him, determination burning in her eyes. "Go!"

The nurse scrambled away, locking the door behind him.

"I don't know what happened so you can treat life this way," she declared, her heart racing but her mind determined. "But I will not let you hurt others!"

"What happened to the begging?" He raised his arms and small balls of dirt began to form around him.

"I don't have a choice now!"

With that, she ran towards him as the balls of dirt raced towards her.


Another building fell near them and they both jumped away. Naruto was panting hard. He wasn't used to this. He was barley moving out of the way! One small misstep and he can be squashed. Sasuke has tried to get near Deidara but the blond man kept moving the ground, making it hard to get near him.

"Sasuke, we need to work together," whispered Naruto, not moving his eyes away from Deidara. "There's no other way to do this."

"Yes, there is." Without looking at Naruto, Sasuke once again dashed towards Deidara, throwing small knives towards the man. Deidara flicked his wrist and the ground underneath Sasuke cracked, causing him to lose balance and jump away as a pole came crashing down. Deidara easily dodged the knives and laughed.

"You guys can't even get close to me, yeah!"

"Sasuke!" Agitated, Naruto ran to his side and grabbed his arm. "Listen to me! This isn't the time for you to be acting like an ass! We have to work together!"

"No, we don't." Sasuke yanked his arm away from Naruto and unsheathed his sword. "You'll just drag me down."

"Oh?" sang out Deidara, amused at seeing them bickering. "This makes things quite easy."

Sasuke dashed once again towards Deidara. The blond man waited till he was close and noticed Naruto running towards him as well. Deidara stomped his foot onto the ground and watched in delight as a piece of concrete shot up, causing Sasuke to fly towards Naruto. They collided hard and Naruto was sure his shoulder just popped. Sasuke groaned as they landed on the ground, holding onto his side.

"Ha! You guys will never be able to touch me. My work of art will be complete soon, yeah!"

"What happened to that Danger Sense of yours?" mocked Naruto as he stood up shakily.

"There's so many senses going off I can't keep track," panted out Sasuke, wincing when he moved too quick.

"It looks like he can make earthquakes…" Naruto looked around before focusing on Sasuke. "If one of us distracts him the other can get close and land a hit."

"I. Don't. Care." Sasuke knew he can do this. He can accomplish this. He'll immobilize the enemy and force Deidara to tell him where Itachi is. He didn't need a handicap. He can do this alone.

He ran towards Deidara once again, sword drawn, and his senses firing. He felt the sudden wave to his left and right and he was too focused on those to notice the wave of concrete heading his way. The wave crashed on him and he fell back. What he didn't expect was for Deidara to be in front of him, a gun pointed to his forehead, and a devilish smile on his face.

"Checkmate, Uchiha."

Sasuke stared down his enemy. He refuses to die but in these seconds, he couldn't think of a way to get out of this. He couldn't think at all. Anger flooded his veins and his Sharingan activated in instinct.

"Big brother, where are you going? Can I come with you?"

Sasuke's eyes widened.

Itachi chuckled, flicking young Sasuke's forehead.

"You have to be a team player otherwise I can't take you."

"But I am!" whined Sasuke, pouting when his big brother gave him that look.

"That's not what mom said." Itachi stood to his full height and after a few seconds of contemplating, Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Okay. We can be a team, big brother!" squealed Sasuke, jumping to hold his brother's hand.

"Yes," whispered Itachi, looking at Sasuke fondly. "An awesome team."

Why did those memories pop into his head? He was going to die and from all the things he wants to remember last, it was his brother's fond smile that appeared first.

He felt arms wrapping under his legs and around his neck and his eyes widened. He disappeared in front of Deidara right when he pulled the trigger. A sudden explosion of wind appeared in Sasuke's place causing Deidara to jump back.

"What the fuck?" trailed of Deidara.

Sasuke reappeared at the other side of the battle field. Naruto dropped him on the floor and he was panting. He was sweating heavily and, if Sasuke didn't know any better, looked like he was ready to puke.

"What the fuck is the matter with you?!" screamed Naruto.

Sasuke didn't see it coming. And he couldn't even make up an excuse for it.

Naruto punched him hard on the jaw.

The impact caused Sasuke to spit out blood, cupping his jaw, and eyes closed in pain.

"What's the matter with you?" retorted Sasuke, standing angrily onto his feet. Slightly embarrassed at being caught off guard and feeling oddly thankful at being saved at the last minute.

"You have to take out that long stick from your ass!" Naruto stared down Sasuke, brows furrowed and breathing heavily from the teleportation he just did. "I don't have time to sit down with you and talk about your feelings and why you think you can defeat that guy," he pointed at Deidara, "when Hinata is somewhere else possibly fighting for her life! We are a team and I won't let you fucking die because of your stupid arrogance!" He was breathing heavily at the end of his rant.

"That's a nice speech, yeah," interrupted Deidara, looking at his nails. "But this has dragged on too long. Time to end this."

"Sasuke, I have a plan," whispered Naruto. "I'm counting on you to distract the hell out of this guy. I have one shot on doing this because I feel like passing out already. So please," he turned to look at Sasuke who just looked stunned, "work with me."

"You will never be able to land a hit on me."

He chuckled, recalling his words. It looks like there was more to Naruto than he thought. For the first time in his life, he actually trusted someone else—even just a little bit. He realized that in order to get to Itachi, he'll have to trust that dumbass to help them get out of this.

Maybe a little help will be okay.

"Okay." With that, Sasuke activated his Sharingan once more and dashed towards Deidara. From the corners of his eyes, he saw Naruto disappear. 'Okay. Distraction. Focus on the energy that's spread out everywhere. Focus on all possible attacks. Focus.'

Sasuke dodged a tremble that came his way and ran when a pole came crashing down. He moved quickly between spots when the ground began to shake and sway. He focused on Deidara and how the young man was grinding his teeth, eyes focused on him jumping from one place to another. Sasuke wondered how far Deidara can cause the seismic waves. Was there a limit to his power?

Sasuke ran back as far as he can, avoiding the debris laid out on the floor. He watched Deidara run after him and Sasuke didn't feel the ground tremble so much anymore. He was twenty feet away and stopped running. He turned to face Deidara who was catching up to him.

"Stop running, yeah!" Deidara slammed his hands together, breathing heavily. "There's a limit to my power!"

"You were so focused on me," began Sasuke, crossing his arms over his chest, "that you forgot about him."

"Huh?" Deidara didn't have time to react when Naruto appeared next to him. Naruto slammed an orb onto Deidara's shoulder and yelled. The orb broke and fire engulfed Deidara's arm. Naruto landed on the ground, tumbling and rolling until his body hit the wall of a building. Sasuke ran up to him and hooked Naruto's arm over his shoulder. Sasuke watched as Deidara screamed as the fire began to burn through his skin and into his muscles and bones.

Naruto was deadweight and completely passed out. Sasuke decided that he didn't have time to interrogate Deidara about his brother.

"We are a team!"

Naruto's words echoed in Sasuke's mind. He let out a small smile and began to walk towards the sound of explosions at another part of the city.