A/N: I'M ALIVE!!! XD Sorry for the long wait. Let's just say my computer's a beach(notice bad pun :P). So, to make up for it, this chapter is a little longer than the rest of 'em (around 4,000 words O_O") and I'll have you know that a lot more DeiHinaIta is in here (Finally, thank god), so enjoy the DeiHinaIta-ness~! :3

Warning: WORD HAS BEEN FIXED!!! :DDD Finally! Well, kinda -_-" So now I don't have to keep saying "possible grammar errors" or etc, but that doesn't mean that I could of repeated or added some words I forgot to delete X,( I hope you don't mind if I did…

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, genius.

-:|:-

"Hinata?" Itachi asked. He stopped walking down the hall and turned around, seeing Hinata a few feet away from him. "What is it?"

"We need to talk Itachi," Hinata said.

"About what?"

"About why you've been avoiding me lately. What's the matter? Why are you doing this?"

Itachi stared at her for a moment silently, before sighing frustratingly. "It's difficult to explain." He turned around and started walking off again, but it wasn't long before he realized Hinata had transported right in front of him…but he expected that.

"What could be so hard to explain, something that you couldn't tell me about?" she asked softly, touching his shoulder. Another moment of silence.

"I'll tell you another day, Hinata," he answered. "I need to be somewhere right now…"

"No!" she said, grabbing his arm. "You've been like this for almost a week now! It's really worrying me. You tell me right now what's wrong."

"Damn it Hinata…" he cursed under his breath. "Leave me be," he swatted her hand away from his arm before walking off again, this time Hinata letting him go. He could feel her glare on his back as he disappeared around the corner of the hallway.

-:|:-

"Hmmm? Is that you again Hinata?" Deidara asked from the branch he sat on.

"Who else?" Hinata asked quietly. Deidara watched her walk right past him and sit on a rock in front of a tree.

"What brings the Akatsuki Princess all the way out here in the forest, hmmm?" Deidara smirked.

"Will you stop with that Princess crap…" Hinata grumbled, rubbing her temples. It wasn't even a question. Deidara raised a brow.

"Why are you so…down, hmmm?" he asked. Hinata looked at him from the corner of her eye. She sighed.

"It's Itachi," she began. "He's been avoiding me for days, and I don't know why…I'm worried about him…" Deidara jumped out of the tree and walked over to her side.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about the Uchiha so much, hmmm. I'm sure what ever it is, pretty boy can handle it…"

"Again with the nicknames…" Hinata muttered. Deidara smirked again.

-:|:-

"Konan-sama," Itachi spoke. Konan turned around from the window she faced. She stared at him with her calm, misty eyes.

"What is it Itachi?" she asked.

"It's about Hinata," he answered.

"What about her? Did something happen?"

"No…it's just…" his red eyes flashed at her in the darkness of the room. "…I think it's time that we tell her the truth." Konan narrowed her eyes.

"What truth?"

"You know which one. It's been sixteen years," Itachi replied. Konan scoffed, turning away from Itachi to face the window again.

"Impossible. Do you really think that after all these years I'd tell her NOW that it was I who killed her family? That I am the reason she's an orphan, and is the last of her clan? That I didn't find her alone in an abandoned Hyuuga campsite, but in her I-assume-mother's dying arms and took her from her?" Konan looked over her shoulder at Itachi. She saw him averting his eyes to the ground. "Oh…that's right…" Konan started, a smile creeping across her lips.

"You're only concerned with this because…" she was completely facing Itachi by now.

"You helped me?"

Itachi said nothing. He narrowed his eyes somewhat-regretfully. There was silence.

"Itachi, don't blame yourself for this," Konan said. "You were only fives years old at the time. A very young age for an assisted massacre, don't you think?"

"Don't remind me," he said. "And you are not making me feel any better by pointing out the obvious."

I'll be regretting it for the rest of my life anyway…

"It sadly had to be done Itachi," Konan started to explain. "The Hyuuga clan was becoming a larger and larger threat to your clan, and Madara wouldn't stand for an "insignificant" clan, as he puts it, to get in the way of things later on, so he had me kill them. Don't be fooled by my smile Itachi, because honestly, I never wanted to do that terrible thing…" her smile finally faded. "The Hyuugas have never done anything to us OR the Uchihas in my opinion, but Madara will always have his reasons…"

-:|:-

There was a long period of silence between Deidara and Hinata. Hinata fidgeted with her fingers. Deidara looked down at her from his standing point next to her as she still sat on the rock.

"Answer me this, Hinata," Deidara began as he sat down next to her on the rock. "Why is it that everyone in Akatsuki calls you a "ruthless, heartless killer", they don't say it out of insult towards you, but you don't really care, do you, hmmm? Anyway, tell me why they call you that, because from my entire time of knowing you, you haven't done one single thing to intimidate me, hmmm?"

"They say that because that's how I am on the battle field," Hinata said. "As soon as I do enter battle, I don't care about anything around me. I show no mercy whatsoever; no matter what my victims say…complete heartlessness…I kill them efficiently and quickly. There are absolutely no survivors."

Deidara stared at her from the corner of his eye, past the fringe that covered his eye. He could imagine her doing something like that…there would be people screaming for mercy, and she would just ignore them, slicing there throats or simply delivering a quick push to the chest with her gentle fist to their hearts, ending their meaningless lives immediately. He could see the blood that covered the area around her and her face…the dismantled bodies of her enemies everywhere…the scenery placed on fire…the smoke rising…

He licked his lips.

Thanks to his hair, Hinata didn't see him do so. He looked towards her direction, only looking at her feet, and then back to the ground in front of him. Deidara then looked at his hands…they were licking their lips too, with their little grins on his palms. He quietly growled at them, looking away from his hands. It was strange, and he knew this too, how the thought of bloodlust and death caused by a woman could turn him on like that.

"I'm going to go check on Itachi again…" Hinata spoke aloud. She stood up, bumping into Deidara, forgetting how close he was sitting next to her. Deidara turned his head to her, soon realizing how close their faces were. He quickly gave her a peck on the lips.

Expecting a kiss back, all Deidara got was a wide-eyed stare, and a blink. Damn it, he thought. Why the hell did I do that?!

Instead of a kiss, he now expected a punch in the face…but was surprised when he did in fact get a kiss back.

Quickly, Hinata thought, WAIT! Whoa, whoa! What am I doing?!! For a moment they were stuck in an awkward position of kissing. Deidara started to sweat, wondering why they weren't doing anything, and if this was some way of Hinata tricking him so she could later kill him or some other complicated reason.

But it wasn't.

She pulled him closer to herself, the awkward position gone, letting her fingers run through his long locks, pushing her lips harder to his. He cautiously put his hands on her too, his hands resting on her hips, then to her back. To be safe, Hinata quietly unleashed her Byakugan to make sure no one was around before she continued any further with Deidara. Her very soul almost jumped out of her body at what she saw.

Itachi was a few feet away from them, watching.

She immediately pushed Deidara away from herself. Deidara tumbled backwards, but didn't fall over. Before he could say anything, he saw the look of fear in Hinata's eyes and…wait. Fear? In Hinata's eyes? He followed her still-activated eyes to a tree in the shadows of the forest, seeing a figure, immediately recognizing it for the Uchiha he despised so dearly. His cockiness at that moment got the best of him, making him smirk at Itachi. Itachi's furious red eyes looked at him as soon as he did. Deidara immediately looked away, but it was too late. He was caught in Tsukuyomi. Before he was sucked into it, he could hear Hinata scream at Itachi, "NO!"

In the World of Tsukuyomi…

Deidara shook his head as looked up from the ground. The world around him was an inverted color…on a grayscale. He saw a red moon looming overhead., giving the water around him a red glow in the darkness. He found himself tied up to a pole, his arms against his sides and his legs together.

Could this be Tsukuyomi…? Deidara thought.

"It is…" a voice echoed. Deidara looked around, trying to figure out where it had come from. It wasn't long before he saw Itachi, quietly and slowly emerging from the water in front of him. Itachi held a katana in his hand. Deidara blinked.

"You will pay dearly for what you did, weakling," Itachi said darkly. Suddenly, hundreds of other Itachis came up slowly from the water around them, all holding katanas and other various weapons as well. Deidara looked at the Itachi that had talked to him.

"You're REALLY gonna kill me, aren't you?" Deidara asked.

"Possibly," Itachi answered. "But since I'm not as much of a bastard as you think I am, I'll give you two choices. Either stay away from Hinata, or keep trying to take her from me, which puts you in my wrath of Tsukuyomi or something even worse, causing you to go into mental health issues or even death…I'm serious about this. Choose wisely."

"There's no way possible that I'd ever listen to the words of an Uchiha, whether those words be smart or not, hmmm…" Deidara growled. "….Besides, this is really Hinata's decision, not mine. And since it is, things are looking bad for you, because from my point, Hinata's liking ME more than YOU now, hmmm. It's probably because you've been ignoring her, but it doesn't really matter, since all in all, seeing you two together really makes me sick to the stomach, hmmm. And another thing: If you DO torture me in Tsukuyomi, or whatever, Hinata will never forgive you, and then she'll brake it off with you and come running right to me."

"Not if you're dead she won't," Itachi snarled. "I warned you, so here is your punishment."

Itachi immediately stabbed Deidara's chest, piercing his heart, going right through the pole that held him there. Deidara screamed in pain. He grinded his teeth as blood flowed from his mouth. He glared at Itachi.

It's only a genjutsu…it isn't real…it's just a…terrible nightmare… Deidara tried to assure himself in his thoughts.

"Saying it's not real like Kakashi did won't help you at all," Itachi forced the katana out of Deidara's chest, making Deidara wince horribly. At that moment, all of the Itachis swarmed over Deidara, cutting at his flesh here and there. A few pulled at his hair, forcibly cutting it off near the scalp. Others cut at his legs and arms, while the rest pierced his body repeatedly in fast motions. Deidara saw his blood spew from his body as the Itachis kept on and on with their torture. He jerked his head all over the place, breathing heavily.

This is hell, Deidara thought.

"No, it isn't." Itachi said evilly. "It's worse."

-:|:-

Hinata quickly ran at Itachi, and in under a second, attacked him with gentle fist, straight at his heart. It wasn't to kill him, but to knock him out. And Itachi DID knock out, his eyes shutting as he fell to the ground. As soon as he did, Deidara fell to the ground too, face first. Deidara shivered up on the ground, breathing irregularly. Hinata quickly withdrew her attention from Itachi to Deidara. She ran to him, and with all her strength, she forced him over her shoulder, running out of sight, leaving Itachi alone and unconscious in the forest.

-:|:-

"What do your insects say Shino?" Kiba asked. Shino let a beetle land on his finger. He quietly stared at it for a moment before looking back up at Kiba.

"They say that they've picked up a hint of Hanabi's scent to the west, near the border of Suna, but far off though. They're going to go search again tonight while we sleep to get a better pin-pointed location."

"We're sleeping again?!!" Kiba yelled. "We should just follow your insects over to wherever it is near Suna and look for Hanabi! I bet when we get there, me and Akamaru can find her in an instant!"

"Kiba, you're just like Naruto," Kurenai sighed. "We need all the rest we can get. We've been searching since five or six in the morning for Hanabi, so don't you feel the least bit tired?"

"Hell no! When it comes to finding a friend, nothing blocks your way to finding them! Just like the way Naruto feels about finding Sasuke!" suddenly something shifted in the bushes, drawing Team 8's attention away from their conversation. Kiba immediately threw a shuriken at the noise, hearing a little yelp. He ran to the bushes, pushing the branches out of the way to see what he hit.

He didn't hit the thing making the noise, but the tree right behind it. Kiba stared at the creature dumbfoundedly.

"What is it Kiba?" Kurenai asked.

"Aw nothing, it's just a stupid fox," Kiba muttered, walking away from the freaked out animal.

"A fox…?" Shino mumbled.

"Yeah, that's what I just said," Kiba grumbled. Kurenai looked away from the two chunin to the sun. She just noticed how dark it was, and that sun was almost all the way over the horizon.

"Team, we'll spend the night here. We'll find Hanabi tomorrow," she commanded. Kurenai looked to Kiba. "Got that?" she added firmly.

"Yeah sure…" Kiba groaned. They spent half an hour making their campsite in a patch of grass in the forest, a little off the trial they were on. After setting up their tents and making a fire, Shino, with his insects now ready to go on another search, sent his little helpers out into the night sky, all heading west.

"G'night," Kiba said before heading into his tent. They all said goodnight to each other before heading to their tents for a good night's sleep.

-:|:-

At midnight, Hinata had already gotten Deidara back to base to Konan, telling her what had happened to Deidara and that they needed to help him quickly. They spent hours on healing him, because even though Tsukuyomi was broken, Itachi still had his chakras messing with Deidara's, which also messed with his mental and spiritual state.

Konan hand her hands on Deidara's temples, buzzing away with her knowledge of medical ninjutsu she learned from Tsunade once in her childhood. Hinata had her hands healing on Deidara's bare chest, trying to somehow cancel out Itachi's jutsu. Deidara was still unconscious, and his breathing went back to normal, but they still had to do a lot of work on him.

"Hello ladies," a voice said from the open doorway of the room. Konan and Hinata looked up from Deidara, seeing the person was Itachi. Hinata growled inwardly, her eyes giving the darkest glare yet to him. Itachi ignored it. He looked at Deidara, seeing how he was getting better, which angered him, but it of course didn't show on his face. Instead, his hands balled up into fists inside the sleeves of his cloak. "He won't die, just so you know," he said. "But, what worries me is his mental state. He may not be same when he wakes up."

"Shut it Itachi," Hinata forced through her gritted teeth. Itachi stared at her. "How could you do this? YOU, out of all people! If you think we're still together, then you have another thing coming…"

"Why do you care so much about him? What has he ever done for you? From my perspective, all he does is annoy you and the rest of us. How could you suddenly care about him so much in such a small amount of time. How could you feel like that for him in not even two weeks yet to how you used to feel for me in almost three years?"

Konan was feeling very uncomfortable being between her adopted daughter and her boyfriend arguing.

"…Because he's your complete opposite," Hinata said. "From my 'small amount of time' knowing him, I can already tell that he isn't afraid to show how he feels for someone around others, unlike you. He doesn't care what other people think of him, unlike you. Deidara expresses his opinion to everyone; just take his art for example. To anyone he meets, he'll tell them about or show them his art, no matter how annoying it gets. Also, he listens to what I have to say, which you don't do often. So, all in all, he's a better choice than you. I'm sorry Itachi, but I've made my decision."

Being as "emotionless" as he is, Itachi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, his eyes slightly widened, but in a moment, they relaxed again.

"Hinata, I never thought you would care about these things," Itachi said. "It is possibly just your teenage years finally getting to you, but still. Being raised by Leader and Konan-sama, I thought that you would pay no heed to such trivial things…but I guess I was wrong…" he turned to the door. "…have your fun with Deidara, Hinata. But you'll soon realize what a terrible choice you have made…" Itachi and Konan's eyes met, the two of them sending each other glares at the same time. "…Goodbye Hinata." After that, he left. Hinata relaxed, a little sad about braking up with him…but also relieved. She suddenly realized that her "mother" was there the whole time watching all of it happen. She looked at her with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"I am sorry you had to see that mother…" Hinata muttered, looking to the floor.

"It's fine Hinata," Konan said. "I'm proud of you for stand up for yourself. Especially to someone like Itachi."

Hinata nodded. Not even a moment later, Deidara finally started opening his eyes. He looked around himself, seeing Hinata standing next to him.

"Hinata…?" he asked, not sure if it was a genjutsu or not. Hinata looked down at Deidara, and for the first time, smiled at him.

"I'll leave you two alone…" Konan said, walking off. I've had enough drama for tonight –shudder-…

When Konan left, Deidara sat up on the table. He looked back at Hinata.

"What happened, hmmm…?" he asked, in a daze. he warily looked down at himself. "And…wait a minute, where the hell did my shirt go?!"

"Just go to bed Deidara," Hinata sighed. "You need ALOT of rest. I'm surprised that you're not completely insane right now. I'll explain it all to you tomorrow…" she started to leave.

"Wait a minute!" Deidara . Hinata turned to him, wondering what was so important.

"…Seriously, where's my shirt, hmmm? Cloak as well?"

Hinata almost fell on her head. She slapped her forehead.

"Deidara-san, if you just looked around, you would see that it's on the chair next to you."

"Deidara-san? Now we're- OW! Oh..." Deidara held his head. Hinata rolled her eyes and left the building, still mystified how Deidara was almost completely not infected by Tsukuyomi.

Idiot, Hinata thought as she walked off into the forest in the dead of night. I wonder if I probably should of just stayed with Itachi… She found a stump in the moonlight, so decided to sit on it and have some time to herself.

But before she could, her ears pricked up to the silent sound of footsteps, about thirty feet away from her as far as she could accurately estimate. Hinata frustratingly activated her Byakugan. She looked straight toward what was causing the noise...not very surprised when she saw it was a girl...a KONOHA girl, as deciphered from her headband on her across her forehead. Hinata looked closer at the girl's face...and was shocked to what she saw.

The girl had Byakugan too.

She stared straight at Hinata, Hinata seeing that the girl had just figured out that Hinata also had the kekkei genkai. The girl flinched, taking a step back. The young leaf kunoichi was then frozen in shock. Hinata stood up, both their Byakugans still on, and stood straight in the direction of the girl. She stared into the younger one's eyes before her body suddenly took a lightning-quick shift to the side, disappearing from sight. The girl gasped. She looked all around with her Byakugan, Hinata no where to be found.

"Who are you?" Hinata demanded when she came to view again, right in front of the young ninja. The girl almost yelped when she reailzed that.

"Hyuuga...Hanabi..." Hanabi stuttered. She looked up at Hinata, then observed her clothing. "...So it's just as I thought..." Hanabi started sadly. "...you're an Akatsuki..." Hinata narrowed her eyes. She's a Hyuuga?! she thought.

"So...what's your name?" Hanabi asked.

"...Hinata..." she answered.

"Heh, that's a pretty name!" Hanabi smiled, trying to lighten up the mood. Hinata just glared down at her, making Hanabi's smile fade.

"It's NOT pretty," Hinata stated.

"Okay, okay...geez..." Hanabi said.

"So why are you here? How are you a HYUUGA? They were suppose to all be dead except...for me..." Hinata trailed off.

"I can explain that later," Hanabi said. "But to more important matters...um..."

"What?" Hinata asked. Hanabi sighed.

"I...I really don't know how to say this but...I'm your sister, Hinata. Well, HALF-sister, but..."

Hinata stood there in shock.

"Sister...?!" Hinata breathed. Hanabi nodded. "But...I..."

"Look, as I said earlier, I'll explain it all later. I'm just as shocked as you are you know. Oh, just wait 'til mom finds out about you! Yeah, you have a mom too. Her name's Uma, but she's not in the best condition...but as soon as she sees you, she'll feel alot better! Oh! Did I tell you yet about-"

THUMP!

"HINATA?!" Hanabi almost shouted. For the first time in Hinata's life, Hinata had fainted.

-:|:-

A/N: And that's where I end chapter nine; with Hinata doing something the original Hinata would do XD. Again, sorry for the long wait. Also, I KNOW that you're probably wondering WHY I didn't give a flashback of Itachi on how a little un-trained five year old could help kill the Hyuugas, but I assure you, it'll come in due time…in due time…-AHEM!- Anyway, with that little scene that Team 8 had with the fox in the bushes, you can take a wild guess on who's following them X3 OH! I forgot: Why is Naruto here if this is all taking place just barely before Shippuden? Well, I felt like the main character should be here earlier, to be Hanabi's close friend (because I personally like Naruto more than Kiba ^_^" Sorry!). Please review and I'll have chapter ten up alot quicker than the time it took for this chapter to come up (I hope…). Thanks for reading so far~!

PS: My birthday's tomorrow!!! X3