A/N: Yay! Just went out for some drinks and now I'm ready to upload the next chapter!


"Come in, Hatake," Itachi spoke through his headset, "What is your status, over?"

"Busy, over," Kakashi's voice gasped through the static-filled connection. In the background, Itachi could barely make out the sounds of shouting and commands to keep back and stay in position. It certainly hadn't taken the Akatsuki long to move in.

"Would you like me to call in for some reinforcements, over?"

"No, not yet, over."

"Is there anything at all we can do? Everything seems fine over here, so I'm sure we could help in some way since there's nothing to do, over."

"Just keep your positions for now," Kakashi answered, "This formation is the best chance we have at success, so just keep it up and then take necessary action if the opportunity arises. All eight shinobi appear to be here, though their clones are coming out in droves, so I can't be entirely sure if any of them are missing. Keep your guards up. Over and out."

Itachi sighed, taking his hand away from the Intercom button on his headset. He had hoped that there would be something he could do to help, but Kakashi wanted none of it.

"What should we do?" Sasuke asked, leaning casually against a tree, tossing a kunai in the air, letting it twirl a couple times before catching it and then repeating the process.

"We stay here," the elder Uchiha answered firmly, "We'll find out the result sooner or later."

"Sir," one of the ANBU hollered, sounding tense, "There's something coming at us from the sky. It appears to be a large bird, but I've never seen or heard of this particular breed before. It has no feathers."

Itachi froze in place a moment before rushing over to the speaker. He took the binoculars and took a look at the bird. "Well, Sasuke," he said with an irritated sigh, "It looks like we've got our answer."

Sasuke cursed and caught the kunai while it was still twirling in mid-air. He took out an exploding note and tied it to the kunai.

"Don't," Itachi commanded sternly, "Remember what I told you."

"Make their weakness my strength?"

"And what's Deidara's jutsu?"

"Explosions."

"Exactly. So, an exploding note would only serve to strengthen the explosion."

"Then what—"

Sasuke had to stop as the giant bird flew overhead and stopped about twenty feet above them, using its massive wings to keep it suspended in the air. "Uchiha Itachi!" Deidara shouted down.

"Right here!" Itachi hollered in reply. "You want me, come and get me!" He turned to his men to explain the plan, "Deidara's weakness is close-range combat, so what we need to do is get onto that bird.

"You know, hm," Deidara chuckled, "I never thought I'd be sent out to kill you and I'm not entirely keen on the idea of being swept up by those eyes of yours. So why don't you send everybody away so I can just kill you, hm?"

Not this time. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"C'mon, be a good sport, hm!"

"Jump on my mark," Itachi ordered. He lowered himself to the ground in a crouch, pointed the first two fingers of his right hand over his right shoulder to signal everybody to get ready and then pointed at the bird. All at once, everybody jumped and landed on the clay bird, all of them in a circle to surround the blond-haired male.

Deidara looked at the shinobi intruders with faint irritation and sighed, saying, "What a bother, hm. I can't say I wasn't expecting it or that I hadn't prepared for it, but it's still a pain in the ass." But he smirked as he shoved his hands into the opposite sleeves of his cloak. "But no matter, hm." He whipped his arms out, several tiny clay spiders flying in every direction but Itachi's. "Now you all get to be a part of the masterpiece that will soon be Konoha, hm!"

"Get back!" Itachi shouted, pushing Sasuke off of the bird to keep the clay from connecting onto him.

"Itachi!" Sasuke shouted, his face filled with horror as all the small spiders latched onto his fellow ANBU's faces and then exploded, taking their respective hosts with them.

"Remember your promise, Sasuke!" Itachi commanded, not taking his eyes away from Deidara. "You have to keep her safe! Don't let anybody hurt her!"

Sasuke did a small flip so that he landed feet-first into the green crown of trees. And, just like that, Itachi and Deidara were completely alone.

"Now then, since we have some privacy, let's get on with business, hm," the blond said companionably.

"Again," Itachi said, mirroring Deidara's friendly voice, "Thank you, but I'm going to have to decline." He took a step backward, allowing himself to head first off of the bird...

"Think that'll stop me, hm?!"

... And then the bird swooped down and grabbed him by the arm with its feet, keeping a firm hold on him. Deidara, too, jumped off the bird and freefell. Then, he put his hands together in the seal that would detonate his chakra inside the clay, hollered, "So long, Itachi, my man!" and then the bird exploded with an eardrum-shattering blast and a blindingly bright light.


A/N: Oh. Good. God. Please. Don't. Kill. Me...