Wow, this is Chapter 10! It's been a long week, for sure, and it's only Monday. -sigh- I'm going to be busy all the rest of this week and all weekend, so I'm not quite sure when I'll be able to get chappie 11 out, but I will do my best to keep it timely. Yippie. Thank you once again for all of your reviews, they are wonderful, I love reading them.

i am ownership-deficient. enjoy!

"Deidara, you're going to have to try harder than that." Itachi stated flatly.

Deidara looked at the raven haired ninja through a narrowed eye. "I told you I wasn't any good at this kind of stuff, yeah."

"So you admit that I'm the superior one here." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Deidara didn't say anything as he aimed a low kick at Itachi's left knee. Needless to say the kick was intercepted and the blond found himself flat on his back with Itachi looming over him, effectively pinning him to the hard earth.

"Perhaps, 'Totchi-kun, you should be the attacker, yeah." Deidara grumbled, "It'd be best if I worked on defense, while you took the offense."

Itachi's black eyes shimmered as he held back a smug grin. Deidara hadn't realized what he had said—or at least the way Itachi had interpreted it. "Alright, I'll be offense and you work on countering my advances." Itachi replied simply.

He extended a hand to help the blond up, and then they each assumed their respective stances.

Itachi reached toward his kunai pouch and pulled out two knives, moving toward the clay artist. Deidara moved left, while drawing his own weapons; two shuriken and a kunai. While the blond was fast, Itachi was much quicker. The artist had to use the shuriken to keep Itachi away from him, by launching them at the raven's face. He no longer had time to draw anymore weapons, because Itachi had immediately resumed his assault after deftly avoiding Deidara's attack. In seconds the blond found himself looking up at Itachi, who had disarmed him and was now holding his weapon's pouch in his hand, both kunai twirling in his long fingers.

Itachi squatted and leaned over him, "Dei-kun, you'll have to try a lot harder than that." Itachi sighed. They weren't getting anywhere. The past two days had been nothing but failure after failure for the blond. "In order to beat me, or any adversary, you need to be thinking ahead."

"Well, it's hard to think ahead when you are coming at me with fucking inhuman speed, and sharingan, yeah."

Itachi didn't have the heart to tell the blond that he didn't have it activated.

"Perhaps we should try something more…basic." Itachi stated quietly.

"What is that supposed to mean, yeah?" Deidara sat up agitatedly.

"I mean that if you were to review the basics, then you would be better in combat. You have advanced mastery of everything in the ninja arts, save for hand-to-hand combat, so obviously you can handle it. You just need work. So we are going back to basics." Itachi replied firmly.

"But—"

"We're going to work on your speed." Itachi looked the blond in the eye.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow, yeah?" Deidara sighed.

"There is still plenty of daylight to train."

"'Totchi-kun, yeah, I don't think you've ever taken one of your own beatings, but I'll tell you that I'm tired and sore, yeah." Deidara looked at the ex-Konaha nin exhaustedly.

Itachi narrowed his ebony eyes but muttered, "Fine. But tomorrow you are going put in more effort."

Itachi stood up and moved to walk away from the blond situated on the ground. The black haired nin looked at the artist curiously. In return he got an outstretched hand; the blond wanted him to help him up. Itachi sighed mentally, but extended an arm to help the other man up anyway.

Deidara grasped Itachi's outstretched hand firmly, but instead of lifting himself up, he pulled the other nin down.

Itachi let out a short gasp at the sudden change in his inertia, as he felt himself being pulled forcefully toward the ground. Deidara smirked victoriously down at him as the blond straddled his waist.

"I win, yeah." Deidara shouted smugly.

Itachi blinked up at the blond, whose hands were resting on the black haired man's chest. "It is a start."

Deidara leaned down toward Itachi's face and whispered, "Admit it, yeah. I took the great Uchiha Itachi down with a childish prank."

"Never." Itachi gazed at the blond intently.

"What can I do to get you to admit it then, yeah. Because we're not going anywhere until you admit it, yeah."

"I can think of a few things, and I might consider admitting defeat." Itachi smirked, and the blond's face immediately went a light shade of pink.

Deidara, slightly suspecting what was coming, proceeded cautiously, "Like what, yeah?" He remarked coyly.

Itachi raised his eyebrows slyly and Deidara leaned in closer to hear what the other nin was going to say. They hovered like that for several seconds, before the overwhelming urge to crush their lips together consumed the blond, and he gave in to his instincts.

-

When Deidara had pulled Itachi to the ground, neither one had noticed the three poison tipped senbon that flew exactly where Itachi had previously been standing.

"Dammit." Sasori proceeded to swear colorfully under his breath; he could have given Hidan a run for his money, but Hidan isn't into money; so he would have given Hidan a run for Kakuzu's money…. 'There's no way that they could have sensed me, and that big lug, Kisame isn't anywhere around here.' Sasori supposed it was just dumb luck, at least for Itachi, that the blond was a childish idiot.

You get a thousand bazillion (which I know isn't a real number) bonus points with me if you got the joke in the beginning between Itachi and Deidara. If you don't, I suppose I'll explain it...in the next chapter...-snicker- anywho-- Review and I'll probably love you; so much in fact that I won't rhyme like that again!