Chapter 11: In Another Predicament

[ Sha la la, running into the Akatsuki again, and this time it looks like Yasha can't even stand by herself, let alone fight! :O What will happen to the poor neko!
Yasha: …. *glares*
me: … :D NEKO NEKO NEK—
Yasha: *sets Juju's pants on fire*
Me: D: NOT MY PANTS! *runs around screaming bloody murder*
Yasha: *writes down on a white board: Yasha: 1. Juju: 0.*
Yeah that was my short little story on how Yasha likes to set things on fire…namely me T.T" Well on the bright side, I can get new pants now! …TAKE THAT NEKO!
Yasha: *growls*
^-^ enjoy! ]

"SENPAI!" an annoyingly familiar voice echoed through my aching head, like it wasn't bad enough there was something hard shoved into my stomach that was already damaged and I was hanging like a sack of grain. "DEIDARA-SENPAI, LOOK WHAT TOBI FOUND!"

"What is it Tobi, hm?" a ticked off sounding boy replied from who knows where, my head was too jumbled up to even think straight, but I did know that I was never acquainted with a Deidara or a Tobi before. So coming up with two possible answers I landed at either I was in a good situation, or I had been captured by an extremely dangerous S-ranked criminal group who wanted to extract the bijuu within me. I went with the latter.

"Tobi got the kitty-lady!" the child voice informed, bouncing up and down causing the shoulder to dig deeper in my stomach and bang against it, bringing on new waves of pain and a feeling of passing out.

"TOBI!" the second boy yelled, "You went and got the two tails, hm?"

"Yes! Tobi found an opening so he took it and now he has the kitty lady!" Right now I just couldn't believe I had been taken away so easily by somebody so foolish and irritating. Even if they were Akatsuki, I couldn't believe it.

"You didn't kill her, did you, hm?" the boy asked and I felt a hand on my face and it was tilted upwards like someone was inspecting me. "Leader did say to keep them alive, hm." On that note my eyes flashed open, and for anyone who was in the area at the time could most certainly tell I was not a safe person to be around at the moment. The only thing I saw before letting out half of Nekomata's chakra was a blonde haired guy with eyes as blue as mine, then it he was blown backwards by the force, but the one holding me still wasn't getting affected. I wasn't even sure how that was relatively possible by even the slightest chance.

"KITTY, DON'T HURT DEIDARA SENPAI!" Tobi yelled, slapping my back with so much force the internal damage from the swords nearly doubled, and I swear it split open again. With such little strength I couldn't keep up controlling the massive chakra amounts, so I had to dwindle it down back into my body.

Something flew out of the corner of my eye. I focused in on it, and saw it was a yellow gray kind of bird, but upon looking closer I saw it was artificially created. As in saying, this object was made out of clay. It approached steadily, nearing the side of my face before it was hovering just above the tip of one of my neko ears.

"DEIDARA-SENPAI, WAAIITTT!" Tobi said frantically, and before I knew it I had been dropped onto the ground. I had just enough time to prepare part of a chakra barrier before…

"KATSU!"

BAM

The bird exploded with such force that I was propelled through the air and tossed against a tree like a ragdoll, black dust crowded the air around a column of fire that went away the moment I saw it. From the impact of getting whipped across into such a hard object I felt dazed and blacked out, too weak to even hold myself against a little bomb, even with a bit of protection.

For what felt like the millionth time in the past two days, I opened my eyes from a temporary black out only to find that I had been bound to a tree by these two silver rope. My hands alongside my feet were tied tightly together with the same rope and I was incapable of much movement. I had been disarmed, my katana removed off my back and my hidden kunai were all missing as well.

"Kitty has been bad, she hurt senpai!" an orange masked certain someone noisily yelped in my face and I felt compelled to set that mask on fire, though what a shame it was I was a wind style user and not a fire style.

"…yet I couldn't hurt the Uchiha…" I said softly, staring right up at the mask that dropped silent as anything.

"Tobi is a good boy!" he wound up saying before bouncing off in such an energetic way I was nearly impressed that anybody from the Uchiha would be able to be that happy. From my experience, they all looked like they wanted to slit their wrists every moment of the day. Either it runs in the family or those two are just…special.

"Tobi is not a good boy, hm."

I assumed this was the same blonde haired someone I had seen from before, under the name I'd come to figure to be Deidara. He didn't sound all to pleased, and when I finally adjusted my gaze upwards I saw that the boy was leaning up against a tree little ways away from me, his clothes were torn and his skin was scratched.

"You there, jinchuuriki, hm," Deidara growled stalking over towards where I was tied up, a scowl on his young face. I could tell that he wasn't too much older then I was, but he did seem a lot angrier then I ever have.

I responded with a blank face.

"Don't try that again," he demanded, crouching down to eye level and glaring straight into my bored eyes, "see those ropes, hm?"

"…Of course, they are on my body…" I said in a bland voice not breaking eye contact with the young Akatsuki member who was not looking very accepting of my expression, squinting the one visible eye at me. I could only assume that he was thriving for fear in the eyes of his prey, too bad he was dealing with someone who had no reason to feel fear. With nothing to leave behind and no reason to be walking in the presence of man, why should death be something to run away from?

"They're chakra preventing ropes. You won't be able to use any jutsu with those wrapped around you, hm," Deidara smirked, "feeling a little weak, hm?"

"…"

"They're slowly draining the chakra out of your body, while attracting it to certain points in your body so you can't focus it anywhere, hm," his smirk widened as I closed my eyes once more in aggravation. Ninjutsu and weapon use were out of the question, I supposed I could use taijutsu, but that would be difficult since I was…you see…tied up? Genjutsu was a possibility, yet I wasn't amazing at that either.

"That's right, hm. So unless someone unties them you're trapped."

I was beginning to really dislike this Deidara person, however he was correct. Unless somebody came to get me then I was virtually defenseless.

"Oh, oh senpai, kitty was with someone!" Tobi piped up, bouncing over to where we were now all gathered.

Deidara's eyes narrowed in a displeasing way, "Last time I heard, this jinchuuriki was traveling all alone, hm."

"Deidara-senpai, do you not remember what Kisame-san was saying about Itachi-san's little brother? Kitty-lady is with him!"

"The Uchiha brat? THAT'S who you're traveling with, hm?" Deidara was not happy at all with this, and especially after I glared at him. Why did I glare? I supposed it was because he insulted Sasuke, one of the first to accept my existence. Maybe it was because he called Sasuke a brat, and not by his name. Maybe it was because I …held a liking for him, that I felt defensive.

"…Sasuke," I corrected staring darkly at the blonde.

"Yeah the Uchiha brat, hm," Deidara repeated still at eye level.

My face was still blank, but I decided to calmly correct him once more, "…it is Sasuke." Apparently there was something interesting about the way I kept on telling him to say the proper name because the blonde Akatsuki member smirked again.

"You can call him whatever, but to me he's only a little pest, hm. But by the way you keep telling me to call him Sasuke, I'm guessing you're close, yeah?" I used my last defense. I bit Deidara on the nose and I bit down as hard as I could, holding on no matter how hard he tried to shake me off.

"LET GO YOU CRAZY CAT, HM!" he yelled trying to pull away but was only pulled back by the strength of my bite. Eventually after throwing so many punches at my arms he changed targets and nailed me right in the neck.

Already weakened from the past battles, not to mention the bomb that had just blasted me in the face, a punch in the neck was too much for my injured body to handle. Of course I did let go, but I couldn't catch my breath again. My throat stung and the airway was blocked off when the punch had been delivered.

"SENPAI YOU'RE BLEEDING!" Tobi yelled as I choked trying to catch the air back. I was pleased I had made him bleed, even if it did mean the results were painful to my own body.

After my airway had finally been cleared I glared upwards at the two Akatsuki members that were looming over head, the blonde was simply exploding with anger and the masked one was freaking out that his 'senpai' had been bitten and what if he caught rabies, so on and so forth. I don't have rabies…

"Well if that Uchiha brat is going to come find you, then I suppose that's my chance to kill him, hm?" Deidara said rubbing his nose and now enjoying the treacherous evil glares I was shooting his way. "Life's so short for the both of you, hm? Did Tobi even give you a chance to say goodbye?" I could tell that now he was messing with my head, but even so, who was to say that he wouldn't kill Sasuke?

"…"

Tobi gasped, "TOBI DID NOT LET KITTY-CHAN SAY GOODBYE TO SASUKE-SAN! But that's okay, because Tobi is still a good boy!"

If I knew what hate was I believe for these two that would be the one emotion I felt. Hate at Deidara for wanting to take away the last thing I could hold onto, and hate at Tobi for taking me right from the person I wanted to be near.

"Well, there's no point in going after him now, hm, he's going to come to us," Deidara grinned, "while we can let you watch, hm?"

"…Arrogance will be the flaw that takes you down…" I responded simply. "…Even if takes to the success of your mission to seize the bijuu, Sasuke will not be killed…"

It was clear these two were not used to being spoken to so calmly when such information was being delivered. Especially when the subject was tied to a tree fully exposed to any kinds of attack, and already weakened. Tobi was scratching the back of his neck while Deidara just stood there shaking his head.

"Stupid cat, hm."

That was the end of our conversation as they had both walked away to report back to the leader of the Akatsuki and I refused to say anything else. I could only hope that whatever was going to happen, Sasuke would not be killed. The Akatsuki were an unspeakably strong group of S-ranked missing ninja, and though Sasuke himself would be known as a rouge ninja there was still the frightening possibility that he could be brought down.

For days, I watched patiently as the sun rose slowly, and then went down to be replaced with the moon, all the while tied up as I was brought closer and close to the Akatsuki extraction base. No reason to fight against the two members whom held me captive, no reason to speak with them. Silence was all that emanated from me, even when the masked one began to yell about unthinkably ridiculous things followed by the explosive temper of Deidara. Constantly I would try to feel the presences around us to see if anyone was nearing the area, but I was so drained of energy it was impossible to feel anything out of a five foot range.

I was only provided enough food and water to be kept alive, but the scarcity of it was taking a toll on my body. A feeling of nausea was always in my stomach and all the time I was only moments away from fainting. This was the goal of those two, to keep me alive yet just barely.

Day four, I didn't think I could hold myself anymore. Hunger was slowly eating away at my energy; I was so thirsty that if I knew how to swim I would have jumped into the middle of a lake to let my body soak up the water. If I hadn't had such pride I would have been gagging from lack of food. If I wasn't tied up, Deidara and Tobi would have been goners.

"You can have something to eat if you just ask, hm," Deidara smirked, waving half of a loaf of bread in front of my face. I was too fazed to even think of a proper response, the only thing I could do was stare at it with one eye open, the other was closed of drowsiness. Trying to speak resulted in my mouth just opening and closing without any sounds coming out.

"Nothing? That's fine, hm, not like it matters to me if you suffer, yeah," he shrugged, putting the bread back into a bag and retreated back into his cloak. My weary eye followed it as it disappeared, I was so hungry. There was no way I could keep my eyes open, too weak…

"Senpai!" Tobi came sprinting out from wherever he had been off. "Tobi was off keeping guard like senpai instructed, and he saw kitty-lady's friend! HE TRIED TO HURT TOBI!"

My ears perked up immediately but that sad little place in my heart was crying out for Sasuke to leave. Why? Maybe I was too weak that I was dead already, maybe I didn't want him to be in harms way, or maybe I couldn't keep my ties to other people not wanting them to see anyone else get hurt.

"Oh that brat, hm," Deidara smirked and stood up, "stay there jinchuuriki, we'll be back soon, hm."

no… my mind screamed, both my eyes flashed open as I struggled once more against the bonds. It was of course useless, I was tied too tight and my chakra was too low along with my energy to do much other then squirm uselessly around. Finally I gave up, and watched as both Deidara and Tobi made their way between the trees, disappearing along with what little life I could hold onto.

BANG

BOOM

Whoosh

Sitting useless on the sidelines hearing the sounds of a vivid battle involving explosives long ways away from where I could help. Columns of smoke would rise and Tobi would occasionally cry but would be quickly put out by a cheer. My stomach would drop every time a cheer would be heard, and whenever a cry would be put out I wondered what was happening. It almost hurt to be sitting here, uninformed on what was happening, unaware if Sasuke was okay or not.

It took me some time before I realized something odd. The rope that had my torso strapped to the tree was slowly getting looser and looser. I blinked once or twice, and when I looked up I was graced with the presence of a very beat up looking Sasuke concentrating hard on untying the rope. First thing that rose to my mind was how injured he was, the second thing was how grateful I was to the gods above that he wasn't dead, and the third thing… well… never mind…

"…Sasuke, what are you doing…" I asked in a weak voice, in too much pain to speak at normal tone, which wasn't all too off of this. By this time the torso wrap was off and he had started to work on my feet.

He didn't reply to that question, but he did glance up at me for a split second, "are you alright?" the rope on my feet came off and he had just grabbed onto my hands.

"… I am... more concerned for you…" I stated calmly as the rope binding my hands were also removed.

"…hn…" With much difficulty Sasuke helped me stand up but as I could see that he was having trouble holding himself up I tried not to lean on him. Though standing was almost impossible without assistance from anyone else I did not want to be a further burden to him.

Sasuke POV

Still I was unsure of why I was so caught on the idea of making sure Yasha wasn't in the hold of the Akatsuki when I had been so keen on using her to draw them closer. I didn't know why I had to be positive that she was okay otherwise I couldn't sleep. True, for the past four nights my mind wouldn't shut down and it was because of a certain jinchuuriki.

Now that Yasha was saying she was actually more concerned for me when she herself looked like passing out right in front of my eyes, I felt… different, weird. I was used to most girls saying that kind of annoying thing all the time and I could easily ignore it, but now it felt like it actually had a meaning.

I now snapped back to reality, out of my thoughts and saw that Yasha was now slowly inching herself away, trying to walk on her own.

"…Why are you so persistent with walking by yourself…?" I asked, following the girl to where she was headed. Nearby resting against a rock was the katana I was familiarized with seeing on her back that she had now grabbed onto and tucked into the blue wrapping of her kimono that was on her higher torso.

"…I do not wish to be weight on somebody who is already in pain…" She replied, looking at me once more with stinging, dead eyes. Such a blank face, so much pain stored away that she was trying to hide. I hated knowing that even as we spoke her soul was slowly slipping away into the darkness that her mind was already in.

"…We are going back anyways," I decided on telling the neko who apparently seemed to be studying me. That is of course until she winced and sunk to the ground like something was very much bothering her. I didn't like it.

Yasha caught onto me staring, "…It is not a problem…" with much struggling she rose and nearly dragged herself over to where I was standing. I was just about to help her again when an explosion erupted, throwing the two of us in different directions.

I had let my guard down and allowed the bomb to slip past my knowledge, and now I was thrown through the air and skid across the ground adding to the collection of bruises and cuts. Then I thought; where was Yasha?

I couldn't see anything for the smoke and dust was too heavy, but when it cleared a bit all I saw was that blonde haired nuisance coming my way. There was no trace of Yasha at all.

Thinking it would be best to get rid of this Akatsuki member first and then search for her, I too disappeared in the dust, only to come up again behind the blonde with a punch to his face which threw him a good few yards across the ground rolling helplessly until the impact wore off and he was lying motionless on the ground.

I approached him carefully as he sat up, "Where's Itachi?" I asked.

The Akatsuki member looked troubled for a moment and out from his hands came two clay snakes that went and wrapped around my ankles. Easily I used a lightning style jutsu that was sent down the clay forcing the Akatsuki member to cut off the connection. That last jutsu also caused me to fall to the ground as well, my chakra very low, panting for breath.

Then to my surprise… he began to laugh, "That's what's pissing me off so much! You and your brother are always acting so damn 'cool'! It's those eyes; those over confident eyes are an atrocity! Those eyes reject my art, and they piss me off!" he was starting to annoy me, this one liked to talk a lot, "You're even activating your Sharingan? How much are you underestimating me?"

For some unknown reason the blonde ripped his dark blue shirt off where a hideous mouth was stitched up on his chest. I stared at the weirdness of it all, when one of those mouths on his hands snapped off a string on it while his other grabbed onto a huge hunk of clay from that pouch. Now the chest-mouth was completely opened and a large tongue shot out of it and he fed the mouth all the clay.

Something strange was happening as the skin all over his body began to look cracked like shattering glass, "this'll be my ultimate piece of art. I'll explode."

I didn't know what to think, what was he going to do? This guy…

"I shall die and become art itself! This will be like no other explosion before it, and it will destroy acres of the earth unlike anything else! Then, my art will receive the admiration it's always deserved!"

His body then became to look transparent, I could see straight through him and to the other side, with only that mouth on his chest solid looking.

"While in awe of me, you'll be killed!"

I tried to stand up but I was too weak, I only stumbled back down.

"The range of this explosion is 10 kilometers, there's no escape, yeah!" While speaking black lines started to show up all through his body, now he looked like a floating pile of black sticks.

"Now, cower in fear! Drop to your knees in awe and despair! Because my art is…"

"SASUKE, NO!" it was loud yelling; Very unfamiliar, loud, desperate yelling. As I turned my head to see who had yelled that something zipped through the air straight at the black mouth, now the only thing visible, but it was as I came to see a sword, and it only bounced off the mouth as though the mouth was made out of metal.

I blinked when I saw that it was Yasha who had yelled. In her eyes the only thing I could see was fear. It was pure clean fear in her usually blank eyes. I couldn't believe it; they were so wide and afraid that I couldn't believe that this was Yasha.

I wanted to tell her to get out of the area, to teleport someplace else, but she was already by my side grasping onto my arm like she wasn't about to let go of anything. She was so afraid of something that even though she was unbearably weak her nails started to dig into my skin. A small tear was formed in her eye right before the girl passed out from exhaustion.

I wanted to get her out of here.

Too late.

"KATSU!"

[hey again! i am disclaiming the parts of the deidara sasuke fight starting from when Sasuke punches dei across the face, up until where deidara goes "because my art is..." and then claiming the rest until the the "KATSU" part! i couldn't disclaim in the beginning only because that would have given away what was to happen, come on people you should know this already :P ^-^ jk, but yeah, disclaiming that. for all of you who have read/ seen the fight already im sure you'll remember that, and for those of you who haven't...oops! ^-^" now you have! (i worked hard to read the mirrored words in english subbed D: reading things backwards is hard!)
so yeah! o.O YASHA HAS SHOWN TRUE EMOTION, SHE'S SCARED FOR SASUKE OH EM GEE! had to be said... :) what's gonna happen? O.o dun dunnnn... tune in next time! (had to say tune in xD i HAD to say it!)
- jujichan

p.s THIS IS AN EXTRA LONG CHAPTER, 1,000 WORDS LONGER THAN NORMAL! WOOP!]