A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.
"You're late master Sasori, un." Deidara mocked because Sasori lectured Deidara for being late when he was fighting Gaara. "I thought you hated to keep people waiting."
"I do, but I had enough fun to make up for it." Sasori said with pleasure. Deidara scowled.
"Say what?"
"You have no reason to be angry. After all you managed to secure your target, the one tailed. After we finish dealing with this one, we have to get mine."
"But master Sasori, the person you're going after..." Deidara began and Sasori sighed.
"Yeah, I still don't know where he is. It would be a lot simpler if he'd come to us."
"Ah, definitely." Deidara said turning away from Sasori. "What type of Jinchuriki was he again?"
"It doesn't matter. No one will complain as long as I get one." Sasori said.
After more days of walking, they finally neared the base. Deidara's bird flew close behind still holding Gaara in its tail. Deidara looked down on the sealed base entrance relieved that he was finally home to be with Naiya, he would just have to take care of Gaara's Jinchuriki first.
"We're here, hm." He beamed at what Naiya's reaction would be when she seen him again.
"Let's go." Sasori said knowing what Deidara would do first when he got through the entry way. Deidara, Sasori and the bird came closer to the entrance and Deidara unsealed the giant rock that was blocking their way by raising it until they stroll past the gate. Pein was there to greet them with his back turned to them.
"You're late." He said in a deep voice while turning to them. "Prepare yourselves, now."
"The Jinchuriki was stronger than I thought." Deidara said as the rock closed the entry behind them. His bird set down the lifeless Gaara on the floor then vanished as its mission was finished. Pein made three hand signs then slammed his hand on the ground next to Gaara releasing a giant statue behind them. The same statue that was used in the attempt to drain Naiya of her powers. Deidara and Sasori took their hats off at the same time realizing that they didn't need them anymore. The statue had nine eyeballs that were currently closed and a scroll locked in between its upper and lower teeth. As it came further out of the ground it revealed the same hands that everyone had stood on before. Giant chains hung from the giant hands and dangled as it continued to rise from the earth.
"Assemble." Pein ordered. Everyone except for Deidara and Sasori stood on their same finger as holograms but Deidara and Sasori stood whole. Sasori jumped on his finger as for Deidara he stood in the same spot looking at the ground deep in thought. Pein turned to him. "Well, what's taking you Deidara?"
"Oh, I want to see Naiya, before I do anything, yeah."
"Very well, but don't be too long. We have to do this before anyone finds out." Pein said and Deidara nodded then he rushed over to his room but stopped right in front of the closed the door. He put his hand on the knob and opened it with anticipation. He opened the door slowly and silently just in case Naiya was sleeping. Naiya sat on the edge of the bed looking out the closest window still not aware that Deidara was home. He set his empty clay pouch down and caught Naiya's ear. She quickly turned over to meet his presence but she made little reaction. Deidara was puzzled.
"Naiya, it's me, Deidara, un." Deidara said gently. Naiya suddenly got up and ran over to Deidara realizing that this time and not a genjutsu. Deidara embraced her in his one arm as she squeezed him back crying happily. Deidara pressed his body against hers and Naiya did the same. It was a tender moment between them because it has been over two weeks since they last embraced. Naiya pulled her head away from his chest and looked up to him with tearful eyes. Deidara sniggered. "Naiya, you don't have to cry anymore, I'm home." He said wiping her tears just the same as two weeks ago. "I missed you so much. I hope I never have to leave you again." Deidara was interrupted by some giggling out of the corner of his ear. He turned his head and found Tobi behind them.
"Did Deidara sempai miss Naiya?" Tobi giggled. Deidara grimaced at Tobi but turned back to Naiya who was beaming at him.
"Tobi," Deidara began quietly. "Thank you... for taking care of Naiya." He finished.
"Oh no problem, she was fun to be around." Tobi shrugged while remembering her crying for endless amounts of time and being stubborn about not eating and transforming into the Jinchuriki and giving him a whooping but other than that, Tobi had fun.
"Deidara!" Pein shouted. Deidara gasped recalling what Pein told him to do.
"Oh, right. I have to go back now for a while. Tobi, just a little longer again okay?" Deidara asked leaving the room not waiting for Tobi's answer.
"Sempai! Wait!" Deidara ran back to the room where everyone stood waiting for him.
"Sorry." He said jumping on his assigned finger.
"Now, let's begin." Pein said just before jumping on his finger. Every Akatsuki member made the same hand sign to perform this jutsu. Pein opened up the mouth of the statue making a giant scroll fall down but it was still chained to the statue. "This is going to take us three days and three nights. Everyone, be careful with the body. I also want Zetsu to keep watch on the area outside. Use your longest range." Pein ordered
"I know." Was all Zetsu could say.
"Three days." Kisame began. "Shouldn't we give it more time, since Orochimaru is no longer here?"
"If that's how you feel, then start working on it already." Pein responded.
"That's right." Itachi added while smirking.
"Fair enough." Kisame half sighed as he was being made a fool of.
"Let's do it, un." Deidara said with his eyes closed already focusing his chakra. Everyone focused their chakra with their eyes closed and the tip of the statues fingers lit up with their symbol that was on each of their individual rings that each member wore on their finger that they stood on. Pein's read Zero, Deidara's blue, Sasori white, Itachi crimson, Zetsu's boar, Kisame south, Kakuzu north, and Hidan's was orb.
"Phantom Dragon's Nine Seals." Pein called the jutsu to their unison. At that point, nine dragons came out of the mouth of the statue and hit Gaara in the chest and began to suck his Jinchuriki's power out of his body and into the mouth of the stone statue opening up its nine eyes.
"There are enemies closing in on the base." Zetsu informed.
"Enemies?" Deidara asked opening his eyes back up looking at Zetsu. "You mean like Orochimaru?"
"And they seem to be fairly powerful. One of them is called Might Guy."
"Who's that?" Pein asked.
"A skilled Konoha jounin who uses taijutsu. Don't take him lightly." Itachi answered.
"Ah, that wild animal again, eh?" Kisame began. "We'll use that jutsu." Pein looked around at everyone.
"All right, then let me go." Hidan said. "I've had a h*** of a time finding my Jinchuriki and it's starting to p*** me off."
"No, I'll go." Kisame demanded. "I've got a bit of a score to settle with him."
"That's fine." Pein said accepting Kisame's terms. "The jutsu suits you better anyway, considering you have the greatest amount of chakra in Akatsuki, Kisame."
"Indeed." Kisame laughed.
"Even so, I'll need about thirty percent of your chakra."
"My, my. It looks like I can finally get even with him for kicking me." Kisame thought remembering the past.
"There are more coming." Zetsu said stopping Kisame's thought.
"It's been a bit crazier this time around, Deidara." Pein said looking in his direction. Deidara choked on his words.
"Well, this Jinchuriki was stronger than the other two, un." He finally said.
"I tried to tell you, your jutsu's aren't good for stealth missions." Sasori mocked again but Deidara laughed.
"Hah, call me crazy, but I remember your traps being pretty excessive, too, master, hm." Deidara scoffed at Sasori as he began to grow angry.
"What did you say?" Sasori asked while building up anger.
"Shut up, the both of you." Pein interrupted. "Just focus on the jutsu so we can get this over with. Who else is going?"
"Can I go this time?" Hidan asked.
"It's more Konoha shinobi." Zetsu said. Itachi looked over at Hidan with his red sharringan eyes. Pein squinted his eyes together slightly.
"It's decided, then." Pein said. The statue's nine eyes were fully open and only two of them actually had pupils and irises until Gaara was fully drained of his Jinchuriki then the statue began to grow another pupil as they were about to do their final stage. "We're about to enter the final stage." This was it, they were almost done taking Gaara's Jinchuriki then they would be off finding other Jinchuriki so that they could continue with this process.
"What should we do about those annoying flies?" Kisame asked smirking.
"They were faster than I thought." Zetsu examined.
"Not a problem. We've delayed them enough." Pein said. "That, and we have a back-up plan."
"Meaning the two of us will have to finish them off, yeah." Deidara asked.
"That's right." Pein said. Deidara sighed since his mission would never be over.
"Let's hurry and get this done, Deidara. We've got some guests on the way. And we've got to make sure we're ready for them." Sasori said.
"That's right. We need to prepare a good welcome. I'll go tell Tobi to watch Naiya until I get this over with, hm?" Everyone closed their eyes as it went silent for a while but then Kisame broke it.
"They're rather annoying, aren't they."
"Man, we haven't even found our Jinchuriki yet." Hidan laughed annoyed.
"Settle down. We'll complete our mission soon enough." Kakuzu said closing his eyes and focusing his chakra even more.
"Enough with the idle chatter, focus!" Pein said impatiently. As soon as the statue gained it's pupil, the chakra flow stopped because they were finally finished after three days of steady chakra flow. "It's finished." The statue had now three full eyes. After they stopped their jutsu, all of the Jinchuriki had left Gaara's body causing him to die and everyone just stared at his corpse.
"Whew." Sasori finally said.
"It ended up taking three days and three nights, un."
"It's exhausting every time we do it, isn't it?" Kisame asked not really exhausted since he had plenty chakra to spare.
"Seriously, that took forever." Hidan said cracking the kink out of his neck.
"Good job, everyone." Pein said then he looked down at Gaara's carcass. "It's gotten noisy outside, hasn't it?"
"It seems that they've made it here." Kisame smirked.
"Which group, hm?"
"Was it the one that master Kisame was holding up? Or is it..." Deidara wondered.
"It's both of them." Zetsu said opening his fly trap from around his head.
"So they both made it here at the same time. However..." Pein said then he stopped and looked at Gaara's corpse again. "It's unfortunate. They're a bit too late."
"There's one more Jinchuriki here, right?" Sasori asked then laughed violently then he turned to Itachi. "Don't think poorly of me, Itachi." Itachi said nothing.
"So then, it's about time we go. It's getting a bit noisy outside, after all. And we have to finish our work up here, too." Pein ordered.
"Exactly." Zetsu said. "What are we doing about those guys outside?"
"Well, we don't even know if they can make it inside or not." Kisame calculated.
"Don't underestimate them." Itachi cut in. "You should know that." Kisame just laughed.
"Well. I'll acknowledge their brute strength." Kisame roared with laughter.
"Sasori! Deidara!" Pein finally said.
"Hm?" Deidara groaned while turning to the leader.
"Take care of the guys outside."
"Yup, so that's how it's going to be after all, hmph." Deidara smiled then he glared at Pein knowing that he was trying to aggravate him. Pein watched Deidara's reaction.
"But take the Jinchuriki alive."
"I know." Sasori said.
"The rest are dismissed."
"Let's go!" Kakuzu said to Hidan then the two's holograms vanished.
"Well then, we'll go too." Kisame said waiting for Itachi but Sasori stopped him.
"Itachi, just what type of person is this Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tails?" Sasori asked waiting for an answer but Itachi said nothing, instead he looked back at Sasori with dark eyes. Sasori glared back. Finally Pein broke the silence.
"Tell him." Pein vanished. Itachi smiled.
"He's the one who screams and charges first." Itachi said when Pein was gone.
"What the heck?" Sasori said confused.
"Couldn't you be a little more specific, un?" Deidara asked but Itachi and Zetsu vanished before answering. Deidara scowled at the ground then laughed. "Oh my."
"So that's that." Kisame finally said then followed Itachi. Sasori just cursed Itachi.
"Deidara, go and properly prepare yourself. I don't want you to take so long this time." Sasori scorned Deidara.
"Fine." Deidara unwillingly nodded.