A/N- Sorry! I've been back for three weeks but I've put writing on the backburner for a bit. Who knew that being a senior in college would mean a lot of work hehe. –Phoenix

Sakura fidgeted eagerly while Katsu let the iron claws out of his gloves with a hungry fox grin showing his teeth. They were not even twenty feet from two Akatsuki members; they were right within their grasp.

Two more will die today, Sakura thought coldly. "Kakashi, Naruto," she said out loud. "Get out of here so Katsu and I don't catch you in the crossfire."

The blond turned his glare from the Akatsuki to Sakura. "I can't leave you, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura was saved from snapping at Naruto by Kakashi. "Sakura is more than capable of protecting herself Naruto," the Copy Ninja said simply. "Not to mention that she has Katsu as well. She's not a Chuunin for nothing."

Naruto looked like he wanted to object some more, but he sighed and gave Sakura a caring smile. "I'll never stop worrying about you Sakura-chan. Please be safe."

"You too Naruto," Sakura whispered.

The two shared their glance for another moment before Naruto and Kakashi took off in the trees with Naruto shouting, "come on crap artist!" over his shoulder, thus promptly assuring that Deidara followed them with a vengeance.

Once they were gone, Sakura and Katsu faced Sasori with hungry fox-like grins on their faces. The former Sand Ninja observed them with an indifferent look in his eyes.

"So," Sasori began. "You are the ones who killed Itachi and caused that heart clot in Kisame. You two are quite the threat, one that will need to be neutralized."

Before he was finished talking, a long, sharp object sprang up from behind him towards Sakura and Katsu at alarming speed. They both nimbly dodged it and landed in the trees.

"That was his tail?" Katsu gaped in amazement. "That's so cool! I wish I could do that!"

Sakura chuckled lightly. "Of course you would envy the object that's trying to kill us."

Sasori looked up at them with his cold, calculating eyes. "You make jokes even when your lives are about to be lost," he stated.

Katsu casually scratched his ear with his back paw. "Only one life will be lost in our battle. Sakura and I are just too damn stubborn to die before we've completed our mission."

Sakura gripped her tessen even tighter. "If there's one thing that I hate, it's failing."

The Akatsuki member struck out with his tail, aiming for Sakura. Instead of dodging the tail, Sakura parried the attack off with her tessen and swung out with it before Sasori could retract it. He scowled when the point of his tail was severed and fell harmlessly to the ground.

"Try to poison us with something else," Sakura said while she had Katsu gently blow fire on her tessen to neutralize the poison.

Sasori looked at them with calculating eyes for a moment before he nodded. "I can see that I will need more movement with you two. You aren't the Tamer for nothing."

Before Sakura and Katsu could respond, Sasori tore his cloak with his tail to reveal him standing on both his arms and legs. With his arm he tore the cloth off his face and the robe off his back. Sakura raised an eyebrow in interest when she saw that there was a good reason why Sasori smelled of wood.

"You're a puppet," she stated in interest. "Not a lifeless puppet that Sand Ninja control with the Puppet Technique, but an actual puppet. Is this a form of the Puppet Technique?"

"Why would I tell you that?" Sasori asked while he began sporting four wooden containers out of his sides.

Sakura shrugged and brought up her tessen defensively. "I like to know what techniques are being used to try to kill me. Doesn't' matter if you answer, I'll figure it out eventually."

Without responding, Sasori launched the wooden containers. The four containers propelled themselves forward into trees before climbing them into the air. Once the containers were in the air, they opened and Sakura and Katsu found themselves the targets of thousands of small needles that were literally dripping with poison.

"Crap," Katsu groaned. "We won't be able to dodge all of them."

Sakura nodded grimly. "Down it is."

Nimbly, they jumped down to the ground. Before their feet even touched, Sakura was running through hand signs. Once their feet connected with the ground she called, "Dotom: Doryuu Heki no jutsu!"

Groaning inwardly at the terrible taste, Sakura opened her mouth and spewed out mud. Using extra chakra, she made it harden even quicker than it usually would. Before the poisoned needles made contact, Sakura leaned back while using her technique. In the brief moment that it took Sakura to use the technique, she had formed a shell of mud that surrounded her and Katsu right when the needles impacted.

Once there were no more needles falling, Sakura dispelled her technique and put her fingers to her mouth. Katsu stood at her back and took in a deep breath.

"Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu!" they both cried.

Wide streams of fire came from their lips, Katsu's considerably stronger than Sakura's, and swept the fire along the ground. When the fire made contact with the needles, the poison began to neutralize and the needles began to melt.

Sasori watched in interest while his opponents destroyed the poisonous field. It took quite the bit of chakra control to effectively neutralize his deadly poison.

When the field was safe, Sakura and Katsu stopped their jutsu and began running forward. They stopped charging when they were ten feet of the living puppet and began attacking.

Sakura threw a handful of shuriken which Katsu combined with his flame. When Sasori blocked them with his tail, the wood began to catch fire.

"Impossible," Sasori said in surprise before the fire engulfed him whole.

Standing back, Sakura and Katsu smirked triumphantly. Even though it had taken extra chakra on Katsu's part, they managed to force the puppet to catch on fire. Their grins quickly turned into scowls when they sensed a chakra shift. Before they knew what happened, Katsu was howling in agony as a sword sliced across his back.

"Katsu!" Sakura cried in fear.

Her beloved partner shuddered and crashed to the ground. Sakura's eyes narrowed in fury as she parried the attacking sword with her tessen. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure moving his hands in obvious Puppet Technique movements.

After knocking the blade back again, Sakura dug her hand into her pocket and quickly drew a piece of paper out. When the sword came back in to finish her off, she hastily put the paper on her tessen and cut right behind the sword. The sword fell to the ground harmlessly.

Once the sword was no longer attacking her, Sakura ran back to Katsu's side and did a quick diagnostic. The sword hadn't cut too deep, but he was still losing a lot of blood. But, what made Sakura's stomach drop was the fact that the blade was poisoned…and now so was Katsu.

"Damnit," Sakura cursed. She made quick work healing the damaged muscle and tissue, but she couldn't burn out the poison that had entered Katsu's bloodstream. "Katsu," she whispered urgently. "I can't burn out the poison. You're going to have to navigate your chakra through your own body to destroy the poison. I'll hold Sasori off."

Katsu weakly lifted his head. "I'm sorry Sakura," he said sadly.

Sakura kissed Katsu's forehead lovingly before stepping in front of him. "You never have to apologize," she said back. "But, I will be royally pissed off if you die on me now."

Katsu barked in laughter and began focusing his fiery chakra through his bloodstream in order to burn out the poison before it started damaging his organs.

While Katsu focused on his wound, Sakura glared at her opponent. Sasori had taken on a completely new appearance. Instead of looking like a crouched over piece of wood, he now looked more human. While he was still a living puppet, he had a human body and red hair. His limbs were obviously detachable and he had something that slightly stuck out of his chest that had something written on it. Where his stomach would be, was a large metal coil and coming out of his back were large, deadly looking blades.

"I haven't used myself in battle in many years," Sasori remarked dryly. "That paper seal that you put on your fan, it disrupts chakra strings, doesn't it?"

Sakura looked at the faded paper on her tessen and nodded. "I have more. By putting one on my tessen, I can cut right through your chakra strings."

Sasori frowned and opened a small door on the right side of his chest. Inside Sakura could see hundreds of chakra strings.

"Let's see if you can cut through all the chakra strings that took down a country."

Naruto was torn between the need to defeat Deidara and the need to watch Sakura's back. Even though he knew her skills were amazing, old habits were hard to break.

They ran through the forest dodging the small spiders that Deidara kept creating. Kakashi had said that they would need a wide berth from Sakura's battle, and therefore they would lead Deidara as far away as possible. This was becoming tricky however, seeing as the spiders that Deidara kept creating exploded.

After dodging deadly, exploding spiders for fifteen minutes, Kakashi signaled for him to stop. They spun around and dodged the most recent attacking spiders. The spiders bounced off the closest trees and were about to make contact when Naruto drew a handful of shuriken.

"Futon: Kaiten Shuriken!" he called as he threw them. The shuriken began spinning even faster and became sharper with the wind that Naruto spun around them. The wind shuriken made contact with the attacking spiders, causing them to explode before they could hit them.

Deidara scowled as his beautiful spiders were destroyed by ugly shuriken. "Everyone's a critic," he grumbled as he dug both hands into his bag of clay.

While Deidara was forming his art, Naruto raced forward and began to engage the blonde Akatsuki in close combat. Even though he wasn't using his hands, Deidara was impressive with his taijutsu.

Naruto did a roundhouse kick, aiming for Deidara's head, but Deidara simply ducked and kicked Naruto back with a swift kick to the gut. Naruto grunted as he was winded, but he quickly drew a kunai and threw it.

While Naruto kept Deidara occupied, Kakashi was forming a hand sign and focusing chakra into his eye. Even though it would be more beneficial for them to take Deidara back alive, he wasn't an Akatsuki member for nothing. Bringing him back alive would almost surely result in someone's injury.

Once Deidara was finished infusing his chakra into the clay, he crushed the clay in his hands and opened them again to reveal small birds. The birds took flight and were quickly surrounded by a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the birds were larger than Deidara. He jumped on one of the bird's backs and sent the others back in the direction of where they came from.

"I just thought that Sasori-sama would like to know that he's safely out of range," Deidara said with a smirk as the bird he was on took flight. "I'm sure that one of those birds will be useful by carrying the girl when we take her."

All of the color drained from Naruto's face. "Leave Sakura-chan out of this!"

Deidara smirked as he realized that he had struck a nerve. "That girl is of just as much use to use as you are jinchuuriki. In fact, at this point more so."

Kakashi glared at Deidara with his open eye. "What use is Sakura to the Akatsuki?"

"Ohh sorry, that's classified," Deidara said smugly.

Naruto panted savagely as his blood began pumping and his eyes started seeing red. The Akatsuki wanted Sakura too? Why? He vowed to find out from Sakura after he killed this creep.

After taking a calming breath, Naruto began putting his past three years of training to work. He channeled some of the Kyuubi's chakra into his muscles and joints, strengthening them. His nails grew longer as did his teeth. His senses grew stronger and his eyes turned red.

"You will never take her from me," Naruto growled.

With blinding speed, he dashed at Deidara. Deidara's eyes widened in surprise as he barely had time to climb higher just out of Naruto's reach. Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger as he leapt off of the closest tree branch into the air.

When he was in the air he faced his palms toward the ground. "Futon: Okuridashi no Kaze no jutsu!"

Using a short blast of air from his hands, he propelled himself forward much more quickly. Before Deidara could evade him, Naruto did a roundhouse kick and caught him on his face, forcing him off the bird.

Deidara cursed as he twisted and landed on another branch. He began processing more clay, putting in chakra in it than he usually would. He jumped out of Naruto's reach, back onto his bird and flew even higher into the sky.

On the ground, Naruto glared at the shrinking figure before whirling to face Kakashi. "Are you ready yet?" he demanded.

"Patience Naruto," Kakashi said softly. "It takes some ninja time to accumulate a lot of chakra for certain jutsu."

"That's not good enough!" Naruto snarled. "We never should have left Sakura-chan alone!"

Kakashi glared at Naruto. "Calm yourself, Naruto. Sakura isn't along, she's got Katsu. They worked together for three years, watching each other's backs. Katsu would never let them take Sakura while he was alive, and Sakura would never get taken without at least severely crippling her abductor. Have faith in her, Naruto."

Naruto shook his head despairingly before glaring at the sky. "Can I kill him now?"

"I would rather keep him alive…"

Before Kakashi could finish his sentence, Naruto was leaping into the air again, using his wind jutsu to propel himself once again within range. When he was within thirty feet of Deidara he took a weapon from his pouch and threw it. The kunai that he threw struck the belly of the bird, but it didn't do any damage.

Deidara was starting to laugh at the poor move when he noticed that there was suddenly a lot more weight on the bird. He looked down and furrowed his brow in surprise when he realized that Naruto was swiftly climbing, supposedly in the air, to his bird.

When Naruto was close enough, he grabbed onto the bird's foot with one hand. In his other hand was a glowing blue sphere. "Rasengan!" he shouted as he dug the sphere into the clay bird's gut, effectively destroying it.

Deidara cursed as his clay bird disintegrated right from under him. He tried to create another bird using the clay that he had been processing, but Naruto wouldn't give him an opening. Naruto held a kunai in his hand and he made a cutting motion. Thinking that Naruto was trying to slice him open, Deidara leaned back, only to have Naruto cut through the strap that was holding his clay to his hip.

"No," Deidara growled as he watched his clay fall to the ground. He twisted in midair and landed on a nearby branch. He saw that his clay had landed right by Kakashi, but he wouldn't be able to get it without creating an opening for attack.

He began creating his most explosive art yet with the clay that he still had, he would take these two out no matter what it took.

Before he could create it though, Kakashi opened his closed eye. "Kamui," was all he said.

Deidara's arrogant smirk turned into an expression of horror as his body began to be sucked into something. "What the hell is this?"

Kakashi continued to stare at Deidara with an impassive look. "You're being sucked into a dimensional rift that my Sharingan created. Enjoy the rest of your life outside of this world."

No matter how hard he struggled, more and more of Deidara's body was sucked into the rift. "You may be rid of me, but the girly will be gone too! Sasori-sama is much stronger than I am! You'll never see her again!"

It was fortunate for Deidara that he was completely sucked into Kakashi's Kamui at that point. If he hadn't, then Naruto would have completely destroyed him.

Once there was no remainder of Deidara, Naruto turned to Kakashi. "We have to get back to Sakura-chan, now."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. While Naruto sped off immediately, Kakashi picked up the bag of clay and frowned toward the direction where Deidara disappeared.

Something feels off, he thought. Any other time he would have stayed and investigated, but Sakura's safety was more important. Turning his back to where Deidara last stood, he sped off after Naruto.

Naruto had never moved so fast. He kept forcing the Kyuubi's chakra through his muscles, forcing them to work harder than they were accustomed to. There was at least ten miles between them and Sakura, and every second counted.

They had been running at that pace for ten minutes when Naruto caught a whiff of smoke. He pushed his legs even further and came crashing on a true battlefield.

There was debris everywhere, but most of it didn't come from the trees. Scattered across the battlefield were what looked like at least a hundred broken puppets. Some of the broken puppets had missing parts, but most of them were severely burned.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out in worry. "Sakura-chan, where are you!"

"I'm right here you baka," a tired voice replied.

Naruto and Kakashi turned their heads towards the source of the voice. Katsu suddenly emerged from underneath a large pile of broken puppets and pushed them aside easily. He was covered in cuts and he seemed a little wobbly on his feet, but otherwise he appeared fine. Acknowledging Naruto and Kakashi with a tired nod, he carefully bounded ten feet over and began pulling more broken puppets. When the puppets were pushed to the side, he knelt down. When he came back up he had an exhausted Sakura hanging on from around his neck. She looked at Naruto with a triumphant smirk as she held up a cylinder that had a kunai sticking through it.

"I won mine," she said softly.

Naruto whooped in glee and ran forward. He reached Sakura just in time for her to collapse in his arms, with a bloody stab wound on her side.

A/N- Review! -Phoenix