Kitty-chan: Woohoo! Chapter 13. My favorite number. And now that I think about it. I have a lot of chapters posted for this story. It's my longest one so far. Well, I hope you guys like it.

Zetsu: Kitty-chan does not own Naruto.

OHSE Chapter 13

Temari woke up suddenly. Someone had been shaking her, trying to pull her out of however deep a sleep she had been in. She looked irritably into the now dark blue eyes of Deidara who looked disheveled and worn.

"What?" Temari grumbled groggily, sitting up on her bed, and gradually pulling herself off in case they had to leave.

"Kisame has the target cornered, hmm," Deidara whispered immediately and Temari was alert.

"Good," Temari replied, and to her surprise, it wasn't a ground out response like she normally would have had. She was responding as if this were a real mission assigned by the Kazekage at her village.

This epitome froze Temari in her place as they were heading out, and Deidara stopped to look back at her and scowled.

"You're not chickening out now are you, un?" he taunted almost maliciously.

Temari could see why he sounded so angry: he was tired, his chakra levels were still low, and now he was facing the Kyuubi—one of the most powerful beasts in their world. Her realization almost brought her back to her old self, the one who yelled and cursed Deidara's name every chance she got, but she had to keep her disguise and it slipped easily back into place.

"Sorry, just blanked for a second there. I might take you up on your offer to keeping Tobi from training me before missions though," Temari responded a little too easily.

Inside, she wasn't liking how friendly she had gotten with the terrorist who had almost succeeding in both destroying her village and aiding in killing both of her brothers.

Anger swelled up in her all at once, and it took all of her efforts to move forward without raising suspicion.

It took her a few milliseconds to regain her composure and then she was walking at a steady brisk pace next to Deidara. He handed her pack over and they walked out of the small inn. He had apparently already checked them out.

"Where is our mark?" she finally asked after a few moments of silence. They were walking in the opposite direction of the village gates, so she guessed Deidara was planning for them to sneak out.

"He's heading for our only known base. Kisame thinks that the brat still thinks we kidnapped Sakura and he's trying to rescue her. The guy's an idiot though if he just realized last night that he was heading in the wrong direction—that is if our base was his target, hmm," Deidara answered.

"Will the others be anticipating his arrival there? I know that when Leader heard that the jinchuriki was on the move, he had everyone transfer to that base," Temari questioned, not really feigning interest, and congratulating herself on how well she was hiding her concern for the blond shinobi they were tracking.

"Yeah, hmm. Are you worried about the jinchuriki, hmm?" he asked skeptically. Okay, so maybe she hadn't hid her concern that well. Temari turned her head away. She didn't want to answer that question.

"It's okay, un," he finally spoke up after a long silence. "We were given two days to get to the base. It'll take at least that long for the jinchuriki to reach to base, hmm," he added after another pause.

Temari looked over at him, confusion warring on her insides until she saw the look in his eyes. His face was stone cold, showing only business, but his eyes told her that he was giving her two days to decide. Temari nodded in understanding.

'Maybe he's not as bad as he seems . . .' she squashed the thought before it could mess up her way of thinking. There was no way she was going to let herself think that this guy—the guy who nearly killed her brothers and destroyed her village—actually had a kind heart. No way at all.

'I mean, he's an Akatsuki for Kami's sake. I can't go around thinking that he could be good. That's treason. I can't go around thinking any of them are good,' she forced into her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried to push away the good thoughts she had for the members in Akatsuki, some of them refused to leave.

Itachi had been kinder than she had thought a man who killed his entire clan would be. Tobi was hyperactive but fun to be around when she was bored; he was almost like a child to her. Kisame was hilarious and joked on just about everything. Zetsu was nicer than she had expected, and at least he had quit threatening to eat her, so maybe he was starting to think better of her. Pein and Konan were still a mystery, though both of them were always nice to her, and never unnecessarily mean. Kakuzu didn't really talk to her that much, but when she felt like testing her mental skills he was always around to play a game of chess with her when Itachi wasn't around. Sasori and Sakura were never around, so she didn't know what to think about them.

And Deidara. He was just Deidara. There was a unique quality about him that made him different from the rest. He was really smart, and he always made sure people were aware of his thoughts about serious subjects. He was nice enough to let her watch when he was sculpting or drawing, and he even listened to her whenever she needed someone to talk to. Not like she did that very often, but it was nice to have someone around to listen when she was feeling low.

In a way she had a feeling he understood what she was going through, and that's why he offered to let her go if she wanted.

"If I were to decide that I didn't want to do this anymore . . . what would you say to the others?" Temari asked, not looking at him.

"I'd go with you, hmm," he answered immediately. Temari looked up at him in shock. She hesitated on her next question.

"And . . . And if I were to tell you I was a spy?" she asked. She didn't know why she was telling him all this. He was the enemy. She tensed, ready for him to attack if he had a negative opinion about her status.

"Then I guess I couldn't go with you. I'm not sure I would be welcome in Suna, hmm," he answered nonchalantly. Temari blanked. He was really this relaxed about this?

"Y-You wouldn't try to stop me? Or kill me?" she questioned.

"No, un," he replied.

"Why?" she couldn't stop herself from blurting the word, but on the other hand, she was curious as to why he would let her go without a fight if they were once again enemies.

Deidara was silent for a while as she waited for him to answer.

"Because . . . I guess I find you interesting, hmm," he finally replied, looking over at her, and there was a certain gleam in his eyes that told her that those words meant more than he was letting on.

She was speechless. She didn't know what to think, and she feared that the longer she stayed near him, the less confusing the feeling those words brought her would be. She didn't want those feelings to be less confusing because she liked not knowing what Deidara meant to her. She liked feeling cold toward him because that meant that killing him would be easy. That meant that this mission would be over soon.

But of course things just had to be difficult.

Kitty-chan: Well I hope you guys liked the chapter, and as a reward for being so good to me I give you *drum roll please* another chapter! Yay! Thanks for being awesome guys, and please review.