Part 2

Chapter 1

The guards positioned on Sunagakure's borders had their eyes focused on the horizon in front of them. The vast area of the desert that covered almost the entirety of the Land of Wind had a never changing scenery. Yet, they were ordered by their Captain to double the watch on the only entrance of the village and keep their eyes peeled for anyone wearing a black cloak with a red cloud pattern.

The wind carried sand in front of their eyes and the first thing that one guard picked up was a sound of a bell. It was resonating very clearly from the desert in front of him, still he couldn't see anyone.

A couple of minutes later the guard's eyes caught sight of two figures that were slowly approaching the village.

"What's that?" The guard narrowed his eyes, waiting for the sand to pass and reveal him two sets of black cloaks with red clouds on them. The faces of the two figures were hidden by their straw hats.

"Black cloaks and a red cloud pattern. Don't tell me, is that...? Contact Captain Yura immediately!" The man turned, seeing the Captain standing behind him already. "Captain Yura! Some guys from the organization in question have shown up."

"I know. You don't need to worry, it'll be over soon." In a blink of an eye, kunai slashed across the guard's neck. He looked at his Captain in shock as he fell on the ground, blood exiting his wound preventing him from speaking or calling for help. By the time the two figures made their way to the rock border of the village, every guard was slain in cold blood. The man who'd done it came down, droplets of blood on his face as the shorter of the two figures spoke: "Good work, Yura. Do you remember me?"

Yura knelt on the ground. "Of course I do, Sasori-sama!"

"It wouldn't be much of a jutsu if he didn't, un." The other one said.

"They become loyal subordinates after regaining their memory." Sasori said, marveling at his own jutsu. Yura showed them the way through Suna's natural rock defense, the narrow passageway littered with bodies of his fellow shinobi.

"Oi, Master Sasori." Sasori looked at the man next to him. "You were tasked with taking down the Kyuubi, haven't you?"

"What is it to you?"

"I'll trade you Ichibi for the Kyuubi, un."

"Hah, don't make me laugh, brat. What makes you think I have any interest in the Ichibi?"

"You know Suna's layout better than I do...and you are certainly more versed in quietly taking down anyone who poses as a Kazekage." Sasori moved his tail, aiming it at the figure next to him.

"Don't mock me, Deidara!" Deidara cracked a smile underneath his straw hat.

"I'm not mocking you, Sasori my man. I've only proposed you take down the Kazekage instead, un."

"You haven't brought enough clay, is that the case? Talk about your so-called art."

"Fine, then my art will be the one to take down the Kazekage." They exited the passageway and Deidara stepped in front, reaching for his clay pouch.

"Stop right there, brat." Sasori said and Deidara looked at him from the corner of his eye.

"I won't be schooled on art by a kid like you. I'll take down the Kazekage. If I leave it to you I'll only be kept waiting and I hate waiting." Deidara smirked and Sasori swung his tail at the blond artist, making him jump away in order to avoid the poisonous tail.

"I killed one Kazekage before, and this one cannot give me more of a fight than the last one."

"Except you mustn't kill this one, un." Sasori glared at Deidara.

"Make yourself useful and put some traps in place." Then he looked at the village in front of him, sunset on the horizon giving it a golden hue. It's certainly been a while since his last visit. The village hadn't changed significantly and he could still tell exactly which route to the Kazekage's building will be the fastest and the least guarded.

"Yura, make sure anyone who sees me doesn't live to tell the tale." Yura nodded and Sasori finally moved out. Deidara looked at the village's layout, its stone circular buildings reminding him of another village. It's been three years since he'd last seen it and even though he would have loved to go back only to destroy it and show a certain old geezer what he can do, he still didn't act on that wish of his.

He scooped up clay from his pouch, feeding it to the mouths on his palms. Sasori was wrong about one thing...well, maybe not just one. He did have enough clay and he could definitely take down the Kazekage. After all, his training to take down Itachi Uchiha made him develop his jutsu to never before seen masterpieces.

He knelt down, unleashing a swarm of clay spiders, ants, centipedes, scorpions, and mice on the ground. The critters went inside the walls of the passageway, burying themselves in cracks. He took some more clay, repeating the process.

He'll take down Itachi Uchiha eventually, but first...

Deidara's eyes glistened as he made some more of his clay animals, letting them distribute down the entire passageway. That ought to satisfy his partner.

It was well past sunset when Sasori returned, carrying the unconscious body of the redhead Kazekage with his tail.

"Oi, don't tell me you've killed him with your poison?" Deidara was sitting on the ground, his hands crossed and one of his hand-mouths busy chewing clay.

"I have multiple poisons. I don't usually use non-lethal ones yet the mission required it." Deidara stood up and the two went through the passage.

"Nothing brings me more joy than to see this village in such a state. This Kazekage surely must be the weakest one in Suna's history. He barely gave any resistance." Deidara looked behind them.

"Where's your subordinate, un?"

"Kazekage killed him." Deidara deadpanned.

"He was a good decoy so I made sure to repay his debt by killing one of Kazekage's men. The kid dared to attack me with the puppets I created so I put him back in his place."

"Then your infiltration wasn't successful if someone actually saw you."

"He's got my special poison in his blood, he won't be alive for much longer."

They stepped back into the desert surrounding the village. The temperatures now dropped and the wind slowed down. Deidara looked up at the night sky before throwing his clay bird in front of him. The bird enlarged once he made a seal, and Sasori let the clay bird's tail wrap around the unconscious Kazekage. The two men then continued on foot while the bird followed them, carrying their precious cargo.

They didn't come very far, however. They both heard the Kazekage letting out a groan before a confused: „What is this? Where...am I?" Deidara turned and saw the Kazekage kneeling on the sand, blinking at the two figures in front of him. His eyes widened as he looked around, calming down once he saw Suna was nearby.

"Hah, that's interesting." Sasori said while Deidara jumped on his clay bird, making his hand-mouths eat the clay from his pouch.

"It seems your poison wasn't very effective, my man!"

"If it were a poison he'd be dead. Merely a sedative, but it seems it had a different effect on a jinchuuriki." Kazekage stood up, raising himself up in the air with his sand.

"I am the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara of..." He put a hand on his forehead, wincing slightly. Deidara used that opportunity to send a couple of his clay birds at him. The sand protected Gaara from the explosion and he moved his hand, sending a sand arrow after Deidara who flew away from it on his bird.

Seeing that the bird was fast enough to evade his sand attack, Gaara used the sand around them to form a giant tail, resembling the tail of the Ichibi sealed inside him, propelling it after Deidara. He kept flying around, replying to the threat of the sand with the threat of his explosives.

"You say different effect, but to me it seems it had no effect, un." Deidara said, flying around Gaara and sending explosives to destroy the sand claws that were coming after him.

"There's no such thing as 'no effect', brat. If the sedative didn't attack his posterior hypothalamus it affected something else." Gaara didn't pay any attention to Sasori and he himself didn't look eager to jump in the fight and help Deidara. He kept rambling about some medical terms so Deidara ignored him, since he couldn't understand him.

Gaara making his sand into a shape of the jinchuuriki was real useful, especially since sand was all around them and he didn't have to weave any seals to move it. Deidara kept destroying it with his bombs but he couldn't get closer and the sand kept coming after him. He decided to try a faster type of projectile in a shape of birds with double wings. He sent two of those, their added speed enough to evade Gaara's sand. Before they could wound him though, he coated himself in a shell of sand. Deidara observed him, thinking how his shell acted like an egg shell, protecting what's inside.

"Oi, Kazekage!" Deidara tried to catch his attention, but in vain. Massive wave of sand closed in on him, effectively trapping him. Regardless of Gaara hiding himself in that shell of his, he could still see what was going on outside and move his sand accordingly. Deidara didn't think he could do that so the sand caught him off guard. It crushed his bird and he got out with a well-timed explosion but was now falling down. He made another bird and was just about to throw it and catch himself when the sand wrapped around his leg, pulling him back.

Deidara's eyes widened, seeing the sand doing something so similar to another jutsu he knew.

Shit!

The sand resembling the Ichibi opened its jaw to swallow him and he finally threw his bird in the air, jumping on the clay owl and flying away.

"A heads up would have been nice, Master Sasori!" He yelled at Sasori watching the fight from the ground.

"It's your fault, brat. If you'd taken care of Ichibi as planned you wouldn't be battling it right now." He glared at Sasori, thinking how his useless sedative was behind this mess. Then he shifted his eyes at Gaara, noticing his shell of sand had a hole on one side and the redhead's face was now visible. He had enough of sand chasing him around so he changed his strategy.

"Oi, Kazekage! I've planted bombs on the border of your precious village. I won't detonate them if you surrender to us, un." He didn't like the idea of alerting the village to their presence, but if doing so subdues the Kazekage and saves some more of his clay, he won't hesitate.

"My precious village...what was its name? I can't remember." Lines appeared on the red-head's forehead as he tried his hardest to remember the name of the village. The thoughts in his head were all blurry and unreadable, except one: 'protect the village'. That was the only one that resonated, the only one he understood and acted upon, so he fought with clarity despite the state he was in.

"Oh? Maybe it attacked his temporal lobes?" Sasori kept analyzing the effects of his sedative and Deidara rolled his eyes.

Gaara then turned to Deidara who was standing on his clay bird up in the air.

"My name is..." Gaara looked at his hand, not being able to recall it. He was losing control of his thoughts, so he forced himself not to think. He'll act towards the feeling of protecting his village.

"I won't let you do such a thing!" Sand grabbed Deidara's left hand, wrapping itself around it. Deidara narrowed his eyes, sending a clay centipede down the sand and trying to shake it off, to no avail.

"Sand coffin!" The sand crushed his left hand yet he used the opportunity to eat the sand with his hand-mouth, mixing it with chunks of his explosive clay and his Bakuton. Even though he was flying away from Gaara's sand most of the fight, he was testing him. Now he had a pretty good idea how his jutsu worked and just what were his abilities. The speed of the sand that he used for attacking wasn't consistent. Small portion of the sand was faster than the one he borrowed from the desert around them, and it was with that portion that he both protected himself and attacked at massive speed. Judging by the hole in the shell around him, that faster sand got his left arm.

Yes, he remembered now. Kazekage always carried a fix amount of sand with him and that amount must have been mixed with his chakra, making it faster. But if he's the Kazekage, he has a weakness just like any other kage.

Ignoring the pain of his now incapacitated arm, Deidara raised his right hand, deciding to use the village as a decoy after all.

"If you think I was lying about the bombs..." He smirked. "Katsu!"

Explosions rocked the border of Suna and even from afar they saw the smoke and the collapse it caused. Gaara's eyes widened as he turned to stare at the village. He thought his attacker couldn't possibly trigger an explosion with one of his hands crushed by his Sand Coffin. Now that Gaara stared at the collapsed border, fearing for the safety of his village, Deidara used that distraction just like he had planned. He sent another bird towards him, and the explosion would have gotten Gaara had not been for his sand moving to protect him yet again. The faster portion of the sand moved from Deidara's arm and closed the hole in the shell around Gaara. Deidara smirked, raising his hand. His explosive clay in the sand formed ants, making that convenient shell of his into a grave.

"I've got you now, un. Have a little taste of my art!" The explosions rocked the shell from the inside, getting Gaara at point blank. The shell cracked and soon dissipated, revealing unconscious Kazekage floating on a patch of sand. Deidara's clay bird caught him once again before he descended down to Sasori.

"We've wasted enough time, Sasori my man. I-" But Sasori got up on Deidara's bird without much persuasion needed.

"Your messy art probably woke up the entirety of the village. After I made sure to not be seen by anyone." Deidara's bird flew up and he rolled his eyes. It seems Sasori forgot he had a run in with a fellow puppeteer.

"My 'messy' art beat the Kazekage, unlike your sedative, un." He smirked.

"Don't push your luck, Deidara." Sasori looked at unconscious Gaara and the sand that kept breaking from him. "If the sedative really affected only his temporal lobes I'll need to change it a bit...Also, I like this one. His sand forms a very useful shield."

"Don't tell me you'll make him into one of your puppets as well."

"I'd have the previous Kazekage in my collection too, had not been for that slimy Orochimaru."

"Is that why you've sent your spy to him? In the end he only turned traitor and leaked information about us, un."

"Can't be helped. After we seal Ichibi I'll go and deal with him." He eyed the unconscious Gaara. "Or maybe I'll first make this one into art."

"Now, I respect your opinion Sasori my man, but those puppets of yours are hardly artistic."

"Are you trying to make me angry?" He growled.

"I'm only saying that true art lives in that single moment of sublimation, un." He smiled to himself.

"Your art is just a noise and a mess, brat. True art is eternal beauty that's undisturbed." Deidara sighed, having a deja vu of this conversation already happening.

"Do what you want with him. I have other business after we seal Ichibi."

"Going after the Kyuubi already?" Deidara glanced at him. "Maybe."

"What's your deal with the Kyuubi? You've bitten into it as if your name is Kisame Hoshigaki. Or worse, as if you're Hidan." Deidara's eye twitched.

"Don't lump me in the same pile as that idiot, un. There's no particular reason for me going after the Kyuubi."

"Hah, right..."

Meanwhile in Kumogakure

Sayomi's POV

"Aah! No, please-" The man kept yelling and I sighed, feeling my arm getting tired the longer I held him.

"I'll pull you up once you tell me everything you know about the Akatsuki." I repeated, crouching on the edge of a tall mountain in Kumogakure and holding a Kumo shinobi by its ankle, threatening to drop him to his death.

I usually had better methods of questioning people and acquiring information but I overheard guards talking about an imminent Akatsuki threat among themselves. I tried to find out more details about it but Kumo shinobi weren't the ones to dilly dally on their watch duty, so I improvised.

"I don't know anything about the Akatsuki." I rolled my eyes.

"Surely you know something."

"How do you know about it? Even our own Captain learned it from someone else." I narrowed my eyes, swinging him left to right as he dangled over the cliff.

"Aaah! Okay okay, please don't drop me down!"

"Start talking then!"

"Some guy-I don't know his name but he's a credible source, relayed the info about Akatsuki to our Defence Captain. We are to double the guards on the village borders because of this organisation called the Akatsuki. They wear black cloaks with a red cloud pattern."

"Did he tell you why are they a threat?"

"No, I don't know, I swear!" I had a feeling he wasn't lying since he was only a low-ranking guard. I raised my other hand in a seal and pulled my shadow over both of us, teleporting us to a roof of the restaurant near my inn. I dropped him from the roof I was now crouching on, leaving immediately and making my way to the main street. The guy kept screaming as if he was plummeting down a mountain before he realized he only fell from the roof.

"Huh, what? I'm alive!" I heard him as I entered the inn I was staying at. I was debating whether to leave the village or not since the guards were now doubled. In the end I decided it was too risky and that I'll just have to bide my time and wait and see what happens. Maybe Akatsuki appears in Kumo, and if not, I'll pay a visit to the Defence Captain to see if he knows why they became a threat all of a sudden.

It's been three years since I left Iwagakure and a little less than three years since I last saw Deidara. I haven't heard anything about him, but I did hear info here and there about the organisation he was drafted in.

The Akatsuki, with their signature black cloaks with red cloud pattern. In three years I had traveled from one Nation to the next, tracking any bit of information I could get my hands on. There were sightings of them, and I was probably the only one who knew four of its members. However, not even I was aware of what their objective was. It was clear to me that the moment I find out what that goal was I'd no longer have any problem tracking them. But so far I didn't have any luck with that.

Maybe Akatsuki shows up in these parts soon. Maybe the whole guard thing is just a precautionary measure. Whatever the outcome, I'll have to stay here a while longer to witness it.

Seriously, my life had become so troublesome.

Deidara, I wonder if it's the same for you.

I postponed new chapter for today because today is Deidara's birthday! Also, part 2 has begun - someone better play Hero's comeback.

Part 2 will mostly be me rewriting the canon to suit my story so there will be times where I'll just casually avoid some fights in order to not incriminate Deidara completely.

Also, Sayomi's new jutsu will be explained next week in new chapter so bear with it for a little bit. You'll learn what happened to them during those three years as we progress through the story.

Review pretty please and let me know what you think. Reviews make me more eager to write so I'll get down on planning part 2 immediately and therefore we won't have any more postponing.

And as always, thank you for reading. :)