Chapter 21: Encounter with the Akatsuki

"So can you all see the cave?" Yumi asked as the four of them waited up in a tree a short distance away from the cave she had visited earlier. The three genin nodded, starting to show their nerves for the first time. They were actually worried. She frowned, wondering once again why Tsunade would have sent this particular team on a B-rank mission, even if it was really on a C-rank like she suspected it was.

"Are you sure there are people in there?" Konohamaru asked, getting impatient. It was a bad mix, impatience and nervousness. He was going to be reckless like Naruto, that was for sure.

"Yes I'm sure. Have a little faith in my skills yeah?" He looked sceptical but fell silent once more, allowing Yumi to return her focus to tracking the people inside. There were three people moving around, so there were about 3 bandits, although whether that was all of them or some were out at the moment she didn't know. Still, three against four was pretty good odds.

"Hey, you three go and hide behind that rock." She said, pointing to a massive boulder just outside the entrance to the cave. "I'll create a distraction, keep them occupied, while you check out the cave. If you find them then get them out, you know the drill."

"Will you be alright on your own?" Moegi looked even more nervous than Konohamaru. Yumi smiled reassuringly at the girl.

"I'll be fine. I may not look it, but I'm a jounin." That was technically true. She wasn't about to tell them she was ANBU. Team Ebisu had a short silent conversation before doing what she told them. When they were in position she jumped from the tree and walked up to the entrance. Reaching into her leg pouch she pulled out a kunai and attached a paper bomb to it before holding it behind her back. Taking a deep breath she cupped her mouth with one hand.

"Holy crap that tree's on fire!" She shouted at the top of her voice, throwing the kunai behind her at the base of a tree and flinching when it exploded, making a burnt hole. The footsteps came closer, followed by voices, and she danced back out of the way, jumping up into the tree.

"What the hell was that?" Someone demanded, coming out into the open and looking around. He was soon followed by two other men and Yumi signalled for the genin to head inside.

"Nothing's on fire." One of them pointed out.

"Yeah, but what the hell happened to that tree?" The third one asked, pointing to the smoking hole. The three of them walked over to it and Yumi jumped down, landing silently behind them.

"This is just too easy." She muttered to herself. "Definitely C-rank." Making some hand signs she held her hands out in front of her.

"Sublime snake hands." She whispered, smirking as the snakes shot out and wrapped themselves around the bandits. They freaked out, struggling and squirming, begging for mercy. They really were just gutless men, not an ounce of bravery in them. As they struggled against the snakes Yumi reached into her bag and pulled out a length of wire. One of them had passed out, he was probably afraid of snakes. She tied them up, making sure it was tight and secure before dispelling her jutsu and getting rid of the snakes.

"Did you guys find anything?" She called towards the cave, keeping one eye on the men while she sat down on the ground. She sensed someone coming closer and waited.

"We found them, but it's sort of complicated." Moegi explained as she stood beside Yumi. Yumi groaned, it had been going so well.

"Fine, I'll go have a look, but that means you have to keep watch on them. Can you do that Moegi?" The younger girl looked at the men and nodded. That sorted Yumi ran inside after Konohamaru and Udon. What she found was far from what she had expected.

"Yumi!"

"What? Konohamaru, what happened to the bridge?" She called back, glancing over the edge of the crevice and seeing the remains of shoddy bridge. The cave was more elaborate than she would have thought, but that didn't matter for now.

"Well, it broke."

"I can see that! Where's Udon?" Konohamaru peered over the edge.

"He was on the bridge when it broke."

"Yay." Yumi muttered sarcastically. She altered one of her wood style ninjutsu in order to create a temporary bridge for Konohamaru and the rest of them to cross. "You get them outside and stay with Moegi, I'll go and look for Udon, you got that?" He nodded once, ushering the people they had found across the bridge first before following them.

"You better find him!" Konohamaru yelled before running outside. Yumi ground her teeth together, sending chakra to her feet in preparation for scaling the side of the crevice. It was dark at the bottom; she could barely make out different shades of black. She could sense Udon's presence, but it was a small distance away and she didn't want to leave the wall for fear of getting lost herself. Solution? Wood clone. Leaning her back against the wall of the crevice she sped through the hand signs required for her wood clones.

"Go and retrieve Udon." She instructed, sending the clone in the direction she could sense him in. She sank to a sitting position on the ground, keeping her back against the wall as she clenched her pendant in her hand. Closing her eyes against the fluctuating shades of black she concentrated her mind on guiding her clone. It wasn't long before she heard a cry of shock and received a confirmation from the clone that Udon had been found. Letting out a long breath she waited as the two of them found their way back to her.

"Hey… Please put me down." Udon mumbled, alerting Yumi to his proximity. She had the clone set him down right in front of her before dispelling it. Opening her eyes she reached out, gently resting her hand on the young boy's shoulder.

"Who's there?" He asked, fear leaking into his voice.

"Relax, it's just me." She tried to talk soothingly, but that wasn't something she was good at doing.

"Oh." She climbed to her feet, keeping one hand on Udon's shoulder and one hand on the wall.

"Tell me, how good is your chakra control?" She asked seriously, trying hopelessly to actually see the person standing in front of her.

"Umm…" She sighed, turning around. It was her job to protect them, so she had to make sure he got back to the village safely.

"This is going to be a bit awkward, but I need you to get on my back. That's the only way I'll be able to get you back up to the top of the crevice." She bent her knees, crouching down with one hand resting against the wall for guidance.

"Okay…" She felt a weight on her back and she waited until he settled himself, feeling him wrap his arms tentatively around her neck.

"Whatever you do, don't let go." She warned before channelling chakra to her hands and feet for the climb. If she didn't have to carry him then she would have walked back up, but this time she would have to climb. It was slow going, with Yumi checking her footing constantly to make sure that she wouldn't slip. If she scared Udon he would probably let go, and keeping that in mind she pulled the two of them up, finally reaching the top and collapsing on the flat ground of the cave.

"Okay, NOW you can get off." She panted, breathing a sigh of relief when she felt his weight leave. Yumi lay on the ground for a minute, letting her chakra stabilise and her energy return. She could at least see properly now, which was a relief on her eyes which had struggled to cope with the intense darkness.

"That's enough lazing around." She told herself, getting to her feet and glancing at Udon, vaguely surprised to see that he hadn't run off yet. Motioning to him to follow she walked off towards the entrance of the cave. When the two of them stepped outside they were tackled by Konohamaru. Yumi managed to sidestep it, leaving Udon to deal with the over excitable boy.

"What do we do now?" Moegi asked cautiously, eying the men tied up at the base of the tree.

"Huh, that's a good point." Yumi murmured as she walked over to kneel in front of the two young boys they had rescued. "The mission details only involved the rescue and not the capture of those responsible… What do you guys think? If need be I can just drag them to the village and let them handle the punishment."

"Well we can't just leave them here." Konohamaru said pointedly, dragging Udon over to join the group.

"You have a point." She straightened up, doing the all too familiar hand signs before creating another wood clone. "Let's take them with us then." She handed the bandits into the care of her clone before facing the rest of the group.

"Where is the village?"

"Uhh…" Yumi took her bag off her back, placing it at her feet as she rummaged around in it. Seeing the looks on the faces of the boys they had rescued she gave them some food from her emergency rations before finally pulling out a map and spreading it out on the ground in front of her.

"Let's see… The Land of Fire is there… That's the bridge… Then we went this way…" She dragged her finger across the map, picturing their journey in her head. "So we should be about here." She tapped the map twice before hovering over it.

"We're lost aren't we?"

"No we are not!" Yumi climbed to her feet. "The village is that way." She pointed past the cave. "We just have to find the road and then it'll be easy going." She rolled the map up and put it back in her bag, moving her katana so that it was strapped around her waist instead of across her back.

"Are we going home now?" One of the boys asked hesitantly from where he was sitting on the ground. Yumi nodded, smiling, as she held out a hand to him.

"Are you good to walk, or do you want me to carry you?" She asked, keeping her voice light and friendly. The boy was quiet as he took her hand and pulled himself to his feet. He stumbled, a look of pain crossing his face. Yumi sighed, steadying him with one hand.

"Alright, that decides it. Get on my back, I'll carry you." The boy seemed a bit embarrassed, but complied anyway. She gave her bag to her clone to carry before making sure that he was safe on her back. "What's your name anyway kid?"

"Natsuno."

"Alright Natsuno, I'm Yumi, nice to meet you." Motioning with her head she got everyone sorted, watching closely as her clone grabbed the end of the wire tying the men together, threatening to actually drag them if they wouldn't walk. With that sorted the group headed off in the direction of the town, hoping to find the road quickly to ensure they were going the right way.

It didn't take long for them to find the road, which they took to walking down. The genin needed a break from the trees and the other boy, Kazushi, wouldn't have coped with that in the first place. Yumi helped her clone keep an eye on the bandits while at the same time looking after Natsuno. They didn't talk, but the rest were particularly talkative. She would have scolded them and said that they were giving away their position to the enemy, but she had forced them to be silent for the last day and they deserved a chance to talk. Honestly she never would have guessed that she would take pity on kids like them, but even if only for today she decided to be nice to them.

They had been walking for a little over an hour when Yumi heard someone in the trees. Spinning she launched a kunai in the direction of the noise, tensing when she heard a clash of metal and saw the kunai fall uselessly to the ground. The genin froze before making a circle around Kazushi.

"Who's there?" She demanded, watching the trees. There was a rustle of leaves before a cloaked figure dropped to the ground in front of her. They had long blonde hair, half of it tied back while half of it hung over the left side of their face. The figure appeared to be rather feminine, but even so it was definitely a guy. The cloak immediately sparked recognition in her mind, but she stood firm, carefully lowering Natsuno to the ground and signing for Konohamaru and Udon to help him. The blonde watched her almost curiously, but for the most part she pretended that she wasn't paying attention.

"You guys keep going. Make sure you get Natsuno and Kazushi back to the village." She instructed, straightening up and hanging her hand next to her leg pouch, trying to act laid back.

"Is it someone you know?" Konohamaru wondered, looking between the two older teenagers.

"Something like that." She muttered in response, making shooing motions with her hand and staring pointedly at them until they left. Once they were out of sight she turned back to the blonde who was surprisingly still there, seemingly waiting for an explanation.

"So…" She began, resting a hand on the hilt of her short sword. "I hear Sasori no Akasuna is dead." The blonde stiffened at the mention of the name and she knew that she had hit a nerve. "My father was almost sad when he heard the news. Almost."

"Who are you?" He demanded, one hand inside one of the pouches at his waist.

"Hey now, don't be so hasty. We can make this work for both of us. You tell me your name and I'll tell you mine. You answer my question I'll answer yours. Deal?"

"That depends what you want to know, un." Yumi just stared at him, eyes completely emotionless yet at the same time earnest, showing that she had no intent to deceive him. "Deidara." He said finally, a tinge of irritation showing in his voice.

"Deidara huh?" Just as she had thought, the name didn't ring any bells. "I'm Yumi. I would say that it's nice to meet you, but that wouldn't really be appropriate considering the situation."

"What do you want anyway, un?" He asked, hand still resting in that pouch so she couldn't tell what he was doing. That wasn't important though.

"Itachi, is he still partnered with that blue guy, Kisame?" His blue eye widened at the mention of the names.

"Yes, what's it to you, un?"

"Is that your question?" He was silent before shaking his head. It was a pointless thing to ask, it wasn't like he really cared.

"You have two headbands, un. How'd you manage to get accepted in another village?" Yumi smiled slightly, the smile not reaching her eyes. Of course he asked about that, everyone asked about it in one way or another.

"I have information and skill, what better way to be accepted? The hokage still doesn't really trust me, at least I don't think she does, but as long as I'm willing to give her information on my father then I'm welcome there."

"Your father, un?" Yumi shook her head.

"Oh no you don't, that was one question. My turn again. Show me your hands; I want to know what's so special about that pouch." Deidara stared at her. He didn't want to, but he was curious as to who her father was that information on him would be in such high demand.

"Fine, un." He pulled his hand from his pocket and held them both towards her, palms facing her. Yumi's eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sight of the mouths on his hands but otherwise she showed no sign of any emotion. It actually piqued her interest a bit, but she didn't want to ask too many questions in case he got annoyed and decided to attack her instead.

"That's… different." She admitted, watching his hands with interest. "Your turn again."

"Who is your father, un?" Yumi sighed, she had only half been expecting that particular line of questioning.

"Orochimaru, the previous partner of one Sasori no Akasuna." Deidara tensed again at the mention of Sasori, so Yumi was almost certain that he had been the puppet master's partner at the time of his death.

"Why did you choose to go to another hidden village, un? If you had been a missing nin for a while you probably would have been picked up by the Akatsuki eventually."

"Was that another question I just heard? Greedy." She laughed, shocking the blonde shinobi. "Even so I'll answer that one for free. It wasn't a conscious choice, not really. I didn't choose to go to the village, but once I was there it was really either join them or be killed for my previous crimes against them."

"You're strange, un."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." She glanced up, noting the sun had moved a bit and her team was probably getting worried again. "I should get going. Also, I don't care if you tell Leader-sama about this talk. It doesn't bother me if you tell him or not." With that as her farewell she turned, sprinting down the road towards the village where she had sent the others.

A/N: Soo... She wanted information and that's what she got, but why ask such seemingly pointless questions?

Thanks for the reviews everyone, next chapter will be up as soon as I get around to writing it, which should hopefully be sooner rather than later.