~*~*~Black Ice~*~*~

Chapter 25

I watched as Kan fell to the ground.

Deidara sighed and stretched his arms out as he stood.

"So that's how this mission is turning. Great, I was just getting bored."

Kan's friends attacked a second later.

Deidara's hand reached into his clay pouch. Sasori's strings shot out as he tried to summon a puppet. Too late…

I felt my control slip again and I let loose. Chakra spikes shot from my hands and stabbed them each directly through the heart.

It felt good.

Deidara and Sasori both turned with shocked looks on their faces.

I smirked at them as the men fell.

"This happens a lot?" I ask.

Deidara just nodded, the look of shock slowly fading from his face. "They think they can beat us if they catch us off guard. We normally just go with the flow and take their bounty in afterwards."

I knelt down and searched through their pockets. "Think Kakuzu would mind turning them in? I need to do a little something here."

Deidara lifted up a hand and waved lazily as he walked out the door.

"I'll call him."

I jumped out the window and landed on the roof of a nearby shop.

I smirked… those foolish Konoha ninja were here for me… I reached down and grabbed a kunai.

No, wait! What am I doing?! I'm losing it again, I can't keep control! The chakra! It's taking over my mind!

My other hand gripped the one holding the kunai, trembling with fear.

"I can't… I won't do it!"

Deidara jumped on the roof behind me and pinned my arms to my chest.

"I knew you couldn't do it."

He sighed and the clay bird poofed into existence beside us.

"Sasori no Danna, it's time to go."

Sasori appeared on the bird and Deidara lifted me up.

The bird flapped its wings once and we soared high into the sky.

I saw Kotetsu and Izumo look up and see me.

Pain flickered through my chest at seeing their faces again, especially when their expressions contorted in horror.

I clawed at Deidara's hands, leaving scratches as I tried to escape and jump from the bird.

"Calm down. If I let you go, you'll lose it again." Deidara growled.

I relaxed and leaned on him in defeat.

Deidara sighed. "… Becoming more and more like 'her' everyday."

I flinched and he added, "It seems Itachi will have to go through with his treatment for you after all."

I sighed, trying to get myself under control. My chakra glowed on my hands, and the marks I'd made on Deidara's hands faded, the blood evaporating.

"Thanks for grabbing me back on the roof," I muttered, and he nodded. "No problem."

Suddenly the loss of chakra stabbed through me. I gasped and collapsed against Deidara.

He sighed. "You have chakra and can use it well. But you use way too much at once…"

I only nodded and passed out.

~Konoha Ninja~

Kotetsu called to the other ninja, who appeared immediately.

"She was up there! She was on top of a huge white bird!" Izumo shouted.

Shikamaru gave them a scathing look. "… Really? They just 'flew away' on a giant bird?"

Kakashi leaned against a building. "Something has been bugging me for a while."

Shika looked over his shoulder at him. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi looked out over the building. "Some travelers passed through here earlier… I've been all over this city fifteen times and haven't seen them since."

Izumo cursed. "So you think one of them was her in disguise?"

Kakashi shrugged. "If it was, it was an excellent disguised. I couldn't tell she was using a jutsu. The two others with her were just as good."

"The Akatsuki, you think?" Sakura asked, looking worried.

Kakashi nodded. "If my hunch was right, that's exactly who they were."

"So we are no longer just on a search and retrieve mission. This is now qualified as an 'S' rank infiltration mission. We must search out the base of the infamous Akatsuki," Shikamaru said.

Choji shuffled his feet nervously. "W-we have to fight a-all of them?"

Shikamaru's hands clenched into fists. "No. I am going ahead as soon as I get the information I need. Kakashi and I will continue on. The rest of you will return to Konoha to ask for reinforcements. I will send back details later."

Sakura fixed him with a stern glare. "You will need a medic ninja!"

Kakashi sighed. "She has a point. But we need someone else…"

"Naruto…" everyone muttered at the same time.

Shikamaru closed his eyes in thought before nodding at the group. Everyone dispersed but his new team.

Kakashi stood from the building he'd been leaning on. "I am going to check and see if the hotels saw them."

Sakura glanced at him before running off to ask people on the street about the travelers.

Shikamaru looked towards the horizon.

"You are coming home."

~Morgan~

I registered a few things as I woke up. I was lying on my side. The sun was up. I was in the shade. A breeze was blowing over my face. I was covered up with something up to my nose. Someone's Akatsuki cloak.

I curled into the cloth as my ears zeroed in on two familiar voices nearby.

"We still have a few days before our rendezvous anyway."

Deidara.

"But she needs treatment," Sasori's voice answered.

Deidara snorted. "Why should I care?"

I looked around without letting them know I had woken. We were surrounded by trees on all sides, and Deidara and Sasori were sitting beside a fire where a rabbit was cooking.

Deidara sighed. "Explain something to me then."

Sasori nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"Why is the Akatsuki so taken with her?"

Sasori shrugged. "Several reasons. If you know a person's past well, enough it becomes evident. You think of her as your long lost best friend. Itachi thinks of her as another version of Sasuke. I think of her as the sister I could have had. Pein thinks of her, in my opinion, like his own child, but I may be wrong there. Kakuzu and Hidan just find her amusing. Kisame is attracted to her simply because she isn't frightened of him. Tobi likes everyone. Zetsu… well, they tolerate one another, and she and Konan are like sisters with issues."

Deidara scoffed and replied sarcastically, "One messed up family, eh?"

I frowned. That's not right…

I sat up.

"Why do you all think that way?"

They both look shocked.

I hugged the cloak to me more tightly, my volume rising. "How is this fair to me?"

Deidara's eye widened as I shakily stood.

"I am not Hidori! I am not Sasuke! Pein isn't my dad! I am not anyone's sister! I won't be thought of as some replacement, I refuse!"

I shot desperate glances at both of them.

Deidara just watched my expression. "Just when I'm positive she's really Hidori, too."

My frustration hit the boiling point.

"I said to STOP!" I shouted.

The chakra spike shot from my hand and ripped through Deidara's shoulder, blood flying everywhere.

I ran forward, getting in his face and grabbing the front of his shirt.

Wait, the net of his shirt? … He let me sleep with his cloak?

Wait, not important right now.

"Who do you think you are?!" I shouted, my free hand dangerously close to punching him.

His entire facial expression changed…

His angry and hateful look morphed entirely. His eyes gleamed with disappointment, and his smirk morphed into a concerned frown.

I glared at him. "I know exactly who you are! You're just some guy who thinks just like every other guy, that any girl can replace the last! Well, I won't be like them! I won't be like Hidori! Never!"

I gave up trying to hold back. My fist collided with his face several times, until I became too weak to move and fell over.

He caught me and held me up, like a parent holding a tired child.

I breathed in a sob. He smelled just like spice and cinnamon. Just like the cloak in my hands.

My body shook and I stood and screamed again, "Why can't you just see me for who I am!"

My chakra exploded all over again, and Deidara was healed to perfection. Every stitch Kakuzu used on his arms was blasted away, healed completely. Every scar faded. Every blemish healed.

My anger could be used for healing as much as pain…

Deidara caught me again as my legs went limp.

"I take it back, Sasori. We are heading straight back to the base. This is the second time in a row that she has lost it."

My senses rejected Deidara's smell, and I convinced myself I hated it.

He could think of me as 'her' all he wants, but I won't sink to that level! I won't become Hidori Morino!