In a rather skillful demonstration of the acrobatics someone could only learn under a teacher like Maito Gai, Neji bent backwards at the waist, ducking under the hand holding a clay bird as it thrust over him. But Deidara was just as clever as him, and had a second bird. The irritating blonde drove that one down in his other arm toward the Hyuuga's stomach. Neji continued showing off his sensei's prowess, flipping his legs up, doing a temporary handstand, and then gracefully spinning over and landing on his feet again.

But the bombs were not spent.

Neji raced toward the giant bird's wing, away from the Iwa-nin. He jumped off, but grabbed the edge of the square wing and used it to swing underneath its body. The brunette jounin caught himself on one of the bird's large feet. But he didn't stop there; he used his forward momentum to leap to the other foot, then jump up onto the other side.

He was behind Deidara now, and had gotten there surprisingly and in less than a few seconds. One didn't train with Maito Gai and Rock Lee without learning some pretty amazing things. Neji wasn't going to waste his advantage, either, and wanted to show off another one of those amazing things he'd learned from the taijutsu experts. He darted toward his opponent, just as he turned around.

Neji ducked down, not purposely dodging anything. Then he shifted his weight to his hands and kicked upward with as much power as he could manage, shouting, "Konoha Senpu!" He heard Deidara's teeth click together as his foot made contact with his chin, and he went flying. Neji followed him, using Lee's signature Kage Buyou to follow him, then finally deviated from his teammate's taijutsu. "Hakke Rokujuuyon Sho!" Byakugan blazing, hands moving faster than lightning, Deidara's tenketsu points were sealed.

And only when they both landed (Neji gracefully on his feet, Deidara with a thud) did he remember that, from past experience, when the Iwa-nin's chakra was cut off, his bombs detonated by default. And they were both on the largest clay creation he had seen yet.

The prodigy almost gasped in relief when the body disappeared in a puff of smoke.

He glared around uneasily for any signs of his chakra, but nothing was in sight. Neji took a step to his left, toward the center of the bird's back, and turned his head, moving his blind spot. Deidara became visible, perched on one of the thick tail feathers, crouched down. He had a rather curious expression on his face, as if he had just been given a cookie and didn't know what to do with it.

Neji paled as he realized what his movement--and careless look of surprise--did. Deidara's mouth broke into a broad, evil grin, and his dark-rimmed eye narrowed. "…You have a blind spot, don't you, yeah…?"

-.-.-

It was night before they stopped. Hinata was spent. The Akatsuki members had attacked just after dawn, and she had been fighting for several hours before getting kidnapped. And even then, being carried bent over someone's shoulder, head and feet hanging down and messing up her blood (and chakra) circulation wasn't a walk in the park, either.

But the real test hadn't even begun. She had been kicking at the same spot the whole time, and was positive she had broken at least one rib. Her (newest) kidnapper, Suigetsu, set her down, and not a moment later, she was bound. He was careful.

The Hyuuga just glared at him, her pale eyes glinting in the rising moon. He merely grinned in return, and set about fixing that broken rib. (The Kiri-nin took a long drink from his bottle, paused for a moment, and then deemed it apparently healed. She didn't want to know what that meant about his body.)

"So. What's your name, eh?" He sat down, leaning his forearms against the scythe resting on his knees. Hinata didn't answer, and instead warily watched the weapon. She knew what it could do, and what he had wanted to do to her with it.

But…if he kidnapped me, he must not want to just kill me…right…? she thought hopefully, keeping her mouth shut. He waited patiently, staying as still as her, for her reply. And still she gave none. The silence stretched on, and curse the gods, Hinata was starting to get uneasy with it. Yes, she was a quiet, shy girl, but that didn't mean that she could keep quiet under the pressure of an uncomfortable silence! She squirmed a bit, testing the ropes binding her arms, and tried to keep her mind on actually acting like a ninja instead of chatting with the enemy. (Because she knew how well that went last time. Yes, Deidara was nice to her, and funny, and protective…but now, away from him and in the presence of another enemy, she couldn't help but wonder if it really was the Stockholm Syndrome. Or maybe her liking of loud blondes.)

But even that only lasted so long; she was tied up good and tight. She couldn't see any way out of the ropes without access to either hand signs or a kunai. Suigetsu was still staring at her intently, and that only added to her discomfort. A small, almost inaudible (even to shinobi) whimpering sound escaped her, and unfortunately, she wasn't aware her mental turmoil had been given away with the squeak.

Suigetsu, however, must have had excellent hearing. With a surprising motion, he flipped the stolen scythe off of his legs, the blades burying themselves in a large stone a few mere feet away. Hinata's eyes snapped over to look at it, mistaking the weapon's sudden movement for an attack. When she returned her gaze to the front and center, Suigetsu's face was approximately two inches from her own.

"Do I make you nervous?" He asked seriously. The predatory grin returned, and her white eyes flicked downward, realizing just how sharp those teeth probably were. Sharp enough to rip out her throat if needed, most likely. She also felt that his question was answered easily by that glance and the gulp following. "I see. Good."

He patted her cheek, and she resisted the urge to snort. (If only for the fact that Konoha kunoichi do not snort, especially not the Hyuuga clan's heir.) So instead, she turned her head away from him, closed her eyes, and kept her mouth glued shut. Not the most mature way of dealing with things, but whatever worked.

"What's your connection to him?" Her eyelids flickered, wanting to open to give him an incredulous look, but she remained rigid and unmoving. The dark-haired chuunin could hear his smile, though, but whether he was genuinely amused or smiling constantly was some sort of quirk of his, she couldn't tell. (Plus, even if she wanted to, she didn't know how to answer his question. What was Deidara to her?) "Are you siblings? Or are you married?"

Um…he's not talking about Deidara-kun, is he…? she thought, and slitted open an eye to look at him. His grin had turned upside down in a thoughtful frown, and one hand was tapping his chin. One of his pointed teeth was poking out of his mouth, resting on his bottom lip. She made an unintentional face at the sight.

"Hey, you have no room to talk, miss 'heathen'." He must've caught the expression, and she felt herself flush with guilt. Though he was a grade-a jerk, an enemy against her, Deidara, her cousin, Kabuto, and Konohagakure, and a stranger, she couldn't help it. Some habits just can't be broken, no matter how determined someone may be. "My teeth are a tradition for swordsman in Kirigakure. At least they look better than those freaky eyes of yours." Suigetsu almost looked like he was pouting, and Hinata could feel herself slipping into a sulk as well. Her eyes had always been a source of chagrin for her, no matter how useful they were.

"A-All Hyuuga have them…" She said ruefully, more to herself than him.

"Well, all Kiri swordsman have these." He retorted, baring his teeth in her face. She winced as they snapped shut a bit too close for comfort. "But you haven't answered my questions." The heiress mustered up her best glare and shut her mouth. Suigetsu gave her a flat look. "Don't make me go vampire on you to get the answers I need."

Hinata paled at the threat. "My name…" She could undoubtedly create a fake name, and undoubtedly he was expecting it. But he knew she was a Hyuuga, and he was a missing Kiri-nin, and he had been an experiment of Orochimaru's for a long time…so he wouldn't know she was the heiress. And if he thought it was a fake name, it was the perfect cover. "My-My name…is Hyuuga Hinata."

"Now we're getting somewhere." Suigetsu grinned, smug, at her. "Now. What is your connection to the other Hyuuga? What's his name?"

Oh. He meant Neji-niisan…how does he know niisan? she swallowed nervously. An alias for him wouldn't work, and she didn't dare give out such information about him so freely. She stayed quiet.

But again, the light-haired Kiri-nin stayed silent, waiting for her. She knew she would lose this battle, so she blurted out, "I'm not telling you."

-.-.-

The day had passed quickly. The fight hadn't. Moonlight was a tricky thing to fight in, especially in a forest. The leaves dappled the light and made it even harder to see. Even his hawkeye was useless in moonlight. Deidara tilted his head upward and glared at the oval moon, for good measure. He and Kabuto were hidden (hopefully) effectively in a small grove of trees to the west of the clearing where the majority of the fight had taken place. Well, it had been a clearing, before he was forced to detonate that huge bird to get rid of the Hyuuga brat.

Kabuto leaned casually against one of the nearer trees, his knees drawn up to his chest and elbows resting on them. Deidara was on his stomach, trying to continue his snipering through the bushes, but his scope was acting rebellious and the ammo was currently singing mutely and pecking at invisible insects on the ground near his foot.

"If only we had Bya-chan, with her Byakugan…yeah…" With a defeated sigh, he rolled over onto his back. He flinched when his shoulder moved; Neji's assault had dislocated it, and he had only hurriedly shoved it back into place with no mind of how it would affect his arms later on.

Deidara was a sorry mess of a shinobi, in other words. He was still covered in blood from that genjutsu, and he had consumed roughly a half dozen soldier pills to try to restore some of the missing blood. His shoulder and arm were stiff and sore, and were only stiffening up as time passed. His cheek stung from where he tried to gouge out his own eye, also compliments of that genjutsu. The blonde was covered in minor burns, of course, but that was just part of his job. He was much more worried about his hands. They were still cut, and slowly oozing blood (and saliva). He wouldn't be able to mold much clay--or perform many seals--in that state. Hand wounds were never good for him.

Kabuto, on the other hand, had been through worse than he. And yet the medic-nin sat smugly opposite him, pristinely free of wounds and practically glowing in the moonlight. (Granted, the fact that he had just as much blood and dirt covering him as Deidara, and he had eventually ditched his shirt because it was only so many rags after one of Kakuzu's attacks sort of hampered the 'pristine' vision, but Deidara still glared at him. He could've at least offered to heal his hands.)

"Neji-san will have his Byakugan active, no doubt. In fact, I would be rather surprised if he and Sasuke-kun don't know where everyone is right now." The Oto-nin said calmly, smirking in response to his teammate's glare. "You should probably be on guard, not laying around feeling sorry for yourself and lamenting the loss of Hinata-chan. We'll need to get out of this fight first, before we go off hunting for Suigetsu."

Deidara just sent his clay bird flying into Kabuto's face, his own reply to the smug summation of their situation. The medic tussled with the jutsu for several minutes, while Deidara looked on, until they both felt a spike of chakra behind them. Both shinobi froze, following the movement, sensing the attack as it neared. But any mediocre ninja could tell that that was a diversion.

A diversion turned attack.

Sasuke, Chidori crackling and chirping, cut through the underbrush like butter and thrust the attack toward Kabuto. At the last moment, the would-be victim jumped up, landing on Sasuke's shoulders and pushing him into the ground with a well-aimed kick. The Chidori hit the ground, and dust, rocks and dirt flew up all around them, creating a temporary smokescreen.

Deidara swore as he felt the chakra behind him, a bit too late. Neji's first Juuken strike just barely missed his neck, but the second hit him in the chest. "Damn--Katsu!" The bird streaked toward the Hyuuga, but Neji ducked, and it exploded behind him. The shockwave sent him tumbling into Deidara, though, and who in turn slammed into both Kabuto and Sasuke. The blonde felt something sharp and stingy--he only had to assume that by the tingling effect afterward that the Chidori had struck him somewhere--graze his side, and every breath he took hurt.

The four didn't even have time to sort themselves out before the Akatsuki members, alerted by the explosion, attacked. The whole clearing was enveloped in a large burst of fire, but that only lasted a moment before the Hyuuga's Kaiten redirected the force. (It also was quite useful for separating them--and separating him from his Uchiha partner.) Hidan responded with a shout and what appeared to be a pike. He and Neji exchanged close-combat blows, while Kakuzu perched on top of the highest tree above them and decided to play sniper.

Barely dodging some sort of arrow made of water, Deidara locked eyes with Kabuto for the briefest of moments. And with the smallest nod of his head possible, the explosives expert conveyed his plan. As much as he'd like to leave the jerk behind, he would need a medic after this battle, and he'd need help rescuing his kunoichi partner.

Using a Doton technique, he burrowed underground, comfortably listening while his clay clone above yelled, "Katsu!" The Iwa-nin dug around under the topsoil, feeling for Kabuto's chakra signature, counting down until the final explosion. This had better work; Deidara only had enough clay left for about two small bombs or another large one. He needed to learn to better prepare himself.

Finally, he picked out the Oto-nin's signature, and rapidly forming seals, created a hole above him. Kabuto fell down silently, landing on his feet like a cat. The hole sealed itself again, and Deidara estimated they had about ten seconds to get as far away as possible.

"What kind of jutsu is this?" Kabuto asked politely, watching as the Iwa-nin started burrowing away at the fastest pace he could manage.

"An Iwa one." Deidara replied irritably.

He felt Kabuto give him a look, but didn't say anything more. "…For a missing-nin, you seem to still have a lot of loyalty to Iwagakure." The medic said finally, a smirk in his voice. Deidara knew that question had been coming, if not from him than from the Hyuuga, for quite some time. But now was not the time, the place, or the person to talk this through with.

"So, yeah?" He snapped, instead. He felt Kabuto shrug behind him, and they continued digging in silence. The Iwa-nin paused, estimating how far they had come. The ground around them shook, rather feebly, so he guessed at least a few kilometers. "Which way was that Kiri-nin going with Bya-chan?"

"In this direction." The silver-haired shinobi replied mildly.

"Then we'll go two more kilometers and we'll surface. Easier to travel above ground, yeah." Deidara glanced upward at the dirt ceiling, then continued. It was pitch-black in the man-made tunnel, but true to his village, he knew exactly where all of the earth around him was. Like Konoha shinobi knew the forests, this was his turf. Well, not exactly, but at least pretty damn close to it.

"Above ground? Surely an Iwa-nin like yourself considers it easier to travel below ground…Unless this isn't quite your thing?" The smirk was back in his voice. Deidara scowled, and decided to ignore him. He missed his real partner already.

Bya-chan, I promise I'll never let you get kidnapped again. If only for the fact that I'm going to rip Kabuto's throat out, yeah, he vowed, the scowl turning into an evil grin. If only he could remember all of the seals to Hidan's genjutsu…

-.-.-

"He did it again." Sasuke noted dully, from his precarious perch on the tip of an evergreen. Neji sighed, and nodded. "At least we knew it was coming…"

"He seems to run from quite a lot of fights." The brunette added, narrowing his eyes. Of course the two Akatsuki members survived the blast, but his Byakugan didn't pick out any bodies--alive or otherwise. All that remained before them was a crater with a diameter of at least half a kilometer, smoking rubble, and a lot of charred trees. No sign of either the white-haired one or the masked one.

"But…you know, I think this time he could've continued fighting. He wasn't nearly as drained as the last time he used that jutsu." The Uchiha said thoughtfully, rubbing the back of his neck. He wiped a trickle of blood off of his chin, and then his hand returned to rubbing the back of his neck. The same spot that the seal was on, Neji surmised. "I think he's been training."

"Or developing better skills." He said. "He's been using his clay more efficiently, that's all. And he has a medic on his team now…Yakushi Kabuto."

"Why would Orochimaru's man go to his side? Doesn't he hold any sort of grudge? Deidara hates him, obviously, so why stay…?" Sasuke mused, absently continuing rubbing his shoulder. His eyes were their normal coal color, but Neji knew that he used the Sharingan at least once in that fight. That seal, whatever it was, needed to be taken care of.

"My cousin was protecting him. During the first chuunin exams, he healed her, and he possibly saved her life. She may have felt that she should repay that debt." The Hyuuga prodigy replied absently. "He needed someplace where he would be protected while he sorted out his priorities and skills, and reorganized his life. Kabuto may have been on his way to Konoha, and heard that Hinata-sama had been kidnapped…and she always was kind. She would have been his best bet for temporary safety."

"But why didn't Deidara kill him on sight?" Sasuke asked, eyes shifting over to glance at his partner. "Even Kabuto wouldn't have stood a chance against someone who killed a Sannin…"

"…He may have had a bargaining chip. Or perhaps he has someone else, pulling strings for him. A spy would have had many connections." Neji stood up, and shrugged. "But Kabuto isn't our main concern. We've assumed that Deidara's test to be accepted into the Akatsuki is to fight all of its members. He's already fought at least five; he's fought and killed Orochimaru. We're running out of time for this to work." He narrowed his eyes in Sasuke's direction, daring him to voice his opinion aloud.

The Uchiha didn't directly take the bait. "Yes, we have to make sure to pin him down, rescue your darling cousin, and kill him before he gets into the Akatsuki." He rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Once we rescue Hinata, you know we need information from her. She's seen Itachi…not to mention what she may have learned about other things."

"I'm sure Hinata-sama will be willing to give up anything she's learned." It was Neji's turn to roll his eyes. "…Which direction was the Kiri-nin traveling last? Deidara and Kabuto will most likely be going in the same direction."

"That way." Sasuke sighed, and pointed exactly in front of them. "I'd guess he's heading for another river."

"Yes…"

The two geniuses leapt down from the higher branches to lower ones, and set off to once again rescue the Hyuuga heiress from a malevolent force.

-.-.-

Next Chapter: Ooh, things are heating up! Our four favorite guys are all closing in on an oblivious Suigetsu and Hinata. But this Kiri-nin isn't stupid; he's learned the price of a good bargaining chip, and especially one that two different sides want. He doesn't want to give up the princess that easily! But which side does he want to bargain with? What's his goal? And will Hinata last, if he needs information that badly? More importantly, how long will Deidara and Kabuto last before they start attacking each other?