APPROX. NUMBER OF SONG REFERENCES: 15

-.-.-

"I like where we are." Deidara announced, looking around at the sparse surroundings. The Land of Wind was pure desert, drought-stricken, but the Iwa-nin didn't seem to mind. "It's warm, yeah." He spread his arms, basking in the warmth.

Sasori just smirked. "I'm sure it is. We'll see how you like the warmth in a few hours…Oh, Deidara, take a few steps to the left." The blonde looked back over his shoulder questioningly, but obediently took a few steps to his left. Three steps over, he suddenly fell in a previously hidden hole of sand with an ungraceful squawk. "That is what you call a sand trap. Now let's see how long it takes for him to get out."

Hinata squeaked and hurried over toward the edge of the hole, peering down fretfully. Deidara seemed to be unharmed, though peeved, and trapped in the bottom of a large bowl-shape. The sand was too loose for him to climb back up; it kept sliding out from under his fingers.

"Poor unfortunate soul." Kabuto shook his head sadly, also looking down at him. "He'll never get out."

Unfortunately, the loose sand wasn't only on the sides of the bowl. Some of it crumbled under the medic's sandals, and flailing for a moment, he finally fell in. The weight shift also caused more of it to cave down into the hole, and Hinata slid down to join them with a shriek. After the dust had settled and the three were done coughing, Sasori spoke up from above them.

"You three are going to die before we get to Sunagakure. Haven't any of you ever been in a desert before?" He called flatly, adjusting the hood of his desert outfit. He was the only one to bring anything for crossing it, and already the other three were regretting their decision.

A half hour later, the three were still stuck in it.

Mostly because when Deidara had fallen, his clay pouch had fallen off and was up, sitting beside an amused and cruel Sasori. They really were stuck down there, and the sun was starting to take its toll.

"That's it. I've given up, yeah." Deidara called, attempting to tie up the rest of his hair to keep it off his back. "There's no escape." Kabuto and Hinata both wearily nodded their agreement.

"And this is only the desert you're contending with. Just wait until we reach Suna." Sasori called back, reclining lazily against a dune. He appeared completely at ease with the sun's heat, and wasn't even sweating. (Whereas the other three members of the team were sweating buckets. Hinata was still stubbornly wearing her jacket, however.)

"Why don't you help us out of here, Sasori-sama?" Kabuto asked irritably, shading his eyes against the sun with his arm. "It'd be much easier."

"Because you three are idiots. You're going to die as idiots, or you could all suddenly grow a brain and think yourselves out of the mess you've gotten yourselves into." The redhead replied calmly.

Hinata sighed, and decided to take the man's advice. It would be better than wasting their breath arguing with him, at any rate. She closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the sun and heat. Her face was flushed and she knew that soon she would probably faint from either sunstroke or dehydration. And knowing Sasori, he'd probably leave her behind to die.

The heiress cracked open an eye, seeing Deidara sitting in front of her. He popped a soldier pill into his mouth, grinning at the dirty look Kabuto shot him. They probably wouldn't be much help at this point; the heat was already grating on their nerves and they hated each other normally…

"Soldier pills won't help you with dehydration, Deidara. They're only meant as emergency energy and chakra boosters." The medic pointed out.

"Says you, yeah."

"Here we go again…" Sasori muttered from above them.

The sand was too loose and slippery to try to climb out of the hole. And they couldn't jump out; it was hard enough just standing in the stuff. The sun was climbing in the sky, and they would all get sick from the heat if they didn't get out of here soon. Leader-sama wouldn't like that, needless to say. And they still had the rest of the desert to cross…

Right when she thought she might have something, Hinata felt herself being picked up. She wiggled and uttered a squeak, eyes snapping open to look up at Deidara. "U-Um--"

"Here, stand on my shoulders and then jump, yeah." He said simply with a grin.

"The only problem is that there are three of us in here. That may work for the first two, but whoever is in here last is sort of screwed." Kabuto snapped from behind him, but Deidara only paused to flip him off before helping her to stand on his shoulders. She looked down at him for a moment, but then jumped over lightly to land next to Sasori.

"Oh, so you send the kunoichi out first. How noble." He said sarcastically, crossing his arms. Hinata glared at him, but then carefully picked her way back over to the edge of the hole.

"How are you two going to get out?" She asked, but it turned into a rhetorical question when she spied the Iwa-nin's clay pouch laying a few feet off. The Hyuuga kicked it into the hole, wiping her brow with her sleeve. As long as she was still sweating, she was okay. Once she stopped…then she was in trouble.

Ten minutes later, they were on the road again. And it only took that long because at first Deidara refused to help Kabuto out. (It was Hinata who finally did help him out.) The four were finally moving again, only three of them were already exhausted and could barely keep up with Sasori's pace. The Suna-nin noticed but didn't seem to mind hurrying them along every few minutes.

But an hour later, they had barely gone anywhere. Hinata had finally shed her jacket, tying it around her waist. The relief only lasted a few moments, though; she was still as hot as ever. "Could…could we please stop for a moment…?" She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. She felt ready to faint. Sasori glanced back at her, annoyance written across his features.

He sighed. "This is why I dislike kunoichi."

"It's not her fault, yeah! If you would've just gotten us out of that damn hole in the first place, we'd practically already be there!" Deidara snapped. She looked back at him with her Byakugan. All of them (aside from Sasori, who was still that odd little mass of chakra) were physically exhausted, though admittedly she was the worst off. (Probably because she only took off her jacket a bit ago.)

"It's easy, once you know how it's done." He replied simply, not rising to the bait of an argument. "If you really were Akatsuki level, you would've figured out about an hour ago that even if I don't want to fly, it doesn't mean you can't. You could've saved yourself a lot of grief."

The explosives expert looked ready to explode.

-.-.-

Surprisingly, it was a few more hours before they really had to stop. Sasori was completely fine with the weather and conditions, though he kept glancing nervously around. (When asked about it, he just replied that he missed Hiruko.) Kabuto was only fine because he kept himself going with some annoyingly convenient medical jutsu. It was the kunoichi who finally fainted from the heat.

"If she can't keep up, leave her behind." Sasori muttered, prodding her limp body with his foot. Deidara gave him what could only be described as a death glare. He then just picked her up and set her on his bird, jumping up behind her. "Why are you so protective of her? She's not of much use to us."

"If she's our ticket into Sunagakure, I don't see why you're more worried about her, yeah." He replied diplomatically.

"I have a back-up plan. I'm prepared, at any rate." The art-nin's brown eyes slid down to Deidara's clay pouch. "You won't have nearly enough clay. You already used a small amount getting yourself our of that sand trap."

"I'm sure I'll be fine, yeah."

"Which only demonstrates your inexperience and recklessness. Why Leader-sama wanted you of all Iwa-nin is beyond me." Sasori said casually. Kabuto, who had up until now looked amused at the argument, narrowed his eyes a fraction. The blonde caught this, and slowly turned his gaze back to his Akatsuki partner.

"What do you mean…he 'chose' me, yeah? I applied for this position. How'd he even know that I'd want to join the organization?" He asked deliberately, slowing his bird down enough so he could look Sasori in the eye.

The puppet master just closed his eyes, and smiled. Once again, his young features transformed his expression into something that could only be described as angelic. "Maybe you aren't as stupid as you seem, after all, Deidara. Keep thinking like that, and you may get somewhere in life."

The Iwa-nin thought that something big had just transpired, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out what. Instead he just had to speed up his art to catch up to the pair again, and made sure that the kunoichi was still breathing.

It was another few hours before anything else happened (aside from when Deidara threw a scorpion at Sasori) worth mentioning. The Hyuuga still hadn't woken up, which was worrying in itself, but the blonde couldn't keep up his energy enough to control the bird. Ditching his cloak (Sasori merely stated that Leader-sama wouldn't be pleased), Deidara was forced to give her a piggy-back ride, though the heat was stifling and it would probably do more harm than good.

"Kabuto…can't you do something about this?" Sasori asked boredly. It seemed that his patience had finally snapped in the area concerning her. Only it miraculously worked in her favor instead of against it.

"Not really. The best thing for her is to get her out of the sun and rehydrate her." The redheaded Suna-nin gave him a look that very clearly stated 'well I could've told you that'. Kabuto cleared his throat awkwardly, looking away. "I would suggest that we stop here for the day."

The sun was just now starting to set, and Deidara could feel the air cooling. The sand, however, stayed warm beneath them. Having never been to an actual desert before (just the waterless wasteland that was Iwa), he hadn't known how cold the nights could get, or how hot the days were, for that matter. Soon enough, the four were gathered around a small, smokeless fire, glaring at each other.

Deidara was starting to get chilly, not that he'd mention it to anyone. The kunoichi also seemed ready to put her jacket back on, having been woken up just a bit earlier by a peeved Sasori. She glanced at the blonde shyly, rubbing her arms. The coat was still in her lap. He guessed (accurately) that she didn't want to show 'weakness' by putting it back on just yet.

Stupid Sasori and his intimidation and sexism, he thought dryly, glaring back across the flames into the muddy brown eyes of his official partner.

The firelight cast dancing shadows behind them, making the shinobi jumpy and nervous. Occasionally one of the many night creatures of the desert would slither or crawl by, nearly silently but noticed by them all nonetheless. Each was waiting for one of the others to go to sleep first, to be deemed the 'weakest' but thanked for allowing the others to rest without having the title.

"I'll take first watch." Unsurprisingly, Sasori offered. The man didn't seem to need to sleep. Deidara just nodded curtly, and crossed his arms over his chest. "We're going to have to start again early in the morning, so you all might want to sleep."

As if any of the remaining three would willingly go to sleep first. (And frankly, Deidara didn't trust himself (or his princess!) to be sleeping in Sasori's presence. Especially in a vast desert where it'd be too easy to hide bodies…) But after an awkward few minutes, she decided to take the initiative and pulled her jacket back on over her head. Then, using her arm as a pillow, the kunoichi laid back and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep almost instantly.

"I think I'm going to join her." Kabuto said after a moment's pause, and fell back onto his back like a dead weight. Like a good shinobi, he was asleep instantly.

Deidara was glad that he wasn't the first one to cave in. Stretching and faking a yawn, he glanced at the fellow Akatsuki member out of the corner of his eye. Sasori was just staring into the fire, unmoving and unblinking. The firelight made his hair look even redder, if possible. Just as the blonde missing-nin was laying down to also get his rest, the puppet user spoke.

"As a shinobi, do you know how to save a life?" He asked quietly, eyes still on the flames.

Deidara decided not to sit back up, and instead rolled over onto his back. "Of course. Be faster and stronger than the enemy, protect your loved ones with your life, yeah. That's academy stuff."

Sasori looked up from the fire, glare flat. "Wrong." The blonde frowned, irked. "You still have a lot to learn, brat. The easiest way to save someone's life when you're a ninja…is to stay out of their life. But you…you seem hell-bent on keeping her," he paused to nod toward the Hyuuga's sleeping form, "As close as possible. Unwise."

"I hope you know," Deidara spat, scowling, "That that has nothing to do with you, yeah. It's personal. You have no idea what's behind it all."

He got the irritating notion that Sasori was smirking from behind his tall collar. "…Perhaps." He said indifferently. "But you cannot deny that my logic is infallible. You know it to be true."

"Well you can shove your logic--and your art, yeah--up your stuck-up ass. Now let me go to sleep. I don't care what you say; Bya-chan is perfectly safe with me, yeah. I'll protect her." He rolled over, using his crossed arms as a pillow for his chin. After a few moments of silence, the blonde added, "I can't wait for you to die, though."

"I won't be dying anytime soon." The redhead replied in the same annoyingly casual tone. He didn't even seem mad at the jabs about his art and logic. "You can be sure of that fact, Deidara."

The Iwa-nin didn't reply. He wouldn't give the infuriating Akatsuki member the satisfaction of getting into a deeper argument and loosing sleep over it. But he still couldn't help his thoughts straying to Sasori…

The man was an enigma, to say the least. And that was just his physical being. Deidara still hadn't seen him eat, or sleep for that matter. Of course, it could very easily be explained by the fact that they had separate rooms (as far away from each other as possible) and very rarely saw each other until this mission. But the fact that he looked so young, yet spoke so old…and referred to himself as Deidara's elder! Something was off about the puppet user.

Not to mention the fact that what he'd said--both about the sleeping girl beside him and the leader of the Akatsuki--was going to continuously eat away at him.

Finally, Deidara just wrote it off to 'things Sasori says to drive him crazy'.

-.-.-

"It was pretty stupid to sleep in the desert without blankets." Sasori announced the next morning, glaring flatly at the other three. "At least the kunoichi had the sense to put another layer on."

"She has a name, yeah!" Deidara snarled. Hinata immediately pegged him as the crabby type when sleep-deprived. (Well, sleep deprived wasn't the word. They'd gone several nights without sleep before. It was more like…he didn't get enough sleep. If he slept, he might as well sleep a full night. Hanabi was like that, too.) Still, she couldn't help but hold back a smile at his defensive position on her behalf. (Even if Sasori was the biggest jerk she'd ever met and deserved it.) "Now, what's for breakfast?"

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

"I don't know, what did you bring for food?" The redhead asked with a smirk, knowing full well that it was unlikely that Deidara had thought of that. (A month without missions could dull even the sharpest tool.)

That innocently casual comment led to the largest (verbal) fight between the two yet. Kabuto and Hinata looked on, wearing identical long-suffering expressions.

"I don't even know why Leader-sama paired us up, yeah. We're complete opposites!" Deidara said waspishly, crossing his arms with a huff.

Sasori smacked his forehead with his palm, groaning, "Deidara, you dolt. You're the one who killed Orochimaru--you're the one who would replace him as my partner. It's not my fault--or Leader-sama's fault--that you didn't go and kill Itachi or Zetsu or someone else."

Hinata couldn't help but think that she would've liked it a bit better if Itachi had been killed, but then again, she'd never met Orochimaru in person. He could've been just as bad. (And she had no idea who that 'Zetsu' shinobi was.)

The blonde missing-nin was only momentarily nonplussed. "Yeah, well…I don't see how a kid like you got into the Akatsuki in the first place. At least I fought my way in! I just took down Orochimaru because he convenient, yeah."

It was the shorter art-nin's turn for speechlessness. Finally, though, after a few good seconds, he ground out, "First, a bit of respect for your elders, brat. I'm tired of your insolence and ignorance. Let me enlighten you on something." Sasori beckoned to him to come closer, and Hinata noticed that she and Kabuto also leaned in to listen. The redhead also noticed this, but didn't look overly concerned. Deidara just looked partly curious, partly insolent. They all leaned in, almost eagerly. "Leader-sama ordered us all not to kill you. Hidan couldn't use his bonding jutsu on you, Kakuzu couldn't rip your heart out, I couldn't use my strongest puppets, and similarly Itachi and Kisame couldn't use their strongest jutsus. …Though I recall that Itachi disobeyed that order…

"But I digress. The fact that you are alive and standing has nothing to do with your own non-existent skills. The only reason you are is that Leader-sama has uses for you and your jutsu. That and the fact that Orochimaru was starting to deviate from the Akatsuki's plans…You are not here by your own merit and strength, Deidara." He finished to silence.

Kabuto was visibly trying not to snicker. Sasori turned his glare on him, and that wiped the smirk off his face rather quickly.

But Deidara looked even angrier than the redhead, and for good reason. Either it was an elaborate and convenient lie, or it was the truth…and either way, Hinata had to admit that it stung. It could possibly mean that all they'd been though…had been for nothing. She couldn't help but hope, even if only for Deidara, that it was a lie. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, seeing how he was taking this revelation.

He was the maddest she'd ever seen him, including during the fight between he and her cousin. With the glare on his face, the heiress could see how he'd become Akatsuki. "…Liar." He said softly, hands twitching toward his clay pouch. Hinata took a step backward, seeing that this would get physical real fast. Kabuto followed suit, narrowing his eyes and glancing warily from art-nin to art-nin.

"How do you know? You know I'm right, brat." Sasori replied, just as quietly. "How else could you accomplish that feat without dying? You're much too weak for that."

Time seemed to slow down. Activating the Byakugan, Hinata barely managed to catch most of it; this is the true speed and power of the Akatsuki, she only just had time to think. Deidara's hands went down to his clay, and a broad, bloodthirsty grin spread across his face. The heiress and the medic backpedaled on reflex to get out of the way. Sasori darted forward, faster than any of them, grabbing both of the blonde's wrists and pinning them to his sides. Said blonde immediately tried to wrestle free, but got no where (even after attempting to kick). Still not one to give up that easily, Deidara jerked forward and attempted to headbutt his Akatsuki partner, only to have his target move at the last moment and harmlessly allow him to miss and end up setting his chin on his shoulder.

Sasori leaned forward, and it was only because she both had the infamous Byakugan and could read lips that allowed her to tell what he said to Deidara. "I've proven my point." Then he leaned forward a bit more, blocking her view.

-.-.-

"I've proven my point. You're not fit to be called Akatsuki." Sasori had said at the time.

Their almost-fight had happened yesterday. They hadn't spoken to each other since.

Frankly, Deidara refused to believe that anything the redheaded bastard said was true. Yes, it was probably true that he was currently the weakest member of the Akatsuki, but that was only because he was new to the organization. But no matter how much sense it made, none of it could be true. It couldn't be true. His pride wouldn't take it.

The kunoichi seemed worried about him, and tried talking to him several times about it, but he gave her the cold shoulder as well. He felt bad for it, but he really couldn't stand being comforted by her right now. She really was too kind for him.

Kabuto…was being Kabuto. Of course, they didn't speak to each other; they both knew how much the other hated them. Occasionally the medic-nin would make a wry comment to either of the other members of the squad, but the explosives user wouldn't rise to his bait. (Besides, he got back at him by eating more soldier pills. He knew it infuriated the medic, and used it to his advantage.)

It was getting to be a very quiet trip to Sunagakure.

"Deidara-kun…are you alright?" She sidled up to run beside him, looking nervous and fidgety. No doubt such tense silence would conflict with her personality.

"Hn." He grunted in reply, keeping his eyes on the mouths on his hands; they were currently chewing on some clay mixed with some of the desert's sand. It was an experiment he'd wanted to do for some time, mixing other earthy elements into his clay and see how it would mold, move and more importantly, detonate. Now was as good as time as any to try it out.

She sighed sadly. "I wish you'd talk to me…I-I went through the majority of that with you as well, remember…? I know what it's like to find out that your dreams are hollow…"

He kept his eyes on his hands. If he looked at her now, he'd crack. Sasori was just a bastard, putting all of these doubts and thoughts and lies into his head like that…But a cruel little voice in his head chose to take the Suna-nin's side. Hollow? You knew they were hollow the first time you lived through a fight with them. There was no way that you could survive against two Akatsuki members like that unless they weren't to kill you.

"If you do choose to talk…I'm here, alright?"

Like she had anywhere else to go. They were in a desert, for god's sake. None of them aside from Sasori really knew how to get themselves anywhere at this point.

He's probably leading us off in a wrong direction to kill us, Deidara thought sourly, glaring at the back of his partner's head. But then again, why would he have to? This mission is going to kill us anyway.

-.-.-

Neji sighed hopelessly. Ever since that fight, weeks ago, he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Hinata--or the blonde bastard. Try as he might, he couldn't find any trail or hint of where she'd been. It was like she had disappeared off the face of the world.

Or worse.

The Hyuuga prodigy knew that there was only one rational explanation for her disappearance. It killed him to finally admit it, but there was no other rationale.

Deidara had finally gotten into the Akatsuki, and took her with him. There wouldn't be much hope for getting hold of her now, if he could even find her. She was untouchable.

So now Neji had a new goal; the Akatsuki. If he could get one of the members, no doubt they'd be willing to spill on the newbie, if given the proper persuasion. But in order to catch one of the members, he'd have to find one. Yet again, he was at a block.

But there was one way to get closer to one of the members. Because he knew someone who had been tracking and hunting one of them for what seemed like years.

Uchiha Sasuke would be his ticket to Uchiha Itachi. Itachi would be his ticket into the Akatsuki. And once in the Akatsuki, the brunette could finally find his cousin. (After that, he had no clue.) So that meant that Neji had to yet again find Sasuke.

At least he had a lead; go to the Mist. Surely a rogue Uchiha and water-based swordsman couldn't be that hard to find, right? Neji sighed again at the hopeless prospect. But he had to try. It wasn't like he could do much else, anyway.

The genius turned east, looking at the rising sun. He'd had enough of the Land of Wind, anyway. It was nothing but sand and cactus (if that), and he was positive that there couldn't be any Akatsuki hideouts in that country. Now he needed to make it to the Land of Water, hunt down his ex-partner, and then hunt down the Akatsuki.

Everything was much easier when it was listed out like that.

"Hinata-sama…I will find you," He vowed, and headed off on his new mission.

-.-.-

Two and a half days after their departure, four sand traps, one case of soldier pills and one Akatsuki-leveled fight later, the four arrived at the gates of Sunagakure.

-.-.-

Next Chapter: We finally hear from Neji! And what's this? He's trying to find Sasuke-kun again! I wonder what that could entail… But the four have finally arrived at Suna, and not in the best spirits. Deidara has already wasted some of his clay; will his remaining clay be enough to take down the terrifying Gaara of the Desert?