Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto characters, though I wouldn't mind if I did.

Chapter 37.

The very minute that he woke up and didn't find his little brother in Baki's apartment, Kankuro grew both worried and agitated. He just wished that for once, Gaara would just stay put and not take off whenever he felt like it. It really got annoying when he did that. Waaaay too annoying. But with a groan, Kankuro went over to the sink to get himself a drink of water, like he had been doing the minute he woke up. Once he had it, he went to the window to peer out into the night and wonder where in the world Gaara had gone.

The very second he looked outside was the second that an explosion racked the entire village and a ball of flames rose into the sky.

Kankuro yelped in surprise and dropped the glass, letting it shatter against the ground as he looked wide eyed outside. He was stunned nonetheless. He could only wonder what was going on. But then a feeling of dread washed over him as he swore loudly. Somehow, he knew that the explosion involved Gaara. "BAKI! GET UP!! GAARA'S IN TROUBLE!!" He bellowed as he bolted back into the room where he was staying to get his puppets. He was very aware that Baki had started swearing himself and was attempting to wrestle himself out of his bed.

And in truth, Kankuro could never be more right.

Not more than ten minutes before the explosions even began, Gaara had stood up and was shielding Quoi behind him. He even had sand already swirling around them, looking ready to lash out at the clay bomber if he meant to bring trouble. But then again, this was an Akatsuki. Of course he meant to bring trouble. His eyes narrowed dangerously, the young red head backed up a little trying to keep Quoi from being seen by Deidara, though the blonde knew he was there.

Deidara smirked dangerously as he slowly took a few steps towards the red head, looking directly into his eyes. "Well, you're here. Just like Zetsu said." He remarked reaching up and taking the large flat rice hat off his head. "Looks like you just made my job a little easier, un?" He stated.

Gaara narrowed his eyes dangerously at the blonde Akatsuki but then straightened and removed the traveler's cloak. There was no was no need to wearing it anymore now that he had been found out. He just tossed it to the side, giving Deidara a very dangerous look. "Is that so?" He said coldly before tilting his head towards Quoi. He knew that the child would be in harm's way if he stayed any longer. He had to get out of there before the obvious fight broke out. "Quoi," Gaara said quietly getting the nervous boy's attention. "You need to get away right now. Go home and stay there."

Quoi looked at him, terrified but he slowly shook his head as he looked worriedly at his somewhat new friend. "B-but……"

"Quoi, you will get hurt if you stay here." Gaara told him seriously as he turned his eyes back onto a smirking Deidara. The Akatsuki was now looking at the boy with curious amusement and it no doubt meant that he was planning something to do with the boy. Probably distract Gaara by hurting him. Gaara knew he could not allow that to happen. He knew that if Deidara tried to hurt the boy, he would be unable to concentrate. "Go home!" The young Kazekage now barked at him. He knew he was being a little harsh but he needed to protect the boy from the Akatsuki. The young boy flinched at his tone but he immediately turned and bolted down the alley way, away from the fight. He had only glanced back once before he was gone.

Deidara, however, just smirked as he watched the boy taking off. "Geez, Gaara. You're not very nice, are you? Snapping at a kid that age like that? I won't be surprised if he never wants to hang out with you again."

Gaara gave him a very dark glare as he let sand swirl around him. He was not going to be drawn into a conversation with this guy. Especially about the way he just treated Quoi. He knew very well if the boy had stayed, he'd gotten seriously hurt. Or Deidara could have used him to distract him while fighting him. He knew very well that a fight was going to break out any minute. So instead, he just folded his arms and gave the clay bomber a very serious look.

Deidara knew instantly that the red head meant business because he smirked and crossed his arms in front of him, while letting the strange mouths in his palms begin working. "Well, since you're here, might as well as capture you and take you to the Headquarters. You ready to get that One Tailed demon yanked out of you?" He asked grinning. "Once we get the Shukaku, it's your pal, the foxboy next."

Gaara didn't reply.

Instead, his face darkened and the sand lashed out at the blonde. He was going to end this right now. His plans of a secret attack was no doubt crushed. Especially if the Akatsuki knew that he was there. Gaara remembered the name Zetsu, the Plantman Akatsuki. It was no doubt that he had been snooping around and had caught sight of the young Leader or had over heard Baki telling the Sand Ninja about him. So it looked like his plans to face the Akatsuki had been pushed up.

Immediately Deidara lashed out his hands, throwing clay bombs at him as he leapt back to avoid the sand. He wasn't surprised when sand immediately blocked the attack, causing a huge explosion. Without even worrying about damaging the buildings, Deidara threw more clay bombs at Gaara while leaping onto a swooping giant clay bird and taking off into the sky. Again, Gaara had the sand block the explosion before he leapt onto of his sand and was taking off after Deidara. He figured it was time to take it above anyway. That way no one would get hurt. He sent sand flying after the clay bird to catch Deidara and crush him.

Deidara only chuckled as he held tight onto his clay bird and avoided the sand. He threw out more clay bombs, causing loud explosions. It became very clear that the noise was now waking up the entire village, seeing that people were now running out into the streets and looking up. But the blonde Akatsuki didn't seem to care at all. His primary goal was getting a hold of the Shukaku carrier.

Gaara gritted his teeth as he chased after Deidara, sending sand flying after him. He knew if he didn't stop this Akatsuki's explosions, someone was going to get hurt. He had to stop him now. So he just summoned more sand out of the sand gourd to fly after him. Soon the night sky was full of flying sand trying to get a hold of Deidara. There were several explosions all around him as the clay bomber threw bombs at him but he used sand to keep them from hitting him. He just sent pounds of sand after the blonde, who was no doubt laughing at him.

"What's the matter, Shukaku Carrier?! Too fast for you?!" Deidara laughed from over his shoulder.

The red head didn't reply but kept his cool as he just sent more sand flying after him, chasing him practically all over the entire village. Streams of sand were flying all over the village, trying to catch him. But it wasn't easy at all. Deidara's clay bird was fast and kept dodging the sand like it was nothing. The chase eventually lead down in the streets. Deidara sped past Sand Ninja, startling most of them as he flew over their heads, followed by sand. Baki and Kankuro, of course, had been two of the people. They watched on with shock and horror that the plan had spiraled out of control like this.

Not more than a few minutes later, Deidara swooped upward into the sky again and turned around to find Gaara facing him on a large patch of sand with a dark look in his eyes. He could only smirk at the young red head, taunting him.

But with a cool look in his eyes, Gaara rose both hands, as if he was lifting something up into the air. It surprised Deidara, nonetheless. Especially when sand rose up from the very streets and formed a huge wave right behind Gaara. It shocked many spectators as they watched the power Gaara possessed. The large wave of sand just rose up higher, making even Deidara falter as he watched the sand spread out behind Gaara. With only a wave of his hand, Gaara sent the sand flying after Deidara, who immediately took off. It just made things a little harder for the clay bomber to avoid the sand though. There was more sand spread out and he had to speed things up very fast to avoid getting caught.

'Shukaku.' Gaara thought to the demon.

'Yeah, yeah! I know! I know! I'll catch that little wretch!' Shukaku growled as he pushed forward a little to help Gaara catch Deidara.

Deidara could only be surprised when large claw like formations began shooting out of the sand, grasping for him, though he kept his cool pretty well. He just smirked as he looked down at his hands, the mouths on them chewing quickly. He closed his hands into fists for a few seconds before reopening them up, revealing several small birds. "Let's see how you handle these babies." He remarked before having his clay bird swoop towards Gaara. He then flung them outwards, which the birds took flight. They began swooping down and hitting the claw like sand arms, causing explosions. Some even ventured close to Gaara but not close enough to hit him.

Still, that wasn't what Deidara was actually planning. He flung out much larger clay birds, sending them flying very quickly towards Gaara. They were definitely faster than the smaller birds. But then again, they did have four wings. He dipped his head down a little and lashed out his hands, summoning sand to intercept the birds. But to his annoyance, the birds flew right around the sand and headed straight towards him.

'Brat!' Shukaku snarled at him.

'I know, Shukaku! I know!' Gaara thought quickly to the demon as he quickly called up sand all around him, forming the sand sphere. There was an explosion outside the sphere but it didn't touch him, much to his relief. Still, he couldn't see what was going on outside, so he quickly gathered up sand into his hand, forming the third eyeball and sent it outside to take a look.

Before him, Deidara was watching with a smirk on his face, while the villagers below watched with horror and shock as they had just watched the huge explosion. Gaara spotted Kankuro with Baki, watching with shock but breathing with relief as he saw that Gaara had not been harmed. Yet. Turning his gaze back onto Deidara, Gaara smirked when he noticed that the clay bomber didn't even notice the huge wave of sand starting to rise up right behind him. It was Shukaku's doing, of course, but it was working. It was when the shadows fell over Deidara did he spin around and looked stunned up at the wave now closing around him. He gritted his teeth before bending low to the bird and let it just soar, trying to escape the sand prison forming around him.

And Deidara almost made it out.

But alas, the clay bird went colliding with the sandy walls of Shukaku's little prison and ended up getting caught in the sand. Tendrils began wrapping around Deidara, encasing him in a cocoon of sand. Of course, Deidara tried to fight himself free but he was completely trapped. The sand just grew bigger and bigger until it became a sphere just like Gaara's. Only it was Deidara inside of it.

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion on the side, much to Gaara's annoyance. A huge hole formed on the side and out came flying Deidara, with his trickster's grin on his face. He merely glanced over his shoulder at Gaara's sphere before allowing himself to fall towards the Village. But of course, Gaara wasn't going to let him get away that easily. He sent sand flying after Deidara, which took him by surprise when sand wrapped around his leg and began swinging him around like a doll. Then it flung him back towards Shukaku's sand prison, which opened up to swallow him. The demon was actually very enthusiastic about getting a meal. He was calling out for Deidara's blood and Gaara was actually going to let him have it. Normally he wouldn't due to it was a monstrosity but this was an Akatsuki. Deidara had helped Sasori kill his parents and had put a lot of lives in danger and pain.

However, before Deidara could collide with the sand death trap, he did a few flips in the air before throwing out clay, which burst into smoke and formed a huge owl, which he landed on. The owl immediately swooped away from Shukaku's grasping claws, much to the demon's rage. The sand sphere immediately opened up and began chasing after Deidara once again. Thick tendrils of sand nearly covered the sky trying to get a hold of the blonde clay bomber.

Frowning, Gaara made some of the sand over his sphere move so that he could have a better view of what was going on. He watched as Deidara dodged the sand with strained effort. He almost smirked coldly when a tendril of sand finally caught Deidara by the left arm, who gritted his teeth and glared down at it. But without hesitating, Gaara reached upward and clenched his fist as if to crush him. Of course, Deidara would not go down with a fight. He reached into his bag at his hip and grabbed more clay from within it before flinging it downwards at Gaara. Only this time, it wasn't a bird. It was a huge centipede and it was twisting and twirling itself around the sand connected to his arm. It wrapped itself around the tendril before exploding when Deidara formed a one hand sign with his freed hand.

There was a huge explosion as sand was flung in many directions. Gaara only narrowed his eyes but smirked when there was still sand clinging to a surprised Deidara's arm. He clenched his fist tight and the sand around Deidara's arm crushed it.

The clay bomber could not hold back the cry of pain as blood began to squeeze through the sand, soaking into the grains. But the damage was done as Deidara yanked himself free from the sand. The owl flew higher out of reach before turning sharply. Deidara was no doubt in a lot of pain just by the look on his face. He reached over and touched his crushed arm, letting blood trail along his fingers before he gave Gaara a very cold look. He was in not even a single doubt angry now. "You want to play like that, un?" He hissed through his gritted teeth before his lips curved into a smirk. He reached into his clay bag and grabbed a huge chunk of clay. With one hand, he began forming something out of the clay. By the looks of it, it was going to be big.

Gaara could only watched through narrowed eyes as he had the sand patch rise a little higher to get a better look at what Deidara was planning. He frowned when he saw Deidara make a large clump like statue. It didn't even look bird like or anything. It was just like some kind of ghost.

"See this? This is my masterpiece." Deidara said as he held it up, moving a little closer to the edge of his owl. He held it up higher so that Gaara could see it. "It contains the power of C4 Chakra. With this, I'll destroy this entire village, seeing that's what you've come here for anyway." He said before he flung it forward. With a burst of smoke, the clay bomb grew bigger, much bigger. It was bigger than Deidara and the clay owl put together.

Gaara's eyes widened with alarm as he watched the bird starting to fall. He heard people begin to scream from below as the huge clay bomb began to fall towards the village. 'No!' He thought to himself before he slammed his hands together and began calling all of the sand that he could towards the village. He could not let Deidara destroy the Sand Village just because he had been winning the fight. He had caught sight of the look of horror on everyone's faces. He had seen Kankuro looking wide eyed up at him as he watched the bomb falling, ready to obliterate the village. He had even caught sight of a terrified Quoi looking up from the crowd. Mustering all that he could, Gaara narrowed his eyes as a sweat broke out on his forehead as he called for more and more sand.

And then the bomb exploded above the Village.

Terrified screams racked the village as people covered their heads, waiting for fire to consume them and end their lives. But the only thing that fell upon them was grains of sand, followed by an eerie silence.

There was a long silence all throughout the village before everyone; Kankuro, the Sand Ninja, the Elders and the civilians looked up to see what had just happened. Some winced as a few grains of sand fell onto their faces but the sight they saw made them all gasp with shock and alarm.

There was a huge shield of sand hovering right above them. It was like half of the desert had answered Gaara's summons and came to protect the village.

By this time, Gaara was feeling the extreme strain on him. He could only look down, breathing hard as he looked at what he had just done. His chest was heaving and he felt exhausted after using most of his Chakra to call for all of that sand. He had used the Jutsu from the Secret Scroll that Elder Chiyo had given him. He was using the power of the desert, calling for it to aid the Village. And it had done what he needed it to do. Save the lives of the Sand Village.

"Got ya, un?" Deidara said chuckling, raising his hand.

Blinking in surprise from hearing his voice, Gaara's head shot up only to look off to the side as a clay bird came swooping towards him. He quickly called sand to patch up the hole he had been looking out of to avoid collision. There was another explosion, which startled most of the Villagers and the Sand Ninja. They all looked up with horror to see if their savior had just been hurt. "Gaara!" Kankuro bellowed with horror and pain. He couldn't believe that this fight was spiraling out of control like this.

There was a long silence before the smoke cleared away, revealing a full sand sphere. It made several breath in relief. Gaara had called the sand in time before the impact.

However, within the sphere, Gaara was panting heavily as he felt so tired from all the use of his Chakra. He was starting to wear down thin. He couldn't believe on how much Chakra he had used just to fight this one Akatsuki. He knew if fighting one Akatsuki was going to be this hard, it was going to be much harder to fight all of the Akatsuki if they decided to gang up on him.

Suddenly he felt a shift in his sand sphere, making his head whip around to see tiny white clay bugs burrowing through the sphere. He felt his chest tighten when he saw them squeezing through the grains of sand. "No!" He couldn't help but exclaim. There was a huge explosion all around him as the clay bugs exploded.

It made several scream out with horror, including Kankuro as he watched as Gaara's Sand Sphere exploded from within. He shook his head as he looked up with horror. He knew that Gaara was in serious trouble right now and that he needed help. But he really didn't know what he could do. This was his fight against Deidara. Besides, there was a possibility that he was okay. So the Puppet Master could only watch, and cross his fingers.

A few moments later, the sand sphere melted away and most of it fell, with only a decent sized holding up a slumped over Gaara, who was breathing very hard and looking like he was about to pass out any second. And he knew he was going to soon. He could already see the darkness creeping up on him. But there was one thing keeping him from falling unconscious first. His eyes flickered over to the large mass of sand hovering over the village, noting that some were starting to fall as it was. He was starting to lose control over it and he knew that if the entire mass just fell, it could crush the people in the streets. He couldn't allow that to happen. So with one eye closed in pain, he rose a hand and tried his hardest to push all of the sand away.

And slowly, it drifted away from the Village.

"He's….he's using the last of his strength to remove the sand from over the village!" Baki exclaimed in realization. Kankuro shook his head as he watched with wide eyes but then he gritted his teeth. He knew that Baki had a point. If Gaara was using the last of his strength to get rid of the sand, he knew that at any minute, his little brother was going to collapse. And he swore he was going to be there to defend him when he did. So he bolted away from Baki and started running towards the area where he believed that Gaara was going to fall. "Kankuro! Wait!" Baki called but he was ignored.

Gaara fought his hardest to keep the sand from falling onto the village, and the sand from collapsing from under himself. He was fighting very hard to keep himself up in the air. But it wasn't easy. He even started to slip a little but he strained himself from falling.

However, once the sand was back in the desert where it belonged, he could only dump all of that sand before he felt the control just spiral out of his reach. He sighed with mild relief that he managed to keep all of the sand he used from dumping onto the Sand Village before he, himself, fell right out of the air after losing control over his patch of sand. He heard a few cries of alarm from some of the Sand Ninja below but it couldn't be helped at all. He only fell towards the village, himself, as darkness started to fill his vision.

That is, until he felt himself collide with something. Gaara winced a little, barely managing to keep his eyes open. He could only glance over to see what he had just fallen on and to his painful horror, it had been Deidara's clay owl. The clay bomber had actually swooped down and caught himself before having the clay tail feathers of his ride wrap around him, trapping him onto it. He knew that he was in a whole lot of trouble. Especially when the Akatsuki member turned and smirked down at him. "You put up a pretty good fight, un? But not good enough." He remarked before he grabbed a hold of the bird under him and controlled it to fly off, towards the boundaries of the Village.

For Gaara, it went completely dark for him. He closed his eyes, wincing in pain. The fight had taken a huge toll on him. He could barely move, even without the bird binding him to it. His mind, however, trailed to Naruto with a feeling of dread. If he didn't find an inch of strength, he knew that Naruto would probably be next. 'Sh-Shuka…Sh-Shukaku.' He thought weakly to the sand demon. 'Shu-Shukaku….can….can you…..take over?'

The only reply from the demon was a weary groan, so obviously the sand demon, himself could not even find his own strength to answer. And then darkness consumed Gaara.

"GAARA!!" Kankuro screamed from below as he watched as the Akatsuki taking his brother. "NO!! GAARA!!" he bolted after the bird, ignoring Baki's cries after him. He was not going to stop. He was not going to let Deidara take his little brother! He had to save him! He knew that if he didn't, Gaara would die.

Baki watched as Kankuro ran as fast as he could after Deidara's clay ride. He knew that the Puppeteer was going to stop at nothing to saving Gaara. He couldn't blame him. Over the past three years, Gaara and Kankuro had become very close to one another. They were as close as brothers should be. But he also knew that if Gaara could barely stand a chance against Deidara, there was no way that Kankuro could. No matter how skilled he was. Whirling around, he looked at the remaining Sand Ninja and some of the civilians. "We have to stop Deidara! We have to catch him! Any able Ninja! Immediately pursue the Akatsuki! Save the Kazekage!" He looked sharply at the Elders, who looked hesitant. "We have to send a message to the Hidden Leaf Village immediately! The Hokage needs to know about the situation! Temari needs to know what's happening to Gaara! Send our fastest eagle to her now!" He barked, taking control immediately.

Several Sand Ninja hesitated but after receiving the dangerous look from Baki, they chose to do as he told them. So they immediately bolted after Kankuro. The Elders could only glance at one another, almost as if they were trying to decide to listen to Baki or not. But then Chiyo nodded when they looked at her. Immediately, an Elder rushed towards the Aviary.

Near the gates of the Village, Deidara swooped down only to meet a hunched over figure, which was actually Sasori, himself. He had been waiting there for some time now, waiting impatiently for Deidara to find the One Tailed. Ever since Zetsu showed up and told that he had found Gaara of the Sand within the village, he immediately set the plan that they would finally leave the Sand Village with their prey and go back to the Headquarters to extract the demon from the host. He had made Deidara go out to find the host, as it was.

So when Deidara finally showed up with Gaara on the back of his clay ride, Sasori gave the blonde Akatsuki a very impatient look. "It's about time!" He growled at him.

Deidara scoffed at his Akatsuki partner before hopping down, wincing a little at his crushed left arm. He just shook his head as he leaned against his clay ride. He didn't look particularly happy that Sasori was scolding him. "Hey, hey! This guy was pretty tough, un? Look what he did to my arm!" He snapped, pointing at his arm.

Sasori only rolled his eyes but then turned away, already making his way out of the Sand Village. "Whatever. Let's get back to the Headquarters now. We have done what we needed to do to trap the One Tailed here. Just like the Leader said. He knew that the One Tailed Host could not resist on returning here if we caused the people harm." He said in a cackling voice before he and Deidara started out into the desert. It was time to extract the One Tailed Beast from Gaara of the Sand.

However, it was by dawn did someone finally catch up. Kankuro had finally caught up with Sasori and Deidara. He had succeeded his goal to catch up to them. But it did not mean, he succeeded in getting Gaara back.