"Bya-chan…I'm sorry." Deidara suddenly felt compelled to say. She looked over at him curiously. "I'm sorry that I dragged you into this, and that I ignored you, and that I've been a general as--dragon, yeah." He turned to face her, grinning. It was obviously a fake grin, she could tell that, but she smiled gratefully nonetheless.

"Ah, it's okay, Deidara-kun…" She replied simply.

The grin became a bit more forced. "I'm sorry I'm going to have to leave you, yeah. But you can go back to your cousin after this; you don't have any alliance with the Akatsuki, really." She probably had no idea how much preparation it took for him to say those words, but it needed to be done. Sasori was also looking at him at that point, coolly evaluating him with that flat stare of his. Deidara hated his guts. But he ignored him; his real partner deserved his attention right now.

"Huh?" Was all she said, looking confused. But he could tell she was starting to catch on. Realization was leaking into her beautiful white eyes.

"My promise still stands. I'll protect you, yeah. But…after this, I won't be able to do anything." He placed his hands on her shoulders, pleased when she didn't flinch away. The blonde hung his head, instead staring at the ground.

"You knew, this whole time?" Sasori asked quietly, rhetorically. "I see. You aren't as stupid as what I first thought."

As much as he didn't want to rise to the bait, Deidara had a few questions to ask the Akatsuki member, and now was as good a time as ever. "Sasori, is that why you chose to tell me all this? Because I wouldn't live to tell Leader-sama?"

"Yes." He replied simply, and let it drop at that.

Huffing at the redhead's arrogance, he finally forced himself to look back at the dark-haired kunoichi. She looked back at him, feigned ignorance gone. "Th-This is a suicide mission, isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"Then we're just going to have to surprise everyone, aren't we?"

Deidara blinked at her courage, then relaxed and smiled. He ducked his head once in a nod, and the smile hardened into a grin. "Oh yeah. Ready, Bya-chan?"

-.-.-

The Kazekage sat at his desk, boredly looking over some inane political document concerning tariffs on imports from Konoha. Frankly, he didn't much care. Most of it was just a cover for the Leaf to try to hoard money, still trying to get over its minor depression from a lack of proper shinobi. It really wasn't his fault that their standards were slipping and too many ninja were dying on missions.

He glanced out with a flat look at the night lights of his village, the sand in his gourd rustling quietly. Nothing was amiss, at least nothing obvious. The night was still, perhaps a bit too still, but it could just be signaling a coming storm.

He stood up, giving up on the document. Gaara really didn't give a damn about it, so long as it was worked out peacefully. He was bored, pure and simple, and a bored insomniac Jinchuuriki was nothing to shake a stick at. Morning--and the bustle and business that it brought with it--wouldn't come for quite awhile. And only the night staff and some ANBU were out at this time, anyway.

One of the messenger hawks, an unimportant one, flew by his window. It was departing, by the looks of it, for Konohagakure. Probably announcing some mission into foreign lands, Gaara surmised, and turned his face from the window.

He had a job to do, as the Kazekage, he knew that. But sometimes, it really was just so boring. No doubt Naruto will throw a fit when he finds out just how boring, the redhead thought with almost-amusement. He did believe that one day, his blonde friend would become the Hokage. (And truthfully, he would like the fellow Jinchuuriki much more as the Hokage than the loud, busty old woman who was currently in charge. She yelled and drank too much.)

Against his wishes, his pale eyes were drawn back to the window. The night really was still. Unnaturally still. It really must be quite the storm that was coming.

-.-.-

The guard looked surprised--or suddenly awake, at any rate--at the arrival of two visitors from out of the darkness. One of them was short, and only covered in a light traveling cloak with the hood down. Unsuspicious enough. The other, on the other hand, was taller, shrouded in shadows, with a full-length cloak with the hood up. Definitely not friendly.

"Halt. State your business with Sunagakure." The guard commanded in a low voice. The pair stopped, but stayed silent for long enough that the man was afraid he'd have to repeat himself.

But then, the shorter one spoke. "Hy-Hyuuga Hinata. Heiress of the Hyuuga clan, from Konohagakure. I-I have business with Kazekage-sama…?" It was undoubtedly female, and shy from the sound of it. Narrowing his eyes and peering into the night, the guard saw the tell-tale dark hair and white eyes that supported her story. The Konoha hitai-ate tied around her neck proved it.

"And who is your…escort?" He asked gruffly.

"ANBU." The taller figure replied shortly, in a male voice. It would make sense, a Konoha ambassador traveling alone with an ANBU guard. Quicker and safer that way. He stepped forward, and raised his head enough for the guard to see the feline mask underneath the hood.

True, ANBU could be faked easily enough, but the Byakugan and Leaf headband not so much.

The man stepped aside, allowing the two access into the narrow passageway into the village. The Hyuuga girl nodded politely as she passed, keeping her white eyes staring forward. The guard turned his gaze outward into the desert night once more, not seeing the two shadows follow them inside Sunagakure.

-.-.-

Hinata was trying hard not to show any outward signs of panic. But inside, her heart was racing and her thoughts were even more so. She'd suspected that this was a suicide mission all along, but it was a quiet suspicion hanging out in the back of her mind. Finding out that they weren't supposed to come back alive, officially, was a different story. The other three seemed unperturbed, which only made it worse.

Glancing around and finally activating her bloodline limit, she whispered, "All clear."

Deidara practically materialized out of thin air beside her, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Good job, Bya-chan." He whispered into her ear, doing his own once-over of the scene.

"Aren't you glad that I didn't let you scratch my hitai-ate after all?" She asked lightly, unable to resist. He just looked properly chagrined, but said nothing more.

"This way." Sasori muttered, motioning them forward further into the village. In his Suna attire (cloak conspicuously missing), he could pass for any citizen easily. Hinata and Kabuto were now safely inside, and it was only Deidara who would stand out in a bad way. He disappeared into the many shadows of the town, and to his credit, she couldn't have spotted him without the Byakugan.

The squad slunk farther into the city, dodging conspicuously guarded places and residential areas. They had a close call with a Suna ANBU, but aside from Deidara looking like he wanted to rip the ninja's throat out, they got by safely. The Kazekage tower was easily the most distinguishable building there, but the only thing that they had to go one was that Gaara was an insomniac and would probably be there, working.

"I'm going up, yeah." Deidara said, reaching into his clay pouch. Sasori stopped him, shaking his head.

"No. Too conspicuous; you'd be spotted in an instant. We're already in, so we're going to have to go in by ground. When we're spotted you can fly as high as you like, brat." He said quietly.

Hinata sighed; Sasori didn't even have the decency to say 'if' instead of 'when'…he really was impossible.

But then, as they all silently neared the tower, the Hyuuga got her first good look at Gaara's chakra for the first time in three years. It was massive, powerful, and strangely…sinister. It took her awhile to adjust (and to stop herself from staring), but finally she managed to convey to the others that the target was, indeed, inside.

"This is it, then." Kabuto said quietly, slipping off his ANBU mask to stare placidly up into the tower. "We got you in, Sasori-sama. The rest is up to you two."

"Don't flatter yourself, Kabuto." He replied in a growl. The medic didn't reply, just sliding the mask back down to cover his face. Hinata almost, almost felt sorry for Sasori; she knew what it was like dealing with Kabuto sometimes. But the moment passed, and the redhead earned no further pity.

"This is it, yeah…" Deidara breathed, staring up into tower. He slowly broke out into a broad grin, eye widening. She'd noticed that when the blonde was genuinely scared, he covered it with his cheerful attitude and art. He turned to face her, positively gleeful and looking more than a bit manic. But when he spoke, his voice was even and quiet. "Bya-chan…when I die, run for it. Yeah?"

She frowned, a bit frightened herself that he was so pessimistic about his immediate future. Shaking her head, she replied haltingly, "Y-You won't d-die, Deidara-kun…" You can't.

His grin widened. "Don't worry, Bya-chan. I'm not scared, yeah."

Liar, she realized, looking up into his eyes. There was a joy for the coming fight, the hidden bloodlust that every shinobi had, and hidden even deeper was pure desperation. Desperation to stay alive, to fight his way out of this suicidal mission, to stay with his precious people. Desperation was a stronger and scarier emotion than fear to be backing someone.

Maybe that was what they needed.

Just looking into his eye like that made her feel some of that same raw desperation. She had seen Gaara in action. Twice. And that was three years ago, when he was young and couldn't control his sand nearly as well. Not to mention all of the other shinobi that would come swarming onto the scene once the fight started. Hinata blinked, and forced herself to look down at her hands.

"Dei-Deidara-kun…you w-won't die." She repeated, partly for him, mostly for her. "You're Akatsuki n-now…You'll be fine. We all will."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right; it'd be too much to hope for if Sasori could kick the bucket, yeah." He added, loud enough for the redhead to hear. (Sasori just flipped him off.) Then, quieter, the blonde leaned down until his forehead was touching hers and added, "We can do this, can't we?"

"Yes. We can." Hinata said, as bravely as she could. Truth was, inside she was starting to feel how Deidara looked. Panicky and desperate.

"Kiss me goodbye?" She reddened at the request, unsure of whether or not she had heard him correctly. But looking at him erased all of the doubt she had about her hearing ability. The dark-haired kunoichi leaned up on the tips of her toes to plant a small peck on his cheek, but he turned his head, catching her mouth in his. Hinata was surprised (and a bit embarrassed, for some reason she couldn't name), but as quickly as he returned the kiss, he cut it off.

Deidara disappeared back into the shadows, and she followed his movements up into the tower. For the oddest reason…that really had seemed like goodbye. It seemed final, somehow. Rubbing away the tears that welled up in her eyes with her sleeve, Hinata glanced back at the other two men. Kabuto was as stoic and emotionless as ever, and Sasori looked the usual--bored. "This is why I don't like kunoichi…" He muttered, shaking his head.

"W-Well, if you don't want me to replace Deidara-kun, you better go up there and h-help him!" She replied irritably.

"I think not. This is his mission. Frankly, I'm hoping he dies." The redhead examined his purple-painted nails idly. Hinata glared at him for a moment, then jumped up onto the nearest roof to follow Deidara.

-.-.-

He knew she would follow him up, and he'd taken that into account for the upcoming fight. What the Iwa-nin hadn't taken into account was that she would go straight to the Kazekage's room in the tower. Deidara swore mentally, trying to somehow silently call her back, but the Hyuuga either didn't notice him or ignored him. She landed lightly on the outside balcony, stepping over toward the door, tying back her hair in a higher ponytail as she walked.

A redheaded man was suddenly there, in front of her. Deidara actually had to do a double-take, to make sure it wasn't Sasori. But this man had lighter hair, and from what he could tell, dark rings around his light eyes. And he was taller than Sasori as well.

The blonde mentally panicked from his hidden spot on the roof above them. Why did Bya-chan do that?! Why did she confront him?! Ack, this isn't good, he tried to think of a strategy to get around this new obstacle.

"Hyuuga-san." The redheaded Kazekage stated, his voice just as emotionless as Sasori's. Against his will, Deidara leaned down closer to hear the conversation, while stealthily slipping some clay into the mouths on his hands. Might as well be prepared…

"Kazekage-sama." She replied clearly, bowing slightly.

"I wasn't aware that a Konoha ambassador would be coming." The target remarked casually, spotting the biggest hole in their plan easily.

"I haven't come as a Konoha ambassador--but as a Hyuuga ambassador, Gaara-sama." Deidara silently congratulated her on fielding that inquiry, at least temporarily.

"Kazekage-sama will do." He corrected her, rather coldly. "And, as a Hyuuga, what business do you have in Sunagakure?"

She visibly winced, and the blonde could sense that this was heading downhill, very fast. He crept down onto the overhang above the balcony, his mouths spitting out a small array of clay birds. He'd have to act quickly, while he still had the element of surprise and before action was taken. "I-I, um, I wanted to talk to y-you about the political standing of the Hyuuga clan in Ko-Konoha…" She said vaguely, stuttering again.

"Is that why you chose to infiltrate my village with three foreign shinobi?" Gaara asked calmly. For the first time, the large gourd strapped to his back came to life. The cork popped out, almost on its own, and what appeared to be sand slithered out menacingly. Deidara didn't wait for anything further; he threw the birds into the air and jumped downward, maximizing his art with a hand sign.

But instead of landing on the Kazekage's head, like he'd wanted to, a large wave of sand rose up and blocked him. Next thing he knew, the Iwa-nin was knee-deep in sadistic sand that was hanging him upside-down in front of his target (who hadn't batted an eye).

The kunoichi hardened her gaze and activated her famed bloodline limit, sinking into the Juuken stance. Deidara told her not to do anything--yet--with a wave of his hand. Instead, he stared, upside-down, into the pale green eyes of his target.

"Who are you?" Gaara asked, his voice just as calm as it had been a moment earlier. The sand around his feet tightened, but Deidara just kept the grin plastered on his face.

"I'm Akatsuki, yeah." He chirped, and raised one hand in the detonating sign. One of the birds behind them exploded, and as the sand rushed back to protect him from the blast, Deidara was released. He jumped backward to the edge of the balcony, tugging on his partner's sleeve to bring her back out of immediate range as well. (Then again, he wouldn't have known Gaara's immediate range if it smacked him in the face.)

The explosion unfortunately acted like a signal to all of the shinobi on guard, and woke up quite a few of the houses in the nearby vicinity. She pointed to their right, where a trio of ANBU were closing in on the situation, and Deidara had decided he'd had enough ANBU to last him a lifetime, and called one of his other birds over. It grew in another puff of smoke, and before anyone else could react, the pair were soaring above Suna.

"D-Deidara-kun, that wasn't very smart!" She admonished him, clinging to his arm on the unsteady bird. Once it got to a proper altitude, it stabilized, and she shyly let go of him.

He just shrugged in response. "Evidently neither of us were very smart, yeah. He knew." The blonde tightened his hair tie, and leaned over the bird's wing to look down at the scene. Sasori and Kabuto were screwed over if they got into that mess. ANBU and regular jounin were swarming around the Kazekage, who still seemed completely emotionless, the calm in the middle of the storm. Gaara was staring up at them, eyes narrowed slightly. "Hmm…I'm going to want to fight him on the ground, save clay…we need him alive, don't we, yeah?"

"Yes, Sasori said that…" She nodded fretfully, keeping her Byakugan active.

"I wonder why. This isn't just a normal assassination mission, that's for sure…" He turned back to look down at the scene, grinning as more and more lights blinked on and more shinobi came onto the scene. The newest Akatsuki member couldn't see Sasori or Kabuto (but with all of the ANBU on the scene, the silver-haired traitor could've easily blended in).

But then, suddenly, the strangest thing happened. No less than seven men below suddenly fell, and didn't get back up. But quicker than that, the ANBU had spotted the perpetrator. Somewhere along the line, Kabuto had lost his mask, and instead was smirking as he darted off into the city, practically half of the forces following him. Never one to waste an opportunity, Deidara scattered the remaining shinobi with a well-placed explosion.

(Sasori was still nowhere to be seen, that jerk.)

Deidara left her on the bird, and flat-out jumped back down onto the balcony as jounin, chuunin and ANBU alike were trying to clear the smoke and reorient themselves. Laughing to himself, the Iwa-nin ducked under a wild flail from one man, bringing up a kunai into his throat a second later. Two more ninja fell to kunai before the smoke from the explosion cleared.

The blonde hastily counted about eight or nine remaining, and then Gaara himself (who hadn't moved for any of it). The odds were not in his favor, but then again, when were they ever? Two ANBU, masked as a hawk and a rabbit, charged. Deidara just let his hatred for all things masked and mysterious flow down into his movements, whipping out a pair of kunai in each hand. One of them he pegged through the eyeholes, but the second one ducked the same barrage.

The hare-masked ANBU nearly decapitated him with an over-wide swing, but he jerked backward, turned it into a flip, and his heel caught her under her chin with a satisfying crunch. Swearing, the ANBU kunoichi attempted to backpedal out of the way of his next kick, but she couldn't dodge the following one. The force of it sent her flying into the tower's wall, and she didn't get back up.

Deidara didn't like hand-to-hand combat; it was the reason he became an explosives user. But he was running low on clay, having wasted two bombs already in Suna. He'd have to save the remaining amount for Gaara.

Speaking of the Kazekage, the blonde looked up just in time to jump out of the way of a wave of sand that very nearly caught hold of his ankle. The sand shifted and followed him upward, and Deidara called the bird with the Hyuuga on it to come down and catch him before the sand caught up with him. But just as he wrapped his arm around the owl's foot, a dark form from above jumped down and landed in the midst of all of the sand.

"Shit! Bya-chan, get back here!" He shouted in vain after her, watching with a wide eye as she performed that odd spinning attack she called the Kaiten. It kept the sand away from her long enough for her to dart forward, almost close enough to attack the redhead directly. But once again, his sand came up and protected him, blocking her at the same time. She twirled out of the way, but it reached out and caught her wrist, holding her.

Gaara emerged from the sand cave, looking positively demonic in the shadow it created. His eyes had widened, and a cracked grin adorned his previously impassive mask. Deidara swore again, and his remaining bird flapped down to attempt to rescue her. Some of the desert sand from below them reared up and impaled the clay bird through the chest before it could get close enough to do anything, however. The bomb detonated, harmlessly away from anyone, raining bits of clay and sand.

The blonde missing-nin jumped down from his bird, landing awkwardly on top of the sand dome above the Kazekage. The sand immediately shifted to throw him off balance, but either by a stroke of sheer luck or stupidity, Deidara somehow managed to fall inside the sphere--on top of Gaara. The sand gripping the Hyuuga's wrist instantly let her go and turned back in on itself to attack him. Deidara didn't have time to question it, and instead dodged the spikes and tried to land a solid kick or punch or hit on the surprised redhead.

The one time his knee made contact with his stomach, however, it hit something much too hard and rough to be any shinobi's belly. Sand around the area cracked and chipped away, and yet again, Deidara swore; he was wearing the sand like armor. Desperately, he called in his last active bird, and it made it to the opening in front of the dome before getting stopped.

"Katsu!" He shouted, and it exploded not two feet from them both.

The blast sent both of them through the back wall of the sand cave, Gaara into the Kazekage tower and Deidara over the edge of the balcony. He caught himself at the edge, and hauled himself back onto safe ground (barely, but it was better than going squish on the sand below), just in time to see his white-eyed partner start her own close-combat assault on the target.

She was using her traditional Juuken strikes, but they were hardly doing anything. In fact, they weren't doing anything except slowly chipping away at the sand armor. (And if this Suna-nin had as much chakra as she said he did, he doubt that a few Juuken strikes would seriously hinder him.) But better yet, it was keeping him mostly immobile. With her blocking his every movement and forcing him back against the wall with her gentle-but-forceful hits, it bought Deidara enough time to dip into his dwindling clay and start molding his art again.

But soon enough, Gaara got enough of an opening to push her back. The sand whipped around his arm and thrust into her stomach as a sharpened spike, impaling her cleanly and throwing her aside easily. She laid there limply, not stirring.

It killed Deidara inside to ignore her at this time, but he had to act before he could get more of his sand to rush to his defense again. This was a desperate time, and it called for desperate measures. Taking a bite out of his clay, the Iwa-nin chewed it as the mouths on his hands spat out another flock of clay birds. He flat-out threw them in Gaara's direction, still minimized and hopefully less noticeable. The redhead called up another sand shield, blocking all but two. The blocked ones detonated on impact, creating enough of a distraction and tying up his sand to allow the two that got through to get closer.

Running over to check on the wounded kunoichi, the pair of mini birds exploded. Grinning in spite of his partner's situation, Deidara looked over his shoulder to see a furious Gaara, bleeding from a head wound and raising his hands for his sand to come back.

Kabuto, perfectly timed as always, appeared with a Shunshin and a swirl of his black traveling cloak. He was soaked in blood, but he didn't appear to be injured. "My, my, having fun here?" He asked calmly, ignoring the fact that a clawed arm of sand aimed for Deidara that missed nearly tore off his head.

"Heal her." He ground out, holding his shoulder where the clawed hand had almost completely missed. "Where's Sasori, yeah?"

"I'm not sure where Sasori-sama is." The medic replied lightly, indicating that he really did but didn't feel like sharing that information. He knelt down, wiping a stray lock of his red-dyed hair out of his eyes, and quickly assessed her injuries. Glancing back up, Kabuto deadpanned, "Don't you have a fight to be winning?"

Deidara, who had been watching and worrying, gave a guilty start and nodded. "Right. Yeah."

He turned, half afraid and half curious to see what had kept Gaara busy enough to allow that transaction. (It didn't matter what it was now; Deidara would have to distract him to allow Kabuto to heal the Hyuuga.) What surprised him was that a very familiar and a not-so-familiar puppet were assaulting the Kazekage, an amused Sasori sitting directly above them on the edge of the overhang. He, too, had blood splattered across his face, but didn't appear to be hurt. (Which was a bit of a let down.)

"Done having your chat, brat?" The redheaded Akatsuki member asked lightly, raising his eyebrows. He didn't have time to wait for a reply, however, as Hiruko's tail was ripped off by a giant hand of sand. Sasori frowned, and a black-cloaked puppet with black hair that Gaara looked furious about darted forward and something dark and dense streamed out of its open mouth.

"Who are you?!" The Kazekage demanded, glaring up at Sasori, who was hidden in shadows. "What did you do, desecrating sacred remains?"

"I'm just a puppeteer, having fun with my marionettes…" He replied with obvious amusement. The dark and dense stuff turned out to be some sort of sand, and it appeared to be stronger than Gaara's regular sand. Deidara jumped up and landed beside his Akatsuki partner, raising his eyebrow at a large scroll that was sitting beside him. Sasori glanced up at him, and before he could ask, explained, "I wanted some more reading material for the trip back. Shouldn't you be fighting this battle, not I?"

"So why are you?" The Iwa-nin retorted, and the art-nin sitting beside him shrugged. He made a few signs with his hands, and pulling a smaller scroll out from his sleeve, the puppets below disappeared and a sign appeared on the outside of the paper. Deidara blanched. "I didn't mean for you to stop, yeah!" He shouted, jumping down from the roof to fight his own fight.

-.-.-

Hinata awoke without realizing that she had fallen asleep in the first place. But after a moment, the situation leading up until now came flooding back, and she hastily jumped to her feet. Kabuto, who was kneeling beside her, tugged her back down. "Not so fast there. I've only healed your internal bleeding; you still have a large hole in you." The medic stated matter-of-factly.

She obediently sat back down, but activated her Byakugan. Deidara and Gaara were behind them, and it appeared that Sasori was above them. Odd, until she realized that he was just on the roof. Gaara's chakra didn't seem depleted or damaged in the least, whereas Deidara's looked like it was starting to feel the strain. His clay pouch was over half empty as well.

She noticed that Kabuto was covered in blood for the first time. "A-Are you--"

"--alright? I can assure you, this isn't my blood. I was just playing with the ANBU." He smiled innocently, the epitome of blamelessness. Hinata blinked, and decided not to think just how much fun he had with them. "Why are you so eager to join that fight again? It's going to turn into a blood bath soon." He paused, hands held over her stomach, and looked intently at her.

She looked away from his probing gaze. "I-I'm not going to let Deidara-kun fight him alone. Gaara is a demon."

Kabuto relaxed a bit, and smirked. "You have no idea." That remark caught her attention, but before she could ask, he stood back up, wiping his bloody hands on his pants. "That will hold you for the remainder of the fight. If you live, I'll finish fixing you later."

"You're reassuring."

"I try."

Hinata looked back at him, assessing him for a brief moment. "Kabuto…you're a mystery."

"At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I repeat: you have no idea." He smiled, his natural fake smile, and waved her away.

Miffed at being dismissed so easily, Hinata turned and easily molded herself back into the battle's rhythm. Ducking under a reflexive wave of sand and dodging a more purposeful one, she found that she couldn't progress any farther. Deidara and Gaara were fighting at surprisingly close range, and while the sand was having problems keeping up with the pair of them, it definitely wasn't going to let her get any closer.

Struck by a sudden thought, Hinata looked at the small streams of chakra swirling through the sand. The Juuken had stopped all forms of chakra she'd come up against thus far…could it stop it? Hesitantly, she forced her own chakra into her palm, thrusting it against the nearest wall of sand. For a split second, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the sand started to crumble away until it was a large, dusty pile.

But before the Hyuuga could celebrate, it sprang back up to life and created the wall again.

So it would only be a temporary break, she thought dejectedly. And a short break at that. But then again, whatever works! Perhaps a pause in the onslaught of sand was all they needed to turn the tide…

Hinata started to slowly work her way inward, toward the fighting pair. All too soon she found out that her hands weren't fast enough, and couldn't keep up with the ever-growing aggression of the sand. After a too-late duck that left her with a nasty scrape along her jaw and neck, she was forced to retreat. The kunoichi jumped up onto the overhang, landing lightly beside Sasori, who was watching the fight below with evident amusement.

"It won't be long now…Deidara is starting to slow down. And I believe he's nearly run out of clay as well. The brat really doesn't know how to prepare, does he?" The redhead remarked, not sparing her a glance as she knelt down beside him, panting.

"Then why…aren't you…helping him…?" She rubbed her cheek, grimacing when her hand came away with a smear of blood.

"I have." He gave her a small shrug, keeping his eyes on the fight. "I'm waiting for the Jinchuuriki to truly start attacking. I think he's holding back because he wants to capture one of us for questioning. Either that, or he's tamed down since the attack on Konohagakure."

She winced again, and this time it had nothing to do with her injuries. Of course it would be impossible to hide the fact that the Sand and Sound attacked her village all those years ago, but for some reason, she hadn't thought that the Akatsuki had known…or that they weren't interested in it. Obviously she was incorrect in that assumption.

"If you don't…care about Deidara-kun…then why didn't you…kill him before?" Hinata asked in a moment of spite.

It was Sasori's turn to grimace. "I did try, you ignorant kunoichi. But Deidara was smarter than he looks, and Leader-sama had ordered me not to use my strongest puppets against him. Frankly I'm wondering why Deidara isn't trying in this fight, either--oh, there we go."

Hinata instantly looked downward to the fight, white eyes wide. Gaara had finally managed to get his sand wrapped around Deidara, and more of the redhead's weapon of choice was flowing onto the scene to further encase the blonde. The last thing she saw of him was his blue eye, widened with surprise. Then the Godaime Kazekage thrust one hand forward, in an eerily familiar movement.

"No--" She started, but the words below drown out her own.

"Sabaku Kyuu." Gaara deadpanned, closing his fist as the sand in front of him compacted with a sickening crunch.

-.-.-

Next Chapter: The games are stopped; no more playing with the prey. Gaara turns his aggressions onto Hinata, taking her betrayal of the Leaf as a personal wrong. Sasori sits by and lets it all happen. (Kabuto is an enigma, as ever.) Deidara is...well, what of Deidara? That Desert Coffin is quite the deadly thing, you know.