Part 2

Chapter 17

Sayomi's POV

My eyesight was the first thing that was affected by my Leaping. Every shinobi, especially Anbu members, was trained in utilizing even the tiniest source of light to be able to move about in the dark, even in a pitch-black night. I was able to see the path in front of me because of stars above, my only source of light, but by sunrise my eyes were seriously strained.

Another thing that didn't help my eyes was that I had cut the amount of times I'd blink and by moving so fast they got all dry. In order to keep a steady tempo of my leaps I didn't lower my seal at all and didn't ask for a pause. I did glance at Deidara here and there, only to see he encountered the same problem with the blinking and solved it by keeping his eyes closed. I didn't have that luxury.

Slowly but steady the darkness retreated, me noticing it by having a better visual of my surroundings. I could see further ahead which increased the distance I could travel, so the last hour or so I really overdid myself. I felt tired, my chakra supply was low, and all I wanted was to close my eyes and give them a little rest.

I stopped once the sun peeked from the horizon, illuminating the forest floor. I lowered both of my hands, leaning on the tree closest to me and letting out an exhale.

Deidara opened his eyes, stretching his leg and arms as I sat down on the dewy moss, my back pressed to the tree.

"You forgot to mention the downside of this is you being completely exhausted, un." He spoke, cracking his neck. I was all stiff myself, just not in the mood to take care of that right now.

"I usually do a short pause now and then. This is the first time I did it in one go." I finally closed my eyes.

"I dozed off at one point." He said and I chuckled. "While standing?"

"I thought I'd feel those leaps a bit more but you only notice it if you keep your eyes open. Other than that it's as if you're standing still, un." I smirked. Seems I proved myself.

"I still think flying is better." He had to add, making me sigh. "You used up all your chakra with this, and that leaves you at a disadvantage in case we get attacked."

"I know." I couldn't argue with that logic. "I'd normally crash in an inn after this and get some rest."

"Not in this part of the woods, un."

"Can you see what's ahead?" Based on my calculations, it should take us three to four days to reach Iwagakure, granted I use my Leaping each night.

"I could if I had my eye-piece." I took it out of my pouch, pressing it into his open palm.

He kept quiet for a suspicious amount of time after that, making me open my eye slightly to check what's going on. Deidara stood on the road in front of me, fiddling with something on the eye-piece before moving his bangs away and placing it over his eye. He kept the hair away with his hand as he stared down the road, his other eye closed shut.

"By the looks of it, a slope and then a bamboo forest in the distance." I grinned, knowing exactly which country begins with a huge field of bamboo.

"I wonder what that means." I faked, bursting out laughing as soon as he showed me his annoyed face.

"Fine, your jutsu is fast I'll give you that."

"Just fast? Aren't we on a border of Land of Fire and Kusagakure, hmm?" I continued to laugh, using this opportunity to gloat to the fullest. "We were still in Konoha not even twelve hours earlier."

"Good thing you didn't get me any clay, I'd blow you up with it, un." That didn't help calm down my laughter.

"I have an idea. Since you insist I fight you, I want you to have a race with me." I said through my laughter, making him raise his brow. "I'll use my Leaping and you use your birds. Let's check who's really the fastest." My grin came out while I was saying these words, finding myself relaxed enough to give him a challenge of my own. I trusted in the speed of my jutsu and all the training I had done, so I wanted to see if Deidara could pull a trick out of his sleeve and win over me.

I could already tell it'll be a lot of fun to train with him again.

"Oh you're on." He immediately agreed. The sun rays coming from behind him landed on his hair, giving it a golden hue and I quickly closed my eyes, not wishing to be caught staring again.

"Though I already won." He said as I listened to the sound of his footsteps coming closer.

"Based on what?"

"Flying doesn't tire me nearly as much, un." I felt him sitting next to me.

"That's your only argument." I muttered. "When I first attempted Shadow Leaping I didn't have enough stamina to keep it going for the whole night. I perfected the jutsu since then, though I refuse to do it unless it's necessary."

"Why?"

"I didn't have a reason to travel this fast, nowhere to hurry to really. I also switch day and night when I use it, which doesn't seem like a big problem until I have to reverse it." My eyelids felt heavy. I was ready to give in to my exhaustion.

"I'll just rest for a bit and then we can continue." He let out a "Mhm" under his breath as I reached into my pouch for the scroll I searched for yesterday, handing it to him without opening my eyes. "Take this in case we get attacked."

"What's in it?"

"A weapon. But that's only if we get attacked." He took the scroll as I yawned, pulling my knees close and crossing my hands, the tree behind me suddenly becoming a lot more comfortable than it was.

My idea was to take a quick nap until I fell asleep for real. I woke up after a couple of hours, only because sun managed to bypass all the branches and leaves on trees in front of me and settle directly on my face. The heat became unbearable after a while, effectively waking me up.

I stretched my back, blinking both sleep and the sun from my eyes. I turned to the side, bumping into Deidara's shoulder.

"Sorry." I said through a yawn. "It's so peaceful here, I haven't heard a sound."

"There wasn't any, un." He leaned forward, moving hair from his face.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

We continued down the path, soon coming to the slope Deidara mentioned. For a while we descended to a valley completely overgrown with bamboo. The forest was dense so it kept the sun out but the humidity inside it was insufferable. It was just as bad as the first time I had to walk through a bamboo forest, it still took a while to accustom to it.

It was late afternoon when we exited the forest and at around that time we took a pit stop, eating Yoshino's bento boxes. We continued on foot until sunset when I again made good use of the Leaping technique. Thankfully the night sky worked in my favor once more and by morning we had officially entered Land of Earth, both of us catching a few hours of sleep before proceeding.

The path we were on was narrow and faster than the main road, cutting the duration of our travel through Kusagakure in half. There was no danger of me Leaping directly into a tree when on the road, which was one of the main reasons I chose to travel this way. Second reason was the state of Deidara's leg, though so far it didn't pose a problem and he seemed secure in using it. As long as we keep this tempo we'll eventually join the main road and from then on it'll be easy to reach Iwa.

If there's one thing I learned during my years of travel, it was 'stick to the road'. Shinobi didn't use roads to travel, unless a mission specifically required it, which made it safer for us to travel and avoid being noticed by other shinobi.

We were walking in silence for hours now, not that it bothered me, but I came up with a couple of questions I wanted to ask him. That's why I spoke up.

"You mentioned I was a C2 level opponent." I think that's what he said it's called. "I know you can't demonstrate it right now, but I'd love to hear its description."

"It already crossed my mind, un." He glanced at me. "But words don't do it justice, you have to feel my art to truly understand its beauty and power."

"You're really not going to tell me?" I raised my brows as his lips twisted into a smirk. "I didn't say that, un."

"Kinda sounded like it. Come on, blow my mind." Well that was a wrong choice of words.

"That's exactly what I plan to do. Fine, listen up." He cleared his throat, his expression a dead giveaway he was enjoying himself right now. "The hand-mouths chew the clay, charging it with my Bakuton and transforming normal clay into Explosive Clay. My techniques vary depending on how much chakra I inject into that clay, un. The most basic explosives I have, done with my weakest chakra, are the C1 explosives."

"So C1 is the lowest level of your techniques?"

"They are easy to make but very effective, also versatile to the point of me molding whatever I want from it. Birds that can fly to enemies, spiders that crawl on top of you, the options are limitless, un."

"Can you control who's the target? Like if there are two people and you want your birds to attack only one of them." He nodded. "I can. With C1 I can also make clay clones and my birds for flying."

"Clay clones? Do you blow them up too?"

"It's a very effective trap." That means Deidara literally blew himself up.

"Most of the time C1 is enough to finish the job, un. But if the opponent seems worthy, I'll bring out my favorite art piece – the C2 Dragon."

"You've never made a dragon before." I turned to him with a smile. Wait, did he say it's only for the worthy opponents?

"For it to work flawlessly I'd need help from someone who can use Hide Like a Mole technique. Then they can hide the mines underground, turning the terrain into a mine field while I fly above the opponent on my dragon and target them with missiles. It's a combined trap attack from above and below, un." He talked about his jutsu so passionately, with excitement and pride, making me think he was actually waiting all along for me to ask him about it.

"That's actually a good tactic." I should get Deidara to try shogi sometime. "How did you come up with that?"

"I told you I had plenty of time to develop my skills while in the Akatsuki. I set out to find something that can make Sharingan useless and in the meantime I expanded on other ideas I came up with. I wanted to make a dragon, so I did, un."

"Did you make something that beats Sharingan in the end?"

"I thought I did." His eyes narrowed. "C4 was designed to take care of Uchiha, mainly Itachi, but I didn't consider his younger brother having Raiton and using it to diffuse my explosives. Itachi doesn't wield Raiton as far as I know."

"Then it would work on him."

"Maybe, un. Sharingan is a tricky thing, so I made Karura even trickier. And despite that he still managed to get away." Imagine we bumped into Sasuke while passing through Land of Fire. Deidara would've combusted.

"So what exactly is C4?"

"C4 Karura. A bomb that releases a cloud of invisible microscopic explosives. Invisible unless you're an Uchiha apparently, un." He rolled his eyes.

"Invisible microscopic explosives." I repeated. "So you can neither see them nor feel them?"

"Yeah. They enter your system once you inhale them and blow you up from the inside. There's nothing left of you, not even dust." My eyes widened.

"Wait, it's as easy as inhaling them?" He nodded. "Then if you drop that bomb on some village you'd kill off all residents without damaging anything else." Every physical thing would remain intact while the rest would be completely wiped out.

"Depends on how big the village is, this does have a radius of effect, un."

"But it could essentially work like that?"

"Yeah, I could turn it into a ghost village."

"That's…actually terrifying." He glanced at me. "If you can't see it and you have no idea what the jutsu does, your only options are to flee or to wait and see what happens so you can construct a way to fight it. I wouldn't have a chance, I'd inhale it and that'd be it." I snapped my fingers.

"Sasuke's not the only one who's survived it, un. You did too." He added.

"Huh?"

"He was able to see my chakra even in something so small because of his Sharingan. He used that to detect my first C4 and stay out of its radius, un. You managed to do that too somehow."

"How do you know?"

"Because of the time of your arrival. You had to be in my close proximity yet you weren't caught in it."

The deer. My little incident with the deer delayed me.

"Animals can't help but inhale your C4." I observed, testing my theory.

"Collateral, un." He shrugged.

So the deer either sensed it or was warned by other animals. That's why he kept trying to drag me away. Now it made a lot more sense.

Corner of my lips curled up in a smile. I owed that deer more than I thought.

"You didn't know that Sharingan can see your chakra and track your explosives because of it?" He shook his head. "Sasuke told you that?"

"Yeah, that's how he knew where my C2 mines were and how far away he has to go to evade my C4."

"That means he could potentially track me through my shadows." I bit my lip. "I don't like that." All the training I've done with my Shadow Teleportation to increase my speed would mean little if someone could track my enter and exit points.

Deidara snorted. "The Uchiha love to talk about their Sharingan, but just because they were born with it doesn't mean it's their power."

"What do you mean?" I raised my brow and he stopped walking, turning to me.

"You tell me who the real artist is, Say. An Uchiha born with an eye that can put you in genjutsu with just one glance, or someone who had to train their eye to see through that stupid genjutsu, un." He didn't have to move his bangs to let me know he's talking about his left eye hidden by his eye-piece.

I caught his line of thinking. Someone who got their 'art' handed to them can't appreciate it as much as someone who had to work on their art's creation. No wonder Deidara was pissed off at the Uchiha, especially after both of them refused to acknowledge his art.

I stared at him, thinking how he's always been one of the most powerful shinobi I know and I'd think so even without knowing what his jutsu are capable of doing. I decided to tell him that, hoping it would calm him down just a little bit about the whole Uchiha thing. I couldn't listen to him being so pissed off about them anymore.

"You know, that's why I wouldn't have stopped you that night, had I known what that kinjutsu would do to you." His anger diminished slightly, his eyes observing me. He didn't expect me to go in this direction, but this particular thing was on my mind ever since our conversation back in the hospital. "You were working on your art ever since I've met you so I know how much effort you've put into everything. Who am I to stop you from doing that?" I looked away for a brief moment. "So, you know, my answer is obvious, you don't have to ask me." I brought my eyes back to him just because I sensed him still looking at me and I wanted to signal it's time we move on.

He didn't say anything as we started to walk again. I guess my oversharing made it awkward. I was so dumb.

"Not like I could've stopped you anyway." I tried to fix the situation. "I mean, I do trust your judgement. You wouldn't go through with that kinjutsu without having a plan ready." I cleared my throat. "Also, that whole deal with Itachi resulted in you constructing a jutsu as frightening as C4, so why can't Sasuke be the cause of you creating something better than that?"

"I didn't say he wasn't, un. I'll make something that will blow Sharingan to bits."

I cracked a smile. That was the Deidara I knew.

"You told me about C1, C2 and C4. Where's the C3?"

"C3 is my most powerful large-scale bomb. A lot of my chakra goes into making it, which is why I usually prepare it in advance in case of a mission or a fight. That huge amount of chakra turns into magnificent destructive power, one I'm very proud of, un."

"You didn't use C3 on Sasuke?" I asked and he shook his head. "Were you planning to?"

"I didn't have it with me."

"Is that all the jutsu you have then?"

"What exactly are you asking me?" He looked at me from the corner of his eye.

I let out a quiet sigh, trying to word out my question the best I could. "Sasuke managed to nullify your C4 twice, but you kept on insisting you would've killed him had I not come. Which means you have to have something more powerful than C4."

"C0." He said, not breaking his stare from the forest path in front of us.

"Zero? Not five?" I furrowed my brows. "Well, what is it?"

"I feed the clay to the mouth on my chest and turn myself into a bomb. He wouldn't be able to escape the ten kilometer radius of my ultimate art piece, un."

"What?" I stopped dead on my tracks, following him with my widened eyes as he made a couple of more steps. "What do you mean you turn yourself into a bomb? Do you actually blow yourself up?"

He looked over his shoulder, his blank expression conveying me it's futile to doubt his words.

I remembered it being written in the scroll how the mouth on his chest is connected to the heart chakra, but in my mind that mouth became irrelevant the moment he asked me to sew it shut. How or why Deidara developed this technique without even testing it was insane.

The more I thought about C0 the more I seemed to come across various details in my memory that now made a lot more sense. Before I had the chance to single out any particular thought from the rest, everything connected into a picture of me holding Deidara in my Shadow Bind as Sasuke sat nearby. Now when I knew the context, that scene in the forest turned a lot more nerve-wracking.

If I'd been a second late…

He'd turn himself into a bomb, detonate, and perish. In a flash, in an instant, in a ten kilometer radius explosion. He'd be gone just like that.

What would I do then?

"That was your plan to defeat Sasuke? If you have to kill yourself just to win over someone…how's that a win?"

"It's better than a defeat."

"What?! You weren't defeated! You weren't half-dead or dying so why would you even consider doing that?" I could understand having a technique like that for when fighting multiple opponents, or when you're on the verge of dying so you might as well take your opponent down with you. Just his broken leg doesn't justify him thinking about it, at least it didn't to me.

"I would die in an explosion so grand it would leave a mark on the earth itself, un. I'd become art!" He finally turned around completely. "I'd rather go out with a bang than leave it at a draw, or worse, give him an opportunity to kill me in some dumb way."

"And because I arrived when I did, you didn't go through with it?"

"That's why I said Sasuke would've been dead had you not come, un."

"But you'd also be dead! Then what would be the point of-of me doing all this?" I threw my hands in the air, freaking out because he was serious about using his C4. It wasn't just a jutsu he prepared for an extreme situation, it was something he was moments away from using.

Maybe he was right when he said Sasuke would've found a way to kill him and Deidara's only chance of out-rivaling him would be to do this. Deidara was a proud shinobi, he held his art in high esteem, so for him to die by becoming one with his art would be the best possible outcome. I knew him well enough to be certain of that.

That was my head talking. My emotions however…they were a mess. I didn't know whether I was angry or sad – maybe I was both? Deidara doesn't have a problem with killing himself in a blink of an eye, but I had a problem with him dying. What would then happen to me?

What if he had actually done it? He said its radius is ten kilometers so I would definitely be killed by it, but suppose he'd done it on some other occasion. I wouldn't have a clue. My whole search would've turned into a ghost-hunt. Sooner or later I would run into one of the Akatsuki and learn the truth, and then what? What the hell would I do then? Return to Iwa without him? Go to Konoha?

That feeling of being lost, of being disconnected, I didn't want to feel it again. I didn't want to even hypothetically think about a world where he disappears within his C0 and leaves me behind.

And so, being afraid of that sort of pain I blurted out what was on my mind the whole time: "I mean did you even think about me?"

He raised his eyebrow. "You're saying all this as if I knew you left the village after me."

"Well what else was I supposed to do? Stay in the village all by myself and follow Onoki's orders as if nothing ever happened? That's insane!"

"And you spending three years looking for the Akatsuki and going all over the continent by yourself is not?" He crossed his hands.

"Me staying in Iwa would mean I accepted Onoki's decision to just kick you out, and that's not something I could live with. Why is my decision to leave any different from yours?" Both of us didn't agree with Onoki, both of us would've been miserable had we remained in the village.

"I still had no way of knowing you actually did that, un. I didn't even know you were in Akamira that day."

"After years of knowing me, you thought I'd just…" If he really believed I was in Iwa all this time, who knows what he actually thought of me. In his mind I was probably nothing more than a spineless fraud of a friend.

"A missing nin is hunted by various shinobi, by other missing nin, by bounty hunters, and even normal people know a crossed-out headband is a bad sign. You don't become a missing nin for some stupid reason-"

"I went looking for you, wow, that's a really stupid reason." I tried not to roll my eyes.

"Yeah, who does that?" He made a step closer to me.

"Well who blows themselves up without even thinking about the other person-"

"I thought I'd never see you again and I had no reason to think otherwise, un." There was a hint of annoyance in his voice, which I immediately recognized. It sounded like he's sick of repeating himself.

I wouldn't have been able to live with myself had I stayed in Iwa. I felt that from the depth of my heart, that's why him thinking I was that heartless to nonchalantly forget about him and his incident with Onoki offended me to no end.

I bit my lip. "Did you hate me then? Is that why you wanted to blow up the village?"

"I didn't think about you. The entirety of Iwa was dead to me, un."

My heart fell from my chest. I was standing on the road, my feet firmly planted, yet I felt as if I jumped from a cliff. I've done that a couple of times when testing my Shadow Teleportation, but this time there was no excitement, no wind in my hair, no focus on safely landing. Just the sensation of my heart falling and my chest being empty.

I didn't expect that to be the answer to the question: 'What if I'm holding on to a friendship that's no longer there?'

Him choosing to stay in Iwa, to give up on his art, would be equal to death, and the same could be said of me. I'd have to follow orders of a man I didn't agree with, day by day, knowing it's pointless to expect that Deidara will someday come back to the village. I'd have nothing to look forward to, and I'd be alone in a village full of people.

My quest was the reason I didn't feel lost and alone. I morphed my reality into this mission to find Deidara and bring him back, thinking everything will be fine once I succeed in that. Truth was different. Truth was; I was a missing nin, searching for a member of the Akatsuki who probably didn't want to come back after being betrayed by his sensei. Deidara was never the one to concern himself with idle things, with anything he thought was pointless. He was realistic, unlike me. I didn't like reality because I was alone in it. So I made myself feel better by ignoring the truth, focusing only on my goal and on the future that seemed warm and hopeful and less alone.

That's why I didn't like to think about that question.

I didn't feel anything malicious in his words, just the truth. He couldn't have known I left Iwa after him so it made sense to write me off from his life. He didn't think about me and that was the reality. I hoped I was still on his mind just like he was on mine, because thinking about it being the other way round hurt too much.

I understood everything, it was logical and it made sense and I was a naïve idiot, but goddamit it still hurt. No amount of rationalizing it made me feel any better. Frankly, I didn't want to think about that right now, not even about C0 which I also began to hate couple of minutes ago. I felt too angry and too sad for that right now.

"Dying just so you can kill Sasuke Uchiha is stupid. I know I've said this a hundred times already but who cares about him?" I made a step forward, trying to forcefully end this conversation since I've already made a fool of myself as it is, but he didn't falter.

"You didn't answer my question." He said and I looked at him with my brows furrowed.

"What question?"

"You keep messing up your words, sometimes saying you went looking for me, sometimes for the Akatsuki-"

"I went looking for you." I crossed my hands.

"You've gone far just to bring me back to the village and prove Old Geezer wrong, un. Who-"

"I told you why-"

"I didn't say why. I asked who does that?" He leaned towards me and I wanted to frown and say 'Obviously I do.' when my reflection in his blue eye stopped me.

"Because I don't think you'd do that for someone else, un." He looked suspicious, expecting, his eyes narrowed as if he wants to catch something, to get to the bottom of it.

Yeah, he was right. I wouldn't do that for anyone else. Who would, except me?

Why did she go so far for my father? Was she so smitten by him?

My heart came back to my chest with the loudest possible beat and all of a sudden I couldn't look him in the eye anymore.

Those questions…no-no, that's not the reason I…

Was it? Was I?

I tightened the grip on my hands crossed over my chest, sidestepping him. As soon as I moved away from him my eyes widened and without a word I began to walk, not checking if he was following me. I marched forward, part of me relieved I didn't have to look at him anymore and part of me knowing he's still behind me and I can't avoid that forever.

What the hell? What the hell?

"Oi! My leg's still hurt you know!" He yelled after me.

I didn't slow down. My heart was beating like mad so my speed-walking was effortless, and at moments too slow compared to the energy I felt inside my chest.

I wanted to think in peace ever since my talk with Shikaku, now because of C0 nonsense I really needed it, but after whatever just happened, fucking forget it. I even told myself how I really need to calm down because I was feeling too much at once, and then this happens.

Who does that? That's what he asked me. That's what I asked Shikaku. I knew the answer, I just never applied it to my situation. I never labeled this…whatever it was.

My heartbeat was off the charts, inside my stomach was a whirlwind, my face was flushed, and my mind was stuck in a loop of asking myself questions I initially aimed at my mom.

Why did I go so far for Deidara? Was I so smitten by him?

And to think I almost answered his question out loud.

Obviously I was.

Give them time y'all, they just need to figure themselves out.

Thank you for reading and review pretty please, I really want to know what you guys think of this. :)

Until next time!