Yep, early update. I am helping my club with an event today and Saturday and due to scheduling, I would not have the time to update Saturday. I struggled with this chapter a little bit because I simply did not know what to put in it, thankfully I had one goal in mind and I wrote around it… Also I kept working on the Kaguya fight, which will be posted in 2 weeks… I'm enjoying what I wrote.

Thank you all for the fave, follows and reviews, and thank you guys for dealing with my massive mindfart that this arc has given me.

RedWolf Lover: Ooohhhhhh, I'm gonna do something with that question next chapter and it's gonna be fun… for me that is. Kabuto cannot summon him because Madara's edo tensei is linked to Deidara's chakra, not can he summon anyone else under Deidara's control.

Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf: I still find it odd that he never reanimated any of them, like… with how sharingan crazy Orochimaru was, he didn't bother collecting DNA? It just never made sense to me. The only snakey I like are Anko, Orochimaru (he's a fun villian) and Mitsuki.

VenaHope: You'll learn all about Orochimaru in the chapter down below :D Also a reanimated Orochimaru sounds like fuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn... don't worry I'm not THAT evil of an author to write something like that.

EgyLynx: You're welcome!

Daku-DarkNess316: You see his eye in the Sasuke vs Deidara fight in the anime and manga. In the anime Deidara explains that he trained his eye to counter the sharingan. I'm going with a fan theory of how that works, the theory is that the eye absorbs light differently due to always either being closed or looking through a lens, hence why visual jutsus don't work on it. There's no ninjutsu, it just works differently from Deidara's normal eye and as a result of it absorbing light differently. I describe SI!Dei's vision in that eye that everything is heavily saturated, so something that's a pale blue would look extremely bright and obnoxious from that eye.

setokayba2n: Maybe, but if he could reanimate Madara and Itachi then he should have been able to reanimate other Uchiha from previous generations, plus Danzo only had about a dozen eyeballs. Itachi killed well over a hundred people. I just wish Kishimoto covered that bit of info.

Notsae: I doubt it either, I'm not one to let Madara be surpassed by anyone but Itachi.

RealistIze: There are only 3 homosexual couples currently confirmed in the entire fic, the rest are straight.

Liliah Dark: I'm not that good at writing hun, I make a lot of mistakes but I simply try my best. ^^ Thank you though, and yes, Deidara is gonna struggle with raising Shisui at first.

Warning: Language, violence, character death, sleepy Dei is a violent Dei, oh… and cliffhanger.

Disclaimer: I am too evil to own Naruto, that being said. I do not own Naruto.


That next morning I woke up before the sun was even out. There was no clock to check the time, but my brain registered it to be 3 a.m. also known as "Too fucking early" a.m.

Yawning, I did the painstakingly slow process of peeling myself off of Itachi. The moment I went to bed, he latched onto me like a leech and hasn't let me go since. I was only able to free myself after bestowing the sleeping Uchiha a kiss and an announcement of needing to use the restroom. Thankfully, I didn't have to do some stupid maneuver to get up, considering this wasn't our normal position. Making sure Sasuke was also asleep I was able to slip out of the tent without alerting either Uchiha brother.

The camp was as sleepy as my brain, the only ones that were alert were the guards and the weirdos that do not sleep. It was better to only let the guards know I was leaving, answering in English so they had no idea what I was doing. Thankfully, there was a Konoha shinobi on duty, so they knew my face. Well, he understood the blond zombie trudging past him was someone to not mess with and quickly shushed his Kumo partner.

After walking aimlessly for a few minutes, voice filled the forested area I had walked into, "Pretty stupid of you to come out here by yourself, Deidara." I looked around to find myself surrounded by… hm… I'd say about 50 Zetsu. Granted, my brain felt like it weighed 15 pounds and my head wanted nothing more than to use the grass below me as a pillow.

Shaking my head with a long yawn, I lazily shove my hands into my clay pouch, "Nah… I needed to run into some of you bastards anyway… let's get this over with. I have a husband to snuggle, un." Honestly, the fact I willingly woke myself up at 3 a.m. astounds me.

The Zetsus quickly leaped towards me, but they seem to have forgotten the fact that I can create anything my imagination tells me to make. Needless to say, 46 Zetsus fell victim to an army of clay heartless. The remaining 4 were tied up and sealed in a dark green scroll for later. If things were going to go my way, I need living bodies.

Satisfied with my work, I sluggishly make my way back to the camps, shoving the guards out of my way, "Back the fuck off… Sleep…" They chose not to question me, no one has been able to perfectly recreate English without having some kind of accent. No doubt any Zetsu would fail at an instant.

Itachi resumed being my human pillow until morning came.

Morning

After passing out orders I began dragging the Uchiha brothers in the area Konan was stationed. It would be so easy to just go after Kabuto and end this entire thing, but knowing our luck Konan would be killed in the process along with everyone stationed with her. Not only did I not want that to happen, I also didn't want Nagato to feel the pain of killing the woman he loved.

Of course, I didn't expect who would be taking Itachi's place on the battlefield. Sasori's Sandaime Kazekage puppet was clashing blades with a reanimated Yahiko, the latter giving the former a run for his money apparently. I would have never expected Kabuto to try and reanimate Yahiko of all people, but then again it shouldn't come to a surprise for me. Considering I took away almost half of his Akatsuki reanimations, he had to substitute them with someone.

Tilting my head to the left, I realize why Yahiko seemed more focused on defence than offence, and the person behind him explained why. Nagato was sitting on the ground, his legs still being too weak to be used in battle while he watched Konan fighting his summons. The three Ame shinobi had matching pained expressions as they were forced to fight each other in this sadistic arrangement.

Shoving my hands into my pouches, I dropped a handful of clay beetles at Yahiko and Nagato. I only delayed the ones by Yahiko long enough for Sasori to get his puppet out of the way.

"Brat, what if that destroyed the Sandaime?" Sasori gave me a half-hearted glare as I landed next to him.

"Oh please, you saw that coming the moment my bird showed up, un." Ignoring Sasori's muttered words about poisoning me, I give Yahiko a wave once he reformed, "Nice to meetcha Yahiko-san!"

Yahiko blinked a few times before looking in the direction of Konan for a moment, "You must be Deidara… thank you for saving Konan's life… I owe you." Of course, his mouth said that but his body was still trying to slice my face off.

Noting Itachi activating his sharingan, I wave off Yahiko's words, "Don't, you don't owe me anything. Just please return to the afterlife with Nagato. I promise I'll take care of Konan, un."

"Dei, step back." Giving Itachi a salute, I grab the peeved puppet master and leaped to the water, standing on the waves as Itachi summoned his Susano-o. Wait… why is he- ohhhh yeah! Itachi's Susano-o blade can seal things!

"Konan! Get away from Nagato!"

Konan snapped her attention to me, seeing Itachi's Susano-o made her create her paper wings and was soon out of his reach. I quickly placed my scope over my eye to check up on her. Minus some scrapes and blood on the side of her head, she seemed relatively okay.

Like a machine with a human's brain, Nagato raised his arms stiffly towards Konan, "Itachi! Move quickly, please!" Soon, Konan was being dragged towards Nagato as he used Banshou Ten'in.

Stuffing my hands in my clay pouch, Yahiko used a water pillar jutsu to keep my explosives from reaching Nagato and getting to Konan in time. She would have collided with Nagato, had Itachi not stabbed him in the chest with the ethereal sword. Yahiko turned his head towards Itachi with a sigh of relief, also noting Nagato having a similar expression "Thank you…"

"Hn…" Itachi turned his attention to Yahiko once Nagato was fully absorbed, "I'm sorry Pein, this has to be done."

Yahiko smirked and pointed at himself with his thumb, "It's Yahiko, and I don't mind. Better to be sealed in that sword of yours than to cause more harm to this world." For someone whose life ended on a shorter note… he was at peace. Just before the sword collided with him, he looked up to Konan and gave her an apologetic smile, "Live."

The moment Yahiko was hit, I had to catch Konan as her wings gave out on her. She watched as the boy she loved got absorbed by the sword. No tears were shed, but I could tell she wanted to cry. We were at war, crying would only show weakness and that was something that sadly could not be expressed in battle. Pulling the older woman's head to my shoulder, only one thought crossed my mind.

I'm done with Kabuto.

Through clenched teeth, my voice became an animalistic growl, "Sasori-no-danna… take Konan away from here and take her to Sakura… or Naruto… I don't care, just get her away from this area, un." I allowed a powerful exhale to escape my nose as Konan was taken away by Sasori. He gave me a look over his shoulder, but I couldn't read his expression.

Slowly standing up, I put a large amount of chakra into my right foot and slammed it down. The force caused a crater to form, but I got my desired results, "He's 8 kilometers northeast of us… I call giving him the final blow, un."

Sasuke cautiously approached me and placed his hand on my shoulder, "Deidara, are you sure you want him dead? I thought you were always for helping others and giving them chance-" His face paled when I looked at him. My face was twisted painfully into that of rage, my eye felt like it was on fire as tears threatened to form.

"He's had his chances. I've had it with his existence…" My breath became ragged, I didn't understand why I was so consumed with rage. All I wanted was for him to die, I haven't felt like this since the day I killed Danzo.

"Deidara, you're curse mark is activated." My head snaps up at Itachi's word and I look at my hand. He was right, the calligraphy pattern danced across my arm as I deactivated it, "I want you to calm your hatred for Kabuto while we head over there. If you can't, I'll knock you out before we fight."

I take a slow, long breath, "Right… sorry…" Adjusting my jounin jacket, I followed the two to the caves where Kabuto hid. My anger was at a level that seemed to satisfy Itachi, considering I was still conscious by the time we got there.

Dropping some C1s onto the side of the cave's wall, the three of us entered and caught sight of a rather surprised Kabuto, "I still don't get it Kabuto, you know what's going to happen and yet you are repeating history. Why is that, un?" Honestly, I would have expected him to be more intelligent about this whole thing, but instead, he's making buddies with Obito.

Kabuto slowly got up with a chuckle, "Why? Because… things are different now. I want to experience this all to the fullest, and besides… Itachi no longer has the luxury of being reanimated, he can't afford to waste a sharingan on Izanami."

I grit my teeth in annoyance. As much as I hate to admit it, he has a point… what's even worse is that I know for a fact my C4 will do nothing to him in that stage. Talk about this being a pain.

"Not to mention, while Sasuke-kun and Itachi have the luxury of unique clan techniques, all you have are explosions and sensing. Use explosives and the cave risks collapsing, and sensing can only dodge attacks for so long… you Uchiha brothers only brought a hindrance… dare I say, a damsel in distress."

I feel my cheeks heat up, "Why you-!"

"Dei, he's right, you'll only get hurt in this situation. Stay on defence and stay out of this fight… Sasuke and I have this under control." Itachi looked over his shoulder to give me a disarming smile, "Please do what I say for once and stay out of the way."

Growling in displeasure at the idea of being left out in the fight, I leap to the ceiling and stuck to it using my chakra, letting my hair hang heavily at gravity's mercy. As if my movement started the fight, Kabuto shot out snakes in every direction towards the brothers and to me. They were fast, but I would keep running to avoid them. Itachi and Sasuke activated their sharingan and created their Susano-o to destroy the snakes and to try and grab Kabuto.

This fight gave me a rather powerful case of deja vu, it was playing out too similar to the anime. The only real difference so far was the brothers' outfits and Itachi was alive. Suddenly, Kabuto covered his eyelids and activated his one jutsu that causes everything to vibra- Kami that hurts!

Clamping my hands over my ears in pain, not only was the light blinding, I couldn't feel or hear anything. My chakra gave out and my brain only momentarily focused on the impact of the ground, I'll no doubt have a bruised shoulder later. The pain only went away when the jutsu faded. In the corner of my eye, I see Itachi burst into a murder of crows.

Kabuto observed the crows with a chuckle, "What a coward, hiding behind a clone jutsu while your brother and husband are vulnerable to the open?" He looked around, trying to locate Itachi while Sasuke and I recovered. I could only vaguely acknowledge the crow with Shisui's eye nuzzling my head affectionately…

Wait… Shisui's…

"Release the edo tensei." Itachi slowly walked towards me and helped me stand. I rubbed my temples as I watched Kabuto perform the necessary hand seals, "I hid the crow within my clone, the moment it came out Kabuto was under the genjutsu."

"Good birdie…" I gently pet the breast of the crow before running over to Anko, "Before I take care of Kabuto… I'm going to do something… really stupid, un."

Sasuke grimaced, "You're going to bring back Orochimaru, aren't you?" He sighed when I gave him a cheeky grin, "Figures, what do you need?" The reluctance in his tone was almost comical, he sounded like a whiny child being told he had to go home from the playground.

Pulling out my notebook, I flip to Orochimaru's page, "A chunk of Kabuto's skin and that's about it really…" Itachi collects some of Kabuto's flesh, much to his younger brother gagging in disgust and hands me the twitching mess, "Thank you, love… now…"

Performing the needed hand signs, I place my hand on Anko's curse seal. A large white snake slowly formed from the seal which spat out Orochimaru.

"To think… you would be the one to trigger my return, Deidara… aw… no hello?" His voiced oozed amusement as he stared at my blank expression, "I can see why Itachi would be attracted to that kind of face."

I roll my eye and pull out the scroll containing several Zetsus, "You know why I brought you back. Get your chakra from Kabuto, take this, and do the thing already, un." I practically shove the scroll in his face, causing his amusement to rise exponentially as he unrolled the scroll and examined the content. I didn't realize I was tapping my foot on the ground until I began to hear a soft echo throughout the cave.

"So impatient, if it wasn't for the fact I have eyes, I would have mistaken you for Sasori. But you are right, I know why you brought me back. Don't worry, I have full intentions of helping from here on out…" He noted Itachi and Sasuke staring him down skeptically, "Kabuto's not the only one that knows about the original timeline. Thanks to the curse mark on Deidara's neck, I have most of my memories of it back… I must say that I am pleased with the information your mind has given me."

"Does this mean you plan on behaving?" My personal bubble was then violated when a white finger was placed under my chin and made me look into Orochimaru's eyes. Not only was my own eye twitching, but I could see Itachi and Sasuke's eyes twitching as well. Good to know the three of us share a mutual dislike for Orochimaru coming in physical contact with anyone.

"Indeed, I'll even create Mitsuki when the time comes. That was the reason you refrained from killing me. I do hope we can come to proper terms later on though. As a fellow scientist and lover of jutsus, the things that could be discovered would be beyond anyone's imagination."

"Depends on how things work from here on out, so don't get your hopes up, snakey."

"Oh come now, I'll let you be his sensei."

"As tempting as that is, it depends on how Naruto's brat grows up. If I have to deal with that headache then I'll pass, un."

Sasuke took this time to grab Orochimaru by the wrist and yanked his arm away from my person, "We're wasting time here, you two can talk over tea later." I gave the teen a pout, we were not being that friendly… right?

With his usual amused chuckle, Orochimaru took the cells back from Kabuto and stepped away. Everyone watched me in interest considering my hatred for the glasses wearer was common knowledge. Cracking my neck and pulling out a kunai, I wasted no time in slashing Kabuto's throat open and stabbing him in the chest, only removing it when I no longer felt a pulse. Because of the genjutsu, his death was painless.

Orochimaru hummed slightly, "You really hate Kabuto huh? How delightful, there was no remorse in your eyes the entire time… excuse me, eye."

I made a sound in the back of my throat that was a mix of a growl and a huff, "Shut up. Never liked the guy and he pushed too many buttons of mine… this would have been avoidable had he not join Obito's side, un." I returned to Itachi, "We should go to the main battlefield now."

The snake sannin gave his right-hand man a pitied expression before resuming his attention to the Uchiha brothers, "Sasuke-kun, you'll be coming with me to finish a task." Sasuke instantly flashed a glance in my direction, but almost as soon as he did I began examining my nails. Without many options for arguments and the belief his sharingan could kill Orochimaru, he complied with the order.

Realizing something, I cleared my throat, "Do you mind…?" I blankly point at my curse mark on my neck, "It's still stage one and unless there's a way to upgrade it without being locked in a barrel, I want it off, un."

Orochimaru shook his head and rested in hands on his hips, "I'll remove it when this is done, better to have a back-up… and I have a feeling you'll need my power soon."

'Fat chance.' With a snort, I watch the two leave, "Oh! Orochimaru! There's four in that scroll! I want EVERYTHING in that scroll used up! Got it, un?!" I feel my foot tap the floor impatiently as Orochimaru gave me a half-assed wave.

Itachi looked at me puzzled, "What exactly was in that scroll besides live Zetsus?"

I flip some hair off my shoulder and toss a bird outside, "You'll see later, come on, I want to make it to the battlefield before Obito's mask gets broken off, un." Ignoring Itachi's sigh, we both hopped on our method of transportation and headed out to where Obito was fighting Kakashi and Naruto. We arrived just in time for Obito's mask to fall apart.

I watched Kakashi freeze in place at the sight of his best friend's scarred up face, it was time to step in. With a sigh, and a bowed head I softly whisper out, "Sorry for keeping this a secret Kakashi…" before leaping off the bird and slamming my hands on the ground.

"Time to end this. Madara-sama! Come on out!"

Meanwhile, back with Sasuke and Snakey

3rd person POV

To put things lightly, Sasuke felt awkward following Orochimaru like a lost duckling… he would never vocally admit that feeling to Deidara. Something in his gut was telling him that there were suppose to be others with him, but he was betting that Deidara's meddling altered that too.

Orochimaru let out a soft chuckle sensing the boy's distress, "Don't worry Sasuke-kun, I have no intention of breaking faith with your brother and Deidara, I won't be going after your body. Oh, and I also don't hold any ill feelings for killing me." He chose to ignore the boy's heavy glare.

Sasuke let out a low growl of distrust, "That still doesn't mean I'll trust you. What are we doing anyway?"

"Oh, you'll see." Despite the cryptic method of answering, Sasuke followed Orochimaru into the hidden Uzumaki chamber where all of the shinigami masks were placed. Opening the scroll, Orochimaru unsummoned the four tied up Zetsus and… locks of red hair?

Sasuke gave the hair a long look, "Who's hair is that?"

In amusement, Orochimaru placed the hair on the diagram on the scroll by a Zetsu, "We'll have to see when I use the jutsu, I cannot read that child's mind. Edo tensei!" The Zetsu yelled in presume pain as dust overtook his body and Orochimaru moved quickly, quicker than Sasuke thought was possible. Smacking on one of the masks and performing the needed hand seals, the silhouette of the shinigami formed behind the sannin as it slit open its belly, a deep gash forming on Orochimaru's body as well. Signing, he evacuated his current body to possess one of the Zetsus while the last two became possessed by the souls in the shinigami's stomach.

Sasuke's mouth went dry as the edo tensei completed, "You're…"

"You've grown up, Sasuke." Hiruzen nodded in acknowledgment to the Uchiha teen, "Why have I been summoned?" He looked at Orochimaru then to the others that were also reanimated, "Minato… Kushina…"

Minato stared at everyone dazed, until he caught sight of his beloved wife, "Ah! Kushina!"

Kushina clapped her hands and placed them over her mouth and nose, tears forming at the sight of her husband, "Minato!"

The two embraced each other lovingly, having been separated in the afterlife thanks to the shinigami death seal. No one had the heart to separate them, not even Orochimaru… though it may also be because he would rather not test the redhead's temper.

Coughing into his hand, Orochimaru caught everyone's attention after a moment, "Forgive me for interrupting the reunion, but there is a war going on and we need your help…"

Kushina tilted her head, pointing to herself, "I stopped being a kunoichi after marrying Minato. I'm extremely rusty with my skills, being pregnant made it even more so, how can I be helpful, dattebane?" Sasuke's eye twitched slightly, now he knew exactly where Naruto got his verbal tic and it definitely wasn't the dobe's brother.

Orochimaru held back his shrug, "Our enemy wants the Kyuubi and Hachibi. If push comes to shove you can help us seal it back within Naruto… also because Deidara ordered me to reanimate you." A large grin spread across his face as Hiruzen produced a doom cloud over his head, much to the confusion of the couple.

"So… Deidara is just as influential as ever huh?"

"He brought Itachi back into Konoha, healed him of his illness and then married him. Deidara has also recruited two more Akatsuki members and is close friends with the Mizukage of Kirigakure… also he's a father." Sasuke tilted his head in interest, "Are you okay?"

Hiruzen was kneeled over, "Well… good to know he's thriving, and I'm grateful he was able to bring Itachi in the village once again… speaking of the village, who's the Hokage now? Tsunade?"

"No. Itachi."

If Hiruzen could, he would be having a heart attack right now.

"If it means anything, Nii-san is able to keep Deidara in line." That seemed to help Hiruzen's worries only slightly, "But he is an ANBU captain now." Okay, Minato was certain Sasuke was scaring the Sandaime Hokage on purpose. There was a smirk… yep, he's doing it on purpose.

Kushina clapped her hands in delight, "Itachi-kun is the Hokage? Mikoto will be so proud when she learns about that!" She's been able to spend time with Mikoto in the afterlife, and now she had something to share with her close friend, "When do we go, dattebane?"

'Naruto is definitely more like her than Deidara…' Sasuke sweat dropped at the pure energy radiating from the Uzumaki, "We can leave now. Follow me." With chakra in his feet, Sasuke pushed himself off the ground and bolted off to the overwhelming chakra of the Juubi. Orochimaru kept to pace with Kushina and Hiruzen to update them both on what's going on, Minato was beside Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke? Thanks for being there for Naruto. He really does appreciate the friendship he has with you."

"Hn. Don't mention it, someone has to keep an eye on that dobe now that his brother is busy with a family of his own."

The closer they got to the battlefield, something wasn't settling well in Sasuke's stomach. It wasn't because of the Juubi, but something else and he couldn't put his finger on it, but that only made him worry more. The last time he had this gut feeling Deidara dropped to the ground dead. Ignoring his companions, the teen increased in speed. He wasn't as fast as the famous Yellow Flash, but he'd like to think he was a fast runner.

"Please tell me I'm wrong for once…"

Reaching the battlefield, Sasuke froze in place as he watched Madara's foot connect with Deidara's gut.


*Whistles innocently* I can neither confirm nor deny any questions you may have about Madara. I can say that Deidara is not going to die so if that was one of your worries, it can go away now. This is why Author-sans should never be allowed sugar before writing, we come up with stuff that torment the souls… love you guys! :3

Also, now Orochimaru is back and he's bringing in reinforcements! And Kabuto is FINALLY dead, I'm gonna be honest here I forgot I had Shisui's eyes to use and was gonna make the fight overly complicated. Thankfully I didn't have to do that. I really don't have much to say about this chapter, next chapter will tell us everything that happened before the… ahem… cliffhanger, and also covers everything before the Kaguya fight.

Short author's note I know, but this chapter speaks for itself.

As always, reviews are loved and I will see you all next week with the Obito fight!

Bye!