Hello everybody! Now, not a lot of people replied, and that's okay. The consensus concerning the pairing, that people actually answered instead of saying "it's up to you" is to keep Ino. So I will do that. Next, concerning the OP character... I'll think on it until we have a better show of his strength. As for the storyline, I'll continue the Shippuden line until this arc ends, I'll go off in a tangent, and then I'll come back to it when the time comes, due to a shock factor. This is prone to change depending on how the story progresses, of course. I was actually thinking about having Naruto first appear when Pein decimated Konoha, but that seemed a bit late to me. So, we'll see where this goes.

Enough of that, let's continue with the story.

WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS

The blonde man, dressed in black, rode on the White fox quickly, the seven tails behind flowing in the wind behind as they picked up in speed. The sand below displaced was kicked up with every step the fox took when he ran. A ball of darkness floated in front of him as he rode along, his long blonde hair swaying behind him. Eventually, he caught sight of them. A blonde and a red-head on a clay bird...

"Deidara..." The man would whisper, before nodding at the fox he rode. Kurama looked up at Naruto, nodding in return before feeling himself split into another fox. By doing this, his form shifted to a bright scarlet red as four tails remained. The split-off fox had Three tails, and was purple-ish gray upon forming. It began to speed up to catch up to the clay bird. As soon as it got close, the three-tailed fox split apart into three, tan, single-tailed Foxes, which circled the bird as it flew. Deidara took note of this, noticing the weird foxes tailing and surrounding him. He was about to drop some clay on them before he found his body flung forward, and the bird he was riding on crashing into the ground as he tumbled and bounced along the sandy ground, grunting with every time he hit the ground in pain.

The blonde-haired Akatsuki stood up, his body covered in forming bruises and scrapes from his collision, gritting his teeth in annoyance as he looked towards his attacker, his cloak in tatters as he stood shakily on his feet. And there, standing in front of the sun was the black silhouette of the aggressor. Long hair, which swayed in the wind as a dust cloud passed behind him, his clothes making him look like a ghost, as he smoothly strode towards the Akatsuki member. The red eyes of the foxes earlier glowed in the shadows produced by the sun behind the long-haired man... and Deidara's anger was replaced by uncertainty.

Only for the anger to return when he saw Gaara, the Jinchuriki that he was supposed to capture, floating and being gently laid to the ground by black mist behind the long-haired man.

"Bastard... I don't know who you are. But you messed with the wrong artist-un!" Deidara shouted, the mouths on his hands baring their teeth in a shared rage with the person that they shared a body with. They opened, their long tongues writhing around and ready to eject the explosive clay he was known for-

-and then he saw the stranger's eyes.

Once shrouded by the shadows produced by the sun behind his form, now glowed brilliantly in the darkness. A bloody red, a dilated black pupil in the center of the glowing orbs which seemed to scream in rage. In panic, Deidara let out a scream and clenched his fists, producing a plethora of clay birds which he then launched at the stranger and his foxes. The explosive birds whistled as they cut the air with their speed towards the stranger.

"KATSU!" Deidara shouted as the birds reached proximity and exploded, creating a large cloud of dust and black smoke which mixed together. Silence seemed to fill the air, all except for the wind which blew by and allowed dust to pass by the explosive blonde's vision. It was at this moment, Deidara felt immense relief, laughing a bit as he sank to his knees and took deep breaths to register his short victory.

"Bastard... how could I have let that weakling scare me like that?" Deidara asked himself. Laughing a bit before letting his head hang from his shoulders as he caught his breath. He opened his eye and saw a black boot under him. It took the Akatsuki member a second to register this before his head shot up to look to see the stranger unharmed. At least, that's what he saw before he was lifted off the ground by a large, slender hand grasping his face tightly and painfully. The tips of the stranger's fingers dug into the skin of the blonde, the stranger's deep red eyes seemingly endless as Deidara stared into them. The mouths on his arms bit at the sleeve of the stranger, trying to get him to let go. Deidara struggled, the strong grip of the stranger keeping him hoisted in the air as he grunted in pain.

Then Deidara saw black.

And he felt his body explode in pain.

Team 7 felt air pass by their faces as they rushed to save the Kazekage. They were accompanied by Lady Chiyo, an elderly member of the Council of Suna and a master in the use of puppet arts. Silently, they wondered why the Elder has decided to join them, but they didn't make any mention of it as they saw the thoughtful look etched onto her wrinkled face as they travelled in the general direction of the Akatsuki Members. However, Team 7 shortly heard their sensei.

"Stop." The Sharingan master says as he stopped all movement, standing tall as his singular-eyed gaze looked at a cave formation ahead of them.

"What did you see Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura would say, stepping next to her sensei as her line of sight went to the cave formation. "A cave? Do you sense something?"

"No..." The Jounin says. "But something is there, call it a gut feeling. It's like every part of my body is telling me that whatever is over there is dangerous..."

Chiyo silently joined the duo, then Sai, and finally the group was joined by Sasuke who had his Sharingan active and looked at the cave. "Something is over there, leaned against the entrance of the cave," He says.

"You're right! I see some bodies... I can't get a good look at them from here." Sakura would state, kneeling down just in case the attacker was still nearby.

"We need to get closer." Sasuke would say, before going towards there with a chakra infused leap, blowing dust behind him from under his feet as he approached the cave quickly.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura would state, before dashing after him in the same manner. Shortly after, the other members of the group followed, albeit cautiously, in order to make sure that the team members didn't do anything that might get them in trouble. Even Sai, the most emotionless of the group, felt on edge as he approached the cave with the rest of his Team.

Sasuke was the first to arrive, looking down at the bodies as Sakura breathed heavily, approaching him from behind. "Hey! Come on, whoever killed them might still be here, this is dangerous." She says, before Sasuke shook his head, his expression thoughtful as he continued to gaze upon the corpses in front of him.

"No... even if they were still here, I don't think they mean us any harm." The Uchiha would state. Sakura was about to ask what he meant, before turning to the bodies to look for herself and her eyes widened. There were 3 bodies, two of them Corpses and one alive. One corpse, torn apart wood, a head with red hair and blood seeping from every crevice. The other corpse, barely recognizable, skin separated from flesh and covered in holes. Draping the laps of the corpses were cloaks. Black, with red clouds... the signature of the-

"Akatsuki?" Sakura wondered aloud, kneeling down in front of them in order to get a closer look. She was the apprentice to the best medical ninja in the world, and looking at the skinless-corpse, she couldn't even tell what happened to him. It was at this moment, she looked at the third and last body...

"Gaara."

I'm sorry if the chapter seems kind of short... kinda is. That's because I didn't really know what to do with it. I promise the next chapter will be better.

Here's the current waifu votes:

- Kurotsuchi: 0

- Shizuka: 1

- Ino: 8

- Fu: 1

- Tayuya: 2

- Temari: 1

I'll be leaving for Navy Boot Camp in December, so I'll try to post one or two more chapters before I leave.

I'll see you in the next chapter (Which I'll post today cause I have another idea).

Nitro