AN: Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers, I've heard so many nice things and I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you think and make suggestions for the story. Please enjoy this new chapter which is chock full of plot! Please read, review and enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-Five: So It Begins
"Art is the daughter of freedom." -Friedrich Schiller
"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." -Marcus Aurelius
"Take Nanami with you." Itachi was murmuring to Deidara and Sasori.
There had been a lot of debate over this point, which group she'd be going with during the first move of the Akatsuki.
Each team would be headed in separate directions after their own assigned biju. The ichibi was planned to be the first- once the one-tail was in hand they would assemble with the use of Pein's body lantern jutsu. Raven Eyes had briefly described it to her as a sort of astral projection… thing. And if she hadn't already had an idea of what it looked like she would've been totally lost by his description.
This was one of the reasons she'd be going with the artists, because the body lantern technique required a meditative state, and that would mean she'd be left to her own devices while the team would be busy projecting.
Where as if she went with Deidara and Sasori, they would physically and mentally be with her at all times. Plus, the ichibi was generally considered the weakest of the biju, regardless of his status within the sand village, and the others would be off trying to collect their own jinchuuriki's; the more dangerous ones.
Another reason they had reached this decision, was because apparently they would be moving to a base at the border of Rain, and this would mean Nanami wouldn't be going out of the way, and as soon as the extraction was complete they could head straight in that direction.
Nanami had to admit that she was relieved with this decision- but not because of Raven Eyes reasonings.
She hoped that maybe by being there she could change something. She wasn't sure how, or if it was even possible-
but fuck everything if she didn't at least try.
False Pieces was hers damn it.
Nanami absently watched her hands roll into firsts in her lap as she sat on the couch, waiting. She heard the door click shut and felt as Itachi and Kisame's chakra moved away at a swift run.
"Nanami." Sasori called from the door, and she stood and made her way over to them.
"Ready to go, un?" Nanami looked up into Burning Earth's one visible blue eye, she knew he'd put on that strange eye piece under his bangs- she couldn't remember what it was for, but something about it made her… uncomfortable. Maybe it was the whole body modification aspect. She was glad it was removable at least.
Nanami nodded to Burning Earth, her throat too tight for words; with one last lingering look to the great stone room that had been her home for the last three years. She had a lot of good memories here. She turned her back to the room, and faced the men who were her whole reason for being.
Nanami would never really be ready, but she refused to be left behind.
Nanami watched from atop the large clay bird with baited breath. The bird circled around the top of the highest tower of the sand village. It was a still sort of night, the only movement below being Deidara's attempts to bring Gaara down without causing a fuss. They hadn't been expecting the ichibi to know they were here- the plan had been for her to wait outside and for Burning Earth to sneak into the building. That… hadn't gone like it should have. At all.
The moonlight bleached everything an eerie pale shade, adding to the edgy atmosphere the abrupt change in plans created.
She knew Burning Earth was avoiding taking the high ground with the bird because she was here, she knew he was trying to avoid putting her in the middle of things.
She also knew that he needed to. He was at a sore disadvantage right now. (And it was three years too late to keep her uninvolved.)
The jinchuuriki had the home field advantage, and their stealth plan had failed- miserably.
She chewed furiously at her lower lip, feeling anxious and slightly panicky and she watched the blond man duck underneath a curling swarm of sand and roll to the edge of the roof below her.
It was a long way down.
He looked up at her as they circled again, one blue eye glowing silver in the moonlight, she nodded to him.
Do it.
She begged with her eyes. His mouth set into a hard line. Displeased.
He made his choice, and leapt backwards; pushing off the edge of the roof, his cloak and hair trailing in front of him and he landed lightly next to her on the back of the swooping bird.
"Stay down." His tone booked no argument, and Nanami nodded crouching low on all fours, fingers and toes sinking into white clay with the force of her grip. She kept her silence.
This was not a battle Nanami could keep up in, as she was the one at a disadvantage in the air. Her summons were useless, her taijutsu null- she had a very limited number of options when it came to ranged attacks. She had her chakra strings, but they were mostly to provide her reach for her kekkei genkai, and there were very few animals this high up in the sky.
The clay bird made a haunting sort of sound that was somewhere between a doves coo and an owl's hoot, only it was entirely the wrong pitch and had an echo that it shouldn't of. A heavy beat of its large wingspan had them rising even higher, and Deidara crouched next to her for a moment when the bird's ascent curved sharply.
Rivers of swarming sand rose off the roof, moving just as fast as they were.
Nanami squeaked as they began to make a sharp dive towards the earth, and one look behind her told her that if they couldn't go faster all that sand was going to catch up and crush them.
The ground was fast approaching, the stream of deadly sand was brushing along their tail feathers. Nanami squeezed her eyes shut, only to experience a horrible lurching sensation when the bird managed to stop right before the ground and shoot back up into the air in a physics defying motion.
The sand crashed heavily into the earth behind them, apparently lacking the dexterity to make the same turn they had.
It didn't stay there for long and it rose back up to follow- but it was enough. They had at least a three second lead now.
Nanami had a moment to irrationally think about how she wished she had the forethought to put her hair in a ponytail before this. The high wind speeds had it whipping into her face constantly and it stung uncomfortably.
"A little longer, un." She heard Deidara speak beside her as he reached into his clay pouch.
Nanami watched the movement, and knew they would soon be abandoning the notion of a quiet capture completely. It's not like they'd really managed that well from the beginning- a giant clay bird swooping about being tailed by the Kazekage's sand wasn't the most subtle of things.
They dove back down, and Nanami felt the breath leave her lungs as they shot between a section of buildings low to the ground, making sharp turns between narrow alleys and circling back around.
They passed inches above the quickly ducking heads of a group of sand-nin and Nanami knew then whatever cover they'd managed to have before was now thoroughly blown.
"Just a little more-" She wasn't sure if Deidara was talking to himself or her but she nodded all the same. He flashed her a reassuring grin.
Nanami's eye's widened and she brought his attention back to the front with a pointed finger as a new stream of sand curved sharply around the nearest corner to aim for their noses, she looked behind them quickly to confirm the one behind them was still there-
"Shit!" and another powerful beat of wings brought them up over the city again the two trails of sand crashing into each other like heavy cannon balls where they had been only moments before- they combined as one seamless entity and shot straight up into the air after them.
The chase was relentless.
Nanami's lower lip was bleeding from biting down on it too hard, the coppery taste grounded her nerves and helped her hold in the startled screams that wanted to bubble up and out of her throat.
She trusted Deidara, he was a skilled shinobi- he was going to get them out of this cluster fuck in one piece.
They rose higher still, the trails of sand just behind, and Deidara turned to look over his shoulder at a point far below. She followed his line of sight to see a figure clad in red standing casually atop the tallest roof. Sand swirled around him making his hair and robes billow wildly.
She could barely see his seafoam green eyes tracking their movements in the moonlight.
Gaara crouched low and sprung from the rooftop- Nanami could see the chakra pooling in his feet to assist the leap- he landed atop the river of sand that was quickly backing off their tails and he ran up its length towards them like it was a staircase.
Nanami had a moment to appreciate the boy's skill. He was actually pretty cool with all his swirling sand and kohl lined eyes.
Not as cool as Burning Earth though.
His sand pooled at his feet and it rose to bring him the last of the distance to level him with their bird.
Deidara rose to stand, making a slight movement with his left leg to nudge her to move behind his billowing cloak. She stayed low behind him, his bulk and Akatsuki attire covered most of her from sight.
"How'd you know I was here?" Deidara called out, bring himself to the forefront of attention- just in case the ichibi had noticed her.
She wasn't supposed to be caught up in this but, well, here she was.
She could hear his hand-mouth chewing furiously in the moment of stillness.
"There are no birds like that in the desert." Gaara told the blond man without raising his voice. Nanami shivered, he had a nice voice. She liked the animalistic undertone.
A crescent of sand rose slowly from the redheads feet to hover over his shoulders threateningly. Nanami peeked around the edge of the bird to see large groups of shinobi were beginning to gather on rooftops.
"Cover is definitely blown." She murmured.
"Un." Burning Earth agreed, bringing a hand up to click at his mechanical eye.
Gaara brought both his hands up slowly, purposefully, palms facing the sky. Nanami felt dread curl in her belly- and rightly so as a tsunami sized wall of sand rose from the ground, megatons of sand- (She thought somewhere in the back of her mind that he must have even more chakra than Oceans did to control the sheer amount of earth rising up before them.)
The sand began to solidify, shaping into a massive claw tipped paw-like hand with hardened black talons. That couldn't be good.
"Hold on." and then they were shooting through the night again at break-neck speeds. She crouched low, ducking her head into her chest just as Deidara brought his center of gravity down to join her.
The massive sand paw followed them- making near miss swipes and crushing nothing in its fist with a sound so loud it made her ears ring.
If they got caught in that…
They swooped low, and made an acrobatic move to swing upside down and over the ichibi's fist- Nanami felt gritty bits scrape the back of her neck and she knew this was far out of hand now.
Sasori was going to be pissed.
Deidara reaching both hands into his clay pouches, retrieving more of the white substance for whatever jutsu he was preparing for, Nanami hoped it would come soon.
They dropped low under a swipe and she squeaked at the suddenness of it, her stomach rising with the drop, the butterflies of anxiety in her belly doing a double take. If she hadn't of been clinging to the clay with chakra she was sure she would have floated off its surface in a zero gravity fall.
They pushed backwards slightly to hover high above the city as the jumbo-jet sized sand fist pulled back, and Burning Earth opened his hands to reveal piles of many little bird sculptures. Dozens of them.
He rose to stand once more, and looked down at Gaara from the slight height advantage above and before where he stood on his sand cloud. The massive ichibi claw hovered around him, curling it's fingers towards it's palm in a loud, threatening, grinding sound.
"Art is a bang." Deidara said then with a blood thirsty twist to his lips and a spark in his blue eye that she usually only saw in Hidan.
He threw the birds and they shot out with a single minded determination to fulfil their purpose.
Deidara had his hands back in his clay pouches even as the birds began to explode along the length of Gaara's rivers of sand- severing weak points completely and scattering other clumps in explosive arcs of fire and smoke.
Burning Earth threw another grin at her, and uncurled his hands to reveal the dragonfly like birds she knew had quite a bit more firepower than the others. These ones were also stupid fast.
She grinned back at him.
They shot out too quickly for her to follow from her crouched position, and their great bird perch twisted in a sharp turn.
She saw over one wing as the dragonfly birds darted in between the first assault that Gaara was focused on containing, they twisted towards the epicenter of sand and fire- right into the inner circle where Gaara stood on his cloud. The resulting explosion burned bright orange in the night- it displaced the air around the jinchuuriki, blowing her hair to the side and tearing at her red shirt and black pants. Beside her Deidara's cloak made snapping sounds as it trailed in the same direction as her own clothing.
Little bits of- something- shot out from the center of the blast raining down with trails of smoke onto the city below.
They hovered for a minute- waiting as the smoke cleared.
A large sphere of sand was revealed, and Gaara was nowhere in sight. It hovered before them quietly, smooth and solid.
"It's like an egg." Deidara laughed.
A shadow fell over them.
"Deidara!" Nanami shireked in surprise as the massive paw rose silently behind them- the blond man whipped around- "Shit!" and they shot off again as the hand exploded into a fast moving concave shape of sand around them; curving over the tops of their heads and below their wings to case them in.
Their bird crashed directly into it; crumpling into a heap as Burning Earth swung around and crouched over her, gathering small limbs into his center and curling the edges of his cloak around her. She clutched at his shirt, her chakra rising into the air above her in her white hot fear to join Deidara's wildly lashing ambient chakra.
He was startled and afraid- almost as much as she was, although he didn't show it.
Nanami had a moment to spare to make the terrible decision of looking down- and with the bird no longer under their feet it was a long way down.
The moonlight disappeared, and the air stilled so suddenly and harshly that it jarred her senses. There was nothing- they were caught inside the shifting sand.
Burning Earth squeezed her to him as the hot sand pressed in on all sides, scraping her flesh with its abrasiveness- she found it difficult to breathe as her source of oxygen was cut off and replaced by sand. If by some miracle she wasn't panicking before, Nanami was now full blown hysterical.
"Hold tight." Deidara huffed out on his last breath into her hair, and she didn't need to be told twice as she clutched to him in a white knuckled grip.
"Katsu." He whispered.
The sand around them rippled and Burning Earth gripped her tightly as the remains of their bird exploded without heat and expelled them from the sand prison like a missile.
And suddenly there was air again rushing past them as they shot towards the ground- Nanami bit her tongue to hold in the scream as the earth rushed forward to greet them. Blood filled her mouth and she concentrated on the swirl of ambient chakra around them because she couldn't let him die- she had to do something- Burning Earth was going to hit the ground- and from this height- oh gods he wouldn't survive-
She squeezed her eyes shut at the first touch of sand on their tangled legs and it clamped around her leg in a punishing grip, tearing her away from her Red Cloud in a vicious yank that had them both swinging in seperate directions.
His blue eye widened, his arms reaching out even as she was pulled away. His hands slid along her arms; failing to find a sure enough grip, the tips of their fingers touched and she saw him mouth her name, the sound of it lost in the screaming winds of the atmosphere.
She would have cried out if there was any air to do it with- so quickly was she swung through the sky she couldn't seem to get any into her lungs.
She watched as Burning Earth was whipped through the air by his leg, back towards the sphere they had just escaped from; it opened with jagged teeth that dripped heavy sand like drool to receive him.
He twisted midair and an explosion burning hot with fire tore through it's mouth causing the sphere to melt wetly before blowing completely apart.
The sand wrenching Nanami through the star speckled night slapped her flush with Gaara's sphere just as Deidara threw another sculpture into the air as he began to fall; bringing to life a new perch. He landed on it's back and she saw it turn sharply towards her, Deidara's blue eye zeroing in on her person just as the gritty hot sand began to absorb her limbs into it.
She choked, the pressure around her body heavy and tight. She struggled against it as it burned across her flesh and held her still like iron, unmovable, unrelenting, merciless in its desire to consume her whole.
It went dark again, with only the sound of shifting, sliding sand.
Nanami squeezed her eyes shut reaching out with her senses, the only movement available to her and she saw not with her eyes but with her chakra. Deidara was circling outside, looking for an opening, thousands upon thousands of little glowing embers of chakra stood far below on the ground, looking up into the sky above.
She bumped into another body in the surrounding dark, this one burning bright with chakra like a white dwarf sun.
"So it's true." The chakra monster murmured at her ear, almost kindly. She couldn't move, she struggled fruitlessly. "I thought I saw a child." He said, more to himself than to her. As if confirming it, and the sound of his soft, calm voice was startling to hear in her panic hazed mind.
"Gaara-" Was the only thing she could manage coherently.
The brightly lit body next to her shifted with a murmured, "Got him…"
Moonlight filtered in, peircing her eyes for a moment as the sand from his sphere left a gap to stretch out towards Burning Earth, it trailed up his outstretched arm, enveloping the appendage even as the bird he rode pushed him away with heavy beats of massive wings. His fingers clawed at the sand, his blue eye wide.
He reached into his pouch to throw out his long coiling centipede sculpture and it wrapped around the length of sand in an imitation of a lovers embrace. It exploded with a loud rumble, burning hot with fire and smoke.
It didn't do any damage. His free hand continued to scrape at the sand swallowing his arm, as if he could pull it off by force of will alone.
Nanami panicked. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, her lungs burning even though she breathed the new air entering the gap in the sphere that allowed her to see her Red Cloud.
Gaara's sea foam green eyes narrowed on her blond brother, his arm rose out of the gap towards him, his hand slowly forming a fist.
"Sabaku ky-" Nanami whipped her chakra strings out faster than she ever thought possible winding them around Gaara's outstretched fist that she knew was prepared to crush Burning Earth's arm into nothing but wet ragged stripped of useless flesh.
"Not on your life!" She howled hysterically in rage and blind panic, her chakra strings shredding through his ambient chakra even as he attempted the jutsu. She tore into it without conscious thought pulling chunks of chakra away as her own chakra disengaged from his. She had to to stop him- she was going to ruin him-
Nanami severed his connection to the outside sand, tearing through it with thrashing chakra strings like a cornered beast. The river of outstretched sand fell loosely to the ground far below, slipping off of Deidara's still intact arm.
Gaara screamed, a harsh pained sound as she shredded through his chakra like wet paper with single minded determination to destroythethreat.
She was going to eat him alive howdarehe-
The sand around her shifted again, tightening around her ribs. Her breath left her in a rush and she heard her bones grind together and groan in protest.
The sphere expelled her like yesterdays lunch, and she catapulted out towards the ground at a speed her body had never experienced before. Black spots danced in her vision as she fruitlessly attempted to get air into her lungs.
She slammed into something yielding and soft- but it was only a slightly better option than the ground when her forearm gave a loud wet snap with the force of her body nailing into it.
Oh gods, was that her bone coming out of her skin-
"Fuck!" She heard Deidara's breathless curse, and she would never admit it to anyone but the agony in her shattered arm was so thorough and piercing in her brain that she just never quite reached that coherent point of 'this hurts I should probably cry.'
Deidara would later retell it that she took it like a champ.
Burning Earth clutched at her little body and she cradled her bloody mangled arm as he rearranged her on the back of the bird.
"Can you hold on, un?" He asked her in a rush, and she nodded over the pain, seeping chakra into the clay to grip herself to it. It's not like she had a choice- hold onto the damned thing or fall off and die. She knew which option she'd rather take.
Her blood pounded in her ears, her entire body throbbed in scorching protest- and one single crystal clear thought emblazoned itself into the forefront of her mind.
Deidara is here. He is safe, he is whole.
It helped a little.
"Sasori no danna is going to kill me." He said anxiously, his blue eye dark and shadowed as he took in the arm clutched to her chest.
Burning Earth moved to stand, cradling a howling statue in the crook of his arm.
His mouth set into a grim line. "Let's finish this, un."
He tossed it out gently, his motion at odds with what was basically a small atomic bomb that poofed into its larger form to fall slowly down to the village below.
Nanami grit her teeth in pain and watched the panting, sweating, form of Gaara, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth as he registered the bomb that was about to level his entire village and then some.
The howling faced bomb spread its wings as it fell, the thousands of faces of the villagers and shinobi alike watched it's decent with terrified eyes.
Nanami turned away and buried her face into her uninjured arm just as the blinding white light of the bomb lit up the night.
It detonated in a mushroom cloud of fury, the light reaching her long before the sound, even as Gaara's tsunami of sand rose between his village and the atomic explosion.
Winds shredded at her clothing, and she hunched over her broken arm in an attempt to hold it still. It didn't do much. She gasped for breath in pain, her eyes began to water just as the deafening boom hit her ears in a sound so loud it became nothing as her ears responded by swelling the canal shut in front of her ear drums.
There was only the ringing in her head, and she distantly registered Deidara's screaming war cry of "Katsu!" as his second bomb inside Gaara's perfect defense went off in the jinchuuriki's face- her Red Cloud's voice only a whisper over the ringing even though she knew he'd probably been loud about it.
Nanami panted, trying to catch her breath over the onslaught of sensations.
This was quite an event for her first real shinobi battle.
"Almost done, un." Deidara reassured her softly, (which she didn't hear but saw his lips make the shape of the words) as sand began to lightly fall away from Gaara's defensive dome.
"I mixed clay into his sand before you destroyed his connection to it, un." He explained, and his tone was proud as his blue eye watched her pant and curl into his bird.
"Art…" he began, turning back to the barely conscious Gaara with a menacing smirk. "Is a blast!"
The next (and last) explosion didn't even register to Nanami and she hunched behind Deidara, she knew she had to do it- ohgodsdontmakeherdoit- she had to- she had to- Nanami put her arm across her knees and pressed down in one swift, decisive motion to snap the exposed bone back into her flesh where it belonged.
She screamed. Deidara's blond hair whipped around as he turned to look at her, grim faced. She didn't like that look on him, Burning Earth was always smiling.
Nanami spent the next five minutes concentrating on swirling chakra strings around her arm, tightly weaving them together around the breaks in a makeshift splint.
They settled against her skin in a net, firmly holding the shattered bone in place, even as blood poured out thick and sluggish. She held her hand over where the bone had come through, and pressed despite the pain. Her blood continued to pulse out, but at a slower staunched rate, seeping between her fingers to paint every inch of her exposed skin in crimson.
It hurt like a bitch.
"Hou…" Deidara's small noise of interest caught her attention. "How noble, as expected of a Kage." Nanami looked out to see Gaara using the last of his chakra to move the massive wall of sand that had defended them from the howling faced bomb away from the city.
He didn't want anyone to get hurt, she knew. Even with the last of what he had to offer he would still protect the people he loved. Nanami understood his actions wholeheartedly, even Deidara's tone seemed approving.
"It's over, un." Deidara pronounced as sea foam green eyes slipped shut behind darkly bruised lids. Burning Earth's rescued hand- whole and uninjured landed atop her head to gently stroke over her sweaty, gritty hair even though he wasn't even looking; as if to absently reassure himself she was fine. (alive was something right?)
They swooped forward to catch the falling Jinchuuriki.
And hope bloomed in Nanami's mind- because if she could change this one small thing, maybe she could change some others...