ii.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Blame (Innocent)
"We all must have a purpose, a life that we must own. Instead we fight for nothing, and only exist until we fall." -For the Innocent, Teramaze
Nanami's hair whipped wildly around her face from her position on the back of Deidara's bird. They were ridiculously high, higher than he'd ever taken her before in the aftermath of the battle. The air was thin up here, and crisp. The cold felt good and her flushed and sweaty skin.
The blond man was grinning down at her in their shared success. Nanami brought her uninjured arm to curl her flailing hair behind an ear, having long ago tired of the constant ringing of her braided bell and silenced it. She turned to look at the still form of the red haired man held tight inside the bird's tail.
His sand armour was cracking all over his face, and little bits of it continued to blow away into the air.
Her clay perch swerved with another echoing cry that sounded haunting in the night. They circled around and headed towards where she knew False Pieces would be waiting for them.
He was going to be so pissed.
"Eh!" Deidara jerked suddenly, and the bird beneath them made a sudden heavy beat of wings that brought them just over the flight path of a turret arrow. Nanami grit her sharp little teeth together past the pain of her jarred injury. It was no longer bleeding, wrapped tight in chakra strings and red cloth that she'd torn from the bottom of her shirt to staunch the flow, but it still hurt.
The arrow exploded in the air above them as it passed with a plume of fire and smoke, Nanami gripped harder at the clay under her uninjured hand. Deidara dropped down next to her, his blue eye flicking down to her arm, and then up to her pale sweaty face.
She cracked a weak smile in an attempt to reassure him. He did not look reassured.
She turned, unsure of what to say and not trusting herself to speak, and looked down at the quickly passing city of sand far below them. She heard the many cries of cease fire rise up on the wind.
"Sasori no danna is probably tired of waiting by now, un." He told her with a blue eye that glowed silver in the moonlight through wildly whipping blond hair.
She huffed a small laugh, because False Pieces was always tired of waiting.
The clay bird hooted it's echoing call into the night.
They landed just outside the cities large earthy wall, the moonlight made the ever reaching expanse of desert sand glow white.
Sasori's chakra thrashed about in agitation from waiting for their very late arrival. Things… han't really gone well. But at least they had retrieved Gaara.
"It took a little longer than expected." She told him softly with a pained twist to her lips. Dark eyes of the scorpion puppet turned towards her, giving her a quick once over before returning to Burning Earth with narrowed eyes.
"Deidara." He rolled the 'R's' of his partner's name harshly in his fury, having not missed the way Nanami clutched her broken arm, her singed skin and clothing that spoke loud and clear that she had been involved when she wasn't supposed to be. Nanami supposed the now dry and flaking blood crusted all the way up both arms probably wasn't helping her image any either.
"You were supposed to keep her clear of the battle." He said in a low baritone.
"She'll be fine, just a little banged up, un. We need to move they'll be coming this way." Deidara said quickly, still high on the adrenalin from the fight with the ichibi, and he leapt down from the bird.
"Stay there Nanami, un." He told her as he fell, and Nanami understood that she would have to wait to call her summons and request a healing, there wasn't time to stop for that kind of thing right now. Still, she was grateful for the time she'd put into training with the deer.
Most summons had a specialty- like the toads and close combat, the snakes and their poisons, the slugs were masters at healing. The deer were also quite good at healing, being much more in tune with their nature aspect, with a secondary specialty in speed, and awareness of their surroundings. They made excellent watchers in the night.
Deidara landed with a crunch of sand underfoot next to Sasori, and the puppet master handed him his sakat with a clipped movement that told her he was still very irritated. Burning Earth adorned the thing, little white ribbons fluttered in the breeze, and the clay bird gave a great beat of its wings as it forced itself forward to follow the artist duo's easy pace.
Nanami turned her attention back on Gaara, and she traced the cracking lines of his sand skin with her eyes as she settled back down.
Gaara's red hair ruffled about as they moved through the air. Nanami reached out a tentative, uninjured hand to trace the kanji for love that was brutally carved into the boys forehead. It seemed… contrary to the point. She pulled away, considering the boy named Gaara.
He kind of… looked like Sasori. A little bit. She wouldn't mention that though. She caught the puppet master in question giving the city behind them a last scornful look as they moved away.
She could only imagine how much he hated the village he had once called home. She couldn't say she really liked the place much either after all the excitement she'd been through tonight.
Nanami blinked then, suddenly distracted by the chakra signatures following behind them.
She leaned over the side of the bird at the duo on the ground. "We have company." She called down to them, and Deidara's blue eye flashed up at her from under the brim of his hat.
Nanami tilted her head, taking a second to count the individual signatures.
"At least six." She told him.
"Un." He acknowledged with a slight nod.
"It is not unexpected." Sasori said gravelly. "We did just kidnap the Kazekage." But the artist duo heeded her words regardless and created a group of clones to split off and create false trails. She watched them head in different directions absently.
Her arm was throbbing. Her eyelids felt heavy, her skin was hot where it had been singed by fire and rubbed raw with sand. She'd probably have a lot of bruises to count in her free time.
Nanami nodded, bringing her mind back to what Sasori had just said, because that seemed like the thing to do when a group of missing-nin swooped in and stole your village leader. (Not that it was that easy or anything.)
There was only the sound of the wind in her ears, and the soft crunching of sand beneath feet for a little while, but soon she lifting her tired eyes to look back the way they'd come. A large plume of smoke rose into the air followed by a cloud of disturbed dust and sand.
"Looks like they fell for your trap, un." Deidara commented.
"One of us came prepared." Sasori snarked back at his partner, black eyes flicking up to look at her and back over to bright blue.
"Down to one in pursuit." Nanami called down, interrupting whatever Burning Earth might have had to say.
"Tch. Persistent little sand rats, un." They cut off a few more clones.
Nanami sighed, and lay down carefully on the bird's back to watch Gaara's unconscious form and the trail, mixed among many false ones, that they were leaving behind.
With only the sound of the soft ringing of the bell on Deidara's sakat, the crunch of sand beneath their feet and the wind in her ears she was soon lulled into a shallow kind of sleep that her aching body would allow.
"Stop!" The angry cry had her jerking awake to find the soft light of dawn illuminating the desert around them in orange and red hues.
Her arm was burning. She choked back a gasp as the jarring movement she had made shot hot blades of agony up her arm and down her spine. Her chakra was down to almost nothing, her makeshift splint long gone, but at least her shirt bandage was holding tight.
"Found you." A voice snarled and Nanami looked over the side of the clay bird to see a boy in a strange cat-eared hood with purple kabuki make-up.
Kankuro.
Why couldn't they catch a damn break? Freaking sand-nin.
Kankuro's eyes briefly flashed up to look at Gaara who was curled tight inside clay tail feathers. His eyes widened briefly when he saw her, (Did that mean she was or wasn't noticed during the battle?) but his attention was quickly brought back to the artist duo before him.
"Deidara, take Nanami and go ahead." Sasori told his partner in the distorted voice of his puppet.
Kankuro reached for the scrolls at his back with a stern, almost desperate expression in response, pulling all three loose and unraveling them with a practiced flick of his hands.
"I won't let you take Gaara." and Nanami empathized with the tone of his voice. He was only trying to protect his precious person.
But so was she.
And Nanami was so over Sunagakure right now, it wasn't even funny.
Summoning smoke filled the air and veiled the boy from sight as he unsealed what she assumed was his puppets. Sasori slid forward to meet his assault.
The three puppets surrounded the cat-eared man making loud chattering noises that grated on her abused ears- much louder than the sound Sasori's made.
"Hm." Deidara made a small sound and turned to leap up on the back of the bird next to her. He grinned down at her and she returned it tiredly. His expression drooped a little as he got a better look at her, and a kind of steeliness flashed through one blue eye. He turned his gaze on Gaara briefly and she could see the accusation on his face.
She followed his gaze to the comatose red head. She didn't blame Gaara, he'd only been trying to protect his village. Protect himself from her. Everyone was only looking out for their own.
She wasn't even supposed to be involved.
Their bird swooped forward, leaving the puppet master behind to deal with the sand-nin.
She was confident Sasori would be fine with this one. She knew he would be.
"Be safe!" She scraped up the energy to call out anyways as they began their forward momentum.
"Careful Nanami, you'll ruin his image, un." Burning Earth told her with a soft chuckle.
"I won't let you leave!" Kankuro screamed at them with a vicious expression, his eyes steady on the form of his brother. His hands twisted through the air, fingers maneuvering the chakra strings attached to the three-eyed slightly human looking puppet with too many arms.
It chattered loudly as it flew towards them. Deidara whipped around and brought a hand out to grasp her shoulder and pull her towards him just as Sasori's scorpion tail lashed out lightning quick to snatch the chattering thing from the air.
Nanami whimpered pathetically, and Deidara's hand let go of her like he'd been burned. (She felt terrible for it)
"I'm am your opponent." False Pieces growled lowly, his tail crushing the puppet into parts that looked like they were supposed to come away like that anyways. They littered the ground around Sasori.
Deidara huffed in irritation and their clay perch picked up speed. Nanami watched Sasori's battling form disappear slowly in the light of dawn as they soared through the air and left him behind.
"He's an unlucky one." Deidara said to her. "Sasori no danna is probably the worst opponent for him, un."