XXX

Deidara

On top of the hotel roof, he lazily lied back against the rim surrounding the ceiling. He had effortlessly gotten to the top. Of course the hotel staff had seen him, and the trio that had come up to confront him were now scattered sufficiently around him.

I get watch duty while Sasori goes and buys himself some clothes. This Akatsuki lifestyle just gets more and more entertaining, hmm.

He lazily turned his head to look in the village square. There were three Konohagakure shinobi at a security kiosk, where they were arguing with a single Kumogakure-nin who seemed to lack his traveling papers. Next to them, a commoner was selling fresh fruits and vegetables to a group of travelling tourists. Sitting on a bench was an old man feeding pigeons, while a group of kids watched with glee.

So boring. Where's the action, the thrill? This is why staying with Iwagakure was such a waste of time... there's no excitement!

But still... those were nice times.

He yawned before allowing his ocular lens to zoom in on a shock of yellow hair that suddenly peeped around the side of the bench, but it was only another boy. He watched as he startled the old man, causing him to drop his bird feed all over the ground. The pigeons exploded into frenzied movement while the children shook with laughter as the old man stood up and shook his fist at them. He failed to make a grasp for the blonde boy, who laughed wickedly before running over to his friends.

"You're getting to slow, old man!" the kid taunted back at the pigeon feeder before turning a building corner and disappearing with his friends...

"You're starting to get slow, Lord Tsuchikage."

"Quiet, Kurotsuchi. It's just an exterior wound, I'm fine, resume your training!"

She sat down stubbornly on the ground. She was a beautiful young girl, he had had her eye on her for some time. Plus, she was strong. That's what happened when you were the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage, you got strong fighting blood. "You're injured, we should stop. Here, why don't you take a seat?"

The old man looked at her suspiciously, but his back abruptly gave a loud crack and he exhaled. "Yes, maybe that's not a bad idea." He floated over without a care in the world, sitting on the rough stone ledge-

Her eyes found his, and he felt his stomach somersault as she gave him a mischievous wink. "Feeling better, Grandfather?"

"Yes, yes, now try the Terraform Justu again-"

He leaned up to the old man's ear. "I think she's got it down pretty well, don't you think, hmm?"

The Third jumped/floated up to a foot in the air, his hands whirling around to probably do that incredibly jutsu of his, but instead they clumsily fumbled about in alarm. "Damn you, Deidara, how long have you been there!"

"Long enough to see you're just as old and weak as ever, old man. Your reaction time is about the same as a snail at this point,hmm."

Off to the side, Kurotsuchi snickered playfully. The Tsuchikage whirled on her high in the sky. "And you! Is he who've you been running off with now, instead of coming to training and honing your skills!" The old man ground his teeth in frustration as he descended down to her eye level. "This is no time to be playing with boys, girl! As long as the other nations are around, there can be no room for messing around, you must become strong!"

"But Deidara stopped showing up to the training sessions to-"

"He is not my granddaughter! Besides, he is a natural prodigy, one of the most skillful Iwagakure has ever produced." There was pride veiled deep in the old man's voice beneath his resentment, and Deidara cocked his head smartly. The feeble old man turned to look at him slowly. "He learned a lot from me, before he got his head full of stupid ideas of what made the world 'beautiful.' But maybe, just maybe, if he grew some brains, he would return and learn more to finally become my heir!"

Kurotsuchi stepped forward, her voice pleading. "Grandfather, please, it was just a joke-"

He dropped his smile. "I don't have anything to learn from you, 'sensei'," he said lowly. "I surpassed you a long time ago. Hell, I should be the one teaching Kurotsuchi now, not you. Just roll over and die and let us really show those other nations what a real conflict is, instead of playing games in the dark,hmm!"

Onoki was in his face in an instant, the glance of warmth in his voice gone with cold dismissal. "You're just as stubborn as ever," he snarled in his face. "I may be old, but I am still the Tsuchikage of this proud shinobi village, and that makes me both your elder and leader. Go back to playing with your clay figurines and gloating over us while we work on something that truly matters!"

He did not mean to, but his anger was paramount. He wanted to show the old man he was wrong. He raised his curled fists, then opened them for them both to see. The old man and Kurotsuchi gasped.

"That's..."

"The Iwagakure Forbidden Kinjutsu, yes," he said proudly. "With this, I truly do surpass you, old man. My 'clay figurines' now have real power, I am the most powerful shinobi Iwagakure has to offer now, hmm!" He looked over at Kurotsuchi smartly, expecting her to be looking at him with the admiration he had sought for so long. To his surprise, she was looking at him with a deeply shocked expression.

"So... it wasn't enemy shinobi who broke into the vault it seems," the old man said quietly. "It was my own former pupil. Who else would have had the code or skill to break in? And so you broke one of our most sacred laws and used the Material Animation Kinjutsu on yourself. For power." His voice was so disgusted that Deidara found himself flinching away. "You have fallen, Deidara. Instead of taking the time to gain your power, you took the quick route. You have disgraced us all!"

He shrugged, trying to keep his voice modulated. Everything was going wrong, hopelessly wrong. They were supposed to be happy for him, she was supposed to love him now! And he, he was supposed to accept him back. No more of those lectures, no more of those sad looks when he spoke of going out on his own.

Why is no one ever SATISFIED-

Deidara shoved the old man back, and his strength said the old man tumbling through the air. He stopped right next to his granddaughter. "I don't need either of you," he spat angrily. "I don't need this village either. I have found the secret to life, the secret to change! Something you two or anyone in the God-forsaken village ever understand. I'm leaving, and I'm never coming back!"

The Tsuchikage landed delicately on the ground, and he spread his hands. Deidara laughed openly. "You're gonna kill me, hmm? Think you can do it, old man?"

"I don't want to have to hurt you, Deidara, but if you threaten my village, my- no, our- home, then you leave me no choice!"

"Deidara, don't," Kurotsuchi pleaded desperately. "You're ill, there's something wrong, the kinjutsu meddling with your mind, I don't know! Just don't go-"

He looked at her a moment, his mind fumbling with something with something to say. Had he really loved her once? Had he ever truly known what that even was?

The old man saw him hesitate, and a bright beam of light lanced out of his palms. In an instant he was up in the air on a clay bird, the two watching him with open mouths.

"YOU STUPID OLD MAN!" he yelled savagely down at them. "YOU FAKE BASTARDS, I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU, I'll SHOW YOU REAL FUN-"

A crushing blow struck him in the head, awakening him from his daydream. He had fallen from the roof; his whole body had been shaking and moving about in his throes. e had fallen straight to the ground, and as he painfully opened his eyes, he saw a small crowd had assembled around him.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?"

He knocked the hand away, standing up and dusting himself down. That was a trip down memory lane I never want to hear about again.

"Sheesh, fine. Have it your way, asshole." The crowd dispersed quite quickly, all of them returning to their duties. He looked around, heavily self-conscious and blushing from embarrassment. He considered destroying the entire marketplace, to save him from knowing people had seen him in a moment of weakness.

This time, he recognized him. Namely because he was staring back at him. The only person left from the crowd, a teenager with lightning colored hair and black claw-like marks on his cheeks. A popsicle was poised halfway from entering his mouth. His blue eyes were full of shock as he took in Deidara.

His embarrassment turned into bravado, and his mouth curled into a leer. "Well would you look at that. I caught myself a fox."

XXX

Sasori

When he saw the plume of smoke rising from the center of the village, he left behind his casual walk and took off sprinting, drawing out a puppet scroll along the way. They had to capture the jinchuuriki while he was still in his form, or he would destroy the whole village.

It wasn't that he cared for their actual lives, it was more he didn't want to lose the gratitude they felt for him.

He reached the village outskirts, where the villagers had begun to crowd in fear. He approached a shaking man and gripped him by the shoulders painfully enough it snapped his attention away from Deidara's fight.

"What's happening?" he asked calmly.

"There's a man, a blonde man, he's attacking this boy, I don't know him-"

He released him and the other fell to the ground, still trembling. These people don't know violence, they're used to a drab reality. They can't handle a little bit of destruction.

He took off deeper into the village. None of the buildings were towering over him, but they still shaded him from his view of what could be going on. He reached an alley and decided to make his start here. He unrolled the scroll and set it down on the mucky ground, tracing his hands around the summoning symbols.

He slapped his wooden palm down on the scroll, and the smoke of the summoning greeted him. This was one of his more recent creation, an offensive wooden machine that he had experimented with using sealing jutsu. He expected Deidara to subdue the jinchuuriki, and then he would do the tying up.

Leader can't get mad at us, and I lure in Kakashi. There is no compromise!

A colossal explosion rocked the house on his left, and the foundations groaned in protest. Abruptly, they gave up and the house collapsed in earnest, coating them both in dust.

"...can't keep running forever, kid! Sooner or later you're gonna have to witness my art, hmm!"

The pitter patter of sandals on tiles rummaged to Sasori's left, and he lanced out with chakra cables, hoping to at least cause the jinchuuriki to stumble for Deidara to smash him. The boy, whether through pure luck or he somehow anticipated his attack, jumped into the air above the shimmering blue cord, and landed on the opposite house.

Quick on his feet, but he doesn't have anywhere to run. Unless Kakashi is already here, and he's waiting for a moment to strike.

Instinctively, he looked behind himself, expecting to see the hated silver-haired ninja standing behind him. There was nothing there, and he shook his head angrily. Calm down. Catch the boy, lure the man, kill him. It's not something I want, it's something I need to do.

He jumped up, and the puppet followed, now attached to him through chakra strings. The boy was jumping rooftop after rooftop, and above, Deidara soared a little ways behind him, raining down explosive clay creatures without abandon. Sasori's enhanced eyes could make out the laughter each time a structure blew. Glad someone's enjoying themselves.

The puppet lurched forward with a twitch of his finger, and with another gentle nudge, it extended it's arm, fingers splayed. He followed the boy's movements. He's trying to go that chapel tower, to get some ground to try and gain enough height to attack Deidara. His whole hand dances rythmetially as the puppet's hand shifted to follow the boy like a sentry gun.

Going... going... going...

...

There.

The entire arm shot off like a cannon, shooting at top speed towards a single wooden strut on a building. It tore through it like it was cardboard, a moment after the boy landed on the same roof.

In an instant, the sudden extra support on a beam that was no longer there cause the house to fall on itself, and the boy vanished in a plume of smoke and debris. He ran over as Deidara sent down more clay figurines-

"You idiot, we want to keep him alive, not blow him to pieces!"

The fallen house lit up like a firework, vaporizing chunks of concrete and lighting up anything flammable.

"Damn you, Deidara-"

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

From within the smoke, hundreds of figures suddenly darted out, dissipating the haze with the sheer amount of numbers. All of them were the jinchuuriki, and together, they were throwing each other at Deidara and his bird in the sky, as if they were being launched by catapult.

Deidara weaved through the sky, dodging what he could and exploding what he couldn't. He didn't seem to have heard anything of what Sasori had said.

This is what it's called when someone has to much fun. His eyes scanned the epicenter of the clones, trying to pick out the real one for his puppet to latch onto. But there were simply to many clustered about, the sheer amount overwhelming the amount of explosions Deidara could produce at a time-

"C2 Curtain Bomb!"

Sasori's eyes widened, and he jumped with his puppet a few buildings away.

In the middle of the assembled clones, a shimmering blue light was emitting. Some advanced justu, with incredible chakra shape. I don't think I've seen anything like it before-

From above on his bird, Deidara sprayed his hands, and the sky seemed to darken. Realistically, it was hundreds of clay birds, their wings folded out. They covered the sky, shrouding them in temporary darkness with only the lights of the fires to let them see. The clones faltered, standing their ground and looking up with awe. Oddly, he couldn't see the blue chakra ball anymore...

"I've had enough sketches and drawings!" Deidara shouted down madly. "This time, this whole village is going to be my canvas!" He clasped his hands together, and for a moment the world was still in anticipation.

At the same time, the birds dive-bombed and the clones all jumped, and somewhere in the middle, a searing orange and red haze lit up the village.

Sasori shut his eyes. Even though they couldn't be damaged, it still gave his inner core a deep rooted pain to stare at something so bright.

When he opened them, he saw that the resulting shock wave had flattened that entire section of the village. Only a few metal beams still stood, and a few cracked segments of pathway. A few clones, not immediately killed but rather had been stunned, were on the ground unmoving, slowly popping out of existence one by one.

Impressive that Deidara could summon that many clay birds, no matter how small, in such a small amount of time. Still, that'll be his limit. He smiled to himself. Maybe I've been underestimating him to much.

The ground directly beneath the still hovering Iwagakure rogue shattered, and Sasori had the sensation that a volcano had erupted beneath him. But no, the orange and yellow clothing and hair-

He saw what was happening and hid himself underground. And the jutsu-

The clones were holding each other by their ankles, swinging themselves around like a human rope. But at the very top of it, standing out among the unified color, was that blue chakra ball-

Now I remember. The Rasengan, the jutsu created by the Fourth Hokage. Amazing he was able to master that form of shape transformation. I doubt even I could go to that level.

Deidara heard and saw the boy to late, and the Rasengan struck the tender underbelly of his bird, causing it to ironically explode with him on top. Sasori darted forward, the puppet dancing ahead of him. He made it stop and threw himself in the air on top of it. The puppet retracted it's remaining arm, and as soon as Sasori was falling into the right position, shot the arm forward like a spring, launching Sasori through the air. In a moment, he had caught the falling dazed Deidara, and they were standing on the other side of the village.

"Sasori...?"

"You shouldn't have been playing with him, you idiot. Now you've gone and got your right arm beaten up." To further compliment his words, the disgusting hand on the arm coughed up blood, and stuck out its tongue unhappily.

Sasori got up, turning to face the sound of someone dropping a little ways next to them. The jinchuuriki stood there, breathing heavily.

"You two... again... you're the ones who killed Gaara!"

Sasori remembered his eyes blue and warm. Now, they were red and sharp. Anger brings out the fox's chakra. It's now or never.

"The Akatsuki wants you alive, as do I," Sasori replied calmly. "You are a valuable asset to us both."

"Oh yeah? And what's the difference between their goals and yours?"

"Well, they want to suck that little fox's soul right out of you for the sake of the Leader. Me, I have something more personal to do with you."

"You bastard, I don't even know why I'm bothering to listen to you! I should kill you both for what you... you... you monsters did to Gaara!"

Sasori shrugged, bringing his hands together delicately. "You should talk, kid. And hey, didn't I kill your friend Sakura to? She didn't die quickly either. In fact, she's still alive, slowly being killed by my poison. I spent years perfecting it, by the way. To test the limits of the human body, to prove how fragile it was. Your friend was strong, but in the end she proved just as expendable as the rest-"

The boy ran forward to quickly for even him to react, and his fist broke off his left arm. With his right, Sasori clasped the boy's arm around the elbow and brought it sharply up. The jinchuuriki screamed as his elbow snapped, and Sasori brought him around and threw him back in the direction he had run from-

-into the open chest of his puppet, which he had silently guided over. The jinchuuriki landed with a grunt inside it's stomach, and he immediately ran over to it. He closed it and then pressed his hand to the center, where he applied his sealing tag. Now, it's chakra was being repressed and he wouldn't have the strength to break out of it. For a couple of seconds, the furious captive banged against the tough wood, but it's strength quickly ebbed away, and then there was quiet.

"Good work, Sasori my man, hmm." Deidara limped over, clutching his wounded arm. "Now that we got him, what do we do?"

Sasori went to his shoulder and ripped away the section bearing his red scorpion insignia. "We leave them a message as to who took him. They'll have a tracker with them, and they'll trace our chakra to our destination. From there, we wait for Kakashi to come, and we kill him. That's all."

"We're still going for Kakashi then, instead of taking this kid back to base? Like the leader would want?"

"To hell with the Leader. This is more important right now."

Deidara laughed. "You seem a little agitated, hmm. Something spook you?"

He glared back at his blonde fool of a partner. "Get us a bird, art boy. I'll show you where were going."

"Sure, just take it easy."

"I'll take it easy when he's dead. Now, shut up and get flying."

XXX

Other

He threw broken tailor down, stepped out of the wrecked shop without a second look. He was certain that had been Sasori leaving the shop, but had he confronted him then, his cover would have been blown. Unfortunately, the tailor had been a useless pile of adoration and unhelpful information. His genjutsu would kill the man in a few minutes for his failure to supply him with answers.

The cool air rushed through his cloak as he stepped outside, as did the smell of...

He looked at the village and smiled from behind his mask. "Somebody's been cooking up a storm."

He was closing in. All he needed was a little scrap of evidence to find out where they were going, and then he would be waiting for them.

Akatsuki was his, not Nagato's. He would use use its members how he wished. Sasori was marked to die, and if Deidara resisted, so be it. Both were expendable to the cause.

It was time he took the cause into his own hands, no matter who barred his path.