XXX

Deidara

The clay bomb couldn't reach the duo in time. He watched as Kakashi's Raikiri pierced Sasori's chest and rip upwards while Sasori's sword struck the other through his right shoulder. It was as if each strike had sapped the strength from each other, and they both collapsed against each other. A moment later, the clay bat reached them, but he didn't detonate it. Lumbering clumsily over to them, he knelt down beside them.

"Sasori."

"You... came... just to see me die..."

"You're not dying here today, Master Sasori," he grunted firmly. He pulled Sasori's limp puppt body off of Kakashi's pale hand, then dragged him away. The Leaf shinobi clutched at the blade piercing his shoulder then tugged it out, doubling over in anxiety. Deidara looked at the sword on the sand and noticed a different liquid than blood stained alongside it.

It was coated in Sasori's poison, hmm. He's going to die.

Sasori clutched his shoulder, drawing his attention back the other. A gaping hole where Hatake had run him through. For the first time, he noticed something other than wooden plastering. The ridge of some cylindrical device was able to be seen through the hole, oozing a murky red fluid.

Deidara swooned to one side, his head feeling suddenly light. Is seeing his blood for the first time really making me like this? His eyes were blurring, and his head ached. Suddenly, it was over, he could think clearly, and once again the scenery was there. He blinked, shuddered, blinked again.

"Hey, what's..."

The puppet master, for the first time, seemed to actually be in agony. His grip was almost painful, and Deidara counted his blessings it wasn't his other, devastated shoulder.

"Sasori, what is that, hmm?"

"It's my... core... agh... his Lightning Blade grazed it.. can't move the left side of my body...AGH... I was desperate... to win... ERGH... careless and he hit me in... my weak spot..."

"How did he even know you had a weak spot? I didn't know you had a weak spot, hmm!"

"It's because my Sharingan can see chakra flow," Kakashi spoke up tiredly. His voice was raspy, whether from exhaustion, the heat of the desert, or a side effect of the poision; maybe all three. "The rest of his body is an empty mass held together by very thin chakra strings, all emanating from his core. It wasn't hard to pinpoint it."

Deidara clenched his fists. "Sharingan..."

"Deidara... let it go..."

Sasori sounded so weak Diedara was almost unsure who was talking. But no, there was no mistaking it. Sasori was missing an eye, and his other one had various bits of paint chipping off it. In fact, his whole wooden face seemed to be deformed, sapped of its energy and power. He was beaten; by what, Deidara didn't know. Kakashi was on all fours, choking on no doubt a poison he had been hit with.

"Sasori, what happened? You didn't try to fight him on your own? You little idiot, hmm..."

But still the Leaf shinobi tried to talk. "Where... is... Nar...uto...? I have... to know... where... before I..."

"I don't... know," Sasori said flatly, not looking at either of them by peering up into the sky. His eyes had a glazed, disinterested look in them, as if suddenly the pain wasn't there. "I swear to you that is the truth."

Kakashi rolled onto his back, in agony from the information or the poison it was difficult to tell. The whole situation was reminding Deidara of his own fresh commitment to working with Sasori more diligently, and he shuddered. Don't tell me that's what's going to happen to me next.

He shook his head. No, Sasori isn't going to die.

There was a click clacking beneath him Sasori was fumbling with the cylinder in his chest. "Judgement has come to pass on the god, it seems," he said in that same flat tone. "This damage is more than anything I can sustain. I only have a few more minutes, Deidara. Sorry that I-"

"Shut up, you're not going to die right when I've decided I would do anything to help you, hmm!"

"You... what?"

"I promised myself, I would do anything to help you out, no matter what befell you. I was coming to help already, and I swear this would've gone better."

"But what?" Sasori was almost crooning him, such a different tone that Deidara blinked in surprise. He looked over at Kakashi. He was lying on his back, staring up at the sky just like Sasori.

"But I was ambushed... by Tobi... he tricked me over here, he could be here any moment! Sasori, you need to get up, need to help! He wants something from us, something bad, I can't figure out what, but he's after you! He thinks I'm dead, but he doesn't know where you are, there's still time..."

XXX

Sasori

"Isn't it interesting to see how the weak can succumb to such a simple genjutsu?" Tobi inquired lightly. Sasori stared him down furiously, but the pain in his chest was almost paralyzing. Likewise, Kakashi seemed to stunned by the other's sudden appearance to do anything.

Deidara stood stock still before them, speaking random phrases from a conversation happening in his own mind. He had arrived and taken in Sasori's condition, but when the puppetmaster had reached to examine his wound and Deidara was captivated as well, Tobi had materialized behind instantly and subdued him. Now, the clay sculptor stood helplessly, unaware of his own predicament.

"Sasori, what is that, hmm?"

"What are you doing here, Tobi? What is the meaning of this?" Sasori broke out.

The masked villain walked around Deidara's talking statue. Sasori followed every movement to the tee, and he finally saw what the heart of all their problems were.

Kakashi had seen it as well. He did a double take, before grunting out, "Where'd you get an eye like that?"

"We can recompense the older days later, Kakashi," the masked man retorted harshly. He stretched out a hand and gripped the other by the forehead. Hatake struggled briefly, his fingers weakly trying to find the wrist bone to snap it. The toxin is paralyzing him, he can't do it. Tobi waited for the fight to end and then placed Deidara under genjutsu to prevent him from intervening. All expertly done, with no lapse in his plan.

"Sleep," Tobi said harshly. Kakashi's eyelids closed on their own accord, and he slumped to the ground as well.

It was just them and Deidara's random speech.

"Sasori, what happened? You didn't try to fight..."

"It's hard to believe someone as insignificant as yourself would prove to be such a stubborn thorn in the foot of my plans," Tobi said conversationally. He leaned against Deidara, casually looking down at the weakened puppetmaster with his lone Sharingan, visible through the eyehole. "I didn't think there would be anyone more stubborn than Konohagakure in preserving their identities in this useless world, but it seems I'm being proven wrong left and right."

"What plans are you talking about? You mean your intentions to join Akatsuki-?"

"I am Akatsuki," Tobi corrected, and Sasori raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. "I encouraged Nagato- the "Leader" to you, to create this already defecting organization. A group of dysfunctional individuals with no ties or love for this world who would be stupid to realize their above-average skill was being manipulated."

Sasori's eyes widened with every word. He could understand boasting and bragging from a lesser individual, but Tobi's revelation of the Sharingan told him he was dealing with someone who had played a façade; whoever this man was, he definitely had some power.

And that meant his words couldn't be doubted, either.

Tobi began pacing, playing with a kunai he had materialized from nowhere. "I left things to Nagato in hopes he would follow my guidelines, and he did at first. But the moment I try to join in on my own plan, it's rejected. By you, Sasori if the Red Sand, of all people. A man who's parents were slaughtered by the whims of a mission, and rejected his humanity because of it." He paused, balancing the knife tip on his finger. The mask bored into the metal. "You think you are the only one with such pain? You think you're the only one who could see it as unbearable?"

Deidara's words were fumbling; Tobi seemed to be losing focus on the genjutsu. His words were filled with some deep emotion Sasori couldn't begin to understand; he barely understood what he was being told right now.

We've been... manipulated? From the beginning... how, how could this happen? To me, to the rest of us?

"This world disgusts me," Tobi went on, his voice ponderous. "You understand how cruel it is, Sasori, but you've only scraped along the surface. And look what that did to you, heheh. Your parents would've been so disappointed..."

"Who are you?"

The mask again paused. "I could tell you, but I won't. There won't be much point; you're going to die, along with Deidara, within a few moments. I only wanted to tell you how futile your existence, which you've valued to the point of obsession. To ruin the only thing you cherish... that is your punishment for almost ruining my vital plans. You, the esteemed puppetmaster, perhaps the best in the continent... the puppet to another. That is what you are, and that is what you will die as."

The kunai flipped in his palm, and it landed with an ominous smack in his palm. "Words, however, can only go so far. You've heard poor Deidara's sincerity; even for someone as empty of empathy of you, this will hurt."

"No, don't kill him! Don't you dare, you damned bastard, you're insane, you're-"

"Empathy is useless, you were on a smaller version of what I plan to achieve: bliss of the pain in the world. But your arrogance earns you a full dose of how cruel the world really is."

The kunai sunk into Deidara's chest, and the words stopped flowing. Tobi pressed the knife deeper in, until he was wrist deep in the blonde demolitionist's chest. Sasori watched, horrified, as the head lolled, and then silence reigned in the midday light.

"The world is cruel," Tobi repeated quietly. "No matter what happiness you try to put into it, it will only cause hate!"

Sasori's eyes widened as his arm wrenched out of Deidara's body-

And as a thick white substance crawled across his arm and held it in place.

"What the-"

Deidara's body was losing color, turning into the pale white color of clay. Tobi tried to wrench his arm out of his body, but the white material was rapidly hardening on his wrist, preventing any movement.

Deidara, no way-

"Don't you ever talk to my partner that way, hmm!"

A human fist shot out of the ground and struck Tobi in the face, cracking his mask into multiple pieces. The strength of the blow sent him flying onto his rear, clay Deidar and all. Stupified, he landed face down, clutching his face.

"Sasori, come on, we have to get out of here!"

A clay bird blew out into existence. He felt Deidara grip him by his shoulders and help him to his feet, but the pain from the Core was unbearable and he couldn't work his limbs. He clumsily flung himself onto the bird and clutched it for dear life.

Tobi was getting to his feet. His other arm came down and smashed the hardened statue off his hand. Snarling, he began to turn, a hand seal at his fingertips. "Fire Style: Bomb Blast Dance!"

"C2 Repulsion Detonation!"

The wave of approaching encircling flames was buffeted back by a small explosion that send out a powerful blast wave. It helped the bird animation take to the air, and then they were fleeing in the sky for dear life.