XXX

Deidara

The explosion did not rip off his arm, but instead broke his shoulder and wrenched it into the opposite direction. He covered his face to avoid the proximity burns, back flipping away from the brunt of the explosion.

He sensed a presence behind him, however, and with a grimace Tobi had already avoided the attack and slipped into a counterattack. No way to stop my flip, or get another bomb off... not that even have the chakra to do another one.

Something soft struck his front, and his tired body didn't even have the strength to resist when his legs lifted up from under him. What sort of jutsu is this... agh... he's taken control of my body, hmm?

His legs outstretched into a long kick, which seemed odd. Tobi caught his foot, but his other came around to kick him in the head. The man, who's face was revealed to him after he had landed that devastating punch when they had led, gave a curse from his scarred features and the leg somehow fazed through his head. Deidara's eyes widened as he saw his foot pass through the angry face. What's going on, hmm?

His fist leaned forward to grasp Tobi's wrist, and the other released him in frustration, before leaping into the air to avoid another attempted kick. Deidara landed on the ground calmly, then looked down to see what had struck him in the chest.

Chakra cord... no way...

But to his disbelief, they did in fact lead back to Sasori's wounded body, where his fingers danced melodically. His face was determined, and in it Deidara saw death, but also a still burning fire to fight.

He somehow has chakra to both feed into me and control me. I can feel myself growing in strength again, but until then, he can see the battle from afar and control my movements if Tobi tries to counterattack- like now-!

Tobi suddenly materialized on his left, and Deidara got a good look at his face, and at the two Sharingan evident in his eyes. So he's got a Mangekyou Sharingan, just like Itachi, except it's only in one eye, and it seems to allow him to teleport himself around, hmm. He thought of how his kick ha passed through Tobi's seemingly solid body, and how he seemed to always avoid the explosion. If it's anything like Kakashi's he can suck away certain things to another dimension. Cold he be doing the same with specific parts of his body...?

His single good arm came up and blocked a windmill kick from Tobi, then two jabs. He retaliated by bringing his knee up and hitting Tobi in the chest, but to his disappointment, it only passed through his chest. This jutsu, how am I supposed to get around it?

The scarred face held two fingers in front of him, and Deidara realized they were held into the tiger seal. Need to divert the explosion-

He jumped back as Tobi realized the attack. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

Fire consolidated into a ball in front of him, and he grimaced as his hand shot out a multitude of beetles. "C1 Disruption!"

His insects struck the ball and exploded in small bursts, dissipating the flaming ball. It only took a few to break down the incoming jutsu, and the rest flew towards Tobi, who's Mangekyou eye was emitting those odd air currents. The clay insects seemed to pause in their trajectory, and then were sucked into the center of the offset air. They disappeared into nothingness, and when they were gone, Tobi gave him a thin smile.

"You'll have to do much better than that if you want to land a blow. As it is, you can't." He shook his head at the two of them, and Deidara's lip curled. "I gave you a chance to work with me, we could have done this together. But no, your betrayal of my trust only goes to show I have been right in doing this alone. This world and its lies..." He folded his hands into another set of hand signs, and the Iwagakure-nin felt the chakra cords stress his muscles into a jump. At the same time, he dug his good arm into its clay pocket.

"...will all soon be swept away! Fire Style: Flame Frenzy Stream!" Diedara jumped, avoiding the carpet of flame that emitted from Tobi's mouth onto the ground. The landscape became very bright and hot, and then suddenly there was a gurgling choking sound. Sasori, he got hit! The chakra cords on him snapped and he lost his momentum, having counted on Sasori to guide his movements. He adjusted himself, trying to steer his aching body into a safe landing, but suddenly Tobi was in front of him. Cursing, he brought his arms into an X to intercept Tobi's fist, but he could not make himself block the kick that hit his side and sent him crashing to the ground.

Coughing up blood, he looked desperately at Sasori. The other had not moved, and the remnants of the flames were till licking his charred body. However, he still gave a small nod to Deidara, reattaching the strings.

Frustrated, the blonde Akatsuki turned back to Tobi. I have to keep him from attacking Sasori, or else then I have to control myself when I know I can't in my current condition. But how do both attack him and defend us both?

Tobi was laughing again. "Why would I want a partner as weak as you, now that I think about it. You're clumsy, deranged in the mind, and selfish. How you got into Akatsuki will always remain a mystery to me."

The taunts hurt more than the pain in his side from the kick, but he shrugged them off. He knelt down to rest, placing his palm down on the ground. "Big talk, coming from the man who was duped by a clay clone, hmm."

The laugh turned into calm brooding. "Give up and save me the trouble of this battle. Time is a very precious and inflexible thing; you cannot win, only stall me. And I cannot allow you to go free, either. You know to much now... the both of you."

Smiling, Deidara held up his good arm, stood up. "You sure know how to make us feel special, hmm."

"I told you, you had your chance to-"

"Gotcha- KATSU!"

The ground exploded as the four clay voles Deidara had released into the earth finally reached Tobi. The first exploded right under his feet, causing him to lose his balance and fall down. The other three blew straight after, enveloping the creep in a plume of orange flame and gray smoke.

"Dei...dara... get over here, qu...quickly."

Realizing Tobi had again sucked himself in through his visual jutsu, Deidara ran over to Sasori. "What?"

"I think... I'm starting to... figure it out." His voice was so tired Deidara was surprised not to see aged lines on his face. "His jutsu... it's space-time. He's going...into... another dimension!"

"Dimension shifting? I thought those jutsu's were only from myths!"

"Where do... you think... summoning's... come from? If we can slip in...into his dimension... we can attack... from there..."

"How do we get in then?"

The sound of Tobi reemerging ended the conversation, and Deidara whirled around to smash his fist into the other. It went through Tobi's frowning face, and then he was stopped as the other's gloved hand caught his wrist. "To slow." He bodily threw Deidara away, but the blonde recovered and landed on his feet. So we need a way to get into whatever dimension he's travelling to? A big enough explosion he'll suck himself in, then somehow latch on and fight him in there? He curled his fist while his other arm shook helplessly at his side. Not much choice in the matter, hmm.

Tobi turned to face him again. Behind him, Sasori was moving, much to Deidara concern and surprise. What's he going to do?

"I've had enough of this charade," Tobi said flatly. "I've chase after you two long enough, and I've had enough amusement; it's time you sleep." He folded his hands together, apparently oblivious to Sasori's crawling.

"Genjutsu won't work on me, hmm" Deidara growled. I have to keep him talking, to try and build enough chakra for a C3 detonation. Agh, it hurts to do it with only one hand, but I don't have ay choice any longer.

Tobi lifted his eyebrows, giving his scarred face an ironic look of enjoyment. "It's a good thing it's not genjutsu, then. KAMUI!"

Massive shuriken flew out of Tobi's eye again, while his other eye widened in wild satisfaction. Deidara grunted,d ropping himself to the ground, but one of them struck him in his uncoordinated left leg. He cried out in pain, the force of the shuriken sending him skidding across the ground again. The rest of the shuriken flew across and hit the abandoned farmer's building, all but demolishing it.

Can't stop, keep moving, he told himself, picking himself up. However, Tobi still wasn't done.

"Fire Style: Bomb Blast Dance!" A spinning vortex of hot flame lanced out, and suddenly consolidated itself into a hot cocoon of fire.

And he had nowhere to go. The flames took him in, and the intensity of the heat made him scream. He could feel his skin start to smoke and burn, and his eyes were practically smoldering. Can't see... or breath...

The fire ended, and he gasped for air. However, before he could even begin to recover, he heard the thudding of footsteps and felt the connection Tobi's foot to his chin. He spat out another mouthful of blood, landing on his back. In desperation, he flung out the unfinished C3 gargoyle he had been trying to create. "K-Kat-"

Tobi kicked it away effortlessly. Deidara, eyes blurry from the flame attack, helplessly trying to back away. However, even though his genjutsu repelling eye was damaged, he could see that Tobi had not managed to divert the gargoyle very far away.

And he saw Sasori's position. Come on...

"Let's see you avoid genjutsu now..."

"KATSU!"

The gargoyle detonated, a minor blast compared to what the normal one should have done. Deidara burrowed himself into the earth, avoiding the blast radius to the best he could.

But he saw their plan had worked. Do your best, Sasori, hmm.

XXX

Sasori

It was a sensation he had never felt before, but it was so rapid he didn't have much time to wonder about it. His arms were firmly clasped onto Tobi's shoulders, gripping them tightly as the two warped away to avoid Deidara's explosion.

I can't do any damage in my state... I have to get him to warp a part of his body so Deidara can get him in the real world.

"You little bastard... so you clung onto me into the Kamui dimension?" Tobi tried turning around, but Sasori stuck to him, making it impossible for the other to actually see him. "GET OFF!"

Struggling, Tobi took out a kunai knife and tried to stab him, but he simply couldn't come around to hurt him.

And then a voice Sasori had never expected to hear again made him freeze, and Tobi threw him off.

"AND FINALLY I CAN GET MY HANDS ON YOU BOTH!"

Naruto Uzumaki barreled out of nowehere and punched Tobi in the face, sending him stumbling away. However, he caught the foolish blonde's next kick and tossed him aside.

"Insolent little brat!"

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Three shadow clones burst out of smoke in addition the original to attack Tobi, and the air became a flurry of kicks, punches, kunai sparks, and smoke. Sasori blinked, trying to understand what was happening; he had never considered the fact that since Tobi had already known where his hideout was, that he might have been the one who engineered Naruto's supposed escape, when in reality he had actually captured him himself.

Will wonders never cease? He groaned, feeling a wave of pain wash over his body as he tried to move. He was weak, he could barely move. Perhaps the appearance of the boy was actually beneficial... now Tobi was facing another opponent, and would have to faze out into reality to avoid Naruto's attacks.

"Kid... keep... at him...!" Sasori called as loudly as he could.

"Shut up, you're next for capturing me in the first place, you bastard!"

Sasori didn't reply. The shadow clones were gone, the kid was fighting Tobi one on one again. The older man was much stronger, however; it was apparent he had the upper hand. If Naruto lost, Sasori would be forced to use his Puppetmaster-Puppet Death Sequence... and that was a one-shot attempt that he had never even tried before.

He extended a chakra cord to Tobi's arm, and pulled. The punch that should've flattened the blonde's face instead dragged down, and he was forced to a knee.

And then Naruto's knee was coming up to hit him in the face...

Do it... do it...

The knee passed through his head as it completely disappeared. For a moment, Naruto was stunned as the headless body stood up and adopted another offensive position.

Then it went sprawling forward as something from the other world caused Tobi to forcibly reappear. He coughed out blood as a bruise sported itself on his throat. He stumbled forward, landing on all fours. Naruto took advantage of the situation by landing another kick on the other, one of which he took the full brunt of and sent him to the floor.

"Impossible... ach..." He stood up on a knee, caught Naruto's next punch. However, Sasori again pulled on his arm, and he couldn't block the glowing blue chakra ball approaching his stomach...

XXX

Deidara

Tobi's torso and head reappeared. He was bleeding, pain and shock was written all over his face. Gone was the earlier confidence of the man who had pulled the strings of everyone, who had tried to hurt him and his one friend. Now there was only the features who saw his own defeat inexorably approaching him.

Smiling, Deidara tapped his shoulder. Tobi's eyes widened. "You-"

He curled his fingers and put all his pain behind the swing. "It's about time you dream, instead!"