"I sensed the blast around 400 meters ahead," I communicated with the clone, as I was expected to.

"That is a positive identity on our akatsuki member. His chakra signature is the same as well as his power to... blow things up. We need to report this immediately, and not engage," he sent a strained, pointed gaze my way.

I had to play this right for everything to go smoothly.

"I agree, but we should identify the akatsuki's opponent before we turn back," I said. A reasonable suggestion did go a long way in an ultimate plan.

"It's a little risky..."

I raised an eyebrow. "We're ninja."

Kakashi's clone let out a sigh. "Alright, Cashile. We'll do it your way. But no engaging."

I rolled my eyes. "No need to repeat yourself countless times. I am a genius. I'll remember."

"Riiight," Kakashi mumbled. "But will you listen?"

I pointedly ignored the question, instead running toward where we'd sensed the spikes in chakra. I would have limited time to act; I'd have to kill the clone and kill Deidara before the real Kakashi had time to arrive. It would be hard, and risky, but I could do it.

Then, the repercussions of a blast nearly threw me from my feet.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed, widening my stance as the ground shook. "We're still at least 15 kilometers from the fight! How the hell-"

And then I saw the beam of light.

I closed my mouth, studying it silently. To have a jutsu like that... it was no wonder Deidara was a part of the Akatsuki.

Slowly, the blast died down, along with the tremors of the earth. I continued to watch the sky, eyes tracking the few birds that had been able to escape the blast.

"Let's go," I finally ordered quietly. "There's no way anyone missed that blast. Everyone will be heading toward the area."

Kakashi's clone nodded. We'd both arrived at the same conclusion.

Deidara was dead.

***...*.*.

Kakashi's clone and I were the first to arrive at the blast site. I studied the ground closely.

"Sasuke was here," I informed the clone. He nodded. "There are several different ways I can think of to avoid a blast like this," I murmured, "but I don't know what Sasuke had available to him at the time."

I hear the sound of the clone disappearing, and turn to see Kakashi. "I'm sure he escaped," Kakashi continued the conversation. "But we'll wait for the others here."

I nodded. "So, I'm not gonna tell you I told you so..."

"Hm?" Kakashi questioned, purposefully playing dumb.

"But if I'd had a chance to take Deidara down earlier, he wouldn't have had the chance to do this."

Kakashi didn't answer. I counted it as a win.

Soon the others arrived, and began to discuss the battle.

"Wait," Sakura held up a hand. "Deidara did this? But wasn't he the one who self-destructed..."

"It seems he faked his death in order to escape," Kakashi admitted. I hid a smirk.

"Then couldn't he have faked his death once again?" She asked.

"It's highly unlikely," I replied, " considering the extent of damage done to the surrounding area. Total obliteration. Jutsu's like these don't come without a price."

"Also," I continued. "His chakra is completely gone, aside from what's left of the aftermath of this jutsu. Even if he did survive, it's most logical to infer that he wouldn't have enough energy to hide his chakra to this extent."

"There are other scents," a dog informed, following my explanation.

"It seems Sasuke has formed a unit," Kakashi agreed.

"This lines up with the intelligence I gathered earlier." I nodded. "He probably formed a four man unit, including himself. My best guess of the members would be Suigetsu Hōzuki, Shinken-also known as The Hunter-and Karin."

"Who cares how many there are or who they are!" Naruto exclaimed. "Let's just get moving and track Sasuke's scent!"

"We can't," Pakkun declared.

"What!? Why not?" Naruto demanded.

"The scent stops here," Kakashi explained.

"He must have transported away," I mused. "But he's probably still in the immediate area. If the dogs can't pick up his scent, we just have to continue as we were, but we should start with the blast point as our central location."

"No need," Kiba declared. "Right now my sense of smell is keener than a dog's. I've found Sasuke's scent!"

I raised my eyebrow, analyzing Kiba. The genin of my generation really had grown... more than what I thought was possible for my idiotic class of back then.

"Nice job, Kiba," Kakashi praised. "Let's go, everyone!"

We followed Kiba through the trees, aggressively pursuing the scent.

"If we don't catch up to them fast, we'll lose them. No doubt they're aware of their pursuers." I mumbled to myself. Only Kakashi could here me, though.

Kiba stopped on a branch up ahead, tilted his head back and sniffed the open air.

I scoffed. Of course. What else was I expecting.

"He lost the scent." I stated blandly. I held my hand out, fingers open, and allowed the air to breeze through the openings between my fingers.

Then I snapped my hand close. Inside my hand I held a torn piece of cloth. "I suppose this is what you're smelling, Kiba?"

"Yes." Kiba nodded. "How did you know?"

"Because," I turned to look at the sky once more, "it's exactly what I would do."

"We should split up," Naruto suggested. The smartest thing I've heard from him all day.

"Agreed," I said, scanning the area closely. They threw us off the trail... unless they didn't.

I bit my thumb and created the sign mid-air. "Summoning," I murmured, and three spiders appeared in front of me. Tracking spiders, none of authority who would demand immediate compensation or pose any difficulties.

Kakashi made a choked noise, and I turned toward him curiously. He was staring at the spiders with wide eyes, disbelief clear in them. I wanted to either observe Kakashi further or question him, but if I didn't give the spiders directions they'd become irritated and impossible to work with.

Before the spiders could become too antsy, I turned back, giving their orders. "Disperse," I ended curtly. Between the dogs, the spiders, and Naruto's clones, we might have a chance to catch up with Sasuke.

And since when had this turned into a Sasuke retrieval mission instead of Itachi?

Kakashi seemed to have gotten over whatever had shocked him, falling back into stride and catching up with me. "We'll talk about this later," he promised. I sent him a quizzical look that he ignored. What could he possibly want to talk about? I hadn't disobeyed orders, and I certainly hadn't given him any further ammo concerning my "strenuous control". So what would he want to discuss with me?

"You only summoned three," Yamato noted.

"They disperse in the direction that the scents are strongest. Of course, one direction will have no path to follow. By my calculations they are operating in a four man team. Sasuke is most likely injured from his battle with the akatsuki. One will stick with him, no doubt. Loyalty to their new leader, such predictable behavior. Even if the other two separate paths to throw us off their scent, they would only create two more diversion pathways. Why waste resources?"

He didn't know how many deer and rats I had to sacrifice at the end of the year to these spiders for every summoning. So far, I already owed them 200 rats and 20 deer. No need to summon multiple times and rack up my debts.

"Alright!" Naruto nodded. "And I can help, too!" With a sign, shadow clones began to pop up, running off at Naruto's signal. I tilted my head. Shadow clones had always been Naruto's specialty, but they really were useful. They were far more useful to Naruto-his massive chakra preventing exhaustion-then they'd be to anyone else, but still. I should learn the jutsu. These days regular old clones just didn't cut it.

We dispersed, and began the search.

A little while later, we landed next to Naruto, who was staring with wide eyes. Something had clearly occurred, and the only thing that could shock him like this right now was something concerning Sasuke. Yet he wouldn't have let Sasuke go without a fight- a loud one-or without chasing after him. So that left one other option.

"I just tripped," Naruto stuttered awkwardly.

He stuttered because it was a lie. Because the only thing that could shake him up this badly right now, the only thing that was plausible, was that Itachi was just here.

Shadow clones don't leave scents. No one here would know Naruto was lying.

And Naruto wouldn't hide information from his team that would lead to Sasuke's capture, unless...

Had Itachi threatened him? Naruto wasn't an easy scare, but Itachi was more than a formidable opponent.

A spider crawled across the grass and approached me from the west. "I've caught a strong scent. Not just the boy, the strong scent of a companion. This is the direction you want to travel."

The spiders must have used the scent on Sasuke's shirt, detected, separated and amplified a slight difference in scent to that of Sasuke's.

"Good work." I told the spider. I released the summoning jutsu, and instantly, the spider disappeared.

"This way," I told the others. I didn't wait for them to ask any questions before taking off for west. There was a small town in that direction I knew of. A place to recover.

"There's a town up ahead," I informed everyone .

"It's best to assume that Sasuke is injured," Kakashi said to the group. "Search all inns and hospitals when we arrive. We'll meet back an hour from when we disperse, in the place we separate. If anyone finds Sasuke or his team, send a red alarm. Understood?"

I glanced quickly over to Naruto who remained silent, so... unlike him.

"Aren't you the ninja that never gives up?" Kiba scoffed, provoking Naruto, who was clearly acting out of character.

Naruto thought on it for a second before a grin lit his face. "You're right. We'll find Sasuke!" He made the sign and created more shadow clones.

I rolled my eyes. His idiocy never ceased to amaze me. But all the same we all took off after him, sprinting in Sasuke's direction and hoping we wouldn't be too late.

***...*.*.

I stopped in my tracks and glared in front of Naruto.

"Stop," I called out. A gasp caught my attention. I looked to the other side of me and noticed the Hyuga with the expression.

This chakra.

"Ahhhh!" Naruto yelled, falling from the branch he had attempted to land on.

We gathered around Naruto, who had oh so elegantly landed on his ass.

"And there's two, four, six, eight, nine of you against one of me! Now that's just not fair," The Akatsuki member who'd popped up in front of Naruto chattered.

"According to your robe..." Yamato observed, "You seem to be an Akatsuki member."

"Deirdara's partner," I theorized quietly, certain I was right.

"He's not on the list of Akatsuki members we received from Kabuto. Do you have any info on this guy?" Kakashi asked me quietly.

I frowned, going over all the information I'd acquired through my many perusal of Bingo Books and my time as the Claw of the Rising Phoenix. To my surprise, I can up with nothing.

Kakashi watched me, frowning when he realized that no answer was forthcoming. "Alright, so we're going in blind here?"

"Seems like," I acknowledged grimly, devoting only a small part of my attention to listening to and analyzing everything the Akatsuki member said. "We know he's a new member, has a childlike persona, but he was strong enough to escape Deidara's blast, so we shouldn't underestimate him."

"You think he was in the blast radius and escaped?" Yamato questioned sharply.

"I'm sure of it," I replied. "Like we said earlier: they always work in pairs. Deidara couldn't have warned his partner to leave without drawing Sasuke's attention, and even if Deidara did warn him, there would have been little to no time between the warning and the detonation. So he's powerful enough to have figured out another means of escape."

"We outnumber him," Kakashi said. "Right now, the advantage is ours."

"What's this?" the man asked, childlike persona still firmly in place. "Am I being... underestimated?"

I tensed, observing him closely. There was something about him that just felt... off. The last time I could remember feeling like this was when I met the disguised Orochimaru just before the chunin exams; the same feeling off danger radiated off this Akatsuki member, tenfold that of Orochimaru, even-and I was stronger now than I'd been back then. This Akatsuki member was powerful.

Like hell I'd be underestimating him.

_-_\_\\\|||||||_-\-_-***...***...*.*.*._

Hello friends

Sorry we've been taking so long on the updates! Our lives have been quite busy, I promise.

I HAVE OFFICIALLY MOVED IN TO COLLEGE AND MY FIRST WEEK IS FINISHED AND IM ALMOST DONE WITH MY SECOND WEEK.

The University of Iowa is really cool! I'm enjoying my classes a lot and nothing is too challenging (so far lol). There is a lot more free time than high school, but I'm sure I'll be VERY busy once everything really gets going.

So that's my excuse for taking so long to update: packing for college, moving in to college, having existential crises, and getting in to the swing of classes. But hopefully now that I (sort of) have a grip on everything we'll be able to write more (though Supes is very sick right now :( so pray she gets better quickly!)

(Also quick university story: I am the official bat catcher for my hall now I caught a bat it was adorable)

COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT PLLLEEASE I know these chapters don't really have a lot to comment on (trust me I know why do you think it takes so long to write aggghhgshelgfdu f ka BUT we are doing our best and this arc is still tres important soo COMMENT for inspiration please!

COMMENT!

gaara119

Hey guys! First week of classes and I've been kicked out of everyone one of them by professors who do not want to get sick.

Flu turned into bronchitis fmllll. But anyways! Comment! :) hope ya'll enjoyed.

Comment, Vote, and Fan!

Ja ne!

Insomniac_Lullabies