Konan lowered her head into the bushes, making sure no one could see her. She pulled out a kunai as quietly as possible and threw it. The sound it made as it flew at her target made her want to smile. She resisted and waited for the short yelp to be cut off as her opponent's life was cut short. She emerged and picked up the corpse of the young deer. The Akatsuki were going hungry because of a money shortage and Pein had instructed a select few to go out hunting. So, desperate as they were, Konan complied. Until Hidan and Kakuzu got back they would have to get by without the luxury of store bought meat. She heard someone drop behind her and turned around swiftly, holding a kunai against the visitor's neck. When she finally realized who was in front of her, glaring at her she lowered her knife.
"You could have said something instead of scaring me, Pein." Konan grumbled.
Pein didn't give her any recognition.
"Are you finished hunting?" Pein asked.
"Yes, are Sasori and Deidara?"
Pein nodded and began to walk away. Konan followed.
Sasori sat on a rock waiting for his clueless teammate to finish whatever he was doing. The puppet let a flow of chakra strings come from his fingertips and started puppeteering with a leaf. Yes, it was childish, but Sasori was bored and in no mood to wait for Deidara for hours and do nothing. He watched as the leaf floated lazily through the air at Sasori's command. He was enjoying this a lot more than any grown man should, but he let a soft smile form on his lips as it continued to drift in front of him. Soon he heard footsteps coming from the bushes in front of him. He heard Deidara grumbling about letting a rabbit slip through his grasp. Sasori stood up and dropped the leaf.
"Hey! What did you catch?" Sasori yelled, not bothering with any formalities.
Deidara came out with his mopey face on and had nothing in his hands.
"I left it by the creek, un. Don't get so snappy."
"Go get it." Sasori responded calmly.
Deidara, who was clearly enraged by Sasori's bossy-ness, perked up, " You go get it! I did all the work and now you're asking me to bring it back too? Can't you do anything?"
Sasori was unfazed, "Go get it."
Deidara muttered something incoherent.
"What was that?" the puppeteer asked.
Deidara shook his head and continued walking.
Konan was sweating and getting pretty tired but Pein kept his steady pace. Pein led them into a clearing where she saw Sasori looking at them.
"Where is Deidara?" Pein said in his unnaturally deep voice.
"Oh, he's getting his catch. He'll be back soon." the red haired boy responded.
"We'll wait for him to get back and afterwards we'll go."
"Okay."
Konan watched as behind Sasori, Deidara emerged looking a bit frazzled. He was lugging a large deer behind him. Much to Konan's surprise there were no scorch marks on it. But there was a clean cut across the dead animal's neck.
"Are you okay?" Konan asked the younger member.
Deidara glared menacingly at Konan, "Of course. I'm not a helpless child."
"Now we will go." Pein declared.
All three nodded and followed Pein.
"I know a shortcut that will get us home within five minutes." Sasori offered.
Pein nodded and let Sasori lead the way. The puppeteer led the other members off the trail and into a deeper part of the forest. Soon, despite it being the middle of the day, it began to get dark, really dark. Konan let her eyes wander away from where she was walking and she stared at the forest surrounding them. It was like a new world. The trees were fat and had black bark. The leaves were dark green and not a drop of light entered the surrounding area. Suddenly she heard a scream of surprise come from ahead. It was Sasori! Then Deidara's voice followed. She turned her head in surprise and ran into Pein's back causing him to stumble and fall. Konan fell to and landed on Pein. She heard Pein grunt. Everyone was fine except for one problem . . .
Deidara gasped in pain as Pein landed on top of him. He looked around and realized that he was at least thirty feet underground.
"Get off of me!"
Deidara squirmed under Pein, trying to get off of an angry Sasori. He finally got free and rolled to the edge of the hole. He surveyed the surroundings and realized that it was some kind of trap, most likely not set for them, considering no one knew they were going to be there. He stood up and saw that there were glowing blue crystals lining the top of the hole. He watched as Sasori and Konan scrambled away from Pein. Their leader looked enraged.
"What the heck Sasori!" Deidara yelled.
Sasori stood up and rubbed his head, "Since when has this been here? I swear I didn't mean for this to happen! I should've seen the trap."
Pein raised his hand to silence the puppeteer, " It was a well disguised trap and it is a dark forest. We have to figure out how to get out of this hole before we go pointing fingers and blaming people. But don't think this means you're off the hook Sasori."
Konan looked skeptically at the rocks, "These rocks were put here to restrain chakra. We can't use our jutsu to get out. We'll have to rely on our own strength."
Deidara smirked, "Hmph! We'll see about that, un."
He took a small clay bird out of his pocket and placed it on the floor. He formed the hand sign for "ram" and waited for the bird to grow and come to life, but it didn't.
Deidara chuckled nervously, "Uh . . . heh heh!"
Sasori shook his head, "She just said we couldn't use chakra! You baka!"
Deidara picked up the bird and placed it gently back in his pocket.
"So what do we do Pein?" Konan asked.
Pein thought for a minute, "We could try to make a human tower and see if one of us can get to the top.
Pretty soon Pein had Sasori on his shoulders, who had Deidara on his, who had Konan on his. Konan stretched up as far as she could, but her arms wouldn't reach, she needed an extra five feet, at least, to reach the top. She sighed and stopped trying.
"You can let me down now. I can't reach it." Konan yelled.
Everyone gave a sigh and they began to carefully get off each other's shoulders.
"So what now?" Sasori asked.
Deidara sank to the floor, "We sit here and wait for death to come knocking. Wait a minute! That gives me an idea!"
The young artist leaped to his feet, eyes wide, and ran over to Sasori.
"Don't move!" he told Sasori.
Suddenly Deidara made a fist and started knocking on Sasori's chest. Sasori stared at him confused.
"Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock on wood!" Deidara gave them a cheesy smile, "For luck!"
Sasori growled and shoved Deidara to the floor. The blonde laughed. Konan face palmed herself, and Pein just looked unamused.
Sasori glared at the other artist, "Take this seriously! We need to get out and have no time for joking!" he raged.
Deidara laid back and closed his eyes, "Okay. Let's think this through."
The group was quiet for a while, while they brainstormed ways to get out. Every once and a while someone would give an idea that would be turned down or they wouldn't have the materials to execute it.
"Hey guys! Need a hand?"
The group nearly jumped when they heard the goofy high pitched voice that could only belong to one person, above them. Deidara opened his eyes to see Tobi peeking over the edge of the hole waving at them, with an annoyed Zetsu standing next to him.
"Yes." they all said in unison.
Tobi grabbed one of the stones and removed it, breaking the connection of the circle, and breaking the seal.
Konan and Pein flew out first, followed by Deidara on a giant clay bird, and then Sasori who was also on a bird thanks to Deidara.
"He he! You guys looked funny down there." Tobi giggled.
"Shall we get going?" Zetsu asked.
Pein nodded and led the way.
Deidara grabbed Tobi's arm and pulled him to the side, "How did you find us?"
"I heard you guys in the forest, followed you, and saw you fall in the hole. Zetsu was there too!"
"You were there the whole time!" Deidara practically yelled.
Tobi laughed again, "Yep! I just wanted to see where it went! You and Sasori are a funny team, Senpai!"
Deidara wanted to strangle and hug the idiot all at the same time.
"Thanks, I guess." Deidara mumbled as he started walking again.
"Anytime Senpai!" Tobi exclaimed happily, skipping after the moody teenager.
He had really enjoyed watching some of the strongest members of the Akatsuki so desperate, and he had saved them! He was going to hold this against them forever! They were much more careful to watch for traps on the way home.