Author's Note: I would like to thank a certain reader (yes you know who you are) who keeps helping me with my writing. You're so awesome!

All hail long chapters! This one is longer than the others. I enjoyed writing it though, so I hope it turns out fine and you guys can imagine it the way I did.

Note: Suna no Yoroi is Japanese for armor of sand.

Also, have a happy Eid people :D

Far Beyond The Truth

Chapter 8

Deidara bit his lip and mumbled something like "what a humiliating way of dying, un". If he were going to die, he wanted it at least to be in an explosion or in a more artistic way, not by not being able to dodge a simple windmill for the reason of having an injury in his stomach. At that very moment, he wished he forced that girl to heal him and forgot about his plan. He should've carried on with his things with his own way and ignored that bastard's talk. He never liked his Leader anyways.

Clutching his stomach tighter and preparing himself to get the blow, he frowned closing his eyes and waited for the sharp weapon to tear his flesh and bone.

Metal over metal caused the blond to open his eyes. Wasn't he supposed to die? Was it really not that painful that he didn't feel it go through him? He was already making plans for his next life.

"Tobi got your back, senpai!" The sound of Tobi echoed in Deidara's ears.

The masked man was standing behind him holding a kunai in his right hand that he used to block that windmill attack. He must have used quite the force to actually send that giant item away with such a small one.

Deidara let out a sigh of relief before changing his scowl into a reassured grin.

"Never thought I'd ever be happy to see you, Tobi, un." He told his comrade trying to stand up. He used his friend's shoulder to support himself while his left arm still wrapped itself around his stomach.

Ino watched both men up there from afar. She had no idea what was going on, she didn't even notice Tobi leaving her side until she saw him on that huge branch with Deidara. As cool as that was for her, something was wrong for sure. Why did Deidara suddenly bend down right before that windmill hit him? If it weren't for Tobi he could've been dead...Was that just a distraction and the enemy had hit him with something else? That can't be, she would've seen it. But then again, she was already having a hard time seeing anything they were doing.

What's going o—

Ino face-palmed herself at the abrupt realization. How was she that stupid she didn't notice! That wound of his must have opened again. And what a crappy time for that to happen. If Tobi hadn't interfered Deidara would've been dead and it was all because of her. How was he supposed to fight and "protect" her if he were still injured? That thought didn't cross her mind when she told him she wouldn't heal him completely until she was sure he would help her. But now that he was helping her, she should've done it. If he weren't planning on aiding her he would've left her there and moved on to another medic. But there he was being all nice to her and she paid him back by almost killing him. Great, just great. At least Tobi wasn't that useless after all.

She took few steps back but kept watching. She wished she could help them, however she knew she would just be a burden and slow them down.

Deidara was on his feet again sucking up the pain and readying himself to start the battle. His resilience was one of the many things he loved about himself.

"You really don't wanna start this with me, un, if I were you I'd run the hell out of my way!" The blond shouted to the man facing him. A smirk appeared on his face as he flicked his cloak out of his way and placed his right hand in his pouch.

"Shut the hell up! We will never forgive you for what you have done to Gaara-sama!" The man spat.

At first the blond seemed ignorant at his words and raised his eyebrows. Opening his mouth a little at the comprehension, he got back to his usual self and grinned.

"Oh, yeah, right, didn't that impassive-faced bastard teach you not to mess with me, un?"

He glanced down at his right hand then looked back up. "Yamanaka, find a good yet near hiding place and conceal yourself, un. I'll let you witness a little piece of my art but I don't want you to get hurt." He diverted his talk to the female blonde in a voice high enough for her to hear.

Ino was bemused but soon found her feet taking her behind a large tree, even larger than the one Deidara and Tobi were standing on. It made sense though; this was the River Country and all the roots of these trees must be well nourished. Lucky for her for it played a good job as a nice shield against any of these weapons getting to her.

"No one's a bastard but you, Akatsuki! We're here to avenge our Kazekage and to finish you off once and for all!"

Deidara looked at Ino out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want his plan to fail just because of a blabby-mouthed idiot. Seeing she made absolutely no reaction to his words, he was about to turn his gaze back to the man before something clicked in his mind.

Wait a second, we?

Before he even realized it two men wearing animal masks appeared on both their sides with trench knives in each of their hands directed towards them. The masks; one in the shape of a cat with three red markings on each side of the cheek and on the tip of the ears, while the other was in the shape of a bird with one blue marking on top of the eyes, along with the standard uniform consisting of black and gray armor and arm guards, showed the fact that they were unmistakably two Anbu Black Ops.

Deidara bent down just in time to avoid one of the knives that passed right above him. His hair, which flew in the air at his fast movement, however, was sadly treated as a target and the tips of it were cruelly cut. His partner used his companion's move and supported his hands on his shoulders to jump on top of the second Anbu's attack and dodged it. Lifting his hand up and staring at the palm of his hand that was chewing on his clay, Deidara kicked the man next to him in the stomach only to disappear in a cloud of smoke signifying he was a shadow clone. He then jumped on his hand to his right missing another hit from the same ninja who came at him from above. He took deep breaths after he landed crouching few meters away. He may be in deep pain but that wouldn't stop him from taking advantage of any possible circumstance to do his art.

Feeling the chakra-fused clay exiting the mouth on his hand and resting on his palm, his sneer grew wider as he gathered every particle of power within him and jumped so high in the sky and disappeared into a big cloud of pure white smoke.

Ino's eyes grew bigger and tilted her head for a better view of the battle. She was absolutely gobsmacked when she followed the yellow-blond trail in the sky.

He's flying…he's definitely flying on that..thing! What is that thing anyway? A huge bird?

The male blond disappeared somewhere in the sky and his enemies found themselves scrutinizing the not-so-blue vastness. Seeing there was no sign of him anywhere there, they looked at Tobi who was dumbfounded on the gigantic branch.

Tobi took notice of them and backed away placing a hand behind his head.

"My my…two against one is little unfair to Tobi don't you think?" He placed another hand in front of him in a defensive way.

One of the Anbu's looked towards the other and nodded, moving his trench knives closer to his chest. They took off with enormous speed and it took them less than a second to arrive to Tobi. They both let out several hits, but Tobi seemed to dodge them pretty easily. Ino was barely keeping up, especially from such a high distance, nevertheless she was certain that that kid/man/whatever-he-was was still alive and doing a good job in dodging those fast deadly attacks. Who knew that Tobi would be this powerful. Yes, almost as shocking as his first run-away from her.

"Oh, you almost got Tobi there!" The mysterious man said bending himself like a rainbow to avoid another hit. He looked up at the sky then back down. Ino, following his gaze, looked up to see Deidara again standing on his bird diving towards them.

"Now Tobi, un!" She heard him yell to his friend.

Tobi placed a hand on his head saluting him, shouting a "hai!" then merged down with the tree. The girl was freaking out till she saw him falling down from the branch he passed through. Becoming aware of one of their targets on top of their heads, both Anbus willed to jump. Yes they wanted to, but they couldn't. They looked down to their feet which were glued to the tree branch.

"What the hell?" One of them let out trying to pull his leg harder.

"You thought you'd ruin my hair and get away with it, un?" Deidara shouted with an evil-like chuckle. That's when the two ninjas took notice of his hair scattered where they were standing. "Art is a flash of beauty, un!" He finished before jumping off the bird and making a sign with his right hand.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion; the clay animal fluttering its wings as it continued its way towards them, the ninjas staring up with shocked/scared eyes (even though it doesn't show because of their masks) trying desperately to get away, Ino watching fascinatingly while walking in their direction without paying attention to herself; Deidara opening his mouth to shout certain words; everything seemed to last hours, that was until..

"Katsu!"

And this word put an end to the whole thing.

The whole tree blew up after the bird had collided with their enemies sending wood and dust all over the place. The whole area was soon found in a complete mess as the remaining parts of the tree were on fire, and so were the ones surrounding it. Ino hadn't realized she had closed her eyes until she opened them –blinking several times before that- and saw that she was being held by someone. Hopping from tree to tree, he turned his gaze slightly towards the girl.

"Ino-chan shouldn't have stood so close; Ino-chan could've lost her life if Tobi didn't see her!" The orange-masked man said before taking a halt and jumping down to the ground.

"Oh, my bad, I didn't even realize it." She said letting herself down from his grip. She still couldn't make out anything because of the smoke. It was also unclear if the dark shade in the sky was caused by the fumes or it was just the clouds. It couldn't possibly be night since it was the middle of the day not so long ago.

Deidara landed on the ground a little further from them, with his stomach still covered by his arm. A smile of achievement plastered itself on his face when he saw an Anbu mask and trench knives thrown away on the ground. He looked around in search of a sign that may lead him to his final target's position.

Minutes after the explosion, everything seemed to clear out. And Deidara soon found himself standing face to face with the shinobi from the village hidden in the sand. The poor man was shocked; everyone could see that in his eyes. But there was something in his eyes that they couldn't make out. Hate. He hated these people now more than ever. Those Killing machines should be wiped out from the world once and for all. Even if his life ended while trying to do so himself.

"It's over, un." The blond Akatsuki member uttered in almost a whisper before lifting his hand up again in a sign.

A big clay spider jumped on the dark-haired man's face and exploded. The detonation wasn't as big as the previous one however.

Although this time, Deidara's sardonic smile didn't reach his ears for he soon narrowed his eyes concentrating on the smoke clearing out. Ino made few steps closer, and then she ran towards Deidara only to be stopped by none other than Tobi.

"It's still dangerous to go, Ino-chan. Wait till the fight is over."

She looked up at the hole where his eye was supposed to be trying to convince him by looks to let her go. Deidara was surely in no condition to pick up another fight.

"But he's hurt!" She looked back towards Deidara standing few meters away.

"Don't worry Ino-chan, Deidara senpai knows what he's doing!" He announced casually, as if this had happened millions of times before.

The blond artist was first taken aback when he saw the sand shinobi, who was supposed to be dead, alive and breathing. But his face lit up as soon as it changed and glared at the man.

"Suna no Yoroi," Deidara began, losing the slight interest that had him few minutes ago. "Not bad, un."

"Suna no Yoroi?" The female blonde repeated turning towards Tobi.

"Hai! It's a jutsu that uses chakra to cover the user with a thin, but dense, layer of protective sand!" He pointed up a finger explaining as if he were a jutsuclopedia. "However…" The boy carried on, but was rudely interrupted by his partner who looked like he was stealing the spotlight from him.

"..however while a good defense, it puts an unignorable burden on the user's stamina, both through chakra absorption and the fact that the sand makes them heavier and hampers their movement." Deidara continued proudly. "This won't change the outcome of the battle thou—"

The blond's talk was cut short by blood coming out of his mouth and forming a red trail on the side of it. He bent down, clutching his stomach even tighter, covered his mouth with his hand as his vision blurred and kept throwing up blood.

"Are you sure about that?" The stranger spat gaining a portion of his lost confidence. He took out a katana that was fixed on his back and started making his way towards the bleeding blond.

Seeing his annoying companion moving, he shot his head back up towards Tobi and used his blood-covered hand he once wrapped his mouth with to stop him.

"Don't leave Yamanaka alone, un! This could be a trap! I-I got this!" He assured him, not convinced himself.

"But senpai you're—"

"I said I got it!" Deidara yelled again.

The man stopped mid-way and contemplated the blond. He then appeared right in front of him with the same look of rancor he was wearing the whole journey with the missing-nins.

Deidara tried to suck it up and get up, only to be thrown to the ground by a kick of the sand ninja. He closed his eyes shut and grunted in pain when his body met the ground, curses escaping his gritted teeth. The spiky-haired ninja raised his katana-holding hand up to the sky, reflecting the light at the blueness of Deidara's drained eyes which were half open in order to keep himself safe from the blindness. As if it would matter though, it looked like his life was already ending.

"DIE YOU BASTARD." He shouted before swinging his weapon down and resisting the urge to laugh maniacally.

Clash

The sound of metal awoke Deidara once again from his dream of his subsequent life.

This time it was different however. Because whoever protected him from the blow, wasn't a shinobi as half good as he was. He was one who didn't even have any clue of fighting methods. It irritated him the most that his life was spared by the hands of a useless pathetic excuse for a kunoichi.

"Y-Yamanaka?" He said in almost a whisper. His light eyes were fixed on the feminine figure standing in front of him in absolute amaze. He quickly turned towards Tobi to find him dumbfounded himself. Something by the way he was standing told Deidara he didn't see her leaving his sight.

The girl had trench knives between her fingers –ones she had picked up from the ground and belonging to one of the Anbus- and blocked the sand ninja's attack with it. She was using both her hands; she obviously didn't know how to use that thing and didn't want to take much time trying to figure it out. It was just her last hope in order to save that egoistic blond.

"Get out of my way girl, this is between me and him!" Their enemy spoke with clenched teeth.

"I-I don't give a crap about that, but I'm not letting you hurt my f-friend." She muttered using all of her force to hold on. Yet it didn't seem to work as her feet started to make traces in the dirt due to her backing up because of his stronger power. Her determination was making him more and more furious; she ruined his opportunity of ridding the world of one of the most despicable worthless good-to-be-without people. Imagine what could have happened if he killed him and returned to his village as a hero. This thought made him even more enraged, so he applied more chakra to his katana and sent Ino's only weapon flying away. The young female stepped back hiding her face as the man stood still in front of her with a not-so-happy face expression.

"Well then, since you love this friend of yours so much then I'll send you both to hell!" He swung his katana again and stabbed his target in the stomach.

Drip

Drip

Drip

The sound of blood oozing was the single sound heard for a couple of seconds. It was followed by a sudden gasp emitted out of two feminine lips. Her eyes didn't blink even once. They were widely open and she only focused on a one single person. She shakily moved her hand from her side to her mouth hiding the small hole it made in her face.

"P-pay-back, Yamanaka, un."

As if those words were forced out of him. He choked with his own blood that descended freely to the ground.

Everything happened so fast that the girl didn't see the male blond pushing her away and taking the stab. She kept watching from down there, on the ground, the sword that exited her rescuer's body. It hurt her the most seeing the criminal's actions stabbing his poor body even deeper. It was just so cruel even for a murderer. He wanted to take back his katana; he pulled it several times from his body but it wouldn't budge. That's when she blinked; her eyes getting dry, and saw Deidara holding his katana with one of his hands. It was clearly cutting deeply through his flesh and he was losing more blood. Surprised by his weird act, the ninja tilted his head in confusion before he screamed in shock; an extremely long centipede came out of Deidara's hand and wrapped itself around the sword then around himself preventing him from doing anything. It kept squeezing him tight and he backed away –shouting curse words- trying to extricate himself from the many-legged arthropod. Unsteadily lifting his hand few inches upwards that barely reached his chest, he mumbled an incoherent word and the guy was burst into flames.

The hard wind escaping the explosion threw Deidara on his back to the ground. Crawling next to the blond's body, she rapidly tore open his cloak and checked the injury. The katana missing his vital organ by millimeters was a miracle. She soon placed her ear on his chest confirming a pulse. Looking around worriedly for her bag, she absent-mindedly caught it thrown to her by Tobi who stood behind her few meters away. Nodding at him and biting her lower lip, she turned around to his corpse that moved up and down as his breathing seemed to get heavier by the second. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and opened her sack.

He couldn't die. She wouldn't let him die. Not when she was around and could do something about it. Ino Yamanaka does not leave any of her friends behind.

Little did she know, however, that there was someone, behind the bushes of a far turn of the road, watching the entire scene.

"I-Ino?" They whispered to themselves.