Author's Note: aah I don't know what to say, really. I thank all the reviews, favs and alerts this story got so far (even though they're not so many but I like to think other guests are reading lol!). You guys are so awesome! :D

coolseal9: You sure about that? I love how you're always the first to review btw, it really makes me happy!

hanabichan: Thank you! I rarely read crack pairings, I don't like them much yet I already know this fanfic is one of them lol! They're just two of my favorite characters xD I guess that's how crack pairings exist lol. And sorry, fanfiction just won't let me say your full name..

TrueGaaraRose: lol like TOTALLY! I honestly was like: *type type type* naah *erase erase erase*, *type type type* naah *erase erase erase* they're just too much for my poor brain. ;w; Hopefully someday I get better. Your reviews always delight me, honestly!

Enjoy friends!

Far Beyond The Truth

Chapter 9

"Aah! Talking about a long day!" She said yawning and stretching her arms. She looked up at the sun shining in mid-bright-sky, not before placing a hand on her forehead to block extra unwanted sunrays. "It's barely even noon!" She sighed, not hesitated in showing an irritated face.

She carried on with her walking, looking at her left and right at the diverse shops filling the town. The climate in this village was obviously different from the one in the other; while it was cold and rainy back in the wind country it was hot and sunny in the village hidden in the leaves. And that was what caused the girl to grab her fan and wave it back and forth in order to cool her sweaty face. She took a sudden stop and stared at the window of a barbecue shop; scrutinizing the inside in a quick glance, she sighed again when she didn't see the person she was looking for and continued to walk. "Where could he be?!" She resisted the urge to yell out his name in the middle of the street. She took another halt and placed her hands on her waist covered with a purple sash on top of a sleeveless, purple dress with a purple blouse over it, all in different shades of course. Looking around one last time, she gave up and headed towards the main gate that led to the entrance of the village, or in her case, the exit.

She did look back several times in hope of spotting the guy though. And that's what caused the girl to bump into someone. Not any someone, it was the village's most loved and popular young ninja who gained his fame by working hard like no one had ever done. Everyone knew the boy with the spiky blond hair and the whiskers on his cheeks. His laugh and cheerful face were the main reason of his recognition however. That was exactly why, when looking at him, she forgot about her annoyance and smiled at him.

"Oh, what's up Naruto? Sorry I wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me." The girl justified sheepishly.

"Aha, no worries 'ttebayo," He waved it off with his usual extra-wide laugh. "..what are you doing here anyways?"

"I just came back from a mission nearby and I thought I can stop by, how about you? Waiting for someone to get back?" She shifted her weight and folded her arms, assuming this conversation was going to take longer than what she expected. It's not like she didn't like talking to the jinchuriki, but she was already late and wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, plus she doesn't like leaving her village too much especially her baby brothers. They weren't babies, but that was how she saw them.

"No on the contrary, I'm waiting for Sakura-chan, I always like seeing her before her missions, you know, wishing her good luck." He laughed scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, I see. Say…" She started, looking disappointed after she kept on. "…have you seen Shikamaru anywhere? I can't seem to find him."

"Hmm…" The blond held his chin with his fingers thinking. "..he went on a mission four days ago along with the rest of his team," He said moving his hand down. "..I think they still haven't come yet."

"O-oh, okay then," She seemed perplexed for a moment. "Can you tell him I say hi when he comes back? It's been long since I've seen him."

"No problem 'ttebayo!" He cheered lifting his thumb up.

"Thanks Naruto, sorry but I really have to go, a lot of work awaits me back home," The girl whined rubbing the back of her neck. "..see you."

"Have a safe trip! Oh, and Temari…" He turned around stopping her in her track. She faced the blond waiting for him to continue. "..tell Gaara I'm almost there and that…I can't wait till I see him…" His face softened in a warm smile. Seeing the female had no clue to what he was talking about, he trailed on laughing awkwardly. "..he'll understand 'ttebayo!"

Temari nodded and waved him goodbye. She walked outside the gates after waving to the guards sitting by the side of them. Taking a last glance at the village, she sighed and strolled on the road. She had a bad feeling about it.

"Hope everything's okay, Shikamaru."

Temari left Tanigakure after a short fifteen minutes break. It wasn't like she was tired, but she was hungry. It was an hour past noon, and since she had breakfast in the very early hours of the day, getting starved wasn't much of a shock. She was glad she was half-way home; it didn't take her much to arrive to the borders that separated the River Country from the Wind Country. She hated those kinds of missions; the boring fighting-free ones. She wasn't into violence that much, but spending most of the mission traveling was so tedious. And all of that was just to deliver some important data and information that couldn't be trusted to get delivered by one of their messenger birds. Last thing they wanted was those to get leaked to their enemies.

The blond yawned again. "Could this get any more boring?"

As if God heard her complaints, the sound of an explosion broke Temari from her monotony and incited her to look up at the birds scattering in the sky and escaping what-used-to-be their nest.

"What the..?" She narrowed her eyes when she saw the fumes making themselves visible on top of the trees from afar.

Moving her hand to her back and reaching for her scroll in which she sealed her fan, she made sure everything was completely set before running towards the direction in which she spied the smoke. Another explosion was soon heard from the same area.

The clearing became more visible as she approached it. Scraping metal and screams in pain followed suit. As soon as she spotted a person, she ducked and hid behind some fairly leafy bushes. Moving a couple of branches for a better look, she inspected the people before feeling as if a huge rock had fallen on her. She was able to identify the guy standing in front of her. Black cloak with red clouds; he was indeed an Akatsuki.

Temari gulped and crawled back an inch or two. It was better for her to retract, report it and call for back-ups as soon as she gets back to her village. She wasn't that stupid to risk her life in a combat with an S-class criminal. She was strong; no one can deny that, but even her brother, the Kazekage, was defeated by one. Their capabilities were esoteric and they had special kinds of weapons and jutsus. Ones no one had ever seen or experienced. The rare few had lived to tell the tale. They require absolute meticulousness even when dealing with one.

She kept her focus on the man as she crawled back slowly. Following him with her gaze, she was flabbergasted when she saw him standing in front of another person in a dark cloak.

Two Akatsukis? She gasped quietly. It wasn't that odd though, they did go in pairs, but it would be bad for her in case she got caught.

Something was off however. The other Akatsuki was frozen on the ground. She vacillated whether she should escape or try to find out more about her enemies. As much as she hated to admit it; this was thrilling and interesting, not to mention fun as well. So she stopped in her way and tilted her head to the side, she wanted to at least know who they were. The blonde waited for the man to move out of her sight and noticed they were actually three persons. The second Akatsuki member –with the blond hair in a ponytail- was recognizable; he was indeed the missing-nin who infiltrated their village not so long ago and kidnapped her brother: Deidara. However, the third person was still vague. Becoming aware of the fact that that figure was actually a female, her curious instincts grew bigger. Apparently she was working on Deidara, lessening a harm that hit him. So she was most likely a medic-nin. She watched as her long pale-blond hair flicked from side to side while moving her head, it descended all the way to her back covered in what looked like purple top with matching purple shorts/skirt. She couldn't make out since the girl was sitting on her knees. Temari kept observing the scene until she saw a glimpse of light-blue in the female's worried eyes.

That's when it hit her.

"I-Ino?" She whispered to herself in disbelief.

The sand Kunoichi crawled to the side to make sure. She was mistaken. She had to be mistaken. It was just…no way. She would never do such thing.

She lifted her hand and placed it on another spot on the ground. It was a terrible blunder.

Crack…

The sound of a breaking branch reverberated.

Shit! She swore before sitting up and making her way back to where she came from.

The blond kept running and running without even caring to where she was heading, she just wanted to get the hell out of there. Her heart was pounding deeply in her chest and she was wishing to all the gods out there to have mercy on her and make the criminals deaf enough to miss that. She formulated a plan on the run however; she was going back to Konoha, and this time she was seeing Shikamaru.

"It's not working! Oh god, why isn't it working?!" Ino panicked shifting her gaze from his head to his stomach. She tried applying more pressure –chakra, but she didn't know how to control that yet- but his wound just wouldn't heal all the way.

"What's wrong Ino-chan?" Tobi approached her, kneeling down on one leg.

"His injury…I-I healed half of it but it just won't get any better than this! He may hold on for a couple of hours but he needs good medication! Oh god, this is my entire fault..!" She reached for her eyes and wiped tears with her bloody hand before they make their way to her cheeks. She turned again to see Deidara's tired weak visage. His impassiveness made her miss his arrogant face and cocky smile.

"It's okay, Ino-chan, don't worry, there's a town to the north of this place, which is about ten minutes walk from here, Tobi will go look for a good medic!" The guy announced getting up.

Crack…

Both Ino and Tobi looked towards the sound that emitted not so far away. Silence fell upon the area for a minute, both of them waiting for someone to make an appearance or try to attack them. But nothing. Tobi was already in his fighting stance, examining his surroundings. Seeing there wasn't anyone planning to jump in, Ino stood up, grabbed her bag and placed it on her shoulder. Tobi only stared at her confused behind his mask.

"If you go and someone attacks, I won't be able to protect Deidara, that's why you should stay and guard him, while I go look for a medic." She said heading towards the north.

"It's dangerous even for you, Ino-chan…" Tobi extended his hand trying to stop her, but to no avail. Ino stood still on her ground for a bit before turning around giving him a thumb up.

"Don't worry about me, Tobi," She smiled ever so innocently. She let out a quiet giggle and carried on. "..I'll be okay!" And with that she turned back and ran towards the village until she was out of sight.

Tobi sighed and sat down next to his senpai, who began to cough out the remaining blood in his mouth and gain consciousness.

"Senpai!" Tobi yelled moving closer to Deidara. "Are you okay?!"

Deidara attempted to lift his head up but failed miserably. He ended up slanting towards Tobi. Opening his eyes soon became the most difficult thing to do; other than the pain he was going through, he enjoyed being out cold and just resting. Feeling he was being watched, he cracked open one of his lifeless eyes and saw how close Tobi –Tobi's mask- was to him. Due to his surprise, he opened both eyes as wide as they could in his condition and moved his head to the other way, irritated for two reasons:

1. This guy was so crossing his personal space.

2. He was sure Tobi would never let that go for as long as he was living; considering he always lectured him about how strong and attentive he should be as a member of their organization, him being saved by a girl: yeah, that wasn't good for him being the Akatsuki who are supposed to be the elite ninjas. At least he had an excuse, actually two excuses. One other than his injury.

"I'm fine Tobi, un!" He talked in his throat as an annoyed, half-hearted, inattentive response.

"Oh Tobi was so worried senpai! Tobi thought you were gonna die!" He cried hugging his neck disturbingly.

"Relax Tobi! It was all part of my plan you idiot! Now let go of my neck, un!" He grunted, unable to strangle him or even kick and push him away. It was kind of sad.

Tobi murmured an apology and left him be. He watched as Deidara tried to sit up slowly, with curses escaping his mouth. He didn't succeed completely so he just lay on his elbows and half sat half laid on the ground. Seeing his blood-covered stomach and blood-stained cloak wasn't pleasant for him, but he had to do it. Not the seeing part, but doing what he had done that caused him this whole ordeal.

"What plan, Deidara-senpai?"

Deidara looked up towards Tobi and smirked. It wasn't that intense like his usual grins but it was still a smirk nonetheless. Making sure they were completely alone, he began.

"What, you think I got in the way and saved that girl 'cause I wanted to?" He made it sound shameful and something forbidden or prohibited. "..she's our key to the Kyuubi, so I had to ensure she utterly trusts me, I could've simply killed that guy with my clay centipede without going with such mess, un!"

Tobi was obviously lost and didn't follow the blond in what he was saying. Deidara, noticing his quietness was clearly due to his confusion, sighed and explained.

"You see, this girl here is a kunoichi from Konoha and she was part of the group we faced the other day, that's how you remember her, un. I hit her with one of my exploding creations and she was knocked out and apparently, lost her memory. So now she thinks I'm helping her to get back to her village, un!" With that said, he laughed out loud in the most sinister way a criminal could ever do. It appeared to be the 'most hilarious joke of the day'. It was ruined however by his coughing continuously. Once calmed down again, he lifted his hand shakily and stared at his sliced palm, a very tiny small hint of regret in his eyes. "I had to make minor sacrifices though, but I made sure that idiot didn't hit a vital point, un." He finished closing his eyes and letting his head fall back facing the sky.

Tobi seemed amazed and gave out a "woaah" clapping his hands. Sighing again and turning his gaze towards Tobi, he took notice of something and began looking around in search of a certain blonde.

"Where's Yamanaka, un?" He questioned.

"Ino-chan went to Tani to get help, senpai!" He cheered. "..Tobi's here to guard you!" He continued pointing at himself proudly.

"Perfect, everything's going according to plan, un." He affirmed as a smile of satisfaction replaced his dull expression. "..see Tobi, that's how an Akatsuki should be, un! Sharp, quick, intelligent–"

"..having his ass saved by a girl." Tobi muttered in a low voice that Deidara quite heard well. He giggled few times and placed his hand on his mouth in a mocking way.

The blond artist glared daggers at him. He hated how this kid always made him lose his cool.

"I meant to do that, un! Now go to our hideout and inform Leader about this! Tell him I got everything under control, un." He commanded, lying down again and doing his best to cross his hands under his head, he twitched when his wounded palm met his blond locks.

"But Ino-chan assigned Tobi to look after Deidara-senpai! And Tobi didn't tell Ino-chan goodbye and—"

"Just piss off already I'll be fine! I'll make sure to deliver that to her, un." He assured him, whispering a "not" to himself.

As hesitated as Tobi was, he nodded and stood up, stretching his arms. Letting out a sigh then looking back, he turned around to face Deidara and saluted him. Without forgetting to wish him luck, he vanished in a cloud of smoke and left Deidara alone in his place. Aforesaid man only chuckled and stared at the sky, before closing his eyes and letting himself rest. He wondered what Yamanaka was doing, but didn't bother to think much about it.

"You're a smart man, Deidara." He complimented himself.

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