Disclaimer: Damn it, I don't own Naruto!

19: General

The first thing the Akatsuki saw when they got to the park was that they were outnumbered. Pein tried to count the people but lost track at thirty. Tobi was frozen to the spot and Deidara looked like he might be panicking.

"Well, well. Didn't think I'd ever see your pretty face again, Deidara, " someone in the giant crowd said. A minute later, a teen with silver hair stepped out. He had one eye covered with a bandana and he wore a mask that covered the bottom part of his face.

Deidara stared at the teen for a moment before he calmly said, "I hate you, yeah."

"Okay, I've been dying to see you again and all you can come up with is 'I hate you'? You haven't changed much." He stepped forward and cupped Deidara's face in one of his gloved hands. "I've missed you."

The blonde glared at him and said, "No, I didn't 'come up' with it, yeah. I've wanted to say that to you since we broke up, Kakashi. You wrecked my life, yeah." He slapped his hand and twisted away from him.

The Akatsuki were stunned. This is what he had meant when he had said that he had been 'personally close' to the leader? Kakashi stepped up to Deidara again and whispered, "Are you sure that I wrecked it? Are you sure that you didn't ruin it yourself? Everything you've done so far…Is my fault? How is that?"

Deidara's face looked horrified for a minute and then he screamed, "You watched! You didn't kill me because you wanted to see me screw up, yeah. You wanted to see me mess up. And the only reason I did was because of what you did, yeah!" He shoved Kakashi away and was ready to attack him, when Kakashi put his hands up and said, "Let the game begin then." And he melted into the crowd again.

"YOU BASTARD!" Deidara yelled after him, throwing himself into the crowd. At first, the rest of the Akatsuki just stood there for a minute, watching the opposing gang lunge at them. When common sense kicked in, they followed Deidara's lead and attacked.

The air was filled with screaming and gun shots and Tobi almost felt sick. It sounded just like the last gang war he was in and looked even worse. He was pushing his way through the crowd with viciousness that he'd forgotten he had and killing anyone who got in his way. He was looking for Zetsu and Deidara so he could help them, but it would be easier if he knew where to look.

Konan had never been in such chaos. She was killing randomly, but checking to make sure she wasn't killing someone she knew. She saw Pein a ways away and kept him in sight as she fought through the crowd. Her mind was away from the battle, though. She was kind of worried about Deidara; when Pein had told her about the leader of The Guardian and she had remembered what Deidara had said about being close to him, she became afraid of what would happen when the blonde saw him again. Konan noticed that she couldn't see Pein anymore and several gang members were advancing on her. Apparently, she had to keep her mind on the battle.

There was fighting everywhere – fist fights, gun fights, Zetsu was pretty sure that there was a fight somewhere in the crowd where someone had a dagger. Zetsu was afraid. He was in a gang with a wimpy nine more members and up against a gang that had at least twenty, if not more, members. He couldn't see Tobi anymore. He'd lost sight of him moments after they had started fighting. Zetsu knew better than to let his mind wander then, but he let himself worry a little as he fought through the crowd.

Hidan and Kakuzu fought side by side, briefly congratulating each other when they killed at least five members. They were noticing that they and their gang members were making a dent in the opposing gang and it motivated them to keep fighting.

"Man, they're not letting up, are they?" Kakuzu called over his shoulder to Hidan.

"Nope. But that's okay. I'm having a blast!" Hidan called back, grinning hugely.

A knife skimmed over Itachi's shoulder and he kicked the guy who had done it. He saw Kisame a few feet away from him and waved at him casually. Kisame returned the gesture and smiled. They were having fun fighting and thought that it was funny that their little gang were wiping out a much bigger gang like they were brushing a leaf off their shoulder. Itachi punched a guy so hard in the nose, not only did the guy have a bloody nose, he was knocked unconscious.

Sasori shot down two guys and was fighting with a third when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Deidara and Kakashi were on the roof of the shed. He shoved the guy he was fighting with and turned to see what was going on. Others were doing the same and as he realized that the two teens were having a face-off, the crowd became still. Kakashi and Deidara were talking, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. Suddenly, Deidara threw himself at the silver-haired boy and knocked him off his feet. Sasori smiled. But Kakashi was back up in an instant and he kicked Deidara in the jaw before punching him in the stomach. The Guardian cheered.

"Kurinai was right! I thought she'd been lying. I mean, I didn't think you'd ever get weak. But you're proving me wrong!" Kakashi cried. Then he leaned over the side of the roof a little and called, "Sorry, Kurinai. You were right and I was wrong." Kurinai cheered and called something back up that made Kakashi laugh, but Sasori couldn't hear it.

Deidara looked so mad, Sasori thought he might explode. The blonde lunged at Kakashi, hitting his jaw and nose in the same hit. They both pulled guns and tried shooting each other. Deidara narrowly missed a few bullets while Kakashi just seemed to step out of the bullets' course with ease. When the blonde couldn't take it anymore, he got close enough to Kakashi to kick his gun out of his hand and he even threw his own gun over the side as well. The kick had obviously broken Kakashi's hand and he was trying to shake away the pain when Deidara flipped over him, took hold of his right arm and shoved his knee into his back. When he let go, Kakashi fell forward. Sasori and his friends all cheered. Some guy next to the redhead tried to hit him, but he punched him in the face without even giving him a glance.

"You made me a game, yeah. You criticized everything I did or said and I swear you never listened to me anyway!" Deidara yelled at Kakashi. "You messed me up, yeah! I never got the chance to pay you back for that. But I'm ready to give it to you now, yeah!" Kakashi stood up and tried to hit him, but the blonde raised his hand and caught the fist. "I'm not loosing to you this time."

Deidara kneed Kakashi in the stomach and twisted his arm in a way that everyone was sure the shoulder was dislocated, but there was no scream of agony. The Guardian yelled curses and "boos" at Deidara and most of the Akatsuki got so tired of it, they punched or kicked a few guys down to shut them up. When they looked back at the roof, the fight had turned again and Kakashi had the upper hand once more. He kicked Deidara under the chin and made him stumble. He threw a few punches at him; three out of five, Deidara dodged. The blonde was running out of breath and strength and Sasori was getting worried. Kakashi hit the blonde in the forehead and knocked Deidara backward. Cheers surrounded the Akatsuki as they worried about their friend.

"You just can't win. You can't do anything right, can you?" Kakashi mocked loud enough for everyone to hear. He wrapped his hand around Deidara's throat and lifted him up. "You can't win." He walked over to the edge of the roof and, still holding onto Deidara, he set the blonde down carefully. "I hope you came here ready to die…"

Deidara clawed at Kakashi's wrist as he rasped, "I came here ready to kill you, yeah!"

"Too bad," Kakashi said simply and let go.

Deidara grabbed Kakashi's wrist as he fell and called, "I'm not going down without taking you with me, yeah!" Sasori cried out and shoved his way through the crowd, desperate to try and do something. As the two teens fell, Deidara reached out, grabbed a branch of the tree nearby and let go of Kakashi. He brought his other hand up to get a better hold on the branch and a moment later, there was a sickening crunch as Kakashi landed. Deidara smiled almost sadly as he started to heave himself onto the branch.

There was a cry below him and a guy with bowl-cut black hair pulled a gun. Deidara looked down as the teen below him pulled the trigger and a bullet shot through his shoulder. He screamed and let go of the branch with one hand. Tobi threw himself at the teen and knocked him unconscious. The rest of the Akatsuki were practically panicking; Deidara was too high to just drop and with one injured arm, he couldn't climb down.

Deidara dropped onto the branch below him; almost loosing his balance, then turned and sat down. He smiled down at his friends, but he knew he was stuck. He'd managed to get that low, but his shoulder was gushing blood and it ached horribly. He watched the crowd below him meander around for a few minutes, wondering what to do now that their leader was dead. Deidara knew he had to get to the hospital, ask for his mom. But first, he needed to get out of the tree. If he sprained an ankle doing this, he wouldn't mind too much. He just really wanted the blood to stop pouring out of his shoulder.

Sasori held his breath as Deidara slipped off the branch and dropped to the ground. He landed on his feet, but gravity caught up with him and he teetered backward until he fell on his butt. Sasori sighed as Deidara started laughing.

"Not funny, punk. You fucking scared us all," Hidan told him angrily, Kakuzu holding him back.

"Sorry. The relief is killing me, yeah." Deidara had had his hand on his shoulder, but he took it off to reveal that most of the sleeve on his T-shirt was soaked in blood.

Tobi seemed like he might pass out; he swayed a little and held his head. Zetsu went over to him and held his hand, looking at Tobi's cracked mask. "You okay?" he whispered.

"Just some déjà vu," Tobi answered softly.

Pein snapped into action and a few minutes later, they were on their way to the hospital. Hidan and Kakuzu were messing around, talking to each other about the fight and playfully shoving each other. Neither of them had been seriously hurt and their friends guessed it had something to do with the fact that they probably hadn't let anyone near them long enough to get hurt. Zetsu was still concerned about Tobi, and Tobi was walking like he was in a daze. Konan kept quiet as she walked with Pein, her mind playing out the events and reminding herself what she could do next time to prevent things. Itachi and Kisame hung back a little, holding each other's hands and glancing at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. Sasori walked a little ahead of Deidara, a bit worried about his limp and just about the fact that he was hurt in general. But he still felt angry with the blonde, so he didn't want to say anything to him.

Deidara was staring ahead with a blank expression on his face. He was watching ahead to see if anyone was going to try and stop them or kill them to avenge their leader. He wasn't sure if either was going to happen, but his experience with The Guardian had taught him to stay on his toes at all times. Deidara was just about calm, almost convinced that nothing was going to happen, when he saw something in a bush diagonally across from his group. He noticed a flash of metal, guessed where it was directed and stepped in front of Sasori.

This ticked off Sasori. The redhead thought he was trying some controlling move or something and Sasori wasn't going to put up with it. He was just going to go ahead of Deidara, making some rude comment on the way, when he heard two gun shots and Deidara fell to his knees screaming. Sasori stopped and stared at Deidara for a moment, horrified. The rest of the group was starting to panic again. Deidara glanced up, gasping, and watched the bush rustle as a shadowy figure slipped away.

Sasori helped Deidara to his feet again, but then the blonde couldn't really walk because he was afraid he was either going to puke, pass out or both. So, Sasori took a deep breath and picked up Deidara bridal style.

He is getting to the hospital one way or another.

A/N: Do you know how long I was planning this chapter? For about five months. And guess what? I forgot most of it in the moment that I started to write this chapter. I am so mad at myself. But, it turned out – overall – pretty good, considering I forgot most of the conversation and some of the fighting. In fact, at one point, I was considering taking off Tobi's mask…I didn't though. Still, I think this chapter's alright. The hardest part: If Kakashi could hold Deidara over the edge without falling, then when Deidara held onto his wrist, he would have been able to continue holding him there. So I had to figure out a way to get Kakashi to drop too. Other than that, this chapter was really easy. Hope you enjoyed it.

Oh yeah. And I have to apologize to you Kakashi fans. I didn't want to go with the crowd and make Orochimaru the bigger enemy. Kakashi's death will be remembered…By you fans because I don't care. And I finally put more on Konan in. She's been practically invisible throughout this whole story, so I hope you like. Please review.