Deidara was late. This could not be good.

Naruto glanced at his watch for the fourth time that minute, desperately willing the other blond to appear. With what they'd just pulled off, even the slightest delay could prove disastrous.

He actually breathed a sigh of relief some 30 seconds later when he spotted his partner emerge from a side street further up the block. It was quickly followed by a groan of disgust as he noticed the sadistic smirk plastered across the bomber's face.

"Yo, Kyuu-chan, did you see that blast!" Deidara asked excitedly once he had reached the darkened alleyway Naruto had been waiting in. "Haha that's got to be among the top ten—no top five explosions I've ever seen! The way those buildings collapsed and caused a ripple effect shock-wave—my god it was orgasmic. Tell me you saw my art, man! Tell me I'm a genius!"

For his part, Naruto felt ready to vomit. How anyone could actually enjoy such things was beyond him. There wasn't time for this now, however.

"You're late," Naruto stated pointedly, doing his best to stifle the revulsion he felt. "And don't call me that," he added.

Deidara's smile fell a bit and he scratched his temple sheepishly. "Yeah well, there was sorta this cop who tried to stop me, but don't worry, I took care of it. Everything's fine!"

"He's dead?"

"Well, I shot him in the head, so I'm pretty sure he..."

With speed hardly to be believed, Naruto pinned his partner against a wall before Deidara could even react.

"You got spotted by a witness and then didn't even bother to make sure he was dead!" Naruto snarled dangerously.

"Urgh—I told you, I got him in the head! Even if he survived it, he'll bleed out before anyone helps him. Y- you're hurting me!"

Naruto let go and the other man fell to his knees, coughing violently and clutching at his throat.

"For your sake, I hope that's true, Deidara. Pain isn't going to like this at all."

"Pain doesn't like anything." Deidara chuckled through his coughing fit. He regained his composure after another moment and stood up, grin firmly back in place. "Hey, where's your rifle anyway?"

"I stashed Justice in a sewer grate I had prepared earlier. I'll go back and get her later tonight, once things have died down some."

Deidara blinked dumbly and burst out laughing. "Heh, died down, that's a good one! You're even worse than I am sometimes Kyuu-chan!"

Scowling now for a variety of reasons, Naruto made no reply and took off running towards the end of the alley where their escape car was waiting, Deidara following close behind him.

Once Naruto was sure no one was watching, he started the car and sped off towards the shipping district. The empty street was left quiet once more, save for the occasional faint scream drifting on the wind

—

Two hours later and half the country away, a young man lay naked across the bed of his darkened hotel room, enjoying the quiet moment that always comes just after waking up from a good nap.

His name was Sasuke Uchiha.

Officially, he worked a boring nine-to-five desk job at the Defense Ministry. In reality, he was a special inspector for ANBU, the government's top secret investigative unit. When local law enforcement couldn't get the job done and sending in the army wasn't an option, it was always ANBU that cleaned up the mess.

While Sasuke took pride in being one of the youngest recruits in the program's history, and as much as he loved the work, he was glad to finally have some time to relax.

As if on cue, the phone started ringing and he begrudgingly got up to answer it. "Yeah?"

"Sorry to disturb, but there's a Mr. Hatake on the line for you sir and he claims it's urgent. Would you like me to put him through?"

This couldn't be good.

"Yes, go ahead," he grumbled, wondering what this was going to be about.

He waited a moment until the sudden background noise of the frantic ANBU office let him know the connection had been established.

"The hell do you want Kakashi and make it quick—you're interrupting my vacation."

There was a pause and Sasuke swore he could feel the other man's amusement in bothering him.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

"We've got big trouble here Sasuke and I mean BIG trouble. You've got to come back immediately—your vacation just got canceled."

"What the fuck do you mean 'canceled'? I've worked at the agency for almost five years and in all that time I've never taken any time off and now as soon as I do you want to..."

"Look, I don't have time to argue agent," Kakashi cut in angrily. "Shut the fuck up, turn on the news, and get your ass back here now. That's an order."

The line went dead before Sasuke could make any reply, so he reacted the way any logical person would—he slammed the phone down and glared at it.

With a defeated sigh, he picked up the remote and flicked the TV onto a news station.

The remote fell from his hand instantly.

"...over a thousand attendees have been confirmed dead already, while several hundred wounded have been taken to area hospitals for emergency care. Authorities say both numbers are expected to rise as night falls over frantic search-and-rescue operations in and around the blast zone. Early estimates are putting the death toll as high as 4,000, though analysts say it will be weeks before a definitive number is reached."

"Holy fuck..." Sasuke whispered, sitting down on the bed and taking a deep breath as he watched live, birds-eye footage of Konoha's devastated city center.

"Once again, for those of you just tuning in, a tragic day in the nation's capital as terrorists successfully detonated several incendiary devices during a victory rally at City Hall for the newly elected mayor, Dr. Tsunade Senju. Accounts from several sources report that Dr. Senju was shot just before the bombs went off, however, this remains unconfirmed at this time. We'll have more as the story develops."

"It just had to be during my vacation," Sasuke muttered and set about getting dressed.

Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.

I've decided to update every few days with shorter chapters, rather than every few weeks with a long one. I'll try to actually stick with it haha.