Another chapter, this time with some more action than the last ones!
I do not own Naruto, although I seem to own enough spare time to write these…
It might be a little while before I update *ducks flying Uchihas* but I'll do as best I can!
Tenten looked at the dust that was clearing in the aftermath of the three explosions not fifty metres away from her. Her eyes held a pained expression as she saw the mess that had been her prized weapons; the heat from the blast having damaged them beyond repair.
The kunoichi looked at Deidara above her with more venom than ever as he wheeled and soared through the sky, the shadow of his bird falling upon her.
"You just wait and see!" She hissed, her eyes deadly.
Her swift mind calculated Deidara's position in concurrence with her plan. He was no good to her whilst he was up in the air…
Tenten looked at the pair of scythes that she still span in her left hand, as an idea formulated in her mind. With another swift glance at Deidara and a grim smile, she knew what she had to do. At the moment, Deidara's clay bird was out of reach of her thrown weapons; he would dodge them before they had time to hit.
"Try this one then, yeah!" yelled Deidara from above her, his eyes wide and full of the exhilaration and adrenalin of the fight.
From the blonde shinobi's hands flew another projectile bomb, different the clay spiders and birds she had seen before. This one had two pairs of wings, and a long streamlined figure, like a predatory water bird.
"Let's see you dodge this, hm?" Deidara laughed.
The bird shot towards Tenten faster than most weapons Tenten could throw. It was a guided missile, thought Tenten as her eyes widened. Evidently, Deidara wanted to end the match quickly if he was throwing in this trump card so early on.
The clay projectile was almost upon her as she whipped a scroll from her bag at the last second.
A blast that made the eardrum feel like it was being shattered shook through the clearing, the shock waves spreading out from the explosion like ripples. The silent watchers look on, a few of them raising their arms to shield their face from the light that the explosion had emitted. Konan however, didn't even flinch.
"Yeah!" shouted Deidara, grinned maniacally and laughing from his position in mid air.
There was no way Tenten could even be recognisable after an explosion like that, let alone alive, thought Sasori with disdain to himself. Honestly, to be taken down with such ridiculous pyrotechnics was truly pathetic.
Suddenly, something shot through the air, easily as fast as the path of the bird from the cloud of smoke and dust that had not yet settled around the explosion. A pair of scythe blades ripped through the sky towards Deidara, spinning so fast that they were a blur.
Deidara was still too euphoric to register the threat and had no time to prepare for the impact or dodge far enough out of the way. He did however, manage to move the bird a foot or so up before the whirling missiles hit.
The twin blades tore smoothly through the clay wings, completely severing them from the main body. Deidara flinched in pain as one of them cut a deep gouge into his right arm, blood quickly welling up in the gash and running scarlet down his forearm.
He was falling, down and down towards the ground, faster and faster. At the last second his hands spat out another transport clay bird, but it was too late. The bird expanded just before they hit the ground, giving them no time to fly upwards again.
There was a loud 'thud' as he smacked against the clay that smacked against the ground beneath. The clay was a sticky mess, but it had at least cushioned his fall. Struggling to his feet, he looked across at where Tenten should have been blown to smithereens, panting and clutching his heavily bleeding arm.
Tenten was kneeling in the centre of a crater that stretched for about ten meters either direction from her. She was breathing heavily, her eyes sharp with concentration and loathing. Her arms were help up level in front of her, holding a strange object that looked like the metallic skeleton of an umbrella. There was a faint blue glow that surrounded her, and Deidara understood.
"A chakra shield?" asked Sasori as he watched with interest, his boredom having been dispelled.
"How on earth did she have that?" queried Kisame, looking briefly at Sasori who stood next to him.
"What do you think of this? Still think this is going to be a quick and easy match?" Tenten sneered, "I made this myself from the descriptions of Sasori's and Chiyo's chakra shields that Sakura told me. I modified them of course to match my techniques rather than the puppet master jutsu, but they're just as effective...if short-lived."
As she spoke, the blue light faded and died, and the crossed slats of metal which had emanated the light cracking and falling apart. Deidara smirked. Evidently the blast from the explosion had been too much for the chakra shield. Even so, it had negated his attack efficiently, and the girl was not injured from the explosion at all.
Tenten's face was smeared with dirt and grime from where the dust thrown up by the blast had stuck to the perspiration on her face.
She knew she was tiring; her concentration was wavering. She needed to end the fight quickly, before she became exhausted. At the same time, she needed to keep Deidara reasonably close to stop him using his long range attacks. She couldn't allow him to fly.
Meanwhile, Deidara was looked at Tenten with and irritated expression, the arrogant swagger gone form his movements. She was better than he had expected. His mind ran over the situation, planning his next move and analysing her attacks. There was no point using up most of his chakra producing his C-2 dragon. It would be ineffective as he didn't have Tobi to place the mines for him. At the same time, his pride had been seriously damaged.
Tenten smiled as she came up with a solution to the problem of Deidara's long distance fighting.
"Hey, Deidara!" she said loud enough for only him to her, her voice dripping with sarcasm and patronisation, "Is it really too much for you to fight a young girl on the ground? You coward, flying around up there! Are you really that afraid of me?"
Deidara's eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. He knew her taunt was meant to weaken him, knew as a shinobi he was try not to listen to his emotions, but she drove him mad.
"How dare you! I'll kill you! I'm no coward. I'll fight you here on the ground to prove it!" He roared.
Tenten smiled, her plan having worked perfectly. Now, all she had to do was hold up against him until she could get him to the right place.
Deidara glowered at the kunoichi, a kunai gripped in both hands. He needed to either get past her defences or attack from within them. He suddenly remembered his battle against the Kazekage Gaara. Perhaps he could use the stratagem he had deployed there to get the upper hand in this battle.
Tenten tensed as the shinobi suddenly launched himself towards her. Tenten drew a long katana from her bag at her hip, raising the thin but razor sharp blade to position. However, Deidara had approached fast than she had been prepared for, and barely had time to block as his kunai slashed through the air at her throat. Tenten leant over backwards as lithe as a cat, swinging her body backwards over her head before landing lightly a few feet behind.
She ran forward, the katana parallel across her chest in a block position. However, she feinted to the side and swung it in a wide arc at Deidara. The blonde moved just in time, not before a thin cut had been opened along his shoulder. Before the kunoichi could recover her balance he threw himself at her, knocking her sideways to the ground.
Tenten cried out in shock and pain as her shoulder skidded arouses the earthy ground, scraping off some skin. As she sat up, something white shot towards her and wrapped sinuously around her body.
It was a long clay snake, its dark holes for eyes devoid of expression but mocking her none-the-less. It tightened around her waist, her arms, her neck; pinning her arms to her body. Tenten struggled but couldn't move.
"Here's how afraid I am of you." Whispered Deidara as he crouched down on the grown so he was level with her kneeling posture, his face inches from hers.
The blonde shinobi leant in and kissed her neck. He kissed her just hard enough to humiliate her beyond words, a deep red flush spreading over her cheeks. He grinned as he felt her tense in repulsion, but unable to shrink away from him.
Suddenly, Tenten swung her head sharply towards him. He had not tightened the snake tightly enough around her neck, and he gasped with pain as the metal of her headband hit him hard on his head.
"Argh!" Grunted Deidara as he stumbled backwards, massaging his bruised head with one hand.
Tenten stared at him, her face murderous. She was silent, and although she was blushing bright crimson, her eyes were full of fury.
"Why you…! I'll end this now!" Snarled Deidara.
He took a couple of steps back and formed a hand seal. The clay that wound about the kunoichi was made from his best C-2, and would blast her tiny pieces. However, just as he was about to shout 'katsu!' he was interrupted.
There was an upheaval in the earth beneath his feet, and he found himself fighting for balance. Dust and dirt was thrown up into the air around him. Deidara noticed that during their fight hey had moved backwards, towards the line of the trees. Looking back at Tenten's hunched kneeling form in front of him, he was astounded too see that she was smiling, her eyes narrowed in triumph. He then noticed a slight twitch of her fingers at her sides, and thought he recognised the faint blue glow at their tips.
However, he didn't have time to take a closer look as a pair of thick steel chains had erupted out of the ground beneath him and wrapped quickly around his legs, attaching him to the ground. Then, from the tree above him he saw a glint of light. As he looked up, teeth clenched, his cerulean eyes widened.
Above Deidara's head was a tightly packed mass of weapons. Senbon, katana, kunai, shuriken, almost every kind of weapon he had ever seen. He looked down at the chains and struggled, trying desperately to free himself.
"That won't do any good." Tenten said clearly, no hint of fear in her voice.
Her eyes were cold and loathing, fixed on Deidara.
"What? I don't understand! Where did they come from? And why are all those weapons just floating there?" Deidara growled in frustration.
"You didn't think my abilities were the same as that time when you kidnapped Gaara did you?" Tenten asked, sounding affronted, "I took a tip or two from Kankuro. I've trained myself in how to create chakra strings. Albeit they aren't enough to control a puppet; neither would I want to, but they are enough to hold a weapon off the ground. It took me a long time to teach myself and my team-mates don't even know I can do it. Needless to say, if you detonate this bomb, the chakra connection will be lost and all of those weapons will fall from up there down onto you. Splat."
The watching Sasori smiled briefly. It was quiet enjoyable for once to see Deidara at a loss for words.
"Heh…it seems we find ourselves in a no-win situation…" Deidara said begrudgingly, with a short laugh.
"It seems so." Tenten replied.
The pair stared at each other for a further few moments.
"Well done, Tenten." Rang Konan's voice clearly through the air.
The blue haired kunoichi crossed the earthy clearing over to where Deidara and Tenten remained, not moving in case the other one tried anything. Konan looked at the clay snake that wound around Tenten. Tenten turned her head to look at Konan in wonder and apprehension. Konan lifted one arm, and as she did so, it began to peel apart into small square slips of paper. Tenten's eye's widened in surprise as the paper pieces formed themselves into miniature paper blades.
The sharp edges darted towards Tenten, who had to calm her instinct to try and move away. The paper blades swiftly cut the clay in several places as though it were half melted butter, and they fell away to the ground. The Konoha Kunoichi gasped with relief as she gone breath easily again without the constricting force around her chest.
"Leave Deidara be, and release him." Konan warned as Tenten looked ready to drop the weapons on him anyway.
With a reluctant nod, Tenten's chains fell limply to the ground, and Deidara was free. He clenched his fists in anger but moved quickly out of the way as Tenten let go of the chakra strings. The heavy barrage of weapons crashed to the ground, sinking deep into the earth where Deidara had been standing moments before.
Tenten walked over and began pulling the blades out of the ground, string back in their various scrolls and holders. She was breathing heavily, exhausted from the fight. She looked up as Konan walked towards her.
"You fought well, Tenten." Said the blue haired kunoichi without a smile.
"Did I?" replied Tenten dryly.
"We will accept you into Akatsuki. Understand that if you decline this offer you will be killed, as you may divulge our secrets to your village. What is your answer?" demanded Konan, her cold eyes staring at the girl in front of her.
"I…uhm…"
"Why? Do you have some lingering attachments to your village?"
"No. I do not. If I join you I can surpass them all. I can even surpass my idol, Lady Tsunade if I work hard enough. I…I will join you." Tenten said, her eyes set.
Tenten was staring straight ahead, recalling all of those training sessions with her team where she had been left holding the target or posing as the enemy or just being overlooked. The thought of the looks on her colleague's faces when they saw her more powerful than they could ever imagine enticed her. All of her village would finally acknowledge her.
"I join Akatsuki." She repeated.
Tenten reached up to her forehead, and removed her headband. Then, as she held it in hands that were trembling ever so slightly, she slashed her kunai across the symbol that showed she was loyal to the Leaf.