Chapter eight here.

With any luck, Tenten might start to see beyond Dei's arrogance soon…then again…maybe not. I might write some comedy one-shots in the future about Tenten in the Akatsuki, once this story is a little further underway. Please could people PM me some ideas or prompts for these? That would be great!

I do not own Naruto or its characters, but I hope to own some more reviews soon!

Dawn had fallen and the sky was now fully light as Deidara opened his eyes. He sat up, rubbing his neck as he had gone to sleep leaning on his left side making it extremely stiff and sore. The cries of several birds nesting on one of the tall trees that surrounded them filled the air, and as he looked up he saw Tenten quickly packing up the network of the trap she had laid the previous night.

The brunette kunoichi looked around at him with those dark brown eyes, and once she had finished disarming her trap, padded over to him.

"Come on, I need to pack up the sleeping mat." She said matter-of-factly, motioning for Deidara to move off of it.

He nodded sleepily and stood up; taking a few paces away as he watched her folded the mat and store it in the bag beneath her long robes. Her face had a drawn quality to it, as if something was on her mind. He then looked up and saw it was just the two of them in the clearing.

"Hey, where's Tobi, hm?" Deidara asked as he looked around for their masked team-mate.

"Oh, he left a few minutes ago. He used his teleportation jutsu to go and report to leader." Tenten explained

"I see." Deidara replied absent-mindedly.

Tenten nodded and walked around the length of the clearing, checking that she had not left anything behind that might alert any enemies that might be tracking them. She moved quickly and efficiently, checking each area once before moving onto the next, and when she was finished, she turned and strode back into the centre of the clearing.

Deidara approached her.

"Is something wrong, hmm?" He asked, having read her movements and deduced that something had her worried.

When she didn't reply and walked past him he extended a hand and gripped her shoulder tightly to stop her avoiding him. He pulled her closer to him and stared down at her with his piercing azure eyes.

"I said, is something wrong?" He repeated.

Tenten wrenched her shoulder away from him, turning to glare at Deidara with venom.

"Get those disgusting hands or whatever they are away from me." She hissed.

Deidara smirked, pulling his hand away, the tongue from the mouth in the hand in question running over its lips. He crossed his arms and mirrored her glare.

"You know you like it really, hm? Now tell me what's bothering you, or I'll make you." He said.

Tenten sighed in frustration and sat down cross-legged on the ground a little way from him, tearing at handfuls of grass absent-mindedly. Deidara rolled his eyes and walked over to her, sitting beside her and looking at her face expectantly.

"Last night, while you were asleep and I was on watch duty, a couple of sound village thugs ran into my trap." She explained.

"What? You mean Orochimaru's subordinates? But how come I didn't hear a thing, hm?" Deidara asked a momentary look of surprise on his face.

"Well, that just shows my trap-setting abilities. They were both dead before they could scream. In fact, I'd say your observation skills in the early morning need working on." She commented as she motioned behind her to a dark red stain on grass.

Deidara glowered at her.

"Anyway, the reason it bugs me is that, alright, those two weren't bright or powerful as they were taken down instantly, but the fact that Orochimaru is sending out subordinates this far out from his base must mean that he is suspicious of attack. Am I right?" Tenten explained.

Deidara nodded; he could see where this was going.

"Therefore, this mission has just become one hell of a lot harder. We're going to have to infiltrate Orochimaru's lair without him noticing even though he's being overcautious. Now, I have a few ideas, but I'll run them past you to see what you think." She said.

"As a matter of fact, I do as well, hmm? But let's hear yours first." He replied.

Tenten sighed and closed her eyes.

"Firstly, I think we ought to split up. Orochimaru knows that Akatsuki work in pairs or more, so he'll on the look out for any more than one person's chakra patterns at a time. Also, Out of the two of us, I expect he has the least intel on me. After all, my own village barely paid any attention to me, so why should he be any the wiser? Therefore, I suggest that I should be the one to break into his lair, and locate wherever it is that he's developing the 'Impure World Resurrection' jutsu or whatever it's called."

Deidara motioned for her to continue.

"Then, whilst I am doing this, I need you to create a large enough distraction outside to draw away the attention from me. However, you must make it seem like you are trying to get into the base and not cause a distraction or he will get even more suspicious. Use your art however you want, just make sure you create a large enough disturbance."

Deidara held up a hand suddenly.

"What is it?" Tenten asked.

"You called it art." He replied.

"Well that's what you call it isn't it?"

"Yes but, you're the first person other than myself to call it that, hm? So, you agree with my perspective of artistic perfection?"

"Uh…I don't know…I've never really thought about art much myself, but now you mention it, I guess that my art is my weapons…but that isn't important. What we need to do is perfect the plan so that we can get in and then out of Orochimaru's hideout having completed our goal and still be alive."

Deidara nodded, knowing that he was getting side-tracked.

"Now, Leader gave us a rough blue-print of the enemy's hide-out. It's not ideal but since we don't have time to stake out the base for ourselves it will have to do." Tenten continued.

She reached into her bag once more and withdrew a thin roll of paper before smoothing it out before her on the forest floor. She pointed to a route that looked a drainage tunnel.

"Now, we know from experience that Orochimaru partakes in a many different experiments, almost all of them forbidden, I expect. Therefore, it is likely that this drainage tunnel here is where the waste chemicals are left to flow out into the surrounding lands."

"Yes, but surely the fumes from these forbidden chemicals will be highly toxic, hmm?" Deidara asked, smiling to himself.

"That is a possibility. As a result, I have brought along with me…this."

Tenten turned, and took out a face mask similar in design to the ones worn in the hidden-rain village.

"I hope I won't have to use it, but it's a necessary precaution." She explained.

Deidara smirked and shook his head. Although he would never admit it, he had to confess that this girl had surely come up with the solution to every eventuality. It was quite impressive really.

"So I assume that I'll meet you at the mouth of this pipe then? Once I've made a decent amount of chaos and confusion at the main base?" He asked.

"No. If Orochimaru guesses what's going on and where I am, you will also be in danger. He may have prepared an ambush by the time I reach the exit, and we can expect the subordinates that he posts to be very adept ninjas. No. I need you to wait for me in the forest cover here." Tenten replied.

She pointed to a blank area a little way from the base.

"But that would mean that you would surely be killed, hmmm?" Deidara asked, smiling at her again.

"Yes. However, as has been demonstrated by out battle, you are of more worth to Akatsuki than I. Also, I am far stealthier and considered than you, not to mention smaller. I am far more suited to the job of infiltration than you. Even if I am killed, if I don't turn up at the meeting point by mid morning tomorrow, I want you to leave. The chances are that I will have succeeded in the mission and sabotaged Orochimaru's operation, and that he has headed me off at the exit." She replied.

Deidara frowned in response to her second remark, but seemed quite surprised at her lack of anxiety of such a dangerous prospect of being ambushed by Orochimaru. Tenten looked at him smoothly.

"I can tell what you're thinking…you're wondering why I am so prepared to die. I'm a kunoichi, duty bound to Akatsuki now I've sworn my allegiance to it. There is no escaping this task and I will succeed, I have no choice. If I fail here, isn't leader sure to decide I am of no worth after all, and dispose of me?"

Deidara sighed.

"If you say so, but this plan still seems too dangerous for a…" He began, and then trailed off.

"Go on, say it."

"No, it's nothing, hm?"

"You were going to say it was too dangerous for a girl right?"

"No, I wasn't I –"

"Oh never mind. It is irrelevant either way. I suggest we get ourselves as close as we can to Orochimaru's hide-out today, and I'll break silently inside when night falls. That will give me about twenty-four hours to complete the mission, and as long as you can cause a convincing commotion and stay out of harm's way at the same time, it should be a success. Understood?"

Deidara looked at her strangely for a second. This little kunoichi who could barely be seventeen was lecturing him and giving him orders! However, he clamped down on his anger, having to admit to himself that this plan seemed like their only reasonable option at the moment.

"Urgh…fine, whatever hm?" He replied, scowling.

Tenten nodded and stood up.

"Then I propose we get moving then." She said.

"Of course, but we can't use my clay birds as transport this time. We're too close to the enemy's lair and likely to be spotted if we use them. We'll have to travel on foot today." Deidara pointed out.

Tenten nodded, and leapt onto one of the branches of the tall pine trees that surrounded them in the clearing before setting off in the direction the Leader had told them, south-west, to where Orochimaru's lair was supposed to be. She moved in the typical way she always travelled when completing missions for her old village, the common shinobi gate of leaping from branch to branch, using chakra at the soles of her feet to increase her speed. Out of all the Leaf-Village kunoichi of her level, she had always been the fastest. However, she had been the slowest in her cell, Lee often teasing her and Neji often commenting sardonically.

She looked over her shoulder as she leapt through the air, wondering if Deidara was close behind or not. She was interested to pit her speed against his; she found herself smiling as he drew level with her, the rhythm of their feet hitting the branches falling into a steady beat.

"You move pretty quick, kunoichi, hm?" Deidara commented smirking.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" She replied before increasing the chakra flow to her feet so she sailed in huge bounds between the trees. Her long robes fluttered behind her, the red clouds rippling and furling in the wind.

Deidara narrowed his eyes as he caught up again. He was not used to travelling like this, always preferring to ride on his clay creations for transport. He looked up at her, watching her take the speed in her stride, noticing how graceful she looked. He found himself thinking that artistic splendour such as she would only be worthy of a truly artistic demise; a truly explosive death second only to his own C-0 technique. He shook these tangential thoughts from his mind, focussing instead on the mission at hand. She was drawing further away.

Refusing to allow his already damaged pride to be further bruised, he put in an extra burst off effort to catch up. She made it look so easy, but he could see that this speed was starting to affect her as well. Beads of perspiration stood out on her face. Was this really how much she wanted to surmount all others and make herself unbeatable? To the point where she physically injured herself?

Deidara found himself lost in the mess of thoughts spinning around inside his mind, and banished them, deciding instead to run over their plan in his mind before they reached their destination.

After a few hours, the pair came to a rest at a point where the forest began to become sparser, giving way instead to thread-bare plains. This area was rocky and barren, the hardy plants able to survive in the harsh environment the type that crept and sucked the life out of each other to stay alive. The sky was a dirty white colour, with translucent clouds that skittered half-heartedly across the blank canvas as if in a hurry to get away from the unforgiving surroundings.

Tenten seated herself on a patch of dry brown grass, breathing heavily as her chest rose and fell. She reached into her bag once more and drew out two small capsules. She swallowed one and offered the other to Deidara. The effect was immediate. She felt energy return to her blood and her mind wake up from its exertion induced stupor.

"Stamina pill." She said as Deidara eyed the small blue tablet with suspicion.

He sighed and took it from her, deciding that since he detected no poisons, (and having been partnered with Sasori for a while, he had the knowledge of poisons pretty well drilled into him) it was safe to consume. He then smiled as he felt his energy levels fill up once more.

"We travelled further than I thought we would…it's not even dark yet and we're pretty close." Deidara remarked.

Tenten couldn't decide whether he was complimenting her or not.

"You're correct" She replied, "If Leader's directions are accurate, we should only be a mile or so to the north-east of the base. This is where out paths diverge. I will go on ahead from here and infiltrate the base, and when I hear you start to create havoc at the main entrance I will proceed to where this blue-print says the 'Impure World Resurrection' jutsu is being worked on."

"I see, hm…" Deidara said, gazing off into the distance as the wind blew his hair across his face.

"I'm going to leave now, as it will give me more time as I overestimated out arrival time." Tenten explained.

She nodded curtly before beginning to walk away, down the hill, with the forest standing up as an imposing wall at her back, the barren plains up ahead.

Suddenly, Deidara lunged forwards and caught her arm in his hand just before she had gone very far. Tenten spun around to face him.

"Hey kunoichi" He smiled, "don't get killed out there, hmm?"

Tenten smiled back slightly, a smile that revealed nothing. She nodded once more and turned before sprinting off down the hill, her feet silent against the desolate ground as she disappeared from sight.