Chapter thirteen.

Thirteen; unlucky for some, especially Tenten! Thanks to everyone for the reviews and such like! I do try and reply to the reviews I get, but to those who submitted anonymous reviews, a big thank you to you as well!

I do not own Naruto.

Deidara crouched low in the bushes as the sun rose over the horizon, throwing the barren landscape that the forest gave way to into sharp relief, splattering the blank canvas of a landscape with the colours of dawn. The breeze was slight, and played with the lengths of his hair in a way that irritated him as he fought to keep his concentration.

The blonde shinobi had been sitting in that same spot for nearly an hour now, and the adrenalin from the battle earlier had worn off long ago. The Ohako had devastated the front entrance to Orochimaru's lair, blasting away the ground like butter to the point where the twisting tunnels below became visible.

Of course, none of his opponents had survived; all within the three hundred metre radius had been killed and their remains now plastered the ground back at the battle scene, apart from the very small minority who had used teleportation jutsu at the last moment.

Having little clay remaining, Deidara had decided that he had created a suitably distracting diversion, and had left the area, heading for the meeting point he had discussed with Tenten. He wondered whether she had succeeded in her end, if she was even still alive. Part of him wanted to believe very strongly that she had, but he couldn't work out quite why. If she had succeeded in getting in, destroying Orochimaru's jutsu, and escaping again, he had certainly underestimated her.

However, she was definitely late by now. Bored, Deidara had resorted to making small figurines out of his clay, and these discarded sculptures now littered the ground about him. It was always a possibility that she had been killed or was incapable of continuing, he supposed. However, he automatically banished this thought, instead thinking of what the defensive kunoichi would say in reply to this.

'I was just taking the time to do the job properly, unlike some shinobi who rush in, guns blazing and make a mess of everything.' He could imagine her retort.

Even with these thoughts in mind, he remembered what she had said yesterday: 'If I don't turn up at the meeting point by mid morning tomorrow, I want you to leave.'

Dawn had been and gone, and still there was no sign of her. In fact, the edge of the forest where he now sat was silent, other than the melancholy calls of the birds here and there. Of course, he was a little way from the place where she was exiting Orochimaru's base, just to be safe just as they had planned. However, she should certainly have appeared by now.

Deidara fidgeted a little where he sat, straining to hear the sound of any foot steps that may herald Tenten's arrival. However, he heard none as the sun continued to rise in the sky above him. For the briefest of moments, he could have sworn he had felt the presence of several chakra signatures, but after deliberation dismissed them as his imagination. Soon he would have no choice but to leave and report to Leader that their newest member was missing in action.

The light was harsh, biting into Tenten's eyes painfully as her eyelids fluttered, trying to open. Her body seemed completely unresponsive for some reason, and it took her long enough just to open her eyes and adjust to her surroundings. The world around was filled with the sound of birdsong, usually a pleasant sound but in her present state seemed so loud it made her head throb.

Within about a minute, Tenten had acclimatised to consciousness enough to realise she was bound to a stout oak tree with some kind of thick fibrous rope. Her arms were pinned to her sides which explained why they had been so hard to move, but she was at least, not gagged. She was propped upright sitting against the tree at her back, her legs lying in front of her.

She tried shifting positions momentarily, just to see how tight her bindings were, but she gasped aloud in pain as the robes rubbed against the burn on one arm and the deep wound in the other. Her Akatsuki robes stuck painfully to the stickiness of her various injuries, and she had a pounding head ache from exhaustion.

In front of her, she could only see the forest, disappearing into the distance with the early morning haziness that lay close to the ground. However, from behind her, she could hear the crackle of a campfire and sounds of movement, even though no voices were audible as all she could make out were hushed whispers.

Tenten tried to turn her head to look behind her to see who her captors were, but the truck at her back was too thick to see around as she had been bound too tightly to be able to move to either side. Her mouth felt dry and tasted disgusting, just like it does when you wake up in the morning after having breathed through your mouth all night. She coughed suddenly, pressing her mouth to her shoulder to stifle the sound as her hands were unreachable at that present moment.

Abruptly, the sounds of movement behind her stopped for a moment, and Tenten had the feeling they had been waiting for her to wake up. There was a tense moment of absolute silence, before she heard the sound of approaching footsteps coming towards her. Tenten looked despairingly around her as she felt the absence of her bag and weapon pouches at her sides, hating the fact she was defenceless.

"If you're going to kill me, hurry up and get it over with!" Tenten said in a voice that sounded partway between a hiss and a croak through her chapped lips and sore throat.

The kunoichi's eyes widened momentarily as she recognised the person who had now walked into view from behind the tree she was tied to. Tenten immediately looked anywhere but his face as he crouched down so he was at her eye level. She could almost feel those blank eyes piercing into her skin.

Neji reached forwards and gripped her chin steadily between his thumb and fore finer, easily able to force her head to turn his was in her weakened state. Tenten's murky hazel eyes were locked with Neji's pale ones. She couldn't ready his eyes at all, but felt an overwhelming sense of rage consume her. How dare he!

Tenten twisted her head violently out of his grip, succeeding in banging it painfully against the tree behind her in the process. Seeing spots before her eyes, she glowered up at Neji who crossed his arm, the folds of his Hyuuga shirt ruffling softly. Tenten followed his eyes as they dropped to the red clouds that adorned her tattered cloak.

"I can't believe what you've done." He said in a flat, featureless voice.

"Well I've done it, and there's no going back." Tenten replied, trying as best she could to mirror his tone.

"No." Neji said.

Tenten looked away again, unable to bear to look at his pale face.

"So, did Tsunade send you? I assume Lee and Guy are here with you?"

"Yes. We were sent to search for you, or your body. Everyone believed you were dead. We were to pass by Orochimaru's hide-out en route for reconnaissance purposes. We were surprised with what we found."

"I assume you were."

"Tenten…how could you do this? After everything the village has done for you. After all Lee, Guy-sensei and I have done for you. Are you really so blind that you've turned your back on all of that?" Neji voice was rising, and Tenten could feel his anger in the air.

"I guess I was just sick of being the one holding the target all the time." Tenten replied nonchalantly, surprised at her own calmness.

"Akatsuki scum, through and through." Neji spat.

This made Tenten flinch, as the word 'Akatsuki' rolled off her former team-mates tongue like venom. Tenten's fury was lit once more. As if he had any right to speak to her like that! Especially after ignoring her and commenting on everything she did all these years, especially when she had made it obvious that she had felt something special for him, up until this precise moment.

"Akatsuki? Yes, I'm proud to be a member of it. They treat me with value, not as a friend but as a comrade and with respect. No, it's too little, too late to try and get me back on your side now, Neji. So if I'm just 'Akatsuki scum' to you, you might as well erase me right now."

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but it is not our duty to carry out that sentence. You are to be taken back to the Leaf Village and healed so that you're in a fit state of mind when we hand you over to the torture and interrogation squad, so that we may gain some useful intel on Akatsuki before your execution."

Suddenly, a flicker of fear began to rise inside Tenten as Neji said these words. She was to be handed over to the torture and interrogation squad?

A bead of sweat ran down Deidara's face as he waited; now pacing between the surrounding trees, for his mission partner. It was noon, and the sun was becoming too hot to sit comfortably outside the shade. Tenten wasn't coming. He had been told to leave by mid morning and here he was, several hours later to no avail.

He wondered why he had even waited this long until it struck him with unforgivable candidness. He desperately wanted the kunoichi to be alive. It was stupid, ridiculous to think that in this short space of time, he had grown fond of Tenten like this; after all, a shinobi must never make emotional attachments. However, her artistry, coupled with her fighting ability and down to earth nature as well as her spirit had grown on Deidara.

With a snarl of frustration, he scuffed up the leaf litter underfoot as he wondered what on Earth he was to do.

"Hey, what was that?"

"Dunno, but it came from the forest."

"Well go check it out, Lord Orochimaru said we weren't to overlook anything or he'd…he'd…I don't want to get on his bad side, especially since he lost that research project he's been working on for however many months it's been now."

"Yeah, yeah I heard him, come on…"

Deidara looked up at the couple of subordinates coming his way. Knowing he hadn't the chakra or the clay to make short work of a battle without drawing too much attention to himself, he turned and leapt to the trees above, starting on his long journey back to the Akatsuki hide-out. At least Tenten had achieved her goal before she died. He found himself hoping she had met a truly artistic death, worthy of her prowess.

As the trees fled by him, he kept his thoughts firmly fixed on getting back to the base. He tried flashing one of his signature devil-may-care grins to lighten his mood, but it didn't work. He sighed at a loss to himself as the green of the forest flew past in a blur.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he spotted something that didn't fit in with the uniform green and brown. Coming to an abrupt halt that almost sent him tumbling off of his branch to the forest floor below, he turned to examine what it could be. Attached to one of the many trees in the area was a small rag; a scrap of torn fabric. It was fluttering limply in the light breeze, caught by the sharp finger of a wizened pine tree.

It was only about a hand square, but as Deidara picked it up, he could see the markings of the crimson Akatsuki cloud against the black. It was badly singed but obviously Akatsuki. From what Deidara knew, none of the rest of Akatsuki had missions within this area, so it could only mean one thing. Tenten was alive.

Soon after her brief discussion with Neji, Tenten had drifted once more into unconsciousness as the weight of exhaustion overtook her again. From what she had gathered, neither Lee nor Guy wanted to believe what she had become, but had consigned to the fact after a while. Either way, they had not yet spoken a word to her. Her back ached from being propped up against a tree for hours and her wounds stung painfully.

She was equally painfully aware that none of them had even bothered to treat any of her injuries, a fact that caused more anger and resentment to spark inside her. She may not have meant much to them before, but she had still been a comrade. Even with her changed alliances she had at least expected Lee to help his former-team mate a little, or at a very minimum bandage her wounds.

Lee had always treated her most like an equal out of her old team. They had often trained together and laughed together, unlike how Tenten had always been a little shy around Neji and frustrated with her team captain.

A little while later, she woke up once more, finding herself in a different part of the forest, but a part she was beginning to recognise. It couldn't be that far to the Leaf Village by now, and Tenten could tell by the position of the shadows that it was approaching late afternoon.

It was warm in a lazy way, a way that just sang to her sleep. This time, the kunoichi was not at her back to her captors, but facing there camp, and rather than having her whole body tied to a tree, only her wrists and ankles were bound. Even so, the ropes were tied painfully tight; but at least they didn't chafe against her burn and wound on her arms.

She guessed that Lee, being the softer egg of the group, had requested that she be tied less restricting. She appreciated this minimal show of courtesy nonetheless. As he passed her, she mouthed 'thank you' at him. Lee looked away and didn't meet her eyes.

By the time evening came around, they had moved still closer to Konoha, now only a few miles away. However, darkness was setting in and as she awoke from unconsciousness for the third time that day, she could feel the cold biting into her body.

Tenten was vaguely aware of someone pressing a flask to her lips. She swallowed the cool water as if she would never taste the liquid again; it felt so relieving on her dry throat and mouth.

"Don't drink it all. We don't want to waste it on you. You should feel lucky that I made sure you weren't bound as painfully as you were before." Neji said, his eyes stern and cold as always.

"You…?"

"Yes. The others didn't want to take the risk but I assured them that you wouldn't try anything. I hope you don't prove me mistaken."

Tenten looked away as a lead weight seemed to form in her stomach. Lee and Guy were afraid of her. In a way this was what she had always wanted deep inside, to have others respect her for her skill and power. As the sun disappeared and night fully embraced her, she missed her new home, even the Akatsuki's criminal members. She missed Deidara, and for the first time in a long while, she had never felt more alone.