Chapter 3: The Feeling of Owing Your Life
Deidara wondered why the black fox was following the two Akatsuki members. It golden eyes burned holes into his back as if willing him to turn around and acknowledge the animal.
"Senpai! Why does Fox-san keep following us?" Deidara was irritated by his partner's constant questions regarding their little stalker.
As he thought about it, he seemed to recall a similar situation happening just before he went on the mission to capture the One-Tailed Beast with Sasori. Deidara recalled that Sasori had been captured on that mission. He had heard that the puppet master later disappeared from his cell, leaving only the keys in the corridor in front of his prison.
Were the animals perhaps omens?
"Senpai?" Tobi's high-pitched voice brought him back to the task at hand.
The two were tracking down Itachi's younger brother in order to kill him. This was not required of him, but Deidara insisted on going anyway.
As the two stopped to rest at a tea house, Deidara found the fox sitting across the road, staring straight at him. The terrorist got an odd feeling from the animal that made his shinobi instincts act up.
This time around, Deidara ignored his partner in favor of trying to unravel the enigma that was the fox. As his visible blue eye stared into the fox's gold ones, he got such a strong feeling that he felt as if the fox had opened its mouth and spoken to him.
"If you die, who's going to show the world true art? You better be careful when you're fighting Sasuke," the fox seemed to give off a more complex air than the cat that Sasori was so focused on.
Deidara soon dismissed this and returned to trying to see Tobi's face before the two moved on. As they left the tea house, the terrorist looked back towards the fox, but he found that it was gone. With a final shake of his head, he pushed the fox and its message out of his mind.
During his fight with Sasuke, the fox's presence came back to him, making his attacks more cautious and causing him to conserve his chakra. In the end, the extra chakra was what saved him from using his final trump card. Instead, he flew away awkwardly on a clay bird as his C3 bomb fell towards the youngest Uchiha.
After not seeing Sasuke or any of the Uchiha's remains in the aftermath, Deidara left satisfied. Of course, he assumed that Tobi had been caught in the blast, and the terrorist took this chance to flee the Akatsuki.
Later, he would get a feeling of irritation due to being saved by the "warning" the fox gave him.
Deidara vowed to find the fox and quickly repay his debt.