[A/N: I've been making covers for all my stories, and I'm really proud of the one I made for Mind Games! Sorry to leave this story hanging for so long; the next chapter will hopefully follow very soon and it shouldn't take too many more for it to be complete.]

Chapter 6:

Deidara came to slowly, his head flaring with pain. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying on a cold stone floor. Chains rattled as he moved one hand, telling him everything else he needed to know.

"And now I'm locked up," he said, his voice echoing through the cell. "Great." The words hung mockingly in the still air, and Deidara quickly decided that talking to himself was a bad idea.

His head spun as he attempted to rise, so Deidara slowly moved into a position where he was sitting against the wall. You idiot, he told himself angrily. Thought you could be the big hero and save the girl, huh? Well look where that got you.

He'd really, honestly thought that maybe there had been something he could change—maybe his life wasn't meant to be an endless spree of destruction. There had never been anything he wanted to protect before (except himself, maybe) but with Ino, he had just wanted to keep her safe.

I guess she really had me wrapped around her little finger, he realized. She must have been laying a trap ever since we met—it was all too coincidental.

Ino had said it was an accident, but that was honestly pretty hard to believe now. Because really, what kind of an accident would it take to create a mental link with someone several countries away? Of course, Ino had appeared to be surprised that he was with the Akatsuki, but Deidara knew better now than to believe anything she said. There was a reason he didn't have any true friends—after a while he'd gotten tired of being lied to, and Ino was just one more on the list of people who had turned against him. Sasori had been all right as far as he knew, but even then Deidara had never confided in him, wary until the end.

I guess I should try to get out of here, Deidara thought finally, rousing himself out of his gloom enough to examine his chains and the cell surrounding him. He wasn't quite sure where he would go even if he did escape—if the Leader found out that he had basically walked up to a group of enemy ninja, he would immediately assume that Deidara had turned traitor. If he tried going back to the Akatsuki, they'd probably kill him on the spot.

His own clan would be no more welcoming. Not only was he a renegade and therefore a blight on their reputation, but he was the adopted son of the former clan head. Whoever had been responsible for the coup that had done away with his parents would ensure that Deidara could never pose any threat to their standing.

Deidara quickly discovered that his explosive clay was gone, not that he was surprised—anyone capturing him would have to be pretty dense to leave him with his most powerful weapon. Also, when he took a look at the metal cuffs around his wrists he realized that seals had been painted on his inner arms, effectively neutralizing his explosive techniques until the seals were deactivated. They don't do things by halves here, do they?

Standing up, Deidara checked how far the chains would permit him to move. He could walk a few feet, but not nearly far enough to reach the bars.

The act of standing had made his headache come back with a vengeance, and since escape seemed futile for now Deidara sat back down against the wall.

Great. Now I've got nothing to do until they haul me off for questioning. And unless they've got some use for me once they're done with that…Deidara quickly resolved not to follow that train of thought any further. However, it was quite obvious that, no matter how much he tried not to think about it, there was very little remaining for him to look forward to.

He had a very small amount of chakra left, so with nothing else to do (and somewhat against his better judgment) he formed the now-familiar series of four seals and waited for the mental sensation that would prove he had been successful in putting together the connection. This way he could at least kill some time before Konoha decided to work him over, and if he was really lucky he might be able to learn something that would help him get out of here.