A/N: Hokay. So. Its been a month. One full of frustration on how to make this damn chapter work. And seriously, its hard to write a fight scene that's exciting, long but not too long. I have found that there is a limit before it just drags on andon andonandon and... well, you know what I mean.

This came out late because the story is on the middle burner on my list of priorities. Not the front burner, not the back burner. Somewhere in the middle. Fuck school, thank you its almost over, fuck the homework load that I get from that.

Oh, and btw, this story has over 100,000 hits to it. Thanks guys! -gives two cookies to everybody-

Chapter 21 – Fight and Flight

Deidara had no trouble a tall avoiding the five foot long bolts from the ballistae. They were no more than flies to him, buzzing around and very easy to be squashed. The same went for the men that operated those machines of war.

After about a minute, they began to annoy him. He dug into the pouches full of clay at his sides and created a handful of small mice figurines with the mouths in his hands. he flew over each of the buildings that had a ballista and dropped a mouse on each of them. The shinobi on top ducked since he had swooped so low, so nobody noticed the newcomer. Deidara resumed his charade in the sky all the while controlling the clay mice with his chakra to scurry underneath the ballistae.

Once they were all in position, he set them all off with a sadistic grin. "I don't see why Saisori insists art is something that lasts. Art is temporary, so beautiful and a bang, yeah!" He looked over the dead ninja on the rooftops, smiling wider. If he could, he would destroy the whole village this way, but he had come here for business and not pleasure.

Surely by this time, the Kazekage and Jinjuuriki had to be watching somewhere, enraged by this destruction. He flew on his bird over to the Kazekage building and began circling it, looking for anybody that had some sort of authority.

There was a man there, standing amongst a flurry of action to help their burning and bleeding comrades nearby. He did nothing except stand next to a pink- haired girl and when anybody approached him, he spoke and they each went away to do a different task. And Deidara realized that the red- haired man was glaring at him. He had a look in his eyes that bordered insanity he was so enraged. It would strike fear into any other man, but Deidara was a hardened warrior beyond his years and his smile returned from such a presenting challenge.

He made a small clay eagle, not unlike the one he rode on and let it loose over the building. If all that Jinjuuriki was going to do was stand there, he was quite literally a sitting duck for his bombs.

The bird exploded a mere seven feet from the rooftop, but it never reached its target. Somehow, a shield of sand had bloomed from the center right underneath the explosion, covering everyone nearby.

Deidara raised an eyebrow. This wasn't what he had expected.

Sakura peeked up from where she had clutched Gaara's shoulder, confused as to why the blast had suddenly disappeared. The sky was… suddenly a ruddy brown color. She turned to Gaara and asked him what the hell was going on.

"My sand." he replied. The wall overhead began to crumble as the sand became free-flowing again. He suddenly whisked her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry. He won't leave until he either is dead or has me."

"No, you ca-" she started as he pushed him away. Sakura stopped mid-sentence, controlling her instinct to plead him to stay when she saw the pained look in his eyes. It wouldn't do any good for either of them. He had to fight and her begging would only tear the both of them apart even more than they were already. She calmly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I understand." She turned her eyes to his face. "Just don't leave, okay? Come back."

A corner of his mouth lifted up as he pulled her again into a hug.

Sakura took that as an 'I will.'

Deidara smirked as the man floated up to him on a sand cloud. Finally, he had weeded him out.

But, what was that exchange below? Between him and the pink-haired woman? There were two hugs involved. They must have some sort of important relationship, Deidara decided. He frowned, not having enough time to guess the depth of that relationship and filed the information away for later, should it become useful.

He turned and flew higher so if the ants below managed to fix the arrow-launchers they couldn't get to them. He turned to meet his opponent, but the red-haired man was right there behind him and had almost overtaken him. His clay eagle dodged left, missing getting hit by just a few feet. Just as he recovered, a huge, solid arm of sand was swinging his way. He didn't have enough time to dodge again, so he flung a handful of spider bombs he had made before while waiting at it hoping to destroy it. The sand disintegrated a split second before it hit him full on, so he was only knocked slightly off balance.

Deidara immediately flew out of his range and spoke aloud in a voice so it carried. "Come peacefully Jinjuuriki, else your village be destroyed, yeah."

"Is there a third option?" the man spoke equally as loud.

"No."

"Then you will be the one that dies!" Some sort of emotion was there in his voice, as well as a tone he recognized well; the desire for blood, this time stronger than any other he had ever encountered. His stomach dropped out as he felt himself struck with some sort of emotion that was alien, even though he had felt it before long ago.

It took him a second to recall, but he ultimately concluded it was fear. In the absurdity of it all, Deidara grinned like a madman. His instinct told him this was going to be one hell of a fight.

Despite his fury, Gaara managed to keep his head straight. He knew it was never smart to attack your foe first, blindly and head-on. He stood on his cloud of sand with his arms crossed, staring at the other man. He definitely would not make that first move. Whoever would do so would immediately be marked as the loser.

Why doesn't he move?! Deidara thought impatiently. "Saisori's gonna have my ass if I don't speed this up. I've already wasted a lot of time playing around, yeah." He grumbled under his breath. He dug his hands into the pouches of explosive clay and formed six miniature birds, three in each hand. They all flew off in six different directions but each aiming for the same target. As soon as they took off, he made a sort of lizard in one hand and a handful of spiders in the other, preparations if the bird didn't knock him out with that one combined powerful shot.

A second after the backups were completed, the primary attack set off in one big blast where the Jinjuuriki was. Deidara smiled. Te other guy was an idiot. He hadn't moved at all, standing there confidently on his wisp of cloud like he ruled the world.

The smoke cleared, and Gaara hadn't moved an inch, and nor did he have the slightest scratch on him.

Bastard! How'd he survive? Deidara's eyes remained trained on his foe, frustrated and unaware of the wisp of sand that flew up from below.

It coiled around his steed's legs, tying them together like a pair of chicken's legs and yanked down.

Deidara suddenly felt his platform give out and he found himself falling thousands of feet to his death. In the blink of eye, he made a clay owl which expanded to a huge size like the one before it. It flew under Deidara and caught him, immediately bringing him back up to his former altitude.

"Yeah, you're going to have to try something different yeah. Being sneaky like that doesn't affect me, yeah." he called out.

"I was testing you. I've also found your weak point." Gaara's voice had no trace that he doubted himself.

"Stop with the bullshit. I know you're bluffing Jinjuuriki." The Akatsuki member spat out the name like it was poison.

I told you that you would die. And you've made the first move too… That taboo means you're surely going to meet the Shinigami tonight.

Without hesitation, Gaara closed the space between them with two arms of sand leading in front of him, the first arm headed straight for the enemy, the second trailing behind and to the left.

Deidara dodged to his left, flying up and over Gaara so he landed behind him. Gaara sent one arm of sand around to hit him on his left and another more secretly on his right. Deidara only saw the one on his left coming and was slammed on his right when he tried to evade. Surprisingly, he stayed on his steed as he was knocked flying, the sand latching onto the right side of his body. It began to overtake him, crawling over his legs and moving up his torso until it nearly covered everything except for his head.

Luckily, the side of his body that was feeding the sand was the side that held the spiders. He sent them crawling down the line until they were a good distance away so they wouldn't injure him but could still be effective, and detonated them.

The effect was immediate. Deidara felt the sand be whisked away by the wind and found himself able to breathe again.

By this time though, a giant claw of sand had begun to descend upon him and capture him. He kneeled down on his bird and directed it swiftly out of its grasp. The claw closed on empty air but it reared up again and followed, trying to snatch him out of the air. Deidara kept evading, looking for a way to get back in control of the situation.

He swooped low, flying in between the buildings so the hand could not get him. Civilians and shinobi alike threw themselves out of his way as he sped down the streets.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. Now he had no idea where that man was. He floated slowly back over the Kazekage building and took up a post, watching for any signs of out of place movement.

Unfortunately, the buildings were tall enough that Deidara could move about freely. He made four clay geckoes in addition to the one lizard he still had and stuck them on random buildings as he flew in a wide circle around the Kazekage tower. As soon as the last one stuck, he checked how much clay he had. Enough for another two rounds at least, maybe another owl if it comes to that, he mused. He flew up to make himself seen but stayed a safe distance from his foe. Gaara turned around to face him immediately, but he didn't attack.

Deidara cackled like he was insane as he formed a hand sign. "Katsu!"

The lizard and four geckoes exploded, sending debris hundreds of feet into the air. The sight of his beloved village burning sent Gaara into a fit of rage.

"You… shall… DIE." He enunciated each word with venom.

A deep far off rumbling filled the air. Deidara looked past Gaara and saw a huge wave of sand rise up from behind the cliff-wall of the village. He grinned again. "Excellent."

Gaara, as soon as the sand had collected into one enormous cloud behind him, formed it into a ginormous claw that looked like it belonged to Shukaku. It sped towards the opponent, branching off into smaller claws as it tried to snatch Deidara out of the air when the large one missed. He kept on dodging and evading, unaware again of the quicker shots of sand that wove through the sand claws.

The large claw positioned itself so it would snatch Deidara from below. The quicker sand wrapped itself around the bird's legs and tugged, sending its rider into the waiting palm.

Gaara's outstretched hand closed into a fist. "Desert Coffin…"

The walls around Deidara began to close in quickly around him. As fast as it was possible, he made two four-winged birds, the fastest projectiles he could make. They darted to the other side of his soon-to-be coffin of sand.

The sand easily gave way to the explosion and he made his escape, even though it led him to free-fall. Using the last of his clay, he made the largest bird that he could make and made a beeline for the Kazekage tower on it.

"It seems I cannot defeat you with skills alone, yeah." Deidara said loud enough for all to hear as he sped up. "If I can't make you," he continued, "I'll force you so that you will obey, yeah."

Time began to slow and pass painfully as Gaara watched Sakura raise her arms, kunai in hand, to protect herself from the oncoming white talons.

He could hear her protests and screams as she slashed futilely with her hand weapon at the claws that held her below the massive white bird.

His vision went red.

And before he could do anything, or even lift a finger, Deidara was outside of the village limits.

"If you want her back," he called over his shoulder, "meet me at the forest edge in the morning, yeah. Come alone."

Gaara was trembling with a barely controlled rage. He wasn't going to let her go, but he could no any other way for her to be rescued without getting hurt. As much as it tore at him, he had to back down. He had to. She will be back in twenty-four hours, he promised himself. She must.

He floated back down to the roof of the Kazekage tower, never taking his eyes off the retreating white speck in the sky. Baki, his former sensei and good friend, rushed over.

"We can't just let him get away!" He pointed in the direction Deidara had left. "He took Konoha's ambassador for Kami's sake!" He paused to glare. "Why are you just standing there?!"

Gaara felt his face crumple in pain. "Because as of now, I can do nothing to save her."

Baki waved his hands around. "What the hell does that mean?!" his voice lowered. "If I'm not mistaken, you have feelings towards her." He saw Gaara wince. "What happened to them?" he demanded.

"The only way for her not to get injured from this is if we rescue her at the set place and time. I know. I don't like it one bit more than you do, but it is necessary for her sake." He took a deep, controlled breath, his tone of voice changing. "He will be waiting for us to attack at some odd time. I have to go alone on this one, Baki-san. He will know if I bring reinforcements and he'll kill her if I do."

Baki paused. "Kazekage-sama, how do you know all of this?"

Gaara turned and walked towards the edge of the roof. "It's not hard to tell. Most villains think alike." He made a hand sign, speaking with an eye looking over his shoulder to the man. "I have to go help the people now. You go help too." The sand swirled up around him, taking him away.

Baki kneeled, his Kage's words ringing true in his ears. "Hai! Kazekage-sama!"

A/N: I fucking hate it when I know what happens, but I can't spit the words out onto paper. Like I knew that a fight would happen, and I knew that Sakura was going to be taken, but I didn't know the specifics. Like its a vague blob of a scene and suddenly it has to be defined in an instant, and its hard to get it as such. You have to, like, rape your brain to get it OUT at least. Does anybody get what I mean?

I think I suck at aerial fight scenes.

And the reason that this is short is to keep you all on edge. Sure, I would like to write the whole damn thing, but two fight scenes between the same two people in the same chapter? Please. Enough violence in one go.

Obviously, the next chapter will be longer lol.

Oh, and here's some props to my wonderful betas VFSNAKE and Mike M. for not even complaining about the length or anything. Thanks guys. You make me feel like my writing is less cruddy than I think it is. :)

Before the end of the school year, see ya!

-IBP-

Next Chapter: The legends, the stories, the HISTORY of Naruto's and Hinata's Bijuu are revealed. But what is wrong with Naruto in all of this? And what does Hinata plan to do about it?