Ch. 26 Sand Storm

The sun had set and the moon was full and bright. Deidara had finally made it to the far outskirts and sat behind a large sand dune alone while he waited for Don.

"Damn, it's been hours Don, where are you." He mumbled to himself. Don walked to the top of the dune and kicked him in the head.

"Are you ready for this?" Don asked.

Deidara rubbed his head and looked up at Don with anger.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"None of your business, I can assure you of that." He replied.

"Ugh, come on." Deidara grunted and they hopped aboard his giant clay bird and flew off toward Suna.

The group of leaf ninja arrived just as Don and Deidara had kicked off. They watched as the two got flew toward Suna.

"Let's go, we have to stop them." Naruto shouted pointing toward the sand village.

Then a familiar face jumped in their way. Sasuke. Naruto stepped forward.

"You guys go, I'll handle this." He said.

Sasuke grinned and the two old friends began to fight each other.

In the mean time Deidara and Don began to bomb all of Suna. Temari, Rain and Gazu jumped from their beds and ran outside to see what was going on. They saw everyone in a panic and running for cover as the bombs from overhead came falling to the ground.

While Gazu and Rain helped as many people as they could towards safety, Temari met up with her brother Gaara and they flew up to confront their attackers. It seemed like slow motion to Temari as she ascended up into view of her attackers.

"D…Don? Don, is that you?" she asked terrified from what she was saying.

Don humbly bowed to her, "Yes my dear Temari, what's wrong, you seem distressed, you should go lie down for a while." He then took out a bomb and threw it at her and detonated it. When the smoke cleared, a sand ball was there and had protected Temari from the blast.

"You tried to harm my sister and you have half destroyed my village, after all that we have done for you Don, you are no longer a ninja of ours." Gaara said darkly.

Don bowed once more to his former leader, "Well with my new set of clothing and this slash across my glove, I'd hope you'd realize that." Don smiled happily.

Temari watched and listened to her former friend and lover. A great anger aroused within her. She shot out of Gaara's sand orb which had been protecting her and hit Don with lethal force knocking him off Deidara's bird and sending him hurtling toward the ground below.

Rain and Gazu were nearby then they saw Don fall to the ground and Temari soon after him. Temari began to furiously attack him which Don easily dodged and began to head for the gates of the village.

"Was that Don?" Gazu asked looking toward Rain.

"I think it was, but what's going on here?"

The two of them followed Temari as she perused Don to the gates of Suna. Don had finally reached the gates and made his way to the open desert. By then the leaf ninja had caught up with Don, as did Temari. They encircled Don and he stood among them smirking.

"Well, well, look at my welcoming committee. Nice to see you all are doing so well."

"Shut up." Hinata said.

Hinata charged at Don and went hand to hand with Don. Don managed to dodge every attack that Hinata made toward him. Don then kicked sand in her eyes, while she flinched and was trying to regain her eyesight; he grabbed her and pushed her into the group of people. Neji then went at Don and failed as well, even with his rotation.

Then all at once everyone attacked Don. Don managed to fend them all off, with simple avoiding maneuvers, mainly he redirected the force of their attacks and sent them past him or into the sand. Then Don froze and was unable to move. Don smirked, he had been careless, he nearly forgot about Shikamaru and now he had caught him in his shadow possession.

Everyone glared at Don and Don just smirked back. They all had their individual blows at Don, all of which Don took and held his ground, not like he could move anyway thanks to Shikamaru's hold on him. Don could feel his hold on him weakening; he managed to raise his arm up. Right as everyone was about to deliver one final blow, Deidara swooped in and saved him at the last minute. Don made a hand sign and an explosion went off right underneath everyone's feat scattering them among the sand.

They flew down by where Naruto and Sasuke had been fighting. Don nodded at Sasuke and Sasuke nodded back.

"Well Naruto, it's been fun but I have more important things to attend to other than play around with failures like you." And he disappeared into a cloud of smoke leaving Naruto by himself. When he saw the explosion, he headed to help his friends. When everyone got up they hopped on top of the gates to see what the damage was. All that was left was Gaara's office and what looked like to be Temari's house. These two structures seemed to stand out among the half destroyed village, seeing as they looked like they were untouched.

"Damn you Don, damn you." Temari said clinching her fists together tightly. The leaf ninja returned home with a mission failed.

"That Temari person, did you see the way she looked at you when she saw you with me? Was she like your girlfriend of something Don?" Deidara asked while they flew back to their hideout.

"Sort of, we had a really close relationship for a while."

"I see."

"Which makes me have to wonder, Deidara, how come you aren't one that the ladies flock to?" Don asked.

Deidara looked at him awkwardly, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you have three mouths, that's three places of pleasure that a woman could get at once, not to mention you have your…"

"Ok I get it, you don't have to go any further from there you little pervert. You have quite the imagination, it's a wonder that Temari never bitch slapped you or something."

"She did, twice, only with her fan, and it sent me clear across the village."

Deidara began to laugh at don and Don soon joined him.

A couple of days later, Gaara, Temari and Don's squad arrived in Konoha for an urgent meeting with Tsunade. The sand ninja entered her office with the looks of most disgust. They were not alone; the leaf ninja that had been sent after Don were also there with the same, if not similar looks on their faces.

"Now, let's get down to business." Tsunade said seriously getting up from her desk and standing infront of her peers. "We are going to discuss our operation in progress: the assassination of Don."