Do I Have A Purpose Anymore?

Chapter 31: "The War vs. The Akatsuki Part.3"

As Hinata watched the powerful beam of chakra smash through Kira's defensive barrier, the Hyuga girl called uponthe ultimate defensive technique of the Hyuga clan the Hakkeshou Kaiten. Hinata began releasing a large of amount of chakra from her tenketsu points. While at the same time began to spin like a top, creating a whirling vortex of chakra that acted as a 360° degree shield surrounding her. Hinata hoped that her Kaiten would be enough to stop the beam. However, deep down she doubted it would, but perhaps it could deflect the beam away from the wounded, before it would eventually overwhelm her. It was then that Hinata heard a child shout.

"Don't worry momma-hina, I'll top it!"

Hinata looked on in terror, as little Nel appeared seemingly out of nowhere and run onto the field in front of the chakra beam. Hinata screamed, as the beam approached the little Arrancar and she knew there was no way she could reach her in time after dropping her Kaiten shield. However, Nel merely opened her mouth and to the shock of everyone swallowed the intense beam of chakra. A moment later, the eyes of Nel's Arrancar skull mask glowed, before she opened her mouth and fired the beam back at the Akatsuki followers with a force exceeding that of the original blast. The Akatsuki forces were not prepared to see their own concentrated beam of condensed chakra redirected back at them, had no time to escape and were literally vaporized along with the cannon by their own attack.

Hinata, Sakura, and Kira looked on in shock at what they had just witnessed the little green-haired Arrancar standing in the field had done. They were about to go out and get Nel, when suddenly she fell to her hands and knees and looked back to Hinata and said.

"Momma-hina, I don't feel tho good."

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light around Nel, momentarily blinding everyone. A few seconds later, as everyone's vision came back into focus. No longer standing in the field was a little girl wearing a simple green gown with a hood, which covered her entire body. In her place now stood a fully-grown, curvaceous, and well-endowed young woman. One could see that this woman was or had been little Nelliel, as she retained her greenish-blue colored hair, only now it was much longer and flowing behind her in the wind. The woman also had Nel's trademark scar and the crimson line that ran across her face. Little Nel's attire had also changed going from a hooded gown to now torn into a skirt and top connected by a single strip across her stomach. Also the Arrancar mask had changed slightly now sporting a paired of curved horns.

As Hinata and Sakura stared at the metamorphosis Naruto's adoptive daughter had undergone. It was the pink-haired kunoichi who openly commented.

"Damn Hinata, I think she's more stacked than you are!"

Hinata's eyes narrowed upon hearing this and in a terse voice replied.

"Well we definitely know she is more stacked than you Sakura, but then again who isn't?"

Hinata then left Sakura to stew over her jab and went to approach the newly transformed Nelliel.

Meanwhile, as Hinata was trying to deduce the mystery of what had happened to Nel? Kurenai and Hinamori moved through the battle field approaching the giant fortress when Kurenai's danger senses, honed through years of combat, began to scream at her. She jumped to the side and tackled Hinamori just as the ground in front of them exploded.

"What happened?" The former shinigami asked in confusion.

"This is as far as you go, hn." Deidara said as he revealed himself from the gate they had been approaching.

Kurenai looked to Hinamori or Momo as she liked to be called, and saw the young girl was anxious but also had a determined look in her eyes. The Jounin had only shared a few words with the girl but with them about to go into battle together against an S ranked missing ninja it was good to know the girl was prepared for battle.

"His name is Deidara, formerly a ninja of the Hidden Rock village. He specializes in explosives and believes himself to be something of an artist." Kurenai said, much to Deidara's annoyance.

"What do you mean something of an artist?! My art is the best in all the lands." Deidara shouted in defense at her.

Kurenai gave a small smirk at her little victory. The first rule of combat was to control your emotions so your mind could be clear. Deidara was even now still spouting on about how his art was superior in every way to any other, seemingly completely forgetting that he was faced with not one but two opponents.

Momo, whom Deidara had seemingly lost track of appeared behind the man and tried to cut him down with her sword. Deidara was cut in half but soon turned into nothing but rock that fell to pieces.

'A rock clone.' Kurenai thought, as she looked around for him.

"Hey that wasn't nice, hn. I wasn't done telling you about my art. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to show you how great it is." Deidara said from above them. He was flying on a giant clay bird. Deidara opened his hands and let dozens of small clay insects fall to the ground.

"Momo get away!" Kurenai shouted as she leapt back away from the clay figurines that exploded when they made contact with the ground. Momo wisely flash stepped away until she and Kurenai were once again side by side.

"I've never seen such a technique." Momo said as she was shocked by just how much damage each of those small explosions could cause. She didn't want to think what would happen should she be hit by one or worse yet if he crafted a large one to hurl at them.

"Thankfully he only has a limited amount of clay from what I understand." Kurenai informed her as she looked up at Deidara.

'Still, I'm not a long range fighter and as long as he's up there I won't be able to cast any genjutsu against him.' Kurenai thought in frustration.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" Momo began to chant. Both Kurenai and Deidara turned to look at her and the glowing red orb began to appear in her hands.

"Hado #31: Shakkaho!" Momo shouted as she sent the large crimson orb at Deidara. The missing ninja swiftly commanded his clay bird to move and just missed being struck by the attack. However the resulting force the ball exploding near him sent him and his mount tumbling down. He was able to right himself and climb up into the air.

Momo jumped up quickly and tried to attack him again before he could fully prepare himself. However Deidara's bird turned and hit her with its tail. Deidara quickly capitalized and sent a large clay spider at her face. A kunai flew and struck the spider causing it to explode prematurely and Kurenai jumped in and grabbed Momo, taking her to safety.

"Don't act so rashly." Kurenai said to the girl and was surprised to see her mutter an apology and bowed to her.

'A shinigami who's most likely many times my senior bowing to me as a superior? My life certainly has become strange since I've gotten involved with Kakashi and Naruto.' Kurenai thought to herself.

"It's alright you almost had him but we need to work together." Kurenai said as she looked up to the still circling Deidara.

"I'm well versed in genjutsu like Sasuke however I can't cast them from so far away and my ninjutsu does not favor long ranged battle." Kurenai said, as they jumped back to avoid another clay bomb from Deidara who seemed content to wait for them to make a move.

"I'm very proficient in my kido spells, but I do have to finish their incantations first for them to be a full strength." Momo stated.

"If you could get him down then I can trap him in a genjutsu before he has a chance to think. I'll by you the time you need." Kurenai said as pulled out two kunai with explosive tags attached to them and ran at Deidara. She let them fly and had them explode in front of Deidara. She heard Momo behind her beginning her incantation for the next kido spell.

"Pathetic! Let me show you true art." Deidara shouted as he appeared through the smoke of the explosions. Kurenai and Momo prepared themselves for him to throw more bombs put were shocked when he made no move to release any more explosive clay.

"Katsu!" Deidara said, as he formed the seal to explode one of his custom made bombs. Kurenai was confused until she felt a large build of up charka underneath her feet and immediately knew what was happening.

"Hinamori move!" Kurenai shouted, as the ground she stood on exploded.

"Kurenai-san!" Momo shouted, breaking her incantation and as she took a step towards Kurenai an explosion also consumed her as well.

"We've been waiting for you guys to show up for weeks. So I had plenty of prepare this battlefield to show the full beauty of my art, hn." Deidara said as he waited for the resulting smoke and dust to settle.

"Snap, Tobiume!"

Deidara's visible eye widened in surprise, when a giant fireball raced towards him from the smoke cloud that was still surrounding Momo. Deidara had no choice but to jump off of his mount as it got hit by the attack and exploded. Deidara had no time to counter as Kurenai leapt from her own cover of dust and attacked Deidara in mid air.

Deidara was a long ranged fighter and was not great at hand to hand combat. Kurenai took advantage of this and was able to hit him with a punch to the stomach followed by a kick to the head that sent Deidara flying down towards Momo, who was waiting for him. The former shinigami sent another fire ball at Deidara from her transformed sword and hit him dead on as watched as he was consumed by fire and fell to the ground. Kurenai landed beside Momo and they looked at Deidara's body only to see a burned rock body.

'He got away, I knew it wouldn't be that easy.' Kurenai thought to herself as she looked at Momo's zanpakuto. The blade hadn't changed that much. It was longer, straighter, with two jutte like prongs along its length.

"We have to be careful Hinamori. He's probably littered the ground with mines that he can set off at any time." Kurenai said gaining a nod from the smaller woman.

Both had avoided the explosions but it was a very near thing and they wouldn't survive a direct hit. Deidara appeared a few yards in front of them with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. He seemed completely relaxed and actually happy at the strength of his opponents.

"Well what are you waiting for? Here I am, come get me!" Deidara spat with a sneer.

Kurenai and Momo glared at him but they didn't dare move from their spot. Hinamori instead unleashed another fireball from her blade forcing Deidara to dodge to the side. The smile never left his face as he opened his hands to revel a clay dragon. The dragon grew to enormous size and Deidara jumped onto its back and took to the skies.

Momo took a step forward but was topped by Kurenai and quickly remembered that Deidara had planted mines around the battle field and without knowledge on where they were at she ran the risk of stepping on one and either seriously injuring herself or leaving herself wide open for Deidara to attack.

"Kurenai-san we can't stay here. He will eventually attack us and without knowing where his mines are we can't run away." Momo stated frustratingly.

She'd never come across an opponent like Deidara before. He made fighting Menos Grandes seem like a walk in the park. The giant hollow may have been powerful but they were not that bright, Deidara was both making him very deadly.

"I have an idea, but I need you to protect me alright?" Kurenai asked. When she saw Momo nod an affirmative, she grabbed a kunai and threw it in the air.

"Shadow Shuriken Jutsu!" Kurenai called out as she used one of a few techniques she'd had Kakashi teach her before they made their move on the Akatsuki. The single kunai turned into a few dozen and Deidara was able to dodge them all and watched with a laugh as they fell uselessly to scatter across the ground. Kurenai, unperturbed by the failed move took out a second kunai and slammed in into the ground, closing her eyes as she did so.

The clay dragon Deidara rod on opened its mouth and a smaller version of said dragon came out and flew towards them. Momo used Tobiume to shot at fire ball at the dragon only to have the beast dodge and continue towards them.

"Done let's move." Kurenai shouted as she ran forward.

Momo hesitated, worrying about the bombs only to see Kurenai running across the ground without any fear. Momo threw caution to the wind and raced after Kurenai. The clay dragon clone was not able to bank in time and slammed into the ground causing a large explosion. Unconcerned about the loss of the mobile bomb Deidara's sneer became a full smile when he saw, what believed to be, the desperate attempt to run away before

"I guess you're not as smart as you are lovely. Katsu!" Deidara said as he formed his hand sign and tried to activate his mines. He was surprised when nothing happened. He tried again and again but none of his mines would detonate.

"What did you do?!" Deidara shouted in anger as Kurenai turned to Momo and gave the signal. Deidara had been so focused on trying to activate his mines that he failed to notice Momo reciting her incantation.

"Hado #4: Byakurai" Momo said as she pointed on hand at Deidara. A giant bolt of lightning emerged from her palm and blew the wings off of the clay dragon. The dragon quickly reformed its wings. However its tail, which it used as extra clay when it formed miniature dragons or repaired itself, swiftly decreased in size.

"I don't know what you did to my mines but let's see you avoid these." Deidara said angrily, as he opened his hands and threw dozens upon dozens of small spiders down at them. The dragon also shot another miniature clay replica at them and Kurenai realized that they were about to be surrounded.

"Hado #12: Fushibi!" Momo called out. Out of her vice captain's badge on her shoulder a line of orange energy shot forward and formed a large web in front of them. All of the bombs were entangled in the web and despite trying to break free were stuck.

"Hado #31: Shakkaho!" the red ball of energy hit the web and flames appeared that traveled along the web, destroying each of the bombs. Momo then fell to one knee breathing heavily. She was a master of kido spells but they took a lot of her energy especially when used in quick succession as before.

'Just how many tricks do she have?!' Deidara thought angrily, as he didn't understand Momo's mastery of kido spells and her ability to use them so quickly.

He turned to look at Kurenai and noticed she hadn't moved. However something was wrong about her and he couldn't put his finger on it. This turned out to be an accurate feeling as the Kurenai he was looking at dispersed in a cloud and revealed itself to be a shadow clone.

'Where is she?!' Deidara thought in confusion until he felt a weight land on his dragon. He turned around opening his hands as he did, ready to throw a bomb when Kurenai took one of the two kunai she had and slammed in into his right palm, right through the strange mouth that was present in both his hands.

Deidara cried out in pain but had no time to react before she was on him with the other kunai. He was able to avoid getting stabbed in the heart by grabbing her wrist but she smiled and began a series of one handed signs.

"Ninja art: Horror viewing jutsu!" She called out a powerful genjutsu.

This technique was one of her favorites as it forced the victim to experience their worst fear. Even battle hardened veterans of war were susceptible; in fact they were more likely to fall for this technique. She knew that she had succeeded when his face took on a look of absolute horror. She moved to put her kunai into his skull when his hand shot up and stopped her.

"Just kidding!" Deidara said with a laugh as he kicked Kurenai in her stomach making her kneel over as he jumped off of his dragon.

"Dodge this! Katsu!" He shouted as the large beast exploded with Kurenai on it.

"Kurenai-san!" Momo shouted as she moved to attack Deidara.

She appeared in front of Deidara and attempted to cut him in half. He blocked her blade with the kunai he had pulled out of his injured hand. He threw a bit of unformed clay into her eyes and kicked her in the chest, away from him. He landed and moved to regroup and Momo cleared her eyes and went after Kurenai. She found the Leaf Jounin had managed to avoid most of the explosion but her left arm was burned and bleeding badly and Momo immediately began to use her healing talents on the limb.

'How did he break my genjutsu so quickly?' Kurenai thought with puzzlement. Even those skilled in genjutsu like she was would have had a more difficult time breaking out of her technique then Deidara showed.

"Are you alright Kurenai-san?" Momo asked, as she was able to stop the bleeding and was working on the burns.

"Yes thank you Hinamori, you're quite the fighter. Now I can see why Sasuke is so taken with you." Kurenai teased as Momo turned a bright red in the face just like Hinata was known to do even to this day when Naruto's name was mentioned.

"I could say the same about you and Kakashi-san." Momo muttered back. Kurenai was able to keep her blush down a bit, but Momo still saw a light dusting of red across her face.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything!" Deidara called out as he once again was on a clay bird. This one however was a bit smaller then his other flying creations and Kurenai deduced that he was running a bit low on clay and his injured hand had to also be bothering him.

"How are you doing in terms of energy Hinamori?" Kurenai asked, concerned about the dark haired woman. Hinamori had been expending the most energy of the two of them with her numerous techniques and was sweating and seemed exhausted.

"I'm fine Kurenai-san. I can still fight." She said as she held out Tobiume in its released state as proof.

"Your genjutsu pales in comparison with Itachi woman. I've been preparing myself to finally get vengeance on him for years and I can't be caught in any genjutsu so if that's all that you can do then you've got no chance of beating me, hn." Deidara said arrogantly.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed at this bit of information, as Deidara reached down and pulled up a small bird like statue. Kurenai's eyes widened in alarm at the recognizable object.

"I never thought I'd have to use this against two opponents but I'm running low on clay and on patience besides there's no such things as overkill where my art is concerned!" Deidara said as he dropped the statue.

"Hinamori you have to destroy that now!" Kurenai shouted in a panic. Hinamori charged the flames around Tobiume and shot a giant fireball at the statue. However Deidara made a hand sign and the small statue grew greatly in size and the fireball failed to destroy it.

"My art is a blast! Katsu!" Deidara shouted, as the large statue exploded.

This particular bomb was the strongest he had in terms of wide spread destruction and was the same one he used on the Sand village years ago. Unlike then there was no giant wall of compressed sand to block the devastation and the resulting explosion was of such a magnitude that everything within a few hundred feet was laid to waste. Trees were incinerated, grass was completely wash away and the resulting cloud of smoke and dust was so large that it could be seen from all of the other ongoing battles between the Akatsuki and Naruto's forces.

"It took a bit longer, but in the end my art has no equal, hn." Deidara said confidently as he continued to savor his actions. Deidara moved the long blonde hair away from his left eye and used the small scope that he used to see long distances and it was also used to help train his left eye to see through genjutsu, which was how he easily broke Kurenai's.

He looked through the dust cloud to see if the blast had left any small pieces of Hinamori or Kurenai for him to better admire the greatness of his art. However he was surprised when his eyes saw something orange in the dust. It became clearer and Deidara saw a large orange box shaped shield around Kurenai and Momo. Somehow it had withstood the power of his art and both of the women were still alive!

Deidara didn't know whether to be impressed or enraged that they continued to survive his art. He was able to control his anger when he saw the smaller woman fall to one knee as the shield began to disappear. Seeing this he dove down to take advantage of the situation. He narrowed his eyes when they both vanished in a cloud of cherry blossoms. He revealed his left eye and broke through the Genjutsu. He was tackled from the side by Kurenai and Momo sliced his clay bird in half before his could explode.

Deidara kicked Kurenai off of him and immediately had to avoid Hinamori's sword strikes. The fact that she wasn't using her sword fireball ability was telling Deidara that she was low on energy and probably couldn't form that barrier again nor would she be able to use any of her other strange techniques. However he was also running very low on clay and he had to ration it, hence him not creating space from her by throwing a bomb at her.

Kurenai appeared behind Deidara and kicked him in the back towards Momo's blade. He turned his head to the side and avoided getting his head skewered however one of the jutte like prongs along the blade moved towards his left eye and cut him from cheek to eyebrow, destroying his scope damaging his left eye. He was half blind and was forced to reach into his bag and pull out a very small insect bomb; he threw it to the ground and detonated it. The resulting explosion wasn't enough to hurt anyone but it was a good enough distraction that he was able to move away from them and disappear in the dust cloud that was still kicked up from his previous attack.

'This is not going the way I wanted it to.' He thought to himself, as he tried to wipe the blood out of his eye. His left eye was not directly hit but it was injured enough that he couldn't see well out of it.

'If that leaf ninja catches me in another genjutsu, I may not be able to break out of it.' Deidara thought angrily, as he continued to try and think of a way out of this mess.

"Kurenai-san do you see him?" Momo asked as they stood back to back in the slowly disappearing dust cloud.

"No but I'm sure he won't stay hidden long." Kurenai said. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw that Hinamori's shoulders were slumped down and she seemed barley able to stay on her feet.

'She doesn't have much left. That she can fight this well against an Akatsuki is a testament of her power.' Kurenai thought, as she realized they needed to finish this battle now.

She was confident that Deidara was low on clay if the last few minutes of the battle were to be taken into account so she wasn't concerned with small bombs as he was sure to use the remainder on large explosives to finish the battle. Now was the time to press but without being able to see him going after him would be dangerous and stupid.

"Kurenai-san I can clear the rest of this dust away quickly but I don't think I'll be of much use afterwards." Hinamori stated with a panted of exhaustion.

"That's fine Hinamori, you've done enough. I'll take care of the rest." Kurenai said as Momo deactivated her Shikai and held out her normal zanpakuto.

"Hado #58: Tenran!" She called out. Her sword began to spin out of her hand and a giant tornado appeared that blew away all of the dust and smoke and revealed Deidara attempting to sneak up behind Kurenai. She turned and kicked him away and Hinamori fell forward. Kurenai grabbed her and gently lay her down.

"You did a great job, rest now Hinamori." Kurenai said to the nearly unconscious woman.

"My friends call me Momo." Momo said softly.

"Very well Momo." Kurenai said as she turned and jumped at Deidara, who was still just getting to his feet.

Kurenai gave him no time to defend himself and delivered a vicious kick to his head dropping him to his knees. She followed up with a quick strike with her knee to his chin bringing him face to face with her again as she drew a kunai and stabbed him in his shoulder. He cried out and tried to backhand her. She grabbed his fist before it could hit her and pulled his arm behind his back and broke it. She put a kunai to his throat and brought him to his knees.

"Naruto would like at least one of you alive to interrogate later so I guess you'll do." She said darkly at the downed ninja.

"At what makes you think I'll go quietly?" Deidara asked with a smirk.

"Because if you don't I'll kill you here. Like I said he'd like if one of you could be brought back alive but it's not a requirement." She replied with a smirk of her own.

"Then I guess it's a good thing that you can't and will never have the opportunity to kill me." Deidara answered back with a laugh as his body began to expand.

Kurenai jumped away as the copy grew larger and larger and turned to grab the downed Hinamori and break for the trees that still stood a dozen or so meters away from the previous blast zone. She just made it through the tree line as the giant clone exploded but instead of a giant powerful and fiery release only a cloud was left after the clone's explosion which was very curious to Kurenai. She continued to move as far back as she could before setting Momo down.

"You just don't know when to quit do you?" Kurenai looked up and saw Deidara sitting on a branch and casually swinging his legs without a care.

"You seem pretty confident considering you more than likely just used up the rest of your clay in that decoy." Kurenai said as she prepared for battle.

"A decoy? Is that what you think that was? Since you're already dead I guess I'll explain it to you. What you just saw was my C4. And it was made specifically to combat the sharingan and genjutsu. As for what it does well I'll show you. Katsu!" Deidara said. Kurenai moved in a defensive position but nothing happened. She looked confused and Deidara simply laughed at her.

"Look behind you." He said simply.

Kurenai turned and wasn't sure what she should have been seeing as all she saw was dust. However as she sharpened her gaze she saw that the dust was coming from every bird, lizard and small animal in the woods as they all at once began to disintegrate before her eyes.

"Once my C4 explodes it releases microscopic bombs that get in the bloodstream of every living animal in a mile radius. At my command those bombs all explode destroying my target at a molecular level. You and your friend there are both already infected and you're lives are mine." Deidara said with an evil laugh at the horrified look on Kurenai's face.

"Say goodbye. I'll leave your little friend there alive though. Madara will want to know about those strange powers of hers as well as that sword. You however are of no interest to any of us." Deidara said as he formed his hand sign. Kurenai threw a kunai at his head and as he swiftly dodged she appeared in front of him and tried to punch him in the face to stop him.

"Too late! Katsu!" Deidara said as Kurenai screamed in agony as she disintegrated right before his eyes.

"Art is a blast!" Deidara sneered, as he jumped down to apprehend Momo.

Kurenai and Hinamori looked as the kneeling Deidara before them with a wide smirk of victory on his face. He was clearly caught in a genjutsu but unlike before he would be getting free until Kurenai released him as the genjutsu mistress tied his hands and feet with chakra draining chains.

"Kurenai-san what did you do?" Momo asked the clearly weakened leaf Jounin. Kurenai did not look to be in great condition. Aside from the injuries she sustained from Deidara her hair was standing on end and her muscles all across her body were twitching randomly.

"He's final technique is something truly dangerous. However he made the mistake of showing me what his technique did before hand. I simply did the same thing I did to his mines earlier and shorted out the bombs in my system." Kurenai said.

"I never got to ask but how did you disable his bombs?" Hinamori asked as she grabbed Deidara and they began their trek back to their home base of operations. They wanted to help the others but neither was in any condition to do such a thing.

"Kakashi has been teaching me the basics of lighting chakra manipulation. All of Deidara's attacks are earth based justu and lighting chakra has a natural advantage on earth jutsu. When I used my shadow shuriken jutsu I had ulterior motive besides trying to hit him. As the kunai scattered on the ground I used the one in my hand and send my lightning chakra to each of the numerous others spread out on the battle field." She said. Seeing that Hinamori was still a bit confused she continued on.

"Normally lighting would disperse if it traveled through the ground harmlessly and would have done nothing to the mines but with the kunai all sticking into the ground the lighting chakra moved from the kunai in my hand to all of the others creating a web not unlike what you did earlier to stop his bomb. All of the mines underground were caught in my web and destroyed." Kurenai said with a smile at the benefits of having Kakashi begin to teach her some of his extensive knowledge on ninjutsu.

"But what about his final move?" Momo asked, her admiration of the leaf ninja rising as she continued to speak.

"After seeing what his technique would do to me I had to act fast. I had to get his eyes off of me for a split second and succeeded in doing that. Once that happened I caught him in a genjutsu and sent a wave of lighting chakra through my body to clear out all of the bombs. It was a bit desperate and relayed on a lot of luck but I was able to pull it off." She said as she had to stop and try to get her body under control. Her plan may have worked but her body still had to deal with having a large amount of electricity run through it without much guidance from her. She was still new to this and she could have caused her heart to stop had she gone too far.

"I thought he said genjutsu wouldn't work on him though?" Momo asked trying to clear up how Deidara was in the state he was currently in.

"You're the one who receives credit for that. Because of your sword he was unable to use his left eye which he told us was the means of his ability to break through my genjutsu. Even still a trained ninja normally can recognize a genjutsu but his pride once again came into play. I showed him what he wanted to see and that is the easiest way to trap someone. I'm not like Itachi Uchiha whose powers are so great that even I got caught in a genjutsu and was unable to break free. He uses overwhelming power which is what Deidara was expecting. I'm much more subtle. It's like they say sometimes you just need a woman's touch." Kurenai said with a chuckle.

"You truly are amazing Kurenai-san." Momo said with a large smile.

"As are you Momo." Kurenai said.

"Still had he not let his pride get in the way we would have lost this battle." Hinamori said as her smile went away and she started to get depressed.

"A battle is more than strength and strategy Momo. Luck and a cool head also have a lot to do with it. In the end the better opponent is the one that gets away alive." Kurenai said as she put a hand on Momo's shoulder to comfort her. Momo smiled softly and nodded in agreement.

The two female ninja continued to walk back with their captive feeling very happy that the battle was over and they were still alive though both of them found themselves worrying about a two separate male ninja's the two of them had developed feelings for that were in battle and both silently decided that they would do their best to heal and help their comrades should the need arise.

As Kurenai and Momo carried the captured Deidara across the battlefield, they suddenly felt a strong chakra presence approaching them. Both tensed, preparing themselves for battle until they felt the lack of killing intent and the recognizable chakra signature. Yugito appeared before them and blinked as she saw that the two women were victories.

"So what are you going to do with him?" Yugito asked as she growled a bit at the sight of Deidara. In her opinion every one of those Akatsuki scum deserved nothing less than death, but some of the things that Deidara had done to her during her captivity made her involuntarily shiver and she felt a bit nauseous just remembering the pain that he had caused her made the blonde Jinchuuriki begin to slowly draw upon her demon's chakra.

"We were going to take him back to Naruto and the others. Ino might be able to get some information from his mind." Kurenai said, observing Yugito closely.

Being a battle tested veteran the Genjutsu Mistress easily recognized the look in Yugito's eyes. It was the look of a woman that had been deeply wronged and was looking for a chance at revenge. She didn't know what they had done to Yugito but it could be nothing good.

"Yeah, I guess that's the right decision." Yugito said softly though the underlining hint of rage was quite clear.

"Yes, it's what almost every ninja would do when given a capture or kill order from the village's leader. However we are not fighting this battle for a village nor are we normal shinobi." Kurenai said as she placed Deidara before Yugito.

"What are you doing?" Yugito asked quickly.

"Leaving his life in your hands. Should you kill him neither of us nor Naruto and the others will care at all. The fact is that when we are victories in this battle we really won't need information on the Akatsuki as they will all be wiped out. I don't know what they did to you Yugito, but as a fellow kunoichi I can guess. If you want to look into his eyes before killing him then I won't stop you." Kurenai said, as she raised her hands and canceled her Genjutsu.

Deidara immediately looked around in confusion and noticed his situation. He immediately began to curse as he realized that he again had fallen trap to a Genjutsu. He stopped when his lone good eye landed on Yugito.

"Hn, so you're going to be my executioner my sexy little kitty cat?" Deidara said with a smirk. Yugito hit him across the face and he spat out blood yet his smirk didn't leave his face.

"Oh, don't tell me you're still upset about the fun we had during our time together. I have to say, since you've been gone, I've really missed our special alone time we shared. I especially missed your screams and the tears you always shed during our...…intimate get togethers, ha, ha, ha!" Deidara lasciviously declared, in a cruel mocking tone of voice filled with contemptuous laughter.

Yugito began to draw more and more upon the power of the Nibi, as she fought back the tears welling in her eyes listening to Deidara, before she turned to Kurenai and Momo and demanded with malevolence ringing in her voice.

"Release him!"

Kurenai walked to Deidara and took off the chakra draining chains. He slowly got to his feet but wobbled as he felt the injuries from his previous battle and the chakra exhaustion from said battle and the chains.

Yugito wasted no time and began to savagely beat Deidara. For every pain, offense, and vile indignation Deidara had inflicted upon her she attempted to return tenfold on him. She scratched out his eye, broke his arms and shattered his ribs. Even as Deidara fell to his knees before them coughing up blood and feeling the mortal wounds slowly take away his life he attempted a final verbal blow.

"You think doing this will change anything? It won't take away from what we did to, what I did to you! You will always carry the memories of our time together and the scars you bear from it will never go away…...ever!"

Deidara didn't see the hard-edged visage that spread across Yugito's face, as she stood over him and raised her hand. Her nails lengthened into sharp claws and she looked down at him with a merciless glare and proclaimed with justified hate.

"No it won't, but it is a start!"

The former Cloud kunoichi then slashed her claws in a murderous arc and took off Deidara's head with one vengeful swipe of her hand. Yugito held back the tears attempting to roll down her face, as she stared as the headless body tumble to the ground. It didn't take away all of the pain she still held from her previous battles with the Akatsuki, but she did feel a small part slowly heal within her.

Kurenai walked up and placed a comforting had on her shoulder and smiled at her. Momo smiled as well and the three women stood as one.

"Thank you." Yugito said simply as she turned and moved to find another battle to join.

"Should we follow?" Momo asked Kurenai.

"I think she needs some time to herself, besides I think we've earned a bit of rest don't you?" Kurenai said as she turned towards where Hinata's Medical unit was stationed and began walking to have her injuries attended to by her former student, as Momo followed behind her.

Once again Naruto and Sasuke rose from the ground coughing to expel some of the dust from their combined Bankai attack on Madara and gazed to where the elder Uchiha had been standing. As the dust and debris finally began to settle so they could get a good look they were met with a much more pleasing sight than before. Madara still stood, but unlike the last time, he was in much worse shape than before. His clothes were in burned tatters and his Edo-Tensei body now resembled a deformed jigsaw puzzle it was so damaged. Around him were pieces of the black-colored skeletal type frame that made up Madara's Mangekyou Sharingan created Susanoo defense turning into dust right before Naruto and Sasuke's eyes. Madara glared at his two young opponents and thought angrily to himself.

'Damn those two, I don't where they obtained such power, but if they hit me again with it I'm finished! I need to buy some time to let my Edo-Tensei body regenerate and then I'll have to play my ultimate trump card to defeat them.'

Meanwhile Naruto and Sasuke were breathing heavily, as their combined Bankai attack along with all the previous fighting they had endured had weakened them immensely. It was Naruto who commented while panting to his comrade.

"Tou-tough old bastard isn't he; I can't believe he's still standing after taking a direct hit from our Bankai's!"

"Well, he was able to fight the First Hokage to a standstill on several occasions in the past. I guess we shouldn't be so shocked that he was able to withstand our combined attack. At least this time we did hurt him pretty significantly by the way he looks." Sasuke replied in labored breath.

"You got enough power left in you for another Bankai?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know dobe….maybe, how about you?"

"I think so; let's hit him again before it's too late."

"I think it's already too late…look!"

Naruto gazed over to see Madara run through a series of hand signs and he shouted.

"Moku Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Wood Clone Technique)

Suddenly, beams of wood began to emerge from Madara's body and started to morph and form four clones of the elder Uchiha capable of utilizing all the same techniques and skills as the original. The newly formed clones stepped forward and began walking towards Naruto and Sasuke. All the two Leaf Jounin could do was utter one word in unison.

"Crap!"

As Hinata finished her medical scan of Nel, she deactivated the green chakra coursing through her hands and commented.

"You're in perfect health little Nel-chan….oops, I guess I shouldn't refer to you as little anymore."

"It's alright momma-hina, I don't mind. And you need not worry about my transformation. I've just attained my Arrancar adult form, that's all."

"But why or more importantly how are you here? We left you back and the main encampment under Ayame's supervision."

"I sort of stowed away, because I didn't want to be away from your or Naru-kun." Nel sheepishly answered.

Hinata couldn't believe the stark contrast between the free-spirited and playful personality of her child form to the now much more mature, composed, logical, sophisticated, and intelligent personality of her adult form. Hinata could also sense the immense power that Nelliel held within her adult form and wondered what would happen now? The Arrancar seemed to read Hinata's mind and spoke up in a calm yet also confident voice.

"It's true that in this form my power has grown significantly and I can and want to help Naru-kun in his battle."

As Hinata pondered this revelation, Kurenai and Momo entered the field and called out to the Hyuga girl.

A few minutes later, as Kurenai and Momo were getting their injuries healed by Hinata and Sakura. It was Kurenai who noticed the now fully grown Nelliel and asked in confusion.

"Is that the child Naruto has been caring for?"

"Hai it is, she's recently gone through some….changes." Hinata hesitantly replied.

"I would say so!"

"We're not sure what happened, but the short of it is that Nel has transformed into her adult Arrancar form. She also holds tremendous power in this form and actually saved all of us from being killed by a large force of Akatsuki followers. She wants to go and help Naru-kun in his fight against Madara and I'm thinking about letting her." Hinata stated with a little trepidation.

"I too wish to go and help Sasuke-kun in that fight as well." Momo openly declared.

"Kurenai-sensei, you're the highest ranking officer here, what do you think we should do?" Sakura asked in curiosity.

Kurenai contemplated the situation and looked around to survey the Medical unit before she asked.

"What is the situation here Hinata, do you have a lot of wounded?"

"Actually no, we do not. Daisuke has proven to be a most capable and skilled commander and casualties have been relatively light, with very few seriously wounded. It was my understanding from the last report we got from the front-lines that his forces should be victorious very soon."

"Victory is already ours Lady Hinata!" Daisuke announced as he entered the medical tent.

"Daisuke, what are you doing here, shouldn't you be at battlefield?" Hinata exclaimed in query.

"Forgive me Lady Hinata, but I learned that a sizable force of the enemy had escaped our trap before we could close it completely and were last seen headed this direction. I feared they might attack your unit, so I gathered 25 of my strongest warriors and left my second in command in charge of finishing off the remnants of the Akatsuki forces."

"They did indeed attack, but were…...dealt with and are no longer a threat." Hinata stated in certainty, as she cast a glance towards Nelliel.

"Commander Daisuke, how soon could you reposition your forces?" Kurenai questioned.

"Within the hour Lady Kurenai."

"Good, then Hinata I think we should also reposition your unit closer to the main battle Naruto is fighting and we'll have Daisuke's forces help protect it."

"My forces can help Naruto-sama in his fight!" Daisuke proclaimed in confidence.

"I'm sorry Commander, but they cannot. The battle Naruto is engaged in is beyond the strength and skills your forces can muster. The power being unleashed by the enemy in that fight is truly remarkable and only a select few individuals will be able to help stop him. Your army would be better served and more helpful to Naruto-sama in protecting the Medical unit."

"I agree with your plan Kurenai-sensei, as I want to fight alongside Naru-kun." Hinata declared.

"No Hinata, you cannot, you must stay in the safety of the Medical unit protected by Daisuke and his forces!" Kurenai sternly replied.

"But, but why, I can fight?"

"Hinata did you forget you're not fighting just to protect yourself or Naruto, but you have your unborn child to think of now."

Hinata's hand instinctively went to her stomach and she looked down and realized Kurenai was right. As much as she was worried about Naruto and wanted nothing more than to be by his side. Hinata realized her first priority was the safety of her baby. She looked up to Kurenai and nodded her head in understanding. Kurenai then turned to the other people in the tent and said.

"After we get the Medical unit repositioned and set-up under Commander Daisuke forces protection. I want you Kira, Momo, Sakura, and myself to head out and see if we can help Naruto and Sasuke take down Madara. Remembering how powerful he was during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, I fear it will take all of us to help, if we stand any chance of beating him."

"Hai Kurenai-san!" Kira, Momo, and Sakura said in agreement.

As if to confirm Kurenai's statement about Naruto and Sasuke's battle against Madara. A second explosion of even greater intensity was heard and felt, as another mushroom cloud of debris could be seen on the horizon rising into the air.

Author Note: Well, here my birthday gift to my readers of an update to this tale. First, I need to gratefully thank my reader Kyuubi123 for his amazing battle scene between Kurenai, Momo verses Deidara. I have to say I think he did an incredible job writing that fight, which I considered one of the most difficult one's to do considering the characters involved. However, Kyuubi123 managed to produce a fight that was both exciting and entertaining. My meager contribution to the battle was in giving Yugito a chance to extract some revenge on one of her tormentors at the end, which I felt she deserved to have considering what the Akatsuki did to her when she was their captive. Once again, I can't thank enough Kyuubi123 for his help on this story and the remarkable work he provided for it.

As I said today is my birthday, so if you wish to leave me a gift, please leave a review on this chapter, or the story overall, or place a vote for me on brown phantoms poll, or all three, lol. I will appreciate any or all of those things very much.

I do wish to thank everyone both old and new readers who took the time to review my last chapter. I took a 50% drop-off hit on reviews last chapter, but for those who did review, you all had a lot to say about it and I'm pleased that this story has such a strong fan base with readers who actually write out well thought-out reviews. Because of that, I enjoy reading many of your reviews, so please leave lots of them, as they do help a writer get a sense of the thoughts and opinions of the fans of a story. They also can help lift the spirits of an author as well. Also, to any readers who are staff members to any C2 communities, please feel free to add my story to your community if you feel it is worthy of it. I won't mind, I swear. I'll even pinkie swear if I need to?

News:

In 2010, my fellow author brown phantom initiated a poll asking the following question.

Who is the best Naruto fan fiction writer on this site?

Upon completion of that first poll I finished a very respectable 8th to which I thank all of you who voted for me on that poll very much for making that happen. Now brown phantom has decided to run a second poll asking that same question. So I humbly ask if you feel I'm worthy of being one of your 10 author picks to please place a vote for me on brown phantoms second poll. I thank you in advance for your support and normally I would provide you the links to the profile pages for brown phantom for you to use. However, one of the "oh so wonderful" changes FFnet has recently made is making it more difficult to list a link anywhere even if it's a link on their own freaking site. So just do a quick search for the author, brown phantom. As I said I finished 8th on his first poll and I would be ecstatic if I could improve on that showing, but I will need all of your help to achieve that.

End of News:

Thanks to everyone for your support of this story!

Take it easy and be good!

Kingkakashi