Lightning spirit quickly moved forward to reach it's destination.

It made its way around the town to find where Naruto was. But since it didn't know his precise whereabouts, it took some time to locate him. Only after detecting explosions coming from nearby, was it able to discover Naruto.

When the spirit arrived at the battlefield, it sent signal towards Kakuzu. It had completed its order.

After Kakuzu connected his vision with the spirit he was able to observe the battlefield.

Deidara was sitting on top of the white dragon made out of clay, flying and keeping the safe distance away from the land. On the ground, Naruto was looking towards Deidara with a frustrated yet fierce expression. His appearance indicated that he fell prey to some of Deidara's explosive traps. But he was still in the fighting condition. Yamato and Hinata wede standing behind him. However next person was an unexpected addition to the team.

The girl was holding a bow and arrow and was calmly observing the situation.

"Why is she here?" Kauzu was confused. After all, girl standing confidentilly next to Naruto was non other than Tenten, who he remembered hadn't partaken in this operation. So how did she end up here? Or was this result of the butterfly effect?

While Kakuzu was in the middle of his thoughts, Deidara made his move.

The dragon he was standing on raised its tail, and in its mouth, head of smaller dragon took a form. A miniature dragon split out from the bigger one and moved forward, flying towards Naruto.

"Wood Style: Wood Dome!"

Yamato quickly performed the hand signs and wooden dome covered the Konoha team. Explosion reverberated throughout the area, and crater formed on the ground, however shield the dome managed to block the attack.

Deidara felt annoyance towards the pests that were constantly interfering with his mission. Only if he could use C4, he would have much easier time. But if he ended up killing the jinchuriki, it would be same as failing the mission, if not worse. He went airborne pretty much as soon as the fight begun and started to shoot the explosives at them. But the damn cockroaches just wouldn't die.

The stalemate continued for a while.

It seemed like Naruto and others were in a disadvantage considering the injuries they sustained, but Deidara was running out of the clay to mold.

Hinata saved the team a lot of trouble by detecting the bombs buried in the ground. Although, it wasn't easy to completely avoid the traps in the middle of the fight. Naruto seemed annoyed that he couldn't reach the opponent. He tried some reckless things with his shadow clones, but it wasn't easy to catch Deidara midair. Tenten seemed to contribute her share as well and seemed quite skillful with the various weapons of hers that she used. And nothing needed to be said about Yamato, who was constantly controlling the battlefield with his wood style. But fight was quickly getting to it's final phase, and Naruto seemed to have come to a decision.

He recalled last time he had met the explosion guy and what Kakashi had told him while they were chasing him.

"There are only two ways to beat this type of foe, Naruto. One is to force him fight up close. And other is to beat him at his own game. For that, you either need a long-range fighter, or someone that can use long-range ninjutsu on your team.."

Naruto glanced at Tenten. He knew that he didn't have way to bring Deidara down on his own. He needed to somehow make enemy to get close to the ground for his attacks to work. Neither Hinata nor Yamato possess a way to do that, and that left Tenten as only long-range attacker. Unfortunately she lacked firepower. She seemed to improve a lot compared to last time he had seen her, and even though her attacks were far from lethal, what really was important was that her attacks could reach the enemy. There was a way for her to help, and it would be more than enough for her to create opening for him to exploit.

Naruto shared his plan with the team. And after it seemed everyone understood, he gave Tenten signal to begin.

She nocked the several arrows at once and shot it towards the clay-dragon Deidara was sitting on. First row of arrows was quickly followed by second, then third, fourth and so on. Rather then a single person, she made it seem like whole squadron of archers were firing the arrows. Even though Deidara managed to dodge some of them, quite number of shots managed to reach anf hit the dragon in it's wing.

Archery wasn't popular field in the Shinobi World, for an obvious reason. It simply wasn't suitable for the profession. It was much easier and quicker to draw the kunai from one's bag and throw it or engage in a melee instead, rather than to draw a bow and nock an arrow that required more time and skill and was less convenient to carry. However that didn't mean that archery didn't exist here at all. The bow and arrows that Tenten was holding had cost her quite the sum of money, and while if was far from being a masterpiece, it was much better then regular one the could be easily bought in the weapons shops. The string was durable enough to endure her chakra, while arrows were crafted with the material that made infusing the chakra easier.

To Kakuzu, the way that she skillfully made use of the bow made it seem like she was drawing out the weapon's full potential.

Deidara furrowed his brows in annoyance and dodged the arrows. While some grazed the clay dragon, it needed more than that to substantially damage it. Tenten also knew that, and that was why she prepared something special for him. Only problem was that what she was about to do was insanely expensive for her.

While Deidara couldn't quite see it, there was something looped around some of the arrows' body. It was a paper with some writings on it.

Next moment arrows that hit the dragon started to explode. The paper bombs that went off one after another carried enough force that it caused a tear to appear across the clay dragon's wing and quickly expanded to the point that it resulted the creature losing its left wing. It begun losing balance and started to fall.

Deidara was caught off guard with the sudden blow and staggered, resulting him open for an attack.

More arrows followed, this time targeting Deidara directly. He was forced to jump away after losing his balance on a falling mount. As he started falling Deidara quickly molded lump of clay with his hand and formed it into a shape of bird. He winced as some of the arrows lodged inside his shoulders and winced. He cursed, who the hell was that girl to have that kind of aim? He would turn into a porcupine if he didn't act fast. He threw the clay that was molded into a bird below him. And with a puff, small bird became large enough to block the arrows and support his weight.

However Naruto didn't plan to give the enemy time to recover.

He had created two shadow clones and started concentrating chakra on his palm. His clones formed and infused wind nature chakra into it and soon, in Naruto's right hand, was a jutsu that even 4th Hokage couldn't fully develop, the S-class technique - Rasenshuriken.

"Alright. Good job Tented. Yamato sensei, it's your turn!"

Naruto started running towards Deidara. Then the numerous wooden braches that were conglomerated together shot from his side created a platform and as Naruto jumped on it, it begun rising from the ground. After the wooden platform couldn't be extended further, two of the Naruto's clones supported from the sides, and threw him upwards further.

Deidara was alarmed after seeing Naruto rapidly getting closer to him, but there wasn't much he could do. He was just a moment away from landing on the bird and regaining his balance but all he could do was to raise his mount upward and sacrificing it to block the jutsu.

Deidara was barely able to dodge the jutsu that could easily end his life. Bird was dragged for few meters before Rasenshuriken exploded and disintegrated it to nothingness.

Even though Naruto missed the target, he wasn't bothered by it. He jumped down on another platform that Yamato raised and then on the ground. He created another shadow clones and looked at Deidara who was glaring at him.

"Ha… ha… damn it! You damn fox!"

Naruto didn't say anything. Instead he simply created another Rasenshuriken and started moving towards him.

Deidara felt shiver run down his spine. He was running out of clay and Naruto wasn't the only one that was the problem. Also, where the hell had Tobi gone off to?

He stretched out his hand and snakes formed from his remaining clay shot out towards charging Naruto. But before they managed to reach him, they were hit and nailed to the ground by the arrows.

"Fuck, is this it?" Deidara said, his voice tinged with a disappointment and regret. "What a pathetic way for my art to meet it's end…"

There was no way for Deidara to dodge that damn jutsu now. Jinchuriki had reached him, and he was left with no time to react. He tried to reach towards his chest, in an empty hope to at least give his death some artistic meaning, but alass, as he thought, it was pointless. Deidara wasn't given any time. He was hit by the Rasenshuriken and was dragged several meters backwards before the jutsu exploded. And when the numerous wind needles started tearing him apart, he knew that his fate had been sealed.

Unlike Kakuzu, Deidara didn't have enough endurance to survive that kind of jutsu.

"Interesting..." Kakuzu thought to himself. "Naruto seems to have more control over Rasenshuriken. Though I'm worried about side effects it has caused since he was supposed to be forbidden to use it after killing me. Tenten on the other hand… what is she doing here?"

Her presence here was unexpected. She wasn't supposed to be here originally. And the skills that she displayed were impressive to the point that he was suspicious. He didn't remember Tenten to be this useful, ever. Something was strange.

However the fight had ended, and he would observe her some more for later before coming to any conclusion.

Deidara had died, his lifeless body falling to the ground. And Tobi was nowhere to be seen.

Looking at the scene, Kakuzu decided to order the spirit to withdraw. Although he wanted to take the heart for himself, he knew that single spirit couldn't manage to do that, and that jutsu probably had damaged it too much for it to be usable. The corpse would be taken back to the Leaf Village, so there was no reason to him to stand here or follow them.

"Looks like I wasn't needed here after all. Better retreat before someone manages to discover me. I also need to contact those two. I'll be in need of a lot of materials for my next destination."

•••

"Attention!" Shouted warden, addressing the prisoners in front of him.

"Now then, new arrivals, listen up and remain silent! Lord Mui, master of the Hozuki Castle will now address you."

After making the announcement, warden made a way for an incoming person. He stepped aside and stood in front of row of prison guards.

Lord Mui slowly walked towards newly arrived prisoners.

"Let me explain your situation." He said calmly. "Whatever you may have been in your former lives the fact that you were sent here means that you are no longer of any value to anyone. You have lost the trust of your people and are considered a threat to the peace and stability of your village. And I guarantee that those sent here will never be allowed to escape."

He went on, talking some more about Hozuki castle. After he was done, he approached the group of the prisoners. One after another he performed his signature jutsu – Celestial Prison on each of them and restricting their chakra.

After lord Mu finished, the warden took over and led the group through the prison. The prison cells, apart from the lock, were made entirely out of wood. However, even tough that was the case, no prisoner here could break out of it. Although seemed like a normal wood, it shouldn't be underestimated. Prisoners couldn't use chakra to begin with, so they were pretty much no different from normal humans. Not only thaf, wood itself was not like regular wood, as it came from a special tree, it was not something easily destroyed, even with the chakra.

As he followed the warden, Kakuzu paid close attention to certain young woman walking in front of him. He couldn't remember her name but she clearly recalled her leaving impression from the movie. Person who wanted to avenge her childhood friend's death. She had technique that could revive a person, it was similar to granny Chyo's. kakuzu thought that she could be useful.

Warden led them towards the waiting room and were gradually taken into the office one by one to conduct the physical examination.

Kakuzu was amidst the row of prisoners that were being checked before directing them to their cells. But there was something different about current him. His appearance, face and body was different. He looked more like a common no-name thug rather then infamous bounty hunter. And the reason for that was that the body wasn't his. Rather, it had belonged to the common thug that he found somewhere, put one of his spirit inside the body, controlled it and made it so authorities would catch him. His actual body was outside of the prison, controlling the puppet from the distance.

Kakuzu glanced towards other prisoners that he arrived with, furrowing his brows. While seeing that woman before was a harmless surprise, what he was seeing now was not so much so. The source of this thoughts was an young man, siting nearby with an ugly expression, waiting for his turn in examination. He hadn't quite noticed when he first arrived here, but more he looked at him, more certain he become he wasn't imagining things.

This boy… Kakuzu was certain that his existence might pose a certain problem towards himself. And that was not because of what the boy himself, but rather of what his existence meant in general for him. And what it meant for this world.

"Hey, boy, what's your name?" Kakuzu asked as he glanced towards him.

Young man raised his head in puzzlement at the question. Realizing it that it was him the man was looking at, he answered in annoyance.

"It's Sora, old man. And who the hell are you?"