AN: This should have come out sooner but I have a good explanation which is at the end of this chapter.

Not even a second after I ran towards the explosion site, I felt the sand threatening to enter my eyes again forcing me stop and pull out the goggles I used days ago at the bridge. I do not understand how Suna shinobis could move freely within the desert with ease without worrying being blinded by sand every step.

The only reason for not wearing them earlier was because they left marks on my face and with Suna's burning sun the marks would be worse yet I was so fed up with the whole environment that I was decided to bear those annoyances over sand in my eyes.

With the minor issue over I continued my path until I finally reached the danger zone, my eyes immediately catching many chakra signatures in my surroundings and the smoking crater along with three Suna's shinobis examining the crater.

The situation showed to be under control, at least I believe it was under control giving me ground to relax while all my emotions cooled down, my vision returned to the natural colors of the world.

It didn't look that they have noticed me or perhaps they did but since I tried nothing funny, they were waiting for the leader to give further instructions, either way I walked up to the leader who was focused on the issue.

I knew that guy was leader of the whole thing only by looking at his attire and gear; it was more flashy than any the rest, like medals and weapons that looked more expensive than their common mass produced counterpart.

Besides, he had a like a red bandana wrapped around his right arm.

"What's the situation?" I asked, maintaining a safe distance.

He sharply turned as his face contorted into a deep frown with a hand around going behind his back, probably to hold his weapon. "Who in the hell are you?"

The rest of his squad did the same and looked at me with misguided hostility.

Perhaps it was idiotic to just walk up to them and talk without even make my presence known, but I had no time for stupid stuff and I didn't want to rack my brains to come up with peaceful and diplomatic solutions, I wasn't the Dobe by a long fucking chance.

I hand went inside my coat and pulled my permission before throwing it at him. "Somebody with enough authority to ask the questions, unlike you."

My reply didn't sit well with him or any of his followers but as he read the scroll, his expression slightly softened before he released an exhausted sigh. "I apologize for my rude behavior but this explosion had put us on edge."

He handed me the scroll back, and I stored it in my pocket again.

"Understandable, so what have you gathered?"

"There is no trace from the perpetrator and we didn't find any corpse or clue." His response made me slightly frown,

"So it was just a remote explosion?"

"Is a possibility."

Karin worries were still looming around my head, but there wasn't enough evidence to accept the possibility and scrap my plans.

"Does Iwa have explosion corps?" I asked an additional question.

"A small group, but they do…" His eyes widened for a second before looking at me straight to eye. "What are you insinuating?"

I shook my head to dismiss any worry in him. "Nothing, just thinking of other possibilities besides the Mad Bomber."

We consider villages attacking other villages an act of war after all.

There was a deep silence between us as he stared at me for a couple of awkward seconds.

"Do you think Akatsuki is behind this?" His reply came as a question, but they surprised me how calm he was after revealing such possibility, he deserves a couple of points for still maintaining a cool attitude.

I pondered for a moment and how Deidara likes to operate, but again I shook my head in dismissal. "Not enough information to conclude that, but we cannot overrule that possibility."

Yet in my honest opinion I wanted to overrule it, Deidara shouldn't be around because it would destroy all my plans for my fight against the Zombie brothers.

But the plan to get and connect with the Jinchuuriki of seven tails remained the same.

"How many teams did Taki send?"

The leader was taken by surprise but was quick to recompose himself. "Only one."

"Do you know their location?"

He shook his head. "No, but I can ask."

"Do it quick, I would rather be safe than lament later." I was mulling over the possibility that Akatsuki would no longer care about stealth and under the radar operations and would have become bold and reckless with their approach.

Fu was in potential danger.

The jounin frowned while crossing his arms. "Why do you want to know about the whereabout of a minor village team?"

It was understandable his doubt of my motives, but I didn't have the time for political games.

"Classified."

My reply only made him sigh and pull out a small walkie talkie and walked away a couple steps away from me for a short while.

He returned with his professional face.

"North west around 21 kilometers from this place."

The accuracy of his statement surprised me since I was expecting just a general direction; nothing more.

"Besides the giant scorpions, what else could I encounter?" My next question came out for the curiosity of the wildlife my team had to fight days ago, I didn't believe that giant scorpions were the main source of problems.

"Desert snakes but not as big as you find in fire country, tiny insects that are highly poisonous but only attack if provoked." He was quick to answer..

I nodded.

"We appreciate your help."

I turned around and headed northwest, leaving him and his squad behind.

When I was sure that nobody was around I pulled out a kunai and slashed my thumb deep enough to draw blood, almost immediately I did all the necessary hand seals and slammed both hands on the soft terrain.

A cloud of covered the entire area around me yet it dissipated as fast as it came, revealing a large brown snake looking at me while realizing KI, I ignored that last part and quickly scanned the features of my summon.

Besides the scales having a shade of brown it had two horns and his scales were looked like rocks imbued on his body, even without touching them I could tell that the scales could shred flesh.

Samehada rough exterior came in mind.

"Why have you summoned me, human?" The deep menacing voice of my summon broke me away from my thoughts.

"Your scales are tough, right?"

The snake summon laughed. "Not even your strongest seals can scratch my scales."

I remembered that the snakes the stronger they are the more arrogant and demanding they become, Manda being the prime example, a very powerful summon who doesn't even show respect to Orochimaru.

Good thing that I have my own cheat to overpass that slight issue.

"That will do." My vision went red as I watched the large summon's slitted eyes morph into a copy of my sharingan.

I smirked in pride at watching the finished result of my quick work, that sense of domination over others came naturally to me as an Uchiha.

I pointed at the sand and my summon lowered his head so I could step on him and give him...the 'honor' to carry me through the desert with my guidance.

And if he was really mad about the whole hypnotization (brainwashing) then I could easily set him free in the Chunin exams to eat to his heart content and forget the issue. Worst case I put the leash on him again and send him back to his clan, Manda might be powerful and all that but he also has no way to defeat my sharingan control so he can't do really do that much if he becomes enraged at my actions-

Worst case, they erase my name from the summoners list.

"Now take me through the desert."

I could have used my sharingan, but it was almost impossible for me to keep it up, the first time happened because the adrenaline in my system shot up after the initial explosion but then it died down forcing me to occasionally use it for brief periods to check my surroundings from any possible mines yet and avoid high concentrations.

That was how we had been traveling through Suna desert until my sharingan caught a very large and amorpha chakra signature.

What was ahead differed from the last area, way too different from what we were passing by.

I immediately commanded him to stop.

I relaxed for a second before activating my sharingan to fully analyse what was ahead.

"This is a fucking minefield."

My comment came when I realized the amount of signatures I could see and that it had no and beyond my range of sight and how tightly packed they were, before it was easy to maneuver through the mines but if I dared to proceed deeper, than I would set off a chain reaction that would put the snake boasts to test, thing that I didn't want not because I cared for his safety but the explosion and shock-wave would reach me.

It was an inefficient layout for mines and only a madman would set them up like that, totally fitting for that fucking blondie, even if I were to detonate them from a safe distance the damage would be disastrous that would even cause panic.

I knew that my lighting could render his clay useless but it would be a total waste of time and my chakra to create a path for myself and trying to go around it would send me within the chunin exams area or do unnecessary curves.

But before I could come up with conclusion, I pointed one of the mines and channeled my chakra before releasing it as lighting, my action reminded me of that galactic emperor with his lighting hands.

"Let's see."

The spot where I could see chakra was no longer radiating any form of power, only a small smoke trail of charred sand.

Since I didn't have sand control like Gaara, I had to jump off my snake and reach the ground before I pulled out a kunai and dug in that spot until my multi tool met with something different and harder than sand, as I pulled a white object came out and fractured in several pieces.

I brought it closer but before it could get close enough a terrible stench of burned clay invaded my nostrils, forcing me to look the other way to breathe fresh air for a couple of seconds before returning my focus on the thing that I had digged.

With the first task done, I put my kunai back to its place

At a closer inspection I could see some work of sculpting in the charred clay, while to many that wouldn't be enough for me it was more than enough to conclude my own investigation, at least to a point.

"This is definitely from Deidara."

Because only he sculpted his bombs, to properly express his personal take on the artistic world.

I couldn't proceed with the waiting game and face those two anymore, I needed to trace alternative plan and second opinions to improve and discover potential issues, however returning to Suna and talk with my team would be a waste of time.

I was about to unsheathe the Kiba blades to signal the rest of my team to come, but I stopped myself from doing as I remembered that they could trigger the mines by accident.

I regretted not buying a walkie talkie or anything of the sort for long-distance communications, those were the times when I missed the cellphones and other devices that made communications so accessible and fast.

I turned to look at my hypnotized snake and an idea popped up yet as soon as it came I immediately rejected it since a Summon of his size would cause panic and Suna Forces would move to check or engage.

Another idea came to mind more reasonable than the last one, without wasting more time I pulled out a smaller scroll and wrote down everything that needed to be said.

Then I quickly pull out my kunai once again and slashed my thumb before repeating the summoning sequence and slam my hands on the soft ground.

The smoke dissipated quickly but compared to my last summoning it was a lot smaller because what I brought was a smaller snake, the same size when I summoned back at Suna.

I gave it the small scroll.

"Deliver this message to Karin."

The little snake nodded and to my dismay, it opened its mouth wide and swallowed the scroll whole before disappearing with a cloud of smoke.

But it was odd that the snake didn't show any sign of deformity after swallowing the scroll, the stomach should have at least look bloated.

But dismissed those thoughts quickly as my attention turned to my temporary mount who still looked lost.

"Meet them midway, if you encounter any Suna forces do not engage only say that you are under orders of the Kazekage private investigation team."

He followed my orders and left my side.

Being alone in the desert is portrayed a death sentence too many and al a very depressing situation but in my case it was boredom and climate annoyance, I sat down and meditate under the burning sun; it annoyed me that I couldn't do much but at least my clothes helped to lessen the burden of the sun rays along with my canteen of water.

Alone with my thoughts the possibility of fighting Deidara only kept growing but mostly how could I stop him from blowing himself up because I doubt he would give me a speech of his Uchiha hatred before setting of the fuse, but more likely he would hide or do it in the middle of battle if he had no option left.

Yet since my lighting could disable every type of mine, he could make I was relatively safe against him, so perhaps just spamming my lighting jutsus would do fine. However, I couldn't go with such a mediocre idea of a plan to such a dangerous fight.

Honestly, that way of thinking is so unlike Sasuke who would go fight him with no plans and fully believe in his Sharingan power and I really wanted to do just that, kinda like something at the back of my mind nagging me how to proceed.

Anyway, just like that time passed with me in deep meditation, I was really grateful of the storage scrolls existence since I had a straw hat inside which helped to mitigate the sun impact on me.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Just in time I heard a very recognizable voice, my gaze turned to the direction it came from and saw my summon rapidly advancing towards me with Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo in his head.

I stood up and dusted off the sand from my clothes before stretching my limbs a bit, just when I was finished they finally arrived and get off my summon and landed right in front of me. "The explosion was the work of Deidara, but what I do not know is if that all the bombs had been placed recently or were placed when they captured Gaara."

I didn't waste any time to communicate my findings, which earned mixed reactions from shocked to unfazed.

As expected Karn was the one who expressed herself more than the rest while Juugo kept most for himself.

"This might be a problem." Karin spoke with concern in her voice.

Suigetsu turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Might?"

She only sighed and glared dagger at him. "Alright, this will be a really BIG problem."

He shrugged in reply, which only infuriated her more.

In my case, I ignored their bickering. "If he is here to support Hidan and Kakuzu, then I must get rid of him as soon as possible or we will die."

That caught Suigetsu's full attention, no longer grinning ear to ear. "That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"

I stared at him. "I don't know if you have forgotten but he can make bombs that can go into your bloodstream and kill you instantly. I doubt even you can leave unscathed from that."

He grimaced before turning to our sensor. "Yo Karin-chan don't you sense that guy?"

She brought her hands together and tried to concentrate even more. "I can only sense a lot of weak and medium chakra signatures."

In other words, there were only Genins and Chunnins moving around us, with no sign of the Mad bomber in the vicinity.

But her range was limited, I turned to our animal speaker for his own insight of the situation. "Juugo?"

Juugo leaned his head closer to the bird on his shoulder for a second before he shook his head. "They have seen nothing with your descriptions."

I released a heavy sigh, it was getting more complicated. "This lack of information makes it difficult to come up with a decision."

Another explosion cut our thoughts short as the terrain trembled not because a single powerful explosion but a chain of explosions going off for several agonizing seconds until no more we could hear or see.

"They triggered a mine." I held my forehead while releasing a long sigh.

"You didn't warn them?!" Karin exclaimed, looking at me with sheer disbelief, as if I did something careless.

"I discovered this particular minefield recently, how could I have know that there are more out there?" Honestly speaking the thought didn't cross my mind I didn't expect that the blonde bastard would take the time to do the same set up many times.

"We should go and brief them with the recent discoveries or we might get into trouble." Karin quickly suggested our next move.

And I could only agree if I wanted to keep things relatively peaceful around me. "Are they still in the explosion's area?"

"Yes." She was quick to reply.

I sighed and signaled the snake to lower his head again so we all could get up and move to our new aim. Except I could already predict how would they react and act, and I wouldn't like it.

And Karin couldn't hide how nervous she currently was, since she was also part of the brains, she was racking her brains trying to come up with plans and possibilities to fight or neutralize Deidara, we really needed to sit down and have a long discussion of my plan and get her opinion.

We arrived at the site of the explosion relatively fast.

Suna current local forces already mobilized around us with their guard up while only the same leader stepped up and closed the distance between us.

I tapped my summon with foot and lowered his head to the ground so I could talk with the Jounin face to face, while I could have jumped it was way cooler to do that kind of entrance.

"You again?"

"It seems I was late to warn you."

"You knew?!" He yelled.

That attitude immediately put me in a bad mood but I hold back with a long breath."No, I recently discovered a minefield right before you set one of them off."

My reply caused his eyes to widen as he held his head. "You are saying there could be more? We lost two good men."

"That's the least of your worries, this is definitely the work from Deidara, the mad bomber." I pulled out the charred clay to show as legitimate proof. "However, I cannot tell if this was done recently or when they captured the Kazekage."

He looked at the remnants of the clay figurine, chewing his lip for a moment. "Those are troubling news."

"Indeed, I will report this to the Kazekage and you should report your own findings as well."

He shook his head with crossed arms. "We didn't discover much and my men were killed, however we must keep searching."

I only shrugged. "Suit yourself."

I turned around and walked up to my team, who were already waiting on the ground.

"Sasuke-kun shouldn't we stay and look for more clues?" Karin was the first to speak indirectly confirming that she had been listening.

"It would be detrimental for us to move across a minefield, only Gaara would be capable of cleaning the entire desert effectively." I remembered how Gaara boasted that he owned the desert so he would be a lot of help to search and destroy those pesky mines.

"Then why did you call us? I missed an execution!" Our swordsman groaned his problems.

"Shut up." After chastising him, I turned to our sensor. "Karin, you can search this area with my summon but do not try to go deeper while I'm gone."

"I didn't notice it first, but you put him into your control, right?" She asked, however I said nothing in response. "I think is against the rules to do that, so probably you might be reverse summoned to their sacred land."

That last part caught my attention. "How do you know?"

Karin adjusted her glasses, then rested both hands on her waist. "Did you forget that I WAS Orochimaru's assistant, didn't you?"

I couldn't just pile up problem upon me, specially not now so I turned to Suna direction and left as soon as possible. Besides, I was confident that my sharingan would subdue any of the summoned snakes if they dared to cause me problems.

As I moved across the villages roofs unhindered, I was quick to reach the Kazekage building, and when I was close enough, I noticed Gaara's office had the window wide open so I took the opportunity to jump and enter his office.

He wasn't surprised, instead he was calmly looking at me. "You have come sooner than expected."

"There is no time for games, Deidara had created an entire minefield with an unknown extension across the desert." I explained.

Gaara expression didn't suffer any change as he stared at me before he slowly removed his hat and placed it on his desk. Soon he stood up from his chair and extended his hand, and sand poured into the room and flew straight to the Kazekage to form into his almost undetectable sand armor.

"Where is he?" He finally spoke with the same blank expression yet his voice carrying deep hatred and venom.

"That's the issue, we have no idea if he planted them just recently or way back when they kidnapped you."

"Then?"

"To continue with my investigation unhindered, I need your help to clean the desert." I explained.

"Let's not waste any more and take me there."

I use the same window to jump off towards the nearest roof and turned to see that he did exactly the same except that before he landed on the same roof the sand finally formed under his feet and stopped his fall.

Honestly speaking, I couldn't help but be in awe of how he could technically fly with his sand.

I wasted no more time and made haste towards the

"It starts from here."

"Kazekage-sama!" The leader arrived and kneeled in front of Gaara with his head low.

"Report."

"We have lost two men and made little progress." He spoke with regret of his failure to deliver.

Gaara closed his eyes for a moment before speaking. "Send the bodies back to Suna and letters to their families."

"At once!" He shouted and left as soon as possible with some of his squad following him close.

"I will pulverize his limbs when I find him."

I didn't need my sharingan to know that he was serious in torturing Deidara if he ever caught him.

"Is not the time to get sentimental." I quickly reminded his purpose.

"You are correct." He extended his hand open and clenched into a fist, his action got an immediate reaction as the sand gathered on a point creating a massive ball of sand, I could speculate that its size was several times an average person.

My original idea was to use my lighting jutsu to deactivate the mines with Gaara help in pulling them all together but when he extended his other hands my plan soon changed when he clenched into another fist and the massive sand sphere was forcefully shrank.

My vision went red and watched the sphere of sand for any kind of signal, but to my surprise there was none to find, not even in the terrain. It was clear that the Kazekage destroyed all of Deidara's mines in the area without detonating a single one.

"Wow." Karin started in awe

"Yes, holy shit with that strength." Suigetsu was in the same state.

Gaara on the other hand sighed and turned to look at me.

"Where is the next area?"

I had the feeling he is trying to flex on me.

AN: Probably I'm one of the lucky ones, if you can call me that, or probably not that would depend from the perspective, I don't really know.

Simple words I got Covid, but I'm from that small percentage that are 'immune' or just carriers, thankfully my family is alright, infected but alright because everything has been discovered in very early stages so nothing major will happen, the doctor said that at most they will suffer some annoyance with their bodies.

I just don't know when or how did I got infected, is literally impossible to tell despite we all had been following healthy and hygienic protocols.

I really hope that I have been carrying this fucking virus just recent and not for weeks if not I probably spread the virus indirectly and is difficult to deal with my emotional consciousness, I might be an asshole at time and with some cynical views about the world but not a bad person, at least is what everybody tells me.