Deidara's Love ~ The Soft Side of the Akatsuki (Deidara x OC)

Chapter 2: Meeting

The knife that had mysteriously plunged into Yukari's chest was dripping with blood and  poison.

"Are you finished talking?" Sasori said, his gruff voice muffled underneath the mask. Yukari's lips curled into a malicious grin.

"I don't think so," she smirked, and disappeared with a poof.

Somewhere by the treeline, Sasori heard Deidara burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you were fooled," he laughed.

"Oh, shut it." Sasori finally spotted the Yukari, standing atop a tree branch in the forest.

"Took you a while, didn't it?" she said with a smile. "S-rank missing-nin my ass." She lunged from the tree branch with triple the speed of her clone, poised to strike.

Sasori blocked her with his tail, glaring at her through its spines. But this time, her strength had doubled.  With incredible speed, she slid her sword neatly around Sasori's tail and rolled underneath it. While he was still focusing his chakra on his tail, Yukari slashed at his body. His cloak tore off with her sword, revealing a demon-like mask on his back.

An hour passed, filled with flying sparks from Althalos, Sasori's needles, and his tail. The terrain around them was completely leveled as a result of their battle. Needles dripping with poison punctured the uneven ground and the trees around the battlefield. No matter how many barrages of needles Sasori sent to Yukari, she never failed to dodge or block each and every single one.

The two faced faced each other, trembling, breathing heavily. By this point, their chakra had nearly depleted. Despite the continuous battle, Yukari was buzzing inside. She felt a rush of adrenaline pumping throughout her body. The battle against such a great opponent was the most fun she'd had in many years.

To both Sasori and Deidara's surprise, Yukari sheathed Althalos and straightened. Her hair and eyes slowly faded back to the deep brown they originally were.

"What, have you given up already?" Deidara asked in the distance. This earned small smile from Yukari.

"No," she replied, "but I've decided that I will go with you to where you want to take me. I'm assuming there are more of you strong guys; it's gonna be so much fun battling with you all." She motioned toward Sasori.

Yukari skipped over to where Deidara was meeting up with Sasori. They stared at Yukari strangely

"What, hm?" Deidara asked, puzzled. Yukari sighed with exasperation.

"I was only testing you," she sighed. "I wasn't sure if you guys were really from the Akatsuki, whatever that may be."

"I suppose I can see one reason why Pein wants you," Sasori remarked, grumbling.

"You didn't even give it your all, didn't you?" Deidara commented. He caught her off-guard; she knew he was supposed to be a high-ranked shinobi, but after years of suppressing her chakra and learning to enhance its precision, she was surprised he'd noticed. "When you get good enough to challenge me, I expect you to go all-out, un. Don't disrespect me with a handicap."

Sasori sighed deeply and retrieved what was left of his cloak. He threw it over his back, covering the strange mask.

"Hurry up, brats," he grumbled. "Let's go."

"Wait, Danna!" Deidara complained. "Don't you think Yukari needs to grab stuff?"

"Nah, I'm okay," she replied as they began to head through where the two had emerged from the forest. Deidara gave her another stare.