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

Chapter 26: Lightning Sonota

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~The Following Afternoon~

The trees blurred past Yukari's quick, calculating eyes, becoming streaks of green and brown as she and Deidara sped through the forest towards their destination of a few certain Leaf shinobi. She wore what she knew they'd recognize her in: the same royal purple shirt, shorts, and shoes with the same weapons equipped. The Akatsuki cloak was hanging loosely from her shoulders. The only differences were her eye and hair colors.

Fierce intensity burned beneath her skin, coursing through her veins as adrenaline pumped through her body. Many times she'd thought about it before; what a monster she'd become. But no matter how much the voice at the back of her head pleaded for her to stop, she remembered the small detail that completely changed her: she was an assassin. She was the Red Lightning. There was never going to be a way she could clear that name of hers.

"Yukari, you can't do this," Deidara protested as he and Yukari speeded through the trees at such an alarming rate, he could barely keep pace. "They're your friends, yeah!"

"Dei-kun," she sighed. "They killed Hida-kun and Kaku-kun. I have to avenge them!"

"But that doesn't mean you must kill your previous friends. Please, listen, un."

"I... I can't." Regretfully, she pushed away the reemerging feelings of longing.

A small clearing came into view; the three exact shinobi they were looking for each huddled together around a body lying on the ground. Each on had a sorrowful look upon their faces, eyes swimming with tears.

The redhead stopped dead in her tracks, completely stunned by the strange scene unfolding upon her. "What... what're they doing?!" she whispered harshly.

Deidara stopped by her side and shifted his long bangs out of his eyes so he could use his scope and observe. "That looks like... a jonin," he muttered. "I think he's dead. The other three are... what, crying? Isn't that the guy Kakuzu and Hidan killed, yeah?"

Yukari almost felt pity for the three. Almost. But the moment the two dead Akatsuki member's names were mentioned, her fury flared again. She spit mercilessly and her eyes only glowed a brighter ruby. "But they killed our Kaku-kun and Hida-kun," she protested in a low voice. "And for that, they'll pay."

A burst of air whipped Deidara's face as she shot off with her chakra wings and left him staring with worry. "Yukari," he murmured. "What's become of you, hm?"

"Raaah!" Yukari roared, drawing Althalos and pouring immense amounts of chakra into it. At the very last second, the other three ninjas looked up, astonishment crossing their faces. Yukari struck, the blade making purchase and kicking up a cloud of dirt.

Once it settled, her blade was driven deep into the ground, cracks protruding from the one small hole. A crater surrounded her, broken rubble littering the small circle. The three Leaf shinobi were now by the tree line, Choji holding the body of the jonin in his expanded hand.

"Dammit," Yukari muttered in disappointment. "I missed." With a glare of pure hatred, she stared down the others.

"A - Aoi?!" Ino gasped, her glazed periwinkle eyes wide with shock. "What are you - ?!"

"Moreover," Shikamaru cut in. "That cloak you're wearing..."

"You joined the Akatsuki?!" Choji shouted, his voice shaky.

"No," Yukari answered, slipping her sword out of the ground. "I was always a part of the Akatsuki." And with that she lunged again, but they dodged her and retreated up into the trees. Choji set the body of the man down somewhere she couldn't see, but now the only things that mattered were killing the ones left alive.