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

Chapter 28: The True Form of Althalos

Only an hour later, Yukari's unconscious form aroused and her eyes fluttered open. Her head was cloudy and uneven, a huge hole in her memories of the earlier events. She sat up and glanced around the room she had been sleeping in, to which she realized was Deidara and Sasori's. Large rumbles and booms shook the room, sounding from outside the window with multiple flashes and bangs that could be seen through the flittering curtains. Confused and distraught, she threw her legs over the edge of her bed and shook her head, running a hand through her dark strands.

"Hm?" she wondered aloud, stumbling over to the open window. Once there, she grabbed the curtains and thrust them to the side to take in the scene outside. After squinting harshly, she could see two figures right outside the base in the middle of an intense battle; someone controlled wooden silhouettes with what looked like blue chakra strings. Needles with a suspicious purple venom dripping off of them littered the ground all around. Another person was swooping above in the skies, flinging down small white specks and causing gigantic flash bangs with fiery explosions following afterwards, destructive enough to shake the earth.

"What's going on?!" Yukari breathed, eyes widening at the fight unfolding upon her very own presence. At that moment, Tobi came speeding into the room and nearly crashed into the puzzled girl, stopping himself by planting his heels into the floor.

"Yuki-chan! Yuki-chan!" he called in alarm, boiling panic in her. "Deidara-sempai and Sasori-sempai are fighting!"

"What?" she shrieked, utter shock dropping her jaw. "Dei-kun and Saso-Danna are what?"

"Fighting!"

Yukari's breath quickened and blood began rushing to her face. She'd just opened her eyes and already she was in panic, concerned for the well-being of two of her most cherished people.

"But - but why?!" she stuttered, rushing to her bedside and grabbing Althalos. "Why the hell are they fighting?!"

"Tobi doesn't know!" the masked man answered, lightly jumping up and down in attempt to relieve him of his jitteriness. "But Leader-sama isn't doing anything because he wants to see who's stronger! But Tobi doesn't want Deidara-sempai to die! But Tobi doesn't want Sasori-sempai to die! Tobi doesn't know who's going to die!"

"Listen, Tobi. Calm down. I'll deal with this."

"But - but Yuki-chan! You'll - you'll get hurt!"

"Let's find out if that'll really happen." Without heeding the wiser man's warning, Yukari stormed out of her room at full speed and sprinted through the winding halls, emerging at the exit only to find her other companions, Itachi and Kisame, blocking the way.

"Excuse me," Yukari said politely, "but I need to get through."

"Sorry," Kisame sighed with a light wave of his hand. "No can do. The two told us not to let you pass; we all knew you were to wake eventually." Itachi nodded in agreement.

"You can't go out there," the Uchiha advised. "It's dangerous. You could get caught up in their battle and end up getting severely injured, if not dead; and we all know for sure that one of those is bound to happen."

"Hey!" Yukari protested, stamping her foot. "What're you talking about?! If I don't go, the both of those bakas are going to get injured much worse than I ever have the chance of getting! Seriously, I need to get through."

To cut her off, the two others stepped closer together, their shoulders touching and completely blocking the exit. With a curt shake of his head, Itachi's Sharingan spiraled to life in his dark eyes and threatened to stop Yukari if it needed force. She clicked her tongue and sighed, placing a hand on the gem-encrusted hilt of Althalos.