CAPTURE THE SAND
Sunagakure was a death-trap. The village was landlocked in the centre of the desert with no prospects or means of trade. Their political status hinged solely on the existence of a Jinchuriki. Being the closest nation to that of Fire, it was natural for Konohagakure to form a mutual alliance, though this was strained since Orochimaru's murder of the Kazekage.
Even though I used Kuragari as my medium to transport myself to the surroundings town of Takumi and Tanigakure, it didn't get me there as fast as I originally hoped.
When the grass transitioned into rock and when rock dissolved into granules of sand, I knew that Sunagakure was nearing closer after eight days of constant travel.
The tracks in the sand showed one pair of footprints and some kind of bulk that left shuffling patterns in its wake. Once the archway of Sunagakure came into sight, the tracks split off and the lone set of footprints vanished abruptly. No doubt the tracks were from the Akatsuki.
"This is Sasori of the Red Sand's village," Kuragari commented from my shoulder. "In his case file, his partner is Deidara from Iwagakure Explosion Corps. Both are known for their...extravagant battling styles, it's best to stay on your guard."
"Speaking of guards," I lifted my mask to see the discarded corpses of Sunagakure Nin. None had any offensive of defensive wounds visible, yet a strange smell lingered in the air. It was sweet with a pungent undertone. "Sunagakure seems to be lacking in that department."
Kuragari fluttered from my shoulder to inspect one of the bodies. The bird hopped on the back of one of the corpses as if to try and wake him up before darting back to me. He dropped a purple butted dart into my palm.
"Poison," I commented. "How ironic."
"And not just any arsenic," Kuragari picked up the fluffy end of the barb in his beak and dropped it back to the ground. "It paralyses every nerve in your body and shuts down your chakra points, deeming you nothing but a living carcass while the injector has their way with you."
"So much for Akatsuki and world peace," I grunted.
Kuragari continued, "I honestly wonder how Itachi and Kuchibashi got involved in such a gang, both of them don't possess the hatred."
"I've been asking myself the same question for three years," I continued through the deserted village, to be met with nothing but the howl of wind and a faint beat of...wings?
I looked up to see Deidara perched on the head of one of his explosive clay creations. His strange steam-mech scope allowed him to see in the dark and hone in on his targets―in this case, the Kazekage. Deidara's blonde hair flailed wildly around his face as he looked down at the three patrolling guards with binoculars. However, the guards weren't astute enough to look at what was above them.
As the sky guards rotated with their binoculars at eye-level, Deidara smirked and dug around in a small pouch. I wasn't high enough to hear what he was muttering, but he held three clay spiders in his hand palm, obviously using them as a distraction while Sasori nabbed Gaara.
"What are we going to do?" Kuragari kawed softly.
"We wait," I kept to the shadows of one of the guard towers and continued to glare up at Deidara. "There's no point stopping him at point blank range, it'll cause too much attention to us."
Deidara cast his hand out towards the three guard towers and the three spiders descended towards the ground. He made the half tiger/ram hand sign as the spiders plummeted towards the unaware guards. The clay figures latched onto their uniforms and crawled onto their skin, just as they began to scream, Deidara activated his Kekkei Genkai release.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The echoes of the three explosions reverberated through the mud brick buildings of Sunagakure, making it sound like thousands of artillery pellets had been fired.
I stepped out of the shadows and bit down hard on my thumb to draw blood.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Hundreds of crows shot up from the black sealing pattern and followed me as I landed on the tail of Deidara's clay bird. The crows swarmed his creature and he desperately tried to swat the crows away from him as they pecked and pulled at him.
"What the hell is this, un?" he grunted and turned around when the crows evaporated in puffs of smoke. "Shinko–Chan?"
"Deidara," I acknowledged.
His lips turned down in disgust, he scrubbed away the thin line of blood that seeped from his cheek. He looked away from me, pouting, "That stunt you pulled with Leader–Sama was stupid, un. What are you try'na do, hm―get yourself killed?"
"You could be so lucky," I hissed.
"Damn right," Deidara chuckled slightly. "You're supposed to be on our side, yeah?"
"I made it clear to Pein that I'm done with the Akatsuki, you know that," I folded my arms.
"Then why are you here, un? Wanting to help me out with killing the sand brat?" Deidara turned fully to me and lifted up his blonde fringe, adjusting his lens on me. "If you're not with us, then you're against us, un. After I finish up here, I'm going to hand your head to Leader–Sama."
I stepped forward and swept his blonde fringe out of his blue lens, he flinched slightly as his clay bird bobbed beneath our combined weight. I slight smirk tugged at my lips as I saw him blush deep crimson, frantically looking around as if he expected someone to be watching.
"H–Hidan will s–sacrifice me if he saw this, un," Deidara's eyes widened when I caressed his cheek. The idiot was oblivious to my true intentions; I could easily kill him―yet I wouldn't because I needed them for information, to know if Itachi was loyal to his village still. So instead, I continued to play coy.
"Hm?" I hummed in question.
"...un...H-idan wants to know if you're hot," he stuttered. "W-we have a bet."
"I suppose you can decide for yourself," I lowered my hand and reached for my mask. I moved my face closer to his so he peered through the slits of the porcelain. "Do you want to know a secret Deidara?"
He stumbled and fell back onto the bird's head, his arms protectively up to his eyes, "You...you're an Uchiha!"
"Tsukuyomi," my lone Mangekyou retracted in its socket.
I watched as Deidara's pale blue eye go blank and his body swayed for a moment. I stepped forward and shoved his shoulder roughly, sending him plummeting to the ground below. I put my mask back on and looked towards the Kazekage Tower―just to see sand spilling from the windows and circling towards Deidara's twitching body.
He'd snap out of it in a few minutes, and would have no memory of my identity. Many times Deidara had tried to get Hidan to uncover my identity when I retrieved their bounties, but none of his attempts were successful―I considered my act as a tease, at least I was able to put his perverted mind at rest for a few brief seconds.
I dropped from the clay bird onto the roof of one of the guard towers. Deidara's body arched as he stood up, shaking his head before fixing his eyes of the Kazekage that stood before him.
"Heh, seems like my sneaking in was a failure...un," Deidara jumped back onto his bird and swooped to the left, just to be followed by Gaara on his cloud of sand. "Thanks to that, I don't need to search for you."
Gaara raised his arms and the ground startled to rumble and shift. The sand that drifted in from the desert and into the streets churned before shooting up into a tidal wave of sand to envelope Deidara's bird.
I shielded the slits of my mask with my forearm as a sheet of sand covered the guard tower. I shook the sand from my cloak and hood and watched from afar.
Deidara reached into his pouch again to produce four more clay figures. He tossed them at the wave of sand, just to have no effect. I smirked as Deidara shouted with rage. Of course, Gaara had the geographical advantage.
The sand clouds gained claws like the Ichibi as Gaara struck.
Deidara managed to get a hit on the sand; however, Gaara commanded the particles to wrap around him in a protective shell as another wave of sand enthralled Deidara and his bird. One of the claws clenched around Deidara's arm and squeezed, tearing it off.
"None of your techniques could combat the Kazekage, even to save him," Kuragari shook sand from his tail. "It was fate; we cannot prevent the Ichibi capture. Besides, if he's anything like Naruto, he'd want to be captured if that meant his village remained stable."
I shook the bird off when Deidara produced a moderately large clay figure. His voice was carried off in the wind as he explained its purpose to Gaara. I clenched my jaw as he spread his arms wide and released the clay figure.
Now's my chance.
I took off towards where the explosive clay would land, right on the Sunagakure Puppet Brigade that cheered on their Kazekage. They looked up with startled gasps as I kicked the clay away from its intended path, towards the outskirts of the village. If it wasn't my task to save Naruto's friend, then I could save a few of his people.
"Damn it Shinko–Chan!" Deidara shouted.
"Huh?" Gaara craned his head out of the sphere to see me standing above his brethren. His pale jade eyes narrowed slightly and then he gave a slight smile; at least, I hoped it was a smile. His attention was quickly drawn away when one of Deidara's clay creatures had evaded his sand and now perched on the crack in his shield.
"I'm an ally of Konohagakure," I shouted towards the Kazekage. "Naruto needs to know that you're safe!"
"Stay back!" Gaara manipulated the sand to keep be against the roof. I landed roughly on my back as sand cascaded from the sky above, Deidara attacked.
I slowly sat up to see Gaara's body drop from the remaining sand, onto the back of Deidara's bird. Deidara swiftly saluted me down on the ground and gave a farewell smirk and shot off towards the exit of the village.
I followed Deidara's bird towards the outskirts of the village where his partner waited. However, Sasori wasn't there to greet him. Instead, a masked creature hunched over on the ground grumbled in annoyance as Deidara landed.
"You're late...I said not to keep me waiting," it growled.
It wore the same bamboo hats of the Akatsuki with a black bandana covering the lower half of its face. Around its hunched body was an Akatsuki cloak, it was a member, but one that hadn't been present when I saw them all in the hideout. Perhaps it was a new recruit?
"This guy was strong un," Deidara stuck his tongue out at Gaara's unconscious body. "I had some trouble with the bounty hunter, Shinko–Chan, un. She knocked me out and then diverted my explosion."
"That's why I said to be better prepared; Leader–Sama knows how troublesome Shinkoshoku Toge can be," it snarled. "You're almost as bad as Hidan when it comes to women. You allowed her to knock you unconscious. You're honestly pathetic."
"Harsh," Deidara lifted up his bamboo hat and spun it around the right way. "All I wanna know is what's under her mask un. I have a bet with Hidan that she's either ugly and deformed or smoking hot."
"Well you can tell Hidan from me, that he's a dead man walking," I landed on my haunches behind the scorpion-like creature. Its body rattled like dry bones as it turned to face me. Deidara laughed slightly and rubbed the back of his head.
"I was kidding, yeah?" Deidara suggested.
"Gaara's siblings will come after you, you do know that right?" I said, pointing off in the direction of the village.
"And we'll simply eliminate him like his brother," Sasori rattled. "You are simply the bounty hunter, Shinkoshoku Toge. I have orders to keep away from you, but you are making me wait―and I don't like to be kept waiting."
"Technically, if you try and stop us, Leader–Sama will hunt you down again," Deidara reclined. "We know you've been running for a while, and that you went to Konohagakure to speak with the Hokage."
My eyes widened slightly and I took a step back. The mechanic creature scuttled towards Deidara with a harsh, mocking chuckle as Deidara continued to throw accusations at me. How did they know? Does Pein have a leak in the Leaf?
"You seem to have an obsession with that Uchiha, Itachi," Deidara smirked. "Hiding something from us, yeah?"
In his palm, a small clay ant crawled around with the kanji for 'track' burnt into it. Both Akatsuki members continued to enjoy my discomfort as my cheeks flushed beneath my mask. I would've sensed the chakra trait on Deidara's clay...then why didn't I?
The clay erupted in black flames from Amaterasu. Deidara pouted at me, pulling an exaggerated facial expression. His partner, on the other hand, remained impassive as his eyes flicked between the dissolved clay and me.
"Cold, black, inextinguishable fire," it announced. "How intriguing, Itachi Uchiha is in possession of the same jutsu. This will certainly peak Leader–Sama's interest. However, I don't want to be kept waiting. Farewell Shinkoshoku Toge, let's go Deidara."
"Un," Deidara pulled his partner onto the back of the bird and they flew off.
Cold. Black. Inextinguishable. Amaterasu.
I slammed my fist against the cavern angrily and shouted in rage. This wasn't going to plan. Tsunade was right; this was reckless and could put the whole village in danger. I clenched my jaw and extended my arm to Kuragari.
"Do you think they know your identity?" he asked while I pressed two fingers against its forehead to relay the information to Tsunade and Kakashi.
"They suspect all Uchiha are dead apart from Itachi and Sasuke, let's just hope that lie can stretch for a while longer," I growled. "Now, go to Konohagakure."
"And will you start running again?" Kuragari hovered in the air with three delicate flaps of its black wings.
"No," I removed my mask and looked up at the beating sun. "I'm going to show myself to Team Kakashi―it's about time that I tell Naruto the truth...in person."