Chapter 18 : Chasing Sasuke

Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin stared at Sasuke as he spoke those words, not all of them were quite sure what to make of that statement. Suigetsu had a thoughtful look on his face as if trying to remember something. Karin had a frown and was most likely worried about what could happen if they went after Itachi. Juugo did not seem to care about what Sasuke said as much, though he did not really like the fact that they were going to have to kill someone.

"I knew it," Suigetsu finally said, crossing his arms. He had been sure this was Sasuke's goal since from what he had heard, that was the only reason Sasuke had gone to Orochimaru after all. "I knew you were going to go after your brother."

"Karin," Sasuke said as he looked at the redhead, "you said you have other business to attend to, what will you do?"

Karin suddenly felt very flustered about being put in the spotlight, "W-well now that I think about it, it's not that urgent."

"Would you cut the bullshit and just be honest for once," Suigetsu said in an annoyed voice, seriously, what was it with women always having to lie to others about something; or maybe it was just Karin who lied. "Perhaps you should just say, 'I want to get into Sasuke's pants and screw his brains out or something, hmm?"

"Th…that's not it!" Karin screeched, several tic marks forming on her head, "You sick pervert! How could you even say something like that! I just-"

"Bull's eye," Suigetsu said with a smirk, "look at you, you're so flustered you can barely talk. Give it up, I know the truth. A long time ago, you did something to Sasuke…"

Karin's eyes widened in shock, and then she got angry and ended up throwing her fist through Suigetsu's face, turning it into water.

"Suigetsu, stop messing around with Karin," Sasuke ordered, he did not want to put up with these two constantly bickerings. "I told you to cooperate with her."

Suigetsu's head began to reform, "My bad, my bad, sorry Karin."

His head was completely restored again as he looked over at the girl with a grin, "For the record, I plan on sticking close to Sasuke." Karin clenched her hands as Suigetsu continued, "One of the Kiri No Shinobigatana Nananin Shu, Kisame Hoshigaki, is with Itachi Uchiha. And I plan on taking his sword, the Samehada for myself."

"You're just gathering swords?" Karin said in a distasteful voice, "That's so lame."

Suigetsu had always desired to collect all of the swords from the Kiri No Shinobigatana Nananin Shu. Ever since he was a little boy they had been something of hero figures for him. For this woman to insult them and the swords they used, it was probably the greatest insult she could ever give.

"Suigetsu," Sasuke said in warning, noticing the swordsman's glare.

"I know I know," Suigetsu said with a sigh, knowing that he could not do anything because of Sasuke. "Juugo, you're free now. What are you gonna do?" he asked as he turned to the orange-haired man.

"Kimimaro said Sasuke's existence was like his rebirth," Juugo began as he looked at Sasuke. "And Kimimaro sacrificed his life to protect him; I need to see for myself how strong of a shinobi he is."

"Then it's settled," Sasuke said.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What do you mean?" Sakura demanded, angry that Naruto could even think that way, "Of course he'll come back! How could you even think that -"

She was cut off when Naruto looked at her with one of his colder glares, forcing Sakura to actually take a step back. "Naïve girl, you really think Sasuke will come back?" Naruto shook his head, "Don't be a fool, were that the case he would have come back when I offered the last time we fought. Sasuke's heart is consumed by darkness; all he can even think about is revenge. He will not come to Konoha since in his mind we stand in the way of his revenge."

"But Naruto," Sakura tried, "Sasuke-kun is-"

"Not coming back," Naruto snapped in a voice so cold the others in the room shivered, "after everything that's happened, after everything we've tried to do to get him back, he has refused time and time again."

XXXXXXXXXX

"From now on, we four move as one," Sasuke said as he looked at the three he had gathered for his purpose, "our group will be known as Hebi."

XXXXXXXXXX

"The fact of the matter is, you cannot bring someone back if they do not want to come back," Naruto looked at the pink-haired girl with a grim look. "And even if we were to drag him back what do you think would happen? Do you think we'd be Team Seven again, and that things would go back to the way they were back when we were genin?" Naruto shook his head, "You need to face reality, even if we brought him back, Sasuke would be forced to stand trial and he would then be executed for treason."

"No…" Sakura muttered, her face taking on a look similar to despair.

"Naruto's right Sakura," Tsunade backed Naruto up, "Sasuke knowingly and willingly left to follow an S-rank traitor. That is treason of the highest order, not even being the last member of the Uchiha clan would be able to protect him from execution." The blond-haired woman looked at Naruto, "I have new orders for you." Naruto instantly snapped back to attention, already knowing what those orders were. "I will be forming a platoon, your mission will be to go after the member of Akatsuki we have the best chance of finding."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hebi has only one purpose," Sasuke said.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto looked at Tsunade as he spoke, "In other words, you want us to find…"

XXXXXXXXXX

Itachi Uchiha looked up at the sky from the cliff he was standing on; dark storm clouds were roiling overhead. "It looks like a big storm is coming," Itachi murmured, his Sharingan eyes spinning as he looked at the vast expanse of clouds.

"It's about to rain," Kisame said from behind him, his shark-like grin ever-present. "Let's wait this out under a tree; we can't have the body getting too cold."

Itachi turned his head to look at Kisame, "Right."

Kisame picked up Roshi, host for the Yonbi No Saru with his sword, Samehada, "We should be hearing from the leader soon." He hefted Samehada with Roshi on it, leaning it against his shoulder.

As the two began to walk, Kisame decided to start a conversation, "I wonder… there are only a couple left right? Obviously, we need to seal the nine tails last. Our leader has made it clear that if we don't, the balance will be destroyed and the sealing statue will crumble. And since we need to bring them back alive, don't you think we should try to find the Jinchuuriki as quickly as we can?"

Itachi sighed as he leaned against a tree, "Not really. Besides with all of the Jinchuuriki we were unable to get, trying to capture the Kyuubi would be pointless." Kisame tossed Roshi off his sword as Itachi spoke, "Also we have to worry about Konoha's response should we go after the Kyuubi, they will do all in their power to get it back, and would cause problems for us."

"I suppose you're right," Kisame said.

"Konoha has a lot of contacts in the other hidden villages," Itachi continued, "not only that but the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is well-liked by all of the hidden villages with the sole exception of Iwagakure. On top of that but he is far stronger than we could have imagined, and has managed to kill several of our members and protect three of the Jinchuuriki we have tried to go after. As it is all we can do is try and get up to the Hachibi before he can respond, then go after the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki with our full might."

Kisame sighed, "That does make sense."

Both of them snapped to attention as they felt the call from their rings.

"He has good timing," Itachi said as both he and Kisame responded to their leader's call.

XXXXXXXXXX

In a small black cave with nothing but a single fire for light, seven ghost-like figures began to appear. One by one they phased into existence until they were all there.

"You're late," Pain said as he looked at Itachi and Kisame.

"We just caught the Jinchuuriki a moment ago." Kisame explained, "We had to take a few precautions to make sure he wouldn't get away."

"Good," Pain said in a pleased manner, though no one there could tell due to how monotone his voice was, "it looks like everyone is here. Now let us begin with the extraction of the Yonbi."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Yes," Tsunade confirmed, "I want you to find and if possible capture Itachi Uchiha. I have ordered every squadron to try and take any members of Akatsuki they find alive."

"Unfortunately they're not very easy to talk to," Naruto and Sakura turned to find Kakashi standing in the doorway. "While only Naruto seems to have had any real encounters with them, it's clear that they are too dangerous to capture."

"Which means the only thing we can do is try our best to find Itachi," Naruto said, "we'd need to get him alone without Kisame since that would make capture that much harder."

"That's right Naruto," Kakashi replied. The silver-haired Jonin was very pleased and proud to see the man Naruto had become. Every time Kakashi looked at the blond, he couldn't help but be reminded of his sensei. The young man had become an amazing shinobi.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So are we going to do this then?" Kisame asked, "I'd like to seal the Yonbi as soon as possible." He had always found it something of a pain to just stand around for three days while they extracted the Bijuu from their hosts. That he didn't get to kill anything during that time made the waiting even worse.

"We will," Pain said, "but first I have some information…it seems that Orochimaru was killed."

Itachi's eyes snapped open in surprise as he looked over at Pain.

"Well, it has been ten years since he left Akatsuki," Kisame commented, "I suppose his time finally came, eh? Whoever killed him must have been something else. So who was it?"

Pain's eyes moved from Kisame over to Itachi, "It was Sasuke Uchiha."

"I wanted to kill him, yeah," Deidara complained as soon as he heard of the man's murderer.

"Heh… impressive," Kisame said with a grin, "you must be proud of your little brother, Itachi-san."

"He's gathering up a few underlings," Pain continued, ignoring Kisame's comments, "all of whom can be problematic for us."

"Oh?" Kisame said with a hint of curiosity.

"You should know one of them," Pain said, "one of the Kirigakure's Houziki Brothers."

"Suigetsu?" Kisame asked, receiving a small nod, the shark man smirked, "Heh, now that takes me back."

"Juugo of Tenpin is with them as well," Pain looked at Kisame and Itachi, "Itachi and Kisame, you two need to stay alert. They are probably going after you two." Itachi said nothing and Pain decided to continue, "Everyone else, remember what I've told you about Sasuke Uchiha. If they learn too much about Itachi and Kisame they may disrupt Akatsuki's plans."

"Hey, Kisame, what's the deal with that Suigetsu guy you mentioned, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"Hmmm…" Kisame mumbled, going back in his memories, "I saw him ten years ago… a cute kid, always smiling. He'd always chop off the limbs of his enemies before beheading them. People called him the second coming of 'the Kiri No Oni (Demon of the Hidden Mist)' he's a child prodigy in the act of murder."

"They sound like an interesting bunch," Deidara said, thoughts on taking out Sasuke himself going through his mind, "… yeah."

XXXXXXXXXX

"So our mission will be to hunt down Itachi Uchiha of Akatsuki?" Naruto asked, looking at Tsunade for confirmation. Seeing the woman nod he continued, "Okay, say we do find him, what would we do with him? Even if we capture Itachi I doubt Sasuke will want to come back, not that we could, Itachi is one of the most dangerous shinobi in Akatsuki from what I can tell. Capturing him will be next to impossible." Sakura looked over at Naruto, whose face held a grim frown. "If we're even going to attempt to capture Itachi, we're going to need more than one squad. Alone I should be able to kill him, but capture," Naruto shook his head, "that's not something I can do."

"You're right," Kakashi said, "we will need more squads, and one squad of two would be the most ideal amount for our mission."

Naruto nodded, "Having three or more teams makes it easier for them to spot you, and the chain of command can get convoluted." Naruto frowned in thought for a moment, "You will also need a lot more skill to capture someone than you do to kill them. Communication is also a vital aspect for a mission like this, so we'd need a squad that has experience doing missions together."

"I agree," Kakashi said as he hooked his thumb towards the door, "in fact I've already picked a team that's been on a lot of missions together." Kakashi and the others in the room turned towards the door, "Come in!"

The door opened and in walked several people, all of whom Naruto recognized. A smile made its way to his face; he should have known that they would want to involve themselves in something like this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Suigetsu stared at the abandoned city, following Sasuke as they made their way inside. The place looked like it had been unused for many years, trash blew through the streets, and the soft wind whistled from the wind. The place had probably not been used for years, maybe even longer than that. Sasuke eventually led everyone to a stairwell. They walked down and found themselves in a hallway, several pipes and large cables trailed along the walls and ceiling.

Suigetsu took it all in and resisted the urge to snort, "This dump is a hideout? I'll be damned."

Sasuke turned to look at the sword wielder, "It's one of Orochimaru's, however my clan used to use it as a weapons storehouse. We'll get ourselves equipped here."

"All the tunnels look the same." Suigetsu commented, "I hope we don't get lost."

"The air here is so stifling," Karin said, ignoring Suigetsu's comments, "it's kind of hard to breathe."

"Well excuse us."

Karin nearly jumped out of her skin as she whirled around, looking for the source of the voice. She along with everyone except Sasuke stared in shock at who, or rather, what stood before them. Two cats wearing white gis, with a mesh net shirt underneath. One was skinny with black ears, tail, and paws, while very where else was white. The other cat was chubbier with a few streaks of black near the left and right sides of its face, this one had a line with two parallel lines running through it.

"Denka, Hina," Sasuke greeted, "how have you been?"

The other three looked shocked that Sasuke was speaking to a couple of cats, even more to their shock when said cats talked back.

"If it ain't Sasuke," Denka said.

"Meow-watcha here for?" asks Hina.

"Weapons, medicine, and possibly a few other things," Sasuke said, ticking the list off his finger, "we need to get ready for a large battle."

"Talking Tanukis, awesome," Suigetsu said as he leaned down and placed a hand on his knee, while the other one reached out to the cats. "Here boy," the sword user made some clicking noises with his tongue.

Unfortunately for him the cat did not like being called a Tanuki or the disrespect shown, "RREEOWR!"

"Woah!" Suigetsu snapped his hand back, not wanting to get it bitten off.

"Their ninja cats," Sasuke said, finding Suigetsu's weary look oddly amusing. "Don't mess with them unless you want to end up as a scratching post."

"Didja bring the goodies?" asked Hina, not sounding the least bit concerned about what happened.

Sasuke reached into his Kimono and pulled out a bottle, "How about a bottle of catnip?" he asked, giving the bottle a shake.

Denka nodded and began to move down the hall, stopping only to look at them, "C'mon, let's see the elder cat."

Sasuke and the others followed the two cats and soon found themselves in a large cylindrical room, there were all kinds of nick nacks and odd objects and items within it. Off to one side, behind in front of a bed was a woman smoking a pipe, she was old, with wrinkles on her forehead and around her mouth. She had cat-like ears and a black cat-like nose and was also surrounded by cats.

Sasuke bent down on his knees and bowed before the woman, "I have come to repay my debts to you, elder cat."

"So you are going to find Itachi then?" the cat elder asked as she put a set of ninja equipment with exploding tags, kunai, soldier pills, and several other medicinal pills in front of Sasuke. "I remember what you two were like as kids," she said as she watched Sasuke wrap up the equipment and put it away. "I can't believe it's come to this. To think that the Uchiha clan would be reduced to two people and that they would end up fighting to the death."

She had served the Uchiha clan for many years and had seen many things from that clan. She had also seen how much the two who were now mortal enemies had once loved each other dearly; she could not fathom how this had happened.

"I made up my mind a long time ago," Sasuke said, taking out some money from his kimono and handing it to the cat elder, "but I thank you for everything you've done for me."

"Hey grandma, do we have anything big enough to fit this guy?" asked a pretty blond girl around Sasuke's age, she had been trying to find clothes for Juugo but nothing seemed to fit.

"This isn't a department store girl!" the elder said in an annoyed tone, "Just wrap him up in the curtain," she gestured to the next to the two of them.

"Don't be a rude grandma! They're paying customers after all!" the girl said in a distressed yet angry voice. However, she still did what her grandma suggested and pulled down the curtain, allowing Juugo to wrap it around himself.

XXXXXXXXXX

The members of Akatsuki watched as the body of Roshi, the Yonbi Jinchuuriki fell to the floor, dead from having his Bijuu sucked out. The Gedou Mazou statue slowly opened one of the nine eyes, showing four in total.

"Mmm what next?" asked Deidra as he looked at the other members.

"What do you mean?" asked Kisame, "what are the choices?"

"Do we go after Kakashi Hatake and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" asked Deidera, "or Sasuke Uchiha?"

Itachi opened his eyes and looked at the bomber but did not deign to speak.

"Oh…let's just forget about them," Tobi said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture, "besides we still need to get the Ichibi right?"

"No! Someone or something is protecting the one tails," Deidara said, "I was nearly blown up with my own art un! Until I know who did that it would not be wise to go after the Ichibi. Besides, it was my job to kill Orochimaru, so I have a beef with Sasuke Uchiha."

This statement caused Itachi to activate his Sharingan eye, which was narrowed at the blond bomber, though he still refused to speak.

"Are you okay with that Itachi-san?" asked Kisame, the shark man knew that his brother was off-limits, he was one of the few people who Itachi had told Kisame not to touch, ever.

However, Itachi just looked at him, as usual, he said nothing.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sasuke and his team looked out at the area from the cliff face they were on. The sky was beginning to darken and storm clouds were brewing in the distance.

Sasuke frowned as he looked around, "Let's move out!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto looked at the team that had been assembled for him as they made their way out of the gates of Konoha. He had Sakura, Sai, and a man named Yamato, though Naruto knew that it was just a codename. Then there was Hinata, Shino Kiba, and Kakashi, who were forming the other team to help look for Sasuke. Like him, they were all wearing light tan ponchos to help protect them from the rain and cold.

"Is everybody ready?" asked Naruto, receiving several affirmatives he turned to look away from Konoha, "Then let's go."

The group blurred out of existence, beginning their move to find the Akatsuki.

They began jumping through the trees as they moved to the last known sighting of the Akatsuki member, Itachi Uchiha, a small town several miles away. When they got there the group jumped onto one of the roofs.

"We'll start our search here," Naruto said as the others all stood up. "We'll begin by searching in a five-kilometer radius by using this roof as our center point. If we don't come up with anything, we'll relocate, search another five-kilometer area and we'll repeat this pattern until we find our targets."

"But Naruto," Sakura began, everyone turned to her, "our wireless equipment won't work if we split up that far! And we'd be in danger if something happened when we were alone! We should go in teams of two at the very least. That way if we encounter any ene-"

"Relax Sakura," Naruto said to the overly excited girl, "I've already thought of a solution to that." Naruto looked over at Kakashi, who nodded and bit his thumb.

Going through a few hand signs Kakashi slammed his hands down on the ground, a seal spread out along the roof from the center of impact. There was a puff of smoke, when it cleared there were eight dogs, including the well-known Pakkun.

"Your voices combined with our ears will work better than those wireless headsets," Pakkun said from atop a large bulldog. "And our noses will detect danger well enough in advance to get you plenty of back up."

"There you have it," Naruto said with a smirk, "now then, here's how our patrols will work. Each person on patrol will have two of Kakashi's ninja hounds as bodyguards.

"Two…?" Sakura questioned, "But wait…"

Kakashi gave Sakura an eye smile, "Be nice to them ok?"

"Hiya, Sakura-chan!" Sakura looked down and to her left to see a dog with a slight Mohawk grinning at her. She gave it a weak grin in return.

Another one came up to her as well, this one looking as lazy as Shikamaru, "You always pick the noisy girls, man."

"I'll go with Shino," said a dog with white fur and sunglasses on its head.

Another dog came up to Shino and sniffed him, "Mm-hmm."

Sai watched as two dogs came up to him, "Hello," he said with a smile.

One of the dogs growled at him and he actually backed up a step.

"Naruto, since you're a jinchuriki, Akatsuki will be targeting you," Kakashi said, getting the blond shinobi's attention, "how do you plan on dealing with that?"

"They may be after me, but I'm also the only one here who can face a member of them one on one," Naruto said. "However I don't plan on going alone," Naruto turned to Hinata who was standing by the large bulldog. "Hinata, I'm going to need to rely on your Byakugan's scouting abilities to give us a fast heads up."

Hinata nodded her head, "Right!"

"Now because Kiba has Akamaru, he'll be fine." Naruto looked at Kakashi, "And seeing as how aside from me and Yamato you're one of our only Jonin, you'll only take one dog along." Kakashi gave a nod and Naruto continued, "Alright everyone, I want all of you to remember that trailing Sasuke's scent is our main priority…Akatsuki comes second. And regardless of which target you find, your mission is only to determine their location and report back here immediately." Naruto looked at all of the members of his team, "Move out!"

The Konoha ninja became blurs as they launched themselves from the roof.

The search for Sasuke and Akatsuki was on.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sasuke, Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo stopped walking through the forest, Sasuke turned to each of them. "Let's split up, report back if you find anything," Sasuke said.

"Heh, let's rock," Suigetsu said as he began moving one way.

Juugo looked down the opposite path and decided to go that way.

Karin pumped her fist as the other two left, now was her chance to be alone with Sasuke. She cuddled up to Sasuke's side and gave him a seductive smile and wink, "Oh, Sasuke-kun, I've wanted to be alone with you for so long."

Sasuke just looked at her like she was a minor irritant, "Get moving," he commanded.

Karin 'hmphed' as she walked away, not really caring about the direction she was going in.

Sasuke turned his head to look around as Karin left, thoughts of finding Itachi and killing him filling the avenger's mind.

XXXXXXXXXX

There was a puff of smoke as Deidra created a large clay bird. Deidra pet the clay construct as he looked at his new hand, the one he had gotten to replace the one Gaara destroyed. "So far, so good…yeah."

Tobi just looked at his partner with idle curiosity, "So who should we go after? Sasuke or the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?"

Deidra did not reply at first, instead, he created another clay bird for himself and jumped on it. He stood up and smirked, "Who should we go for indeed, yeah…" The bird took off as he began to look for one of his two targets, he did not really care which, so long as he got to make his art.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Who the hell are you?" a man in ninja garb with no affiliated hitai-ate asked.

Suigetsu smirked as he walked down, "Now that Sasuke's not here I get to have some fun." Quicker than the man could react, Suigetsu pulled off his sword and cleaved his head off. Grinning he opened the door and looked in, making sure there were no traps. He began walking in when all he saw were two men, one sitting on the couch and the other standing a little ways away.

"Who the hell're y-"

The scarred man did not get the chance to finish his sentence, as Suigetsu put his head in the hole at the end of Kubikiribocho. Pushing himself off, Suigetsu listened in satisfaction as the man hit his head on the inside of the sword. Suigetsu only stopped moving when he held the carved-out section of his blade near the other man's head. Suigetsu grinned as he looked at the man who had dropped his cigarette and looked ready to shit himself.

"You work for Akatsuki's Kakazu as a banker and accountant right?" Suigetsu asked with a shark-like grin.

The man gulped, "I-I'll talk…" he said, "please…spare me…"

Suigetsu's grin widened, "Atta boy, keep talkin'."

XXXXXXXXXX

Juugo frowned as he walked around, he wasn't exactly sure how to go about searching for Sasuke's brother, having never met the man himself. Raising a hand a small bird flew down and landed on his finger, "I suppose I'll start by asking you."

XXXXXXXXXX

Everyone had soon split up as they began to search for either Itachi or Sasuke. Each ninja and their dog partners took a different direction; some went into the forest while others traveled around the town. Sakura was walking through the town as she began her search.

She kept turning her head as she looked around the town, Sakura wasn't really sure what she would find or even how she would find whatever she was looking for. She wasn't a tracker ninja and didn't have any particular talent when it came to searching for others. Still, she had her orders and would follow them, even if she didn't think it would be of much use.

As she kept walking one of the nin-dogs she was with stopped and began sniffing the ground. Sakura only noticed this when she was several feet away and looked down to realize the dog had stopped walking. She turned back around and looked at it, "What is it?"

"It's faint," the dog sniffed some more before turning to look at the pink-haired girl. "Very faint, but I was able to pick up some of Sasuke Uchiha's scent." The words caused Sakura's eyes to widen in surprise, she had only been at this for a few minutes but she had already caught Sasuke's trail.

A determined look came to her face, "Can you show me where?"

"Just follow me," the dog said as he began walking again. Sakura followed and kept her eyes peeled as the dog would occasionally stop and sniff the air before putting its nose back to the ground. As they continued walking Sakura watched as a girl with red hair and glasses walked by. She frowned as she eyed the girl.

"Damn," the dog muttered suddenly, getting Sakura to turn her eyes from the redhead to the dog. "I lost it."

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area around him, a frown marring his face. "Hinata, I'm going to need you to hook up with Kakashi," he said, turning his head to face her.

"Why?" asked Hinata, looking at him with a slightly furrowed brow.

"Just do as I say, find Kakashi and tell him Akatsuki is in the area," Naruto said before he rushed off, leaving Hinata behind. He sighed in relief as he sensed her leave. Jumping from tree to tree Naruto landed in a small clearing before he stopped. "I suggest that you come out now..." He looked over to a small bush.

"You really have gotten impressive Naruto-kun," a cloaked figure emerged from the bushes and walked towards him. Stopping only a few feet away, the male figure left his head entirely cloaked in shadows so that it was impossible to see his features. "I'm impressed; you've become very famous recently."

"Recently?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I'm pretty sure I've been famous since my part about the war in Kiri got out. But you didn't come for small talk did you Kabuto?" The now identified Kabuto smiled as he lifted his head, revealing the right half of his face.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sasuke frowned as he continued walking. He had been looking around this area for around fifteen minutes. The raven-haired ninja was pondering trying to search a different way than just walking through the forest when he heard rustling behind him, turning around he called out. "Whoever's there, I suggest you come out!"

Less than a minute later a figure with an orange spiral mask, wearing a black cloak with red clouds appeared on a rock. Sasuke's eyes widened ever so slightly, "That outfit! You're Akatsuki!"

"So you're Sasuke-kun huh? You sure do look a lot like Itachi-san!"

The moment Itachi's name came up Sasuke's gaze hardened and he glared at the man making Tobi stumble back before running off screaming, "S…SCARY!"

At that moment Sasuke began to hear what sounded like flapping come from above him, causing him to look up where he found Deidara with his hands together and two clay birds flying towards him. Just before the two large birds hit the ground, Deidara jumped off the one he was on.

"KATSU!" He shouted Deidara as the birds impacted with the ground exploded where Sasuke stood.

Deidara landed near the trees, placing a hand over his head as he looked at the smoke coming out of the crater that he just made, "I did it! I defeated Sasuke, yeah."

Moments later Tobi came out of another tree and praised Deidara. "That's senpai for you!"

However, it only took a moment for the dust and smoke from the explosion to clear up. When it did they both saw Sasuke with a white snake coiled protectively around him protectively. It had slight burns on it, making it obvious that the snake had taken the brunt of the attack.

"That's senpai for you?" Tobi said meekly.

Deidara gained several tic marks on his head as he rounded on Tobi and shouted, "Shut up!"

In a poof of smoke, the snake was gone and there stood Sasuke in the middle of the crater. He didn't say anything, but then, he didn't need to. His glare told them everything. "You know this guy looks kinda strong," Tobi commented.

"To think Orochimaru was beaten by this brat…I just can't believe it, yeah." Sasuke didn't speak, instead, he turned on his Sharingan in order to increase the effects of his glare. "Look at the nice glare he's giving us Tobi, yeah!"

Sasuke stared at them for several seconds before finally opening his mouth to ask, "Where's Itachi Uchiha?"

Deidara seemed surprised by the question and said, "Huh?"

Sasuke eyes bore into the blond bomber's own as he said, "Tell me where Itachi is and I'll let you go." Hearing the raven-haired Uchiha's words made Deidara grit his teeth, the way they sounded so arrogant, like this brat thought he could defeat him.

"Sharingan…eh?" asked Deidara rhetorically. "With those eyes, I guess you really are his little brother. You were probably only able to kill Orochimaru because of your Uchiha blood, without that you're nothing. Your nothing but a fool blessed with good genes."

Sasuke didn't say anything as they gazed into each other's eyes. Then Sasuke burst forward in a burst of speed, moving faster than most people could ever hope to. He placed a hand on his sword as he ran, appearing right in front of the duo he unsheathe his sword and made a slice at Tobi's mid-section.

"Huh?" Tobi said before he fell down to the ground, meanwhile, Deidara had already jumped back up onto a tree branch.

"There, that's one of you dead," Sasuke turned to look at Deidara. "Now I won't ask again, where is Itachi?"

However, while the raven-haired ninja was speaking, Tobi getting back up and shaking his head blearily. "What's up with you, Tobi?" Deidara yelled. "Don't let your guard down just because he's a kid!"

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he turned his head and saw Tobi get back up. What the...I know I hit him, so how did he get back up?

Tobi just waved his arms in a slightly placating gesture, "His Shunshin No Jutsu was just too fast for us to deal with."

Deidara smirked as he pulled his arms of his pockets and shoved them into his clay bags, allowing the mouths on his hands to take in a good mouthful of clay.

'First, I'll watch his movements with chakra level C1.' He thought as he pulled his hands out revealing dozens of small clay balls.

"Tobi! Stay back!" he shouted as he threw the bombs in the air, while the clay made a lazy arc through the air Deidara went through several hand seals, turning the clay into small spiders.

However, they didn't get far as Sasuke made a Chidori in his left hand, swinging his arm in an arc he used one of his variants called the Chidori Senbonto to form countless number of lightning senbon to strike each of the small bombs, pining them to trees and the ground. Several of the spiders hit the ground near Tobi who fell over with a surprised yelp.

As Deidara began making a hand sign to blow them all up, Tobi yelled, "Woah! Senpai, don't detonate these around me!" At that moment Tobi looked behind Deidara and saw something that caused him to call out, "Senpai! Behind you, behind you!"

Behind Deidara was Sasuke, charging towards him. However, before Sasuke could even get too close enough to attack, Deidara threw out his hand, throwing a bomb at Sasuke and making the Uchiha's eyes widen in surprise as it blew up.

"SENPAI!" Tobi yelled as he saw the area Deidara and Sasuke become the fire zone for a decent-sized explosion. Tobi began to make sniffling noises as he bowed his head, "He was strict, but a good partner." he sobbed. "I shall never forget you Deidara-senpai!"

However, before Tobi could begin to really ball his eyes out, Deidara came skidding out from the smoke. The blond man stood back up and turned a glare on the masked man.

"Tobi quit your whining!" he growled out. He stood back up fully and wiped some sweat from his forehead. Deidara knew he had been lucky to get away from the blast relatively unscathed, having been forced to blow up his explosive so close to himself. Though he was sure there was no way Sasuke could survive that.

"Oh, you're still alive!" Tobi exclaimed, looking up, most likely to make some exclamation about his senpai being alive, he spotted Sasuke Uchiha out of the corner of his eyes. Deidara turned his head to see Sasuke standing across the clearing, glaring at him.

I somehow managed to escape by hiding in the bomb blast, damn it's a good thing I kept the chakra level at C1, the blond bomber thought to himself as he looked over at Sasuke. It would have been embarrassing if he had been killed by his own art and this kid hadn't.

"He definitely moves swiftly," Deidara said as he reached into his pouches again, bringing his hands back out he cupped the clay, which looked less than solid as they began to drop out of his hands. Why don't I try something with a little more kick?

The clay landed on the ground and Deidara made a hand sign. There was a large puff of smoke and when it cleared, Sasuke could see a large dragon appear from within. "Oooh! So Deidara-senpai is using one of his special works of art, the C2 dragon!" said Tobi with what sounded like excitement.

So this guy can mold explosive clay using his hands, Sasuke thought as he analyzed the blonds fighting style. Those palms on his hands look like mouths, that's probably where he molds the clay.

"You know what to do Tobi!" Deidara shouted as he jumped on the dragon.

"You got it Senpai!" Tobi shouted, "I've got you covered!"

Deidara made a few hand seals as he shouted to Tobi, "Get ready, Tobi un!" The dragon's mouth opened wide and began spewing out dozens upon dozens of basketball-sized claw balls. "You know what to do Tobi, so get to it!"

"Yes sir!" Tobi saluted to Deidara. Sasuke frowned as he looked at the large creature, if it was like all of the other creations of the blond bomber then that meant it was just one big explosive. Crouching down Sasuke reached behind him and grabbed his sword. He pushed off and burst forward as he pulled his sword from his sheath, getting ready to take out the large creature. "Oooh, he's coming Senpai! Get ready to show him the power of your art!"

"Ha! Pop is dead!" Deidara shouted as he ignored Tobi, "My art is super-flat!"

The dragon opened its mouth again and this time a roughly Pterodactyl shaped clay creature flew out. It came charging towards Sasuke who ran straight at it, jumping to the left in order to dodge at the last second. However, the creature just turned around and came at him. The raven-haired ninja began to run as the clay creation caught up. With a grin, Deidara brought his hands in a hand sign and shouted, "KATSU!"

The creature exploded and Sasuke was only just able to jump out of the way in time, spinning through the air and landing on the ground.

"That was different than the other explosives. Wait, where's the other one?" asked Sasuke as he looked around the orange masked man. Growling slightly he turned his attention back to Deidara, "I'll deal with him later, first I need to get rid of the one that's in the air."

He quickly formed a Chidori in his hand and thrust it towards the large Dragon-like clay construct. The Chidori took the shape of a sword as it extended itself forward, intent on impaling either Deidara or his flying creature. However, it seemed to be unable to reach either of them, stopping a few feet shy.

Hmm, he was only able to extend his attack for about five meters Deidara thought. Out loud he said, "Isn't that Kakashi's attack! I'll give you some credit for your use of shape manipulation to extend its length, that's pretty impressive!"

So he's a long-range fighter, Sasuke dispelled his Chidori and frowned. He's probably already figured out my range too. He would need to find out this guy's weakness if he wanted to beat him.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What do you want Kabuto?" asked Naruto as he glared at the white-haired man before him. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you?" He already knew that he was capable of killing Kabuto, for all the white-haired man's boasting, Naruto was far stronger than he was, and they both knew that.

"Easy," Kabuto made a placating gesture. "I'm not here to fight. In fact, you could say I'm here to help you." Naruto raised an eyebrow; he rolled his shoulders slightly as Kabuto reached into a pouch, ready to take the man out should he try anything.

However, all Kabuto did was pull out a book and toss it to him. "What's this?" asked Naruto, looking at the book with a hint of suspicion.

"Just a little something that will help you, I think," Kabuto said cryptically. "It contains all of the information I was able to pick up on Akatsuki and its members." Not trusting the man's words a Kage Bunshin phased into existence besides Naruto and picked it up, opening the book and reading the first page.

The clone seemed to find no threat in it and handed it over to the real Naruto who took it, before dispelling itself. "Why would you help me?" asked Naruto, his eyes narrowed, "What do you gain out of this?"

"I suppose you can call it a present, Naruto-kun," Kabuto said with an eerie-looking smile.

"You do realize that it's really creepy to receive a gift from a guy you barely know right?" said Naruto, his voice holding a mild amount of sarcasm. "Makes one wonder about you. Now, how about you tell me the real reason you're giving me this information, hmm?"

"Haven't you become the cynical one," said Kabuto, "where did that naïve attitude of yours go? The one that was also screaming about never forgetting his promises and being Hokage."

"He grew up and became the person before you," Naruto said before releasing some of his killing intent, though that didn't seem to affect Kabuto. "Now tell me why you're doing this? What do you hope to gain?"

"As I said, it's a gift," Kabuto replied, "something I'm giving you as a show of respect. You know, ever since Orochimaru was killed I've been without a purpose," Naruto narrowed his eyes at the words, old words he had heard before. "It wasn't long after his death that I realized I don't know anything about myself. I don't know who I am, or where I come from. All I've got are enemies."

"Ever since I was a kid I've just gone from village to village, acting as a spy. The concept of what a home really was eluded me. At least, until Orochimaru-sama took me in...but now he's gone too, and I have no idea who I really am. You should know what that's like, Naruto-kun, the pain of not having an identity. Are you Naruto Uzumaki, or are you the Kyuubi? Surely you must have wondered, ask questions, who am I? What am I? When others stared at you with cold hateful eyes."

Naruto said nothing as he stared at the man, wondering just where he was going with this. "But you never let that get to you. You grew powerful, powerful enough that you are now one of the most feared men in the world. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, the Nidaime Kiroii Senkou. You stepped out of the shadow of the Kyuubi and now you're looked up to in Konoha, you have friends and learned who you really are."

Kabuto reached up and pulled his hood back from his face, though he kept a profile view so that Naruto still could not see the left side of his face. "But I never did that, I never tried to surpass Orochimaru-sama. I simply clung to him, hiding behind his power. So you see, I understand how you feel and it's made me realize that I want to be like you."

It was then that Kabuto turned to Naruto and finally showed him the left side of his face. "And now I've decided to find a new me. One that surpasses Orochimaru-sama and I've started by integrating his soul into my body! You gave me the first hint I needed, to find myself a new identity. And for that, you have my gratitude, Naruto-kun. Orochimaru-sama was a living symbol of reincarnation, and now he lives inside of me as the existence I must surpass."

For the longest time, Naruto stared at the white haired man who had put him through more trouble than he was worth. He gazed at the other half of Kabuto that looked like he had skinned Orochimaru and grafted it onto his face. After what seemed like several minutes but in truth was only a few seconds Naruto began to laugh, he laughed long and hard.

"Are you... are you serious!" his sides heaved slightly with his uncontrollable laughter. "You honestly think you understand me?" Wiping a tear from his eye Naruto sighed before his eyes suddenly went cold.

"You know nothing about me! You may think you understand, but from what you just said, you really know nothing! I've always known who I was, unlike some people I never doubted myself when it came to who I was. Sure when I was a kid I hid myself from others, I was afraid of the looks people gave me, the hatred I saw in their eyes. But I never once doubted that I was anyone other than myself, because if I felt doubt, then it would have the same thing as admitting defeat!"

"And everything I've done up to this point is because of all of my hard work; shedding blood, sweat, and tears to get to this point. And you?" Naruto scoffed, "you've just grafted Orochimaru's cells to your DNA, you're not surpassing him you're becoming him. It's the most pathetic thing I've ever seen!"

"To each, their own I guess," Kabuto shrugged, "well whatever. I just came to give you that. However, know that when I've fully integrated Orochimaru-sama's cells into my body, I'll be coming back to fight you as a test for my abilities." He made a hand seal and his form began to waver, "Until we meet again, Naruto-kun."

Naruto watched as the white-haired man disappeared, he stared for the longest time before shrugging and heading back into the trees.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Heh," Deidara smirked. He made a hand seal and the dragon's tail contracted slightly before its mouth opened, from the opening was another Pterodactyl creature. "You may be good but my art packs a punch!"

The clay construct shot from the mouth of the dragon and flew towards Sasuke. Said Uchiha jumped out of the way just as the creature hit the ground, creating a large explosion and a cloud of dust, of which Sasuke just flew out of.

"You're just as fast as I expected," Deidara said with a large grin. He watched as Sasuke stepped on the ground, only for his foot to sink in, "Gotcha." There was another explosion coming from where Sasuke stepped. As Deidara flew overhead he looked into the dust and smoke his art had caused, "I wonder if I killed him?"

The smoke soon began to clear, letting him know he spoke too soon.

"What is this?" he asked as he saw Sasuke, only he looked different. The raven-haired ninja's skin had turned dark-grey and his hair grew and turned dark blue. His eyes were also dark grey. Additionally, he had grown webbed-claw-shaped wings from his back, and a dark, star-shaped mark appeared across the bridge of his nose. "I wonder if that's Orochimaru's cursed seal I heard so much about?"

Just then Tobi's head burst out of the ground, "Senpai! The clay mines are all set!"

"Well done Tobi!" Deidara yelled from his spot on the dragon, "Now get away from there!"

"Ok!" Tobi shouted as he waved to Deidara.

Sasuke swore as he looked up at Deidara, He's using guided bombs from above and clay mines below.

Above him, Deidara was smirking, "C2 restricts your movement with mines, allowing me to make pinpoint attacks from the sky. That's the beauty of this combo's attack. You probably know this by now, but there are mines packed all around your feet. One wrong step and you'll blow yourself up!"

So he's trying to make sure his bombs will hit by restricting my movements, Sasuke thought to himself. He looked up and glared at the blond bomber, and he's keeping himself out of the range of my attacks.

Deidara grinned as he made a hand sign, "I wonder, can you dodge all of my attacks from above with those injured feet of yours un?"

Once again the large dragon opened its mouth and another clay creation was formed, "This next one will be big, un!" Sasuke watched as the clay creation, much larger than the other ones created so far was being formed. His wings tensed; an action which didn't go unnoticed by Deidara, "Think I'll let you fly away?"

The large clay creature shot forward, barreling towards Sasuke who had taken a scroll out from his back. The explosion from the clay bomb was much bigger than the others, and it created a large mushroom cloud of smoke. From within the smoke came the sword Sasuke had been using, spinning as it made a lazy arc through the air before landing tip first in the ground, occasionally sparking with electricity.

"Heh," Deidara smirked when he saw Sasuke lying on the ground, he was injured, missing one of his wings. "It looks like you managed to protect yourself with one of those wings, but with only the one you can't fly anymore."

Tobi got up from where he had been thrown and shook his fist, "That's Deidara-senpai for you!"

"I'll put an end to this one, un!" the blond bomber made another hand seal and another creature came out from the dragon, this one even bigger than the last. Sasuke looked at it and decided to put his plan into action, pulling on the two strings of ninja wire he had. Deidara's eyes widened before he turned to look behind him and saw two windmill shuriken flying towards him. He directed his clay dragon to dodge the attacks and grinned as he turned back to Sasuke, "Did you really think something like that could hit me?"

The dragon launched another creature from its mouth, this one even larger than the last and Sasuke knew he had to move. Pumping chakra through himself he jumped out of the way and tried to glide across the ground. Deidara smirked when he saw that and made a hand seal, you have no foothold. If you fall anywhere in that minefield you'll be blown to shit!

However, much to Deidara's surprise, if the widening of his one visible eye was anything to go by, Sasuke landed on the sword that was still stuck in the ground. The raven-haired ninja's left hand began to crackle with electricity as he used one foot to stand on the sword. Just as the explosive hit the ground and blew up, he jumped into the air and thrust out his hand, piercing one of the creature's wings. Gritting his teeth Sasuke used his Chidori blade to slice the clay dragon's wings off.

"Ah! Deidara-senpai's losing his balance!" Tobi shouted in surprise as the blond bomber's clay creation began tilting to the right as it felt.

"Damn it un!" Deidara cursed as he used chakra to stick to the creature, "He purposely stuck his sword into the ground so he wouldn't have to worry about the mines! He tested the presence for landmines and created a foothold!"

A look of shock came to the blonde's face, The length of the sword, which he used as a foothold, and that jump using his single wing. And he used that position on the ground and then used that attack with the shuriken to lure me so that I was directly above the sword. The shortest distance that a chakra sword would reach –

Deidara's thoughts were cut off as Sasuke sent the two shuriken sailing towards him from behind. The blond only had enough time to look back before they were on him and he was impaled through both arms.

"Senpai!" Tobi shouted as he saw what happened.

Damn, I can't move! Deidara thought as he tried to move his arms. He grits his teeth as his clay dragon continued to fall, This isn't good! The landmines are directly below me! The dragon hit the ground, setting off the landmines which began to blow up one by one, the explosions increasing in speed and frequency until the entire thing looked like one giant explosion that created a large mushroom cloud of smoke.

Tobi was forced to cover his face as dirt and debris flew everywhere. When the explosions ended he looked back and shouted, "Senpai!"

As Sasuke fell through the air he managed to flip himself around, at the same time going through several hand seals before he thrust out his left hand. Snakes were created and launched from his back, wrapping tightly around a tree and pulling him over to it so he landed in a crouch on the adjacent branch. As soon as he landed the second stage curse mark moved back into the seal, leaving him looking like he usually did.

From within the dust cloud, Deidara's Akatsuki cloak flew out, getting Tobi to look at it and shout, "You did die by bombing, after all! Deidara-senpai, you fool!" Just as Tobi said that Deidara flew out from the smoke on a large clay bird, both his arms were bleeding profusely. "Oh! Y-you're still alive!"

Sasuke grunted as he stood up and looked at Deidara, his Sharingan eyes glaring up at the blond, "Stubborn ass."

Deidara on the other hand was glaring at Sasuke, remembering how he had just barely escaped his death by placing his feet in the holes on the shuriken and pushing them off. "You…stupid brat!" he growled, looking into Sasuke's Sharingan eyes. Those eyes, he thought angrily, those eyes are the same as Itachi's!

He remembered how he had first gotten forced into Akatsuki. He had been doing his job of creating his art when Akatsuki had come to convince him to join them. He had refused at first, and then Itachi, that red-eyed bastard had challenged him. Deidara had figured it would be easy; he had even caught Itachi in his trap. Only to find out he had been the one in Itachi's trap the whole time, everything had been a genjutsu, and he had lost just like that. Itachi had beaten so easily.

It made him furious! And now this brat was looking at him with those same eyes!

"Don't mess with me!" Deidara shouted, "I'm better than you!" He remembered how easily Sasuke had defeated his spiders, "My ability is flawless! Unbeatable!" he remembered how Sasuke had gone through his clay people, "I'm better than you! I can't lose!" He remembered how Sasuke had led him right into a trap. But worst off, I can't lose to such a," he remembered those eyes. "brat!"

Reaching into his pouch Deidara pulled out a large hand full of clay and began to eat it. "Eh!" Tobi said as he raised a hand over his head to shield his eyes, "he's eating the clay? Then that means…is he really going to use that?"

When Deidara had finished eating the clay he grinned and held his hands in a hand seal, "I saved the best for last! With this jutsu, I'll kill you! Tobi, getaway!" the blond began to inhale a deep breath.

"Yikes!" Tobi shouted as he began to jump through the trees, "It's the C4 Kurara!"

Sasuke tensed as he prepared for any attack Deidara could throw at him. What he was not prepared for, however, was the blond bomber to begin spewing out clay by the bucket load. It came out in a steady stream, hitting the ground and growing, molding, being given form, then shape, then color. When at last the clay had finished forming it was a giant clay figure in the likeness of Deidara himself. The large clay construct actually sent a thrill of fear through Sasuke.

"This was supposed to be my trump card for Itachi," Deidara huffed, having used a lot of his chakra for this. "But I suppose I don't have much of a choice but to use it on you."

Is this a bomb! Sasuke wondered in shock, his teeth grit as he realized what that would mean. It's huge! I've never seen anything like it! If this goes off I can't see any way I would survive!

Just then the large clay Deidara noticed him and began moving, its feet leaving large craters as it walked towards the raven-haired ninja. "What is this! Are you just gonna start running away!" asked Deidara with a laugh. "You don't really think you can escape my C4 Kurara do you!" The clay Deidara broke into the tree line, smashing all the trees in its way as it followed Sasuke.

Deidara grinned as he clamped his hands together in an unrecognizable hand sign, causing the large clay clone to inflate. It swelled like a balloon, expanding and expanding until it bursts. But not in a large explosion like Sasuke thought it would, there was a large white cloud of smoke as the clay bomb began to tear itself apart.

Did it misfire? Sasuke thought, looking from where the bomb had been standing to Deidara. No…that can't it be, he doesn't strike me as the type to use a dud.

Just then Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw something happening.

All of the creatures in the forest were beginning to disintegrate! They broke apart, disappearing as if they had never existed. Sasuke gaped when he noticed his own arm beginning to fall apart. "Damn!" Sasuke said as it began to spread, his arm was gone; his torso was beginning to disappear, along with the left side of his face. His eyes were wide until his entire body was gone.

Deidara saw what happened and began to laugh, "Hahaha! Now, this! This is my greatest masterpiece!"

"The C4 Kurara," Tobi said as he jumped onto another branch, "extremely small, nano-sized explosives. Using the blast created from the rupturing Deidara bomb created millions of tiny explosives too small for the human eye to see. They were then dispersed throughout the atmosphere, going into any living being that inhaled them and setting thousands of tiny explosions inside of the body, destroying them on the cellular level. A truly frightening jutsu."

Deidara looked around, moving his hair out of his face with a large grin, "I have to thank Itachi. I would have never come up with that jutsu were it not for him."

Laughing the blond threw his hands into the air, "I've won! I've won! My art wo-" he didn't get the chance to finish as he felt something. Looking behind him he saw Sasuke in his second cursed seal form coming at him with a Chidori in hand.

Deidara grit his teeth as Sasuke's lightning-covered hand drove itself through his torso. "Looks like you've run out of chakra," the raven-haired ninja said, "your reaction time has also slowed down."

"Those…eyes," Deidara muttered.

"That's right," Sasuke said, "Those explosives may be too small for the human eye to see. But my Sharingan can distinguish a chakra type by its color. The mini-bombs that were molded with your chakra, were as clear to me as a cloud of smoke." A smirk made its way to Sasuke's face, "I could also tell you were hovering just outside of its blast radius. So as long as I could see the explosives, escape was easy."

Deidara grunted as he closed one of his eyes in pain, "But I saw you die from my explosives."

"You saw only what I wanted you to see," Sasuke said, making Deidara realize he had been trapped inside of a genjutsu.

Deidara chuckled, "So I was trapped inside of an illusion."

"I've avoided hitting any vital organs," Sasuke continued, ignoring Deidara's words. "Now tell me where Itachi is."

"That's why I said I have to thank Itachi," Deidara said, no longer sounding like he was in pain. A hand suddenly latched onto Sasuke's ankle and the Uchiha looked down to see Deidara grinning at him. He looked back towards the "Deidara" he had stabbed and saw that it was just a clay construct.

"A clay…clone?" said Sasuke in surprise.

"Hmmm," Deidara laughed, "I anticipated your use of genjutsu. You're just like Itachi! I never fall for the same trick twice!" Ever since I fought Itachi that day I trained my left eye to counter the Sharingan! "And now it's time to end this for real! Eat my C4!"

Sasuke grit his teeth as the Deidara holding him spat out more clay that was molded into another Deidara. This one began to expand, Sasuke tried pulling his arm from the other clone to no affect, as the clay had hardened to the point his strength didn't do anything. The expanding Deidara pushed into Sasuke, covering and smashing him until he was actually inside of the clone. Sasuke tried to escape but clay began to wrap around his arms and legs, making it impossible for any of his limbs to move.

On the outside Deidara bit of the clay, he had been molding. He grinned as he held on to the round construct, "It looks like you're the one who's lacking chakra! You don't even have the strength left to dodge, un!" The blond pushed himself off of his construct and smiled.

Inside Sasuke's Sharingan saw the thousands of tiny explosives attached to the wall, "I see."

"Inside is the same invisible C4 explosives!" Deidara shouted as if Sasuke could hear him. Reaching into his pouch he grabbed more clay; the mouth on his hand began to mold it and spat out a tiny bird. My wounds are beginning to catch up to me, Deidara thought with a frown. He looked down, on top of that, my last combo used up the last of my chakra. What a poor piece of work. Grunting, he threw the small bird at the clay that Sasuke was trapped in.

Inside of the clay, Sasuke used his Sharingan eyes to see all of the foreign chakras of the nano-bombs inside of his body. Grunting, he created another Chidori to cut his way out of the clay ball.

"What do you think you can do!" Shouted Deidara as he held up a single-hand sign. Sasuke's answer was to open up his single-wing, halting himself in mid-air, all the while his hand was still sparking with his Chidori. A flap of his wing and Sasuke was off, soaring towards Deidara.

Damn, he's using what's left of his chakra to form that Chidori! Deidara thought before smirking, "Your Chidori won't reach me at this distance! It's over! Katsu!" Deidara fell to the ground, hitting the branches on the way down before he smacked into the dirt. Grunting he pushed his head up and looked over to see Sasuke's wings falling to pieces before his eyes. "I win. I'm the winner!" grinning he pushed himself to a single knee, "My art has triumphed!"

Grunting he stood up and smiled as he began to laugh. Before he could start to really celebrate, however, he felt the effects of a genjutsu, "No! why!" he turned around just in time to see a normal Sasuke before he was hit in the face.

Deidara was sent flying several feet away from Sasuke, skidding and tumbling along the ground before coming to a stop. Sasuke panted, looking like he had been put through a blender; he was missing his right sandal, scratches, cuts, and burns were covering his body and he could tell he was on his last leg.

Deidara grunted as he pushed himself into a sitting position, "How? How did you do it! How did you disarm my C4?"

"I figured it out a while back," Sasuke said, "when facing the Sharingan it's prudent to hide your hand seals because no matter how fast you are, these eyes will read them. Every jutsu you've used has been Doton jutsu. My Chidori is a Raiton attack…get it now?"

"I see," Deidara grit his teeth, "then that jutsu you used was to…"

"That's right," Sasuke interrupted, "Doton is weak against Raiton. I used the lightning my style generated to negate the effects of your bombs. After all, that's your style's weakness."

Deidara gasped, "I see…that Raikiri you used earlier was to run it through yourself. It enabled you to unarm the C4 that had been running through your body."

"That's right," Sasuke smirked, "thanks to that my body is in tatters. Although, the correct name for my jutsu is Chidori."

He figured out the weakness of my art in such a short amount of time, Deidara thought with his teeth gritted angrily. And so accurately too… "When did you figure it out? When did you discover my art's weakness?"

"When your first landmine blew up," Sasuke admitted, "although, I've been analyzing your style from the very beginning, ever since I countered your attack with my Chidori Senbon. Among the bombs you created, some exploded and some didn't. That's when I first formulated my hypothesis. The only bomb that actually exploded was the one you used when I attacked you, the one my Chidori senbon hadn't pierced. However, I figured it was also possible for you to have not triggered them because they fell close to your comrade."

Deidara panted, "In other words, you weren't sure if they didn't detonate. I see… so that's why you tested those two alternatives on the landmines?"

"Exactly." Sasuke stood up a little straighter, "I figured if the landmines were self-triggered, then your will was not involved. So I could test my theory to see if my Raiton jutsu could disarm your bombs." Deidara's eyes widened and Sasuke said, "That's right. That time I stuck my sword into the ground I wasn't verifying the location of the landmines, I ran through them with my Chidori running through the sword in order to confirm my theory."

"But…but how! How could you pinpoint the location of the landmines so easily!" yelled Deidara.

Sasuke smirked, "These eyes distinguish chakra by its color. Didn't I tell you that earlier?"

Deidara's eyes widened as he realized he had been played a fool this whole time. "But what would have happened if my landmine had detonated!"

"Well, I figured it either would or it wouldn't. But if it did, I had a backup plan," Sasuke stated, feeling arrogant at the way this man cowered before him, "Although, I didn't get the chance to demonstrate it." Feeling confident Sasuke began to walk forward, Deidara tried to get up only to fall. He stopped several feet from the blond bomber, "Now I won't ask again, where is, Itachi?"

Deidara's answer was to launch clay snakes from his hands, they latched onto Sasuke but a quick burst of ration chakra destroyed them. However, doing so used up the last of Sasuke's chakra and he too fell onto his knees.

Deidara began to smirk, "You may be trying to look all badass, but I can tell your chakra is also running drastically low. But I still have enough clay to…" he trailed off as he noticed that Sasuke seemed unconcerned. "Shouldn't you at least be panicking?" he looked into the teen's eyes and glared at what he found. "That's what pisses me off so much! The way you try to act so coolly and unconcerned about what's going on! You think you're better than me! Better than my art! It pisses me off!"

In response, Sasuke turned off his Sharingan and Deidara glared even more. "So you're disengaging your Sharingan huh? You really are taking me lightly, aren't you!"

The blond bomber ripped off his shirt, revealing an area over his heart with an odd seal and stitches on it. Using a hand he pulled off the stitches, while his other went to grab the last of his clay. The stitches came undone and Sasuke was surprised to see that they had been holding together another mouth. Deidara grinned as he let the mouth on his chest eat the clay, and as he did black lines began to form along his body and his skin turned gray.

"This is my ultimate art," Deidara said, "I will detonate myself and with my death, I will become art!"

This guy's insane! Sasuke thought.

"This never-before-seen explosion will leave a never-before-seen scar on the land," Deidara said. "And my art will earn never-before-seen admiration! And in the midst of this admiration, you will die!" Sasuke tried to get up but all he managed to accomplish was to fall on his side. "An explosion that will cover a ten-kilometer radius! You won't be able to get away!" By now Deidara had become nearly transparent, only the black lines, his hair, and eyes were visible. "Now suffer and despair! Scream! My art is…" all of the lines began moving towards the center of Deidara's chest to form a ball, "AN EXPLOSION!"

A white beam of light shot out from Deidara, blasting into the sky as the blond bomber was consumed. It spread out from the center, annihilating everything in its path. Soon the explosion took the shape of a large white dome with a pointed tip and two points on either side.

XXXXXXXXXX

The explosion was seen by everyone in the area, including the Konoha ninja. Naruto frowned as he tried to sense out the chakra, he wasn't a sensor type but he had learned to differentiate chakra he had felt before. He recognized this signature as the one who had belonged to Deidara, the bomber that he thought he killed in Suna.

"I wonder how he survived?" Naruto said to himself, his eyes narrowed. "If he's fighting then it's either one of us or Sasuke."

Putting on a burst of speed Naruto tore into the tree line and began to travel towards the explosion.