52. Guilty Conscience

Deidara lay in his new double bed, his untied hair sprawled carelessly out across the pillow as he stared into the nothingness that was the ceiling with those piercing blue eyes of his. To the average person it would appear that he was just plainly staring but the clockwork that his mind was doing right now was immense.

Deidara's heart had been filled with guilt all night long due to his troubled thoughts of Tila and he had barely slept a wink last night. He contemplated whether or not he should tell Sasori about what happened after he'd passed away, how would his Danna react though?

His feelings for Tila hadn't changed since the last time he saw her.. But he had a hunch that things would be different now that Sasori had returned..

Or would it? Deidara questioned himself, the stress of arguing with himself mentally was tiering so Deidara let out a long sigh and quickly got up. He had made up his mind, now hastily beginning to get ready and leaving his room. Destination, to find Sasori. He knew that Sasori was truly the only one he could talk to about his internal affliction.

___________________________

"Sasori!"

Knock, knock.

"Danna! You there? Un"

.....

Hm.

Deidara backed away from Sasori's bedroom door and headed down for the spiralling flight of stairs towards the training room which was located on the first floor. As he entered he saw Sasori lying down on his back in the middle of the training room floor.

"Sasori my man, what're you doing, Hm?" He questioned as he slowly approached and decided to take a seat beside him. Sasori merely cracked open one eye revealing a beautiful beige iris then closed it again.

"Tila used to do this all the time, thought I'd give it a try" Sasori replied. Deidara was a little surprised by his response but after a moments pause and contemplation Deidara lay down beside Sasori and closed his eyes.

"Danna, I need to tell you something, un." Deidara said slowly.

"What is it Deidara?" Sasori asked, eyes still shut tight as he lay still beside his comrade.

"After you left.. Tila.. was a complete mess," Deidara explained, his voice but a whisper.

"I know.. If I could take it back I would Deidara." Sasori replied hesitantly.

"I looked after her when you left Danna.. you know, I can see why you liked her," Deidara gave a small chuckle.

Sasori slowly sat up and nudged Deidara who was still lying down. Deidara opened his eyes back up at the nudge of his shoulder and realised Sasori was now giving him a questioning look.

"What do you mean?" Sasori asked, Deidara slowly sat up too and thought carefully about his next words.

"After you left, I fell for her Danna," He explained. To his surprise Sasori's lips broke Into a small mischievous smile.

"I'm grateful that you took care of her, but don't think I'm going to let you have her that easily," Sasori mused, his beige eyes that connected with Deidara's crystal blue ones teased.

"We'll see about that, hm. I'll fight you for her yeah?" Deidara broke out into a smirk and then he stood up.

"You don't stand a chance Deidara, don't kid yourself," Sasori replied sounding quite amused as he too stood and faced Deidara as though impending an attack. The two eyed each other playfully for a moment before Sasori summoned a puppet an Deidara took out some clay.

"Maybe some training would come in handy seeing as we've been out of the game for a while, Hm." Deidara said, Sasori nodded.

___________________________

Sasori and Deidara continued to train undisturbed until midday, Kakuzu and Hidan had both walked in and seen Sasori and Deidara fiercely fighting each other while yelling out smarmy comments.

"You two really should've figured out your differences by now," Kakuzu's deep voice was heard by Deidara and Sasori making them both stop in their tracks.

"You and Hidan are best friends now are you?" Sasori asked sarcastically, now proofing away his puppet.

"Sheesh, no need to get nasty Sasori. Kakuzu and I aren't anywhere near as fucking annoying as you two with your shitty art obsessions," Hidan laughed and hit Kakuzu on the shoulder playfully.

Kakuzu sent Hidan a dangerous look which made him stop laughing and retract his hand. Sasori and Deidara both came a little closer to the immortals.

"So, you two going to train before tonight? Hm." Deidara asked curiously.

"Fuck that, we've got more important things to do. We're heading down to the village to pick up some hearts for Kakuzu and I'm itching to kill something," Hidan explained to the art lovers.

"At least Danna and I aren't as weird as the pair of you yeah..." Deidara muttered under his breath as he eyed Hidan and Kakuzu.

Hidan and Kakuzu took no notice of the bombers remark and made their way to the descending staircase that would lead them outside.

Sasori and Deidara disappeared out of sight as Kakuzu and Hidan both hastily made their way down the long flight of stairs, Kakuzu was a little annoyed that Hidan had suggested they walked instead of jumping off the balcony as to not draw attention to themselves but continued anyways until they reached the absolute bottom floor.

"Well, where the fuck should we start?" Hidan asked Kakuzu as they both walked out into the dismally rainy and dark clouded day.

"On the outskirts, we're lucky Konan didn't make us go any further." Kakazu huffed, Hidan shrugged and they both started to walk through the near empty village streets - they passed many shops and tall buildings on the way..

The hidden rain surely was the most developed village in terms of high rises buildings. Sure enough as soon as the immortals had both reached the fence line they spotted a distant building which resembled an inn and they both exchanged a look of contempt.

___________________________

Meanwhile in the local rain village grocery shop Kisame and Itachi were both walking down an isle pushing a grocery cart along with them as they looked for supplies to fill the bare pantry with.

"How much rice should we get?" Kisame asked Itachi as he held up a kilo bag of rice.

"It's fairly cheap at the moment, get 5 bags" He replied. They both filled the cart then continued to walk casually as they grazed over what the store had to offer.

"Itachi, do you think our mission will be successful?" Kisame asked inquisitively as he casually took a bottle of soy sauce from the shelf and placed it in the cart.

"I'm not sure, Madara is a dangerous Shinobi. What worries me more is what will happen if we do manage get Tila back" Itachi replied as he continued to push the cart down the long isle.

"Yes, you also were quite close with her before you let your younger brother kill you" Kisame grinned.

"Hm. She was in a very fragile state by then and I only wanted to make sure she was alright" Itachi said before frowning slightly.

"Well, I suppose time will only tell how things will unfold," Kisame teased, Itachi gave him a faint smile. Itachi continued to wonder about what would happen if they ever were to recover Tila - he too was worried and couldn't shake the feeling that it may already be too late.

___________________________

Konan sat alone with her head rested down on the meeting room table, she was feeling anxious about the mission. She raised her head and looked out the window and noticed that night was going to fall soon so she stood up and went to see if everyone was ready to leave.

As she entered the kitchen she saw that Itachi and Kisame had just finished packing up the pantry with groceries, Hidan and Deidara were slumped at the kitchen table, Kakuzu was just putting away a wad of cash in his pocket and Sasori was writing something on a piece of paper whilst sitting across from Hidan.

"Is everyone ready?" Konan asked as she attempted to gain the groups attention. Sasori quickly stood up and strode over to her.

"I've been thinking over the plan," Sasori announced, addressing everyone who was now looking over in their direction, "I say our best option is to blow the place up, draw Madara out- Kakuzu, Deidara and I keep him busy while Itachi and Kisame search for Tila."

"What the hell am I doing then?" Asked Hidan sounding a little offended.

"You and Konan will grab all of our stuff and put them into scrolls" Sasori replied.

"I think Sasori's idea is a good one," Konan said from beside him.

"Fine, I have no qualms with this plan. Let's just get going, we've dragged this out long enough." Kakuzu deep voice echoed over the room.

"Let's go then." Kisame grinned as he stood up.

___________________________

Everyone made their way to the balcony on the 2nd floor and in one massive sweep everyone had jumped. Kakuzu and Hidan slid down the side of the building - Hidan had a massive grin as he cackled In excitement at the rush of air whipping through his cloak.

Deidara summoned a clay bird and rode upon it beside his free falling comrades. Sasori and Konan had both connected their feet along the wall and were running down it at a fast pace.

And Itachi couldn't help but to chuckle at Kisame as he started to do summersaults in the air as he fell down - eventually they reached the streets of the village below and set off into night.

__________________________

Eventually the members found themselves standing just outside the entrance to their old hideout.

"This is it, un." Deidara muttered to himself hastily under his breath as he grabbed out a big wad of explosive clay and started to chew it.

"Remember the plan, we need to draw Madara out first." Sasori said to the others, a few nodded. Everyone watched Deidara as he opened up his palm to reveal his final product.

It was a large oval shaped penguin. Deidara expanded it and then threw it at the enormous boulder.

.....

"Katsu!"

BOOOOOOM.

Rubble and large pieces of rock flew everywhere! Kakuzu dodged massive piece as it flew past. Everyone continued to watch in silence for their target to appear. Moments later everyone watched as massive Susano erupted from amongst the rubble.

"If you think you can oppose me then your surely mistaken." Madara's voice called from inside the huge Susano. Deidara quickly hopped on top of his clay bird and started to circle Madara from above.

Kakuzu ripped of his cloak and released his masked buddies who now stood fiercely beside him. Sasori summoned his most prized puppet - the third Kazekage and readied himself for a truly heated battle. While all of this was takin place, Hidan, Konan, Kisame and Itachi edged over to the side out of Madara's line of sight.

They quietly but quickly made their way into the base, using the commotion of the beginning of battle as their cover. Hidan blasted some rocks out of the way then the four members made their way onto what was left of the old training room.

"We should meet back here as soon as possible" Konan said to Itachi and Kisame before parting ways. Itachi nodded and him and Kisame hurriedly ran down the corridor in which leaders office was down. Kisame kicked in the door hard and it fell of it's hinges completely and smashed into the opposite wall.

"It's behind this bookcase." Kisame said as he ripped the bookcase off the wall. To Itachi's surprise, as soon as the bookcase had fallen to the floor a full length door was reviled.

"I can't sense anything" Itachi told Kisame, but Kisame ignored his words and proceeded to kick out the old wonky door before them. They ran down the hall into the dark. Itachi's Sharingun fully active so that all that could be seen was the glimmer of red eyes.

"Here." Itachi suddenly said and the two of them stopped. This time Itachi forcefully kicked down a door and a dimly lit room appeared before them. They both stepped inside and looked down at the blood stains on the floor but to their dismay the room was otherwise empty.

"We're too late" Itachi said as his heart sunk in an impending doom.

"Let's keep looking." Kisame pressed so they continued to scour the entire cavern.

___________________________

Meanwhile..

Konan and Hidan had finally finished packing away the last of Kakuzu's things and were now hastily making their way back to the training room when they heard a loud BANG from outside. They exchanged looks but kept running down the corridor.

By the sounds of it the fight outside was becoming intense and Konan and Hidan had picked up on this and didn't waste anytime in reaching the training room. As they ran through the archway they stopped and saw Itachi and Kisame appear instantly through the other corridor.

"We couldn't find her" Kisame yelled out to them over the noise of fighting from outside.

"Then let's get the fuck out of here!" Hidan yelled back although not really wanting to leave.

The room suddenly shook violently and rocks started to cave in from the roof, the four Akatsuki members quickly made their way back out into the open air of the night. At that moment they simultaneously saw an epic sight high up in the air.

Madara's massive Susano was taking blows from Deidara's huge explosions which looked like fireworks as he attacked from above! Kakuzu's masked buddies flew around circling the Susano expelling flamethrowers and jolts of lightning.

Sasori's master puppetry was highly on display as the iron sand of the third Kazekage had formed massive pieces of iron blocks and shot themselves at Madara in an unwavering way. But, for some reason the enormous amount of damage that should have been made wasn't happening. Madara continued to try and hit away the multiple attacks.

"Hey! Let's get the fuck out of here!"Hidan screamed out very loudly grabbing Kakuzu, Sasori and Deidara's attention.

Right then and there Deidara let of an enormous explosion. The land they stood on shook violently and a large white blinding light shone.

The three who were fighting quickly retreated - the flash and destruction from the explosion covering their tracks and before Madara could see the Akatsuki had disappeared into the night as quickly as they had appeared.

___________________________

Not far away from the place where the Akatsuki members had ambushed the hideout sat a hooded figure deep in the forest upon a large cold stone. This hooded figure which was shrouded by the darkness of the night held a near lifeless girls frame in their arms.