A/N: I’m sorry this took so long, everyone. I’m a horrible, lazy person…I’ve been out of school since the beginning of May, but I haven’t taken the time to update this. Updates will likely be quite sporadic, but I do intend to finish this fic. It’s all planned out down to the last detail, so it should be pretty concise. The way things are, there are going to be 11 chapters total, though with a bit of re-working there might be 12.

Please understand that I know some of you have questions about this fic, and they’re quite valid, but they will probably be answered through the course of the fanfic. I like to reveal things slowly, so there should be a few questions in your mind. So, if I don’t give you a straight answer on something, that’s why.

Oh, by the way…Who noticed that I called the whole Dei and Ita rivalry before it was even mentioned in the manga? That’s right. I’m made of awesome. :D

Sleep would not come. There were many factors this could be blamed on, ranging from the hardness of the ground to the bitter cold of the night air, but Sakura knew those were miniscule compared to the real reason. This was her first night sleeping as a captive, having spent the previous one knocked out, and her mind was racing with the worst of thoughts. During the day she was considerably distracted, but here, somewhat alone in the darkness of the night, she was left with only her thoughts.

At first, she felt like she was having a panic attack as the full weight of her situation fell upon her, pressing hard on her chest. Her eyes straining wide, she had curled herself into the fetal position, but not because it was so cold outside. The situation was bad, and out here, alone in the night, that was the only thought she was left with. She wanted to cry so much, but she wouldn’t allow herself to. Not again.

With her face burning up from the tears she refused to spill, and her stomach souring, Sakura sat up, attempting to calm herself with deep breaths. She felt helpless, and she hated that feeling. It made her feel twelve-years-old again, the worthless kunoichi of Team 7. Letting out a quiet sort of moan, she pulled her feet up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees as she fought back the sobs.

She knew that if she didn’t figure something out, a lot of people were going to die. Knowing Naruto, he would obey the directions of the Akatsuki not because he was one to take orders from the enemy, but because he would know that the village wouldn’t allow him to go it alone. With a shadow clone living in his place as long as it would last, he would have enough time to race towards his certain demise without anyone knowing his plan. Naruto might have been strong, but so were the Akatsuki, and they far outnumbered him.

Even if he did bring the others, knowingly or otherwise, Konohagakure wasn’t about to send an entire army along with him for stealth reasons. What was more, the entire Akatsuki organization would be there, as back up, in case Naruto didn’t come alone. Sakura knew her supposed rescuers would be doomed.

A few years ago, that knowledge would have made her fall apart at the seams, sobbing uncontrollably in fear. Yet that was back when she was a child, depending on others to save the day, and Sakura was determined that she was no longer that girl. The idea that everything rested on her shoulders was certainly scary, but she knew it was up to her to save the day.

Shivering against the night air, Sakura began to form a few plans of escape in mind, though all three had a very slim chance of success. Being bound to Deidara, especially on such a tight leash, made escape depressingly difficult to accomplish, but she couldn’t call herself the apprentice of the Hokage if she didn’t at least try.

She was so absorbed in her plotting that she didn’t catch the movement behind her, nor the hand clasping over her mouth. Sakura tensed at once, screaming against the hand.

“Shut up, yeah,” a voice hissed into her ear, and it was then that Sakura realized just how closely he had his body pressed to hers…and remembered that the hand placed over her mouth had a mouth of its own, complete with an oversized tongue and jagged teeth. Panic mode was setting in once more as her mind raced with all of the awful things she imagined were about to happen to her. Sakura began to squirm violently, shouting muffled curses at the blonde. It might have been hopeless, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.

“I said shut up!” He barked a little more loudly into her ear, just as a kunai went flying by Sakura’s right cheek.

A rescue party? Already? That meant that Deidara and Tobi didn’t yet have the added protection of the other Akatsuki members. It also meant that Sakura had a much better chance of getting away. It was almost too good to be true…and it was.

“Headhunters,” Deidara informed her as he pushed them both to the ground. The hand fell away from Sakura’s mouth, but she no longer felt the need to continue screaming after the recent turn of events. If they were headhunters, then that meant that they would have no interest in saving her. In fact, their interest might lie in her demise as well. Still, a small part of her was hoping to see the spiked gray hair of her former sensei emerging from the trees, proving Deidara wrong and assuring her rescue.

Instead of the handsome face of Kakashi, a foreign figure suddenly became visible by means of the moonlight streaking through the trees. He wasn’t very clear at this distance, but Sakura still knew at once that it was no one she knew. The little hope she had that Deidara had been mistaken was extinguished.

“Stay down,” Deidara commanded, getting onto his feet. She could hear a small rustling above her, telling her that the artist was going for the tools of his trade. Sakura hoped against hope that he could keep the battle somewhat long-ranged, as being tethered to an explosives expert had just become much more frightening in the midst of battle.

Like hell she was going to stay down, though; first chance she had, Sakura planned on getting to her feet and defending herself. The problem was, with only twenty feet to work with, her mobility was severely limited even when it came to attacks. It wasn’t in her best interest to cause, say, an earthquake, as that meant Deidara’s attacks could go awry.

She just hoped the explosions expert could win the battle without her help. Not because she cared about him, but because she didn’t want to find out what would happen to her should they die. Sakura had no idea how seals worked, and she wasn’t about to test for herself whether or not it was defective after Deidara’s death; the last thing she needed was to be attached to a corpse.

--

Deidara scanned the area with his scope, attempting to expose any other nin that might have been hiding in the area. The artist was certain the man was not alone, and he was right. Hiding somewhat nearby were two others, though Deidara could only see the smallest bit of their exposed clothing from their hiding places behind the trunks of the large trees. He began to form something in his hands as the first man called out to him.

“We’ve been looking for you for quite a while,” the man said with all of the confidence of someone who didn’t know they were going to die.

“Is that so?” he asked, nearly finished with his creations. He had grown used to headhunters pursuing him since his days hiring himself out to anyone who needed something blown up. Of course, now that he was in the Akatsuki, the bounty on his head was much higher. It was really too bad that those pursuing him didn’t ante up as well.

The man didn’t respond, and instead moved at Deidara with a predictable sort of speed. This wasn’t going to be a fight to remember, and it most certainly wouldn’t seem worth it the next morning when he was feeling exhausted. Still, any chance to create a masterpiece was welcome in Deidara’s eyes, even if the canvas was mediocre quality at best.

Removing his hands from his sides, Deidara moved a little extra chakra to the muscles of his arm, throwing several kunai towards those hidden in the woods, as well as the man coming at him. As he expected, the man managed to dodge the kunai, but the point wasn’t to hit him. A string of explosions filled the area, shooting up rocks and other debris at the one who had dared to come at Deidara so boldly, and ripping apart the trees that the others were hiding in. The kunai were simply explosive clay, made to be mistaken as the real thing until it was too late.

The sharp debris landed closely to the girl, but Deidara was too focused on the fight at this point to care about any minor damage the kunoichi might take. A few cuts and scrapes never killed anyone, much less a medic-nin.

With the other two never emerging from the forest, only the man who had made the first move was left to fight. He looked infuriated, possibly because he believed he should have saw it coming. Having been cut up considerably, the man also seemed to be hiding his pain with his anger.

Well, having rocks and other sharp objects from the ground embedded in your skin would do that to you.

The fight folded right back into routine, with Deidara not even needing to summon his clay bird in order to fight. How depressing. The only upside he could see in this was the fact that he would have had to lug Sakura around should he have to resort to taking to the air. Said kunoichi had gotten to her feet, doing her best to stay as far away from the explosive fight as possible, though it was impossible to get to a safe distance when you could only move twenty feet away. Deidara grinned at the thought, but it was all he allowed himself. At this point, fighting the man was becoming pointless, and it was time to end the battle with a bang.

His hand emerged from the pouch as he was dodging an attack from the headhunter, and at first, it seemed as though nothing had happened when the mouth opened wide. The man noted this and let out a shrieking laugh at Deidara’s expense. Deidara, in turn, laughed along with him, which caused the man to quiet at once, looking unsettled.

“W-what are you laughing at!” He bellowed, forming seals for another bland attack.

“You, yeah,” Deidara laughed almost uncontrollably at that point, biting his lip. Moving backward, Deidara muttered a command under his breath as he continued to gawk at the headhunter as though he were the most hilarious thing he’d ever laid eyes upon.

The man’s rage seemed to boil over at first, but then, in the midst of the last hand formation of his seal, the man became stock-still. Moments later, his eyes widened and he began furiously pawing at his ear. Deidara, in turn, stopped biting his lip and allowed himself a full laugh at the man’s expense.

“Something in there?” Deidara asked mock-innocently as the man moved toward him in a fit of uncontrollable rage.

“What did you do?! What did-”

Deidara flipped out of his grasp, moving far enough out of range to call out, “Katsu!”

In an instant, the man’s head exploded, leaving nothing but a bloody stump in its wake and some rather macabre decoration on the surrounding foliage. The body stood there for a split second and then, like a marionette with the strings cut, crumpled to the ground.

That was when the girl let out a scream.

Geez! It was like she’d never seen a dead body before! What kind of kunoichi screamed at the sight of death? Besides, this was something to be celebrated; Deidara had taken what would have otherwise been the most boring fight of the century and made it something much more interesting.

Turning to face her, Deidara was almost surprised by what he saw as yet another kunai flew by him, this time grazing his neck as he was caught off guard. So there had been more than just three of them…interesting.

With one hand yanking back her hair, and the other forcing a kunai so close to her throat that it was already drawing blood, the newest arrival to their little battle was already shaking with desperation.

“Give up, or I’ll kill the girl!” the new headhunter commanded. Deidara could practically feel the fear rolling off him. Deidara shrugged, as though it meant nothing to him at all if the man were to slice her throat open.

“I was going to kill her anyway, so you’d be doing me a favor, yeah,” he yawned, keeping his confident eyes on the man.

“You’re full of shit! I can tell!” The man spat back, pressing the kunai even harder against her throat. Sakura gasped, unable to fight back when one wrong move could end her life with a blade so close to her main artery.

Deidara didn’t have the opportunity to respond, for someone else took that pleasure away, albeit more physically than verbally, as seconds later the man’s hand went lax and he dropped the kunai. He was now crumpled lifelessly on the ground with his head twisted clean backward.

“Can’t Tobi get any sleep around here?” Deidara’s masked companion asked in a groggy voice, several feet away. Sakura was now instinctively shooting a hand to her throat, only to turn around moments later to eye the man with the broken neck, and then look back at Tobi, who was standing much too far away to have done that with his own hands. Deidara delighted at seeing her shudder a bit as her mind was likely coming to the only conclusion that it could.

--

Tobi had just snapped a man’s neck without even touching him. Tobi, the blundering idiot of the Akatsuki. Sakura was having a hard time believing it, even as she had witnessed it first-hand. Instead of dwelling on the implications of being a captive of not only a maniac who liked to blow things up, but now also a man who could kill, for lack of a better way to put it, telekinetically, she focused on her neck. Moving her hands towards her fresh wound, she began to quickly heal it with her signature mint-green chakra.

“I’m next, yeah,” Deidara grunted, his hand over top of a rather superficial wound to his own neck.

“Like hell you are,” Sakura muttered under her breath as she finished healing herself. She knew she was only wasting her breath, of course; Deidara had said the seal on her back had other uses besides keeping her close by, and she was in no position to test his honesty on the matter.

With a sigh, Sakura beckoned the blonde towards herself, having him kneel beside her so that she could get a better look at it. Just as she suspected, the wound was minor, and would likely cause nothing more than a faint scar at the most. Still, she healed the wound, ignoring the pleased look on Deidara’s face as best she could.

Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, Deidara snatched it in his own, holding it there. Too surprised, Sakura didn’t budge at first as Deidara moved her hand towards his mouth, never taking his half-lidded eye off of hers.

“My art always leaves me so…excited,” he stated in a low tone, and before she knew it, he had popped one of her fingers in his mouth, working his tongue around it agonizingly slow. Sakura did nothing for a moment, a warm, dazed feeling flooding her head at the sensation for a brief moment, until she abruptly came to her senses and wrenched her hand away, only to bring it back to slap him.

At this, Deidara laughed, climbing to his feet and then pulling her back onto hers. She scowled up at him, and wrenched her arm away.

“Don’t touch me,” she said in a fierce tone as she jerked her arm away.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what to do, Blossom,” Deidara cackled once more at the medic-nin, and Sakura had the distinct impression he had been more interested in riling her up than actually seducing her. Somehow, that only seemed to make her more furious than before.

“Well, we might as well go back to sleep if you’re going to be so boring; I don’t think we’ll be attracting any more visitors, yeah,” he stated through a yawn, stretching his arms out wide.

“Are you kidding? After an explosion like that? You gave away our position!”

“Shouldn’t you be happy about that?” Deidara asked, raising his eyebrows at Sakura and smirking at her expense. “No one moves towards an explosion. Now then, you’re sleeping in my tent now; you attract too much attention outside of it, yeah.”

“Your tents attract just as much attention! I am not sleeping with you!”

“You’re being ridiculous, yeah,” he said, a bit of annoyance and impatience beginning to seep into his tone. “It’s cold outside and there are dead bodies around the campsite. You really want to sleep around all that?” He asked in an incredulous manner, shaking his head as though she were an adorable child who was misbehaving.

“I’d rather sleep next to a dead body than you!” She shouted back, making him flinch at her unexpected burst of anger. In the midst of this, unheard by the pair, Tobi had already gone back to his tent.

“Well, then you’re an idiot, yeah!” He snarled, his anger exploding as fast as one of his creations.

“Same to you, you kidnapping bastard! If it wasn’t for you, I could be sleeping in a real bed at home!”

“Do you think I care?”

“No! You don’t! Because you’re a psychopath who only thinks he’s an artist! That’s not art, you fool; you’re just making a mess of things! A big, ugly, mess!”

Slap

“Shut up,” he snapped, his voice a dangerously low hiss, “a worthless kunoichi like you wouldn’t know what real art is. You deserve to sleep outside, like a dog, yeah.”

Sakura refused to bring a hand up to her cheek where he had struck her, instead gritting her teeth and sending little daggers of hate at Deidara with her eyes.

“The first chance I get, I will kill you,” she swore in a low, guttural tone, her teeth bared at him. Deidara stared down at her with a steely gaze for a moment, before giving what sounded like a growl, and disappeared into his tent.

With no one else around, Sakura laid down as far away from the carnage as she could, and curled back up into the fetal position. When she was certain Deidara wasn’t about to come storming out of his tent again any time soon, she healed the mark on her face and closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep so she would have energy for tomorrow.

When she finally did start crying, no one was awake to hear the strained, quieted sounds of her pain.

--

Sakura woke up stiff from both the cold and the ground, but she also woke up with her pride intact, and that was all that mattered. Eyes blearily greeting the dawn, there was no desire to lie about in bed for a while when your bed was the hard earth and nothing more. She first pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing as her back hurt in places she didn’t know it could. Gingerly, she began to stretch out her body as she normally did in the morning time, until she was finally standing up right, finishing off with a few rolls of her head.

It was then that she saw it.

Fat, black, and hairy, the eight-legged creature dangled out of focus in front of her line of vision. In that same instant Sakura’s entire body seemed to chill as every hair on her neck stood up.

“SPIIIIIDER!!” She shrieked, jumping from foot to foot as she waved her hands around her face, trying to knock it away.

When it was out of her vision, Sakura jumped back, shuddering as she searched the ground, hoping to find it there so that she was assured it was no longer nesting in her hair. Sure enough, she saw the thing skittering away just she heard a mocking laugh to her side.

“That’s what happens when you sleep on the ground. I’ll bet you’ve got a bug zoo living in your hair by now, yeah.”

Sakura threw him a nasty look, her lips pursed together and her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she made a tiny ‘hmph’ out of annoyance and rolled her eyes.

“Go wash up. Then you can make us breakfast, yeah.”

“And just why would I want to do something like that?” She asked through gritted teeth, her patience already gone before the day had even begun.

“Because you’re probably starting to stink by now,” Deidara replied easily, the smallest trace of a smirk on his face. At that, Sakura’s fists clenched so tightly she was almost cutting little crescents into her palms.

“You know what I meant. Why should I have to make breakfast?”

“Because if I have to make it myself, then you wont be getting any, yeah,” Deidara answered with a shrug of his shoulders. Then, after plopping down next to the fire from the night before, he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head towards the stream.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Letting out a sound of pure frustration, Sakura sent one last look of unadulterated loathing at Deidara before moving off toward the stream. Ever since he’d mentioned something about bugs being in her hair, she had to admit that she was eager to clean herself up. Suddenly, it felt like there were tiny little creatures crawling all over her scalp and skin. Whether they were imaginary or otherwise mattered very little to Sakura.

It was when she was just out of his line of sight that she stopped herself, wanting to take another step, but not able to bring herself to do so. Not without him being closer to her, at any rate. This wasn’t due to any sort of sudden interest in the man, but, rather, a fear of having searing-hot lightning across her back yet again.

“Deidara,” she called out in a synthetically sweet tone. “I think we both know I can’t walk much further away from you.”

At first she received no response, but then, slowly but surely, Deidara emerged from behind the small thicket of trees that separated her from their tiny camp. Looking like the cat that had just caught his first mouse of the day, Deidara grinned at her, his eyes positively lighting up along with his leer. He leaned against the nearest tree, still smirking at her.

“Yeah.”

Turning around, Sakura moved towards the stream, now just several feet away. Just as she was inches away, she turned around, almost jumping at the sight of Deidara not much further away from her, rather than waiting back behind a tree where he couldn’t watch. Stupid. So stupid to expect anything more dignified from the crazed blonde. Clearing her throat, she crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

“Well,” she began, tapping her foot expectantly.

“Well, what?” He asked, almost believable in his feigned ignorance.

“You know very well what I mean!” she huffed, eliciting a laugh from the man.

“I think we both know I can’t walk much further away from you, yeah,” he threw her own words back at her with a devilish sort of grin.

“You can walk away far enough to give me some privacy!”

“What’s the point? You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before, yeah,” he teased, stifling a full-out laugh at Sakura’s expense, which only served to increase her ire.

“You haven’t seen me, and I intend to keep it that way!”

“Well you already lost that battle, so you might as well strip down and get it over with.”

“I—Wait, what? What do you mean I already…Have you been--?!”

“Any good kidnapper spies on his target before making his move, yeah,” Deidara was chewing his lower lip now, and Sakura wasn’t quite sure if it was because he was stifling another laugh or his insanity.

Either way, she was furious. Furious, because if she wasn’t angry then she might start crying. She felt filthy.

“You disgust me,” she stated in a breathy voice as her stomach clenched in both embarrassment and revulsion, making it hard to speak.

“Like I said, nothing I haven’t seen before, yeah,” he dismissed her mortification as nonchalantly as he could, but the laughter was slipping into his voice, cracking it just a bit.

“Of course,” he added, starting to regain control of his self, even lowering his tone into a more intimate voice. “If you really think I’m so dirty, I could always wash up with you, yeah,”

“Ugh,” Sakura scrunched up her nose, further repulsed. “Stop it. Please, just go away so I can clean up.”

Deidara chuckled, turning away from the livid woman and moving back into the trees. He wasn’t as far away as she would have liked, but Sakura knew that it couldn’t be helped. At least she could pretend he couldn’t see her when she wasn’t able to see him; it wasn’t that comforting of a thought, but compared to the alternatives…

Stripping down to her bra and panties, Sakura waded into the water as far away as she could dare herself to. When she was as far away as she thought she could go, which wasn’t far at all, she attempted to clean herself as best she could. It seemed almost pointless without things like soap, but it was definitely better than nothing at all.

“SAKURA-CHAN!”

Sakura nearly fell into the river as her idiot captor’s voice called out to her. As she turned around to face the source of the noise, she almost fell over yet again at the sight of Tobi right in front of her.

“SHIT!” she screeched, surprised at the sudden way he popped out of nowhere. When the initial shock was over, Sakura finally became hyper-aware of the situation, and tried desperately to cover herself.

“Tobi, what the hell! I’m trying to take a bath! Go away, you pervert!”

“Tobi is not a pervert!” The masked pervert responded indignantly, hands on his hips. “Tobi caught breakfast so Sakura-chan wouldn’t have to, but if Sakura is going to be mean to Tobi-”

“No!” She cried out instantly, reaching out a hand in protest. Sakura had little interest in going fishing or berry hunting, after all. “No…I was just upset. It’s ok. Just please try to give me privacy when I’m bathing.”

“You’re not naked. Oh, wait! Tobi can kind of see through your bra…”

Turning beet-red, Sakura tried her best to cover herself a little better, but there is only so much hands and arms can hide.

“Tobi, take what you caught for breakfast back to the camp and let me get dressed,” Sakura directed him as calmly as she could so that she could resist the urge to punch him hard enough in the face to give him all the more reason to keep it covered up.

“Ok! Tobi will make breakfast, because Tobi is a good boy. Then we can go to the next town!” Tobi announced cheerfully, and was off to fulfill his duties. Sakura, meanwhile, was doing her best to ignore the fact that there was the distinct sound of a blonde jerk laughing behind the trees.

‘Laugh all you want, blondie…if we’re really going to a town, then we’ll see who gets the last laugh.’