"Kakashi-sensei? Do shinobi really have to be that way, like tools?"

- Sakura

"Bitch." The word escaped as a hiss and another shinobi appeared behind the criminal, tying his hands behind his back. Then the cold metal of the weapon was no longer kissing her skin, and the hilt had collided purposefully with her skull. Her vision swung dangerously before altogether faltering and dragging her consciousness down with it.

Deidara threw a dark look at the kunoichi crumpled onto the ground and then at the nin beside him. There were a number of ways he could look at this. One; he'd been disturbed in the middle of a masterpiece and then been caught by a mediocre pathetic kunoichi, in his own god damn village, or two; all the above but thankfully none of his associates were here to witness the act of humiliation.

He chose number three; someone was going to make up for his lost art. Starting with the kunoichi draped over another nin's shoulders, and then the Tsuchikage, and then Tobi. Yes, that idiot who hadn't even bothered to come with him, because 'Zetsu-sempai needs help with his gardening!'

Not that he wanted him to come along in the first place, no, he'd be more trouble than Deidara cared to handle, but really just who was he partnered with anyway; an artist? Or Zetsu's latest botanical monstrosity?

He scowled when the ropes around his wrists were tightened and made a mental note to decapitate the arrogant nin who had shoved him forward. Now if he could just get out of the ropes and then-

A sharp jab to his neck brought on a wave of nausea and weariness, an effect similar to that of Samehada's kiss. His chakra levels dropped until he felt only enough chakra flowing through his body to keep him alive and walking on his own two feet. The though didn't offer him any comfort because if he didn't find a way to destroy the fools within his proximity and finish his mission; death would be a blessing compared to what they had in store for him. Especially as it was him, one of their own missing nin and a loyal customer to the bingo book.

He inhaled and the thick smell of smoke curled in his throat. Around him magenta flames still licked at the sky despite the efforts reinforcements were making. Deidara taunted at them silently, rock ninja who had little to no knowledge of water techniques yet remained adamant in their futile attempts to salvage whatever they could from the wreckage.

Because that's what it was now, debris covering one half of the village, excluding the Prison. The black building they approached still remained somewhat in tact, built into the rock face and extending far into it; a labyrinth of corridors and tunnels that he knew all led to dead ends.

He wondered how the hell he'd come to this, and how he was going to escape. Submission was not an option, if Iwa did not kill him, Akatsuki would certainly bestow him with a slow death for his years of service.

Damn you Itachi..

The doors were looming into view, ominous, and if his mood weren't so foul he would've laughed at the irony of actually wishing his partner were here too. Maybe an execution would disperse Tobi's immature demeanor and slap him back to reality, if Deidara, for a second, believed that the younger man had ever known such a place.

White hot pain seared through his mind as his arm brushed one of the doors. He threw a murderous look at the shinobi behind who had once again, none too gently shoved him, in. The ninja raised an eyebrow in mock innocence and Deidara swore in an instant that if he was going down, the whole fucking village was coming with him. Starting with the guy behind.

The group walked into a dimly lit reception area that was unsurprisingly enough abandoned, and then the kunoichi's slack body swayed dangerously as the shinobi turned sharply and walked through a door to his right. He sped up and dodged the arm that shot out to grab his, walking through the next door before he had a chance to be pushed again, because not even Tobi grated on his nerves more than this predicament.

Inside the kunoichi was dropped to the ground and he watched idly as a medic ninja leant over her. It was dark, save for the green glow of chakra that illuminated delicate features, and a few dark lamps on the walls. He'd been here before, in a time he'd rather not remember for reasons he'd rather not acknowledge.

"Now this is a surprise, Deidara."

Ah, about time too.

A man was distinguishable, past the luminescent chakra, robes pooling around his feet and his face dark beneath a hat. A tongue darted out from his right hand, probing the ropes carefully. Secure as ever.

The kunoichi stirred and the medic nin pulled away. Deidara watched her with a deep anger as she groaned and sat up gingerly. Such a weak ninja, and yet she had stalled him with her simple technique.

"And how nice of you to join us too."

---

Her head felt like it had been substituted for someone's punch bag and as she staggered awkwardly to her feet, Sakura noticed major chakra depletion within her cells. A vague blur of an explosion and a single azure eye pierced her hazy state in an instant; the base of her head throbbing painfully in reaction to the memory.

Akatsuki. A cold kunai. Darkness.

Confusion and hostility smashed against each other for dominance so she didn't know whether to blurt out her many questions, or just plain punch someone for rendering her immobile.

Then she realized someone familiar was addressing her, and it took considerable effort to focus her vision on him and even then vertigo skirted along the edges of her vision, molding the walls and the floor into one. What she saw brought a bitter taste into her mouth.

"Why the hell was I attacked. Tsuchikage-sama."

She didn't miss his eyes narrowing or the soft scoff of amusement from behind, but neither mattered. Her only concern was that she'd been dealt with a serious injustice and somebody had better start explaining soon.

A short rasp cut through the tension.

"A very reliable source told me that you, Leaf, stood by and watched twenty or so of my best shinobi be reduced to nothing but a pile of charred limbs."

"What are you talking about? I never-" and the rest was cut off by a memory, a group of shinobi being torn apart into mere fragments in the face of a bomb above. A wave of nausea hit her with the recognition, but it hadn't been her fault, by the time she spotted the tiny bird diving for them below it was too far down for her to even perform a basic set of seals.

"There was nothing I could've done! Maybe your 'best men' wouldn't have died if these so called reliable sources hadn't wasted their time tracking me instead of stopping the threat."What a fool, she thought, and her arms began to shake from anger when he chuckled again.

Behind, Deidara watched with curiosity as the rosette kunoichi tried to reason a losing battle. She should've known before coming here that this place was corrupt, just like the man behind it all. What a shame it wouldn't matter after he was done.

"Just give it up already, we failed to kill the Tsuchikage un."

She spun around to face him and he felt the corners of his lips curl up at her stricken expression.

"Well in that case, the threat was stopped and I don't believe we'll be needing this anymore."

The cry of a scroll being ripped apart was deafening to her ears when she tore her eyes away from him and back to the Kage; fragments of the treaty fluttering to the floor silently. In seconds all chances of peace and alliance between the two nations were annihilated.

"But I didn't do anything wrong!"

The smug expression on his face wasn't lost on her and all of a sudden it made sense. Kakashi had been right, the animosity between Iwa and Konoha would be passed down from generation to generation for many years to come, and the only hopes of that cycle being broken now lay in pieces at his feet.

Her mouth was suddenly so dry it felt like sandpaper, and she couldn't seem to bend her tongue to form words. All because of a past war and hatred, she would now face dire consequence at the hands of a rogue leader. Part of her felt stupid for even trying to argue with the man, he would've hunted for anything to blame her for. Even if she'd been with him the entire time.

"As ninja I expect you both know the protocol for dealing with traitors and threats. They must be eliminated from the village."

Her fists were trembling with barely suppressed anger at the injustice of it all. Protocol, she knew that word and its implications, but doubted - even there in that dark and dismal room, surrounded by several grudge bearing shinobi and one mass murderer – that it would be applied to her. Surely not, after all she'd to capture such a lethal individual and in the process save what remaining lives were left.

"You will both be executed at dawn."

"What?!"

The words hit her like one of Tsunade's blows and she felt the air rushing out of her lungs. The room was now too small, the people too twisted and she, too weak to change the outcome.

Executed…

Her whole body was trembling, and the feeling of dread and despair wrapped a hand around her neck, squeezing until there was a lump in her throat and she couldn't breath normally. Sakura opened her mouth, and the words did not come.

"Take them away."

A slack jaw was all she managed even as they dragged her away, a haggard and inhuman smile mocking her from beyond the darkness. The door was slammed shut with a deafening finality and Sakura turned her gaze to her feet as if all the answers to her problems lay within the monotonous rhythm. The hand on her upper back had fisted her vest and it's weight felt all too real now.

She hadn't planned on things disintegrating like this. But they had, and she had to get out of here as soon as possible.

-must be eliminated..

She caught her lower lip in between her teeth and didn't look up even when they walked through another door and a cool breeze embraced her. Prison cells, the thick metal doors danced along her peripheral vision, a solid reminder of her fate. They passed along corridors, up stairs and through more winding corridors, until she felt sick of it all.

Then there was the matter that no one would know what had happened if she didn't escape, until it was too late. News of an ambush on Iwa wouldn't reach Konoha until a week later and she would be killed by dawn.

They stopped. She took a shuddering breath upon hearing metal being scraped against metal, the sharp groan of a bolt being drawn back and the hiss of a few seals being released. Part of her was hoping for a miracle, a naïve concept that no shinobi believed in, something to just tweak her circumstances so she'd have a chance to escape. It was sad really, how in such a sire situation all her ninja teachings reverted back into childish hopes.

She looked up and the saw that the corridor stretched endlessly on until it had been engulfed in darkness, and Sakura felt her future would soon resemble that onyx monster. There was the chance of her using her chakra strength, yet her chakra had been drained purposely and she only prayed it restored itself before tomorrow.

The door swung open and the nin holding her released her briefly before slamming a fist into her spine so she staggered abruptly over the threshold.

It was much colder inside, the light bulb dangling feebly from the ceiling did not shrink back the shadows that clambered over the walls, nor did it elude warmth.

"Hands off the cloak un!"

Something heavy collided into her own back sending her sprawling across the cold floor and the door groaned shut, a muffled bolt being drawn back across it.

The impact jostled head and her injury protested painfully, drumming out her senses for a few moments. Someone shuffled to her right and she realized they'd thrown the missing nin in with her.

"Hey, are you alive, ..un?"

Him. For the second time in a day she was climbing to her feet and if matters couldn't get worse, reality slapped her across the face.

"Bastard."

And then she was lunging towards him, right fist drawn back in momentum and then released. He reacted fast, wrapping one hand around her wrist and twisting, so the hit was stopped and she was forced to twist her arm at a painful angle to prevent it from being broken. She decided not to bring her left leg up and strike him across the face, for the grip on her wrist was painful and reminded her that this was an s-class criminal.

There was an arrogant grin on his face, and that single azure eye pierced her own sharply, with something akin to madness. It didn't soothe her rage at all.

"Why did you involve me!" She all but screamed at him.

"You involved yourself un."

Something hard and smooth brushed across her wrist and she felt the sensation of teeth, nipping her firmly. She gasped and watched as he released her arm, a mouth grinning at her from his palm. It was unsettling and fascinating at the same time, and she could only gaze on in wonder before he dropped his hand by his side.

"What, you've never seen greatness un?"

He glared back at her, and even in the poor illumination she noticed his sweeping blonde hair. If anybody tried to meld Ino and Naruto together, she thought, this would be the result. The thought of her two friends sent a pain through her chest that rippled out and stung. Suddenly she wished she had chakra to destroy the ropes binding her wrists and snap his neck in two.

"You call that great? You're insane."

"Does that scare you?"

Her shoulders tensed under his malicious smile and Sakura wished that she was in a cell all by herself, if she had to be in a cell at all.

."No." Her confidence was dismissed with a smirk. Then he walked over to the wall and he sank down to the ground, an arm propped up on his drawn knee. Completely relaxed.

"Then you're not very clever, are you, un?"

Now it was Sakura that smiled, (albeit bitterly), and Deidara stared briefly, caught up in how different she looked when she wasn't trying to dismember him with her gaze.

"Speak for yourself" she began, "I don't plan on staying."

He threw her a dark look. She was bluffing. She had to be, if a man of his status couldn't break out of here with no chakra, he highly doubted a small kunoichi could. Nevertheless, her confidence did not wane.

"Is that so? Un. Well when you get lost on your way out, I guess we'll be seeing each other again."

He leant his head against the wall, closing his eyes and she watched his face pinch with pain as he shifted his injured arm slightly. The wound was bleeding slightly, and the raw meat beneath the skin was mangled and dark in some areas. Sakura grimaced but sat down opposite him on the far side of the room, he wouldn't be making any rapid movements with an injury like that so she assumed safety for the while being.

"Don't get your hopes up, I'll just follow the exit signs."

She replied sarcastically but on the inside her mind was reeling. She didn't have an escape plan, only the hope that her swift chakra replenishment ability would bring her strength back, before dawn. And even then she didn't know how she was going to make it out of the prison, without him, and past the gates of Iwa.

Deidara laughed and snapped his eyes open to meet with her fake smile. Most people would be sobbing right now, begging him to spare their lives. How strange that she wasn't, and that alone peaked his interest in her escape plan.

"There are over five hundred corridors un. Only one exit, and no exit signs."

She did not retort, merely met his grin with silence and he pouted before chuckling again. They didn't speak for a few moments, and instead both gaze up at the small window high up into the wall. Past the seal infused bars, a pale moon gaze down at them, and the occasional stench of smoke wafted in.

"And I suppose you know where this exit is then."

There were no traces of amusement on his face now.

"What's your point un?"

Don't even go there, a voice hissed, he's Akatsuki. Can't be trusted. But she wasn't listening, and if she could escape alive, then she'd figure out the rest along the way.

"I can get us both out of here."

Deidara sat up at this and watched her for any signs that she was lying. There were none.

"Why. I landed you here in the first place un."

It was true, but after seeing the true character of the Tsuchikage she wondered if she was destined for anything apart from death in his eyes. The criminal across from her was only a means to it, and despite his arrogant nature and the possibility of him lying, she didn't want to waste time trying to escape a maze.

"I was headed for here anyway. Besides, decapitation? I at least want to go out with a bang."

Deidara snickered. She was his kind of person.

"I could make art out of you."

The meaning was not lost on her, and she wanted to drag a kunai across his neck right then and there. Instead she controlled herself.

"I'll hold you to it."

He laughed softly.

"Then, I suppose I do know where this exit is un."