Deidara was then bound by ink snakes that emerged from around him. As he struggled to escape, a sword was driven through his chest, freezing his face in an expression of pain and horror. Naruto smirked as he buried the sword through him up to the guard before the blade stuck fast as he tried pulling it out.
Deidara quickly lost his color and turned to the color of clay. Naruto panicked and channeled wind chakra to his blade to pull it out and get distance as the clay figure of Deidara exploded.
As Naruto landed from his evasive action, Sai came to his side, "That was a nasty little surprise. It looks like he has a clone technique of his own as well." Naruto looked around, "Where is he now? He isn't flying above us, so where could he be?"
Sai didn't speak, instead drawing on his scroll as snakes came off and burrowed underground. After a moment of waiting, Deidara came out of the ground a good distance away from the two boys, launching his clay explosives at the snakes. Naruto rushed in, trying to stay close with the long-range expert, but despite the speed that he came at his opponent with, Deidara saw him coming and dashed away, reaching into his pouch for more clay.
As Naruto cursed at the speed that Deidara had, simply running backwards he noticed that both of his hands spit out clay sculptures. Naruto shook his head as if he had been seeing things, 'I must have been underground too long.'
Naruto closed the distance enough that he was finally able to engage Deidara up close. Deidara avoided a thrust of the blonde teen's sword and maneuvered out of the way of a spinning slash. When Naruto spun for his attack however, Deidara was fast enough to plant one of his explosives on Naruto's back. The little clay spider crawled on Naruto's back while Deidara jumped away from him and made his hand-seal, "Katsu."
The explosion rocked Naruto and sent him to the ground. Naruto grit his teeth in pain as he could feel the damage he had just taken rip at his nerve endings, "I'm so tired of you." His eyes flashed red as he started leaking Kyuubi's chakra, "You've turned this entire trip into a massive headache!" One tail of chakra formed behind him.
Deidara had a small grin on his face, "Fighting two of you, with one of you being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki… not exactly my design of an ideal battle, un."
Naruto growled at him and rushed at him, gripping his sword double-handed, "Don't you run from me!"
Deidara had another clay figuring that so happened to be a bird in his other hand and expanded its size before taking off on it, leaving Naruto to miss his swipe. Naruto growled in anger and leapt into the air to cut down Deidara's ride. The missing-nin paled at seeing him leap at his bird and quickly formed another clay spider that he threw down at Naruto.
The enraged jinchuuriki cut right through it, forcing it to explode on contact and pushing him back to the ground where he landed on his feet, smoking from the blast. He then noticed which way he was going, "Sai! He's going back towards Hamako! Cut him off!"
Sai nodded and immediately took off on one of his ink birds while Naruto kept up and pursued from the ground.
XxX
"Well it looks like the jinchuuriki left me a way to get him to cooperate."
Hamako jumped at the sound off the gruff voice suddenly calling out. The clones took a defensive perimeter around her, but most were cut down by an iron tail extending from a blind spot and running right through them. The initial attack left two of Naruto's Kage Bunshin remaining and they picked up Hamako before jumping away from the scene of the mass clone slaughter. "Clone-sama who's attacking us?" Hamako asked, clutching at the Komainu necklace tightly.
The clone she had spoken to stood in front of her while the other was behind, keeping a watchful eye out for any movement that could be perceived as hostile, "I don't know Hamako, but if I had to guess it would probably be Deidara's partner because that's who boss and Sai-kouhai went off to fight."
"It seems this one isn't as much of a musclehead as most are prone to being." The voice said once more, "Or maybe his clones are just smarter than him, but if that were the case they would have just dispelled and saved themselves the pain of death that they're about to feel."
The clones reached on their backs for their swords, "As if we'll just let you hurt Hamako like that." Her eyes widened upon catching sight of markings that ran all along the blade in the clone's hands, but she couldn't bring herself to speak quickly enough.
"I guess it's easier to just kill you than to try and talk to a clone that has standing orders." With that, senbon came flying at the clones and Hamako, forcing her two protectors to burst into smoke, but as it cleared there was no sign of the girl.
"I thought my clones said that I wasn't just going to let you hurt Hamako like that." Came Naruto's voice from a short ways off. He was shrouded in the Kyuubi's chakra, holding Hamako close to him, "Sai!"
Sai's bird landed behind Naruto, who placed her on its back alongside him, "Naruto-sama?"
Naruto gave her a small smile, "It's okay Hamako." He looked at Sai, "Take her with you. She'll be safer than if she were down here with me. This fight is more along my alley anyway, you take Deidara, just remember to sever his arms from his body somehow for me." He gave him a questioning look, "Can you take Deidara all on your own?"
"Absolutely." Sai looked at the figure who had appeared while they were talking. A hunched, grotesque looking man wearing the Akatsuki robes, "But are you sure senpai?"
Naruto followed Sai's line of sight and narrowed his eyes upon seeing what his Root comrade saw, "I'm absolutely sure. If you can, get her somewhere you know will be safe and keep her there while you deal with Deidara. I know you'll be way better equipped to fighting him this time, but she could still get hurt up there with you two going at it."
Sai nodded, "Understood. Good luck senpai." Sai then took off and left Naruto to his own devices amid the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
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