Lost at Last

Chapter One: A New Companion

A/N: This is a Deidara and Sakura story so if you dislike them as friends or possibly more, do not read any further.

Also keep in mind that I'm new to writing, and if you find any errors in my work PLEASE let me know. It saves me from having to continuously read over what I've written for those mistakes. :)

In Earth country, very few ventured out into the midday sun and Deidara had learnt a long time ago that this was for a very good reason. There was some cloud cover today, but the low clouds in the sky did nothing to dissipate the heat; rather, they gave off a sullen sense of pressure, redoubling the torment. Most travellers were wise enough to avoid the extreme heat, taking refuge in dens and caves. The open plains were littered with the corpses of those who were not.

One such unwise traveller was that of a cloaked body lying amongst the sun-baked mud flats and spindly shrubs. Having most likely been lying there in the sun for hours and not stirring upon his arrival, Deidara assumed that the stranger was in fact long dead. So, unperturbed, he continued up to the cave he had spotted some miles back. Planning to take residency there in hopes of avoiding the scorching sun until night, then he would continue on with his journey to get out of this miserable place.

Exhausted from his long flight in the heat, Deidara's back hit the stone wall roughly and he slid down to the ground. He let out a long sigh of relief and absolutely welcomed the feel of the cool stone seeping through his shirt. Leaning further against the cave wall, he groaned contentedly and tipped his head back, closing his eyes for a brief rest.

"Fell asleep again," Deidara muttered to himself tiredly some time later. Brushing his long stringy hair out of his face, he clambered to his feet and stepped outside. "Goddamn this place, yeah."

'I should have been in Amegakure three days ago based on those directions.'

The omnipresent haze made it impossible to check direction by the sun; the land was suffused with directionless, continuous light and heat until night fell, when at best a single star was visible. He wished that he could say he knew Earth country like the back of his hand, but unfortunately, having never left Iwakagure's walls before he didn't have the slightest idea of where he was going.

He really should have brought a map...

Deidara put a hand to his forehead, blocking some of the light, and peered around. There was nothing remarkable in any direction– a fair description of the landscape he had seen over the past week. Just mud, bushes, a few corpses here and there–

There was a quiet sound down below, and Deidara squinted annoyedly over the edge of the small cliff; the rustling sound repeated itself, followed by a moan, and he belatedly remembered the dun-coloured lump he had passed earlier. For some time he contemplated whether or not he should go down there and help them, but eventually the nagging voice in the back of his mind won.

With a small huff Deidara dropped the twenty-odd feet to the dirt, and walking gingerly over to traveller he squatted by their figure.

"Hey, you alive?" For a moment he thought that they'd carked it, however, the figure twitched at the sound of his voice and a single small hand slid out of a fold in the cloak.

"Want a drink, yeah?" He asked. The fingers twitched again, feebly, and he handed the hand a leather water satchel he had… appropriated… from a rogue ninja a few hours earlier that day. The lumped form shied away from his hand, obviously seeing the mouth there, and he barked laughter.

"Don't worry, it won't bite, yeah." He assured it. The hand snatched the flask quickly, retreating back inside the cloak to drink. Deidara waited.

After a time the cloaked figure sat up, and Deidara realised with surprise that the unidentifiable lump had been a very scruffy looking girl and that she had the most ridiculous shade of hair colour he had ever seen.

'What the hell? Pink?'

If he had to guess her age he'd say that she couldn't be more than thirteen years old, and if she was-being only a few years younger than himself, he wondered what she was doing out here alone.

Noticing her headband he assumed she was out here on a mission of some sort for her village, she did not look very tough, but Deidara knew from experience that looks could be quite decieving. Still, she eyed him coolly, obviously trying to assess him. Despite the girls current dirty and unwashed state she seemed to be a pretty dignified for kid, he had to admit.

Deidara pulled out a small amount of clay from one of his pouches and began moulding as the girl drank. He ignored her watching him toy with the clay and eventually she lowered the satchel; Deidara looked up at her, and she spoke with a slight accent, her voice was dry and it shook with exhaustion. "T-thank you..."

"Don't mention it," He brushed her off gruffly and returned the shapeless clay to his pouch before continuing, "If you can walk there's a cave up on that cliff, I'm not going to carry you, yeah."

With that said Deidara stood and made his way back up to his temorary cave, he had just finished building a cheery if smoky fire when his new pink-haired companion joined him. The reddish light of sunset outside had been replaced with the blue-gray half-light of twilight.

"You know..." She started weakly and her voice continued to strengthen as she drank. "Not many people in this place would give clean water to a stranger, I'm surprised it wasn't poisoned."

Deidara snorted inwardly. It had been clean water, assuming the fool that attacked him had intended to drink it himself, but... if he had wanted this girl to die he could have left her there by herself, she easily would have been dead by morning. "How could you tell it wasn't poisoned?" He asked, curious despite himself.

"I'm a medical ninja... well I'm learning to be one, I kind of have an aptitude for harmful toxins."

"Hm."

"I'm Sakura."

Deidara inclined his head. "Deidara," He replied in kind and her face lit up with a smile. It had been a long time since anybody had smiled at him... if this kid knew what kind of a person he was she would most certainly not be smiling at him like that. Perhaps crying... or running in the opposite direction... then, suddenly feeling annoyed and a little hostile he narrowed his eyes at her.

"How did you come to be collapsed out here alone, Sakura? Aside from stupidity, yeah?"

Her smile faded at his scathing question but she began inspecting the flesh of her arm, feeling gently around an ugly wound there and green light surrounded her fingers, which she laid lightly on the wound. Sucking in a pained breath, she sat back as the emerald glow of her chakra seeped into the injury.

"I was attacked by a band of rogue ninja. The fight used up most of my chakra," she explained tiredly. "What I have left… is barely enough to sterilize this wound." She reached into a pouch around her waist, drawing out a length of cloth bandage, and began wrapping her arm.

"Didn't answer my question," Deidara observed boredly from across the fire. Sakura looked up at him, and Deidara met her gaze steadily, she sighed and took another drink.

"I do owe you," She noted, almost to herself. "Well I've come to Earth country with my team to study its plant life and gather herb samples for my Shishou, but my teammates and I were separated in battle and I got lost. I'll be moving onto Ame when I'm done here to regroup with them..."

Deidara snorted. "Sounds like things are going fine for you so far," His eyes briefly flicked over her forehead protector. "Having your villages' headband on display in enemy territory for everybody to see is a pretty suicidal move. You are aware that Iwa and Konoha are at war aren't you? And traveling during the day on foot, no wonder you were nearly dead, yeah."

Her brow started to furrow with anger and Deidara watched as she opened her mouth to retort, but he was quick to cut her off.

"Get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

Sakura's frown deepened. "Why would you keep watch for me?"

"Do you want me not to?" Deidara snapped.

"No... sorry... are you always this grouchy?"

"Don't tempt me to kill you, yeah."

"You could have killed me at any time tonight- why did you help me anyway?" She asked, but he decided not to dignify her with a response. A few moments passed and finally realizing she wasn't going to get one from him, Sakura stood shakily and walked closer towards the fire. Dragging her cloak over her body, she curled into a ball. Pillowing her head on her arm.

Deidara huffed at the girl, realizing she was right. He wasn't completely sure why he had helped her, he could have just let her die in the dirt like an animal- and it wasn't like such an act would have been beneath somebody like him. But if she really was heading to Ame like he was, maybe some company and having a medic around if he was caught in a sticky situation wouldn't be such a bad thing... even if his company would be an annoying kid.

Keeping an eye out for movement; not even a breeze stirred, and he felt himself relax a little. It wouldn't tire him to stay on high alert the whole night, and he had done so many times before.

The night gradually began to grow cooler and it was silent for a long time until Sakura's muffled voice broke the silence, making him tense.

"I saw your headband... you're a missing nin." She began quietly, "But you were an Iwakagure shinobi, how come you're letting me live, Deidara? You know very well what village I'm from."

"Weren't you going to sleep, yeah?" Deidara called back, just a hint of an edge in his voice. The sound of cloth shuffling on sand reached his ears, somehow sounding apologetic, and he smiled grimly, turning around. Movement caught his eye several hundred yards away, and his grin widened further.

His nerves began to stand on end and buzz with artistic inspiration as he watched the group of hunter nin in the distance attempt to stealth closer towards them. The familiar frenzied desire to blow something up began to take its hold over Deidara.

He would have to be quiet, but something had to die and if he wasn't careful it would be his new companion.

"Oh hell no."

"Do you have a better means of transportation for traveling in this shit?" Deidara gestured wildly at the shit around them. "This will make our journey to Ame go a hell of alot quicker. Besides, I can ditch you here and let you walk if you'd prefer to, yeah."

"Well... no... I'd rather if you didn't, but still. It doesn't look very safe."

"It's perfectly safe if you use your chakra to hold on," He stared at her for a moment. "Wait you can do that can't you?"

"Of course I can!" Sakura snapped.

"Then what's the damn problem? Hurry up and get on or I'm leavin' without you and you can stay and die, yeah." He meant it too, she wouldn't last very long on her own here and another death on his watch wasn't something he felt he would be particularly cut up about-OK, so what? That was not completely the truth, he would probably feel a little guilty because she was just a kid... but what was her problem? She had been on edge as soon as he'd summoned his artistic creation, and she was still watching it nervously. Jeez, she looked like a startled rabbit.

"Look. It's not going to kill you, yeah."

"It very well might!"

"Well then get on and try it out for yourself! You can tell me if it's dangerous or not after you try it."

"I-I'm... I'm afraid of heights." She admitted like it pained her and Deidara could only raise his eyebrows. This kid could hold her own against a group of enemy ninja and survive, but she was afraid of something as simple as flying? He couldn't help the mocking sneer that slowly spread across his face.

"Shut up I've never flown before!"

"I didn't say anything, yeah."

"You didn't need to, I can tell you're laughing at me." She accused. Deidara had to admit that watching this brat get riled up was pretty entertaining, he told himself that he should do it more often in the future. The future being right now.

"Right... well you poor thing," he all but drawled, half-lidded blue eyes boring into hers. "It's not that bad once you get used to it- and it's OK princess, you can hold onto me if you're afraid of falling off."

His over-dramatic statement was said in an all-too compassionate voice. If she wasn't looking at him, it really could have seemed like an honest statement, but with the look he schooled onto his face he knew it erased any of that possibility from her reality instantly.

Deidara's grin, if possible, widened further as Sakura scowled, seemingly fumbling for a response. He concluded that she looked like a half-wit then, anger obvious in her stance, and yet she was standing there looking up at him as if she were brain-dead.

After what seemed like an eternity of indecision on her part, and beginning to grow impatient, Deidara was just about ready to take off without her when she climbed onto the bird.

'Finally, yeah.'

Without giving her any words of warning, he sent a surge of his chakra into his clay bird making it rear up and spread its wings. There was a powerful jolt as the bird took off from the ground.

With the wind whistling in his ears Deidara did not hear Sakura's startled cry from behind him, and before he could shove her away from his person she'd flung her arms around his middle in a crushing, vice-like hug.

The sudden distraction caused him to lose control over the bird momentarily, making her bury her face further into his back and tighten her embrace. Deidara grunted in pain as he was sure he felt a few of his ribs crack, opening his mouth, he twisted around to glare at her. He detested people invading his personal space and he most definitely did not like being touched.

"I wasn't serious when I said you could hold onto me. Let. Go, yeah." He ground out, feeling uncomfortable because of the physical contact and from the not-so enjoyable sensation of a thirteen year old girl crushing his ribcage. But to his intense relief he heard her give a muffled apology in the back of his shirt before he was released from her iron grip. He couldn't help but wonder what in the hell were they feeding their children in Leaf to possess that degree of brutal strength.

'Hmph, must be something in the water.'

They had been flying since sunrise and it was almost midday now. Carrying two people used up a large amount of his chakra and Deidara knew he would have to find somewhere to rest soon. The hours went by at a speed of what seemed to be a very slow and boring crawl for him. And it didn't help that Sakura would attempt to negotiate conversation with him at least once every twenty minutes, in which instance Deidara would rudely tell her her to shut-the-hell-up.

He had been travelling by himself for many months now and spending only half a day with this girl made him realise how much he actually missed that solitude and how much he loathed children.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" His passenger piqued.

"This is my home turf, that's a stupid question so would you just shut up, yeah."

Minutes passed on in blissful silence and... once more she spoke, causing Deidara to wince.

"We've passed that same bush nine times already..."

"I said shut up." He hissed.

"But I have a map-"

"Do you want me to throw you off?" He threatened seriously, glaring at her over his shoulder. Sakura piped down immediately and looked down at her hands in a meek manner. Much better.

But was this kid really worth the trouble? Maybe he should take the supposed map and throw her off anyway, things would be much quieter around here then. But if he were to be truthful with himself, Sakura wasn't such bad company when she wasn't innocently probing him for information about his childhood, his village or incessantly prattling on about some thing or another, or just not making a sound or... well when he pretended she didn't exist at all.

"Hey, there's that bush again..."

"Oh for fu-" Deidara didn't get to finish his sentence however, as Sakura began shrieking something indescribable as a rain of weapons fell upon them, one kunai zipped past, narrowly missing his head. If he had not turned back to tell her off for 'being a crazy bitch', that blade would be embedded pretty deeply into his skull right about now.

"Hold on!" He yelled over his shoulder at Sakura, she obeyed instantly, crouching down like a spider she clung to the clay bird for dear life as Deidara did a series of evasive maneuvers in the air to avoid the constistant waves of kunai and shuriken that hailed them.

He briefly glanced back to see if Sakura was still there, which she was- and looking a little green in the face. He leveled the bird once more, quickly scanning the area below for the source of attack. It didn't take long for him to spot them, another squad of hunter nin. Deidara mused that they had most likely stumbled upon what was left of their comrades after his late night activities.

This worked well though, because he needed to blow off some steam as it was. His low chakra reserves could only make this more interesting. Grinning somewhat maniacally, and ignoring the shrill screams of his passenger, Deidara dived.

Yay epicish battle scene next chapter! Please tell me what you think so far because your reviews would be greatly appreciated! :)