Iwagakure was a peaceful village; although there was a few crashes and explosions on the far side of the village; nearly all the resident's knew what was going on. Those who didn't know, well the one's who did just told them it was best not to know; for their own health, as well as the rest of the village.

A boy, with long blonde hair that reached his shoulders and the fringe covered his right eye; however his visible eye was blue, and at that moment it was tinged with annoyance.

"So... That didn't…" He muttered to himself; remaining focused on his creation, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of what was going on around him, and he sensed that someone was behind him.

"I don't like being disturbed H'suan," He paused from his work and looked over his shoulder.

The girl had dark blonde hair, brown eyes and wearing dark blue cropped trousers, with a black vest top and the headband around her neck.

"An artist needs to eat," She told him, holding out a bento box.

He looked weary, the whole village knew he was an artist, but that meant little to them. They used to disturb him all the time… Until one time he ended up accidently blowing up a dog. It was beautiful… An accident of course, but he found it looked so beautiful.

"Deidara, you know I've never disturbed you unless it's for a good reason," H'suan reminded him and smiled; "Having your lunch is a good reason, right?"

He remained silent. She was right; he needed to eat to create brilliant art.

Deidara had known H'suan back when they were going to take the Chounnin exams; they were in different cells, but what he heard about her sounded impressive. She could heal people; nothing special, the basic ways to heal and she had a brilliant jutsu over earth as well. He was hard to impress, he looked down on one of his teammates, and the other was on the same level as him in skill; but that didn't mean he had to like or respect them.

They had both passed that year, became fully fledged ninja's and ever since then their path's crossed frequently; so much so that they did speak to each other about things that wasn't about missions.

However lately Deidara was more recluse than usual; though he never missed his missions, his cell felt that they were a man short because Deidara never spent any time to train with them.

H'suan was the only one who continued to see him now; the other's felt that he had made himself clear before.

So he took the bento box from her and nodded his thanks.

"How is it going?" She asked him.

He looked behind, narrowing his eyes at his work; he wasn't getting far. He wanted to be further along, but nothing was happening. Although he knew what he had to do, a part of him just didn't want to.

"I heard you had a mission," Deidara changed the subject, not wanting to talk about his plans yet.

"Yea," She smiled; "I now know why they call it the Village of the Bloody Mist,"

"That difficult, hmm,"

"It was good experience," She added, and this time his blue eyes narrowed at her.

"What's that meant to mean, hmm?"

"Deidara…" H'suan sighed; she knew this would have to come out sooner or later; "You've become distant with your cell, they think…"

"My art is more important than those fools, hmm. I don't need them,"

"What would you do?"

"Leave," He then began to eat.

"You're kidding…" H'suan shook her head, unable to believe that he would actually leave them.

"It would mean that I could focus,"

"On you're art? What about the village?" She could feel anger building up, but tried to keep her voice calm; Deidara being angry wouldn't help this situation any more either.

"What about it?" He sounded bored.

"You'll just abandon us?"

"They do nothing," He told her with a shrug.

"But…"

"I would rather leave," Deidara thought back to the incident with the dog; "Than be cast out,"

"Why would…"

"They would get rid of me, you know why," He snapped; and she remained silent.

She couldn't argue with that, since she had heard rumours that some villager's wanted him gone. After all if he could blow up a dog by accident, what's to say the next time wouldn't be a person?

"When will you leave?"

"Probably in the few weeks," He told her; part of him felt relieved, he dreaded to leave the village; but now that he had spoken to her about it, got it off his chest, he was willing to do it.

However H'suan just looked at him and he knew she could see through him. He needed to have a rough date of when he was going to leave; she knew him better than he had thought.

"You'll leave," She stated and he finished the rest of the food.

"At some point hmm?" Deidara said grudgingly, handing her back the bento box.

"You won't just leave will you?"

"I could,"

"Deidara," She moved quickly kissing his right cheek and then left without another word.

The blonde froze, not completely sure of what happened, how it happened or why.

What was H'suan up to?

"Urgh," He shook his head and tried to get back to his art; focusing on anything but what just happened.

A week later, H'suan was on her way to see Deidara again; when she spotted a member of Deidara's cell. Jet black hair, tanned skin; Hige looked like a typical ninja that spent a lot of time training in the sun. Though from what she had heard, Hige wasn't a good one, Deidara had already said that Hige would die soon, either by an enemy or by his own hand. Of course, since Deidara had said it, it could have been a promise.

Watching Hige carefully, hoping he wasn't on his way to annoy his team mate, she noticed an explosion; the sound quickly made him retrace his steps; and she hoped it wasn't Deidara killing something else.

"I told you to leave me alone, hmm," Deidara yelled as Hige ran off; "Bastard…" He then noticed H'suan; "Why are you here?"

"It's been a week," She pointed out, confident that he would blow her up.

"Right,"

"What was Hige up to?" She asked.

"Being an idiot," The blonde murmured; "Wanting me to spar with him," He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"He's part of your team," H'suan reminded him.

"Hn," He ignored that part; "I'll be gone in a week,"

She looked at him in surprise; "That soon?"

"Yes, this could be the time for the world to embrace my art,"

"Where will you go?"

"Does it matter? I can be an assassin and also work on my art," He told her.

"Always about your art," She said, shaking her head.

"It's all that matters," He snapped at her; "I don't need to be part of this village any more, hmm,"

It was always too easy to push his buttons, people could do it without meaning to; and that worried H'suan.

"So you'd leave and not…"

"Return. Exactly," Deidara said; "These villagers have no idea what art really is,"

"You won't miss anything?"

"No, nothing," He said and remembered; "You'll stay?"

H'suan shrugged; "I have no reason to leave. I'm fine as I am,"

He remained silent, moving towards her and then kissed her on the lips; she was surprised but rather than break off the kiss; she moved her hands to rest on his shoulders and deepened the kiss.

They parted and he smirked; "Well?"

"Won't I get in the way?"

He never let her go, just taking in her scent; "You won't get in my way,"

"I know you think that… But just the two of us... " H'suan would have continued but there was a loud commotion nearby.

They both ran towards the noise and saw two of the guards on the ground, dead. The intruder was a male, wearing a black cloak with red clouds; his skin was pale and his hair was ink black. The way he moved was smooth, almost snake like.

"Who are you?!" H'suan demanded to know, tense, ready for his to strike; with Deidara at her side ready with his clay.

The intruder smirked; "You two are nothing…"

"We're not to be taken lightly," Deidara corrected him.

"You're not what we're after,"

"You think we'd let you waltz off?" H'suan said angrily.

"Heh, you two think you can take me on?"

Deidara said nothing; instead he made his jutsu and threw his bombs at the man.

H'suan noticed the head band, from the Leaf village, although it had been damaged… A ronin. She moved to fight him close up; since Deidara preferred to fight further away for his bombs; but this ninja evaded all her attacks.

"You're too weak kids," He sneered.

Deidara glared, and H'suan tried to stab him with her kunai but he moved too quickly and punched her to the ground.

Noting that he moved away from H'suan Deidara threw small bombs at the man and she quickly move to be next to him.

"This… Will be an explosive work of art!" He yelled and threw the bomb at the snake like man.

As it went off and the smoke cleared, they noticed that the man was still standing.

"Hahaha! Parlour tricks,"

"My art is not to be taken lightly," Deidara snarled, taking some more clay and H'suan moved to distract the man from the next attack.

"Humph, you rock ninja's… You're certainly dull…"

H'suan had no idea how it happened, his hand grabbed her by the neck, choking her before he threw he away.

"And yet you are ninja,"

"You're getting on my last nerve…" Deidara was ready with his explosives.

"Oh, do you think I was done with her?" He grabbed H'suan before she had time to recover; "Now, as a shinobi you should sacrifice your friend here to defeat the enemy…" The man's tongue came out and licked her cheek; "But I think…"

Before he could say anything more, H'suan had stabbed him then punched him before moving away.

"A bit fine," Deidara commented drily.

"Shut up,"

"Heh, I think this will finish you off, hmm?"

The snake like man glared at them; "Me? Ha, I won't die… In fact…"

Once again he moved quickly, throwing Deidara off guard and appeared to rush passed H'suan; retreating out of the village.

"Who was that?" Deidara wondered and hear a small moan.

Looking at H'suan he noticed her hands on her chest, blood thickly covered her hands.

"That…" He sat her down on the ground, adding his hand onto her's to try and stop the bleeding. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw two children; "Go get help!"

Once he snapped at them the two ran away; he hoped they would go to the hospital.

"He was… fast," H'suan commented, getting paler by the moment.

"You need to shut up," He told her, sounding harsh.

"He was right… We couldn't beat him," She began to cough.

He sat her up right, noticing that she was coughing up more blood; "I told you to…"

"We're not strong enough… He's a ronin..."

"H'suan,"

"Hum..? It's rather, light isn't it?" She asked, but Deidara had noticed that the sun was now going down.

"H'suan, don't,"

"It's okay… I want to…" She felt her eyelids getting heavy, her head felt light; she wanted to escape; "You know… I think you'll be a famous artist,"

"Don't! You can't just…" He began to plead, knowing what was going to happen, and not wanting it to; hoping it wouldn't happen.

"I'll get in your way… You'll still…"

"Stay," He whispered; if she wanted to stay, then so would he.

"You need to move…. Find inspiration… You'd hate me if you were trapped," He voice was getting lower; and yet he heard every word.

"But you'll be here…"

"Shinobi take risks," Her eyes became unfocused; "To die in battle…"

"That…"

"It's okay; I want you to go Deidara,"

He remained silent, just continued to watch as her life began to leave; her breathing was laboured…. After a while he suddenly realised that her blood was congealed; her eyes were glazed over.

Looking at the body, he knew it was just a shell. It was no longer H'suan; she was inside him, in his memories.

Slowly he stood up as he heard the help arriving; knowing that they were too late to do anything; but didn't say a word.

He moved away from them and back to his home, quickly washing his blood covered hands remembering what she said; 'find inspiration'. He would do that for her. But he also wanted revenge; however he needed to leave. Get more from his art; learn more about this snake man and knowing that H'suan would be there to help guide him.