A/n: Well, I've finally gotten back to this fic! So let's get right into the action.

Deidara Has a Brother?!

A Man In a Cool Hat

"Hold it right there!" A large, muscular man shouted as he stepped out from behind a tree. He waved his sword menacingly. Behind him, and behind his targets, a great many other bandits were doing the same.

However...the two travelers they were attempting to menace...weren't. The white-haired old man seemed oddly pleased, even. He turned to the boy next to him and spoke, "Naruto, let's see if all that training's done any good. What principle are they forgetting?"

The boy, identified as Naruto, put on a show of thinking about it, before snapping his fingers. "'An unknown foe is a dangerous foe.' Right, Ero-Sennin?" He seemed pleased with himself.

"I said hold it!" The bandit was ignored.

"Don't call me that, but great! Exactly! Now, I'm going to leave them to you. With such a dearth of 'research' around, I need to devote more and more time to my writing, so it doesn't slip. Have fun!" The aged hermit brought his hands together and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The bandits gaped, having never seen anything like this, before. Naruto, meanwhile, was stretching. The bandit chief finally regained his wits, and smirked at the orange-clad boy, showing all of the wisdom expected of one in his position...

"Hah! You're all alone, now! But don't worry, just hand over all your stuff and we might let you live!" He brandished his sword again, perhaps for some reason hoping it would actually achieve something.

Naruto was muttering under his breath, disparaging the Pervy Sage, his 'research', his books, and his skills. He pulled out a kunai and took his stance, "Come on! I don't have all day!"

"Grrr...Get him!" And with that, the bandits were upon him. The first sign that something may be a bit off about this fight was the fact that the blond boy seemed to be in four places at once. The four Narutos put up a solid fight, felling bandits with kicks to the head and the occasional kunai to the leg, as they dodged and blocked the wild swings of the untrained and inexperienced bandits. In mere moments only the leader was standing, surrounded by the four blonds who had destroyed his entire band.

He dropped his sword and fell to his knees, shaking in fear. "D-d-don't hurt me! Please!" He begged, tears streaming down his face. Naruto sighed.

"Pathetic. If you're going to mess with ninja, at least be able to put up a fight! Come on!"

"Ni-ni-ninja? No way you're a ninja! Look at you!" The bandit leader was shaken out of his begging by this ridiculous statement. Really, who ever heard of a ninja who wore orange?

"See this headband? See it? That's proof! I'm a ninja of Konoha!" The conversation was going downhill fast. Jiraiya, however, interrupted, appearing suddenly and knocking out the bandit as he looked down the road, watching. "Hey! Whad'ja do that for?"

"Quiet, brat. Someone's coming." And sure enough, moments after the two of them hid in the treetops, a man with long, wavy black hair and what Naruto privately believed to be the second most awesome hat ever(after, of course, the Hokage's hat) entered the small clearing the fight had taken place in.

"Wha-what happened here?! Damn it!" He grapped the bandit leader and slapped him back into conciousness. "What happened?!" The man seemed angry.

"Ugh...we accidentally tried to rob ninja. Sorr-" The bandit didn't even have time to apologise before the man tossed him over his shoulder.

"Grrr...now how are we supposed to get those two?" The man griped, "I knew hiring bandits was a bad idea! She's 'The Bandit Slayer' after all, and they didn't even get here yet and the bandits're wiped out!"

"Perhaps you would be willing to offer your services?" A calm voice spoke...from right behind the two in the trees! Barely manging to restrain themselves from instinctively filling the speaker with sharp and pointies, the two ninja whirled - as best as one can 'whirl' in a tree - to find a black-cloaked man with a big red gem in his forehead floating there behind them. "Since, after all, you did remove the ones who were supposed to aid us in securing the fugitives."

"Naruto..." The boy looked to Jiraiya, who motioned for him to return to the ground. The two ninja vacated the tree, followed by the floating figure, startling the man in the hat. The Sannin turned to size up the cloaked man. "It could be..." he mused, "That we can come to an arrangement. What are the details?" This was, after all, as good an opportunity as any to fish for information. And if they could get paid for it in the process, well, so much the better!

"Hey...what's going on, here? Vrumugun, who're they?" The behatted man demanded, his hand on the hilt of his sword. He was completely ignored.

Vrumugun descended to the ground. "You would aid us in subduing the fugitives Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev, for transport to Sairaag. For this, you would be paid handsomely. Be warned, though, these fugitives are quite dangerous. Lina is a sorceress, and Gourry a master swordsman. They will be passing through this clearing, so we will be attempting to subdue them here."

Jiraiya let the magic reference go by without comment. If that's what they called jutsu here, then let them. He nodded. "It's a deal. Naruto, let's get started on some traps. Nothing too dangerous, though. This is a capture mission, after all."

A/N: Well, There's chapter four. A bit short, but this entire story seems to be made out of short chapters. Forgive me!

Well, I have a new oneshot in the works, starring Tobi and Zetsu, so keep an eye out for it! Also, My recent oneshot, Team Heatstroke, is losing oneshot status. It is going to be part of a series of at least four chapters with loose continuity. As such, it's going to get a name change and an update sometime soon.

Thanks for reading! As always, I look forward to any reviews!