Prisoned in your Own Mind

Ascertain

As Deidara had predicted, they were not able to locate the three-tails before the arrival of the storm. He was sitting alone in the room they had rented to take shelter while waiting for the raging of the storm to pass, absentmindedly gazing out of the window as it poured and thundered outside, thinking of a strategy that would allow them to find the three-tails faster.

Among all of the Akatsuki pairs he had the greatest mobility although it hadn't helped him with this mission so far. His previous partner, Sasori, would have been perfect for a mission like this as he always used his spies to gather information for him. However, Deidara wasn't like that at all, he preferred to do things on his own. His current partner didn't seem interested in hiring anyone either.

Speaking of which, she hadn't returned since she left about half an hour ago, saying she wanted to play out in the storm for "dramatic effect" or something, but her being gone this long was ridiculous. It was a pain in the ass, but he would not report back to the organization because his partner was killed by a natural disaster. He would not allow that to happen, for both his sake and hers.

As he stepped out to look for her, heavy rain and strong wind hit him, wetting his precious hair; something he absolutely hated. He looked around the village but couldn't find her, cursing her under his breath. She must have really lost her mind for wanting to play music out here when they were almost in the center of the storm!

He spotted her a little bit later in the outskirts of the village, playing her guitar on top of a hill as if she was asking to get hit by lightning. It was not like anything could be heard aside from all this booming thunder.

"Hoi, are you insane?!"

"Yo, Deidara! This is so epic!" She yelled back, throwing her head back and forth whilst completely soaked.

"Not so epic when you get roasted by lightning! Now let's get out of here, hm!" He grabbed her wrist and ran back to the inn, ignoring her complaints while lightning and thunder crashed around them.

"You don't have to worry about my health." She pouted as they finally arrived in their room. "You should have been there, it was incredible! My music howling with the strong wind, blending with the loud thunder, rain dramatically splashing on me and my guitar, and lightning flashing around me like searchlights... A daring performance amidst chaos!" She swooned.

"I was there and couldn't hear anything, hm." He said in a condescending manner, to which she responded with a disappointed expression but he was not gonna stop there. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Cause if that's the case, I could help you with that myself, hm!"

She slightly raised her brows in shock although she said nothing more.

"Well? What's it gonna be?"

" I... I don't know. I just wanted to feel the thrill I guess."

Deidara grew exasperated.

"Can you at least try to stay alive until we find the three-tails? Have you ever thought how embarrassing it would be for me to tell everyone you died because you were struck by lightning?"

"Yeah, sorry... I'll be more careful from now on." She looked down.

"Look..." He sighed. "I really do admire that you put your life for the sake of your art, but we're in a really critical mission right now. If it were any other time, I would have most likely seen how beautiful it would be to watch you play your guitar in the middle of a storm. Let's hurry up with our mission so we can effectuate our art activities with no limitations, hm! "

Her face brightened and she nodded.

"Understood."

"Good. You better dry yourself off before you get a cold, hm." He ordered her as she was soaked to the bone.