Boulders

Diabase

"What do you mean I have to be stealthy?" Toph complained, hand to her cheek, her elbow on a rail and her face turned away from where Sasori stood. The ship was made out of wood rather than metal like those wonderful Fire Nation ones, so she couldn't be totally sure. "Aren't you supposed to be the sneaky one?"

Sasori sighed. "As much as we both dislike it, you are my temporary partner, and if Kisame or Leader-sama find out that I didn't involve you and rather stashed you while I took care of the whole thing by myself, they'll get mad."

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"Shhh," Toph flung a hand in front of Sasori's ungrateful face. "There's someone coming."

While Sasori looked down at her like Aang looked at meat (displeasure and mild disgust), even he'd had to admit that she was a pretty amazing sensor. After she'd told him the precise locations of several ants, birds, and one buried corpse, he'd bowed to her superiority and allowed her to sense ahead of them.

"Who is it?" Sasori hissed.

Toph rubbed one foot on the dirt. "He's tall. Wearing armor or something heavy. He's making the plants wilt."

Sasori huffed. "I can take him."

"Wasn't the whole point of this mission subtlety?"

There was a short silence while Sasori tried to come up with a good retort that wouldn't make him sound like a total hypocrite.

"You need to learn subtlety. I already know it." Sasori cocked his head arrogantly.

Toph blinked. "Please, show me. I learn best by example."

"You're blind!"

"And he's coming!"

Sasori shoved Toph into the bushes and slid in besides her a second later. There was some muffled shoving and poking before the two of them lapsed into silence.

The heavy footfalls continued follow the path Toph and Sasori had been traipsing, none the wiser for the two of them. A few moments later he was passing by the bushes they were hiding in, armored footfalls almost shaking the ground.

Besides her, Sasori twitched.

"What?" Toph hissed as soon as the man was far enough away that they wouldn't be overheard.

"He's an Akatsuki target," Sasori whispered back, obviously tracking the man as he walked down the dirt road. "If I had my puppets-"

"What'd he do?" Toph asked, interest renewed.

"There's a monster inside him," Sasori began, then cut himself off sharply. "Not that you need to know any of this. You're not important enough."

"Excuse me?" Toph asked, dropping the stealth pretense and turning so her face was in his. "I'm not what?"

The lumbering footsteps paused.

"Shut up!"

"No, explain to me exactly what you meant when you said I wasn't important enough!"

Sasori tried desperately to stifle her noise. "No one who isn't an Akatsuki member could handle this guy, much less one without any chakra control whatsoever!"

Toph paused at that.

The second he removed his nasty wood-tasting hand from her mouth she rolled out of the bushes.

"Brat!" Sasori whisper-screamed after her.

Toph dusted herself off and sent what she hoped was a winning smile at the armored guy. "Hello there. My name is Toph Bei Fong. Care to fight?"