The Secrets We Keep *COMPLETE* (Sasori x OC? / Itachi x OC?)

Retrieval

Maeme watches Deidara fly over Sunagakure from her position at the entrance with Sasori. She hadn't been in the village for over twenty years, but their assignment was to retrieve the new Kazekage to extract the demon inside him. Maeme's fingers twitch in anticipation, stirring the sand around her feet as the sounds of battle come from inside. She wouldn't allow herself to leave Sasori's side, but she worried about Deidara being alone. A short while later, she spots Deidara retreating from above, clearly injured but successful. As Sasori and Maeme catch up to him, a young man appears to stop them. Maeme looks to Sasori for orders, ready to fight, but he tells Deidara to continue on and for Maeme to follow him. Before Deidara can leave, the man brings out three puppets, surprising Maeme.

"Maeme, I said to leave." Sasori repeats as he counters the attacks so Deidara can escape.

With a hesitant sigh, she leaps onto the bird as it sails past her. Once out of sight of Sasori, Maeme turns her attention to Deidara's injuries. Besides the typical scrapes and bruises, one of his arms has been crushed. She thwarts his attempts to bat her away so she can try to heal him a little.

"It won't do much but its the most I can do for now. Don't you remember what I told you when you first joined us? I said in order to survive, don't die in action."

"I'm not dead am I, Maeme-kun? I followed your advice, un." Deidara smirks.

"Barely. Also, once this is over, I'm going to kick your ass for calling me Maeme-kun again."

Three days pass slowly for Maeme as the Akatsuki completed the ritual to extract the tailed beast from the boy. She almost felt bad for helping to kill such a young person, but there was nothing she could do otherwise except keep watch. Itachi and Kisame were dispatched to take out approaching Konoha teams during the extraction process and succeeded.

Maeme sighs as she continues to scold Deidara for being rude to the deceased as he sits on the body of the Kazekage near the base entrance. Sasori glances over from the other side of the entrance, clearly annoyed by the whole situation. Her attention is drawn to the entrance as several ninja appear, including a familiar face. Maeme's body tenses, her eyes locked onto the elderly woman she had looked up to for many years.

"This won't end well..." She mutters, her trance broken by the blond ninja across from her flipping out over the disrespect toward the dead kid.

Deidara takes off on his bird with the body, two of the ninja taking off after him.

"Go after him." Sasori orders as Chiyo and the other female start to attack.

"I'm not leaving you."

"I said go!" He snaps, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"Fine, but don't blame me if you get your ass kicked!" She calls out as she side steps an attack from the female and heads off in the direction of the bird.

Maeme spots Deidara circling above the water at the edge of the cliff, taunting the blond haired ninja standing on an arch nearby. Her eyes fall on the grey haired man beside him and recognizes him as Kakashi Hatake from Konoha. Their paths crossed a time or two when she worked in the ANBU. She lets out a short, high pitched whistle to gain Deidara's attention and leaps onto the bird as he swoops down to pick her up.

"Nice of you to join me Maeme-kun." Deidara greets with a confident smirk.

"I'm going to kick your ass for calling me that when this is over. Now, let's get this over with."

She turns her focus to the blond as he jumps toward them. Deidara dodges him with ease while forming a smaller clay bird with his good arm.

"This is going to be too easy, un."

"Don't get cocky, I know one of them." She scolds as he flings the bird toward Kakashi.

The bird gets intercepted by Kakashi's throwing stars so Deidara guides their ride away from them as the Konoha nin follow them from the ground. Maeme sits on the back edge of the bird tossing kunai and needles at them as Deidara's smaller birds whiz by. To her disappointment, they survive each attack. Her eyes widen as dozens of clay sculptures rain down from behind her to land around Kakashi. As he dodges, more spring into action, exploding as they get close. Kakashi's body is suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke, Deidara cheering at his victory. Maeme quickly shuts his celebration down as Kakashi emerges with the blond in tow. Her eyes widen as she catches a familiar red color in Kakashi's eye.

"So, I forgot until now, but he has the Sharingan like Itachi." She calls out to her partner as she gets to her feet.

"What!?"

Maeme looks for a place to jump off the bird, ready to grab Deidara and bail, but the bird's been caught in the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Deidara, move!" She shouts as the erratic movement of the bird knocks her off.

She creates a large spike to slide down, cushioning her fall as she reaches the forest floor. As she looks up to track Deidara, she realizes his other arm is now gone and the blond boy is attacking him.

"This is going just beautifully..." She grumbles as she hurries to find Deidara.

She senses Deidara's presence nearby so she focuses her attention on Kakashi. With a sweep of her arm, the ground cracks in front of her, the ground reforming into large spikes aimed for the grey haired man crouched on a tree limb. He notices in time to dodge it and toss kunai in her direction. Maeme laughs at the attempt as she waves her hand, the ground coming up to block them before crumbling into dust.

"That was cute."

Kakashi's eyes narrow as he studies the blonde casually juggling kunai in her hands.

"Trying to figure me out I suppose? It's right on the tip of your tongue, isn't it? I can tell."

Maeme quickly flings the knives toward him, following behind them on a rolling wave of earth. She smirks and jumps from the wave into the air, commanding needle-like slivers to burst from the ground around him.

"Have you figured it out yet?" She calls out to the cloud of dust as she lands on an upper tree branch.

"You're the ANBU officer from Suna that defected over twenty years ago." She hears over her shoulder.

"You'd be right, though that makes me sound so old."

Maeme swiftly ducks his attack and fakes sweeping his feet to land a punch to his jaw. Kakashi latches onto her wrist and slams her back into the tree trunk, her teeth painfully clacking together.

"How naughty. I didn't peg you to be so kinky there, Scarecrow." She chuckles, balling her free hand into a fist, the ground below them swirling dangerously. "Also, I know a thing or two about the Sharingan, so you're wasting your time."

He releases her as the tree loses it's stability and begins to fall. Maeme jumps from the limb and summons spikes to break Kakashi's fall. She lands gently on the tip of the tallest spike as the tree wedges between two of them.

Maeme doesn't see any movement from the base of the spikes so she jumps across them to find her partner. As she draws closer, a powerful chakra washes over her. Cursing, she quickens her pace. Her eyes fall on the kid as she tracks Deidara's presence a few feet from him, the boy punching the ground where Deidara's clone lays. She arches a brow before heading to Deidara's location. He is breathing heavily, and she can tell he is struggling to keep it together enough to survive.

"Remember what I told you shortly after you joined us? To survive the Akatsuki, don't die in action."

"I'm not dead yet, un." He replies, glaring down at his missing arms.

"Close enough. Let me at least stop the bleeding for now until we can get out of here."

"You're bleeding."

Maeme rubs at her forehead, shrugging at the deep red color trailing down her cheek and her fingertips. "Shit happens."

"Hey, so, we have more company, un."

"Great. Just what we needed."