Naruto pulled out a bunch of explosive notes and began preparing his kunai with them, "Well I try to make a habit of learning the names of the people that want to suck out my biju and leave me a soulless husk on the side of the road."
The man's grin widened, "I am Deidara, the master of art of a single moment. Your friend's art cannot compare to my own, however with the assistance of my own art, his can be something to behold, because true art is an explosion!" Deidara made more clay birds to send at the boys.
Sai maneuvered the ink bird to avoid the clay bird, "What can we do senpai? I'm not as good at fighting in mid-air and fighting like this will wear on me eventually." Naruto frowned while racking his brain, "We're not long-range fighters… If he was out to kill us he might have been able to right now instead of just trying to shoot us down. Once again, it's that S-ranked superiority complex, so let's take advantage of that." Naruto picked up one of his prepared kunai, before lobbing it at Deidara who simply dodged it. The kunai exploded in the distance, "I knew he was going to do that."
Naruto had his sword in hand, "Sai, get me close. Close range is our best bet right now and he's chasing us so that will make it easy."
Sai looked apprehensive, "Are you sure senpai?" Naruto nodded and Sai drew his tanto in response, "Very well, in we go." Sai ordered the bird around, sending it directly at Deidara.
He had been reaching into his pouch of clay when he saw the boys turn their ride around and head straight towards him with their blades gleaming in the light of the moon. Deidara's eye widened, "Damn brats… un." Naruto and Sai closed in. Both boys slashed at Deidara as they passed, but his bird was more maneuverable than theirs with only one person on it, "Nice try, noticing and acknowledging that I'm a long range fighter, un. But if you can't hit me then it's useless!"
Naruto thought frantically, at this rate they were never going to win, they weren't even going to escape, "Any good ideas to get us out of this would be lovely right now Sai-kouhai."
Sai squinted and looked behind them at the man they just missed, "Can you fly for a moment senpai?"
Naruto nodded determinedly, "As long as I don't have to fly it towards him I can."
Sai nodded and handed the front over to Naruto before taking out his scroll. Sai created a bunch of bats using his jutsu and had them carry Naruto's prepared explosive kunai over to Deidara in an effort to attack. Deidara matched the explosives with some of his own, negating Sai's attack.
Sai retook the front of the bird while Naruto returned to his position of man on point. He pulled out a handful of shuriken, "Come on! Give me something here! Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!" Naruto threw his handful of shuriken over Deidara's head. Before Deidara could mock him for his shoddy aim he was forced to dodge as he found himself caught in a mini lightning storm as electricity dropped from the thrown shuriken, trying to take him out.
Deidara's experience flying with his clay sculptures kept him out of harm's way as he outlasted the jutsu, "Ha! Nice try, un."
Naruto saw Sai beginning to sweat. Keeping up the flying of the bird coupled with the day's events were getting to him. Naruto saw Deidara catching up and cursed, "Sai, turn this thing around. We're not going out like this."
Sai was now panting in exhaustion but did as requested. Naruto reached into his pack and carefully pulled out an abnormal black tag before tapping into Kyuubi's chakra to trigger it. The kanji for 'explode' glowed red upon being pumped with the demonic power source.
Sai channeled his chakra into the bird to give it enough of a boost to get near Deidara. Deidara threw clay insects at them, but Naruto knocked off their trajectory with a handful of shuriken, sparing them another explosion. The bird almost dropped from the sky as Sai's consciousness wavered momentarily.
Naruto almost dropped the tag, "Sai, can you keep this thing up for a little bit longer? Just a little more time is all I need. Keep us close kouhai."
Sai looked haggard and exhausted, "I will do my best Naruto-senpai." Naruto nodded and held the tag behind him as it began to sizzle down. Sai got the two birds near one another again. Naruto jumped from their bird to make an attempt at Deidara. The explosives specialist threw more clay spiders at Naruto, who ran through hand signs, "Fuuton: Senpuu Kakusui (Wind Release: Whirlwind Pyramid)!" A fierce wind burst around Naruto's body, knocking the clay spiders away as he landed on Deidara's bird.
Deidara turned and lashed out with a backhand strike that Naruto ducked. Naruto shot a kick at his head after getting under the punch, but was blocked and thrown off of the bird. Deidara cursed as he watched Naruto's body freefall down towards the whirlpool, "Fuck. I was supposed to catch him, not kill him. Sasori no Danna is going to bitch me out when I get back, un."
Naruto fell towards the ground but was rescued by Sai's bird. Naruto sat up on the back of the bird and patted the pale ninja on the shoulder, "Good save, I thought I was gone there for a second Sai-kouhai." No response, "Sai-kouhai?"
Sai's eyes were glazed over, signifying unconsciousness, "Fuck!" The bird they had been riding on dissolved into ink due to the creator being indisposed, dropping them both from the sky. Naruto grabbed onto Sai and pushed wind chakra out through his feet to direct their motion towards the tall cylindrical building instead of the water, which would have ended with them drowning. Naruto positioned Sai onto his back and fired off a Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken to cushion the impact.
As the two hit with Sai on Naruto's back, the aforementioned blonde coughed up blood. Naruto allowed the feeling to re-enter his body before rolling Sai off of his back and looking up at Deidara.
Deidara chuckled at the display, "That was a good little bit of survival technique, un. You're one pesky kid, I have to say." Suddenly he heard the sound of a rumbling sizzle. Under the wing of the bird there was Naruto's black explosive note.
From his place on top of the building Naruto smirked, "Boom."
Deidara leapt off of the clay bird just as his clay bird was engulfed in a mid-air firestorm. That looked like a miniature sun from where Naruto was, "I can see why Ero-sennin was so reluctant to teach me how to make explosive tags, because I ended up making that piece of demonic hell."
"Now that showed some artistic prowess, un!" Naruto saw Deidara alive and well below the explosion that took out his bird. Now however, he was on a massive clay dragon, "You are very tricky to pin down, un! Witness the next level of my art! C2 Dragon!"
"Oh come on!" Naruto palmed his forehead, "You've got to draw the line somewhere with stuff like this, S-ranked or not." Deidara chuckled, "I can see why Kisame no Danna and that ass Itachi found it somewhat difficult to take you, but you've got nowhere to go as long as your little friend is unconscious, un?"
Naruto looked at the downed Sai, he had to be suffering from chakra exhaustion there was no other explanation. He was getting beaten even with Sai's help, he was a sitting duck on this roof, he couldn't fly, he could barely even generate chakra as his guess was right. The building absorbed or repelled chakra from both inside and outside contact with the wall… how did this place get conquered again?
"Now then..." Deidara's clay dragon opened its mouth, "You lot lose! Witness the beauty of my art, un!" Deidara's dragon spit up many smaller dragons that flew at Naruto.
Naruto cursed and grabbed Sai, running towards the edge of the building as explosions rocked it from the mini dragons. He had no clue what he was doing. It was either stay there and die on the roof that they couldn't escape when Deidara finally found a way to incapacitate him, or jump off and die by way of catastrophic fall into the water, and on the off chance that they did survive the initial fall from at least one hundred feet in the air.
Naruto bit his lip as he neared the edge, 'Whether we end up in heaven, hell, or somehow survive this, Sai is going to be pissed off when he wakes up.' Jumping off the rooftop with the Root agent in his grasp both fell into the raging waters of the joining rivers, being quickly swept up by the whirlpool.
Deidara watched the happening with a massive sweatdrop on his head, "…Sasori no Danna is really going to kill me, un…"
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