Ellisaria is knocked into the water. She does not appreciate this.

She makes her displeasure known as she claws her way back into the air.

More bombs, many of them even larger now that Deidara's enjoying not having to hide.

Karin got separated from Sasuke and the others, and fell. Hitting the water hurt more than the explosion. She bites her arm, it's a quick and dirty way of healing herself but it's fast, starts swimming for the surface because her ears are ringing but now that they're openly hostile she can located the damn bastards, but she's deep and tired - 

A curl of water wraps around her, and whisks her to the surface.

Away from the explosions.

Isobu surfaces nearby, whispers, "Are you okay?" It's a comical sound, from something so big.

"Yeah, I healed - I know where they're attacking from, though one of them keeps slipping in and out, one's hanging back and throwing the bombs - I think the other's going for an ambush strike. I need to tell Sasuke-sama, or Ellisaria maybe. Someone who flies, the bomber's up in the air." She stops, samples his chakra again: "Almost certainly Deidara. Which means he'll have a counter to some of Sasuke's sharingan's more common tricks."

"I can get you there. Climb inside my shell, it's safer."

She nods, takes a deep breath, and does so, and clings on as Isobu rockets back towards the fight.

Sasuke weathers the blast, takes off immediately on his hawk, wastes a precious few seconds getting Juugo down from his building rage - while Sasuke's stuck with him on a small flying surface is extremely not the ideal time and place - and starts circling, trying to spot the bomber and dodge the explosions.

The sharingan is not actually very good for distance vision, though, and he can't locate his target.

Someone, a man in an orange spiral mask and Akatsuki robes, appears next to him, tries to grab Sasuke - Sasuke stabs him, his sword goes through the man - 

Sasuke dismisses the hawk, propelling himself away from the man in the moment before free-fall.

The explosions are bombs, mostly coming from that direction.

She breathes in and out, sweeping her head across the sky, expelling greats gouts of fire to detonate the explosives before they get closer.

Some of them disgorge smaller bombs, fine enough to be breathed in, thickly laid enough to quickly start cutting swathes across her path.

Sasuke falls through a patch. Luckily, this problem is eminently solvable with lightning.

(The bombs adapt, become increasingly fire resistant. The bomber also is either using multiple launch points, or moving incredibly fast.)

She sees Sasuke's effectiveness with lightning out of the corner of her eye. Were there elementals she could call a storm with ease, but failing that-

-she shifts form, and lightning erupts from her hands.

That seems highly effective, dusting many of the bombs and rendering the others inert.

Sasuke summons a new hawk under himself, swoops to get Juugo, and glances around.

And Karin valiantly doesn't scream when Isobu throws her at Sasuke. Luckily he catches her, so: "I know where the bomber is - that teleporter's harder but I can warn if he's coming - "

They'll wing off in the direction Karin indicates, though not before Sasuke shouts at Isobu, "A storm would be helpful now!"

She shifts back before she hits the water again. The humans can watch themselves. She will guard Isobu.

Isobu whips up the start of a hurricane. It's a bit more than what Sasuke asked for, but it's far, far more likely to hamper his opponent than Karin. (Deidara's bombs keep coming, punching through the cloud cover, since Deidara's not bothering to aim, instead going for maximum coverage and damage.)

He rockets towards Deidara, pushing his hawk to his maximum climbing speed, well over three hundred miles an hour, slams to the side when Deidara takes aim at them - gets above his opponent - 

And dives.

The hawk is significantly faster like this, trailing a sonic boom behind him. Deidara isn't quite able to keep up, his bombing disrupted as he frantically dodges - 

Closer to Isobu, and the storm, just within range for Sasuke to pull.

The lightning shapes itself into a kirin out of long practice, the horn leaping through Deidara, destroying the massive bomb Karin had warned he was forming. He sheathes himself in clay, survives, but with heavy burns, and his clay bird crumbles as he falls to the earth.

Sasuke lines up a kill shot, because he's not relying on that fall to finish the job, and the second Akatsuki member teleports next to Deidara, and then removes him from the field.

Karin and Juugo are smart enough to flatten themselves against the hawk's back a fraction of a second before the teleporter makes another move against Sasuke, and the skittering remains of the kirin - because he channels it through himself, and has learned to keep some back - lashes out.

He thinks for a second he caught the edge of the mask - sees a glimpse of a red eye - and the man vanishes.

Sasuke directs his hawk to wing back to his larger allies, teeth set on edge.

"Was that the Akatsuki?"

He lands. "Yes. The bomber, Deidara, and the teleporter, a member I'm having a frustrating time getting accurate information on, current alias 'Tobi' but indications exist he's used others in the past."

"Isobu, could you tell if he was the same masked man as the one who enspelled Yagara?"

Isobu nods and makes a confirming noise.

Sasuke looks up. "I hadn't heard about this. What happened with Yagura?"

"A masked man, who felt like both Uchiha and Senju, laid a curse on him while he was host to Isobu, to destroy his village."

"I've heard something about a Madara, elsewhere, could that be related?"

He strongly suspects that, regardless of alias, this is the other Uchiha who Itachi'd mentioned - the one who helped her kill the clan.

"Ah. He wasn't. Wrong chakra," Isobu rumbles.

Nod. "I don't know him, so I'll take your word for it. Unfortunately, our negotiations got interrupted..."