NOTE: I wrote this story because my friend challenged me to write it. She told me it should be in the present tense, at least five chapters long, and should have a chapter abut swimming. Did I do it right? Reader, you are the judge. Please review, and I love constructive criticism. :-)

Disclaimer: I wish the characters here were mine, but sadly they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

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June: Beginning

Sasori stands up near the lights of the theater.

Long strings seem to come out of his hands as he uses them to control the two life-size marionettes that make up a part of his act. His assistants rush around him, controlling the secondary puppets, but Sasori ignores them.

A wild grin stretches across his usually serious face. This is the only thing worth enjoying in his life. His show is pure bliss.

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Later, he's sitting in his apartment, across the road from the Akatsuki Theater, the place where he works.

His apartment is dark and dusty. He never uses the electric lights, only candles. The candles try to light the room, but fail. It's almost as if they're sucked into the darkness. The curtains are drawn against the city lights, and puppets haunt the darkened corners. Yet, even through all the dust and dirt, the room has a distinct air of neatness. The materials on the table are organized into neat groups, the candles are bunched in exact clusters of six on small wooden racks sticking every three feet from the walls of the room, and the puppets' darkly garish outfits are dusty, but perfect.

Puppets. There are puppets everywhere. After all, Sasori is a puppeteer, the best one, probably, in the world. He spends all his time with his puppets. In fact, right now he is fixing his favorite one.

Carefully, like the master artisan he is, he tightens her loose joints and greases them. He sits back, and sighs with satisfaction. His greatest work of art lies limply on his table. Once again, she is finished and ready for her next performance. He looks at her lazily. She is beautiful. She has long golden hair, which Sasori keeps in a high ponytail off stage, blue eyes, and a witty, charismatic face. Sasori calls her Day. He isn't sure why. Maybe because she is as beautiful as a sunny day? No, that's too cheesy. Besides, Sasori doesn't even think sunny days are beautiful. He prefers night or rain. Both, if possible. "Pity you aren't real, Day." he mutters.

His cell phone rings loudly. Sasori flips it open and presses it to his ear. "Hello?" he asks the machine.

Pein, the stage manager's, voice talks gratingly out of the earpiece. "Sasori, we need you over here at the theater for a meeting. We've found a replacement for that no-good snake-charmer."

Great. Another night, which Sasori could have used to work on his puppets, going to waste.

These meetings could last for nearly the whole night, with everyone sitting around completely silent. Nevertheless, it is Sasori's duty to attend them, so he hangs up, puts on the uniform jacket (black with red shape that looks like a cloud on the back), and leaves, locking the door behind him. He crosses the street and enters the theater through its back door.

The big dressing room that he steps into is large, well lit, and clean. The walls are whitewashed, but slightly dingy. The floor is covered with liver-brown carpet. There are dressing tables, chairs, and racks full of odd clothing in it.

As soon as Sasori enters, a tall man with spiky hair punches him jovially in the arm. "What's up, Red?" he asks. Sasori rubs his arm and tries to ignore the use of his hated birth name. "Joe, my name is not Red anymore. It's Sasori, ok?" he replies to his colleague.

"Whatever, man.", answers Joe, who on stage is known as Kisame, the shark-bane. Sasori is not the only one who prefers to be known by his stage name. ALL of the performers despise their birth names.

Kisame sits down on the floor, in between Hidan, the masochistic voodoo master and Kakuzu, the theater's miserly treasurer. Sasori walks to a bench, where Zetsu, the human plant, Pein, and Pein's wife are sitting. Pein greets Sasori and asks him if he had seen Itachi, the hypnotist. Sasori shakes his head and sits down next to Zetsu.

"Hey there Sasori. You look tasty." greets Zetsu with a nasty smile.

Sasori shudders and moves down to the floor next to Hidan.

The whole company knows Zetsu is... well, special. Zetsu never takes off his stage costume, and always talks in a rather cannibalistic way. He also has slightly disturbing mood swings at regular intervals. Sasori suspects that Zetsu might be bipolar, but he has never bothered asking him.

They hear a knock at the door. "Come in!" shouts Pein. Itachi slips in through the door, along with someone else. He drops right down next to Sasori and stares expectantly at Pein.

Pein points at the clock on the wall angrily. "You're five minutes late!" he roars at Itachi. "Where were you?"

Itachi turns his gaze away, bored. "This idiot couldn't find his baggage at the airport," he explains, pointing at the other person who had come in with him.

Sasori, who has been ignoring the person so far, looks at him. He sees long blonde hair in a high ponytail, shiny blue eyes, and a pretty face that shows a strong personality. He stands up in alarm. Confused questions blow about his head. "Day!?" he exclaims. "How the hell??"

Hidan pulls him back down sharply. "Siddown you bastard. He's not your goddamn puppet." he whispers in Sasori's ear.

However, the blonde had heard him, and exclaimed in surprise, "How do you know my name, un? I've never seen you before!"

Kisame snickers. "Day? My Aunt's called Day! Are you a woman, then?"

Day glares at Kisame "Dei's my nickname, you freak, un." he growls.

Kisame grins nastily. "Then what's your real name? Darla? Deirdre? DAYANARA???"

'Dei' blushes bright red. He mumbles something. "I can't hear you." says Kisame, cupping his ear jokingly. "What's your name, girl?"

"I said: I'm Deidara, you deaf bozo!" shouts Dei, glaring hatred at Kisame.
Kisame opens his mouth to make some scathing comeback, when Pein stands up and glares at him too. Kisame quickly shuts his mouth.

Since everyone is quiet, Pein clears his throat and introduces 'Dei' properly. "This is Deidara. He's going to be part of our show from now onwards..."

Kisame interrupts him loudly. "We aren't gonna feed this girl to Zetsu? Damn, I wanted to watch!"

Pein looks at Hidan. Hidan smacks Kisame on the head and berates him with a string of very colorful words. Kisame shuts up again.

Pein thanks Hidan, but before he can continue Itachi asks him a question. "What does he do? What's his act?"

Pein looks at Deidara. Dei beams at Itachi and answers cheerfully, "I'm a pyrotechnical artist, un! My fireworks and smoke effects are really famous."

He feels rather taken aback by Itachi's response. Itachi turns his face away, as if Deidara is contaminated. "Another self-absorbed artist, huh? Looks like you've got competition, Sasori."

Sasori frowns. "Fireworks aren't art. They are pretty, but they come and go too fast to be truly appreciated. Art should be something that lives on forever and never ends, so that we, and all the people of the future, have time to appreciate its immortal beauty." he says.

Deidara's eyes blaze. "How dare you insult my art, un? The fleeting beauty of a rocket bursting in the sky, that loud bang that makes everyone yell, the cloud of smoke left after the end of the firework, how come that's not art, un? You love its beauty and you miss it when it's gone, so you light another one, and on and on until you run out. Then you wish you had more, and you really appreciate them, un. That's real art. ART IS A BANG, UN!" he shouts.

Sasori's frown deepens. "There's no need to get angry. I was just telling you my view, that's all." he says defensively.

Deidara snorts. "Your view is wrong then." he grouses, but Sasori can tell Deidara has forgiven him already, simply because he is a fellow artist.

Kisame gets up and yawns. "If we're going to start this art crap, I'm outta here." Itachi gets up too, silently. They both leave.

"Oh, good, the weirdoes are gone, un!" exclaims Deidara tactlessly. Everyone glares at him. He slaps his forehead. "Sorry.", he says apologetically. "Who were those guys anyway, un?"

"Itachi, our hypnotist, brought you here and Kisame, our shark man, called you a girl." explains Pein.

Deidara scowls. "I hate those guys, un." he mutters. Then he looks around at everyone. "Who are you guys?" he asks.

Pein looks at Zetsu. Zetsu gets up. "Right. I'm Zetsu, you delicious looking morsel."

Deidara shivers. He is not used to Zetsu's cannibalistic descriptions.

Zetsu points to each person in turn, introducing him or her. "You already know Pein, our yummy stage manager. The appetizing chick over there is Konan, Pein's wife. This white haired, bad-mouthed, violent, bad tasting and masochistic guy is Hidan. The greedy looking meal is Kakuzu, and that tasty redhead is Sasori." He sits down again.

Deidara feels quite disturbed by Zetsu's descriptions, but he raises a hand and says, "Hi.", simply.

"Hi.", answers everyone monotonously, and looks at him.

He looks back, suddenly shy.

Zetsu breaks eye contact and yawns.

The shyness leaves Deidara in an instant. He yawns too, and sits down on the floor, facing everyone. After a few boring, silent minutes, he looks at Pein and says, "Hey, sorry to bother you, but I'm really tired after my flight, un. You said I'd have a place to stay."

Pein glares at Deidara for breaking the "sacred" silence before telling him, "The Theater owns an apartment block for the permanent performers to stay in. There are two floors, two apartments per floor, and we share, two people to each apartment. You'll be living with Sasori. His last partner ran away to start his own circus, so he has space for you."

Deidara beams at Sasori, only to find Sasori looking at Pein in utter shock.

"WHAT?!?" Sasori exclaims. He stands up suddenly. "But I need the space for all my puppets! There's not enough space for anyone else in my apartment. NO WAY is he living with me!"

Pein looks skeptically at Sasori and says, "You know the rules, Sasori. It's two per house or else you have to find your own living space, and you know how hard that is in this city. You tidy up your puppets and live with Deidara, or you're out."

Sasori frowns. He had tried desperately to find another house when his old partner's snake kept escaping. The only apartment within his small salary had been tiny, leaky, and way too far from the theater. He agrees grudgingly.

Pein smiles (a thing he rarely does) and claps his hands. "This meeting is adjourned, you can all go home." He walks up to Deidara, who stands up eagerly, and Sasori, who is standing and staring angrily at nothing. He pokes Sasori. Sasori regains attentiveness and stares at him instead.

Pein makes an impatient gesture towards the door and says, "Come on, Sasori; help Deidara take his luggage to your apartment."

Sasori nods and looks around for Deidara's suitcase. He doesn't see it. "Where's your stuff?" he asks Deidara.

"I left my bags outside." answers Deidara. "I didn't feel like carrying them in." He heads towards the door and opens it. He steps outside and screams. He steps back in, soaking wet. His long hair is plastered against his face, and he looks utterly downcast.

He looks straight at Sasori and says pointedly, "It's raining out there." Pein, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Zetsu roar with laughter.

"You stepped into the torrent from the roof, right?" laughs Hidan.

Sasori smiles a small, wry smile. "We've all done it sometime." he declares. He walks out, carefully avoiding the deluge from the roof. When he steps out into the rain, he turns around. "Coming, Brat?" he calls to Deidara.

"Brat?" Deidara asks Pein. "Does he mean me?" Pein nods and pushes Deidara out of the door.

Deidara steps straight under the small waterfall he had stepped into earlier. He curses and quickly steps out of it. Then he walks down to Sasori. He points the way to his (now soaked) luggage, and he and Sasori cross the road to the apartment, each carrying two suitcases.