Why do I have to eat?
'When you said that you were going to give me a new partner after Orochimaru left, I didn't expect to end up babysitting a pipsqueak.' Sasori growled in the most respectful way he could as he remained in a bowing stance in front of his leader. The orange haired, pierced young man stared at the puppet user from behind his desk, irritated. To say that he wasn't expecting Sasori to complain over his new partner would be a lie. When Pein had sent Sasori, Itachi and Kisame on a mission to find the young boy to recruit him into Akatsuki, he never told the three exactly how old the new member would be, and from what he was told, when the trio had first seen the young nine year old, they were shocked—to say the least.
'Sasori,' Pein spoke low with a menacing glare to his subordinate. 'Deidara is your new partner. If you have a problem with that then defect; but know that as soon as you do then we will hunt you down and kill you. We have zero tolerance here and no time or resources to help you with such a trivial issue. Everyone else can tolerate their partners. You will do the same.'
Pein nodded to himself in finality and signalled for Sasori to rise from his bowing position and leave. Growling to himself, Sasori rose and walked to the door; with a yank, it opened. He stepped into the dully lit hallway and closed the door quietly behind him. Turning, he walked angrily down the hallway to the kitchen where he knew everyone would be.
He had been in Akatsuki for so long. Probably one of the few members who had been in the organisation since it was founded; next to Kisame, the sword wielding, shark ninja who was partnered with Itachi, the young pre-teen, Uchiha kid from Konoha. Orochimaru was another member who had been in Akatsuki the longest, but because he left the organisation, Sasori had to get a new partner; which is what caused his new troubles!
With a huff, Sasori pulled the last door at the end of the hallway open with force that almost pulled the wooden door from his hinges; and with a grunt he slammed it shut behind him. The large room was surprisingly empty when he entered it and hopelessly, Sasori scanned the cold, dull living room, looking for the other Akatsuki members. His eyes started to his left and scanned from the farthest stone wall, across the room to the large ten seater table in the centre of the large stone room, and further to his right where he saw the wall joining the room to the kitchen. The light was on in the kitchen and Sasori heard faint voices coming from it, so he continued to the kitchen to investigate.
He didn't even make it all the way into the kitchen before he saw what was happening. Using his shoulder, Sasori leaned against the doorpost to the kitchen and watched as seven of the Akatsuki were congregated in the kitchen around the small boy that is his new partner. The young blonde boy cowered in the centre of the crowd, perched on the kitchen bench with his legs swinging over the edge and his arms folded across his chest, the boy held a stubborn frown across his face as the blue haired kunoichi- the only woman in Akatsuki- leaned close to the boy encouragingly. Sasori smirked at the sight. He never would have thought Konan as the motherly type.
Continuing to scan around the room, Sasori looked at everyone's faces as they studied the small blonde boy. No one had noticed he entered the room, which he was grateful for. The last thing he would want is to be bombarded with something irritating. His blue friend, Kisame, was standing to the left of the boy, slightly behind him but still close. He towered over the rest of the Akatsuki, but his giant size was small compared to his even bigger grin on his face as he watched the boy. Kisame's young partner, Itachi, was standing close by him and watching the scene unfold in front of him with a rare, amused glint in his eyes. He was very short compared to everyone else. This could be because he was only eleven, but Deidara was nine and already looking close to growing taller than him, so he could just be short for his age. Also the young Uchiha was the only person in Akatsuki who didn't have their headband slashed. The scratch through a ninja's headband usually signifies their broken ties with a village, and Akatsuki is one of the most dangerous shinobi criminal organisations. So Sasori still couldn't figure out why the boy hadn't slashed his headband; but that wasn't really any concern to him.
Continuing his looking around the room, Sasori saw Kakazu- an older member of Akatsuki who was almost always grumpy about something and obsessed with his money and Akatsuki's finances- sticking to the corners of the kitchen, looking angrily at the young boy. The corners of Sasori's lips pulled upwards as he recalled Kakazu's reaction when Deidara first walked through the doors to the base. 'No. Way. Akatsuki cannot afford to look after an infant!' Were Kakazu's exact words, which resulted in a menacing glare from the small blonde boy when he heard.
Sasori continued looking. Around the kitchen island where Deidara was perched as the centre of attention, next to Konan, was Kakazu's partner; a young man with spikey black hair, looking amused as he watched the spectacle in the kitchen. Sasori frowned when he realised that the young man wouldn't last long in Akatsuki. Kakazu always kills his partners after a short while.
Sasori's eyes snapped back to the blonde boy when the kid let out a stubborn growl. The blue haired woman cooed sweetly at the boy as he placed a hand on his back reassuringly. 'You have to Deidara. Don't be stubborn.'
The boy shook his head roughly and closed his eyes to block out everyone from view; his folded arms tightened across his chest defiantly. What was all this about? Sasori frowned.
When the boy opened his eyes he let out a scared squeak and turned his gaze away from the plant man nearby. 'Who is he? He looks like he's gonna eat me yeah!' The boy wailed. Sasori followed the boy's previous gaze to the hungry looking Zetsu and smirked. Konan hushed the boy and turned to Zetsu sharply.
'Zetsu get out of here you made him scared. He's not dinner.' Konan hissed protectively and Zetsu snapped out of his daze to look at the woman in hurt disbelief.
'It's not my fault. It's the brats fault for being such a wimp.' Zetsu conflicted between his two personalities before slinking out of the room. Watching the plant man leave the room, Sasori then turned his gaze back to the scene in front of him, still leaning against the door frame.
When Konan had looked up to scold Zetsu, she had followed him out of the kitchen with her gaze and noticed Sasori standing in the doorway watching everyone. With a huff, she stood tall and straightened her long jacket and glanced sharply at Sasori. 'Well,' she began. 'He's your partner, do something about this.' And she left the room with her head raised high. The other's soon followed, with Itachi and Kisame lingering behind longer, to watch Sasori approach the blonde boy. Itachi, standing on his toes to see over the bench top, waited with his partner Kisame as Sasori approached. Kisame and Sasori were sort of close, and Kisame couldn't wait to see how his pensive friend would respond to the situation.
Deidara still sat on the bench top with his eyes closed tightly shut and arms folded across his chest stubbornly. Sasori approached the boy and stared him down. As if feeling someone's gaze on him, Deidara's eyes fluttered open nervously and looked around the now vacated room and sighed when only three people were left. His eyes widened when he noticed the tall red haired man standing in front of him with a serious expression plastered across his face as his eyes bore down on the young boy. The man's cold gaze made Deidara flinch away and moving to jump off the bench to run away, he was stopped when the man's strong hand slammed down next to him; his strong arm blocking Deidara's way. The boy went frigid and stared up at the man fearfully.
'I leave you for a few minutes and you cause so much trouble. Whats all the fuss about?' Sasori glowered down at the boy and waited silently for him to respond.
The boy gulped, but replied with a stubborn look in his eyes. 'I don't even want to be here!' He barked and unfolded his arms to ball his hands into fists and slam them into the air expressively.
'Not my problem.' Sasori never pulled his gaze away from the boy. From his time in Suna, Sasori learned several interrogation tactics. One being that a fierce and unwavering gaze can make anyone crack under pressure. Although, was using torture and interrogation tactics on a small child morally right?
'Why are you causing such a disturbance?' Sasori continued when the boy went silent. The boy's blue eyes looked up at Sasori, confused.
'Why do I have to eat?' The boy asked dumbly up at his new partner. The older man recoiled from shock and his eyes widened in confusion.
'Are you messing with me?' He asked with a questioning glare. Already his temperature was rising as he grew increasingly frustrated at the small boy.
Kisame laughed loudly and put a hand on Itachi's shoulder, 'Sasori, I think we will leave you on that note. Come on Itachi, we'll go to the training area.' Itachi nodded and followed ahead of Kisame out of the room and on his way to the training grounds; pausing at the door to wait for his partner to catch up. One thing he learned when he first joined Akatsuki was, because of his small size, it would be best not to venture too far away from his partner. Kisame reached the door and before leaving with a smile, added, 'Good luck.'
The room was left silent again and empty, apart from Sasori and Deidara. Deidara still sat at the bench staring up at Sasori. What this kid seriously expecting Sasori to answer that dumb question?
Seeing that the man hesitate, the boy spoke again quieter and cocking his head slightly to the side, confused. 'Why do I have to eat?' He spoke slower in case the red haired man hadn't heard him the first time. 'The blue haired lady was upset when she found out that I haven't eaten in two days.'
Sasori sighed, 'Well of course she would be upset. You need to eat.' Walking over to one of the cupboards, Sasori pulled it open and pulled out a packet of chips and walked back over to the boy. Quickly he opened it, took a chip and handed the packet to the boy.
'But why do I have to eat?' The boy asked again, taking the packet into his hands but just glanced down at it, not making any attempt at eating the contents.
Racking his brain for something to say, Sasori began to think out loud, 'Well…Because…'
The boy looked up at the man understandingly, 'You don't know, do you… The blue haired lady didn't know either.'
Sasori frowned at the boy and plucked another chip out of the bag. Before the boy knew what was happening, Sasori had shoved the chip into the boy's closed, small mouth, breaking the chip into several pieces all over the boy's shirt and mouth. Deidara's eyes shot open from shock and he stared up at Sasori who looked down at the boy in front of him amused.
Reaching into the bag for another chip, Sasori held it millimetres away from the boy's mouth and waited, 'Of course I know. Eating is a part of life, if you don't eat you will die.' He moved the chip closer to the boy's mouth so the salty taste prickled at the boy's soft, small lips. 'Now. Eat.' Sasori ordered.
The small boy looked up wide-eyed at the man and cooperatively opened his mouth and ate the chip from Sasori's fingers in one whole bite.
Satisfaction and pride grew inside Sasori as the small boy took the chip. Finally the boy had eaten something, so, testing his luck, he reached into the bag and grabbed another chip. He handed it to the small boy patiently and the boy slowly took it from the man's hands and nibbled on it quietly. It was as Sasori stepped back and leaded against the main counter close to the right of the boy, Sasori noticed the boy swinging his legs contentedly underneath the counter as he nibbled on his chip. Sasori reached into the bag and grabbed another chip for himself and the two of them stayed in the kitchen eating for several minutes in silence. Sasori watched with amusement as the boy looked around the room curiously, still nibbling on that same chip. As a slight feeling of calm and happiness filled Sasori, a sudden though occurred to him that hit him with an impact equivalent to a train.
If the kid was this much trouble to feed, what other problems await him, and how hard are they going to be to fix?
Well hope you liked it :)
Just something random that came to my head when i watched home and away last night. The kid asked why she had to eat and i thought it was so simple and innocent that i had to write something about it :)
Hope you liked it. Tell me what you thought :)