-1Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto, however all creative liberties belong to me. The fiction story line is purely mine, and views on what characters look like (such as hair or eye) is also mine.
Authors Note: This is done from my own perspective and application to what I know about the characters. Set in my own choice it might become a little hard to comprehend and you need to just swallow it as I write it. This is as I see their pasts might be, for the fun of it and the angst to come in part two.

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Some people wonder what happened to Sasori's ring, some wondered if he just gave it up, and others know the story. I know he died at the hands of a young lady with pink hair and a fist like an explosive tag able to pound into stone and break it apart into thousands of pieces. Though I didn't witness the puppeteers dead, I can tell you it wasn't all that pretty in the end. He's a horrible sight to behold; a heart in a sealed casket in his chest, a cord he can control replacing his intestines, ten or so arms jutting from his back with blades upon the ends. He was anything but human, and how he controlled the puppet his soul lived within is the part I can't tell. Even I don't know, though everyone says I know all, and thus I can't tell you. It's Sasori's little secret isn't it?

Then there is Deidara even more strange, if only in the mind. I could tell you the story of his scope and how it got there, or I could spin the tale of his hands with the mouths that make clay. Perhaps I should start with why he is as he is? Or maybe not. I can, however, tell you about these two and their relationship. History is always my favorite subject in class, but today I'll forgo the lesson and just share the story. A man told it to me once a long, long time ago when I was just a middle aged woman with Sasori but ten and Deidara hardly a day over seven…

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"Wait for me! What for me, yeah!" cried out a little blond boy at the fresh age of ten. His birthday had been some days ago, but it had come and gone without notice by anyone or anything. Now he had to run, run as fast as he could, to catch up with his so called "friends" who were racing away from him with laughter and giggles.

He'll never catch us. They always said to one another before scampering off like this. He's the runt of his family! He can't even run right! Ha, ha, ha! Deidara never heard a word of their taunts, but if he knew he probably would choose not to if could.

"Wait! Yeah!" He called out again, breath heaving as he panted, eventually having to slow down before he fell over. Lactic acid filled his muscles in his legs and he was forced to stop and lean against a building nearby. He had been trying so hard to follow them through the streets of the rock village, but it was just so un-level and filled with holes here and there that it was impossible to navigate, especially with Deidara's small deformation. Not to say it was a deformation or retardation at all, he was just small for his age; smaller than all the other boys in the village. His mother just said it was because he hadn't reached his first growth spurt, so little Deidei never minded much. Until today.

"Stop I said, yeah!" The blond screamed out one last time, but they had gone completely from his view around the alley wall. With a small tear running over his cheek he leaned still against the wall he sniffed and stood up, legs finally feeling well enough to carry on again. But he'd lost the will to chase after those rotten boys, so with a sadness in his still caring heart he turned around and went to head home. He didn't make it far, however, as with his head hanging and eyes staring at his feet, he found himself suddenly on the dusty ground. Looking up he saw a rather tall boy, from his perspective in this case, and gave him a questioning look.

"Watch where you're going, hm. I need to get home." Deidara said softly but angrily as he slowly got to his little feet, his trousers now more dirty than before and cream colored shirt covered in gray-brown dust. Once standing he looked up to the male, his head hardly reaching his waist, and then went to go around him. The stranger stood in his way again, stepping to the left and then back to the right as Deidara tried to go back once more.

"Please move." He tried, mother always said the kinder approach worked best. Blank emotionless eyes looked down on the blond from under a hat. Removing the hat red hair spilled from inside and Deidara gasped. Red hair… A head protector from the village of Sand…

"S-Sasori…" The boy was in fear of the man before him, even if he wasn't much older than himself. Though by this point in time Sasori had not left his village, he was certainly coming close. Today he was out on a trip with two others whom he hardly spoke to and just took orders as he was told. Even twenty years prior to his revolt on the Sunagakure he hated wasting peoples time.

"Be quiet." Sasori commanded softly as he entered into the alley as well. Glancing around the corner he pulled back against the wall, yanking Deidara in front of him tightly. Two adults walked passed the alley without so much as a glance down into its dark depths and once they had passed, Sasori thrust Deidara away from himself. Small Deidara, confused, turned around quickly on his heels and looked up into the still emotionless visage.

"That wasn't very nice, yeah! You should apologize."

"Just as they apologized for running away from you?" Sasori replied tersely as he went to walk away. Deidara's small thin hands grappled at a fistful of the boys heavy cloaking attire and stopped him.

"What did you say?" he asked in a subtle quiet tone. His baby blues were downcast but turned up to Sasori, filled with salty tears. Sasori took no pity, but repeated himself as asked by the young boy. This child seemed more intelligent than he could have been for what, about seven or eight? He had nearly proper language, and understood all that was happening around him.

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Was he a genius, or just beyond his years? I couldn't possibly answer that, not having been at the site, but I can tell you that Sasori was intrigued by Deidara's understanding. One was a genius, already working on his human puppetry, and the other only just starting to begin his journey to what he would be. Some said crazy, I say glorious.

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"You saw, yeah?" Deidara wondered as he gazed up into piercing rust colored eyes, his tears finally spilling over the edge of his lids. Sasori did not turn away, he did not move nor even blink. His breath was still until he nodded once and spoke.

"I saw it all. Do you call them your friends?" Ten years old and speaking as he did, ten years old and acting as he did… it wasn't normal.

"Yeah." Deidara nodded once, but realized then that he had no friends for whatever reason. No one his age liked him, not to his knowledge, and he really in the end didn't like many people either. His mother was an acceptation, father dead so he didn't know the man, and any other family was a given. But there were no non-family relationships he held with anyone. With a sigh he shook his head. "No. I don't."

Sasori nodded again and then rounded the edge of the alley and started to stalk off down the dusty roadway in the opposing direction of which the two men had run. Now and then he realized someone was watching him, following him, but he didn't come to a halt until he was outside his home where he stayed temporarily on the trip.

"Why did you follow me?" he asked calmly as he looked over his shoulder with somewhat angry eyes. Deidara looked sadly up to Sasori as he came to a halt.

"I can only follow those who walk, yeah."

"Do you know why?"

"Mommy says it's because I'm short, hm." Deidara stared up at Sasori for a time, then stopped and looked away. "I'm not a strong runner though."

"I noticed." Sasori wasn't in the mood to converse any longer, he turned away in dismissal but the young blond wouldn't have any of it.

"Wait!" Deidara called and ran after Sasori to catch up and walk along side.

"What now? I'm busy and you're wasting my time."

"Will you be my friend?" Deidara asked as he looked up into Sasori's face. The two stared at one another and then Sasori seemed to sigh.

"No."

"Why?" Deidara was going to whine, Sasori could tell, and shook his head.

"Because I don't want to be your friend. You will waste my time."

"Then I'll be your friend forever, but you don't have to be my friend." Sasori, while caught of guard, shook his head and entered into the building without another word to the young boy.

Friend forever, pft. He thought solemnly, but even hours later after the sun had set and Deidara was long gone the words echoed in his mind.

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Two or three years past by like dragging feet with cinder blocks attached to the sole of the shoe. I would say take off the shoe, but they were tied on so tight and with hands shackled behind your back, all you could do was keep on walking. Walking and praying, that is, praying that someone will find you on your travels and have a key to the cuffs turning raw your wrists and bleeding your feet from blisters. I should think one might give up, but time just dragged on as usual, having his job of keeping everything running smoothly from now until whenever. Maybe there was no whenever, and the clock would just keep ticking and ticking and ticking…

The old man told me that from seven to seventeen Deidara had a hard life as he adjusted to his newfound skills and grew accustomed to the scope in his eye. The man still would not tell me how it got there or why, he told me not of the clay molding mouths, and only that the blond had changed for the worse. As a child, he was a nice kid that could probably grow up to be a better person than what he turned into. He didn't. After that day when meeting Sasori it's said he was changed on the inside and out, growing older in mind and spirit than ever. Finally he got taller, not gallantly so, but tall enough to be above average.

Sasori never forgot what Deidara had said, but the boys image had escaped from his mind as he became consumed with his puppetry. He was the first of the two to leave his family, kill them even, and escape off into the wilderness. There it's said he joined Akatsuki, and Deidara we find out joined not much later.

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"Sasori." Spoke the leader of the organization smoothly. "This is Deidara, he will be your partner as we are growing and I'm putting you all into groups." With that the two were dismissed, the leader a man of short words and having little time to converse thoroughly with his workers.

Sasori and Deidara looked at one another for a long moment. Deidara didn't know this man, hunched over with a black mask covering his nose and mouth. He didn't know the name, nor the voice when it spoke. Unaware that the man before him was a toy and the creature on the inside was his real partner, Deidara went on unknowing. Sasori meanwhile, hardly recalled a boy with blond hair. Back then Deidara didn't leave it to hang in his face, it wasn't even long enough back then to tie. Thus, friends forever and even meeting again, neither knew or remembered the existence of the other and went on as if they had just met for the first time in their life. Immediately they felt a connection with each other, however, Deidara wanting to get to know this mysterious man hidden under hats and cloaks and masks. Sasori, the usually Unwanting, felt his own desire to explore Deidara and get to know him even from a distance. Few got close to him, he always hiding inside Hiruko or just not saying a word of anything to anyone. Pulling their eyes from each other, they left the headquarters while throwing their conical straw hats onto their heads with billowing black jackets with red clouds following their knees in wake while walking out into the sun with heads held high and serious. From then until now they were companions, partners…