Characters/Pairing: Sasori, Kankuro
Author's Note: The difference between this and written in the sand is that it's not just about the Sand Siblings; these can and will be about any past or present resident of Sunagakure I choose, and residents of other villages will make significantly more appearances here than in written in the sand. For the first chapter, I should tell you that this is AU.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Sasori doesn't even look at him. "I told you, I don't take apprentices. Besides, Chiyo-baachan's teaching you. Now get out."
Scowling, Kankuro marches out of Sasori's apartment and into the night-darkened streets of Sunagakure. Thwarted, yet again.
This is the third time he's tried to get Sasori to take him on as a puppetry apprentice. Kankuro has dreams, he likes to dream big and Sasori's larger than life.
This time, he will not be denied.
-0-
Late in the night, Sasori wakes to hear a loud thump downstairs. He sighs. Sounds like someone's trying to break in again.
Let's see, are they trying to take my puppets or my clothes this time?
When he gets downstairs and flips on the lights, the sight that meets Sasori's eyes is one that he both did and did not expect.
"Hello, Kankuro," he says calmly. "How nice of you to drop in."
Hanging about eight feet up by one ankle from a rope attached to the ceiling, Kankuro grins nervously. "Oh, hi, Sasori-sama."
Sighing long-sufferingly, Sasori goes to sit in an arm chair near where Kankuro is hanging. "You know what, brat, I'll make you a deal. If you manage to get down from there within an hour, I'll train you. Gladly. But you can't use that kunai in your pocket."
Kankuro scowls at him again.
Sasori only smiles blandly back, and steeples his fingers. "I'll be right here. Waiting."
-0-
Fifty nine minutes later…
Sasori is ushering him out of his house, brow slightly furrowed but other than that still perfectly calm. "Alright, a deal's a deal, but if you show up here tomorrow any later than 0700, I will feed you to spiders in my basement. Now go away and let me sleep, and tell your mother I said hello." He slams the door shut in Kankuro's face.
All of Kankuro's sense of triumph evaporates for a moment. "Kaasan's dead!" He shouts, bewildered, at the door. "She has been for six years!"
No answer comes.
As Kankuro walks home, that feeling of triumph returns to him. He can barely believe it, but here's the truth:
He's gotten Akasuna no Sasori, Sasori the legend, Sasori the unrepentant freaking nutcase, to train him in the art of puppetry.