.A loud boom sounded from somewhere in the base and Sasori's puppets rattled on their shelves. Putting his tool down, he looked up in curiosity, turning around in his chair to glance at the door. A moment later it swung open and Deidara burst inside the room, quickly slamming the door behind him and leaning against it, panting. "What's up, my man?" he asked when he noticed Sasori staring.

The puppet chewed his tongue and, deciding he didn't want to know, turned back around in his seat, picking up the screw driver and returning to his task. He heard the door open and then close again, but still sensed Deidara's chakra in the room. The bomber walked across the room and stood behind Sasori for a while, watching him work.

"I blew up my room again. Kakuzu's going to kill me." The blond glanced around for a chair before finally plopping down on the puppet's rarely-used bed. "This thing's dusty, hm. When's the last time you laid in it?"

"You know I don't need to sleep that often." Sasori finished tightening a screw and set the puppet down on his desk. He moved his eyes to glance at the intruder. "Don't you have someone else to go bother?"

"I'm just waiting until the dust clears out of my room." Deidara leaned back onto his elbows, eyes wandering around the room. He glanced over all the puppets, most of which were unfinished or missing limbs. "What are you working on?"

"A puppet," Sasori said curtly, grabbing the finished work and moving to stand. Deidara sat up, rolling his eyes.

"Well, obviously, hm." He watched the redhead cross the room and pose the puppet on a shelf. Then he moved back toward Deidara and reached above him, pulling another one down and walking back to his desk. It still kind of disturbed Deidara that all the puppets in Sasori's collection were actually corpses. "You're fixing them?"

Sasori ignored him, analyzing the cracks in the face of the work before him and wondering how he should go about fixing them. He'd probably have to construct a whole new face. Next he looked at the splintered, broken arm. Making a mental checklist, he continued in this pattern of thinking, already planning improvements for the new parts he'd have to make. He'd almost forgotten Deidara was even in the room until the blond yawned.

"Is this all you do on your days off? Hm."

"When else do I have time to fix them?" Sasori answered with another question, hoping to shut the blond up. He stood, crossing the room again and digging around in the old dresser he'd been using as storage for his puppet parts. He pulled out an arm and a head, dusted off some wood shavings and returned to his chair.

"Don't you ever do anything fun?" Deidara brushed some dust off his sleeve, sneezing a moment later. "You're always cooped up in this room when we're not on missions, hm. You don't even join us at dinner."

"I don't need to eat, brat." Sasori opened the drawer of his desk, reaching his hand in and feeling around for a sanding pad. "And your idea of fun isn't the same as mine." He grabbed a pencil and a filer out as well, and went to work drawing designs on the new head of the puppet. "Why do you care, anyway?"

Deidara shrugged, smirking and leaning back in the bed again. "Who says I do? I'm just looking out for your well-being, is all. We're partners, hm. Besides," he continued, sitting up again, "I don't think it's good for you to be cooped up in here all the time. All you do is work on those puppets of yours. You don't ever interact with any of the other members unless you absolutely have to, hm."

Sasori growled, quickly getting annoyed at his partner's constant talking. "I don't see the need to butt in to any of their business, unless some people I know." He pushed his chair away from the desk, standing up. "And for your information, working on puppets is my way of relaxing and getting away from people like you." He walked to the door and opened it, glaring back at Deidara. "I don't need to interact with others; I have my puppets and my subordinates. Anything I need is just a flick of the wrist or a command away." He pointed into the hallway. "Now leave me alone, I'm sure the dust has cleared from your room."

Deidara sighed, standing and patting the dust from Sasori's bed off of his cloak. "Whatever, my man. Have fun with your dolls, hm."

Deidara left down the hall back to his room, fanning the remaining smoke out the window and wondering how he was going to clean up the mess before Kakuzu and Hidan returned from their mission. Kakuzu had nearly decapitated Deidara the last time he'd caused so much destruction in the bass. Something about how much it was going to cost to repair the damages or something.

Kisame walked by the blond's open door, stopping to peek in. He let out a low whistle. "Early detonation again?"

"Yeah, hm. I don't know how the hell it happened this time." Deidara motioned to the blasted wall. "I need to fix that before the money-grubber gets back."

"There's some wood and plaster down in the basement, I think," Kisame supplied, smirking. There never was a dull moment in the base. Deidara nodded his thanks, gathering up the burnt wood off the floor and walking out the door past Kisame to throw it away.

After the mess was cleared, he walked down the stairs to the basement, pushing the heavy door open and clicking on a light. It didn't help much, but it illuminated the stack of wood Kisame had talked about. "Now to find that plaster. And maybe some nails. I can ask Sasori for his hammer…" He fumbled his way through the dim basement, yelping as he hit his shin on an old wooden chest. "Damn thing!" He kicked it and it flipped over; the lid snapped off and a bunch of scrolls rolled out.

Rubbing his leg, he glanced curiously at the scrolls, picking up one that had rolled open. Cautiously he held it up to the light, careful not to accidentally activate or set it off.

"Rejuvenation," he read aloud. "Huh." He took a seat on an old canister and started reading it. It seemed to be some sort of jutsu that had the ability to make someone younger. Looking back at the chest it had come from, he wasn't surprised (though a little disturbed) that it belonged to Orochimaru. Why would the snake-nin leave any of this junk behind? The only reason Deidara could come up with was that they were left behind in the rush of him getting kicked out of the Akatsuki. Maybe Sasori would know something about the scrolls…

Wait. Sasori… Deidara read through the scroll again, an idea forming in his mind. Sasori was what, thirty-five years old? He probably thought all that puppet stuff was fun because he was older. Maybe if the redhead was rejuvenated…

"I mean, it's not like he really had a fun childhood anyway," Deidara pondered aloud. The puppet master had never really talked about having any adventures, either, other than defeating villages. Which sounded pretty fun to Deidara, but he was sure that Sasori hadn't really found them joyful in the way he should have.

For Sasori, it was probably more about testing his puppets' abilities and his own abilities as a puppet master. All work, no play. If Deidara could use this jutsu on him, maybe his partner would actually be up for a little fun. It was worth a try.

Rolling up the scroll, Deidara hid it in his sleeve and gathered up the wood he'd need for the repairs in his room, finally settling on the idea of using some of his clay instead of plaster for the walls. He quickly made it back to his room, setting the planks down and sitting on the floor, pulling the scroll out and reading it again to make sure there weren't going to be any adverse side effects. Seeing none, he studied the seals he'd need to perform to make it work.

After an hour and a half, he felt ready. He stood up, stomping his legs a bit to wake them up. He walked back down the hall to Sasori's room, knocking lightly instead of bursting in again. "Come in," he heard the puppet-nin say. Sasori turned toward the door as it opened, frowning at Deidara. "What is it now?"

"Just wondering if I can borrow a hammer. And some nails? Hm." Deidara stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Sure." Sasori got up and walked toward his bedside table to retrieve the requested objects. Deidara smirked at how odd the redhead's organizational patterns were. While the puppet's back was turned, Deidara quickly formed the hand seals, running toward his partner as he did and finishing the jutsu with a slap to the back of Sasori's head. "What the hell, Deidara?!"

Sasori whipped around, chakra threads already forming from his fingertips and latching onto a puppet. In a matter of seconds, the third Kazekage was holding a kunai to Deidara's throat. 'Damn,' Deidara thought. 'It didn't work.' As he finished the thought, however, he was surprised when the kunai and the puppet wielding it slumped to the floor with a clank and a crash.

Sasori looked equally confused as he stared at his favorite puppet, and then inspected his hands. The chakra threads had disappeared suddenly. He glared up at Deidara. "What the hell did you-"

Deidara inhaled sharply as suddenly Sasori's (light) weight fell against his chest. He scrambled to catch the puppet, grabbing him around the chest and cautiously setting him down against the desk. "Maybe it worked after all, hm." Suddenly there was a flash of smoke where Sasori had been slumped over. Deidara involuntarily screamed a little, clamping his hand over his mouth afterward. He glanced toward the door and listened to make sure no one was coming before turning his head back to where Sasori was. He gasped.

Instead of the puppet body of Sasori, a small child lay against the desk, his chest rising and falling slowly. Deidara kneeled down before him, studying its features. The boy bear an uncanny resemblance to his partner, it had to be him. So it had worked.

"I didn't think it meant this by rejuvenation," Deidara mused, but he grinned all the same. This was even better. Kids were loads of fun; this would be Sasori's chance to finally enjoy his childhood. Maybe then he wouldn't be such a jerk when the jutsu reversed. Speaking of which, he hadn't really read into how to reverse the jutsu. Before he could ponder the matter any further, there was a knock at the door.

Panicking, Deidara quickly hefted Sasori's body up and set him in the chair, sitting him up as best as he could. The child was shorter than Sasori, and smaller too, so his Akatsuki cloak didn't really fit him and it didn't look right with him in the chair. This wouldn't work.

There was another knock at the door and Deidara glanced around. "Just a minute!" he called, finally spotting the dusty bed and getting an idea.

"Deidara?" It was Kisame. "Itachi said he heard a girly scream from in there…" The door knob twisted and cracked open. Deidara met the shark nin in the doorway a split second later.

"Scream?" Deidara stepped out of the room, pushing Kisame with him and shutting the door behind him. "Itachi must be hearing things, hm."

"Why are you acting suspicious?" Kisame raised an eyebrow. "What's going on in there? Not that it's any of my business, of course."

"You're right, it's not." Deidara crossed his arms. "Anyway, Sasori's just in one of his moods. I'd leave him alone if I were you."

"I wasn't planning on bothering him." Kisame frowned. "Itachi just wanted me to check the scream out…Hey, he doesn't have a girl in there, does he?" The shark-man smirked, nudging Deidara's arm.

"No way, hm!" Deidara chuckled, deciding to play along to avoid suspicion. "I don't think he even has that ability anymore."

Kisame laughed out loud. "Well, that's probably-" He stopped abruptly, glancing behind Deidara as if in shock.

"What? What is it?" Deidara asked, whipping around. He almost jumped out of his skin when he spotted a small child peeking out of the bedroom door.

"What's going on?" the child asked, wiping his eyes with his oversized sleeve and opening the door wider. Kisame backed up slightly, a disgusted look on his face.

"Why does Sasori have a kid in there with him? That's a little sick, even for him."

Deidara sighed, grabbing Kisame's arm and pulling him into Sasori's room, shoving the child in with them. "Okay, you have to keep this a secret, alright? This kid is Sasori." Sasori glanced up at the blue shinobi and his lip quivered.

"I don't like you…" He hid behind Deidara's leg. "He's scary."

"How in the hell is that Sasori? What happened to him?" Kisame glanced around the room as if the real Sasori would come out of a hiding place and explain it was a joke.

"I used a rejuvenation jutsu on him," Deidara admitted. "Just so he'd loosen up a bit. I didn't think he'd be turned into a child, hm. But it's actually pretty cool. Look, he's not even a puppet anymore. He's human." He motioned to the child's exposed shoulder. Sasori moved further behind Deidara, whimpering.

Kisame tore his eyes away from the child and gave an uncertain look at Deidara. "…Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"Relax, it's only temporary. I just wanted him to have a little fun. I admit, this wasn't exactly what I had planned, hm." He scratched his chin in thought. "But at least this way, he'll sorta get to have a childhood, you know?"

Kisame didn't look too convinced, but he shrugged. This was Deidara's mess, after all. "I guess…how do you expect to take care of a child, though? Especially around a bunch of S-rank criminals?"

Deidara chuckled, looking behind himself at Sasori. "How hard can it be? All they do is play, eat, and sleep. This'll be a piece of cake, hm."

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then." Kisame turned to leave but Deidara grabbed his arm.

"Hey, don't tell anyone yet, okay? I wanna keep it a secret until I get him settled a bit." Kisame nodded his agreement, glancing down at Sasori again, who squealed in fright and ducked further behind Deidara. With a frown and a shrug, the taller shinobi left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Alright," Deidara began, turning around to face Sasori. "Do you know who you are?" He wanted to get a feel of all that Sasori remembered; he obviously hadn't remembered Kisame, who knows how else his memory was affected.

"I'm Sasori…have you seen my parents?" He played with the hem of his sleeve nervously, eyes darting around the room. "Or my grandmother?"

Deidara had to come up with a plan quickly. "Oh, don't you remember?" He stalled by kneeling in front of Sasori, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your parents are away on a mission, and your grandmother had to leave the village for a while, so she asked if you could stay with me for a bit."

Sasori seemed unsure of this answer, and glanced behind Deidara at the door. Seeing this, the blond forced a good-natured chuckle.

"Of course, you were really tired at the time. I'm not surprised you don't remember." He tried to gauge Sasori's age. He wasn't a toddler, nor did he seem to be older than eight. "You at least remember your Uncle Deidara, right?" The redhead's eyes widened and he stammered nervously.

"Oh, of c-course I do, Uncle!" he lied. Deidara smirked. He could trick Sasori into trusting him.

"Well, that's good." Deidara stood up and smiled. "Alright, so I know it's been a while since we last saw each other. Tell me a bit about yourself." Sasori bit his lip and shook his head, becoming shy. "No? Alright, I'll tell you a little about me first." The blonde gave his age, made up a story about how he and Sasori were related, and talked about his interests. The former puppet seemed to relax a bit afterward; Deidara couldn't really blame him for being afraid in the first place. It'd be scary waking up somewhere strange, even as an adult. "So, how old are you again, Sasori?"

"I'm six…and a half." Deidara whistled. Wow, that a lot younger than he'd anticipated. "Deidara?"

"Yeah? Hm."

"I'm hungry…" The redhead stared up at him. Deidara grinned. Of course Sasori could eat now.

"Alright, you stay in this room and I'll go out and grab us something to eat from the kitchen, okay?" He maneuvered around the child and walked to the door, touching his hand to the door knob. He turned his head to look back at Sasori. "Remember, don't leave this room. And don't touch anything, hm."

He left, shutting the door firmly behind him and hurrying to the kitchen. Konan was sitting at the table enjoying a cup of tea. She glanced up from the stack of papers she was going over to greet Deidara. He muttered a greeting back, trying not to appear suspicious, and went to the fridge, opening it up and seeing if there was anything suitable for a child to eat.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like there was anything suitable for anyone to eat, period. Slamming the door, he sighed. "Isn't there anything to eat in this house?"

"There's soup still on the stove," Konan answered, sipping her tea. "I made it about an hour ago." Deidara grinned, rushing to the stove and lifting the lid on the pot. The smell that greeted him was delicious, so he grabbed down two bowls from the cupboard, ladling the food into them before grabbing some spoons. Konan raised her eyebrows at the blonde, obviously wondering why he had two servings, but she didn't question him. Deidara made a mental note to be more careful around her. He walked back down the hall to Sasori's room, using one of the bowls to knock on the door since his hands were full.

"Open the door," he instructed. A few moments later it creaked open and Sasori looked up at him before pulling it the rest of the way open, allowing Deidara inside. "I brought some soup, hm." He set one of the bowls down on the desk his partner was working at less than half an hour ago. Sasori approached the soup as if uncertain. After a while of spinning the spoon around in it, he cast a sideways glance at Deidara.

"Is this all we have?"

Deidara frowned as he brought his spoon to his lips, sipping some of the broth. "You don't like soup?" Sasori shook his head.

"Not this kind."

"You didn't even try it."

"It smells funny." The redhead put the spoon down, frowning. "I want my grandmother."

"She'll be back in no time, hm," Deidara said, stalling. He sighed, setting his soup down next to Sasori's on the desk. "Look, you have to eat and this is all we have. At least try it."

"I'm not hungry anymore." Sasori moved to sit on the bed, looking down at his oversized clothes. Deidara stared at him for a while, wondering what to do. He grinned as an idea came to him.

"That's too bad, then." He collected both the bowls and walked toward the door. "I was going to take you outside to fly around and blow stuff up, but since you don't want to listen…hm."

Sasori glanced up. "Fly around?"

"Yeah, on one of my clay birds. But if you don't want to eat-"

"Wait…" The redhead bit his lip as if contemplating. Finally, his light brown eyes met Deidara's blue one. "There isn't any broccoli in it, is there?"

Deidara grinned. Like he said, a piece of cake.