"You got any 7's?"

-"Go fish. You should like that." sneered Sasori.

-"You know that joke is starting to really get on my nerves..." grumbled Kisame picking a card from the pile.

They were sitting at a wobbly wooden table, just the two of them. A few candles hung on the stone walls giving the room a dim glow that suited its occupants just fine. There was a wooden door at each end. One led to a tiny room that Deidara had fashioned into a temporary workshop and was busy at work. The two could often catch sounds of small explosions and muffled cuss words. The other door led to a long stone staircase back to the outside world.

"Any idea when Itachi will be back? I'm getting sick of this place."

-"I know and I'm tired of hearing about it! Play your turn!" snapped Kisame who was getting sick of Sasori's whining lately.

-"Alright, shit, relax will you. Any 2's?" he asked.

-"No"

-"You're lying" sneered Sasori.

Kisame turned quickly and sure enough one of Sasori's puppets was staring right over his shoulder.

"Fuck this I'm done!" he shouted throwing his cards down.

-"Hey, you were trying to cheat there too so don't even try to put this on me" Sasori replied angrily.

Kisame grabbed his sword: "I'll tear you to..."

BANG!

Kisame stopped sword mid-raised. The explosion had come from Deidara's worshop. They heard a couple of bottles falling off shelves and a thin black smoke was creeping out of under the door. They stood there frozen in shock and started when the door creaked open.

Smoke poured out of the workshop and cause Kisame to go into a small coughing fit while Sasori rushed to open the outside door. As the smoke cleared Deidara's figure became visible in the doorway. The first thing Kisame and Sasori noticed was the look of horrified shock on his face. Their gaze slowly crept up as their realised that:

"My hair! My beautiful hair! IT'S GONE!" shrieked Deidara. "The explosion burnt it all! One art destroyed another! What the fuck am i going to do now!"

Silence fell over the room. It held tensely for a few seconds until Kisame let out a low snicker which triggered a loud outburst of laughter between Sasori and him.

"Shut up you dumbasses this isn't funny!"

-"He's a bit scarier now that he doesn't look like such a girl!" hollered Kisame.

And everything stopped as suddenly as it started. A shadow had crept its way into the room. The eyes of the group followed the shadow up towards the figure standing in the doorway.

"It's about time" whispered Kisame.