HEY.

So the last time I actually posted something up was like... two years ago.. Yeah. Sorry about that.

My writing might get rusty, and it's not beta'd, so please bare with me. T for swearing! And I didn't know what to put for the genre so I settled with... General and Mystery. Yeah..

Thank you, and I hope you enjoy! ...and understand what crap plot I'm writing.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one"

-Albert Einstein

"Danna. Oi."

Sasori sharply turned to look at his partner, pretending that he had not just snapped out of daze. "What?"

"You were spacing out a moment ago, yeah." Deidara said, with a smug look on his face. Sasori hated when he did that. "And here I thought that the great Akasuna no Sasori thinks that he's so-"

"Shut it. Don't push it, brat." Sasori sneered, shooting him an icy glare that made Deidara stop almost immediately, but that didn't prevent his blond partner, the terrorist bomber from having that smug look on that smug-looking face of his.

"Whatever you say, danna." Deidara toyed around with his clay with the tongue on his hand around it before asking his partner a question, but his eyes were still glued on his clay. "So, yeah. Where exactly are we-"

xxx

"-heading, yeah?"

It took Sasori a while to respond to a simple question like that. For some bizarre reason, he had been spacing out lately involuntarily, and sometimes it startled him a bit.

"To the studio. Didn't I mention that earlier already?" Sasori snapped at his fellow artist, although at times he simply cannot accept the idea of Deidara being one. What kind of dumbass would blow up his own hand-made sculptures after ages of sculpting them and called it art? Right. This one and only blond brat. It surprised Sasori to no end why on earth had he even agreed working with him.

"Right. Just stay here." Sasori said as he got down from his car, leaving Deidara lying across the back seat with his headphones on, blasting loud metal music. He doubted the brat heard him, but he went on anyway.

After unlocking the door to his, well, their art studio, he slightly opened the door before peering inside. "Wait, why am I even peering inside? Hell, this is ridiculous." He thought to himself. The redhead glanced behind, making sure Deidara didn't notice his absurd action. Much to his relief, the blonde was still in the back seat, preoccupying himself by headbanging to his music. Sasori inwardly rolled his eyes whilst he pushed past the door and let it close behind him. He went towards the room where he did his work to get what he came here for. He walked down the silent hallway which had a few of his paintings hanging on the wall, leaving behind his footsteps which echoed throughout the air of studio.

The redhead artist could feel a sudden gust of nostalgia when he stepped into his work room. It was strange because there weren't anything particular in sight or out of place that made him to feel that way. Well, maybe except for that unusual painting that he did not remember putting there, hanging above Hiruko, his prized possession which was his first puppet ever made. He studied the painting, cupping his chin with his hand in deep thought. After a while, he deduced that it was a painting about a war, with hundreds of puppets controlled by a single man, surrounding two people in the background of the painting. A small smile formed on Sasori's face; he appreciated a good work of art. He could tell that it was a very good painting, but what was it doing in his work room, in the art studio of all places? His smile slowly faltered when something in the painting caught his attention. Was that..? No, it couldn't be-

"DANNA!" Deidara exclaimed out of the blue, almost giving Sasori the fright of his entire life. "Dude. What's taking you forever, yeah? Not that I mind listening to Metallica all day in the car, but we're wasting time here on this gorgeous-"

"What's this?" Sasori interjected, cutting off the blond's babbling of nonsense. "Tell me what is this."

The other artist blinked in confusion. The redhead sighed in frustration, massaging his temples while gesturing Deidara at the painting above Hiruko, making the blond 'o'-ing in realisation.

"Well, that's one of your paintings you did a while ago, yeah." Deidara explained, and judging by the look he was receiving from his danna, he added, "Fuck. Did you somehow, well, happen to fall down a flight of stairs, knocking your head really hard, and completely deleting the existence of your own painting from your head, yeah?"

"I'm just going to ignore what you have just said before I strangle you until you beg for mercy." Sasori deadpanned. "But seriously. My painting?"

"Yeah...yeah."

"How come I don't even remember painting...this?"

"Well, how should I know, yeah?" The blond muttered. "Totally unlike you to actually forgot about your art, yeah. So out of character. And this is why art should be fleeting, like how I blow up my sculptures so I don't really need to keep track of them, yeah! Because art is a bang-"

"No, no. Screw you and your theory." Sasori protested sharply, pointing a finger at him. "Fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future. Eternal beauty."

"No, no. Screw you and your stupid-"

"No. Shut up, Deidara. This heated argument that we always have is getting immature and getting us nowhere at all. Let's just go already." Sasori growled lowly, turning his back away from Deidara as he walked out of the room and out of the the studio. The blond who folded his arms firmly across his chest, followed behind while huffing and grumbling to himself. After locking up the door the studio door, Deidara darted to the car because Sasori sometimes might take off without him when he was pissed.

"Danna, you know you can be such an asshole sometimes, yeah." Deidara mumbled as he got into Sasori's car at the back again.

Sasori decided to merely reply with a simple 'whatever'', ending it with a ''tch'' for extra measures. Now there was one problem. He couldn't start the engine. "Goddammit... Fuck this car." He swore under his breath, repeatedly trying to ignite the engine. After the sixth try, it worked and Sasori quickly took off.

There was a quiet moment of awkward silence.

"So," Tired of the silence, Deidara decided to start a conversation. "Got the thing you came here for?"

In his mind, Sasori slapped his forehead out of his forgetfulness. How can he be so stupid? He had been so caught up with the strange painting in his room until he had entirely forgotten to...to... What was the thing he wanted to get in the studio?

Fuck.

What. The. Actual-

"FUCK." Sasori shouted out loud, pulling over to the side of the road. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

"Calm down, danna, yeah..." The blond said slowly, trying to cool his partner down. "It was just a simple question, yeah. You don't need to get so worked up-"

"There is something wrong with me." He announced flatly while clutching his head in his hands.

"Well, clearly there is-"

"No. Listen to me, brat." Sasori turned behind to look at Deidara. There was a slightly insane look on his face, the blond noted, subtly backing up in his seat. "I can't remember what I had to get from the studio. I don't even remember my own painting in my work room. And I keep on... spacing out. What the fuck is wrong with me?" It was a rhetorical question. So, Sasori just simply slumped back into his driver's seat, burying his face in his hands.

"Maybe you should just get some rest, yeah. I think you're just really stressed out." Deidara offered.

Sasori slowly nodded while putting his hands back on the steering wheel as he drove off again. "I guess... I guess you're right. I just need to calm the shit down."

"Well, yes and, of course I'm right, yeah!" The other artist crowed, puffing up his chest. "I'm always right, yeah."

"No, you're not. Now shut up and stay still."

"Ugh, danna. You are such an-"

xxx

"-asshole!"

Sasori was actually shocked. Wasn't he with Deidara just a moment ago? In that... strange-looking transporation. But now, standing a distance away from him were none other than a pink-haired kunoichi and Chiyo, his grandmother. And he was standing admist of this battlefield. Something was clearly wrong here, but what? What?

"Genjutsu?" The redhead asked as he tried to expel it, but to no avail. It wasn't a genjutsu. Then, what? What was it exactly that was messing with his head?

He could see that the pink kunoichi and that old hag shared a puzzled glance, but they quickly stood their ground in an attack stance.

"I don't know what is going on here, Akatsuna no Sasori." The pink-haired kunoichi said firmly, taking a kunai out from a pouch. "We are going to get this over with, and be done with you!"

"Done with me?" Sasori scoffed, letting the strange event that happened to him slide away. "Clearly, you don't know who you're dealing with, little girl." He proceeded to whip out a scroll, using his Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets to summon out his puppets with chakra strings attached to them. He smirked as the look of horror dawn upon his opponents.

He slowly shooked his head. "This is getting annoying for me. Just how long am I going to-"

xxx

"-deal with you, brat?" The redhead groaned in exasperation as he... Fucking hell. Fuck. Fuck. It was like, a huge wave of deja vu just swept over him all of a sudden. There was this... pink chick and his grandmother, he thought incredulously. What was he even doing? It was like he was fighting them. Why the fuck was he even fighting that old hag and that random pink chick, in some sort of a battlefield, with hundreds of puppets- Wait. Realisation just hit him, and it hit him hard. The painting earlier... No. No fucking way.

The car engine decided that precise moment to cease to work. And that was when Sasori snapped.

Sasori let out a strangled scream.

"Woah, chill, yeah. It was just the engine. It just stopped working, yeah." Deidara said, dilating his eyes in shock at his partner's unexpected outburst. "Look, I'll just go down and see what's the problem-"

"Wait. Forget the engine. I can't take it anymore."

"Take what exactly, yeah?"

"My sanity, Deidara. I just can't... Do you even know what kind of condition I'm in right now? My mind. It's full of... I don't even know anymore!" Sasori gripped the steering wheel, tightening hard. He was completely losing it. He was on the brink of insanity. And Deidara was definitely not the type who can help with this kind of situation.

The blond scratched the back of his head awkwardly, trying to figure out a way to help his partner who was in dire need of help. "Um. Why not just try to explain to me what's been going on in your head, danna, yeah? I might be able to, er, help? Yeah?"

"Explain? To you?" There was a glint of derangement in Sasori's eyes, Deidara spotted. It was official. His artistic friend has gone mad. Cuckoo. "You have no idea what I'm going through. Do you have any idea how hard is it for me to cope with... with.. THIS!?"

There was no answer from Deidara, only a look of fear and panic plastered on his face.

"Huh." The redhead raised an eyebrow. He didn't expect that reaction from Deidara, at all. "What's gotten into-"

"DANNA! LOOK OUT!" Deidara yelled in horror as a car came straight at them fast, but it was too late for the car to brake. And too late for Sasori to even brace for impact.

Darkness suddenly overwhelmed him.

xxx

Sasori blinked.

There was pain in his heart. He could feel it.

When Sasori looked towards the source of his pain, he saw two swords stabbed through his heart. By his Mother and Father puppets. Ah. So, they did manage to defeat him. But what was he doing here...again? Wasn't he... No. He decided to just let it go. Let it all go. It did not matter anymore. He was about to leave, and maybe reunite with his parents.

Since it did not matter anymore, he decided to inform the pink kunoichi about the whereabouts of Orochimaru, with the help of his spy that was sent to his former Akatsuki partner.

"I have a spy working for Orochimaru." He said slowly. It was almost time. "We were... We were... supposed to.. meet... there..."

And there was darkness.

xxx

Sasori thought, at first, he was finally allowed to sleep peacefully forever, undisturbed.

However, the next thing he knew was that he woke up positioned upright in a coffin. He noticed Kabuto who looked extremely different from the last time he saw him, stood a few feet away from him, talking to a man with an orange mask. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? Why is it that...? Of course. He realised that he had been resurrected, and by the looks of it, it was Kabuto's doing. He heard a grunt next to him, recognising a man with long blond hair tied up in a ponytail, and he knew he was not alone.

Standing on his right was Deidara, and Itachi, on his left. Two other Akatsuki members were beside Deidara, but he could not clearly identify them well from far.

"Ah." Kabuto averted his eyes to them. The orange-masked man turned to look as well. Sasori could sense a strong, and dangerous aura around him. There was definitely trouble.

"Welcome back, everyone." Kabuto said, in a mock tone of joy. "Welcome back. To reality."

"Reality huh." Sasori thought. So, this was it.

He was back, to reality.

xxx

You know. I really dislike writing endings. Ugh. Stupid endings. I didn't really like the ending a lot, but aaaaahhhh well.

So, hopefully you were able to understand the story.

The one with Deidara was when Sasori was reincarnated, and the one with Sakura and Chiyo was well, you get it right? In both worlds, he died in the end, but was brought back to life again in the shinobi world by Kabuto. So, yeah. Hope that cleared things up.

Read the manga to know what's gonna happen next if you haven't!

Did you think it was too fast? Or was it alright?

Review pleasee. Kthxbai.