Iwagakure, ten years earlier.

"No" his Mother repeated from her chair, straightening herself up to look over the desk and into the eyes of the Principle, her long blonde fringe obscuring most of her face.
The balding man in front of them let out a loud sigh, standing up and walking around the desk to look down upon the young boys' Mother. His eyes held a pity that most people held when they looked upon the woman in front of them. She was well used to the scrutiny though and she rose to face it.

It had only been five years since they had tried to force her to live with the other people injured during the ten-year war with Suna. 'A lovely housing facility for you and others to live out your days in peace' was what they had called it but she knew better. It was only the ones with obvious wounds that were sent there, the people who the village thought of as now undesirable. It was a prison; a rose by any other name would still smell as terrible.

She scowled back at the man as he leaned down to her eye level patronizingly.
"He needs the special tuition, he is not all there, there's something wrong with your boy and you're too blind to see it" he said, a hint of venom in his voice.
This was the fourth time this week the Mother and son had been called in and the six year old hated it. He hated the way this ugly man spoke to his Mother but he couldn't fully understand why, because he hated how most people spoke to his Mother. She pulled herself forward in her chair, jabbing one finger of her good hand into the tall man's chest.

"No" she answered, her tone even but with an edge.

The Principle walked around to the side of the chair, his arms folded. He leaned down to look into the face of the child who was standing with his hand on the wheel of the chair. "Kinta Deidara, would you like to move to a special class?" His Mother immediately put her hand on the boy's and turned her chair, spinning the wheels and taking the man by surprise. He jumped away to avoid his foot being crushed. She answered the question for Deidara as she wheeled her way to the exit. "Asking a six year old child will not change my mind, regardless of his answer". Deidara caught the man smiling as he was leaving and his Mother's chair came to a halt as the Principle spoke once again. "Then Kuroki-chan, the Tsuchikage will see you in his office in an hour". She left without saying a word, slamming the door behind her.

"Bastard" she uttered as soon as they were alone.

"What does that mean?" Deidara asked puzzled by this new word. He liked how it sounded coming out of his Mothers mouth, how she spat it. He liked words but he could never come up with the right ones to say and he could never remember them when he wanted to write them down.

"It means he wasn't very nice Dei, it's a word that only Mother's can use so don't repeat it" she answered, the voice soft as if a minute ago she wasn't bitterly angry. She never spoke as she did in the office to Deidara, he was always scared when she spoke like that but now that she was back to normal, he was happy again.

"Kay" he said, nodding his head furiously and smiling widely at his Mother.

As they came to the end of the corridor, the winding stairs beckoned to be walked towards them. Deidara scrunched up his face, stood straight and put his hand to his chest in the Iwa army salute.

"My little soldier, you know what your job is don't you?" she questioned him, her eyes wide as he nodded wildly again. He stood behind the chair and held it tight as she lowered herself onto the first step, her breaths loud and even and she turned around on the step, what was left of both her legs resting on the second step.

"Are you lost, do you need some help?" said a voice from behind Deidara, the boy kept hold of the chair and turned his head a little to see who the sound was coming from. His eyes met with an Iwa nin in their token red undershirt. His floppy, long black hair the exact opposite of Deidara's short blonde hair, cropped close to his head. As he looked up at the ninja, he shook his head and murmured "No".

His Mother who had been listening to the exchange was quick to interrupt the conversation. "No what, Dei?"

Deidara blushed lightly as the man walked around to see where the voice was coming from, to be met by Kuroki nearly lying on the stairs. "Oh… I'm sorry. I'll leave now".

The nin quickly walked down the stairs and was out of sight within seconds.

"No… thank you." Deidara answered quietly, resuming his military stance as he continued with his task. Pushing the chair alongside his Mother as she made her slow descent down the stairs.
It took them over fifteen minutes to finally reach the bottom, luckily not meeting anyone else.

Deidara then helped her back into her chair, giving her his arm to lean on which she grasped with her good hand, her other hand, a misshapen lump hidden within a glove.

The streets of Iwa were packed with people, most people walked with their heads tilted as the sunlight that filtered through the clouds would hurt anyone who raised their heads to meet it. Stray vultures and sickly looking crows perched on the abandoned shops, building their nests in the gutters and peering down on the pathetically thin beggars who hugged the corners of the streets, shading themselves under the large brown stone buildings. The reparations that were paid to the Sand after the last war, had taken the feet out from under Iwagakure's economy and all money that Iwa had now was being pumped into the military and the village's defenses. The villagers were suffering; even though Deidara felt bad for thinking it, he was glad those people were there so he and his Mother didn't have to be.

They moved slowly through the crowd, not speaking until Deidara got an idea and blurted it out loudly. "When we're done seeing the t…t…tkage can we go get ice-cream?" A few heads turned as his voice, which he had planned to keep quiet, had exploded out of him, sending a few crows flying from their perches. His Mother quickly put her finger on her lips and answered "Shush, quiet voice now Dei, if you're good we'll get you a big bowl of ice-cream". Deidara smiled as he continued to walk, his stomach was full of butterflies at the thoughts of the ice-cream that was waiting for him once he was done talking to that bastard Tsuchikage. He liked how the word sounded in his head but he didn't test his luck to say it out-loud. If it was a Mother's word when people can hear it, it wasn't one in his head. He continued calling people it in his thoughts. 'Ko is a bastard, she pushed me down when we were playing. My Sensei is a bastard, he hits me when I do something wrong. Bastards, bastards, bastards.' he smirked to himself, only interrupted when a young girl, probably a few years older than him, stopped in front of his Mother chair. She was holding her own Mother's hand tightly as her expression turned to one of fear. "Is that a monster Mummy, look at her face is all wrinkly on one side and she has no legs… look Mummy look!". The Mother of the girl very quickly walked away, dragging her child with her. Deidara thought 'That girl is a bastard too'. He really wanted to say it out of his head but he knew if he did he'd get in trouble so he settled for the next thing that came into his head. "I want to punch her lights out un" he snarled, realising that he had made the mistake of saying "un" again and covering his mouth with both hands and flinching.

In school, he was used to his Sensei coming down from his desk and hitting him on the back of the head with a textbook. It didn't hurt but it knocked him out of reality and made his head spin. He wasn't allowed to say that word, it was bad but he couldn't stop. He kept trying but he still slipped up. Kuroki frowned and Deidara instantly felt terrible, his Mother was starting to hate that stupid word too, he didn't want her to start hitting him too and being mean to him like she was to the Principle.

"Dei…" She said, stroking his cheek as they stopped in the road. Receiving scowls from angry pedestrians.

"Dei, I'm not angry you said un, I was just sad you were mean about that girl, some people are ignorant and they don't know any better"

Deidara leaned his face into her hand as his Mother began to smile. "But she was mean to you, she said you were a monster woman, that's not very nice…"

She took her hand off his face slowly, making sure to ruffle his hair before she placed his hand on the wheel of her chair. "You wheel that side for me Dei, the place where my thumb used to be hurts, and be a good boy and I'll tell you a story". The boy took the wheel, this was an old ritual. He knew all of her stories but he always pretended not to remember because he liked hearing them again.

"Do you know when I was eighteen, all the boys wanted to marry me?" Kuroki asked, as they both pushed the wheels, perfectly in sync.

"Really?" Deidara answered. He knew the story really well but he tried to not seem like he knew so he asked as if he was in shock. He put his other hand on his mouth to cover a pretend gasp.

"Yep, all the boys would leave flowers at my door and ask me on dates. Whenever I would walk down the street, a new boy would confess his love for me. I'd have to use my stealth ninjutsu to hide from them or I'd never get anywhere. I'd have to stop and say no thank you, over and over"

The boy interrupted, speaking over her as she began the next part of the story. "Did my Daddy ask you to marry him and give you flowers like the other boys?"

His Mother shook her head and smiled, enjoying her time to reminisce. "Nope, whenever I saw him. He was always standing near the gates of the village but of all the boys, I thought he was the most handsome and he never ran after me or gave me flowers so I decided to ask him on a date instead."

Deidara was so wrapped up in the story; he almost crashed into an old man who was walking his dog. "Sorry" he shouted after him and the old man tipped his hat.

"Good boy, remembering to say sorry when you bump into someone is also good manners, where was I in the story… oh yes, so one day I was hiding in the shadows and I stepped out beside your Daddy and I asked him 'Yintama, do you like me like all the other boys do?' And he said 'Well I don't know you so how could I know if I like you?'"

"Then what happened" whispered Deidara, making sure to use his quiet voice.

"I took him on a date to my favourite restaurant and we stayed there until closing time and we talked and talked. We fell in love almost immediately and were married a month later. When he kissed me on the alter, all the boys who'd given me flowers were jealous of him"

"My Daddy was special" Deidara muttered, nodding his head at his own statement.

His Mother looked off into the distance, what seemed like a tear appearing in the corner of her good eye, almost impossible to see in the harsh light. Deidara was too busy making sure not to walk into anyone else as he wheeled his side of the chair to notice. The story was over but his Mother continued anyway.

"All the girls of the village whose men I had refused called me a cradle snatcher". She added quietly.

The words were not lost on Deidara who immediately was fascinated by this new bit of information. "Why would you steal a cradle for? Was it for me when I was borned?"

His Mother immediately burst into loud, raucous laughter, sending even more crows flying from their perches. She rubbed some tears from her eyes as she spoke, "You always know how to cheer me up Dei, a cradle snatcher is someone who dates or marries someone who people think is too young for them, when I married your Daddy, he was seventeen and I was twenty one, they were only jealous though".

The boy was delighted with this new information; he liked learning about his Dad. He was aware that he looked more like his Mother than he looked like his Dad. He put that new piece of information away with all the other stuff he had been told about his Dad. He knew he was really tall, with brown eyes and black hair. That he grew up in an orphanage and he was a ninja who used rocks to crush bad guys. He didn't know one important thing though and he decided to ask his Mother again, maybe this time she'd tell him.

His Mother stopped wheeling her side of the chair suddenly, causing Deidara to fall forwards a little but he stopped before he fell. Turning around to his Mother and climbing into her arms and hugging her close.

"What happened to my Daddy?" he asked quietly, looking in her one radiant blue eye. The scarred part of her face and the empty eye socket were covered by her long, blonde fringe.

Her face twisted in what seemed like physical pain at the question as she turned Deidara around on her thigh and leaned around him to point at the building. "There's the Kage's office!" The boy was distracted for a moment at the massive stone building in front of them. It was the highest building in the village. He answered her by just saying "That seems like more stairs than there are to Heaven".

Kuroki flinched at the mention of Heaven and nodded from behind him. "Well you'll be my brave little soldier and help me, won't you?"

The stairs had taken just under a half hour to climb, they were long, winding and steep and although Kuroki was better at climbing up stairs, it still meant they were very late for their appointment and the tiny man hated when people were late.

The walls were adorned with detailed paintings of great ninja and as they travelled quickly up the corridor. Deidara looked at them with interest, they were so detailed he could see every leaf on every tree. He wished he had time to look at them more closely but his Mother insisted that they arrive as soon as possible at their destination. The door to the Kage's office was large and made of solid gold, Deidara could see his reflection in it as his Mother knocked on the door, accidentally using her bad hand and wincing from the pain. As she recovered, Deidara stepped forward, reaching out to knock on the door, but it swung open before he had the chance. He was a little sad because he wanted to touch the gold. He'd never seen gold before, never mind touched it.

The man that stood before him was the shortest man he'd ever seen. He was only as tall as Deidara himself. The boy wondered how this could possibly be the strongest nin in the village. He looked like a strong wind could knock him over. Deidara tried to hold in his giggles and he walked in with his Mother. He was happy the Kage wasn't as scary as he thought he'd be. He was expecting a big man, as tall as a tree with big muscles that could squash a boy like him flat. This man wasn't scary at all!

"You're late." the short man said calmly as he walked around and pulled himself up on his seat. Even in his chair he wasn't taller than his Mother.

"You have a lot of stairs." answered his Mother, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke. Deidara looked at her oddly, not understanding why his Mother was scared.

The man banged his fists loudly on the desk in front of him and pulled himself forward. "That is no excuse" he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls and hurting Deidara's ears. "I sent men to help you and as usual you refused help, just as you always do, you stupid woman." his yells caused the two guards who were standing sentry behind him to quiver. His Mother looked terrified. Deidara started to whimper audibly and the Kage stopped and leaned back on his seat, he looked upset that he had caused the boy to react like that.

Kuroki let the silence draw out for a moment and then spoke "I am sorry Sir; I won't let it happen again".

The Kage nodded and addressed the matter at hand. "Your boy needs to be in the special class in the academy, I am dealing with this matter personally because you were once a great ninja. Your title of Shadow Nin was well earned but this boy is not the ninja you were. I am told by his Sensei that he often falls down in the playground and does not make a sound. He does not seem to have the mental capacity to feel pain. He broke his leg in the playground and just sat there until someone came and got him. He didn't cry".

His Mother, obviously shaken by the outrage that had come before this, was a lot less combative than she was with the Principle. "He is just a quiet, uncomplaining child"

The Kage continued as if she hadn't spoken, "Kuroki-chan, his Sensei has also said to me that his speech impediment is just getting worse as the days roll by, a speech impediment that is the product of low self-control. I ordered that he receive a special surprise test last week and he has made no progress, he still can't spell his name nor read. " he stated bluntly.

His Mother sat up straight in her chair and met the eye line of the Kage but it was obvious from the look on her face that she knew she was defeated. "I am tutoring him and I assure you as a former nin under your command that he is getting better".

The Kage sighed, his eyes filled with a fake kind of sympathy as he spoke, "Deidara, will you please come here and write your name on this piece of paper?" The child turned to Kuroki and she nodded, giving him permission to go. He walked up, his hands shaking as he took the pen from the Kage's hand. "My… name?" he asked. The old man just smiled a wide fake smile. He wrote it as quickly as he could and then ran back to his Mother's side. The Kage looked sad as he held the piece of paper up so Kuroki could see it. The uneven scrawl ran across the page almost vertically, the characters wide apart and parts of them were written backwards.

His Mother smiled at Deidara but the boy felt like he was going to cry, he knew he did it wrong but sometimes the letters just wouldn't stay still on the page. He felt his Mother's soft hand brush his face. "You did the best you could, don't worry, now can you count to a hundred for the Kage?" The man automatically spoke as she finished her sentence, stopping Deidara before he could even get to 'one'. "That is not necessary." Kuroki ignored him and nodded to Deidara who was happy to be asked to do something other than writing. He loved numbers, they made sense to him. They had a pattern and a rhythm that he understood. Regardless he was still very nervous to count in front of this important man and the mean glare the Kage was giving his Mother made him want to cry. He sniffled and began, "One, two, three, four, five, …seven, … that was wrong un". He began to hysterically cry and crawled into his Mother lap. The short man sighed deeply from his chair. "He'll start in his new class on Monday, no more excuses Kuroki-chan. His new Sensei will try his best to correct your child's retardation".

As she wheeled the crying boy out of the door, he stopped and turned to his Mother. "Pleases and Thank You's?" he asked through tears. His Mother kissed the top of his head. "None for him, Dei."