Steadfast beating hearts

Chapter 3

Here we go again, please read and review it makes Sasori and his mental problems happy!!!

I don't own Naruto only my own characters.

Please enjoy my works.

"See! This is why I'm a freak! This is why no one likes me, un!" shouted the blonde as he motioned to his hands and his metal eye.

"Shut up! You're not a freak so quit telling yourself that! You're a shinobi those are your tools! Be proud of them!" Sasori shouted back to his partner.

"You'd never understand, un!" shouted the blue-eyed man back.

"You think I don't understand," began Sasori, slowly the metal blades at his back extended outwards and fanned about him, "You don't know the meaning of a freak…this, I am what they call a freak. But what they don't understand is that, its art."

The blonde looked up at his partner, a sneer on his face.

"That's not art, un. You don't know what art is un. Art is a bang!"

Sasori stumbled back to his room before Eri could appear from the bathroom. His eyes were screwed tightly and his breathing irregular. He couldn't shake that thought from his head, the pounding of the words echoed in his mind forcing him to curl up on his bed in mental agony.

"Why won't…you go…away…after…all this…time?" he growled into the pillow he was trying to drown himself in. White light flashed over his eyes and another memory surfaced.

"Then you little scumb-bag what is art?" growled Sasori to the blonde.

Said blonde puffed out his chest and took a deep breath, "Art is fleeting and never lasts long, un. Because when it's gone we treasure it more!"

Sasori scoffed making the blonde fume and scowl at him. "That's not art, art is everlasting and eternal. It will never cease to exist! It becomes more important that a simple human life that's why we treasure it so much, you're a fool to think otherwise!" spat Sasori haughtily.

"Pah! Yeah right! You're the fool, un! You take stuff for granted!" shouted the blonde back to his partner.

"Humph…I don't take anything for granted, gaki (1)," growled Sasori in return.

"I didn't take anything for granted…until it's gone…" whispered Sasori as he finally drifted off, exhausted mentally and physically from the beating his old memories gave him. Unshed tears racing down his cheeks.

Eri awoke the next morning to an overcast and windy day. Sighing she rose out of bed and got dressed wondering if Sasori would be up. Frankly she wanted to talk to him and see if she could help with the bad start the two had. She didn't think Akatsuki would be too happy if the partners didn't vaguely get along.

Opening her door she found that his was wide open and that the sound of running water was coming from the kitchen. She took a deep breath and walked out of the hallway and into the kitchen.

Their eyes didn't meet instantly; actually Sasori didn't give as much as a hint that he recognized her form in the room.

"Ohiyo (2) Sasori-sama," greeted Eri with a bow. Only then did Sasori turn to look at her.

"Ohiyo…what was your name again?" he growled softly.

"Eri, Sasori-sama," she said daring to meet his eye this time, cold blues and greens met hers in a quick glance. Sasori gave a grunt that signaled that he'd remember for later use.

"Um…do you want me to make you breakfast or something?" she asked walking over to the small stove in the counter.

"I don't eat," he said curtly and walked quickly to the living room ignoring her completely.

Eri sighed in defeat, "Ok then," she said softly to herself and set to finding herself something to eat.

Upon finding herself some ramen she settled down inside the kitchen and looked out the window at the dreary sky. Slurping her noodles quietly she listened to the man on the other side of the wall he was doing something that was for sure but what she didn't know.

Absentmindedly she finished her pathetic excuse for a meal and rubbed her right arm thoughtlessly. She still couldn't find out why the 'clunking' noise admitted from the elbow and no matter how much she messed with it, it never did work.

She glanced over at the man on the couch to see him laying back on his back and messing around with his prosthetic foot tightening the springs in the ankle joint. If Eri didn't really know him and see the way he acted the day before, she would have thought that the puppet man looked relatively cute staring up at his foot.

"Can I help you Eri-san?" he asked immediately sitting up but keeping his eyes on the other side of the room.

For a while Eri said nothing but thought about it, telling him would be like showing him her greatest weakness. It was simply to trust or not to trust.

"Could…could you help me with something…?" she asked a little flustered by the use of her name by him.

"With what?" he asked glancing over his shoulder at her, but no more than a glance.

Eri took a deep breath and decided to take this problem head on so she walked around the couch and sat down beside him not too close to him yet not too far away. Then she pulled up her sleeve on her right arm revealing her own prosthetic arm.

"It…it makes a noise whenever I bend it at the elbow…do you think you could fix it for me?" she asked tentatively. She stared down at her arm for sometime until she got up enough courage to look him in the eye.

Sasori stared down at her in slight curiosity, his head cocked to the side and his eyes smoldered in slight comfort, at not being asked a more difficult question.

At first he would have thought that the first sight of her his mind would go haywire, but after last nights little happening afterwards he hadn't thought of her the same. She had that simple expectation now and when seeing that arm he didn't think of her like before.

It's like part of him accepted her. He still was very wary of her, and didn't know how close he could allow himself to get to her, and really wasn't ready to take the risk. It was best to keep the interaction to a minimum.

"I need my tools for this," he said shortly and stood up and began walking to his room, pausing at the hallway to glance back at her, "you coming?" he asked.

Eri stared after him in amazement, and then to Sasori's surprise she gave a small smile and got up quickly to follow him.

Sasori felt like a lightning bolt had shot through him. That smile brought back the memories of so many other ones he dared not consider. Quickly he filed into his room and went immediately to looking for the tools he would and wouldn't need just to keep himself occupied long enough for his mind to relax into the other side of his subconscious.

"Err…Sasori-sama where do you…want me to sit?" Eri asked knocking him out of his stupor. He glanced behind him at her womanly form and pointed to the unmade bed, ignoring the fact she was invading his privacy.

Quickly she sat down and watched him gather up the tools before he pulled up a stool and sat down on it.

"You need to lie down so I can see it correctly," he told her turning on a light and pulling out a pair of glasses from the small table beside his bed. Eri did as she was told and lay down stretching her arm out so that it hovered over his lap. Sasori put the glasses on the bridge of his nose and adjusted the light so that he could see correctly.

He took his medium sized screwdriver and took off the armor-like metal that protected the wires and such inside of it. Eri in turn stared up at the ceiling while the puppet guru fixed her arm.

Sasori was silently elated at the craftsmanship put into this prosthetic arm. The wires and cables used to carry brain waved and nerves were intricately put in to make sure that not only they would work flawlessly but they were put in locations that ensured they would not be damaged in battle.

He greedily soaked up all the information he could by looking all the prosthetic. Gently he prodded the metal work with his fingers careful not to ruin such an amazing work of art. But what amazed him the most was that it was this girl's arm.

"Did you create this?" he asked suddenly, knocking her out of a day dream. A red hue donned her face as she worked out an answer.

"Well…a doctor once made it, but it was so simple I had to upgrade it a bit so that I could use it to fight and not risk too much damage," she said and stared at the ceiling again.

"But you created all the safety mechanisms and how the cables work perfectly?" he pushed.

"Well…yes," she answered still flustered.

Sasori stared at her a bit then took to the problem in the elbow.

"What do you believe is the problem?" he asked her.

"Well…," she began, "It only began making noises after I battled my way into the organization. My guess is that something came lose and I…I can't see well enough…to fix it."

Sasori stared at her, her expression looked utterly defeated. Her eyebrows were twisted in agony and her bottom lip was bit so it wouldn't quiver. For once she wore her emotions on her sleeve, to which allowed him a look into her defenses.

"So that's why your eyes are cloudy," he said quickly. He didn't look up again to know she nodded in response.

As she guessed a bolt had loosened and caused two other pieces of metal to rub together when the elbow bent. It was simple and easily fixed and while he repaired it, it donned on him what this must feel like to her.

All her life he assumed, she had to rely on herself to fix her own problems, and now that her eyesight was failing she had to rely on him. Someone she barely knew and who particular wanted nothing to do with her, she now had to put her weaknesses in his hands and pray that he wouldn't crush them like glass.

Sasori had to really concentrate to keep from falling into his old memories. Ones where a similar blonde would as him for help and he Sasori would give it for he cared to much not to.

Another 15 minutes later Sasori pulled off his working glasses and packed away his tools.

Eri said noting as she sat up and headed to his door.

"Thank you, Sasori-sama," she said and headed to the door.

"Eri-san…" he called back, surprising her when she turned to see his back to her.

"Don't call me 'sama' sempai is just fine," he said and began to clean up a bit, acting as if she weren't there.

"Um…okay then Sasori-sempai," and with that she closed the door quietly and walked into the living room. Looking out a window she saw the rain had stopped but the ground was wet and soggy.

Next to the window there was a calendar, she almost collapsed and cried when she realized she couldn't even make out the month from eight feet away.

'How long will it be before I can see truly nothing?'

Ok, translations… (1) gaki brat (2) Ohiyo good morning, or I think that's how you spell it.

R&R make me and Sasori happy oh! And look at my artwork on deviant art link on my profile page!!!