"Sasori-dono!" Deidara blurted out and dropped me from his tight grasp. I didn't even realize he had started lifting me off the ground, and I stood in shock gripping my neck. For such a long haired and girly man, he had a lot of strength. I wasn't fat, but I was still heavy, heavy enough normal people would have needed to use chakra to lift me. And he picked me up with so much ease, and with one hand. "It's about time you came back! Did you find the other target?"

"It seems when you set the whole clans village on fire, every single one of them went into hiding." The lump… man… thing…? Its voice sounded accusing of Deidara, who began to approach the newest member of our little group. The... man Deidara had called Sasori lurched forward a few times to meet the blonde half way. "I knew your so called art would ruin our missions one of these days!"

"My so called art..." Deidra's face was looking at the ground. Suddenly, Deidara looked at the... lump down his nose and started hollering. "You are always complaining about my art! Well I got my target didn't I, mm?! And it was thanks to my art!"

"You got her after almost killing her! Now I'm going to have to go back into the village to get mine!" Despite his expressionless face, I could hear the accusation in his voice. There seemed to be some type of rivalry between the two team members, and I could have sensed it a mile away.

"I didn't almost kill her!" Deidara then raised a pointed finger in my direction. "It wasn't my fault her first instinct is to run into a burning building!"

"Um, actually it's not like it's my very first instinct. Normally, at least." I raised a hand, and gave a short and light laugh after I spoke. They both turned to finally acknowledge my existence. "It's just that it was my family... And I was checking to make sure they weren't dead... Or almost dead."

"Did I say you could talk, mm?!" Deidara faced me fully. Anger was written all over his face, but I wasn't sure if it was actually directed at me. I had a feeling that he was in the presence of a rival, and that was enough to send him off on anything that was near him. "Just shut up!"

"Well, sorry." I started to walk towards the two men. I didn't sense any real threats emitting from the two, despite how they talked with hostility towards each other. "I don't think that we've met. Did Deidara-dono call you Sasori?" The short man eyed with suspicion me as I approached him. I bowed deeply to show my respect, and to show I wasn't a threat to either of them. Not that I had anything to worry about, certainly they would have been able to take me.

"No need." Sasori's gruff voice spoke. Straightening back up, I looked at Sasori as he turned around and moved back towards the edge of the woods. His lurching movements seemed to be faster this time as he left. "Deidara, take care of the girl. We need her to be healthy."

"That was a brief encounter." I said wrinkling up my nose. I turned my head and looked at Deidara, whose hair was hiding his face.

"Yeah, he's not a super sociable person." Deidara turned to face me with a full blown smirk on. For a second, I stopped breathing. Our eyes locked for a moment before he turned to grab his things, so we could be on our way. "He's odd, mm?"

After several hours of walking, the silence was starting to get to me. My mind was drowning in an ocean of boredom, and the ocean was winning. All of the trees looked the same as we wondered through the woods, so I couldn't help but wonder if we had gotten lost on our way to the healer the blonde before me mentioned we were going to. Deidara lead me on a path and not once said a word. The only thing that kept me from going insane were questions that were bouncing around in my mind. Why was I here? Why did this lunatic want me? Why did he and that other strange man have matching cloaks on? How come Deidara got to have such nice hair? Didn't we just pass that tree?

While I looked at Deidara, my thoughts wondered back to why I was here. Sasori said that I needed to be healthy and called me 'the new girl'. Why would he say that? Was I supposed to be an addition to something? The man before me didn't seem to be a man of many words, so asking him seemed out of the question. His hair was covered by a straw hat with white ribbons, and the rest of his body was covered by a black cloak with red clouds on them. I had seen that pattern before, but I simply couldn't place my finger on it. Deidara was also a familiar name.

Deidara. All of my thoughts shifted towards him at once. He put on such a front around people, acting so cool, but the longer I followed behind him the more quirks I could see. Not speaking a word to me was one quirk. He had no issue ignoring me, and did it well. At one point during our travels, I voiced my need to stop for snack break, but he hadn't even glanced in my direction, let alone give me any response. Another was how he would stop and draw back his hair to check the woods. He would scan as far as he could to either of our side, and as far forward as possible. Once I had caught a metal contraption on his face that he must have used as a scope. He seemed like the type to be overly prepared for a fight. He also seemed like the type to be able to have everything calculated before the opponent even knew he was an opponent

"You shouldn't stare at a person." He threw a half hidden smirk over his shoulder at me, snapping me from my thoughts about him. "It makes you look weird."

The first time he spoke since Sasori left us, and he talked about how I was staring at him. He said that it made me look weird. My jaw became relaxed and dropped as I continued to stare at him. A small blush spread on my cheeks as I gave him a hard look. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Aren't you still staring, mm?"

I folded my arms over my chest and turned my attention away from him. With my cheeks puffed out I tried to focus on something other than Deidara. As if I was staring at him in that kind of a matter, or any kind of a matter for that matter! I puffed my cheeks out, Mr. My-Name-Is-Deidara thinks he's so cool. "Aren't you still staring, mm? As if." I muttered low under my breath mocking him. I had only been looking at him since he was more interesting to watch that the repeating trees here in the forest. I made faces at him while sticking my tongue out.

"I wonder if I really got the right girl." Deidara said it loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough for it to be indirect. I cut my eyes back at him, and waited for his reasoning behind his previous statement. "This one is really immature. They said my target was supposed to be 19."

I opened my mouth to speak, only to shut it right back up. Anger was boiling under my skin about to explode. Again I opened my mouth to say something only to shut it again and turn my head sharply. I puffed out my cheek and narrowed my eyes on the woods. Stupid nature should be more entertaining.

"How is your arm, mm?"

"Feeling chatty all of the sudden?" I spat continuing to avoid looking at him.

"Feeling embarrassed?" Deidara slowed his pace enough for me to catch up to him. I was on the same side as his bangs, so I couldn't really read his features. Not that I had even wanted to look in his direction. Rather I was looking the opposite way. "I know you must have some questions. Want to ask them, mm?"

"Why are you so moody?" I turned to face him again with a blank face on. Emotion was gone from my eyes and the intended feel from my actions was supposed to be slightly disinterested and slightly annoyed. Deidara's widening smirk only proved that my intentions didn't reach him at all. Slowly on my emotionless face began to show anger. For some reason, he knew the perfect words that got under my skin.

"I wake up cranky. And when I have to deal with Sasori it makes me even worse. You can understand. You saw how Sasori is, mm?"

"I guess." I wrinkled my nose trying to remember where Sasori had done anything that was overly rude or irritating. He had seemed to be condescending on Deidara, but nothing more than what any person would do. Deidara had made his mission more difficult, so I could have understood that. I shook that thought from my head, as I remembered the mission was to kidnap me. Sasori had my blessing to be as big of an ass as he wanted. Slowly my thoughts returned to the present. "So I can ask you any question?"

"Mm."

Mm. What kind of response is that? Mm. I cut my eyes at the man beside me. His bangs hid his whole face from me, and I couldn't read his expression. Was that an affirmation? Or did he intend to say no? "Well," I started, to test the water, to ensure that I the noise he made was in fact a yes, "My first question is why you kidnapped me?"

"Because Pein told me to." Not the answer I was looking for, but I supposed it was a start.

"Who is Pein?"

Deidara and I fell back into another silence, and that was fine by me. Everything he said only irritated me. The endless trees were now far more interesting. More interesting than Deidara. No matter how hard I tried to turn my attention away from the blonde haired man beside me, every thought had traces of him in them. That only irritated me more. Unlike the rest of my family, I had a hard time reeling in my emotions. Everyone else seemed to be able to grasp their emotions and could turn them off whenever they wanted. I couldn't and often let my emotions rule my decisions.

It took another four hours before we reached the healer. The residence was a small and had so many vines growing on the sides that I had a hard time telling what color the house was. Deidara placed a hand on my back, and guided me to the door. I cut him a dirty look, but I couldn't see if the message was received. His hand on my shoulder should have made me angry and I should have wanted to shake off his hand. Instead my face heated up and butterflies shook my insides. My blood boiled, but it wasn't from anger. Despite the dirty look I shot him, I let Deidara guide me.

"You're such a good little kitten, mm." Deidara turned to face me enough that I could see his smirk. He lifted his hand and rubbed my ear with this thumb and finger knuckle. My blush spread from my cheeks to cover my whole face and neck with a deep red color. I growled under my breath, and used my good hand to shove his hand off of my shoulder.

"You're such an ass." I spat at him while he knocked on the door.

An older woman came to answer and let us in. Deidara let me go before him as he checked our surroundings one more time. After securing the area, he came into the home. He stuck close to my side. Even though my actions made it seem like I wanted him to be far away from me, I welcomed his familiarity in this strange house. Pig fetuses and dried out rats covered the walls and shelves. I was walking through a black market shop. Deidara's hand returned to my back, and this time I wasn't going to make it leave.

"This young lady needs serious medical attention." Deidara spoke with a demanding tone. His smirk was long gone and replaced with a much more mature voice. Deidara's hand moved and looped around my shoulders as he pulled me close, intending to show the woman I was under his protection. When he brought me close, I looked up at him with traces of a blush returning. "She has serious burns on her arm, and we have to take care healing her."

"And why should I help you?" The old lady narrowed her eyes.

"Because my fiancée needs to return to her womanly duties." All of the color drained from my face as I watched him speak with such seriousness. Fiancée? Womanly duties? His hand gripping my shoulder tightened slightly, as if to warn me that it would be best for me to keep my mouth shut. My jaw became even more relaxed. Deidara turned his face back to me and spoke again. "Isn't that right dear? Mm."

I couldn't get a single word out of my mouth. Part of it was in fear of saying the wrong thing. This man had destroyed the clan village that I had lived in all by himself, and so I was certain that this man could also destroy me if he really wanted to. Another thing that scared me was how quickly his attitude could flip. One moment he could be cool- and almost attractive, and then the next moment he could be angry and crazy. Another reason that words wouldn't come out of my mouth, was that I was too astonished.

Had he really called me his fiancée? Despite being furious at him and knowing that he was just making up a lie to make the old woman heal me, when he made the notion that I was his fiancée, my mind went into a frenzy. Butterflies and boiling water seemed to be contained in my body. Then my mind remembered that he told the woman that I needed to do my womanly duties, and my anger took over completely.

"I'll heal her." The woman reached out and lifted my hand so she could see the extent of the damage on my arm. She continued to talk without looking up from my arm. "Your poor fiancée has a lot to deal with. She shouldn't have to deal with her injuries as well as your incompetence."