Raccoon: 'Nother chapter. Disclaimer please.

Sasori: My, my; aren't you lazy today?

Raccoon: Me. Tired. Written. Lots. Did. Work. Killed. Hand. Threw. Toaster. Laughing. Cactus. Cannibal. Horse. Sunset. Wee!

Sasori: ... She owns nothing. Not even me. Why am I here then? *Poofs away*

Raccoon: NO! The evil puppet man in my head has left me! What should I do now?

...burn everything?

Raccoon: DON'T MIND IF I DO!

My long tedious journey to the village of Sunagakure began on a sunny day. The weather was relatively warm; the bright clouds remained stationary in a sky of clear cerulean. Attempting to stifle my boredom, I had thought about making conversation to the man walking next to me, but then I realized that the man, being part puppet, could not care less about the conditions of the weather.

Sasori was a strange person (puppet, thing, whatever). He was almost like a figure in the backdrop; quiet, of no importance, but you always knew he was there. When he spoke, he spoke with a polite answers and a formal tone. Though he twisted his honest words by using a smart-ass voice, and by showing off his damn smirk.

His eyes drifted to me often, almost daring me to try win against him. He was cocky, arrogant, and very much self-centred; yes, he could be like this without even saying a complete sentence.

At least that's what I thought.

A part of me, deep (deep deep) within myself, told me that I was the one twisting him. Almost like I was afraid, and didn't want to face the reality. But there was nothing that I was afraid of, so I overlooked those thoughts.

What surprised me the most, however, was the fact that he shot glances at me whenever he thought that I wasn't looking. And these weren't threatening glares, oh no, these were glances of contemplation, admiration, and…something else. I found some interesting facts about Mister Criminal's reputation, and I certainly did not enjoy those looks he was sending me. The next thing I know, I could wake up one morning with wooden skin – I did not want that.

And so we carried on our journey, me giving my companion wary looks whilst he wasn't looking.

No puppet body for me thanks!

The grass we stood on caressed my knees, which were aching badly from so much walking, and my arms occasionally brushed against the rough bark of the surrounding trees. Sunagakure was a faraway village from my own home, so it would take at least a week to journey there. Joy.

After a while, my stomach let out a vicious grumble that I'm sure much of the surrounding landscape heard. Sasori turned to me with amusement in his eyes, his smirk on full blast whilst he tried to stifle a chuckle. Okay, so that was very out-of-character for my emotionless outer character.

"You think you can contain yourself for another hour?" asked Sasori, a small snigger escaping from his mouth.

I frowned.

"I can wait. Unless I come across some food on the way, of course."

Sasori's beige eyes studied me carefully, searching for signs of embarrassment (ergo weakness) in my face. His eyes widened slightly as he backed up and turned around quickly. Well, not before I caught the slight pinkness wavering across his cheeks.

Haha! In your attempt to shame me, you only shamed yourself! Kasumi: one, Sasori: nil.

Luckily for me, we did pass by some food on the way to our first stop. A giant blue berry bush. Did I mention I absolutely adore blue berries? Well now I have.

Hypnotized by the pull of the miniature mouth-watering fruits, I raced to the bush and pushed a dozen into my mouth. Unfortunately, I forgot about the presence of my wooden companion. I erased the expression of euphoria from my face, and slowly turned around to face him.

He stood there with a simple shocked expression drawn onto his face. No smirk was visible, only a slightly gaping mouth in the shape of an 'O'. Whatever he had been expecting, he wasn't expecting this.

"I like blue berries," I stated, hoping to remove the awkward atmosphere from the moment.

Sasori remained still.

"I can tell."

We remained as stiff as statues, as the silence went on for a couple more minutes.

I stood up, brushed myself off, and returned to walking through the dense forest. Sasori slowly followed behind me, his eyes still burning onto my back. He had just gotten his first glimpse of what lay beyond my icy walls...

We made it to our first stop as it reached night. It was a quiet, slightly disturbing, abandoned town which we could use to get supplies, and to sleep under a shelter. Well, I could sleep in the shelter. Sasori can rejuvenate, which was kind of like a puppet's version of sleep, in the shelter.

It was his choice to come here. He made the suggestion when we looked at the maps, and to be fair it was a sensible suggestion. I couldn't say no – I couldn't show any weaknesses. To be honest, if I travelled by myself, I would have avoided this place at all cost. I had heard quite a few rumours that the place was haunted. And I was not a fan of the occult.

'Damn you, Sasori! If I get killed by ghosts in the middle of the night, I will seriously rise up and haunt you for the rest of your life!' I thought bitterly.

If he was in front of me right now, and decided to turn around, he would see my slightly scared expression. But he wasn't, so he didn't have any material to tease me with. I do not want another relapse of that awful little smirk of his.

"How about here?"

My thoughts were cut off by Sasori's question. I looked at where his hand was pointing, and it showed me a large, gothic styled hotel (I don't how they managed to break the fourth wall on the non-Japanese design). It had a tall pointed roof with windows looking out onto the ground, and the bricks had darkened with age. Cobwebs covered the windows, and the door was huge but held sinister scratch marks on the dusty paint. The place looked as if it were once grand, but decayed in abandonment.

Either way…was that a shadow in the window?

Before I could decline, Sasori had already made his way inside the building. I did not want to lose out on him, or make myself look like a coward, so I quickly shuffled after.

Sasori knocked his hand against the door once, and the door creaked open slowly. Almost as if something were pulling it. Sasori made eye contact, glanced back at the door suspiciously, and walked inside in a calm manner. I swiftly followed, though my eyes were some what wide and shivers coursed through my spine.

We walked down the corridor where all the bedrooms were; him with his big strides, me with my small shuffles. He opened a random door and the smell of musk hit me in the face. It was a plain room with a king-sized bed and a well designed wardrobe in the corner. The room was very dusty, the paint on the walls wore away, and the bed sheets were graying. However, the condition of the room was not what creeped me out.

It was almost as if I could feel another presence in the room. A supernatural being or a ghost or something. The atmosphere was chilling and the room abnormally cold. There was a door, unlocked, but I could tell that behind it was something I did not want to see. I was scared.

"This can be your room."

Sasori's voice echoed into my mind like I was in a never-ending tunnel. I couldn't stay here; especially not alone.

But I also could not show Sasori any of my weaknesses.

"Sure," I replied, though I screamed in frustration in my head.

"Okay, I'll meet you tomorrow morning," said Sasori as he turned to leave.

'No! Don't leave me here! I don't care if you're an arrogant, condescending jerk; just get me out of here!'

And before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed onto Sasori's shirt.

He turned and looked at me; eyes wide with shock. I looked closely and…is he blushing? He quickly wiped his face clean and looked at me, as if he was expecting me to say something.

'Oh crap, I grabbed his shirt! Quick, think of something!'

I looked around in my head for a suitable thing to say, when the excuse slipped easily out of my open mouth.

"Do you think this place has kitchens?"

Sasori told me the answer, paused, and then smirked. He was obviously remembering the time when my stomach growled in the forest.

'Stupid Sasori! Why did I think he could help me? Damn him…'

I grumbled as I stomped slightly around the hotel corridors. After a while, I realized where I was. And how lost I was.

Standing frozen on the ground, I turn my head both to the right and the left. Noises were made across the floor boards, scuttling sounds. They thumped down hard with every slow second that passed. Almost like footsteps.

I turned around and stepped steadily back the way I came. The foot steps got louder as they increased in pace.

I went a bit faster, walking briskly on the carpeted floor. Again, they got faster.

I strided rapidly, my breath increasing with my feet. The foot steps followed, chilling me to the bone.

It was almost as if…they were right behind me.

BAM!

A sudden loud noise rocketed me back along the corridor at full speed. Hastily I found my door, rushed inside, and slammed it shut. Wanting nothing more than to get away from all the scariness of the hotel corridors, I fled to my bed and hid under my sheets. I heard faraway distant noises, of which terrified me, but I eventually grew tired and fell asleep.

I was woken up in the middle of the night to the chime of a clock. Looking at the clock, it told me that it was exactly midnight. I crept up, wiping the sleep from my eyes, before glancing at the clock again. Midnight. The haunting hour. Oh, crap.

I remained upright in my bed, rigid and stiff, my wide eyes shifting to where ever the slightest of noise positioned itself. It was at that point, I looked at the door. No, not the door that led to the corridor, but the other door.

As if hypnotized with fear, I crept up; flinching at every creak I made on the floor boards, and gripped the handle. My fist clenched tightly. And I opened the door to find…

…just an ordinary bathroom. White tiled floors and walls, a toilet, a shower, and a door that probably led to another room. It was a shared ensuite bathroom. With a bath.

I sighed and moved away from the bathroom. That is, before something caught my eye.

I did a double take, shaking, I moved closer to the bath tub.

Blood. Blood everywhere!

Even worse was the figure of a person still in the bath…

I froze in fear.

The figure twitched.

And I screamed a loud high pitched scream that would have woken up any persons still asleep in the town, if they were alive that is.

I heard a scurry of sound coming from all around me. Thinking that it was ghosts, I rushed out of my room, out of the corridors, and into the town. My heart was racing wildly, and my eyes were wide with fear.

Unfortunately, running out into an abandoned town in the pitch black does nothing really to stem my fear. I ran about wildly, hallucinations of ghosts and monsters over taking my mind. In my rush, I tripped scratching myself. The sight of blood made me think back to my sight in the bath tub, and I rushed drunkenly towards the woods. I tripped again; more dirt and scratches covered my form. Blindly, I ran into the forest, sticks scratching my arms and face, eyes watering and blurring my vision.

Through all of this, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm. I cried out, and attempted to pull away though his vice-like grip ended up bruising my wrist. I kicked out, tripped the monster though he didn't let go and I fell to the ground too. My face bruised against the hard ground which I dragged it against to look upwards. My arm was positioned like it was chained behind my back, the monster would not let go. It's face was in a pile of leaves, and it was trying to say something.

"H-Hiraoka!"

'Wait, isn't that Sasori's voice?'

I turned around to face my captor, which indeed turned out to be my red-headed companion. He looked at me with shock echoed across his face, panting slightly (which I didn't think puppets could do).

It took me a while to realize my own appearance. I had wild hair knotted with leaves, dirt covering my torso. Scratches and bruises covered my arms, legs and I had a few on my face. My mouth was opened in fear and panting heavily. My eyes were the worst; they were wide open in shock and fear. They opened up all my emotions I had kept hidden away and locked up. And I felt something wet on my cheeks…oh, no. Was I crying?

There was no excuse for this. He had seen through my masquerade. It was over.

In this situation, however, my brain began to work and I thought back to a question I asked him when I was at home:

"Do you have dreams?" I asked Sasori one day, my curiosity bubbling up inside me.

Sasori looked at me condescendingly before replying.

"Yes, even as a puppet I have dreams. They are always strange dreams, yet some what realistic, so I always end up waking up and wondering whether they actually happened…"

I nodded before moving on. He is sometimes so tedious…

'Why did I think back to that memo-…of course!' I thought, in my eureka moment. 'I can just get him to think that it was all a dream. It's so genius!'

I stopped struggling and lay on the floor, panting my heart out. Letting my tears slide down my face, allowing myself to let it all out. Sasori stared at me, in confusion and shock, but let go of my wrist and sat beside me. He turned away from me.

"Are you afraid?"

I looked at him, and slowly stopped panting.

"Yes."

He looked back at me when I replied, and I (think I) saw through the dark, a pair of pained eyes.

And to my utter embarrassment, he lifted me up.

"H-hey, what are you doing?" I cried adamantly, so glad that I had a plan to go by.

He maneuvered me about in his, surprisingly, fleshy-feeling arms till he held me like a bride. Why, oh why, oh why…

I moved around in a flustered way, as he carried me back to the dreaded hotel. I then knew what he was going to do. He was going to place me back in my room and ignore me.

"H-hey, don't put me back in that room!" I cried "There are things moving about in there, and th-there's a body in the bathtub!"

"…body in the bath tub?" Sasori murmured thoughtfully.

"Y-yes!" I stuttered.

Sasori chuckled.

"You do realize that I put my puppet in there, right?"

My eyes widened.

"Yeah, well, w-what about all the blood?"

"Paint. Seemed the staff wanted to change the colour of the bath before they left. Did a bad job of it though…"

"E-even so, please don't take me back to my room! I c-can't…" I trailed off, hoping he'd get the picture and leave me in the woods.

Instead he stopped. He looked at me in a strange way.

"You are very different from the normal Hiraoka-san."

I looked away, embarrassed. He was doing this on purpose now.

Even so, he continued towards the hotel, even with all my begging and pleading. However, when I got there, I was not in my own room. I was in his.

"Sleep here," he told me, motioning to the bed.

I laid down on the bed and pulled up the covers.

"What about you?" I questioned as I turned towards him.

At that point he decided to join me. In the bed.

"You won't be alone now, right?" he said with that horrible smirk of his.

I glared at him.

"Pervert."

He chuckled just as my tiredness kicked in. I looked at his face with my sleepy eyes.

"You know, this is just a dream."

Sasori moved closer, wrapping an arm around my waist. He had an…earthy sort of smell. It was familiar and comforting, helping my eyes to droop further into sleep.

"…I know…"

The next morning I woke up to an unfortunate surprise. Sasori's face a few inches from my own. Cliché, I know. I stealthily moved away whilst he slept peacefully. Well, rejuvenated peacefully. Sneaking my way into the bathroom, I took a peak into his bath. He was right. Just a puppet and a botched paint job. All this trouble for nothing.

I took a shower, washing out all the dirt and leaves from my hair. I couldn't leave any evidence – it all had to appear that he just had a strange dream. This is also why I spent about half an hour using medical ninjutsu on my scratches. No evidence.

As I returned to my own room, Sasori was waiting on my bed. He seemed slightly irritated, nothing new considering how impatient he is, though when I arrived he became visibly flustered.

'It's probably because he dreamed about me,' I thought smugly, as I exited the hotel with him.

We returned on our journey towards Sunagakure, though we camped out in the forest as there were no more abandoned villages. Lucky me.

Sasori remained thoughtful on the journey; it seemed as if he had something important on his mind; though I couldn't imagine what. However his thoughtful expression changed to that small smirk whenever he glanced at me. Damn that pervert!

On the other hand, even though he was an arrogant, self-obsessed pervert, I couldn't help but start to enjoy his company.

And finally began to see his annoying smirk as less of a smirk. And more of a smile.