Disclaimer- see chapter 1.

Author's notes;

Another shortish chapter, sorry. But this chapter marks the end of the beginning story arc for this story- the story itself isn't over, but the next chapter is going to occur after a small time skip.

So, on to the chapter. Review please.

XXXXXX

Chapter 4

Deidara had been on a lot of missions in his relatively short life. He'd gotten onto the Iwa ANBU, so he'd had several difficult missions as well. Some of them had allowed him to use his art, some hadn't. Most had been on the boring side, rather than the exciting, life-or-death, hit-the-target-no-matter-what scenarios that all the little children got excited about when they were still genin. Of course, due to Deidara's choice fighting method, and his rather displeasing streak of disobedience, he'd often gotten stuck serving as the backup.

So, when he'd run from Iwa- resigning himself to being a missing nin, he'd expected a lot more excitement. Especially considering he'd just joined an entire organization of S-ranked criminals- the missions were supposed to be exciting, capturing the damsel in distress and holding her for ransom, fighting off the hero as he runs to her rescue. Art at its finest, antagonizing at its most interesting.

So, when Deidara got stuck up on the roof of some tower, watching Sasori talk to a bunch of men shrouded in dark cloaks, he found himself severely disappointed.

"Go stand on that tower," Sasori had said to Deidara, as they left the hotel for the mission. He had already gotten back into Hiruko. "And keep silent. If this all goes as planned, I won't need your help."

Deidara had listened and agreed to obey Sasori's orders for the pure fact that he was the newest member of this organization, and he didn't know how strong Sasori was. He also wasn't sure how much disobedience Sasori would take before he tried to kill his younger partner.

Thus, Deidara found himself laying flat on his stomach, chin resting in a palm, watching a small spider made of clay walk around in circles in front of him. Sasori had been down there talking to five men for at least an hour now, and he was getting bored. Very bored.

"Mmm...I wonder if Sasori-danna'd mind if I went to get some food, yeah..." Deidara murmured into his hand, staring down with half-lidded eyes at the group of men below him.

He perked up immediately when one man stepped forward, though. He was holding out a scroll, obviously meant for Sasori to take. Hiruko stepped forward and reached out his normal hand, but just before his fingertips reached the scroll, there was a hissing sound and the ground directly under Sasori opened. It looked almost like a trap door, in the middle of an alleyway. As odd as that was.

Deidara was on his feet in less than a second, and leaping down the side of the tower in even less time. He sent off the small spider he'd been playing with, grabbed two more handfuls of clay and created two small birds to follow in the spider's wake.

That was the last of his prepared clay, Deidara realized. Sasori had only given him a few minutes before leaving for the mission- he was only able to pound chakra into a few small handfuls of the clay he'd collected that morning. Well, he'd have to make those bombs he had just sent out count.

As Deidara landed lightly on his feet, doing any ninja proud with the landing after a three-story fall, the bombs he'd sent out landed on the targets he'd pointed out for them. Each bird's explosion was large enough to kill two men, so the four men that had been standing around the fifth, who was holding the scroll, were dead before they realized what had hit them.

A grin was on Deidara's face as he looked at the man holding the scroll, his hands still in the seal required for the detonation of his clay dolls. The spider had latched itself around the man's leg, and he was staring at it in fear.

"Don't move, yeah. Or you're dead." Deidara half-hissed, half-chuckled. The man didn't look like he was about to disobey.

Deidara stood from the crouch he'd landed in, and looked over to where the trap door had opened. He stepped over to it and looked down the shaft, but wasn't able to see the bottom, though the light was fading, so he wasn't very surprised. But what was he supposed to do? Go down there and get him?

"Shit." Deidara murmured to himself, after moving around to try and see if he could get any glimpse at all of the fallen Hiruko. Or Sasori.

He crossed his arms in ill temper, looked up to the last man, still holding that damn scroll, and a little sadistic smirk twisted his pale lips. He doubted Sasori would be killed by a fall, or by whatever was at the bottom of the fall, but this guy was going to pay for putting Deidara through the trouble of waiting through this entire meeting, then having to go down a shaft and fish out his grumpy ass of a partner. A shaft that was probably older than the town itself, and the town had nasty enough things living in the dark corners. Or growing. But sometimes, in alleys that were old enough, you couldn't be too sure that fungus wasn't going to jump up and eat you alive. So, who knew what was going to be down there.

Deidara walked calmly over to the man, and held out a hand for the scroll. He made sure the mouth in the palm of that hand was grinning at the man, just to creep him out. People seemed to be easily frightened by his mouths for some reason or another...

"Alright, yeah. Give me the scroll and I'll let you live." Deidara stated.

The man nodded compulsively and handed Deidara the scroll, staring in awed fear at the mouth in the hand. He was terrified, and it kind of amused Deidara. This man was no fighter, and most definitely had no training in the ninja arts. He was just a civilian, and it showed.

Deidara took the scroll and slipped it into his now empty clay bag, around his leg. The man started to run as soon as he had given the scroll, but the spider was still around his leg. With an evil little grin Deidara formed the hand seal necessary and detonated the small spider. The man died with no more than a cry of surprise.

There was a prickle in between his shoulder blades, and the hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end. Deidara realized there was someone standing behind him before he turned around, but he didn't get the chance to defend himself. There was the sound of a solid body falling to the ground, and Deidara was staring down at his would-be attacker, who was now sporting several kunai in the back.

He looked up from the dead man to see Sasori standing there, a kunai in his hand. He wasn't in Hiruko, and looked rather peeved. Well, at least Deidara thought he looked angry.

Deidara blinked and pointed at Sasori, who looked at him with that same almost-bored expression. The 'almost,' because he was definitely annoyed. "You didn't fall, yeah?"

Sasori blinked and glared at him flatly. Deidara really wasn't sure how that was possible, but Sasori pulled it off anyway. "Hiruko did. I jumped out of him."

Deidara made a 'huh' and crossed his arms nodding. After a minute of Sasori still staring at him flatly, it occurred to Deidara that he might want the scroll. He reached into his clay pouch and pulled out the scroll, handing it to Sasori. Sasori took it rather forcefully, and put it somewhere up his sleeve- Deidara wasn't sure he wanted to know where.

The Iwa nin crossed his arms and stared as Sasori walked over to the hole in the ground, rather impatient. He didn't want to wait for Sasori to climb all the way down there and get back up again- he'd been waiting long enough for those damn negotiations, which turned out to not even be necessary. After a minute of standing behind a silent Sasori, who was looking down into the darkness of the trap door, Deidara decided to comment.

"If you'd given me time to make my clay, I'd be able to just make a doll to go down and get it, yeah." Deidara stated, not very pleasantly. Well, it was true. A few clay birds could fly down there and be able to fly Hiruko out again, without much effort.

Sasori glanced over his shoulder at Deidara, with that calm, bored, unperturbed look still on his face. Deidara would someday be able to read that look, he swore it. But for now, it left him guessing as Sasori looked back to the hole.

"That won't be necessary." Sasori stated, and extended a hand over the hole.

A faint glow of chakra started up around his hand, concentrated at his fingers. The glow extended itself into faint lines, from each of his fingertips, and slowly grew down into the hole. They were chakra strings, Deidara realized. He hadn't seen many ninja that could do them- only puppet masters ever learned the technique, really, and Deidara had only seen one of those once or twice.

Sasori sat in the same position for a few minutes, and Deidara had to assume he was searching for Hiruko with the chakra strings. Deidara took to opportunity to glance out of the corner of his eye, and watch Sasori.

Sasori was watching the hole before him, as if he could see the bottom and exactly where his chakra was. His mouth was turned down into a faint frown of concentration, and his eyebrows were tilted just slightly, accentuating the frown. The strong jaw was set, though it didn't look like he was tense.

Deidara sighed and looked back to the trap hole and pursed his lips, resisting the urge to grumble to himself. Why did he have to get stuck with such a serious and boring partner? Sure, he'd be fun to bug, but he was good looking and just begging to be...well...

He wouldn't follow that thought. Sasori was good looking, but an ass. That was the problem. Well, it was going to be, Deidara knew it. And all because of that damn ironic quirk in Deidara's nature that stated 'I will not turn straight'.

There was a movement from Sasori's hand, and Deidara glanced up from his thoughts. The puppet master had a little grin on his face now, one of achievement. Deidara wasn't sure if he liked it. It made Sasori look colder than he did with just that bored look on his face.

Sasori stood, and pulled back on his hand that was connected to the chakra strings. There was the distant sound of wood scraping on stone, and seconds later Hiruko came shooting out of the hole. Sasori used the chakra strings to pull it back a bit from the edge of the hole then disconnected from him.

Both partners were silent as Sasori walked foreward and examined Hiruko quickly, checking its main joints expertly. Deidara assumed the puppet was still good to go, since Sasori opened up the small hatch in Hiruko's back and climbed in, smoothing the larger Akatsuki cloak that the puppet wore after him, hiding the opening. The effect was just what had fooled Deidara into thinking Hiruko was the real Sasori- and that was an testment to Sasori's skills. If he could make a puppet move like a living thing for days on end, than he had to be talented. Of course, to be considered an s-rank ninja he had to be pretty damn talented anyways.

Finally, after waiting all of two seconds for Sasori to get himself situated in Hiruko again, Deidara crossed his arms and put on what he himself termed his 'bitchy face'.

"So, yeah? Can we get going now?"

Sasori was silent for a moment, before he turned Hiruko's head to face him, and nodded. "Yes, we can get moving. We'll sleep tonight at the hotel, then head back to the base tomorrow morning."

XXXXXXX

An hour or so later, Deidara was sitting on his bed back at the hotel room, eating dango happily. A cup of warm tea sat on the table beside his bed, and his bag of clay was leaning up against his thigh. He'd enriched it with chakra, so he was fully armed again, and he'd convinced Sasori to stop and get food on the way back, from a shop that had been open late, thus the dango. All in all, he was pretty happy. It was a good pay off for a boring mission.

Sasori was sitting on his bed, out of Hiruko again, working on the still-damaged tail. And a few knee joints. Well, that was all Deidara had been able to decipher of Sasori's half-mumbled parts explanation when Deidara had asked about the damage earlier, out of curiosity.

But Hiruko wasn't foremost on Deidara's mind at the moment. Sasori's eating habits were. He was positive that Sasori hadn't eaten yet today, considering he'd been with Sasori for the most of it. Save this morning, in which Sasori had claimed he'd eaten. But even if he'd had a particularly large breakfast, that shouldn't be enough to carry him all day.

So what was wrong with Sasori?

Deidara was at a loss for an explanation. Sasori was deflecting all Deidara's attempts at figuring it out with vague excuses, like he'd eaten already, or he wasn't hungry. Deidara wasn't sure if he should be miffed at being kept from some secret, or if he should be worried that Sasori was anorexic or something.

That didn't seem right for some reason. Yes, Deidara decided. 'Sasori' and 'anorexic' shouldn't be in the same sentence. Well, maybe if the puppet master hid it really well...but he didn't look anorexic. He looked pretty healthy, actually. Like he ate normally. Which Deidara was convinced he didn't.

Deidara sighed and finished off his dango, drinking the last of his tea to wash it down. Where was all this musing getting him, hmm? Nowhere, that's where. Sasori was a big s-ranked missing nin. He could handle his own hunger and health and life. Deidara was just a business partner. He didn't need to worry about someone he'd just met.

Stretching rather widely, Deidara laid back on his bed with a happy 'oof', making Sasori glance at him strangely. Deidara ignored him and decided it was about time to sleep. And sleep in the next day, considering he'd gotten up so early that morning to get that damn clay.