A/N: Finally we get to some of the main issues! You'll see why Dei was so scared in the beginning and why he's not now. Long chapter for you guys that reveiwed- seeing as I might not being able to update so quickly with school coming up! Also, I've noticed that the last chapters weren't viewed as much- I apologize if my writing style seemed to have changed and that's the cause!

I hope things aren't too confusing in this chapter :}

Warning: Language and fast-changing personalities and shouting.

"It's an apology flower from me to you..."

Sasori sighed, standing and stretching his aching limbs from where he sat on top the Akatsuki base. He slipped the blue and gold flower into his cloak, really starting to feel like an old man reminicsing. "I guess I'll go inside and make sure that brat isn't completely lost."

-Ten minutes prior-

Sasori eyed the object Konan was trying to get him to hold. "I don't want that."

Stormy eyes flashed. "Too bad. You're going to take it."

"It's a piece of dirt covered in more dirt." The redhead reproachfully gazed at it. "Something like that…will not last."

"Sasori."

Sasori blinked and stared her in the eye. Though the woman's face was filled with anger, her voice wasn't. It remained calm, a threat lying underneath the angelic tone, fully reminding the puppet of his place. "Forgive me. I spoke too far."

"Hmm...It's not just any flower." Konan held the discarded plant out to him again, a satisfied smirk on her lips. "It's an apology flower."

"…For what?"

Konan grasped Sasori's hands, slipping the fresh stem between them. "Because I was out of place." She smiled at the rare look of confusion that spread across his face. "All of us know you're still sore about your last partner- even if Deidara has been here for over two years now. Despite what everyone else thinks," her smile grew, "I also know that you care for our little bomber."

Sasori stared.

"So!" Konan stepped back, motioning to the flower. "That's my apology for hurting you earlier. But really," she frowned and placed a hand on her hip. "Don't go running off like that. You may not look it- but you're quite dramatic aren't you?"

"…"

The woman began to leave, talking giddily over her shoulder. "Hurry up and come inside. We're going to figure out what happened to Deidara. Who knows, you might be stuck with a kid as a partner for the rest of your life."

Sasori snapped out of his daze. "That's not going to happen."

"You never know…"

-Present time/ Akatsuki living room-

"We're starting our discussion-" Pein began to say.

"Ooh! Let Tobi start first!"

Pein glanced irritably at the shinobi who was waving obnoxiously and shouting despite the fact that they were all within a ten foot radius. "No." He looked at everyone else. "We're going to start with the obvious."

They nodded in unison.

"Something happened last night to make Deidara a child."

Hidan stared at his leader. That's too fucking obvious…

"And," Pein continued, "he has no recollection of where he is or why he's here. All of you, except for Tobi," Tobi bobbed his head, "were the last to see him yesterday night."

Deidara looked at Konan and whispered in what he thought was a low voice, "I didn't know I was here last night. Was it a party?"

Konan gently shushed him.

Everyone stiffened as Pein narrowed his eyes, feeling the abrupt waves of anger erupting from the man before them.

"What did you idiots do to Deidara?"

Kisame immediately pointed to Hidan. "It was him! He was making fun of Deidara!"

"What? Fuck you!" Hidan pointed to Kakuzu. "That asshole over there made him leave!"

"Don't blame me for Deidara's absence you raging fucktard!" Kakuzu looked at Itachi. "Deidara was already upset at Itachi for-"

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Don't bring me into this."

Kakuzu glared at him and then looked back to Hidan. "Unlike you, I can actually tolerate Deidara. I wouldn't go off and kill him like you!"

"What the fuck did you just say?"

Deidara clapped his hands togther, chanting, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-"

"Dei-chan don't say that," Konan tried to calm him.

But Tobi started to chant along too.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-"

"Tobi!" Itachi hit the man over his head as Kisame cried for the blonde's tainted mind, Hidan and Kakuzu still arguing in the background. Konan looked worriedly around the room, a squealing child calling out to Pein who looked like he wanted to use his Rinnegan on everyone there.

"Carrot-san! There's something on your face carrot-san!"

Pein shot Tobi a searing glare. "You are never touching Deidara again."

"Nooo! Tobi's a good boy!" Tobi wailed.

It was Zetsu who calmed then all down by coming through the center of the room. He separated his white half from his black half and then morphed back together, effectively silencing the entire room as he slunk back to the corner once more.

Pein raised a brow, his cool collected. "That never ceases to amaze me Zetsu."

"I knew as much as that." "Could you get that kid to stop staring?"

Pein looked at the child staring wide-eyed at Zetsu. "Deidara pay attention. We're going to talk about you."

Deidara immediately whipped his head to look at him. "Okay!"

"Right..." Pein cleared his throat. "I can see that none of you know what actually happened and can safely assume that no one here is the cause of this. That leaves the question of whether Deidara did this to himself by use of a jutsu."

"Not fucking possible," Hidan drawled from the wall he was leaning on, considerably cooled down. "Deidara sucks at any jutsu that doesn't involve Earth or clay."

"Well," Kisame got a contemplative look on his face. "Maybe he tried to use a henge and it went wrong."

Itachi shook his head. "He's not that stupid that he doesn't know how to make a simple transformation Kisame. I say that someone else did this to him."

Kisame glanced at the child watching them all eagerly. "Leader-san said that no one here could of done it, so that's wrong right away."

"Not quite," Kakuzu slowly interjected. "Not if Itachi is suggesting that there was an outside influence on this incident."

Pein gave a thoughtful hum. "You think that someone on the outside is targeting Deidara and thought that this would be the best way to make him vunerable for an attack."

Kakuzu nodded, pulling his mask up slightly.

"It could be," White Zetsu said, "those shinobi from Otogakure. They followed us to the village here." He was talking about the group mission to Oto the day before, where they had inflitrated one of Orochimaru's hideouts in search of a valuable scroll. They arrived back at the Akatsuki base late that night and sent a willing Deidara out to get dinner as they cleaned up the dirty kitchen. No one had really paid much attention to the low-class ninja following them...was it possible that they underestimated them?

"And with strawberry shortcake going for his clay and food supplies the night," Hidan said, "those bastards would have had plenty of time to track him or cast a jutsu of some fuckin sort."

Itachi brought a finger to his temple, beginning to rub it in circles. "I forgot that Deidara can get so immersed in his clay that he becomes unaware of his surroundings."

Hidan scoffed. "Then it was probably a piece of cake!"

"That doesn't matter," Pein said. "What matters is why."

Tobi shot up from his seat. "Tobi knows why!"

"You weren't even there," Pein snapped.

The masked man sat back down, sniffling with his arms crossed. "Well neither were you..."

Pein gave him a dark look.

Konan, who had stayed strangely quiet the entire time, blurted out, "Maybe they were trying to help him."

All eyes turned to her in question.

"How is turning him into a child helping him?" Kisame asked. "Deidara's completely out of it." He motioned to the blonde attempting to play with the piercing in her nose.

Pein raised a brow. "What would make you think that?"

Konan shrugged. "It was just a suggestion," she coolly said.

"A strange one," White Zetsu said under his breath.

"No," Itachi quietly spoke. "What I don't understand is why his memories were taken away." He explained as everyone focused on him. "If it was truly a jutsu that simply turned him into a child, Deidara would still be able to remember where he is and who he is. This morning when I found Deidara in my room, he was scared out of his mind and thought I was going to hit him."

Hidan pushed off the wall. "Geez, I know you're goddamn scary when you wake up- but making the little shit frightened like that?"

Itachi glared at the Jashinist and said, "It wasn't like that." he then looked at his leader with a hint of confusion hidden in his eyes. "He thought I was his father."

Deidara stopped moving as the words registered in his mind.

Kisame tilted his head. "He thought you were his father and you were going to hit him?"

Tou-san? Is tou-san here? Are all the nice people here friends with... tou-san?

"But when I turned the lights on and Deidara looked at me properly, he immediately stopped shaking and called me an angel," Itachi murmured.

Deidara's tiny hands started to clench the front of Konan's cloak, eye widening as the voices continued to speak.

"That's kinda weird isn't it?" Kisame asked.

"Nah." Hidan dismissively waved a hand at him. "It just means that Deidara's tou-san was some fucked up asshole who must've enjoyed beating the shit out of him."

Konan narrowed her eyes, missing the suddenly harsh breathing of the child in her arms and the sweat forming at his brows. "How can you say that like it's nothing?" she demanded.

"Oh please," Hidan laughed. "Shit like that happens every second of the fuckin day." He shook his head, eyes turning to slits. "What's so special about this case? Is it because it deals with Deidara? Che! You always babied the little shit when he was a teen, and you still fucking do now."

Tou-san...tou-san... Deidara started to gasp for air with each pant of breath he released. To kaa-san...he- to kaa-san-!

Pein blinked at the spike in chakra he felt coming from the blonde, averting his gaze from Itachi to the child. "Konan-"

"That's not true! I know there are others out there suffering and as much as I want to help- I can't!" Konan angrily held the child in her arms. "But Deidara's here. And if I can't help with anyone else, then I'm going to help him! It's more than you ever do here."

Hidan stepped forward. "What did you just fucking say?"

Tou-san killed kaa-san!

Kakuzu pulled on the back of his cloak, dragging the livid immortal beside him. "Calm down dumbass. You're both too riled and aren't listening to a single thing the other is saying."

"Hell no! What right does that bitch have to say-"

Kakuzu kicked his back, breaking his lower bone and causing him to fall. "Shut up already."

"You fuckin heathen! Don't go around snapping my bones like that!"

"I'll do as I like." Kakuzu stepped on the bone in his leg as Hidan swore violently. "You're so stupid sometimes-"

Deidara slowly raised his head at the sound of cracking limbs to stare at Hidan and Kakuzu. "Stop..." his whisper was lost beneath their shouts.

Tobi pumped a fist into the air. "Fight, fight, fight- yaayyy!"

Pein urgently addressed his partner. "Konan, Deidara is-"

She ignored him in favor of glaring at Tobi.

Itachi and Kisame looked dispprovingly to the side, hitting Tobi on the head at the same time. "Shut up," they chimed.

Deidara moved his head from one side to the other. "Stop..."

'Iie! Tou-san don't! Stop! Don't hit me anymore!'

Black Zetsu rolled his eyes and said, "If anymore blood spills, I'll end up eating you both."

"Fuck you!"

"Damn plant..." Kakuzu said, lifting his foot from where he was stepping on the immortal's face. "You'll be paying for the losses then." He waved his foot around tauntingly, ignoring Hidan's stream of curses and preparing to bring it down.

'Stop...stop! Stop hitting me! Leave me alone!'

Pein whipped his head from Deidara to the bickering pair. "Kakuzu don't-!"

"STOP!"

Konan jerked in surprise, nine pairs of eyes flying to the blonde child in shock.

Deidara brought his hands to his ears, trembling into Konan's shoulder as he hysterically shouted, "Leave me alone! I don't want to hear it anymore! Stop fighting...stop fighting already!" His squeezed his eye shut. "You're hurting me!"

Everyone was stunned into silence, some looking at him in horror, the others with growing understanding. Konan tried to comfort the child but he shied from her touch. She dropped her hand with lowered eyes. "Deidara-"

"Deidara!"

The little blonde looked up in surprise at the new voice, hesitatingly moving his hands from his ears. His eye widened. "G-grump-san..."

Sasori purposefully strode forward from the doorway, amber eyes flashing in the light.

A/N: Whew! That took a while with all my thoughts being thrown around!

Figures Sasori would be the one to come- right?

Next three-four chapters will probably finish the prequel to the Snap Arc. Then Snap begins and we get crackin'!