"So, according to the gossip going around the staff, this drug has been popping up everywhere around school, students are talking about it like crazy," Jiraiya says.

"Hm, I haven't heard about it yet," Deidara admits. "Does this elusive drug have a name?"

"You haven't been hanging out with the right people. Naruko's friends aren't the type who would do this drug. But all the potheads and everyone who likes to go out and party-"

"you mean everyone in college?"

"Pretty much," Jiraiya continues, "They're seeing this drug at parties and the like. A lot of people have tried it, even if they don't go back to it."

"Again, does it have a name?"

"It's called lure," Jiraiya explains.

"Lure. Hm," Deidara ponders this. He finds it incredibly frustrating that Jiraiya has found out all this information, and he's still got squat.

"Yes, that's about all I can tell you though. I don't know what it looks like or what it does, but from the sound of it, it's a pretty incredible drug. The other mystery is that no one seems to know who the distributor is…if it's Hidan and a group, they're playing very careful, selling large amounts to kids that will share the drug and who won't rat them out. Do you have any lead on this Sasori guy yet?"

"I'm still figuring that out…" Deidara doesn't want to admit that he's got nothing. It's been another week since they got the assignment in class, and he's met up with Sasori once since then. Deidara tried his luck with asking questions about Sasori's hobbies or endeavors, but Sasori snapped back at him that they should work on their project, and ignored all of Deidara's inquiries. Breaking through Sasori is going to be tough.

"And you're still sure…?" Jiraiya's question lingers through the air.

"Yes, I know the ring has to mean something!" Deidara says.

"Alright, alright," Jiraiya raises his hands, "I'll leave it to you. Just remember to not close your ears to anything else, always be alert."

"I know un. I'm an undercover cop," Deidara says sourly. He doesn't need another lecture from Jiraiya.

"Okay. Well anyways," a grin spreads over the old man's face, "do you want to get a drink or something? I'm so bored grading papers all day."

"Naruko can't be seen having a drink with an old teacher assistant," Deidara says, happily declining that offer.

"Old?" Jiraiya wrinkles his nose.

"Anyways, why don't you ask Tsunade out?" Deidara inquires.

"Bah, like hell she'd say yes… It's not a bad idea though to ask under the pretext of telling her all this information…" Jiraiya ponders this for a moment, "good idea Dei- I mean Naruko. I'll see you around. Let me know if you find any useful information." Jiraiya promptly gets up from the couch and heads out the door, looking left and right to make sure no one watches as a teacher walks out of Naruko and Sasuke's townhome.

Deidara sighs and plops on the couch, wondering when he'll start cracking this case. It's become more difficult than he thought. As Jiraiya mentioned, the drug dealers in this gang are extremely elusive and careful, keeping their identity secret from everyone.

"We should make this part here red," Sasori says, eyeing their painting. They decided that the best themes to evoke in their project are the ones they know best – fleeting and eternal art. They are currently painting a sunset, something that happens every day, making it an eternal, everlasting form of art. Yet every sunset is different, the colors in the sky are never the same with any two sunsets, and in that sense, it is fleeting, and momentary.

It took them a few rounds of discussion to finally decide upon this ideal. Their best hope is that Kurenai will see both themes in their paintings. One will be a sunset, the other, a sunrise. Slight differences, yet both complement each other. Both are simultaneously fleeting, yet eternal.

But the next matter at hand is for them to actually paint the damn pictures. Now that they've finally decided on the subject, they're having a hard time deciding on the simple matter of color. Deidara sighs, feeling exhausted.

"A sunset should have more yellow and orange than red…red is such a jarring color," Deidara says.

"Take that back," Sasori seems personally offended. Deidara blushes as he realizes that he's just, although offhandedly and on accident, insulted Sasori's hair. And Deidara absolutely loves Sasori's hair (not that he would ever admit that).

"Ah sorry," Deidara says, "I don't mean in your hair, ya know. I just mean…a sunset is supposed to look nice."

"And red is nice. We're putting it here," Sasori takes control of the paintbrush and strokes in a few lines of red, shading over some of the orange hues. Deidara watches in horror for a moment, but then steps back, and grunts. It actually looks pretty good. Dammit.

"See, what did I tell you Naruko?" Sasori is standing there smugly with the paintbrush in one hand, the other hand placed on his hip.

"Fine. It's okay," Deidara says. Sasori smirks, and Deidara has half a mind to wipe that smirk off his face by grabbing him by the collar and kissing him harshly…whoa wait! Get that thought out of there! Deidara shakes his head, willing himself not to think such things about the number one suspect in this case.

Sasori is about to comeback, no doubt with a clever quip, when his cell phone starts blaring in his pocket. "Ah shit," he mumbles as he picks up his phone and looks at the screen. He pushes a button and the phone goes silent.

"You aren't going to answer?" Deidara asks curiously.

"It's just a guy I went out with the other night. It was a horrible date, so I won't be taking his call," Sasori says casually. Deidara nearly chokes at this news.

"You're gay?" he splutters out, realizing too late how rude that question sounds. Well…he thinks, it's not like I haven't gotten that question before from others.

"Why are you so curious?" Sasori asks back.

"I-I thought you were checking me out before, during that first day of class ya know." Deidara says, blushing furiously.

Sasori smirks again, "Hm, wouldn't you like to know? But anyways, I'm bisexual, not that it should matter to you."

"I-It doesn't. I was just curious. I don't really know you that well, ya know," Deidara says.

"Huh, I didn't think you cared to know me," Sasori replies harshly.

Deidara bites his bottom lip, trying hard not to roll his eyes, "I thought we agreed to start fresh, turn over a new leaf as they say. So yeah, I wouldn't mind getting to know you better, ya know." Sasori's cheeks redden a little but he doesn't lose his composure.

"Alright then. Well, if you really want to know me, you should come out for a drink with me sometime, I mean, as pals and all. Well, that's assuming you're of age?" Sasori blurts out.

"You're in luck, I just turned 21 last October," Deidara lies, recalling that Naruko's birthday is October 10th. She had just started going out more with Sasuke and Sakura since then, enjoying the fact that she's now the legal drinking age. Apparently she's currently bummed out being stuck at Iruka's home, unable to go out on the town…at least that's Sasuke's excuse for visiting her so often.

"I know some good places for drinks too, so you're in luck. I'm a more experienced drinker, you see," Sasori boasts.

"Experienced?"

"I'm 23, older than you," Sasori explains. Deidara has to do all he can to not laugh – he's 25 years old himself, so it's quite funny that Sasori thinks he has the upper hand here on 'drinking experiences.' "Have you heard of the bar called 'Night-wing?' They have some good happy hours if you want to go."

It's curious that Sasori mentions that bar, the same bar that Naruko got beat up at. Deidara feigns a sullen, hurt look. He cowers his eyes downwards and shakes his head, saying, "I don't ever want to go back there." Now is the perfect opportunity to do some investigative digging, especially since Sasori's the one who brought up the subject.

"Why? What happened there?" Sasori asks, genuinely curious.

"I-I got beat up, I don't really like talking about it," Deidara says. It's so easy playing the bait like this, and Sasori falls – hook, line and sinker.

"Beat up? By who?"

"Some guy named Hidan. I don't know who he is. I was there celebrating the end of finals week last fall, and he came up to me outside the club, trying to sell some drug. I said no, but he was really pushy ya know? I tried to kick him and then…he knocked me down. He nearly broke my ribs," Deidara explains, trying to add in a sniffle here and there. The only part of the story he changed was about the broken ribs – they figured it would be best to make the attack seem less harsh than it really was, to make it more believable that Naruko would come back to school in the start of spring.

Deidara watches Sasori's reaction carefully, looking for any sign of recognition. When he had mentioned the name 'Hidan,' he definitely saw Sasori's eyes widen a bit. Now he wears a strangled look of confusion, empathy and…almost vehemence. It's as though this information brought to light something that was kept dark, and now Sasori looks furious.

"He did what?" he mumbles, barely audible. "What the hell! I can't believe that happened to you Naruko!"

"Yeah…do you know him or something?" Deidara asks cautiously.

"Er-um-no. I'm just shocked. Shocked that something that horrible happened to you. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Deidara says. "It happened weeks ago, my bruising is just about gone by now," Deidara lifts up part of his shirt, showing off the light smattering of purple bruises that were painted on carefully by himself along the bottom of his ribcage (he had to learn all the details from the make-up artists Tenten, so he felt like he had to show at least one person this fake bruise- it took painstaking hours to learn how to get it right).

Sasori reaches a hand out and brushes his fingers across the bruised skin, and Deidara fakes a wince. He pulls back and places his shirt down, not wanting Sasori to look too closely and find out that it's fake. "You must either be really brave or really crazy," Sasori says.

"Why's that?"

"To go up to a guy like – I mean, a drug dealer. Weren't you scared? Was he alone? Were you?" Sasori asks, eyes full of concern.

"I was alone, yeah. I was getting some fresh air for a minute outside the club when he approached me. He had some partner who told him to stop and run away…but I don't know who it was," Deidara says, remembering every detail of Naruko's account.

"Hmm," Sasori hums, thinking to himself. Deidara would give anything to know what's going on inside Sasori's head at this very moment.

"Why are you so curious about this?" Deidara asks, prodding more into the matter.

Sasori sighs heavily, "you'll kill me if you knew…"

"Try me."

"Well…as a matter of fact, I actually do know Hidan, although I'm not particularly fond of him," Sasori says. Bingo. There it is. Finally, Deidara is getting through.

He tries to act cool, like he isn't doing summersaults in his head, ready to tell Jiraiya 'I told you so' the next time he sees him. "How do you know him? I never suspected you would hang out with a thug like him," Deidara says.

"Hah, thug? He may be mean, but he's far from a thug. He just likes violence too much, I think he gets it from all the videos he watches or something. But he and I…well, we're sort of in a group together. But it doesn't matter. Like I said, I never liked that guy. Actually," Sasori pauses for a moment, "I can talk to him for you, and tell him to leave you alone if you'd like."

"Well, it's not like I've seen him since that one time. Does he go to school here?"

"Yeah, although he's a religion major and probably wouldn't have any classes with you," Sasori says.

Deidara splutters, seemingly lost for words for a moment, "A religion major?! That guy? He's studying religion!?"

"Pretty ironic huh? He's into this one obscure religion called Jashin. He wants to be their priest or something, I don't really know. Like I said, never liked him," Sasori tells her.

"Then why do you hang out with him? What's this group you're involved with?" Deidara asks. The information is coming out so suddenly, Deidara can barely believe this is the same snobby redhead who glowered at him in class the first day.

"Hm, why are you now the one suddenly so interested in all my affairs?" Sasori snaps back.

"I'm not. I just find it curious. I mean, a guy who's a religion major selling drugs? Isn't that odd?" Deidara asks. And honestly, it truly is odd.

"Well…maybe he's doing it for a good reason. You don't know." Sasori says cryptically.

"Selling drugs for a good reason…?" Deidara is confused, but Sasori is giving him this look now that says 'drop it.'

"Anyways," Sasori says, closing on the matter, "I can tell him to never go near you again, if he ever sees you around. He should know better than to get that violent."

"It's okay, you don't have to fight any battles for me. I'm strong on my own, ya know," Deidara says with a smile.

Sasori smiles back, "You are one strange girl, you know that?"

"How so?"

"I don't know many girls who would try to land a kick on Hidan. I wish I could've seen his reaction," Sasori says, in admiration of Naruko's efforts. "Why were you alone? Where was Sasuke?" he asks.

"He wasn't with me that evening, it was just me and my girlfriend Sakura," Deidara tells him.

Sasori smirks, "girlfriend?"

"Not like that you pervert. My friend," Deidara says, rolling his eyes. Sasori laughs at him, and Deidara realizes a beat too late that Sasori was simply joking. So they are on joking terms now, good. It seems that Deidara is breaking through Sasori's hard exterior. Deidara laughs back, making sure to keep his laughter high pitched and light.

"So then Night-wing is off the table," Sasori finally says.

"Definitely. You'll have to think of another place, you are the expert, aren't you?" Deidara teases back.

"Yes, okay. Don't you worry," Sasori says before getting back to their neglected artwork.

….

As soon as Sasori leaves later that evening, Deidara rushes into his pack to pull out his laptop. He scrambles to type everything down he just learned, replaying the conversation in his head over and over again. Once he does that, he sighs and gives himself a moment to relax, mentally patting himself on the back. Now Jiraiya isn't the only one with useful information.

After a quick chat with Jiraiya on the phone (in which he finally got to say 'I told you so!'), Deidara hops into the shower to rinse off all the paint. Somehow, Deidara tends to get quite messy when doing pretty much any form of art. Sasori had made fun of him, saying "you should wear a smock, gloves, and goggles; how did you even manage to get paint in your hair?"

Deidara hums a tune to himself as he rinses, but his singing doesn't drown out the loud pounding of someone knocking hard on the door. Immediately alert in cop mode, Deidara turns off the shower, and quickly covers up with a towel. Whoever is knocking is persistent.

He rushes to the door and opens cautiously, peeking outside. He's totally flabbergasted and thrown off to find Sasori at the other side.

"Sasori?" Deidara remembers to use his 'Naruko' voice just in time. He's lucky that those damn whiskers take forever to scrub off. He's stopped trying to rinse them off in the shower ages ago, the marks sometimes become a little faded, but will stay on stubbornly for the most part. Deidara crosses his wet arms over the towel on his chest, hoping to hide the fact that he's totally flat there. As he does this, he notices that the towel barely, just barely, covers below his hips…he has to be careful with shifting his body or some unwanted areas might be shown. Oh, how embarrassing…why oh why did he come back!? Deidara thinks. He can feel his cheeks growing warmer and warmer by the second.

And Sasori is just standing there. Standing there and blatantly staring. Gaping. His face is almost as red as his hair. If it wasn't obvious that he's attracted to Naruko before, it's clear as day now. Deidara waits another uncomfortable second before finally asking, "Um, why are you here?"

"I-I think I left my cell phone here. I went all the way home and realized I couldn't find it." Sasori says, eyes still groping up and down Deidara. Deidara takes a step back uncomfortably, making sure to crouch down and cover his parts as best as he can.

"Well come in and hurry up and get it," Deidara says, annoyed.

Sasori walks in cautiously, noting the water on the floor, "You ran out of the shower to get the door?"

"You were knocking like a madman!" Deidara yells back, losing his patience.

Sasori rushes to the couch and quickly finds his cell phone wedged between the cushions. "There it is," he says, walking back. He pauses in the doorway for a moment, looking Deidara up and down again.

"Oh c'mon!" Deidara cries, turning another shade darker, "stop looking! This is so embarrassing!"

"I've never seen your hair down like that…and wet," Sasori says, "I like it." He doesn't even bother to deny that he's checking her out.

"Please get out!" Deidara cries, slamming the door behind Sasori. Deidara peeks out the side window, watching as a dazed Sasori lumbers off slowly, looking back at the door every few steps. Oh jeez, Deidara places his hand on his forehead and sighs exasperatedly, this guy has it bad for Naruko…this might complicate things…

And to make things more complicated, Deidara can't help but notice his own heartbeat has quickened, and the air in his lungs feels drained. Somehow, Sasori has that effect on him. This is not good. Definitely not good.