This chapter has more dialogues than the rest. Anyway, here's Chapter 7!


Chapter 7- Perfect Denial

Deidara was racing to the giant statue resembling a marvellous humanoid monster. After inserting his mini-camera onto his eye properly, he leaped and landed on top of the index finger of the statue's right hand, adding to the total amount of eight Akatsuki members assembling. Each Akatsuki was standing vigilantly on his or her own 'finger'. Among the notorious group, one of them had concentric circles in his saffron orange eyes, which seemed to glow even without the presence of light. These eyes scanned each and everyone in the dark, mundane room, before stopping at the pony-tailed man.

"Where is Tobi, Deidara?" The man's raspy voice echoed throughout the chamber. Every head turned to the direction of the left thumb, which was occupied by none.

Deidara shrugged, "I have no idea, Leader-sama. He must be somewhere in this country, un."

"Oh really?" The leader spoke sternly, his orange eyes turned fiery and grim, "Then how about the 'Jinchuuriki' you promised us? Care to explain, Deidara?"

Deidara's azure eyes pierced through the total darkness towards the tall man standing a finger away from him, as he seethed, "It's not my fault, Leader-sama. Itachi gave me the wrong information on the 'Jinchuuriki'."

Itachi said coldly, "My information was accurate, but you misinterpreted it, Deidara-kun."

"You didn't tell me that 'Jinchuuriki' is a boy, baka!" Deidara barked, his golden ponytail shaking with much anger and despise.

Itachi did not answer, but his intense red eyes were staring nonchalantly at Deidara's bubblegum-pink-stained lips. Itachi's inside smiled in jest, even though the face that he portrayed remained cold and uninterested. Within a blink of an eye, Kisame burst into a hearty laughter, as though he could read his silent partner's mind.

"Kisame, am I missing something?" The Akatsuki leader, Pein raised his thick eyebrows.

Kisame inhaled deeply to fill his lungs with oxygen, before speaking dismissively, "Nothing important, really…"

"Leader-sama," Zetsu's deep voice entered the conversation, "Deidara is apparently hiding a girl in his bedroom."

Kisame roared out laughing hysterically at Zetsu's report, his hand pressing hard on his stomach. Deidara's face changed, but he forced out one of his confident smirks, "Only for temporary. I intend to keep her as an inspiration for my Art, un."

"Inspiration?" Hidan's silvery-white hair gleamed in the dark, "What the hell is that, Deidara-chan? Just let me sacrifice her, for Lord Jashin's sake!"

Hidan's partner, Kakuzu sighed, "You're predictable, Hidan. I suggest that we sell this girl to a brothel. She'll fetch a pretty good price for us."

"Forget it, Kakuzu-san," Deidara debated, "She is quite a pleasure to look at. No way I'm selling her to a bunch of perverts, un."

"If you like this girl, just admit it," Konan, who was positioned on the right middle finger, said curtly to Deidara, "Don't give pathetic, lame excuses."

"Oh my, I'm not fit to like somebody," Deidara sniggered sarcastically, "After all, I'm an Akatsuki, un."

Loud and distinct, Pein announced, "I don't know what you are up to, Deidara, but let me warn you; having an outsider in our hideout is a serious offence. That girl could be an Orochimaru's spy, as we know it. Zetsu!"

Zetsu stood upright, "Yes, Leader-sama?"

"Dispose the girl," Pein said with unarguable authority.

Deidara opened his mouth, but no words came out to object to Pein's decision. From the looks of it, Deidara knew that nothing he could say or do to change the fate of the girl he hardly knew. He did not know what it was, but something deep inside him wanted to stop Zetsu from eating the girl, whose name was still unknown to him. Oddly enough, the seemingly-insulting nicknames, 'Jerk-face' and 'Mr.Constipated' felt so affectionate to him. He really meant it when he said that she was quite a pleasure to look at. She was so beautiful that it would be a waste if he were to blow her up, just like how he had done to everyone else. Though Deidara hated to admit it, the girl that he had captured by mistake was a 'gorgeous porcelain doll'.

"Deidara, since when you become so soft, un?" Deidara thought quietly to himself, his long yellow lock falling neatly away from his morose face, as he looked down at the darkness of loneliness below him.

"Fine, Leader-sama," Deidara spoke coyly, "You win, un."

Zetsu was going to perform his hand-signs, when a loud, mocking voice interrupted him.

"I apologize for being late, Leader-sama. No one ought to wait for so long, especially someone esteemed like you."

A hazy hologram had appeared on the left thumb without anyone noticing. His familiar, unnaturally-young face sent shudder to everyone in the room. He was clad in a plain dark cloak, which ran down to his purple-polished toenails.

"Danna!" Deidara's eyes widened with pure shock, "You're supposed to be dead!"

The maroon-haired man slanted his head slightly, his coal-black eyes looking as drowsy as ever. He snapped, "Do you want me to die so much, Deidara? So what happened to the 'kyuubi(nine-tailed demon fox) boy'? Did you catch him?"

"Danna, you're supposed to be dead and don't ask this type of questions, un," Deidara smirked playfully, trying to avoid explaining how he had failed to capture Naruto.

Zetsu mused, "But Sasori, when I visited your corpse, you were already dead."

"Unless that corpse is not Sasori…" Another Zetsu's voice, which was deeper than the last one, trailed off.

"Somebody brought me back to life," Sasori explained briefly.

"Who the hell is that 'somebody'?" Hidan asked curiously.

"Someone you don't know. That means it's no use telling you about him, newcomer," Sasori said with a tone of irritation. He rubbed his forehead tiredly, his dull red hair touching his puppet hand in a messy way. Someone had been shouting at him from the back of his mind, but he did not know who that 'kid' was. "He must be the one who resurrected me…" his heart thought.

"Heh! You don't die, but you surely look old, Sasori-danna," Deidara joked, causing Sasori to glare intensely at him.

Pein, who had been watching silently, said calmly, "I assume you have taken the ring from Tobi, Sasori?"

"I must take whatever that belongs to me," Sasori smiled evilly, showing off his metallic ring on his left thumb, "That masked idiot resisted me and I took him out, basically."

"Danna, you killed Tobi just for that stupid ring, un?" Deidara breathed out grudgingly.

Sasori laughed, "What if I killed him, Deidara? When I was killed by that 'pink-haired brat', I don't think you complained. To you, my death cemented your point that art is transient. Sorry to disappoint you, Deidara. I still don't think so. Art is eternal, and that's the way it is. "

"You're wrong, Danna! Art is a fleet-"

"Shut up, both of you!" Pein growled, "I had enough with your endless argument. Sasori, since you're here, what do you propose about this girl in Deidara's bedroom?"

"This girl in Deidara's bedroom?" Sasori's thick eyebrows climbed up his large eyes, "That's something unusual. Deidara, are you up to something bad?"

"My affairs are not for you to meddle, un," Deidara said spitefully.

Sasori replied, "Don't get too cocky with me, Deidara. I might as well turn you into my 299th human puppet, and your silly little girlfriend as my 300th."

Pein spoke solemnly, "That settles it. Sasori, do whatever you want with that girl, as long as she is get rid of. Dismiss!"

The leader disappeared instantly, followed by his partner, Konan and the other S-ranked criminals. Deidara only managed to frown, unsatisfied with what Pein had ordered Sasori to do. Letting Sasori get his own way with Eva was the last straw for Deidara; it felt to him as though Pein had called his art a 'terrible form of self-expression' but acknowledged Sasori's art as 'the most artistic masterpiece in the universe'. The only Akatsuki left in the awful darkness (besides Deidara) sniggered with utmost pleasure,

"I guess I'll take that girl as my 299th, then."

Deidara said, "I like you better when you're dead, Sasori-danna."

"Tch! I never liked you in the slightest."

O O O

Sasori's eyes opened immediately, after saying those final words to his former partner, Deidara. He was sitting on a wooden bench with his legs crossed and his hands holding out together in the form of a hand-sign. His sleepy-looking eyes gazed at the twinkling stars above him. "Save Eva!" These two nonsensical words became clearer in his mind, but it just added more pain to his already-painful migraine.

Sasori was massaging his stabbing forehead, when a cheerful voice came into the picture, "Sasori-san!"

Still in annoying pain, Sasori looked up dazedly at Tobi, who had an ice-cream cone in his gloved hand.

Tobi exclaimed excitedly, "Tobi had lots and lots of fun in the roller-coaster! This theme park is so awesome, Sasori-san!"

Smirking faintly, Sasori took the 'Virgin' ring off his left thumb and threw it at Tobi, who 'amazingly' caught it with huge success.

Sasori uttered casually, "I saw you drop it on the way to the roller-coaster."

"Thank you, Sasori-san! You're so different compared to Deidara-sempai!"

Sasori grunted, yet a strange feeling manifested in his troubled chest. He had never said it, but Deidara was definitely a better and more-worthy partner than that traitorous snake-man, Orochimaru.


End of Chapter 7

I think I still have one or two more chapters to go. By the way, do you like this chapter? Please give me your reviews! Till we meet again, so long!