Sorry if this is short or if it sucks, but i think i've just planned out my plot ^^ sorry for the holes and flaws in my plot so far but i am hoping we can all just ignore it and get on with things.


The next few days in Ame were weird ones for Sasori. He had made a twisted form of a routine for himself and spent most of everyday with Konan getting things done. She wasn't the one technically in charge of doing all the things she did – cleaning, sewing, scolding, providing for and ultimately raising those children among other things – but Sasori guessed being able to read the future made her uneasy about trusting other people with such things.

That's if she wasn't just a quack.

Konan had been in a slightly less predictable mood since storming out the other night and Sasori had so far had to dodge five different kitchen items thrown at his head. Of course his dodging was always predicted and he'd end up being hit anyway.

But at least he knew it wasn't personal, as he witnessed a lot of the children – though mainly Kiba, Naruto and sometimes Shikamaru – receive the same treatment. It was so much worse when one of them – though usually Sasuke – had the gall to say she was a psycho.

Needless to say, they all repeatedly paid for such a mistake.

Sasori was overall beginning to think he'd found his place in the circus; the kids liked having him around, he was getting good at looking after them and he didn't have to interact with any of the Akatsuki.

But that changed on the fifth day they spent in Ame.

"There's no show tonight."

Those words, no matter how simple they seemed, caused chaos amongst the Akatsuki – though the circus children seemed happy enough for the break.

"What do you mean there's no damn show?!"

"Are we going out of business, un?"

"We can't afford to miss a night!"

"What the hell do you expect Tobi to do with his time?!"

Pein and Konan were perfectly calm and almost seemed to ignore the words being yelled at them.

"Pein and I have some errands to run in town which are going to take all day," Konan explained stiffly, "we don't care what you do with yourselves, just as long as nobody winds up dead."

"Will we be preforming tomorrow, un?" Deidara asked the question that everyone else seemed to have swallowed.

"Yes, assuming you're still alive tomorrow."

Deidara frowned, "what's that supposed to mean, un?"

And in turn, Konan smiled mischievously, "oh nothing. But I'd watch my back if I were you."

Pein sighed, casting a quick glance towards the sky. The sun had only just started to rise, giving reason to the fact that his subordinates all appeared exhausted and messy, but also giving an idea of the time.

"Quit teasing him, we're going to be late."

Konan laughed lightly, carefree, completely different from the way she usually was – though as most of the Akatsuki had witnessed, she was never herself around him. "it wouldn't be the first time, I'm sure Ame can wait."

Still, she cut off all conversation nonetheless.

Pein spared only a few words of warning before they left. The entire Akatsuki knew by now that his threats were genuine and if any damage was done they'd all end up dying a slow, painful death.

Anyway Sasori didn't know how it happened, but around midday he ended up at a small waterfall with the rest of the Akatsuki and some of the children. He thought maybe they were the ones who'd dragged him here and vaguely remembered being begged to accompany them here…

They could be really annoyingly persuasive when they wanted to.

About half of the Akatsuki had decided to make the most of their small holiday and go swimming while the other half sat watching apprehensively on the sidelines, watching Naruto, Kiba and Sasuke – having been goaded into it – attempt to scale the waterfall.

It was a strange day indeed, made almost stranger by the way that nobody had gone out of their way to be mean or cold to him. it was as though they were beginning to let up and offer their uncertain forgiveness. Either that or they were simply ignoring his presence.

"ITACHI, WATCH!"

Next to Sasori, Itachi sighed and looked up, squinting in the sun which shone down unusually bright directly above. Having expected to see Sasuke attempting to gain his brothers attention, Sasori was amused to see Kisame standing atop the large, overgrown cliff where the waterfall began, preparing to jump off.

"I swear if that idiot gets hurt, I'm leaving him here," Itachi lied, both to himself and the people directly around him, watching somewhat uneasily as the shark dived from a height that suddenly seemed impossibly dangerous, into the rocky depths below, causing an unreasonably high splash and waves which nearly drowned the other three.

"Watch what you're fucking doing, dumbass!" Hidan was the first to resurface, Tobi having teleported to safety straight away.

However his words fell on deaf ears, as once in the water again, Kisame couldn't care less about anything above the surface.

"They're worse than the children," Itachi sighed, watching disdainfully.

Of course right now it would seem that way.

"You've clearly never seen them five minutes before the show. It's a wonder Konan hasn't slaughtered them all," Sasori decided this would be the perfect moment to test the waters, so to speak.

"Oh I've seen them," Itachi said, smirking slightly, "I still say the Akatsuki is worse."

"He's right," Kakuzu drawled lazily. He wasn't exactly the type to enjoy doing nothing and for him this was a complete bore – almost enough to contemplate mass murder – but the new kid was talking and that was a rarity. "This is as normal as they get."

Sasori thought back to his first day here and to everything else he'd seen since then.

"And the three of you, I suppose you're just as strange?" he asked, including Zetsu in this.

"You're not so normal yourself kid," Kakuzu muttered.

"He's right, how are you even alive?" oddly Zetsu sounded the most grossed out and Sasori couldn't help but laugh.

Strange. He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed.

"Honestly I have no idea. But then I could ask you all the same question."

It was a while before any of them answered, they seemed to think very carefully about what they wanted to say, as if it were a question worth a million dollars, but then Zetsu spoke.

"Really I don't think I would be, had it not been for Konan."

"Same here, Konan and Pein saved my life," Kakuzu agreed, almost begrudgingly.

Itachi offered only a nod in agreement.

Suddenly Sasori felt bad for struggling. He thought back on a week ago when he'd been cornered in Suna by a small street gang – they had similar problems in Suna as they had in Ame, only it wasn't as dangerous there – and ended up with blood on his hands, being chased down by the law.

He'd been terrified, having spent a majority of his life in a prison; did he really want to spend the rest of it in one?

No they'd probably have killed him, once they saw the monster he really was underneath.

Sasori cringed as he remembered how close he'd been to ending his own life at that time, though he hadn't been thinking straight, with fear suffocating his mind and any intelligent thoughts, he knew deep down that had Pein not shown up right then and forced him away, he would've gone through with it.

But he didn't get a chance to recognize or even voice this truth.

"Sasuke!"

Itachi was on his feet before Naruto had finished his distressed scream, preparing mindlessly to do something, anything when he noticed his brother falling, having lost his grip on one of the slippery waterfall rocks.

At first though, it seemed like there was nothing any of them could really do but watch, even the children not in the water, with their strange little abilities could really only stare wide eyed and horrified as the younger Uchiha plummeted down towards the sharp rocks protruding beyond the water's surface, the kids still scaling the rocks beginning a fast, dangerous descent.

The members of Akatsuki actually in the water were also dumbstruck and stuck for ideas, panicking slightly and like everyone else, unable to look away.

But the panic and alarm was short lived as someone at least had a clue and pale blue strings attached almost instinctively to the boy, controlling a sharp kick off of the rock wall and aiding the momentum that propelled the Uchiha away from danger. He landed safely – or at least somewhat so – in the middle of the adjacent lake with a loud, large splash, surfacing quickly with the aid of little blue strings.

It was the only time Sasori had ever been thankful for that strange little gift that went along with his mutilated human-puppet appearance and he watched in cautious relief as things unfolded.

Sasuke was dragged from the water by Kiba and Naruto who had managed to land gracefully from a safe distance into the icy depths. He was then wrapped in a towel and thoroughly yelled at by his older brother, much to mostly everyone's amusement.

Certain things like dangerous, reckless, thoughtless and idiotic were thrown around and Sasuke was dragged back to the camp by his ear.

It was getting late and so Sasori began to round up the rest of the kids, feeling it was what Konan would be doing if she were here right now.

By the time he had them all in one place, the Akatsuki were mostly dry and ready to leave.

Sasori couldn't help but feel like a mother duck when the children fell in line and followed him.

Kisame fell into step with him, smiling and staring forward he said, "You know, I didn't like you much when you first got here," yeah, like that wasn't obvious, "but now I think you'll fit in just fine."


After that single incident, it was a lot easier to interact with the Akatsuki. Well, with some of them anyway.

His relationship with Itachi definitely improved, though Sasuke was still sour over the whole thing, insisting that he would've been fine and that it wasn't that dangerous.

Of course when Konan got back, she knew about the whole thing and warned all three boys that if they ever did anything like that again she'd cut their hands off. Why she chose hands was far beyond either of them but they didn't bother to ask.

Routine picked back up and they had two days left in Ame before they had to move on. He didn't know where they were going but he knew the further they got from Suna the better.

Konan was in a lot better of a mood after going into town and told the children stories of what she called her adventures from the previous days. Apparently she and Pein had been to see a few friends they had in town, collect a few debts and revisit the orphanage where they'd grown up. They'd also run into some people who weren't old friends, who they were forced to deal with. Nothing they couldn't handle though.

Konan's stories were oddly captivating for both the children and Sasori himself. He found himself enjoying the certain spark of life her voice added to the words and the way her actions and expressions would bring the whole thing to life. Of course he could still see that pain in her eyes and he still felt guilty for a while.

Until things picked back up at their usual pace and he was running around doing every little thing for her. He couldn't even remember how he'd been roped into doing this, but it felt almost like he'd been doing it his entire life. Everything felt right all of a sudden, with the circus, the kids, Konan and the Akatsuki.

Only one thing was still out of place and he thought about it for long periods of time during the night, just staring at the diary written all over the walls.

He'd been told many times about Deidara. He wasn't the kind of kid to hold any sort of grudge or to be mean in anyway and yet he was stubborn and independent. He didn't need anybody and often went days without some much as looking at the other members. But according to everyone, it shouldn't have been so hard to befriend him.

Dammit what the hell is wrong with me?

Sasori had taken to staring at his reflection when he passed a window, to try and see a trace of himself and yet, since he got to the circus it was like the person he used to be, had completely disappeared.

It had been such a quick transformation, he hadn't even noticed it.

And now suddenly, despite the way they looked, the way they behaved and the weird little attributes they had that kept them from being normal, Sasori wanted to be a part of the Akatsuki and that also meant he wanted to be their friend. He wanted to be a part of this little family but he felt Deidara's behavior towards him hindered that.

"Quit thinking so much about him, it's getting on my nerves," Konan said irritably.

It was the first time she'd attended the acts since their first night in Ame.

"Sorry," Sasori muttered.

Konan laughed a little hearing that, showing that she wasn't completely annoyed.

"You're like a little school girl, you know?" she said, swinging her legs back and forth like a child, "it's adorable."

Somehow that word just didn't seem right coming from her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come-on!"

Sasori frowned. Perhaps her psychic abilities caused her to think everyone was somehow extremely insightful?

"Whatever, I've gotta go up there."

On another side of the tent, completely oblivious to the near obsessive thoughts rolling over in Sasori's mind, Deidara sat cross-legged, applying medicine which Sakura had given him, to rope burns on his wrists and ankles.

He had noticed the change within the Akatsuki and felt inclined to either ignore it or go with the flow. The thing about him though was that he wasn't a very flow kind of guy. In fact often was the case, that if a group of people were doing something, he'd feel the uncontrollable urge to do the opposite.

What was it that Konan had called him…?

Right; a stubborn little brat who couldn't tell right from wrong.

He thought maybe she was right about this one.

After all, Sasori wasn't necessarily a bad guy; he was nice enough once he got past the whole freak thing. But somehow that wasn't enough to fully exonerate him. it still didn't feel like he was really one of them.

This would be the first time he'd see Sasori's act.

So far he'd managed to miss every other show due to health issues after his own act, but after seeing what he saw yesterday, he just had to know and so his burns were all but ignored.

Sasori was introduced as a human puppet. What could that possibly mean?

Of course as the act progressed, Deidara understood exactly what it meant.

He found he couldn't tear his eyes away from the strange sight as Sasori removed his cloak, nor could he look away when he saw what was hidden underneath; much more horrifying and weird than his hand mouths or many of the other abnormalities within the Akatsuki.

And yet, he wasn't horrified like he guessed he should be.

He found it all rather amazing, interesting, tantalizing in a sick way.

He watched on wondering what it felt like and whether Sasori felt anything at all. Most of him still looked pretty human and yet it was as though he weren't human at all.

Deidara decided right then, right at that moment as he sat in the crowd like an innocent, normal observer, that he would ignore the flow and ignore that little voice in his mind telling him to move against what everyone else was doing. All he could really think about right then and there was discovering the secrets about Sasori and his body.

He didn't know that fate had other things planned for him. he didn't know that right at that moment, danger was lurking just beyond the corner waiting for him, he didn't know that soon there would come a time where idle thoughts like this would vanish completely into a deep, unforgiving darkness.

Across the room, Konan heard the thoughts of a young blonde and smiled bitterly. For she knew what lay ahead, and she knew by now, that there was no going back.