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Chapter 11: Family Time

Deidara and Sumiko cursed as a certain treasurer escaped them. If Hidan was not doing his ritual in the middle of the hallway, they could have caught him, but upon slipping on the blood on the floor and accidentally crashing into Kisame's room, they gave up. Hidan cussed loudly at Deidara, but seemed to leave Sumiko out of his anger most likely due to a certain puppeteer's threats.

"Damn, he got away, un. What will we do?" Deidara sighed at Sumiko glanced at the blonde artist. He plopped down on the couch and she sat by him and snuggled next to him.

"Um… Sasori would most likely prefer it if we told him about us."

Deidara's face paled to an almost Orochimaru-like quality. "Sumiko-chan… your brother will kill me, un…"

Sumiko smiled and stood up. "Well Deidara-kun, I would rather not do whatever Kakuzu-san wants so we have to tell him. He might even think of it as noble if you ask him for permission to ask me out." She bent down and gave him a peck on the cheek. Deidara smiled and blushed a little. "I have to get ready for the trip Sasori is taking me on."

Deidara nodded and watched Sumiko go to Sasori's room. He stared at the television trying to get an idea of what to tell Sasori when Kakuzu glided into the room. "So Deidara," Kakuzu tries to suppress a laugh to no avail, "What are you willing to do to not have Sasori find out about this?"

Kakuzu hands Deidara a photograph and when Deidara sees it, he sweat-drops. It was definitely him and Sumiko kissing, but he noticed that both of their eyes had something in them that Sasori would definitely misinterpret. To others how did not know the situation, it could be interpreted as lust while it really was a desire to know one another. Panicking in the moment, Deidara tears the photograph. "Ha, un! Now you can't blackmail me anymore you bastard."

Kakuzu laughs evilly. "You think I'm so stupid to give the blackmailee the photograph if I didn't have the negatives?"

Hidan was walking by and shakes his head. "Damn Deidara. Things are just so much easier if you don't give a shit then this bastard can't blackmail you."

Deidara turned towards Hidan. "Of course you wouldn't worry if you were immortal, but some of us have to worry about being mortal. Besides, I would prefer to work with a calm Sasori then a want-to-feed-me-to-Zetsu Sasori."

Hidan smirked. "So you guys kissed and you don't want Sasori to find out?"

Deidara turned red, a fact that Hidan laughed at. "Well then, your problems will be solved if I simply tell Sasori?"

"HIDAN! NO WAY IN HELL, UN!"

Hidan was rolling on the floor laughing. "I haven't had a good laugh like that in a while. Well, unless you tell Sasori, you're fucked. Kakuzu will blackmail you to hell or Sasori will put you there. Pick your fucking poison."

Deidara sighed and walked back to his room trying to think of a way to tell Sasori without losing his life or most of his limbs.

Sasori was trying to decide which puppets to take with him and which ones to leave. He knew that he would definitely travel in Hiruko as it was both safer and he used less energy. Of course, he would take the Third Kazekage just in case. Sumiko rolled her eyes at Sasori's indecision and threatened to make it for him. In light of this, Sasori decided to just take those two and Sumiko looked at the few things she owned. Sighing, she used her chakra strings to neatly pack them in a bag.

There was a slight knock at the door and when Sasori opened the door, Daisuke entered. "Sumiko-sama, I need to explain myself…"

There was a murderous chakra to be sensed emanating from Sumiko. "I am not sure what you are talking about Mamoru. I think you explained yourself quite nicely earlier you lying bastard." With that, Sumiko swept out of the room, belongings in hand, without a further word. Daisuke made to follow her, but a rather irate Sasori used his chakra strings on the fox to restrain him and flung him against the wall.

"So, what the hell happened to you to turn you into a fox Mamoru? Previously, I had trusted and respected you due to the simple fact that you made my sister happy, but now that she loathes you…" Sasori's chakra strings tightened around Daisuke's throat, "I really could care less…"

"Wait… Sasori-sama… I can explain my behavior. If I didn't sacrifice my human form for Sumiko-sama, she would have died on that mission."

Sasori's already narrow eyes narrowed even further. At Daisuke's statement, he relaxed the chakra strings binding him. "How so?"

Daisuke sighed in relief as he was able to easily breathe. "She had a fatally bleeding wound. However, because of Jashin-sama's spell that I invoked, she became immortal and thus immune to such suffering as bleeding to death."

"Hidan's stupid god?" Sasori smirked when Daisuke twitched. "Oh yeah… I forgot you two are brothers. That makes me happy that know Sumiko moved on to someone, why she had to pick Deidara I don't know, but at least I don't have to worry about the remote possibility of being related to Hidan. Anyways, is Sumiko indebted to Jashin for this immortality that she really didn't want?"

"No, I made sure that it was I who takes upon the punishment for the spell. Sumiko never approved of Jashin so it would've been unfair to force her to take upon the rituals. She would just neglect them and let herself die if that was condition of the spell."

Sasori was satisfied and released Daisuke from his chakra strings. Daisuke bowed and disappeared with a poof. Sasori smirked. "Smart enough to send a shadow clone… Mamoru… If you didn't break my sister's heart, I would've put up with being Hidan's brother-in-law if she was happy."

The next day…

Sumiko was riding on top of Hiruko while Sasori was navigating from the inside. When interrogated about wanting to be inside of Hiruko while traveling, he simply responded, "Safer, less stamina used, and no stupid women will approach me while here."

Sumiko laughed. "Good thing we did not take our Akatsuki robes. That is a pretty attention grabbing design, but I suppose there are times when attracting attention is merely part of the mission."

Sasori agreed. "We are here. This is on the border between the Wind and Fire Countries. There is a hot spring nearby that we will stay at. We need to be careful not to run into any shinobi and avoid conflict at all costs."

"The Wind Country huh…" Sumiko lowered her gaze slightly and sighed. "So many memories…"

Gaara sighed upon spotting a hot spring at the border of the Fire and Wind Countries. "Let's stop here for a little break." To his relief, everyone agreed and they relaxed upon entering and paying for their little retreat. There was muttering as to whether or not the guys should try to peep at the girls and the girls were thinking about what traps they were going to set.

They were about to enter the rooms to prepare for the excursion when Gaara noticed something odd. He nodded at Temari who stopped the girls from entering their room. The other boys were concerned about Gaara's behavior until he held up his hand. Naruto was about to say something when Sai covered his mouth. Gaara opened a door to reveal kunoichi in a red dress. Gaara's eyes widened and he honestly was unsure of what to say.

"Sumiko-dono… What are you doing here? You were summoned…" He stopped speaking when he noticed someone come in behind Sumiko. "Sasori of the Red Sand… You are in the Akatsuki! Sumiko-dono… please tell me you didn't join them."

A single tear ran down Sumiko's cheek. "I am sorry Gaara... There are some things that I need to do that I can only do as an Akatsuki member." Before Gaara could say anything, Sumiko kissed his forehead. Then in a puff of smoke, both Sumiko and Sasori disappeared with the wind.