Hiya~

Yes, I have reviews unreplied, sorry. I'm too tired to do anything about it right now. I spent the weekend at an anime convention and I have 5 hours of sleeping time tonight and I'll still need to spend an hour or two finishing my drama class final assignment... which is due tom-today. Yay.

I still love you, though. *glomp*

Oh, and I changed my penname! You noticed? That's nice. Go google it if you're interested in what it means. :)

Words: 2,018
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Warnings: Swearing... mentions violence blah blah.

Go ahead, chapter 25: 'Memory'. It has a companion chapter out there (as in it exists out here, not only in my mind). Bring the names together and they'll make sense. :D

"You were what?" Sasori echoed in a disbelieving tone after the blonde's calm (a bit too calm, honestly. How could anyone say something like that so off-handedly?) words.

"I was assigned to kill you," Deidara repeated, looking away as if feeling guilty about this, which he probably was, "By the ANBU, un."

"But... why?" the redhead asked. He couldn't really remember having done anything bad enough to deserve being hunted down and getting killed for it.

"Because you're an Ace, Sasori."

This startled Sasori, probably because Deidara never really used his name, not when spoken so seriously at least. Not when spoken in a try to understand, please-sort of situation.

"That doesn't explain anything," he disagreed. Okay, so maybe it explained something (a lot), but he didn't wish to admit that him being an Ace actually made it okay for someone to come after him and try to kill him. Because it didn't, honestly.

"Yes it does, un. The Kages, some of them anyways, don't want any high rank like you taking over their position, un. That's why it's best to assign Jokers to kill them off. You can threaten a Joker easily, just say 'I'll kill you if you don't do it', and they'll do it or die. If they do end up dead, no one will miss them either way, un. It's a win-win-win type of a situation."

Sasori stood up from his position. He just... Had to do something. Help somehow. Something. Anything. It wasn't fair to make anyone kill people, like this. And it definitely wasn't fair to make Deidara kill anyone, like this...

"Have you killed anyone?" The thought suddenly crossed his head that Deidara might already have managed to kill one or two of the people he had been tasked with.

"I don't kill people. I cause wounds that can end up being fatal... But I don't kill people, un."

Deidara had said that, yes. But back then, they had only been talking about that knife he carried (was this the real reason why he had it? So that he could kill off a few high-ranked people?). There had been no assassins involved in their discussion back then.

A shake of his head. "I have been assigned to deal with most of the high ranks of Suna, but I haven't killed any of them yet. That's why I knew you before we met, un."

"...because they gave you the general knowledge." Sasori finished for him, "The idea of who I am, so that you could use it to kill me when you found me." He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but it wasn't anything pleasant. Far from it. "But why Suna?"

"Oh. Well, that's sort of easily explained, un. I was in Kiri when they took me to the Kage. Mizukage, actually. And he is cruel. I'll tell you about that later, un. But anyway, since Suna and Kiri have an alliance, they help kill each others' high ranks."

"That's fucked up."

"I thought about that at some point, too. I've come to accept that I'll be killed for this sooner or later, un."

Sasori looked at the blonde, tilting his head in thought. "Really? You don't look like the kind of person who's accepted their fate of dying like that." He had never seen anyone who had given up (because he had only really seen wealthy people and wealthy people didn't give up), but he had always imagined someone that completely hopeless to be more… miserable and such. More on the might as well end it now-side.

"What do you mean?" Deidara countered, tilting his head in response as well.

"You look too happy to be ready to die."

The Joker shrugged. "I think that when you know you'll die soon, you have to live every day that much better. Make it count, un."

He contemplated it, sitting down next to the blonde on the floor. The situation sort of made it feel like they were little kids playing in the sand, sitting near the ground together like that. Then again, his mother had taught him to come down on people's level (or go up to theirs, most of the time) when speaking to them, and it seemed quite appropriate right about now. "That's surprisingly deep from you."

"I've thought about it for five years or so. I may have lost count though, un."

"How old are you?" The question had been floating in his head for a while now, but he hadn't wanted to seem like he thought about the blonde, so asking it out of the blue would've seemed weird.

Deidara picked his tongue out at the redhead. "Wouldn't you like to know, un. Well, I'm younger than you, mister 'it's my birthday in a few weeks', un."

Sasori didn't bother mentioning that he had conveniently forgotten about his birthday until it was mentioned just now.

"What use is my birthday if one wants to kill me?"

The clown shrugged. "I don't know. I memorized everything the first time I was given the information, since I couldn't read the scrolls I was given, un."

"May I ask, what else does everything include?"

Another shrug. "Place of birth, last seen in, occupation, family, friends, personality, the works. I was given a lot of info to help kill you, un. I think the Aces are a real threat to them or something..."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sasori sneered.

"It's supposed to be a fact, that's all, un."

"It's not like I wanted to be born an Ace..." One glance at Deidara, who was staring at him rather blankly, made him change his thought mid-sentence, "I mean, I've always liked the privileges being an Ace gives, but hearing that... I don't know. I wish I was a Five of Spades or something normal."

"Or a Five of Clubs. You're an artist, un."

"So are you."

Deidara looked away modestly. "Not really... I've never been able to try my hand at anything that doesn't have to do with staying alive, so I don't think I could really do anything, un."

"Well..." Sasori let a small smile crawl on his face. "There's no time like the present to find out, right?"

The other looked rather dumbfounded, though that was given from such a stray comment, so Sasori tugged a small box from the room in which he stored most of his puppets, unceremonially plopping it down before the blonde. "That's clay," he then announced, "It's stupid and I can hardly do shit with it and I hate it, so you can go ahead and try molding it. If you can explain a bit more about the whole assassin-deal while doing so, all the better."

Deidara nodded obediently, taking the clay in his hands and squeezing it a little before starting his story.

"What are you going to do to me, un?" he asked distressedly. The walk had been long already, but now was the first moment when he didn't have a knife on his throat, giving him the courage needed to voice his thoughts.

"We're taking you to lord Mizukage," one of the men said plainly, "And let him decide on your fate after that."

After this short conversation, none of his other questions were answered anymore. Deidara saw, or more like heard the man he had talked to get scolded rather loudly, as well.

"Well I'm fucking sorry if no one gave me the memo that I'm not supposed to talk to these people!" he defended himself, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Sense should tell you that much, you idiot!" said someone who Deidara guessed was the first man's boss or something of the sort. The circus artist couldn't really help it; he was mentally siding with the man who had talked to him. What was so bad about talking, anyway? It hadn't hurt anyone...

"Sense fucking didn't, now how's that fucking my fault?"

After that loud comment, everyone suddenly silenced (which would've been funny if the situation wasn't so serious) as Deidara was taken to the Mizukage.

The man in question looked a little bitdifferent than what Deidara had thought. His mental image of a Kage had been a wise old man (or woman, of course) who was bald and short, but who still had still certain sense of authority to him. Kind of like Three, really...

But this man, The Mizukage, had roundish features to begin with, making him resemble a small child rather than a bald old man. For the other thing, his hair was disheveled, making him look much less formal than how one would except a Kage to be, and for the third thing he was smiling slightly, as if to say come here, I'm not going to hurt you.

"Lord Mizukage," the circus artist whimpered, kneeling before the incredibly high-ranked man before him. Being right here, right now, felt impossibly strange to him.

"Deidara of Iwakagure," the man acknowledged lazily, yet in a tone that made it clear who was the boss here. Like everything else hadn't already screamed that... "It's a pleasure to have you join me."

Since he wasn't sure if he was allowed to speak beyond his first words, Deidara stayed quiet and in his position.

"I have heard from my subordinates of your... rank," he hissed the last word rather degradingly, which made the kneeling blonde wince on the inside. He probably would've winced on the outside as well, but he didn't dare even imagine doing something like that. Especially since he had been doing alright so far... "And I have come to the decision, along with the Kazekage, that you will be assigned a mission. A mission of a dangerous nature, this one. Which is why you are being assigned with it, actually. Should anything... unfortunate happen while you are performing this very task, very few people will be there to notice your slightly lengthened absence."

In other words: fail, die and no one will even notice you're gone.

"Your task is to track down five high-ranked people of Sunagakure and make sure they don't threaten my position. The most important of these is a man named Sasori from the village of Aka in Sunagakure. He is an Ace of Clubs, and if you fail to bring him down..." the man made a quick off with your head-sort of motion, and even though Deidara had never seen it before, he understood it right away.

"W-what do you mean, bring him down, un?" Deidara repeated. He didn't want to interrupt the other, but... he needed to understand his task to be able to take care of whatever it was, right? Right?

"Kill him," the man clarified quickly, apparently tired of this facadé by now, "And then report back to me."

Deidara's eyes widened fearfully in response to the k-word. "But I can't just-!"

"I'm afraid you don't quite understand the seriousness of the situation currently in hand," the Mizukage interrupted him calmly, "If you fail this mission, I will have no other option but to make sure you are silenced... permanently."

Well, I'm dead. Consider it a miracle that I made it to 2K. x.x''
If you wanted to do something nice for me since I saw all this trouble for you... Review?

Anyway, night. See you next Sunday?