I waited nervously whilst Sasori attached the new arm. He seemed… tense, if that's even possible for him. Not that he'd explain if I asked him, since he was that kind of person, err, puppet.

"There, it's done now," he said, no change to his tone. "I hope you aren't planning on destroying this one anytime soon."

I blushed nervously, being eternally uncomfortable in the puppet masters presence.

"Sorry about that," I replied, my gaze shifting from him to the door as I thought about what evil things could be lurking out there.

"Hidan's gone," Sasori said unexpectedly.

"What?"

"Hidan and Kakuzu have gone on a mission."

"I thought Kakuzu was on a bounty hunt?"

"He came back."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, he reminded me of my old French teacher. Instead I thanked Sasori and left the room, only to be confronted by Deidara.

"There you are!" he said wit a grin. "Where have you been, hmm?"

I laughed at the latter part and kissed him on the cheek,

"Getting my arm fixed," I replied. "It's not like I've been gone forever."

"Yeah well anything can happen knowing you," he replied, pulling me into a hug. "You do have a habit of disappearing."

I didn't have a comeback for that, so I just stuck my tongue out at him,

"It's nice to see you love me so much."

"I do love you," replied Deidara, before kissing me lightly on the lips. "I love you more than anything."

I felt my breath catch in my throat. Deidara had just said those three little words. Twice. All comebacks died in my throat, including the one about art.

"I love you too."

I kissed him passionately, moving my hands around his neck before looking at him wickedly.

"Though no as much as chocolate."

He snorted before tickling me into submission,

"Are you sure about that, hmm?" he questioned me whilst we both laughed.

"Don't tickle me!" I laughed. "Don't! I surrender!"

Yeah… I'm not very good when it comes to tickling- I'd rather surrender the whole world than be tickled.

"Nice to see you're having fun."

Deidara and I sprang to attention at the sound of Pein's voice. "I have another mission for you and Sasori." The pierced zombie guy said to Deidara, whilst I wondered if I should confront said person about the whole Madara- James Bond issue. I mean, for all I know he could have known nothing about it- or everything.

"And you and I will be having a little chat in the meantime," Pein said to me. Well, that answers that question.

So Deidara retreated into Sasori's room in order to tell him the good news whilst I followed Pein as he led me back to the scene of the crime. Along the way I spotted Zetsu, so I glared at him for his lies- though he just seemed to find it funny.

Evil follower of Dr Uchiha.

Hang on- if he's the bad guy then does that make me the smexy babe and Deidara James Bond? How come I have to be the bimbo who dates the car wrecker? I demand respect!

"It seems that you and Madara are having trouble communicating," he said unexpectedly.

"Trouble communicating? Are you, like, a Shrink now?"

Like? I just said the dreaded word! And to Pein nonetheless- he is so gonna kill me.

"What you must understand Alex is that your survival depends on the choices you make- and making an enemy of him will end with your sudden death."

"But… he's going to kill me anyway, isn't he? Plus I don't do the dieing permanently thing."

Pein turned to look at me, and the fear I felt when I first saw him came rushing back.

"Nobody is truly immortal," he said flatly. "There are ways to kill you permanently. Surely your demon told you that?"

I tried to remember,

"I think so."

"Then you will understand that if you continue with this attitude then you will be killed- and manipulating the members isn't going to help."

I stared in surprise,

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about- messing with Deidara's mind so he thinks he's in love with you. Do you really believe that someone would come to be in love with you after only a short time? This isn't one of your fairy tale worlds where love at first sight exists- this is the real world were chaos rules and love and peace comes last."

Tears came to my eyes,

"I'm not messing with his mind."

"Yes, you are."

I huffed up angrily before walking over to the door,

"Don't you fight for the peace?" I asked him, before leaving and slamming the door behind me.

Manipulating? How on earth was I manipulating him? I couldn't manipulate my cat to fetch the mail for me!

Though Pein did get one thing right- there are no fairy tale endings.