She ran out the door and threw herself on the hard carved body that caught her. She hugged him warmly.

"Why does he get the first hug, uh?" Deidara fake whimper, receiving a face full a dark hair as a reward. He leaned back to barely pick her of her toes then set her down with a bounce.

"At least someone is happy to see us once and while." Sasori gave a faint sarcastic smile.

"Heard you have a new boyfriend, yeah." Deidara joked ruffling her hair.

"P-Partner! H-He's my partner." She corrected too quickly her face reddening.

"Another damn Uchiha." Sasori sighed.

Hinata smiled at his bitterness, he didn't mean it that much usually. She drug them inside to feed them. Sasuke was waiting for them. Hinata felt the instant tension, between three males. This was going to be a long visit.

"Hina-chan's research and supplies are still on the bird, I'll go get them, yeah?" He quickly left the room feeling the danger.

Sasori perfect face gave a gentle insulting smile to the Uchiha. Maybe he did mean it.

"S-Sasori-san." She called for his attention he nodded not even glancing at her. "I-I made food." She tried shrinking into herself slightly. Sasuke glanced at her break eye contact with the puppet. Sasori finally turned and nodded accepting it.


The tension was high and becoming uncomfortable for her. She tried to keep herself as a clear buffer zone between the two men. She would have suggested sparing to get rid of the anger, but she was afraid they would kill each other.

By the third day she had decided that she would stay at Sasuke's side at all times to make sure she would be there if there was a fight. Sasuke noticed, he asked and understood her concern.

Deidara looked nervous when they were in the same breathing space. She hoped that Sasori wasn't taking it out on the poor blond.

She sent Sasuke to bed early and came out to where she knew Sasori had been waiting for her, he had even already made tea.

She took her cup and spot. Her eyes narrow, jaw set, and her eyebrows furrowed. Her stern scolding looked asking her question for her.

"I don't trust him." He answered simply. So simply that it almost seemed like that was all he thought he would need to say.

"I-I do." She replied firmly.

His face hardened seriously. "You trust Itachi, he is not Itachi. You can't keep pretending he is." Hinata heart crumbled and tears stung her eyes. Her world was given a hard kick in the stomach.

"I-I'm not." She whimpered looking into her tea.

"You are, he looks a lot like him, sounds a lot like him, but they aren't the same. You're doing yourself no favors keeping him around." He further pressed darkening his tone. "I understand you felt close to him, but a cheap replacement is not worth it." Her eyes shot up and she shook with rage.

"Y-You're wrong." She said firmly, low and dangerous. "I-I'm not replacing Itachi-san I am just not pushing his brother out." Sasori hard face was still. "I-Itachi-san wanted me to recover, he wanted Sasuke-san to recover and we are, together."

"So you're only following the requests of a dying man? That almost makes it worse." Hinata glared at him, she knew he was upset but there was no reason for him to act like this. She set her cup down firmly.

"I-I'm doing this for my own reasons. I-If I had thought Itachi-san was wrong and I couldn't trust him I would not have asked him to join us. I-Itachi-san never asked that of me, he was considered by Leader-sama only if I judged him to be a fit candidate."

"I think you judged wrong." His perfect eyebrows release their seriousness and stood cup in hand moving around the table to her.

She looked up in question and was engulfed in fabric. Sasori held her head to his chest, she could hear what was left of his heart pumping chakra through him. She relaxed into him. He meant well, she was sure he was over reacting. He let her go running his cold fingers down her arm as he released and set down his cup.


She woke to no companion, that was odd. Since they had been settled in she had been the first to rise. She thought nothing of it until she was dressed and came through the door, no Sasuke in the main house either. In fact, the only person in the kitchen was the one she least expected to be up this early.

Deidara sat with his back to her and she became alert. He was hiding something. She rubbed his Sharingan eye.

"D-Deidara-san?" She asked innocently. He jumped and turned to her nervously rubbing at the back of his head.

"Ah… morning Hina-chan, uh." He was such a horrible liar she didn't even need Itachi's eye. She gave a final bare look around the room before giving it a once over with her bloodline limit.

"D-Deidara were are Sasori-san and Sasuke-san." She eyed him sternly as she started to realize how bad this situation was.

"Uh, supplies, yeah?" He shrunk under her gaze, her Sharingan flashed.

"Wh-where!" She barked at him. Now she was worried.

"They told me to keep you here, uh." He whimpered, cracking. "I wouldn't have, but it was either they left or they fought here, that puts you in danger, yeah."

"T-take me to them." She stalked toward him furiously. She could believe they were being such children. She was so disappointed in both of them.

He hesitated but nodded. "Okay, uh." She grabbed a few things, mainly medical supplies and they hopped on a bird.

She could hear the fighting before she saw it, she urged Deidara to speed his clay creation up. When they came into sight of the two males stopped, jumping away from each other as the bird landed. The surroundings were demolished, Sasuke was panting and only slightly bleeding, though Sasori looked fine she was sure with a flicker of her blood limit she would see his chakra struggling to keep up with his demand for it.

"Some guard you are." Sasuke growled at Deidara who childishly put his arms up in defense and shrugged off the death glare.

"Failure, as usual, brat." Sasori muttered.

Hinata dropped off the bird and went for straight for Sasori. She stopped in front of him, she raised her arm and snatched the front of his robe bringing him down to her height.

"I-I told you, petty fighting is pointless and childish!" She shouted in the few inched between their face.

"I see nothing wrong." He lowered his voice dangerously.

She matched his tone. "W-we are not enemies we should not be fighting!"

"You a blinded to who your potential enemies are." His eyes bellowed into her, she saw a flicker of something. Was he studying her? Was he testing her? For what?

"Y-You are blinded to who your potential allies are!" She raised her voice at him again. She could ask him what he thought he would gain from this later, she had another man to yell at.

She stalked toward Sasuke who twitched like he would go into defense only so slightly her Sharingan almost missed it.

"I don't need your lecture, my answer is I do not back down from fights." He growled as she came to halt in front of him.

"Y-You need to learn that it is more honorable to back down for pointless petty fights." She warned.

"You need to learn I don't take orders and I don't care what is honorable." He spit back.

"I-I'm your partner and I won't order, but I also won't tolerate you becoming bitter and closed off like you were before." Her voice soft only slightly.

"I didn't ask for your treatment of my personality." His eyebrows furrowed at her.

"Y-You didn't need to." She rose her chin a bit and a quiet conversation passes between their eyes. An understanding of what she was saying. They were both broken and despite that she would take on a bit of his emotional baggage, just like he had taken on hers.

He cursed and sighed. "Fine." She wasn't sure what he was agreeing too, but she was glad his shoulder became less tense.

She looked over to Sasori, he looked oddly satisfied. What? She gave him a confused look her only faintly smiled at her. Was it really some test? Had she passed? She was so confused.

***TheUnstableLiz***

I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE comments and reviews.

I can not answer questions of guests. I don't want this section a mile long and bloating the word count too much.

If you have a question please log in and PM me. I will answer any and all questions!

I will point out I am not sure of and will not be following the timeline of the show anything that seems out of place is a result of that.

I will also point out that anyone who is out of character by a lot is the fault of me not knowing the character well enough and I apologize for that.I apologize for spelling and grammar, I am a computer scientist, not a writer.