A/N: Sheesh. Yeah, I took forever for this, I'm sorry. School's been a pain in the ass, and sadly, that must come 1st. But here's my update. I hope you'll like it. Enjoy!

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"You're new here, aren't you, un?"

The small, redheaded boy gazed up from where he was eating and found himself gazing into a pair of brilliant sapphire eyes. The eyes belonged to a blond-haired boy who looked so much like a girl the only way the redhead knew he was a boy was his uniform. Honestly, what mother put their 10-year-old son in a chin-length bob? Dispite the blond's strange appearance and weird way of talking, he seemed nice enough. The redhead nodded.

"You can come sit with us, un. If you don't want to eat alone, un", The blond motioned to a table where two other young boys about their age were seated. They both had black hair. The redhead got up and started putting things back into his lunchbox.

"So, you got a name, un? Mine's Deidara, un", the blond, now identified as Deidara, continued on cheerfully.

The redhead lifted his lunchbox. "Sasori", he replied, smiling. He wasn't the only one with a girlie-sounding name.

"Nice to meet you, Sasori, un! Come on, un!". Deidara smiled and broke into a run, determined to close the ten foot gap keeping them from the table as quickly as possible. Sasori watched as Deidara slipped and landed with a thud on the ground.

"DEIDARA!", Sasori yelped and his beautiful reddish eyes snapped open. He jerked upright and met immediate resistance-his hands were tied tightly behind his back and his ankles were bound together.

"It's about time one of you woke up".

The voice! The same cold, feminine voice Sasori had heard outside. He strained his eyes to see who his captor was, but all he could make out was Kabuto's silver hair glinting in the moonlight streaming through the window. He quickly guessed that he was still unconscious and his head was hanging down by the fact that he couldn't see his glasses.

"Who are you?", Sasori asked into the darkness.

A light snapped on. He quickly shut his eyes and opened them again, letting them adjust. Two girls were visible now-a girl with blond hair and green eyes, and a shorter girl with black hair and gray eyes.

Sasori had never seen them before in his life.

"Oi. Get up, Buto-Kun. Time to get up now!", the blond said, going over to Kabuto and nudging him with her foot.

Kabuto groaned. "Tenshi, is that you?", he asked, lifting his head.

"You two know each other?", Sasori asked.

"We've met", Kabuto replied, a definate note of bitterness in his voice.

The blond identified as Tenshi laughed. "You're very cunning, Buto-Kun. Very cunning indeed."

"Not cunning enough if I couldn't figure out who you were working with."

Sasori suddenly felt confused and angry. Kabuto wasn't some innocent bystander who had gotten himself kidnapped or a poor sap who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He knew atleast one person behind the attempted murders. He knew and he hadn't said anything to them!

Tenshi smiled at the look on Sasori's face then turned her attention back to Kabuto. "Looks like the game ends tonight. You didn't tell them, but you meddled too far. Don't worry. We'll uphold our promise not to harm Kimimaro or Tayuya. We're not interested in them anyway."

"Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?", Sasori demanded.

The gray-eyed girl turned her attention towards him. "Your friend Itachi caused my sister great pain. So we're making him suffer by watching those he loves suffer."

"Sister? Itachi's been going out with Kisame since April. Don't tell me it took you that long to work up a plan like this. You've failed every murder except the first one."

The girl smiled. "Sasori, right? I heard you were condescending. I also think for someone so smart you are incredibly stupid. We did not fail. We only wanted Anna dead, no one else. We wanted Itachi to think we wanted to kill everyone to scare him."

Sasori bit his lip. Now that he was being given information, he really wasn't sure if he wanted it. And where was Deidara? There was no sign of the cheerful blond in the room...

Tenshi seemed to read his mind. "Your boyfriend's fine, Sasori. For the time being, anyway."

Sasori's blood ran cold. How did she know about him and Deidara? They'd kept their relationship under wraps ever since the murders started. Stay calm, he scolded himself. Maybe she didn't mean boyfriend the way she thought he did. "What?", he asked.

"We were on our way to Anna's and guess who we saw kissing on a porch?"

"Where is Deidara?", he asked, trying to look like he didn't care too much. If he showed too much concern that'd toy with him more.

The girls exchanged looks with each other. Finally Tenshi spoke.

"I'll take Sasori down to see Deidara. You can take care of Kabuto-I'd rather not be the one who takes care of him."

"Well, that's lovely. You don't want to kill me, but you had no problem using my medicines to poison Orochimaru."

Sasori threw a curious glance in Kabuto's direction. Kabuto was stalling. For what?

"Which one did you use, Tenshi? You must have read through my ingrediants, figured out which you could use, and how much, to make Orochimaru sick and not kill him."

"Now, why would I tell you what I used? The point is I made him sick." Tenshi shrugged her shoulders. "Ready to go, Sasori?"

Sasori shot another look at Kabuto. The boy was planning something and he didn't want to ruin his plans. Kabuto nodded for him to go.

"Yeah. I'm ready", Sasori said.

Tenshi cut the ropes off Sasori's feet and pulled him up. "Don't you start screaming, either", she warned.

"It would only waste energy. No one's going to hear me out here.", Sasori replied acidly as she guided him out the door.

The door swung shut behind them.

The gray-eyed girl turned towards Kabuto. Something black and shiny glinted in her hand-a gun.

Kabuto bit his lip and turned his head away. He was not going to give the girl the satisfaction of hearing him beg for his life. The effort would have probably been wasted anyway.

"Pity we have to kill you, too", she said, pointing the gun at him.

Kabuto screwed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the pain.He heard a yowl of pain and the gun going off. A flash of white-hot pain shot through his shoulder. He clenched his teeth together to avoid crying out. Things went fuzzy then and he guessed he must have passed out because next thing he knew he was lying unbound on his back on the floor, Tayuya poking his face.

"Damn, that hurts", Kabuto groaned, sitting up and gingerly putting his fingers to the bleeding wound on his shoulder.

"You got shot-you expect it to tickle or something?", Tayuya asked, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know how Kimimaro puts up with you sometimes, you know that. You are such an ass."

"What about me?", Kimimaro asked from the doorway. He was holding a first aid kit.

"Nothing. What's that for?", Kabuto questioned, motioning to the first aid kit.

"Well, we have to do something about that arm of yours..." Kimimaro shook his head at the sight of it.

"No. No time. Let's go back to my car". Kabuto's eyes flickered over to where the strange girl lay unconscious on the ground. She could wake up at any moment.

"Are you fucking insane? You can't drive your damn car with your arm looking like it went through the fucking meat grinder!", Tayuya exclaimed.

"Such nice language...but yes. I can't drive. That is why Kimimaro is going to drive."

"What? Kabuto-Sensei! I don't know how to drive!" Kimimaro looked horrified.

"Well, you have to learn sometime."

Tayuya muttered something that sounded like "fucking insane".

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Sasori tried to keep from flinching as the thick rope binding his wrists together cut him for the umpteenth time. He didn't want Tenshi to know he was trying to free himself. He glanced back at Deidara who had been laid across the backseat of Tenshi's car. Sasori could see a faint trail of blood running down his face from hitting his head on the pavement. He seriously wished he could reach back and remove the heavy gray tape that covered the blond's mouth. It made him nervous. He also hoped Deidara stayed asleep. If Tenshi was going to kill them, he'd rather the blond sleep through it.

Sasori couldn't prevent this hiss of pain from escaping his lips as the ropes drew blood from him.

"You can stop doing that, you know. You're going to tire yourself out, and you're going to need your strength for the task at hand", Tenshi told him.

The redhead stopped his struggle and looked at her. "Where are you taking us?"

"The Shingeki bridge", Tenshi replied lightly, as though Sasori had asked her what her favorite flavor of ice cream was.

Sasori had the strangest sensation of his stomach dropping to his knees. The Shingeki bridge? What was she taking them there for? The bridge was a popular spot for fishermen because it wasn't very high up, but the waters below were deep. Maybe she wanted to drown them to make their deaths look accidental...

The car stopped. Tenshi got out and walked around to Sasori's door where she opened it and pulled the seatbelt off him. Tenshi was a tall girl, about Itachi's height, and Sasori was surprised when she helped him climb from the car rather than forcefully lift him from it. She then opened the other door and pulled Deidara out and dragged him with her several feet from Sasori. For some reason, she stuck a knife in the ground and then dragged the blond back. She set him carefully on the ground and used a pocket knife to cut the ropes off Sasori's wrists.

"Go get the knife", she told him.

Sasori hesitated. If he got the knife and she used it to kill someone, his fingerprints would be all over the murder weapon.

Tenshi smiled at him like a cat that had gotten into the cream and held her pocket knife against Deidara's face. "He's really pretty. I imagine it would be bad if he got scars all over his face." To prove she was serious, she made a small cut right above Deidara's eyebrow.

Deidara moaned and tried to pull away from the source of his pain.

"Alright! I'll get the knife. Just don't hurt him anymore!", Sasori snarled angrilly.

"Oh my. Agitated again. You certainly anger quickly when it involves someone you care about."

Sasori didn't answer her. He turned away and walked towards the knife. Vaugely he wondered what time it was. It had to be past midnight by now. Itachi and Kisame were probably back at the Uchiha residence wondering where they had got off to. He sighed. How had they gotten into this mess?

Sasori's hand had just closed around the knife when he heard a muffled shriek. He spun around just in time to see Tenshi trying to shove Deidara off the bridge. Deidara was putting up a fight for someone who was tied up and injured, but it wasn't enough. Tenshi forced him over the edge.

"DEIDARA!", Sasori screamed. He wasted no time rushing to the edge of the bridge and throwing himself after Deidara.

His air was knocked from his lungs as he hit the water. It was freezing! No. He didn't have time to think about that now.

"DEIDARA!". He called again, praying the shock of the water hadn't made the blond pass out. Generally the blond's tolerance of the cold was much better than Sasori's, but the blond was injured.

He called the blond's name again, straining his ears for the sound of something. Anything. He heard nothing.

"Come on, Dei. You can't give up now..." Sasori whispered, tears stinging his eyes. Then he saw it-a flash of golden hair just visible on the water's surface. He swam over as quickly as he could and grabbed the blond by the back of his neck. Sasori hoisted Deidara's face above the water and peeled what was left of the tape away from his mouth.

"Can you hear me?", he asked, terrified at how pale the blond's face was.

Deidara's eyes flickered open and he nodded weakly.

"Good. Now listen. I need your help. I want to get us out of the water, but if you move too much, it will weigh me down. I need to to lie back and remain calm. Can you do that?"

Another nod. Sasori felt relieved when the blond lay back on the water, trying to keep himself above the water.

The process was long and exhausting, but Sasori finally managed to drag Deidara to the shore and pulled him from the water. He wasn't sure where he got his strength from-he just knew he had to keep going or they would drown. He carefully laid his boyfriend down on the grass, cut away the ropes, and peeked over at his face. He was stalk pale, but he was breathing.

"Deidara?", he whispered gently.

"Danna, un?" Bright blue eyes peeked open. Sasori was amazed when he was knocked over by the blond who was now sobbing against his chest.

"Shhh...It's OK, Deidara. We're going to be alright. Come on. Can you stand up?"

"Yeah, I think I can get up, un."

With Sasori's help, the blond got clumsily to his feet. He swayed twice before he was able to hold himself upright unsupported.

Sasori wrapped his arm around Deidara's waist and allowed the taller boy to lean on him as they walked back towards the school. When he caught Deidara looking at him, he smiled reassuringly and tried to look like everything would be OK now.

He couldn't shake the suspiscion that the danger was just beginning.

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"You think it's time yet?", Itachi asked. He leaned back against Kisame's chest.

Kisame shifted the smaller boy's weight in his lap and pulled his watch out of his pocket. It was an old, ugly-looking thing his grandfather had given him and he wouldn't be caught dead with it on his wrist.

"Holy shit...", he muttered.

Itachi climbed out of Kisame's lap and peeked curiously at the watch. "That's the right time?"

"Yeah..." Kisame bit his lip and looked nervously at Itachi.

Itachi sighed. "Come on", he said, pulling Kisame to his feet. "Back in my car. We have to go look for them."

"If something bad happened to them..."

"It's OK, Kisame. They're too smart to have gotten themselves hurt."

The boys climbed into Itachi's car and they were off again.

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Ok, this chapter sucks, but I delayed long enough... Next chapter will be better, I promise!