After Sasori finished eating, Deidara took the dishes back to the kitchen, once again instructing his partner to stay in the room. When he returned, Sasori was admiring the various puppets on the shelves. "These are beautiful. Can I play with them?"

"Oh, uh," Deidara paused. If he allowed child Sasori to play with these puppets, he might break them. The blonde would prefer not to be poisoned when the red head was back to his old, boring, easily-irritated self. "Well, no. They're too valuable, hm." When he noticed the downcast look on the child's face, he changed the subject. "Hey, how about we go outside and blow shit up now?" Sasori immediatly snapped his head up, grinning ear to ear.

"Yeah!" he shouted. Deidara smiled.

"Alright, then. First, we gotta find you some decent fitting clothes, though." He motioned to the now-oversized Akatsuki cloak dangling off Sasori's shoulders. The boy had walked right out of his shoes and pants already. "Take that off and I'll look for a shirt or something, hm." The blond went to Sasori's dresser, looking through all the drawers and hoping against hope that he'd find something child-sized. Fortunately, there was a small, dark green cloak hidden in the back of the bottom-most drawer. Deidara held it up, inspecting it. It would still be rather large on Sasori, but at least he wouldn't be tripping over it like he was with the akatsuki cloak.

"Deidara?" Sasori folded said cloak as best he could before walking and placing it on the dusty bed. The blond held out the green one for the child to take. He found it odd to see Sasori like this. His heart wasn't sticking out of his chest, there were no compartments anywhere, and there was just simply skin where his cable used to be. He was human all right.

"Yeah, hm?"

"Why was I wearing those clothes?" The naked child slipped the new cloak over his head, struggling to find the arm holes. Deidara helped him while he thought of an answer. Unable to think of a suitable one, he just shrugged.

"Beats me." Finally the child was fully dressed, and if he really cared about the answer, it didn't show. "Ready to go out now?"

"Yeah!" Sasori grinned up at him once again. Deidara smiled back before walking to the door and cracking it open. Sticking his head out, he looked both ways down the hall before deciding that it was clear.

"Alright, follow me and stay close. We can't let the others see you, hm."

"Like that blue guy?" Sasori whispered, huddling close to Deidara as he remembered how terrifying that man had looked. "You mean there are more of them?"

"Shh, let's go." Deidara led him down the hall, the child basically hugging his leg the whole way. After taking a quick surveillance of the livingroom, the blond sighed in relief and successfully snuck his partner out the front door and to the outside world. "Well, that was easy, hm." He turned his head to smiled down at Sasori. The child was looking around at the forest surrounding the base. He bent down to rake his fingers through the grass at their feet.

"We sure are far away from the Sand village, huh?" he asked, standing straight again.

"Uh, yeah." Deidara started walking toward the forest, motioning for Sasori to follow him. He didn't want to do anything too close to the base. Sure, the other members were used to him detonating his clay almost around the clock, but the bomber figured he should try not to draw any more attention to himself than needed. It was bad enough that Kisame had already found out about his little experiement with Sasori. He wanted to make sure no one else found out until he had a good explanation as to why he decided to use a (basically) unknown jutsu on his Akatsuki partner. "This is far enough, hm."

Sasori looked around at the clearing they'd stopped at before turning to look up at Deidara, a wide smile on his face.

"Watch this, hm." Deidara reached both hands into his clay pouches, the mouths each taking a good-sized amount of clay into them. He held his hands out in front of him so Sasori could watch them chew. The redhead's mouth dropped open in awe. "That's not all," Deidara said proudly, the twin mouths producing the finished clay animals; a bird and a scorpion sat in his hands.

"Whoa!" Sasori stared at the two pieces, amazement evidence in his eyes. He looked up at the blond. "Can I keep them?"

Deidara frowned. "Keep them? Well, no, now's the fun part: We get to blow them up! Hm." Sasori seemed unsure, pursing his lips. Deidara sighed. Typical Sasori. "Here, hold these and I'll show you something else." After handing the clay pieces to the child, Deidara took a few steps back and summoned his large bird, once again getting an awestruck look from Sasori. Smirking, Dediara picked up the child, setting him down on the back of the bird before climbing on himself.

"This thing can fly?" Sasori asked, holding the smaller bird and scorpion to his chest.

"You bet it can, hm." And to prove it, Deidara took the bird high into the sky, getting that familiar pump of adrenaline he seemed to always crave. He leaned over Sasori's shoulder to see how he was doing; the kid glanced at him breifly before directing his eyes toward the ground, smiling widely. Satisfied that the redhead was enjoying himself, Deidara took them even higher, enjoying the wind blowing through his hair. Once they'd been flying for a while, he stood, instructing Sasori to do the same.

"We're so high up," Sasori commented, still staring toward the ground.

"Yeah, and don't forget it," Deidara warned, pulling Sasori away from the edge of the bird's back. "Now for the fun part. Throw those up in the air. Hm." The redhead held up the clay animals in his hands, hesitating only a moment before tossing them as far as he could. Deidara grinned and, using one arm to grab hold of Sasori, flew them a bit away from where the detonation would take place. "Still have them in sight?"

"Yeah."

"Alright!" The blonde use his free hand to form a seal; immediately afterward, two large explosions appeared in the sky before them, right where the clay pieces used to be. "Woo!" He turned to look at Sasori's reaction, pleased to find that his partner seemed to be enjoying it as much as he was.

"That was so cool!" Sasori shouted, tugging on Deidara's arm. "Can you make more?"

"Hell yeah, I can! Hm!" He shoved his hands into the pouches, producing more, and more, everytime Sasori asked until he ran out of clay. Taking the bird down, Deidara realized how much time had passed – the sun was already setting, and he still hadn't come up with a plan of how he was going to introduce this child-version of Sasori to the organization. 'Well,' he thought to himself, finally landing the bird on the ground. 'Today was a big success, maybe it's time to undo this jutsu.'

"That was so much fun, Deidara, can we do it again tomorrow?! Please?" Sasori slid off the bird, bouncing up and down in excitement. The blond jumped down, putting a hand on the child's shoulder. With a poof, the bird disappeared.

"I'm all out of clay, hm," he explained. Then, noticing the pout on the former puppet's face, "But tell you what, you can help me make some more tomorrow. Does that sound okay?"

"Yes!" Sasori hugged around the bomber's legs. "Then can we do it again?"

"Sure, hm." Deidara started leading them back to the base. Maybe one more day wouldn't hurt. After all, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity; once Sasori was back to normal, he'd already be wise to Deidara's little trick. The blond would probably never be able to cast another jutsu on the puppet again. Might as well make this one worthwhile. He could hide Sasori another day, as long as Kisame hadn't blabbed about it, there would no problem at all.

They reached the base just as the sun set behind the mountains, casting the forest in darkness. Deidara opened the old house's door a crack, peering inside. The living room was lit, but no one occupied the space. Satisfied with this information, the blond grabbed Sasori's arm, pulling him inside and quietly closing the door behind him. He took another look around before almost tiptoeing across the room. There was a loud thud behind him and he whipped around, already coming up with some sort of explanation.

"Ow!" Deidara felt Sasori pull his arm out of his grasp, kneeling down to rub his shin. "I hit the table…" Tears appeared in his eyes, and Deidara panicked.

"Oh no, you can't cry!" he hissed, scooping the boy up and throwing caution to the wind as he ran down the hall, slamming Sasori's door open and practically flying inside. He flung Sasori onto the bed before going back to shut and lock the door. "Hey, hey, it's okay, hm." He turned back to the child, crossing the room to sit next to him on the bed. Sasori sniffled, still dizzy from being picked up so quickly, and then thrown. "Sorry, but we don't want those other guys knowing you're here. Where's it hurt?"

Sasori used a sleeve to wipe tears off his cheek before pulling up the cloak, showing Deidara a nasty-looking bruise.

"Damn, Sasori, how hard'd you hit it?" As if the sight of the bruise made it hurt more, the boy began crying again. "Shh, hey now, it's not that bad, hm." Deidara scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to do. He had to get him to calm down soon, if someone heard him crying, there'd be major trouble.

"C-can you kiss it better?" Sasori cried, leaning back in the bed and presenting his leg to the blond.

Deidara did a double-take after fully comprehending what Sasori had just said. "Uh…" With the threat of Sasori crying even louder if he refused, the blond sighed, hoping that if he did this, the kid would shut up. An idea struck a split second later, and he reached his hand toward the bruise, pressing the hand-mouth against it. Upon seeing this, Sasori immediately burst into laughter; Deidara chuckled, relieved. He pulled his hand away and stood up, satisfied. "Okay, keep it down now. I'm gonna go grab you something to eat, and then you need to go to sleep."

"Sleep? But the sun just barely went down!" Sasori sat up, a familiar frown on his face.

"Ugh, fine, you can stay up a bit later, but you can't make any noise, alright? Hm." Deidara left the room, once again telling Sasori to stay put. He found some leftover fish in the fridge and heat it up on the stove, recalling how fun the day had been. He couldn't remember a time where he'd actually seen Sasori enjoy himself like this. Sure, there were the various missions they'd gone on where Sasori had seemed to show emotions that weren't boredom or irritation, but those few moments where the redhead had seemed even somewhat amused never lasted long. The puppet just never seemed to let himself have fun. At least not how Deidara thought fun should be.

He brought the fish into Sasori's room, happy to find his partner still standing where he'd left him.

"You like fish?" He gave the child a plate.

"Yeah." Sasori sat down on the bed to eat, looking around the room at all the puppets on the shelves. "Whose puppets are these? They're so cool." Deidara nearly choked.

"Oh, uh, they…belong to my partner…Hiruko, hm."

"So, this is his room?" Sasori stood up and set his plate down on the desk, opening one of the drawers to peek inside.

"Yeah, but he's away on a mission right now, so it's going to be yours until he returns," Deidara lied. "I wouldn't touch anything, hm."

"Oh, okay." The redhead got the hint, closing the drawer and picking up his plate again. They ate in silence and Deidara took their plates back to the kitchen once they finished. "Can we do something fun?" Sasori asked upon his return.

Remembering that he still had to fix the hole in his wall before Kakuzu came back to the base, Deidara nodded. "Sure." He grabbed the hammer he'd pretended to come in for earlier, grabbing a box of nails as well. "Follow me and keep quiet. We're going to my room." Thankfully, no one was in the hallway and they were able to enter Deidara's room without any complications.

"What happened in here?" Sasori asked upon seeing the destruction.

"Early detonation," Deidara explained, waving it off. "Happens every now and then while I'm mixing clay. Usually I go and bug Sa-" Deidara caught himself. "…Hiruko, until the dust settles, hm." Sasori didn't notice the slip, focused instead on the wood piled up near the hole. Deidara had him sit down while he began his work.

"Can I help?" Sasori asked after ten minutes of watching Deidara.

The blond nodded, handing the redhead a nail. "Hold this right there against the wood." Deidara lifted the hammer and started hitting the nail into the wood. He was surprised Sasori hadn't flinched his hand away. Wasn't the that first reaction of any child? Seeing this wasn't the case with Sasori, they continued working until the boards were properly in the wall. Deidara stood up and back a few steps to admire the work. "Alright, since I was planning on using my clay instead of plaster, the rest of this wall will have to wait until tomorrow when I've gotten more clay, hm."

"Wouldn't that be a bad idea?" Sasori raised his eyebrow. "What if it blows up again while you're fixing it?"

"…Alright, time to go to bed, now. Hm." Ignoring his partner's protests, Deidara shushed him and led him back down the hall to his room. The bomber pulled the blankets off the bed and shook them out, trying to rid them of dust. After instructing Sasori to climb into bed, the blond let the blankets fall onto the child. "Get some sleep tonight, and I'll come wake you up in the morning when I'm ready to go find some clay." Deidara turned to cross the room but a cry from Sasori stopped him. "What? What is it? Hm."

"It's kinda dark in here, can't we leave the door open a crack?"

"Hell no!" Upon seeing the redhead's bottom lip quivering, Deidara quickly improvised, pulling one of Sasori's puppets off the wall. "But here, this will keep you safe."

"But I thought you said that Hiruko-"

"Forget what I said. He won't mind this one, just don't break it, hm." He smiled and gave into the urge to ruffle Sasori's hair. "Goodnight. Hm."

"Night, Uncle." Sasori curled up next to the puppet, already drifting off to sleep. Deidara smirked, chuckling a little to himself at being called 'Uncle' before leaving the room, making sure to close the door tightly. He walked into the living room, not really feeling tired yet, and sat on one of the old couches. He looked over at the cushion farthest from him, smiling to himself at its charred state. That had been one of his "accidental" detonations. At least that's what he'd told Hidan when the clay bomb had gone off in his face.

As if even thinking about the jashinist was enough to summon him, the front door opened and an irritated Kakuzu and a cursing Hidan burst through it. "We got the mission done, didn't we?" Hidan was saying to the back of Kakuzu's head as the miser stomped through the living room.

"Yes, but you didn't have to make my bounty unidentifiable, you bastard!" Deidara watched as, in a fit of rage, one of Kakuzu's hands darkened. The masked shinobi suddenly turned toward his light-haired counterpart, slamming his hardened fist directly into Hidan's chest. Blood immediately started pouring from the wound as Kakuzu ripped his hand out of the zealot's chest, holding a still-beating heart.

A scream alerted everyone toward the hallway. Deidara was almost afraid to look, but he forced himself to; sure enough, Sasori stood in the hallway opening, looking at the scene in horror. Itachi was standing behind him, looking like he'd just woken up, and staring down at Sasori with a slightly confused look on his face.

"Whose fucking kid is that?" Hidan shouted before turning to glare at Kakuzu. "And give me back my heart, you greedy bastard."

"I thought I told you to stay in bed, Sasori!" Deidara yelled at the terrified child. Everyone snapped their heads toward Deidara before looking back at the small child.

"What did you just say?" Kakuzu growled at the blond, slamming his hand back into Hidan's chest to return his heart. The jashinist grunted but that didn't distract him from Sasori. Itachi ran a hand through his hair before kneeling down next to the red head.

"Is it really you, Sasori? What happened?"

Deidara stood up from the couch, crossing the room in a split second and pulled the child away from Itachi. "I'll explain it in a bit, guys, just let me put him back to bed, hm." He dragged the crying child down the hall before anyone could stop him. "Damnit, Sasori, this is why I told you not to leave the room."

"I'm s-sorry!" the child cried, still shocked from what he'd seen. Then, "W-why didn't that guy die?"

"Oh, Hidan? He's immortal, nothing can kill him, hm." Deidara sighed, reaching for Sasori's bedroom door. "But that's not important right now, you-"

"I was scared, please don't make me sleep in there again!" The red head clung onto Deidara's leg tightly. "Can I sleep in your room with you? Please?"

"For the love of- Alright, fine!" The bomber led them down to his room, opening the door and prying Sasori off of him. "You get into bed and I'll come back in a bit. I have to go explain to them that you're, uh, staying with us for a while, alright? Hm."

"Okay…"

"Good." He slammed the door and did a 180, heading back toward the living room. He decided that after he told everyone what had happened, he'd undo the jutsu.

Tonight.