Since the cat was out of the bag, Deidara had no choice but to undo the jutsu, even if he'd wanted to keep Sasori as a child for just a little bit longer. After explaining things to Itachi and the zombie combo, of course the Uchiha had told Deidara that he needed to turn Sasori back. Now.
Kakuzu hadn't really seemed to care, as long as Sasori wasn't adding any cost to the household. Hidan, on the other hand, was getting a real kick out of the news. "Aw, we can't keep him like this a bit longer? I just wanna pick on him a little. He's never any fun and now we have a chance to mess with him without him threatening to add us to his fucking creepy ass puppet collection."
"It's too dangerous to keep him in this state," Itachi explained, giving a meaningful look at Deidara, who glared at the noir before turning away with a 'hm!'. "If someone were to find out that one of the Akatsuki members were vulnerable like this- Will you knock it off, Hidan?"
"Vulnerable!" Hidan laughed, slapping Kakuzu's back. "That's a riot!" A swift punch to his still-healing chest, delivered by Kakuzu of course, was enough to shut the silver-haired man up. At least for a little bit. His chuckles continued as Itachi spoke again.
"Where's the scroll you were talking about, Deidara?"
The blond grunted, pulling it out of his sleep and opening it. He held it away from the Uchiha when he reached for it. "Hey, I'll undo the jutsu. I just have to read the part that explains how, hm."
"Fine." Itachi nodded, hand retreating back to his side. "Does anyone else know about this?"
"Just Kisame." Deidara turned to walk back to his room, skimming over the scroll to find the reversal part. As he opened his door, Sasori sprung on him, trapping him in a bear hug. The scroll slipped out of Deidara's hands and fell to the ground. The blond sighed, trying to pry the child off of him. "Alright, let's get you to bed, hm."
"I'm still sleeping with you, right?" Sasori clung onto his legs, refusing to let go until his question was answered.
"Yeah, yeah, just get into bed. I have something to do, so I'm gonna stay up a bit longer." Sasori released him and Deidara led him to the bed, pulling the blankets over him and tucking him in. He then retrieved the scroll from the ground before sitting next to the bed and opening it.
"Deidara?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm thirsty." Deidara looked up at the ceiling in annoyance before replacing the scroll into his sleeve and standing.
"Stay here – I mean it – and I'll go get you a glass of water." He gave Sasori a warning look and the red head nodded, snuggling deeper into the covers.
"Can you leave the door open a crack?"
"Sure, why not." It's not as though anyone else ever came down this hallway. Pein and Konan didn't stay at the base – only visited – and Deidara hadn't seen Zetsu around lately. Konan had left earlier, it seemed. All the occupants of the hideout already knew about Sasori, so it probably didn't matter at this point.
Kisame and Itachi were in the kitchen when Deidara walked in. The two partners were sitting at the table, drinking tea and going over mission details from the looks of it. The Uchiha looked up, giving Deidara a meaningful look.
"He's thirsty. I haven't had time to undo the jutsu yet." Deidara ignored the smirk Kisame was giving him, instead turning toward the cupboards and taking down a cup. He filled it with tap water and got the hell out of the kitchen before the two other occupants could burn a hole in the back of his head. "Here, hm." He handed the cup to Sasori once back in his room. His partner sat up and took a tiny sip before handing it back to Deidara. "That's it? You're not going to drink the rest?"
The red head shook his head. "No thanks." When he didn't lay back down, the blond asked him what was wrong. "I have to go to the bathroom."
Deidara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright, come on." He led Sasori to the bathroom, waiting outside the door until the boy was done, and then took him back to the room. "Okay, now no more excuses. You have to go to sleep now. Hm."
Sasori climbed into bed, sniffling. "I miss my granny. And my parents." The bomber's expression softened.
"Hey now, it's okay. You can write them some letters tomorrow, and your granny will be back to pick you up in no time, hm. Just try to get some sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow." This seemed to calm Sasori down, and by the time Deidara sat down and reopened the scroll, the kid was passed out. 'Finally,' the bomber thought to himself. He stayed up late, first skimming through the scroll, then reading it in detail. A sense of horror slowly grew in his stomach as he read on and on. Orochimaru, the bastard, hadn't written how to undo the jutsu. "Fuck."
He ran a hand through his blond locks, glancing over at his sleeping partner. Sasori looked so peaceful. Deidara had never seen him sleep before, though he knew the redhead did. He didn't sleep often, and only enough to keep his chakra balanced, Sasori had told him after Deidara had bugged him nonstop about it.
Deidara yawned, stretching his arms above him. As much as he hated to, he was going to have to ask Itachi for help. If there was something in this scroll that the blond wasn't seeing, the Uchiha would find it. Now that the secret was out, it was best to return Sasori to his normal self as soon as possible. He didn't want to risk Zetsu or, heaven forbid, Pein finding out about this. It wouldn't turn out too well. Deciding that it'd be smart not to wake up Itachi just to have him read a scroll, Deidara climbed into bed next to Sasori, cautiously pushing the boy toward the wall so they weren't pressed together. Might as well get some sleep; he had a lot to do tomorrow, after all.
Xxx
"Deidara…" The blond grunted, turning over in his bed and pulling a pillow over his head. "Deidara, wake up."
"Leave me alone…hm." He received a hard shove in reply, jolting him awake. He scrambled to sit up and turned to look at Sasori. The former puppet was glaring at him.
"Wake up, you promised you'd take me with you to get more clay."
"Ugh…okay, but I have to take care of something first." Sasori sighed, climbing over Deidara and jumping out of bed. "And where are you going?" he asked as the red head reached for the door handle.
Sasori turned to him. "I'm going to the bathroom." Where did all this attitude come from? Shrugging it off, Deidara nodded, giving him permission. It's not like he needed to stay hidden anymore. He got out of bed and changed his clothes, deciding to leave his Akatsuki cloak off for now. Grabbing the scroll, he headed for the kitchen. It'd be best to wait until Itachi came down for breakfast before asking him to take a look at the scroll.
Kakuzu was at the kitchen table, counting his money as usual and muttering to himself. If Deidara paid any attention, he's sure he would hear threats toward Hidan in there somewhere. Instead, he decided to rummage through the cupboards for food, since Sasori was likely going to complain about hunger as soon as he was out of the bathroom.
"Where's the rugrat?" Kakuzu asked a few minutes later when Deidara sat down across from him, two bowls of porridge in front of him. As Deidara opened his mouth to answer, a scream came from down the hallway, followed by thunderous footsteps, heading to the kitchen. A moment later, Sasori burst in, white as a ghost. Upon seeing Deidara, he threw himself onto the blond, knocking the table and spilling some of the porridge. Hidan ran in next, a gleeful look on his face, scythe in hand.
"Damnit, Hidan," Kakuzu growled, glaring daggers at his partner. "It's too early for your bullshit."
"Relax, old man, I was just having a little fun."
"Well, knock it off, hm." Deidara pulled Sasori off his leg, setting him down in the chair next to him. He pushed one of the bowls in front of him. "Here."
Hidan sat down at the end of the table, smirk still present on his face. "So, why did you turn the puppet fucker into a child?" Deidara gave the Jashinist a warning look, nodding his head toward Sasori. The redhead was too interest in stirring his food around to have paid any attention to Hidan's words. The zealot seemed to get the message, a bored look crossing his face "Well, that's no fun. He has no idea that he's an Akat-"
"Don't you have to sacrifice to your stupid god or something?" Kakuzu interrupted, slamming his fist down on the table. Deidara made a mental note to thank the miser later. He continued to eat as Hidan started throwing a fit about Jashin, swinging his scythe around as he spoke. Sasori watched him with a curious look as he ate his porridge.
"Who's Jashin?" the child asked, effectively halting Hidan's rant. The zealot brightened and opened his mouth to explain before being interrupted by Itachi, who finally walked into the kitchen, followed by Kisame.
"You haven't undone the jutsu." It was more of a statement than a question, and it made Deidara's blood boil. He held the scroll up, irritation crossing his face as he refused to look at the Uchiha.
"I couldn't find how to reverse it. I stayed up almost all damn night reading it." He felt Itachi take the scroll from him, heard it being opened as the Sharingan-weilder read skimmed it briefly.
"Unfortunately, Kisame and I have a mission we must prepare for." It was then that Deidara realized the two were clad in their Akatsuki robes and hats. "However, we should be back late tonight or early tomorrow, if things go as planned. I'll look at the scroll then. Why not have Kakuzu look at it in the meantime?"
The miser narrowed his eyes, reluctant to do any sort of work after just coming back from a mission last night. However, he held out his hand, accepting the scroll from Itachi. "I'll see what I can do."
Kisame, who had been occupying himself with smirking at Sasori, effectively scaring the boy, asked, "So what are you going to do with him in the meantime?"
Deidara stood up from the table, collecting their dishes and heading to the sink. "He's coming with me to find more detonating clay, hm."
"We're gonna fix the hole in the wall!" Sasori exclaimed proudly. Kakuzu looked up from the scroll to glare at him.
"What hole?" Sasori shrunk in his seat, causing Hidan to burst into laughter.
"This kid's a riot!" The zealot grinned. "Hey, after you're done doing all that boring stuff with Blondie over there, why don't you come with me and I'll teach you all about the way of Jashin?"
"We're not going to have any time," Deidara said, quickly coming back to the table and grabbing Sasori's arm before he could accept Hidan's offer. And before Kakuzu could question him further about the hole. "We'll be back later tonight, hm." He'd be damned if they had two Jashinists in the Akatsuki.
Once outside the base, Deidara summoned his clay bird. He helped Sasori onto it, chuckling at the giddy look in his partner's eyes.
"Hiruko usually doesn't like flying," Deidara commented, smirking. "It's a nice change to have someone who actually looks forward to it as much as I do. Hm!" He hopped onto the large bird's back, standing behind Sasori so he could keep an eye on him, and they took flight. There was a mountain not too far from the base that had been supplying Deidara with his clay, so that's where they were going.
"After we're done fixing the wall, can we come back out and blow stuff up again?" Sasori glanced up at him with a pleading expression. Deidara grinned.
"First of all, it's called art. Art is an explosion, got it?"
Sasori made a face. "I never thought of it as art before…"
The blond rolled his eyes. Typical Sasori. "Well, it is. True art is fleeting, lasting only a mere second before exploding, hm!"
"Well, if you say so," Sasori agreed. "It is pretty like art." Deidara ruffled his hair, smiling wide. That was a good start. He really wished he had some way to record Sasori agreeing with his definition of art. It'd be such a laugh to show the puppet was he was back to normal. Of course, maybe it was for the best. If Sasori ever found out about this, Deidara would be poisoned and turned into a puppet within minutes.
After about a half hour of flying, they landed down onto one of the mountain's ledges near a cave opening. The now-older Akatsuki member jumped off the bird, grabbing Sasori's hand to help him down. "It doesn't look it, but there's a ton of clay in that cave if you dig deep enough. I usually use explosives, but there's no need for any right now – I took care of that the last time I was here, hm." He led the child into the cave, reaching into one of his clay pouches and pulling out the flashlight he'd put in there when he got dressed that morning.
He made quick work of collecting the clay into his pouches, watching Sasori out of the corner of his eye as the redhead explored around him. He wondered if Kakuzu was having any luck with the scroll. Probably not; reading hidden messages wasn't the miser's strong suit. If anyone was going to find any hidden messages – especially from Orochimaru – it would be Itachi. Sasori would also be a great choice for that kind of work, having been the snake-nin's partner briefly, but alas, he was of no use as a shinobi in his current condition. Not that Deidara minded. It was a little refreshing having a kid around. It gave Deidara an excuse to have a little fun.
After collecting as much clay as he could, Deidara led Sasori back to the bird, and two had a perfect repeat of yesterday, staying out late into the evening creating Deidara's art. The blond made sure not to use as much clay as before, and even put some aside to plaster the wall with. The sun had been down for an hour when they finally landed outside the hideout.
Kakuzu and Hidan were sitting in the living room, the miser pouring over the scroll in concentration and Hidan cleaning his weapon. The immortal duo glanced up at Deidara and Sasori's arrival. "Find anything yet?" the blonde asked, motioning to the scroll.
Kakuzu sighed, closing it and laying it next to him on the couch. "Nothing. Hopefully Itachi will be able to find something" He stood up. "If that bastard Orochimaru was even smart enough to include a way to reverse the jutsu." He left the room, probably to go make sure his money hadn't walked off and spent itself. Deidara crossed the room and picked up the scroll, sighing. Though he did enjoy having fun with Sasori like this, it was only a matter of time before Pein assigned them a mission. The truth would have to come out then, and the bomber didn't want to think of how the leader would react once he found out that a member of his organization had been basically rendered useless.
Hidan seemed to be thinking the same thing. He smirked and teased Deidara, "Man, Leader's gonna kick your ass when he finds out what you did to the puppet fucker."
"He isn't going to find out," the blond spat, pausing when he noticed Sasori staring at them suspiciously. "Anyway, come on, kid, we still have work to do in my room."
"Isn't he a little young for you?" Hidan smirked, dodging the clay bomb that was thrown at him a second later.
"Quit detonating your bombs in the fucking house!" Kakuzu shouted from an unknown location. Deidara grumbled, grabbing Sasori's arm and dragging him to his room.
"Why's everyone making such a big deal about that scroll?" Sasori asked once they were inside the bomber's bedroom, the broken wall still an eye sore. "Is it important? And who's the puppet? Are they talking about Hiruko? Is Hiruko a puppet?"
"Just don't worry about it right now," Deidara grumbled, pulling some clay out of his pouches. "Make yourself useful and help me plaster this wall."
"I'm hungry," the red head complained, obviously trying to get out of doing any work.
"Then go make yourself something to eat, or ask Hidan. I'm busy at the moment."
"Okay!" Sasori stood and ran out of the room, leaving Deidara to fix the wall by himself.
"Little brat," Deidara mused, smirking a little. He finished his work in no time at all without Sasori there to slow him down, and he decided to relax a little on his bed until the former puppet returned. His eyes had just closed when he heard a very stern female voice at his door.
"Deidara, can you explain this?" Konan stood in his doorway, motioning to the guilty looking child next to her.
"Actually, he can't." Hidan popped his head into the doorway, grinning like a madman. Konan narrowed her eyes at him and he backed away.
"This child says he's Sasori. Is this true?"
Deidara sighed, sitting up and nodding. "Yeah, it's true. Have him sit out there with that bastard Hidan and I'll explain." Well, now everyone was going to know about this. Konan would no doubt tell Pein, and Deidara would be lucky to still call himself an Akatsuki member if he survived what the leader would do to him.
Fantastic.
