"…and now we're waiting for Itachi to come back from the mission he and Kisame were sent out on, hm."

Konan held the scroll in front of her, studying it as if it were an ancient artifact. "You found this in the basement, you said?"

"Yeah, it fell out of a chest I knocked over."

"What else was inside the chest?"

"A bunch of other scrolls…" Deidara's eyes widened. "Oh!" He sprung up from his seat on the bed, running past Konan and heading for the stairs to the basement. The Akatsuki's only female member followed after him, rolling her eyes at his stupidity.

Deidara clicked on the dim light after descending the steps, immediately spotting the chest where he'd knocked it over. He quickly walked to it, righting it and looking inside at the various scrolls. Konan glanced over his shoulder at them. "We should start reading through them, but be careful. Orochimaru could've set a trap into one of them." She took out two of the scrolls, cautiously opening them and skimming their contents. Finding nothing interesting, she set them aside and grabbed two more. Deidara followed her lead, opening a scroll and reading the first few sentences.

"Hidan's converting Sasori to Jashinism." Konan and Deidara turned toward the voice. Kisame and Itachi stood at the top of the stairs, the shark-nin smirking in amusement.

"Any luck?" Itachi asked, stepping down the stairs and nodding to Konan.

"This chest contains some of Orochimaru's other scrolls. We're going to skim through them and see if any of them hold the answer for returning Sasori back to normal." She handed him the Rejuvenation scroll. "If you'll please look this over, it'd be a great help."

"Of course." Itachi unzipped his Akatsuki cloak and took a seat on one of the many boxes scattered in the basement, deciding to get right to business. Kisame yawned, stretching.

"I think I'm going to head to bed. Oh yeah." He reached into his own cloak and pulled out their mission report. "Since you're already here, Konan, would you mind giving this to Leader?"

"Thank you, Kisame, Itachi." She pocketed it and returned to her task, dismissing the swordsman. "How long has Sasori been this way, Deidara?"

"Oh, uh, two days now, hm," he said sheepishly, keeping his eyes on the scroll in front of him.

"You said you performed this jutsu on Sasori so he could relive his childhood, correct?" Konan questioned. Deidara nodded.

"Yeah, I was only trying to get him to loosen up a bit, hm." He sighed. "I guess I should've made sure there was a way to reverse it before I tried it."

"That's what any normal person would do," Itachi commented, not taking his eyes off his work. "But then again, a normal person wouldn't have performed an unknown jutsu on their comrade in the first place."

"What are you trying to say, Uchiha?" Deidara growled, clenching a fist around the scroll he was holding.

"Deidara, enough," Konan scolded. "Focus on the task at hand. It'd be in your best interest to find out how to undo this jutsu before I report to Pein."

"Wait, you're seriously gonna tell the leader about this?"

"Of course. A member of the Akatsuki is out of commission, I have to tell him why Sasori won't be able to take on any missions." She set down another useless scroll. "Pein will be annoyed, naturally, but if we figure out how to reverse it, it won't be too much of an issue."

Deidara sighed, squinting in the dim orange light. "Yeah, I guess, hm." He stood, lifting the chest. "I'm gonna take these upstairs where there's decent lighting."

Konan nodded. "That's a good idea." She turned to Itachi. "You should go up, too. You shouldn't strain your eyes, especially after having just come back from a mission."

The Uchiha stood, following Deidara up the stairs after nodding and silently thanking Pein's right hand woman. Once upstairs, the three narrowly avoided getting sliced with Hidan's three-bladed scythe, which wasn't anything surprising. What was surprising was that its wielder was Sasori.

"Put that down!" Deidara shouted as the kid nearly decapitated himself with the heavy weapon. Itachi grabbed Sasori by the neck of his cloak, pulling him away just in time. The scythe hit the ground with a loud clatter, scuffing the floorboards. "Damn it, Hidan, hm!"

The zealot laughed from his spot on the couch, finding great amusement in the situation. "Aw, c'mon, you three ruined the show…You should've seen the look on your faces, though!"

Konan glared. "You can't be messing around like that with him."

Hidan groaned loudly. "This is the only time I can fuck with him a bit, you can't tell me we're not allowed to have fun while he's like this."

"Like what?" Sasori asked, struggling to free himself of Itachi's grasp.

"Nevermind it," Itachi said, releasing him. He knelt down so he was eye level with the red head. "Don't pay any attention to anything Hidan says, he's not someone you should look up to."

"Hey!"

"It's getting late, hm." Deidara shifted the chest in his arms. "It's time for bed, Sasori."

"But I'm not tired, and I'm still hungry." The child crossed his arms. Konan smirked, chuckling.

"You go on, Deidara, and see if any of those scrolls are useful. I can entertain him for a bit."

"Alright, then. Hm." The blond left for his room, struggling with the chest. Straightening up, Itachi stretched before taking a seat on the couch to return to his work. Hidan grew bored with the situation and moved to pick up his scythe from the floor before retiring for the night.

"What do you want to eat, Sasori?" Konan asked as she lead him to the kitchen. She sat him on a chair and smiled. "My name's Konan, by the way."

"Anything's fine," he answered. Truthfully, he wasn't all that hungry. He just didn't want to go to sleep just yet. Playing with Hidan's weapon had been fun, but he knew there had to be something more exciting to do in this house. He remembered the puppets in Hiruko's room. Deidara had told him not to touch them, and he wouldn't dare to, but then again, the blond had also let him sleep with that one puppet. Maybe that one would be okay to play with. "I'll be right back," he said to Konan, who had turned toward the cupboards to find something to cook.

"Alright," she answered. "Don't be too long, though."

Sasori ran down the hall to Hiruko's room, creaking the door open and turning on the light. The puppet was still there on the bed where he'd left it. Stepping inside, he took a moment to admire the rest of the creations lining the room. They were all so detailed and all so different. He walked to the bed and picked up the one Deidara had allowed him to touch, inspecting it before turning and bringing it back to the kitchen with him. "Look, Konan."

She did, biting her lip. "Are you sure you should be playing with that? It could be dangerous…"

"Deidara said Hiruko wouldn't mind if I played with this one," Sasori countered back, holding the puppet close to him.

"Well, okay…but just be careful with it. Hiruko sometimes puts traps in his puppets." Konan turned back to the stove, stirring the pot of soup. She had to give Deidara some credit with the Hiruko thing, but to let Sasori play with a puppet used for killing shinobi? She decided that she'd let the child play with the puppet tonight, but tomorrow she'd lock all the puppets up in Sasori's room. There was too much risk in the red head accidentally being poisoned. Then Pein would really be upset.

She put some soup into a bowl and set it down in front of him. "Thanks," he said, placing the puppet in the seat next to him and taking the spoon she held out to him. She watched him eat for a bit, worrying about what would happen if they couldn't undo the jutsu. The Akatsuki had no use for a child, and it's not like they could wait for Sasori to grow up. More than likely, Sasori wouldn't grow up to be a puppet master either. He'd be utterly useless. While Pein wasn't a monster, the orders would be to send Sasori off to fend for himself, or to kill him. While none of the Akatsuki were particularly close, losing a comrade was never a good experience.

She sighed and Sasori looked up from his bowl. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking, is all." She smiled to reassure him. "Finish eating and we'll play a game."

"Okay!"

He was finished less than a minute later, and she decided that they would play hide and seek. That would wear him out. "Alright, I'll be 'it' first. You go hide while I count."

Sasori took off running immediately, giggling. Konan couldn't help but smile as she counted, listening to Sasori's clumsy footsteps thunder throughout the base.

"Ready or not, here I come," she called out after she finished counting, turning and heading down one of the hallways. She'd heard him run this way, and this side of the house held Hidan and Kakuzu's rooms, a bathroom, and a room that Pein used for his rare meetings. She decided to try the bathroom first. "Are you in here?" she asked as she stepped inside, smirking toward the shower curtain.

She quickly pulled it aside and saw that the tub was empty. Seeing nowhere else he could hide, she turned and walked across the hall to the meeting room. She was about to walk in when she heard a shout coming from Kakuzu's room. "Dammit, you brat!"

The door to his room burst open and the stitched-nin stepped out, holding a dangling Sasori by the back of his cloak. "Put me down!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing in my room this late at night?! Trying to steal my money?"

"Kakuzu." Both the miser and child snapped their heads towards Konan, realizing she was standing there. "Put him down, please."

Kakuzu growled but dropped Sasori to the floor. "The brat was sneaking around my room."

"What the fuck are you yelling about now, you old bastard?" Hidan poked his head out of his bedroom door, slamming it just in time to avoid the miser's hardened, detatched hand flying at him.

"I'm sorry, we were just playing a game," Konan apologized, helping Sasori off the floor. "Don't worry, he won't bother you again."

Kakuzu grumbled under his breath and nodded, returning his hand to its normal place and condition before going back into his room. Konan could hear coins being shifted around and knew that Kakuzu was going to count his money and make sure it was still all there.

"Come on, Sasori, I think that's enough fun for tonight. We can play more tomorrow."

"Aw, but we didn't even really get to play," he whined, refusing to take her outstretched hand. "Can't we do something else?"

"No, I'm sorry," she answered, leading him down the hall toward the bathroom. "But you can have a bath; you're covered in clay and dust."

"I'm not that dirty," he complained, but followed her into the bathroom. She started a warm bath and turned to him, wondering what she was going to do about clothes. She supposed for now she would just have to wash the cloak he currently had on, and maybe tomorrow they could go into town and buy something that at least fit him better.

"Alright, take that off and start working on getting all that clay off you," she said, taking the cloak before he could drop it on the floor. "I'm going to be in the kitchen washing this if you need me, okay?"

"Kay," he sighed, testing the water with his toes. She left the room, leaving the door open in case he called out for her. She walked through the living room, where Itachi was still studying the scroll.

"Any luck?"

"I think there's a few clues, but I still haven't finished the scroll," he answered, not looking up.

"That's something, at least. Thank you, Itachi." He nodded, still intent on the scroll. She continued into the kitchen, grabbing the puppet that was still seated at the table and taking it into Sasori's room. She threw it onto the bed and shut the door, locking it with a seal for good measure. After that, she went back into the kitchen and went to work washing the old cloak. She cursed Deidara; clay was almost impossible to get out of clothes. Ten minutes of scrubbing later, the dark green fabric was as clean as it was ever going to get. She wrung out the material and hung it up over the sink. It'd probably be a little damp when he went to bed, but it was better than nothing.

She walked back to the bathroom to check on him, surprised he hadn't already gotten out himself.

"Sasori?" She looked into the bathroom, frowning when she found it empty. The bath water still looked clean, which meant that the little red head hadn't even gotten in. "Oh boy." If he wasn't in the bathroom, then where could he be? "Sasori, where'd you go?"

Hearing no answer, she began to panic a bit. She left the bathroom and rushed into the living room.

"You didn't see Sasori come through here, did you?"

Itachi glanced up, frowning. "No, I thought he was taking a bath."

"He's not in there anymore." She ran a hand through her hair. "Will you help me look for him? I'll go get Deidara, too." Though it was extremely unlikely, with all their security measures and such, her mind flashed an idea that someone, somehow, had found out about Sasori's vulnerability and had broken into the base and taken him. Orochimaru.

Maybe he was alerted somehow whenever the jutsu was activated. Maybe he'd been waiting for someone to use it, and now that one of the Akatsuki members were under the rejuvenation, they'd be easy for him to kidnap. If Orochimaru had the reversal for the jutsu, he could return Sasori back to normal and extract classified information from him. If the ex member got ahold of any of the Akatsuki's plans, it could ruin them.

"Deidara, is Sasori in there with you?" she called once outside the blond's door. She heard fumbling from inside before Deidara opened the door.

"What? I thought you were entertaining him for a bit, hm." He frowned. "I've been going through these scrolls like you asked me to, I didn't know you sent him back here again."

"I didn't. I was having him take a bath while I washed his clothes and when I went to check on him, he was gone."

"Well, fuck, hm." He pushed past her and ran down the hallway. "If Orochimaru has anything to do with this…"

"Those were my thoughts exactly." She followed him down the hallway, checking everywhere. "I need to tell Pein about this-"

"Found him!" Itachi called suddenly. Konan and Deidara took off toward where his voice had come from, finding both the Uchiha and child in the meeting room across the hall from the bathroom. "He was hiding under the table." Itachi held the struggling boy's arm tight.

"Sasori, why the hell'd you hide from Konan like that? Hm!" Deidara yelled.

"Why didn't you answer me when I called?" Konan scolded, kneeling down and grabbing both of his arms to stop his struggling. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Sasori bowed his head down, all fight leaving him. Konan sighed, relieved he hadn't been taken after all. "I'm sorry…"

"Why didn't you answer when I called you?" she asked again, a stern look on her face. He wasn't off the hook yet.

"I dunno…" He sniffled.

"Look at me, Sasori." He obeyed. "Answer my question."

"I didn't want to take a bath," he whined, rubbing his eyes. "I was scared."

Konan's expression softened. He was quite young to have been left alone in the tub. "Hey, now, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just water. And if anything happened, Hidan and Kakuzu are right down the hall-"

"I'm scared of the shark man!" Sasori cried, throwing himself into Konan's arms. Deidara and Itachi stared, frowning. Did Kisame really scare him that much? Suddenly, Itachi got an idea.

"Hey, I'll be right back." He walked off down the hall.

"It's okay, Sasori, hm." Deidara kneeled down and Sasori immediately latched on to him. "There's no reason to be afraid of Kisame; he's not a monster. He's just a big old teddy-"

"Choose your next words carefully, Deidara," Kisame growled. Deidara gasped and turned around, watching as Kisame rubbed sleep out of his eyes. "Honestly, I'm woken up for this?"

"Please, Kisame." Itachi put a hand on his partner's shoulder and the taller sighed, kneeling down next to the child.

"Look, I know I may look scary…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say next. Itachi rolled his eyes.

"But there's no reason to be afraid of him."

"That's right," Konan continued. "He's the one who guards the house from bad people." Kisame raised an eyebrow.

"…That's right."

"R-really?" Sasori stared at him, trying to gauge if it was true.

"Of course," Kisame said. "Just today, Itachi and I got rid of a lot of bad people."

"Oh…Is that why you were gone all day?" The blue-skinned shinobi nodded and Deidara felt Sasori relax a bit.

"Can I go back to sleep now?" Kisame asked, standing up again. Konan chuckled.

"Of course. Thank you, Kisame."

"I'm going to see more about this scroll," Itachi said, rubbing his eyes and turning back to the living room. Deidara followed him, holding out one of the scrolls he'd been reading through and telling the Uchiha to take a look at it as well.

"C'mon, Sasori, let's get you cleaned up and ready for bed." Konan led the child back into the bathroom and put him in the tub. He seemed less stubborn this time, and she helped him scrub the clay out of his hair, once again cursing Deidara. Afterward, she dressed him in the still-damp cloak, leading him toward Deidara's room to sleep. She stopped in the living room when she noticed Itachi was passed out on the couch. "Itachi," she spoke, and his eyes snapped open. "Worry about the scroll tomorrow; you just came back from a mission, you should rest."

He remained silent as usual, but nodded to show he understood. Konan continued to Deidara's room, knocking and waiting. Sasori yawned below her. The blond opened the door a few moments later, looking haggard. "I feel like every little sentence could be a clue at this point, but at the same time, none of them seem related, hm."

"Don't worry about it anymore tonight, Deidara. Get some rest." She moved to leave but turned back toward him. "Oh, and don't use your exploding clay around Sasori unless you plan on cleaning it off of him."

"Okay, whatever, hm."

She nodded, sighing as she wondered how she was going to tell Pein about this. She figured she might as well do it tonight, and set off for the Rain village.