Pein stood outside of Deidara's bedroom door until the blonde came back from breakfast with Maru. "Deidara. My office. Fifteen minutes."

Deidara looked down at the little redhead. "But, Leader-sama, what about-"

"Fifteen minutes." Pein repeated sharply before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Deidara let out a sigh as he entered his room, followed by Maru. "He can be such a bastard, sometimes, un."

Maru frowned slightly and tugged on Deidara's sleeve. "But, Deidara-sempai, what am I supposed to do while you go and talk with Mr. Piercing Dude?"

Deidara glared at Maru impatiently. "Leader-sama's name is Pein."

Maru rolled his eyes, equally impatient. "Fine. Whatever. But still, what am I supposed to do, just stay in your room?"

Deidara looked slightly horrified at the thought of leaving an eight year old boy alone in his room. "No. Why don't you go bother Hidan? He's the only other member you know, un."

"But, Sempai-"

The bomb artist wasn't listening, and instead started shoving Maru out of his bedroom. "Stay out of my room, un." Maru scowled as Deidara walked away hurriedly to Pein's office. Well, I guess I'll take his suggestion and go and see what Hidan's up to. Now I wonder where his room is. . . To his surprise, as soon as Maru turned around there was another door marked with lots of blood and slash marks. I guess that's as good as a place to check as any.

Maru pushed the door open, walking in on Hidan's seemingly empty room. "Hello? Hidan?"
Maru took a step inside and his shoe made contact with a sticky substance, causing Maru to look down, immediately repulsed at what he saw. There was a large pool of fresh blood soaking into the carpet. His hazel eyes traced the blood to its source; a corpse lying in the middle of the floor. He couldn't but walk closer and lean over to inspect the body more clearly. Even under all the blood Maru could recognize Hidan's features. He chuckled to himself as he leaned closer to poke Hidan's arm.

The Jashinist's eyes immediately snapped open, accompanied by a scowl. "Get the fuck out of my face! Can't you see I'm busy, damnit?"

Maru recoiled in surprise. "Busy doing what? Suicide? Well, I'm sorry to inform you that it didn't work. You're still alive."

Hidan slowly moved into a sitting position. "I wasn't fucking trying to kill myself! I was doing a fucking ritual, for Jashin's sake!"

"Most fucked up ritual I've ever seen." Maru muttered under his breath, adding a new adjective he picked up from Hidan.

Hidan was on his feet in seconds, scythe in hand. "What'd you say 'bout my religion, fucker?" he snarled.

Maru put on his most innocent face and help up his hands. "Nothing. Honestly."

A snarl stayed plastered on his face, but Hidan withdrew his weapon. After a moment of intense glaring at the little boy he turned around to go sit on his bed. "What the fuck is it that you want, anyways?" he said as he removed his blood-stained pants (just his pants, perverts) and placed on a clean, fresh pair.

"Mr. Peirc- I mean, Pein called Sempai in for a meeting and he told me to, ahem, 'go bother Hidan.'"

Hidan looked up from his scythe, which he was wiping blood off of with his already ruined pants. "Bastard! Why the fuck'd he do that?"

Maru's eyes started wandering around the room, taking in that complete mess that Hidan lived in. "I guess 'cause he didn't want to leave me alone in his room."

"Bastard." He repeated under his breath. To Maru he said, "So. . . Kid-"

"Maru."

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Fine. Maru, what the hell do you want to do now?" The question confused Maru, causing him to furrow his brow, and Hidan let out an exasperated sigh. "Deidara dumped you on me, right? So it's my fucking job to entertain you until his Jashin damned meeting is over. I mean, it's not like I could just fucking du-" Hidan's magenta eyes lit up as an idea struck him. "Hey, Maru, how'd you like to meet the other Akatsuki?"

Maru opened his mouth to say 'yes,' but Hidan had already grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the door. "We'll start with. . . Itachi!"

Maru pulled his arm from Hidan's grasp and stopped walking. "Who?" he demanded.

Hidan grabbed his arm again and resumed dragging him. "Uchiha Itachi," he said impatiently. "He's this prodigy from Konoha with a huge stick up his ass."

Maru once again pulled his arm from Hidan's grip and started walking beside him. "And you're taking me to see him because . . . ?"

"So I can fucking dump you on him! Don't worry, though. He's pretty damn nice . . . when it suits him." Hidan snickered at his own brilliant plan.

Maru frowned, but continued to follow the ninja in front of him. Even if this Itachi person turns out to be unpleasant, there's no way that he can be worse than Mr. Stab-Myself-For-My-Religion, here.

They stopped in front of a black door with the paint peeling. Hidan banged on it noisily. "Uchiha! Open this door the fuck up right now or I swear-"

"You should check to see if someone is actually in their room before yelling senselessly at a door, dumbass."

Maru turned around to see the source of the monotone insult; a tall-ish man with long black hair and coal-like eyes.

Hidan's face brightened. "Itachi! Just the fucker I wanted to see!"

Itachi let out an exasperated sigh. "What is it that you want, Hidan?"

The Jashinist pushed Maru forward. "This little fucker here is Maru. He's your fucking problem now, bye!" And with those parting words, Hidan disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Itachi blinked and looked down at the boy that the masochistic man had left him with. "What're you doing here?"

Maru let out an exasperated sigh, almost exactly like the one Itachi had let out not one minute earlier. "Pein called Sempai in for a meeting and he told me to, ahem, 'go bother Hidan' 'cause he didn't want to leave me alone in his room and Hidan obviously doesn't want me to stay with him, either so he dragged me all the way over here so that he could dump me on you."

Itachi thought this over for a few minutes. When he was done he glanced back down at the little redhead. "Where're you from, Maru?"

Maru shrugged. "I dunno. Last thing I remember is standing in front of the Akatsuki base's door and knocking. 'Don't know how or why."

"Hn." Then another thought struck Itachi. "I thought that Hidan was doing his morning ritual about ten minutes ago."

"Yeah, he was. I walked in on him. So?"

Itachi seemed taken aback at the nonchalant-ness of Maru's tone. "So? I didn't here any screaming! You walked in on Hidan while he was pouring out blood from wounds that he caused himself! Doesn't that freak you out?"

Maru brushed off some dust from his shoulder, uninterested in the conversation. "No, not really."

"And why not?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. It was kinda like I've already seen that somewhere before. Y'know, like déjà vu."

Itachi skeptically looked Maru up and down. There was no way that this eight year old had seen Hidan's ritual before. A look of shock came over Itachi and then was quickly covered by his normally calm demeanor. "Has Deidara mentioned that you look a little like his old partner?"

Maru squirmed a little, not liking being under Itachi's gaze. "Deidara; no. But Hidan did."

"Hn. Maru, would you like to go and see Sasori-san's old room?"

"Uh, sure?"

Itachi then grabbed Maru's arm and started pulling him in a certain direction, presumably towards Sasori's room. Maru let out an irritated groan, even though Itachi had a considerably lighter grip than Hidan did. Although, Maru couldn't help but feel a little excitement, he was going to see Sasori's room, after all. Sasori; Deidara's old partner, the one that he got depressed over. Sasori; the one that everyone kept saying he looked like.

When Itachi finally stopped walking in front of a wooden door, perfectly polished, he leaned forward and turned the handle, opening the door.

Maru's eyes widened at what he saw. There, in the room, were a dozen or so puppets all sitting lined up against the wall. Maru took in their intricate detail, their craftsmanship, the complete beauty of it all. Maru gasped, inhaling a large amount of dust as he did so; no one had been in Sasori's room for at least three days.

He took a step inside, somehow knowing to watch his step for the trap that lay in the doorway. Once inside Maru had that feeling of déjà vu again, and he immediately rushed to the closet, opening it in one swift motion. Inside there were even more puppets, although these were slightly different than the beautiful people lining the room; these puppets had weapons!

Maru's hazel eyes glistened as he picked up the nearest puppet, which had razor blades sticking out of its arms along with various other dangerous object protruding from different places. He carefully ran his hand along the blades' edges, wiping off the dust. "Beautiful." He muttered.

"Almost like art, isn't it?" Itachi breathed, leaning over Maru (who was sitting on the floor in front of the closet).

Maru smirked. "Exactly like art." He responded.

--

A/N: Yayz! I finally updated this story! So, Itachi's not as ignorant as some people, ne? And just what exactly is Deidara's meeting with Pein about? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!! (lol, I just love saying that; 'stay tuned' XD) Oh! And the next chapter's gonna be in Deidara's PoV, just so you know.