Sorry this took so long. i was very busy with... stuff... you know.. um, important stuff?
eh, whatever. at least i took the time to write something! *sulks in a corner*
Deidara felt much better when he woke up. His body still ached but…
Ached from what?
Wait, what had even happened?
Why was he in the infirmary?
He'd been in town and …
That was the problem; he'd been in Ame. Home of most of Pein and Konan's enemies. And with his luck, it could never be avoided. He'd always end up running into one of them whenever they stopped here.
They needed to stop letting him out. Especially on nights when they were putting on a show.
Holy shit the show!
Pein was going to kill him!
He quickly patted his body down, searching for stitches his leader would be able to pull out.
He'd have to go and beg for forgiveness or something weird like that. He'd probably be kicked in the face…
It wasn't a good idea to get down on his knees and beg…
He'd figure something out.
Maybe he should also thank Sasori for bringing him here?
No.
Not a good idea.
He'd thank Konan instead.
He got up, out of bed and walked – limped – to the door.
He wondered briefly if they were still serving breakfast right now but decided he didn't deserve any.
"Where were you last night?" Kiba ran up to him almost as soon as he stepped out into the light.
Naruto tackled him only a few seconds later as it seemed Kiba had been holding a ball.
"Foul," Sasuke sighed.
"What are you even playing, un?" Deidara asked, seeing most of the kids in the open space between the tent and the infirmary where the cars usually parked.
"We don't know," Kiba confessed in a strangled tone.
"We're making it up as we go along," Naruto added with a smile.
"Oh well… have fun with that un."
He walked – limped – away as quickly as possible. He loved the kids, he really did, but their games could be a little… interesting at times. Especially since they were like normal kids. As it was, he narrowly avoided being decapitated. If Konan caught wind of them throwing weapons around, she'd be pissed.
It was never good to be around something you knew Konan wouldn't like.
When he reached Pein's office he simply stood outside. It was right there. Right there and yet he couldn't bring himself to go inside.
He thought maybe he should just turn around. He knew he could just run away. It would be easy and the only consequences would come later.
It was a cowardly thing to do which he might never forgive himself for but at least he wouldn't have to have teeth forcibly removed. From all of his mouths.
That's be painful.
He was going to run when he heard talking but stayed put to listen.
"So, her predictions are always right?"
"Always. It's not always immediate; it might take weeks, months, even years."
"That's just great."
"You shouldn't worry too much; Konan rarely ever gives accurate predictions to the Akatsuki. She thinks it's funny to mess with you."
Sasori sighed, "It's not me that I'm worried about."
"I'd pretend to be interested but I feel I should warn you first that we're being spied on."
"What?"
Oh shit.
Deidara got ready to run but…
"Come-in, Deidara."
Dammit!
Pein wasn't a mind reader or anything like that but he somehow knew when you were around. He could sense it or something. Itachi had a similar talent but it was only really put to use for annoying Sasuke.
He reached out shakily and opened the door uncertainly.
Pein and Sasori both stared at him silently and he smiled sheepishly for a moment before finding something very interesting about the carpet.
"What do you want, Deidara?" Pein asked, annoyed by his silence.
"I uh… un, about last night…"
"It's fine. Is that all you wanted?"
"w-what, un?"
Pein resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"I said it's fine, it's not like we were short an act. Now is that all or would you rather I pump you full of lighter fluid and light you up as final act?"
Deidara seriously thought about it for a moment before he said, "I think I'll go now."
Sasori watched the little exchange with slight amusement, noticing that Deidara seemed genuinely afraid of Pein. He got the feeling that Pein's last question was more than just words spat out in annoyance, but a serious threat.
"You can leave now as well," Pein said, not bothering with pleasantries like remembering the kids name like he might've done had the other Akatsuki members not decided they disliked him – because leaders could follow trends too.
A few hours later, Deidara sat in a tree.
One of his favorite acts had always been when Itachi and Kisame fought. Not only was it bright, colorful and weirdly graceful, but it made for an interesting drawing.
Even though he'd seen them like this a billion times, he still never thoughts of Itachi as a fire elemental. Even though he came from the fire country, he seemed more like a wind elemental if he was being honest.
The way he moved was too light to be human – though in their world, nothing seemed very human.
Kisame could only move like that on or in the water. And Deidara… well it had been said – by Itachi – that grace just wasn't his forte. Though it had also been said – by himself – that it took a certain amount of skill to do what he did.
Of course, they weren't the same thing, were they?
A lot of people, skeptics among the crowd wherever they were, would say the fights were staged so Itachi would always win, to add to the whole mysterious, scary image he had going for him. However, for as long as Deidara had been with the Akatsuki, Kisame had never been able to win.
It was a fair fight every time too.
And yet even now, Itachi was always a step ahead. He barely needed to move to avoid an attack and always had one ready to throw back. It didn't help though, that Kisame was injured from the night before, he'd insist relentlessly that it was just a small burn, but being who he was, his body didn't exactly take well to such things.
The only good thing about it – maybe – was that Itachi might feel so guilty about it, that he'd trip up somewhere along the line, allowing the shark man a chance to win.
Though that wasn't very likely.
Deidara fell out of his tree as a poorly aimed blast of water – and a conveniently aimed blast of fire – collided, sending blasts of steams upwards and towards him with an alarming hiss and bursts of heat.
"Un, watch what you're doing, dumbasses!" he yelled once he'd picked himself up. He stared fiercely over at the disappointed frown on Kisame's face and the smirk on Itachi's.
There was exchanging of money.
Apparently they'd bet again on which tree Deidara was hiding it. He had no idea why Kisame still tried.
Deidara looked around to see a bunch of burnt out trees.
Those idiots! Why the hell do they have to do this, ever single time?!
"if you bastards wanted to be alone un, you could've just said so!"
He scowled and stomped – limped, whatever – back towards the camp.
It wasn't long before he ran into Hidan, who insisted on walking back with him.
Hey blondie, have you decided what you're gonna do tonight?" he asked. He was really asking, 'hey blondie, can I cut you open tonight?'
Deidara sighed, "Sword and cage trick. I can't handle anymore high falls un."
"Sweet, can I be the one to..?"
"Sure un. Now leave me alone."
He'd be taken back to his own trailer and opened the door, though was thoroughly annoyed to see Sasori, staring at the wall, probably reading right into his soul.
Deidara didn't understand why every time he looked at the redhead, all he heard was the word freak. But he slammed the door shut nonetheless, "why don't we go work something out for your act?"
The rest of the day leading up to the show was uneventful to say the least.
Sasori would've tried to talk to Deidara but felt that wouldn't exactly end well.
He didn't want to apologize for what he'd said. Try as he might, he couldn't say he was sorry. Because he wasn't. Not at all, not even a little bit. Though he had at least some kind of empathy, that didn't change the fact that what he'd said was true and though he was hurt when the word was used in relation to himself, he never blamed the speaker and he never thought of it as a lie.
If he apologized, well that would be even more disrespectful, being that he'd have lied as well.
They would just… have to get around it somehow.
But Deidara wasn't the only one in the Akatsuki and Sasori spent most of his time around Konan, helping to get things ready with the children – she had insisted that if he was going to be so annoying, he could at least help.
"You no, you're almost as annoying as he was when we first met," Konan sighed. She was helping a shy little ravenette with her hair.
Sasori didn't answer. He knew he wasn't supposed to.
"Seriously he was a real mess! He had this psycho god complex. He always said he's be god of the freaks and lead an uprising against the government in Konaha," she shook her head, smiling fondly, "the idiot thought if he could take Konaha, he could lead an army through the land and take over all the small villages until the world was his. Somehow, he always managed to forget about Kiri."
Konan looked happy now.
She had been doing that all day; one moment she was annoyed and the next, she'd be spouting out some completely random story about the idiot they called leader, which would leave her happy.
Sasori had noticed that she didn't usually seem happy. No she was often… troubled; always with something on her mind, it seemed.
It must be awful seeing the future.
"It's not as bad as hearing the garbage that's constantly on your mind!" Konan snapped, accidently pulling roughly at the ravenette's hair, causing her to cry out. "Go and make sure the boys are all where they should be!"
Sasori sighed and pulled the needle through the purple material of the shirt he'd been fixing – he'd become quite adept at sewing as one was likely to with an angry blue woman yelling at you – one last time before setting it down and hurrying off to find the boys.
Shikamaru was found sleeping and was promptly woken up. Kiba, Akamaru and Naruto were found outside and were promptly lead back in. they were promptly followed in by Shino who had been out there the entire time. Sasuke and Chouji were found in the kitchen together, the room was an absolute mess and the two were arguing and covered in something foul smelling. They were promptly shoved into a bathroom and told to clean up.
When that was done, Sasori backtracked and cleaned the kitchen – forcing the boys he'd already found to help – since he knew he'd be told to do it anyway and besides, Deidara wouldn't be happy if the mess stopped him from having breakfast tomorrow.
With all the running around, Sasori felt like the Akatsuki's own personal bitch.
When he found Konan again, a clipboard was shoved at him and he was told to complete the checklist.
He had no idea looking after a bunch of circus kids – or kids in general – would be so difficult.
They were relentlessly loud, high-maintenance, needy and kept fussing with their clothes. He found it impossible to stop them from talking, let alone arguing with each other. And it was over the stupidest of things too!
Sasori was halfway through his checklist when Konan stomped in and snatched it off of him. the children immediately returned to the line they'd been put in.
"Alright, you and… you," she pointed out Shikamaru and Chouji, who remained surprisingly quiet, "first and second. After that, there'll be a few older acts. The rest of you, decide your own order, just be done in five minutes or their will be consequences."
There was a unified shudder throughout the children and Sasori as well.
"if you have any questions or worries, feel free to ask my new slave, Sasori," she smiled sweetly and was about to walk away when it seemed she heard something unpleasant. She turned to Naruto with a frown and the boy, in turn, shrunk back, "sweetie, you're a talented kid, but if you jump from that height and don't die I'll make sure you're in so much pain, you'll forget what it means to even think let alone about something dangerous. And I'm sure Sasuke wouldn't be too happy about it either."
Apparently, she'd heard something in Sasuke's thoughts as well.
There was silence suddenly as all the children tried to blank out their thoughts and Naruto tried to ignore the obsidian eyes glaring at him.
Sasori wondered if Konan's mood swings were due to her insane personality, her psychic abilities or the stress of taking care of these kids.
But if it was the kids…. Then why would she do it?
Why did she do it anyway?
Again Konan stopped.
"Somebody's got to do it," she said, "somebody has to and god knows their parents won't. Hell, half of them have been abandoned here; you want me to do the same just because it doesn't make sense to you? Excuse me, for caring about a few kids who've never had anything besides this godforsaken circus."
Her last few words came out as a hiss and she stormed out without waiting for anybody else to think.
"You made her angry!" Kiba yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Sasori.
Sasori felt like he was going to be sick. The look on Konan's face was unmistakable; the shining eyes, the wobbling bottom lip, the fierce attempt at a scowl.
I haven't made her angry… I made her cry.
So uh... what do you think Konan's problem is?