2.3

So I'm down Peace Zone Central with Kisame, getting lunch and stuff, just catching up, yeah? Everything's all decked out with all the dry season stuff cause the rainy season's nearly over. It's been getting less and less all the last month; the one in Fougere when I was down there with Sasori was the last downpour that was really heavy, yeah. It rained a week ago and everyone's saying that's gonna be the last one. The floodwater's started to go down and everything, you can see the marks on the buildings.

"I like this time of year, yeah. It's like, everything going back to normal."

"Huh?" Kisame looks up from his sandwich. He's been complaining like it's got gristle in it or something, I reckon if he's gonna buy a sandwich from any of the big places up in Peace Zone he oughtta be expecting gristle.

"I mean, like, all the ... dry season stuff, yeah? When the rainy season comes round it always feels weird, y'know? Even though it happens every year. Dry season's, like ... okay! Weird time over! Back to surface-dwelling, tiny mammals!"

Kisame smiles a little and shakes his head. "I don't know. It's always been the other way round for me."

I roll my eye. "Yeah, well, you're waterproof, yeah. 'Course you like the rainy season. You can go wherever you like." I take a bite of my sandwich. It is kinda gristly, but y'know, what d'you expect? "I mean, even Sasori has to take shelter and stuff ..."

"He does?" Kisame raises his eyebrows. "I thought he was safe in there."

"Yeah, well, y'know." I shrug. "Maybe it takes off the shine or something. I dunno."

Kisame laughs, showing teeth. "I'm not totally waterproof, anyway. I can take being rained on, but ..."

"Yeah, well, that's more than I can."

I half expect him to say something like, maybe you should've stayed in the labs longer, but he just sort of smiles and I realise I've been spending too much time with Sasori. I swear like it's been a job every week all through the rainy season, yeah, and some of them have lasted, like, days and everything. Not including the stuff where I have to stay at home working on bombs and stuff, but that's different, I guess. Kisame says there's usually less work in the dry season cause people are more out and about and it's harder to do stuff without people noticing, Maybe I'll get the time for some clay soon now the rain's letting up – I've had some sitting in the fridge for like weeks and I haven't touched it cause I've been so busy putting bombs together and running up and down the country with Sasori.

I asked Konan about free time last time I was at base and she just sort of shrugged and wouldn't say anything else about it. She's okay to talk to for a little bit but it's like ... I dunno, she's kind of like there's something missing. She might be an android. I never got any readings off her apart from the Akatsuki implant, but Sasori's got things that won't read as robots when they are, so I dunno. I think she's probably not an android, just a little bit weird. She's okay, though.

That reminds me, though – "Hey." Kisame sort of ... blinks at me questioningly. I always thought it was funny how someone who looks that much like a shark like refuses to talk with his mouth full. "Konan said you and Itachi were on some big job or something last week, yeah."

He sort of smiles and swallows his food and shrugs. "Yeah ... didn't go too well. Leader's pretty annoyed."

No wonder Konan didn't say anything else about it. "Oh yeah? What happened?"

Kisame glances round like he's worried someone's listening or something, and gets up. "Walk with me down to Brady and I'll tell you."

I grin, cause if it's too big for Peace Zone cameras then it's gotta be pretty interesting, so I get up too. Kisame sort of glances over his shoulder as he bins what's left of his sandwich and we head down one of the north tunnel walks, but he doesn't make any go of trying to shake anyone off or anything. He never does. When you're like six and a half foot tall or whatever and blue you kind of stick out too much to bother trying to be sneaky, and you don't need to be sneaky when you can just stick anyone who comes after you through with a weapon like Samehada.

He doesn't say anything for a while, and I know it's cause he wants to be clear enough of Peace Zone, but I'm impatient.

"So what happened."

He pauses a moment, stopping in the tunnel walk, and then sighs. "We nearly got Nine."

I can tell that's supposed to be pretty big or something but it doesn't really mean much to me, and I guess I must look confused cause Kisame gets this "oh" sort of look on his face before I say, "What's nine?"

"– Shit. Look, uh, forget I said anything, okay?"

"What?"

"Seriously, Deidara, forget it. We were on a big job and it failed, that's all –"

"What the hell? I'm in on this thing now and you're still not telling me shit? What –"

"Look, if you don't know it's because Leader doesn't want you to know, alright? You'll find out eventually –"

"Bullshit! This is – this – ... What the hell."

Kisame rubs his temple. "Deidara ... Have you actually ever asked anyone what our goal is?"

"... No." I frown. "But –"

"Then don't act so surprised when you don't know things."

"Okay. Fine. What's our goal."

He sighs. "I can't tell you that."

"What? Why not?!"

"Because Leader would skin me, Deidara, that's why! If you want to know, ask him. Or Konan – hell, ask Sasori, he'll tell you the same thing as me!"

I just glare at him. This is fucking ridiculous, yeah. I tell him so, and then I leave him there halfway to Brady and sod off home.

-

-

I message Sasori, on the way back, to ask him. Figures Kisame was right.

I'm all, "So what's our goal, yeah. What's Nine."

And he's just like, "Oh god, nobody told you yet? I'm not surprised."

He's such a wanker.

"So what, are you gonna tell me or not."

"You're not privy to that information, Deidara." I've talked to him enough that I can practically hear how smug that is in the words as I read them.

"Fuck you."

"It's up to the Leader, brat. Nobody is allowed to know unless he tells them."

"But I'm a member, yeah, same as you!"

"No. I've been a part of Akatsuki for ten years on account of possessing a variety of skills hugely useful to any organisation of this calibre. You were allowed to join a few months ago on the basis of our recent need to destroy a few things."

"Oh fuck off. So what, it's gonna be ten years before I get to know anything? I'm not even gonna live that long, yeah."

"You're only eighteen."

"Seventeen."

"No, eighteen."

"What?"

"I found your data. You're eighteen years old. You were born as Daniel Amsel in 2847 to Goro Amsel and Sweet Desmarais, in the Donnerstag blocks."

There's this little pause.

"You were quite hard to find, you know. I was surprised."

I'm just staring. How the fuck could he find that. How the fuck.

"Do you need your memory jogging? When you were eight, your parents sold you to Victory Colline Industries for 150,000 Euros – that's really rather cheap, Deidara."

"It's not like it was my choice, yeah! Not like I was doing the haggling!"

I bet he's laughing – stupid wanker, I bet he's laughing.

"Lol." Wanker. "It says they still own you, as well. Now that's interesting."

"They don't. I left, yeah."

"Legally they do. According to the documents, you're their property. Why's that, hm?"

"Must be an error, yeah."

"I don't know about that, Daniel. I think it's the kind of thing the Leader might want to know."

"Fuck you. Fuck you, you're not telling him anything, yeah."

"What would you do if I did?"

"Fuck you!" I've stopped completely. I don't know where I am, doesn't matter. Not paying attention. "I'd find you, yeah."

"Calm down, brat. If I could find it out in my free time, I doubt it's anything he doesn't know already."

... Fuck it. I bet he does. And they're still keeping stuff from me, yeah! I look away from my other eye. Sign says I'm twenty minutes from Walbers. Some of the ink's come off the L, so it says WAIBERS. I think I knew a girl called Waiber once, back in the labs. She didn't have any cheeks, yeah? So you could see her teeth all the way back. I dunno why, but it was kind of sexy.

Sasori's blipping at me in my other eye. I leave it a moment before I go look, he's just telling me I'm stupid. Fuck him. I can't be bothered with this any more.

"Whatever, yeah. I'm gonna go home and sculpt."

"Oh – those clay things you leave on the tunnels?"

I pause. "Yeah. How d'you know about that."

"You'd be surprised."

I just frown ahead of me for a moment, picking up my pace again. "Right. Whatever. Yeah. I'm gonna go do that."

I close the window. It doesn't come back up again – he doesn't reply.

I don't go home straight away, just wander around the tunnels for a bit. Think about going back to talk to Kisame, but he's probably gonna be all short with me now.

This is all so dumb. Kisame's right, yeah. I never did ask before. Maybe I should've. Didn't care, though.

Fuck that. I don't care. I get to make my art, so what if they've got some stupid goal, not like I give a shit. Never cared about what any other jobs were for – not like I'd care about it, if they wanted to tell me.

... Yeah. Fuck them. I'm just along for the ride, yeah. It's not like I need to know what their dumb purpose is to use it to make my art. Not like I care what they think it's for.

They can keep their stupid plans. I'm going to go make some sculptures and not think about their shit.