Nyahh. I'm so sorry about this chapter being so late, hm. Again, Hell in a handbasket! I feel like I let you guys down. I tried to make this chapter better than I had originally planned. Yeah...I actually have like an outline and plans for this story. I'm such a nerd, hmmm! Hm, Naruto still doesn't belong to me...but I do have this killer backache.

Thankies to Panda-chan101!

--

Everyone else came back into the living room with his or her food and drinks. As they all entered, their eyes ran to Kakuzu who was still trembling where he sat. "Oh, boy," Konan shook her head as she went to sit, "Don't tell me he found a dime under one of the cushions like last time." Deidara shook his head as he still ate but before he could speak, Kakuzu quickly turned to Konan. "He said that he got all this food for free!" he said with even his voice trembling.

It made everyone gasp and look at Deidara. Something like this was a shock to them. So much food and for free? Pein cleared his throat before speaking. "Really? Mind to tell me how?" he asked with a few good ideas on how someone like him could get a free meal. The room went quiet besides the sounds of people eating.

Taking his time with the food, Deidara shrugged. "Just...some stuff happened, hmph." he replied and went back to eating. He really didn't want to talk about the entire incident and tried to avoid it as best as possible. Hearing what he said, the others talked amongst themselves. When you get told, "some stuff happened" from a person like Deidara, it could mean a number of things and something regarding explosions was always a big one.

Pein muttered to himself and shook his head, "You better not have killed anyone or destroyed something. All I sent you out for was to get food. If I wanted destruction, I would have taken everyone to throw garden gnomes at cars!" but Tobi broke in. "Um...couldn't you check the news? Last time Deidara exploded something, it made breaking news." he suggested and everyone nodded.

"Hey!" Deidara yelled with a point to Tobi, "I only did it because that bitch told me I had a stupid hairstyle, hmph!!" The others stared on, remembering that incident until Pein said something. "Tobi has a point and Deidara...get over it!" he said as if trying to break up the argument and turned on the television. Minutes of channel surfing, they found nothing. Deidara started, "See? Nothing happened so let's just enjoy the food, hmph." and went on eating.

Towards the end of dinner, Zetsu asked if they could have something like a yard sale. The reason was that some books recently attacked him after he opened one of the many closets. It seemed like a good idea, too. You could get rid of items and, which was brought up quickly by Kakuzu, make some money from it. The group decided that after eating, everyone would go and round up un-wanted items that could be sold.

--

Now that everyone was finished eating, they all went to their own rooms to see what could be sold. Deidara was in his own room sculpting a wad of clay. On the floor of his room, he sat cross-legged with his two rings beside him. He would randomly take them off to keep them for getting dirty and eliminating the risk of messing up one of his sculptures somehow.

As usual, it didn't take him long on what to make since he got right to work. After minutes of working, a miniature kitten was unveiled and already it began to roam the room. Exploding the sculptures may be fun to Deidara but he also just liked to just watch his little creations wander around almost like pets before doing it.

The sculpture already made it to his bed as it jumped on and walked around in circles on the blanket. Coming to its side, the clay figure leaped onto his desk and continued to curiously investigate the room. Hearing someone yell his name, Deidara jumped since he was so wrapped up in watching his new creation. "Deidara, get over here! Itachi just got attacked by a bag of winter clothing! I told 'im not to go in that damned closet, too..." he heard someone call.

With a groan, he stood up and made his way to the door. One last look at the cat sculpture that was still on his desk gave him a worried look. He had never left one of his clay models alone before but then what harm could it do? A small shrug was all Deidara let out and went to help the others.

As the door closed, the cat looked at it and slowly made it's way to the door. Pawing at it, it turned its face down to the floor. Somehow, it seemed sad that it's creator left but then that did leave even more of the room open for searching. Turning away from it, the small figure went to the two rings that were on the floor. A blank stare was put upon them from the figurine and eventually a paw appeared over it and began tapping it.

It wasn't long before the small kitten was playing ring hockey across the floor. Sure, it bumped into the walls a few times but that didn't stop the fun of playing hockey with a shiny gray ring.

--

Deidara went into the hallway where the shouting was from and saw Itachi holding an ice pack. "Damn winter clothing," he mumbled in a low voice as he pressed it his head. Watching the all-powerful Itachi Uchiha reduced to holding an ice pack to his head from an encounter with a bag of winter clothing was very priceless to him. Trying not to laugh, Deidara turned away from him and looked at the closet. "Hey! Someone needs to go through this bag and see if any of the stuff in it is actually good." Pein instructed as he tossed the bag away from him for someone to take. Grabbing the bag, Sasori offered to go through it, which made sense since he seemed to be one of the saner, decision-making people in the Akatsuki. Dragging the bag away, Deidara noticed how the bag was just as big as the redheaded puppet. Sometimes he had to laugh at his Danna's size and even more at how it's didn't even reflect his age.

"How is everyone doing with getting their stuff together?" Itachi asked as he switched hands to hold the ice pack in place. The few people that were there gave their responses but Deidara stood silent. He had completely forgotten about the whole idea to go through your things to see what you wanted to be sold. After a blink, he noticed everyone was looking at him for an answer. "Um...I'm getting there, hmph." he said slowly but everyone went on doing their own things. Leaving the hall, Deidara rushed into his room to go through his things. He was really behind in trying to gather items and had to catch up to the others.

--

Shoving open the door, Deidara leaped inside his room and didn't even bother to close his door. "What stuff don't I want, hmph?" he whispered out loud as he looked around his room. Ignore the clay kitten that was on the chair to his desk and the Akatsuki ring he left on the floor, he walked to his bookcase and pulled out random books.

Going through them, he stopped at one book and looked down at its title. The History of Art? Total crap. The stuff in here isn't even art, hmph. Deidara frowned to himself as he put the book on his bed to be sent out for sale. Going through more of the books, he added more to the pile on his bed. The books were either boring or ones that he never read and never would read. When the pile was finished, he turned to his bed and saw how most of the books he went through were on his bed.

Walking to it, he stopped to see the Akatsuki ring he had left on the floor from when he was sculpting. Taking it and quickly putting it on, he rushed to the pile and took it to the others. He had forgotten all about the other ring but at a moment like that, there was no time to stop and look anyway.

--

Coming back into his bedroom, Deidara now saw the clay cat walking around the floor in random directions. Ignoring it, he began to look at anything else he didn't want. There were some sculptures that he could put for sale that he lost interest in that sat on another shelf of his bookcase. Getting on his tiptoes, he managed to get them down and look through them.

Again, he made another pile of things he didn't want. This one didn't take as long as the last and he looked at the clay figure that was still wandering his room. A smirk spread on his face as he wondered if they would let him explode it outside. Besides, the sculpture had plenty of time to roam around and now; it was time for it to go bye-bye. Gathering the sculptures and the clay cat, he left his room once again to the living room.

--

"No, I will NOT fucking sell any of my bibles! That even means my ninth one. Nine is my favorite number, too, you fucking moron!" Hidan whined to Kakuzu.

Deidara tried to ignore them but he couldn't help but notice that all of Hidan's items where Jashin-related, no matter the item. Taking some steps away from them, he found Kisame. "Hey!" Deidara called getting beside him, "You think Pein'll let me explode this, hmph? I bet it'll be a real attention grabber and what better way to start than with a nice show of art, hmph?"

Kisame just shrugged and said to give it a shot. He wasn't too sure about the art part but kept it to himself since he didn't want to get into an argument over art but he did agree it would be an attention getter. Leaving him alone, Deidara put his sculptures with his books but kept his clay cat and went off to search for Pein.

Before he could even make it out the room, Deidara stopped with a gasp. Glancing down at the hardened-clay cat that had a small smile, he cried, "What happened to kitty, hmph?!" His outburst scared Kisame and anyone else around. Though it scared him, the question did get Kisame curious as he went to examine the clay cat. "What the hell do you mean 'what happened'? It looks fine." he said bending down to try and level with it.

"No! It's...different but how? When I first made it, it was perfect. Now, it's...horrible!" Deidara continued to whine but even louder now. "What could I have done wrong?! All my sculptures are perfect!"

Watching his friend have an ego landslide, Kisame inched away to get someone to see what exactly was happening. Not long after, he returned with the group and looked down to see Deidara staring at the kitten figurine. The whole room was silence, no one sure of what to say. "Why?!" he yelled, making everyone jump again, "I made this one perfect yet...it's not the same. How could this have happened?! Am I not a good enough artist?"

"What are you talking about?" Itachi asked and then got a cat sculpture shoved towards him. "Look at it! How can you not know?!" Deidara continued, feeling himself just swirling with confusion. When he first made the sculpture, it was fine but now, there was something different. It was still the same color and shape though but there was just something he noticed was different. Could it have been from some type of careless mistake he made? This was a serious slap to his artist reputation. I couldn't have made a mistake. Everything was perfect...what the fuck could have changed? It doesn't feel the same as it did before! It's so different...it's like it's not even mine's anymore!

Finally, Sasori was able to try and end the dwelling moment by dragging Deidara away with the cat sculpture on the table. "Come on. Give it a rest already...that damned thing isn't art anyway..." he grumbled leaving the room with a teary eyed Deidara.

Seeing the two leave, Pein seemed confused. "What the hell was that about?" he asked as he looked at the clay cat. Kisame just shrugged, "I don't know. He was going to look for you since he wanted to explode it for a type of attention retriever for when we sell all of this crap. Out of nowhere, he began flipping out about the cat thingy. It looks fine to me though." he explained.

It was true that the cat figurine did look normal which just got him more confused. "You're right. Don't worry about it though. Tomorrow, we'll use it as an opener. Maybe a good explosion will fix him up." Pein shrugged also.

--

It was the next day and though it was just morning, the Akatsuki was setting up shop outside. All the items were put up for people to look through and everyone was there minus Deidara. Ever since the mini episode, no one had really seen him since but then again, he did sort of take a big blow to his ego. Finally, everything was set up and it was time to start the explosion to mark the beginning of the mini sale. They managed to drag Deidara out when the time came but only because they mentioned the exploding of the kitty sculpture. It made him happy though and back to his usual self.

Getting the clay figurine to explode was easy and it did cause attention but at first, negative attention. It attraction police and even the fire department but eventually, it got settled out. Besides that incident, the day went off very well. People were buying things and the Akatsuki was having a fun time. Of course, Kakuzu would get into the usual arguments about pricing but that was just to have been expected.

Some time past and Deidara was looking around at the items that were yet to be bought. Venturing into Konan's section, he looked at random pieces of jewelry that she had put up for sale. Coming across a ring, he paused. It looks like that weird color changing one I have, hmph. He smiled and looked down at his hand but saw it was missing. He let out a small gasp and left to his room to get it back.

--

Tee hee, hm. Does anyone think they know what happened to the ring? I tried to leave mini clues but I'm not sure how helpful they are. Hm, hugs to all who read this! Cookies to those who are with me through the good and the bad! -puts out cookies from thin air-