Ah, I must start with typing this... I'm very happy with this chapter though it's not as long as the others. Anyway, nothing to really put here besides my big list of thankies, hm. I actually recieved lots of letters about this story from readers and I'm so happy about how popular this is becoming. Hm, alright. Let's get through this so we can start with the chapter.

I don't own Naruto or a mood ring.

Big thankies to... Krystal-kun, White-winter-wolf, Panda-chan101, Aurora Marija, Dictator panda-chan and Eclipse Eternity!

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The yells from Hidan's room could easily be heard in the common room. There, the rest of the Akatsuki began to exchange curious looks amongst themselves. As much as the group seemed to be some type of family from Hell, they were just as nosey as one. "So..." one of them randomly said with a shrug, "... Sasori should go and check is out!" It was then that all eyes were on him. He just glared at the others but wordlessly got up from the couch.

Slowly, the short redhead exited the room and went into the hall. He never would understand why they always put him up to such annoying tasks. Really, Sasori couldn't care less what Hidan was doing since it was his own business. There wasn't much he could do against it because of his fragile puppet body and childish appearance but then he could always get revenge through the classic poison in the food/drink trick.

Just the thought made him smirk and he stopped when he got to Hidan's room. The door was open and the shouting was louder. Along with that, he could now hear things breaking and literally being ripped into pieces. One more step and Sasori paused as his brown-ish eyes stared forward. The reason for it wasn't the noises from Hidan's bedroom but he suddenly felt a bit of un-evenness. Turning his eyes down to his sock covered feet, he took step forward and felt both his feet were leveled to the floor or what he could feel.

It all got him curious and he quickly lost the almost non-existent thought of checking on the silver haired Jashinst. Sasori just looked back to see what made the difference in level and saw something gray on the dark floor. Instantly, he thought it was something one of them had dropped onto the floor so he lazily picked it up. Now, standing back up straight, he looked at the gray ring in his small hand. Still, he didn't speak though it was the complete opposite in his mind.

What's this? Never seen it before. Oh, well. Whoever it belongs to will start asking around if they want it back.

The thought was a very simple one as he put the ring absent-mindedly into his pants pocket and peeked into the bedroom. All this time, nothing has been spoken and even as Sasori watched Hidan, it was all wordless. As the other charged around the room, he continued to slice whatever he could lay his eyes on, not caring much about the consequences. He didn't even notice the childish looking Akatsuki watching him as all of this happened.

A minute past and Sasori eventually left to go back to the common room. In his opinion, what he saw was usual and he knew the others would agree. Their reason for sending him out like that was just to be nosey. Everyone gets mad and eventually loses their temper about one thing or another. Also, this was Hidan that he was watching which supported it to the end.

"He's fine. Just having a temper tantrum about something," he reported to the others once he got back and sat down again.

Everyone nodded though Itachi frowned a bit, "I hope it's not because he found that bible I was reading with the dog eared the pages." The whispering caused him to receive looks from all the others and he just shrugged as if the damage was already done. The room went back into silence, which made the yelling in the background seem even louder. Now, to fight the noise, Deidara came in from the kitchen with the smell of bacon plastered to his clothing. "Breakfast is done!" he cheered, "Iced tea and bacon, hmph!"

No one bothered to even move though Sasori looked to him. "That's all you make... and can make," he said with an annoyed sway as the rest of the Akatsuki agreed. The negative words made the other frown and his shoulders dropped. "But, you don't get it, hmph. The bacon has to be fried perfectly and the iced tea has to be proportional and everything! ... Holy crap... I said 'proportional', hmph!" Deidara cheered with the look of someone winning a spelling bee contest. That was the last straw as Sasori hopped to his feet, "I'll be in my room." and left.

--

Once Sasori got into the comfort of his room, he sat on his bed and stared at one of the puppets he had been working on. The other side of the room was one of his more favorites, Hiruko that sat on the floor. Just from the looks, someone can tell construction had been started but not yet completed.Pushing himself from the bed, he walked the short distance to Hiruko but just continued to look at it. While the brown eyes traced the outline of the puppet, he thought about where he had left off and what else needed to be changed.

When the small inspection was completed, Sasori stood up and went to gather some tools. He soon returned with a small hammer and a group of puppet parts that was held under one of his arms. An hour later, the construction was completed though Sasori remained in a crouching position. He gave Hiruko a final look-over while trying to get a good view of it.

Everything eventually seemed in order and the short puppet sighed. Another successful construction. The thought was a happy one and matched the small smile that seemed made its way to his face. His smile slowly faded a little when he began to feel a bit hungry. Sure, he was mostly puppet but some of his body was still human. Sasori gathered the leftover parts and hammer as he turned away from Hiruko to stand up.

As he did, he felt the ring in the pocket shift, making the material of his pants lightly rub on his thigh. The almost un-noticeable feeling surprised him until he remembered about the ring but ignored it for a moment. When the puppet parts and other supplies were put away, Sasori dug a small hand into his pocket and took out the ring.

The ring was small to begin with but now seemed even smaller since Sasori was holding it. It also felt very light, or that's what he thought from what little he could feel from it. It's gray color seemed rather depressing but it wasn't that that has gotten the redhead's attention. With a tilt of the head, the ring was closer to his brown eyes. Silently, it got taken away but still studied. What a nice piece of art. The compliment rang out in his thoughts. Very simple but just as nice. It seems very durable and can stand just about any kind of weather and abuse. This is certainly something people can come to admire.

His thoughts came to a rolling end and he was left to watch the ring. The basic emotion of curiosity quickly took over as he began to roll the ring around on his palm with one of his fingers. Slowly, Sasori grabbed it between two of his pale fingers and slipped it onto one of his other ones.

It was surprising that he fit him and continued to watch the gray ring. The color didn't change but then Sasori didn't really expect it to. Another wave of hunger hit him and he looked away from the ring to the door leading out his room. Oh, yeah. I skipped breakfast. He reminded himself and began to leave his bedroom and into the hallway.

Once in the hall, the game was on to try and make something to eat. Maybe he could find some leftovers or something. It really didn't matter to him since he could barely taste the food and he didn't need much of it anyway. Turning a corner, Sasori froze with his foot in mid-air when he heard something snap.

Curious brown eyes searched the hallway for what had broken though nothing could be found. It was then Sasori felt as if he was missing something… and found out what it was when he looked down. The puppet finger that had the gray ring on it had literally broken off and fallen to the floor. With a grumble, he set his foot down and picked up his fallen finger. How could he forget his fingers weren't real but just one of the many part of it that was wooden?

Having a finger literally fall off was rather embarrassing and was thankful that no one had seen. Sasori quickly put the finger back into the knuckle joint and made a fist to make sure everything was all right. It seemed fine though he knew he'd have to go back to his room since things were unfortunately more complicated than that, but he just decided to take the easy way out. When the embarrassing incident had been solved… rather lazily though, Sasori went on through the hall and into the kitchen.

He got into the common room and saw the others eating and talking through food filled mouths. None of them seemed to have noticed Sasori… or he didn't notice since he couldn't understand a word they were saying. Along with that, no one noticed the ring on his skinny finger but then it might have been the large shirt that Sasori seemed lost in. The sleeves were long and covered his hands unless rolled up, which he had when he was working on Hiruko but where now rolled back down. The lack of attention was actually in his favor though as he crossed through the room to go to the kitchen. The sooner he could make some food, the sooner he could get back to his room to eat and the sooner he could see what was wrong with his finger.

--

Yesterday, I broke night typing and when I fell asleep, I had a dream that was like CCM. I was answering to the name Konan which was odd, hm. Anyway, Tobi was showing me this dance and I was trying to get someone to watch it since I thought it was really cute. I tried to get Pein to watch but he was too into his damned book. I kept going, "Peeeeiiiiin-saaaaaamaaaaaaaa!!!"but it didn't work, hm. -feels hurt- Anyway, that's just a random look in my crazy life. Hugs to all!