Apparently, the blonde man's name was Deidara. And Kiba and Gaara took a shine to him quickly enough after he had saved the run away Inuzuka.

But after a few days of traveling together, they had to leave the man behind. Which had been fine in Zabuza's mind because he had gotten kind of tired of having to put up with all four of them ganging up on him, seeing how Akamaru joined in on making fun of him and his supposed incompetence when it came to taking care of his charges.

Kiba had wanted to keep Deidara around because it was fun to have arts and crafts on the road. Gaara liked having him around because Kiba liked having him around. Akamaru liked the toys the blonde would create. But Zabuza didn't like the fact that it seemed like his kid-minions were drifting away from him and closer to the blonde bomber with the interesting kekkai genkkai.

"You promise you'll try and find us whenever you can, Mr. Deidara?"

"Yeah! You can't leave us all alone with this evil guy for too long!"

Kiba knew that Zabuza was glaring at him. But he was too busy hugging the blonde man to care about that. And Gaara was busy hugging him from the other side, which meant that the possible glare being sent his way was also being ignored.

"Oh, kids. I have to go on my way." Deidara smiled softly at the kids hugging him tightly, "But don't worry about it. We'll meet each other again. I promise you that."

They didn't want the blonde man to leave. But he seemed like he truly needed to go. So both boys, with heavy frowns, decided to hug him tighter and not let him go.

"Don't leave us!"

Zabuza sighed at the twin shouts, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes at the boys' theatrics.

"Leave him alone, you runts. You knew he was bound to leave." The man growled, crossing his arms over his chest with a clear lack of amusement on his face. "Now let go of him before I pull you off. He's got things to do and places to be."

"Zabuza's right, kids." The man patted both kid's heads with a soft smile on his face, "I have to get going."

"But I don't want you to go!" Kiba shouted out, "The mean old man doesn't care about us like you do!"

"I don't want you to go, Mr. Deidara!" Gaara whimpered afterwards, "Mr. Old Man has been nice with you around!"

Zabuza growled softly at what was being said by the kids. Especially by Gaara. He hadn't been nicer. He had merely tolerated them more to ensure them staying with him rather than trying to run away with Deidara. And, yeah, he had promised them to begin training them, but that was merely because he needed to begin doing so to ensure having the perfect killing machines before they grew too old to be indoctrinated.

It wasn't because he cared or anything.

"Believe it or not, boys, Zabuza cares for you." Deidara knelt down so he was grasping both kids by their shoulders, smiling at Kiba before leveling Gaara with an even brighter one. "Somewhere, deep down in that cold, barely beating heart, there is love for you two."

Both boys stopped shouting and huffing at this. They were much too caught off guard with what was being said to continue crying. But Zabuza only glared at the blonde man, feeling both insulted and somewhat embarrassed at the same time.

"Whatever. Get going before I decide that the target on your head is worth the trouble."

The blue eyed male smiled broadly at Zabuza, then ruffled both boys' heads, and stood up. Then, after he had shouldered his pack and given one final wave, he began to walk down a path they would not be following him on. They were about three days worth of travel to the Land of the Mist. But Deidara wanted to continue in Fire Country. So they were to separate.

"I'm going to miss him..."

"Me too..."

And a soft bark accompanied both boys' sentiments.

Traveling with two glum boys and one depressed pup was not fun.

Zabuza had grown accustomed to Kiba's and Akamaru's hyperactive antics. And he had even begun to grow used to the idea of the polite and much too nice Gaara following along with their crazed plans simply because he deemed them smart enough to follow.

Even though he'd never admit it, he'd even begun to kind of enjoy seeing them making up all kinds of plans to entertain themselves.

But now, they weren't plotting. They merely sulked about no longer having the artistic blonde around them, lamenting the fact that they weren't going to be able to enjoy the creative explosions the man was able to create with his clay.

Like, right now, Zabuza would have thought the kids would have chosen to plot against him. He had set up a camp in the middle of the forest as the sun descended, like he would have done before. Usually, this would have ended up with the kids and dog consulting one another to try and get some kind of revenge on him for leaving him alone. But Zabuza knew that when he came back with the hot food he had bought (This was the first time he did this. He never bought the kids anything. But seeing how they had been so sullen lately, he guessed that it wouldn't have hurt to try and give them some commodity for once.)

He should have known that having someone like Deidara around them wouldn't have helped the kids. He was much too nice and expressive with how much he cared to be good for the kids. They were used to him. Which meant they were used to someone being detached and cold. But kids were sponges for affection, and Deidara was the kind that didn't stop himself from offering it. Now that he had left, he had cut off their supply of affection. Which meant they were left feeling alone.

That's it. He wasn't letting anyone else get close to the kids unless they were like him: hateful of intimacy. If anyone was much too happy or touchy-feely, Zabuza would get rid of them as quickly as possible to stop them from contaminating his perfect weapons.

Once he neared the campsite he had set up, Zabuza heard something that made him immediately grow suspicious.

Kiba was laughing raucously. Akamaru was barking in happiness. Gaara was giggling in that way that would seem adorable to anyone but Zabuza. And there was an unfamiliar, loud sort of laughter, accompanying their own.

These kids were magnets for unwanted visitors, it seemed.

"So there I stood, with a bra on my head, in only my underwear, and a frying pan heading straight to my head!"

Zabuza's mood went from being somewhat worried to being extremely irritated at what he heard. He didn't know what was going on or who the person the kids had found must have been. He just knew that what he had heard did not amuse him and was certainly not a story they should be listening to.

Softly, he placed the bag of food he had been carrying on the floor and suppressed his chakra to its lowest level. The man's chakra signature was odd. It was clearly strong, but extremely relaxed. He hadn't seemed to have felt Zabuza near. And this meant that the ex-Mist Nin would use this to his advantage.

Quietly he crept towards the small encampment he had set up. And behind the foliage in which he was hiding, he saw a head of long and thick white hair shifting slightly as the shoulders attached to it shook in laughter. Shinobi, without a doubt. But Zabuza didn't care. The man was sitting in between both Gaara and Kiba and this was beyond wrong.

From the way they were laughing, Zabuza could tell that they wouldn't appreciate him killing the man. But if he were to just get rid of him, with minimal bodily harm... They would just be somewhat annoyed. And he could work with that.

"I'll tell you, kids, whenever around women, make sure they don't see that you're looking directly at their chests. It's an insult of some kind."

Eyes narrowing further as he calculated his next move, Zabuza shifted so he was in the best spot to attack. Kiba and Gaara didn't even seem to notice him from the way they kept their attention on the man.

"Women are weird!" Kiba nodded to himself with a cross of his arms over his chest, all the while Gaara blinked at him and the man.

"But... Not all women are so violent..."

"That may be true, Raccoon Eyes, but all women are insane. And that's the common denominator between them."

"Denominator?"

"You kids don't seem to be old enough to know that kind of math... Do you?"

"I can divide and multiply."

"I only know how to add double digits."

For a second, Zabuza paused in his analyzing to allow that to sink in. Gaara, at least a year younger than Kiba, already knew how to divide and multiply. While the tattooed boy only knew how to add double digits... He would have to fix this.

But first...

"Huh. Well, don't worry kids. It's just an expre-Ah!"

Zabuza had moved quickly, quietly. And once he was right behind the white haired man clad in red, the ex-Mist Nin delivered a powerful kick right to his back, sending him flying upwards and far away from his camp.

Kiba and Gaara were busy blinking in surprise at him as the man straightened up. Zabuza merely glared down at both of them as he placed his hands on his hips.

"We're going to need to have a serious talk about talking to strangers."

But the threat that was clear in his voice was ignored. Instead, the kids jumped up with wide eyes and began to shout about wanting to learn how to move as quickly and quietly as him and how to attack as powerfully as he had.

"That was so cool, old man! You've got to teach us how to do that!"

"Please, Mr. Old Man!"

Even Akamaru joined in on the excitement.

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