14
Winter ice will thaw
And bring about spring's warmth
If time isn't stopped
"Sasori, un. You all right? It's been a whole two days already, and it's not like I even injured you, un."
The bundle in the corner of the cave didn't stir.
"Last time…" Inazuma swallowed as her throat closed up. She sighed.
Deidara acted as though she hadn't spoken. "How're you gonna get back home, by the way? It's quite a ways to the Village Hidden in the Clouds, especially for an unqualified ninja brat like you, un."
"I don't know," she answered, trying (and failing) not to feel offended that he'd called her an 'unqualified ninja brat.'
Sasori suddenly sat up from his corner, and blinked open his eyes, squinting at the watery morning light that poured in from the cave entrance. He stretched his left arm up and rolled his neck with and odd popping sound. Inazuma jumped at the unexpected movement.
"Whoa, man. Give us a little more warning next time, un. It's like seeing a corpse come to life out of nowhere."
Sasori ignored him, addressing Inazuma instead. "Do you have the scroll with you, brat?"
Deidara looked confused for a moment at the nickname, and opened his mouth to snap irritably at his partner, but before he could, Inazuma nodded and reached into her bulging jacket pocket. She pulled out the neatly wrapped scroll that she'd tied off with a piece of steel wire.
"Bring it over here and unroll it on the ground. I'm going to send you back."
"Reverse-summoning?" Deidara asked, wide-eyed, "Just how many jutsu do you know, un?"
"Enough for my trade, unlike you, the one-stupid-trick-wonder," (Deidara bristled very visibly, baring his teeth and groping for some clay. Sadly for him, he'd run out. Sasori pretended not to notice.) "Inazuma," he said, "Stand on your name."
She stepped onto the scroll, her left shoe completely obscuring her childish handwriting.
"That's fine," he said, "Thank you for your help."
Deidara's jaw went slack and nearly dropped to the cave floor at these words.
Sasori wove several seals in quick succession and smacked his palm against the scroll. The writing around Inazuma's foot began to glow blue, casting eerie shadows around her ankles.
The last words she heard were:
"And Deidara, since you've been a complete moron, I'm not going to waste my chakra healing your wound."
"YOU LITTLE…"
And Inazuma vanished in a puff of smoke.