Konan stared at the receipts lying out on her desk, biting her lip nervously as she reread them for what had to be the twentieth time. "You are absolutely positive zat zese were in Zabuza's ledgers?"

"Well I definitely didn't find them here on the base," Sasori snapped, probably more harshly than he had the right to. The redhead was just getting a little annoyed that Konan couldn't seem to accept this blatant, hard evidence as fact, despite having had the receipts in her possession for nearly half an hour now. It was late, he was tired, and bed sounded really good right now. The redhead was actually beginning to regret having approached the blue-haired woman immediately, instead of waiting until the morning when he'd had a bit of rest.

Konan finally nodded in acceptance, even offering Sasori a somewhat sheepish look. "You must understand, Monsieur Sasori, good fortune 'as a nasty 'abit of overlooking the Verden Underground Movement, so for us to get zis kind of good fortune…it is somezing zat, as you 'umans like to say, 'appens once in a blue moon."

"I know, I couldn't believe it, but there's no way this is just a coincidence," Sasori pointed out. "What are the odds that a company on Earth would pick the acronym NADSRaD to stand for North Atlantic Deep Sea Research and Development, and then halfway across the galaxy another company just happens to pick the name Northern Attachment's Decommissioned Soldiers' Resources and Dieticians, which just happens to have the same acronym? And come on, the second one even sounds like someone made it up in five minutes because it had the right letters and vaguely sounded sensible!"

"When you put it zat way, zere really isn't much room for argument," Konan had to agree. "All right, I shall 'ave my men look into zis company and see if we can find some connection to zat mine shaft. But Sasori, I must make a small request of you."

"What is it?"

"I am going to tell my men zat I not only found ze receipts, but made ze connection between zis company and ze computer in ze cave. And before you can protest, please see it my way. You found ze computer zat day; no one else did. You made ze connection to its origins. Zen, on zis assignment, you against all odds found ze 'andful of receipts zat connect us to what may be a front for whoever put zat computer in ze cave."

"You think I'm a spy," Sasori surmised.

Konan shook her head. "Give me a bit more credit zan zat, mon cher. I know a traitor when I see one, and you 'ave been nozing but absolutely loyal to everyone in zis camp! But many of my men are not so trusting of 'umans, and would love a good reason to, 'ow you say, give you people ze sandal? No, the clog…it's a word like zat…"

"Give us the boot?" Sasori guessed.

"If zat is 'ow ze saying goes, zen oui. Please, keep zis between ze two of us for now. I shall explain zis to Monsieur Fishy if I must, and possibly Deidara as well, but until zat time comes, say nozing to anyone!"

"I understand," Sasori quickly agreed, wanting to avoid a confrontation with an angry Konan if that was at all possible.

"Good," the Falk replied, settling back down in her chair. "I shall make zis my top priority; Itachi will just 'ave to wait, I'm sad to say. You are free to go now."

Nodding, Sasori rose and exited the room, breathing a sigh of relief once he got outside. Konan had been right; it would look too suspicious if he found two huge clues back to back like that. For now, he'd listen to what the Falk had to say and keep his mouth shut.

Still, Sasori was fairly certain that at least in part, Konan wanted the credit for this find because it would strengthen her support among the resistance members. The redhead didn't care to be used like this, but once Konan made an announcement that the find had been hers, any objections by the redhead would not only hurt him but Konan as well, and that would put the entire human group in danger. Sasori made a mental note to keep an eye on Konan in the near future; he liked the Falk, but in the game of politics among the VUM and humans, Konan was a master player, and Sasori wasn't even sure he knew all the pieces.

His musings on Konan were cut short by an attack from his side. Seconds later Deidara was lying on his back and staring up at Sasori, who'd managed to flip him out of equal parts reflex and sheer luck. "Wow danna, how come you never did that back on the ship, un?"

"Was there a reason you chose to tackle me?" Sasori retorted as he helped the blond back onto his feet.

"Oh yeah! You've got to come see what Tobi's doing right now, un!"

"If it has anything to do with spaghetti, his nose, and a world record, I've see that trick before."

"Un?"

"…Let's see what it is."

-m-

Sasori and Deidara peered through the doorway into the lounge, Deidara covering his mouth to suppress giggles and Sasori gaping in amazement. "No way," he finally whispered.

"Keep watching, un!"

Sitting on the lounge's couch and a nearby rocking chair were three Falk girls, one with pixie cut hair dyed a bright bubblegum pink, one with shoulder-length electric blue hair, and the third with her hair wrapped in a towel. They all had the same grey eyes and facial structure, indicating that they were siblings, and all of them seemed to be in the process of getting a makeover. Towel girl had a green mud mask on her face, pink girl was having her nails filed, and blue was admiring her own nails while soaking her feet in a portable foot spa. And who was seeing to all these makeovers? None other than Tobi.

"Ah, Monsieur Tobi, my nails 'ave never looked so magnifique!" the blue haired girl crooned.

"Oui, and my face 'asn't felt zis good since before we joined ze VUM!" her towel-wearing sister added. "Who knew working in filing could be so stressful?!"

"Do tell, 'ow did you ever get so good at zis?!" the pink one all but demanded.

Tobi chuckled softly and shrugged, careful not to damage the pinkette's hand in the process. "Tobi spent a few years working at a salon. It was kinda fun; Tobi met all sorts of people there."

"Oooh, what kind?!" blue inquired, seemingly hanging on to Tobi's every word.

"Well, once Tobi got a lady who said she'd never been to the same salon twice, because she liked variety-"

"Oh, to 'ave zat luxury!"

"And another time, Tobi met a lady who was really old and had never had anyone work on her feet, so it took Tobi almost an hour to scrape off her calluses."

All three girls made retching sounds at the thought of such icky feet. "Tobi, my feet aren't zat bad, are zey?" blue asked, batting her lashes at the masked man.

"Of course not Lily! Tobi thinks those feet are lovely." Lily beamed and went back to admiring her nails. "Oooh, it's been thirty minutes! Milly, time to rinse out the excess dye and take off the mask! Tilly, while Tobi does that, pick out a polish color, ok?"

"Sacrebleu, I wish we 'ad more colors to pick from!" the pink-haired girl known as Tilly fussed as she looked over the half-dozen bottles sitting on her lap. "I don't care what Konan says, beauty products should count as basic necessities!"

"Don't use all ze blue!" Lily demanded. "Tobi is going to paint my toes to match my 'air."

"Fine, I shall use ze red."

"This has to be the strangest thing I've seen Tobi do in a long time," Sasori whispered to Deidara. "And that's including the spaghetti trick."

"What is that anyway, un?"

"Well first Tobi cooked about a pound of spaghetti, and then-" but the redhead never got to finish, because in the next moment Lily and Tilly let out twin squeals of glee. Milly had returned, sporting pixie cut hair that such a vibrant shade of scarlet that it even drew attention away from her sisters' pink and blue locks.

"Très magnifique!" Tilly declared. "Monsieur Tobi, you are ze best zing zat 'as 'appened to our department in a very long time!"

"Oh, why did you ever leave ze salon business in ze first place?" Lily couldn't help but ask.

Tobi ever so slightly flinched at the question, but nevertheless calmly sat himself down in front of Tilly and began painting her nails. "Well, it was because of Tobi's brother."

"Oooh, you have a brozer?!" the girls squealed.

"A twin, actually," Tobi corrected. "It means we were born on the same day, so he was only thirteen minutes older than me."

"Aww!"

"Tobi and Madara (that's his name, sorry) played together all the time as kids. Madara always wanted to be a soldier or a policeman or something, so Tobi would be a bad guy or someone getting attacked by a vicious robber, and Madara would swoop in and save the day!"

"'Ow precious!" Lily crooned, the other girls nodding in agreement.

"Tobi always had fun. But one day, Madara wanted to play that he was a ninja fighting an evil ninja, so he made Tobi climb up the tallest tree in the yard. And then, when Madara was almost as high up as Tobi…the branch he was holding onto snapped…"

All three girls gasped, which was fortunate because Deidara had let out a sound of surprise as well. "Oh, zat is terrible!" Tilly cried out.

"Watch the nails!" Tobi scolded. "Anyway, when Tobi grew up, he didn't really know what to do with life, so since Madara had made it seem like a good idea, Tobi decided to try military life and see if it gave him any direction."

"Oh, you poor little zing!" Lily fussed, and soon she and both her sisters were giving Tobi a hug. "Such a tragic accident, and you were just a little boy!"

"Let's go, before this gets sappy, un," Deidara whispered, and Sasori was inclined to agree. Tobi was in imminent danger of being coddled, and that was a sight that Sasori really didn't want to see. Besides, Deidara and he were still completely wiped out from the mission earlier, and Sasori had the distinct feeling that as fun as it had been to spy on Tobi, by the time the Uchiha's life story had rolled around, both of them were ready for bed.

"Wow, who knew Tobi lost his brother like that, un," Deidara remarked as they walked down the hall towards the dorms. "It's one thing to lose family in a war, but at home…that's like slipping on a bar of soap and breaking your neck, un."

"I knew Tobi lost family, but I thought it was just his parents," Sasori added. "I guess his brother passed too."

"Really, un?"

"It was kind of a recurring theme in our unit, really," Sasori admitted. "I don't have parents and was raised by my grandma, Tobi's parents died a while back, and Hidan was raised by his brother who actually died in the war a few years ago."

Deidara seemed troubled by this information. "Why didn't you tell me any of this, un?"

"Hmm?"

"I thought you didn't say anything about the others because you didn't know them that well, but I guess that was wrong, un. So why didn't you say anything about their families, un?"

"I didn't think you needed to know." It was true; why would Deidara have any interest in the other humans and their personal lives, when he spent the vast majority of his time with just Sasori?

Deidara rolled his eyes, a gesture which had become slightly less awkward looking for the Falk after much practice. "I don't need to know, but it would be nice to know. If I had any friends here, I'd tell you all about them, un."

"Deidara, is this a Falk thing, or am I missing something because I'm exhausted?"

The blond shook his head. "I don't know, un. It just feels like sometimes, you keep things from me, un. And I trust you with my life, danna. I owe you my life. But I need to know that trusting you is a good decision for me, un. Do you understand, or is my English still bad?"

Sasori did his best to keep his face devoid of any signs of deception, and nodded to Deidara. "Deidara, you can trust me. I've never lied to you." Lies by omission don't count, really, right? "If you'd like, tomorrow I can tell you all about my friends, here and at home."

"You don't have to tell me everything, un," Deidara clarified. "Just the big stuff, like how I probably shouldn't make a joke about Tobi's mother because she's kind of dead, un."

"I'm beginning to see your point about telling you things," Sasori admitted with a yawn. "Tomorrow then."

"Un," Deidara agreed. "But tonight, we sleep."