It felt like Sasori had barely even closed his eyes before Kisame was shaking his shoulder. "Sasori, we're here."

"Hm?" Sasori blearily blinked his eyes open and looked around, wondering exactly where "here" might be. He hadn't felt the escape ship land, but they definitely weren't moving right now. "Kisame, where are we?"

"I'll explain once we get off this ship and regroup with the others," the general assured him. "Just follow me." Deciding that now would be a great time to just shut up and listen to his commanding officer, Sasori managed to grab hold of his rucksack and shakily rose to his feet, following Kisame off the ship.

Sasori looked around at his new surroundings, slowly taking it all in. Instead of a jungle buzzing with the sounds of local wildlife, the VUM fighters and humans were in some sort of massive metal tunnel. The air was drier here than it had been in the jungle base, but was at least as hot if not hotter. Most of the light came from lamps and fires set up around the camp, which itself seemed to have been hastily constructed from tents, scrap metal, and canvas sheets to form a temporary base of operations. Distantly Sasori could hear the sounds of running water, and…was that traffic?

Thoroughly confused by now, the redhead unthinkingly followed his leader deeper into the camp, until they stopped next to a trio of tents braced against the wall of the metal tunnel. "This is where we'll be staying for a few days," Kisame explained. "You take the tent on the right; Hidan and Kakuzu are in the bigger one on the left, and I'll be in the middle."

"Kisame, where are we? And where's Deidara? And what happened back in the jungle?"

The shark shook his head and tossed his bag into his own tent, motioning for Sasori to do the same. "Honestly, I have no idea. Konan's been coming and going all night between here and the old base, but during her last stop I got her to promise that we'd all have a talk when she next got in. That'll answer your first and last questions, but I don't know about Deidara. Presumably he's still somewhere in the camp, but right after we landed he got off the ship and took off. No clue where he is now."

Sasori nodded in acceptance of Kisame's explanations. The shark had no reason to lie to him, and the only person who would know anything about what had happened (read: Konan) would clearly still be trying to maintain order and do whatever she could for what had turned into two camps. "So how long was I out?"

"About six hours, give or take," Kisame answered. "We actually landed half an hour ago, but the crew was kind enough to give you and Hidan a little extra sleep while they unloaded the supplies. They just made you get off because they needed the ship for something else; no idea what though."

"So Hidan is…?"

A snore from the tent on the left answered his question. "Kakuzu pretty much carried him here," Kisame snickered. "I'm not really sure he ever woke up on the way. And no one seemed to mind; guess the Falks like Hidan better when he's quiet, just like us. Kakuzu's off getting lunch right now, and I'm heading that way too."

"What about Tobi?"

"He should be eating lunch with the others too. Come on, drop your things and let's eat." Sasori obeyed his captain's orders and tossed his baggage into the tent, before following the shark towards what he presumed was the temporary MESS tent. Call it callous to be thinking of food after nearly being killed and forced to evacuate, but in times of warfare you ate, slept, and crapped when you could.

Sasori and Kisame entered one of the larger green tents and were assaulted by the smell of burnt meat and a few other less than appetizing scents. Half a dozen tables had been erected throughout the tent, mostly by laying plywood boards across larger chunks of scrap metal and setting crates along the edges for seats. Falk soldiers were draped over the table, poking at their food with half-hearted effort to put something in their stomachs before collapsing from exhaustion. Before Kisame and Sasori could take a seat and join the throng, their attention was diverted by a most peculiar sight in the corner of the room.

Tobi was surrounded by three girls that Sasori recognized as the Falks Tobi had pampered earlier, and they appeared to be crying and squeezing Tobi to death. "Oh, zank goodness for zis 'uman!" Lily crooned, strands of burnt blue hair dangling in her eyes.

"Oui, were it not for monsieur Tobi, we never would 'ave survived!" Tilly agreed.

"Zere we were, sleeping in our beds, when suddenly Tobi burst in and awoke us!" Milly explained to anyone who was bothering to listen (which wasn't very many). "We were terribly frightened, but Tobi did not 'esitate for a moment! Zis man gazered our zings and led us zrough ze fray, and zen made sure we arrived in zis camp safe and sound!"

"Oh Tobi, we can never zank you enough for zis!" All the girls suddenly pounced and engulfed the masked soldier in a sobbing sea of red, pink, and blue hair.

"Really girls, Tobi just wanted to make sure his friends were ok!" Tobi exclaimed, looking progressively more and more uncomfortable wrapped in the embrace of the trio.

"Tobi, I am forever indebted to you!" Milly declared, peering up at the man through messy red bangs. "When ze war is over, I shall marry you!"

"Not a chance!" Tilly snapped. "Tobi is to be my 'usband!"

"No, Tobi shall marry me!" Lily interjected. Soon the girls broke down into Falkian squabbling and hissing, each trying to pull Tobi to herself and nearly pulling the poor human into three pieces.

Kisame let the girls argue for a minute more, mostly for the entertainment value, before walking up and extracting a truly terrified Tobi from their clutches. "Sorry ladies, but I need to borrow my soldier for a bit."

"But 'e must decide which of us 'e shall marry!" Milly snapped.

"Later, promise," Kisame dismissively replied as he half-walked, half-dragged Tobi away from the sisters. "Honestly Tobi, I leave you alone for five minutes and this happens."

"Tobi didn't mean to make them mad!" the masked man pled. "Tobi just wanted to be a good boy!" Kisame rolled his eyes and pushed his subordinate towards the food line, which by now was full of Falks giving Tobi scathing and confused looks.

Sasori tried not to think too hard about the mess that his life had become in the past twelve hours, and settled in between Kisame and Tobi to eat…whatever it was that the cooks had managed to slop together. As he choked down the first squishy mouthful, the Akasuna briefly wondered if he was even eating food, and it took every ounce of willpower he had to force the rest of the meal down and keep it down.

Shortly after the trio had finished their meal, Sasori decided to go on the hunt for Deidara. Kisame advised him against this; as soon as Konan got back they'd be meeting, so Sasori would be better off trying to get as much sleep as possible now. Sasori, however, wanted to find Deidara and ask him about the scuffle on the escape ship. He'd seen Deidara hiss and threaten others before, but never actually witnessed the blond get into a fight. Kisame wasn't very happy with Sasori's decision but decided to let the redhead go; he at least wanted to get some sleep for himself. With a wave goodbye, Sasori was off.

Sasori had planned to check all the common areas first, but realized that this would be foolhardy since very little had been set up aside from the MESS and sleeping areas. He asked a few Falks if they had seen Deidara, but since very few of them spoke any English at all, never mind good English, this plan also fizzled out very quickly. He finally settled for walking around the edge of the camp and working his way in, hoping that the blond wasn't on the move or actively trying to avoid him. After searching for longer than he'd care to admit, Sasori finally stumbled across his Falkian friend.

Deidara was at the edge of camp, sitting on the ground near a burnt out fire, staring at the coals with a frown on his face. He didn't look up until Sasori was almost on top of him, and didn't say anything as Sasori took a seat beside him. "I've been looking for you," Sasori stated.

"You found me, un."

Sasori resisted the urge to sigh; he'd been worried that Deidara wouldn't be incredibly talkative so soon after the incident. "I was looking for you because I wanted to talk."

"About what?"

"Deidara, you know what."

The blond looked away from the redhead, hands balling into fists at his side. "The one I attacked…he was saying bad things about us."

"I gathered that much," Sasori stated. "But you've never attacked anyone like that, and I'm positive you've heard horrible things in camp before and just not said anything."

"This time was different," Deidara snapped. "They weren't just saying things about you, un. They said I was a traitor for being so close to you. That I was probably a…I guess whore is the closest word you have for what they called me, un. And they just kept going on and on, un. I've been hearing it for weeks, but this time, it was just too much."

Sasori was surprised; although he knew that humans were disliked or even hated by some members of the camp, he had no idea that the animosity would spread to Deidara. "Deidara, I'm so sorry," Sasori murmured. "I didn't realize-"

"Why would you, un?" Deidara hissed. "They won't insult Konan because she's the leader, they won't insult Kakuzu because he's just following orders, so it's just me that gets hurt, un." Sasori reached out to put a hand on Deidara's shoulder, only for the blond to smack it away. "Don't."

Sasori slowly retracted his hand and watched the blond, hoping for some sign of what to do now. Unfortunately, the Akasuna still wasn't terribly good at reading Falkian body language and was thus at a complete loss. "Would it help if you and I didn't spend so much time together?"

Deidara shook his head. "Probably not, un. They're angry and I'm a good target for them."

"So, what should we do?"

Deidara shrugged and stood up. "You can do whatever you want, un. I will be going to my tent and getting sleep."

"It's our tent," Sasori corrected as he stood as well. "Someone, I don't know who, decided to put us together."

Deidara muttered something under his breath that Sasori couldn't understand and began walking in the direction of the sleeping area. Sasori hung back, watching the blond walk off. Well that could have gone better.

-meanwhile-

Kakuzu gently shook Hidan on the shoulder, prompting the Jashinist to swear softly before slowly blinking his eyes open. "Kuzu? What the hell?" he slurred, eyes unable to focus on anything at the moment.

The Falk held up a plate of food in front of Hidan, indicating that he wanted the human to eat. "Seriously? You woke me up to eat that shit?" Hidan sat up and gave the food a closer look, wrinkling his nose at the concoction. "What the fuck's in it?"

Kakuzu shrugged.

"Really Kakuzu? You fucking wake me up to make me eat fucking shit like that, when we just got our asses handed to us by Jashin knows who and all I wanna do is sleep?"

Kakuzu nodded, shoving the food into Hidan's arms.

"Ack! Fine, you don't have to be such an ass," the Jashinist grumbled as he began to poke at the food with the spork Kakuzu had given him. "Yeesh, this is worse than what they fed us in basic training…"

Kakuzu reached behind him and ruffled through one of the sacks on his sleeping bag, before turning back around and showing a very familiar bottle to Hidan. "Holy shit, you saved the ketchup?!"

Kakuzu nodded.

"Sweet!" Hidan quickly snatched the condiment bottle and inverted it, dumping a liberal coating of ketchup over the food. "Mm, much better."

Kakuzu sat quietly as Hidan finished most of the food, not having much of an appetite himself without the ketchup to smear on everything. The Falk reached up to his mask while waiting for Hidan to finish, fingers playing with the edge of the fabric for a minute before he retracted his hand. Hidan watched him do this from the corner of his eye a few times, before finally speaking up. "For Jashin's sake, just take off the damn thing already."

Kakuzu jumped at the words, giving Hidan a confused look. "They're just scars, I've seen them before, and there's no way in hell you're comfortable in all that; I'm surprised your dumb ass didn't drop dead in the jungle from the heat of wearing all that shit. Fucking take it off."

Kakuzu shot Hidan a look and then turned away from the soldier. "What?" Hidan demanded. "It's not like I don't have scars too."

Kakuzu looked around the tent, searching, and at last located a scrap of paper and a pen. Picking these up, he quickly scrawled a message and shoved the piece of paper into Hidan's hands. Hidan gave the Falk a confused look before reading the note. "I am disfigured." Hidan looked back at Kakuzu. "I'm not gonna say anything, dumbass."

Kakuzu reached for the paper, intent on writing another message, but Hidan snatched it away. "Listen. Three years ago, my brother was in a hangar when a bomb exploded twenty fucking feet from where he was standing. He lost both legs and most of his Jashin-damned skin. His cheek was gone so you could see his teeth when his mouth was closed, and all the fingers left on the hand they didn't amputate got fucking fused together. And he was alive in a Jashin-damned hospital bed like that for three days. So unless you can top that, stop acting like I'm gonna flip out when I see a couple of scars."

Silence hung in the air between the two for a time. Kakuzu gave the Jashinist's words a few moments to sink in as Hidan sat wringing his hands, clearly agitated by the memory he'd just brought up. Finally, Kakuzu once again reached up to the edge of his mask, this time grasping the fabric and lifting it up to pull the mask off. He sat with the mask in his lap, thinking, before setting it to the side and pulling off his shirt as well.

Kakuzu had always worn long-sleeved clothing around the others in camp; Hidan had the distinct feeling that the man didn't even like eating with his mask off around others. Now, the Jashinist could see why Kakuzu might be a little sensitive. His chest was covered in deep gouges and cuts, with burns on the right side. Chunks of his flesh were missing from his waistline, and a single long gash went from his neck all the way down his spine to the opposite hip. There was barely a square inch of the Falk that wasn't scarred or burned.

Hidan looked up at the Falk's face, trying to find the right words. All that came out was, "Well shit."

Kakuzu picked up the paper and began writing again. "I told you."

"No, damn it! I meant…shit, I feel like a huge ass right now."

"?"

"I'm sorry," Hidan muttered. "I didn't realize it was that bad. But really, they don't bother me."

"They bother me."

"I swear, I'm not going to say shit about them! Seriously. I'm not that big of an ass."

Kakuzu thought about this for a minute and slowly nodded. He took the paper back one last time and wrote a final message, before settling down on his bed to finally start on his lunch. Hidan looked down at the message, silently reading to himself. "Sorry about your brother. My family's gone too."

Hidan wadded up the note and stuffed it in his pocket. Some scars went deeper than you thought.

-m-

Sasori crawled into the tent some time later. Deidara was already tucked in beside him, sheets pulled up over his head. Sasori was certain that the blond was uncomfortable on the floor of their tent, having left the cot for the Akasuna. The breathing was also somewhat erratic, and occasionally Sasori could hear soft…chirping? Slowly, the redhead crouched down and tapped Deidara on the shoulder. "Deidara?"

Deidara rolled over and pulled down the sheets, facing Sasori. "What."

"I'm sorry. I'll talk to Konan about it-"

"Don't," Deidara sighed. "Just, don't worry about it, un. She'd only make it worse."

"Well, at least tell me what word they called you," Sasori asked. "So I can stick up for you next time I hear it."

"You know that would only cause a fight, un."

"Deidara…"

"Fine. It's *click*haaas*click*." Sasori repeated the word a few times before Deidara deemed the pronunciation acceptable. "And it means whore?"

"Literally, a whore that sleeps with a person to hurt another person, un."

"So, a spiteful whore?"

"If that's what spiteful means, un."

Sasori gave the blond a sad look. "Deidara, none of us think you're my whore."

"I know, un. It still hurts, un."

Sasori nodded and made up the cot, finishing it off by snatching up Deidara's blanket. "Hey, un!"

"Come on; there's no way you actually want to sleep on the ground."

"Sasori, did you just forget everything that happened today?!"

"Deidara, I can't do anything about those jerks insulting you, but I can make sure that you and I are semi-comfortable tonight."

"But-"

"Just get on the cot, please."

Biting back the objections he clearly wanted to voice, Deidara climbed onto the cot against the tent wall, with Sasori crawling in beside him. The Akasuna pulled up the covers over the two of them, and after a little fidgeting on both their parts the duo was ready to sleep. At least, Sasori was before Deidara started speaking again. "Danna?"

"Yes?"

"What am I to you anyway, un?"

"Honestly? I don't know if either of our languages have a word for it. You're the person I rescued from that backwoods planet and smuggled onto a government vessel, who helped make sure we were rescued by VUM, who went on secret missions with me for a vigilante force, and who put up with countless amounts of insults for all that. Actually, English does have a word for that."

"Un?"

"Friend. You're my friend. Probably my best friend, actually."

Deidara looked at Sasori. "You mean that, un?"

"Yeah. And I'm sorry that the Falks around here have been treating you so badly. But I swear, I'll do everything I can to protect you in the future, Deidara. That's what friends do."

Deidara gave the redhead a strange look. "Thank you, danna." Slowly, he reached towards the redhead's neck and gently brushed the side of it, fingers ghosting against a few strands of hair. "Deidara, what are you doing?"

The blond smiled and drew his hand back slightly. "You really need a haircut, Sasori danna, un."

"Pardon?"

"It's getting so long," Deidara chuckled. "It'll be as long as mine soon, see?" And he tugged on a few strands to make his point.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "Well excuse me, but hairdressers are in short supply around here. Excluding Tobi, of course."

"I know. But we'll be here for a while, right? Tobi can cut it soon, un."

Sasori rolled his eyes again. "Deidara, go to sleep." The blond chuckled again before snuggling down in the cot as Sasori did the same. In a matter of minutes, they both were asleep.