DEIDARA POV

The initial stares my danna gets upon entering the room quickly disipate with a well-timed scowl around the room. Sasori-danna leads me to a table that is currently empty, the only table that is empty.

“Each partnership warrants its own table. This one is ours. If someone is not in a partnership, then they are simply placed at a table with someone else,” Sasori explains.

“I always sit with Kisame, un, or take the food back to the room for you,” I answer.

“That’s fine,” he waves off, “The tables are just a privelage that is almost treated like a rule, though we aren’t very picky. If someone can’t fit at one table they find another, plain and simple.”

I nod as we proceed up to the line, which is currently non existent though I have seen it grow quite long, each of us getting our own meals and then taking our respectable seats at the table.

A few silent minutes into the meal my danna looks up toward the entrance as a new chakra enters the vicinity, though it’s not completely new. It’s Zetsu. In a way this is odd though, since I’ve never seen him in the cafeteria before.

Sasori-danna looks up again, making eye contact apparently with the fellow akatsuki member, and moments later Zetsu takes a seat at my side.

“How are you Sasori? Deidara?” his harsh voice questions.

His softer voice continues, “Yes, this is the first time anyone’s seen you out of your room for a while. News travels fast.”

“You should have known when I left the room,” my danna points out. Zetsu grins wildly and my danna continues, “Though I am doing well, thank you.”

The conversation drops and the meal continues. I glance over, almost unnoticed, to Zetsu multiple times. He hasn’t gotten anything to eat yet.

“Don’t,” my danna glares at me.

I have no idea what he’s talking about, so I turn back to Zetsu, “So, un, why aren’t you eating with us?”

My danna groans, scowling at me, “I said ‘don’t.’”

The gravelly voice answers before I can speak, “We eat human flesh, that’s why.” Oh… wait! What?

“He’s a cannibal,” Sasori explains.

“You don’t have to be so harsh about it,” the milder voice chimes in. I watch as a grin spreads across Zetsu’s face once more, only this one has a hint of threat behind it, “Though I guess that is the term, isn’t it?”

I for one am not going to be the one to answer that question. From the look on Sasori-danna’s face, he isn’t going to answer either.

Sasori then mumbles a “sorry” into his food before continuing to eat.

I watch as Zetsu turns to me and give myself high marks for not screaming and running away, because if looks could kill I would be dead. “I personally dislike the term ‘cannibal’ when I have no control over what I am, though I do understand that it is the proper description.”

“I see, un,” I quickly turn back to my meal, shoving as much food in my mouth as possible. The theory behind doing so is that if I can’t talk, maybe the conversation will drop. It does, and I’m grateful.

Eventually Zetsu does leave, after a short conversation with Sasori-danna that I make a point not to join. When he does leave my danna looks up at me, scanning me with his eyes, and then apparently content with what he sees, he goes back to his meal. Something tells me I just passed a test that I was never told about.

Just as we are about to get up to leave another person walks into the cafeteria. Nothing strange with that really, except I’ve never seen him around here before. Sasori is looking over with interest too, which probably means that there is something that I’m missing, or that danna has never seen this person before either.

He’s wearing a mask with a spiral on it, and his clothes are pretty plain. He doesn’t have an akatsuki cloak, which means that he isn’t yet an official member, just a trainee, like I had been not too long ago. I watch as he steps into line, instantly to be bullied back a few more spots by some of the higher ranked members. There’s some laughter and staring, but mostly indifference towards the trainee.

I watch as he finally gets his food and then searches for a table, but there are none that are open. He doesn’t seem too bothered by this, as he turns to leave again, presumably going back to his room. I watch one of the other akatsuki trainees stick a leg out, and though the masked boy sees it, he can’t react in time, and trips, falling into our table and stumbles to land at Sasori-danna’s feet.

The young man stumbles to his knees and quickly bows his head, “I’m sorry.”

As this is going on the room falls silent. Apparently Sasori-danna really does have a reputation for being ruthless here. Maybe I’m the only one that doesn’t see it.

My danna grunts at the young man at his feet, “What’s your name?”

“T-Tobi, sir,” he answers, head still bowed, trying to collect his tray and the food that scattered.

“Hn,” my danna lifts his head and moves to walk around Tobi, “you’ll have to be better at dodging simple things like some one tripping you,” a few sniggers from the table with the trainee that tripped Tobi, “if you ever want to become a member.”

Tobi bows his head more, “I know, I’m sorry.”

As my danna starts to walk away he makes a disgusted noise and says, “Don’t be sorry, just don’t let it happen again.”

I try to stay to talk to the new trainee, but Sasori-danna grabs my arm and drags me out of my seat. I manage to not stumble as I land on the floor from my chair that tilts from the force of danna pulling me, and follow him.

As we leave, I shout back to Tobi, “Nice to meet you, un!”
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a/n: if only Deidara knew then what he knows now... (have to have read the latest chapters... like 318...to know what I mean, not a real spoiler, but sorry any ways!)