DEIDARA POV

A loud rapping at the door jolts me awake, shaking me from my pleasant dreams. I look over to the door, ready to answer, and watch Sasori-danna, already dressed answer it instead, walking with a slight hindrance. I feel my cheeks burn with guilt.

He opens the door, wearing loose sweatpants that I have come to know as his lounge wear. I hear bantering between Kisame and Itachi just outside.

“Sasori,” Itachi greets plainly, then looks in the room, “Deidara.”

“Hi, Itachi, un,” I greet back, letting my signature smirk creep onto my lips from my less than welcome position under the blankets of the bed.

Kisame instantly chimes in from somewhere off to the right of where I can see, “We’re off on an assassination, all of us. I know it sounds strange, but what’s worse is we’re not sure of who we’re after-”

“We’re to meet Zetsu,” Itachi interrupts, “at the leaf village border and learn more there.” I watch as he glares off to the right, presumably at Kisame.

“Sounds good, un,” I draw his attention back to us.

Sasori-danna just nods in agreement, making one of the puppets nearby move to his side. Itachi smirks, the closest to a smile I have ever seen him get to, or at least in front of me. He then turns, reaching out and drags Kisame by an arm back in the general direction of their room.

I grin wildly, “An assassination, un? Sound like fun!”

Sasori turns to me, “Don’t get too excited, and never get confident. The two can be deadly.”

I instantly quiet down and find some pants before gathering some clay into one of my travel bags. An assassination for my first mission? Quite a jump from the measly spying that I had to do as a trainee. It sounds like fun, but what about Sasori-danna? Should he really be going out there while he’s still healing? He’s still jumpy, and he is my danna, so I worry about him.

I glance over at him as he does the same to me, catching my eyes and making me glance away once more.

“Don’t worry about me, Deidara, take care of yourself first. We may have two man squads, and this may be a four man operation, but if push comes to shove you know akatsuki law: we leave those who can’t fight for themselves behind. If you get in trouble, I won’t be able to do much, not if the others won’t agree to it,” he turns to me, “I’ll be fine though. This is just a routine mission to me.”

“I know you’ll be fine, un,” and I believe it, but knowing they won’t go back for him, or me, worries me.

Watching him professionally set poison needles into a giant puppet makes me appreciate more that I have such a great danna that knows what he’s doing. The massive thing he works on his a face in the front that seems to be covered by a scarf my danna placed there, and there’s another larger face on the back. The tail that my Sasori-danna is now tampering with looms largely over me.

“This is Hiruko,” he answers my unasked question, “a puppet specifically modified to act as armor. During the duration of our mission there are few times that I leave the safety of Hiruko, for it also can be used for attacks, as you can tell. Once we are one the road I will only leave Hiruko to blend in if we enter a village, or when we meet Zetsu, because it’s law that we meet face to face, again you know that.”

I nod, then grin, “Neat, un!” Truthfully, the idea of staring at that thing the whole time is freaky.

“Neat or not,” he smirks, “it’s effective. In battle it has never failed me.”

Wow! My danna may be even better than I thought. Maybe I’m being too pessimistic about this.