[A/N: Look, I updated a thing! I'm not a complete failure!]

Chapter 3:

Sasori took a step back from Deidara. Deidara did the same, realizing with a sinking feeling that Sasori was now standing between him and the clay bird.

"You're not taking me to my handlers," Sasori said accusingly. His stance, which before had been soft and childishly slouched, had taken on a firmer, more aggressive quality. Deidara could see now why the puppet belonged in Suna's armory. "You stole me." Even Sasori's eyes were brighter now, and focused in on Deidara's with unnerving intensity.

" 'Stole' is such a strong word, don't you think, un?" Deidara protested, hoping to keep Sasori distracted long enough for him to either make a run for it or get some bombs ready. "Couldn't we say, like, 'unauthorized transportation'? And anyway, if you wanted to get technical about it, I'm only doing this because I was told to so it's not as if I'm actually responsible…"

While he spoke, Deidara had been moving his hand slowly towards his pouch of clay. He had just slipped his fingers inside when Sasori suddenly thrust a hand forward. Before he had a chance to dodge, a wire shot out of the puppet's wrist and wrapped around Deidara's arm. Deidara yelped in pain as Sasori jerked on the wire, throwing him to the ground. The thin wire was tight enough to gouge into his skin, and he didn't dare move his fingers for fear of damaging a tendon.

"Only my handlers are allowed to touch me," Sasori said, stepping closer and releasing the wire from Deidara's arm. Deidara would have been relieved if it weren't for the poisonous gleam of the needle-like blades he could now see emerging from Sasori's fingers. "All others are to be eliminated."

If I survive this I promise I'll never pick a lock again! Deidara swore desperately to whatever higher power had to be punishing him at the moment. He started to sit up, then rolled to the side as a volley of senbon were launched at him. "What are you doing this for, un?" he asked. Sasori had moved enough that if he was distracted for even a few seconds, Deidara might be able to run past him and make it to the bird. Once he took off, he would be safe from Sasori's rampage. Unless he has ranged weapons, of course. Which, considering how this day is going, is pretty likely.

"You're not a handler," Sasori repeated, as another set of senbon slid silently into place. "I have to kill you."

"But do you want to?"

"That's irrelevant," Sasori retorted, but his pace slowed for a moment and Deidara took his chance, scrambling to his feet and bolting for the bird. He hadn't counted on how fast the puppet's reactions were, however, and Deidara had only made it a few strides before Sasori whirled around and caught his already injured wrist in a brutally tight grip for such small hands.

Forced to his knees, Deidara bit back a scream as his forearm shattered under the puppet's fingers. He lacerated his bottom lip in the process and gagged on the blood that filled his mouth. "You didn't care who I was a few minutes ago," he gasped out as Sasori released his arm. "What makes all the difference now, un?" he asked as a blade slid into position in Sasori's other hand. It was probably pointless to try to talk the doll out of killing him at this point, but Deidara had never been one to pass up an opportunity for survival. That was how he had lived long enough to become a missing-nin.

"I have orders," Sasori pointed out. The blade paused a few inches from Deidara's throat.

"And who is here to make you obey them, un?" Deidara retorted, gesturing with his uninjured arm around the clearing, which was empty except for the two of them. His brief surge of adrenaline was fading—in a moment he would probably collapse from the pain and then Sasori would be free to kill him. But maybe there's one more thing I can try, he thought as something the puppet had said earlier came to mind. "Didn't you say you wanted to fly? I can let you fly…"

Sasori frowned, and Deidara cringed as he pulled the blade back for a strike. Just when he had given himself up for dead, the blade vanished soundlessly back into its slot in Sasori's arm. When Deidara looked up, the weapon was gone and he could see the child again. "Can you?" Sasori said eagerly. "I want to fly!"

Deidara only had time to smile and nod before he blacked out.

…

"Deidara?"

A cool fingertip poked his cheek. Deidara waved one arm to make the finger go away, then remembered what had happened as pain surged up it. Opening his eyes, he saw Sasori looking down at him, his brown eyes opened as wide as was probably possible for his construction. Even in its limited state, the range of expression in the puppet's face was impressive, especially for someone like Deidara with previous artistic experience.

"You're awake. Can we fly now?" Sasori, apparently satisfied that Deidara had been roused, pulled his hand back.

Deidara sat up stiffly, bracing himself with the arm that hadn't been previously shredded by wire and then broken in multiple places. "Let's leave that for the morning, un," he suggested. "It's getting dark anyway, you wouldn't get much out of it."

"I can see in the dark," Sasori protested.

"Sorry kid, it'll have to wait," Deidara said firmly, then winced, squeezing his eyes shut and clutching his injured arm to his chest as another wave of pain flowed through it.

"You're broken."

Deidara opened one eye just in time to push Sasori's curiously probing finger away from his arm. "That's one way of putting it, un," he said, reaching into his pouch with his uninjured hand once he was sure the inquisitive puppet wouldn't start grabbing at him again. It probably didn't understand pain properly, he realized, and couldn't know it was doing anything wrong. "Don't touch, okay?"

"Do you need tools to fix it?" Sasori asked, squatting back and resting his chin in his hands as he watched Deidara form a makeshift cast out of a handful of clay. "There are some in the trunk, I think. They're old though."

Deidara shook his head, taking a few deep breaths to ready himself for the next step in his first-aid. "We're built a bit different, un," he said. "Thanks for the offer, though."

After a final check of the ground he was sitting on to make sure he wouldn't hit a rock if he passed out, Deidara gritted his teeth and clenched his good hand. The clay cast on his broken arm squeezed and shifted, the compression forcing the shattered bones back into place. It was never a pleasant process, but after several times he was beginning to get used to—

"Deidara?"

"Enough with the poking, un," Deidara grumbled, flicking at Sasori (remembering to use his good hand this time) from his new vantage point flat on the ground. "Was I out long?"

"Out?" Sasori blinked and tipped his head to one side. "You've been right here this whole time."

"No, I mean…oh, forget it, un." Deidara sighed and sat up. The pain in his arm had subsided somewhat, but it would be weeks before it was completely healed from the damage Sasori had caused. The child puppet didn't seem to have connected the fight to Deidara's injury, making him wonder if Sasori even remembered what he had done. "I'm going to turn in," Deidara announced, getting up and fishing his sleeping roll from the belongings that had been scattered during their altercation. "What do you do during the night?"

"I don't know," Sasori replied, lying back on the grass and looking up at the night sky. Stars were beginning to show themselves, and the reflection of their soft light made the puppet's dull eyes a bit more human. "I've never been out for a whole day before."

"Well, you shouldn't lie there all night, un," Deidara stated firmly. "I don't think the dew would be good for you. Do you want to go back in your box?"

"No!" Sasori protested, and Deidara took a cautious step back even though the puppet hadn't moved. Although it was peaceable enough at the moment, Deidara knew he would be in trouble were they to come to a disagreement.

"Whatever you want, un," Deidara acquiesced, backing away and tossing his sleeping roll up onto the bird's back. "Just don't wander off, okay? There might be, like, termites and stuff. And don't poke at me while I'm sleeping."