Mikansei didn’t think Sasori would even bother with her with what she truly was. Those guys had knocked her out and were taking her somewhere she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. Leader would just be annoyed he didn’t have another member in the Akatsuki to help fight, and Sasori would merely miss the fact he’d lost a living puppet. She wasn’t a proper human being; just a shell with power inside of it—no personality, nothing. He didn’t care.
But she couldn’t have been more wrong.
Sasori looked up at the clock for another time, dragging his gaze away from the puppet on his desk, and figured it was about time he got Mikansei in to try and finish things off for good. He only had a couple more things to do and it would be all over. If he worked hard, he might even get it done by tonight, and that thought made him smirk—he couldn’t wait for that to happen. So he got up and headed out into the lounge, seeing Deidara sitting there moulding clay and pretty much engrossed in it; so nothing unusual there, then. But shaking his head, that fact not bothering him as much, he called out his name a couple of times, finally getting an answer, and then continued,
“Deidara—is Mikansei in her room?”
“She said she was going for a walk a couple of hours ago, un. I haven’t seen her since.” He simply replied with a shrug.
Narrowing his eyes at that fact, Sasori couldn’t help but feel a twinge of concern at Deidara's words. Mikansei didn’t like to trouble any of the members of the Akatsuki, and especially not Deidara and himself, even though they had said many times they were her friends. It was why she always told people where she was going so they could know where to find her; and why she told someone that she had come back so they would know she was there. She couldn’t have gone for a walk for that long—he knew Mikansei, and she would have got paranoid that someone wanted her to do something and she wouldn’t be there to do it, but she wouldn’t have just gone to her room, either.
But for the moment, he couldn’t know—maybe there was something troubling her. So nodding in thanks at Deidara, he turned and headed to Mikansei’s room, leaving Deidara staring after him with a frown, wondering why Sasori had paused, seemingly affected by that fact. He did nothing for the moment though, and turned, hesitatingly, back to his clay. Sasori continued on down the corridor, hoping she was okay. She didn’t get affected by little things. It had to be something big—
And then it came to him. What he had said; that was what was affecting her. He hadn’t even meant to say it, and now it was ruining everything! Yes, she had accepted it when she smiled, but there was still all that could happen afterwards. It had been something that had plagued his thoughts, too, and no doubt it was why she had gone on that walk. To try and get a grip on everything that was going on. But he couldn’t help it; she just made him lose control of all the things he’d learnt over the years to keep hidden and underneath the surface! Clearly it was the same with her, and although he had meant what he had said...
It would have been better if it had just stayed in his head.
Finally reaching her room, Sasori took a deep breath and sighed, thinking over ideas of how to begin the conversation. If she was still thinking deeply about what he had said, things were going to be a little more awkward than he would have liked. Then he realised what he was going to talk to her for and squared himself, and would simply ask her to come to his room to finish the experiment. He’d rather have things a little uncomfortable between them than leave her arms wounded and in pain—that fact overrode everything, and as such he knocked softly and then entered, knowing she didn’t like it if he merely waited for her to give him permission to enter.
Only the result wasn’t quite what he had been expecting.
There was no one there. She kept things tidy—really tidy—but there were signs if she was in her room doing something. But this time there was nothing to reveal a presence. It was clear she hadn’t been back here in hours, and now his worry really did start to accelerate. Something had happened. The walk wouldn’t have taken that long, she would have told someone if she had come back earlier, and even if she hadn’t she would be in her room or somewhere in the hideout that was easy to find. But now that she wasn’t...things weren’t right. What had gone on, Sasori hadn’t a clue; but knowing that there were still people who had worked for Tanju who might be after her, he had a hunch that it wasn’t a good sign.
Turning, he sprinted for the lounge once again, Deidara not needing to have his name called to notice Sasori there as he appeared at the end of the hallway. Blinking in surprise, only to narrow his eyes at the look on Sasori’s face, he questioned as to what was going on, only for Sasori to breathe exasperatedly in return,
“She’s gone, Deidara. Mikansei’s gone!”
“What?” Deidara blurted in return, only to find he had to run after Sasori to hear the story, grabbing a few handfuls of his masterpieces as he did so. But once he had found out the truth, he scowled in frustration, wishing he had noticed sooner.
Sasori only stopped off at his room to gather a couple of scrolls, placing Hiruko in one (well, you know what I mean), so travelling would be quicker, before heading straight for the exit of the hideout. Deidara followed on behind, wondering if Sasori would be able to find her—she had disappeared a long time ago, and she was always very careful about leaving tracks behind after having to deal with Tanju constantly getting on at her because of that fact. If he didn’t focus, it might take just as long to find Mikansei, and by then it might be too late. Of course, he didn’t want that to happen—he knew what Mikansei had gone through, and he didn’t want it to happen again.
Though he was proven wrong as they came out of the door, spotting obvious tracks after a few moments searching. When she had come out for this walk, she hadn’t been thinking about hiding her tracks, so maybe something was already going on. Sasori, however, didn’t seem so surprised at that fact—and he wasn’t. He had gathered by know that she had been thinking about what he had said in his room, and therefore was too busy contemplating it all to notice she was leaving tracks. He doubted, though, that whoever was fighting her and followed them—they had just heard her and come at her from the front. Having the Akatsuki hideout behind them knowing there were people inside wasn’t something that was particularly comforting, and so they wouldn’t have wanted to risk it.
Then he shook it off a moment later; it wasn’t the enemy’s motives he needed to be thinking about, it was where Mikansei was. So quickly he headed off, following the tracks she had left behind, and it wasn’t long afterwards that they finally arrived in a clearing, where the signs there made him pause and grit his teeth in frustration. There were clear signs of a struggle—five against one—but for the majority of whatever had gone on there…Mikansei had stood in one spot.
Maybe she had just been talking for a while with them, and that’s why she hadn’t moved to attack. Maybe—but there was no time to think about it. Circling round the clearing, and noticing the most recent tracks heading off in another direction, he saw there were only five, and that apart from a few smaller footprints dotted around the first area, Mikansei’s footprints had disappeared altogether. True, it could be possible that she had only just begin to cover her tracks as she ran after them all or ran away, but with the signs of the struggle, and the fact that some of the more recent footprints were now deeper than they had been before, he could only clench his fists and glare down at the floor as he spat back at Deidara,
“They’ve taken her.”
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