Everybody's Tired of Something

Untitled Part 9

Though no one else would have noticed, Sasori and Deidara were on edge. They did most of what they would normally do but by Sasori's estimations if Orochimaru was going to attack them, it would be within the week very close by the base. 

It had been that fact that had prompted an argument or as he preferred to word it, a difference in opinion. "How far from the base do you go?"

"Uh, I don't really measure it but usually within an hour or so's trek. Why?" Deidara tilted his head in a way that was certainly adorable but the redhead refused to be swayed by that right now.

"That's too far. Stay within a half hour's distance so I can get to you if that bastard shows up." 

Deidara looked pissed. "That's neither ideal nor possible! I need to get more clay and I've all but depleted the reserves within that distance, yeah. Plus it will put the hideout at risk me detonating bombs so close by."

"You shouldn't even be fucking with anything stronger than C1 right now anyway; we need to keep a lower profile at the moment." Sasori looked back down to his intricate lung splicing he was working on.

"Ugh! I am so close to perfecting this jutsu that will be equal in power to what I did in the fight with Itachi's brother without the risk to myself. I call it C5."

Sasori didn't look up as his current project would be garbage if he made the slightest error now.

"Don't ignore me danna. I can handle myself." 

Sasori finished his intricate goal in his true perfectionist fashion and set the puppet aside. He looked up meeting the shining blue eyes head on. "I wasn't ignoring you. But those are the conditions or neither one of us leaves the hideout for any reason."

"I really need to go into town one last time then." Deidara grumbled. He really didn't want to feel like he was allowing Sasori to push him around but the truth was the older man did have a point and he did defer to him more often than not. 

Sasori had the nerve to look nearly apologetic. "You know why we really can't. What did you need anyway?"

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever." Deidara didn't answer him and left to go do his freaking half hour walk to train with his C1. He huffed as he began using his lower powered explosions with what little clay he'd brought with him. "Leave it to Sasori to block me from going to get his birthday gift. See if he gets one at all now." He knew he was being juvenile; there was zero way Sasori had any clue he was even going to get him a gift, let alone looking at jewelry in the village. For all he knew, the man had probably forgotten his birthday was coming in two short weeks. Deidara knew begrudgingly he would still get the gift and he knew exactly what it would be as well. What few people, him being possibly the only living person who cared to remember the detail, was that his partner actually liked wearing the Akatsuki ring. He would never wear it again due to defecting but he caught Sasori fingering his hand absentmindedly and then realizing the ring was no longer there  stopping. 

He also remembered about two years ago when they had been in a village famous for their jewelry how he had eyed the deep blue sapphire rings in what he thought had been a covert way. Deidara had noticed and had even picked out the perfect cut of stone. It wasn't a complicated design so that would be easy enough to find a substitute in another village; the tricky part would be finding one to engrave what he wanted on there.

The sun was just starting to set when he began heading back. He heard a rustle behind him in the scant brush and whipped around, a small spider ready to go. He suppressed a chill not brought on entirely by the dropping temperatures. No one was there. 

Deidara wasn't a paranoid person but he rushed to the hideout, stopping at least twice more to check his surroundings. He hadn't heard another noise but the uncanny feeling that someone was watching him didn't fade away. He had enough practice as a shinobi and enough experience with freaks as others would call it who didn't emit chakra to not trust his instincts.