When A Marionette Is Broken

First Mission, Revisited

"So, I want to hear honestly Sasori, is Deidara even close to being fit to go on missions yet?" Pein crossed his arms over his chest and glared with his vacant, purple rinneganed eyes.

Deidara raised his voice in instant protest. "I so did not wake up at 4 am to be treated like I'm not here yeah."

Sasori ignored the blonde's protest and Pein's not so discreet dig. He answered saucily, not looking at either them nor the blue haired woman staring intently at Pein. "Depends on the mission, but since you refuse to reveal what it is I cannot answer "honestly"." 

Konan shot an origami bee in his direction. "Can you pretend to have some respect for Pein, honestly." 

He flicked it away with his chakra strings, bored. "Well?"

"The mission involves following a woman who I believe has information on multiple Akatsuki members. She is to be eliminated if absolutely necessary but I'd rather ascertain what she knows and prevent her disclosing it without bloodshed if possible."

"There's more to it than that. Most of our faces are plastered across every bingo book in the 5 major countries. You wouldn't want her dead just for knowing our faces." 

"You are as always, infuriatingly correct. She is a skilled shinobi in her own right but more importantly she may have confidential proof of conflicts between Wind and Fire country."

Deidara spoke up not even bothering to curb his explosive agitation at this point. "Why do we give a shit about Wind and Fire, yeah? Let them destroy each other, hell if I could I'd drop some bombs to help out."

Sasori smirked lightly causing Konan to shoot a small origami bird in Deidara's direction which Sasori flicked away maliciously before Deidara even registered what had happened. He glared in her direction to which she stared him down right back.

"We give a shit as you so eloquently put it because our ultimate goals are to prevent war." Konan said as if he was mentally deficient.

Pein continued on as if none of the tomfoolery had occurred at all. "Is Deidara capable of gaining information, defending himself, backing you up, and possibly murdering this woman and escaping without it being linked to Akatsuki? That's the full mission."

"He cannot fully use his forbidden jutsu yet but he is progressing as well as can be expected on that front. In terms of competence, I would stake my life on him being beyond capable." Sasori said lying through his teeth in the first part.

"Hm. Well, that is all settled. Prepare and head out when you are ready." He handed Sasori a book with all of the important information on their target Aionosuke Daika in it. 

Before the two left the room, Deidara glared murderously at Konan. She interrupted just to unsettle him and Sasori, "I hear she has a thing for blondes. Good luck."

Deidara sneered and slammed the door awkwardly but roughly.

"Must you patronize those two so?" Pein asked wearily.

"Neither of them have an iota of respect in their bodies." Konan answered loosely.

The two headed to their respective rooms to pack. Deidara was giddy with excitement but also more than a tad nervous. Part of his personality was to be chaotically ecstatic while also nail bitingly anxious, it just worked really. After grabbing suitable clothing and weapons, he stumbled over a bag of his old clay. He hated to think of never being able to use it again but picked it up to sit it carefully on his dresser. 

His tongue licked the clay lazily and though he wasn't ready per Sasori or even his own estimations to try molding it again, he threw the small pouch in his larger bag on a whim. 'Just in case.' He told himself.