Stumble [Rewrite]

Bonds

"Going somewhere?"

Sasori fastened his puppet scrolls around his waist, not once looking up at the man leaning against the living room door frame. The Akatsuki recently assigned to the safe house in River Country—himself, Kakuzu, and Kisame—were ordered to stay out of the public's scrutiny as the next set of missions were laid out and distributed.

In other words, it was free time.

"Just paying a friend a quick visit," he replied. Kisame raised an eyebrow.

"You have friends?"

"Now you're just being rude."

He tucked Sakura's most recent note into the inner lining of his cloak as he slipped it on. Kisame stepped aside and Sasori walked passed to pick his kunai pouch up from the sofa. He was ready to head off towards Konoha and check if Sakura really had begun to lose some of her sense.

He wouldn't let her go crazy. He knew he was already too far gone and she had to be the one to keep the sanity between them.

"Is the friend you're visiting Deidara or the Kazekage's youngest son?" Kisame asked. Sasori stopped a few feet away from the door.

Ah.

He turned, hair brushing against his lashes.

"I thought I did such a great job keeping that a secret," he said. "And if you know, Yahiko-sama must be aware by now. Well, I suppose I could make this trip before I'm brought into questioning and detained for the next month. And it's neither of those two, if you're still wondering."

He managed to take another step before being stopped by the sheer force of the ex-Kiri nin's next few words.

"I didn't tell anyone."

Sasori spun around. "What? What do you mean, 'I didn't tell anyone'? My actions are obviously suspicious and should've been reported a long time ago."

Kisame waved his hand about nonchalantly. "What you're doing must be important if you're sneaking around. It's your business. I was just... curious," he said. Ever since their quaint conversation on hypotheticals, the hulking swordsman was very quiet and contemplative around Sasori. The latter thought it was odd, but didn't question it and chalked it up to him being weird again.

"And you're going to let me keep doing it?"

"Yeah."

"Because it's none of your business?"

The taller man nodded. "Pretty much."

"... Huh," the puppet-master muttered, glancing at the door. "Well... I'll bring back a souvenir, I guess."

::

It was 6:30 am.

On Wednesday.

The morning after the team's first day off.

Kakashi, being the kind man that he was, expected his genin to show on time after being graced with his leniency.

...

So where the hell were they?

He tapped an irritated finger on his bicep as he stood in the middle of the training field. He told them their very first meeting that being early meant being on time. Fifteen minutes prior than what was set, preferably. But no. They were thirty minutes later than late, making the grand total of forty five minutes they could have training!

There had better be a damn good explanation or one hundred laps around Konoha was in order.

Kakashi turned his head towards a thicket of bushes just before an blue and green blob tumbled out. It quickly shot up to its feet and exclaimed: