Okay so here is the next chapter of Broken strings :D Sorry it's going to be slow updates for a while. As I said before school has started again and I'm already swamped with work. With school and the fact that I don't write until I have a good idea things are going to take a while. Appologies once again :) Thank for the support, Enjoy!

Chapter dedication to catgirl48 for the follow. Thank you :3

Hasn't changed. :P

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Manami's POV

"Ok so you say the mission is to escort and protect the daughter of Chōseki?" I asked Sasori slightly confused.

"Yes, how many times do I have to say it? Your becoming more annoying than the brat." he replied sounding very irritated but then again he always sounds like that in Hiruko.

"Isn't Chōseki best buddies with Gantetsu?" I asked still trying to wrap this mission around my head.

"Yeah, un. Why do you look so confused?" Deidara replied this time, looking at me out of the corner of his eyes with a slight smirk plastered on his face.

"Don't give me that look kid! I'm confused because doesn't Gantetsu hate our guts from killing one of his men and taking the information he paid for in the previous mission Akumu and I had?" I questioned and heard two very loud sighs coming from both sides of me. "What?" I asked slightly annoyed.

"Gantetsu obviously doesn't know or else he does but Chōseki is so desperate that we are his only choice." Sasori informed me in a tone you would use to explain something to a three year old.

"You don't have to treat me like I'm an idiot. I get it now I was just asking a question!" I exclaimed and then another question popped into my head and I bite my wooden lip to try and stop myself from asking it.

"What is it now?" Sasori sighed when he noticed my expression and I sheepishly smiled back at him.

"I was just wondering why Chōseki would be desperate?"

"His daughter is in a different village and some assasins were hired to kill her in retaliation to Chōseki's argument that he started with another higher up. He can't trust villages as he is a missing nin and we are the only one's who have proven to be successful and most skilled at these types of missions." Sasori explained to me again and then looked over in my direction.

"Is that all?" he asked me and I nodded grumbling terrible things about him under my breath causing Deidara to chuckle.

"So were are we heading to Danna?" Deidara queried and Sasori grumbled something about working with two idiots.

"We are heading to a small village just outside Konoha to pick her up and then deliver her to Chōseki in Tanzaku Quaters." Sasori told us and Deidara and I nodded in unison.

When we finally arrived in the village went past the gates and Deidara blew up the two guards as we entered. It was a surprisingly quiet explosion for Deidara but Sasori had warned him about the consequences if he decided to disobey his order to be silent and arise no more suspicion than necessary.

"It took you long enough!" I heard one of presumably Chōseki's men say to us as we approached him and a little girl. We glared at him and before either one of us could do anything the little girl came up to us outstretching her hand and smiling up at us.

"My name's Junko." she said through her toothy grin that showed some of her missing baby teeth. By the way she dressed and how she acted, I guessed she was around six or seven years old.

"Nice to meet you Junko, un" Deidara was the first to reply and she beamed up at him. I guess she chose her favourite out of the three of us but I couldn't blame her for picking Deidara; Sasori after all looked very intimidating in his Hiruko armour and I looked very emotionless at this very moment.

"Make sure you look after her. Chōseki is expecting her to arrive tomorrow night at the latest." he told us and I fought the urge to kill him.

"We are well aware of that." Sasori growled back before we walked off with the little girl following us.

Deidara's POV

I watched as the kid tried to keep up with our speed, she looked exhausted and was huffing and puffing in an attempt to get her breath back. I sighed and picked her up so she was on my back and caught up with Danna and Manami who were continuing to walk without even realizing the absence of me or the kid; heartless puppets.

"We can't afford to waste any time." Manami said, probably seeing my facial expression at how cold they were being to the kid.

"Isn't the kid the whole point in this mission?" I asked knowing I had a displeasing look.

"She is but we also have a deadline as well." Manami retorted back. I looked back at Junko on my back and noticed she was finding it very hard to keep her eyes open and I heard her stomach grumble.

"We should stop for something to eat, the kid's hungry, un." I told them and they ignored me. "She still needs to eat! Unlike you puppets, we humans need the energy from food to stay alive." I said raising my voice slightly and they both sighed heavily.

"Alright we will stop to rest for the night here, brat! But we will need to get up early in the morning to make it back to Tanzaku Quaters by tomorrow night." I heard Danna grumble and I nodded coming to a stop and setting the kid down. "If we are camping here then you can get the fire wood brat." Sasori ordered me and I started to mutter under my breath.

"Fine! But someone needs to look after the kid." I told them. I watched as Manami and Danna had a silent argument before Manami sighed in defeat.

"I'll take care of the kid." she said and I nodded running off to find some firewood.

Sasori's POV

I watched Deidara run off into the woods and I turned to start getting things out of my bag. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Manami awkwardly tried to talk to the kid and keep her occupied. The kid started crying at something she had said and I chuckled as Manami got very frustrated and started to yell at the kid.

"Move! Why don't you get the food out and I'll take care of the brat." I snapped at Manami slightly when the crying started to annoy me and she turned around to look at me with a very deadly look.

"Fine! I hate her anyway!" she growled making sure Junko heard it, making her slightly more upset.

"Don't listen to her she has no idea what she is saying" I said trying to get her to calm down but failed. "How about we make a deal?" I asked and she looked up slightly interested.

"Yeah... what... deal?" she sniffled between sobs.

"If you stop crying I'll show you something cool. Agreed?"

She nodded and I sighed in relief at the silence. I brought out one of the tiny puppets I had out of my robes as Junko watched in complete curiosity. She looked at the puppet in awe when I attached my chakra strings to it and started to move it around.

"That's so pretty." she cooed when she saw it dance like a ballerina. I then made it go up and annoy Manami and Junko started to giggle while Manami glared at me.

"Here why don't you play with this for a while?" I asked her and she nodded happily taking it off me and tried to make it do what I made it do. It didn't last too long however as Deidara came back and took the puppet off her and showed his ridiculous sculptures that he blew up causing her to laugh and jump around asking for more.

"Stupid brat!" I muttered under my breath.

"Your very good with kids." I heard Manami say and I turned around to face her.

"It's not that impressive." I shrugged and she rolled her eyes.

"You make it look effortless when it's really hard to keep her happy!" she protested and I chuckled slightly.

"You make me make it look easy as you're so bad with kids it makes me look like an expert." I teased her and she pouted slightly pretending to huff.

"You're so mean!" she snapped playfully and I felt a smile tug at the corner of my lips.

"I'm going to check out the surroundings, You make sure the two brats don't do anything stupid."

"Ok. See you soon." she said waving me off with a ghost of a smile on her beautiful face. I nodded and walked off while she watched Deidara play with the kid with one of his clay bird sculptures.