I went home as quickly as I could. When I got there, both mom and dad were waiting for me at the front door with their arms crossed. I rolled my eyes and made my way over to them in a jogging pace. They both gave me stern looks.

“Please, Constantine,” uh, oh, I’m in trouble. They only used my full name when they were angry with me. “Do not go off to Tsunade saying you want to be a ninja without telling us! We had to find out from Hidan, Deidara, and Sasori!” my mom exclaimed. “I want to know if you want to do these things! These things are exciting for us parents!” she continued and I anime fell.

“So I didn’t do anything wrong?” I asked sweetly, hoping that that’d help.

“Yes! You made Deidara sweep and mop the floor just because you sat on it?!” My dad scowled at me and I flinched.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, besides, don’t you guys like clean floors? You should be thanking me~!” I retorted with a flat face. They both seem to think about it before sighing defeated.

“Thank…” mom started.

“You.” Dad groaned. “We just got told off by our almost two month-old daughter! The irony…” he muttered and I gave him a confused look.

“What’s so ironic?” I asked and he shrugged.

“Don’t know.” We all laughed and went inside happily. We all sat at the dinner table and I thought that that was the best time to bring up the Kiro clan. I swallowed my bite of bloody steak and glanced up at mom and dad.

“Have you ever heard of the Kiro clan?” I asked and everyone choked on their bite of food, especially Hidan. I raised an eyebrow at them. Dad cleared his throat and sighed, knowing I wanted answers.

“Well, about eight years ago, there lived the Kiro clan. They were the most powerful healers known, they also were wood users. But many people came to get power from them, and soon enough, there was this man named… uh… Hidano that was given this mission by this very bad organization to assassinate the whole clan, and only he could do it because he was immortal. So he assassinated the clan but he just couldn’t bring himself to kill this one little boy, for reasons unknown. Hey, that boy should be about your ‘age’.” So Henji was the last Kiro known? And Hidano… wait a second. I looked at Hidan with narrowed eyes and an accusing look. Hidan trembled slightly and sweat was beading down his temple.

He looked… guilty.

I took my eyes off of him for the slightest moment and stood up.

“May I be excused and go to the library?” I asked and mom raised an eyebrow at me.

“Take one of the boys with you.” She said and I pointed at Sasori. He nodded and got up from his chair and walked to the door. He didn’t eat anyways, and he’d give me the answers I’m looking for, or at least some.

We walked down the road and when I knew I was out of moms hearing range I stopped and turned to Sasori.

“Hidan… what’s his past?” I asked suspiciously and he shrugged.

“I only know some of it myself.” He replied and I crossed my arms.

“Well I know none of it, and I’m accusing him of being Hidano!” I said and he rolled his puppet eyes.

“Of course he is, your dad just didn’t want you to know it was him, and he did a pretty bad job of hiding it.” He said and I smirked.

“You and Deidara were a part of that organization, weren’t you?” I said, more like a statement than a question. He sighed but nodded.

“Yeah we were, but because of your mom, that organization doesn’t exist anymore. She spared us, and we are forever grateful.” I smiled slightly. My mom was a true hero, and she spared nice people while she was at it. But his answers made me have more questions, and I guess he noticed that because he started telling me all sorts of things, and we just stood there in the forest talking.

“The organization was called the Akatsuki, there were nine people involved total, including Deidara, Hidan, and myself. Our purpose was to catch tailed beasts and bring them to our leader and we’d steal their power- and their lives with it.” I took in the information and nodded for him to continue.

“Now your mom was and still is a very, very powerful and kind woman and she knew all of us, except one guy named Tobi but he was an idiot so he doesn’t count. All of the members of the Akatsuki wanted her to join, but she always refused. She lived where we live now, and went on very dangerous S-ranked missions; one of them being to destroy the Akatsuki. So she tricked us and told us that she wanted to join and of course we let her in. She waited months until she decided it was time to make her move. She made a barrier that blocked us from leaving and asked the whole group if we wanted to be killed or spared, and that there were only three spots available for sparing.

“So Hidan, Deidara, and I said that we’d live with her, and she killed the rest of them. We all went back to Konoha and she told Tsunade about us said that we were her personal slaves now, and really, we didn’t mind being her ‘slaves’. And since we were hers and she had you, we are technically your slaves too. But please, don’t take it for granted or Hidan won’t do anything for you.” He finished with a smile while I just took everything in. They were dangerous, but for some reason, I didn’t care, in fact…

“Since you guys are my slaves, does that mean you’ll train me?” I asked with a smug smile.

“Yeah, I’ll train you, and Deidara offered already. But I’m not sure about Hidan… all you have to do is pull the I’m-just- a-kid guilt-trip card, he always falls for that one.” We both laughed and started walking again. I had some questions answered, and it tightened me and Sasori’s bond.

“Were you always a puppet?” I asked and he looked at his feet.

“I’d rather not talk about that right now. But no, I wasn’t always a puppet.” I nodded, understanding that he didn’t want to relive memories.

“It’s alright, I understand. I shouldn’t have asked.” He shrugged.

“It’s fine that you asked, I know that you are a curious person.” We made it to the library and I went to the jutsu section that was reserved for ninja. But then I paused. What element was I? It was as if Sasori read my mind because he stepped in front of me and took off his left glove revealing wooden fingers and a pinprick on his thumb. He took my hand and pricked my palm, drawing blood. I didn’t flinch at all because it didn’t hurt one bit. Sasori waited for a second and smiled.

“You have two elements. Lightning and wind… I’ve never seen that combination before.” Sasori told me and I grinned. Those were my two favorite elements. I went to the lightning section and pulled out five different books that seemed interesting and handed each to Sasori to hold. I did the same thing for the wind element type of books. When I passed the reading lounge area, surprise, surprise. Henji Kiro sat on a chair reading a book about the wood jutsus. I nudged Sasori.

“That’s the Kiro kid.” I whispered and he looked in the direction of Henji and his eyes widened.

“Let’s hurry and get out of here.” He whispered back and I nodded. We quickly checked the ten books out and started walking home. “That kid shouldn’t have gotten those tattoos yet, and he has two…” Sasori mumbled to himself, but I heard.

“How come?” I asked and he glanced at me.

“Because Kiro’s can’t get those tattoos unless they kill somebody close to them. He has killed two people, most likely his best friends. But having a tattoo activates the wood kekki genkai, and having more tattoos after that just makes him stronger. That kid might be stronger than you, Taintie. You need to watch out for him. But he was reading about the wood jutsu, so maybe he doesn’t know anything… his clan was wiped out before he could learn anything.” He seemed to have been partly talking to me and partly talking to himself. If that kid was causing this much stress to this laid-back guy, then he must really be bad news. But just how much does Henji really know about his abilities? He may know tons, or he may know nothing.

“I’m going to ask Kiro on Monday how much he knows about himself.” I announced and Sasori spun around to face me.

“No you are not!” he said and I smirked.

“I sit right next to him in class; I have to talk to him at some point.” I pointed out and he gave me a bad look.

“Don’t talk to him.” He ordered and I crossed my arms.

“I thought you were MY slave, not the other way around.” I said and he frowned.

“If it has to do with keeping you safe, then I will defy you. I will literally go to class with you every day and force you to sit away from him and next to me. If that is what it takes.” He threatened and I shrugged it off.

“You wouldn’t.” I waved at him annoyed.

“Oh yes I would.” He insisted and I groaned, giving up on our little argument.

“Fine! I won’t talk to him, okay?” I said and he smiled, patting my head.

“Good girl.” He cooed and I slapped his hand away.

“Let’s go h0me.” I muttered. As so we did.