Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, those belong to Masashi Kishimoto. But I do own the idea of this story.

Warnings: OOC characters; I changed some aspects of the original characters (like their age)

I am new to this. This is actually my first story so I would be grateful to be informed of any mistake I made.

I am also sorry for any grammar mistake, but English is not my first language. So if you find any mistake please tell me. Thank you. Read and Review.

Note: As for the title I had no idea of what to write, so if you have a sugention I would be glad to know.

Summary: Sasori finds a baby on his doorstep. What will he do?

Italics: thoughts or flashbacks

Sasori was sitting in his living room, doing the thing he liked the most – besides working on his puppets, of course – reading.

He lived on his own, in a fairly large apartment, since he moved from his grandmother´s house, when he was 15. That had been almost 3 years ago.

He was enjoying the peace and quiet until someone knocked on his door.

He didn´t even bother going to the door. He was used to the kids who would come and knock persistently on his door until he opened, just to ask him 'Are you a boy or did your fairy godmother turned you into a puppet?' and then the kids would run for their lifes. Sasori knew the kids would often challenge each other to see who was brave enough to do it.

But this time it was different. There was a single knock and then nothing. No kids laughing or running. Sasori waited. There was a soft sound that looked like whimpering. And that got him curious.

He went to the door and opened it. To his astonishment, he saw nothing there. No kids around. Actually the street was quite calm. Then he realized that the sounds were coming from below. Sasori slowly looked down to see a small bundle moving.

Please, tell me this isn´t what I think it is… Sasori ever so slowly lifted the edge of the blanket to reveal a small whimpering baby. Damn…

He lifted the baby gently into his arms. "What am I supposed to do with you?" he whispered to the baby.

Sasori noticed a small folded paper inside the baby´s blanket. Sasori started reading the note.

/Please, whoever you are,

Take good care of my baby. I have no means to care for him.

His name is Deidara and he is 9 months old.

Please, take good care of him…/

Sasori looked from the note to the baby in his arms. The baby, Deidara, had stopped whimpering and now snuggled into the puppeteer´s arms. Sasori noticed a small little mouth on each palm of the blonde baby's hands, which were gripping his shirt.

He considered what to do with the baby. He couldn´t put him in an orphanage, Sasori had been there himself and didn´t want that same hellish fate to this baby. He couldn´t give him to another person because he knew how cruel the people of Suna could be. There was just one solution…

"So… You´re Deidara, hmm? Well… I guess you´ll be staying with me." Deidara looked up at him with crystal blue eyes gazing deep into Sasori´s brown ones. "You must be hungry… Let´s go inside and see what we can do about that." Sasori hold up Deidara a little higher and closed the door.

Sasori went to his living room, sat down and put the baby on his lap. Just then Deidara started to cry.

"Hush, hush." He tried to calm down the wailing baby. "Please… Shhhh…" Sasori brought his hand to the child's head and stroked his hair comfortingly. It worked after a while, but the next thing he knew Deidara had brought his small hand up and grabbed one of his fingers. Sasori stared at him and let Deidara bring his larger hand down to his mouth and suck on his (Sasori's) index finger.

"So you really are hungry. But I don´t think I have baby´s food in here. I don´t even know what you´re supposed to eat…" But maybe Granny Chiyo knows. Sasori added in his head.

He tried reaching for his phone but as soon as he pulled his finger out of the baby's mouth, Deidara started to cry again.

"Oh, please… Hush… It´s alright, I´ll get you something to eat soon. Shhhh, please don´t cry…" Sasori adjusted his hold on Deidara so that he could grab his phone and Deidara could suck on his finger at the same time. As soon as he had hold of Sasori´s finger again Deidara stopped crying and started to suck peacefully.

"Hello, Granny Chiyo…yes, I´m fine thank you…yes…well I have a little problem...could you come and help me out? ...yes, yes…I know…thank you, Granny Chiyo…bye."

Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door. "Just a minute." Sasori got up with Deidara still sucking on his finger.

"Hi, Granny Chiyo. Come in."

"Sasori! How is my favorite grandson? And what is this? Awww… Is this our little problem?"

"Yes. And right now he´s hungry and I have no idea what to feed him." He said while sitting down once again.

"Okay! Give me 5 minutes and I´ll go get some stuff…hmm…"

"His name´s Deidara."

"Yes. I´ll go get some stuff Deidara might need. We´ll talk about this when I get back. I trust you can take care of him."

"Granny Chiyo, wait…Gone. *sigh* It´s just you and me again, right Deidara?"

He smiled softly at Deidara and started tickling his belly with his free hand. Deidara giggled loudly at that. "Am I growing soft or what? I mean… I'm Sasori no Akasuna, Suna´s greatest puppeteer, supposedly cold and emotionless, and still… I took you in right away, without a second thought… Oh great! And now I´m talking to a baby!" Deidara giggled again. "And you like to see me making a fool of myself?"

"He´s not the only one."

Sasori quickly turned around to see his grandmother observing him, amused.

"Granny Chiyo... Back already? That was quick." I just hope she didn´t see all that…

"I am a shinobi after all. And I couldn´t miss my grandson acting all fatherly!" To that, Sasori blushed almost as red as his hair. "Well, we still have to feed that little one, don´t we?" she said while going to the kitchen. "You might want to learn how to do this if you´re going to take care of him."

Sasori got up and followed her. "How would you know?"

"I took care of you since you were 7, Sasori. I know you and I know you´ve already grown attached to that baby." She said while preparing the bottle to feed Deidara. "See? Easy enough to prepare. Now let me see your wrist." Sasori extended his arm with the palm of his hand facing up. Chiyo let a bit of formula drop onto his wrist. "You need to learn to test the temperature. See if the formula is not too hot or too cold."

"I guess it should be okay."

"Here. Put the nipple near his lips and he should start drinking." Chiyo said handing him the bottle.

Sasori did as told and watched in awe as Deidara sucked the bottle dry.

"Wow. He mustn´t have eaten in quite some time! Now you need to burp him." With Chiyo's help Sasori managed to burp Deidara and then change his diaper.

While changing his diaper, they discovered a kind of a mouth thing on Deidara's chest, right over his heart. It was sewed shut and had some designs around it. Another mouth...

"Oh my god…" Chiyo gasped. Deidara's little back and upper arms were covered in deep black bruises, as if someone had grabbed him too tight. He was abused? How could they do that? He´s just so small and defenseless… Why would someone want to hurt a baby as cute and sweet as him? Sasori shock these thoughts out of his head, continuing his task.

After that, Deidara looked up at Sasori with sleepy eyes and snuggled to his chest. Sasori walked up the stairs into his room and gently placed the now sleeping baby on his bed, surrounding him with pillows to make sure Deidara wouldn´t fall off the bed.

Then he went downstairs again, to talk with his grandmother.

"I just put him to sleep in my bed until we get him a cot or something where he can sleep in."

"I´m truly amazed, Sasori. I´ve never seen you act so gentle and caring. Well, except maybe for Gaara… You always had a soft spot for him."

"I guess I just don´t want Deidara to go through what we did…"

"You still haven´t told me what happened to Deidara. Although I can easily guess…"

"Yeah… You think it all has to do with his extra mouths?"

"Yes… And I believe his mouths are related with his rare Kekkei Genkai."

"His Kekkei Genkai? Hmm, maybe… Anyways, there was this note with him." Sasori said as he handed the note to his grandmother. She read carefully.

"So… Will you actually take care of him?"

"Yes… Yes, I will."

"Very well, then. But you know you can only officially adopt him when you turn 18." Just three more days… "And let me warn you… Your neighbors are not exactly happy with you. You´ve been scaring the kids, you know?"

"I have been scaring the kids? Then why don´t they tell them not to mess with me? Jeez…"

"True, but that´s not how the parents see it, unfortunately for you. Still… be careful when walking around with Deidara. They may call the child services, thinking you kidnapped him or something… And seeing as he is all bruised, they may accuse you of abusing him. And there is nothing you can do to prove it wasn't you…"

"I would never do that! And I´m not letting them take Deidara to a god damned orphanage!" The puppet master had to refrain from shouting or he would wake up the baby.

"Getting all fatherly, Sasori?"

"Am not!" Ok, maybe a little…

Chiyo laughed at his outburst "You really are amazing, Sasori, I´m proud to be your grandmother."

"Yeah… Thanks, Granny Chiyo."

"I have a meeting to attend, so I´ll be going. I think I bought everything you might need, at least for this week. Oh, and I also got you this…"

"Learning to be a Parent. A parenting guide?"

"It will help you take care of Deidara. If you really need, you can always call me. Oh and by the way, Gaara said he wanted to visit you so he might appear anytime. Now, I must go. Bye bye."

It'll be good to see Gaara again. "Mmhmm…Bye." I should go check on Deidara.

Sasori quietly went up to his room. When he got there Deidara was awake and looking wide eyed around the room.

"Hey, had a good nap?" Hearing the soft voice, Deidara started moving around trying to climb over the pillows, in Sasori´s direction. Seeing Deidara trying to reach for him, Sasori picked him up.

"What now, hmm? It's…" He paused to look at the clock. "…seven forty eight. What if we both have a bath?" Deidara´s only answer was looking to Sasori and babbling in his own language. "I´ll take that as a yes."

Sasori went to the bathroom and laid Deidara down on the rug. He fully uncovered Deidara´s body tracing his finger over the strange tattoos on the blonde baby's chest as Deidara started playing with Sasori´s hand. "You´re a little box full of surprises, aren´t you?" The blonde giggled. "Un!"

The puppeteer stood up, putting some water running, while he stripped. He scooped the baby up again and stepped into the bathtub, lowering himself and Deidara into the warm water. As soon as Deidara´s feet touched the water, he started screaming his tiny little heart out. Sasori stood up, bringing the wailing baby closer to his chest and running his fingers through the baby's hair trying to calm him down. He must have had a bad experience with water, that´s why he´s so afraid… "Shhhh… Hush, Deidara… It´s okay… I´m not going to hurt you, I promise. I won´t let anyone hurt you." Sasori slowly began to lower himself again, easing Deidara into the water. "Shhhh… It´s alright, Dei… Shh… I´m here, nothing is going to happen to you…" He kept Deidara close to his chest and continued talking to him softly until he calmed down. "See? It´s not so bad. I´m not going to let anything bad happen to you. Ever." He softly kissed Deidara's forehead. "Now let's get you washed up." He slowly washed the blonde baby, always keeping him as close as possible.

Once he finished, Sasori laid down on the water laying Deidara on his chest, gently rubbing his back to help the baby relax. "You need to get used to the water. I don´t want this happening every time I give you a bath. And there is no way I'll let you pass without a bath! You'd stink!" Deidara giggled softly, as if understanding him, making Sasori smile.

After five more minutes of talking to Deidara and feeling him slowly relax against his chest, Sasori thought it was enough of relaxing. "Okay, time to get out of the bath for you." The puppet master grabbed one of the towels and wrapped it around Deidara laying him down on the bathroom rug, while he washed himself quickly. He then got the other towel, dried himself and wrapped it around his waist. "Your turn, Dei. Come here, let's get you dry and dressed." He carried the now babbling baby back to his room getting an outfit his grandmother had bought for Deidara and dressing him. He left the baby on his bed while he got some clothes for himself.

Meanwhile, Deidara had grabbed a small puppet that was on Sasori's nightstand and started playing with it, not knowing it was a small model of one of Sasori's war puppets, which meant it had blades and other weapons incorporated. When the puppet master returned to Deidara and saw him playing with his puppet, his heart almost stopped. "Deidara, don't!" Hearing Sasori's shout startled Deidara, who dropped the puppet and started crying. Sasori went to him to calm him down, but he too was a little shocked at the incident. A few minutes later, Deidara had calmed down. "Sorry if I scared you, Dei… I just don't want you hurt, okay?" The blonde snuggled in his arms. I need to keep my puppets out of his reach.

"Un… Un…" Deidara was trying to catch the puppeteer's attention. "Hmm…? Deidara…? Are you hungry?" "Un…" "Okay. Then let's get something to eat."

Sasori went to the kitchen getting an already prepared bottle that his grandmother had left for Deidara and warmed it in the microwave. After feeding and burping him, Sasori sat down to eat something too.

But eating with a baby in your lap isn´t easy. Besides, Deidara was starting to fuss. "What is it? What do you want?" Sasori asked, while pulling him up so that the blonde baby wouldn't slip from his lap. Deidara tried to grab his hand. "You want my hand?" he said offering his hand to Deidara who immediately stopped fussing to play and suck in his fingers. I need to get him some toys. Maybe some harmless puppets... Sasori thought while watching the baby play with his hand. "What is it that you like so much about my hands, hmm? Or are you just using my fingers as a pacifier?" Speaking of which, I also need to buy him one... "Un!" Deidara giggled loudly. "You think it's funny?" Sasori said and began tickling Deidara, who squealed and started laughing. The puppeteer started laughing along, stopping when he heard someone knocking on the door.

Standing up with a still giggling Deidara in his arms, Sasori went to the door. Who could it be? It's a quarter to nine. It's starting to get late.

Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of blood red hair and sea green eyes. "Gaara! It's so good to see you. Come in."

"I see you already have a guest" Gaara said, looking at Deidara and smiling softly "I don't want to bother you. I'll come back another time."

"*sigh* Gaara, come in, will you?"

As soon as he came in, the puppet master closed the door and headed for the kitchen again. "You want something to eat? Or drink?"

"No, thanks." Gaara said while sitting on the couch, soon joined by Sasori and Deidara. "So…hmmm…Who are you babysitting for?"

Sasori grinned, knowing what was to come. "I'm not babysitting."

"You have a kid?!"

Sasori laughed at Gaara's outburst. "Kind of… He was left at my doorstep and I took him in. His name's Deidara."

"So you took a kid in? Just like that?"

"You know I would never put him in that hell hole they call an orphanage! I thought about giving him to someone else but…" Sasori said, gently prying open Deidara's small hands to show Gaara the little hand mouths. "He has another one on his chest…" He added quietly.

"I see…" Gaara knew exactly what Sasori was talking about "Well, if you ignore the blonde hair, blue eyes and the extra mouths, he kind of looks like you."

Sasori looked at Gaara as if saying 'Oh, really?'

In the meantime, Deidara had cuddled against Sasori's chest, fisting his hands in the puppeteer's shirt, listening to the redheads' conversation sleepily, lulled by Sasori's rhythmic stokes on his hair.

Gaara smiled "You should take him to bed, he's about to fall asleep."

Sasori looked down also smiling. The puppet master knew that around Gaara he didn't need to put up his emotionless mask.

They had met each other in the orphanage where they became best friends, almost brothers. A few years later, when they were around 7 (he and Temari were seven, Kankuro was six and Gaara was five), Chiyo had taken them to live with her, along with Kankuro and Temari, Gaara's older siblings. The four of them were inseparable.

Sasori still remembered how they used to train together to become "Suna's best ninjas".

He and Kankuro always had a thing for puppets, which was a good thing since Suna was known for having the best puppeteers in the shinobi world.

Temari was quite good with her twin fans, until Gaara, Kankuro and Sasori decided to give her a gigantic version of one of her fans, which she still used and cherished.

As for Gaara, he had an ability to control sand. They knew it was because he had the Shukaku, the One-Tailed Beast, sealed inside of him. Regardless, they vowed to always be there for Gaara. They knew he was able to control the Shukaku, and when he wasn't they were always there to stop him.

The one time Gaara had really lost control, he had marked the kanji for love on his forehead. They all still remembered it clearly.

*Flashback*

Gaara was sitting on the rooftop of Suna's Orphanage. He was confused about his feelings. He knew he should be happy, after all he was going to be adopted and get out of this hell hole; but at the same time he was sad, he didn't want to leave Temari, Kankuro and Sasori here. He knew his siblings and best friend wanted him to go, saying they would be okay but…

Yashamaru, the guy who wanted to adopt him, was really good to him. He was the only one, besides his siblings and Sasori, that liked him. All the others just looked at him with a mix of fear and hate. He knew the cause. He knew he had a monster sealed inside him. But Temari, Kankuro, Sasori and Yashamaru made him feel better.

Yashamaru visited him many times and they spent time together. Gaara considered the man almost his father.

Gaara was jerked from his thoughts when he felt the sand rush up to protect him. He turned around, using his sand to attack the one who had tried to kill him. Seeing the ninja fall to the ground badly injured he approached him fearfully, lifting the mask that covered the ninja's face.

"Ya-Yashamaru…? No, no… It's not true… Why? Why are you doing this, Yashamaru?" Gaara sobbed.

Yashamaru's voice was a barely audible whisper. "The Kazekage ordered me to kill you."

"Bu-but… Y-you didn't want to do it… r-right?"

"No, I did want to. I wanted to kill you. Don't you get it? Everybody in this village hates you! You're a monster!"

"N-no, it's not true… It's not true!" Gaara was yelling by now.

"You really are naïve…" Yashamaru started coughing up blood, drowning himself in his own blood.

Gaara started screaming loudly, sand flowing around him, tattooing the kanji for love on his forehead.

Meanwhile, Gaara's screams had woke up almost everyone in the orphanage. But only three persons really worried about that, and not for the fear of being killed by the beast like everyone else did.

Sasori and Kankuro had jolted up from their beds when they heard the screaming.

"That was Gaara!" Kankuro was worried about his brother. He knew no one, besides him, Temari and Sasori, would care for what the hell was happening to Gaara.

Sasori froze for a moment before getting to his senses "Let's go! We need to find him!"

Running out of their room, they met Temari in the hallway, coming in their direction. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I think everyone in Suna did."

"Quite joking around, Kankuro! That was Gaara, we need to find him!" Temari was going into protective big sister mode, after all Gaara was the youngest between the four of them. She and Sasori were both six, even if she was older than him by five months; Kankuro was five and Gaara was only four.

They all rushed up to the roof of the orphanage where they knew Gaara normally was.

"Gaara!" Temari gasped at the sight: there was a dead ninja on the ground, which they all recognized as Yashamaru, and then there was Gaara, kneeling next to the corpse sobbing heavily, blood dripping from his forehead.

Surprisingly, Kankuro was the first to come to his senses and started to head towards Gaara, soon followed by Sasori and Temari.

"Gaara? Are you-"As soon as Kankuro touched his shoulder, Gaara sent a wave of sand to envelop him.

Sasori knew he needed to act quickly "Gaara stop! It's us! Snap out of it!" he said, while shaking him by the shoulders.

"Sa-Sasori?" He then looked at Kankuro "Nii-san!" Gaara quickly released him from his sand "I'm sorry…"

"It's fine… It would need much more than that to take me down!"

Temari kneeled by her little brother, next to Sasori "What happened?"

"Why?"

"Why what, Gaara?" Sasori asked softly.

"Why does everybody hate me? Why am I a monster?"

"That's not true!" Temari was shocked. Why would Gaara think that?

"Yeah, you should know it by now!"

"They're right, you know? You're not a monster! I wouldn't be best friends with a monster." Sasori stated "And why would you think like that?"

"Yashamaru said-"

"It doesn't matter what he said!" Kankuro was furious. If Yashamaru wasn't already dead, he would have killed him with his own hands, right then and there. "Don't you remember our promise? We'll be the best ninja team in Suna! The four of us, together!"

*End Flashback*

"What are you thinking about, Sasori?"

"Sorry, Gaara… I spaced out… What were you saying?"

"I noticed that… I asked what you were thinking about."

"I was thinking about our relationship. All four of us: me, you, Temari and Kankuro."

"Oh… They wanted to come visit you too but they were too tired because of the mission."

"Yeah, the mission… Shit!" Sasori stood up abruptly, waking up Deidara in the process. The little blonde whined and snuggled in the puppeteer's chest, trying to fall asleep again. "Sorry, Dei…"

"What is it?"

"I forgot I have a mission tomorrow. What am I going to do? I can't leave Deidara on his own!"

"Relax, Sasori… I´m sure Temari will absolutely love to take care of him." Gaara snickered "She'll spoil him rotten!"

"Yeah, that's just Temari! ...But she doesn't even know of Deidara yet, and I have to leave as soon as the sun rises. Think you can handle watching him for a couple of hours? Then you can just pass him on to Temari. I'll leave a letter explaining everything."

"There is just one little flaw in your perfect plan… I don't know a thing about kids!"

Sasori laughed "It's not that hard. Besides he'll probably be asleep at that time."

"Okay, fine. But if something happens I'll just wake up Temari and leave him to her…"

"Thanks, Gaara."

"Don't mention it… Might as well stay here… Seeing as it's already past eleven and you'll be leaving in six hours."

"Make yourself at home. I'll be upstairs, in my room. I still need to prepare myself for the mission and I want to rest a bit. So goodnight, Gaara."

"'Night. Hey, Sasori, just one more thing… How long is your mission?"

"It's a pretty easy mission, so about a day. I don't even know why they choose me for this."

"Oh… 'Kay. 'Night, Sasori"

"'Night."

Sasori headed to his room, entering and closing the door as quietly as possible.

He placed the baby on the bed, changing him into his pajama. Deidara stirred and looked about the bed. Sasori prepared the things he would need for his mission and then changed to his own pajamas and climbed next to the blonde, the baby searching for his embrace. Sasori smiled at the child's innocent behavior and planted a soft kiss onto his forehead. "Go to sleep, Dei."

That morning, as soon as the sun was up, Sasori was ready to go, although a bit reluctant. He didn't want to leave Deidara. He had grown attached to the blond baby in the few hours they had spent together.

He sat on his bed watching the steady rise and fall of the baby's small chest as he slept. Sasori ran his hand through the soft blonde locks and pressed his lips to the small forehead. "Be good, okay, Dei?" Sasori whispered "I promise I won't take too long. I'll be back by tomorrow morning… Bye, Dei… See you tomorrow, okay?"

Sasori left the room, closing the door behind him. He met with Gaara in the living room. "Hey, Gaara… I'm leaving. Deidara is in my room. You know what to do, right? If something happens call Granny Chiyo, she already knows about Deidara."

"Okay. Be careful, Sasori."

"You know I will. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow…"

Sasori left, leaving Gaara alone to take care of Deidara for three more hours.