Recap

"I was offered a job at Kismet in New York," Sasori stated simply without warning.

"Kismet? As in that art firm?" Deidara asked slowly. Kismet was quite possibly the best art firm out there, home to more than a few famous artists and with a work ethic which allowed its artists to freely do what they want to. In other words, it was Deidara's dream workplace. An uneasy feeling started taking over him, replacing every happy cell with a nerve wrecking tremor.

"So," Deidara started conversationally. "Are you going to accept it?"

Sasori paused for a moment before he looked straight into Deidara's eyes. Deidara never felt so scared at seeing the determination in them.

"Yes."

And just like that, he felt the floor being pulled from underneath his feet and his world being thrown off his axis. He forgot all rationality and everything that Hidan said. All the negative emotions that he thought he had suppressed rushed to the forefront of his mind and when he looked at Sasori again, his face was twisted with pure fury.

"I fucking hate you, un."

Kismet 27

Sasori didn't know if he did the right thing but he knew that he did the adult thing. Fine, so maybe he should have said something at least before upping and fleeing the scene like some fugitive on the run but he did the most logical thing that would aid his goal: avoid ugly confrontation.

He knew that it wasn't a long-term solution and he knew that he and Deidara would eventually have to talk no matter how much he wasn't looking forward to it but he hoped that at least Deidara would have calmed down a little by then. Because, even if he had somewhat expected it, being told that he was hated by Deidara still unexpectedly hurt. A lot.

So he was taking a walk in the park to ease the turbulence of emotions in his chest. Emotions that he wasn't used to having. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to return to the hut tonight. Hell, Deidara might even throw him out at this rate. Luckily he still had his old apartment.

"Fancy seeing you taking a stroll at this time of the night."

Sasori raised his head from his musings and found himself looking into the black orbs of Uchiha Itachi. It was probably a coincidence but Sasori couldn't shake the feeling that Itachi had planned on meeting him somehow.

"Evening to you too."

They walked side by side in pleasant silence. This, Sasori decided, was why Itachi was his best friend. Even though they barely had anything in common (Itachi appreciated art as much as the next civilised being but wasn't inclined to pick up a brush to do any of the work himself while Sasori just couldn't, for the life of him, be bothered to figure out the musings of practically otherworldly creatures), they somehow understood each other and could work in tandem without communication.

"I heard from Pein about your offer," Itachi said casually, passing it off as mere passing information though Sasori knew that that was exactly the reason why they were currently taking a stroll in the park together.

Sasori nodded in response. "I received it a few days ago. Wasn't really sure if it was the real deal so I got Pein to check it out."

"Congratulations."

It was a simple, one word and expected reply. But Sasori felt as if he had never heard such a heart-warming thing in his life before. Maybe it was the fact that he could tell that Itachi meant it or maybe it was because he wished that Deidara had said it, either ways, it made him happier than he could express and he simply tilted his head in thanks.

"How did he take it?"

He decided that his friends knew him too well that they didn't even pretend to beat around the bush anymore when they were with him. While he appreciated the effort, it was sometimes tiring to constantly discuss about all the issues going on in his life. Then again, he guessed that his friends weren't the type to go around in a one big circle before getting to the point either. Maybe that was why they were even friends in the first place.

"He said he hated me," Sasori said with a careless shrug, trying to play it off as a dull matter but Itachi's sharp eyes told Sasori that the Uchiha wasn't buying any of that.

"He looked pretty alright when I saw him on campus this afternoon. It couldn't have been too long after that that he went home to see you."

Sasori slowed in his steps as he spared a sidelong glance at Itachi.

"You met Deidara?"

"Don't worry, nothing happened," Itachi replied calmly, ignoring the somewhat accusatory tone in Sasori's voice. He could understand why Sasori would think that he was the cause of Deidara's irritation but in the first place, he couldn't comprehend the blonde's hostility towards him, though the feeling was rather mutual at times. "I was simply speaking with Kakuzu about a class we are taking together this semester when Hidan stormed up to him and confessed to him. Deidara was simply accompanying him. Though I must mention how odd it was that Deidara and I actually shared a rather short moment of understanding."

"Pray tell, how did that happen?" Sasori almost sounded amused.

"Apparently, Kakuzu and Hidan thought the campus an appropriate place to display how physically attracted they are to each other." The way Itachi said it, he might as well have been talking about one of his philosophy classes and that made Sasori burst out into laughter, the action dislodging some of the ice in his heart.

"You mean they decided to make out in the corridor?" Sasori clarified, smirking with how uncomfortable Itachi looked as he no doubt relieved the horrid memory.

"Indeed."

A heart beat's pause.

"I believe we were talking about another matter."

"Indeed," Sasori echoed back emptily.

Itachi paused in his tracks, turning his head slightly to glance at Sasori through raven bangs. "Sasori."

The redhead huffed and shoved his hands inside his pockets, suddenly feeling defenceless and weak. And all he could think was this shouldn't be happening like this.

No, because Deidara was supposed to be happy for him dammit. Where did the supportive and motivating person that Sasori loved go to? Who was this jealous monster that would sooner see him suffer than be happy for him? Hell, even Chiyo might have been happier.

Which made the whole situation a hell of a lot more ironic than Sasori cared to acknowledge.

"I ran away," Sasori muttered, staring straight ahead and not seeing anything. "He told me he hated me and I ran away."

"Why?"

"Because I can't stand it." Sasori let out a humourless laugh.

Itachi frowned at him; that answer was too vague. "It?"

"It. Him."

"You might want to clarify."

There was a long silence and Itachi almost thought that Sasori wasn't going to give him a reply when it came. But when it did, it was so full of pain that Itachi almost fell backwards from the amount of emotion in Sasori's voice even though it was so soft it barely carried over the other sounds in the park.

"I can't stand the thought of him hating me."

"Sasori…" Itachi made to touch his friend's shoulder but Sasori shifted away. The Uchiha's eyes cleared in understanding and he let his arm fall back to his side. Sasori didn't want comfort, didn't need comfort. He needed logic – cold, hard logic – to help him figure out how he felt and how he wanted to from here. Because no one else could help him.

"You're a puppeteer," Itachi said gently, looking at Sasori even as the Akasuna refused to even glance at him. "You control your path, Sasori."

"What if I regret it?" Sasori asked in a hoarse whisper.

"You live with it," Itachi answered honestly because there was no sugar coating the truth.

"And if I end up hating?"

"You live with it," Itachi repeated. "That's all you can do."

Sasori nodded once. Itachi didn't try to stop him when he started walking away. As Sasori faded away into the crowd, Itachi noted that his friend's response had been ambiguous till the very end even though he could detect some form of finality in his words as if he had already decided.

"Whatever you decide, Sasori," Itachi whispered into the darkness, knowing Sasori would never hear his words, "I hope you don't regret it."

Because no matter what Sasori chose, it was hard to live with a regret of giving up something you love.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Chiyo's eyes blazed with hot fury as she rushed from her office to her living room where someone was evidently trying to mow down her door. She wrenched the door open without even bothering to check through the peephole, her anger lending to her impatience.

She couldn't exactly say that she was shocked when she saw Iwa Deidara standing there.

He certainly looked like he'd been through a storm. Well, he always did look messy but there was just something about his unkempt appearance that night that hinted to a much more emotional storm playing out.

"What a surprise. Come in," she said with a cold smirk, polite as ever with decorum sharpened like a knife.

Deidara glared at her and stormed right passed her, but he didn't make himself comfortable on one of her latticed couches like she thought he would. Instead, he stopped right in the centre of the room. Even without looking at his face, she could already tell how frustrated he was from the way his body was pulled taut like a spring waiting to snap.

"Such impertinence," she continued in the same icy tone as she rounded him slowly, like a vulture circling the remains of an animal carcass. "Banging on my door at such a late hour."

"I don't give flying fuck, un."

Why, this was a surprise. Usually, Deidara would attempt to maintain an air of calm and civility around her despite the fact that all the negative emotions he felt towards her were so clear in his body language. He would smile, oh sure he would – that giant, bright, disarming smile – but it was so obvious that it was nothing but a construction.

Well, two can play this game.

Chiyo adorned a charming smile, spreading her arms out in open invite.

"To what do I owe the honour of having you here, my star pupil?"

Her smile slid into a smirk when the scowl darkened on Deidara's face. Sasori always had a talent for making people bleed with his words; that talent obviously ran in the family. Chiyo didn't have to insult Deidara at all to bring him to his knees.

"You're a fucking bitch, you know that?" Deidara spat and it was the force behind the words more than the frenzied look in his eyes that almost forced Chiyo to take a step back.

Her lips thinned into a line. While Deidara had always been overly expressing, stating his opinions and acting as he deemed fit, she had never been in quite a situation such as this where he was laying all his emotions bare. Their games had always been psychological, almost like a game of make-belief at times where fairy tales do exist because they were just so nice to each other. They wore the mask of pleasantness and wielded propriety as a weapon while always cursing the other to the deepest ends of hell.

This – Deidara ripping off his mask and falling into the coarse language they never took with each other – was certainly not something she expected.

And she didn't like being thrown off her game.

"Now why would you say that?" she asked, her expression being pulled into one of concern as she took a step towards him, reaching out almost as if to hug him and comfort him.

To her utmost shock and shaking fury (which she barely managed to contain), Deidara didn't respond as she thought he would. Instead, he laughed. But there was no amusement in that sound – it was cold and as hollow as winds blowing over a canyon. When he finally stopped laughing, the look that he pinned her with was almost enough for her to lose that last bit of control she had. The smile slipped though.

"You're amazing, you know that?" And it was apparent that he did think that, only that he didn't mean it as a compliment. He was looking at her with a mixture of pure disbelief and – dare she say it – pity. He was pitying her.

Her patience ran as thin as a barbed wire.

"Don't you dare look at me like that," she warned softly, her eyes narrowed to slits. It was becoming increasing hard to maintain an aloof attitude.

"Like what? Like I pity you? Because guess what? I do."

"Pity me?" Chiyo snarled, hands balling into fists as she took a step towards Deidara.

"Yes, I do," Deidara answered simply, looking at her as if properly seeing her for the first time. As if he was looking at a frail, old lady instead of the world-class surgeon and renowned professor.

It was enough to leave her breathless. She didn't want to do this.

"Why did you come here? If it's to show me how deranged you've become, please leave. I have better things to do," Chiyo said curtly, letting her arrows fly. They weren't sharpened but they would have to do. She wasn't in the mood.

Deidara's eyes flashed with a hint of fury before it disappeared like a flame stubbed out.

"Shit, you know what? You're right. I do have better things to do," he said, shooting her arrows back at her, this time coated with his venom.

He made to leave, walking right past her once again, and she knew that he had no intentions of doing so. He was only tempting her to call out to him, to ask him to stay, to ask him for the real reason why he came. He wanted her to do it. She didn't want to do it. He knew that she didn't want to do it. Yet, despite knowing this, she halted him.

"Why have you come here?"

"Sasori was offered a job at Kismet."

Chiyo reeled back as if she had been physically struck. It was a comfort that Deidara had his back faced to her so that he didn't see the way she lost control of herself, but try as she might, she couldn't keep the shock from her face.

Pity that he knew how his words must have affected her then.

"What?" she gasped out, suddenly at a loss of what to say.

"Sasori was offered a job at Kismet," Deidara repeated, sounding like a recorded machine.

"That art firm?"

The one Sasori had always aspired to. Sasori's d-

She had never asked and he had never said anything but the pamphlets in his room were telling enough.

"Yeah, that one."

Chiyo was thrown into silence. Suddenly, she didn't feel in control of anything anymore. Sasori was supposed to fail. Sasori was supposed to realise that he wouldn't make it as an artist, that this world was a cruel place and had no place for idealists who did not possess the talent to create their place in it.

But Sasori always had that talent.

She would have screamed out her fury to smother that voice in her head if Deidara hadn't been present. That voice had been silent for years. She thought that she had shut it up for good. It didn't make sense that it was suddenly speaking again. She glared at Deidara. As always, it was his fault.

Everything was his fault.

Who the hell did Deidara think he was? And what made him think that he had the right to saunter into hers and Sasori's lives and destroy everything? He was a pawn in her game. Sasori was the king. He was the sacrificial piece that would bring Sasori to greatness.

But no. Instead, he had to ruin Sasori's life. And hers along with it.

"Disappointed, are we?" Deidara asked drily, turning around to face her, an icy smirk on his face. "Why? Did you think he was going to fail and come crawling back to you?"

Chiyo held her peace.

But it was a little too late for that.

"Were you hoping, huh, that he would fail and that he would return to med school?" Deidara's voice was increasing with every word, his breathing becoming heavier as a glistened sheen wiped over his eyes. "Did you hope that he would live the rest of his life DOING SOMETHING HE FUCKING HATES?!"

Chiyo stared, wide-eyed and confused, as if her world had been turned upside down. No. What she did was for Sasori's sake. It was all for Sasori. Even if he hated her for it, she could live with it. Because everything she did, it was for him. So that he could have a better life. A better future.

What the hell did Deidara know? She wanted to scream at him to shut up but Deidara wouldn't stop talking.

"Are you that selfish, huh? That you would have him sacrifice his happiness to please you?"

"SILENCE!"

Chiyo would have rejoiced at the slight shock that crossed Deidara's face if it hadn't come at the expense of her control. She took a deep, calming breath. It didn't help but at least she felt like she could talk and not yell.

"What do you know?" her voice was dangerously low, like a stalking panther waiting to pounce. "I did it for Sasori. You might not understand. Even he might not understand. But everything I do, I do for him. That child is my everything. I love him. I wouldn't harm him."

Deidara gave another laugh, so empty it sounded like life was being sucked out of him. He wasn't looking at Chiyo anymore, his gaze faraway.

"He doesn't need it."

A dagger to her heart would have hurt less.

Chiyo clenched a hand over her heart and fell back a staggering step, her eyes wide with crazed rage which she pinned on Deidara. Her hold on her control all but evaporated.

"How dare you…" she hissed.

"He doesn't need it," Deidara repeated softly, sounding as if he was talking to himself. He looked up then and Chiyo was shocked to see tears running down his face. It was only when she felt wetness on the back of her hand that she realised that she too was crying.

When Deidara spoke next, it felt like he was burying her alive.

"If that is how you love him, he doesn't need it. He doesn't need your love."

Itachi was right.

It wasn't as if Sasori had doubted his friend but it was one thing knowing it and another one accepting it. The way he looked at it, no matter what he picked, he was bound to regret something.

You live with it.

It was frustrating to say the least, how Itachi made it sound so simple. Yet there was such harsh truth to that simplicity. Because really, what could Sasori do? He was at a fork road; he had to make a choice and no one was going to hold his hand help him make it.

He let out a dry chuckle as he realised how utterly idealistic he had been. Whether it was because he was naïve or just plain stupid, he did not know but he honestly hadn't even expected there to be a fork in the road.

Leaving med school was supposed to be the hard part. Everything was supposed to be smooth sailing from there on out. So why was he standing in the middle of a shipwreck, looking on helplessly as everything he'd ever dreamed off sank?

If he chose Deidara, he would be giving up his dream and by extension, everything he had worked for. If he chose Kismet, he was a downright bastard.

Because Deidara needed him.

And he had made it that way.

He had posited himself as the lighthouse to guide Deidara along the harsh route so that Deidara may come back to a place he considered home. He made himself that beacon of light that Deidara could always look to, to know that he was not alone.

Yet, now he was threatening to take that all away from Deidara.

What kind of a person did that?

Give someone hope and support only to rip it all away when it was hard?

He had promised Deidara shelter when in reality, he couldn't deliver.

With all these in mind, making his choice should have been easy.

But damn. Pein wasn't wrong either.

This was his dream. People don't just give up their dreams like that. It was something that he had fought for and now that it was finally in his hands, was he really going to just let it go?

And it was more than his dream.

This was his second chance.

With this, it didn't matter that he wasted the last four years at med school. It didn't matter that he had fallen out with Chiyo. Hell, this was his chance to show Chiyo that he was right and she was wrong. It was his chance to show her that he could succeed even if he didn't follow the path she laid out for him. It was his chance to show her that he was as good a puppeteer that she was – he could command his life the way she commanded things in the operating room.

It was his chance to make Chiyo proud.

And damn if that didn't count for anything.

Sasori hadn't noticed where he had been going, too lost in thoughts to realise anything. He let his legs guide him in a mindless wander. It was only when he stopped in front of his grandmother's apartment complex that he realised where he was.

He immediately made to turn but something stopped him.

I should talk to Chiyo-baasan.

He didn't know where that thought came from and he certainly didn't want to act on it.

But it was already too late because before he knew it, he was already in the elevator, wondering how he should broach the damned topic with her.

Sasori didn't pause to think about it. If he thought too much, he would only run away. He marched right up to her door and made to knock on it only to realise that it was left slightly ajar.

Frowning, he gave the door a tentative push, peering inside when it swung open without resistance. The lights were on – Chiyo was home.

Now or never.

Sasori took a step in and immediately froze when his eyes settled on his grandmother.

She wasn't seated in her favourite armchair reading a book like he had expected her to. Instead, she was curled up in a crumpled heap on the floor, tear stained cheeks glistening under the soft glow of the chandelier. Her shawl was wrapped around her and for the first time in years, Sasori saw his grandmother, the one who raised him and loved him, not the cold-hearted one who only cared about reputation.

The urge to reach out to her was instantaneous but Chiyo moved before he could.

She looked up, her glassy eyes settling on him.

"Sasori."

The part with Deidara and Chiyo was difficult to write. It was supposed to be emotional and filled with tension and raw emotions and I'm just not sure if I managed to bring that out. I can't say that I'm perfectly happy with how it turned out but I think that I managed to get the feelings across at least.

I know I said this a few chapters ago, but yes, we are nearing the end of the story soon. I already have an idea of how it's going to end and honestly, I'm quite excited to get to it though of course it still saddens me to think that that would be then be the last of this story.

It's very heartening to see people still adding this story to their favourites and following it despite it being an old one. I thank all readers for taking their time to read this! Please also review and tell me what you think of it if it's not too much trouble. It is always nice to hear what people thinks of the story as it progresses.

However, it is also with regret that I note that I might have possibly lost some of my readers as well due to the lack of updates. Nonetheless, I hope that whoever else is reading continues to enjoy it!

Till next time.

~Witherwolf