Leader sat behind his desk and browsed through some paper work. He was really getting frustrated with it... He put the papers on the desk and stared at them for a moment, before suddenly wiping them down. They floated through the air and settled on the floor. Then Pain stood up and walked out of the room without another glance towards the mess.
.........
"Kakuzuuu!" Hidan yelled and entered the kitchen. Kakuzu looked up from the newspaper's economy pages to see his bloody partner.

"What?"

"I got a little carried away. My kunai was too fucking sharp!" Hidan said and held out his hand, which was few fingers short. Kakuzu sighed and put the paper down.

"Give me the fingers and sit down." Hidan did as he was told.

"Ow, ow, OWW!" Hidan howled as Kakuzu stitched him back together.

"Shut up and hold still", Kakuzu told him.

"You're fucking hurting me!" the zealot yelled back and grimaced. Kakuzu snorted and shook his head. "Blame yourself."

"What's going on here?" Kisame asked when he came to the kitchen, after listening to Hidans whining for a while in the other room. He looked at the bloody hand-like mess and lifted his brows.

"Alright, no need for further explanations." Hidan glared at him, but soon turned his attention back to merciless Kakuzu.

Suddenly loud arguing was heard from outside the room.

"Shut up already, I don't give a shit about your day, un!" Deidara's voice said.

"But Deidara-sempai..!" the other voice, Tobi's, whined. The kitchen door flew opened and the annoyed looking bomber came in, followed by Tobi. Both spilled sand all around the floor.

"Not a word", Deidara warned and lifted a finger towards Tobi, who gulped and backed off a step. "Sorry, sempai..." Deidara turned his back to Tobi and took a glass from the closet.

Kakuzu finally finished stitching Hidan's fingers and the Jashinist stretched them carefully. "Ahh... Thanks, Kakuzu, though you could've been gentler. That hurt like hell..!"

"More than cutting your fingers off just like that?" Kakuzu asked skeptically. Hidan grinned. "You should try it, too..."

"Some other time", Kakuzu said and rolled his eyes.

Deidara had filled the glass with water and was now enjoying it.

"I hate deserts, yeah."

"Sounds like a good reason to scatter sand everywhere", Kakuzu said and started reading the newspaper again.

"Very funny", Deidara snorted. "How did your mission go anyway?" Kisame asked, frowning. Deidara snorted again and refilled his glass.

"The man we were supposed to kill had been dead for days already. Our mission was in vain", he said bitterly. "He'd been poisoned, by the same poison Sasori no Danna used, yeah."

"But sempai", Tobi said, clearly confused, "Sasori has been dead for longer than that."

"I know exactly how long Danna has been dead, idiot, un!" Deidara grew even angrier.

"Why the hell were you supposed to kill him anyway?" Hidan asked.

"He planned to set free the old wind monster, we were supposed to stop him and gather information, before killing him", Deidara told. "Someone else was faster, un."

"So, how we're going to deal with this?" Kisame asked.

Deidara shrugged. "I don't know, we just gave the report to the Leader-sama, we haven't gotten any further instructions, hmm."

Kisame sighed. "Very well... Itachi will want to know this. I'll stop by on my way to train", he said and turned to leave.

Hidan lifted a brow and called after him: "If he wanted to know, wouldn't he come and find out himself?"

"He asked me to tell about any new information. Why wouldn't I do so!" Kisame answered while walking away, without even a glance behind.

Deidara put the glass down on the counter and closed his eyed. That's when Kakuzu noticed how pale and exhausted he looked. Tobi yawned hugely.

"Tobi want's to sleep", he stated.

"Then go. And you Deidara, if you want to be any good for the Akatsuki, you'll go to bed, too", Kakuzu said sternly. Deidara opened his eyes to give him a nasty look, but knew how right he was.

"Tch. I never wanted to be a part of this organization anyway", he mumbled and left the room, and again, Tobi followed right behind him.

"Are you alright, Deidara-sempai?" Hidan and Kakuzu heard Tobi's concerned voice ask from the hallway.

"I'm fine, Tobi, un", Deidara answered. "Just tired, that's all."

"I'm sorry I annoyed you, sempai", Tobi said carefully. The so called Zombie brothers barely heard Deidara's answer: "It's alright. I'm just tense, it's not your fault Tobi, yeah."

Kakuzu shook his head when the voice's of the two were no longer to be heard.

"Akatsuki's softening", he said simply.

"That's what it seems like, seriously. Kisame's doing what Itachi wants, Deidara's not yelling at Tobi's stupidity... It's weird, really", the Jashinist admitted. Kakuzu nodded, still seemingly concentrating on the newspaper.

Hidan stared at him for a moment in silence before saying: "I also have a soft spot." Kakuzu looked up to his partner and lifted a brow at him.

The Jashinist leaned forward, pulled down Kakuzu's mask and kissed him. Kakuzu was too shocked to react in any way, before Hidan broke the kiss and stood up to leave. Kakuzu reached to grab his arm and gently pulled him back to his seat. He looked directly into the zealot's eyes.

"I'm going to share a secret with you", he said. Then he leaned closer and said: "Even I have a soft spot."

He leaned even closer, eventually kissing Hidan full on the lips.

Maybe softening wasn't that bad after all.