A big thank you to 17child-of-the-moon17 for editing this chapter for me!

I own nothing-Z.z

One Big Mishap

Chapter 1: The two sides and the one in the middle

What did a surgeon, bounty hunter and detective all have in common? For starters, they all had made the same life goal to bring down a select group of individuals since high school. This group was known, only by a few, as the Akatsuki. Of course, there was no way to bring someone down without evidence; so the trio was left watching the 'evil' organization slowly take over, by infiltrating important social structures.

But who were these people? Well, the group consisted of: a police chief, who was known to be emotionally cold as ice; a police officer, who had dealings with the FBI; a forensic scientist, who specialized in poisons; a botanist, who had bipolar disorder and kept venomous plants; a CEO of a major business company, who was not known for his patience; a vogue model, who was as beautiful as she was deadly; an architect, who was known to make the best 'fireworks' in the entire city; a bank owner, who had serious trust issues; an interrogator, who was employed by the CIA and FBI (for extreme cases); and a candy shop owner.

The last was only guilty by association, so the three had nothing against him; in fact, the surgeon usually stopped by every other day after work or during her break. The candy shop was only a five minute walk away from hospital that she worked at…

"Hey, Tobi!" the pink haired doctor called to the candy man as she entered the store. The tiny chimes played a light tune as the woman shook off her umbrella before turning and making her way across the black and white checkered floor. Her sneakers squeaked as she walked over to the counter where the man was diligently working. She stopped, looking around at all the treats lining the shelves before she stared though the glass counter at the amazing concoctions below her.

"Hi, Sakura!" the black spiky-haired man replied, flashing her a brilliant smile as he looked up from his work. His beauty was dazzling; his fair skin was spotless; and his delicate looking dark, navy blue eyes gave a thoughtful touch. Sometimes the woman wondered if the reason she came was really because he was a good childhood friend who quenched her mouth's sweet tooth or if it was because of the visual awe inspiring sight.

"How have you been?" Tobi asked as he returned to pulling the pink salt-water taffy.

Sakura smiled, taking it as a signal to take a seat and talk. She pulled herself up on the red leather bar stool, wanting to giggle at how old-fashioned yet cool the place was. It reminded her of an old barbershop.

"Ugh." Sakura sighed, placing her hands on the counter. "Just ugh." She rested her face in her hands. She had been called in at twelve a.m. when a massive accident had severely injured thirty people and most had required surgery. Sakura wiped at her tired eyes. Five had died soon after arriving at the hospital, too late to save; several others had died in the surgery room.

"You got called in," Tobi commented as he watched the female slightly begin to doze on his counter top.

"Yeah…" Sakura gave a tired smile and then began to, again, eye the candy in the display case below her, as well as watch the young man roll the taffy on the counter top. "How are you doing?"

"Won-der-ful!" the young man sang out in falsetto as he began to cut his taffy.

Sakura gave a dry laugh as she watched the man hum while he twisted the taffy into small packages. "You really love this job don't you?"

"Of course," the man gave another one of his heart stopping smiles. "Making candy has always been my dream. Here, try this: it's a new recipe."

Tobi laid the pink ball on a piece of wax paper before sliding it over the glass counter towards the pink haired woman.

Sakura placed the warm, gooey substance in her mouth. "Mmm." The strawberry-kiwi flavor exploded while mixing perfectly with its salty complement. "This has to be the best one yet. Think I could get a pound of that to go?"

"Sure," Tobi grinned, returning to wrap the rest of his little masterpieces. "Don't forget you love your job too."

"Oh yes," Sakura scoffed, "What's not to love? There are the long hours, the calls in the night, and the truck loads of paperwork. But wait, there's more: you can't forget having to measure correct dosages of medication or the patient will die. Then there's also the amount of time you spend clotting blood and being covered in it." Sakura sighed.

"If I didn't love saving people, or if I didn't have medical school bills still haunting me, I wouldn't be there." Sakura gave an exaggerated yawn. Her green eyes suddenly flashed in anger as another thought crossed her mind.

"Just look at me. I've become a tired, old woman. Look!" Sakura declared holding out her long pink hair for Tobi to inspect, "I've got several whites! Not grays, but whites!"

"Umm…" Tobi shifted in slight discomfort.

"And I have little to no social life outside of you and my boys." Sakura face palmed. "I'm a living wreck."

Tobi coughed to grab her attention before she could start sobbing. "Well then, you should come to the Akatsuki dinner with me tonight!" Tobi replied, measuring the pound of taffy on the scale. At no reply, Tobi raised his head to watch the young woman seemingly convulse on his bar stool.

"Uh… Sakura!" the man's eyes grew wide, he couldn't afford a lawsuit if she were to fall off and break her skull on his floor.

The woman shook her head violently. "No…" The woman gave a shiver although it was quite warm in the building. "Not them…" her voice cut off into a dead whisper.

"Aww… Please Sakura, you'd have loads of fun. They'll be good; I promise. They're grownups now," Tobi pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

They might have worked, had Sakura been looking, but she was quickly digging through her purse in dire search of her wallet.

"Yes, they're 'all' grown up now," Sakura growled, still looking for her elusive wallet. "They've accumulated so much power that they now have complete control over the banking system, the law enforcement and even international interrogation. There's no stopping them." Her voice began to squeak. "They have no consequences!"

"But Sakura," Tobi sniffed.

Sakura slammed a twenty on the counter, and Tobi was once again justified in installing Plexiglas in his shop. Sakura grabbed her bag of candy before snatching her purse.

"It was good seeing you, Tobi." Sakura made a beeline for the door picking up her umbrella. "Keep the change."

She gave a tiny wave before she walked back out into the rain storm.

Tobi sighed resting his hands on the counter. Another failed attempt.

Navy blue eyes glared at the pink taffy. "Guess I'll be taking you with me tonight then…"

Tobi's head drooped as he made his way up the stairs to the leader's dining room. His steps were slow and down beat even though he was running late, which was something he rarely did. The navy blue eyes inspected the floor with great intensity. The CEO had not spared any money in making the beautiful home for his vogue model wife. The entire floor was made up of white marble, which was accented by the glass handrails lining the walkway and stair case. It was obvious they didn't have kids nor expected to have any. Everything in the entire palace practically screamed 'breakable!' Even the cabinets that lined the hallway were made of glass.

Tobi consciously slowed down as he neared the dining room. Taking a deep breath he opened the door.

"Tobi, what's wrong, un?" Deidara, the architect, asked as the entire room filled with silence at the sound of the opening door.

Soon, the room was full of echoes of the same question as the rest of the members wondered at the youngest member's downhearted aura.

"Nothing…" Tobi murmured making his way to sit between the police chief (his cousin), Itachi and Deidara.

Itachi's black eyes examined Tobi with his cold, calculating gaze. "There is something wrong." The majority of the room wanted to sigh; he was pointing out the obvious…again.

"A problem to one Akatsuki is a problem to the rest," Kisame, the police officer, added to his best friend's words before one of the more sarcastic characters of the group could attack the raven haired man.

The room's silence was deadly as the happy-go-lucky character of the usually stoic group said nothing.

"Tobi, sweetie-," Konan began, her gray eyes flickering with worry.

"I said it was nothing!" Tobi growled taking them all by surprise.

Complete silence filled the room before Tobi blushed, "Sorry, Tobi just made some bad calculations."

The hidden tension in the room released and Tobi hid a sigh of relief with a sad smile.

The blue haired woman and only female member of the group immediately hurried to his side to give him a hug. "It's okay, sweetie-pie, everyone makes errors sometimes."

Being squished in the tight hug, the youngest member's only choice was to return the physical interaction. "Tobi knows. Tobi was just upset, Konan. Don't worry about Tobi. Tobi is a good boy." Tobi gave another half-smile as the woman slowly released her squeeze to give a good look at the boy. She was looking too closely at him, he needed to distract her. "Tobi just failed at a mission. Tobi is very sorry."

"Mission?" Konan asked. Her eyes narrowed in thought.

The navy blue eyes narrowed as the man realized his mistake. Silently cursing in his head he gave a slight giggle. "Tobi just wanted to invite a friend over for dinner so we could all play games together. Like tag, candy land, and hide-and-seek!"

"But a mission?" Itachi prodded. Tobi opened his mouth to speak but was quickly cut off.

"That would have been my mistake," Pein cut in, and all eyes focused to the orange haired man. "There was someone Tobi wanted us to meet, so I suggested that he should bring that person tonight for dinner. He must have mistook my suggestion as an order of some kind," the orange haired man commented off to the side, he then turned his attention to the youngest member. "No need to worry about it, Tobi. I was just curious because you spoke so highly of the person. I'm sure that I will be graced with their presence at a later date."

"Who?" Itachi questioned again, eyes narrowing. He was a cop, which meant he could smell mischief.

"Just a good friend of Tobi's," Pein quickly covered, while trying to say it nonchalantly. His amber eyes glinted at the young man, demanding that he end the conversation.

"Yep, a really good friend of Tobi's!" Tobi said perking up from the warning. He beamed his childish smile across the table and everyone slowly relaxed.

"You got other friends besides us, un?" the blond haired man asked as he patted Tobi on the back.

"Tobi has lots and lots of friends!" Immediately the man began acting like his 'usual' self as he began to steal food from Deidara's plate.

Business continued as usual. Although many were curious, they knew not to pressure Pein. Everyone had seen the warning in his gaze and everyone understood that the conversation was over. Of course, there were those who were socially aware of the situation and understood that any discussion in the particular area would instigate chaos. A chaos that would consist of several stray bullets from Itachi's gun that nobody would be able to escape. They knew it was best to leave the man oblivious to what was going to take place under his nose. But he had seen the look as well, and now he was bound to ask questions.

The blue man wanted to visibly shiver like the white haired interrogator, but he knew that would be a dead giveaway. Itachi was already eying Hidan. Although, it would be unlikely for Itachi to go to him first because everyone knew best-friends were always first. It was with this realization that Kisame just wished, for once, that he had been blessed with normal friends…

"Oh!" Tobi exclaimed, breaking the silent contemplation of the two very nervous men in the room. "Tobi brought a treat for everyone!"

Slipping off his jacket, the man reached into his inside pocket. "Here we go," he proclaimed as he pulled out a large clear plastic bag. There inside rested about three pounds of his newly made taffy.

"Tobi got really good reviews on this recipe!" Tobi smiled as he passed the bag around.

"A new one?" Pein asked carefully.

"Yep!"

…

Kisame slipped several pieces back into the bag as he handed it on to Zetsu who simply handed it over to Konan.

Itachi shook his head; they were unwilling to believe that, with time, Tobi was bound to get better. Although… Itachi eyed the handful he had with suspicion; a night getting his stomach pumped at the hospital did not sound appealing, but he was family. Well, he could always throw the rest away when he got home, he concluded. He could only hope that one wouldn't result in a remake of Deidara's little incident. He rested all but one on the table before opening the wrapper.

All eyes concentrated on the brave, raven haired man as the pink piece disappeared into his mouth. Itachi's eyes dilated slightly with surprise, an expression which was only caught by the blue skinned man, who then stealthily stole one of Itachi's pieces from the table.

"Very good, Tobi," Itachi said, slightly smiling. It was sweet, but not too sweet. For some reason it reminded him of something, something he should remember…

"Yay! Tobi is a good boy!" the high falsetto announced into Itachi's ear, blowing whatever memories he had out of his mind.

Itachi gently patted his younger cousin's head in Uchiha affection.

"This is really good, Tobi," Kisame said with surprise. Immediately he earned a glare from his best friend; someone had counted their pieces of candy.

"Pass some over here, little _!" Hidan demanded to Kakuzu as he grabbed the bag. Immediately, pulling ensued and the pink treats flew everywhere within the room.

Quietly, Itachi began picking up the pieces near him to take home. With a quick death glare, Kisame dropped the pieces he had been trying to steal from the table.

Yes, the Akasuki once-a-week dinner continued on as usual.

"He invited you to eat with them?" the blond bounty-hunter exclaimed.

"Yes, now stop moving. I'm trying to bandage you up, Naruto," Sakura growled as she wrapped gauze around the shredded upper arm of her childhood friend.

"I'm just saying that it doesn't sit right! Right, Sasuke?"

"Shut up, dope. 'They' probably wanted us to talk peace terms," the moody detective growled as he leaned against the couch, watching the two of them in the bathroom. "I haven't had the time lately to look into them in a while, so I don't think it has anything to do with us getting close…" the man trailed off into his own thoughts.

"Pfft, they probably just want to lure us in and make us disappear one by one!" the blond declared, jumping up. He received a quick blow to the head, which made him feel his face to make sure his teeth hadn't been shattered. The man felt his way back to his seat on the counter because he couldn't see with all the water brimming in his eyes.

"I wasn't done yet!" Sakura roared, damaging the sensitive ears of the blue-eyed man. She duct taped the end knowing the sticky gauze wasn't enough to hold itself together on the hyper-active, well-toned man. "Okay, there." She sighed as she packed up her medical kit.

"The dope has a point." Said man's ears perked up. "It's a good thing you didn't go. It could have been a trap," the detective said as he sat on the edge of the couch.

"Sasuke, I'm a well-known person. You would miss me, my work would definitely miss me, and I would be looked for." Sakura sighed as she slid the medical kit into the cabinet.

"Sakura, they would call the police. And guess who the chief is? Oh yeah, it's my brother. Guess who he'll put on the case? Oh yeah, his best friend Kisame. Don't forget he's in on the whole deal as well. They can make you go missing; they're cops, so they know where to put your body where it will never be found."

"Yeah, Sakura. Although, the jerk's brother isn't that creative," Naruto commented as he picked up the bag of taffy from the coffee table.

"Trust me, he's creative. But even if he does run out of ideas, there is always that purple eyed interrogator."

"Oh, I forgot about him." Naruto sat back in the recliner and began munching on the candy.

Sakura sighed as she walked around Sasuke. She then dramatically fell onto the couch, only to curl up into a ball. She picked up her favorite pillow, plucking at it as she rested her head upon its fuzzy pink softness. Suddenly she shivered.

"You guys haven't even read his books…" she trailed off.

"Books?" both boys questioned.

"Hidan… In his spare time, he writes horror stories and mystery novels…" she trailed off again as she remember that every character that died in his books had been killed in a different way.

Everyone in the room shivered in unison. "That guy is messed up…" Naruto murmured, lost in his own memories.

Sasuke looked back and forth between his 'sister' and 'brother' (in arms). He would never admit it, but he was glad that the three of them decided to live in the same townhouse as well as agreeing to build a door between the two sides of the house. Sakura had one side, because of her 'girlie needs' and odd work hours, while Naruto and he were on the other side. The doors on both sides always remained open. Being so close made it easier to check up on each other and having a professional doctor on hand for Naruto was a necessity.

Sasuke's lips twitched because he knew one day everything would change. It was only a matter of time before Naruto popped the question to Hinata. Then it would just be two. Then one…

"I just feel bad for Tobi," Sakura said, breaking the comfortable silence in the room. "He's all alone in a den of lions."

The men shifted uncomfortably.

"Hn." Sasuke spoke for them; even he felt bad for his cousin getting involved with such evil people.

"I mean," Sakura shifted into a sitting position. "Do you think they torture him, pick on him, or make him cry? He's such a pure soul." The poor pillow was being ripped to shreds as the woman subconsciously began to pull at its fuzz in a frenzy.

"Yeah…" Naruto nodded. "I'm surprised he's made it this far."

"What if he hides his tears in his taffy?" Sakura muffled a sob in her pillow. "That's why it tastes so good."

Immediately Naruto dropped the taffy back into the bag, eyeing it suspiciously.

Sasuke gave a sigh before standing. "Tell me the next time you're off work for dinner and I'll invite Tobi to eat with us." He squeezed Sakura's shoulder. "Alright?"

Her big green eyes stared up at him for a moment before she broke into a smile. "Yep."

"Hn." The detective made his way back to his side of the house to finish work. For some reason, there was a nagging feeling in his gut. Something was changing and he didn't like it at all.

"Get some sleep, Sakura," Naruto smiled, "You look awful."

"That bad?"

"Bad enough for Sai to say you look pretty."

*Well, this is the AU reality ItaSaku: One Big Mishap… Also known as a better re-written first chapter of 'They can't be touched'. I took the story down due to a change in the storyline that was unexpected. (aka ItaSaku) In later chapters it will become clear so don't expect everything to be super fast… I'm a snail pace person…

Also I think I am going to get yelled at for:

Tobi… Tobi = Madara's son

Konan eye color… In manga gray, in anime amber (according to naruto wiki); I chose the first…

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I appreciate reviews, critiques or expressing your enjoyment, but they are not required…

Thank you for taking the time to read the story.

Mustsleep Z.z*