Dancing with the Devil

by Reishii-Chan

Deidara x Sakura Shinobi. Fighting. War. Enemies. All that seemed to vanish from thin air as he twirled her expertly in the moonlit night, leaving her following his steps without a second thought or recognition.

Title: Dancing with the Devil

Original Concept: Masashi Kishimoto

Original Plot: My own. Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Theme: One-shot

Rating: T (Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence and minor coarse language)

A/N: Just something extra I had while being bored and sick at home. I haven't written a Deidara/Sakura one-shot story before(or any story whatsoever), so I thought of it while at a friend's house. Hope you enjoy.

-- --

Haruno Sakura waded through the murky lukewarm waters of Kirigakure's border, swearing she felt something wiggling inside her boots. Her hair was covered in twigs, patches of mud here and there, and some slime that had managed to get itself stuck in her hair when she attempted to brush through her hair with her fingers. Her shirt stuck to her tightly, her pants were soaked with blood and sticky water that chaffed against her thighs. Her boots were full of water and unidentifiable substances continued to crawl in and out at will. All and all, she wasn't having a very good day.

Scratch that, a very good week.

She never had any good weeks anymore, did she?

She had taken the mission to Kiri due to the substantial amount of money that was involved. It was a piece of cake. Travel there, learn the contents of the country, and guard the newly appointed Daimyou for the remainder of the week—or at least until his threat was eliminated. It should have been a no-brain-er, she'd protected a lot of important people in her shining rain as the Hokage's apprentice. But it hadn't been. All of her troubles seemed to pile up into one gargantuan sized tornado; other wise known as the Akatsuki.

Yes, those stupid Akatsuki blokes had been involved in this untimely nightmare. But some luck managed to cling to the grime in her hair when she had only encountered two. If it had been three, she would have immediately been done for. One she could have handled fairly well—only possibly escaping with her arm. But two she would probably have a good deal of fighting on her hands, two would mean that one could attack her front, while the other sneaked in toward the back and finished the job. Sakura never really enjoyed the number two in the first place. This just blew everything out of proportion.

The opponents she'd faced was a green like Venus fly trap that apparently had a split personality; Zetsu, if she recalled correctly. The other had been one of the people who had been involved with Gaara's death. Blond hair. Blue eyes. A wicked smile. And mouths on his hands to boot. She couldn't quite remember his name, though, which had been a real shame, she had wanted to report him to Tsunade—shishou when—and if—she returned to Konoha barely conscious.

The fight had been close, and she soon realized that blowing things up was a passion for the blond, not just a hobby. She'd barely escaped a few of those bombings unscathed, deep burn marks covering her upper torso and arms, but she'd managed to stay out of the green ones way. He—Zetsu—would always smile deviously whenever she would look in his direction, and it made her stomach drop. It was almost as if he wanted to...eat her or something. It was nerve racking.

Sakura only managed to survive because the fight had taken a slight turn, one of them being called back for something that she particularly didn't care at the moment. She barely had managed to leave the fight with her life still intact. But she had managed to land a few good kicks and punches toward the blond, thirty percent of them actually coming in contact with his body, but they were laced with chakra and enough to have broken the bone and render one of the limbs useless for a while.

So here she was, dragging herself through hell as it seemed to return to her village for proper interrogation under Morino Ibiki about the encounter. It was simple, he would ask her what she had attained during the week's visit, she would inform him of the fight and of the two Akatsuki, and he would let her free, while doing so sending a squad of ANBU to investigate and probe the area for clues of their whereabouts. Then Sakura could freely go home and soak in her bathtub until she fell asleep and she could no longer feel the sticky things that were in her hair and on her body. She would then return to the Hokage tower to collect her pay and be on her gaily way to train with Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi.

The process all sounded so simple, but she was smart enough to know that her life was a living chaos.

She squelched when she stepped on a rather soft object that squished and sunk beneath her feet, and continued to walk through the armpit high water—if you could even call it water. She was nearing the end of this ghastly torturous journey when she spotted the river bank that would ultimately lead her out of this unfamiliar stream.

She plopped down on the grassy plateau in a tired heap, her chest rising up and down as she gasped for air under the humid baby blue sky cloudless sky. The sun warmed the naked parts of her body, her cheeks feeling like caked mud. The sun was already drying her blood stained clothes and dampening her hair. She sighed, looked at the sun. Her shinobi lessons back at the Academy taught her how to make a rough estimate of the time by the direction of the sun. After making a vise with her hand she guessed that it was around seven pm, about two more hours before the sun would begin to set over the horizon.

That meant that she would have to make camp and wait it out until the morning, too many dangers lurking about in the dark of night. Besides, she didn't feel all that giddy about getting up any time soon, let alone move a single muscle in her body. But she had to build a shelter, find something to fill her empty stomach, and something to keep her warm during the nights. It was the middle of August, so the nights were cold and the days were long and hot.

With exaggerated lethargic movements Sakura slowly began the gradual process of standing up and putting one foot in front of the other. Everything hurt, but at least there wasn't something unknown lurking about in her boots anymore, which was a given plus. She slugged over to the canopy of spruce trees, taking shelter from the heat and sun while gathering wood for a minimum sized fire.

Lacing chakra with her movements Sakura began tearing the branches off of trees without a second thought. She found a convenient sized little clearing that would prove nice for the night. The ground was solid and firm and wasn't wet, three things that struck awe inside of her. There was also a nice confinement of trees intertwining over her head that would protect her from a sudden rain storm. You never knew in Kiri.

She piled the tree branches into a triangle ti-pee in a circular shape, tossing little twigs and hand-fulls of dead grass in there as well. If Sakura could remember correctly, the way to make a fire without a lighter or match was to build chakra within your throat and blow outward, somewhat like the Uchiha style, only a bit different. Instead of having it turn into fire right away when it leaves your mouth and comes in contact with the air, it would simply catch onto a burnable substance and begin the gradual build of becoming a mini fire, until you fed it and it became a full sized flame.

She performed the hand seals, took in a large breath of air, and concentrated the little chakra she had left into her windpipe. She released the breath onto a little ball of dead grass, the chakra emitting and eating it up like a fire. She quickly tended to it and fed it more grass, watching as it grew larger and larger within seconds. As soon as it was as big as the two of her fists put together she added a couple of twigs to the fire, watching as it became a full fledged makeshift fire.

With a sigh Sakura stood, headed back toward the river, down stream where she could vividly remember that the water there looked a little more cleaner. It had to be filled with fish. Somewhere there had to be fish. She'd kill for fish right about then. She trudged over along the edges of the stream, scanning, searching, looking for a school of fish. She saw a flicker to the left, or was it the right? Wasting no time, she ran back to the forest, literally ripped a long thin branch from the tree violently, and ran back, not bothering to sharpen the end for maximum effect.

She saw the fish. Her instincts took over as she surveyed the school, nice yummy looking trout that were just desperately pleading her to catch and gut them and roast them over the fire. Without hesitation she plunged the stick into the fish, effectively piercing it through the flesh. Sakura adjusted the stick, peeled off the fish, and threw it back toward the fire without looking behind her shoulder, ready to catch another.

In the next five minutes Sakura walked away victoriously with five freshly caught trout in her hands, the stick long since abandoned by the streams' edge. She gutted, stripped, and cooked the fish over the fire with a triumphant grin on her face. It would take about a half an hour for them to cook fully, lest she catch some kind of river disease from cooking them impartially.

Absently Sakura's arm rose toward the sky, and she took a sniff. Immediately her arm came back down while she gagged and coughed and wheezed. Maybe she would consider taking a soak in the clean water before settling down to eat and sleep. Yeah, she would.

Yeah, I don't want to smell that all night.

Inner ranted, pinching the bridge of her nose and swatting her hand with mock horror. Sakura growled and continued her walk toward the stream.

If the water was this clean where she caught the fish...maybe it was cleaner farther down as well. So she opted to go with her gut instincts and walk along the stream farther down. There had to be a place where the water escaped. Maybe if she was lucky she would come across a large pond to soak in. Her hopes up and determination replenished, Sakura began to fast walk, then jog, then outright ran down the stream, anxious to get to the secret paradise and wash the troubles away.

Her foot caught hold of an uprooted branch, stopping her in her tracks, her body heaving forward onto the damp grass. She pushed herself up, took a deep breath, and let a string of profanities escape her tiny mouth that it would even make the Godaime Hokage flush in embarrassment. Yanking her foot back to where it belonged and wiping the sweat that trickled down her brow Sakura stood and panted, hoping that would be the last of her unfortunate mishaps.

As it turns out, that wasn't the only thing that was ready to pulverize Sakura into a little ball of mush. She just had to continue running down the slippery slope until her foot sank in a little hole, big enough to fit her head. She toppled forward and landed on her face, her arms sprawled out beside her body helplessly, unable to react in time. With chagrin and bristling with righteous anger Sakura lifted her sore pink head, spat some dirt from her mouth, and stood ungracefully, pulling her other leg out of the traitorous hole that had ensnared her foot and turned her day that much worse.

Sakura could only think of the appalling obstacles that just littered the woods for her to happily stumble into, making her seethe outwardly and make her hands turn into balls of anger. This time she resumed for stomping furiously toward her destination, large craters being summoned whenever her foot came in contact with the green land. If she hadn't been so mad she would have stopped to consider the possibility of trying to cover up the craters so she would be left alone in peace, but as of then her mind was screaming for release.

After what seemed like hours with stomping and grumbling and striding through the dense forest Sakura found herself being greeted by an overly welcoming waterfall, the water cascading down the large crevice while it created a large lake that was just pleading to be soaked in. The mere sight of it all was extravagant, but Sakura had not come all this way just to observe and admire. She came here for a bloody bath, and to hell if she would get one.

She quickly ripped off her clothing, unabashed by her open nudity at the time, and dove in head first into the shimmering lake, leaving her clothes on the river-side. The water was achingly cold on her skin, but it felt nice after all the heat the sun had provided the entire day. Maybe her luck was just beginning to start—or maybe she never really gave it much of a chance to redeem itself. Anxiously Sakura waded toward the waterfall, ducking her head inside while the rest of the water slided effortlessly over her tired and exhausted body. There was a little hole behind the waterfall, a shelter for an animal most likely, staring her straight in the face. It was the size of her fist, no bigger. What sort of animal could fit inside there?

Without giving the question much thought Sakura plunged her tiny finger into the hole, twisting and turning and searching for signs of life. Her first clue was when she fingered something hard and...smelly. Immediately her hand retracted and rejected the vile substance, but she was still curious as to what was in there. So, with renewed curiosity she stuck her finger in there once more, the hole almost swallowing her entire arm. She felt nothing still, which agitated her. Maybe the owner of the house went on vacation or something? That clearly wouldn't do.

So retrieving her arm and setting it at her side, Sakura leaned in and peered inside the hole, finding nothing but pitch blackness. So that's how they were going to play? She could play too.

She took a deep breath and shrieked inside the cave, the silent hole gave driving her more incensed by the lack of cooperation. Honestly, all they had to say was a simple "hello" and she would be on her merry way, curiosity satisfied. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing replying to her loud introduction, so she decided to try it again. Another shrill scream later and she thought she heard a squeak in response. Now she was getting somewhere!

With open victory she let another scream, and dove back into the water when thousands upon thousands of black vampire bats emerged from inside the hole to crowd around her form, scratching and clawing and squeaking as they all fluttered away into the dimming light. Cautiously, Sakura poked her head from underneath the safety of the water, blushing at how stupid she had been. It had been nothing more than a bat cave, now she probably had went and ruined it all for them and they probably would never return to that haven again. Sakura hung her head in shame.

Pushing the thoughts out of her head Sakura started to lather herself up and wash all the obscenities that adorned her body ungracefully, momentarily forgetting about the world that surrounded her. After she finished rinsing all the uncleanliness away from her body Sakura swam over to the river bank, chilled to the bone. The sun was just easing over the treetops, threatening to turn this blistering hot day into a very cold night. Her clothes should be dry by now, so she had no problem with worrying about sleeping in cold clothes.

Sakura hauled herself out of the water, still unaware that she was stark naked in the middle of practically nowhere and walked over to where her clothes had been discarded. Tiredly, she pulled on her red tank top, forgetting about the white stripped bindings and pulled on her black ninja shorts, ignoring the fact that they stuck everywhere uncomfortably. She picked up her hiate—ate and boots, planning on rinsing those later on when she had something to fill that vacant spot in her stomach. With unhurried steps she returned back to her makeshift camp unhindered, setting her clothes beside a large tree and walking over to the fire.

" What the f..."

She stared at the crackling fire, her eyes ablaze as she looked at the empty sticks that had been holding five fish that had been sizzling over the fire—

—but now there wasn't even a crumb left.

Whomever took it had better have some sense not to come back for the remainder of the night.

" Well that's just perfect! First that stupid mission and those stupid Akatsuki bastards come and ruin everything! Then I have to go through ridiculously polluted water! I have to trip over pretty much everything that isn't secured to a stable and flat surface! I have to get scared shit-less because apparently a family of bats were nesting in that stupid god damned hole! And now my fish are gone! Gaaarrgggghh!"

" I don't find us bastard, yeah."

The sound of another voice startled her and left her stopping in her tracks, shivers winding up and down her spine at how familiar it sounded. Sakura was afraid to turn around and see just who was talking to her, but she already had a pretty decent clue. The overly used 'yeah' at the end of every sentence was always a dead giveaway.

Mechanically her head spun around toward the forest, sitting in a large tree was the blond haired Akatsuki member, chomping down pleasantly on her stick of fried fish.

" You're a pretty good cook, yeah. I could smell it for miles. Boy am I starving!" Deidara continued to chew on the delectable fish, outwardly ignoring the raging look Sakura was sending him from down below.

She should have ran, should have screamed, should have done something the moment she recognized who the intruder and thief was, but just the fact that he had stolen her fish and he too was clearly injured had her fists balled up and chakra enhanced, ready to climb up that stupid tree and bash his brains out. His left hand was currently feeding himself while the right hung limply over the side, blood scattered across his cloak and soaking in his skin as well. His hair was in a large mob on top of his head, and she could only imagine what it would feel like when he would inevitably try to untangle the elastic band that held his half ponytail up.

But right now, there were more important matters to think about.

" What the hell are you doing with my fish!?" Sakura yelled, pointing an accusing finger in his direction.

Deidara merely smirked and scarfed down the rest of the fish." It's not polite to point. And it just so happened to be unattended at the moment, so I helped myself, yeah."

" That's not how it works! I cooked that! And I caught it! I should be the one eating it right now!"

" Maybe if you hadn't have left it all alone you still would be, yeah!"

" I was taking a bloody bath!"

" Well what the hell were you doing taking a bath in blood?!"

" I wasn't! It was a figure of speech!"

" A figure of what, yeah?"

" Speech!"

Realization struck in when she figured out they both were chattering and yelling away like little children over a little insignificant toy. But she'd be damned if she had to go and catch those fish again. Besides, it was already dusk and there was a minimum amount of light left for her to see everything, she was not about to slip and fall into mud and have to clean up again later.

" Listen Mr—"

" Deidara."

"—Deidara! I am not going to catch another arm-full of fish! You understand!"

He nodded curtly." I do, yeah. So why are you telling me this?"

Sakura fumed." Because you're the one that's going to catch it all back for me! You got that!"

Deidara snorted, tried to hide the mirth plastered on his bloody face." No, I don't got that, yeah. I am not subjected to catching you another round of fish."

" Yes. You. Are." Sakura gritted, finding she was nearing the end of her tether. She didn't care that she'd almost been blasted to smithereens by this character just this morning, she was going to win this argument dammit." You catch it, you eat it. That's how it's supposed to work."

Deidara tapped his chin lightly, smug." Oh yeah? Well, if memory serves I had to catch this particular meal in anticipation of an attack of the original catcher, so that can be called Catching My Next Meal in shinobi terms, yeah."

" That's total bullshit," Sakura spat, unamused." I don't know who you think you are but—"

" Deidara, ex-shinobi from Iwagakure and current resident of the Akatsuki, yeah."

"—I'm not going to let you walk all over me just because you think you are high and mighty! You got that!"

Something seemed to click in Deidara's mind at that point and time, because the way she talked, the body language, and the cute pursing of her lips strung a memory chord. Hadn't he just battled with her this very morning? Wasn't she the one to break his arm in the first place and mess up his hair? Come to think of it, she was the little hellrazer who'd done such a thing. Change of action.

" What's your name, yeah?"

Sakura set her shoulders, glowered." Haruno Sakura, yeah." She mimicked just to spite him some more, happy to see his eye twitching when she mocked his unmerciful habit.

" Don't make fun of me, yeah. I'll blow you to bits." He threatened scornfully, the mouth on his left hand licking it's lips in excitement.

She tried oh-so very hard not to come over there and prove to him that she was a lot tougher than she looked, but her aching muscles refused to be bothered by stressful activity and it lead to her continuation of glaring up at him from his perch on the tree branch. Deidara looked down at her while smiling in slight entertainment, only to wince suddenly when he unexpectedly jerked toward the right on his injured arm. Shit could she kick hard! That had to have been blended with chakra in order to break the collarbone so thoroughly and easily. Now he understood why it was he who had did all the work while Zetsu acted as spectator for the duration of their match; she was f—king dangerous!

When he saw the fist by her side clench and her knuckles turn deathly white he gulped down a little bit of what someone might call hysteria. So he decided to play the antihero while in her presence, all the while acting obnoxious and stuck up as to not show any self release toward her person.

" Fine, yeah, I'll go get your stupid fish." He grumbled despondently, hopping down from the tree with a silent thud, ignoring the jaded pieces of ice sticking into his arm as he did so.

Sakura almost jumped with victory but had to remind herself to stay stoic and calm in this little situation, one wrong move and he might reconsider his generous offer. She watched him idly as he caught the fish with one hand awkwardly, not hesitating in the slightest when he threw the fish over his shoulder toward her with deadly accuracy. Sakura hadn't noticed the gliding fish until just the last second—

—when the stupid fish came face to face with her wide and frowning forehead.

" Ack!"

Sakura ripped off the fish and threw it somewhere where she thought the fire was located, and promptly glared daggers at the blond haired-nin." What the hell was that for!?" she cried, fuming.

Deidara made a scene of slowly turning his head over his shoulder toward her." Sorry, yeah." He didn't sound all that sorry, more like all that sorry for not being able to hit her a second time and to be able to get away with it." And to think, had that been a kunai you'd be totally dead, yeah!" he laughed.

Sakura huffed indignantly toward Deidara, crossing her arms over her chest as a sign of stubbornness and a sense of unwilling cooperation toward him. Really, who did he think he was? She knew he had already answered that question previously—ex shinobi from Iwagakure and current resident of the Akatsuki, yeah—, but she kept repeating the statement continuously, hoping she would automatically receive a new and more liable answer. So, her nose held high in the air to give off a sense of authority, she watched from the corner of her eye at the blond who clumsily caught the fish in almost pitch darkness.

Since their little 'encounter' the sun had disappeared substantially over the trees, leaving them almost in the wake of the full moon's glow overhead. It was domineering on her part, what with an injured Akatsuki member obediently catching her supper and the fact that they weren't exactly on level terms with one another. On the plus side, however, she now knew his name.

Those icy cold hands of betrayal and deciept clawed at her skin in warning, and she expertly thwarted them off of her. For now.

Deidara returned dispassionately with four other trout, all held in his one usable arm while cradled against his chest. He disgracefully plopped them on the ground next to her and picked a spot adjacent of her, bending and sitting down tenderly to avoid pain to his injured arm. He watched her absently as she picked, poked, turned, tossed, and evidently sniffed the fish tentatively.

She probably thinks I poisoned it, yeah Deidara thought with mirth. Wouldn't blame her. If I had some clay left she'd have been long gone some time ago, yeah.

Deidara considered it. Chances were good that he wouldn't have blown her up right away, she was far too entertaining as it seemed to hasten the ending of it. Regardless of the current situation of his immobile right arm, he could clearly see them being friends had they met on different sides of the battle field.

Sakura stuck the last untainted fish onto the burnt stick with care and stared into the blazing fire. She felt a pair of eyes fixated on her form, making her a bit irate and self conscious. When she glanced up she saw Deidara's gaze falter, then turn to the side, abashed at being caught in the act.

" What?" Sakura growled, temper rising steadily.

His eyes turned slowly to lock with hers, the flames of the crackling fire dancing and reflecting off of his cerulean eyes." What what, yeah?" he asked dubiously.

" What were you staring at?"

" At that tree." He pointed to said innocent tree profoundly.

She sniffed." Yeah right. You were probably looking at me!" She declared, unaware that she'd just chose herself as a suitable candidate for his entertainment

Deidara eyed her, trying not to show any amusement." And if I was?" he jeered, brow rising flirtatiously.

She ignored the jibe pointedly." You had best hope you weren't doing such a lecherous thing to me."

" And again; what if I was?"

Her head rose a centimeter, a sign of defiance." I'll pummel you to next week." She promised.

His lips betrayed him; he smirked." Oh really, yeah?" he paused considered, his eyes shining in childish festivity." Maybe I was, yeah."

Sakura fixed him with a warning glance. He turned from a condescending egotistical bastard to an annoyingly condescending pigheaded obnoxious egotistical bastard in three seconds flat.

He's good, Inner commented, swooning a bit.

Sakura's eye twitched toward that unnecessary comment.

" Well...you shouldn't have been!"

Ooh, nice come back, Sakura. Very smooth. Inner retorted lamely.

Subconsciously Sakura added more wood to the ferocious fire. She noted that Deidara was rummaging threw his cloak with growing irritation. Her senses became more alert and Inner cried inside her head.

He's probably looking for his clay! she shrieked.

Deidara continued unnoticed through with his search.

" What are you doing?"

Sakura's voice stopped his movement for a second before he resumed his scouring silently.

" Looking for something, yeah," he replied blankly.

" For what?" she urged frantically.

" You'll see," he kept up the blasé attitude for a minute longer until his hand removed white objects from a little pocket inside the cloak. He smiled joyously. These would keep him occupied!

Sakura peered cautiously at the objects he held in his hand. It looked like a stack of playing cards from her angle, but you could never be too sure with an enemy.

" What are those?" Sakura asked curiously, tilting her head to the side, pointed at the cards.

" Suiryou cards, yeah." He answered eagerly, setting the deck by his feet.

" Suiryou...cards?"

" Yep," he chirped, shuffling the cards around." You want to play? It'll pass the time more quickly, yeah. The less time I spend here, the less trouble I'll be in when I get back."

She could barely grasp the concept of their name, how was she to know how to play?" How do you play, exactly?"

He looked at her incredulously; the equivalent to that of a child who couldn't believe his best friend hadn't gotten the latest kunai set on the market yet. Sakura cringed at the similar memory, missing the ashamed head shake Deidara sent her way.

" It's simple, really." He promised." Suiryou means guess. There are fifty cards in a deck, each and every one of them blank."

Sakura backpedaled." Blank...?"

" Yes." He confirmed." They're chakra respondent. All you have to do is push the chakra into the card and an element symbol will appear. There are five elements in all, ten groups of five. Lightning, wind, water, fire and earth. It's simple. Water beats Fire. Fire beats earth. Wind beats Fire. Earth beats wind. Lightning beats earth. Water beats lightning. Fire beats lightning. And so on. It's like a game of war, in a way. We'll draw a single card at a time, and push chakra into it when we flip it over. Whenever one of my elements beats yours, I get to keep that element for later use. Same goes for you. When the player no longer has anymore cards to use, the game is done."

It had to be the longest speech he'd ever given to her without the use of the habitual 'yeah' accopanying it. And besides, it did sound quite easy and time consuming...

So she agreed, and he cheerfully began to divide the deck into two even stacks of twenty-five. She took her respectful cards and shuffled them thoroughly, hoping to get a good hand. He gestured for her to use the chakra at the precise moment. She did so and the two took one card from their hands and revealed, Sakura whooped in victory.

" Ha! Lightning beats earth!"

Deidara nodded critically before drawing another card, flipping it over the same time she did.

She frowned.

He smirked.

" And earth beats wind, yeah."

He collected the cards he'd won next to his other pile, dealing out another randomly selected card from his hand.

Both flipped, and both frowned.

" Damn, fire and fire," Sakura moped." Just a bigger fire."

They played for what seemed like days, but in reality only two hours, and both were feeling the effects of fatigue from the extended use of their chakra. In the end Deidara managed to come out of the game victorious, while Sakura concentrated her medical powers into kneading out the cramp in her stiff neck. How long had she sat there, anyway?

She noticed that Deidara was fiddling with his unusable arm, and she felt the heavy emotion of guilt wash over her form, replacing the exhaustion. She did kind of feel sorry for hurting him like that, especially when he decided to share that fun and overly long game with her. Maybe she should...

No! Inner scolded. You are not going to take pity on the enemy while I'm still conscious!

Sakura bit her lip in indecision.

If you heal his arm you're betraying our village! You'll just make him more potent to using weapons anyway! You are not going to jeopardize our safety just because your feeling guilty over hurting his arm because he was putting your life in danger!

Sakura got up and started to walk over calmly.

Are you even listening to me!? Inner raged. Did you hear a word I said? In case you didn't—which you better have—then I'll just repeat myself. I said—!

" Do you want me to help you with that?" Sakura asked cumbersomely, avoiding eye contact with the male.

Deidara blinked several times, digesting her words. Sakura slowly gestured toward his injured and rather painful looking arm.

He followed her finger, sighed." Yeah, I guess." He grumbled repulsively. Hadn't she been the one to damage it in the first place?

" Alright, I'll heal it for you."

Sakura sat on her shins and ordered him to take the cloak off carefully. He did as he was told and discarded it to the side, wincing at the sight of his arm. She accessed the damage with a keen medical trained eye, not liking what she was seeing. There was a deep gash trailing down the side of his forearm and the collarbone was smashed to bits as it looked. He was suffering a deep laceration and had a ligament pulled, a bone crushed, and blood curdling out of a little wound that was probably deeper than it looked.

She focused on the task at hand and went into her medic mode as she liked to call it; a state where she shut out everything around her except the patients needs. Her hands glowed a dim florescent green as they neared his arm, and he involuntarily twitched when he felt the warmth of her chakra invading his system.

Within an hour his entire arm was healed to perfection and she was on the verge of passing out. She only had a little chakra left, and she highly doubted that Inner would be the least bit gracious in lending her some strength before she passed out cold on Deidara's lap. As it turned out, it took a little bit of hopeless pleading for Inner to be persuaded.

I'm warning you, Sakura, the next time you don't listen to me I'm not going to be so generous! Inner squawked, glad to have proven a point to her alter.

Sakura swatted her away with the incessant agreements and felt her strength gradually being replenished by Inner's help. She sprouted like a flower instantaneously before Deidara, all energized and ready to go another round of healing. He looked a little worn out himself, but it was probably because he was still bathed in blood and his hair still looked like it'd been tousled the morning before.

" Is it working properly?" Sakura asked in a trained voice.

Deidara tentatively began to flex his arm muscles, relieved to find that everything was working properly and coherently. He couldn't believe it at first when she had started healing his arm, but now he had too. She was an expert when it came to being a medic, he summed up, and she was too damned concentrated on doing that one little gradient of a project to notice what else was happening in the world around her.

He stared at her nonplussed for some time before she eventually was happy with her quick fix-up.

He stood up, rotating his shoulder experimentally, glad to see that everything indeed was working accordingly. He noticed her head bobbed once, and he figured she was probably exhausted from the healing session. But as it seems when he offered her a hand, she took it without hesitation, and he pulled her up. She was surprised to find that her nose was buried in his chest and his hands were wrapped around her body protectively.

Without thinking she inhaled his scent, and nearly melted on the spot. It was a fine combination of blood, forest, and the clay he used, and it smelled a lot better then it sounded. She didn't protest, but she didn't accept, either. She just stood there while he embraced her, relaxing against him soundly.

Deidara moved his hands so that one was positioned on her hip covering while covering hers, and the other one held her other hand upwards at his shoulder length, and he slowly began moving without a beat or a tempo, just let his body glide her along and shift and swerve and duck and stride.

He found her unconditionally attractive and enchanting, and he'd never felt this emotionally attached to someone before. Sure he'd had his fair share of women during his prime years, but this was different, a little more strong and a little more meaningful. He hadn't known what he was doing exactly when he took her hands and started to sway, letting his instincts take over for him while he reminisced about the day. He didn't mind that he would have to kill her friends someday, or eventually her if she were to get in the way. Right now it was just a simple little dance between a man and a women.

Shinobi. Fighting. War. Enemies. All that seemed to vanish from thin air as he twirled her expertly in the moonlit night, leaving her following his steps without a second thought or recognition. It seemed as though this was destiny, as if both were just for each other. So she let him dance with her that night, to forget about the awful things that took part in their lives.

It was a dance to forget about their current positions, to forget that he was an Akatsuki member and a missing ninja from an unallied village and for him to forget that she was his enemy and had killed his former partner three years prior. A dance to leave everything behind and to just be themselves under the blue hue of the night sky. The quick movements and the sudden jolt of fatigue sent Sakura tumbling over the edge of unconsciousness, and she could feel her body becoming lax in his arms slowly.

To Sakura, right then, this little dance meant everything to her right now, and she could care less that she was sharing it with a member of the Akatsuki.

" Mmmm...Deidara...?" she murmured against his neck.

" Yeah?" he whispered, a faint sound in the darkness.

" Don't forget..."

She hadn't a chance to finish her sentence before she collapsed on to him.

When Sakura woke up the next morning, however, Deidara was no where in sight. But the memory of him would replay in her mind for some time after.

--

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this one-shot. I planned on having it a little longer and a little more emotionally written, but this wasn't really about the romance, it was basically about companionship. If that makes any sense whatsoever. I guess it's just the way I picture it.

I love your reviews, they make me go mad. Please, fill this desire to let loose!