Chapter 2~

"Come in at your own risk." Saya announced, sitting upright, cross-legged.

The door opened and a grinning Deidara walked in, plopping down on the bed beside her.

"So how'd your mission go, yeah?" The blonde asked, glancing around at everything in the room.

"Meh. Steal a scroll from some guy –same old boring mission.

"Heh. At least you don't have to leave the base for months tracking a tailed-beast, yeah."

A small sigh escaped from the brunette's lips.

"I don't know…it's just so dull around here and when you're not around I feel like I could just drop dead at any moment." Saya admitted, falling backwards onto her bed, arm covering her eyes.

When Saya received no reply she moved her arm away and looked around the room for the blonde. "Deidara…What are you doing?" She asked cautiously when she spotted him over by her desk.

"Awe, un." Deidara cooed, "It's a baby Saya, yeah." Turning around he held a photograph of a small black-haired child wearing a light blue kimono, ribbons in her short hair.

"Hey don't look through my personal things!" Saya cried, jumping off the bed and walking over to the smirking blonde.

Keeping his back to Saya, Deidara continued flipping though the photo album, commenting mercilessly on each picture. "Awe, you look so cute in pink, yeah." Deidara teased.

"Give that back before I knock you unconscious." She threatened, as she unsuccessfully tried to snatch the album back.

"I wonder what everyone else will say when I show all these pictures of you." The former Iwagakure-Nin mused out loud with mock innocent.

"Don't you dare!" Saya fumed.

"Too late." And Deidara took off towards the door, which was located on the opposite side of the room. Saya ran across her bed and landed on the other side, blocking Deidara's path.

"Now give that back before I seriously think about killing you." Saya threatened, fists clenching.

"Nah…I think I'll make a few copies and-"

Saya jumped at him mid-sentence, hands reaching for the book being held high in the air, but ended up tripping him and causing both of them to fall onto the bed…

"What the hell?"

Itachi paused momentarily, his hand on the doorknob. He heard muffled yells and continues sounds of something being hit repeatedly. He opened the door, curious to know what all the noise was for. If he was surprised to see a raven-haired girl sitting on a blonde's back, swatting the back of his head with a book, he didn't show it. But he was quite amused.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

Her menstruations stopped at the sound of a voice and she looked over her shoulder. "Oh. Itachi," Saya said with mild-surprise, "Sorry, didn't hear you enter." She got off of Deidara, moving to sit on her now messed-up bed and allowing the blonde get up.

"Ow, un." He muttered, rubbing the back of his head where a bump of forming. "That was mean Saya, yeah."

"I warned you twice, just be glad I didn't have my weapons." She retorted, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Okay, okay, I'll leave, yeah." Deidara raised up his hands in surrender when he saw the look she was giving him. And he got up and walked out, but not before commenting on how she looked in pink, resulting in a pillow narrowly missing the escaping blonde.

Saya sighed aggregately as she stood up and started fixing her bed. Itachi walked over to the desk, taking a seat on the chair there, waiting patiently. As his eyes roamed around the room idly, his attention focused on three things- The last thing the blonde had said, about how cute Saya looked in pink, the book lying on the bed, and the dark-blue ribbon tied book that was peering from under one of the pillows.

"So are you just going to sit there staring off into space?"

Itachi hadn't noticed that Saya was done, the bed already made with her seated comfortably on it. Ignoring her remark he asked, "What's that?"

Following his stare she answered, "It's a photo album." She picked it up and handed it too him. "There's just a bunch of pictures of me when I was a kid."

Itachi opened the album and the first photo he saw was of a small girl around the age of five wearing a peach colored kimono with autumn leaves printed on it, the same looking leaves surrounding where she knelt on the ground. As he observed the photo closer he realized it was unmistakable that the girl was indeed Saya. He continued looking through the pictures, unaware of Saya looking over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages.

Itachi noticed how in every picture there was a shine in the young Saya's bright aquamarine eyes. He could see her growing older through every photo, like a flip book. And soon there were photos of her wearing a ninja outfit. Some photos had her smiling at the camera and while others were taken without her knowledge.

Itachi turned the page once more but stopped. He stared at the photo for a moment, wondering who it was. She was looking to the distance like some of the other photos but her face held sadness, and the sparkle in her eyes was gone.

"That was after my parents died." He heard her say and he had to reframe himself from jumping when he felt her breath caress the side of his face. He paused for a second, wondering-

"Why aren't there any pictures of your parents?" He knew it wasn't like him to ask of this, or to even be interested in her childhood photos let alone past. But for the past three months he had been. He was curious about the raven-haired Kunoichi he had found and maybe he-

He felt her sigh softly, warm air rushing against his cheek and halting his thoughts. Her hand came down to the book in his hands to flip to the very end of the album, the back of her hand brushing his fingers. When she retracted her hand he looked closely at the three people. A woman with long black hair and radiant blue eyes was holding –he guessed– a three year old Saya in her arms. Behind them with his arms around the woman and forehead touching hers was a man with spiky jet black hair and gleaming green eyes, both couples smiling at each other rather then the camera.

'No wonder she has those eyes…' Itachi thought.

"They look happy."

"Hmm." Was all Saya said as her fingers traced across the photo before closing the book. She took the photo album into her hands and deposited it into one of the desk drawers before lying on her stomach on her bed, a pillow tucked under her, facing him. Saya glanced at Itachi, aqua orbs meeting red ones.

"So? No luck on your tailed beast?"

"No."

"So…why'd you come to my room?"

Itachi didn't answer.

Saya let out a 'hmm' as her eyes closed. It wasn't unusual for Itachi to be antisocial, so his two-lettered replies didn't bother her. But she was surprised that he had asked about photos of her parents and saying something like 'They look happy.' Saya could only smile to herself at the ridicules thought that came to her mind.