Senko: Hi everyone:D

Many thanks to ayane04, LadySakuraForest, InuKeifer, Heartless Ghostie, NOthiNG buT ANime, Lanny9000990009, AkatsukiFerret, naruto-ddrchamp, I-Love-Akatsuki, Sekiryu, and person for reviewing!

Disclaimer: Me no own. Duh.


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Chapter 3

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Inside her patient's room, Sakura could hear the faint footsteps that belonged to someone echo throughout the plain hallways of the hospital. Her patient was a middle-aged jounin, sound asleep at the moment, and she stood by his bedside cleaning up the bandages and materials.

Sakura's team had successfully escorted the family to their destination without any trouble after Sakura had been saved by Deidara. It had been about a week since her last encounter with the blonde Akatsuki member, two weeks since she had first saved him. After having met him again during the explosion at the town in which she was attacked by a man fearing for his life, Sakura had been feeling better than ever now. She supposed it was because she knew that he was no longer a threat to her in a sense that he would reveal to the world what she had done and thus ruin her life.

She knew it was the last time she would ever meet him. At least, she hoped it was, and she knew chances were that it was. Now that he had paid her back they would be able to live on as though they had never met before. She was now resuming her position as a medic-nin for Konoha and he would continue as an Akatsuki member.

The footsteps she had heard from before grew louder as they neared and then stopped.

Sakura's eyes shifted upwards from the table where she was gathering the materials and to the door. There stood Ino, her head shyly peering into the white room. "May I help you?"

The blonde kunoichi stepped inside. "No need to be so formal, Forehead-Girl."

Sakura turned around to face her. "I am a medic-nin at this hospital and while I am on my working hours, I am expected to behave professionally towards anyone and everyone."

Ino sighed. "You are so hopeless. No wonder you have no boyfriend – you'd just treat them like patients!"

The pink-haired medic-nin sent a glare to the other girl in the room. "What do you want?"

"Calm down, calm down," Ino laughed. "I just came because Hokage-sama told me to come fetch you to go on a mission with my team. She said your shift should be over right about now?"

Sakura groaned. "Already? I prefer just staying here."

"Stop your complaining, now lets go, go, GO!"


Sakura leaned against the gate of Konoha, her backpack resting on the ground beside her. After Ino had gone to the hospital to inform her of her new mission, Sakura had left back to her place to pack. After all, she was told that they were to begin the mission as soon as possible.

"Forehead-Girl!"

Sakura looked up ahead to see her best friend sprinting towards her, a large backpack against her back. This scene reminded her much of her mission from a week ago. Following behind Ino was a tired-looking Shikamaru, a Chouji eating chips as always, and an expressionless Sai. "Finally! I've been here for half an hour!"

"I see you're really impatient, Ugly," Sai stated, earning a glare from the pink-haired shinobi.

"Sorry, sorry, blame it on Ino," Shikamaru said. "I really don't see why you must take all that stuff. It's so troublesome."

"Well, I have to be prepared! There's a festival, right?" Ino beamed, this time following behind Shikamaru as he lead the way out of Konoha.

Sakura walked beside Ino. "A festival?"

"Yep!" Ino chirped. "Apparently, we're going to attend a festival and guard it in case of attacks."

Chouji stopped his munching. "The festival is held annually and usually progresses with no trouble."

"Oh? Then why is it now that we must go and guard?" Sakura asked.

"That's because the mayor heard about issues with the shinobi world and he's scared," Sai informed.

A sigh was heard in Shikamaru's direction. "The town is fairly large and wealthy so when the mayor heard about a powerful organization named Akatsuki, he became scared that Akatsuki might attack them. Also, Orochimaru doesn't seem to be hiding his power either; he's been having his subordinates retrieve for him forbidden jutsus in order for him to grow stronger.

The mayor says that he was related to a powerful shinobi many years ago and the shinobi started to make develop an original technique. It wasn't anything harmful. However, the shinobi died and left him the scroll. The mayor's paranoid that Akatsuki or Orochimaru might attack."

"Ah, I see," Sakura said.

"Hey, hey, Forehead," Ino nudged Sakura's arm gently.

"What?"

Ino fumbled inside a small bag strapped around her waist and soon pulled out a small scroll. "Ta-dah!"

Sakura stared at it for a moment. "What? You finally learned how to distinguish a scroll from your other belongings?"

"No!" the blonde retorted, but soon smiled as she opened the scroll. "Look!"

Sakura leaned in closer to her best friend to see the scroll. She studied it, not knowing what the names on it meant. "What is this? Your list of boyfriends?"

"No, this is a list of your possible boyfriends."

"...what the hell?"

Cerulean eyes glimmered in amusement as they looked over to see Sakura's stunned expression. "I decided that since you won't show yourself the creature called boys, then I'll show it to you!"

"That is so ridiculous, Ino," Shikamaru remarked from the front of the traveling group. His steps slowed down as he came to walk side by side with his plump best friend, initiating a conversation to divert his attention from Ino's "ridiculous" topic.

Ino simply ignored the lazy genius. "Anyway, Forehead, this is a list of all the possible guys that you can date and maybe give him that picture we took!"

The scroll was shoved into Sakura's hand and Sakura read it with disinterest. "This is so dumb. Aburame Shino?"

"Yep!" Ino beamed. "He's dark and mysterious, unlike Naruto being so loud all the time. You know, all the kick ass and hot bad guys always turn out to have some sort of psychological issue...but Shino's got all their bad ass qualities minus the insanity. Only bad thing about him is the bugs..."

Sakura had to silently agree. There was Sasuke with his family murdered...Itachi who murdered his family, Gaara who has a demon inside of him and in addition Gaara also almost killed her years ago, Sasori and his odd fascination for puppets...and Deidara with mouths on his hands. Sakura had to admit that the blonde Akatsuki member was very attractive and had added him onto the 'Hot Bad-Ass Guys Who are Crazy' list. 'Wait. Stop thinking about him, bad thoughts, Sakura, bad thoughts, stop stop stop stop,' she chanted to herself.

"Inuzuka Kiba?" Sakura forced herself to break from her thoughts.

"You'll be surrounded by cute and loving puppies! How cute is that?"

"...I don't know if you're suggesting that I'd be happy dating Kiba or dating him in order to be with...dogs?"

"Both!"

"Okay...next is...what the hell?! KAKASHI-SENSEI? HELL NO!"

"What? Even though he's, what...thirty? He's still hot and single!"

"That's my teacher, you pig!"

"No, your teacher is Hokage-sama! If you really have such a big problem with it, then go to the next guy!"

"Sabaku no Gaara? Ino...he's the freaking Kazekage."

"And? He's still a hot boy."

"JIRAIYA? What the hell are you smoking?"

"What! He's single!"

"He's like, what, a gazillion years old! And...Gai? What the hell?"

"I heard he's single."

"And you just put the names of all single guys down? If I wanted to date Gai, I'd just settle for his mini version and go for Lee-san."


"Alright, we've rest here for the night," Shikamaru said, setting down his luggage as the group approached a large opening. "Chouji and I will go hunt for some food."

And with that the two male members of the team left, leaving the two girls to tend to the camp. Ino fumed. "I don't get it! Why must we rest now? It's only sunset and Shikamaru said so earlier that if we continued going on we should be there sometime during nightfall."

Sakura sighed. "What can you expect form a lazy shinobi?"

"But I want to go there so I can shop as much as possible before the festival! Stupid Shika!" Ino growled.

"You and your shopping," Sakura commented. "Look at it this way, Shikamaru sees this mission as a burden to him since chances are nothing will happen and everyone will be safe – its best that he remains at Konohagakure just in case we actually do get attacked. You can't blame him for wanting to take his time getting there. Now let's go gather wood to make the fire."

Ino pouted. "But still! Stupid Shika."


Two pairs of feet stopped upon the entrance of a town, their dark cloaks swaying in the wind. A smile appeared on the blonde's handsome face. "So you set up the bombs, yeah?"

"Yes, Deidara-senpai," answered the male whose face was hidden beneath an orange mask. "Are you going to look around the village now?"

"Yeah," Deidara answered, walking forth into the village. "You can head on and find an hotel, yeah."

"Alright then, Deidara-senpai!" Tobi chirped, trotting off all too merrily for an Akatsuki member.

Deidara strolled through the streets of the town. It was a fairly large and he could clearly see that business boomed here. A large crowd hogged the roads, shopping and carrying on with their daily lives. As he walked through the town, he couldn't help but feel pity for these people.

He had made Tobi set up the bombs and tomorrow his plan would take place. He and Tobi had been ordered to retrieve for the Leader a scroll that the Leader assumed was in the possession of the mayor. He knew that a festival would be held the following day and therefore it would be easier to steal the scroll; the people would be occupied with the festivities.

He also found out that the mayor would be hiring some shinobi. Of course, it must be some pathetic shinobi who couldn't even put a scratch of him, but nevertheless he mustn't underestimate them too much. He'd intelligently sneak into the mayor's place during the festival, take the scroll and perform his ritual of ending every battle with a 'bang,' so he'd let off his bombs. Of course he wouldn't destroy the entire city – just enough to cause panic.

"Kichi-chan! Kichi-chan!"

Deidara shifted slightly to see a little boy calling over to a young girl; they were perhaps no older than ten. He cursed having walked into a residential area. The boy, ironically, possessed blonde hair and blue eyes like he himself and Deidara couldn't help but wonder if fate set this up to make fun of him. Back when he was young, he never had a friend because of his special bloodline limit allowing him to have mouths on his palms. Perhaps fate wanted to laugh as he watched the little boy enthusiastically drag around a girl.

"Slow down, Haru-kun!" the girl wailed.

Haru came a sudden stop and let go of Kichi's hand as they came to a small grassy area, just a good distance away from Deidara. Seeds and gardening tools laid there. "I got these stuff from my grandma! She said if we plant these flowers and make a wish, it'll come true."

"Oh!" Kichi beamed. "I'm gonna wish to stay with you forever and ever and ever!"

"Yeah!" Haru exclaimed, taking hold of a shovel and beginning to dig.

For a moment Deidara stood there, watching the two children. He turned to leave but something stopped him. He stopped, sensing his chakra reacting to something. He turned around to face the children again and it was now that he focused his stare and saw a bomb planted beneath the area where the two kids were gardening.

'Shit...the bomb activates if it's touched,' Deidara inwardly cursed. It would only be a matter of seconds before they activated the bomb, and Deidara, losing control to his legs, immediately dashed to the two children and pushed them out of the way.

A loud roaring sound boomed in the area. Fortunately, the explosion wasn't a really big one and had only created a large hole that stretched from Haru's front yard down all the way across the street. The two children scrambled out of Deidara's hold, eyes widened in shock.

"Ah, M-M-Mister...y-you're bleeding!" Kichi screamed, watching the blood dripping down Deidara's right arm.

Deidara grunted in frustration as he lifted himself up from the ground, his left arm clutching his right. He didn't know why he pushed them out of the way, and now the explosion had injured his arm. A neighbor rushed out of the house. "Haru-kun! Kichi-chan! Are you two okay?"

"Yeah!" Haru said, and then turned to look at Deidara. "But he isn't."

Deidara could hear the neighbor's gasp. "That cloak...A-A-Akat...Akatsuki?!"

Deidara gritted his teeth in annoyance at having been discovered, gathered chakra to his feet and instantly dashed off.


By the time dinner was served (fish as always, and Sakura found it amazing how after all these years she hadn't tired of fishes yet), night had fallen and the crescent moon hung high in the sky. The group hung around the fire for a while until Shikamaru had decided to go sleep. Chouji had volunteered to take the first shift watching over the vicinity and had told Sakura and Ino about a stream nearby.

The two kunoichis journeyed to the body of water, thankful that they could bathe. When one became a shinobi, the simple pleasures of a bath was one of the best gifts ever; after all, the person might not be able to bathe for days on a mission. When they came to the stream, Ino enthusiastically stripped off her clothes and jumped in while Sakura took her time.

Sakura didn't know how the blonde was able to dive into the water so quickly – in contrast to the energetic blonde, Sakura liked to test the cold water with her toes before preparing to sink into the water. She had barely slipped into the water when she felt the sudden arctic drops beat against her skin and she turned to glare at her best friend, realizing that Ino had splashed water at her.

Ino smirked.

Sakura's glare soon faded into a smile as she splashed water back at the blonde girl.


Deidara's footsteps came to a halt and his uninjured left arm gently rested against a tree to support his weight. The explosion had drawn attention and he was sure that he had been followed for a while until now. He didn't know if the hired shinobi had been in the village, but if they were then things would be more difficult for him. So he escaped as fast and far as he could.

Now he was out in the middle of nowhere and it would take him perhaps a few hours to travel back to the village. He sighed. It would be troubling to travel all the way back. After so many days of traveling to get to that town, he had done nothing yet and now he had to go all the way back.

He supposed this was how things turned out and staying angered wouldn't help him. For now, he'd have to find some place to stay at for the night.


"How long have we been here?" Ino asked.

"I don't know," Sakura answered. "Are you leaving now?"

"Hm...yeah, I'll leave now," Ino got up from the water, grabbed her towel nearby and then wrapped it around her. "I'll go get my clothes from our camp and change. Don't sleep in the water, Forehead."

Sakura glared at her best friend's retreating back. "Pig."

When Ino had gone, Sakura remained in the stream. She leaned back against the edge of land, staring at up the crescent moon. The water came up to her chest, just barely enough to cover her breasts, and it glimmered against the illumination of the moon. The water had been cold but Sakura soon adjusted to the temperature. Her eyelids began to tire and closed to hide her jade eyes.

A rustling nearby had her eyes immediately shoot open.

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she scanned her surroundings, not sure if the rustling was caused by someone she knew. Her eyes finally laid upon the source and widen as the events took place.

An all too familiar blonde Akatsuki member emerged from the bushes, tugging his cloak that had been caught by a branch. Sakura immediately reached behind her for her weapons but when her hands found nothing but a towel, she frowned remembering that she'd left her weapons back at the camp. When Deidara had finally untangled himself, the branch released him and he stumbled, falling down on his back.

As he picked himself up from the ground, Sakura took note of the stench of blood and the half-dried crimson liquid straining his hand. She quickly wrapped the towel around her and slid out of the water, dashing to his side.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her hands clutching his shoulders as she surveyed his body for any injuries. Her attempt at finding an injury failed as his large cloak covered most of him.

Deidara drew back from her upon feeling her small hands lie on his shoulder. "What do you want, yeah?"

Sakura frowned at his behavior. "I was trying to be nice! Sheez..."

"Nice?" he snorted. "I wonder how the heck you even passed the ninja academy with attitude, yeah."

Sakura growled, stood up on her feet and began to walk away. "Ungrateful jerk."

Her steps stopped, though, and she turned back to see him there sitting on the ground, his bangs covering his eyes. Somehow, seeing him in such a weakened state was so unfitting and a part of her simply couldn't bring herself to stand there and watch as he underwent pain. She knew he was bad, but she knew he wasn't evil.

She sighed once more as she recalled how he had saved her a week ago. She found herself in front of him, kneeling down to meet his eyes. "Take off your cloak."

He laughed. "I don't think now is the time to be trying to hit on me, yeah."

Sakura sighed, shaking her head. "I should have just walked away..."

"It's not too late, yeah."

He was right, but yet she found herself still there as though glued to that place. She chose not to reply and instead placed her hand on the opening of his cloak and beginning to unbutton it. He gave no protest when she slipped it off of him to reveal a huge gash on his right arm. As she placed her hand over the wound, a green chakra surrounding his arm. "What happened?"

When he gave no reply, she repeated herself with an obvious hint of annoyance. "I got hit with my explosive, yeah."

"Figures. You were too dumb and got hit with your own weapon."

Deidara shot her a glare. "I am not weak! It was those two stupid little kids, yeah. Freaking stupid kids would have died if I didn't-"

He immediately stopped himself from finishing the second, shocked that he had given her enough information to conclude what he had done. He was Akatsuki and he was powerful; he wasn't supposed to let anyone know he would save another. Embarrassment washed over him as he knew she must be laughing at him for being weak.

But when she gave off a small, innocent laughter, Deidara shifted his gaze to look at her, a smile spread wide on her face. It was then that he realized she was so close in front of him, a single towel wrapped around her petite figure and the small water droplets glistening on her cream skin. He fought back the blush that almost appeared on his face; he hadn't been so close to any female in a long time.

"I've stopped the bleeding," Sakura informed, drawing back from the S-class criminal. "Make sure to take it easy or it'll reopen."

Deidara smirked. "You're very foolish and stupid and weak, you know that? Heh...I could kill you right now, yeah."

She met his eyes with a strong stare that challenged him. "I believe that I have the upper-hand here and you are still in no condition to be making threats."

For a moment they sat there in front of each other, their gazes staring at one another until Deidara lowered his head. "Why?"

Sakura blinked once, having not expected for him to question her. That same warm smile from before appeared on her face again. "Because I know you did it to save the children."

"You healed me before I told you, yeah."

"How would you know I hadn't been planning on killing you?"

Deciding this was a good spot to stop the conversation Deidara pulled his cloak over and stood up, beginning to walk away. Sakura watched as he took a few steps, then stopped for a reason unknown to her. "Thank you."

A small smile graced her face, because even though she knew that she shouldn't have healed him, those two words were what she wanted to hear. As a medic-nin, she wanted nothing more than to heal the injured and know that they were thankful for it. It proved she was of use. "You're welcome."

"By the way, nice outfit."

Sakura blinked, wondering what he meant. Why would he compliment her outfit if she wasn't wearing – her eyes traveled down to her body and she realized she was still only in a towel. 'Oh.' A shade of pink crept onto her face and she lifted her head to look back at where he was only to be met with nothing. He had left already.


"Welcome, great shinobi of the Fire Country!" a fairly short and plump man beamed. He was the mayor of the town.

Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Sai stood in front of the mayor, dressed differently from their usual attire. As soon as they entered the town, Shikamaru had said that in order to avoid having the enemy identify them as shinobi and seeing them as a threat, they must be prepared and appear as though they were regular civilians. Ino beamed, taking out from her large luggage two beautiful kimonos. She said that she knew Sakura wouldn't pack a kimono, so she brought an extra one for the festival. For the rest, they had to go out and shop.

Ino wore a lavender kimono with floral patterns, a light pink obi around her waist. Sakura had on a peach kimono with cherry blossom petals designing the edge of the sleeves and the bottom, a pale blue obi tied around her waist.

"We're excited about the festival!" Ino chirped. "And we'll do our best to protect your town!"

"Oh, such wonderful shinobi you are," the man beamed. "Well, enjoy yourselves. The festival will run until midnight."

And with that the man stalked off. It was afternoon when they arrived and already the festival had begun. The streets were bustling with people of all ages and countless booths and activities.

"Alright, here's the plan," Shikamaru began. "We'll have two people guard the mayor's house and three roam around the festival. We'll switch every two hours and we'll have wireless radios with us to communicate. Don't stray too far for too long because the radios won't cover a really long distance. Geez...such a troublesome mission."


Deidara whirled around the night sky sitting safely atop of his clay bird, Tobi sat a few feet away from him. Using his left hand, he gently lifted his blonde bangs to reveal the scope that covered his right eye. Scanning the area where the mayor's house would be, he smirked as he spotted the scroll hidden away in a room.

"Alright, Tobi," he began to lower the bird. "The scroll is in the master bedroom in a sealed box. If we get separated, I'll meet you at the third nearest town."

"Yes, Deidara-senpai!" Tobi exclaimed enthusiastically.


Sakura wandered around the streets of the town, unfamiliar faces all around her. The three who had their break to enjoy the festivities (and of course still stay alert) were Ino, Shikamaru and her. She had clearly seen the attraction between the two teammates and decided to leave them alone. After all, she was a big girl and she could handle being by herself.

They had been staying cautious for attacks the entire day and it was night now. She entered a small fortune telling booth and glanced at the clock that rested on a nearby table. She had approximately half an hour left before it was her turn to guard the mayor's house.

"Ah, a shinobi, eh?" an old voice said from the darkness.

Sakura looked ahead of her to see a woman wrapped in a dark cloak and it was now that she realized the darkness of the booth. There was a small source of light that came from lit candles. "Er...hi."

"I see much complications in your future, dear child," the woman said.

Much complications? Sakura inwardly sighed. It seemed her life was already complicated enough with a perverted teacher, a fox demon container, and a vengeful clan survivor. Adding on to that was keeping Naruto controlled, returning Sasuke to the Leaf, and her communications with an S-class criminal. "I see. We'll, I think I should go now."

"I think you should," she said. "Stay alert. I sense a danger within the town right now."

Right now?

And without a second though, Sakura dashed out of the booth and onto the streets, scanning all around her. She sprinted throughout the town trying to find anyone of suspicion but so far she had no luck at all. She stopped as she came to the edge of the town where the residential houses stopped and a road led outwards of the city.

Up ahead of her, she saw teenagers walking around holding hands. Sakura couldn't help but smile at their simple life and at the same time wish she was that girl with a boyfriend.


Deidara rounded a corner, having escaped the battle scene. He hadn't expected that two people who looked like regular civilians would turn out to be shinobi and interfere with his plans. He could hear the sound of weapons clashing and felt thankful that Tobi was there to distract the Konoha shinobi. A smirk appeared on his face as his hand clenched around the scroll.

He knew Tobi was smart enough to flee the fight once Tobi realized he was gone, so without further delays he dashed further away from the battle. When he reached the edge of the town, he felt it was safe to bring out his bird since the ninjas probably couldn't see it here. When the bird expanded to its true form, he jumped onto it and was lifted up into the air immediately.

Now to finish everything off with a bang. He smirked, bringing his hands together. "Katsu!"


There was a loud rumbling sound that roared throughout the area from out of nowhere. Sakura looked around to find nothing out of the ordinary, but that was when she realized it was from above. Her head quickly jolted upwards to see that the a large portion of the mountain above her had exploded. The large boulder and rocks tumbled downwards.

She could see a small figure up in the air and knew he must be the behind the attack. Her eyes shifted in front of her to where the couple stood. They had stopped and were looking upwards, shocked.


Deidara watched as the mountain fell. For a second he was smirking in satisfaction, but a frown instantly crept onto his face as his scope identified an all too familiar figure caught in the center of his plans. He could only stare at the kunoichi's figure as she looked up at him before turning away and running to her death. 'She's saving the stupid kids down there!'

Sakura's steps showed no sign of slowing down as she rushed towards the couple. Deidara stayed glued to the spot where he was at, watching as she sprinted towards the couple.

That same warm smile from before appeared on her face again. "Because I know you did it to save the children."

It was though time had slowed and he watched as she grabbed their hands and swung them far away.

"I believe that I have the upper-hand here and you are still in no condition to be making threats."

And she stood there, staring up at the falling boulders and rocks as she fearfully awaited the end of her.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

He gritted his teeth in anger, knowing he would be regretting what he was about to do. He cursed the way she would dare to smile at him, a smile that no one had ever shown him because they feared his bloodline abilities. He cursed the way she was intelligent enough to challenge him.

He cursed the way she spoke those two words in a way that made them burn inside of him and made him unable to forget the debt he owed her for saving his life yet again.

And in an instant, he swooped down with his bird and grabbed her by the waist so that she was safe on the back of his bird.

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Senko: Oh, since I have the outline for this story all typed up...lol you people who want some DeiSaku stuff won't get it very soon xD I'm thinking they'll have an actual DeiSaku moment around chapter 7 and they'll have their first kiss a few chapters after that. I'm evil, aren't I? But I suppose I just don't see Deidara kissing Sakura unless he's in love with her :D

Anyway, hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter ;) S2 everyone!