A/N: This chapter is brought to you by Stevie Wonder and Jim Brickman. Number Thirty-two was inspired by Fallacy, who is responsible for the two lines from Deidara and Sakura. [Loveloveheartheart You don't want to know what inspired the rest of them.

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#31 – Poison

Many people thought love was like a poison that infected your body with its presence and ultimately killed you; after the Sasuke Saga, Sakura was highly inclined to agree; however, after the Deidara Saga (episodes were currently ongoing) Sakura was highly inclined to change her mind: Being with Deidara was totally different than being with any other man she had ever known, even ones like Naruto; he was funny and easy to talk to while having the ability to be dreadfully serious at any given time, he let her do her own thing but was fiercely protective of her and their unborn child (if you called "rubbing it in Hidan's face" protective, that is), he was almost embarrassingly independent in some instances but always blushed when he asked for Sakura's opinion on something new he sculpted, and, most importantly, he was good in bed; perhaps he was his own brand of poison, though not lethal very addicting.

#32 – Pretty

Watching Deidara and Daichi have father-to-teenage-son fights was pretty much a waste of time if you planned on getting to engage a motherly intervening, but very handy if you wanted some fast entertainment; Daichi was notorious for being a stubborn ass when he wanted to be—unlike his little brother Michi, who was slightly less of an ass—but Deidara was avoided for being a stubborn ass, so every fight was a battle of wills, usually with Daichi as the victor to a suddenly softie Deidara; this time it was about Daichi's first girlfriend, who was okay until she decided to get a tattoo on her lower back: Then she was the spawn of Satan, and no longer fit for the first son of Deidara, Formerly of the Rock Village; this one didn't last very long, as it was obvious Daichi had been rehearsing possible conversations in his room, and pretty soon he was bounding off to the nearby village back to his lady friend and Deidara was watching his plight with a wistful look on his face; Sakura came up behind him and sighed dramatically: "Jesus, Deidara, he's thirteen years old; cut the umbilical cord already,"; "Well, excuse me if I don't want some girl taking advantage of my boy, yeah!"; Sakura relented to the whole thing and burst out laughing, "Deidara, sometimes you are just so pathetically cute!"

#33 – Rain

To some people, rain was a symbol of sadness, loss, and oppression; to Sakura it was, quite simply, a symbol of sex; Deidara's clay, even when reinforced with extra chakra, simply wouldn't hold strong against the onslaughts of water common during spring in the area, and when he couldn't use his clay Deidara felt very worthless; Sakura took it upon herself to prove to him just how un-worthless he was each and every time it rained; "I do so love the springtime,"; "Me, too, yeah; what's with the Shakespeare?"

#34 – Regret

Deidara knew regret in a new form the day Daichi knew true pride; everyone was in their usual places for the usual three o' clock of that otherwise normal winter day: Sakura in the kitchen making a snack for whoever wanted one (and it was the same every time: She would make a batch of cookies, set them out on the counter, and then all of them would be gone in less than an hour, although she had yet to see anyone actually take a cookie), Deidara was sculpting some random doodad while sitting propped up by the fridge, and Daichi was frolicking in the snow-covered meadow out front while Kakuzu watched him like a hawk from a second floor window (he denied it, of course) when it happened: the silence; everyone in the building stilled for a minute, because a silent Daichi meant something monumental was about to occur—or another explosion (Tobi opened his bedroom window in case quick evacuation was needed anytime soon); "Dad, Dad, look at them,"; Daichi thrust his hands in his father's face, startling the man and making him squish the clay blender (it was Sakura's idea) between his fingers; it was soon forgotten when Deidara managed to pry Daichi from his face and take a good look at his hands—his hands which were now the new home for some Deidara-inherited mouths; Deidara nor Sakura had any time to put in a word, though, before Daichi was dashing away up the stairs to show Mr. Kuzu; replacing the smooshed clay in his bag, Deidara looked towards the stairs with an intense emotion on his face, and Sakura—noticing and understanding his inner turmoil like any self-respecting wife of Deidara would be noticing—sat down on the floor with him and gave him a doughy hug; "He's happy about it; you should be, too; now let's go somewhere and celebrate,"; Deidara looked up and grinned, and replied, "Are you sure you aren't just looking for an excuse to have sex, yeah?"; "That's for me to know and you to find out,"; the cookies burned, but Kisame ate them anyway.

#35 – Roses

The clay roses were the first display of affection Deidara granted her after the initial romp, and the adorable little ritual was the same for her every morning: Before he was cajoled out of bed and out the door by Kisame and Hidan (who liked to cajole extra loud) he would yell obscenities at them until they left his room and shut the door, check to make sure Sakura was really asleep—she never was, and got better and better at pretending over time—take some low-level explosive clay out of his bag, check if she was still really asleep, sit cross legged on the floor watching her for signs of waking, and make the rose; it really was an intricate thing, Sakura thought as she fingered number fifteen; she could close her eyes and imagine she was holding a real one: the petals were soft and thin and curled at the edges, the thorns were almost sharp, The leaves had a fuzzy texture to them, and the bud was tightly closed; then, just like always, just as she finished the final inspections of the rose, the bud would bloom for a fleeting moment before it lightly exploded into a million tiny pieces, which were scooped up and put into a jar under the bed.

#36 – Secret

Secret crushes nearly destroyed someone as easily as blatant ones; with a blatant crush, though, at least you thought you knew what you wanted, although usually in the end you ended up as the name implied: crushed; Sakura's dealings with Sasuke had proved that to her every time she allowed herself to think back upon her so-called childhood love; it was probably her lack of tact and pacing that demolished whatever chance she may have had with him, but that was all under the rug of life now; now she had Deidara to think about—her former secret crush—who was currently deep asleep beside her, drooling on his pillow and making her arm fall asleep—and was thankful to him for being a brash idiot and making the first move so she wouldn't make more stupid mistakes in love again and let herself be worried by her own misgivings this time around.

#37 – Snakes

Snakes were never the favorite animal of Sakura, but now she was sure she absolutely hated them; they were sneaky creatures: They crawled on their bellies in the dust to achieve their wants and needs, they hissed and spat most of the time, they struck to wound but not always to kill, they were…just like Sasuke; Sakura respected Deidara for not being like Sasuke; he was ornery and foul-mouthed sometimes, but never tried to sneak around; he was almost infuriatingly proud at times, but Sakura preferred that to groveling; he had his pissy moments, but they were mostly directed at Hidan, not her; he never inflicted emotional wounds on a person as foreplay unless something was really wrong, and he always struck to kill, which was much more preferred than prolonging suffering; most of all, though, she loved him because he was just him, not a shell of a man she once loved, just Deidara through and through.

#38 – Snow

Akatsuki headquarters was far enough north so that every winter a thick blanket of snow covered the ground for miles, untouched in their isolated area, and it was there that Daichi discovered his artistic talent, much to Sakura's joy and Deidara's pride: snow sculpting; it started with the snow angels, which a laughing Sakura showed six-year-old Daichi the proper way to execute them; they were an instant hit for Daichi, who quickly moved on to bigger and better things; soon he was out in the snow all day with a parent or guardian (Kakuzu said he was only "stepping out to get some fresh air") and a blunted kunai, making likenesses of everything he knew; a couple were turned back into powder rather quickly at the insistence of the owners: "It's not like we don't love it, sweetie, it's just…not very appropriate,"; "I do not have a fucking cowlick, seriously,"; everyone agreed, however, that Daichi was certainly showing his father's talent for art, though Deidara was a bit put out that his son didn't also share his view of what true art should be: "Well, I think art is something that changes after a while and looks a little different every time."

#39 – Solid

When Daichi came to his senses, both Sakura and Deidara were finally able to get some sleep at night; Daichi had found out a little more about his rebel girlfriend's past—she had two kids in the orphanage at age sixteen, for crying out loud—and dumped her after the first two nerve wracking years; the last anyone heard of her she was in rehab for extensive abuse of some opiate ("Serves that bitch right, yeah,"; "Deidara!") and not seeing anyone; by the time his seventeenth birthday came around, though, Daichi had a new significant other: Akio from the library in town, to which Daichi had begun making suspiciously long visits to for many years on book-fetching excursions for the Akatsuki; after visiting with Akio at the base, Sakura could conclude that Daichi had been attracted to her for a long time; she was pretty, but not over the top beautiful; she was extremely intelligent, but not arrogant about it; she was down-to-earth and solid—just what Daichi needed—but was adept at keeping conversation light and funny; after the girl showed Sakura her special cookie recipe, Sakura was just about ready to sit the girl down for a talk on how men from Deidara's family liked their sex.

#40 – Spring

The promise of spring coming to chase away after the long winter nights were what kept people going throughout situations, Sakura mused, otherwise they'd go crazy—she'd go crazy; Deidara had finally passed out asleep draped over Daichi's bed at Sakura's insistence—Deidara had been up for two and a half days straight—and one of the Akatsuki members was still coming with the remaining medicine for Daichi; several days ago, what Sakura took for a simple winter croup had turned into something much more deadly, and Daichi drifted in and out of consciousness as his ability to breathe came and went, crying out in sleep from his fevered dreams; the snow kept anyone from going into the nearest pharmacy to get the necessary medicine until very recently—an hour ago exactly—and so onion after onion was peeled and boiled by all able hands in the kitchen—for the disease's ancient treatment of boiled onions on the victim's chest—which were placed on Daichi by Deidara while Sakura monitored him with chakra tendrils, thankfully making him cough up the mucus and blood filling his lungs after a while; Sakura felt helpless that she couldn't just use her chakra to clean out the boy's lungs, but the chakra failed to remove all the particles at once, which was vital for the treatment; now, though, they wouldn't need it: as the sun rose on the first cloudless day in months, melting away the snow and filling the sick room with golden light, Sakura realized that she could no longer hear the constant noise of a small child's gasping and wheezing.