Chapter Four: The Rescuer and Rescue-ee
She tried to move around but it was found to be unproductive. Trying to break the chakra bindings on her wrists, she noticed how weak she felt. Her arms felt tired, as if she had just done one million pushups. So doing the only thing she could do, she tried to assess the situation.
One, she had almost no chakra. Two, she was tied up uncomfortably in a metal chair. Three, she was kidnapped and had absolutely no idea where she was at. And four, she was in a dusty medieval looking room that had one window that was higher than she could reach. It was night time, she could tell.
Sighing, she let her head droop. Being chakra depleted was one of the worse feelings ever. At the moment, she wished she were Shikamaru, being able to find a solution to any problem.
She began to wonder how long she'd been here. If she were drugged, she could have been out for a few days to a few hours possibly.
Recalling what happened at the bar, she never saw the bartender slip anything into her drink. In fact, she couldn't recall any time that she could have been drugged. Possibly, the alcohol could have already been spiked. They could have a bottle for random people they wanted to take for hostage.
Sakura would most likely have been angry, beyond pissed if she had the energy. Her thoughts then led to what they did to her while she was asleep…
She panicked and began to check her body with the little chakra she had left, looking for cuts, bruises, things that would scar her in different ways. She let out a sigh of relief as she found nothing to be wrong accept a few bruises.
A loud creek was emitted from the heavy door in the front right of the room. Looking up, she saw a bulky unfamiliar man.
"Hey sweetheart." She nearly gagged. He was like what…twenty years older than her, at least! Walking over to her, he lifted up her chin forcing her to look at his face. He was tanned and muscular, that much she could see. His hair was a dark brown, graying at the ends.
"Now…We're going to ask a couple of questions…"
Interrogation?
"Questions?" She said slowly.
He smiled a perverted smile.
"Yes" He dropped his hand from her face. "Now, we can do this the easy way…or the hard way."
"I'm guessing either way it's going to end up with the latter." She said. She had been taught a few things here and there about interrogation.
"What's your name?" He started.
She stared.
"Sakura."
"Where are you from?"
She dipped her head, pointing out her head band.
"Konoha."
"What are Konoha's plans for the upcoming war."
She didn't answer. The interrogator began to pace back and forth, hands locked together.
He repeated the question. The room stayed silent.
"How many ninja's are planning to take part?"
No answer.
He sighed. "I don't like hittin' women. But when I start, I can't stop so if you would please answer my questions."
Her face turned into a scowl.
Running a hand through his hair, he continued on with the questions.
"Does Konoha have an ultimate weapon?"
A loud slap echoed through the room.
She glared at the ground as she felt the tingles erupt from her nerves cause by the man.
Torture and Interrogation. She corrected.
Pacing again, he started asking various other questions about Konoha that she simply would not relay to him. He began to get furious about her ties with the village. She had gotten many hits to her face, cuts to her arms, and yelled at.
"I told you, once I start, I can't stop!" Laughing like a maniac, he used his kunai to slid it down slowly on Sakura's arm. It wasn't too deep, but it wasn't just a scratch.
Refraining from groaning in pain, she glared at the floor to her right all the while squinting her eyes.
This guy's nuts!
His laughs became more and more sinister as the minutes dragged on by, the questions long gone.
The kunai that held its place in his left hand began to trail down lower, and she squirmed under him, incredibly uncomfortable now.
Just then, the door slammed open. "Juuno. Enough. We want to keep her alive, now. Come on."
A thin, tall man was standing in the door way. His facial features were unknown to Sakura in this dim lighting, but he sounded to be handsome.
"Till later, pinkette." 'Juuno' winked at her, taking his leave and she was now alone. She gagged.
He's good on the torture part…not so much the interrogation. She noted. He was practically a sadist!
Her face felt numbly sore. She was sure he had bruised both of her cheek bones. She had a slit on her left cheek from one of his nails. At this thought, she gagged. Who knew where his filthy hands had been.
Juuno had also ended up during the interrogation, throwing her across the room. In her chair she might add. Her arms were very soar, bruised most likely from her body that had forced the metal down into her skin. There were many cuts on her arms that had persisted to bleed from when he got overly sadistic and slowly slid the sharp metal up and down her arms. Some, around her wrists, others on her biceps. He really enjoyed other peoples pain.
But this was all for Konoha she had told herself. She wasn't sure whether or not she was supposed to kill herself because she was an ANBU, or if she even counted as an ANBU anymore. Sure, she still had the tattoo on her right bicep, but was she still considered an active Konoha ninja? She wasn't sure, she didn't have any answers to her any of her questions. It was bad enough being extremely close to the Hokage, knowing most everything that goes on in Konoha, to get into this type of situation.
Another day passed by and she was reprimanded several times by Juuno that if she didn't start answering soon, than the same torture tactics were going to be used on her yet again.
On the outside, she tried to remain cool and calm and tried avoiding showing any physical pain he caused her. But on the inside, she was going insane. She absolutely detested being tied up. What she hated the most was being interrogated. Don't they know when to stop? She obviously was not going to betray Konoha any time soon and she wasn't planning on it.
She was interrupted from her thoughts as she fell on the floor. The pain took seconds before her brain recognized the signals being sent throughout her body, confirming the hurt she felt. She ended up knocked over, arms still tied behind her chair, on her right side. How the metal bar found the most uncomfortable way to dig in her skin, she would never know. The impact from the right side of her face when she hit the floor hurt her bruising. Inwardly she winced. It hurt!
Juuno grabbed the top of the chair and flung it up, her body being flung up with it.
"You're a damn feisty one to be saying sarcastic comments in this situation. If I wanted to…right now…I could just slice you up in to pieces nobody would be able to recognize…Yeah…That sounds real good." She barely scowled.
Come to think of it, she couldn't remember saying any sarcastic remarks. Digging through her memory of the past five minutes, she couldn't recall doing so. Becoming frustrated she began to get a headache. She was surprised she hadn't had one in the first place from the loud mouthed interrogator.
"Well, my time is up here kitten. I suggest, if you want to live than you better start talking." He slipped her an ugly smirk as he trailed out the door.
She shuddered as she felt hot, yet cold. This was the most unpleasant sitting arrangement, especially when she got random itches she was unable to get.
She could tell from the light reflecting off the wall, it was sunset right about now. She stretched her neck backwardly to look at the window on the top left side of the back wall. The sun blinded her eyes as she turned away blinking furiously to try to get the splats to go away.
Interrupting her blinking-fest, her stomach growled obnoxiously loud. She looked down to realize how much her stomach had been aching. The last thing she had ingested was alcohol, and before that, a small piece of a protein bar. Her mind had not exactly been focused on food the past couple of days. Thinking back, she remembered that proper meal she told herself she was going to get, but failed to remember. She hadn't had a proper meal since before her coma, which she might add, was over three months ago.
So basically, she was an aching beaten up mess she concluded.
Before she knew it, the sun had set and any warmth that it had produced was completely gone. She was freezing. It was around October, she had estimated not sure about the exact date. The winter in the Rain country would usually be pretty bad. Considering it's neighboring countries with Sand, it made no absolute logic to her.
From the outside, she heard some shuffling of grass and rocks. Her heartbeat quickened and her natural reflexes went to grab a kunai, that is until the restraints reminded who's boss. She was anxious to know what was causing the noise. Then, it stopped. Releasing a breath she never knew she was holding, she felt relaxed.
"Hey, yeah."
She jumped in fright and a small squeak elicited from her throat.
Turning her head backwards, she saw a very familiar blond hair, blue eyed man sitting casually on the windowsill, high up the wall.
"What the hell are you doing here Deidara?" Her voice was hushed, unknowing of how loud was too loud for the other men to hear. Smoothly, he jumped down about fifteen feet not making a sound. He walked over towards her and she tensed.
He openly made a face of something she couldn't place, but continued from there out to tease her. "I should be asking you that. Aren't you supposed to know when a drink is spiked?" He asked slightly above a whisper. "And how are you still tied up?" He paused briefly,"And to top it all off, you look like complete shit with all those cuts and bruises, yeah."
She inwardly growled. Usually she would have been fuming and beating the life out of him for saying such things to her. But at the moment, she was too worn. She had been beaten for the answers she wasn't going to give and the damn chakra restraints were pissing her off to no end.
"Don't make that face, yeah. I actually came to help you out." Her face contorted into unasked questions. "You see, I saw you at the bar in Rain, you were drunk as hell. Enough to not recognize me, or that you were-" He made a face, "trying to play…with my…hair." He strained, then continued on. "You were mumbling and saying shit that didn't make sense and you let it slip out that you had only had three shots, yeah. So I either thought you were an extreme light weight-"
"I'm not a light-weight!"
He continued on, "Or you had been drugged. So I went with the latter when you slammed on the ground, yeah. The bartender said that they would take care of you until you woke up, but there was something not quite right about it. So I waited it out, yeah, and as it turned out a group of guys were carrying you around outback and I decided to follow them. And now you're here, in this weird huge brick domicile." She stared incredulously at the blond in front of her.
"You talk a lot."
Her mind then wondered why he had followed her, but was interrupted when she recalled what he had said. She tried to stifle a laugh, which didn't work out.
He gave her a weird look. "What."
"I thought you were a women! Or a drag queen or something. Don't take it the wrong way, I know for sure you're a man!" She exclaimed before he felt the need to prove her wrong, as Naruto felt with Sai. At that thought, a brief wave a nostalgia came over her. But she quickly brushed it off and continued on with her sentences. "I just don't see how I thought you were a woman. They must have used some good drugs…" She trailed off.
Looking at him, she could tell he was a little irked at her rambling about him being feminine. "But wait…" She paused.
"What, yeah."
"Why did you follow them all the way here, and then say you're going to help me?"
He half smirked half smiled, it was hard to tell which more of the one it was.
"We've got a fight to finish, remember? So you can't simply die on me. I like a challenge! And besides, I thought this could get interesting, yeah."
She wasn't sure what to say. His reasoning was rash for following her.
He took a kunai out and she tensed as he began to walk towards her. Walking around her, she felt her arms being rose slightly and cold on her wrists. "What are you doing!"
"I already told you…I'm getting you out of here."
A warm callused hand held her left forearm as the other one worked on tearing the binds apart.
She sighed of relief when the bindings had been released then rubbed her bruised wrists to get the blood flowing through again.
He was then working on her ankles.
"I don't see why you're doing this. I'm the enemy."
"I'm not repeating what I already said, yeah." With another jerk, her ankles were free as well.
He stood upright in front of her, putting his kunai away. Accepting her newborn freedom, she quickly stood up only to fall onto a hard, soft, warm…Deidara's chest!
She let out a barely audible 'eep!' and pushed herself away from him, a barely noticeable blush graced her face.
"Got up too fast." She mumbled looking away, quite embarrassed.
Moments of awkward silence passed by before she chose to speak again.
"So…how exactly am I going to get out of here. I don't exactly have enough chakra to scale a wall."
Her thoughts began to trail off again. Looking at Deidara she fumed a little inside. This little asshole cause me over two months of a coma! But now he's trying to save me. So what the hell! Deidara stared intently at her as if waiting for a reaction. She just realized she hadn't noticed when Deidara had started talking in the first place.
"Oh-uh-I'm sorry, what?" He sighed as frustration featured itself upon his face.
"I'll just have to carry you, yeah. But you'll have to pay me back."
"For what!"
"Saving you, yeah." He said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"More like your paying me back from that coma." She muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing...Deal." She sighed, defeated.
She didn't want to be carried by him. In fact, she didn't even want him to touch her. At all. She was pissed at him. He cause her a two month coma, and was a probable cause for her miscarriage. Oh, pissed was an understatement. He killed her child.
Why don't you kill him? A voice stated in her mind. Oh yes. The idea sounded wonderful, but at the moment, that wasn't exactly an option. Outwardly, she appeared calm and tired, but inside she was beyond fuming. This person right in front of her could have been what took away the happiness that resided inside her stomach. There wasn't an exact answer to what had actually caused the death of her unborn child, but she felt the need to blame. To put it all on someone else but her.
"Okay, so you're going to get on my back. When we get on the window, you'll get off my back, yeah. I'll jump and then you will jump down. I'll catch you so don't worry. I'm afraid that if I jump off with you on my back that I'll most likely drop you, yeah."
She nodded, than looked at his half smaller form.
"Come on, get on, yeah." He was kneeling so she could get on his back, and she reluctantly complied.
Standing up, he bumped Sakura up so that her legs were resting around his waist.
Deidara was a good head or two taller than she was. He was very thin, but as she could feel, also very muscular. Remembering her drugged thoughts vaguely from the bar, she remembered how silky his hair was at the time. It was now brushing against the side of her face, just as soft as she recalled. She snapped out of her trance, and her hatred inside for him started to boil up once again.
"Hold on tight, yeah." He began to walk sideways up the wall, and realized that if she didn't do as told, she would most likely fall and bust her head open on the hard concrete floor. She tightened her grip around his neck and waist, feeling gravity trying to push her down.
She was using all of her strength just to hold on. Her muscles were shaky from lack of energy and she was weary from chakra depletion.
As they made it to the top, he awkwardly sat her on the wide, brick windowsill and stealthily jumped down. He turned up to face her, making motion for her to jump. She was anxious. What if he didn't catch her?
She closed her eyes and took her chances.
The rush of cool air blowing against her skin was exhilarating, she felt a rush. She then felt two strong arms holding her firmly.
He put her down. "Can you run?"
She looked almost annoyed. "Probably not fast."
"Hey you!" The heard a voice to their right. Sakura turned wide eyed.
"Well, guess I'll just have to carry you some more, huh?"
A group of men began to pursue them. Annoyance showed on Deidara's face as he quickly threw her on his back, to where she was originally.
The men were pretty fast and had been trailing them for a mile now.
"Ow!" Sakura whined. Something had pricked her lower back. Turning her head, she saw a senbon needle that reminded her of Genma.
Shit.
"Deidara, if you don't want to be under some anesthetics than you better escape now, or blow them up."
He smirked and she immediately knew his answer was the latter. His arm lowered grabbing some clay out of his pack as Sakura fought off sleep the senbon plagued her with. Within seconds later, there was a big explosion behind them. She looked at red flare and then the smoke that soon came after it. It was amazing.
Deidara had too taken a look back and on his face was a genuine smile at the art he had just created.
Sakura had woken up warm. She could hear the pops of what it sounded like fire. Groggily, she opened her eyes and looked around.
There was in fact a fire in front of her, and she welcomed greedily the warmth it was providing. She was in a small opening in the woods, she concluded. Pushing herself up, she still felt very lethargic. To her left, much to her dismay, was Deidara. His back was to a tree, arms crossed around his torso as he sat Indian style. His eyes were closed, but she could tell he was not sleeping.
"There's fish on that rag if you're hungry." His hand motioned to his right, where a green cloth lay on the ground with a cooked piece of fish, eyes yet to open. She reached for the fish, picking it up she smelt it as if it were some foreign object. Slowly, she took a small bit to find it was actually not all bad. She took a bigger bit this time and before she knew it, the fish was gone.
Looking at Deidara's stature, she glared lightly. She didn't like this back and forth feeling she was getting from being around him. She hated him so, so much yet she could feel such at ease around him.
"Glaring's not good for the health, yeah." She was taken aback and scowled. How did he know she was looking at him? She then remembered his scope and bet it was able to see through the bangs that concealed it.
Her focus now, was on the fire.
Her thoughts had only one popular subject running through her head, that subject being Deidara.
She then found her face grimacing at the fire at the thought of his name. Why was he being so good to her? First, he saved her from that hell hole. Second…he helped her get away. And third, he set up a camp with a fire and had gotten her food.
Something wasn't right. There had to be some kind of catch.
"What's wrong with you." Her voice was bitter, the sentence more of a statement. Telling him that there was in fact something wrong with him.
"What do you mean, yeah." She could hear fatigue through his words.
"Why have you been so helpful to me?"
He sighed, opening his eyes. A few minutes passed as he looked at the fire. His gaze shifted over to her as she stared intently at him, a slight frown on her features.
"I already told you that I wasn't going to repeat myself."
Her frown turned into a light glare. He studied her momentarily before staring back at the fire in front of him.
She recalled him saying that he wanted her alive to finish their fight and he thought that following her to that place would spike as interesting.
"What are you doing away from the Akatsuki right now? Isn't there a great war that you guys are about to release?"
He sighed.
"I had to relay some information to some people of the Akatsuki alliance, yeah. Why aren't you at Konoha preparing for the war?"
She sighed this time.
"I'm technically on a mission."
A brow raised as he turned his attention to her.
"One that requires getting drugged and captured by random Rain nin?"
She made a face at him.
"No. My mission is to stay alive. I'm not allowed to participate in the war. Direct orders from Tsunade-sama."
He looked carefully at her.
"So you're taking refuge. I don't see why, yeah. You seem pretty capable to me to be able to stay alive in a war." He smirked, "Not against me though, yeah." He joked.
How could they just be conversating as if they weren't enemies. She felt as if she should run to Tsunade to tell her everything that happened and everything said in the conversation, but something told her to not do so.
"I wanted to partake in the war. And maybe accidently kill Sasuke." She mumbled the last part.
"Huh? Didn't hear the last part, yeah."
"It was nothing."
They dropped into an almost comfortable silence.
She found this insane to be happening. Here she was sitting with an Akatsuki member around a fucking camp fire nonetheless. Something told her that she should be afraid, that she should have killed him already. A deep fire inside her boiled to want to slit his throat, but something else felt like she just wanted to get to know him. Sitting here around the fire, she could see that he was just a regular man caught in between strained ideals. She read his record and remembered it well. He didn't join the Akatsuki on his own will, she had read. He was just another human being. That she possibly wanted to kill.
"When is the war going to start, Deidara…" Her face softened for the moment, thinking about everyone back home.
"Most likely…this January. Depends on how Leader-sama's PMS of world domination treats him over the next view months."
Sakura's knees were brought to her chest, head resting on her knees and arms wrapped around her legs. She stared in the depth of the red in the fire.
This January. I'm glad people will have more time to live out their lives…She began to think about all the innocent people that were going to die. Especially children and what about the pregnant women?
Pregnant.
She shot Deidara a glare.
"You and your glares are starting to piss me off, yeah. You're starting to remind me of a certain impassive man I know. And he pisses me off."
Deidara himself had no idea what he had done wrong to the women to receive such glares every few minutes. He did save her life after all. Maybe she was asking for her death bed? He didn't know and he didn't exactly care to find out.
Sakura must have been glaring more often and more noticeably then she thought she was.
She would only do it when she'd seen his open eye focused on something else. Was his scope eye like a googily eye? She mused over the thought and found herself letting out a giggle.
"What now, yeah? First glares, now giggles? You one of those mood-swingy women?" She ignored him.
As more time passed by she began to grow tired again. She also noticed that she started to notice a certain blonde sitting against a tree.
Looking at his features, she didn't really know how she could have mistook him as a woman at the bar. His jaw line was very masculine, of course. He was like what…twenty something? He was well through with puberty and these were the results.
His eyes were a nice blue color. They held a depth she had not yet witnessed before. Her eyes began to trail down his body. It was funny how every time they met, he never had his Akatsuki cloak. Nevertheless, her eyes focused on the obviously toned muscles that hid under his casual mesh and black shirt. When her eyes trailed down even further, she furiously fought a blush off while looking away. She felt like she was Hinata at the moment.
Deidara just smirked. He knew she was watching him the whole time and he was amused by this. Looking over at her, she was turned away, looking flustered. He knew for sure that if it weren't for the purple bruises on her face, she would be blushing a nice red. Though…he didn't quite get her. One second she was calm and collected, maybe even polite, but the next she was sending cold glares constantly his way. Her expression leaked out her thoughts though, it usually she looked like she was thinking of ways to kill him! He just didn't get the woman. What did he do for her to act such a way around him? Sure they had fought, but it was necessary at the time.
Deidara hadn't minded saving her because it was on the way to the base anyways. Anything to stay away from that base longer, he accepted with welcoming arms. They were in Amegakure, so it wasn't like she was inconveniencing him, but what was her problem?
Sakura turned her flustered face back towards the fire and cleared her voice. "So you go back to your base and I go where ever and we act as if this never had happened?"
"That's what I'm thinking, yeah." She nodded.
His smirk was still in place and there was still that flustered look on Sakura's face.
Sakura ended up laying back down, the fatigue hitting her and falling asleep. Deidara followed suit.
The morning came by fast and he woke up before her. The fire had died out and she lay there, eyes closed looking frail. "Well kunoichi, I hope we'll be seeing eachother soon. No, I know we will, yeah." He murmured, a smirk growing.
Shoving his hands in his clay bags, he began to mold his flying bird.
Sakura awoke with the rays of sun hitting her eyes. She remembered she was back in the forest with Deidara. Looking around, she didn't see him. Maybe it was all just a dream?
Sitting up, she felt her lower back to feel the puncture of one of the senbons from last night. Definitely not a dream, so he must have left already.
She saw the fire he had made last night was now just ashes. There was a rag by the tree she remembered him leaning against. Crawling over, she picked it up and looked at it. It was a small black cloth to show as if he had been there. She smelled it.
It smelled just like him.
She smiled. Then fumed with killing intent. It was a back and forth thing with her. She didn't know what to feel towards him.
Gratitude for saving her or hatred for killing a part of her? She wasn't sure, it was giving her a constant head ache.
He helped me. She thought. His reasoning's didn't make any sense, but decided to not go too further deep in the subject.
She could feel that a lot of her chakra had been restored and she was feeling much better than the few days in the prison cell like room. Summoning up her medical powers, she began to heal her cut up arms. Poking her cheek, she remembered her cheek bones were bruised. Frowning, she began to heal her face.
Getting up, her legs shook the slightest from misuse.
She was screwed. She had no food, no clothes, no anything since she'd been kidnapped. The only money she had was the amount she shoved in her bra and she was sure that it couldn't have been that much.
Looking down her chest she picked the money out of her shirt. Counting it up, it was a few thousand dollars. She didn't know why Tsunade gave her all hundreds and fifties.
Sighing, she knew it wouldn't last that long, so she was going to have to limit the amount she spent until she could possibly find something that paid.
Deciding to look for a city, she began a slow jog pace. She had no idea where she was at from being taken then rescued by Deidara.
After a half hour of jogging, she found a well-off industrial city. It had big buildings and towers of smoke.
The sky was held a dark gray tint from the clouds.
She walked into a restaurant and asked the greeter where she was.
"You're at Amegakure…" She gave her a weird look, eye brow raised in suspicion.
Sakura ran out of the restaurant.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Amegakure is where the Akatsuki base is located. This is the most terrible situation I could get myself into. She came into a realization though…when people come to Amegakure, you're monitored very closely for your stay, so why wasn't she being monitored? Quickly, she took her Konoha hitai-ate and hid it. She surely would be found out if anybody recognized that.
She sighed, deep in thought until a hard clothed object invaded her face.
What Sakura wanted to say was 'Jeeze, watch out where you're going jackass.' But when she met pink eyes, white hair, and a red and black cloak she was speechless.
"Hey, bitch! Watch where the fuck you're going. Hey…do I know you from somewhere babe? You remind me of a slut I met one time." He wore a suggestive smirk.
She was beyond irked. Her eye brow twitched and her fists were clenched. If not from her gloves, blood would most likely be drawing. Though, this was a bad situation, to run into an Akatsuki member. She would just have to play her cards right.
"I'm sorry sir! Excuse me!" Pretending not to know him, she walking around him.
She could hear her heart pounding in her ears from being so close to the Akatsuki member. She did her research on him and knew he was a complete masochist and how he worshiped his lord Jashin and all the details with that. She didn't know how he was still alive! He was supposed to be dead.
"Heh, whatever, like I give a fuck!" She heard him mumble.
Sakura needed to get out of here as fast as possible before she ran into any other Akatsuki members that might ask who she is.
The air was damp and it got on her nerves, making her hair stick to the back of her neck.
Many people gave her strange looks and she started to feel perturbed. She couldn't tell which way was east or which way was west. The clouds covered the sun here making it hard to tell directions.
If she were able to find which way was south west, then she'd be fine. Originally, Sakura was going to visit Suna and wish them luck in the war.
In this town, she felt very conspicuous. Everyone's clothes were darker, and most everyone had dark hair, too. But Sakura had red clothing and pink hair. Very vibrant.
She sighed again. She would have to ask someone for directions. Walking around this big, industrialized town, she felt extremely lost. Most everything and everyone looked the same.
This town is boring, yet very scary. She thought, biting her lip.
Finding a young man around her age, she walked up to him. He was very plain. Dark brown hair, dull green eyes, about five foot eight with plain clothing.
"Excuse me, but could you tell me which way is south west?" Fluttering her eyelashes, she tried to be as charming as possible.
The young man blushed lightly. "Uh…Y-Yeah. It's that way." He pointed in the direction behind her.
"Thank you!" She winked at him before running off. He was blushing profusely now, watching Sakura run off.
It worked! Easier than I thought. Sakura nearly jumped up in joy.
Hopefully she would be out of here in no time. She felt very anxious being in the city that planned to attack Konoha this winter. Looking up, her attention went to the tallest tower. It was daunting. She felt an eerie essence coming from it, sending shivers down her spine.
Turning her direction back to the side walk, she saw Deidara walking onto a different street with another Akatsuki member. He was tall and blue, if she could remember his name correctly, it was Kisame Hi- something.
Immediately Sakura tried to mask her chakra to try to keep either of them noticing. She turned her head the other direction trying to avoid any confrontation.
This didn't keep Deidara from noticing though. The second she was close enough, before she had seen them, he felt her chakra. Guess I was right when I said we'd be seeing each other soon. He sarcastically thought.
"Kisame, yeah, I'll be at the base shortly. I've got a few things to do." Kisame nodded and Deidara was on his way to find the kunoichi.
Walking past a dark alley, she was pulled in. She about screamed until a hand covered her mouth, the other arm wrapped around her waist holding her close to him. This person was behind her, but she knew who it was from the way they smelled. So good.
Get that thought out of my head! She chided.
"Don't scream Sakura, I'm not going to hurt you, yeah." His voice soothed her squirming.
She stopped her struggling and realized how close she was to him, her backside touched his front, and blushed liberally. His grip on her loosened and her turned her around, putting her back on the wall facing him. One hand held its place on the wall of the building behind her, as he leaned down, eye leveled with her.
"What the hell are you doing here, yeah? Are you trying to get killed?" His voice was calm, but his eyes demanded answers.
"I was just on my way to Suna. I don't know how I got here, I just ran."
He sighed. "You need to hide your chakra better. If you keep leaking it out freely than you're going to get noticed by people you don't want to deal with, yeah"
Sakura blushed. For two reasons. One, she was embarrassed that she had walked around blindly with her chakra leaking out until she had actually seen Akatsuki. And two, how close his face was from hers. She was thankful for the darkness in the alley, for it most likely hid her blush.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand though! Why do you continue to help me out? It's not right Deidara. You should have just killed me that time in the opening. It would have been better that way." She didn't mean for the last part to slip out, but it did.
He sighed. "Sakura, just thank me and get over with it, yeah. You should be glad I haven't killed you, or let anyone else notice you." He frowned, almost glared. Looking at her, he noticed that most of her cuts and bruises were gone. She looked way better than the last he'd seen of her.
At this moment, she wanted to kiss him passionately. Yet she wanted to punch him in the face. She wanted to break his bones. It was infuriating how he could make her feel such two different emotions at the same time.
"Sakura!" He shoulders were being shook.
Snapping out of her thoughts, she was met with blue eyes inches away from her face.
"Y-yeah?" Flustered, she chastised herself mentally.
"You need to get out of here, and now. Akatsuki are freely walking around and you don't want to walk into the wrong person, yeah."
"I already ran into Hidan." She mumbled.
"He's dense so you got lucky there, but if you run into someone like" His face twisted into a face of hate, but was gone as soon as it came, "Itachi, than you're done for, yeah."
"I know that."
"Listen, I'll fly you to Suna. I'm not even supposed to be back yet, yeah. I know Kisame won't say anything either."
She stared.
Her fly on his bird?
She didn't know what to say. He was crazy, she knew that much for sure.
"Well, yeah?"
She nodded her head.
"Okay, we'll have to wait till we get out of the main city, yeah. Now follow me."
Wait. What? I'm about to get on a bird with a complete enemy that if anyone found out about, I'll be dead. Should I trust him, or is he just lying through his teeth?
He's helped you before. Obviously he's only trying to save you again. Another voice in her head spoke.
True. She thought back, and yet she couldn't shake this uneasy feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. She felt she had a long journey ahead of her, that being her life. Just then she realized she'd spaced out and Deidara was getting impatient. That's when he grabbed her wrist and she felt something wet slide across, then nip her skin. She yelped.
"What?"
"You just…you bit me!"
He grinned huge and laughed, "Sorry! I can't always control what my hands do, yeah."
A huge blush formed her face as they ran through the dark alley. She began to think about other things the mouths on his hands could be capable of. Smacking her forehead, she shook the thoughts out of her head.
The dark alley just happened to be a dark passageway throughout the whole city. They ran for a good couple of minutes until they had finally reached foliage. Letting go of her wrist, his hands went into his pouches grabbing his clay. They waited a few minutes waiting for his hands to make a big enough bird for two. A little bird slid out of the mouth on his hand and he threw it on the ground.
It expanded into one huge bird and he automatically, out of habit, jumped on his bird without a thought. Sakura stood there, looking at the massive bird. He grinned. She was amazed at his art.
He knelt down on the bird, holding an arm out to her.
"Come on, yeah."
Absentmindedly, she reached for his hand, eyes still on his bird. She felt as if she were in a trance, feeling as if she was just doing stuff and not really there.
He sat on his bird, his legs criss crossed. "Now if you're planning on not falling, you'll have to hold on to me."
Sakura began to wonder how every time she was with him, there involved her having to touch him.
Nodding, she opened her legs, them on the sides of his thighs, and wrapped her arms around his waist.
She had always wondered how it had been like flying on his bird, in the open sky with the wind blowing in your face.
She yelped a little as the bird flapped its large wings, going nearly straight up. Tightening her grip around him, she couldn't see the smirk of amusement on his face from her surprised reactions. She found that the upper atmosphere was actually very much colder than down on the ground, especially since winter was cold wind gave her goose bumps on her exposed arms and legs, so she unconsciously accepted and tried stealing some of the blonde's body heat. Her head rested on his back that protected her face from the wind and slowly, she began to fall asleep, comfortable against the criminal.
Deidara decided, liked this side of the pinkette.
When Sakura woke up, it was in the heat of the sun. Immediately, she remembered who she was with, wishing it was all just a dream. She noticed they weren't flying, but she had unconsciously not let go of holding on to Deidara. She felt her face flush, but quickly dismissed it, letting go of him.
"You really had a hold on there, yeah." He teased.
"Whatever." She mumbled, half awake. She wiped her eyes in a childishly way, trying to wake herself up.
They were in the desert, far enough away from Suna.
The sun was setting, making a beautiful scene and gagging, she realized it was nearly romantic as she sat with the man on the bird. Though excluding the embarrassing moment waking up, was glad for the few hours of sleep, seeing as she got little the night before from being uneasy of having an Akatsuki member right next to her.
But wait… She thought. I just fell asleep on one. She reminded herself. Anger fumed inside her, bubbling, wanting so much to just pop. She couldn't believe she had just fallen asleep on him like that.
She chastised herself for always letting her guard down around him. That was one of the most dangerous things to do, no matter how many times he'd save her life or helped her out. He was still the dangerous criminal that was going to be attacking her home in the winter. Though, her anger quickly diminished as she looked back at the sunset calming her.
"Thank you." She muttered.
"Huh?"
"I said thank you." She strained.
"No problem, yeah." He ignored the way she said it. Probably just PMS. He assumed.
She stood up on his bird, as he did and asked him which way was west. He pointed, telling her it was only a few miles from where they were. "You should be able to make it by nightfall, yeah."
She rounded up the courage and hugged him. She had no idea why, but in the past few days she almost, key word, almost, felt like she owed him a bit.
He was slightly surprised, but hugged her back.
"I really mean it. When I said thank you, I meant for saving me from those guys, from Amegakure, and taking me here." He fitted a crooked smiled that just looked so perfect on him.
To him, it really was not a big deal. He hadn't been getting as much missions as he'd like since the war was drawing in, so he need something to her, he smelled so good. And that's when she realized how bad she probably smelled. Though it wasn't like she was trying to impress anybody at the moment, so she didn't really care.
That's when she'd done it. She, this time, herself, had crossed the line. The crooked smiled he laid on her hadn't help much more than to tempt her more into doing what she did. Slowly, she had slid her arms away from his torso to around his neck and planted a soft kiss on him. He was utterly surprised at the turn of events but went with the flow after a few seconds of unsure surprise and confusion passed by. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her closer to him, deepening the kiss. His tongue slid against the bottom of her lips and she complied to his offer. She had not understood why she did this, and Deidara had no idea really why he was responding to her.
Her brain was clouded and confused. She was in fact enjoying this. In a way, she felt an attachment to Deidara even only after one night. He'd saved her from probable death and yet again he saved her from the eyes of the Akatsuki. This was her strange way of thanking him, she felt.
Those were the thoughts that floated around her head before her common sense slowly came crawling back.
Slowly she pushed him away, feeling awkward.
"Uh-umm...T-thanks." She stuttered, not sure what she was supposed to say at a moment like this. It's not like things like this happened everyday. With one last glance at his sunset lit face, she jumped off his clay bird feeling like she had made a terrible mistake letting her hormones or something take over her like that. She had tried for something like this to not happen. Furious with herself, she began to add more chakra to her feet, making her speed double as she fled from the man that just stood wide eyed at her.
"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."
Judy Garland
A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There was practically not much angst in this chapter :) And there was some Sakura/Deidara at the end. I enjoyed writing so let me know if you enjoyed reading by leaving a...
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