Chapter 3

Yasuhiro

Sakura yawned, stretching languidly. As she did so, she rubbed up against something warm. Her eyebrows knotted, but she kept her eyes closed. She merely ran her hand up and down the warm surface before curling up against it. She wanted to sleep a little longer…

"If you're going to feel me up you might as well do it with your eyes open, yeah."

Sakura leapt up, jumping off the bed with a squeal. She tripped on the blanket that was still wrapped around her feet, falling to the ground in a senseless heap. She heard Deidara laughing softly behind her. Sakura ignored the burning in her cheeks due to her embarrassment. I'm so damn clumsy.

She started to stand when a hand came into view. Sakura blinked, before she looked up to see Deidara standing in front of her, offering aid. She shot him a suspicious glance and stood by herself, ignoring his hand completely.

He gave a soft sigh before he winced a bit. Sakura knew that his broken ribs were probably hurting him the most at the moment. "I need to change your bandages."

"I need to take a bath, yeah." Deidara muttered.

Sakura's nose wrinkled a bit. "Yes, you do." She agreed as Deidara shot her a small glare. She seemed to ignore it as she grabbed her pack from the chair and shouldered it. "You go take a shower, I'll ask the innkeeper for some food."

Deidara nodded, a bit put off at her sarcastic, distant attitude. He liked the emotional, friendly Sakura better. She was easier to tease. He watched her leave the room, and he gave a small smile. She was a refreshing diversion from his work as an Akatsuki member. Something that would disappear as soon as he was healed.

Because she was his enemy. Not only that, but she had drugged him.

No kunoichi had ever threatened him and lived to tell about it.

And he wasn't planning on ruining his reputation by letting this pink-haired girl do so. Angel or not, he would teach her that he was the one in control.

But for now…he'd enjoy himself.

Sakura headed out of the room as quickly as possible. She closed the door behind her, stepping into the hall and breathing in deeply.

I have to stop acting like a child and start acting like a shinobi. I already gave Deidara too much information on Orochimaru as it is—and I talked to him like he was my best friend…like I would talk to Naruto or Ino! I can't afford anymore screw ups. It's all cold and indifference from now on. She vowed silently, continuing down the corridor.

She had her head down, deep in thought as she descended the stairs. She wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, lulled into a state of complacency with the knowledge that there were no shinobi in the inn with Deidara and herself. Of course, this wasn't much of an excuse as she stumbled into a person who had been trying to walk upstairs.

She gave a soft yelp as the person in front of her started to fall backwards. She hurriedly grabbed for his arm, pulling him up to steady him on the step. There was a small moment of silence as the two stared at each other. He was a young man, maybe two or three years older than Sakura herself, with the most shockingly violet hair she'd ever seen, and golden eyes that reminded her fleetingly of a hawk's. I thought my hair was crazy.

"S-sorry!" Sakura managed to say after another moment of awkward silence.

The boy—no, he was definitely a man—gave her a smile. It was a warm, friendly smile, as he leaned up against the wall, "It's alright. I should have been watching, ne?"

"Er, I was the one who wasn't watching…" Sakura began. He was wearing normal civilian clothing, although it looked a bit fancy for a villager. A merchant perhaps?

The man laughed. "Well, at least you grabbed me. Otherwise I'd have probably broken something on the way down." His eyes motioned to the stairway. "That wouldn't have been very pleasant."

Sakura gave a small smile. "I guess not."

The young man regarded her for a moment, "I don't remember seeing you when I arrived. I surely would have remembered someone with your hair color." He gave a sly grin.

Sakura laughed. "You're one to talk." She nodded at his violet locks. "Well, I came here two days ago." Sakura stretched the truth a little. It was a hard habit to get out of, even when talking to normal civilians. "I've been staying inside of my room most of the time. I suppose that would explain why you haven't seen me." Healing a dilapidated, annoying, s-classed criminal.

"That makes sense." The man nodded. "I came about three days ago with my uncle. We're heading to Mist." He gave a small sigh. "My uncle is a silk merchant and he wants to get to the Mist market as soon as possible for the festival."

Sakura nodded. The market that was held during the Mist fall festival was legendary. It was said you could find anything there.

"But we've been stuck here because of the threat of Waterfall shinobi." The man sighed again. "So, what's your story?"

Sakura blinked. "Story? Oh, I don't have one." She laughed as he raised an eyebrow. "I'm just stopping here on my way to Stone." Sure, that's a believable lie right?

"You're a shinobi!" The man exclaimed as he finally took in the sight of her headband. "I should have known from your outfit and the weapons. Well, you aren't from Waterfall…" He seemed lost in thought for a moment.

He'll recognize my headband in a few minutes, I suppose. The Konoha symbol is well-known. She thought with a sigh. "Hai, I'm from Konohagakure."

"A Konoha shinobi?" He seemed genuinely impressed. "You're supposed to be the best."

Sakura gave a small blush at the compliment. "Oh, I'm just a normal shinobi, nothing special." Let's just leave out the fact that I'm the Hokage's apprentice, she thought silently.

"My name is Arakawa Yasuhiro." He introduced himself with another smile.

"Er, I'm Sakura." Sakura answered back. She didn't see any reason to give her last name. Maybe he'd just think that shinobi didn't give their family name freely or something.

"The name fits you." He laughed.

"You have no idea how many times people tell me that." Sakura sighed, and he laughed again, grinning.

Sakura was sure the man was about to speak again when her stomach gave an embarrassingly loud rumble. She blushed a bit, "Um, well, as you can see I'm kind of hungry. Well uh, see you later Arakawa-san."

"Call me Yasuhiro!" He called after her as she headed down the stairs and out of sight.

Sakura took another bite of her rice ball with a sigh of contentment as she walked up the stairs. In one hand she held a basket of food for Deidara, which bumped against her side every time she took a step. She jumped up the last two stairs, impatient to change Deidara's bandages and give him his food so that she could leave the room as soon as possible. The less time she had to spend with the annoying missing-nin the better.

She lifted a hand to knock on the door to her room and stopped herself with a frown. She was the one paying for the room dammit, she didn't have to knock. It was her room. So she slid the door open and walked inside, still holding the basket.

She should have knocked.

"Ack!" Sakura gasped out as she turned around immediately—a habit—so that she didn't gaze any longer at Deidara's naked torso. Had he just gotten out of the shower? She'd been downstairs for at least two hours! How long did it take a man to wash? He probably spent an hour fixing his precious hair. She thought to herself irritably. Worse than Ino!

"Here's your food." She muttered, placing the basket on the bedside table. She continued to ignore the fact that all Deidara wore was a towel wrapped around his waist. "Would you put some clothes on?"

Deidara gave her a sly grin. "You know you like the view, yeah."

Sakura sighed impatiently. "I can go get you some clothes from the innkeeper if you need me to."

Deidara snorted. "I've got some clothes, yeah." He motioned to the outfit that was draped over the back of the chair.

"…did you buy those clothes?" Sakura asked suspiciously as she looked down at the clothing and then back at him.

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Did I look like I had any money on me yeah?"

"You didn't have anything on you." Sakura retorted.

He laughed, "Heh. Checking me out weren't you angel yeah?"

Sakura huffed, ignoring the warmth rising to her cheeks. "Just go put on your stolen clothes."

He grinned as he dropped the towel to put on the pair of slacks…a pair of nice silky slacks. Sakura rolled her eyes as he shot her a smug smile. If he thought she was going to faint from a nosebleed at the sight of his ass he was wrong.

She merely took out the food from the basket, placing it on the small table. "Don't put your shirt on yet, I have to redress the wound."

"Yeah, yeah…" Deidara muttered under his breath, pulling his hair up in its usual ponytail. "Alright, come heal me then, yeah."

Sakura snorted, grabbing her medical pack, "Sit down." She ordered, opening the pack and pulling out the bandages. He did as she said, although she could tell he wasn't too excited about the whole thing. The stitches were holding up nicely, and the bruising was minimal around the arm she'd reattached.

A little more and he'll be almost fully healed. I have to find a way to get him to Konoha before that!

She placed a small bit of her chakra into his body, looking over his damaged ribs. They were coming along nicely, she noted triumphantly. It was then that she began to laborious process of wrapping the wound on his stomach.

…

…

…

"Those are some weird tattoos." Sakura finally commented after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. Deidara looked down to see that she'd been looking at the tattoos on his chest.

Deidara frowned. "They aren't strange yeah. They're art."

Sakura remembered back to the little argument Deidara and Sasori had had right before Deidara had taken Gaara's body and ran. "That's a weird way to express your definition of art. I thought that Sasori was the one who believed art was ageless. Those tattoos don't explode, I believe."

He grinned. "Well, I actually opted for the temporary ones, but Sasori-danna had other plans, yeah."

Sakura almost smiled at the little joke, but managed to merely grunt. She wondered…did he blame her for killing his teammate? She didn't think she could say that the two had been friends—she'd seen enough animosity between the two to last a lifetime.

She knew that Deidara was merely trying to make her comfortable enough for another slip up. She wasn't as stupid as people seemed to think she was. What kind of a shinobi would she be if she couldn't see through something like that?

But it gives me an advantage. People think I'm easily manipulated. If they think so little of me they lower their own guard…and that's all I need. She gave an inward smile. Two can play this game, Deidara…

"How long do you think it will be until I'm healed completely and you take me back to your wonderful village, yeah?" His voice was casual, but she could hear a bit of annoyance underneath.

"Do you really believe I'd heal you completely?" Sakura snorted. "As soon as I find a way around the Waterfall-nin I'll be taking you to Konoha and then there will be one less Akatsuki in the world."

Deidara blinked at the harshness of her words. But he merely smiled slyly. "You had better hurry and find an escape rout for us, angel. Because the longer we're here the more healed I am. And you can't fight me off when I'm fully healed, now can you, yeah?"

His threat hung in the air above them, and Sakura's jaw tightened. She merely glared at him. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that you won't be in any condition to even lift those disgusting hands of yours." And then she walked out of the room, leaving him to eat in silence.

…

…

…

Oh come on, they aren't disgusting yeah!

Slurp.

Shlooop.

Naruto sucked another noodle into his mouth—without his usual fervor.

Tak.

Tak.

The chopsticks clunked against the edge of the bowl as he put his hands in his lap, deep in thought. The owner of Ichiraku gave Naruto a worried glance. It was so strange to see Naruto like this. He was so quiet.

He gave a soft sigh as he picked up the bowl and placed it to his mouth to shovel the noodles in as he used to do.

"Hey Naruto." Came a lazy drawl from beside him as a figure sat down to his left, placing some money on the table for a bowl.

Clunk.

Naruto placed the bowl on the counter, looking over at Shikamaru—who was eyeing the seven empty ramen bowls stacked up on Naruto's right.

"Stop hogging the counter space." Kiba grunted as he sat down in the seat on Naruto's other side, pushing the bowls out of the way a bit.

"At least Naruto knows how to eat." Choji piped in, sitting down in the seat beside Shikamaru and ordering his own usual four bowls.

"Hey." Naruto droned out without a hint of enthusiasm.

The three exchanged a glance over his head.

"So…" Kiba began after an awkward moment of silence. "I heard the ANBU going for Sakura have caught onto a trail!"

"Where'd you hear that?" Naruto asked curiously, grabbing the dog-loving ninja's arm. "Well?"

"Hey!" Kiba threw up his hands in surrender. "Calm down Naruto! Geeze! I heard it from Kurenai-sensei."

Naruto felt a small moment of relief and hope, before giving another sigh. "It doesn't matter if they get a lead or not…we can't afford to fight our way through the lines of Waterfall shinobi."

"You don't know that." Choji argued.

"Hai." Shikamaru nodded, picking up his chopsticks to take a bite of his ramen. "I'm sure that the ANBU are currently trying to find a way inside of the border. Once they find a safe route all they will need to do is track down Sakura."

Kiba and Choji agreed loudly, grinning at Naruto, who was staring down at his ramen bowl.

"It's not fair…" Naruto finally ground out. "Kakashi-sensei gets to go out and look for Sakura-chan and I'm stuck here! We can't even go find Sasuke-teme!"

"Che." Kiba grunted. "No one wants to find the bastard anyway. Let him go rot somewhere."

"Take that back!" Naruto growled.

"Er…sorry Naruto." Kiba murmured. "I forgot that you feel that way too. I'd thought Sakura was the only one who still believed in the jerk."

Naruto's gaze darkened. "I'll get him back…and then I'll beat him to a pulp and force him to admit his love for Sakura-chan!"

Choji laughed. "I'd pay to see that."

"Me too." Kiba agreed. Neither of them seemed to notice that Naruto had grown silent again once he realized that the girl he loved…the girl who loved another…might never come back.

Shikamaru, however, did notice.

"Well, Hinata and Neji had to go on top-security mission today." Get his mind off of Sakura.

"Yeah." Choji seemed to have caught on. "And Lee, Tenten, and Ino were sent on a mission too."

"Shino's on a mission with his dad." Kiba sighed. "I don't even have anyone to train with right now."

"We're the only ones without a mission…" Naruto's grip tightened on his chopsticks.

"Well, at least we don't have to do anything." Shikamaru shrugged. "We don't get free time very often."

"We shouldn't have free time!" Naruto snapped. "Every single Konoha shinobi should be out there looking for Sakura-chan! I mean, she's healed almost every single one of them! She deserves this!"

"Naruto…" Shikamaru began. "It doesn't work that way…"

Snap.

The chopsticks splintered between Naruto's fingers as he let out a savage growl. "Well it should. She deserves better. She bleeds and bleeds for this village and they don't DO anything when she gets captured!" He knew he was yelling, as people began staring at them.

"Keep your voice down!" Shikamaru hissed.

"Naruto, they are doing something. The ANBU are—"

"Fuck the ANBU!" Naruto roared, cutting Kiba off. "If no one's going to go and rescue her than I will!" And he leapt up from his seat.

"NARUTO!"

"You damn idiot!

"You can't just run off!"

Wumpf.

Thump.

Yelp.

Crash.

The Ichiraku owner looked over the counter of his stall at the sight in front of him.

It seemed that Kiba had dove for Naruto as soon as he'd leapt up from the table and his foot had gotten caught on the leg of the chair, causing him to topple over onto Naruto, One arm around Naruto, holding him in a headlock. Akamaru—who had been lying beneath the stools the entire time—now found Naruto and Kiba sprawled out on top of him.

Shikamaru had started his shadow possession jutsu but his arm had hit the counter, sending a bowl of ramen flying into the air before it landed on his head. Then Choji had knocked into him in his haste to grab Naruto, and so had landed on him, pushing him into Naruto. They were now rather pathetic pile of forehead protectors, kunai, a ninja dog, and ramen noodles.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Naruto shouted, trying to get out from beneath all of them. But Shikamaru had finished his jutsu, and Naruto was held immobile as he slowly stood, forcing Naruto to do so as well.

Akamaru gave a soft growl as Kiba rolled off of him before he shook the dirt—and ramen—from his fur.

"Don't make us get the Hokage, Naruto." Choji sighed, looking down at the broken ramen bowl. "…what a waste of perfectly good ramen."

Shikamaru gave a groan. "Stop thinking about your stomach right now." He then turned his sharp gaze back to Naruto, who looked utterly defeated.

"Please…I have to…I have to save her…" Naruto pleaded desperately, tears shining in his eyes.

…

…

…

"…because Sakura is more important to me than anyone else in the world…" He closed his eyes for a second, and Kiba felt uncomfortable. He had never been around the Kyuubi container when he'd been like this. It was too weird.

Choji was shifting from foot to foot, looking guilty. Shikamaru knew that if he left the other boy to Naruto's pleas for assistance any longer than Choji would be rushing out of the village with him.

So damn troublesome…

"Naruto, we came here because the Hokage asked us to meet in her office. Let's go." And then he began walking, forcing Naruto to walked along with him, as Kiba snickered and followed with Akamaru and Choji continued to complain about how he hadn't finished eating yet.

(A/N: Finally! It took forever but here's the chapter:D I hope you all like it. I wanted to portray the fact that Deidara isn't just a lovey dovey 'oh my god you're beautiful be mine' kind of guy. He's still Akatsuki and he's got a vicious streak. :)

So, don't know when the next chapter will be out. School's officially started and I can already tell that it will be hell this year. I'm going to have to turn into one of those authors that only updates like once a month…Oi.

Sincerely, Lady Hanaka

Pick-up line: If I had a garden I'd put your two lips and my two lips together.)