Chapter 6
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Neji's palm shot forward, connecting with the man's chest as he twirled around, getting back into his gentle fist fighting stance, waiting. The man grunted and fell to the ground.
"Take that!" Kiba roared out enthusiastically as he and Akamaru went for their fang-over-fang attack. The shinobi they had been fighting landed on the ground a few feet away, and he made no move to rise. "YES!"
"You got the last one, Kiba! Don't hog the fun!" Lee whined as he ran around two enemy shinobi, too fast for them to counter. He kicked the first in the head, sending him flying across the large plateau. He landed with an eruption of dust, skidding to the edge of the small cliff, where he barely managed to stop himself from going over.
Tenten frowned as she and Hinata finished up their last few opponents. "Lee, Kiba, don't act so childish. This is a mission and we have to be serious about it."
"Yeah." Choji agreed as he grabbed another handful of potato chips. He hadn't even joined the fight.
Shino turned to Neji, "My Kikai sense that Uchiha Sasuke is heading north to Deidara's home in stone."
"That makes sense." Tenten piped in. "He'll most likely try and locate a trail the Akatsuki left."
"Che." Kiba snorted. "The Akatsuki won't leave a trail. They're too good for that. Especially too good for him. He doesn't even have a rank any more as a ninja."
"Tsunade-dono was very angry with him." Lee agreed. "She stripped him of all his shinobi titles right there while she told us where he was headed."
"I don't remember that, was that before or after she downed her third bottle of sake?" Tenten asked.
"Before." Neji answered back. "Listen, we're getting close. Uchiha Sasuke has disobeyed the orders of the Hokage too many times. He will not be welcomed back to our village. Of that I can assure you."
"D-don't forget that we h-have to b-bring him back alive." Hinata whispered.
"Yeah, yeah." Kiba grunted, frowning. "But what do you suppose is considered dead? I mean, maybe he was just bleeding really bad when we found him and since we didn't have a medical shinobi with us he simply…expired?"
"Nice try." Choji grunted. "I don't think it'll work on the Hokage, though."
"It won't work on anyone." Tenten answered back.
"Enough." Neji cut in before they could continue their talk. "We are going to continue after Uchiha Sasuke. This mild delay has wasted enough of our time. Let's go."
"It's not our fault we were ambushed." Kiba muttered. Choji agreed as he bit into another potato chip, before he and Kiba both began running to keep up with Lee and Neji, who were ahead of all of them.
Tenten sidled alongside Hinata as they continued. Hinata hesitantly turned to Tenten and gave a feeble, worried smile. "Tenten-san?"
"Huh?" Tenten raised an eyebrow.
"Do you th-think…do you think that N-Neji will h-hurt Sasuke Uchiha?"
Tenten frowned. "He deserves it, you know. It doesn't matter what Neji does."
Hinata bit her lip. "Oh. R-right." She looked down at the ground until she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She and Tenten both turned to see Shino running alongside them.
He gave a small smile from beneath his collar. "Do not worry, Hinata. Neji will not kill Sasuke Uchiha, and he will not make anyone else do it either. We will follow the directions the Hokage gave us."
"Th-thank you, Shino." Hinata whispered, nodding.
I just…I don't want to have to kill anyone. Is that so bad?
"So, kitten, are you going to finish that?"
Sakura sighed as she pushed her plate towards Kisame. He swiftly grabbed it up, shoveling food into his mouth. She gave a loud sigh as she continued to watch him eat his fifth helping of rice. That man could eat as much as Naruto. He finally seemed satisfied as he put his plate down. Or rather, her plate.
Sakura crossed her legs, sitting Indian-style. She tucked a few of her errant strands of hair behind her ear. It was strange, to be doing normal things like that again. She hadn't really worried about her hair or appearance in years. A shinobi never really cared what they looked like.
She looked down at casual clothing, a t-shirt Kisame had dug out of who-knows-where (and she didn't really want to know) and some tight, short shorts that had probably belonged to a young monk before the temple had been abandoned. Kisame had commented on how it was a good thing 'she was as skinny as a twig, or else nothing would fit her'. Her hair hung loose, coming to her shoulders. They were clothes fit for relaxing in. Comfortable. It made sense, since that's all she was doing.
It seemed so normal to her, to just sit on the porch with them: three members of the Akatsuki. Kisame was stretching his arms and limbering himself up for training. Samehada leaned against the porch next to him.
Deidara was reading a book from where he and Sakura sat back-to-back. He seemed completely engrossed in it, as the pages flipped idly. He shifted, sitting up more fully, pressing his back against Sakura's for support.
Sasori was idly playing shogi by himself. Sakura had offered to play, but after she had won the first few games he had said he'd wanted to 'practice his strategies alone for a while'. Sakura watched him absentmindedly click the pieces down onto the board, his eyes roving across it, thinking of strategies. She supposed he would play a game or two with her in a few days, after he came up with some new ones.
It was a normal afternoon for the four of them.
Sakura began fiddling with the small puppet Sasori had made her. She made it walk back and forth across the porch, stopping in front of Sasori. He looked up from the Shogi board to see the puppet execute a proper little bow, like a perfect geisha. He gave a small smile as he turned to look back at the shogi board.
"A little more control, Sakura, and we can begin working on the mechanisms and traps I placed inside of her for you."
Sakura smiled. "Alright." She leaned back against Deidara, stretching backwards, and straining her eyes to see what page he was on. She was just about to read a sentence when Deidara spotted her and closed the book tightly, a small blush staining his cheeks.
"Oh come on, Deidara, it can't be that bad." Sakura teased. "Let me see the title. It's not like it's Icha Icha Paradise or anything."
"Of course not, yeah!" Deidara seemed mortified at the idea.
"What's wrong with Icha Icha Paradise?" Kisame frowned.
"Some of us can get real women, Kisame. We don't have to read to get something, yeah." Deidara shot back with a sly smile.
"Che. For your information, I did get some. You see, at the festival there was this really hot prostitute and I can tell you I—"
"…didn't get much." Sakura finished in a whisper to Deidara. Deidara broke out laughing and Kisame frowned again.
"What happened then, Kisame?" Sakura asked archly, raising one eyebrow as she looked at him. "Hm?"
"Well…uh…" Kisame rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to think of something. "I don't exactly remember because I was drunk at the time but I bet we had great sex!"
"So great he fell unconscious." Sakura muttered with a mischievous grin at him.
Kisame coughed.
He then raised one eyebrow, his gaze serious. "Alright kitten, I have a question for you."
"Shoot." Sakura shrugged her shoulders, looking back at him. Her little geisha continued to do a small little fan dance around the porch.
"When I woke up, Samehada was stuck in the ground. I placed it against the wall. Do you know how it got there?"
Sakura pondered for a few moments, making the geisha doll throw her fan up and then catch it.
"Well, actually I do. You see…I kind of picked Samehada up and used it to kill some strange chakra summonings."
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Sakura watched Kisame's face. Here he goes. He's going to blow his top.
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"NANI!??!?!"
Deidara burst into laughter as he saw Kisame's face. "You actually wielded Samehada, Sakura?"
"Fascinating." Sasori sounded truly intrigued.
"That's my SWORD!" Kisame raved. "No one uses it but me! It's MINE!" He stopped ranting as he frowned. "Kitten, come over here and try it again."
Sakura slowly stood, letting her puppet go lax. She made her way to where Kisame stood. He picked up Samehada, "Well?"
Sakura stopped in front of him with a sigh. "Listen Kisame, I don't know why Samehada let me wield it but I won't do so again, you don't have to worry about that—" She stopped as Samehada was shoved into her arms.
She stumbled backwards slightly, not used to holding up such a weight. She blinked as she stared down at the sword in her hand. It vibrated slightly, as if it didn't really like it's position, but it did not attack her.
Kisame stared at her, his eyes wide.
Deidara seemed to be catching flies.
Sasori merely smiled to himself before going back to his shogi game.
Kisame then grinned down at her, patting her on the back. "That's my kitten!" Sakura stumbled forward with the force of Kisame's congratulatory 'pat'. She resisted the urge to drop Samehada and rub the sore spot on her shoulder. It probably wouldn't go over well with Kisame or the sword, however, so she merely held it in her arms, staring down at it.
"Well…" Kisame smirked down at her. "Go get your sandals on."
"What for?" Sakura asked as she handed Samehada back to him.
"I'm going to teach you to use Samehada of course!" Kisame spoke as if it were completely obvious.
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Sakura, Deidara, and Sasori all blinked.
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"What?" All three of them collectively questioned.
Kisame shrugged, his eyes twinkling. "I might as well teach someone. It's not like anyone else can wield Samehada."
"You're actually going to teach her to use that thing, yeah?" Deidara choked out, still dumbfounded. "But you don't let anyone touch Samehada."
"Well, Sasori taught her how to use a puppet. I'm gonna teach my kitten how to use Samehada. It's not like I'm giving it to her or something." He finished quickly.
"Hey!" Deidara frowned. "How come you and Sasori get to teach her new jutsus, yeah? Why can't I teach her one?"
"You can." Sakura turned to him with a smile. "I wouldn't mind learning a few more jutsus."
"Great, yeah!"
"Well wait your turn, Deidara." Kisame cut in. "Right now she's going to train with me, and she trains with Sasori in the evenings."
"Well, then we'll just have to train in the morning." Deidara shrugged with a smile. "That works for me, yeah. What about you Sakura?"
Sakura laughed. "I feel like I'm back in my old Genin squad, except I don't have one sensei and two teammates, I just have three senseis."
"It's still a team of four, though." Deidara smiled.
Sakura nodded, grinning. "Yeah. It is." She slipped on her sandals, tying them with a sigh.
"Alright Kisame. Do your worst."
Kisame smirked at her and Sakura didn't like the evil glint in his eyes.
"Oh I intend to, kitten." He did a jutsu and a fake Samehada appeared in a puff of smoke. He shouldered the real one, patting it. "This little imitation is about the same size." He threw it and Sakura braced herself as she caught it.
"You've been doing arm strengthening exercises since you were younger, right? Otherwise, you'll never be able to wield Samehada."
Sakura stared at the sword in her arms. "I did some exercises." Probably not as many as I should have done. In my Genin days, I was always afraid I would get ugly, muscled man-arms. She grinned to herself as she held Samehada's hilt, almost feeling herself duck under the weight.
"This thing has to weigh at least three times as much as I do." Sakura exclaimed as the tip hit the ground, dragging into it. She supposed her adrenaline rush during her battle with Naoyo was the only reason she had been able to pick it up before. It was heavy.
"You're just too skinny, kitten." Kisame snickered. "We'll start with simple swings. I want you to do one hundred in a row."
Sakura could already feel her arms scream at her, telling her they'd get back at her somehow if she even thought about it. She merely braced herself, locking her arms in place as she lifted the large sword.
Sakura gave a loud groan as she lowered herself into the hot bath water. She was sore all over. The steaming water of the bath made her muscles relax as she leaned against the back of the tub, sighing.
She slowly slid into the water until it went up to her nose. She gave a small, silent sigh. She couldn't feel her legs or arms. They felt like rubber. Kisame had incessantly drilled her on her swings. The movement was becoming second nature to her.
And what was worse was that she knew that the first day wasn't the hardest. It was probably one of the easier days.
She would hurt like hell in the morning. Kisame had cheerfully pointed this out to her. But Sakura had decided she was going to stick with it and learn as much as she could. Who knew when this would come in handy? It was different than using her strangely acquired 'insane strength' that she'd inherited from her teacher Tsunade.
That was raw force. Wielding the sword was making her focus all that raw force into her arms for long periods of time, not just to grab boulders and hurl one or two. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the rim of the tub as she gave another loud sigh.
When she finished with her bath, she'd have to go and train with Sasori and her little geisha puppet. She didn't want to move. She wondered if it would be so bad to drown in the bathtub.
I set myself up for all of this. I need to get stronger, and this is a good way to do it. Besides…I need to learn new jutsus. I can't keep up with the Akatsuki with the small amount of them that I know now.
Sakura breathed in deeply before dunking her head. A few seconds later she came back up with a small gasp, brushing the dripping wet hairs out of her eyes. She groaned at the strain even that small little movement did. She felt as if someone had summoned Gamabunta and made him sit on her arms.
There was a knock at the door but Sakura ignored it as she savored her last few moments of peace and quiet.
"Are you almost finished, Haruno-san?" It was Sasori.
Sakura sighed deeply. "Hai. I'll be out in a few moments."
"I will be in the tea room."
"I'll come there when I'm done." Sakura called back, waiting. She heard Sasori's footsteps as he headed down the hallway. Sakura braced her arms on the edge of the tub and pulled herself up with a loud groan.
"Dammit! I wish I could just die!" Sakura screamed out in her frustration as her arms screamed in pain.
Suddenly the door flew open and Kisame was standing in front of her.
"Suicide isn't the answer, kitten!"
Sakura stared at him incredulously. Kisame stared back.
There was a long moment of silence.
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Kisame grinned, "Damn kitten, you didn't tell me you were stacked."
Sakura stared at him, and then at her chest that he was blatantly ogling. "Ki…sa…me…" Sakura began, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?!?!?!"
Kisame moped, frowning as Sakura and Sasori continued their puppet jutsu. He held the icepack to his eye and ignored the bloodied tissue in his nose.
"You didn't have to hit me so hard kitten, I was joking."
"You could have moved out of the way." Sakura called back as she concentrated on the little geisha puppet, making it move through a series of steps as she twirled the small chakra strings with her fingers.
"But that would have ruined it all. I mean, who doesn't want to get beaten senseless by a hot, naked chick?" He winked at her. "You know you liked it."
"Kisame, go jump off of a cliff." Sakura snapped out as she flicked two fingers to the side, making the little puppet pick up a glass and throw the water at the shark-man.
Kisame wiped the water from his face with a frown.
Sasori nodded in approval. "That was a very effective battle move, Haruno-san."
Sakura grinned. "You think so?"
"Ha ha." Kisame stuck his tongue out at them before standing. "I won't stand here and get made fun of. I hope you know this means extra swing practice tomorrow!"
Sakura gave a loud groan. "Can I take it back?"
"Nah." Kisame grinned wickedly. "The damage is already done. Good night!" He waved to the two of them before closing the door behind him.
Sakura sighed. "Well…" She focused her chakra, unlocking one of the mechanisms in the geisha doll's hand: a small poison dart launcher. She made the doll jump into the air, shooting the dart at the wall. It hit the small dot that had been painted on the wall, but it was slightly askew.
"You'll have to learn how much chakra to place inside of it for the desired force." Sasori explained.
Sakura nodded, hiding a yawn with her hand. "Right."
"You're too tired to continue. We shall end for the night."
Sakura nodded, grabbing the small dart from the wall and putting it in her pocket as she held the doll in her arms. "Thanks, Sasori-san." She was already half asleep as she stumbled down the hallway.
She barely managed to stagger into her bedroom, sliding the door open and closing it behind her, eyes already closed. She merely stripped off all of her clothing but her bra and underwear, too tired to actually put on a sleeping gown.
She probed sleepily for the bed, landing on it in an ungraceful heap.
She faintly remembered pulling the covers up over her shoulders, tucking the edge underneath her chin as she felt the warmth encompass her. She felt good. Safe. And even if for just a moment, happy.
Maybe it was because she was so tired. She didn't know. She wondered sometimes why she had stayed. And she supposed she had her answer already.
For days like today.
Days where she would sit with Kisame, Deidara, and Sasori and merely talk. Share ideas and even, sometimes, she would hear a small tidbit of information about their past. She'd see a glimpse of the real them and she realized that they had probably never opened up to anyone before this.
She felt as if they were one large family, held together by thin, silken bonds. But like a spider's silk, those bonds were stronger and more durable than steel. Perhaps it was because their bonds were so flexible.
It didn't matter. All that mattered was the fact that she felt as if she belonged.
These were the types of days she lived for.
As she began drifting into a tired, contented sleep, she remembered one small thing. A small little detail that could have perhaps ruined the moment, if she were not so exhausted.
Itachi's coming home tomorrow.
It should have bothered her, and for a moment it did. But the feeling was fleeting and it disappeared before she had even known it existed. Itachi was coming home. That meant one of two things: she could run and hide and pretend that she was angry with him and be just as cold and emotionless as he was; or she could apologize.
She knew it was her fault, and she wanted to make sure that Itachi knew that as well.
Why am I apologizing to him? Why do I even care what he thinks?
It's not like he was actually my boyfriend and I cheated on him.
Why do I give a damn if he saw me and Deidara together?
Why can't I just get to sleep?
She frowned, pulling one of her pillows down into a hug, opening her eyes to look out at the open window. She saw the flickering lights in the village below. She felt a cold spot on the bed next to her, and she realized why she couldn't sleep, no matter how tired she was.
She was still alone.
It was true she had her friends: Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara. But that was all she had. And sometimes, sometimes she wanted more. Someone to wake up to in the morning. Deidara had offered once, and she had seen how that turned out. How could she do that to him?
She'd merely hurt him again, like she had before. He was like a brother to her and she couldn't lead him on, not when she couldn't get over the strange, enticing allure of Uchiha Itachi.
She couldn't get him off of her mind.
She gave a small sigh as she scrunched her eyes shut, hugging the pillow tightly to her chest. How wonderful would it be, to wake up to Uchiha Itachi holding her in his arms?
She wondered if she'd ever know.
(A/N: A little short. The next chapter will be MUCH more interesting. After all, Itachi's coming back. And some Tomokazu-y goodness…I don't think there's such a thing. Well, he's going to find out Naoyo's dead. That'll be an interesting little section to write. I'll have fun.
So, nothing really exciting in the chapter you just read. It's just kind of there. I hope the next one is better and makes everybody happy!
The next one? Well, hehehe…the big fight between Itachi and Deidara has arrived! Woohoo!
Guess what? Since it was suggested to me and I thought it would be a good idea, I'm going to write two chapters for Valentine's Day. And maybe…a little love scene? A smidgen of romance between Sakura and Itachi? The perfect V-Day present, ne?
Well, I hope everyone enjoys.
P.S. I have two things I need to get cleared up: #1:
Um…I wanted to say sorry when I didn't put translations for some of the Japanese sayings I put in my story. I'm learning a little Japanese (and hopefully much more from my grandfather (who speaks it almost fluently)) so I guess I figured everyone knew. Guess that's my fault. Sorry! Um, Itadakimasu was the only one I think was in there. It pretty much means: let's eat, or something close to that. You use it before eating. That's probably not the direct translation, so don't hurt me!
#2: All right, I'm just going to say it straight out. Two of my reviewers have been on…opposite sides of the spectrum so to speak. I know I can't please everyone and I'm not really trying to. I'm sorry if some of the actions I have made my characters take are unsatisfactory, but that's my decision. –Sigh- and also, just to clear it up in case this will help between the two of you: Itachi is NOT going to just go and sleep with another girl to get back at Sakura. That would be OOC for him, because he would just pretend that Sakura didn't mean anything to him, and pretend that it doesn't matter. So I hope that clears up a few things.
I understand if sometimes a person's comments come out a bit 'flamey', and truth is I just don't let it bother me. Ok, now that we've got all of that out…I just want you to know that I do not take offense to anything said here between either of you and I hope you can work this out. I would love it if you would both continue reading and see how this story progresses, because it really will get better. And trust me, there will be more Itachi and Sakura because this IS an Itachi and Sakura fic.
One of Life's many Questions: How do the skittle company people know what a rainbow tastes like?
(a personal question I have been wanting to know the answer to my entire life! How do they do it!?!?!)
Heh. Until next time,
Your humble writer, Lady Hanaka)
