Title: Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond
Fandom: Naruto
Type: Multi-chaptered
Rating: Pg-13
Pairings: Deidara/Sakura
Word count: 4,429
Summary: Naruto had been bragging all day that his new jutsu was his best yet. Sakura and her new situation beg to differ. Post time-skip. DeiSaku.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Sorry for the delay - real life kept me busy.


As soon as her mind wrapped itself around the fact that, yes, she was indeed in excruciating pain, the next thing Sakura noticed when she awoke was that she had absolutely no idea where she was.

The room was plain, with ordinary white walls and wooden furniture, and Sakura was lying in a double bed with a quilt thrown over her. Folded messily by her feet were a plain black sweater and a pair of dark pants. Blinking groggily as she absorbed more of her surroundings, she managed the strength to move her arm and her fingers felt along the bandages covering her stomach and chest.

A sharp pain along her abdomen made her wince. "Ouch!"

As the sound of her scratchy voice faded into the silence of the room, it occurred to her that she was well and truly alone. Her attempts at getting a better look around the room to confirm this were foiled by the pain that made her unable to sit up. Taking a deep breath to gather her concentration, Sakura channeled an experimental bit of chakra down into her wounds. When even that small exertion made her nauseous, she resigned herself to some more bed rest.

With nothing else to do but let her thoughts wander, Sakura wondered what had happened to land her in this situation. Forcing herself to concentrate through the beginnings of a headache, she tried to recall the events of the previous night. She'd been in some serious trouble with those ninja while trying to escape the castle, and then… Sakura frowned. From what she could remember, Deidara had -- Don't say 'saved', yelled Inner Sakura, you have your pride! -- come back to help her out. The rest of her memories were hazy and filled with gaps, but even having lost a good deal of blood she still managed a profound blush of embarrassment at the thought of him divesting her of her shirt. After that…

Cringing, she vaguely recalled a memory of her fist connecting with his face. And then…

Oh dear, she had said that, hadn't she?

That explained why she was alone, at least. It was slightly surprising that he hadn't killed her or left her for dead in a ditch after what she'd pulled, but Sakura wasn't complaining.

Moving her arm gently away from her injuries to rest beside her, Sakura considered what her next actions should be. For now, she had no choice but to rest. Once she managed to regain enough strength to heal herself, she'd have to leave quickly. It was likely she was still somewhere in the same city as the castle, and undoubtedly the local lord had everyone under his command looking for her. Thinking this over, it occurred to Sakura that Deidara had probably left her alive as bait or a distraction for the local authorities. Depressingly, that thought made a lot more sense than her other explanation that he'd just been feeling charitable.

Once she was reasonably well healed, she'd have to take off quickly. Get into another town. Find out where she was. Make her way home.

Alone.

The thought of that sent a twinge of unexpected sadness through her, much to her surprise. It's not like she'd miss the jerk. While Deidara had helped her out of a few binds, he'd also consistently tried to leave her behind. He accused her of being weak, even though she'd proven her strength and abilities more times than necessary. Probably his worst trait was how he seemed to have a natural ability to always say the most annoying or irritating things in any situation. Anything out of his mouth could be guaranteed to piss her off.

In that respect, he did kind of remind her of Naruto or Sai. It was alright when they said something out of line though, she reflected, because they were friends and teammates. A quick fist to the jaw usually fixed whatever their problem was too. Deidara though… Sakura still wasn't quite sure what to qualify their relationship as. Physical fighting with him was out of the question too, but she never felt compelled to restrain any verbal responses. It was, in a way, refreshing to not have to hide her anger or true thoughts behind that studious and demure attitude she'd cultivated for years in Konoha. She didn't have to contain her inner self around him, didn't have to play the good girl. Bantering with him had been the most fun she'd had throughout this whole nightmare. Aside from all that, it was also undeniable that it would be weird traveling alone. Sakura had a feeling that had she been blown away to who-knows-where all on her own, with no one to talk to and not being able to think comfortingly "At least I'm not the only one", she probably would have gone absolutely insane. When she thought of traveling all by herself, with no one to throw sarcastic or teasing comments at, it just seemed so… Lonely.

She squeezed her eyes shut. So maybe sometimes it had been nice to have him around, but either way it was clear that he had a ton of negative qualities. And to top it all off, he had those creepy hand mouths. Yes, good riddance!

Sakura reopened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling for a minute, with just enough energy to chew absent-mindedly on her lip.

Okay, so maybe if she was going to be perfectly honest with herself, she had to admit that she was going to miss hi--

The door of the room creaked open on squeaky hinges, interrupting her thoughts.

Swearing mentally, Sakura pulled herself into a sitting position, her injuries straining and sending flashes of pain all over. In a panic, she looked wildly around the room for something to defend herself with. Goddammit, she thought, if he'd had to leave her all alone, he could've at least left her a weapon!

An annoyed drawl cut her panic short. "If you split your injuries back open I'm not helping you this time, yeah."

Freezing entirely, it took Sakura a moment to focus her eyes towards the door. Even with her vision blurring with pain, she recognized the blond hair, the blue eyes, and the familiar smirk. One side of his face was also covered in an impressively purple bruise. Despite her shocked state, Sakura realized it would be prudent to avoid the subject of how he'd acquired that.

Black spots edged their way into her vision and the room swam, her body unable to handle the strain of her previous movements. Using an arm to keep herself upright and gasping for breath, Sakura tried to force down the urge to pass out. A hand on her shoulder steadied her and helped lower her back onto bed.

"Careful," Deidara warned, "you've really banged yourself up." After placing her back on the bed he pulled up a chair and sat down. "You missed a good show back there, you know? Very nice explosions, if I do say so myself. And what's up with the medic getting injured, yeah? Aren't you supposed to be healing me?"

Only half-aware that she was staring with wide eyes and open mouth at him, Sakura tried to force her voice to work. "W-why…?" When the word came out rough and garbled, she cleared her throat and retried, "Why are you here?"

He frowned at her and she continued on hurriedly, her words tumbling out of their own volition, "It's not that I don't want you here! I really appreciate how much you've helped me out. It's just that you've always been looking for a way to go off on your own and leave me and this was the perfect chance but instead you stayed and helped and I just don't get it --"

Realizing that she was rambling, Sakura glanced away from him nervously. "Actually, never mind all that." She licked her parched lips, trying to find a topic to cover up her embarrassment. "Can I… Can I have some water?"

Still scowling at her, he wandered away for a moment, returning with a glass of water and setting it on the nightstand.

Sakura struggled to sit up enough to drink without making a complete fool of herself as Deidara slouched in the chair, arms crossed and appearing generally unconcerned with her troubles. When the pain from her wounds stabbed a little too sharp, Sakura swallowed her pride and asked grudgingly, "A little help here?"

He sneered. "Of course."

Bastard.

Deidara helped her sit up more gently than she'd been expecting and handed her the glass. When it wobbled in her hand and splashed water onto the quilt, he snickered and mumbled something that Sakura swore had the word 'invalid' in it, before taking the glass from her and holding it up to her lips. Sakura narrowed her eyes and glared at him from over the rim of the glass as she drank.

When the water was gone and he'd set the glass back down, Sakura gathered her courage for something she knew she had to do. He did deserve it, at least. "Thank you."

Surprisingly, the words weren't as hard to say as she'd expected.

At that moment, Sakura was glad that Deidara was the sort of person who could never hide what he was feeling; his face went through an interesting contortion of vague unease, surprise, and embarrassment before he tried to cover it up with a: "Just don't expect me to spoon feed you or anything."

She made a face at him but continued anyways. "No, I mean 'thank you' is what I should have said before. You know, for-" She paused momentarily, "- for saving me."

"That probably would have been a lot nicer than getting punched in the face, yeah."

Sakura felt her face flush. Hands twisting the quilt into knots nervously and reluctant to continue on that topic, she changed the subject. "So… How did you find this place?"

"The owner doesn't need it anymore." From the tone of finality in his voice, Sakura suddenly found that she didn't want to know exactly why that was the case.

"I see." Trying to think about anything other than the unfortunate fate of the apartment's previous owner, Sakura asked, "How long have I been out?"

"Just one day." He rubbed his eyes with the back of a hand wearily. This action prompted the medic part of Sakura to look at him carefully. For the first time since waking up, she noticed that he was much more pale and drawn than usual.

"Hey, are you alright?"

He shrugged and hesitated before answering, "Mostly. It's just, you know how you said that some of that poison might be left over and could cause some small problems?" She nodded. "Well, I don't think you got it all out, yeah."

Sakura squashed down the nagging suspicion that the remaining poison was probably one of the key factors in his decision to keep her alive. She figured he'd done enough for her to start giving him some credit at least. "I should take a look just to be sure you'll be alright."

He shook his head and replied, "It's nothing. Like you said before, it'll pass on its own, yeah? Save your chakra to heal yourself so we can get out of here as soon as possible."

"Just let me take a quick look." Ignoring the pain in her side, she reached over to grab one of his hands before he could protest.

Pushing down the sensation of dizziness that hit her, Sakura closed her eyes and directed her chakra towards him. Examining him was difficult with her concentration occasionally broken by waves of pain and nausea, but gradually she tracked down the few remaining particles of the poison were left. She was only able to draw out a small amount before she was overtaken with dizziness and fell back to slump against the headboard.

Swearing under his breath, Deidara helped maneuver Sakura back onto the bed. "Hey, be careful! I told you I'd be fine. But if you end dying or something dumb like that I'm going to be really pissed after all the work I did to patch you up, yeah. You need to get some more sleep."

When her eyes could focus properly again, Sakura looked up at him. The usual annoyance on his face was mixed with concern, which she knew was an emotion he'd never admit to having. Upon seeing his expression, Sakura couldn't help but break out into a huge smile. It couldn't just be her who found the idea of traveling without the other just slightly depressing, she realized with relief -- otherwise she was quite sure he would've glared at her in disdain, said "You are way too troublesome, yeah," and left her to deal with her injuries herself.

Deidara looked perplexed as Sakura grinned like an idiot at him. "Um, you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, still smiling, before glancing at the purple and blue marks covering one side of his face and adding, "I'll heal that bruise in the morning once more of my chakra comes back."

"You'd better." Attributing it to either her recent revelation or the imagination of her weary mind, Sakura thought that his voice didn't sound as angry or menacing as she would have expected. Instead, he just seemed tired.

Confirming her thoughts, Deidara yawned, walked over to the other side of the room to turn off the lights, and then flopped down onto the bed. "I've got explosives placed, so no one's getting in here alive, or at least not without us noticing. It'll be safe to sleep."

With that, he kicked off his sandals, stripped off his shirt, and slid under the covers. Sakura's mind protested weakly for a moment about issues of propriety before she shushed it. If he'd wanted to try anything he'd had plenty of opportunities before. She felt a blush flare up again as she remembered that he'd been the one to bandage her. Her feelings of embarrassment weren't helped when she realized that her chest bindings would have had to have been removed too. However, even though he was Akatsuki, Sakura's slowly changing view of Deidara as a person no longer fit with the idea of him being one to take advantage of injured females; not because of any shining code of morals, but because he had far too much pride.

It was strange, she thought, how he was becoming more human to her. As all ninja knew, overcoming life-and-death situations was bound to form some sort of bond, but she'd never thought about how it could change the interaction of enemies. She knew she would still have to be careful and stay on her guard, but for now there was an unspoken truce between them. Besides, the more time she spent around him, the less she thought of him as just an Akatsuki thug. It was strange to discover that he had a personality and little quirks like anyone else. She knew there was a difference between being 'nice' and being 'good', so her weary mind supposed it could accept a difference between 'Deidara is a jerk' and 'plain out evil' as well.

A voice broke through the silence in the darkened room, effectively crushing her thoughts. "You don't do anything annoying like get night terrors, yeah?"

"Will you shut up?"


Her sleep was interrupted a few times that night when she rolled over a little too far and her body sent shocks of pain to remind her of its condition. Each time she awoke, she channeled small portions of chakra into her wounds and felt her body slowly mending itself back together.

After drifting in and out of wisps of dreams, Sakura awoke once again. This time, she found that she'd rolled up against something warm. She also had a face-full of hair.

A mocking voice identified what she'd ended up against. "A few nights ago weren't you telling me not to try anything, yeah? If you weren't incapable of sitting up without passing out, I'd be afraid for my virtue."

"Sorry, sorry," she mumbled, still half-asleep, and wriggled back over to her side of the bed.

Concentrating on not falling immediately back to sleep, she placed a hand against her abdomen, but paused just before sending chakra to heal herself. Turning her head towards Deidara, she whispered, "Are you still awake?"

"No, I'm not. Shut up."

Sakura smirked at how irritable he was when tired, but continued, "I think I have enough chakra now to heal that bruise. I can give it a shot if you'd like."

The bed shifted as he turned to face her. "What the hell are you telling me that for at this time of the night, yeah? It can't wait until morning?"

She had to admit he had a point, however: "If I'm wrong and I don't have enough chakra, it can't do me any harm to pass out when I'm already lying down, right?"

With her eyes adjusting gradually to the light, she could see Deidara consider this for a moment before replying, "Okay. Give it a shot."

Trying not to wince as she turned to face him and slid closer, Sakura reached out one hand and placed it against the side of his face. The blue glow of the chakra illuminated them softly in the dark and she could see Deidara close his eyes against it. When she'd finished, Sakura moved closer to him and squinted through the dark at the area previously covered by the bruise. "Looks like it's all healed."

Running a hand over his cheek, she was glad to feel that it wasn't swollen anymore either. Beside her, she felt Deidara tense and she realized suddenly how close they were. Despite her body's vote for staying close beside him because he was comfortably warm, Sakura quickly shuffled back over to the other side of the bed and hoped that the darkness hid her blush.

"Right. Thanks, yeah." His voice sounded a little edgy, but Sakura was sure that was only because he was tired.

Pulling the covers up around her shoulders to guard against the chilly night, Sakura tried to sleep. This was made impossible by her heart beating oddly fast and unwanted thoughts that rushed through her head. She closed her eyes tightly in the vain hope of fending them off. This was to no avail, so she picked one that was particularly persistent and turned it over and over in her mind.

Curiosity getting the best of her, Sakura rolled carefully onto her side again and asked quietly, "Deidara?"

A frustrated groan and a voice mumbled against a pillow responded to her. "What do you want now?"

In the anonymity of the dark, it seemed easier to voice her thoughts. "Why did you join Akatsuki?"

"What?" he asked incredulously, not sure he'd heard her right.

This was treading dangerous waters, but with both of them obscured in the night, she could almost pretend she wasn't asking him at all. "Why did you join?"

A pause. "What brought that up, yeah?"

What, indeed? Sakura tried to sort through her thoughts, with little success. Unable to untangle everything going through her mind, she dove straight in. "It's just… Akatsuki are evil, they're what we've been fighting against for years. And everyone I've met or heard about who's in the organization is a real piece of work." She pulled the blankets up closer around her shoulders as her mind conjured images of Itachi and Sasori; children killing parents. "They would never be able to fit in anywhere. But with you… It doesn't seem completely impossible that you'd be able to live in a hidden village. Sure you can be a real bastard, like to blow things up more than is mentally healthy, and your 'morals' are on the sketchy side, but sometimes you seem almost normal."

"Oh thanks."

Ignoring his comment, she continued, the words coming on their own, "What I mean is, the more time I spend around you, the less you seem to be like the other Akatsuki. You're weird, yes, and those hand-mouths creep me out so bad," -- she felt him shift slightly beside her and suspected she'd touched on part of the problem, "but you don't seem to be full out evil for evil's sake, or whatever it is the other members are. So I guess I just don't understand; what happened to make you join Akatsuki?"

"…I'm not like those pansies back in Konoha, yeah. I don't do that 'talking about your feelings and past' crap." Sakura could just barely make out his blue eyes looking directly at her as he hesitated before continuing, in a less sharp tone than before, "Besides, since it looks like we're going to keep traveling together for a bit more, it would probably be best if you didn't know."

Although her curiosity was even more piqued, Sakura sighed. It didn't seem like she was going to get anything out of him. "It was that bad?"

As her eyes adjusted to the night, she could see him shrug. "It was bad enough. Let's just say that at the time, joining up seemed like the only option."

"Ah, the whole 'young and stupid' thing, right?"

Sakura imagined that if she could see his expression properly, it would almost pass as embarrassed. That was probably just her wishful thinking though. "Maybe a little something like that, yeah."

Corners of her mouth tugging into a grin, she pushed her luck. "So you joined up pretty recently?"

In response, Deidara pulled the pillow out from under his head and hit her with it.

While most of the blow glanced harmlessly off her shoulder, the pillow also struck along her ribs, close to one of her injuries. Eyes wide in surprise, Sakura sucked in a breath sharply from the sudden pain. "Ow!"

With a string of curses, Deidara moved closer to her, helping her shift to lie on her back. Hands already sending chakra over the wound, she shot him a glare and ground out between clenched teeth, "See what I mean about you being a jerk?"

Running a hand through his hair in an almost nervous gesture, he said, "I forgot! You okay?" She nodded. As he settled back onto the bed, not bothering to move away from her, his face shifted into a grin that she knew meant trouble. "Cause if you got taken out by a pillow after all we've been through, you'd be really lame, yeah."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at that, but the movement made her wince. Although Deidara tried to appear unconcerned, she caught him glancing over at her, his eyebrows creasing slightly. "I'll be fine," she reassured him, grinning at his poor attempts to conceal his worry. "I've already healed the worst, and by morning I should be able to fix up the rest. A pillow's not going to kill me. Besides, you think I'd let you take me down?"

Apparently satisfied with her answer, Deidara relaxed back onto the pillows, making himself comfortable. "Hmph, someone's overconfident."

"It's not overconfidence if it's true," she mumbled, barely audible, as she closed her eyes.

The room fell into silence, and Sakura enjoyed the feeling of being drowsy and warm beneath the covers. It did, however, strike her as odd that she felt completely safe sleeping next to an enemy. Former enemy, she reminded herself. If they didn't have a truce now, they never would. Mentally listing off weapons and techniques, she tried to lull herself to sleep.

"Sakura?"

For a moment she thought she'd dreamt that Deidara had spoken. It wasn't often that he said her name, much less anything that didn't sound at least a little bit mocking. She was surprised, but in her half-asleep state she could answer with nothing more than an articulate: "Hmm?"

"Do you really want to know, yeah?"

As she reopened her eyes, it took her a moment to realize what he was talking about: Did she really want to know why he'd joined Akatsuki?

Turning her head to look at him, she opened her mouth to say 'yes', but stopped short. She looked him straight in the eyes, seeing hints of the bright blue through the dark. For once there was no sign of a smirk in his features. The way he was now, he didn't seem threatening at all. She could almost forget all of the things he'd done in the past, as if they'd been committed by someone else entirely. It was difficult to equate the Deidara who'd kidnapped the Kazekage with the Deidara who she'd bantered with non-stop since the beginning of this whole adventure.

She tried to imagine herself being stuck with any of the other Akatsuki members. The first to come to mind was Itachi. Putting aside the fact that he would have killed her right from the start, she would never have been able to stay near him, much less give him the slightest amount of trust. If what Deidara had done in his past was anywhere near as horrifying, she wasn't sure they'd be able to continue as they had. Sakura began to understand that he'd been right in not wanting to tell her. Just for now, she told herself, just for now you can let yourself pretend that everything is alright. It was for the best; she needed some peace of mind to get her through this journey home. He could tell her when they got back to Konoha, went their separate ways, and went back to trying to kill each other. For now she needed -- wanted, corrected her cruelly truthful inner voice -- to believe that he had joined the organization out of a mistake. That he was exactly as she'd come to see him: not good, but far from the usual cloaked monsters she associated Akatsuki with. That, when it came down to it, they were both just ordinary people. That they could get through this, if they worked together.

That maybe you don't want to see him as you used to, whispered that traitorous little voice in her head.

"No," Sakura replied slowly, still holding Deidara's gaze, her voice soft. "No, I don't want to know. Forget I said anything."

He smiled wearily before closing his eyes. "Go back to sleep. You need it."

Her retort of "So do you" was cut short as she drifted off to sleep as well.