To people who bother to read my ramblings: As usual, thanks to everyone who reviewed, your reviews keep me going! And my mom got me some meds (Yay, antibiotics to the rescue) and I am back on the scene dudes. So, without further ado, here is the seventh chapter of BOB. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Who'd want Karin and Sasuke anyway? But I do want Dei-Dei-chan, and Ita-kun and Saku-chan, and Hida-chan (lol that sounds weird) and Saso-kun and Tobi (the lovable idiot, not the uber-bastard he is now) and Naru-Naru and Shika-kun and Neji and Kiba-kun and Akamaru and more! And as much as I'd like to own Dean, I don't own Supernatural either.
Note to Unraveling Eudemonia: Sorry, I couldn't include Hidan in this chapter but he will definitely be there in the next one!
Chapter 07
Sakura sat up groggily in her bed, clutching her head with her hands; she had a mild headache.
In confusion, she glanced around her room. She didn't remember coming here at all. And then it all came crashing back to her; the party, Sasuke (she winced at that particular memory) and Deidara, astonishingly, bringing her back home.
"I wonder why he did that", she thought in bewilderment. Deidara wasn't exactly what you would call a nice guy. Actually, calling him a nice guy would be like calling Ino a tomboy. She pushed that thought aside. She had concerns that were more pressing now, case in point, Sasuke. Deidara's unexpected nicety could be pondered upon later.
The feeling of hurt from the night before came back to her and she flinched. Sasuke had been bizarrely cold towards her last night. She then remembered the look in Itachi's eyes and his tone when he had spoken to Sasuke. She wondered what had happened between them to make Sasuke hate his brother, who seemed every bit a good person, so much. Sasuke's smirk came into her mind and she actually shivered, clutching her comforter closer to herself. That smirk had been eerie and frigid and Sakura had no desire to be on the receiving end of it ever again.
With a sigh, she launched herself off her bed and reluctantly walked to her bathroom, dragging her feet behind her.
She still had to face Sasuke at school and not to mention at rehearsal, and it was a prospect that Sakura was not looking forward too.
"God help me", she muttered as got in the shower, the warm water doing nothing to soothe her anxiety. She would just have to grit her teeth and bear with it.
Sakura shuffled into the computer lab, IT with Anko being her first period that day and to her chagrin, she had it with Sasuke.
Sasuke's seat was right next to her in computer class, something to do with their names both starting with "SA" (the seating plan was according to alphabetical order). She sat down hesitantly and glanced at Sasuke, wanting to apologize for snapping at him the other night but the Uchiha ignored her. He didn't even look her way once and his eyes were glued to his screen, his usual indifferent look marring his handsome features.
With another self-pitying sigh, Sakura turned back to her own screen and began to type out the HTML codes Anko had given them. Seriously, sometimes Anko treated them as if they were kids.
"But I guess I have better things to worry about than Anko treating us like kids", Sakura thought despondently as she allowed herself a surreptitious glance of Sasuke. The raven haired teen was still concentrating on his work. He hadn't spoken to her once.
Gathering her courage, she turned to him. It wouldn't do to chicken out. She was Haruno Sakura and she never, ever chickened out.
"Sasuke, I'm sorry I yelled at you. It was stupid of me since I didn't actually understand the situation. So, once again, I am sorry", she spoke slowly, tentatively. The Uchiha barely looked at her. Instead, focusing on his computer screen, he spoke in a mordant tone.
"You're still annoying".
This ignoring act of Sasuke's continued until the end of their last period. By then, all of the guilt Sakura had been feeling were gone, not a trace to be left. No, now she was angry. Angry that Sasuke was the one ignoring her. She should have been the one doing the snubbing. Sure, she was the one who had yelled at him first but she had apologized, sincerely at that, but the jerk had just disregarded her.
It was Kakashi's period and being the awesome person he was, he had declared the rest of the period free and disappeared out of the class, probably to read his perverted book.
Her petite body shaking with adrenaline, Sakura walked over to Sasuke's table. Unlike the rest of the classes, the English class had long rows of tables instead of individual ones for each student. The one Sakura walked to was currently occupied by Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata. The rest of the students watched in fear as she approached the Uchiha's seat with a murderous aura around her. Think of a happy place, children. Think of a happy place.
She walked straight up to Sasuke but he continued reading his book, as if she wasn't there at all. "Well, I'll make him see me", Sakura thought wrathfully and slammed her hands down on the table. Her friends gasped and Naruto almost fell over on Hinata, whom he had been talking with but Sasuke merely glanced at her, apathy in his dark grey eyes.
"What?" he asked silkily, making Sakura want to bash him one on the head for being such a smart ass.
"I'll tell you what, Uchiha. You have been ignoring me this whole frigging day and I want to know why" she was practically bursting now.
Sasuke simply raised an inky eyebrow at her.
"Haven't I already made it clear that it is because you are annoying?" he spoke cuttingly and Sakura's viridian eyes narrowed dangerously. Naruto and Hinata watched in disquiet. Sakura and Sasuke never fought. They bickered, yes, but they never fought like this.
"Seriously, I am sick of hearing that word coming out of your mouth every second. Haven't you any other adjective in your brain? I'd like to tell you exactly who here is annoying. You are. I flipping apologized to you but you just sat there like a complete bastard. I'd call that annoying", Sakura accused, all in one breath.
Now it was Sasuke's turn to narrow his eyes. He stood up, put his book into his bag, slung it over his shoulder and with one last icy glare at Sakura, walked away from the classroom.
Sakura glared callously at his retreating back.
"Drama queen".
Naruto played on his drum set extremely awkwardly. They were rehearsing at Sasuke's place and the tension between him and Sakura was so freaking thick that it could be cut with a blunt butter knife.
The two teens glared at each other at every chance they got and it was all Naruto could do to keep himself from yelling out in frustration. Even Neji was at the point of bursting but he contained himself, being the stoic person he was.
It was the last straw for the uncomfortable blonde when Sasuke's mood got so worse and he poured so much antagonism into the lyrics that he actually slurred over them, making the words practically unintelligible.
Naruto stopped drumming and dropped his drum sticks onto the floor, the clanging sound echoing all over the garage.
"Would you two stop acting like kids and just freaking apologize?" he burst out, unable to contain himself anymore. The other three stopped playing and all stared at him, Neji with an exasperated though relieved face, Sakura and Sasuke with terrifyingly indistinguishable scowls on their faces, but Naruto didn't back down.
"You call me the idiot but anyone could tell now, looking at how stupid you two are being, who the idiots were, so seriously, would you two stop with the whole pride issue and go back to being friends so we could just rehearse already", the blonde finished, a determined look on his usually humorous face.
Sasuke and Sakura's glares didn't diminish; instead, they worsened though now, they were directed at each other and not Naruto. Neji looked at the blonde in surprise. It was the first time he had heard Naruto sounding so mature and it was a refreshing change but neither Sakura nor Sasuke looked like they would reconcile.
"Argh", Naruto raised his arms in silent pleading and jumped off his seat.
"That's it. Rehearsal is done for today, I'm leaving", the frustrated blonde cried, grabbed his bag and made way to the garage door. Before going outside, he turned to Neji with a raised eyebrow.
"You coming?" he asked expectantly.
With a sigh, Neji thrust his bass guitar into its case, slung it over his shoulder and walked over to stand with Naruto. The door opened by itself and Sakura and Sasuke watched with disbelief etched on their faces as the two teens left the garage, Neji with a polite goodbye and Naruto, for once in his life, saying nothing.
Sakura stared after the two teens in astonishment. She had never heard Naruto sounding so grown up before and now that she thought about it, he was right. They were being incredibly childish and it was not only affecting them, but Naruto and Neji too, not to mention their performance as a band, she could see it now and it embarrassed her.
In silence, she removed her guitar from around her neck and placed it back in its case.
Then, unexpectedly, Sasuke spoke to her.
"They're right", he said, so quietly that Sakura wouldn't have heard if she hadn't been paying attention. With a shamed look, she turned to him and mumbled her agreement.
"This is so humiliating", she thought.
"So", she dragged out in the tension-thick silence. Sasuke just looked at her objectively. She groaned internally. Did he have to make this harder for her than it already was?
Taking a deep breath and painfully casting her pride aside, she spoke.
"I'm sorry, okay? If you can't accept that, well, I don't know but you should know that I am sorry", she said through painstakingly gritted teeth.
At first, Sasuke simply stared her and it was all Sakura could do to keep herself from lashing out at him. Couldn't he just accept her apology and get it over with already? Or did her want her to beg on her knees? She wasn't even the one that needed to apologize.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was mulling over on whether to forgive her. He hadn't actually meant to snap at her like that the night before; it had just escaped him since he was enraged that Itachi of all people was there. The blonde and Sakura's cousin, he could deal with, but his brother was another story. But Sakura… Well, she was important to him and he couldn't risk losing her over his brother. So, he decided to swallow his pride and just get it done with.
Just when her patience was running thin and she was contemplating storming out of the garage, Sasuke spoke softly.
"I'm sorry too", she knew how hard it was for him to apologize and so, didn't give him any grief about it.
A relieved grin graced her lips and she turned back to Sasuke, her pink locks flying prettily around her. To her surprise, he was actually red in the face!
Yes, Uchiha Sasuke was blushing. And he was not proud of it.
"Damn Sakura", he thought, half-irritably and half-relieved.
She always knew how to get her way.
Sasori parked in the driveway of the apartment he and Deidara shared and exited his car, carrying a few bags of groceries and whatnot they would need for the time being. Balancing the bags on one hand, he used the other to open the door of the apartment.
If he were any other person, Sasori would have been surprised at the scene that greeted him in the lounge of the apartment. But since he was Sasori, he just proceeded to calmly set the groceries on the kitchen table and walked to the living room where Deidara was working on one of his 'projects'.
"Deidara", he spoke mellifluously.
The blonde didn't even seem to hear him. He was busy using a small mason's spade to shape his clay sculpture. Sasori could faintly distinguish the form of a bird as Deidara went on molding his newest creation. He was the very picture of concentration; expression tight and blue eyes determined, sitting on the carpeted floor with his creation, clay smearing his whole body.
"Deidara", Sasori spoke again, this time a little louder but the blonde still didn't notice him. Instead, he stopped his molding, observed the bird with the keen eye of an artist and then, as if deeming the creation unsatisfactory, erased a bit of it and started again.
"Deidara!" Sasori's left eyebrow twitched and finally, the blonde glanced up, slanted blue eyes irritated.
"What, yeah?" Deidara glared, accidently messing up one of the wings of his birds. Great, now he had to start over.
"Happy, yeah?" he was irritated but Sasori took no note of it. He had dealt with Deidara when he was in worse moods.
"It's your turn to prepare dinner", Sasori said with a smirk and Deidara's irritation worsened. Had he disturbed him just for that?
"Oh, and make it a large one, the others are coming over at eight for rehearsal", Sasori added smugly as Deidara grudgingly stood up and headed towards the kitchen.
Muttering curse words under his breath, Deidara grabbed pots and pans off the cupboards. What the hell was Sasori thinking, leaving all of this to him? The only things he could make were scrambled eggs and toast. Over the din he was making with the cooking utensils, he heard Sasori saying that he had an appointment and the front door slamming shut.
Sasori, that bastard. He had done this on purpose. He knew that Deidara couldn't cook to save his life. It was five o'clock now. How the heck was he supposed to make such a large dinner in such a small window of time? Knowing Hidan's appetite, the food would be gone before he could say "cherry".
Wait… That was it! She was a girl; she'd know how to handle this.
Hoping to God that it would work, he dialed Sakura's number.
"Pick up, cherry yeah"
Sakura munched cheerfully on her fries as she watched a re-run of Supernatural. Her mom was at work and the whole house was hers for the day and with the added bonus of reconciling with Sasuke, she felt awesome.
"Bitch", Dean was saying on the TV. Ah, how she loved Dean.
"What're you calling me a bitch for?" Sam looks at Dean in perplexity.
"You're supposed to say jerk", Dean retorts as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What?" Sam asks in surprise.
"Never mind".
Sakura continued blissfully watching her favorite TV show until her phone rang. "Pink" by Aerosmith was playing and Sakura wondered what Deidara could want from her at a time like this.
"Hey~ Dei-Dei, what's up?" she answered in a nauseatingly buoyant tone.
Deidara's electric tone of voice was heard from the other line. "Quit being so freaking bubbly, yeah", he grumbled an she could almost feel him rolling those stunning though slightly slanted aqua eyes of his.
Rolling her eyes, she retorted. "You quit being so touchy, yeah", she imitated his intense voice. Deidara barely stopped himself from snapping at her. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he needed her, her reminded himself.
"Look cherry, yeah. I need your help", it took every ounce of energy he had in his nerves to get those simple, though extremely meaningful words across to her. For a few minutes, the other line was silent and Deidara wondered whether she had fainted from shock. It wouldn't be that much of a surprise.
"Oy, you there, yeah?" he questioned. Maybe he should just order some take-out or something.
"Let me get this straight. You need my help?" she echoed disbelievingly. Since when did Deidara-the-arrogant-he-she need her help?
Deidara smirked, even though he was embarrassed. "I seem to recall someone giving you a ride last night, yeah. You owe me, cherry".
Sakura groaned and mumbled something along the lines of "I knew that accepting his offer would be a bad idea" and Deidara grinned.
"Fine, but just because I don't like owing people okay?" she acquiesced at last and could have sworn she could see Deidara's smirk through the phone.
"Whatever you say cherry, yeah. The apartment in five."
Deidara cursed internally. Bringing cherry here had been a huge, huge mistake.
Watching her struggle with the pork, he understood that she was an even worse cook than he was.
"You suck at cooking, yeah", he deadpanned as Sakura almost knocked the pan with the rice off of the counter. The pink haired teen glared at him.
"You're one to talk", she rejoined, eyeing the sauce he was trying to make. It was a sickening green colored gunk.
It was a huge understatement to say that when Deidara had asked her for a favor, she hadn't envisioned herself cooking dinner for one of the most successful teen bands in the country, alongside with its extremely handsome vocalist in his and her cousin's apartment. And to say that Deidara didn't look hot, even with flour and something else she couldn't identify all over his body, would be the biggest lie she would ever utter.
"Okay", he grunted, having had enough of this horse play. "So this is obviously not working, so what do you propose we do, yeah?" he asked, using a ladle to scoop up some of the sauce he had been making only to see a vile goop of some kind.
"Take-out?" Sakura suggested helplessly. She too had had enough.
Deidara shook his head thoughtfully. "Sasori would know, yeah", was all he said in answer to her suggestion.
"Then what do you propose we do?"
Just then, something exploded deafeningly and Sakura shrieked and latched herself onto the nearest object to her, which, needless to say, was Deidara.
Deidara's strong arms came around her in reflex and she blushed. What was it with her and Deidara holding onto each other every time they met? A white haze surrounded them, making them both cough and then, finally, they let go of each other, Sakura blushing as pink as her hair and Deidara with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
"Can't get enough of me, can you, yeah?" and Sakura blushed scarlet. The egoistic bastard. She glared at him through coughs, though he couldn't see it because of the smoke.
In course of time, the smoke cleared to show that they had used the wrong kind of pan for the rice and it had exploded because of not being able to handle the heat. The walls were splattered with bits of rice as were the floor, Sakura, and Deidara themselves.
"Sasori's going to kill us", was what Sakura said.
Deidara glowered, shaking out bits of rice from his hair. "It's my apartment, yeah", he said smugly but his grin faded when he took in the state of the kitchen. He would have to clean this up later.
"So, take-out?" Sakura put forward weakly.
"Take-out, yeah"
So, how was it? Please review and let me know!
Oh and there's a very important note on my profile, please check it out. And if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to run them by me. That being said, hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Love,
Alistair.
