Chapter 7: Incense
- your job, since I can't do it anymore and he raised his hand to punch Itachi in the shoulder but fell short, his black orbs glazed over and a pair of bloody red eyes watched that hand fall to the wet dirt like Lucifer from heaven -
He woke up suddenly.
A cold sweat had broken across his brow and his back ached, he had fallen asleep seated in front of a wooden writing table. He realized with a sense of self loathing and disappointment that he had, indeed, fallen asleep when he had resolved not to. Such dreams brought weakness and he could not afford to be weak.
His mind drifted aimlessly for a few minutes as he let his chakra guide disappear and the darkness consume him again. A memory unbidden surfaced in his thoughts.
- such a jerk! and a compact paper ball hit her perfectly in the back of the head. She stood up, green eyes blazing as she crumpled a page of her tedious mission report and threw it with all of her might at the Sharingan Master who dodged it easily and he nearly smiled-
No.
His chair shrieked across the wood as he stood up abruptly. He quickly changed but left his Akatsuki cloak draped on the back of the chair, striding out of the room with a sense of purpose. Kisame was the only one in the kitchen (thankfully) and Itachi spooned himself a bowl of the bland congee. Sitting down at the table, he could feel Kisame's heavy stare upon the back of his neck and he turned his head to face the shark man. He waited in silence for Kisame to speak.
"She was released this morning. Deidara went to see her," Kisame informed him.
There was a pause before Itachi inquired tonelessly, "Did no one go with him?"
"The Hokage said no more than one member with one Konoha ninja. Leader-sama said it was okay to leave Deidara on his own," Kisame answered, his brow furrowing.
Itachi repressed his surprise. Leader had normally kept such a tight leash on Deidara, going as far to drain his chakra on times and now he was letting him roam around with a mere genin of a kunoichi? His grip tightened around his spoon as he realized that this must have all been on his orders, not Leader's. He still couldn't work out where Deidara fit in with his plans and a nagging feeling in the back of his mind told him Deidara was a key piece in it.
"Do we have any missions?" Itachi asked again.
"No, but Deidara wrote up the mission report," Kisame chuckled.
Itachi was silent. Kisame took that as surprise and continued, "The kid's never written one before in his life. I kind of want to read what he wrote."
The Sharingan Master stood up and put his bowl of congee in the sink before disappearing wordlessly. He went into his bedroom and suddenly, a tickling sensation filled his chest. He swallowed, trying to force it down, but it bubbled up and scratched at the inside of his throat.
He coughed, bringing a hand to his mouth, and coughed again and again. It was as though somebody was squeezing his heart in their hand, as though his body was shattering into a thousand pieces, but he endured it not for the first time. He made his way over to the bed, still coughing, and when the coughs subsided, he glanced at his hand.
It was covered in blood.
"Why couldn't you just have left me alone? I wanted to rest today," I moaned tiredly.
The half smirk was back again and I wanted to smack it off. Deidara retorted, "Woman, you were getting fat sitting on your ass all the time in the hospital. I'm just taking you out for a walk, yeah."
"You make me sound like a dog or something," I growled at him.
"Well, you smell bad enough."
I hit him on the arm.
Then my hands remembered that they had just been burned by poison and searing pain shot through my body. I let out a quick yelp and hissed loudly in agony. Deidara was laughing his head off beside me at my stupidity.
"It's not funny!" I snapped at him.
He continued laughing and I noticed something odd. Only the right side of his face seemed to move and curve upwards, the left side seemed…dead. The bronze scope that usually covered it was only removed whenever he was alone with me, I had noticed, but I didn't bother to ask him why.
"Stop looking at me, yeah," he told me sharply.
Ignoring his harsh words, I observed, "The left side of your face is paralyzed."
He blinked in surprise and I guessed from his reaction I was correct. A surge of triumph rose within me, I was getting better at this diagnosing thing! Of course, if Tsunade ever found out she'd probably put me on clinic duty forever and that was never fun. We continued walking in silence and then I felt kind of guilty. Had I brought something bad up?
"Uh…sorry," I mumbled sheepishly.
He broke out of his daze and looked at me. He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and said, "Nah, it's alright. It was a stupid accident anyways."
"Stupid?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I was eleven and I set off a bomb, but then some bastard came and smashed me back into the explosion, yeah," he admitted.
"That's awful! You were eleven? Did you go to a medic? I'm sure they could have done something for you-"
"Argh, woman, shut up! It doesn't matter anymore," he snapped, his face red.
"Can I at least look at it? I might be able to do something," I pressed him.
"No. Stop bugging me, I shouldn't have told you anything, yeah," he grumbled.
I began to nag, "Come on, Ara, I'll only be two minutes!"
"I told you not to call me that and you can't do anything, I've already had it checked, okay? Now leave me alone," he snapped.
"You're a dick," I muttered.
A slightly awkward silence fell. Ichiraku came into my line of vision and I instinctively scanned the seats for a blonde, spiky head. A lump of disappointment built up in the back of my throat but I swallowed it before it could manifest.
"Is that the department store?" he asked, squinting his right eye.
"It is not a department store, does it look like one to you?"
He shrugged and went on ahead, sitting down at one of the wooden barstools. I sat down beside him and pulled out a pair of wooden chopsticks from the tightly packed porcelain cup, snapping them. I played with them idly, waiting for Deidara to make up his mind as he scrutinized the menu.
"What tastes good, yeah?" he questioned me.
"The Ebi prawn ramen isn't that bad, but the miso ramen is the best," I told him and the beautiful waitress came over to us.
"Sakura-chan, it's been a while. Who's this?" she greeted me with a smile.
I was so jealous of Ayame. She was the object of male ninja desire, but had turned down every single date offered to her. Out of the corner of my eye, I began to watch Deidara for a reaction like a hawk, feeling suddenly protective.
"This is Ara, he's my friend from Ame," I introduced him to her and he gave her one of his self confident half smirks, something that made my eyes narrow.
"Oh, welcome to Konoha then. There have been a lot of ninjas from Ame coming in recently, ne Sakura? Where's Naruto-chan?" she asked me, completely unaffected by Deidara's smirk. I inwardly threw myself a party at the dejected look on his face, then her words sunk in.
I pressed, "He hasn't been here?"
"No, not for the past couple of weeks. I thought it strange he hadn't come again in such a long time because I heard from Shikamaru-san that Hokage-sama stopped issuing missions," Ayame explained.
"I haven't seen him either," I added apologetically.
She hummed thoughtfully at the new information and then remembered that she was meant to be doing her job. "Oh, I'm sorry, what do you want to order?"
"One miso ramen," I told her and then looked at Deidara enquiringly.
"Same here, yeah," he said, drawing out his yeah in a very pathetic attempt to seduce Ayame. I had to fight to keep myself from laughing as a bemused expression flitted over her face and she left quickly.
"Well done Casanova. Yeeaaaah," I teased him.
"Woman, didn't I tell you earlier to shut up?" he growled at me.
In an extremely mature and age appropriate manner, I stuck my tongue out at him. At first, he pulled a disgusted face but then a strange light filled his sapphire eyes. He raised his hands so that his palms were facing me and stuck his tongue out. The two mouths on his hands opened and their tongues slithered out as well. I laughed at him and batted his hands away.
With a grin, I told him, "You're not cute, Ara."
"You're right, I'm gorgeous."
"…you did not just say that," I stared at him, dumbfounded.
He rolled his eyes and smacked my hand with his chopsticks smartly. Two bowls of steaming ramen were placed in front of us, thankfully before Deidara had a chance to say anything that sounded equally as gay. He began to eat his ramen (even though it was piping hot) and I looked at him with a thoughtful expression on my face.
I reached out a hand to touch the side of his face turned towards me, the left side. For a split second, his eyes darted to my outstretched hand but then returned to his food; a silent confirmation that I was allowed to touch him. I moulded chakra to my fingertips and began to try and determine how severe his paralysis was.
The nerves were all dead, beyond repair. The muscles were as stiff as rock and I tried soothing them as best as I could with chakra, but to no avail. There was no chance of healing his paralysis and I let my chakra fade from my fingertips, feeling terribly disappointed. I drew my hand away from his face again, picking up my chopsticks.
"You happy now?" he asked me.
I mumbled, "Yeah, I guess."
I took a large bite of my ramen, chewing on it with a small sulk on my face. It was frustrating finding something you couldn't heal, it was like trying to complete a Rubik's cube only to realize at the end of the day the damn thing had been broken from the start. I swallowed and my eyes shifted to the bowl Deidara had pushed forwards slightly. He was already finished.
"My God, you eat like Naruto," I commented in disgust.
He swallowed the mouthful of noodles in his mouth and said, "You just eat slowly. Hurry up woman, I'm getting bored watching you eat."
"Then don't watch me, you stalker. And you were the one who wanted to go to Ichiraku so-"
An uncannily familiar voice, a voice that hadn't been civil to me in four months reached my ears. "Sakura?"
I froze instantly and Deidara glanced at me curiously, noticing my sudden shock. Slowly, I swivelled around on my chair and faced Ino with a strange flip flopping sensation in my stomach.
What did you say in situations like these? I sure as hell didn't know, and I'd be damned if anybody did know. I inwardly began to rehearse the next thing I was going to say, 'Hi Ino, it's great to see you again and have I mentioned you like simply smashing?'
Of course, my carefully prepared speech fell to pieces the moment I opened my mouth.
"Hi…Ino…" I forced out tentatively.
Two chairs down, I heard Shikamaru sigh loudly as if I had just made a wrong move. He lit up a cigarette and mumbled, "Troublesome women…"
"You and I both, yeah," Deidara agreed with him. Instinctively, I smacked him on the shoulder and he simply picked up his glass of water, drinking from it as if nothing had happened.
"Sit down, Ino," Shikamaru called her over. She blinked, as if breaking out of a daze, and sat down on the seat beside him.
Underneath the counter, I began tugging at the fabric of Deidara's shirt as I hissed under my breath, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, if we don't go I'll punch your face in-"
"Miss, can I have another bowl of miso ramen please?" he called to Ayame, who nodded and brought over another bowl.
"Ara, let's go," I growled at him, low enough for only him to hear.
He raised his voice loud enough for the people on the other side of the street to hear him, "But Sakura, I just ordered my ramen. It would be a waste of money if we left now, yeah."
I could have slammed my head against the table.
Shikamaru appeared to be suppressing a grin around his cigarette and Ino looked thoroughly annoyed. Things were simply going from bad to worse; I didn't even knowwhy I hung out with this guy. He was rude, insensitive, had an anger management problem and said the worst things at the worst times-
"So who are you two?" he asked Ino and Shikamaru amicably.
Oh my God.
"Nara Shikamaru," Shikamaru introduced himself, shaking hands with Deidara.
Further along, Ino said quite bitterly, "Yamanaka Ino."
"I'm Atari Arashi. I think you two know Sakura already so…" he trailed off towards the end of his sentence and a silence as cold as ice fell.
Deidara ordered another bowl of ramen, he had somehow managed to finish the one placed in front of him in record speed while I blinked. I eyed the new bowl suspiciously and told him flatly, "You're paying for your ramen."
"What are you talking about, I paid for you back in Tea, yeah," he said indignantly.
"Yeah, but you made me pay for the stupid wall that you broke and you still haven't paid off your debt," I argued with him, completely forgetting Ino and Shikamaru were sitting beside us.
He snapped, "Woman, you punched me through the wall and can we please stop talking about it? I've more than paid off my debt so shut up, yeah."
As I opened my mouth to argue, another voice cut in for me.
"You did not just tell a woman to shut up," Ino growled at him with narrowed blue eyes.
Shikamaru looked at Deidara with a look of utmost pity. Ino snapped at Deidara, "You are so tactless! How do you get off on telling women to shut up, and you don't even call her by her own name? You asshole!"
"I think you're right, let's go," he whispered to me but I grinned sadistically, refusing to budge one inch.
"- you shouldn't even have friends, the way you act-"
"Sakura," he hissed desperately.
"-your manners?! You're going to grow old a lonely old man in an ugly house with an ugly bed and ugly windows-"
I tried to keep from giggling at Deidara's pained expression as Ino demonstrated the epitome of a bitch fit in perfect detail. My entire body was shaking with laughter and he glared at me. Finally, Ino took a deep breath, signalling she was coming to the end of her rant.
"And I swear, buy yourself some fucking chains if you're into all that S and M stuff but don't lay a hand on Sakura or else I'll rip your balls out and feed them to the Aburame clan's bugs," she finished.
Then she smiled at me and mouthed 'sorry'.
My brain seemed to have forgotten how to control my body, my head jerked in a slight nod forwards. Then I nodded again, properly. I glanced down at the table counter, feeling relief flood through me, and then smiled back at Ino. She had forgiven me and I hadn't realized how much I needed to hear that.
Deidara slapped money on the counter and grabbed me by the wrist, dragging me away from Ichiraku and Ino. He yelled over his shoulder, "Ja, Nara. See you around, maybe, yeah."
"You asshole, come back here!" Ino shrieked at him as Shikamaru waved his hand lazily.
Eventually, Deidara let go of my wrist and grinned a lopsided grin at me, his eyes lighting up excitedly. Suddenly, the tiny scroll in my right pocket began to warm up- a warning sign.
"…do we go next?" he asked, but I was too focussed on the scroll on my pocket to listen properly.
"What?" I asked.
"I said, where are we going next, woman?" he repeated for me irritably.
My fingers curled around the small scroll.
Tsunade had asked me to create a sensor and place it in the Uchiha compound to detect when a person entered and exited it. Only I would be able to find out if someone had entered the area and I was required to report back to her, another one of her discreet signs of trust for me. This was the seventh time someone had been into the compound and it was always the same person.
"Ara, sorry, Tsunade-shishou wants me for something. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, alright?" I told him apologetically, telling a half lie.
He rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever. Being part of a hidden village is so boring, yeah."
I grinned at him and waved goodbye, disappearing in a puff of smoke. The grin immediately dropped from my face once I reappeared in my room and my heart began to pound erratically in my ears. I made my way over to a painting that hung lopsided on my bedroom wall, touching it with hands imbued with chakra.
The childish painting was the result of Naruto's big mouth. He had challenged Sai to a painting competition and had produced the painting now hanging on my wall, a picture of a smiling red fox with Christmas tree ears and duck feet. He had insisted they were paws, but who could tell with the way he drew? A pang of pain raced through my chest, I really did miss him.
My hands sunk into the painting like butter and I pulled out a sleek black box from inside of it. I opened it and took a velvet pouch from within it, a heavy vanilla scent wafted up to my nose. I pocketed it and put the box back into its hiding place before disappearing in another poof.
He was still in the Uchiha district, I could feel it.
I was probably making a huge mistake, Itachi could get angry at me, hurt me or kill me. The third choice was the most likely, I reasoned, but I…I had to know. Curiosity was something that had never boded well with me, I always had an insatiable need to know why and wouldn't stop until I had my answer.
My chakra was completely masked, he wouldn't be able to immediately tell I was in the area. Once I was close though, I wasn't sure what would happen next. Would he run away and deny ever being there? No, he wouldn't, I told myself, running was the last thing the great Uchiha Itachi would do. Denial was another issue entirely, however.
The scroll in my pocket was a small but detailed map of the compound and pinpointed the location of Itachi for me. He was in a house at the very edge of the Uchiha district and I quickly made my way over there without making my presence known. I stood in front of a poorer looking house with a slightly open door.
It looked as though Itachi had failed to notice the floor was extremely dusty, a fatal mistake for the Sharingan master. I could clearly make out his footprints leading into what I presumed was the living room and my brow furrowed. Why hadn't he disguised his tracks? He would never have made such a stupid mistake, unless he wanted to be found…unless he couldn't have seen the dust…
There was a loud screech of wood on wood as furniture was moved and I quietly stole into the bedroom Itachi was in. The moment he came into my vision, I saw him visibly tense and he turned to me. His eyes didn't quite meet mine and seemed to look straight through me rather than at me.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice soft and withholding a tsunami's worth of anger.
I swallowed, regretting my decision to come. I felt small again and stupid in his presence, my tongue was twisted and my words had flown clean out of my head. After a long time, I managed to compose myself.
"I could ask you the same thing," I challenged him, my words much stronger than what I felt at the moment.
The room had a cosy if not slightly wild feel to it. There was a large double bed in the middle of it with a dark blue and green zigzag pattern on its duvet that caught my attention, though it looked as though it had never been used before. A metal bookshelf stood in one corner and it was stacked with books, none of them non-fiction and I could make out a couple of instant ramen cups tucked behind a thick book titled If I Was Hokage. A large wooden box had been moved, the sound I had heard earlier and Itachi stood beside it.
Eventually, I said, "Alright, look, I need to know what you're doing here. You've been here seven times in the past three weeks and I haven't told Tsunade-shishou about it yet. If you're threatening Konoha, then I'm going to have to tell her."
"I am not endangering the village," he stated coolly, his voice sharper.
"Then what are you doing here?" I pressed.
When he didn't answer, I decided it was time to play my trump card. I pulled out the velvet pouch from my hand and poured the sticks of incense onto my hand. The vanilla scent permeated the air and I watched Itachi for a reaction. He remained unchanged and immovable.
"These sticks of incense were found on you when you were captured three months ago. You were headed to Konoha a few days before the anniversary of the Uchiha massacre," I explained.
It was almost as if he hadn't heard me. "Look, all I want to know is if you were putting sticks of incense around the Uchiha compound. The anniversary was just last week."
Something grew on his face, a slight pull of the lips. He was smirking at me and my brow furrowed at him, what was so funny?
"You believe that I am…mourning for my family," he said slowly, as though it were the funniest thing in the world.
I had a feeling I had just made an absolute idiot of myself. However, I nodded firmly.
He approached me and took the sticks of incense from my hand, rolling them between his fingertips. Our skin brushed and it felt like a jolt of electricity had jumped between us, I shuddered slightly at the not entirely unpleasant feeling. He remained unmoved and examined the incense, a ghost of a smirk on his face.
The incense was lit with a red chakra flame and I watched as it ignited. The vanilla scent that filled the room became incredibly strong and with some horror, I saw Itachi hurl the incense stick out of the open window to the right. Some base urge to run and retrieve the incense filled me, and I nearly did.
I stopped as the incense exploded, the force causing the windows to shake.
"It was a gift from Deidara," Itachi's smooth voice explained.
I stared at him and asked, my voice nearly hysterical, "You wanted to blow up the Uchiha District? Is that what you've been doing, setting explosions to go off on the anniversary of the Uchiha Massacre? You sick, twisted-"
"I am not going to destroy the Uchiha District," he said, his voice cold.
I repeated, "Then why are you here?"
He remained completely silent. I sighed loudly and ran a hand through my short hair, looking at him exasperatedly. I told him, "If you don't tell me, I'm going to tell Tsunade-shishou now."
He said nothing once again and reluctantly, I raised my hand to my ear to activate my tiny earpiece.
Then, I was suddenly forced back against the bed. My wrists were held in a painfully tight grip that made my eyes water and I was certain that they would break under the pressure. A cloud of dust rose from where Itachi and I had upset the duvet, we were so close. I could feel his breath on my face, scentless and controlled, but my own breath had caught in my throat in absolute fear. I was terrified of him.
"If you tell anybody about this, I will kill you," he hissed.
And I believed him.
His jaw tightened slightly. A small bead of blood began to trickle down his face, leading from the scar on the right side of his cheek. My eyes followed its descent down his face, until the droplet ran off his face and landed on my own with a barely audible drip.
He released my wrists and disappeared, his chakra creating only a slight disturbance in the area.
The next morning, there was a loud knock on the door. I rubbed at my sleepless eyes as I dragged myself towards it and opened it.
"Hinata?"
"S-Sakura-san…I found Naruto-kun," she stuttered in a rush.
I led her over to my threadbare blue sofa and she sat down quickly. She looked down at her tightly clasped hands and swallowed, looking as if she had just learned something horrible.
"Where is he? Is he alright?" I asked gently and she shook her head from side to side, and then up and down.
She eventually mumbled, "He's underground and I don't know…I don't know..."
"Underground? But isn't that where…" I trailed off towards the end of my sentence.
Underground was where torture and interrogation rooms were, and why would Naruto be there? If he was withholding information from Konoha, then surely Tsunade wouldn't go so far to torture him to get it…would she? I swallowed painfully. She would.
I stood up suddenly and looked down at Hinata, my eyes steeling over with determination.
"We're going to see Tsunade-sama."
"Teme, where's Sakura-chan? Or Hinata? You said you'd get one of them to come," a throaty but no less energetic voice complained.
A dark haired man sat down on the grey sofa, his body sinking into well worn depressions in the fabric. The blonde man who had addressed him sat at the other end and he made an attempt to prop his feet up on his friend's lap. Sasuke glared at Naruto and shoved his feet away from him and his genital area.
The reason Naruto had been hidden away was because the Konoha Council had become increasingly worried that Akatsuki would kidnap him, especially since they were now in Konoha. Tsunade had been forced to hide him away in the Fourth Hokage's secret apartment underground Konoha and Naruto had grudgingly agreed if it meant it would protect his friends. Still, the loneliness was driving him insane, and he was glad Sasuke came frequently.
"Tsunade-sama doesn't want anybody else to know where you are, especially Sakura. She's in a team with some Akatsuki members and she might let something slip on accident," Sasuke explained tonelessly.
Naruto scowled and looked up at the ceiling, bending his knees, "Sakura wouldn't tell them something like that."
"She fell in love with Itachi, I think she's very capable of telling them something like that," Sasuke said, spitting out the name like it was a disease.
Naruto's dark blue eyes flashed angrily and he snapped, "Don't bring that up again, bastard. You can't control who you fall in love with, so don't hold it against her."
"He ruined my life, how can you expect me not to hold it against her?" Sasuke growled.
"She's suffered enough and if you're really her friend, you'd forgive her all God damned ready. You haven't done anything for her, you ass, so don't act like you're the fucking victim," Naruto hissed at him.
Sasuke fell silent, turning his head away from Naruto. His jaw tightened and his entire body became incredibly tense, every muscle taut. His mismatched eyes showed an inner struggle. Naruto's anger eventually died down and he let out a long sigh.
"Whatever. I just hope the war finishes soon so I can get the hell out of here," Naruto muttered.
Next Chapter Preview: Team Sakura
"What do you think about working for Konoha?"
"Did I give you permission to kiss me? No, I didn't! So don't kiss me unless I say its okay, you jerk!"
"If you stay here, I don't think you will live."
"I'm a medic! My job is to save people's lives, even at the cost of my own and these two will need me eventually if they stay and fight!"
"Itachi, Itachi, Itachi, fuck…fuck…"
Talking with sexy Selandora. (note: any time Selandora is cocky, she does NOT actually mean it.)
Why didn't Deidara give Ino and Shikamaru his real name?
Tsunade's given Akatsuki orders to be sneaky if they ever have to go out of the Chuunin Examination Hall. Deidara can blend in pretty easily, he just needs to take off his forehead protector and his scope and he's safe since Iwagakure is soo far away.
Who's this he Itachi is incredibly suspicious of?
Uh, well if you haven't read the newest Naruto chapters this is kind of spoiler-ish. If you have, then it's very obvious who it is. (I'm not really answering the question, am I.) Well, take a wild guess and the chances are you'll be 100 correct.
Itachi's SICK?!
It mentions it in the new chapter, don't read if you don't like spoilers! Madara was like, ohh well you're being so awful, Itachi did all this crap for you and he was even dying from a terminal illness. Then they showed a little flashback of Itachi coughing into his hand and bleeding so I was like...hm...okay, let's incorporate that. And, its sort of important for the ending of the story.
Why does Deidara think Ichiraku is a department store?
Well, this is a recap from one of the earlier chapters when Sakura and he are walking around Tea and she mentions Ichiraku. Ichi means 'One' in Japanese and I thought of a department store. (you know, like Jusco: Number one 10 dollar store! and stuff like that.) Or maybe I just have a very strange thought track.
If Itachi wasn't mourning for the Uchiha clan...then what the hell was he doing with the incense?
Itachi wasn't actually going to do anything to the Uchiha District at all. There was another reason why he brought it along and it was to screw with a certain person's head.
Why's Sakura scared of Itachi if she's in love with him?
Everything she knows about Itachi, she's not sure is the truth. She doesn't know if he was only acting like he was because he was a captive, she's never talked to him properly when he's been at full power and capable of snapping her neck in a second. If you think about it, she's never known him at all but then the few months she shared with Itachi were the ones where he was able to be himself more easily than ever before.
Sakura cries all the time! Make her stop!
Ahh, I'm sorry! Sakura is a strong character, I know that, however realistically everybody cries and the situations she's been put in would make anybody cry. Most people associate crying with sadness or weakness, but people cry when they're angry or frustrated as well. You cry when you're experiencing a really intense emotion and she is quite emotional. I hope that makes things a little clearer.
Is the fic going to focus on Itachi and Sakura soon?
OH MY GOSH. Just wait till the next chapter and the ones after it. There's crazy itasaku interaction and Itachi's finally going to get into the game. Deidara sort of disappears for a couple of chapters but then he comes back and then it's all itasakudei. Love triangles are actually quite annoying, I love them and all but damn it, I love Itachi and Deidara.
Is Itachi protecting everyone from Madara?
Madara does have something to do with it. That's all I'm going to say.
Why's everyone bullying Deidara about his lack of womenly genital exploits?
Woosh, I changed the word at the last second for all the kiddies out there. (then again, who am I to talk. I'm only 14.) Everybody loves Deidara, he's just too much fun to tease. And when you look like Deidara, how CAN you be a virgin? Then again, he is 23.
Thanks to OkOk, SpeedDemon315, Jester08 and black55widow for the questions and inspiration for questions.
AND SELANDORA WILL BE UPDATING MORE FREQUENTLY. She went on a freaking writing craze and went from one line of Chapter 8 to finishing Chapter 8, 9, 10, 11 and half of Chapter 12 which she is writing write now. (heehee, write now.) Course, this is the reason why she will probably fail chemistry but therefore anybody reading this cannot complain to her for her lack of writing.
Selandora (is off to finish Defining Duty.)
