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Author's corner

...nothing to say really!

ENJOY~

Chapter Nine.

Maybe becoming Airi wasn't such a good thing.

I mean, I expected lots of fans, but I really didn't think about getting two boyfriends at the same time. Now that I had kissed each of them, I was finally seeing my dilemma.

I cannot keep both.

And Itachi's the only in the two who knows my secret.

What was I going to do?

I was not going to dump Neji.

And I certainly did not like the cocky Itachi.

But Ryuu-kun is nice, even if he is mentioned Uchiha's alter ego.

"Airi-chan? Are you alright? You look pale." Konan, the Woman-In-Black within the group of Men-In-Black asked gently, probably thinking I was air sick. I am in a helicopter, after all. But that was not what got me pensive. It was my friends.

Were they fine?

Were they still on set?

Did they get mobbed by our fans?

Did they survive?

And last but not least, were we still going to have our sleepover?

"Sakura," Itachi whispered in my ear and grabbed my hand so I'd look at him and not out the window like I was doing. It worked and he brushed away stray strands of hair away from my face, "What's wrong?"

I bit my lip and returned to staring out the window. I was not going to tell him. I did not trust him enough to tell him my life's sob story (though there's not much to tell).

I missed Neji.

I missed relaxing with him by the beach.

I'm being such an unfaithful girlfriend, aren't I?

"Is this about him?" Itachi asked, knowing that we both knew what he was talking about. He was talking about my boyfriend. So I guess you could say that he knew what I was thinking about... but that didn't mean anything!

"O-of course not!" I answered as strong as I could, though it didn't shine enough since Itachi smirked at me. I furrowed my eyebrows unhappily at him and turned back to the window, pulling back my hand with me.

He was not getting away with teasing me.

Only three kinds of people can tease me.

My family—but it was mandatory on their part.

My friends—it's their job.

And my boyfriend—and Ryuu did not count since he is technically in Itachi mode right now.

Itachi, no matter how hot or sexy he may be, will not get to me.

I am better than that.

I can't wait to go back home and rejoice with my friends.

And you know what? Might as well make Airi Kimura off the market and leave her as single forever.

I don't think that having two boyfriends is fair.

So I might as well take out the fake one.

I turned to my neighbour, "Itach—"

"We've arrived!" Pein, the helicopter driver, stated at the giant flying vehicle settled down into a building, "Don't worry Airi-chan, we have landed in the Akastuki Company's rooftop landing facility. You are a hundred percent safe. No one knows you're here with us, not even your agent."

"But she installed a tracking device in my phone in case of emergencies—" I frantically searched in my pockets—where did my purse go?—for the item but couldn't find it.

Pein shook his head at me, "Not to worry, we have special devices that cut off all tracking frequencies. She would probably think you were in Alaska, for all we knew."

I gave a nervous smile. I could totally imagine my mom going to Alaska so that she could yell her freezing butt off at me for being late at a dress rehearsal.

Good thing she knows I'm having a sleepover today. Or else she would've gone there.

The doors to the helicopter opened and we were led into the building (we were outside, but the roof caved in so that no one could see us if they looked up) and past some halls and a bunch of doors before Pein opened two large double doors.

He mentioned for us to go in and Itachi grabbed my hand to drag me inside. I sent him a glare and nudged him away from me before setting my eyes upon the room.

The MIBs were there.

I gulped nervously.

And then sent a glare at Itachi when he got too close.

"I-I-I-I-I-IT'S AIRI KIMURA!" Someone gasped and the next thing I knew, I'm in a big bear hug, almost losing my entire lung's worth of oxygen. "TOBI'S YOUR BIGGEST FAN!"

"Can't...!" I gasped.

"Airi-chan can't what?" The person holding me asked, peering down at me curiously.

"Breathe...!" I replied, and the boy flushed before finally letting go of me. I gulped in the needed air before smiling sweetly at him. "Sorry about that. Yes I am Airi Kimura, and you are?"

"Tobi! Tobi is Tobi!"

I resisted the urge to frown in confusion. I turned to Itachi and he shrugged and said, "That's Tobi."

"Yes!" Tobi chirped, "Tobi is Tobi!"

So he was addressing himself in the third person? Isn't that just a little odd?

"Waah!" I exclaimed when I was suddenly lifted from behind, arms wrapped snugly around me. I snapped my head back at the person holding me and noticed the familiar blond that's Naruto's brother. "Y-you're—!"

"Deidara, un! Nice to see ya, Airi-chan!" He cut me off before I could ruin my identity, finally setting me down. I turned to look at him fully. His blond hair and blue eyes were the same as usual, not one bit changed. He still looked like a girl.

I did not want to ruin my secret, but I knew what could fix any suspicion in one swoop.

"The name sounds familiar..." I squinted at him,"Are you Naruto-san's brother? I think my cousin mentioned you once."

"You know my brother!" He gasped, eyes gone round. I giggled at his expression before nodding.

"A little. I met him once, but he fainted."

Deidara started laughing and wiped his eyes, "Oh man, yeah! I can totally see that happening!"

I giggled along with him, before an arm was slung around my shoulders, "Why hello there."

I looked up into the face of Itachi's bodyguard, "Kisame-san!"

He chuckled and tousled my hair, nearly making me fear that my pink hair fall through the cracks. But that was something not worth thinking about since I was wearing my bald-cap. "Call me Kisame! At your service!"

I giggled and nodded.

"So Airi-chan!" Tobi hopped and grabbed my hand, pulling me along, "Tobi'll introduce you to everyone!"

I nodded and let him drag me along as he pointed to the people around the room.

There's about nine MBI in total but there's only six in the room, so let's go in order.

Itachi Uchiha. He's also one of the MBI. But since business was kinda slow they decided to disguise him as a rock star to give them more publicity. Let's just say it worked.

Then there's Kisame, his partner in crime. A little blue in the face—apparently he had a water accident when he was little that left him like that forever—but he treats me like his little sister, so I don't mind him one bit.

Deidara—I know him already—is Naruto's big brother. The pair of them are like twins, no questions asked. One look at them and you'll be wondering if their hyperness is a disease. He's a MBI because he happens to enjoy blowing stuff up. No questions asked.

His partner's a man called Sasori. Red hair and down-to-earth brown eyes. He didn't seem affected by all the commotion and kept quiet. Apparently he's really good with puppetry.

There's Zetsu, who's a plant freak who likes to eat human body parts—once hearing this, I took one large step away from him—but owns a pretty huge-ass green house. You can guess why he's here. That way they don't have to hide the bodies, he can eat them.

His partner's Tobi, the hyper freak who talks in constant 3rd person. Don't ask me why, apparently he's always been like that. He's Itachi's cousin and "stunt-double" or something, though I don't see why he needs one since he freaking jumped out a window and held onto a helicopter!

Like I said, these people are a bunch of freaks.

But they're nice.

So they're nice freaks.

Tobi said he'd tell me about the others when I meet them in person. Though I wish he'd tell me about them in advance in case there's a hitman in the room. When I told Tobi of this, he confirmed to me that the one called Hidan was a hitman. I nearly fainted right there.

"So Airi-chan!" Deidara cut in, smirk placed on his lips as he leaned on my shoulder, "Are you hurt anywhere? It's part of our job to make sure our clients aren't harmed in anyway, yeah!"

If he's using that to look at my panties, he's going to get punched to Pluto and back. Just saying.

I felt arms wrapped around me before I was pulled up into Itachi's chest and away from the blond, "I already took care of that, Deidara."

I twitched at being pulled like a doll before looking up at him, "Can I use your phone?"

"Hn?"

"I need to call my manager so she can pick me up. I'm very busy. I have plans."

"With your friends, I presume?" He asked, but passed me his black iPhone anyway. Lucky bastard has all the money in the world.

I quickly dialled the number to my house and pressed the phone to my ear as it rung.

Not even after the second ring, my mom picked up, "Itachi-teme you better give back Airi-chan!"

"Mom!" I cried, taken aback at how she knew my fake boyfriend's number, "It's me!"

"Airi-chan?" She asked with dim hope, sounding as if she was on the brink of tears, "Is that you?"

"Yeah, mom. It's me."

"AIRI-CHAN!" She yelled happily, making me flinch and hold the phone away from my ear, "YOU BETTER COME HOME RIGHT NOW! OR SO HELP ME, I WILL COME OVER THERE, GRAB STARBUCKS AND SLAM IT INTO THAT GUY'S FACE UNTIL HE IS RESURRECTED AND KILLED AGAIN!"

Everyone in the room flinched. She was that scary (and loud).

"Uh..." I peeked up at Itachi, "Can you drive me?"

He nodded. I returned the phone to my ear.

"Mom?" I asked and heard the confirmation that she was there by her angry panting, "I have a drive with Itachi-san—"

"coughKUNcough" Itachi cut in. I rolled my eyes at him.

"—and he's going to drive me home safely. So no need to worry."

"Fine." Mom grumbled, "But if he hurts you—!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know." I cut her, "You'll attack him with Starbucks and Tim Hortons along with the entire fan based population." I waved at Itachi to start on leading me to the car, "Well I gotta go, bye!"

I hung up before she could yell some more and sighed in relief.

"Wow! Airi-chan's okaa-san is scary!" Tobi chirped in awe, clapping his hands together.

Deidara slapped his forehead, but agreed none-the-less.

The second the sleek black car that Itachi was driving slid into the driveway, all of my friends were out and practically pounding at the window to know if I was fine. I slid out of the car, out of my disguise and in a spare change of clothes courtesy of Konan, to show that I was perfectly alright and that they didn't need to worry. I even pirouetted, but they didn't believe me.

"You could be fatally wounded but only until after because you're body still hasn't gotten over the shock!" Gaara went on, mom nodding her agreement.

"What shock?" I asked, but they gasped at me dramatically and started crying.

I didn't question it. They were always weird, even from the very beginning.

"I'll be going, Sakura." Itachi said, stepping closer to his car.

I looked away from my friends and nodded to him.

"What's old man Itachi-sensei doing with you?" Naruto asked in a whisper. I snickered at that.

"I'm her bodyguard." Itachi answered for me. I sent him a glare and he shook my head at my unasked question. So he wants his other identity to stay secret? Fine.

He got in his car and drove away, with me waving after him as if he was some long lost friend. He might as well be, since he reminds me so much of Sasuke. Wait a sec... I totally forgot that the two were siblings... Oh man, I wonder if I'm getting Alzheimer's.

"Let's go inside..." Hinata offered, leading us in.

Two hours later, we were all settled on the couch, watching the Halloween special of Sweet Clouds, when I asked the question that was on my mind.

"So what happened to you guys after I left?"

"That old coot kept on pressing for answers!" Kiba growled, arms flying in exaggeration, "So we tried to get to you, but your mom kept stopping us, saying that there was no time!"

"No time for what?"

"I don't know!" Kiba yelled again, Naruto shushed him by hitting him over the head, "So we were ushered to a limousine and ended up here."

"Wow, that's sound so much better than what happened to me."

"What happened?" Naruto jumped in, getting in my face. Hinata held him back, and they both blushed.

"Well..." I fidgeted with the popcorn bowl before I said, "We were running away from fans and the body guards had us run around many halls until we landed on the roof. There a helicopter came to pick us up... and..."

"And?"Kiba leaned closer.

"Aaannndddd?" Naruto joined him.

"U-um, w-what happened, S-sakura-chan?" Hinata joined in with them, feeling embarrassed for doing so. I couldn't blame her. Those guys were embarrassing.

"Well... Ryuu k-kissed me..."

"OH MY GOD!"Naruto yelled, movie completely forgotten, "You're so lucky!"

We all stared at him. The seconds ticked by until he understood his mistake.

He flushed, "I m-mean it's n-not like t-that—Kiba stop laughing!" He hissed, tackling the boy.

"Wow Naruto, I never knew you were gay!"

"I'm not!" He whined, "It was an accident!"

"Sure it was!" Kiba wiggled his eyebrows at him.

Hinata and I laughed at them until mom came in and growled at us to stop or else she'd kick us out and send us to the top of the Eifel Tower. No matter how much I wanted to go to Paris, I stayed quiet and waited for her to return to her room before asking.

"What do you think guys? Should I tell Neji my secret?"

We all shared a look and grinned.

"No way!"

"A-at least," Hinata fiddled with her fingers, "not at the moment. We're having a sleepover."

I grinned at her.

"You're so cute, Hina-chan!"

She eeped and hid behind a small pillow.

I wiggled my eyebrows at Naruto. He flushed and looked away, arguing with Kiba.

Ah, I love my friends.

I can't wait to see Neji.

But not to tell him my secret.

Just to be with him.

"What are you smiling about Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked in hopes of blackmail.

I blushed, "N-nothing!"

Kiba threw me a sly grin, "Thinking about your boyfriend?"

"N-no!"

"You can't lie to us, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirped, "We can read you!"

"B-but you didn't even know I was Airi until I told you!"

The both backed off and went to curl up into a corner.

"She's right." Kiba said sadly, "We're really clueless."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed, joining him in drawing circles with his index finger, "We're really stupid."

"G-guys!" Hinata cried helplessly, "Y-you're not s-stupid!"

"Face it, Hina." I grinned, "Our friends are idiots."

"HEY!"