First of all, SORRY for the enormous delay! This chapter was terribly hard to write, and I guess that I rewrote it for at least four times. Also I found myself a bit stuck on the plot line, so I took a day or two to think about what is going to happen next. But now I think I've got it, so I hope that I'll be able to update sooner.

But before actually starting on this chapter, I wanted to make sure that everyone knows what Sakura's and Deidara's battle connection means, and what it does. I read the last chapter over and decided that it wasn't very clear, so here's some information.

It's like this. Sakura and Deidara's normal chained situation is already given. Their organs and vital functions are connected, and if one person's left kidney (by example) gets damaged, the other will experience exactly the same, etc etc.

But when they enter a battle, things get different. I guess that the trigger for this special connection is fear in (or not) combination with adrenaline. As soon as that happens, the cuffs increase the level of connection. What means that not only their organs and vital functions are connected, but also their brains and muscles, making them move like they're one body. Also Deidara can use Sakura's medic jutsus and Sakura Deidara's explosive jutsus and so on, because this link allows them to add up previous battle experience to form quite a good team!

I hope this made things a bit clearer. If not, feel free to contact me and, if necessary, I'll make another comment out of it.

And now, finally, the tenth chapter! Enjoy :)

Chapter ten: The inconvenient truth

It was way too warm. Not just warm: hot. The heat made Sakura sweat lightly and she moaned as she slowly woke from a very fuzzy dream she had had during the night. She yawned and then opened her eyes lazily, forced to blink several times before she could actually see what she was looking at.

Skin. She was looking at skin, and from such a close up that she couldn't even focus. She tried to pull her head away but found herself rather stuck against a wall. She frowned and then looked up, seeing Deidara's sleeping face. His mouth was opened slightly and his breathing was deep and slow, and his eyes were calm beneath their lids. For a few seconds, Sakura simply looked at him.

Why are we sharing the same bed? She thought, her brain not yet ready to define what that could mean. Is that the reason why it's so hot here? Because he's nearly suffocating me?

She shifted a bit so that she could use her free hand – she lay on her right side – and then carefully pushed him away so that she could breath in some fresh air. He groaned and frowned in his sleep but slept on, and Sakura carefully inhaled a lot of cool air, sighing of relief.

How exactly did she get here? Oh, yeah… Ichiraku's. She smiled as she recalled the event of yesterday evening. It had been real nice, being together with Ino and Hinata, and they had chatted about everything she had been wanting to tell about. When Deidara wasn't listening, she had told Ino about the promise she had made to Tsunade sama.

-Flashback-

Deidara was eating his fourth bowl of ramen when Sakura found the opportunity to talk freely with Ino. She scooted a bit to the right, towards the blonde, and then pushed her arm slightly. Ino looked up from her ramen while all the noodles still hung on to her chopstick, but she quickly swallowed them when she saw Sakura's troubled look.

"Something wrong, forehead?" She asked when she had cleared her mouth and she carefully wiped off her lips on a napkin. Sakura nodded slowly, paying close attention to Deidara who luckily seemed to have gotten into a deep conversation with Naruto about ramen.

"Actually, there is, yes," she whispered. Ino's eyes widened and the girl leaned in closer, looking worried.

"Is it… does it concern…"

Sakura nodded and the blonde looked even more frightened. Really? She mouthed, obviously unable to speak. Sakura took a deep breath and then told her what she had wanted to tell anyone for the past week.

"In order to get information out of Deidara, I have to… I have to…" she swallowed, and then decided that it was better to just get over with. "…I have to get intimate with him."

Ino's eyebrows nearly disappeared beneath her hair and her jaw dropped to the floor while staring at Sakura. "You're kidding me."

Sakura shook her head and Ino kept staring at her, a startled look on her face. Sakura heard Naruto laugh next to her and quickly glared over Deidara's head to see what he was looking at. To her relief, he hadn't been able to hear what she had said to Ino, and he was currently talking to Deidara.

"…and you can make fireworks too? That's frickin awesome! How long have you been able of doing that?"

Deidara shrugged, a smirk on his lips. "Ever since I could use my bloodline limit, hmm. I just never paid real close interest to it." He chuckled. "Somehow I like explosives better."

Naruto grinned. Before he could speak though, Hinata did, to the surprise of the others. She looked at Deidara shyly and then cleared her throat.

"Can you… c-can you m-make some fireworks, s-someday? Pl-please?" and she putted her fingertips together in a way only Hinata can. Not knowing Hinata, this surprised Deidara and he quickly emptied his mouth.

"Uh, I guess so, hmm."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I don't think Tsunade-sama will let you touch anything close to explosives, Deidara," She said teasingly. "I bet that you'll blow up this city when you lay your hands on something like that." And she poked him in the side, making him flinch. He swore and then gave her a soft shove, and Sakura laughed.

Meanwhile Ino was still staring in front of her, to her half full bowl of ramen, with a face that said I'm-not-hungry-anymore-thanks-for-the-information. Sakura noticed as soon as she got able of sitting safely without Deidara pushing her bar chair over all the time.

"Oh come on, Ino, it's not that bad," Sakura said to her best friend, trying to keep the conversation light. Unfortunately that didn't succeed as Ino gave her a startled look. "Not so bad? How can you just say that!"

"Hmm?" Naruto looked up from behind Deidara's head and gave the two girls a puzzled look. Sakura gave Ino a quick warning glare to please not say anything anymore and she turned around to face Naruto.

"Nothing, nothing, Ino and I… we had a little quarrel about something unimportant. Don't worry about it."

Naruto smiled at her. She and Ino argued a lot so why would he care? "Sure, Sakura-chan! Then, Hinata, what I was saying…"

Sakura sighed and then turned around to Ino, giving the blonde a disappointed look. Ino stared at her feet. "Sorry," she muttered. "It's just… I thought you and Sasuke had something together. Isn't this plan coming between that a little… or something like that?"

Sakura frowned. "It's for the sake of the city, Ino."

"Yea, but… but then it can still be ugly, you know that."

"I know."

-End flashback-

And now she was lying here, in bed, together with Deidara. Slightly shocked she looked at his face and then her eyes automatically traveled lower, to his chest. She sighed of relief when she saw that he was wearing a shirt and then checked herself. To her relief she was also wearing one of her favorite pajamas.

Phew. Nothing has happened. She blushed. But… why do I feel a bit disappointed…?

As often happened, her thoughts woke Deidara up. He moaned and then stretched out half, only using his left hand. "Morning," he muttered, eyes still closed. "God, it's warm here, hmm."

Sakura smiled silently. "Sure it is."

It remained silent for a few minutes. Sakura was silently counting the seconds until he would realize that they were sharing a bed, but the suspected reaction didn't come. After a while she looked at his face and saw that he was looking at her. Her cheeks went pink and she looked back again.

Why are you staring at me like that?

He snickered. "Oh, nothing, hmm. I'm still a bit… sleepy." And to strengthen his words, he yawned deeply. "And boy I still feel stuffed from yesterday evening, hmm. That Jinchuuriki friend of yours sure now where to eat."

"tell me about it," Sakura laughed, relaxing now he had changed the subject. "He used to drag me around all the time like that, until…"

She stopped talking. "Until what, hmm?" Deidara asked and he scooted a bit to the right, giving Sakura some more space to lie on. She blushed deeply. She had been planning on saying "Until Sasuke and I started dating", but those words would definitely not be appreciated by Deidara.

"Until Sasuke disappeared," She lied, hoping that he would take it. "Now that he's back though Naruto starts to get as cheery and happy as he was before that."

"Aha. And… that's good progress?"

Sakura laughed. "Well, compared to his depressed self for the first few days after Sasuke had left and he had been unable to stop him, this is sure better." She got still. "He… he was so disappointed in himself back then. You must know that he had promised me to bring Sasuke back, and he failed. So he thought that I was disappointed in him, too."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "You weren't, hmm?"

She shook her head. "Not at all."

This puzzled Deidara. "Why not? He didn't succeed in what he had promised you, and from what I've seen and heard yesterday evening he's not the type of guy to break promises, hmm. I don't see why you weren't angry with him."

"Simple," Sakura sighed. "He had done everything he was able of back then. He had really given everything, and when Kakashi found him he was more dead than alive. Truly, he couldn't have done more than that, and so I was grateful to him. Besides, I couldn't be angry with him, because I hadn't done anything to get Sasuke back." She bit her lip. "I just pleaded and cried for Naruto to bring him back."

Deidara made a surprised little sound and Sakura looked at him. "What?"

He shrugged. "You just don't seem the type to not do anything, hmm."

Sakura smiled. He didn't know it, but that was one of the largest compliments one could give her. Saying that she didn't seem the type to let others do the dirty work, and hearing that from Deidara from all people amazed her.

"Anyway," She said, getting up. "I'm actually kind of hungry. And it's bad to skip breakfast – what do you think? Shall we go and have breakfast?"

He moaned. "Five more minutes, please. I'm still not completely awake, hmm."

Sakura grinned. "No way, you slacker. Out of bed, rise and shine! The sun has already awoken and it's time to traaaaaaain!!"

She used one of Lee's favorite sentences and jumped out of bed, pulling Deidara from beneath the covers onto the floor. He made loud comments on her actions and swore foul when his head hit the door on their way to the kitchen.

"You bitch, hmm! Stop it right now or I'm going to kill you!"

If his voice hadn't had a teasing undertone in it, Sakura should have been afraid. But she wasn't and she pulled him further, over the hard ground until she had nearly reached the kitchen. But then Deidara was able to get up from the floor and he jumped up, grabbing Sakura and dragging her down to the floor. Sakura let out a cry of surprise and then pushed him off her, grabbing a pillow from the couch and then pressed it full in his face when he was about to assault her again. He roared and then took the pillow to hit Sakura himself. She laughed and dodged a couple of "attacks" before she landed a direct hit in his face.

"oooh, you're cheating, hmm!" Deidara yelled as he got up and tried to hit Sakura again. She laughed at him. "No way! Suck it up, I'm better than you at this."

He smirked. "Oh yea? Let me prove you wrong, hmm."

They re entered their small cushion fight and again Sakura was having the overhand as she ducked swiftly and smacked Deidara against the side of his head several times, using the same technique over and over. Just when she was wondering why he kept falling for it so easily, he attacked.

He suddenly leapt forwards and ran against her, toppling down on the floor with Sakura lying beneath him.

"Mercy, please, mercy!" she yelled, crying with laughter. He grinned, panting, while he held her hands down by her wrists and looked at her face.

He didn't let go of her.

"Ano, Deidara," Sakura said, blinking away tears of her laughing. "you can let me go now, you know." And she smiled at him. But he didn't return her smile. Not at all. He was simply looking at her with a look in his eyes that she couldn't exactly define. "…Deidara."

Then she realized that the game was no longer innocent. It had changed into something else, and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not. Not that she had much choice as he was still pinning her down to the floor with inhuman strength. She made an attempt to get away from him but he simply increased the pressure and kept her down.

He looked at her and Sakura felt his breath on her face. It smelled like peppermint.

"Please forgive me, hmm."

She frowned. "Forgive you for wh-"

He leaned in and then crushed his lips on hers, so hard that Sakura felt her teeth clang against his, and Sakura, flinched by the sudden action, didn't react but simply stared at his eyes which were now merely an inch away from hers.

Then he pulled back and got up, not even waiting for Sakura to do the same. Her body felt numb as she got up and followed him into the kitchen like a zombie. He had just kissed her. Plainly out of nothing, he had possibly acted on a whim and broke an invisible barrier that they had both created during time.

She didn't know what she should do with it. Be glad because this made things easier for her, or be worried and feel guilty because his kiss had triggered things inside of her that she had never experienced before when Sasuke had kissed her. And she had gotten a lot more intimate with Sasuke than a kiss like this, as this could still be seen as a friendly kiss although it was definitely not meant like that.

Or wasn't it?

Deidara started searching through the cupboards and took out all kind and sorts of things like flour, eggs and milk, and then bowed forwards to get a large bowl out of a lower cupboard and placed it on the bar. Sakura, still not able to react properly, simply stared at what he was doing.

"Do you like pancakes, hmm?" he asked out of the blue, and it took Sakura a few seconds to answer. "Uh… yeah."

"Good."

He continued with what he had been doing and Sakura followed every movement, while inside of her something started to boil. His kiss had activated something inside of her, something that she couldn't control and didn't know she had. It had started in her stomach and was now steadily making its way up to her brain, and with every inch it proceeded, Sakura felt more and more accelerated.

She longed for something like that. No, she longed for kissing him back, to end what he had started, to state that his invitation had been accepted. She looked at his neck, staring.

To make sure that he knew that his action hadn't been a futile one. And at the same time she felt getting angry. With herself for not reacting when it had been easy, for him to break apart so fast.

It should have been longer, she thought, feeling the strange feeling coming closer and closer to her brain. It should have been longer. He should have made it longer. I should have done something.

She saw a drop of sweat run down his neck and felt something jump in her stomach as she suddenly fantasized about kissing the same skin where the drop sweat had just left. A little part of herself wondered where these sudden feelings came from and why she wanted to get physical with him so badly, but the larger part of her didn't think about that.

"Thin pancakes or thick ones?"

She didn't respond, simply stared at him. He turned around, and Sakura immediately noticed a bit of flour on the tip of his nose. The white stood out against his slightly sun tanned skin and again she felt her stomach jump.

"Thin… or thick, hmm? What do you want?"

She looked up at his eyes again. Something clicked inside of her head as the strange feeling had reached her brain and her entire being went blank. "You," she panted and then she couldn't hold herself back anymore. She stepped forwards, grabbed his neck and pulled his head towards her, crushing her lips on his, kissing him like she had never kissed someone before.

His reaction wasn't exactly as she had expected. He jerked his head back and pushed her away from him with his free hand, glaring at her with angry eyes. "You want me? What the hell are you talking about, hmm?"

Even though Sakura felt embarrassed and disappointed, this angered her.

"What I'm talking about? You were the one to start this, remember? Why are you blaming me for this?" She felt tears coming up in her eyes, hot angry tears. "I don't know what got into me… but I do know that you are responsible for this."

He seemed to find what she had said amusing and he snickered. This pissed Sakura off and she stepped forwards until her chest nearly touched his and her face was so close to his that it was nearly intimidating. Of course not for Deidara, who simply stared back into her eyes with a satisfied smirk.

"Do you find this amusing?" Sakura hissed, her voice dark. The right corner of his mouth tugged upwards.

"No I don't."

Sakura's eyes slid to slits. "Then why are you laughing?"

He chuckled softly and then put his hands on her hips, turning her around and pushing her against a nearby wall. Sakura's breath hitched as he made circles on her skin with his thumbs and leaned in closer.

"I like it when you're angry," he whispered in her ear. "I think angry women are attractive."

Confused by his sudden mood swing, Sakura didn't know what to say. She froze when he kissed her ear and then snuggled his head in her neck, trailing kisses down her skin and now touching the skin on her back.

"Deidara," Sakura muttered, still heavily confused. "…why are you doing this?"

"Because I want to, hmm," was the simple answer. Sakura didn't get it at all.

First he kisses me out of nothing. Then he acts like nothing happened. When I kiss him back he pushes me away. And now he's… doing this…?

He pulled back from her neck and looked her right in the eyes. His chained hand took hers in his and then pushed it against the wall, next to Sakura's head, while he stroke her chin with his free one. "Why do you have to know all the reasons behind everything, hmm?" he whispered, his eyes lingering over her face. "Let me just… do this…"

And then he kissed her lips. It was a soft kiss, not like the one she had just given him, and his hand rested on her chin in a way that was so intimate and so sweet that her heart melted under his touch. She shivered and then nearly sank through her knees.

Deidara wrapped an arm around her to prevent her from falling but kept his lips on hers all the time. Then he tilted his head slightly. Sakura knew what this was going to be and suddenly she started to hesitate. Was this what she wanted? Would she be able to keep control on this as soon as he started to do things that were more than she had ever done?

She decided that it wasn't time for this. This was going too fast.

She pushed him away from her, gently and then stared at his feet, afraid to look in his eyes and see what kind of look he would give her. "…sorry," she muttered after a while. He didn't respond nor did he undertake any action. He simply stood in front of her, his hand still on her cheek, his body still close to hers.

"It's just… I don't think I'm ready for this yet. It's going… too fast, you understand?"

She saw that he smiled. "It's okay, hmm. I understand."

Sakura looked at his face to see if he was lying. Normally he would never submit to her, not even in their endless quarrels over the most stupid things. And now he just seemed to say "Okay, maybe a next time"?

Is it really Deidara I'm talking to? Sakura thought, still a bit amazed by the sudden change of character. He smirked.

"I haven't changed a bit, hmm. I'm just fricking hungry. Will you help me with this, hmm? To be honest with you, I haven't made these things for ages. Normally I would just ask Tobi to do it…" he chuckled while he slowly stepped back from her and then they both walked towards the workspace, starting on the mix again. Meanwhile Deidara kept talking, an Sakura made sure that she listened in very carefully. She wasn't going to miss a word of what he was saying.

"Last time Tobi made me pancakes seems ages ago, hmm," Deidara sighed while he took the salt and dropped a tiny amount of the white powder into the mix. After that he stared in front of him, absentmindedly. Suddenly he grinned. "That jerk had put in the entire jar of salt, hmm. They tasted… awful."

Sakura giggled. "To be honest with you, I've never eaten things like these before. This mix looks weird – way too thin."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Too thin? But that's exactly how they should be, hmm. We're not going to drink this stuff or something. We're going to fry it."

This puzzled Sakura enormously. "Bake it? This fluid?" she looked at the bowl and then carefully moved it around a bit. The crème colored mix inside of it moved along with it and she frowned before looking at Deidara. "That's just strange."

He smirked. "Wait and see."

Twenty minutes later, Sakura and Deidara sat behind the table with a steaming plate in front of them. Deidara had searched for something that he called syrup, although Sakura had never heard of it, and he had been quite pissed of when he hadn't been able to find it. So, because, according to Deidara, pancakes needed sweetness, he had taken a jar with sugar and put that on the table, and now he was putting the sugar on a thin paper like thing on his plate, and Sakura watched him.

Then he rolled the pancake up and was about to take a large bite when he saw Sakura staring at him. Sakura, feeling a bit ashamed of herself for staring at him like that, looked away.

He smirked.

it's a bit of an odd ending but this chapter really needed to be ended. I hope to see you again at the next chapter! (I don't own Naruto and please R&R:) )