Chapter Eleven
My head is fuzzy, my dreams all filled with colorful globs, I don't want to open my eyes, but my body is telling me to awaken. My head seems to be moving up in down in a steady rhythm, and my whole body is close to something rather warm. I cuddle closer to it; maybe if I warm up a little I'll fall back asleep. But my mind just comes more awake, I open my eyes, blinking against the light of the TV screen. Ino is now curled up into Gaara's lap, leaning her head into the crook of his neck. Gaara has his eyes closed but doesn't look like he is sleeping at all. I look up at what I'm leaning on and see Sasori, who looks like he is sleeping. My body is pressed up against his side, my head resting against his chest. His arms are wrapped loosely around my waist, and when I try to sit up he tugs me closer, pulling my body closer to his, I blush. He feels nice, comfortable for someone who seemed like such a dick when I first met him. I am tempted to just fall back asleep again but I need to get home and at least grab some clothes for the day. Still blushing I try to pull away from him again moving his hands slowly away from my waist, he groans and his eyes flutter open. He looks up at me blankly, then looks down at the position we are in. His face turns a lovely shade of red and he pulls his hands away from my body, looking flustered.
"Sorry," he mumbles, as I slide off his lap.
"It's alright, do you think you could drive me home." I ask, "I just need to pick up some clothes for Ino and I."
"Its 1 in the morning," he states, blandly.
"So, drive fast and we'll be back before its one thirty." I sigh, standing up and stretching my limbs, "I refuse to let people think I'm doing a walk of shame."
"Not too late for that," Sasori chuckles in a sexy voice, well that's new.
"Hey you still owe me two dates; you aren't getting anywhere this morning." I say back, "Now drive me home my lovely chauffer!"
"Geez keep it down, come on lets go," he sighs.
We walk out to his car, he unlocks the garage doors and he pulls out. We begin to head towards my house; the streets are empty so it's a quick ride. We pull into the parking lot and I see that my mother's car is in the drive way, my Dad's is nowhere to be found. God he's working this late? The lights are all out and we walk quietly up to the front door. I unlock it and walk in, but then stop when I realize he isn't following me.
"You can come in you know." I whisper, "Come on the sooner we get my stuff the sooner we can leave."
"If you're sure," he mumbles, we walk up the stairs and into my bedroom. He stands awkwardly in the doorway.
"Shut the door smart one," I shout as quietly as possible.
He flashes me a smirk and shuts the door quietly. I walk into my closet and begin to grab a few outfits that Ino and I could choose from for tomorrow. I check on Sasori really quick and see him examining the water color picture my sister gave to me.
"Did you paint this?" he asks, looking over his shoulder at me.
"No my sister did, she's a lot better at painting then I am," I say, "All of my pictures are on my vanity," I say, pointing towards the large piece of furniture.
He crosses the room to look at them, as I pack the last of the clothing up in one of my oversized handbags. I walk out of my closet and walk up behind him, he is examining the picture I drew of the faceless boy in the field.
"You're pretty good," he says, placing the painting down lightly.
"Thanks, I really appreciate it," I whisper, I look out the window and gasp as I see my Father's car is in the driveway, with my father not in it, "Oh crap you have to hide, um." I look towards my bathroom and grab his arm quickly and push him inside, "Stay in here until I'm sure my Dad is asleep." He tries to say something but I shut the door in his face before he can reply.
Just as I shut the door a knock resonates from my bedroom door, I walk over quickly and open it slightly to reveal the tired face of my Dad. God it's been a week since I've seen him, it's almost like looking at a stranger.
"Hey you are home," he says with a loud yawn, "Whose car is that in the driveway?"
"Oh it's my friends- my friend's brother's car," I say quickly, "I'm staying with her for a few days while her parents are out of town and we came over quickly to get some clothes."
"Ok well where is she?" he asks, looking around my room.
"Oh she's in the bathroom, it was an emergency," I whisper like it's some sort of girly secret, he nods and yawns again.
"Well I'm going to bed, see you in a few days honey, I love you." He says, giving me a hug.
"I love you too Daddy, night." He walks down the hall and I watch as he enters his bedroom and the door shuts, "My god that was close."
I close the door and walk to my closet, throwing in a few extra outfits in case I decide to stay over a little longer at Sasori and Gaara's house. I throw the bag over my shoulder and knock on the bathroom door, just in case he decided to use the bathroom for real. He opens it and walks out, giving me a glare.
"What are you glaring at, I pretty much saved your life," I hush, "Daddy would have you hanging by your nuts if he caught you in my room."
"You could have told me your Dad might show up, I could have stayed in the car." He sighs.
"You'd be dead if you were in the car too," I look out into the hall; Dad's snores have already filled the entire house, "Alright lets go."
We sneak quietly out of my house and all but run to his car once we are out the front door. Once we are a safe distance away I let out a sigh of relief; that went well given the circumstances. Sasori drives at a steady pace through the empty streets, nobody is around, it's almost like a ghost town. We make it back to the house in record time; Sasori pulls into the garage and shuts down his car.
"Well that was fun but I'm fucking tired," he sighs, "did you grab any pajamas?"
"God damn it!" I growl, smacking my head with the back of my hand.
"I should have reminded you," he says, stepping out of the car and going to lock up the garage door. I step out as well and watch him lock up, "You can borrow some of my clothes, no big deal."
"Cool beans," I say, "Hurry up I'm so fucking tired."
He finishes with the locks and we walk back into the house. Gaara and Ino are still curled up against each other on the couch, it's so adorable. I follow behind Sasori as he leads me to a room down the hall from the kitchen. He opens one of the two doors in the hall and I follow him inside, into his room. The walls are painted a tan color with black curtains hanging over the window by his neatly made queen sized bed. The thing that catches my eye is a large tool bench covered in different types of puppets. I can't help but walk over and look at a few, they're so well done. I pick one up and realize after turning it over a few times that it is a puppet version of Gaara I am holding, complete with the little Ai tattoo on his forehead. I hear him come up behind me, as I pick up a different puppet, one that looks exactly like Hidan, with silver hair, no shirt and a little Jashin symbol around his neck.
"These are incredible," I gush, turning to look at him, "How do you have the patients to make so many, and so perfectly too."
"I learned from my grandmother," he says, handing me a pair of boxers and a large red shirt, "These should fit you alright."
"Thanks," I say, "Now get out I need to strip."
"Well I have already seen you without a shirt on," he starts.
"Do you want to make it three dates? I don't come cheap honey, you will need three paychecks to get anywhere with all of this hotness," I say, cocking out my hip.
"Fine I'll leave," he chuckles, exiting the room.
I sigh and strip out of my clothes, folding them up and throwing them into my bag, I slip into the clothes Sasori gave me, he wasn't kidding the shirt goes down to my knees, covering the black and red boxers he gave me. But they're comfortable, I sigh and throw myself onto his bed, it creaks lightly and I bounce on it a bit before settling down into the black covers. It smells nice, like spice and some sort of cologne that isn't too overpowering, it smells like Sasori. I curl up on my side and bury my head into his pillow, closing my eyes. After a few minutes of silence a knock sounds from the door.
"Are you done in there," Sasori calls, I grumble a reply and he comes in, I peak through my lashes and see he has changed into a pair of black pajama pants and has lost his shirt, he's actually got a good amount of muscles, I close my eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Sleeping fire crotch now shut up and go to sleep." I grumble.
"Getting kicked out of my own bedroom," he sighs; I groan and grab his arm.
"No," I say, pulling him down onto the bed, "You sleep in your bed, I sleep in your bed, it's big enough."
"But I haven't even taken you on a date yet," he says sarcastically.
"Only if you touch me," I yawn, "Shut up and sleep puppet boy."
"Fine," he grumbles, rolling over, "Night midget bitch,"
"Night fire crotch."
I groan as an alarm begins to buzz in my ear, I lean out and shut it off before falling back onto the bed, half of my body engulfed in something warm. I open my eyes and find my head is resting against Sasori's chest, his arms wrapped around my waist once again and my leg is thrown over his waist, resting dangerously close to, I blush and pull myself away from him quickly.
"Hell," I grumble, rubbing at my head, that's the second time I've woken up in his arms and I haven't really wanted to move.
"Oh you guys moved," Ino pouts, she's standing in the doorway with a camera in her hands, "I was going to take a picture."
"Put that fucking camera away, you're lucky I woke up before you got pictures or I would have beaten you," she gives me a smirk, "oh laugh now, but think of the talk when you walk in to school wearing the same outfit you did yesterday."
"Oh no I didn't think about that," Ino cries, "what am I going to do!"
"Well if you apologize I did have Sasori drive me home last night for some clothes." I say, climbing out of his bed, his arm slipping down from my side.
"Oh my you're even wearing his clothes!" Ino squeals.
"Oh god," I groan, "be quiet for the love of god," I walk to the corner and grab my bag, I push her out of the room and shut the door behind us, "He's sleeping you need to calm down." She smirks but doesn't say anything.
I go through the bag and quickly pull out a pair of paint splattered Skinny jeans and throw them at her, along with a black tank top and purple half shirt. She catches them quickly and goes to the bathroom to change while I pull out my outfit for the day. I grab my sleeveless purple a-line shirt and a small leather vest, with a pair of my own black skinny jeans. I wait patiently for her to get out of the bathroom when I hear Sasori's bedroom door creak open. He walks out, dressed in a pair of tight grey jeans and a black and red t-shirt with his leather jacket. He looks extremely tired, and just looks at me blankly for a few minutes.
"Morning darling," I say, "Did we wake you?"
"No," he grumbles, "My alarm went off again."
"Oh weird, I thought I shut it off, sorry." I say, "Now get out of your room I need to change."
"Fine, I'm going to go make breakfast." He says, walking down the hall towards the kitchen.
"Make Coffee!" I shout after him, before locking myself in his room.
I change quickly and leave the bag of clothes on the floor in his room, along with the makeshift pajamas he lent me. I walk out, combing my fingers through my hair; Ino is in the hallway dressed in the outfit I gave her. Her pony tail is fixed and neat, and her face, although still slightly purple looks a lot better than it did yesterday. I smile and we walk to the kitchen, Sasori is cooking eggs from what it looks like and Gaara is sitting at the table, flipping through a newspaper.
"How did you sleep my peeps?" I ask, taking my seat at the table.
"I don't sleep," Gaara answers, "Not often anyway."
"Oh do you have Insomnia?" Ino asks, looking slightly concerned.
"I've had it since I was little," he replies, "I probably only get a few hours of sleep a month, if I'm lucky."
"That's gotta suck," I sympathize, "so is that why you wear so much eye makeup?"
"I suppose, it covers up the dark circles," he mumbles, "Although I'm not wearing any right now."
"But the rings are so dark," Ino says, reaching out to touch one, but she quickly retracts her hand, "Sorry."
"No its ok, you can touch if you want," he says, leaning closer to her, she blushes as runs her finger under his eye, I stand from my seat and walk over to Sasori, hopping on the counter next to him.
"Coffee!" I cry, "Bring me some of that caffeinated bliss!"
"Are you always this loud in the morning?" he asks with a yawn, before handing me a cup filled with black coffee.
"No I usually don't talk at all, since there is no one at home to talk to," I sigh, reaching for the milk that is sitting on the counter, "pass me some sugar?" he hands me over a bowl and I begin to spoon in the little crystals.
"Does anyone mind cheese in their eggs?" Sasori calls out.
"Well if they do mind I don't care, cheese it up!" I shout.
With a grunt in reply cheese is added to the scramble of eggs and soon our breakfast is complete. We sit at the table, eggs on our plates and coffee cups full and I can't help but smile. Breakfast, when was the last time someone actually made breakfast in my house? We eat quickly, and before I know it we are all piling into Sasori's car and on our way to school. It seems like the most normal thing in the world. We arrive at school and pull into a parking spot, everyone is standing in the parking lot waiting for us, oh my.
"Hey peeps what's up?" I ask, stepping out of the passenger seat.
"Well we originally came out here to check on Ino," Haku says, "But-"
"Someone put a fucking bomb threat in the god damn school." Hidan interrupts, which earns him a smack in the head from Kakuzu.
"And before anyone asks," Deidara starts, "It wasn't me, un."
"No it was probably the Oto," Sasori sighs, "but they'll probably look to you first."
"I don't doubt it, but I've got an alibi this time, un!" Dei cheers, throwing his arms around Naruto, who blushes, "I was hanging out with Blondie all night, yeah." Oh I so need to grill Naruto for the details.
"So are you feeling better Ino?" Konan asks walking over to my blonde friend, Haku follows suit.
"Yeah I'm a lot better, I still need to get all of my stuff from my house and talk to my aunt," She sighs, "But I'm feeling so much better."
"That's good," Haku says, "It's good to have you back."
"Oh come here," she sighs and envelopes Haku in a hug.
It's around this time that I notice Tsunade off in the distance approaching with Shizune at her heels. Sasori is watching too, we exchange a 'this is not going to be good' look. Deidara notices there approach too, detaches himself from Naruto. Naruto of course instead of backing off holds on to Deidara's hand, god it's so cute. Tsunade notices the contact as she approaches and strange look of concern flashes across her face, but is quickly replaced by a professional face. She stops in front of the two, then looks around our entire group. Her eyes stop on Ino, Haku, and I a little longer, and even longer still on Naruto, who seems to shrink under the gaze. She finally turns her full attention onto Deidara, who seems to straighten up under the gaze.
"I'm only going to ask you once Mr. Iwa," She growls, "Are you responsible for this?"
"No Sensei I am not, un." He answers in a calm voice.
"Where were you last night Mr. Iwa"
"I was with Naruto, un." He answers, Tsunade looks a little flustered at that.
"Naruto is this true?" she asks.
"Yes," Naruto answers, "I told you I had a friend sleeping over."
"Yes but I thought-" she stops and sighs, "Fine you get off this time Iwa, I'll see you at home Naruto." Then she leaves, looking rather pissed off.
"God your grandmother is scary, un." Deidara sighs, "But I'm off the hook, score, un!"
"Yes fucking wonderful," Hidan grumbles.
"You don't think the Oto would put an actual bomb in the school do you?" Haku asks.
"Who knows," Pein growls, "we don't know what they could do, that's what makes them so dangerous."
We wait around a bit longer, wondering if we are going to go into classes or just stand around all day. After about ten minutes Tsunade announces in the parking lot that school is cancelled until the building has been searched by the police. There will be a call going out tonight to determine if we would have school tomorrow as well.
"Well waking up this morning was a waste of time," I sigh, "What should we do now?"
"Party at Pein's house!" Hidan shouts.
"I'm cool with that," Kisame says, "What do you think Itachi?"
"Might as well." The Uchiha answers.
"Hey don't I get a say in what happens at my own house?" Pein protests, as everyone begins to walk to their cars.
"No, but if you don't want the locks blown off the front door I suggest you get to your house first, un." Deidara chuckles, tugging Naruto over to his car.
"Let's go," I shout, tugging on Sasori's arm, "I want to play Fable!"
"Are you guys ok with going?" he asks looking over at Ino and Gaara.
"Sure, but I do need to go to my Aunt's house later," Ino says.
"We can do that on the way home," I gush, "Fable is waiting for me!"
"Are you going over Haku?" Ino asks our feminine friend.
"For a little while," Haku says.
"I'm thinking of taking him on a date since we have the day off," Zabuza says.
"Cute," I chime in, "Now let's go, I wish to defeat the darkness!"
"Alright, we'll see you guys at Pein's," Ino says, hoping into the back of Sasori's car.
The ride over was quick, we were almost the last people to pull in, Zabuza was right behind us. I practically ran into the house to start the Xbox, I really need to buy one once I get my next pay check. The thought of money makes me think of my car, and I decide while the game loads to go look for Kakuzu to ask about my baby.
"Hey Kakuzu," I shout, when I see him in the living room pulling penny's out of the couch.
"What do you want chibi?" I flinch at the word but decide to ignore it.
"When is my car going to be fixed?" I ask, he sighs and sits up, shoving the change into his pocket.
"Well I think it will take a lot longer than I originally anticipated," I know he is talking about how it practically blew up.
"Yeah I know it's going to take a long time, but how long are we talking?" I ask.
"A good few months," he answers, rubbing the back of his head.
"Alright," I sigh, damn this sucks.
"It's going to cost a bit more than I expected as well," so I guess I'm not getting that Xbox.
"I figured as much," I sigh, "How much are we talking here?"
"I'll let you know," he answers.
"If you're sure," I reply back, "Well I'm going to let you get back to looking for pocket change." He grunts and moves on to the next couch, god he is weird.
I walk back into the front living room, Sasori is loading my profile for me and I sit down and grab the controller from his hands. He smirks before starting up his own profile and adding himself to my game. We then pick up where we left off, in Bowerstone Industrial, performing random missions for the resistance.
"I am so going to beat this game today," I announce to no one in particular.
"By doing good or evil deeds?" Sasori asks with a chuckle.
"Oh Sasori all of my intentions are pure," I say in an accent, "Some people just don't seem to agree that the orphanage should be a whore house."
"Oh my," he says in a Reaver tone, "And I thought you hated Reaver."
"I do," I answer, "But let's not talk about him outside of the bedroom."
We laugh and continue on through the game. Ino and Gaara wander around the house, Gaara showing Ino random places of interest. Haku and Zabuza retire to sit on the porch with Kisame and Itachi. Zabuza and Kisame get along quite well, and soon the boys are talking like they've been friends forever while Haku makes gentle conversation with a rather quiet Uchiha. Hidan is running around looking for a weapon to try and kill a cat that had gotten into the backyard of the house. Kakuzu after giving up searching for pennies tries to stop him, yelling about another lawsuit. Deidara is showing Naruto some of the upstairs rooms, including a little art studio that he shares with Sasori. Zetsu is in the garden in the backyard, weeding out plants while Tobi twirls around singing about how pretty flowers are. Konan is looking through a magazine in the den, with Pein's head in her lap, he is sound asleep. She chuckles and messes with his hair, which causes him to snore loudly. All is well at the Akatsuki base.
Unknown POV
"She looked fine when I fucking saw the bitch," Tayuya growls, kicking a chair, "Looks like you didn't scare her enough four eyes."
"God your mouth is awful," Jirobo sighs, leaning back against a wall, "You should cool it."
"Fuck you fat ass my mouth is fine!" She growls.
"Calm down Tayuya you're going to piss off the boss," Ukon hisses.
"The last thing we want is him to be angry," Sakon adds in.
"Oh shut up all of you," the boss shouts, throwing a glass at the wall, it shatters and everyone falls silent.
"Sir-" Kabuto tries to interject.
"She was unaffected, and on top of it all the stupid blonde bomber didn't get in trouble," Orochimaru sighs, "well I suppose the best thing we can do right now is let them sweat it out. The longer we don't attack them the more jumpy and nervous they will get. It gives us time to come up with a rather brilliant plan, get to work!"
"Yes sir!" Everyone says.