After Sakura had followed Deidara out of the bathroom, she watched in amusement as he tried to cook himself breakfast. She broke out in small fits of giggles as he burnt the first batch, made the second batch too soggy, and ended up somehow making the third batch look like it was going to move out of the frying pan. Deidara growled in the end and threw his spatula down upon the counter in defeat. Oh well if he didn't have breakfast this morning...then his stomach growled loudly. Okay, maybe he did need breakfast. His tired and upset eyes looked towards Sakura and she just shrugged her shoulders at him.

"Hey, your the one who wanted to make breakfast on your own. I'm not helping."

At her comment, Deidara groaned and frowned. He needed something to eat, and he wasn't going to be making anything himself, obviously. Sakura ended up giving in and got up to make his breakfast for him. She genlty pushed him out of the way, but he didn't seem to move totally. He wanted to get a look at what she was doing so that maybe next time he could make it himself.

"Here, you need to make sure the heat isn't too high and you need to scrap them like this, so they turn scrambled."

Deidara moved behind her, his head perched over Sakura's shoulder to get a good look at what she was doing. It really didn't seem to hard, but then again she made it look so easy. Sakura's arm moved over to a few cut up veggies on the side and was about to dump them into the scrambled eggs before Deidara's hand shot out and grasped her wrist.

"Deidara what-"

"I don't like veggies..."

"Ok then..."

Sakura retreated her hand, but Deidara's hand never left her wrist. Her cheeks grew a slight red before she cleared her throat and his hand quickly left hers in an instant. The blonde added a handful of cheese onto the scrambled eggs before Sakura scraped them out of the frying pan and onto a plate. Greedily, Deidara grabbed the plate and went to the counter. Sighing and rolling her eyes, Sakura made her own batch of eggs with veggies in them. When they were done she took a seat next to Deidara who was woofing his food down like he hadn't eaten in days.

"Jeez, slow down. You might choke."

"I mmfine, you mmdon't know how mmhungry I was."

The pink haired girl shook her head at how he ate and spoke at the same time. He really did have bad manners, but she ended up getting used to them in the end. Breakfast was soon eaten, and then everything was cleaned up. Deidara sat around looking bored as Sakura put away the dishes and then made sure everything was in its place.

"Can we go now? I'm bored sitting here, yeah."

"If we are going anywhere, it's to see Tsunade. I have work to do."

Deidara made a loud disapproving noise, but Sakura ignored him. She pulled on her boots and gloves and made her way out of the house, Deidara following behind her.

The two walked down the streets of Konoha. The weather was damp, a feeling of rain coming on, and people walked slowly almost as if in some sort of haze. Deidara watched in mild curiosity as the civilians walked past them. When he first came to Konoha everyone couldn't stop staring at him. Some would give him nasty looks while others would simply call out rudely to him. But now they didn't care, almost as if they forgot an Akatsuki member was walking around in their town practically freely. Sakura glanced momentarily at Deidara's face. He seemed so calm and pristine in the dreary light. His face turned in her direction and she quickly pulled her face away.

"Sakura-chan!"

Deidara shuddered at the voice and his hair prickled at the nape of his neck. Sakura could sense tension from Deidara and she quickly moved in front of him so that he wouldn't do anything stupid. Naruto ran up to Sakura, the large smile that was once emblazoned upon his face now replaced by an ugly sneer towards the blonde behind Sakura.

"Yes, Naruto? Is there something you needed?" She wanted to cut to the chase.

"Oh, ya! I just got word from Granny Tsunade, guess who's coming in town?"

"I don't know, tell me."

"Gaara!"

All the color from Deidara's face vanished and his mouth went agape. Naruto saw this and smirked evily, knowing full well as to what would happen to the Akatsuki member when Gaara would reach Konoha. Sakura groaned, really not knowing how to deal with this situation at the moment. She had way too many other things on her mind.

"That's great Naruto, but I have to be somewhere. I'll have to talk to you about that later."

Naruto's smirked quickly vanished and he whimpered. Deidara on the other hand was looking around frantically. He had no use of his chakra, once that stupid boy reached town he would be dead for, he didn't have a fighting chance! He was going to have to stay low, but how would that be possible with Naruto knowing where he was being housed. Naruto would grab Gaara and drag him to Sakura's to kill Deidara right when he stepped foot into Konoha. Deidara sent a quick glare at Naruto before he was being dragged away by Sakura. Naruto giggled evily and made a slicing motion with his finger across his throat.

Deidara was sitting outside the large door that closed the Hokage in. Sakura had to talk to Tsunade privately, so she actually left the Akatsuki member outside…alone. Either she trusted the man enough to not run away, or that conversation must really be important to just leave him here. It had been five minutes already and he hadn't booked it out the door, his mind was too wrapped around the thought that the boy he tried to kill and extract the one tailed beast from would be in the same vicinity as him. If he had use of his chakra and tools he wouldn't be so worried, he'd just plant a bomb on the little twit and finish what he had started. But that wasn't the case, he was completely weaponless. In other words, he was dead meat. Deidara nearly jumped out of his skin when Sakura had slammed the large two wooden doors to Tsunade's office.

"You're really jumpy today."

"Heh…"

Sakura's brow lifted, confused on all accounts. He didn't come back with some snooty retort and he hadn't tried to run when she left him here. What was it that was bugging him? And then it hit her, Gaara. She placed both of her finger tips against her temples and rubbed them hard. If they didn't need to extract information from Deidara, she was pretty sure Tsunade would set up a special battle in the chunnin exam arena and let Gaara go to town on the Akatsuki member. But they did need information and Sakura was pretty sure she wasn't going to be getting any information from him anytime soon, so she was going to have to keep him undercover while Gaara was in town. This was just way too much work for her. Couldn't she just shake the information they needed from Deidara and be done with it? She wanted her life back! As soon as she thought of it, an idea came to mind. If she could get the information now, she wouldn't have to worry about protecting him from Gaara. There was only one way of getting information, and fast.

"You seem a little stressed, Deidara. I have the perfect remedy for that!"

"You shoulda seen it! It was…was…ugh, what was I saying?"

"I think my face is numb, hey man, feel my face!"

Walking into the tavern made Sakura's nose quickly upturn. The place smelled of sake, sweat, and something she couldn't detect but very foul. Deidara stared at the couple of jounin sitting in a corner, nearly falling out of their seats from drinking so much sake.

"Are you sure this is the place, yeah?"

"Oh, I'm positive! A little sake is okay, it'll help ease whatever you're worried about."

Sakura took a seat at the bar, Deidara pulling out the seat next to her. The bartender just stared at the blonde for a few seconds before turning to Sakura and throwing a white dish towel over his shoulder.

"What can I get for ya, little lady?"

"A bottle of sake and two shot glasses, please."

Deidara looked confused. She was too young to be drinking, yet this man pulled out the white ceramic bottle and two small glasses and set them in front of the pinklette without batting an eye. Sakura poured a shot for herself and Deidara and slid him his. He caught it with ease so that none of the liquid would pour out of the glass. Sakura raised her glass to him.

"Cheers!"

She smirked and then gulped down the small amount of liquid, her nose crinkling at the sting it left in her throat. Deidara just smiled and shook his head before doing the same. It wasn't long before he started to lose track of how many shots he had. Things started to become blurry, his cheeks and lips started to feel numb and when he tried to get up he stumbled all over the floor. Sakura on the other hand wasn't as bad off as her blonde companion. She had a few shots herself in the beginning so that Deidara wouldn't suspect anything, but she could still walk straight, yet had a nice little buzz going on.

"Wow, I've got to tell you, I've never really been this drunk before, yeah."

"I can't say I've ever seen anyone as drunk as you before."

Sakura giggled as Deidara ran into a chair and almost fell onto another person. He scrambled off the floor and surprisingly made it back to his seat next to Sakura. He tried to reach for the bottle of sake again, but missed.

"I think you've had enough for the night."

She just wanted him a little drunk; she didn't want to have to run him to the hospital from alcohol poisoning. Tsunade wouldn't know what to think of that.

Deidara leaned against the table of the bar, eyes drooping. Sakura was going to have to start interrogating him now if she was going to get any information from him before he passed out. She pretended to act a little tipsy too, falling off her stool and catching herself on Deidara's arm. He surprisingly caught her with quick speed, helping her back up onto her feet.

"How…meny drenks you had?"

Deidara spoke in a drunken manner, trying to focus in on Sakura's face, but failing only to make a stupid look as if he was trying to squint at small writing. Sakura couldn't help but laugh and quickly turned it into a drunken laugh, leaning against the form of the blonde. He felt so warm. Her hand wrapped around his bicep, finding a pretty decent sized muscle there. She could feel his muscles tense at the intrusion of her presence. Deidara started to get up, holding her by her shoulders and moving from the bar.

"Wait, where are we going, Deidara?"

"You are too drunk, yeah. We gotta go home…or something."

Deidara stumbled over his own feet, quickly catching himself on a table. Oh no, she needed to hurry up, she was wasting time trying to act drunk.

"No, no, I wanna stay."

"You're too drunk, gotta go."

"No, you're drunk, Deidara."

Sakura could hear the sound of a chair slide against the floor, and footsteps coming their way. Oh shit, this didn't look good. A rather strong hand grasped Deidara's shoulder and yanked him backwards, sending him sliding across the tavern floor. Sakura stood there, dumbfounded. She looked at the man, some jounin that looked a little drunk and very muscular and then towards the confused blonde on the floor.

"The lady doesn't wanna go!"

"No, sir, you have it all wrong…"

But before Sakura could say anymore, she saw a flash of black and blonde rush towards the jounin and tackle him to the floor. Punches were thrown, and tables were strewn all over the place. Other men started to get riled up from the commotion and began to throw punches at everyone else in the tavern. It was utter chaos, and Sakura had to get Deidara out of here. She pushed past a couple of men who gave an uppercut to the other and sent him through the wall. The sound of the bartender in the background yelling at everyone to take it outside was blending in with all of the commotion. Sakura finally found the man that had thrown Deidara pinned against a wall and the Akatsuki member punching his face over and over. This wasn't good at all.

"Deidara, STOP!"

Sakura ran over to the two and pulled at Deidara's shirt. He quickly whirled around, grabbing Sakura's arm hard and pinning her back against the bar table. Sakura yelped loudly from the pain in her arm. But that wasn't what had her completely frightened. The look in the blondes' visible blue eye. It held so much hate, so much raw anger. His teeth were clenched and the veins on his forehead were popping out. He was too much on edge right now and he would kill anyone that crossed him, but when he finally got past the haze of the sake, he saw that he was pinning Sakura against the counter. Quickly he released his grip and backed away from her several steps. Sakura quickly grabbed her hurt arm, staring at the confused blonde.

"Let's get out of her…"

Sakura merely whispered the words. Deidara just nodded, adverting his eyes from the girl and quickly following her out of the tavern and the loud mess they had caused.

Rain was pouring down as they ran, and in Deidara's case, stumbled towards her house. Sakura quickly searched under her mat for her key, and cursed as she dropped it once from how wet it was and then finally opened the door. Deidara rushed past her, stumbling towards her kitchen to look for something. Sakura didn't know what to do; she accessed her arm, finding a dark bruise already forming. She pressed her hand against it to heal it, hopefully so that people wouldn't see it and wonder, especially Naruto.

"Sorry about that…"

Deidara's soft voice spooked Sakura and she jumped backwards, hitting her head against her door. Cursing she pressed both of her hands against the back of her head. She could feel the presence of the blonde in front of her and she squeaked at how close he was. He grabbed the arm he had hurt and looked at the damage. It was a bluish grey color already and it was in the form of a hand too. Deidara's brows furrowed.

"It doesn't hurt that bad."

"It's not the pain that I'm worried about. It's the fact that I actually did this…to you, yeah."

Sakura's eyes went wide. Did he seriously just say those words? He was actually worried he had hurt her? But why…was it the sake talking? It must be the alcohol, it had to be! She suddenly felt fingertips brush against the bruise; it tingled, but almost felt good at the same time. He traced the outline of the fingers on the bruise, the whole time his eyebrows furrowing even more. Sakura's eyes started to droop from the feeling. She hadn't been touched like this before; it was all new to her. She liked it in a way and let off a soft sigh. She could feel the fingertips move away from the bruise, brushing against her soaked shirt and up into her equally soaked hair. They tangled in her pink tresses, brushing against the bruise that was forming there from hitting her head against the door. It hurt, but like the bruise on her arm, felt good at the same time. She sighed once more, and could feel Deidara move closer to her body. Her eyes quickly moved to look at his. What was once filled with hate and anger was now filled with curiosity and sadness. Unknowingly to herself, Sakura's hand had moved up to rest against Deidara's cheek. She pushed his bangs from his face. She had only seen his visible eye, but looking into both of them, it was enchanting. He was so angelic in a way. His jaw was strong, his nose long and thin, eyes as blue as the sky, and his lips…so…and before she knew it she was pulling those lips towards her. Deidara didn't even resist. He pressed them hard against hers, his other free hand resting upon the small of her back. She didn't know what she was doing, but for some reason, she couldn't stop. His lips moved against hers, almost guiding her. This was her first kiss, and to be honest, she never thought it would feel this great. She had always wanted her kiss to be with Sasuke though, always had thoughts of how it would feel. But dreams could never beat the real thing. Her own hands buried themselves deep in Deidara's blonde hair. He never made any sounds, she wasn't sure if she did or not, but just went with what her body was telling her. Deidara's hands both moved lower, resting on her hips as his lips moved down her jaw, pressing small kisses down the line of her jaw and onto her neck. Sakura could feel her heart beating faster than ever before, her breaths coming out fast. She could feel his fingertips running up the back of her shirt, brushing against her warm skin and she shivered in response.

"Sasuke…"

Sakura moaned out Sasuke's name without knowing. It was so impulsive, and she could feel Deidara stop in his actions. He was frozen in place and Sakura suddenly knew what had just happened. She didn't mean it, it just came out on its own. She bit her bottom lip and gently pushed Deidara away, obviously feeling awkward. This shouldn't have even happened, this wrong.

"I'm…going to go take a shower and then go to bed."

Sakura announced while moving around Deidara. He just made a 'hmm' sound, but never left the spot by the door. Had she hurt him? It was obviously the sake that had driven them both to do this. She had no intentions of kissing him again, this was all just a mistake, and the worst part of all…she didn't even get the information she needed from the beginning.

A/N: So ya, finally got back to this story. Enjoy Chapter 10. :)