EDIT: I was asked if I will kill off Sasori. Nope. It's fan fiction, I can keep em together, so I will. I was also asked "OMG where is chapter 11??" Patience. I held back this chapter's release because Ino/Sasori fan art is now on my profile page, and I wanted to tell all of you about it. Shaaaameless plug!
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Part 11 - "Keep"
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Ino put a vase of flowers down on the main dining table, arranging them carefully into a tall oval. She had managed to kick everyone out of the kitchen, even Sasori, and she had even convinced Konan to keep guard at the door. None of them knew what she was plotting to make for dinner, but if they wanted anything they would have to wait. She grinned slyly to herself, knowing exactly what she was doing. Tonight was special. It was three months since she had joined Akatsuki, and she wanted to make a special dinner to celebrate. As the pots of food stewed on the stove, she set the table, humming to herself. Soon she would be strong enough to pursue Orochimaru, get the ring back, and finally be able to participate in the sealing ritual. The rings weren't just for show, they held power.
She placed the last item on the table and took out her signature ponytail, redoing it into a fancy braid. With one last tug on her cloak, she opened the door and let the crowd inside. Each one gaped silently for only a moment before exploding noisily into chatter. For the occasion she had made a few of her own secret recipes for curry, seafood salad and an assortment of ohagi and dango. (ohagi is a mix of regular rice and glutinous rice made into a ball and covered with azuki paste) It was all she could do to keep everyone from eating long enough to make sure everyone had made it to the table.
With a satisfied glance, she looked around at each member. "I made something special for you all to celebrate that I've been here for three months! You better like it." She winked cheerfully and motioned for them to eat as she took her seat between Sasori and Deidara. It was expectedly noisy as everyone dug into their food, telling her what a great cook she was. As she enjoyed her own meal, talking and laughing, she looked over to Sasori, the only one she hadn't cooked for. "So are you happy?"
He looked up with a start. "Happy...? What do you mean?"
"I don't know... just wondering if you like having me here."
"Of course I do." He smiled in a strange way, and she interpreted it as sly or playful. Then he leaned over and looked at the food in the center of the table. "I think I'll try some..."
Her visible eyebrow raised curiously. "I thought you couldn't eat."
His eyes drifted back to her lazily. "I don't need to, but I can. I'm not completely made of wood, you know."
She thought about this for a good second or two. Now she was curious. Was that why he was able to kiss her? It hadn't felt like wood back then. "So how much did you keep? When I kissed you it felt normal."
Next to her she heard Deidara choke on a bite of curry before he looked at her with a completely freaked out expression. "Y-you kissed Sasori??"
She blushed furiously. Really, she had tried to keep her voice down, but Deidara's shout made it heard all around the table, complete silence taking over. Time to make a save! She grabbed Deidara in a headlock and hollered at him. "You idiot, that's not what I said at all!"
Naturally, Deidara wasn't the type of guy to let it go. "Yes it is, un! You just said you kissed him so fess up already!"
All the stares around her told her that everyone believed Deidara. Was it really that obvious what she felt for the strange redhead? No, no fessing up, she was going down with a fight dammit! "Well? So what if I did, blondie?"
He was turning red under her severe grip. "Who are you calling blondie, blondie? HMPH!"
Konan banged on the table hard enough to make the plates jump. "ENOUGH! Let's be civil. Deidara, shut up and sit down. Ino, let it go."
The two backed off and nodded. "Hai, Konan-sama..."
Kisame tried to make conversation with the others to distract them while Tobi did his best to join in, and soon everything was back to normal. But it didn't stop Deidara from lowering his voice for her to hear. "Hmph... Nothing wrong with it, un. I was just a little shocked. Sorry Ino-chan, un..."
She nodded with just a hint of a smile. "You really mean it, Dei-chan?"
He smiled a little at the familiar nickname. "Yeah, un. I guess I just got a little jealous."
Her eyes widened at the implications. "Jealous?!"
He stammered hastily. "N-no no! Not like that, un! He's been my partner for a while now, but once you came along we stopped going on missions together. I guess I got lonely, un."
"Oh! Don't worry, I won't keep him away too much. If you want to go on a mission with him sometime, just let me know and I'll trade with you!"
He was quick to smile this time. "You really mean that, un? You sure I won't get in the way with... whatever is between you?"
"It's fine, really. It wouldn't hurt to have time alone once in a while. I'm strong enough to do solo missions, so I can take one of yours any time you want."
He hesitated slightly. "Well... there was one up in Iwa I was supposed to do in a few days... but I really don't want to go back there, un. You'd have no problem fighting them, almost every ninja up there is earth based, un. They'd be cake for you."
"I'll take it, just send me the mission specs and I'll send you mine."
Konan had been sitting between Pein and Deidara, and leaned back in her chair to whisper to Ino. "Did you really kiss him?"
She blushed and leaned back with a nod, whispering even lower. "Yeah, a few times..." She heard Deidara choke again but smiled this time. "Heh sorry..."
But Konan winked and grinned. "Don't worry, I won't tell!" She went back to eating her dinner, glancing over to see Pein staring at her. She chose to ignore that stare.
Ino was blushing furiously again and stared at her food in dismay. "Me and my big mouth!"
Sasori couldn't help but grin at her expense. "Are you embarrassed?"
She recovered quickly, only a slight pink tinting her cheeks. "Er... maybe a little."
He put down his chopsticks to place his hand on top of hers on the table. "There's no reason to be. They really don't care as much as they let on." He was quickly corrected by Hidan grinning at them slyly and even Itachi was watching with interest. Fortunately Sasori was the type to recover from these people quickly. "We can talk about it later..." He smiled and left his cleared plate, retreating to his room just as everyone else was finishing. She left Tobi to do the dishes as usual. That kid really was handy when it came to the chores that she didn't want to do, and he always seemed excited to do them. She followed after Sasori to his room, and entered quietly.
"Sorry about that..." She smiled slightly, seating herself on his bed like she always did.
He had already gone back to working on yet another part. This guy never ran out of work! "There's nothing to apologize for." With a pause, he looked at her. "Would you still like to know, though?"
"Know what?" She had completely forgotten what she asked him.
He chuckled lightly and shrugged. "You asked how much of my old body I kept."
"Oh! I guess I forgot..." She grinned sheepishly. "I would still like to know, though..."
He put down his tools, thinking carefully. "Hmm... I remember that I kept some of my digestive system just in case I needed to replenish my chakra quickly with a food pill or something like that. Half of my face still works... mostly because I needed it to talk properly, although..." He paused, and she supposed he would have blushed if he had been able to. "I guess it had other uses."
She, of course, was quite able to blush and demonstrated that immediately. "Er... right. But you can't blush?"
"I used to be able to, but... I guess I suppressed it."
She was very curious about these new findings, and stared at him. "Can... can I look a little closer?"
He nodded and came to sit next to her, leaning forward as she touched his face curiously. Sure enough, only the back half and part of his right face was fake, the part that had been damaged before. And yet there was... skin? Yes, skin over the wood. Strange... Maybe his chakra was able to regenerate the skin on his face. That made sense. She ran her hand through his hair, looking at it closer. Even that was real. He noticed her rapt expression and smiled up at her. "I was able to preserve most of that, regrowing it with my chakra. I don't know why I felt so vain about it at the time, but now it's more of a habit."
She felt the rest of his face, her finger curiously tracing his lips. "Maybe you liked the way you looked?"
"Maybe." He glanced to the side, not really sure why he had kept himself exactly the way he was when he left Suna. Maybe there was a part of him that didn't want to give up what remained of his personality.
She smiled and kept holding his face. "So when I kiss you, it's really you, huh?"
"Mmhm..." He definitely would have blushed at this point. Her proximity alone was enough, not to mention what she was implying.
Ino had grown bolder in his presence, however, and kissed him experimentally, drawing it into something lengthy, then sat back and considered. "Hmm..." Then with a wink and a nod she grinned at him victoriously. "Yep, I definitely like it. Don't change a thing!"
He found himself getting a bit more forward just by sensing her bravado. He grabbed her by the waist and leaned close. "I wouldn't think of such a thing." With a grin at her surprised look at his forward nature, he leaned over and kissed her this time, not pulling away as he let his cold, shy nature take the back seat to this strange bold surge he felt. What was it about her that made him so secure and adventurous?
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A/N: -huff- Tired... mid-day slump. I'm through for now, just placating the masses! Go check out my fan art, it's on my profile. Please leave feedback!