Authoress' Note: This took me a few hours to do. I started it the other night and managed a page before I slept. Then I did the other 10 and a half pages from 11 pm all the way to 4 am. So...it's a long chapter. But it couldn't really be cut and I couldn't stop typing once I started lol! Don't expect other chapters to be this long by the way. This is special. Hope you all enjoy!

And thank you to all who reviewed the last chapter! Uber huggles you! Please take the time to review this chapter, as I spent my time typing it for you all.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Naruto' or anything associated with the manga or anime. It's a FANfiction, not FACT.


A Broken Friendship

Chapter Eleven: Love

Day of Confinement: 1

The first day of being inside the prison-like room dawned and Sasori remained lying down on his bed. He'd purposely picked the one nearest the door so that if Deidara started to go mad, he could stop him from attempting to escape. That being said, if Sasori himself went a little nutty while confined, nobody would be able to stop him.

The room was sparsely furnished, with only a small corner sectioned off with a cubicle so that Deidara could go to the toilet. They both had small futons that acted as beds – even if Sasori couldn't figure out why he would need one. It wasn't as though he slept or did anything normal these days.

Deidara's bed was on the side of the room opposite the door, whilst Sasori's was right next to it. For the moment Deidara was sleeping soundly, with the occasional snore and wheeze. It would have been funny for anyone that was not Sasori. He had witnessed this strange phenomenon so many times in his life that it no longer phased him. He imagined that Sakura would probably say the blonde was 'cute' or something.

The puppeteer sighed and rolled over onto his back, with his arms behind his head to prop it up. He'd never felt so bored before. He wasn't even permitted to practice his puppet manipulation jutsu while confined. Not even on a small mannequin! He couldn't really start complaining though, since he had agreed without hesitating.

He was doing this to be free. Free to travel around and go to the Leaf village, to see Sakura everyday. It was for her.

All for Sakura.


Deidara's eyes cracked open and he lazily rubbed the sleep from them with his remaining hand. He still couldn't believe he had lost his left arm. It didn't really hurt or anything. He was used to pain so he barely noticed it at all. He just hated a piece of his body being missing. It was gone. His hand was gone and with it a piece of his jutsu. He couldn't create his clay bombs as effectively with only one hand. It wouldn't be easy and he doubted he'd be able to make that special of his ever again.

"No use crying about it, yeah." He mumbled to himself as he sat up slowly and started to pick up the band he tied his hair up with.

The blonde fumbled about a bit with the band – since he only had one hand – but he eventually put up a piece of his long locks with it. Next he slipped his scratched head protector under part of his fringe and above his eyes. When he was satisfied with his appearance – not that he had a mirror to check of course – he twisted around and faced his partner, who was sitting up right and staring at Deidara strangely.

"What? You've seen me do that a thousand times before now, yeah." Deidara said a bit too defensively.

Sasori, still quite wide-eyed, looked away from the blonde man and tried not to look at him anymore. "It just looked...strange when you did that with just your right arm." The red-haired man turned back to face Deidara, a smirk now adorning his features. "It was funny though."

"It wasn't funny, yeah! I can't help it if I don't have my other arm! It was 'removed' from me while I was doing the mission that we didn't even finish anyway, yeah!"

"Fine, fine I won't make fun of you anymore. I'm not really in the mood to now. I'm bored."

The blonde man grinned and practically jumped on the fun he could have with that simple revelation. Sasori was bored, which mean that Deidara could tease him about Sakura!

"Well, it must get boring when there isn't a pretty girl holding your hand and falling all over you, yeah."

A few minutes passed by in total silence. Sasori hadn't responded to Deidara's comment. The blonde shifted his blue eyes to where his partner was sitting and tried to read the blank expression that coated all of the puppet master's face. He couldn't.

"Er...Sasori..?"


It wasn't that the red-haired man was angry with Deidara's comment. It was the fact that the words the blonde had spoken struck some chord within his being. He really was bored because Sakura wasn't around.

"Deidara..."

"...what, yeah?" The artist was nervous, Sasori could tell. He most likely expected to be yelled at, threatened or hurt.

"...You're right. It is boring without Sakura here."

Sasori looked at his partner and their eyes met briefly. Then the blonde man started to laugh! He rolled over on his futon and laughed so hard there were tears in his eyes.

"Why are you laughing?"

He steadied himself and wiped the tears from the corners of his deep blue eyes. "I'm sorry, yeah. It's just so funny! You really like pinky, don't you? You probably love her!"

Sasori shifted uncomfortably. "I don't love Sakura! We're just friends you idiot!"

The grin seemed to be permanent on Deidara's face as he looked at Sasori. He was far too amused by this revelation that only he knew of, that probably nothing could ever be capable of bringing his good mood down.

"Look on the bright side, yeah. At least you can hold hands with your new girlfriend and hug her." He waved his right hand around and showed off its mouth. "What girl would ever want to hold my hand, yeah? And I've only got one arm now, so hugging wouldn't be happening either."

"She's not my girlfriend, you idiot! Sakura is just my FRIEND."

Deidara's grin slipped from his face slightly when he realised that perhaps his partner just didn't know he was in love with the pink-haired girl from the Leaf village. It was plain as day to the ex-Stone ninja.


Lunch times for Sakura were always so boring, especially now that she had nobody to spend them with. It was only the first day of Sasori's confinement, but she missed him more than she did when he was gone for a couple of weeks. It was weird how that worked.

She was strolling through the streets of the Sand village, looking for somewhere to eat some tasty food, when she spotted Temari up ahead. She sprinted to the older woman and poked her in the arm to get her attention.

Temari's face lit up when she noticed Sakura and she smiled. "What are you doing here Sakura? Hungry are you?"

The pink-haired ninja nodded a 'yes' and Temari motioned for her to follow.

The pair walked down the crowded street and turned right down an alleyway. At the end of the enclosed alleyway was a small restaurant. The delicious aroma of freshly cooked noodles wafted towards them both and Sakura immediately ran to the entrance to get closer to the smell.

Temari chuckled and followed after Sakura as the Leaf girl walked through the open door. "Easy now. It's just a simple noodle restaurant, where they serve all kinds of meals like ramen and tsukemen. Things like that."

"That's fine with me! I'm starving!"

The girls were seated at a small table and their orders were taken. Sakura sat gleefully in her seat as she waited for the food to arrive. Within ten minutes their orders came back to them and Temari had to watch a little fearfully as Sakura practically devoured her meal. She hadn't been kidding when she said she'd been starving.

They ate in comfortable silence and when they finished they paid for their meals and left the little restaurant. That's when Sakura's gloomier mood started to crop back up again. Her smile vanished and worry lined her features.

"What's up Sakura?"

"I guess I just miss..." She trailed off, but Temari easily picked up on what she was saying.

"You miss Sasori, right?" The younger girl nodded her head. "It's only the first day Sakura. You need to stop worrying so much. He'll be fine and when the five days are up you'll see him again."

Sakura sighed. "You're right Temari. I need to stop getting so depressed. It's not like me at all."

"Maybe you just need to do something constructive with your time to keep you occupied then? I'll see if I can find something for you to do. Don't worry Sakura." Temari pat the miserable girl on the back and then took off down the street, presumably to go to the Kazekage's building and ask Gaara for some help.

"I'm soooo bored without Sasori..."


Day of Confinement: 2

This day passed by for the duo in almost complete silence. Deidara had decided not to tease Sasori for the time being, since the previous day had been so pointless. All he'd managed to do was piss of the puppeteer to the point that he refused to respond to anything Deidara said.

Meanwhile, Sasori had taken to pondering over his feelings for Sakura. Did he only like her, or was it love? He had to remind himself of exactly what 'love' felt like, but he could only just recall his own feelings for his family. That was a different kind of love, he knew that at least. Then he analysed his feelings towards Deidara – who he considered a friend to a certain degree – but his feelings for Sakura were not like the ones he held for the blonde man. They were much stronger and didn't feel quite the same.

Was that love?

He honestly didn't know, but the large debate going through his mind about whether it was or wasn't love overrode everything else going on – including all forms of communication from Deidara.


It was nightfall when Kakuzu and Hidan finally made it to the Sand village's large walls. Once again, there were no guards present so the pair didn't have to worry about being seen – yet. The only sounds were the loud voices of the villagers that were walking around within the village itself. It wasn't even late into the evening, so many people were shopping, having fun or just taking a walk for exercise.

Just before Hidan could take another step towards the gap in the walls, a plant-like man melted out of the wall next to him. He jumped – a little bit afraid.

"What the fuck?! Don't do that you freak!"

The man didn't even bother to respond to Hidan. He simply walked towards Kakuzu and spoke to him alone. "The traitors are currently being held in a room. They've been there for almost two days. They will be out in three days time, so Leader has given orders for you to attack them once they are out and on the move again." Kakuzu nodded in understanding and the man continued the orders, "Do not cause a scene and only go after those two. The best chance will be when they leave this village and head to the Leaf village. For now you will need to wait three more days, so Leader has ordered that you both must wear these cloaks..." Zetsu – for that was the plant-man's name – pulled out of his own Akatsuki robe two light brown cloaks. "...and you are to blend in with the villagers until then."

Zetsu moved back to the wall and melted inside it once more. When Hidan was completely sure that the man was gone, he picked up one of the brown cloaks and got ready to rip it to shreds with his scythe.

"Like I'll wear this ugly piece of crap!" He dropped it to the floor by his feet and swung his scythe down on the thing. Before he could destroy the cloak, Kakuzu stopped the weapon with his hand.

"Hidan, we have our orders and you WILL obey them. Take of the Akatsuki robe and put on that brown one."

Hidan glared at the bounty hunter as he grudgingly started to remove his robe. He noticed at once that it was quite chilly when the sun had vanished from the desert, but he didn't dare shiver while his partner was around to notice it. Instead, he picked up the brown cloak – which was slightly coated in sand now – and pulled it on. There were buttons going down the front of it to keep it together, so Hidan did the bottom three up and left the top three undone. He didn't want to cover his necklace after all, or Jashin would surely punish him.

Kakuzu didn't even remove his robe and Hidan noticed how he just avoided the brown cloak entirely.

"Hey, Kakuzu, why aren't you wearing the fucking thing as well?"

"I will not be able to blend in with the village for three days. You will do that alone. I'll wait out here until the time is right." The creepy man gave his partner a cold glare. "And I suggest that you remove your head protector from around your neck. If they see that you're a missing nin, you'll get unneeded attention."

Hidan sighed in irritation, but he did as Kakuzu instructed and took the band off. He placed it with his Akatsuki robe and then started to walk towards the village. Kakuzu stopped him with his voice.

"You should leave your scythe too. The last thing that we need is for you to screw this easy mission up. I have better things to do than to fix your mistakes."

Hidan whirled around. "I'm not going to leave my scythe, you bastard!"

"You are if you don't want Leader's anger."

Silence filled the air between the two, until finally Hidan removed the scythe from his back and placed it with his other things. He walked back to the gap in the walls and started to travel through it, relieved that his annoying partner hadn't made anymore comments. He'd just lost a lot of what made up his life; he didn't think he could give up anymore.

When he was at the end and now facing the bustling village, Hidan whispered quietly to himself, "It's not like Leader could kill me anyway."


Day of Confinement: 3

"Damn!"

Deidara woke up suddenly to the rather random outburst of his red-haired partner. Perhaps Sasori had finally gone insane?

He looked towards Sasori and hesitantly asked, "Something wrong, yeah?"

Sasori, as if just realising that Deidara was awake, stared at the blonde man. He turned away and didn't answer, so Deidara assumed that Sasori was either ignoring him still or he hadn't heard him. So he repeated his question.

Sasori sighed and the blonde could tell that his partner was really, really miserable.

"Deidara, something is very, very wrong."

"Really? What is it, yeah?"

"I...I think I love Sakura."

Silence.

Deidara's eyes widened noticeably – luckily Sasori wasn't looking at him though. Then he grinned and said, "Well of course you do, yeah! I could tell right away that you did! I bet she loves you too, yeah!"

Sasori looked at Deidara, and the puppet master's eyes appeared so hopeful to him. "You really think she does?"

"Yep. Why wouldn't she, yeah?"

At once Sasori's face seemed to close up. "There are many reasons why she shouldn't like me, let alone love me Deidara."

"Well...she obviously likes you and I think she loves you too, yeah. So stop getting all depressed, it's pissing me off."

The puppeteer glared at his partner. "I'm not 'getting all depressed'. I'm just being realistic."

"Fine, whatever." He waved his only hand about in the air in a dismissive manner and then a thought struck him. "Let's make a bet. If, after these five days are up, pinky doesn't want to see you anymore...we'll know that she doesn't give a damn about you. However, if she still cares then I'm right and she loves you."

"Sounds...reasonable. What are we going to wager though? You don't have anything I want and I'm certain you don't want a puppet."

The blonde man closed his eyes in thought.

"Let me see... How about, the loser of the bet has to wear girly clothes for a whole day!"

"...Fine."


Sakura wandered around until she came across that same restaurant that she'd been eating in for the past two days. So far she'd had her lunch and dinner there. Now she wanted to try having a new meal for breakfast. She'd heard that they did special offers if you arrived early, so she'd woken up an hour before she normally did just to see if the rumours were true.

Just before she actually entered the alleyway though, a slumped figure asleep on the floor caught her eye. He seemed a little grubby, but not overly dirty, so he couldn't have been living on the streets for too long. Maybe he'd simply fallen asleep outside?

Sakura cautiously stepped closer to the man and peered at his face. He didn't seem disfigured at all, from what she could tell. He had strange greyish hair – almost silvery like an old man's. His expression wasn't exactly peaceful while he slept though, because he seemed to have a perpetual frown set on his face. Probably from the poor sleeping spot he picked out.

Sakura next took in how he was dressed – to better assess whether he was indeed homeless or not – and noticed he was wearing black trousers and shoes that ninja wore. He also had a baggy brown top on that was more like a robe than a normal shirt. It was undone slightly and Sakura could see that he had a strange necklace around his neck.

"Definitely not a beggar then." She mumbled. The girl shrugged and then stood up straight again. "Ah well, he's not my problem." She took off down the alleyway – which was next to the sleeping man – and stepped into the just recently opened restaurant.


Hidan was very uncomfortable. The ground was sandy and making him itch. His back ached from leaning against the wall all night and his face was starting to heat up from the morning sun. He didn't exactly fancy getting sunburnt or stepped on by any annoying villagers, so he reluctantly opened his purple eyes and instantly closed them when he stared into the bright sun.

"Fuck! My eyes!"

He covered his eyes and then started to try and stand up. His eyes were still covered when he got to his feet, so he didn't notice the little 'present' that a stray dog had left next to him until he took one step forwards and heard an almighty 'squelch!'

He froze. He slowly removed his hand from his eyes and looked down to where his left foot had just been placed.

"Crap! Who's fucking dog left crap there?! I swear by Lord Jashin that I'll kill whoever owns that fucking dog AND I'll kill the dog too!" He tried to wipe the smelly poop off of his shoe, but he only managed to pick up sand other things on the sole of his shoe instead. People weren't walking about down that street – luckily for Hidan – so nobody had heard his strange exclamation and alerted the authorities.

In the end, his only solution to getting rid of the mess was to take off his shoes. So he did.

"Great! Now I have to walk around in the fucking sand with no shoes!"

His stomach growled, announcing to Hidan that he was hungry now as well. Of course, he'd been hungry since last night because he'd forgotten to bring any food or money. Not that he had money though; that was Kakuzu's thing, not his.

"There had better not be any more fucking stones around here, or I'll have to sacrifice the whole village to Lord Jashin to calm down!"

The scent of delicious food wafted towards his nose from somewhere nearby. He followed the smell and came face to face – well face to restaurant would be more accurate – with a noodle restaurant that was neatly tucked away down a small alley. He started to take a few steps inside when suddenly a loud-mouthed woman practically screamed at him, "Get out! You're filthy! I won't have some homeless person disturbing my customers!"

Before he could even located the woman that had insulted him – so he could give her a piece of his own mind – two large men grabbed him firmly by his elbows and literally chucked him out of the restaurant. He landed painfully on his behind at the entrance of the alleyway.

Hidan glared at the men. "Bastards! Lord Jashin damn you!"


Sakura was a little shocked. She'd just started to eat her food when that sleeping man from before had walked into the restaurant – practically drooling at the smell of the food – and then been thrown out of it.

"That wasn't very fair..." she muttered sadly.

The man hadn't even said a word when he walked in. So what if he looked a little worse for ware; if he had some money they should let him eat there. It wasn't as though there were many people actually in the restaurant yet – there were only two people other than herself there and both were ninjas so Sakura doubted that they'd be in for too long anyway.

The pink-haired girl motioned for a waitress to come over. A young girl walked towards her small table and asked if she needed anything. Sakura smiled politely at her. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Do you think you could watch my table for me? I promise I won't be long."

The girl nodded her head and Sakura darted quickly to the front door. She stepped out and was glad to see that the man was still there, although he seemed to be very angry and muttering a load of curses.

When she was near enough she spoke as kindly as she could, "Um, excuse me sir."

He looked at her. He was glaring, but Sakura suspected that was more for the treatment he'd just had than for anything she'd done.

"I couldn't help noticing what just happened. That wasn't very fair of that lady to do to you."

"What's your point?"

Sakura was a little taken aback by that, but she persevered, "um...would you like me to talk to the lady so she'll let you eat there? It's not fair that she should kick out paying customers based on how they dress."

His eyes seemed to widen a little bit, although Sakura had no idea why. Then he began to curse again and the pink-haired girl wondered just how many different swear words he knew. Not that she'd use them though.


Hidan had only just realised that he couldn't eat at the restaurant anyway. No money means no food. He looked at the pink-haired girl standing in front of him. She was clearly expecting him to answer. The Jashin worshipper decided he had better respond since it wasn't exactly going to hurt him to do so.

"I don't have any fucking money, pinky, so it doesn't matter anyway." He started to stand up and leave, but her voice stopped him.

"Then...I'll pay for you!"

It was clearly something that she offered to do out of instinct and kindness, so Hidan thought about it. There was nothing she could possibly gain from helping him. She didn't appear like a vindictive person – unlike Hidan. And more than anything he was hungry. What could it hurt?

He turned around and gave the girl a small grin. "Alright, pinky, I accept."


Day of Confinement: 4

Sasori loved Sakura. He was certain of that now. He cared about her so much that the thought of causing her pain would never enter the puppeteer's mind. His only problem now was telling her how he felt, without looking like a total fool.

"I can't do it Deidara. She'll think I'm stupid."

Deidara was now sat next to Sasori, since the recent discovery had made Sasori rely on his blonde partner's advice. For reasons Sasori couldn't understand, Deidara seemed to know how feelings like love worked.

"She won't think you're stupid. All girls love it when someone says they 'love' them. You just have to say it in the right way. You'd look like an idiot if you said to her 'I love you'. You need to take her out on a date first, yeah."

The instructions seemed to make sense to the puppet master, but something was off with it at the same time. "Deidara, how do you know all this?"

"That's easy, yeah. I read."

His grin was actually starting to freak Sasori out, but what made him smirk was the knowledge that Deidara read ROMANCE novels.

"You read...romance novels Deidara?"

"Of course! It's the best way to get into the minds of women, yeah!"

Well, Sasori had just failed at trying to embarrass the blonde, since Deidara was apparently proud of his hobby. The red-head would personally rather be blind than ever read one of those things.

"So, what would I need to do on this...'date'?"

Deidara grinned even wider. "Listen closely, yeah. What I tell you, you must never forget."


Sakura was enjoying herself. After her breakfast yesterday she had taken to spending time with that sleeping man – whose name she had discovered was Hidan. He really didn't own anything more than what he was wearing, which really affected the poor girl. She'd also discovered that he was easily angered, prone to swearing and very interesting.

A nice little distraction until Sasori was allowed out.

She had helped Hidan get settled somewhere by paying for him to stay in a small inn. He said he was only going to be here for about three days, so she didn't have to worry about paying for too much. She'd also made sure he had a lunch and a dinner yesterday, because in her opinion he was looking a bit...thin.

"I feel like I'm mothering the guy and I've only just met him!"

At the moment she was heading towards that same restaurant to meet him so he could eat his lunch. Earlier he had declined eating breakfast with her, so Sakura had taken the time to buying him some cheap sandals – she'd noticed that he'd lost his shoes somewhere.

For some reason, Sakura was no longer so miserable. Before yesterday, she'd been depressed and bored. Now she was happy and busy. It was a luckily coincidence that she'd met Hidan and an even bigger one that he would be staying for the number of days that Sasori would be confined.

Just as Sakura entered the alleyway, she spotted Hidan walking towards her from across the street. She waved and smiled at the grey-haired man. "Hi Hidan! I bought you some new shoes." She handed him the parcel she carried in her hands.

His purple eyes widened and he seemed to be completely stunned by her kindness. He carefully opened the brown wrapping – which was just the paper bag from the shoe shop taped together – and opened the box. Inside were a pair of plain, simple sandals that were exactly his size.


Hidan slipped the sandals on and he instantly felt better about walking places. The sand was making his feet sore and he had nearly ten blisters on both his feet.

He glanced down at the girl who had – for no reason whatsoever – shown him kindness. If not for this girl, he'd have been living outside for the remaining days and not eating a thing. He'd also be shoeless. He made a mental note to kill Kakuzu and Zetsu when he was finally through with everything. It was their faults that he was now indebted to this girl. Even if she didn't know it.

"Thanks pinky."

He started to walk to the restaurant – in the new and very comfortable sandals – and he heard the girl yell at him, "My name's Sakura! Not 'pinky'!"

She walked next to him and they entered the restaurant.

They took their usual table – it was now anyway since they'd eaten at the same one for what was to be their fourth meal – and ordered the same thing they had the day before. While they waited for their food, Hidan lightly drummed his fingers on the table.


Sakura's eye began to twitch. It was bad enough that he kept calling her 'pinky' – like a certain blonde haired ex-Akatsuki always did – but did he have to do that with his fingers? It was sooo irritating when a person drummed their fingers on a surface. Heck, it was even irritating when they tapped a finger on something.

She honed in on the offending fingers and only then did she realise something. His nails were painted the same colour as Sasori and Deidara's nails. And he was wearing a ring just like theirs too!

Panic started to settle in on the girl. If he was with the Akatsuki then he might be there to do something to Sasori and Deidara. They were officially traitors, even if they hadn't told the other members that they were. Of course, if the others didn't know then it was likely that they'd only send someone to see what was keeping the duo.

It made sense that Hidan was with the Akatsuki when Sakura really thought about it.

He had the little signs like the nails and the ring. He also used to wear shoes like theirs until recently. On top of that, he was only staying here for the exact same amount of time that Sasori and Deidara would be.

The thing that struck Sakura as puzzling though, was the lack of any weapons or anything he could use to defend himself with. If he didn't have anything like that, then perhaps he too had left the Akatsuki?

For Sasori's sake, Sakura sure hoped so.


Hidan noticed that Sakura had gone a little pale. It wasn't as though he cared or anything, but she seemed to have mentally retreated from him entirely. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to make up for the debt he owed her, by finding out what was wrong and seeing if it was possible for him to fix it.

"Oi, Sakura, what's up?"

"N-Nothing H-Hidan! I'm just not feeling very well. I must have a c-cold. I'll just go! Here's some money for the food!" The pink-haired girl slammed a few notes onto the table to cover the bill and ran quickly out of the place.

"That was weird..."


Sakura ran until she was back in her room in the Kazekage's building. Then she sat on her bed and started trying to calm her pulse down by taking deep breaths.

She had to think rationally. If Hidan really was with the Akatsuki, she'd have to keep an eye on him to find out what he was doing there. If he wasn't, then she'd at least have a decent person to talk to.

"I'll just go to the inn he's staying at and tell him I really did feel ill. He'll understand. Then I can watch his movements while we eat later. It's a good plan, it could work."

Resolved that nothing could go wrong with her plan, Sakura left her room and headed for the inn that was only a couple of streets away from the noodle restaurant. With luck, Hidan would be there when she arrived.

She knocked on the door to his room and heard a scraping of a chair on the floor. No doubt he was sat down at the small desk then. The door creaked open and a mildly surprised Hidan greeted the pink-haired girl.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Feeling better now, are you?"

"Yeah...sorry about that Hidan. When I get sick though, it's not a pretty sight! You seriously don't want me around when it happens."

"Right...so, what are you doing here then?"

"I wanted to apologise for leaving like that. And also, to remind you to meet me at the restaurant again for dinner later, okay?" She smiled warmly, hoping he wouldn't catch how nervous she was about being face to face with a potential enemy.

"No it's not okay. I'm sick of eating at that fucking place for every meal! I need variety."

Choosing to ignore his swearing – which was becoming normal for Sakura – she thought over what he'd said. "Well, you're right that it is pretty boring eating there each day. The thing is, I don't know of any other places to eat at. I'm not from this village, in case you couldn't tell by my headband." She pointed to the headband that was on top of her head.

Hidan looked at it and his eyes widened slightly. Clearly he hadn't noticed.

"You're from the Leaf village?"

Yep, he was slow.

"Yes, Hidan, I am. So I don't know this village very well. I could ask a friend for help, but I don't know if she can. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in a while and she was supposed to be helping me with something..."

Sakura zoned out as she wondered just what had happened to Temari. Apparently the older woman had gone to ask about getting a task for Sakura to do, but she hadn't come to see Sakura once since the first day.


Hidan didn't like that she was too busy thinking of something else to not even focus on him. It was bad enough that he hadn't even known she was from another village, but the chances that she came from the Leaf village were pure luck. On top of that, she didn't seem to be doing anything at all because she spent most of her time talking with him now. If Hidan were to guess, he'd say that she was here to escort the traitors to the Leaf village once their days of being confined were over. But he had to make sure...

"Hey, Sakura, why don't we look for a place now and then meet there later?"

Her eyes came back into focus and she smiled at him. "Sure, let's do that."


"So, did you get all that Sasori?"

The red-haired man nodded his head slowly as all the information Deidara had just told him sunk in. He had no idea his partner was so knowledgeable. It really made Deidara seem clever with all the things that he'd just told Sasori.

"Are you sure it'll work?"

"Of course, yeah! I'm never wrong about these things."

He seemed confident enough, so Sasori chose to accept all the advice as truth.

After tomorrow night, Sasori was going on a date.


Day of Confinement: 5

Nothing interesting happened on this day. It was the last one and each person involved had their own thoughts swimming through their minds.

Sasori was very nervous. After tonight, he'd be confessing how he felt to Sakura and hopefully she would not reject him.

Deidara was just plain anxious. He hadn't created anything out of clay for days and he was starting to become...rather like a squirrel. He'd jump at the smallest sounds and he sometimes babbled nonsense.

Sakura was very eager to see Sasori again. Heck, she even missed Deidara. She wanted to show Sasori the Leaf village! He'd surely love it and Sakura was positive that he'd be accepted straight away by everyone. They'd accepted Gaara after all and he had tried to kill them all in the past.

Hidan was positively itching to hurt someone. More importantly, he really wanted to offer some fools to his Lord Jashin. He'd spent too long being peaceful and without his precious scythe. And his Lord Jashin hadn't had any sacrifices from him in ages so he had to give him some soon.


Hidan was also highly annoyed and confused. The reason was that girl – Sakura. He owed her still and that meant that he had to somehow repay the debt or he would be disgracing his god.

He sighed heavily as the day went by in a blur – with him doing his now daily meetings with Sakura for food. It was already late into the night when he checked out of the inn – he left a small written note of thanks for Sakura – and proceeded to head outside the village to go back to Kakuzu.

He had to admit – at least to himself – that the days he spent away from Kakuzu were probably more enjoyable than anything else he'd done for a long time.

He saw the irritating bounty hunter leaning against the wall when he stepped out of the gap in the two large sand walls. Hidan's things were next to the man – the word used in it's loosest possible terms – so the Jashin worshipper started to gather them up and put them back on.

"I take it that you didn't do anything stupid Hidan?"

"Shut the fuck up! I had no fucking money, thanks to you! So don't even start talking to me, or I'll send you straight to Hell!"

Kakuzu didn't respond and just started to walk in the direction that the Leaf village was in.

Hidan glared at his back and followed him, but not before throwing the brown cloak in the direction that his possessions had previously been.


It was midnight. Sasori could tell. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. Just like he knew he was forgetting something very important.

He sat up quickly on the futon and hit his forehead when he remembered.

"I'm supposed to be meeting that spy in a few days. I completely forgot! As soon as we're released, I'll have to tell Sakura that we need to take a slight detour. There's no way that I'll get to the meeting place if we go all the way to the Leaf village first."

He lay back down and closed his eyes, simulating sleep even though he actually couldn't. He wasn't exactly normal after all.


Authoress' Note: Remember to please review and also, in your reviews, can you tell me what you would like to happen to Hidan? Should he be 'killed' - I know he can't die but he can be seperated - or should he live? Please let me know.