Sasuke: I know this doesn't say I have PMS!
Sasori: (nodding) Yes it does.
Deidara: (laughing) It's right there! (points at the review and continues laughing) PMS!
Fire: Tobi! I'm supposed to get the reviews!
Tobi: But Sasuke-san threatened me!
Sasori: And there's another vote for me! (waving the review window in the air)
Sakura: Are you kidding me?
Sasori: You want to read it?
Sakura: …
Deidara: She doesn't want to see something ridiculous like that! And… (reaches into his clay pouch and pulls out a nicely wrapped box) Something for Aurora-san!
Kisame: I don't think Aurora-san wants something made with C3! – – ;;
Deidara: But—
Sasori: The review says something that won't blow up the entire town.
Deidara: But it's so beautiful, yeah! Aurora-san said I'm the best character in the Naruto series!
Sakura: It's a lie. And I'd never want a bird made with any of your clay!
Fire: Urusai! Reviews!
Sasuke: Did we ever listen to you?
Fire: You did…once.
Sasuke: That's because—
Naruto: I want to read the rest of the story!
Fire: (hugs Naruto) Naruto…I'm so happy you're here! At least someone wants to read it!
Naruto: I'm coming back in this chapter, ne?
Fire: …
Sasuke: No.
Naruto: But why?
Sasuke: (agitatedly) Proper plot development.
Fire: And remember, this also means Samehada's talking, or Kyuubi, or Shuukaku. – – ;; I hope I'm not missing anyone.
Sasuke: In other words, hidden speech that not everyone can hear. It's standard for this series. If you forget anything, go to chapter 3 for the legend. I'm not explaining anything to you amnesiacs!
Fire: Sasuke! They don't have amnesia!
Naruto: …? Is that was an amnesiac is?
Fire: (sighs) Okay, continue with the reviews.
Tobi: – – ;;
Sasuke: Don't give that to Fire!
Fire: Hmm? Something for me? (grabs the review window from Tobi)
Sasuke: (sighs) Too late.
Fire: Loss-san says that the story's getting better and better. It's really dramatic!
Naruto: Stories without the hero aren't good. I'm not back yet, so the story sucks!
Sasuke: (nods in agreement) SasuNaru stories with either one or both of us dead? Fire was high when this series was written.
Fire: You're the cowriter, Sasuke!
Sasuke: I wasn't in a sane state. (glares at Fire) You spearheaded this project! It says that it's a Fire project at the top of each story!
Kisame: (nodding) He's right.
Tobi: … (hands Fire another review)
Deidara: I'm finally going to appear! For real!
Fire: Yes. Please don't kill me for taking so long. (cowers behind Kisame)
Sasori: And I made Forbidden-san vote for me! Kakashi, I stole another one of your fans! Soon, I'll destroy you!
Sakura: What does stealing his fans have to do with killing Kakashi-sensei?
Sasori: And women are the most annoying things on this planet!
Sakura: We're not things!
Fire: Um…Sasori's very, very chauvinistic. I don't think you can change his mind, Forbidden-san. And Ino…
Ino?
Fire: I think Soda-san wants you to stop being so much like yourself. That rumour was only a rumour.
Ino: But look at the proof! (holds up the medical reports) This is solid evidence! (waves the documents in her hand) Kakashi-sensei's a monster!
Fire: – – ;; Um…I guess we should move on before Ino spreads more rumours.
Tobi: (pulls Chapter 11 onto the screen) …
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Warning: This chapter of Wait for Me: Searching contains spoilers up to and including chapter 308 of the Naruto manga. If you haven't read it, go and read it before reading this. Otherwise I cannot be responsible for fighting styles and abilities in this story.
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Chapter 11: Foes and Allies
'Nothing bad can happen. Nothing bad is happening. Nothing! I won't listen. I won't see. Because if I look, the truth will surely strike me down. There is no future for us. I know this, but please hold back the world for me. Hold it back a little longer so that I can still dream of you as I did before everything fell out of our hands, and I had to wake up. Just a little longer, let me pretend you are still mine.'
Trees rushed pass both sides of the great clay bird as Deidara's fingers adjusted the rangefinder over his left eye again. He had Uchiha Sasuke captured in his lens, and he wasn't going to let the boy get away without a fight. 'This should get his attention, yeah,' Deidara thought as his hand lifted subconsciously to release a torigata nendo into the air. The small bird flew around him in a momentary circle before shooting through foliage at its dark-haired target.
Brown clouds of dust, wood chips and leaves filled the air with the explosion.
'Got him!'
The bird cut forwards before Deidara propelled himself from the clay back to the body lying on the ground. But as he turned it over, there was no flesh or face to greet him. It was...
Deidara tossed the clothed log aside and pushed himself away in time to avoid a barrage of kunai. The blond man turned, one eye magnifying the figure to unnatural proportions as his uncovered eye focussed on the expressionless face above him. 'Kuso.' He knew that expression. It was Itachi's expression, a face that spoke of his indomitable superiority. He hated that face.
"You..." Sasuke narrowed his red eyes at the Iwa-nin. "I was looking for you." He wanted Akatsuki to help him. The best way to get their attention was to kill another member of the organization. Itachi and Kisame were enough, but he wasn't against a buffer.
Deidara immediately saw that desire within the Uchiha. He knew that Itachi's younger brother would fight him. The blond man had no illusions about Sasuke coming peacefully.
"Hn."
The huge clay bird drilled through the trees at Sasuke, grazing across his back before he vanished with the light sound of rustling leaves. He had heard it flying through the trees, heard the foliage falling. But he was faster.
"Useless." He smashed Deidara aside. "Tell me where they are!" He knew that someone had to be nearby. Deidara wouldn't be in the middle of the forest alone. They always travelled in pairs. "I know–"
The jibaku bunshin exploded as Sasuke leapt back to narrowly avoid it. But the force of the explosion sent him flying backwards. No guard in his arsenal could protect him from the shockwave cutting through his body and blasting him through trees.
"As soon as we heard you were coming, Zetsu brought information about your fighting abilities, yeah," Deidara's disembodied voice said from all around the dark-haired shinobi. "Your fight in Kawa no Kuni with the jinchuuriki and his team was a good source of information." The blond man stopped in front of red eyes he knew too well. Itachi always stared with those same soulless red eyes.
'Chidori nagashi!' Lightning flew from Sasuke's momentarily paralysed body, twining around him as easily as summoned snakes, but the blond Iwa-nin was still unaffected. He only stood, his mouth tweaked in a smile.
And Sasuke understood that like Itachi, the genius of Iwagakure was going to get through this guard.
The dark-haired shinobi leapt back, managing to avoid the huge sword hurling for his head. He knew that his brother was close. Itachi had to be close. Kisame was right in front of him!
Sasuke's hand swung forwards, sending his Kusanagi at the blue man's arms. 'He can't fight if he has no arms!'
But Kisame saw it coming. He pulled his arm back before the Kusanagi could strike, grinding the edge of his huge sword across the thinner blade. Sasuke glared as Samehada bit down, clamping tightly to the fine metal.
'Chidori nagashi!'
Sasuke gripped tightly to his Kusanagi as lightning filled his body. With determined force, he wrenched his sword free, spiralling it around to slice through Samehada, sending severed scales flying through the air.
And spiralling his sword through Kisame.
The blue man was falling before he knew what was happening. Lightning rushed through his body, the deep cut across his chest, the blood filling his lungs, and then, he was staring at the red grass.
The dark-haired chuunin nudged the bleeding body with his foot for a moment before deciding to move on. He didn't have time to spend with a dying man. He had Itachi to fight.
But he wasn't even out of sight before Itachi rammed him against a tree. Itachi had found him. Of course he was nearby.
Itachi's red eyes fell on his deceased partner for a moment before pressing forwards, crushing his brother against the trees. The elder Uchiha stared into his brother's sharingan. 'Tsukiyomi!'
"That's not going to work." Sasuke grinned at his brother. His sharingan had developed while his brother was away. It wasn't a Mangekyou, but his brother's eyes no longer had any effect on him.
"Souka." Itachi flew back as lightning lashed at him. "Hm..." His brother had gotten stronger since the last time he saw him.
But that was expected. He couldn't expect Sasuke to stay the weak little kid he knew long ago. However...
"You're still weak." Itachi lunged directly at Sasuke, pressing against his brother with his confidence.
Sasuke's chidori faltered as his brother rushed at him. His mind focussed completely on the soulless eyes in that emotionless face, and for a moment, it resisted all thought. He couldn't think of anything. There wasn't even the idea of defence as Itachi's arm smashed against his ribs, sending him flying through a tree. All there was, was the memory of that day in Konoha, that day on the Uchiha estate, that day when he walked into the empty house and saw his elder brother standing over their parents' bloody bodies.
His mind was still shaking as Itachi walked toward him, still emotionless and cold as he looked at the younger shinobi. "You are still too weak!" Itachi's voice tinged with anger as his red eyes looked down at Sasuke. "You expect to–" He stepped back as lightning snapped at him. Sasuke wasn't going to listen to him anymore. His words weren't going to affect him any longer.
The Kusanagi flew at Itachi, raging in frustration as the elder Uchiha stepped out of its path. 'Where is he?' Sasuke's red eyes looked past the loops of electricity hanging around his body, to the trees around him. His brother had to be there somewhere. 'He has to be somewhere!'
Then a barrage of kunai flew at him.
Sasuke whipped around. 'There!' Itachi was right behind him!
And he was flying backwards, his jaw throbbing at the impact of his brother's arm against his chin.
'How?' His guard was flawless.
But as he fell, his eyes caught against the black kunai embedded in the ground. The metal wires that his brother carried, that was identical to the ones in his kunai pouch, hung from the kunai, looped around the lower branches around him.
'Of course.' Metal conducted electricity. He had grounded the kunai to draw the lightning away from him.
As he fell, Sasuke felt the cursed seal break out of its prison of Fuuja Houin, spread from his shoulder across his skin. He was running out of chakra. He couldn't use Chidori Nagashi anymore. That would deteriorate his body further.
But Itachi caught Sasuke's arm before he could think of using the new chakra infusing his body. The snap of breaking bone filled the air as Itachi crushed through years of useless nutrition. His brother wasn't going to defeat him!
Sasuke wrenched himself away, his body aching with new pain as Itachi dug across his other arm with a kunai. The black handle left Itachi's hand, the blade embedded in the flesh falling to the ground as the fuuma shuriken in Sasuke's hand flew awkwardly into the air. Sasuke could already see that it wasn't going to hit his brother where he was. If he wanted that attack to be useful, he would have to draw Itachi into the right position.
But as he turned with his bleeding and broken arms back to his brother, Itachi had already fallen into a defensive position. It was going to be difficult. As Sasuke pulled a handful of shuriken from his shuriken pouch, Itachi leapt into the foliage above.
Itachi was out of his sight, and he had used up a lot of his chakra on Chidori Nagashi. The fight couldn't last much longer.
"You think he didn't teach this to us, yeah?" Deidara said as he held up a kunai. The Uchiha was already sitting on the ground. He didn't even need the metal wires to attract the lightning. "Zetsu sees everything!" For once, he was glad that the Kusa-nin was everywhere.
The blond nukenin threw the kunai through the electric field, the blue ropes of lightning twisting around the black metal as the blade struck the ground.
"Kuso." Sasuke glared at the blond shinobi looking down at him. His body still vibrated with the force of the previous explosion. He could move, but it wasn't going to be enough to defend himself against this obviously angry man.
"I thought you were coming to join us." He looked down at Sasuke, a handful of clay in his hand. "What are fighting me for, yeah?" Deidara grabbed the dark-haired shinobi by the neck, his fingers digging painfully into the thick muscles wrapped around its dainty bones. "You want to die?"
Sasuke grabbed the man's arm, as if his weakening grip could stop him from crushing his neck.
'Senei Jyashu!'
Deidara stood, snakes coiled around his body, tightening with every passing moment. Shakily, his hands retreated from the unmoving white throat. With pounding eyes, the nukenin looked up, his blue eyes falling on his former partner. "Sasori no Danna?" The familiar form of a redheaded man he hadn't seen in a very long time looked down at him. Even as his partner, Sasori's true form was rare. "What brings you to Kawa no Kuni, yeah?" There wasn't even a hint of fear in his voice.
But Sasori didn't answer. He only frowned as his Sannin puppet pulled the unconscious Uchiha from the ground. He didn't like the idea of rescuing someone he had wanted to kill not long ago, but if he didn't do it, scaring Deidara would have been for nothing. And he didn't like doing something for nothing. Doing nothing were the kind of useless actions that made him wait. And he hated waiting!
So, he had rescued Sasuke instead. And that was all he came for. He wasn't going to answer Deidara's questions.
Sasori turned and walked away.
"Oi! I'm coming with you!" Deidara said quickly as the snakes continued tightening their grip around his body. They were going to constrict until he suffocated and died. But he wasn't going to let that happen. No matter what... "I left Akatsuki too, yeah!"
The puppetmaster ignored the blond man. It was another Akatsuki trick. They lied often. He wasn't going to listen to their lies. Especially when these lies would probably kill him. He could live with Sasuke dying, but he wasn't going to let Deidara–of all the other members of Akatsuki who could be there at that moment–kill him. "Shut up and die, Deidara." Sasori had been waiting a long time to say that to Deidara. Even though he was his partner, like most partners in Akatsuki, they had no real attachments to each other. It was simple. It was easy to kill him.
Especially when he could still recall their arguments about art easily in his mind.
"I'm not lying, yeah! I really left them, yeah!" Deidara called out as the kumogata nendo clamped onto the snakes, blowing off their heads before their bodies fell limply to the ground. Orochimaru's attacks weren't going to kill him. Even Sasori knew that. "I'm coming with you, Sasori-sama." He waited for Sasori to reply. Although Orochimaru couldn't kill him, if Sasori really tried, even in this unpredictable human body, he could hurt him, and probably kill him.
"I'm not your master. Do what you want." Sasori really didn't care. At that moment, his main priority was taking Sasuke back to the village. Sakura would probably be relieved that he didn't kill him. That was a comforting thought.
As for Deidara, he wasn't an immediate threat. He could even be telling the truth...as difficult to believe as that was. He could deal with Deidara later.
The rescue was one week following Sasuke and another week returning to Konoha. In that time, Sasuke had managed to move in erratic patterns through Hi no Kuni's dense forests, resulting in a total of four days' extra travel. Sasori was irritated beyond words. His whole body wanted to rip the young shinobi apart, even as he dropped the dark-haired Uchiha onto the hard floor.
"What's wrong with this house, Sasori-sama?" Deidara looked around the room. The redness of its walls glowed with the stench of blood...really old blood. He never thought that he would come across a place like this in Konoha. "It should be used for target practice, not for living, yeah." He wouldn't mind blowing up a few walls in this house, just to get rid of the wretched thing.
"Don't destroy the house," Sasori said as he looked around the room. He was here only two weeks ago–the gash he had wrenched through the garden's walls still stood as if he had made it a moment ago–but he didn't notice the state of the rooms until now. From what Itachi was like, he had expected a neater house. In fact, he had expected Sasuke to be like Itachi...a neat freak. "I guess some things aren't genetic." There were unopened boxes standing in the most traffic laden areas of the room, but even though blood streaked every surface and the tatami mats were torn by countless kunai, the place still managed to look neat and together. 'I guess he really is a neat freak.' It wasn't as much of a mess as he had initially thought. If he didn't take a second look, he wouldn't have noticed.
The house was really messed up.
"Naruto..." Sasuke's voice came from the ground where he lay. He didn't even bother to move even though he could easily sit up. He was unharmed, and the shockwave that had paralysed him had passed long ago. "Where are you Naruto?" His mind was jumbled again as his sight walked into the garden where water continued to flow, the rhythmic thunk of the bamboo fountain signifying a fake peace in the air. "Kill me."
"Yosh! Can I do it, Sasori-sama?" Deidara was already holding a lump of clay in his hand.
"Naruto, I know you don't love me." Sasuke said as he looked up at Deidara. Blond hair and blue eyes. He looked different, but he knew it was Naruto. "If this is really love..." ...Naruto wouldn't be standing that far away, just out of his reach like a cruel dream. "Just kill me." If he couldn't be with Naruto, he didn't want to live. He didn't want to live through this pain any longer, to know that Naruto would fall in love with someone else, and love someone else, and be with someone else. He couldn't do it!
But he couldn't kill himself. Sasuke's pride wouldn't allow him to kill himself. Even though he was neglecting his home, and his mind was wandering...even though he couldn't even carry out one mission as a member of the Keimu Butai, failing where he should have succeeded...even though he had already changed too much to be himself anymore, to be a man Naruto could love, he couldn't deny that he was still Uchiha Sasuke. And Uchiha Sasuke couldn't kill himself. He had tried too hard and too long to keep himself alive.
But if Naruto killed him, he could accept it. If Naruto killed him, he would allow himself to die.
"Grow up and stop acting like a brat," Sasori said coldly as he absorbed all that the dark-haired chuunin had said. Sasuke had been sulking for months. "He's not coming back. Akatsuki can't help you bring the Kyuubi back." If the Uchiha couldn't figure that out, he was hallucinating worse than Sasori had thought. "They don't have tensei abilities of that level." The boy still stared at Deidara, as if he really saw Naruto there. Deidara wasn't even wearing orange! "And I'm not going to kill you!" He didn't want a hitokugutsu like him. He would rather let him suffer...stew in his own sorrow like the pitiful insect he had become. "But if you come near Sakura, I'll really kill you!"
"Then I'll do it!" Deidara said determinedly as soon as Sasori made up his mind. If Sasori wasn't going to do it, he will! But the puppetmaster grabbed Deidara by the arm and pulled him away before he could even pull his clay out. "W-we're leaving?" He could have easily killed him with a kumogata nendo. He wasn't going to move!
"Yes." Sasori didn't want to stay in this house any longer than was necessary. If he stayed for too long in a place so saturated with bad memories, he really would kill Sasuke.
'Kuso!' Deidara looked back and watched the clay spiders scurry toward Sasuke. He was going to miss the explosion.
But Sasori dragged him back as soon as the explosions drew his attention again. He had hoped to leave Sasuke in his house and leave, but that wasn't going to happen.
Worried. Sakura's mind and body shook with worry. Sasori had been gone for almost two weeks, and wasn't responding to her orders. She had suspected it when he said he was going to kill Sasuke, but her mind had dismissed it when nothing out of the ordinary happened at Sasuke's house. Now, he wasn't responding again!
Sasuke could already be dead.
But she refused to think about that. She couldn't! She had to think about something else. Something else!
She stared at the photo across the small expanse of the room, at the photograph in its tiny frame, sitting atop the desk across from her small bed. 'Kakashi-sensei...' Her mind wouldn't let go of what he had said. He...liked...her. And the way he had said it! That wasn't just the regular kind of like. He really meant that he liked her.
She had avoided him for the last two weeks, but she wasn't going to be able to keep avoiding him for the rest of her life! Konoha wasn't that big!
'Shannaro!' Sakura flopped over in her bed, her arms squeezing her pillow and her softcover notebook to her chest, pressing them into unnatural shapes. She had already read the contents several dozen times, memorized all the words in that thin book. It could no longer distract her. 'Why did Kakashi-sensei have to tell me that!' Inner Sakura screamed even though she was calm. 'Sono baka!
"I guess...he really..." Sakura couldn't think of a logical explanation.
'He's stupid enough to confuse me with Rin-san! And he's even in denial about it!' Inner Sakura yelled even though there was only Sakura to hear it. 'He should just get it through his head that I'm not Rin-san! Does his obsession have no end!'
"But he said he liked Sakura," the pink-haired girl said slowly, the pillow's seams tearing as she tightened her grip at the words, its stuffing slowly spilling onto her bed. There was no mistaking what he had said. He actually said her name. There was no other Sakura.
'Shannaro...' She buried her face in the lopsided pillow. 'I really don't know what to do!'
She couldn't just ignore him, or avoid him. Not only would that make her feel horrible for pushing him out of her world, it would also be too obvious. He would know that she was uncomfortable around him, that she was trying to push him away. No. There had to be another way!
"Sakura?" Sasori's voice called from downstairs. "I'm–"
"Teme!" Sakura's shout filled the air as she leapt down the stairs, landing a solid kick to the puppetmaster's head. "You killed Sasuke-kun!" Her original thoughts returned as soon as she heard his voice. "I'll kill you!"
Sakura's chakra-filled fists smashed into the side of Sasori's head, sending his eyes spinning. She was still too shaken by the memory of Kakashi's words to be too upset, but she didn't care. Kakashi's confession wasn't a good enough distraction. Sasuke was too important to forget!
"Sasori-sama!" Deidara shouted from the doorway. The Suna-nin hadn't called for help, so he was unsure of what to do. The girl was pummelling his partn–ex-partner into the ground. He knew that Sasori could defeat her, but... If he stopped her now, would Sasori kill him? "Do you want me to kill her?" That was the first thing that came to mind. It made sense. If the girl wasn't going to get off his chest, he should just get rid of her...even if Sasori hadn't given him any instruction to do it. The Sasori he knew from before would have wanted him to kill her. The Sasori from before would have been angry...even if this Sasori didn't look angry at all.
Deidara grabbed the girl by the arms anyway.
And instantly found himself flying out the open door, into the street.
"And don't bring girls into my home without permission!" Sakura shouted at Sasori's face. "Date girls somewhere else!"
"That's Deidara." Sasori's voice was completely unshaken by Sakura's words, even with her full weight sitting on his lungs.
"I don't care what her name is!"
"Deidara's a man."
Sakura's words stopped in her mouth as she stared at Sasori, her fists frozen in midair. "Sasori...I didn't know you like guys," she said seriously. She knew that he thought girls were annoying, but...
Sakura looked at the blond man smashed against the tree across the street.
...she expected someone different for Sasori.
"He followed me home."
"You have a stalker?" The blond man didn't look like a stalker either. 'I thought he'd kill stalkers.' Sakura was even more confused.
"You know what I mean!"
Sakura shook her head in confusion.
"You should read the Bingo Book more often." Sasori sat up, dropping the girl to the ground. He brushed the memory of the pink-haired girl's body from his chest.
"I'm not stalking Sasori-danna, yeah!" Deidara glared at the girl.
Sakura held in a laugh. 'Danna?' That was the funniest thing she had ever heard.
"What's funny about my name?" Sasori looked down at the girl.
"If you're her master, then–"
"I'm a guy, yeah!" Deidara yelled. He wasn't a girl! He couldn't stress that enough. Even his voice was low.
"I already told you that Deidara's a man."
"I don't care. He's not staying in this house. We don't have room," Sakura said, her laughter gone as she looked seriously at the blond man. Her mind returned to practicality. If she invited another guest to stay, her parents were going to yell. They didn't like Sasori staying there already. "Where's he going to sleep?" Because she certainly wasn't going to let another person into her little room.
"He can sleep on your balcony." Sasori thought for a moment. "Unless you'll let him sleep in the living room."
"I'll find my parents' detonated corpses in the living room in the morning," Sakura said casually as the name finally registered in her mind and pulled the appropriate Bingo Book pages from her memory. Her memories of the first time she met him in Kawa no Kuni was hazy. She only remembered Sasori.
But she knew what his attacks were. It was written clearly in the Bingo Book. She wasn't sure which was better: finding hitokugutsu of her parents in the living room or finding half-blown-up limbs in the living room.
"It's taboo to say that." Sasori motioned for Deidara to come back in the house. The black Akatsuki cloak was very conspicuous.
"It's not taboo. It's practical," Sakura said as she walked into the living room. She wasn't sure if she could see him sleeping there.
"I'm not a pet, yeah! I can't just–"
"You're taking care of him. He's your pet," Sakura said as she walked up the stairs. She had left the latest medical reports in her room. "Ask Tsunade-shishou for it on your own. There's a complication at the hospital. I have to get there in two hours to take over for Shizune-senpai." She sat down on the couch with a thick document in her hands.
"Chikatsu..." Sasori read over the girl's shoulder, "...Saisei no Jutsu. Who almost died?"
"Sasuke's in critical condition. I'm assuming your partner did something serious to him," Sakura said as she continued reading. "I received the notice a few minutes before you returned. What did he do to him!"
Sasori turned to Deidara who looked even prouder of himself than he was a moment before. "I blew him up a little. It wasn't anything serious." His voice was light, as if it really was nothing serious.
"YOU BLEW HIM UP!" Sakura leapt across the room at Deidara. "Shi-ne!"
"You shouldn't have told her," Sasori said as he grabbed the girl by the waist, holding her wrists together so that she could hit him. If he let her go, Deidara would just blow her up too. "Go outsi–" That was a bad idea. No one knew that he was in the village. That would cause even more problems. "We need to talk to Hokage-sama about you."
"What's there to say? I'm perfect," Deidara said confidently.
"That's not what he meant, baka! You're even more idiotic than Sasori!"
"So you're not depressed anymore?" Sasori asked suddenly, drawing the girl's attention away from Deidara before she could continue yelling. He had seen it as soon as he walked into the house. She was so high-strung, and her words were so stressed. And he could feel depression spilling into his body.
"No," she said blandly, her voice flat in spite of Sasori's concern. 'Wh...what is this!' She took a step away from Sasori, her hand flattening against the unnatural warmth spreading in her chest. 'Is he actually concerned about me?' She looked awkwardly at Sasori. This was a little too much shock for today. First Kakashi, then Sasori! "I'm leaving. I need to get to the hospital."
"I'm taking Deidara to the Hokage tower. We don't want ANBU waking us in the middle of the night."
The way Sasori said those words unsettled Sakura. 'Us?' That didn't sound right.
"Sakura?"
"Y-yes," Sakura said quickly as she grabbed the papers strewn on the tabletop into her arms. "I'll see you later. What do you want for dinner? I'll buy everything after the operation."
"Are you sure you'll have time?" Sasori stared at the girl. She was shaking all over.
'Is...is he being nice!' Sakura's eyes widened as his mouth opened again. 'Don't tell me he's going to offer to do it!'
"I'll have Deidara do it." Sasori smiled superciliously at Sakura. "You didn't think I was going to do it, did you?" He knew that was what she was thinking.
"No," Sakura said as she turned around, her face reddening in embarrassment. She knew that he knew what she was thinking. "That won't be necessary."
Sasori closed the door behind them before running after the girl. "Sakura," he said as he looked at her. "You should ask for a holiday. You're not feeling well." He had noticed it.
For a moment, Sakura thought he was kidding. She had hidden it very well.
"Deidara will do the shopping," Sakura conceded. "And I'll consider it," even though she didn't really have any intention of carrying it through.
"You're not my master, yeah!" Deidara shouted. "I don't have to follow your orders!"
Sakura glared at the blond man. He was irritating her. "Deidara, can you walk behind us several paces?" Sasori looked at his former partner. He was serious. Deidara fell behind them, his hatred towards the girl growing with every step.
"Just don't buy anything weird," Sakura added before she turned the corner toward the hospital. There was no arguing with Sasori. His mind was connected with hers. He knew about her condition and he definitely wasn't going to relent.
Ino looked up at the continuously glowing sign atop the operating room. It had been two hours since Sakura went in and there was still no sign of the end. Her mind worried more, imagining what could be happening, if Sasuke was going to pull through.
The blond kunoichi turned from the operating room. That sign's bright light only worried her the more she looked at it. Even though she knew that Sasuke didn't love her, she still worried about him. It was the same for her, and she knew that it was the same for a lot of other fangirls. Even though she knew that he was already in love...with Naruto...Ino still knew that she loved him more! She loved him more than Naruto did! 'Ahh! This isn't the time to think about this!' Sasuke chose Naruto over them. She shouldn't be fighting with a dead man over someone she knew she couldn't have.
"How long has it been?" The figure of a familiar shinobi sat down, across from Ino.
"Two hours." Ino stared at the chuunin. "Are you waiting for Sasuke-kun?"
"No. I'm worried about Sakura-san."
"Why? It's only a simple operation." Ino could be so clueless sometimes.
"You wouldn't say that if you were here when they brought him in." Lee was really worried. Those injuries weren't going to be easy to heal. He wasn't sure if Sakura could handle such a big operation.
Lee often walked into the hospital, not only because he wanted to see how far Shikamaru had recovered, but also because he knew that Sakura was here. He wanted to see her as well...even if he had never gathered enough courage to go and see her.
"Out of the way! Emergency!" Lee jumped out of the way of a Gurney, pressing himself against the wall as a commotion at the door caught his attention. It looked like...
Sasori! And he was holding Sasuke in his arms. He was holding a very, very bloody Sasuke in his arms. Blood coated Sasori's chest, falling to the ground in thick globs of gore.
Lee's eyes fixed on the dark-haired boy's form as the Gurney flew past him. His clothes were blown to shreds, blood gushing from the skinless flesh of his body. At least he still had his limbs. But that was the only good thing Lee could see about it.
The black-haired chuunin shivered in memory. He really hoped that Sakura would be okay. It wasn't easy to deal with an injury like that. An injury like that on a man she had loved for over half her life. And she had been in the operating theatre for two hours.
"You don't understand, Ino." His tone was serious. "You should be worrying more about–"
The doors to the operating room flew open, the light still shining in spite of the medic-nin running past them. Their screams filled the air as an alarm filled the halls.
"Lee!"
Lee nodded. 'Sakura-san!' He could sense it too. That evil chakra.
Sasori sighed again. He should have known something like this was going to happen. Deidara wasn't good with diplomacy. "Deidara, yose," he said sternly, hoping it was enough to hold back his annoyed ex-partner. If he wasn't careful, the Hokage's office could explode.
"Denied. Tsuchikage-sama is coming to bring you back to Iwagakure no Sato." Tsunade's brown eyes were stern. She wasn't going to change her mind. It was standard procedure when capturing nukenin. "Be glad I won't execute you right now!" And that was standard procedure when capturing S-ranked criminals.
And she really wanted to execute this irritating woman.
"You just thought I was a woman again, yeah!" Deidara shouted. "Do I sound like a woman to you!"
"It doesn't matter if you're a man, a woman or something else! You're not staying in Konoha!" She didn't need another nukenin raking her nerves. Gaara, an ally, was difficult enough to convince, and he only allowed Sasori to stay because Sakura was controlling him–although it didn't look like she had control over him any longer, which was worrisome–but the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure no Sato, a village they weren't even on good terms with, definitely wasn't going to allow them to keep Deidara!
"Hokage-sama," Sasori interrupted before they could argue any further. "I think you've misunderstood." Tsunade turned from Deidara to the redhead, the throbbing vein of irritation sinking in curiosity.
"You let Sasori-sama stay here!"
"He has permission from the Kazekage!" Tsunade shouted at the blond man, anger instantly eating all traces of curiosity from the woman's face. Her hands were tightening around the paperweight on her desk. He was as obstinate and annoying as Naruto, and her instinct was to deal with this annoyance in the same way.
"We're not asking for permission," Sasori said as he grabbed Tsunade's hands and slowly pried the paperweight from her grasp. He wanted to avoid a fight. If they killed the blond kunoichi, Sakura was going to kill him.
'When did I care what she thought?' He contemplated that for a moment before turning his attention to the task at hand. He would worry about this annoying new point of view later.
"I'm only informing you that my subordinate will be residing within your village." Sasori's tone spoke of his unwavering superiority over this woman. "Any resistance will be dealt with thoroughly. This is a warning."
Tsunade glared at the redhead staring down at her. His arrogance hadn't deflated the smallest bit since he came to live in Konoha. "He will be executed."
"I will take full responsibility for his actions." Sasori needed someone more interesting than those annoying shinobi in this village. And hopefully, with Deidara's help, he could detach himself from Sakura once and for all.
The blond woman was about to open her mouth to rebuke him again when the door to her office threw open. "Hokage-sama!" Raidou shouted as he ran into the room. "Deidara!" He shouted as his eyes fell on the blond man. He fell back to grab a kunai from its holster.
"No. He's harmless," Tsunade said, waving the kunai away. Indirectly, it was permission to stay, but she could revoke it later. Raidou was sweating with urgency. "Nan desu?"
"It's–"
A ripple of evil chakra simultaneously waved through all their bodies, making even Sasori and Deidara shiver. "Sakura," Sasori mused for a moment.
Tsunade didn't even stop to hear the rest of Raidou's words. She shunshin-ed from her office. Sakura's cursed seal was breaking through Kakashi's Fuuja Houin. It was a crisis.
End Chapter 11
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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:
Arrgh! I was proofreading Gaara's Dilemma for Sand and got a stomach ache from the deadwood, so I'm going to write a few tidbits about deadwood. There are four kinds. The first one is expletives. Expletives are sentences made with the expletive pronouns "there" and "it" with the verb "to be," usually placed at the beginning of sentences. When expletives are used as fillers to delay the real topic of the sentence, the sentence—and consequently, the story—become wordy and unnecessarily difficult to read. For example, "There are too many boxes of ramen in Sasuke's house," is an expletive, but the expletive pronouns aren't used as fillers—removing them would make the sentence incomprehensible—so it is a necessary expletive. However, "It is Deidara who blew up Sasuke," contains the filler expletive "it is." Removing it causes no change to the sentence's meaning. "Deidara blew up Sasuke," is better and less wordy. The overall paragraph becomes easier to read as a result, and won't give me a stomach ache. Using too many expletives can become repetitive and annoying. It is raining. It is this. It is that. – – ;; I think you know what I mean. As for unnecessary expletives, use them sparingly only to create suspense or to introduce new topics in dialogue. Don't use wordiness in your writing, only when your characters are speaking. I keep wordiness in colloquial English.
Fire's babbling:
Sakura: Baka! Baka! Baka! (strangles Deidara)
Deidara: (croaking through the strangling) Wh-what…did…I…do?
Sakura: How dare you blow up Sasuke-kun!
Sasuke: For my fangirls, I'm going to be fine. Shinpainai.
Sasori: Do you really think that someone's going to worry about you?
Naruto: Sasuke! No! I'll kill you, Deidara! (runs at Deidara)
Deidara: Time to go! (pushes Sakura away, jumps onto the back of a giant bird and flies away)
Kisame: Why did you kill me again?
Fire: Again? That was the only time.
Kisame: I thought you weren't going to put the fight in the story.
Fire: Did you want it to seem as if you just allowed Sasuke to kill you?
Kisame: …
Fire: Anyway, that fight was almost a year ago!
Sasuke: A year in the series. It hasn't been a year since we wrote it.
Fire: And since tomorrow is 666, I might upload something extra for the occasion. It only happens once every thousand years.
Kisame: That's scary.
Fire: But I have to!
Sasuke: Fine. We'll work all night on it!
Fire: Now please review. I personally think Deidara's a little OOC. If you agree or disagree, please tell me and give me some help on how to fix it. I keep rereading all his lines and actions but I can't seem to get it down. He wasn't around for that long and he hasn't appeared in the anime yet. I need source material! If you have Naruto raws, please send them to my email. I need to know their dialogue in the original Japanese to keep the characters in character! Waah!
Kisame: Hey! Don't hug me when you're screaming!
Fire: Waah!
Sasuke: We should just leave now.
Sakura: I'll kill you! (still strangling Deidara)
Sasori: And we're still taking votes. Remember to vote for me!
Fire: Waah!
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