After that long Sasori history lesson, I got bored and decided to add my next update with a bit of *cough* romance. But it shouldn't really be unexpected. This IS a romance fanfiction after all, even if I do lag behind on it, it will be built as I go along. And this is actually one of my least reviewed stories for some of the most chapters, not that I mind, considering I know that Sasuke and his duck ass hair and Naruto doing a remake of Brokeback Mountain just must be sooo appealing to readers, not. Seriously people, I may have a few favorite fics with them as a couple, but it's only because they aren't the main focus of the story. If it was that way I'd drop it, because I highly doubt that Masashi Kishimoto intended to have deranged fangirls making his main characters nail each other. Naruto loves Sakura, and is oblivious to Hinata's love and Sasuke's asexual. Let it GO. That is all for my weekly rant.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and if I did, I'd probably kill Sasuke. I don't like his hair -.-


Disbelief


Just as Chiyo-san had said, there was an old dark wooden door at the end of the hallway that could very well be mistaken for a labyrinth. If one was not careful, they might end up lost for who knows how long until they might be found, as I had managed to almost do many times in the past six minutes.

But this is Sasori we're talking about. The more obnoxiously difficult, the better in his case, I suppose.

I sighed, gathering up what little courage I hadn't left outside and raised my trembling fist to knock on the door, only to have it open the exact moment I went to knock upon its hard surface. "You are so terrible at masking your chakra, that I could feel it annoyingly spike with every progressing step you made until you ended up standing outside my workroom door for the past three minutes. What do you want?" A rather irritated looking Sasori drawled out in a voice the drained the little courage I had left until it disappeared completely.

Oh dear goodness, I hadn't actually thought I would get this far! What am I supposed to say? Hello? Good-bye? Ahh, this is so unnerving!

While I panicked within my mind, my body stood frozen and unmoving from the spot I had stopped in, my hand still raised, before a sharp jab to the forehead snapped me out of it. To my utter disbelief, Sasori had flicked me in the forehead with his middle finger. He had an inquiring look in his eyes, as well as an eyebrow raised as if to say, "What the hell are you doing?"

My face burned a deep shade of scarlet and I opened my mouth to explain myself, but found I was at a loss for words. "I-I, well you see, I was, uhm, I... I've got nothing..." I sighed, lowering my head to stare dejectedly at my feet, my arm falling limply to my side as I prepared for him to lecture me about my pointless behavior. Surprisingly though, it never came. All I received was a rather tired sounding sigh and a hand grasping my wrist and leading me into the room, which was what I would call a craftsman's heaven on earth.

The room was dimly lit, with a good-sized old workbench against the wall in the middle of the room, large amounts of sawdust and wood shavings scattered the floor left a distinct and appreciative scent hanging in the air. But that was not what caught my attention. What had been the long rows upon rows of puppets, varying from wooden to steel, all lined up along the far back wall, causing a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding in to escape from my throat. He grunted, ignoring my rather awed response and lead me to his workbench where he indicated to a lone chair next to it for me to sit in, while he went back to his seat directly in front of a large hunk of wood in the middle of the process of being crafted into a body of a puppet adorning the table.

After I finished gazing in pure amazement around the room, I looked over to see what Sasori was currently doing, only to quickly avert my gaze and look at my hands in my lap fidgeting nervously, as a smirk graced his features. I ignored the blush spread across my cheeks and counted to thirty silently in my head, before looking up again, only more hesitantly this time, to see he was still doing it.

My initial reaction was embarrassment when I had looked to see what he was doing, only to find him watching me with an interested and rather amused look on his face, while his head was propped up by his hand resting against the side of his head, his body shifted towards where I was sitting. Looking down with a red face, knowing I'd been caught watching him, I hoped he would turn away when I looked back up again, so I didn't feel so bloody awkward, only to see not much had changed from the last time I'd looked up, besides the smirk now placed on his lips.

"Stop staring at me..." I mumbled out, eyes averted from his. He let out a soft chuckle and, ignoring me as usual, only prompted to move his chair closer to mine so he could uneasily gaze at me from a closer distance. "Now why would I do that when you have such a pretty blush adorning such a pretty face?"

My heart seemed to leap into my throat at the exact moment his words touched my ears and my head snapped up to stare wide-eyed and red-faced at his smug demeanor. "D-Did you...?" I stuttered over my words, not seeming able to form a simple coherent sentence, as he leaned in even closer to my face, his smirk almost softening a bit.

"Yes, I do believe I did..." He breathed into my face, his fingertips ghosting over the skin on my arm, raising goosebumps instantly, as I felt my heart rapidly pound in frantic beats as he leaned in closer, his soft red hair tickling my cheeks and his nose brushed against mine. I was so close to finding my voice and the will to move my frozen limbs, just another second...

"S-Sasori, what are you...?" I whispered, realizing his intentions and let out a small gasp as he pressed his lips to mine, me being able to feel a smirk form on his lips, as all the will to jerk away from him vanished and he leaned in closer, before the large door suddenly flung open and hit the wall, followed by a loud shout of triumph. "See, Ebizou? I told you my grandson could get somewhere with an attractive female! Bwahahaha, I win yet another bet!"

I blinked, mainly from complete shock, and saw Sasori had moved as far away from me as possible and his face was hidden by his hair as I heard him growl out in a low voice, "You old hag, you're absolutely insufferable, get out now..."

Instead, I stood up from my seat so abruptly I knocked the chair back in my haste as I sped to door, bowing my head to the elders and muttered, "Arigato, Chiyo-san and Ebizou-san, for having me this evening, but I must be going now, good-bye!" and quickly ran past them, not stopping until I was within the safety of my locked room, clutching my chest and panting. A hand shakily reached to touch my trembling lips and my heart began to pound loudly once more, although I highly doubt it was from the run this time.


Yay, another update and yes it IS longer than most of my others, but that's just because I started writing and I just didn't want to stop, so yeah, R & R, and good-day.