Raintrees: I won't be updating for the next few days because I have camp...I'll be back on Saturday. My apologies...

Chapter 13

It was Sunday. Sasori had printed out the scholarship application form and had personally requested for Pein to mail it to the post office for him. He didn't want his grandmother to peek inside the envelope and possibly tell Deidara about what he was doing. He was fixing his puppets when he heard a soft knock on the door.

"I brought something for you to eat!" Deidara exclaimed happily as he opened the door. Sasori noticed that he had bought some containers of takeaway food. Oh yeah, it was almost time for lunch. He had been so engrossed in fixing his puppets that he had forgotten about eating.

"I intended to visit you earlier, but the school called yesterday evening to say that we had to go back for a mourning session for Sarutobi, hn. So, I decided to buy some food back for you." Smiling, Deidara opened a container full of piping hot ramen and inhaled its delicious scent deeply. It was Sasori's favourite ramen.

"Thanks," said Sasori, and made a reach for the chopsticks which came with the ramen, but Deidara snatched them up quickly, startling Sasori a little.

"What are you doing?"

"No, you're not going to eat the ramen with your hands. I'm going to feed you the ramen," said Deidara happily, breaking the chopsticks.

Sasori stared. "You are going to feed me? No way, brat. Now, hand over those chopsticks - "

Deidara smirked. "NO! Unless you let me feed you, you aren't gonna get this special treat. And your granny has just gone out to the hairdresser's, so if you want a late lunch of boiled veggies and plain porridge. you can wait for her."

The redhead was taken aback. What the hell, boiled veggies and plain porridge? He had been eating that almost everyday ever since he was confined to his bed. Besides, the ramen looked so good.

But no, he wasn't going to let Deidara have his way. Must resist temptation. Must resist ramen.

Deidara giggled a little when he saw the redhead trying to prevent himself from wanting to eat the ramen. Sasori's face looked very comical - he was biting his lip and his cheeks were a little red. He looked very much like a little child. Picking up the ramen container, Deidara put it under Sasori's chin and let the fragant aroma drift into his nose.

"Lovely ramen, you sure you don't want it? Your favourite ramen which is so much better than boiled veggies and plain porridge...Come on, you know you want the ramen, hn."

After five minutes of tempting, Sasori finally gave in. His face was all red and he was sweating from trying to concentrate his thoughts on maths sums. But it was no use - the power of the ramen aroma overwhelmed him, and broke his concentration.

"OK, OK! You win," he said, sighing.

Deidara grinned. "OK! What must you say?"

Sasori was beginning to feel irritated. "What now?"

"Magic word...be polite, Sasori. Say 'please'."

"What?!"

"Or I will eat your ramen..."

"You wouldn't!"

"I would! Ahhh - "

" STOP! OK, I will say it...please."

"Please who?"

"Please, Deidara. May I have the ramen please?" Sasori said through gritted teeth.

Finally, Deidara seemed to be satisfied. He stirred the ramen a little, and fed some to Sasori, who was scolding himself mentally for letting Deidara feed him. But he secretly felt happy.

"See, you're a patient, so you should let people feed you, hn," Deidara said.

"I have hands; I can eat on my own, dumbass," said Sasori between mouthfuls of ramen.

"So now, I am a nurse!"

"In your next life, you mean."

"OI!"

"Oi what?"

"I gonna feed you everyday from now on! I will be your nurse!"

"HUH? Spare me the agony."

"Not agony. Happiness! I will make your lunch every Saturday and Sunday."

"...Whatever."

"Oh yeah...I am going to Itachi's house later for a project. After I feed you, I've gotta go."

"Itachi's house?" Sasori paused for a moment.

"Yeah. We are going to do a project on different dances. With Kiba and Hinata-san," replied Deidara.

'Itachi...' Somehow, this person didn't seem very friendly anymore. He seemed more like a threat. A rival, more specifically.

Sasori wasn't sure whether he should tell Deidara about his plans to transfer to Konoha High. He wanted to see Deidara's reaction to this piece of news, but he was afraid that Deidara would tell this to Itachi, and give Itachi more "secret information". If Itachi knew about this, he would start planning out counter attacks. Pein had specifically told Sasori "not to reveal this to anyone, including your diary, including Deidara." And he knew Pein was a good analyzer.

"Do...you like Itachi?" Sasori asked quietly.

"Itachi? Yeah, he's quite nice. He's been really good to me and that really changed my impression of him. He even invited me take a look at the wealthy supermarkets. He said that they're ten times bigger than our supermarkets! That's crazy, isn't it?" Deidara said excitedly.

"Since when were you interested in stuff for the rich?"

"Am I

Sasori didn't look too happy. Hidan was right. His one-month house confinement was going to help Itachi create lots of opportunites to take Deidara out. Sooner or later, Deidara would surely like the Uchiha more than him.

All the more he was going to pass the application test.

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"Itachi-sama has been expecting you, sir."

Deidara was now at the Uchiha Mansion front gate, feeling very lost. This large place would drive anyone crazy if they were to walk into the mansion, take a tour of everything and come back to the front gate without getting lost. He was sure that no one, except the maids and servants and the Uchihas themselves could survive living in that maze. As a maid dressed in a neat, frilly dress led him to an enormous ballroom, Deidara noticed a few family portaits hanging on the walls of the corridors. Itachi looked quite adorable when young, he decided. But now, he looked more like a stone. A stone who was slowly turning into a piece of soft clay, though.

He stepped into the enormous ballroom and blinked as the bright lights greeted his eyes. The mirrored walls reflected his stunned face as he saw Itachi dancing some contemporary dance in the middle of the dance floor. He didn't seem to notice his visitor, and kept dancing to the beat of the music. Deidara found himself captivated by the swift movements and dance steps, as well as amused by how emotionless the Uchiha looked when he was dancing. Kiba was at one side of the room with Hinata, teaching her how to waltz.

Finally, after a few minutes, the music stopped and Itachi ended the dance with a finishing pose. He was sweating and panting after the vigorous activity, and was about to get his water bottle from the side of the room when he saw Deidara standing by the doorway.

"Hey, why don't you come in?" he asked, wiping his sweat from his forehead.

Deidara looked a little shocked as he came back to reality, and quickly walked into the room. Kiba and Hinata turned around as soon as they saw him nearing them.

"Well, well, here comes Deidara!" said Kiba, as Hinata did a full spin.

"Good afternoon, Deidara-kun," Hinata said, smiling.

'Hmm, they look like lovers doing a waltz,' thought Deidara as he put his belongings down beside the CD player. The project that he and his classmates were supposed to do wasn't so simple - they were supposed to perform an item for the new principal's welcome ceremony. They had been chosen as the class representative group, mostly because of Itachi. But Deidara had never danced before, and did not know how to dance, as well as how it felt to dance. He had even dreamt that he had fallen off the stage while dancing the night before.

"OK, then lets start with the dancing, Deidara," said Itachi, throwing his towel onto the floor, "Hinata and Kiba have already thought of what to dance. Is contemporary okay with you - em, Deidara?"

Deidara was busy worrying and thinking about his dream when Itachi snapped him out of his thoughts. He quickly stood up as his face flushed with embarassment.

"Uh, yeah. I don't mind, hn. But what is contemporary? And I don't know how to dance. I've never danced before. I'm afraid that I'll fall off the stage. I don't want to embarass myself and you."

Itachi looked at Deidara for a moment. Then he simply grabbed his hand and led him to the middle of the room.

"I will teach you how to dance. I believe that you will be able to dance well. Just follow me -"

At that moment, Kiba called out to Itachi, "hey, why don't you two perform a waltz as well? It'll be easier for Deidara, since he simply just has to memorize the count, the rhythm and the steps."

Itachi nodded, and turned back to Deidara. "You heard him. I'll teach you how to waltz then."

Deidara's eyes widened. "B-b-but I might step on your feet!"

"No buts. Come and dance already." With that, Itachi took Deidara's hand, put one hand around his waist and pulled Deidara towards him. Deidara blushed as his head crashed into Itachi's chest.

"If you can't finish learning the steps by today, you won't be going home this evening."

"What?! You idiot!"

But Itachi had already started dancing. He moved his feet slowly so that Deidara would be able to follow.

"Ready...one, two, three, four...one, two, three, four...no, not like that. Don't stomp your feet; move lightly..." Itachi gently led Deidara through the dance, and Deidara kept stumbling over Itachi's feet, but nevertheless, he continued dancing. He didn't want to go home late.

'This feeling is good,' thought Itachi as he waltzed along with the music. He noticed Deidara blushing, and smiled. 'He looks even cuter when he's blushing,' he thought.

Meanwhile, Deidara's whole head was in a whirl. It was hard to keep up with Itachi, though the pace they were dancing at was already very slow. But after awhile, he gradually got used to the pace and started enjoying the dance. Itachi's face was so close, and Deidara couldn't help but blush. His heart went a little faster with each step he took.

Sasuke was standing by the doorway. He smirked as he saw what was going on. By now, all the mirrors in the room had the images of Deidara and Itachi waltzing in them. It was like the ballroom had walls that were TV screens, playing a video of the two classmates dancing. He grinned and walked away after awhile. Really, he should have brought his video camera...

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It was finally evening. Deidara had finally mastered all the steps, thanks to all the effort he had put in. He seriously didn't want to go home late; he wanted to watch the drama series 'Rich Guy, Poor Girl.' But he found himself too tired to stand up. Itachi had practically made him dance and dance without any breaks in between. He sat down next to the CD player, feeling very exhausted and thirsty. Hinata and Kiba had already gone home, and the sun was already setting. Deidara sighed, and was sure that he would be late for his favourite drama series.

Suddenly, Itachi thrust a bottle of water into his hands. "Drink up," he said, "you must be really thirsty after all this training."

"Thanks, and I'm glad you know that, hn," said Deidara, opening the bottle quickly and taking a huge gulp of water. The water felt nice and cool, and made him feel very refreshed.

Itachi sat down next to his classmate and drank some water from his own water bottle. There was silence for awhile, until he decided to ask Deidara some things which he was really curious about.

"Hey, Deidara?"

"Yeah?"

"...just wondering about...how close you are to Sasori. You two seem like very good friends. Does he treat you nicely?"

Deidara nodded. "Though he always scolds me and acts like he doesn't care about me, I know he really does care about me. He's a really nice person. Without him, I don't think I would be able to make it through middle school."

'Oh..." Itachi took another sip of water. "Then, what kind of person is he actually?"

"He's kind yet stubborn, and he doesn't show his true emotions easily. And he dislikes it when people keep him waiting. He's really quiet and clever, and he seems strong on the outside, but I don't think he's strong on the inside. He's strong-willed, but he can be broken into many pieces if something really bad happens. Like, when his parents died. They died in a car crash."

Itachi looked surprised. "Really?"

Deidara nodded. "His grandmother told me that he was so devastated that he locked himself up in the room for a week and did nothing but look out of the window. When he finally came out, he wouldn't talk to anyone. It was really hard to get him to talk again, she said."

"Then...do you like him?" Itachi asked.

"Of course I do. Are you nuts? We've been friends for a long time!"

"I didn't mean it that way, stupid! I mean -"

But Deidara cut his sentence off halfway. "It's already so late! Do you think I could go home now? I really want to watch 'Rich Guy, Poor Girl'!"

Itachi was frozen on the spot for awhile. Then he nodded, and led him to the front gate. "Want a ride home?" he asked.

"Eh, no its ok. I don't want to bother you...it wouldn't be nice. But thanks anyway. Bye!" With that, Deidara ran home quickly, leaving Itachi to his own thoughts.

"I hope he practises the dance steps well," he thought aloud, and went back into his house.