"OH, ROMEO, ROMEO! Where for art though... homeo." Kiba flared his arms wide, and then brought them together above his head. He spun around, as a dancer might, and then did a small skip as he extended one hand to Naruto, and fanned his tutu wide with the other.

There were many catcalls as he did this; mostly from the girls but Sasuke threw in his fair share of whistles and encouragement.

"Well, I asked you to perform a skit-detailing what your lives are like when you are alone in your wings, but... if this is going on you guys need your own show. It's hilarious, I love it." Deidara applauded loudly, a wide smile framing his lips. The fair-haired man stood slowly, the silly smile still on his face. "Now, Uhm, I believe it is..." He paused to check his list. "Hidan, Yukari, and Haku's turn."

There was a small round of snickering between TenTen, Genma, and Hinata; the three of them knew that the skit that was about to be performed was definitely true to a "t." WHile it had their daily antic down to a truthful depiction, it gave them a chance to highlight their artistic ability.

Haku simply stood in the center, staring at his mirror. HIdan and Yukari darted back and forth behind him, chasing each other in a strange but entrancing dance. Hidan began sing in a soft, low voice. He was a beautiful tenor; Yukari sang as well, her voice light and airy. It was easy on the ears, and quite soothing. This was surprising from the two who were so chaotically running amuck. No one but Haku's fellow performers, Hinata, TenTen, and Genma were prepared for the sound that emanated from Haku's mouth. HIs voice, normally so soft and feminine, raged out of him in monstrously loud and masculine tones. He was singing opera. OPERA. It wasn't even good opera.

Hidan and Yukari both looked up, their voices fizzling out as they stared at Yukari. Hidan's fist bobbed up and down slowly as he yanked on Yukari's hair in a distracted fashion. Yukari rolled over, completely focused on Haku. She and Hidan paused for only a moment longer before leaping at Haku, covering his mouth and stealing his mirror.

"Oh yeah," sneered Hidan, lifting the mirror to look at his face. "I'm Haku. I'm fucking fabulous. Look at me. I could be Tyra Banks or some shit. Fuck yes. Oh man, if only I had a mirror big enough that I could see my ass and my face at the same time..."

Naruto let out a wolf-like gasp of laughter, clutching his sides as he subsided into a loud chorus of breathless laughs. Deidara was in tears at this point, completely unable to maintain any form of professionalism. Kiba was rocking back and forth as he laughed his leg twitching as he laughed uncontrollably.

Gaara didn't find the whole ordeal nearly as funny as anybody else; the corners of his mouth were downturned; he already had a headache and they were only aggravating it. Hidan's line at the end had been humorous, but nothing special. It wasn't enough to make him laugh. It wasn't enough to make him smile. It wasn't enough.

"That was hilarious, yeah!" laughed Deidara, whipping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Ah, shit... Wow! Yeah, I think that leaves... Uhm, oh yeah! Kankuro, Shikamaru, Kai, and Sasuke. … This is an odd group to have come together..."

It was odd. It wasn't funny at all, either. This group had decided to go a more factual route than humorous. That in itself made it rather humorous.

Kankuro and Sasuke pushed ten of the stools together, and brought over a few foldable chairs. They pushed them together in a line, and Kai taped a sign to the middle chair that read "Le couch." Then Kankuro pushed a stool with a box on it, labeled "LE TV!" in front of the row of chairs. Then everyone sat down. Shikamaru lay himself down across a few stools.

They sat there for a good, long moment before Sasuke chuckled abruptly. Kankuro scowled, picked up his hand, and mimed changing the channel. Sasuke sighed, and then lifted a brow interestedly as if he was watching something good.

Kai frowned and then laughed. Kankuro smirked, then chuckled, then laughed maniacally. Even Sasuke smiled at the pretend-funny on the TV. Then they stopped.
"Bam. That's it. That's all we got," explained Kai, standing up and bowing. " Ah, thank you."

Deidara was smiling, which was good. Sasuke had been afraid that they'd get up there do it, and then everyone would stare at them like they'd suddenly turned into dead fish.

"Definitely very original!" awarded Deidara, clapping his hands. "All right, I think that's it for this class! I'll see you all tomorrow! It'll be a great day, oh yeah!"


[.-_-.]


IT WAS STRANGE, this tumultuous bunch of emotions that swirled and amassed within him. Some days Sasori had hope; he thought his life was worth it and that moving forward was critical. Other days, he felt so bitterly alone and miserable that he didn't understand why he was still alive. What was his purpose? Was he destined to be here, forever, never knowing what his life could have been, maybe even should have been?

Gaara was one that he knew would have understood him if he could explain things. As it was he could not for more than one reason. At least he wasn't supposed to; the growing anxiety inside of him urged him to tell his brother what was happening anyway. There would be repercussions if he did so. He was wondering if it would be worth it.

Tsunade had not been frivolous in putting Sasori in together with Gaara and Kankuro; Sasori had a task to perform and he had not been upholding his end of the argument. He had multiple duties to perform but he was falling behind in completing all of them.

Being in such close quarters with people was disastrous for his sense of self. He was losing his centering; no longer could he delve into his mind and reflect on his interactions without bias and interest in them. These people were working their way into his skin, digging beneath the surface as they forced him to care about them. He hated it.

What he hated most was that he had been sent in with the knowledge of certain things that made day-to-day life surreal and impossible.

One of Tsunade's main initiatives for him was that he needed to find out how the group responded to issues involving Shikamaru. He was to report to her whether they planned things for him to say, moved items for him in their delusional beliefs that he was still alive, or whether they even actually believed he was still alive. But they believed all right. So did he.

He had seen Shikamaru with his own eyes. That he was seeing a dead man on a daily basis-that he had conversed with a dead man on a day to day basis chilled him to the bone. He had known he was mentally unstable before. But to think that he was seeing dead people now terrified him- was he truly losing his grip or was there other trickery afoot?

Sasori eyed the small strip of sharp metal that he had pried from the bottom of his desk, turning it over and over in his hands. He'd been craving the painful sting of metal against flesh since Naruto had collided with him. The sight of his own blood trickling down his cheeks had brought Jim relief of the sickest sort.

He didn't enjoy the pain itself but the relief it brought. The pent-up frustrations and anxieties couldn't leave him without it. He couldn't make them go away, couldn't rid himself of them, without solidifying them as physically. When he couldn't find something to cut himself with, he would bite his wrists, clenching his teeth down over the skin and bone or his wrists and forearms, marveling at the release he felt when the pain began to tingle through his skin.

Today he had his tool though, and his work would be quick. Pressing the tool gently into the flesh of his pall at first, he exhaled shakily. It still wasn't enough. Sasori smiled slightly at the idea of carving designs into the skin all over his flesh. He wouldn't do that, though. He sighed again, pressing the sharp metal just through the skin. A small bead of blood welled at the break in the skin. He dragged the scrap of metal across his skin a little bit further, letting out a ragged breath when it began to hurt. The cut was only an inch long and not very deep. But it was enough. He couldn't get carried away.

He released the tool from his hand, smiling with slight wonderment as it clattered into the basin of the sink. The line in his left palm bled slightly before the flow began to ebb.

He could make it. Perhaps. Sasori wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up the facade before he broke, but he would damn well go for as long as he could before he broke.


[.-_-.]


GAARA SIGHED INTO her shoulder, his left hand roving down her side along the curve of hips, resting there as he cupped her ass in his hand. Sakura smiled into his hair, shifting from her position on top of him. "I have wanted thisfor so long, to just be with you... I don't feel when I'm not with you," she admitted, kissing him on the forehead. His forehead burned where her lips grazed his skin.

"I know," he whispered softly. He wasn't deflecting her statement by not saying he'd waited for it, too. He was clearly agreeing with her. She'd learned very quickly not to be offended by the things he didn't say. It just wasn't his style.

Sakura pulled back to look him in the eye, curious. "Are you okay? You've been very... different the past day or so."

Gaara's eyes widened in surprise. He looked away, his thin brows moving up and down as he hashed out what he wanted to say. "I.." He paused to lick his lips, and then looked away again. When he looked back at her again, his blue eyes were watery with distress. "I feel... I can't love you. I want to be with you, but I can't."

Sakura pulled back, surprisingly calm. "Gaara, you are many things but a liar is not one of them. So don't lie to me."

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek, unsure of why he felt this way. Why did he keep doing this? Garaa looked up at her, his eyes dark with brooding affliction. "But... Sakura there's something wrong inside me. I can't be happy... I don't know how. I want to love you. I just don't think I'm capable of it..."

"Well of course you are!" She protested, a smile rising to her lips. "Because you do love me. Admit it. You love me, Gaara Sabaku. You do. You let me touch your hair; you let me lay with you when you're tired. You let me kiss you, instead of you just kissing me silly. You can sleep when you're lying next to me."

She paused to let her words sink in. Leaning in to solidify her point, she tenderly pressed her lips to his, her hands cupping his face gently. "How many other people can you say that about?"

"None." he rasped, his hoarse voice grating on her in an emotionally charged way. She used her thumbs to wipe away the tears that had almost threatened to spill.

Sakura pushed one hand against the wall behind him, readjusting her legs on the mattress so her cramped thighs could relax. "Then don't worry. Because I love you... I think more than I've ever loved anybody else. It's said that love and hate are such similar emotions that you can only ever love a person as much as you've hated them. Let me tell you... I hated you when we first met. But then I grew to know you, and I realized that I loved you. I don't know if it was hate I truly felt for you anymore. I didn't realize I loved you until I woke up with you sitting in my room, that night I apparently came and got you asking for help in my sleep."

Gaara smiled slightly, pulling her into a kiss. His tongue battled for dominance with hers, his hands travelling slowly up her back, his right traveling further to cup the back of her neck. When they parted their lips and tongues parted from their sensual dance, Gaara traced her lips with the pad of his thumb. "You're so beautiful... " His lips turned up in amusement when blood flooded into her cheeks. She toyed with the hem of her shirt absently, her eyes flicking back up to his shyly.

She wasn't used to him being so sincere. Sakura was used to rough, demanding Gaara who fucked her like no other man had ever been able to. The Gaara who knew all, conquered all, and demanded everything in exchange for nothing. Now she was the one with the answers, the one who was consoling the supposed man without emotions. She had taken a man entombed in stone and chiseled and chiseled until the facade was ripped away and his soul was naked before her. He was no monster. He was a man who'd been tormented by monsters and haunted by the demons of his past. She was his saving grace. The very idea terrified her.


[.-_-.]


THE TELEVISION DRONED monotonously in the background, reminding him why he hated getting headaches. His entire body ached. Kankuro stared at the floor, avoiding the bright lights flashing from the screen as he tried to ignore the feelings of anxiety gnawing through his sternum.

Kankuro shifted his gaze from the floor to the ceiling, watching the colors dance and flicker across the surface as he contemplated that his headache had merged into a full-blown migraine. There was no time like the present to go to Shikamaru and get a pill or two, but he knew that he couldn't do that. Pills would make him hazy. If he was hazy he might make a mistake.

And so he sat there, staring at this or that, but never the television screen. He listened to anything but the grating sound of the voices on the screen as they bickered to one another. He could faintly hear Gaara and Sakura talking to one another. He was truly happy for his brother, but the jealous couldn't be avoided. He wasn't jealous of the girl but the feeling. The casual caress or the heat of another body pressed against his own. At the time that he had actually had those things he'd hated them, writing them off as bothersome and nonessential. Now he craved the feelings of human contact.

That romantic comedies were the main kind of movie showed in their limited number of channels killed him. Seeing people so happy and content when he couldn't be gnawed at him endlessly. He shared the pain of the men when they were rejected or rebuked by their women and then he hated them when they won her back.
His love life was not the only source of his depression. He felt that his and Gaara's relationship was quickly sliding out of his grasp. Kankuro was happy that Gaara had finally found someone he could be with and just be himself with, but where did that leave him? He knew he was being a selfish, self-pitying, and awful excuse of an older brother, at least in his own eyes, but that only exacerbated his feelings of despair. Sasori would have no problem slipping into his spot and filling the void that he had unwittingly created.

When he heard a door creak open, he looked up from his knuckles in surprise, his eyes and ears immediately applying themselves to the task of locating the nighttime sneak and seeing who it was. Seeing that it was Naruto, he immediately reined himself in and reminded himself that Naruto was not an enemy. He was a friend. Was he still a friend? He felt so abandoned by everyone that he couldn't recall just having a good time with anyone anymore.

"You know," Naruto said softly, sitting down next to him, "You can always just have sex with the new girl. That'll make you feel better."

Kankuro couldn't help but smile; he'd been expecting Naruto to tell him that he needed to stop moping around. "Nah, I'm pretty sure Kiba is... interested in her. I can't do that to him. He needs to get over Kallou somehow..."

"Well. What about Kai? If you really want her back-"

"She doesn't want me. I caught her making out with Gaara a week ago..." Kankuro swallowed the feeling of defeat, beating it down. It was utterly degrading to have to admit that to Naruto, but he hadn't admitted it to anyone thus far.

Naruto paused, surprised. Then he laughed. "No! That was Sasori. She told me all about it. He just randomly sneaks up on her and makes out with her. They haven't had sex yet, so there's still hope..."

Kankuro's brows furrowed as he stared at his palms. "Sasori? What is his deal... he comes into this place and he's already taking Gaara from me why is he after her, too?"

His blonde-haired companion cringed when he heard Kankuro's voice crack in distress. "Look... I don't think he is trying to take them from you. He's lonely, too. I don't trust him a lick, but... I know what it's like to be pushed into a position where you're placed with a new family. You don't fit in. You don't know what to do. You're stranded. So what can you do? You find someone you think might accept you. Kai fits that profile."

"But what about Gaara? Why would-"

"They're twins. What can you even expect, Kankuro? But he's just as much your brother as he is Gaara's. You seem to forget that..." pointed out Naruto, his voice taking on a forceful edge. "I just want you to be happy, but you're trying to wallow in your own filth. Go talk to her. Talk to Sasori. I won't do it for you. This is something you need to do yourself."

Kankuro groaned, taking his head in his hands. He combed his fingers through his hair, distracted by how evidently he needed a shower. "I need to shower. I will shower first. Then I will... or maybe tomorrow."

"Don't worry about how she reacts!" Naruto said, calling after Kankuro as he marched off to shower. "Just say what you need to say!"

Kankuro lifted a hand in parting, and then shut his door behind him. When he finally did talk to her, it would definitely be interesting. He dreaded the conversation.


[.-_-.]


KAI LEANED BACK from the doorway, Naruto's advice to Kankuro ringing through her ears. Did she want him back? Could she forgive him?

Sasori tugged on her arm, pulling her back to the bed so he could assault her lips some more. "Quit it, I'm thinking," she snapped, yanking her arm free so she could yank her hair back into a messy bun.

"Think less and kiss me some more," he demanded, pulling her along with him anyway. "You'd rather kiss me, anyway."

Kai growled against his lips, trying to push him away. Then she realized he was right; it was too late to think about this. She wondered absently why they hadn't progressed from kissing, but realized it was inconsequential. She wouldn't have had sex with him anyway. She hadn't with Kankuro. Would it be so bad to-Kai banished the thought, knowing that if she ever forgave Kankuro and gave him another chance he wouldn't have been so keen to find out her and Sasori had had sex.
Eventually they got tired of kissing and ended up just laying there next to each other.

"Are you lonely, Sasori?"

Sasori rolled onto his side to stare at her with surprise. "What?"

"Are you lonely? Like... just lonely. You're new and you didn't really make friends..." Kai's brown eyes stared into his dark blues with curiosity. The eyes staring back at her were void of emotion for a moment and then sparked with a strange emotion. Was it anger?

"No, but I just come make out with you ever I run out of things to think about. Then I can think about other things." Sasori's eyes lightened slightly when he saw a spark of anger ignite within her.

"Oh really? What kind of things do you think about?" she asked in an accusatory tone. She mentally braced herself for the barrage of rude remarks that she expected.
Sasori smirked as he leaned in a little bit. "Well," he began, his right hand trailing from behind her left ear and down to the nape of her neck. "I wonder what would happen if," he leaned down, brushing his lips against the column of her throat. "I did this."

Kai sucked in a breath of surprise as he gently raked his teeth across the sensitive flesh and gripped her arm with his hand. His tongue lashed out to taste her skin as his hand drifted from her arm to her chest.

"Wait!" she protested, trying to roll away from him. She knew what he was doing. He wanted to have sex with her so that Kankuro wouldn't want her. "I still want to talk to Kankuro! You intercepted me... now that he wants to talk to me-"

"Why do you want him back?" demanded Sasori, propping himself up on one arm so he could glare at her more effectively. "He cheated on you! He... He-"
"Yeah, but I love him," whispered Kai, her voice wavering. "I know that feeling can go away but I don't want it to. I don't know if I want him back. I know you don't care, otherwise I wouldn't bother to hang on, but... I think he at least deserves a chance. He's miserable. I'm miserable..."

Sasori's gaze hardened over instantly. He pulled back from her with a low sigh, averting his eyes. "Fine."

She was wrong; he didcare. He just hadn't wanted her to know that because he'd known Kankuro still had feelings for her. He thought he could intercept her. He had never planned on actually having feelings for her, but it had happened. That she so quickly wrote him off as not caring dug deeply at the corners of his conscience as he stalked out of her room. Now he was alone; alone and lonelier than ever.

Author's Note: I'm sorry this is so short. I've been TRYING to make them longer but it's not working so well for me. This felt like the right place to end it. Please hang with me: I know this seems to be dragging on forever, but I am finally figuring out where to move things along to next. I just need to get some things dealt with first.

Voting corner:
You might not like it but I need your help.

Should Kai be with...
A.] Kankuro.
B.] Sasori.

I've been reading a fic that one of my very good friends rights, and it's been KankuroKai from day 1. I re-read the whole thing and dammit it has grown on me so hardcore. I NEED YOUR HELPPPP. So let me know what you think.

And is the GaaSaku coming along? I really enjoy writing for them. xD 3 What do you all want more of, besides plot progression?