"What you'd want, Sasori."

The language was foreign; Ino couldn't comprehend a single word. She understood fully the mocking laughter that emitted from the man. Deidara was pushed in front of him. The man shifted directing his gun between the two of us.

The man looked around, mocking grin on his face as he took in his surroundings.

"You hide like a rat, you live like a rat."

Even in a situation like this Ino was offended. Sure she didn't have any decorations, or furniture for that matter. This was still being best place she had ever lived by far. It wasn't a rat's nest.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

It wasn't the first time Ino had ever seen a gun. Had a feeling it wouldn't be the last either. She had never cared for them, especially when they were loaded and pointing towards her. The best thing for her in this situation was to try to ignore it.

"Where are my manners?"

He spoke with a thick accent and his smile never seemed to leave his face.

"For what I'm doing here… I'd say getting even with Uchiha Itachi, sending him a message."

Ino took a step back with the mere mention of his name. The men started conversing again, heated. Ino needed to gather herself. Itachi had warned her. He must have underestimated them. He hadn't expected them to find her there. She still remember his warning. This man wasn't there to just kill her alone. He was there to send a message, she was Itachi's love interest.

"I don't want you mentioning that name close to me! I don't know what message you want to deliver, but I'm not talking to that wretched man!"

It was an act she had no faith in even herself. The upset ex-girlfriend. The scorned lover. She almost picked up a glass to throw at the wall, but she wasn't staring in a soap opera. She had to at least try to make her act seem plausible.

The man chuckled and watched color appear in her face. He had done with act so many times. Gotten upset and butchered the lady. They had all died crying, not even seeming to regret their connection with the man that had gotten them killed. They must have all believed in something as stupid and foolish as love.

Never had he seen someone pretending to have had a bad breakup with their lover.

"He left me for someone else, that's all I know. First I started smelling her on his clothes after his evening meetings, and then I found her underwear tucked in his jacket! It stings so bad!"

Ino gripped the counter. The men watched her as she went along. Her hair fell down covering her face and she made her shoulders shake.

"That was ages ago, I met him recently. Deidara and I went to a Christmas party. He was there, once again with a new woman on his arms."

Now she picked up the glass and threw it. The glass shattered and fell everywhere. She let out a primal scream. They conversed in a foreign language again before Deidara walked up to her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck.

"That's what you're coming up with? Itachi is your ex and Deidara is your new boyfriend."

Ino noted that the gun was no longer pointed at either of them. It was in his hand hanging by his side. His other arm clutched to a bag that was hanging on his shoulder. Ino didn't even want to speculate what it contained. She just hoped she'd never find out.

"If that's the case, why does it look like you're squatting in this apartment, where no one knows you're living?"

Ino brushed off Deidara and looked at him with a stern look before she addressed the man.

"We had a fight, he doesn't want children. Probably because he thinks I'm so low-life stripper that's not good enough to carry his children!"

Ino hid her face behind her hands. It was becoming more and more like a soap opera. The man didn't seem to have watched many of those and was surprised by the intensity of feelings Ino was rushing through. Though it would take more to convince the man.

"If you are together as you say, prove it!"

Ino's tear stained faced appeared once again. Deidara's eyes had been fixed on the man this entire time, afraid he'd do something when either of them weren't looking.

"How'd you expect to find proof of that?"

Deidara asked with one eyebrow raised. How did one prove that they were an item? There was no reasonable or definite way to prove it. He knew the man in front of him wasn't one to plea to that sort of logic. He had most likely already made up the test and what would make them fail it.

"Have sex, right now, in front of me."

"That's insane!"

"She's saving herself for marriage!"

The both of them shouted in unison. Deidara seemed shocked with his open mouth and wide eyes. Ino's glare was intense and her eyes watering up.

"Bad news for you Romeo. Your Juliet is no virgin, I've already slept with her."

Ino ran his image through her mind several times. She was certain she would have remembered him if she had. She didn't have the habit of sleeping with strangers.

"Around Christmas time, left some cash for you on the counter."

"After I had ended things with… Itachi…"

It would plead to her case. She was a mess back then. It was easy for anyone to see that she had been heartbroken. Even the sociopath in front of them should have been able to pick up on that.

"But you can't be serious, I'm not going to sleep with my boyfriend while you watch!"

That would be rape. Ino didn't feel like going through that. She had worked so hard for so many years to avoid just that. She wasn't about to let it happen like that, in that fashion with someone she had once been so close with, with a real death threat hanging over her.

"I'd be able to tell if there are feelings between you. If you're wondering how serious I am, why don't you tell her?"

Deidara turned against me. He no longer had that natural glow, that glow his high self-esteem emitted. That aura that made you feel safe and made you want to laugh and have fun along with him.

"He already killed my guards."

His gun was pointing at us again. Now he wasn't smirking. He had already killed tonight. He had already drawn the attention of threatening a diplomat caused. He might as well kill the both of them. He wasn't getting away unnoticed with this like he would have just killing Ino. The gun was pointed towards Deidara again now.

"I have no use for Deidara. If you don't do as I say or if you're lying, I'll put a bullet through his head and you Ino. I'll make your supposed heartbreak seem like your fondest childhood memory in comparison to what I'm going to do to you."