AN:/Dear Lord, this took forever to upload. I hate this new program thing-ish they have now. I can't cut a nd paste my stories like I used to. Curse you, evil-ness.

AN.2:/Aside fro that, I'm happy! Today is my one year Anniversary here on That, and the huge number of reviews from chapter eight, made me want to update faster than I normally would. Thank you for all the reviews. I was not planning on updateing for another two to three weeks (heh) but you guys killed me with guilt. So, here is your chapter. I bet you're happy to find out who the sake lover from chapter eight is. Please remember to review!

Disclaimer:/ Disclaimer:/As I have said before I,do not own Naruto or anything in the Naruto world, but you should know that I do own this story and it's plot line so please don't steal it! (© Copyright 2007 Vesper chan (FictionPress ID:562926). All rights reserved. Distribution of any kind is prohibited without the written consent of Vesper chan.) See! Now, it is legal! Don't bug me about it.

Chapter Nine

Ice Cream

-

'Sake?' Sakura though to herself in astonishment from her position on the floor, her left eye twitching slightly.

"Oi Kisame, what are you doing here, don't tell me you were the one he book summoned yeah," Deidara stated in a semi calm manner, still sitting on Sakura and keeping her out of the new arrival's sight.

Sakura guessed that the blond artist knew the tall blue haired man sitting on her couch.

"You look different without all your blue-ness, yeah."

"How else did you think I got here. That is a really stupid question you know," The man named Kisame grunted back in an annoyed tone. "And besides, our bodies change when we travel from world to world. That's why my skin is like this. I can see you scope is gone too."

Even though he was sitting down Sakura could tell he was tall, taller than anyone in the room. He had pale ivory skin with a almost blue tint to it and spiked blue hair. His eyes were a dark beady black reminding her of the eyes of a shark. She couldn't see what he was wearing because a long black cloak with red clouds concealed the majority of his body. Sakura's eyes widened slightly when the costume reference suddenly made sense. Sasori told her that their cloaks were part of their uniform for the criminal origination they were in.

"Well I guess you're stuck with us now," Sasori groaned, crossing his arms over his chest and rolling his head to the side in a board tone.

"Sasori teme you're here too. Who else made it to the other side?" the tall blue haired man laughed at the annoyed tone in the puppeteer's voice and posture.

"Just a bunch of brats from the hidden Leaf village and on from the hidden Sand village. No one else from the Akatsuki if that's what you're asking," Sasori replied, jabbing a thumb behind him.

Kisame let his beady black shark like eyes travel across the room skipping over Sakura who was out of sight still pinned to the floor. "I guess so, how many of the are there?" he asked in a deep gruff voice that reminded Sakura of some of the America metal singers, singing ballads. She though it would sound scratchy or horse from his build, but it actually sounded quite nice in her ears.

"You can stop talking about is like we're luggage you know," Neji sneered, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the new arrival that he would normally try to kill if they had met under and other circumstances.

It was one of the unspoken laws of The Book. Once you crossed over to the other world (the AU as they called it) you were a new person. All you past wrongs meant nothing anymore.

"I'll talk however I want to white eyes," Kisame sneered with a glare of his own. It never said about becoming enemies on the other side.

"Shark breath," Neji muttered under his breath

"Barbie hair," Kisame mutter back, earning an heightened glare from the Hyuga boy.

Gaara sighed rolling his eyes as Sasuke shook his head.

"So who is the owner of The Book and when do I meet him? I bet he'll want to know that I'm here," Kisame stated sweeping the apartment for any signs of life from outside the book.

Sakura grunted when she heard her name, or title, mentioned and Deidara looked down noticing her for the first time after the lights came back on. She didn't look very happy to have him straddling her hips, yet again.

He couldn't have enjoyed it more.

Laughing sheepishly and muttering a few dozen apologies in a second Deidara climbed of Sakura and sat at her side. Sakura coughed at the lack of weight on her chest constricting her lungs and slid her legs under her body. Using her hands, she pushed her upper body forward and sat up. Her wet hair stuck to her face still dripping onto her shirt and across her face in certain places. Snapping her head in the blue haired man's direction her hair swayed around her face before crossing over her mouth and settling around her chin. A few stray bangs clinging to the side of her face.

"Hello Kisame. My name is Sakura Haruno, I'm the owner of The Book," she calmly greeted, brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear before it slid back down in front of her face.

Kisame stuttered turning red and backed up a bit, scooting further down the couch keeping his eyes fixed solely on her. His body shivering just a tiny bit. Sakura frowned at his actions and grew a bit worried when she saw his face turn a deep shade of red. Maybe he was sick.

"Um are you okay Kisame?" she asked, standing up and coxing her head at his behavior.

"U-uh n-no…I'm okay," Kisame stuttered, taking a quick peak at her face every other second. He almost reminded her of a little boy too embarrassed to speak right. But judging by his behavior earlier she doubted he would be embarrassed of anything. "E-Eeto...um…your hair is wet."

Sakura blinked before staring up at her pink wet bangs patting them down. "Uh yeah, I took a shower so it's still a bit wet. Why is there something wrong with it being wet?"

Even though her hair was short, only reaching the tips of her shoulders, her sunset tinted locks were very thick (something she got from her mother). Since her hair was so thick it would retain water longer that normal.

"Ah! No, no, no, no, no!" Kisame stuttered, tripping over his words as her rapidly repeated them while waving his hands in front of his (if possible) even redder face.

"Ah, that's good. I like my hair wet, that's why I didn't dry it," Sakura replied airily with a smile.

Kisame looked up at her before quickly looking down again to play with his fingers, poking the together in a shy manner. His blush going down to a dull pink. "Oi Kisame, you okay? You look funny. Your face was all red yeah," Deidara commented, pointing out the obvious joining Naruto in the club for oblivious blonds. Kisame stopped playing with his fingers and his blush disappeared.

"Th-that's because of my skin color you bird brained moron! It's very pale now so it just looks red like that but it's just my new skin color!" the shark like man replied angrily raising a fist towards the blond along with a growl.

"Suuuuure. We believe you," Sasori added rolling his eyes and drawing out the middle of the word to emphasize his disbelief in the blue haired man's lame excuses.

"Really!" Kisame cried with wide eyes.

"Just like the apron we found in your room, neatly folded and laundered was used as a rag to clean you sword, sharkskin." Sasori stated with half lidded eyes remembering the incident clearly. The pink and blue checkered thing still scared him to this day.

"It was! How else was I suppose to keep my stuff clean, you Baka!"

Sasuke looked over at Sakura and saw she was calmly sitting on the end of the coffee table reading a page from The Book most likely on Kisame. He had to admit she looked really cute with wet hair, even though he told her to dry it so she wouldn't catch a cold. He could just see the sparkles and burst of lights floating around her face reflecting off the droplets of water in her hair. At the though he blushed and looked away. At this rate he wouldn't be able to control himself from taking Sakura and pinning her to a wall and…

"Um hey Kisame," Sakura called, closing the book while keeping a finger inside to ark the page. Kisame instantly stopped fighting and snapped into attention.

"Y-yes Sakura san?" he asked with a tiny pink blush. A big improvement compared to the dark red color that covered his face the last time she talked to him. Maybe he was improving on controlling his emotions.

"Oh you don't have to be so formal with me. These guys weren't," she replied glaring briefly at the rest of the boys in the room. "You can call me Sakura chan if you want to since that's how they address me."

Kisame's blush grew to a darker pink, now red color and he took a steep back stuttering like a leaf in the wind. So much for the whole 'controlling your emotions' thing."S-S…Sakura c-c-ch…chan?"

"Yeah, I'm used to it by now. Anyway I have a question for you. Sasuke and Gaara came her together, as did Neji and Naruto and of course Sasori and Deidara. They all came in pairs but you turned up alone. Aren't you suppose to be with someone as well? I mean were you not suppose to come with someone?" Sakura asked, holding up the brown colored tome in her hand.

Kisame closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. His blush was still there but now only a dull pink instead of a throbbing red. "Ah yes about that, I did know I was going to come here with my partner but… the truth is I don't know where he is. About two or three years ago he disappeared and I haven't heard a word of him. I though he might have come over here with someone else since it's likely that his partner could have changed, but he was the only one. I don't where he is now or why I'm even here now without a partner."

Sakura nodded and looked down at the open book in her hands, her eyes scanning over the slightly faded picture of a tall dark man dressed in Akatsuki robes with raven black hair tied back into a pony tail. His eyes were a bright crimson color with three coma like mark surrounding the pupil. The picture of Kisame was faded as well just like the pictures of Sasuke, Gaara, Neji, Naruto, Sasori and Deidara and Sakura knew that this meant these boy were already in her world. Her eyes traveled back to the faded picture of the tall dark man that could make any girl swoon with the right look. His photo was faded before Kisame came but not as much. Now it was just like the rest of the boy's photos.

"This is really interesting, it's almost like a mystery," she mused softly placing a finger on her chin. "A truly mind boggling mystery that will not leave my conscious alone to rest."

Neji smiled softly at how cute Sakura looked with her finger on her chin and her nose scrunched up in a puzzled expression. She had a cute doll like face still with a bit of baby fat that made her even cuter. Her dazzling emerald green eyes and appealing button nose only added to her charming features.

He had seen plenty of females in his time and they all seemed to be striving towards the hot sexy look in his eyes. Using too much makeup, wearing skimpy cloths that exposed too much skin, starving themselves till they become bone skinny, wearing heels so they become taller. And of course he didn't need to go into detail about how the flaunted what the had to point of making him sick. Sakura wasn't anything like that, she was cute, short (in a cute way of course), she never dressed in a skimpy manner and he had yet to see the girl wear makeup.

She was thin, yes, but it was the toned thin that came from working out and eating right instead of starving herself. She didn't seem to care what people though of her and that really turned the Hyuga boy on. But sadly for him he wasn't the only one.

"Yes my mind is in turmoil, I must solve this mystery…but not before desert!" she chirped, coming out of a very serious tone and switching over to a happy bubbly one in half of an instant. "Who wants sugar snow?"

"I do yeah!" Deidara chirped happily skipping to Sakura's side with a big grin and arched eyes.

"Me too, me too Sakura chan!" Naruto called chasing after the blond and standing besides Sakura while Deidara took the side opposite to her.

Kisame blinked as Gaara, Neji and Sasuke calmly followed Sakura over to the freezer where she kept her stash of all the may flavors of ice cream. Or Sugar snow as she liked to call it. Sasori held back standing next to Kisame who still had a blush however faint it might be.

"Aren't you going to join them? You love ice cream if I remember correctly," Sasori commented confused at how Kisame would look up at the group and then down at the floor again. He never used to do that or anything close to that.

He was always loud and demanding, rude to the point of trying to disembody those that sneezed in front of him. To see him acting shyly…was earth shattering for the red haired puppeteer.

"I'll go up when I feel like it!" Kisame snapped gruffly, with a scowl that hopefully covered his blush however fain it may be.

Damn, Sasori made him loose concentration at staring at Sakura.

"Suite yourself, I'm going up to get myself something sweet," he stated shrugging his shoulders and walking over to the small group who was receiving the frozen desert.

"But you don't like ice cream all that much."

"I never said ice cream."

-

Sakura was now in the midst of the group and now out of sight. The dark eyed male sighed slumping his shoulders. No use in trying to stare at her now.

"Here you go!" a melodious chime like voice chirped popping up in front of him. Kisame blinked in surprise to find a blue bowl of ice cream held in front of him by none other that the object from his stalker like obsession.

"For me?" he asked, hesitantly accepting the bowl.

"Yeah who else would it be for?" Sakura laughed, earning another blush from the dark like male.

"Uh… d-domo arigato gozaimasu Sakura san," Kisame thanked formally. Sakura frowned at the formality not being used to it from the boys that came through the book.

"Kisame, I told you that you didn't have to be formal with me. You could have just said 'thanks Sakura chan' or 'arigato Sakura chan'. Everyone else it like that and I don't mind."

"Um…arigato Sakura sa-chan…" Kisame thanked, his blush still in pace. He looked don and noticed what type of Ice cream he had for the first time and gasped in shock.

"What, what is it?" Sakura asked noticing his gasp.

"It's chocolate chip cookie dough." he simply stated, like it was some big deal.

Sakura's eyes softened and she frowned sadly to herself a bit. "Oh I'm sorry if you don't like it we have other flavors that you could-."

"No, no, no! Chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite ice cream flavor!" he replied quickly with enthusiasm.

"Really? Chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite ice cream flavor too!" Sakura said back with a bright smile replacing her previous frown.

"You too? I though I was to only one. They used to tease me back in my village before I became a missing nin about it. Actually the teased me about pretty much everything. "

"Ah yes I know what that feels like too. The kids at my old school used to tease me about my forehead." Sakura replied in a serious tone closing her eyes and patting the blue haired male's shoulder.

Kisame shuddered in bliss at the physical contact but was brought back to reality but her words. "You were teased as a child? Why did they make fun of your forehead? There's nothing wrong with it."

Sakura frowning and lifted up her bangs to reveal the area above her eyes. "It's bigger than normal, or at least it was. I've grown in to most of it by now but it's still a bit larger than the norm."

"I think it looks cute…" stated the dark eyed male before his eyes widened and he realized exactly what he just said.

'Ah crap! Now what will she think about me? I wasn't suppose t say that.'

Sakura laughed at this and let her bangs fall down in front of her smiling face once again. "Thank you Kisame."

Kisame smiled and stopped his stuttering. He liked it when she smiled at him like that. It made him feel warm inside. "You're welcome Sakura chan."

"Sakura chaaaaaaaaan., Naruto whined pulling on her sleeve. "Neji teme is stealing all the ice cream and being a sugar hog again."

"A sugar hog?" Sakura asked in mild humor raising a delicate pink brow.

"Yeah, He's staling all the sweets again. He always dose that," Naruto whined once more tugging on her short shoulder sleeve. "Stop him Sakura chan before he takes it all."

"Okay, okay, let's do some damage control. I'm pretty sure I have enough stocked up for all of you." Sakura laughed patting Naruto on the head (even though he was so much taller than her) and followed the blue eyed boy into the kitchen.

Kisame followed behind obediently taking a bite out of his ice cream every now and then. Sakura sighed at the sight in front of her and shook her head. Neji was holding onto one of the Ice cream cartons possessively with a spoon sticking out of his mouth as he held Deidara and Sasuke off with his one foot. Se almost laughed at the desperate looks on the faces of the deprived males.

"Mine!" Neji mumbled with clenched teeth the held in his spoon as he kicked at the attacking pair once again.

"Neji you bastard, give me my ice cream!" Sasuke snarled viciously as he bared his demon like fangs and fumed with hellfire raging behind him.

He was mad.

Very mad.

"Strawberry!" Deidara simply whined in a more childish tone as he cried anime tears at being separated from the strawberry ice cream container in the hands of the pale eyed Hyuga boy.

Sasori and Gaara were sitting quite contently by themselves at the counter enjoying their vanilla and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

"Okay boys what seems to be the problem here?" she asked taking on a motherly role as she rolled up her imaginary sleeves.

"Neji is hogging!" Deidara and Sasuke yelled out in union. Sakura sighed at them stating the obvious. "Neji, why won't you share with the boys? There is a whole other carton of strawberry ice cream they either of you guys could have."

"But that's vanilla strawberry swirl, not strawberry." Deidara pointed out as Sasuke nodded in he background.

"What wrong with Vanilla? I happen to love Vanilla. It is one of my favorite flavors after chocolate chip cookie and Vanilla strawberry swirl."

"You like vanilla strawberry swirl?" Sasuke asked hesitantly?

Sakura nodded about to speak when a loud growling noise interrupted her. Sasuke and Deidara were now fighting over the carton of Vanilla strawberry swirl ice cream. The pink petal haired girl sighed sinking in to a seat between Gaara and Sasori.

"There're like little kids." she whined dreading the day when she would have a family of her own. That is if she didn't die a virgin, which was the most possible path until a few days ago.

Gaara looked down at his Vanilla flavored ice cream and back to a stressed looking Sakura and smirked his famous badass-sexy-smirk-of-death that he was so famous for back in the Sand village. "Sakura chan..." he called softly tapping her on the shoulder making her turn around to face him.

She squeaked softly when he took her chin into delicate hands and gently opened her mouth by pushing her jaw down a slight bit. He held up a spoonful of his white colored ice cream and smirked yet again at her surprised look. He loved it when she looked like that, she looked that way when he first crawling into bed with her.

"Saw 'ahhhh'." he cooed bring the spoon closer to her mouth and passing it between her damn tempting full lips and into her mouth.

"Sakura chan you have some ice cream on your cheek. Here let me help you with that," Sasori whispered huskily taking her face into her equally delicate hands and turned it slightly to the right so he could lick away the bit of strawberry flavored ice cream, that was left over from her testing all the cartons before offering them. His tongue slipped past his lips and kicked away the sweet substance letting his lips brush over her skin.

"You could have just given me he spoon and a napkin you know," Sakura offered completely unfazed by their acts of affection being the innocent and secluded child she was.

"That we could have my dear," Sasori chuckled at her child like innocence towards their actions.

Gaara chuckled before feeding himself once again. Her innocence was truly intoxicating and a strong turn on for someone like him. Coming from a place where woman threw themselves at you begging to be taken, it was refreshing to see something different. Sakura wasn't like that. He doubted she ever threw herself at anything let alone another man.

"But, it was more fun this way," the sand wielder chuckled waving a spoon in front of his lips before devouring the sweet substance.

"Sakura chan, why do you have all this ice cram anyway? I though you lived alone. This is a lot for one person." Naruto asked, coming up to the small kitchen table and sitting down across from the addressed female.

"I really like Ice cream and if you buy it in bulk you save many. I kind of have an obsession with it ever since my dad took me to America for the grand opening of a museum that displayed his findings.

"Findings? What findings are those?" Kisame asked, standing behind the blond.

"Oh yeah I don't think I told you. My mom ad dad are Archaeologist and good ones at that. Right now they're in Egypt but they've been all over the world. My family seems to have traveling in it's blood with the exception of me."

"Are you're parents always gone like this?" Sasuke asked, sitting down with his bowel of vanilla Strawberry swirl.

"Pretty much. The go away on contracts the can last from three months to three years. My mom is good friends with Tsunade, the owner of this complex, and so I say here most of the time by myself. It was only last year that I was able to stay at home by myself. My dad is pretty paranoid in that way. He missed out on most of my childhood so he still sees me as his little girl."

"So you stay here most of the time all by yourself yeah?" This time it was Deidara who asked the question sitting down next to Naruto.

"No, like I said until only recently I've stayed with Auntie Tsunade. She was the one that helped my mom with her, um rather unexpected 'home birth' and she went to collage with my mom. They've been friends for such a long times she part of my family. Almost like a second mother. She's really great."

"What happened to you at your birth?" Neji asked bluntly making Sakura blush a bit and look down at her hands.

"Um, I was born on a plan over Tokyo city. I was two weeks early so my mother didn't see it coming. Thankfully Auntie Tsunade was a doctor and she was really experienced in this sort of thing so everything went smoothly."

"You have a very exciting life Sakura chan," Gaara chuckled.

"Yeah I guess so. But it's mostly about my parents or my birth aside from that nothing too special," Sakura replied airily, nabbing a half empty (half full in her eyes) box of Cookie dough and began to eat it straight out of the carton.

"What do you do normally to pass the time, yeah?" Deidara asked staring intently at the addressed girl. This was for future reference to the Sakura chan fan club he was president of, entitled Sakura Heaven.

"Me? I write and play with Moget most of the time. I really like to listen to music too."

"Who's Moget?" Kisame asked not yet haring about her missing pet.

"He's my pet. He's a weasel but my mom and dad think he's a ferrite. Like I said I love to play with him but other than that I study a lot. That's where most of my tie goes anyway "

"Study what?" Sasori asked.

"Just schoolwork stuff."

"Shhh enough about her schoolwork stuff, yeah," Deidara hissed kicking Sasori under the table and pulling out a clip board and a pen, both poised to take notes. Sakura twitched slightly, holding back a ocean of laughter when she saw the pink feathered pen in his hands.

"So Sakura chan, what's your favorite color, animal, food and shampoo yeah?" "What?" Sakura asked confused.

"I said 'So Sakura chan, what's your favorite color, animal, food and shampoo yeah? " Deidara repeated with his pen ready to start scribbling.

"What dose shampoo have to do with this?" Sakura asked suspiciously with half lidded eyes.

"I want to know, yeah!"

Sakura sighed spooning in another spoonful of her ice cream. "I not even going to ask why you want to know this but anyway it's Garnia."

"And your favorite color?" Naruto asked, leaning forward slightly. He needed to know this since he was the vice president of Sakura Heaven.

"Red, black, and pink."

"Favorite animal?" Deidara asked, leaning in even closer. The cherry haired teen grunted in annoyance but decided to answer them anyway.

"Moget. My favorite animal is a weasel."

"Speaking of the devil where is the little rat anyway?" Sasuke asked aloud looking around the room, completely oblivious to the heated glare Sakura was sending his way.

Sasori put her on the shoulder and she seemed to calm down enough to stop glaring bloody daggers at the raven haired male.

"I don't know where he is, it's weird he never stays away from me this long. Especially when other people are around me…" Her lips turned downward and a worried expression set over her features.

She was really worried about her sly furry friend. She had basically raised the guy from birth and she naturally felt like a mother after so many nights of bottle-feeding him until he fell asleep.

Gaara gently rubbed her back in a comforting manner and Sakura relaxed into the touch, It felt a lot like her mother. "Don't worry about it too much. You said so yourself that he dose this a lot. It probably only seems like a lot longer since you've been busy with all of us here," he gently reassured.

Sakura turned towards him and smiled gently. "Thanks Gaara. I'm sure you're right, I'm just being overly protective and worrying about him since I'm kind of like his mother," Sakura explained unconsciously leaning into Gaara's massaging hand he was rubbing small circles in her back.

Sakura suddenly tensed up and froze in fear.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered staring down the hall.

"Hear what?" Neji asked following her gaze down the hallway. He hadn't hear anything.

"My bedroom window, it opened. I know it did. Someone is in my bedroom trying to break into my house!"

The boys each silently leapt into action stealthy sneaking down the hallway and crowding around her closed bedroom door. Kisame being the biggest took the door knob in hand and silently counted down from three with his fingers before opening it.

Three

Two,

One!

In everyone rushed forward, miraculously not tripping over one another and crowded into the room. Sasuke took a quick scan of the room and shook his head. "No one's in here Sakura It was just the wind coming in through your open window. You must have left it open for Moget or something."

Sakura frowned from her spot in the back of the crowd. She knew she never left her window open all the way. Only partway to let Moget come and go as he please. Something wasn't right and she knew it.

Sakura suddenly felt cold as a wind rushed past her and she was thrown up against the opposite wall away from the boys. She tired to scream or break free but there was something black in front of her keeping her against the wall.

"What?" she breathed out looking up to meet a pair of swirling bright crimson colored eyes with three coma like mark surrounding the pupil. 'Red eyes!' she though panicking.

"Hello my dear sweet Sakura chan. At long last we meet face to face," he purred seductively in a deep dark voice as he cupped her trembling chin with his thumb and first finger.

Around this time the rest of the boys were now aware of the ark presence bearing down on their Sakura chan and were not happy about it.

"What the hell! Get your hands off Sakura chan you bastard!" Sasuke snarled darkly, seeing the man with dark midnight colored hair all over his girl.

The man turned slightly but did not bother to turn around completely. Sakura could see him smirk as he turned back towards her. "I think not, I have waited too long for this day to give up any part of it," he called out, inching closer to her face. "Oh how long I have waited to do this," he purred out dreamily making Sakura go weak in the knees.

'What is he going to-?'

Sakura's thoughts were cut off as her eyes widened in shock. She had no time to think as his lips came crashing down on her own full of hunger lust and craving for more in a bruising kiss.

-

-

-

"What! That was my first kiss!"

Ugh, so, so, so long. I was on this, just puting in the spaces, for almost 20 minuets!

WOHO! I guess I don't need to have people guessing who this dude is. I think you can all tell.

Please review!

ja ne.