Chapter 127

"Deidara only joined the Akatsuki on a whim but when Sasori, his partner, was killed with the help of Kamaru he was slightly—he emphasized this, just slightly pissed because instead of looking for jinchuriki, he was given the task to look for another partner. That's when he met Chiyo," Temari shares what her abductor had told her since he expected never to see her again. "It's obvious the old woman knew she could get Deidera to agree to her schemes if she could formulate a poison that works well with his bombs. However, doing so needs time so they went their separate ways."

"So Chiyo-basan isn't—wasn't really an Akatsuki?" Naruto asks, sadly correcting his own tense.

"No," Temari shakes her head sideways. "I should have realized that right from the start. Deidara's black and red cloak looks quite new but Sasori's puppet had on a faded and quite tattered one. Chiyo just stole the puppet from Sasori's secret tomb and did not modify anything on or in it."

"So you knew—" Shikamaru starts to question, only to answer it himself. "Of course, you knew."

"That it was Chiyo?" Temari finishes the question. "Yes. I should have been caught that time that Shikadai's bloodied shirt was exposed however I wasn't. I knew then, it wasn't luck but someone who couldn't see shit from the puppet contraption. So it was either someone with poor eye sight or someone who valued the puppet more than their ability to see—That's obviously Chiyo."

"You only met her once really."

"Yes, but at the wedding, you did order me to meet the councilmen to recognize my possible enemies," replies Temari. "Chiyo admitted then that she came out of retirement just to attend our wedding. She even mentioned Sasori. For a woman who lost her grandson, she was acting too cheerful."

"Chiyo-baasan was grieving," Naruto mumbles. "And she hid it well."

The huge room assigned to the Konoha nins in the Kazekage's residence becomes quiet for a while, remembering the old woman who sacrificed her life to save the life of a future Suna-Konoha shinobi.

"Years passed. This time, Kamaru killed Hidan. When this piece of news finally reached Deidara, he became more than pissed. He was not just slightly pissed now. He started to focus on Kamaru and wanted to best what he sees as Sasori's and Hidan's killer. He wanted too to show Kamaru his art but with two Akatsuki members defeated under Kamaru's hands, he knows enough not to underestimate his enemy. That was when he finally sought Chiyo out. But Chiyo made him see—that death isn't the worst thing that could happen to someone. The worst thing is actually losing something someone held dearly."

"That's why, the one Sasuke fought with, Deidara agreed with Chiyo that you guys will just be kidnapped?" Sakura asks while she checks the bandage on her husband's arm for the nth time, scrutinizing if a speck of blood seeps through from his wound. However, the bandage still remains pristine white.

"Just Shikadai. Once Chiyo had him, I was dispensable. Deidara did not think I was important enough to Kamaru, unlike our son. Deidara planned to watch how the lost of his son will affect Kamaru and when the time comes he will twist the knife and gloat how he had bested the genius who was Sasori's and Hidan's killer."

"That asshole had a twisted sense of humor," Sasuke reveals, his voice tinge with anger. "He says, the one that is truly touched by his art is someone who has his eyes wide open as the life he cherished the most, explodes." Sasuke laughs scornfully. "That's why in the end, Deidara killed himself in front of my very own eyes. The asshole did it to spite me. He knew he was important to me alive. That with him gone my last lead to my brother is gone too. Damn him!"

Sakura touches Sasuke's tight fist, willing the clenched fist to loosen. "It's going to be okay," she speaks gently.

"I failed," Sasuke meets Sakura's eyes as he utters, "I still couldn't find him. It's been so many years."

The pink haired kunoichi's arms gather him tightly to her.

Sasuke doesn't reject her despite the fact that they are not alone, however, his body still tenses before he leans into her embrace. "I have you."

"But it's not enough." Sakura meets Sasuke's gaze as she says, "I know. You still need to bring Itachi back. No matter what happened, he is still your brother...and you need to get him back to our family."

"Maybe I don't even have to do anything," Sasuke replies. Everyone in the room then turns to look at him.

"Deidara revealed—a secret that only the members of the Akatsuki know—he babbled it out with hatred, before he killed himself, he gloated that I would never find my brother because the Akatsuki is disbanding faster than it could find new members. He was rambling on how the Akatsuki's grand plan is being foiled before they could even begin." Sasuke then suddenly glances towards Naruto with half amazed-half stupefied expression on his face. "That dobe doesn't even realize that he had befriended someone the Akatsuki called Pain."

"Pain?" Naruto asks, thinking deeply, trying to remember. "I don't know anyone named Pain."

Sasuke shakes his head is exasperation. "I know, you don't, baka!"

Naruto growls at Sasuke, "Teme!"

"So this person, this Pain, changed his mind after talking to Naruto?" Shikamaru asks. "I have seen it happen before—Naruto's real power. Lady Tsunade and Gaara both changed their minds after meeting Naruto."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Sasuke snorts, "What a stupid way to be defeated."

Neji, sitting in the corner, his lips tilting up slightly, remembers the time a brand on his forehead bothered him. His cousin Hinata...and Naruto helped alter all that.

While Neji remembers the past, so too Sakura as she utters under her breath, only loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "Just like you. You were convinced by Naruto not to leave Konoha ages ago."

"Shut up," mouths Sasuke to his wife.

Sakura just smiles at Sasuke and turns her head towards Naruto to smile wider at the blond shinobi.

"What?" Naruto looks at Sakura, with a huge frown, confused by the sudden smile. She usually hits him in the head. Her smile is highly suspicious.

Sakura lets go of Sasuke's hand to approach Naruto.

Naruto backs away, scared, hiding behind the person closest to him which happens to be Shikamaru. Temari grabs Shikamaru's arm to get him out of the way.

Shikamaru mutters, "Tch," and digs in his feet and plants himself between Naruto and Sakura.

"Really?!" Temari asks, exasperated, when the arm she's holding refused to move. "Stop protecting Naruto. Sakura is not about to hurt him!"

Sakura moves so she can bypass Shikamaru then she lifts her hand up so she can grab Naruto's closest sleeve.

Neji clears his throat to get Sakura's attention. He is still seated in the corner, simply watching the other occupants of the big room. But he knows that when he gets home he has to report to his clan some of the things that happened here. He doesn't want to tell Hinata anything that might upset her.

Sakura, about to tiptoe to kiss Naruto's cheek, grateful for everything he has done, stops upon hearing Neji clearing his throat. She then lets go of the bunch of sleeve she's holding, moves a step back and then swings her arm, about to hit Naruto's head when a sudden blur appears and then her hand is stopped midway by Sasuke.

"Aww," Shikamaru complains. He is thrown out of the way by Sasuke's mad dash, landing on his bum.

"Serves you right, ass," retorts Temari as she helps her husband to his feet. "No need to protect Naruto from those two. They love him more than you'll ever do," Temari reprimands quietly that only Shikamaru can hear her.

"I don't love Naruto," Shikamaru mumbles under his breath.

"Oh really?" counters Temari. "Just give it time, you will."

"Tch." Shikamaru then frowns. Chiyo gave her life to Shikadai because of Naruto. He owes the other nin a debt of life for helping to save his son. Temari does too. "Do you love Naruto?"

Temari swings her head to glare towards Shikamaru. "Seriously?!" she scowls as she remembers the time that Shikamaru was obsessed and adamant that she likes Sasuke.

Shikamaru gazes at the teal eyes glowering at him, realizing too late how bad he worded it. "I'm an idiot."

"Glad you know it."

Shikamaru sighs, knowing he'll be sleeping on the floor again, not unless he comes up with a plan. Maybe he should—

Suddenly, Kankuro burst through the door.

Kankuro won't admit it to anyone from Konoha that he was listening behind their door since he left Gaara's room seven minutes ago. His big bro probably knows it though but Kamaru hasn't stopped him. That fact has finally made Kankuro open the door to the room being occupied by the Konoha nins in their stay in Suna.

Nobody seems surprised though by his sudden appearance.

Kankuro's gaze travels from his big bro who is standing close to a frowning Temari then his gaze moves to his brother's other side, to Gaara's blond friend who is sitting on the middle of the bed cross legged, slurping a cup of noodles. The cup noodle has a label, Choji, on it. Kankuro glances at his back, checking. Nope, Choji isn't in the room and so is the beautiful blonde kunoichi always with him and come to think of it, his nephew, Shikadai isn't also present. Kankuro's eyes then travel to the nin sitting in the corner and meets his white orb eyes. A tingling sensation crawls down Kankuro's spine, he knows that the other nin knows he was behind the door the past seven minutes, eavesdropping. Kankuro swiftly swivels his gaze to the pink haired kunoichi who saved Gaara. His lips twist up to smile, only to stop immediately when the dark haired nin beside Gaara's savior looks at him with a brow raised.

Meeting Sasuke's gaze, Kankuro asks the question that's been bugging him, "Did the blabber mouth also revealed to you, why they made it look like they killed Gaara?"

Sasuke, not letting Sakura's hand go, lean on the headboard of his bed. His burn injuries are not that great but great enough that it can delay their return to Konoha. "Deidara wanted a show of killing the new Kazekage so it would tear the alliance between our villages apart. He thought that was what Chiyo wanted too. Because with the Kazekage gone, the people of Suna will be bitter with the fact that Gaara died saving a Konoha shinobi. Even Deidara didn't know that Gaara was actually saving his own sister."

"But they didn't actually kill Gaara," Kankuro asks further. "And more importantly, father—father has no hand in it?"

Sasuke shakes his head to agree that the former Kazekage was not involve with the planning of Gaara's fake demise.

"I thought..." Temari mumbles, "at the start at least, that it was Rasa's back up plan."

Shikamaru looks at his wife sharply. Temari mouths, "So bite me." In which, Shikamaru mouths back, "Later."

The almost silent exchange between the two does not go unnoticed but is mostly ignored.

"They need the vessel of the tailed beast to be alive. The remaining members of the Akatsuki aren't ready yet to extract the tailed beast from their host, not when most of their members and Pain are gone. With Deidara's death, this is another big blow to the group, farther weakening them," Sasuke continues.

Sakura finally notices the label on Naruto's ramen. With a huff, she stands up from Sasuke's bed.

Naruto hastens to finish Choji's noodles.

Neji again clears his throat. "Sakura, I think I have over strained my eyes."

Sakura shows her fist to Naruto before she makes a beeline for Neji.

Neji opens his eyes wider as Sakura shines a light into them.

"They seem fine. You just need to rest them a bit," Sakura advises.

Neji nods his thanks, watching as finally Sakura returns to Sasuke's side. "We have stopped Deidara from giving the Akatsuki the poison that was supposed to buy them time."

"Where's the poison?" Kankuro asks.

"Hidden," Neji answers. "We can't safely destroy it. The quantity is just too much."

"So only you and Sasuke know where the poison is," Kankuro states.

"No," Neji replies. "Sasuke was left to deal with Deidara while I had to get the poison away from them. So only I know where is it."

"Is that wise?" Kankuro frowns. "What if you turn on us? What if Konoha turns on us. You have now the means to easily, silently destroy us."

Shikamaru raises his hand to signal quiet. "Remember, Kankuro, you yourself said that Sakura has provided us the list of ingredients for the antidote she used on Gaara."

"Yes, but—"

"Only us present in this room knows that Neji had hidden the poison. Not even Gaara will know of it. Understand?"

"Why not even Gaara? You don't trust Gaara? But you trust this—this Konoha nin?" Kankuro gestures at Neji then his frown lifts as a realization hits him. "Ahh, because the bastards who knew about the poison—when they finally come for it, the first one they will look for is the Kazekage."

"Yes," Shikamaru simply replies.

"And you expect that I—" Kankuro gestures towards himself then to the rest of the nins inside the room, starting with Shikamaru, "You, Temari, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Neji to never speak of this to anyone." Kankuri swivels his attention to everyone inside the room before he nods his head and says, "Okay, got it."

Temari elbows Shikamaru on his side. "Can I tell Ino and Choji?"

"What part of only us present in this room, did you not understand, woman?"

"Well, it's not their fault, Choji and Ino aren't here, is it?" Temari snaps.

"Tch, it isn't my fault either. Come to think of it...it was you who asked them to take care of their godson for a while."

"Yes, it's my fault. Now, I must share the informa—"

"No."

Kankuro finally speaks, "Same reason with Gaara. It's known that you are way too close to Ino and Choji."

"You two are just overprotective of Gaara," spats Temari. And pointing towards Shikamaru, she continues, "And of Ino and Choji. If the enemies come for them or us, what's the difference? We're going to help each other. I don't see the problem."

"What are we arguing about? I can destroy the poison," says Naruto without raising his head from the drawers he's checking. He is looking for the pen Choji used to mark his cup noodles. The one distributed to Choji is his favorite flavour. He's giving Choji what he is given and he needs the pen to label it.

Everyone turns to just look at Naruto with differing levels of alarm.

"NO!" everyone in the room shouts that even Gaara in his room three doors away, still recuperating, can hear them. Gaara is listening to the report from the two Suna nins that helped save Temari and Shikadai, all three of them then can hear the 'no' yelled in unison.

While Choji and Ino who are conversing about the future tactics of the InoShikaTemCho team outside in the garden, can also hear the word 'no'. They glance with alarm at the direction of the baby they are baby sitting. Not that surprised when Shikadai remains soundly sleeping, content in his blanket on the grass. Nothing much can disturb the infant, well secure with the shinobis around him.

—oOo—

~9 4, 12 21 P 9 15 21~

A/N: Hope you guys, review, criticize or comment or anything involving the box below.

~6 months later~

A/N: To dream under a pink tinge sky...is to leave a mark on the 10th.