Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Now, the next chapter...
Sakura remained frozen in place, even after he was gone. All she could think about were his forboding words.
"Killing you would be too easy."
She wished that she had said something to him, but he left as suddenly as he came. Anyway, she was unsure if she could have spoken. Her whole body was numb with fear.
After a few minutes, the pink-haired girl breathed in deeply, and took a tentative step backwards, into someone. She jumped slightly, fear coursing through her.
"A bit jumpy, aren't you?" She heard a deep voice speak from behind her.
"Eh? Oh, sorry." The girl turned around, and faced Deidara, who looked incredulous.
"Hardly the fearless kunoichi I expected, un." He mused, his grey-blue eye piercing through her. He knew why Sasori hated her... but he seemed to be taking her side, instead of that of his long-time partner. That fact seemed strange to her.
"What do you expect me to do?" She snapped back, stepping forward.
The blonde shrugged, and crossed his arms, the same aggravating smile on his visage. "I suppose that Danna can get frightening when he's irritated. And he has every right to want to kill you. I would feel the same, were I in his position."
"What are you getting at?" Sakura muttured, not comforted by his words the least bit.
Deidara was cut short by a loud noise coming from his room. He snarled something under his breath, and strode down the hallway. The sound of yelling and something breaking cut the silence that followed.
"I'm sorry, Senpai! I...I didn't know any better. I just wanted to see the pretty clay birds get bigger, and I... I.."
"YOU EXPLODED HALF MY ROOM, YOU MORON!!!!!!!"
"Does that mean that we can't go to the ramen shop later?"
"Get OUT!!!!!!"
"Okay."
A tall man jumped into the hallway. His appearances were certainly... different, for an orange mask covered his face, allowing only one eye to show. It bothered Sakura slightly- the fact that she was unable to see his features. He seemed to be hiding something. And yet, all of the Akatsuki members appeared to hide their past, their identity. Had he done something that terrible, something which made him afraid to even show his features?
Her thoughts were cut short by an angry Deidara storming after the man. "You're going to pay for this, un."
"Deidara… figures. I can't get five minutes of silence before you start yelling at Tobi for something."
Sakura froze again as a third figure appeared in the dimly lit hallway.
"Hi, other senpai!" The masked man, Tobi, greeted Sasori cheerfully. "Deidara-senpai's mad at me." He announced sadly.
"I can tell." Sasori glanced up at Deidara with a questioning expression. "Can't you handle things more quietly?"
"Hn." Deidara turned around, not responding for once.
Unfortunately, the silence that followed gave Sasori the opportunity to notice the pink-haired girl standing at the other end of the hallway. The two locked eyes for an agonizing second, before he looked away.
Oddly enough, Sakura could sense very little spite in his gaze. The bored expression that he had before was back on his visage. Actually, she felt no emotion coming from him… which was very strange indeed, considering his violent outburst just minutes before. So, around others, he makes it seem as if there is nothing wrong. Apparently, I need to stay on alert at all times. Especially if I can't see what he is doing. She stepped back a little, and averted her gaze over to Deidara, who was glaring at Tobi with terrifying intensity.
"You have three seconds. Three…two…" Somehow, the expression on Deidara's face gave Sakura the impression that he wasn't fooling around. He still seemed genuinely annoyed with the other member.
"Waaa!!! Don't let him kill me!!!" Tobi jumped up, and sprinted out of sight.
Sasori looked downwards, a slight smile on his features. "Would you have killed him?"
"Maimed for life, probably. But I don't think that leader-sama would be too happy if I killed another member, un." Deidara answered frankly, revealing the lack of affection that he held for his other partner.
"Ah." Sasori looked at Sakura once more. "I see we have a spy amongst us."
Sakura shrank back slightly as both criminals turned their full attention on her. But she refused to let herself back down any more than that. "Since when was walking down the hallway illegal?" Her strong tone masked the growing amount of worry inside of her.
Deidara closed his eyes, unsure of what to expect. Would Sasori despise her even more for he blatant display of disrespect? If so, then he didn't really want to see what was to happen next.
The puppet-master's response, though, startled both him and Sakura...
Nyuu!!! I hate writer's block. Sorry for taking so long to update. I'll try to do it sooner next time :)
Please, please review. All responses are greatly appreciated.
~Yuki-chan
