Ten
"Where the hell is the wench?"
The booming voice had Sakura pressing herself up against the wall, trying to keep her eyes open to all angles. If she was going to die in the current place and time, it was not going to be to a man who wanted to ravage her body before sacrificing her to some...thing.
"Quiet down," another voice reprimanded, throaty and tired.
"Who the hell are you to talk?" The familiar voice bellowed back. Sakura could imagine the silver-haired man getting in someone's face, gripping his scythe as a threat.
"Shut up, moron."
"Fuck you!"
The conversation died from there, the distinct cries of fury losing out to the strange mumbles of a different man.
Deidara cracked a smile as he fingered a ball of clay half-heartedly.
"What are you doing?" Sakura nosily inquired, mistrusting.
"Does it matter, un?"
Warily surveying his 'art', Sakura allowed her eyes to briefly slip to the door. There had been shoes scuffing down the hallway, the sound having completely ceased as of only seconds ago. The door eased open lazily, bearing way to a man with bright green eyes and a mask covering his mouth.
"What significance does she have to him, anyway?"
Sakura unreservedly stared at the tattered mess of a stranger, momentarily lapsing in thought and forgetting to breathe. Inhaling quickly and throwing herself into a coughing fit, the new man looked at her as if to say, 'Such a pity'.
Deidara shrugged, mouth pressed together in an unamused line. "Ask Sasori when he returns."
The man stood for a moment, saying nothing, before turning away with a retort of, "Too much effort".
Who the hell was that?
"Hey!" Deidara called after him. The man pivoted around approximately ninety degrees with an unamused look on his face. "Tell Hidan to shut the fuck up."
The stranger cracked a smile that radiated in his eyes before turning around and walking away.
Sakura pressed further to the wall, eyeing the open door fearfully.
"Go fuck yourself, girly boy!" The hostile cry echoed through the halls. Deidara's visible eye creased unhappily, but he kept silent and closed his eye once again.
Sakura stared down the open doorway; it appeared to her a hungry mouth, taunting her by displaying glimpses of freedom through ragged teeth. In her case, these ragged teeth were men blessed (cursed?) with immense power and vast amounts of ill thoughts.
That leering wooden frame was too much for even a jounin-level fire shinobi to handle, what with the knowledge of the beasts lurking outside it.
The window groaned from beside her as it was pushed open, giving way to a perturbed redhead.
"Thank God you finally returned, un," Deidara breathed in relief, basking in his partner's presence as if he were a diety. "I cannot stand this - her - anymore."
Sasori gazed at the blonde briefly before dusting off his cloak. "You may go, then."
Deidara's face read surprised as his mentor dismissed him. The shock on his face twisted into outright envy at Sasori's new pecking order.
As he departed, Deidara fixed her with a warning glare and a sneer. Sakura fought the incessant urge to stick out her tongue at him.
Sasori's presence made her brave, despite its negative connotation. The puppeteer looked all too focused on something she was unable to discern, which left her with the desicion to either acknowledge his presence furthermore or attempt to ignore it completely.
Rolling over onto her side, back to his lifeless form, Sakura opted for the second choice.
"I'm elated to see you as well," Sasori mocked her. When she turned back over to pay some respect to the man who deserved naught, he was focused on a doll in his hands. Sakura took his activities as an indication of disinterest and flopped back onto her side, leaving him in company with only himself.
Sasori snorted at this, obviously irritable yet too unconcerned to act towards Sakura's introverted behavior.
Good. Damn psycho.
"Nice to see you're back!" An ecstatic voice cried from the doorway. "You came back and you're playing with dolls...while you have a fucking woman in your room. You're gay, aren't you?"
Despite Hidan's aggressive demeanor and the looming threat of rape and death that followed him like a potent stench, his rude comments made her smile.
"Is it wrong that I think strategically, not with my dick?"
Sakura bit into her lip, highly amused. Two grown men arguing, albiet reknowned and fear-striking ones, was hysterical.
"What's wrong with thinking with your dick? If you've got it, might as well use it."
The humor was lost as soon as the smart-ass remarks took a turn down a path that lead to crude nature.
Sasori persisted his censorship, peeving Hidan all the more. Sakura heard a muffled snigger before Hidan bit the bait and continued running his mouth.
"That's what I thought. You're no man, damn piece of wood."
Sakura lie there, tempted to correct Hidan's statement of Sasori being a 'piece of wood', for he was no longer.
"Imbecile." With said comment thrown into the blaze, Sasori ambled forward and shut the door gently in Hidan's face.
"Fuck you!"
Sakura sighed, unsure whether to be joyed that Hidan was gone or unnerved by Sasori's lone presence.
Feeling daring enough to turn over, Sasori was still fixated on his work rather than her. It felt strange to see a man so obsessed with her intrigued by something else.
It almost made her jealous.
Sasori's face, still flat and blank as a skipping stone, gave way a bit as he finally turned toward her.
"You bore me," he stated rather bluntly, easing himself up from the crouch he'd taken to fidget with his newest puppet.
"I bore you?" Sakura's face twisted; she was shocked, moreover, angry.
"Yes."
Sakura sat upright and peered at the man as if attempting to pick him apart.
"How do I bore you?"
Sasori looked up, contemplating her question.
"How do you bore me...? Perhaps it is the fact that you no longer squirm when I appear, or maybe that you have the gall to challenge me."
Sakura laughed. "That bores you? The fact that I challenge you, give you a fight, bores you?"
Sasori gave her a look, silently telling, as she would have believed, 'You are a fool'.
Without an answer, he began to once more mull over his work, leaving her to do as she desired.
Opening her mouth, Sakura had her decision made to test him as she had Deidara.
"So, if I walked out there right now and let that maniac sacrifice me...?"
"Go."
Sakura reeled back, feeling as if he had slapped her.
"You'd let me die? You brought me here just to come to the conclusion you no longer want me?"
Sasori looked up through his garnet eyes.
"Is that distress in your voice?"
Sakura's thoughts went dead for a moment before figuring out the scheme laid quite blatantly before her.
"No, you bastard!"
Sasori's mouth twitched in the corner.
"I'm flattered."
"Bite me!"
The geezer laughed, a bright smile lighting his inhuman face. For a moment, he reminded her of Kakashi. The thought put her over the edge.
Goddamned perverted old men.
I was actually watching Shippuden during part of my writing process ^^
Soundtrack to Writing:
Walking On Air - Kerli
Rape Me - Nirvana
Living In a Dream - Finger Eleven
Toxicity - System of a Down
Zombie - The Cranberries