I swear, when I woke up this morning and checked my inbox and saw a whopping 12 reviews- I just – ARGH. You guys totally made my day. And again, I feel like updating. You guys are pure awesomeness.

And the winning pairing is… ITASAKU! That pretty much sums it up! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING, ALL OF YOU. I have so much to read since you guys recommended stuff that I haven't read yet! And, because you guys recommended so much, I shall gladly recommend one! Or two.

Anyway, onward with the story! My apologies for the colourful vulgarities you are going to read.

000000 CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED. IT IS MORE ENJOYABLE NOW. I think. Enjoy!

It was yet another rainy day where the Akatsuki headquarters were located. The shower poured mercilessly against the frosted glass windows, making a continual rhythmic, tapping sound in the spacious confines of the kitchen. A large, blue-skinned man hovered over a stove, stirring its contents every few seconds while two men sat at a dining table not too far away with cards in their hands. Another man sat with them, hands clasped casually on the table as he watched the game in procession.

It was a matter of seconds when one of the men with the cards spoke, slamming a set of cards on the table enthusiastically.

"Full fucking house. Eat my shit, Tobi," the silver-haired man cackled with mirth, his violet eyes shimmering with excitement.

The masked man proceeded to place his cards on the table, catching his opponent's attention as he bounced happily in his seat. "Tobi got Royal Flush! Tobi wins and Hidan is the loser!"

Hidan stood abruptly, knocking his chair onto the floor as he stared at the cards, his expression suddenly transforming into one of anger as he let loose a snarl. "Fuck, if that isn't the shittiest fuck I've ever seen! How the fuck did you get a fucking royal flush, plastic face?" He spat, eyes dripping with venom and promising pain. Sensing trouble, Itachi abandoned his seat next to Hidan with a weary sigh, opting to help Kisame with laying out the cutleries for lunch.

To the masked man's credit, Tobi didn't even flinch. Instead, he stood up and extended his palm. "Tobi wants his thousand Ryo now," he singsonged, bouncing on his heels.

The raging Akatsuki had already made a lunge for his scythe when the door to the kitchen slammed open, revealing a cleaner, presentable, familiar kunoichi than the one they saw yesterday. Her hair was in a loose French plait tucked to one side, the shorter stray hairs framing her face. Her expression was guarded as she scanned the group with her cool jade eyes, but held a trace of annoyance as if something had happened beforehand that she wasn't happy about. She seemed quite unruffled by the way Itachi watched her unblinkingly and Hidan's leer, walking towards the fridge.

Then someone spoke, halting her step mid-stride. It was the blue-skinned man -Kisame was his name, she remembered. His back was turned to her as he scooped out broth from the stove onto a large bowl. "Come to eat, kunoichi?"

Sakura was baffled that he was the first to acknowledge her presence. For a moment she stood still, debating how to respond when the man beside Kisame spoke up in a smooth voice. "Please, sit." She fixed her gaze on the figure and realised it was Itachi who had spoken. His onyx eyes bore into her jade ones, unblinking as he gestured to the dining table with his hand, before proceeding to gather the cutleries in the drawer.

Sakura's eyes widened as she fought the urge to pinch herself to test if it was a dream. Did he just speak… politely? She had never thought that he would be so well-mannered. It was so unlike his younger brother, whose manners were the equivalent of a vulture's. After a couple of years attempting to bring him back to Konoha, Team Seven had decided to let him be. He had never failed to try to kill her in every attempt, and with every attempt, her affection for him had dwindled to the point of nonexistence.

Sakura stopped her mellow thoughts, focusing on the black-haired man before her. It wasn't the time to be mulling over the past. The man before her now stood tall, with a regal air about him as he smirked as if he knew what she was thinking.

"Don't listen to that fucking bastard, yeah. That guy will give you a run for your money when it comes to fake politeness," Deidara suddenly walked in, looking less worse for wear. He had managed to straighten out his black shirt and blue pants and removed most of the rubble stuck to his clothes. However, he was still sporting a nasty bruise on the top right side of his forehead, wincing occasionally as he walked to her.

"Let me heal t-"

"Save it for later. You need to eat, yeah," he remarked simply, sparing her a concerned glance before grabbing her arm, guiding her to the dining table. It took every bit of energy in Sakura to fight the urge to shiver at the contact his warm hand made with her arm. Noticing the dining table, she scowled as she saw Tobi and Hidan still standing and staring, Hidan eyeing her with scythe in hand.

His beady eyes suddenly narrowed upon noticing the arm contact between the two. "So, this must be your bitch, huh? And all this time I thought you were fucking male pussies behind our backs," he sneered.

Sakura could practically feel Deidara's arm tensing at that statement as he resolved his grip on her. Sakura vaguely noticed Kisame and Itachi watching the scene with mild amusement, as if it happened every day. Tobi was standing opposite her, oddly silent, his rapt attention focused on the two individuals as if waiting for an explosion to occur.

It was then that their Leader strolled in, noticing the tense atmosphere and the individuals.

The roseate-haired kunoichi immediately stiffened, willing her racing heart to calm as she remembered a particular memory regarding the enigmatic individual. Quickly, she averted her gaze hoping he wouldn't notice her.

Fortunately for her, his eyes only focused on Hidan, narrowed slightly in a silent warning as if he knew who was responsible for the current tension. Sakura could not help but notice that the infuriating, foul-mouthed man was actually backing down from Pein's gaze, his arms held up in a defeatist gesture. The silver-haired man grabbed his scythe and proceeded to stalk out of the kitchen, muttering a series of expletives and something about "Jashin-sama".

The tension abated considerably, and the rest of the members went about their business as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Then again, maybe these sort of things occurred every day. Sakura sighed as she sat down at the end next to Deidara – once again in disbelief that she is actually sitting down having lunch with Akatsuki members – and practically started to salivate, upon noticing the abundance of food prepared on the table.

"Nice of you to join us, Leader. You hardly do," Kisame said, grinning wolfishly at her for some odd reason that Sakura hadn't the strength to figure out. He then proceeded to take a seat opposite hers. Beside him was a quiet Itachi, who had already begun eating, his attention focused solely on the food before him. Tobi had taken his share of his food and disappeared, proclaiming cheerily that he preferred to eat in his room, and Sakura decided to file away the piece of information for later when she confronted him on his tattling mouth.

And of course, beside the calm Itachi was an equally composed Leader, piling food onto his rice bowl, his deep set gaze focused on the rice bowl. Her jade eyes sparkled with curiosity as she studied his face intently, noticing his hair was similar to Naruto's, except it was a russet colour. His headband was missing; she had noticed the others had not worn them as well when they were in the headquarters. He had huge, violet irises that seemed capable of drawing anyone in and calling everyone's attention on him. There was something interesting about him that Sakura couldn't put a finger on. Maybe it was his attitude or his manner-of-speaking, or his whole persona, but whatever it was, it was gripping and intensely so. He was similar to Itachi and Sasuke in a way, with his brooding personality that warranted much curiosity from individuals like herself. Yet, he was slightly different. She just didn't know what was.

Sakura's thoughts were cut short when he spoke, jumping out of her seat slightly.

"Sakura. Eat." His voice snapped her out of her musings and she felt a flush creeping up her neck. Obviously, he knew she'd been watching him. The order was enough to spring her into action as she took her chopsticks and snapped them –and realizing, to her surprise, that Deidara had piled food onto her bowl enough to feed three people. He gave her a lopsided grin, gesturing at her food.

"Just eat, yeah. You haven't eaten for three days," he said, before proceeding to focus on his meal.

When Sakura had ascertained that all of them stopped watching her, she proceeded to take a bite of the fish.

And tasted the most delicious thing in her entire life. The flesh was soft and slightly chewy, perfectly cooked as she savoured it slowly and fought the urge to squeal in delight. Then her 3 days' worth of hunger overcame her and she started gulping her food down at a faster rate, ignoring the stares of mild amusement from the other members who clearly knew she had lost all vestiges of feeling awkward with them, at least temporarily.

When she was done eating, she looked up only to find only two people left in the kitchen. To her dismay, she found that she had barely noticed Itachi, Kisame and Pein leaving in her eating frenzy. The plates had been cleared with the exception of hers, the table spick and span and a very absorbed Deidara sat beside her, his hands molding what seemed like a clay figurine.

He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as he continued his ministrations on the figurine. "Took you long enough, yeah," he joked, smirking.

Sakura grabbed her water and gulped it down in one sitting. Once done, she stood up with shaky legs and hobbled not so gracefully to the sink, dishes in tow. "How long did I take?" she asked, her voice raspy and hoarse from disuse.

"Long enough for them to leave." She could practically feel Deidara's usual trademark grin burning into her back, thanking Fate or whichever entity was out there that she had someone to talk to even if she was forced into the most hellish terrorist organization in the world. Washing her dishes in a rhythmic motion, she remembered her partnership with Deidara and Tobi back when she was Saya.

It was safe to say that Deidara was extremely taken aback when Sakura spoke. "I'm sorry." Stopping his clay-molding, the blonde nin turned to face her back, which hadn't turned while she continued her dishwashing.

"Care to explain that, hmm?" he asked curiously, and noticed her dishwashing was done when she placed them onto the rack above the sink. Letting loose a small sigh, the kunoichi turned to face him, a genuine expression of regret in her face. She raked her hands through her hair and removed the hairband, opting to redo her French plait as she answered him.

"I'm sorry for lying about my identity, about Saya and everything. You know I had to… I mean, a lot of missing nins do it," she muttered, choosing not to look at him but the floor, her hands still in her rosette locks as she deftly plaited it.

Deidara tried not to grin even wider but failed. Unbeknownst to Sakura, his half-lidded gaze was inevitably drawn to her tangled locks. For a long while Sakura waited for his response, but he was unable to do so.

He suddenly felt a little out of breath.

Upon receiving nothing, Sakura shot him a deathly glare -he seemed to be in his own world - and stalked off for the kitchen exit, her wavy hair left untied led, her hair swishing in her loose plait as she turned and headed for the kitchen exit. "Forget I said that, you stubborn, incorrigible, egoistic bas-"

His hand gripped her upper arm and turned her to face him. Her face was in his chest before she realised it was a half-embrace. Immediately she flushed, inhaling his unique, masculine scent as he whispered in her ear in an incredibly low voice.

"Apology accepted."

Sakura's breath ran out of her body with a loud whoosh. Her traitorous knees threatened to buckle all of a sudden.

She knew, without a doubt, that things were going to get even more complicated in her life.

Promptly letting go of her, Deidara walked off, sitting back down at the table as if nothing happened, leaving Sakura feeling slightly odd. After a moment or two, the object of her thoughts cleared his throat. "Leader wants to talk to you, by the way. He's waiting outside your room."

Choosing self-preservation over mannerisms, Sakura all but fled the room. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, breaking into an all-out sprint as her mind whirled into one hazy, fuzzy mess. Dimly, she realised she shouldn't be running in corridors.

To hell with it all, her inner self snarled, livid that her situation had possibly turned out so complicated. She stopped eventually at her door, out of breath and feeling extremely disgruntled. Muttering to herself about "annoying men", she opened the door and entered, slumping her body against the door wearily as she closed her eyes. Finally, she was all alone and had peace to herself. She had time to think.

However, fate had its way of making things complicated, which was why the Leader of the group stood in the room before her, watching her exasperated expression with a slightly curious glint in his eyes.

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I have got to say, I was laughing really hard when I typed this. This is the funniest, most awkward scene ever, LOL. It can never get more awkward than this. Lunch with the Akatsuki. Weird or what? I didn't know what to do so I let my fingers do the talking, if you know what I mean. Tried my best to make it believable, and if it wasn't I can edit it if you are not satisfied.

Sorry it's a filler, but I inserted some fluff. A few people wanted some fluff and I thought I already included in the previous chapter. Obviously not enough, hehe. I hope it's good fluff here. If not, please let me know. Also, this chapter is rushed. I had to shop for my baby sister's bday celebration tmr. I'm sorry D:

Let me know what you think! Also, I have another poll!

Which is the most hilarious pairing have you guys ever read?

Please REVIEW! I love your reviews, they keep me going. :D Regardless, thanks for reading and I hope this chapter is to your expectations.

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