"I will kill him," Sakura repeated over and over while looking at her reflection in the mirror. "I will kill him. He is dead." Not only was her body covered in the rich green color but so was her face. From head to toe she looked like a cucumber. "I look like fucking Shrek," she said while trying to rub the green off of her neck. "Why didn't I dye his hair something like blue? Then I could at least say I was doing something stupid with Kisame. Nope. Green. On a witch."

She sighed and turned away from the mirror to head for her closet. How much of pop culture did this school keep up with? When Sakura had made a joke about the Hulk yesterday Deidara didn't seem like he either got the joke or heard her. She threw open her closet and looked for anything with long sleeves and even a turtleneck. There was no way anyone would see this. She could already hear all the jokes.

Her arms were in the sleeves of a black sweater and she was about to pull it over her head when she paused. "Actually..." She took the sweater off and sat on her bed. This wasn't high school and she didn't need to hide herself from the world when someone turned her skin green for a few days. Everyone here was an adult and she knew if she walked out there and acted like everything was normal people would get their quick chuckle and then leave her be. She got up and threw on a pretty white blouse and jeans.

She swung her bedroom door open and saw Hidan leaning against his own door waiting for her to come out. He lost it when he saw her.

"Oh my fucking god, it's so much better than I thought it would be!" He almost wailed with laughter while he clutched his stomach.

Sakura rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen to get food. Sasori and Kisame were in there talking and sipping on some blood bags. When they saw her Sasori started choking on his bag while Kisame sprayed his mouthful all over the sink.

"Hey! Careful!" Sakura pointed to her shirt, "White and blood doesn't really mix, you know."

"Why the hell are you green?!" Kisame bellowed while holding the counter for support.

Sasori coughed and tried to take deep breaths. "Is that why you screamed at Hidan earlier?"

Sakura crossed her arms. "I turned Hidan's hair green so he decided to get me back by turning my everything green."

"Everything you say?" Kisame asked.

"Yes." Sakura stared up at him with a straight face. "Literally everything. It's weird."

"You fucking deserve it," Hidan said from behind her.

She turned around and glared at him. "At least you could just put on some makeup and then, boom, you're the Joker. Everyone likes the Joker."

"And all you need to do is put on a witch hat." Hidan's smile was so wide it almost reached his ears. "I gotta say, green was the perfect fucking color, seriously."

"You look like a pastel Fiona," Sasori mused.

"At least that makes me a pretty ogre," Sakura said. She went to the pantry for cereal and the fridge for milk. She had to squeeze between Kisame and Sasori to get to the fridge and groaned. "Okay this kitchen is literally tiny as fuck. If you're not making food, would you kindly leave?" She stared at the two for a few moments and sighed. "Fine. Don't move. Get green on you, whatever."

With the three guys and Sakura in the kitchen there was not a lot of space to move around. There were counters up against both sides of the kitchen. One set had the kitchen window over them looking at the living space while the other side was right up against the wall. The only entryway to the kitchen was opposite of where the pantry and fridge were located.

Sakura got a bowl out of the cupboard and poured her cereal. She had to shimmy between Sasori and Kisame again to get out to eat. She scowled and went around to sit at the counter while she ate.

"So," she asked between bites, "How long?"

"Same as me." Hidan said.

"Lovely."

"At least you and Kisame have something in common now." Sasori said.

Kisame shoved him with his elbow. "Screw you."

Sasori put his hands up and laughed. "It's true though."

"You just wait," Sakura pointed her spoon at Hidan. "I'm gonna get you back for this."

"Sakura?" Deidara said from somewhere behind her. "Holy fucking shit."

She groaned and turned around. "Yeah. Hi."

Deidara couldn't hold back his laughter when he saw her green face. "Oh my god." He put a hand on the wall to steady himself and tried to cover his mouth with the other. "Shit, even after we made sure not to turn him green."

"We?" Hidan walked to the counter and eyed Deidara through the kitchen window. "What the fuck do you mean by 'we'?"

Something about Hidan's sudden change of tone only made Deidara laugh harder. He couldn't form a coherent reply so Sakura answered for him, "Deidara's been helping me figure out what to do to get you back."

"What the fuck?" Hidan threw his hands out and gestured towards Deidara. "So, what, you get to tag team and I'm left flying solo? Seriously?"

"I'm pretty sure you're still winning." Sakura said. "Your hair is green. My ass is green. My face is green. Bitch my fucking boobs are green. Do you have any idea how fucking weird green nipples are?" She leaned forward to put her bowl in the sink that was between her and Hidan.

"Well, I mean, if you'd like to share with the class." Kisame said.

"I'm pretty sure you can just Google green nipples." Sakura got up from her seat and headed to her room. Just as the door was shutting she knew she heard Hidan say the words, "Green," and, "Pussy". Groaning she grabbed her bag and decided to head out to class early. At least in public people wouldn't be quite so blunt. When she walked back out all four boys were arguing over which color would be the worst for skin. So far purple seemed to be winning. She rolled her eyes and headed out down the road.

"Sakura, wait up," Sasori called from behind her.

She turned around and waited. "Hey, do you have class today or something?"

"Sorta," he said. "My project group are meeting in the library."

"Oh, okay," she said.

"Did you tell Tobi not to use the shower?" Sasori asked.

"Shit," Sakura smacked her forehead. "I don't even know what exactly Hidan used to do this. It was either the shower head or my soap or something." She flipped her phone opened and texted Tobi. "I'll just tell him not to shower until I get home to test just what made this happen."

"What are you going to do to get him back?" Sasori asked.

"I have no idea," she said. "I'll have to come up with something soon."

"Let me know if you need any help," Sasori said.

"Yeah?" She looked over at him. "Thanks. Keeping up with Hidan's creativity is definitely not a one-person kind of job. So what's your group project on?"

"It's kind of boring."

"Oh come on," Sakura begged. "Tell me."

"Well, as a group we're supposed to make an abstract 3D piece based on a randomly picked emotion. There's other things we're supposed to be doing, but that's the gist of it."

"Cool," Sakura said. "Remember when I found you in that art room at the Uchiha mansion?"

Sasori nodded, "Yeah. You were a lot smaller."

"Growing up is a bitch," Sakura said. "But it was interesting, seeing you I mean. I was sad when you didn't come back."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Yeah," Sakura nodded, "It was fun. Making the bowls and vases. I tried doing it myself but it kept collapsing in on itself and it was never even. The whole thing was a fiasco." They were entering the main campus now and Sakura could hear people whispering around her. She did her best to ignore them while talking to Sasori.

"I could show you how to do it again, if you'd like."

Sakura gasped and looked at Sasori wide-eyed. "Really?"

"Sure. We have a wheel at home and the art department isn't going to miss a bit of clay."

Sakura smiled. "Thank you, yes. That would be fantastic!" She gave him a quick hug to emphasize her thanks.

Sasori let himself smile while he hugged her back. When they pulled apart his smile continued, but was smaller. "We can start whenever you'd like."

"How about this weekend?"

He nodded. "That sounds good."

"Oh," Sakura looked up at the building behind Sasori. "We almost passed the library."

Sasori looked behind him and shrugged. "Your building is only a little bit further. I can double back."

Sakura eyed him and pursed her lips. "Sasori. Are you walking me to my class because I'm green?"

Sasori laughed. "What, you think I'm here to protect you from bullies?"

Sakura's lips stayed pursed and she nodded. People were now outright pointing and talking loudly about her new skin color. She heard the already-used Shrek and witch jokes but was pleased to hear some people being a bit more creative.

"Should she be going to class? I mean, look at her, she's so sick she turned green!"

"God, I hate when people dress like that. You like weed, we get it. Shut up already."

"I didn't know Poison Ivy went here."

"No, that's totally She-Hulk, are you blind?"

"Beast Girl?"

"Bro, look at that chick, she looks like fucking spinach."

Sasori shook his head. "No, I'm not walking you to class because I'm worried about people teasing you. You aren't the type of person who needs protection from something like that."

"Then why?" Sakura asked.

He shrugged. "I like talking to you."

"Oh," Sakura said, feeling sort of stupid. "Okay then."

"Saa-kuu-raa!" Sakura heard someone yell from ahead. She looked up to see Ino sprinting towards her. "What the literal fuck happened to your skin?!"

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "It's a long story."

"Hidan's an ass," Sasori said.

Sakura pointed at Sasori nodding. "Okay, yeah, that."

Ino looked at Sasori. "So you're one of Sakura's roommates? Sasori is it?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Well, I'm Ino, Sakura's best friend for eternity," Ino said and then glanced over to Sakura. She put a hand in front of her mouth so that only Sakura could see her mouth, "Fuckable."

"Okay," Sakura pushed Ino forward. "Time to go." She grabbed Ino's hand and waved back at Sasori. "Sorry, but Ino's having some tampon issues. I'll talk to you later!"

Sasori raised both his eyebrows but laughed as he watched them walk away. Even with the green skin he could tell something Ino was saying was causing Sakura to blush. He turned around and headed straight home.

"Ino, what the literal fuck?"

"Honey I swear to god if they're all half as hot as Sasori then I don't know how you do it." Ino shook her head. "I mean seriously you've gotta have like a fourteen inch friend in your nightstand if you can control yourself around them."

"Or self control." Sakura said.

"A fuckton. Now," Ino poked Sakura's cheek. "What the hell is going on here? Are you trying to be funny or what?"

"Hidan and I got into this huge prank war and I turned his hair green. He retaliated with this."

"Wow." Ino looked her up and down while laughing softly. "Is like...everything green?"

"Yeah," Sakura said. "While green nipples are really weird, green vaginas are a trip. It got in every nook and cranny."

"That's hot." Ino said.

"I swear Hidan is going to get it."

"Your hulk-gina?"

Sakura snorted. "Can you imagine having that? Ride that dick so hard it falls off. Literally."

Ino sputtered and tried to take deep breaths. "Yeah like when you finally cum your vagina does that thing where it like clamps down but it literally crushes their dick."

"Sex of a lifetime. Seriously though Hidan's dead. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, but it's going to be good."

"Use that taste spell. Make him taste nothing but, like, pennies for a week."

Sakura shook her head. "I already did that. I made him taste shit but he..." she cleared her throat. "He persuaded me to change his tongue back."

"How did he persuade you?" Ino leaned in close smirking.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "In the end he threatened to put werewolf shit in my room somewhere. That's a pretty good reason to reverse a charm." She decided Ino did not need to know what he'd tried first. To Sakura's credit the werewolf poop was the deciding factor. Fear was a lot more persuasive.

"That would be funny," Ino said. She put her hands up defensively when Sakura glared at her. "I mean if it happened to someone else. You know if it happened to you we'd destroy him."

"Thanks Ino," Sakura smiled. The two of them walked to Ino's building and Ino told her about a new spellbook she bought that was great for anyone living on their own. It had everything from recipes to spells to fix basics on a car. When they got to Ino's building they sat outside talking for a bit longer about their classes and how school was going in general.

"My roommate is so annoying," Ino was leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. "She stays up until midnight or later blasting music out of her headphones. I can hear every single lyric and when I tell her to turn it down she just gives me a pissed off look. She doesn't even reply."

"What a bitch," Sakura said. "Maybe when the new dorms are built you can try to get a transfer?"

"I was thinking of doing that. Might even get lucky and have a room all to myself."

"One can dream."

Ino looked down at her watch and jumped forward. "Shit! My class is about to start! Sorry, Sakura, I gotta get going." She ran off before Sakura could say anything.

Sakura looked down at her own watch to see that she only had five minutes until her own class started. "Shit!" She threw her head back and started to sprint. When she got to her building the elevator doors had just closed so she hauled ass up the stairs and started running down the hallways.

Just as she turned a corner she heard the elevator door beep but didn't have time to stop herself before she ran headfirst into someone. The both of them crashed to the ground and her shoulder hit the tile straight on. She couldn't help the pained, "Fuck!" that she let out. She rolled off of whoever she'd ran into and rubbed her shoulder. "Shit, I'm so sorry, man."

"Miss Haruno. Pleasure to see you." Sakura heard a woman's voice from above her. She looked up to see Tsunade, one of the Headmasters, staring down at her with mild amusement.

"Yes," the voice beside her said in a sarcastic tone. "Always a joy."

Sakura looked down to see she'd run headlong into the second Headmaster, Orochimaru. "Fuck." She said again and immediately covered her mouth. "Shit, no wait, dangit, I'm sorry!" She got up and leaned over to help Orochimaru but he swatted her hand away.

"What's wrong with your skin, girl?" Orochimaru asked.

"A-Ah, well..." Sakura tried to speak but found her throat constricting with each syllable. Orochimaru was one of the only vampires that had ever scared her. He's supposed to have been around long enough to see the plague, the Roman empire, Greek empire, and was even rumored to be around when the pyramids were built. That last one hasn't been confirmed, but because of his age Orochimaru was powerful and wise. For all that his age also meant he was around when his people had damned hers amongst others almost a millennium ago.

"Leave the poor girl alone," Tsunade said. "She's in college for shit's sake."

Sakura had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing at the expression on Orochimaru's face.

"They shouldn't be running in the halls," he said looking from Tsunade to Sakura. "No self control," he muttered to himself.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, young ones are lacking manners and witches are lose cannons. Please, we need to get to this meeting. I don't have time for this. Jiraiya said there's an issue with the holding cells." She looked to Sakura. "I assume you have a class to get to?"

"Ah!" Sakura nodded quickly. "Yes. Please have a good day, Headmasters." She didn't wait for them to reply before running off. Tsunade was an intimidating witch, but fair to all. She was a few centuries younger than Orochimaru but just as powerful. Sakura admired her and had been ecstatic to attend this college when she found out Tsunade was the wizard representative.

Sakura was panting when she finally arrived at her classroom. When she walked in she looked around to see that the teacher was no where in sight. Confused, Sakura looked down at her phone and then up to the clock on the wall. "Right time… Oh." Sakura smacked herself in the face, groaning.

"Forgot you had Kakashi today?" A fellow student asked from behind her.

Sakura turned around to see a girl also panting. "Yeah," she nodded. "You?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah." Sakura didn't feel so bad since she wasn't the only one who forgot their teacher had a nasty habit of constantly being late to class. The girl stood up and looked over Sakura. "You had a rough morning."

Sakura shrugged and walked to her seat. "It's not easy being green."

By the end of the day Sakura was sick of the color green. She was sick of jokes about the color green. She was sick of the repeated Shrek and Hulk and Kermit jokes. That night she was going to burn every single green thing she owned. Maybe she'll even ask Itachi to help her gouge out her eyeballs. That sounds like a perfectly sane way to never deal with this heinous color. God willing she will go through the rest of her life free from the anguish this color has wrought her.

She wanted revenge and Ino was happy to help out. Together they plotted and decided as a sort of placeholder prank they'd offer him a "peace" cake that would end up exploding in his face when Sakura triggered it. The two of them spent the afternoon at the grocery store finding the perfect one to make for Hidan and then another for the two of them to enjoy later. They ended up with a your basic yellow cake and chocolate frosting for Hidan. For them they got a pink funfetti cake with purple frosting. Sakura was excited for both of them.

Luckily for them the kitchen and living room were bare when they got there. Ino was vocally upset at the fact that there weren't any rebellious flags or symbolism in the Akatsuki's home. Sakura told her that these guys weren't some hardened gang bent on sticking it to the man and crippling the establishment.

An hour after they got home two cakes stood on the counter looking delectable. The purple was set aside in the fridge while the chocolate one was brought into Sakura's room to cast the spell. When Sakura willed it, the cake would explode straight up into Hidan's face so as to create maximum mess on Hidan and minimum mess everywhere else.

Once done they took it back to the kitchen and waited for him to either come out of his room or come home. They had only waited half an hour before he walked through the front door.

"Hidan!" Sakura jumped up from the couch and walked over to him. "Hey, we made you a cake." She pointed to the counter smiling.

Hidan just looked at her like she was an idiot. "You really expect me to eat anything you made after what you did to my damn tongue?"

"Oh come on," she pouted. "I swear this isn't going to screw with your taste buds or your bowels or anything."

He raised his eyebrow and looked back at Ino who smiled along with Sakura. Crossing his arms he nodded his head over to the cake, "You try it first."

"Fine," Sakura cut herself a piece and took a nice big bite. "Happy?"

"Yeah that works," he said and went to cut his own piece. Once he got close enough Sakura waved her hand and the cake exploded with a loud pop! Hidan looked over at Sakura with a blank expression and said, "Is that seriously all you've got?" And then went to the bathroom to wash his face.

Sakura's shoulders slumped. Ino came over and patted her back. "Don't worry. We'll get him. Even if hulk-ginas are necessary."

Sakura couldn't help the laugh that escaped through her nose.

Sakura had never been so happy to be walking home on a Friday. The green color was considerably lighter but still noticeable. Once home she plopped herself at her desk and stayed glued to her laptop screen for the better part of the afternoon and evening. At this point people were exhausting to deal with and having some alone time was definitely necessary. She only left her room to pee or get some food which consisted primarily of egg-less cookie dough and Cheetos. Not at the same time, of course. Sakura did consider it but decided that she was far too sober for that experiment. Eventually she checked the time at the bottom of her computer screen. It was midnight already and Sakura rubbed her eyes.

"I guess I should head to bed," she said to herself. She shut down her laptop and got into bed. After half an hour of tossing and turning she was about ready to say screw it and just stay up until she dropped. Knowing this wasn't the best idea she forced herself to remain in bed for another half hour but still she couldn't settle. She sat up straight and groaned. "Fuck it, this isn't happening." She threw the blankets off of her. Okay, she can't sleep, but the computer didn't seem too enticing right now. Maybe something good would be on TV?

She got up and walked out to the living room and was surprised when no one else was out there. All the lights were off in the living room and kitchen but Sakura did see some light coming from under bedroom doors. The guys must have all been in their rooms. She shrugged and went to find the remote and then sit on the couch.

The couch itself was so comfortable Sakura thought she may just fall asleep on here. Leaning back she turned on the TV and scrolled through the guide to find something to watch. Against her better judgment she decided that a scary movie would be a terrific choice tonight. It had such good reviews, why not give it a try?

Half an hour into the movie Sakura was partially hiding behind a couch pillow. She cursed herself for not turning on the living room light before she started watching this but it was too late now. Something about scary movies made her not want to get up or move at all. It didn't help that the movie revolved around some demonic child that killed children.

After another half hour the movie was starting to reach it's climax. Sakura had taken a blanket and all the pillows and made a fort to hide in. The human child had been running around the large home for ten minutes now hearing the demon calling to it. The human was screaming and crying while running faster and faster through the halls. The music kept getting louder and more sporadic as the child became less and less sane. At times the music made her think something was moving next to her or a door was being opened. Because of this she was starting to get paranoid and jumpy. For every corner the child turned the movie made you think the demon would finally be waiting but alas every time the child was met with nothing but darkness.

The child screamed one last time for it's mother and the demon suddenly appeared in front of him and its face took up the whole screen. At the same time Sakura heard the front door slam open and crash against the wall. She screamed and jumped out of her fort turning around to a horrifying sight.

With the light of the TV shining on them Sakura saw her roommates walking in with their mouths, chins, and chests covered in bright red. Even in the dim light Sakura could tell their canines had extended, especially in Kisame's case. His mouth looked like nothing but teeth. Hidan and him looked almost soaked in blood. The rest of them were covered in varying amounts of it.

Her instincts were screaming at her to run in any direction she could. She managed to control herself by just walking backwards at a slow pace away from them. The scream she'd let out caused all of them to direct their attention at her. Some seemed, for just a moment, to look at her like she was their newest mark. Having six terrifying vampires staring at you after having just fed was an unnerving feeling. One that Sakura did not want to continue.

"I'm sorry!" Was all she could manage to get out as she began running towards her room. In the dark she didn't notice how close the end table was and caught her foot on it. Right as her face was about to slam into the floor she felt a pair of arms around her. When she turned around to look up at Itachi's red eyes staring down at her all she could said was, "You're...warm."

She had touched vampires before. Whether it be giving Sasuke a friendly hug or wrestling with an Akatsuki member for a pillow or the chocolate sauce bottle. Each time she did they were cool to the touch. It wasn't ice cold but more so as if they'd just gotten out of a cold shower.

"That tends to happen after replenishing," Itachi said. He stood her up straight and backed away. "Are you alright?"

Sakura forced herself to smile and wave her hands in front of her face. "I'm fine! Really! You all just startled me." It wasn't a total lie. "I-I mean… Just… I didn't realize you all still… Uh..."

"Fed on humans?" Sasori asked for her.

She nodded. "Well, yeah… I mean you all have a bunch of blood in the fridge so why not keep using that?"

"It's boring," Hidan said.

"What Hidan means," Kisame pushed him aside and shot him a warning look. "Is cold blood is just as good as fresh blood in the end. It doesn't matter how long we stored it, if it separated, or whatever. We get what we need from it, but we are still vampires at the end of the day."

"Hunting is something we as a, well, a 'culture' I guess you could say, need to do," Sasori said.

"In the end it keeps us from going insane," Deidara said. "It's really the only shitty part of the whole vampire deal. We get in these weird moods where we just need to hunt a live human."

"So," Sakura squinted and couldn't help a shiver that ran up her back. "Every now and then you just need to kill someone?"

"Never!" Tobi said in an offended tone. He waved his hands around wildly. "We never kill! No, instead of going to one or two people and killing them we just go to lots of people and only take a little bit. Me and Itachi also change their short term memory so they don't remember us."

"Then what's up with all..." Sakura motioned to Tobi's blood-covered body.

"Blood is messy," Itachi said and shrugged.

"If it's bad enough we haul them off to a hospital," Deidara said.

"Don't you know how much human hospitals charge?" Sakura crossed her arms.

"Oh my Jashin she'll never be satisfied," Hidan groaned. "I'm gonna go wash this shit off, you all have fun." He walked off to the bathroom.

"We pay for it," Itachi said.

"Oh," Sakura said. She chewed and licked her lips awkwardly and shrugged. "Okay, no more questions." She turned and headed towards her room. "Well, goodnight all!" Before any of them could say anything she closed herself in her room. She sat down on her bed and had to grab the sheets with a near white-knuckle grip to stop her hands from shaking.

Witches have always been a species that could be gruesome and threatening if they wanted but that didn't happen a lot. Most witches used their powers for, well, pretty things. To create and bring out the beauty in people and nature. The worst thing Sakura could ever remember a witch she knew doing was when her mother made a bug explode in their house because she didn't want to kill it with a shoe. Witches could be awful and deadly and paralyzingly terrifying, but they had the opportunity to be the opposite.

Sakura never seemed to remember that vampires and werewolves didn't have this privilege. Their species by nature were horrendous, but that didn't mean the person had to act as such all the time. Naruto was a perfect example of this. He was one of the sweetest and most loving people Sakura had ever met. He would do anything for his friends and always make sure everyone was smiling. But every month during that full moon he turned into a ravenous creature that would easily break her if he was given the chance.

Except the Akatsuki weren't werewolves. Vampires didn't have one night out of the month that they could lose control and kill you. They were at peak power all day every day. It was true that like witches they could choose to be kind and loving to everyone, but at the end of the day they were all still the creature of the night. The perfect predator.

Sakura didn't believe that was a reason to avoid them, though. She'd been here almost three weeks now and this was the only time any of them had frightened her.

Yes, she had to admit she was scared of them right now. There was something about the look they had in their eyes before they fully noticed her presence. A few of them had even taken a second to remember she wasn't next on their list. Hidan in particular had given her a predatory look that made her stomach drop out to the floor.

"Ugh," she rubbed her eyes and laid back on the bed. She had to remind herself that they would never hurt her. They hadn't even hurt the humans they fed on. Well, not permanently. They might be vampires, and they may have strong instincts, but they still had some shred of sense. At least it was enough to let her sleep at night.

She couldn't help but see why the elders still wanted segregation between the three species. It was like rock, paper, scissors with them. Just because you could take on one kind doesn't mean you can take on the others. Hell, some witches could take on both vampires and werewolves but were done in by their own kind. The same was true for the other two species.

"If we can all kill each other equally, why can't we just live equally?" Sakura asked out loud. The main reason the Akatsuki were intimidating was because there were so many of them. Sakura was confident that with more training she could go one-on-one with a vampire and come out alive.

She rolled over on her stomach shoved her face into the pillow. "This is too much deep thought for two in the morning." She turned her head to the side and saw that it was actually closer to three now. Just how long had she been sitting in her room thinking? Before she could try to sleep again there was a quiet knock at her door. She got up to open it and saw Deidara standing in her doorway. "Hey."

"Hey," he gave her a smile. "Mind if I come in for a second?"

"Uh, sure," she opened the door further and let him walk in. "What's up?"

"I, uh," he paused and turned around to look at her. "I just wanted to see if you were alright."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she returned his smile and closed the door.

"Then why haven't you gone to sleep?"

Sakura crossed her arms and looked at the ground. "Probably because of the stupid cookie dough."

"You sure you're okay?" Deidara asked in serious tone that surprised Sakura. She looked up at him and walked over to her bed to sit down. He sat down next to her hesitantly and waited for her to reply.

"I have nothing against vampires, but you all know that," she started. "It's just… I forgot how deadly you all are. Between all of the pranks and craziness here I just forgot that you guys are built for killing."

"Yeah," he said. "But at least most of us aren't how we used to be."

Sakura pulled her legs up onto the bed and wrapped her arms around them. "I'm not gonna lie, sometimes looking at Kisame's teeth makes me wanna piss myself."

Deidara laughed and shook his head. "You definitely don't have to worry about him."

"I know," Sakura said defiantly. "If I was scared of you guys I would have demanded a new room assignment the day I found out I'd be staying here. Especially after that little stunt Hidan pulled the other day."

"If we're being honest here, I'm surprised he didn't take the chance," Deidara said in a low tone.

"Why?"

"It's on his bucket list or something to drink a witch's blood." Deidara rolled his eyes. "Kinda stupid if you ask me."

Sakura shoved him playfully. "What, do I taste like rotten eggs?"

"No," Deidara shoved her back. "It's the fact that most witches would kill him if he tried."

"True," Sakura said. "My mom once put a vampire in the hospital for trying to cut her arm. What's up with that anyways?"

"You guys apparently taste amazing or something," he shrugged. "I've heard rumors that witch's blood is so good that after you get a taste you can't ever go back to human blood. On the other hand I've also heard it tastes so bad that you won't be able to drink blood for a week."

Sakura couldn't help the nose laugh that came out. "So I'm either a gift from God or Satan's butt hole?"

"Pretty much," he said.

"Hasn't anyone tried drinking witch blood?"

"Yeah, that's where the ideas came from. Dunno why they're two extremes, though. Could have just been altered when passed down to newer vampires."

"Hm," Sakura hummed and scooted up on her bed so she was laying with her head on the pillow. "Deidara, how old are you?"

"Rude," he said while mimicking her movements and laying next to her on the other pillow.

"Oh come on, I want to know what kinds of things you've seen."

"Well it hasn't been much. I'm about a decade away from two hundred."

"Damn," Sakura whispered. "Was Lincoln a good president?"

Deidara laughed and nodded. "Yeah he was cool. Hella tall, though. Like, goddamn man, you did not need that extra top hat."

"You've gotta tell me about some of that stuff later," Sakura said and rolled over to look at him. "The other day you said you guys could get multiple degrees. Have you gotten other ones before now?"

He shook his head. "No, none of us really have. This school only opened a few decades ago and before that we never thought it'd be necessary since we were in the Akatsuki."

"What do you guys even do? Like, Ino was expecting propaganda and resistance flags all over the place when she came over the other day."

He laughed again and propped himself up so he was half sitting against the headrest. "Well, honestly Madara, Pein, and Konan are the ones with the big master plans for equality and peace. We're all here as helping hands more or less."

"You guys don't believe in equality?" Sakura furrowed her brows and sat up, too.

"No, no, we do. We aren't only here for money. Well, Kakuzu probably is… But the rest of us do agree with the idea of peace between everyone."

"Oh, good," Sakura said. Her eyelids were starting to get heavy and she had to shake her head to stay alert.

"Tired or something?" He teased her.

"Shut up," she nudged him. "Watch one day I'll come up with a spell so I'll never have to sleep again. Then it'll be my turn to bug you guys forever."

"Can't wait," Deidara said. Sakura moved so she was lying down on the bed again. "You want me to head out?"

She shook her head. "Nah, keep talking. Tell me about what it was like living in the 19th century."

He smiled and laid down as well. "Alright, well… First thing's first, shitting in a hole everyone shared was hell. Not only did it smell but after a while you had to bury it and go dig another shit hole yourself. I only had to do this for the first few decades of my life but it was nasty as fuck and if I'm thankful for anything it's plumbing. I had also never thought water could get so clear. You have no idea how much better it tastes..."

Sakura listened to him talk until her eyes slid closed and she fell asleep. His voice was soothing and perfect for fighting off the sleeplessness. She made a mental note before slipping away to ask the other members about their lives in the past as well.

Okay so when I initially wrote this chapter the thing was, like, 10,000 words because I was an idiot and added stupid filler stuff that didn't really need to be in here. This is another 6,000 and some change. I dunno how I'm cranking out such long chapters but hey whatever I'll take it.

I was re-watching some Akatsuki arcs from the show to get a better feel for how these guys act and in my binging I found out that there was apparently a video game that showed how (spoiler? kinda? idk how far y'all are) it showed how Pein and Obito formed the Akatsuki. Like gathering all the people up. I forgot Hidan was the newest member lmao I had always thought it was Deidara just cause he's so young. Weird, bruh.

Please be sure to review and let me know how you all are liking how this is going. Rest assured, the romance is coming, and a lot faster than expected. In my outline this was supposed to be like chapter seven. So, soon, lovelies. Just stick with me a bit longer!

Side note: reading through my notes for this story is making me laugh like an idiot. Snorts and everything.

I love all of your faces and I'll see you next chapter!