Sakura awoke the next morning to the smell of pancakes and bacon. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock to see it was nine in the morning. Not being one to sleep the day away she threw her covers off of her and stretched. It felt like Deidara had just been talking to her a few minutes ago. She didn't even remember falling asleep.

The blood soaked vampires, now those she remembered.

"Whatever," Sakura told herself. "What's done is done and I don't need to worry about anymore scares this weekend." She nodded to herself and remembered the savory smell that had woken her up. She opened the door and walked to the kitchen.

Itachi was standing in front of the stove flipping pancakes while Sasori transferred already-made ones onto a plate. He walked to the dining table and saw Sakura standing in her doorway.

"Good morning," he said and put the plate down. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah..." Sakura said slowly. "What are you guys doing?"

Sasori leaned against one of the chairs. "We wanted to apologize for last night."

"So you made me breakfast?" Sakura walked over to the table and saw a plate of bacon next to the pancakes.

Itachi scooped some more pancakes onto a plate and brought them over to the table. "Yes," he said. "We know we upset you last night. Next time we'll be sure to check before rushing in like that."

Whatever their reason, Sakura was definitely grateful for the free hot breakfast and smiled at them. "You guys are really sweet, you know that?"

"It was actually Tobi's idea," Sasori said.

"It was?" Sakura hadn't seen Tobi out here and did a quick double take. "Where is he?"

Sasori rolled his eyes. "At the store. When he realized we didn't have ingredients for things like blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes he flipped out. He's buying fruit and chocolate now."

"You guys..." she let out a whine and smiled even bigger. "You didn't have to do all of this for me, especially not over that stupid incident."

"We want you to feel safe here no matter what," Itachi said. "If you're to live with us we want you comfortable."

Sakura put an arm around Sasori's shoulders and brought him over to where Itachi was standing so she could hug both of them. "Thanks. You guys are the best."

The two men smiled down at her. A word of thanks was hard to come by here. It was a nice refreshment.

She let them go and looked down at the plates. "Should we wait for Tobi to come back with the stuff? I'd feel rude eating this when he's out getting more ingredients..."

"You could just have pancakes all day," Sasori said.

"Don't tempt me," she laughed. "If you're offering me all day pancakes with fruit you're going to have to deliver. Shapes and everything."

For the moment Sakura was happy to sit and talk with the two of them while she enjoyed some of the best damn pancakes she'd ever had. Itachi could beat IHOP hands down.

It was nice eating breakfast with the two of them. They were the most level headed of the members here. Sasori could be a smartass but was calm and collected most of the time. They were also the only members that she didn't associate with some wacky memory. The bulk of memories concerning Itachi involved late-night trips to the kitchen for food. One of them would be in the kitchen and the other would walk in causing the first party to make up an excuse to leave immediately. Sakura shook her head and laughed at the humor of it all.

"What is it?" Itachi asked.

She looked up at him and shrugged. "I dunno. It's just funny remembering all those times we walked in on each other in the kitchen and now here we are. I'm eating a breakfast you all made as an apology. Honestly I still find it a little weird that I ended up rooming with all of you. Especially Deidara and Hidan. I never would have guessed I'd share a roof with them after all that stuff at the Uchiha mansion."

"Walk in on one of Hidan's 'rituals'?" Sasori asked.

"Yeah, it was..." She paused and shivered. "Deidara just blew a hole in the wall while I was peeing."

Sasori rolled his eyes. "And he calls that art."

"Oh!" Sakura put her fork down and leaned closer to Sasori. "You said you'd show me how to make a vase or something this weekend. Are you still up for that?"

"Of course," he said. "Whenever you're ready."

Sakura was about to answer when Tobi came running through the front door holding up armfuls of grocery bags. "I have all the ingredients now!" He announced.

"Today is gonna be awesome," Sakura said while looking over all the things he'd bought. She could see the chocolate chips and fruit but also saw things like whipped cream and something about red velvet.

"Aww, you already ate," Tobi said sadly.

Sakura jumped up to help Tobi with the groceries. "Don't worry. We're making pancakes all day today. Whatever we don't eat we're just gonna freeze to eat later."

Tobi's face broke out into a huge grin. "Really? Awesome!" He ran into the kitchen to put away his share of bags.

"Yeah, but first Sasori is going to show me some of his art stuff," she said while putting the refrigerated items away.

"That's okay!" Tobi said. "I'll experiment with recipes while you're doing that."

"I can't wait to see what you come up with," she said. Knowing Tobi he was either going to create something extremely delectable or something that would put her off pancakes altogether for at least a month. Whatever the outcome she was excited to see what he'd come up with. "Just make sure you have some fruit ones. Those are the best."

"Got it," Tobi said. He started taking out the dry stuff and Sakura was curious what he'd do with a can of pumpkin. She went back out to the dining area and saw Sasori pushing his chair in.

"Wanna get started?" She asked.

"Sure," he led her over to his shared room with Deidara. Sakura had expected to see Deidara in there but he was absent. Sasori went to a set of drawers and pulled out a large plastic bag with gray clay in it. "This should be enough."

"Did you use your five finger discount to get that?" Sakura asked.

"I'll return it when we're done," Sasori smirked and pulled out another bowl. "I just need to get some water." He went to the bathroom to fill up the bowl. While he was gone Sakura sat down on one of the beds. She assumed it was Sasori's since that side of the room had more sculptures while the other side had what looked like, well, bombs. They were rectangular boxes with various wires coming out of the sides and going to others. Deidara really liked his explosions it seemed.

Sasori came back and pulled out the wheel for them to work with. "We'll start you with a smaller clump." He set up the wheel with a chair next to it. "Get your hands wet in that bowl." He motioned to the bowl and put the clump he had onto the wheel. When Sakura's hands were wet Sasori motioned for her to sit in the chair. She sat down and he sat across from her. "Okay put your hands on the lump like this," he put his hands on the clay to show her. "And I'm going to have the wheel turn. We need to get it wet."

Sakura nodded, "Okay got it." She put her hands on the clay when he removed his. Her hands covered much less than his did. The wheel started spinning and she kept her hands on the mound.

"Now you're going to position your hands like this," he moved his hands so the heels of his palms were pressed together against the clay. "And you'll push forward." Sakura mirrored his hands and started to push forward with her elbows sticking out. Sasori got up and moved behind her, bringing her elbows in towards her abdomen. "Make sure you anchor your elbows against yourself. It helps."

"Got it," Sakura said. She tried to focus on just the clay but Sasori's hands were distracting her. He ran them up her arms to her hands and then to the clay itself.

After a few moments he nodded to himself, "Okay, we can start making this into a cone shape now." He moved to kneel next to her and watched her form the shape with the tip at the top. "Now you're going to flatten the point with your thumbs, like this." He put his hands on the other side and put his thumbs over Sakura's on the top and pressed down slightly to level out the top.

"This is one freaky looking bowl, I'll tell you what," Sakura laughed. She wanted to distract herself from how, well, nice his hands felt. They were much softer than she'd expected for someone like him.

Sasori rolled his eyes playfully. "It'll look better once we flatten it out. Now, take your left hand and put it against the clay like you did when you pushed it forward. Yes, just like that. Now take your right hand and put it on top of the cone while interlocking it with your left."

Sakura moved her hands where he instructed. "Is this right?"

"Yes, perfect, now what you'll do is move your right hand down while pushing forward with the left," he said.

"Uh, alright," Sakura did as he instructed. The clay started to flatten out and soon a circular figure formed.

"Keep your left hand on the side here," Sasori put his hand over hers and guided her left hand to smooth the edges.

Sakura continued to focus solely on the clay or else she knew she'd start blushing like a school girl. "Okay is this about low enough?"

"Yes, now we just need to mark the middle. He moved his hands to press his thumbs down in the middle to show where they'd start making the hole. "Go ahead and make a hole here but make sure to leave enough for the bottom of the bowl."

"Aw, we can't just let everything drop out of the bottom?" Sakura said and started making the circle. "This is a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be."

"How did you think this worked?" Sasori asked.

"I dunno," Sakura shrugged.

"Just pull the clay back to the edges now, be sure to keep your finger at the same level so the bottom isn't uneven," he instructed.

She did as he said. "I thought you started with this sort of step. It's still fun though." She smiled up at him and continued bringing the clay out.

Sasori smiled back watched her work. So far she was doing well for her first go. The bottom was becoming a bit uneven but that wasn't a big deal. He grabbed a sponge and put it in the water. When she reached the edge he took the sponge and ran it over the clay to make sure it was still wet enough. "Okay now run your thumbs across the bottom to make sure it's even."

"Got it," she said and ran them over the bowl. When the lump formed in the middle she plucked it out. Sasori handed her the sponge to pat the base.

"Now we're going to raise the walls up. Put your pointer finger inside with your thumb on the other side of the wall," he said and Sakura did so. "Squeeze lightly. Make sure you're only using your fingertips."

"Please don't fall over, bowl," Sakura asked the clay. She could always start again but at least for her first time she wanted to get to the end without a big fuckup. If it didn't look pretty that was alright, as long as she could use it as a bowl.

"It'll be okay," Sasori said. "Do you need any help?"

Sakura looked up at him and nodded; partly wanting help and partly wanting to feel his hands on hers again. Not that she'd admit it, even to herself.

"Okay," he put his fingers over hers and squeezed. He pulled their hands up while running the sponge next to them. "Once more," he said. "Do you think you can do this one?"

"Yeah," Sakura nodded.

"Be careful not to use too much pressure since this is thinner now."

"Okay," she said and put her hands back at the base. She pulled them up just as Sasori hand showed her and made it to the top with no problems. "Any more? Or is that thin enough?"

"You tell me," Sasori said. "Did you want the walls of your bowl thinner?"

Sakura studied the cylinder and shook her head. "No, this is good."

"Next," he took her hand in his and placed it inside the cylinder, "You're going to push against this." He took her other hand and put it outside the cylinder opposite the first hand. "You'll support it with this one."

Sakura looked up at him and smiled sheepishly, "Help me out with this too?"

Sasori smiled again, "Sure." He pulled their hands out to give the clay a more bowl-like shape. Once it was pulled out nicely Sasori released her hands. "It looks good, just smooth out the rim and we can cut off the excess at the bottom."

"Okay," Sakura said and took a tool he handed her. She smoothed the rim while Sasori grabbed a wooden cutting tool. "My bowl is looking badass, seriously."

"It's very good, especially for your first time," Sasori said. He cut off the excess clay that was coming out of the bottom of the bowl. "All that's left is to trim the bottom for the bowl's stand."

"How do we do that?" Sakura asked.

"We'll just trim off the excess clay around where we want it to be," he said.

"Okay," Sakura said. Sasori showed her how to trim off the parts of the bottom to leave the stand or "foot" of the bowl protruding. In the end it was mostly for aesthetic purposes as well as giving the bowl lift.

Once that was made the bowl was finished. Sakura picked it up and inspected it. "I think it looks pretty good."

Sasori nodded. "Yes it's very good. All we need to do now is put it into a kiln. I'll take care of that for you."

"Perfect!" Sakura said. "Let me know whenever it's done." She looked down at her clay covered hands and headed to the bathroom. "Could you open the door for me? I don't wanna clay it all up."

Sasori walked over and opened the bathroom door for her and she went in to wash her hands. Who knew clay was so messy? It was half way up her forearm. It took her a minute to get it off of her hands and arms. Then another minute went by while she scrapped the clay from under her nails. She was proud of her work. The bowl was a bit disfigured but she wasn't expecting perfection her first time. Naruto or Sasuke might have but she knew you weren't going to be perfect the first time you tried something new.

Once her hands were dried off she went to the bedroom again. Sasori was packing up the supplies. The bedroom door was opened and she could smell the obligatory pancake scent as well as mint, pumpkin, and… Were those oranges? She shook her head and sat down on Sasori's bed. "Tobi sure is going all out with the pancake marathon."

"He still feels really bad," Sasori explained. "You're going to be getting the star treatment for the next week at least."

"How exciting," Sakura said. "Seriously though you guys can chill. I'm not going to pee my pants at the sight of you."

Sasori sat down next to her and shook his head. "You don't understand, you looked utterly terrified last night."

"Well I was watching a horror movie before you guys thundered in," she grumbled. "You guys are scary but don't give yourselves all the credit. Demonic jumpscares played a big role."

"Either way, Tobi isn't going to stop until he thinks he's paid you back," Sasori shrugged.

"Hm," Sakura put a finger to her lips and looked at the ceiling in thought. "Well if there's no way around it I'll tell him to give me one big gesture instead of a few throughout the week. That way it's done. I mean Valentine's is coming up so he can just give me a box of chocolates as big as me and we'll call it a day."

Sasori chuckled, "Yeah I guess that would work."

Sakura leaned back on her elbows. "Do you guys even celebrate Valentine's Day?"

"If we have someone to celebrate with," Sasori replied. "Otherwise there's not much of a point."

"True," Sakura nodded. "But, hey, if you like candy you can get in on those sales after V-Day."

"I suppose so," Sasori muttered. "I remember when giving chocolate and such first became popular."

"You guys are so old," Sakura teased.

"I think the last time one of us celebrated Harry Truman was president here," Sasori mused.

Sakura thought for a moment before snorting with laughter, "That was in the forties!"

"Really? Seems like it was only a few decades ago."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Who was it?"

"Hm?" Sasori turned to look at Sakura who was still lying back on the bed.

She pushed herself up. "Which one of you celebrated it?"

"I believe it was Itachi," Sasori said.

"Damn, how long has it been for the rest of you?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

Sasori stared at her with a blank expression. "A while."

"We gotta get you guys girlfriends. Or laid. Either one works from my experience." Sakura thought back to high school. Specifically Ino. Sakura wasn't the only one who had pined for Sasuke. Ino had many ways to satisfy herself when Sasuke turned her away.

"I didn't know you had any experience," Sasori taunted.

Sakura felt a blush rising on her neck and shook her head quickly. "That's not what I meant! Ino's the one with the 'experience'. I've never even celebrated this stupid holiday."

"You?" Sasori gave her an incredulous stare.

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Were your boyfriends stupid?" Sasori chuckled.

Sakura returned the laugh and kept shaking her head. "No, because they never existed."

Sasori stopped laughing immediately and gave her a skeptical look. "Really?"

"Yup," she nodded. "In the human world it's a bit obvious why I didn't date."

Sasori nodded in agreement. "True." How could Sakura not have had a boyfriend? Obviously in the human world the risks of dating there were deadly, but what about in their world? She must have never been interested in dating. Or maybe she never liked anyone? It certainly wasn't because she was unattractive or had a bad personality. Sasori needed to know why or it was going to keep bugging him. "So why not when you went to school here?"

"Well," she smiled but her eyes were somber. "I liked this one guy through most of middle school and all of high school. He didn't like me back. That's pretty much it."

Her voice held a tone of finality at the end that told Sasori there wasn't anything else he'd get out of her. Not today at least. He didn't know what to say now, though. Feelings were never his strong point. A couple moments passed in awkward silence before he broke it with, "That's shitty."

Sakura snickered. Something about the way he said that tickled her. She kept laughing for a good five minutes. She tried to stop but every time she looked up at Sasori she began laughing anew. The way he was looking at her like she was crazy kept making her sputter out another myriad of giggles. Eventually she was doubled over on the bed and leaning against Sasori so she wouldn't fall over on the floor.

"Are you okay?" Sasori asked her while she gasped for air.

"S-Stop l-l-looking at m-me-he-he-he!" Sakura tried to say through her giggles. She tried to take deep breaths but ended up sounding like a suffocating whale.

"What's going on in here?" Itachi's voice came from the doorway.

Sakura looked up to see Itachi giving her the same confused expression Sasori had and started laughing harder. She ended up locking herself in their bathroom for two reasons. One was that she'd never stop laughing with them giving her those confused looked. The second and probably most important was that if she didn't stop laughing soon she was going to piss herself. She sat on the side of the tub and tried to take deep breaths. Once calm she leaned so her back was against the shower wall.

"I haven't laughed like that in years," she mused to herself. She hadn't been around anyone she considered a friend since high school. It was hard to have a good time when you knew the slightest slip up could mean, well, death.

It was nice to laugh, though. She got up and stretched out her abdomen. It still felt like it was on fire.

She left the bathroom and went to the kitchen window to sit down. There were around seven plates with different pancakes piled up. The mixture of different smells was odd but still pleasant since pancakes always smell superb.

"What are all of these, Tobi?" Sakura asked.

Tobi had been facing the stove so he turned his head to look at her. "Special pancakes! They're all different flavors."

"Are those red velvet?" Sakura pointed to a stack of red pancakes that were in the shapes of hearts.

Tobi nodded. "Yes! We also have pumpkin, mint chocolate chip, cinnamon roll, cookie dough, and blueberry."

"I smelled oranges earlier, did you make orange pancakes?" She asked hesitantly.

Tobi shook his head. "No not just orange. They also have pineapple and mangoes."

"Then finish up your stack you have there and eat with me," she said while pulling a plate of fruity pancakes to her. All that laughing worked up her appetite again.

While Tobi was finishing up Itachi came over and sat on her right. "What was all of that in Sasori's room?" He asked.

"Sasori just said something funny is all," she said around her mouthful of pancakes. "These are great."

"I really didn't," Sasori called from the living room couch.

"Well I found it funny," Sakura replied.

Once Tobi finished up his batch of pancakes he sat down with Sakura and Itachi so they could enjoy the first round. In twenty minutes they were ready for the next set. Kisame had joined them when the aroma had become enticing enough to lure him out of the bedroom. Suffice to say they needed a lot more this go around.

By evening Deidara and Hidan had joined them. Sakura was laying on the couch unable to move while the two of them cooked up some more stacks with Kisame in the kitchen. Sakura couldn't believe she'd eaten so much. Two dozen pancakes had to be moving through her system right now. Even though the flavors were different Tobi knew what he was doing. Each kind was delicious. Though maybe that last stack of mint chocolate chip wasn't the best idea.

"I think pancakes and I are gonna take a break for a few months," Sakura groaned from the floor.

"Aww," Tobi groaned from the loveseat. "But I still had some good ideas for this week!"

Sakura shook her head. "Nope. Can't do it. Like I told Sasori, just get me a huge chocolate heart for Valentine's Day and we'll call it even, kay?"

Tobi attempted getting off the couch but failed. He waved his arm in acknowledgment instead. "Hn, got it."

"I didn't know someone your size could eat that much," Sasori remarked from the couch.

Sakura raised her head to look up at him. "Naruto trained me well."

"You're not really one to talk, Sasori." Itachi smirked from the other side of the couch. "I lost count of how many you had."

Sasori rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Oh man," Sakura groaned. "How did you all do it? I swear you guys ate twice as much as me."

"I feel like you should have some sort of spell to help yourself right now," Sasori chuckled.

"Can't get up," Sakura groaned pathetically. "Too full. Can't move." She wasn't entirely lying. Her stomach had grown a few centimeters today that was for sure. The others all seemed fine, though. She supposed that's what happens when you have super human everything. She had to wait another fifteen minutes until she could get up on the loveseat next to Tobi. Once she settled the three chefs came over to enjoy the last of the pancakes. Turns out they weren't going to have leftovers after all.

Sakura eyed the stacks with caution. They had to be at least a foot tall each. Deidara plopped down on her other side and nearly splattered her with his stack.

"If you spill any of that on these couches, you're paying for them," Itachi remarked.

"Fuck you," Hidan said while shoveling pancakes into his mouth on the other loveseat.

"If you have a problem with that, I can always call Kakuzu to come settle it." Itachi smirked.

Hidan paused and glared at Itachi. "Fine, fine."

"Who's Kakuzu?" Sakura asked. "You mentioned him last night, Deidara."

"He's this asshole who's obsessed with money," Hidan said. "He's a fucking heathen. Everything he does is for money. If he's getting paid he'll do whatever you want."

Sasori rolled his eyes. "He's our accountant."

"Works for me," Sakura shrugged. She picked up the remote and switched on the TV searching through the channels.

"Accountant or not, he's still an ass," Hidan said.

"Kinda, yeah," Kisame agreed. "But, Pein and Madara think he's a good worker so what can we do."

By the time all the pancakes were finally – fucking finally – gone, the sun was setting. Sakura had been searching through their basic cable package for forever now and couldn't find anything. Everything was either news or infomercials.

"You guys aren't ones for TV I'm guessing?" She asked.

"Sakura, we all literally grew up without electricity," Kisame said.

"So, what, you guys don't partake in TV or anything?" She asked.

"Not really," Deidara said.

"What's the point? It's all stupid little 'reality shows' about people doing stupid challenges for cash or whatever," Hidan said.

"Plus there's that one weird show about a…honey badger?" Sasori shook his head and sighed.

"Sasori, I think you mean Honey Boo Boo," Tobi said.

"Whatever," Sasori rolled his yes. "It's all stupid in the end."

"There's more than reality shows and Honey Boo Boo," Sakura huffed. "There's movies, dramas, documentaries, and a lot of other stuff. You guys are old, sure, but did you live under rocks?"

All of them were silent for a minute looking around awkwardly.

"Sort of, yeah," Itachi said. "Until recently we lived in seclusion."

"Yeah these assholes were the only interaction any of us ever got. At least until a few decades ago," Deidara said.

"I think I saw a movie in the seventies or something," Kisame mused. "Something with 'Star' in the name?"

Sakura looked at Kisame and tried not to laugh. "Do you mean Star Wars?"

"Yeah," Kisame nodded. "I think that was it."

"Well… That's a good start," she said.

"Movies are strange," Itachi said. "You watch some story for an hour or two and don't gain anything from it."

"You're joking right? It's the same concept as a play, except with a movie you can watch it over and over again whenever you want," Sakura stated.

"Every movie preview I've ever seen makes them all look the same," Sasori said.

"Yeah," Hidan chimed in. "It's either something with guns, something with demons, something for kids, or some sappy love shit, seriously."

Sakura propped her head up with her hand and sighed. "You guys are so uneducated."

"Enlighten us, then," Hidan challenged.

Sakura smiled and jumped up. "Glad you asked!" She skipped away to her bedroom where she grabbed her laptop and a cable for the TV. Skipping back to the living room, she sat down again between Deidara and Tobi while she looked through her video files. After getting so many DVDs Sakura realized she should just put the actual movies onto her computer for convenience. Best decision she ever made.

She held up the laptop and jokingly said, "Now class, this is what we call a computer. It's more or less magic."

Hidan threw a pillow at her face from across the room. "We know that much, dumbass."

Sakura threw the pillow back and giggled. "Whatever. Now, should I give you something like Star Wars or something else…?" She searched through her movies pondering. Halfway through her search she smiled. The perfect movie! She hid the results from Tobi and Deidara's prying eyes and went to hook her laptop up to the TV. She may be a bit biased with her choice, but she didn't quite care. In their opinions they did owe her after all.

"What are you putting on?" Tobi asked.

"A classic. Trust me, keep an open mind and you'll love it." She finished setting up the laptop and sat back between Tobi and Deidara. She clicked play.

"Circle of Life" blared through the speakers,

"Nants injonyama bagithi Baba

Sithi uhm ingonyama…"

While Sakura wanted to sing as loud as possible she knew letting them experience it sing-a-long free would be the best course of action. She settled for lip synching instead. And maybe mouthing along to some lines. Okay, most lines.

Scar was in the middle of turning hyenas into Nazi soldiers in "Be Prepared" when Itachi abruptly jumped out of his seat. He turned to stare at the front door. "Deidara," he said in a whisper.

Deidara didn't reply vocally. Instead he plucked the mouse out of Sakura's hand and closed the movie out completely. He was staring at the front door as well. Sakura knew better than to protest. All of them were hearing something outside that she could not. She put her hand on Deidara's arm to get his attention. When he turned his head to look at her she nodded to the front door. He put a finger over his lips and mouthed, "Tell you in a sec."

It was a good five minutes until any of them spoke. Itachi looked over to Kisame. "Call Konan."

Kisame dashed to the bedroom to place the call.

Itachi looked at Sasori and Hidan next. "Check the locks." The two of them sped off to the bedrooms. Itachi turned to Tobi and motioned for him to follow them.

Sakura knew she shouldn't make much noise but she needed to know what was going on. So, in the quietest whisper she could manage she asked, "What's happening?"

Itachi turned to her. His face was contorted in an expression of rage. "Those idiots let the werewolves out."

Sakura felt her stomach drop and her heart lurch. Her grip on Deidara's arm tightened. How was it already a full moon? She didn't say anything else while Itachi directed the boys. Hidan, Sasori, and Tobi were sent to check every inch of the house for any weaknesses that would allow the beasts in. Kisame finally came back out and looked just as pissed as Itachi.

His voice was a low whisper as well, "The damn holding cells were fucked with."

Sakura's eyes widened. She remembered Tsunade saying something about holding cells to Orochimaru when she'd bumped into them. She'd been too scared at the time to give it any thought.

"What are they doing to fix it?" Itachi asked.

"They have people out looking for them. All dorms are locked down and all houses are receiving calls to stay inside."

"How many got out?"

Kisame lowered his head and lifted a hand to rub between his eyes. "All of them."

"Shit," Itachi turned around to look at Sakura. "Do you know any spells to deter werewolves?"

Sakura mentally rifled through her spell book. "I should have something in my book."

"Kisame," Itachi said.

"Got it," Kisame headed to her bedroom. He was back in a second with the book and handed it to her.

Before she took it from him she knew it was useless. The main ingredient in any warding spell for werewolves involved wolf's bane, also known as aconite. The thing about aconite is that vampires were also weak to this plant. Because of this the aconite was kept locked up on campus. Witches were not allowed to take it from the classroom or face punishment up to expulsion.

Sakura sighed and closed the book. "We don't have the main ingredient," she whispered. That was all that needed said. There was no way anyone was going outside right now.

Tobi came back into the living room. "Everything is secure," he said. Sasori and Hidan entered not a minute after him.

"Konan will call back when she either knows more or the problem is dealt with," Kisame said.

"Then we wait," Itachi announced. "We stay in the middle here. Be quiet."

Everyone complied. They all sat down and waited in silence. Sakura brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. If all the werewolves were out then that means Naruto was also out there. Right now she was more scared for him than for her own safety. When you looked at it that wasn't too illogical. Sakura was surrounded by six experienced vampires while Naruto was outside with every other werewolf in the school. Someone was going to get hurt, she just knew it. What if Naruto is the one who gets attacked? What if he's the one who attacks someone? Werewolves lose themselves when they turn, everyone knows that. It wasn't absurd to think Naruto will end up killing someone tonight.

Sakura dug her nails into her legs to distract herself. It wouldn't do any good to think about this. Whatever will happen will happen regardless of whether she worried or not.

Still.

Naruto… She put her head down into her arms and shut her eyes tightly. They'd never punish him if he hurt someone tonight. They wouldn't punish any of them. Not if it was someone else's fault that they got out. But Naruto would never forgive himself if he hurt someone. She knew one of his close friends was also out there. Gaara was his name. What if Naruto ended up hurting him? What if he killed him? He'd never be the same.

Sakura's mind was racing and she couldn't stop it. Every time she tried to push the thoughts away new ones cropped up. What about their other friend Kiba? Or Chouji? Was Jiraiya out there too? If he was in the fray then there was even more to worry about. She couldn't bear it if Naruto tried to pick a fight with Jiraiya. He would, too. And he'd lose.

Just the thought was making her eyes sting. She wanted to help him so much. This helpless feeling made her sick. If only she just had that stupid plant. The frustration was making tears start filling behind her eyelids. It was only a matter of time before she started crying. Again. She wiped her face on her upper arm and cursed herself. Wasn't she done crying? She promised herself she was done with this.

An arm moved around behind her back pulling her towards a cold body. She looked up and saw Deidara. He gave her a wide grin.

"It'll be fine," he whispered and pulled her closer to him. He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. She smiled back at him and wiped her eyes.

She was going to reply but was cut off when a high pitched yelp resounded from outside the front door. It was followed by a thunderous growl. Sakura couldn't help it and let out her own quiet yelp at the startle. Two, or maybe more, werewolves were fighting just outside the front door to their home. She stared at the door terrified of who was out there.

Sakura made to get up but Deidara kept a tight hold of her. They couldn't risk being spotted or heard. If any of the werewolves knew there was meat in here they'd break the door right down. Sakura knew this, too. In the end it wasn't worth knowing if Naruto was out there or not.

Still, she couldn't stand hearing the inhuman sounds. Werewolves were terrifying and knowing three of them were right outside their door was hell. They had absolutely no control when they turned.

Deidara noticed her discomfort and pulled her closer to him. Her head rested on his shoulder and she shut her eyes tight while curling up against him. Without her necessary ingredients she may as well have been a human right now. Being this close to a vampire was comforting right now.

Especially Deidara, Sakura's mind offered up for her. She pushed the thought away for now. It was not the time to be thinking like that. She knew he was only trying to comfort her. It was working, too. He put a hand over her exposed ear so the fighting sounds weren't so loud. She would have focused on anything else if she could have. They had to be as quiet as possible right now. There were no other sounds to hone in on. Not even a heartbeat to fixate on. She couldn't help the quick exhale of air through her nose in a quiet giggle.

Eventually the fight died down. According to Itachi they seemed to be safe for the moment. Kisame still hadn't gotten the call from Konan. Sakura wanted to ask who that was. The name was familiar.

For now all that could be done was try to sleep. The fight had gone on for a long time. It was already 11 o'clock. Being on edge constantly was tiring Sakura out, too. Sleep sounded like a good idea, so she shifted to get comfortable against Deidara and let herself drift off. She knew it'd be a while before her bed would be a viable option.

Sakura couldn't have been asleep for more than a minute. There was no way the sun was beaming straight into her face already. She cracked an eye open to be greeted with a bright ray of sunshine going straight to her pupil.

"Augh, headshot!" She hollered while sitting up straight in her bed.

"What the hell are you screaming about now?" Deidara's voice came from beside her.

She rubbed her eyes and looked to her right. Deidara was propped up on his elbows rubbing the sleep out of his own eyes.

"What are you doing in my bed?" Sakura asked.

"Your bed? This is my bed," Deidara replied.

Sakura looked around the room to see that she was in fact in Sasori and Deidara's room. She looked back over to Deidara who was now sitting up straight next to her. "Oh," she said.

Sakura couldn't seem to get her mind to think straight. One minute she was falling asleep on the couch next to Deidara and now she was waking up in his bed. It was apparent that Deidara had dosed off as well. His hair was down and all mussed up. He also had sleep marks all down his arms and on the side of his bare chest.

He's even more attractive now, Sakura thought.

"Why are we in your bed?" Sakura asked.

"Because we didn't want to leave you alone in your room last night," Deidara said.

"Oh," Sakura shrugged. "Okay, good. Just making sure we didn't do any nefarious activities."

"Well you are lacking pants," Deidara smirked.

"What?" Sakura lifted the covers and saw that she indeed was not wearing pants. "What the fuck?!"

"Don't look at me." Deidara defended himself. "You're the one who kicked them off. When I tried to stop you I got punched."

Sakura put a hand over her mouth to hide her reflexive smile. "Oh shit, I'm sorry."

Deidara shrugged and breathed out a laugh. "It's fine."

"Why are you in the bed, though?"

Deidara laughed again. "I figured it was alright to use my own bed to watch over you."

"And," Sakura poked his chest. "Your lack of clothes?"

"It's more comfortable," Deidara remarked. "Why? Do my male nipples offend you?"

Sakura hit him with a pillow and got up to find her pants. She supposed waking up to one of her roommates half naked wasn't the worst way she could have woken up. When she found her pants she saw her phone's notification light was blinking. She turned it on and saw that she had a lot of missed calls from Sasuke. She dropped her pants and immediately called him.

He picked up on the second ring, "Sakura?"

"Sasuke! What happened? Is Naruto okay?!" Sakura asked louder than she needed to.

"He's in the infirmary along with pretty much all the other werewolves." Sasuke said and let out a quick chuckle. "He keeps asking me to call you because he knows you were probably worried sick."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm on my way!" She ended the call and pulled her pants on. "I'll be back later, I need to go check on Naruto."

"Have fun," Deidara said and laid back down on the bed smirking to himself. Sakura had a nice ass.

So sorry for the moderately late update. Yay for a bit extra long chapter? And shirtless Deidara? Eh?

I was moving this week and things are hectic and my personal life is just blah. This story is my only escape right now lol. I swear I'm still thinking about this story even if I'm not writing. I hope you guys enjoyed this one!

Hopefully the next chapter won't take too long to type up. It's gonna be a fun one, I'll tell you what...

I hope all of you liked this one! Please review and let me know what you guys thought. Reviews are beautiful and I love hearing everyone's opinion!

Until next time, see you my lovelies!