Sakura rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked up at the screaming man standing next to her. She couldn't process who it even was for a moment. His identity became clear when he began raving and ranting about her being in "his" bed. Frustrated Sakura shoved the pillow over her head to block out his voice. It worked for all of two seconds before he ripped it from her grip.

"I let you take my room, but there's no fucking way you're getting my damn bed!" He continued. "Seriously I need something that's still mine. I'm not gonna go spoon Tobi. Go get in his damn bed!"

"Hiiidaaan…" Sakura whined and covered her head with the sheets. "You're a vampire. You don't even sleep."

"No but I do sit, now get up." Hidan grabbed the sheets and pulled them down. Sakura winced at the loss of warmth. "It's noon for fuck's sake. You can't sleep all damn day."

"Already?" Sakura sat up and ran a hand through her tangled hair. "Damn I was hoping I could get a bit more sleep."

"Then get in Tobi's bed."

Sakura stood up and shook her head. "With you in here? No way." She stretched her arms up and made an obnoxiously loud groan.

Hidan rolled his eyes. "You've literally slept next to me. I'm not gonna do anything, seriously."

"That's not what I meant," Sakura snapped at him. "It's weird sleeping when someone else is in the room."

"Then why did you sleep in the living room earlier?" Hidan asked.

"Exhaustion, for one," Sakura said and then yawned. As much as she wanted to go back to sleep she knew it was time to wake up. "Is the water back on yet?"

"They just fixed it like five minutes ago," Hidan nodded in the direction of her bedroom.

"Sweet," she went to her room and grabbed some clothes out of the laundry basket and brought them into the bathroom to change into after nice hot shower. Her hair was still slightly damp from her rude awakening at dawn so she was still pretty cold.

Sakura started up the water and while that heated up she undressed and then set up her phone to play some music. Warm bliss accompanied by happy music sounded like heaven right now. On top of the pipe incident she was also stressed out about her classes. Sure she was doing fantastic with her magic but her anatomy classes were starting to weigh on her. She kept mixing up werewolf and vampire parts and pieces. Most nights she had her nose stuck in a textbook trying to learn the difference between werewolf and vampire immortality. The basic idea is easy to grasp but the little details are where she always has trouble.

Sakura shook her head and got in under the warm water. It was Saturday and all her homework for the weekend was done. She didn't need to think about school right now. She was prepared for all tests that have been announced and completed all projects that needed done. This weekend was going to be nothing but relaxation and chill.

As she let herself soak her phone continued to play on shuffle. Sakura made sure this set of shower songs were upbeat and fast. Sure it probably wasn't the best idea to dance in the shower but that didn't stop her. The idea of her roommates on the other side of near paper-thin walls also didn't deter her from singing at the top of her lungs. It was the perfect way to perk up in the morning when coffee wasn't available. Her favorite songs were actually ones her mortal friends introduced her to. They were all so much different from the music in her own world. Some she'd say were actually better. They had more of a fun, cut-loose vibe to them than ones here. Most of the music in her world was stuck in past centuries. Suffice to say she felt like a bit of a rebel listening to some of this music.

"I'm talkin' bout everybody getting crunk, crunk. Boys tryna touch my junk, junk. Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk," Sakura sang as she squeezed conditioner on her hands to lather into her hair. As she ran her fingers through her hair she swayed her hips to the beat.

"Now, now we gon' 'til they kick us out, out. Or the police shut us down, down. Police shut us down, down. Po-po shut us – What the fuck?!" Sakura screamed when she heard one of the bathroom doors slam open.

"Don't stop, make it pop," she heard a male voice continue the lyric while they walked across the bathroom to the toilet. "DJ, blow my speakers up. Tonight, Imma fight, 'til we see the sunlight."

"Hidan!" Sakura screamed and instinctively covered her chest even though she knew there was no way he would have been able to see her. "What the literal fuck are you doing?" She screeched in a high pitched voice.

"Taking a fucking piss," he answered. "I haven't been able to since you broke the water."

"Then why didn't you go before I got in the shower?" Sakura asked, frustrated.

"Didn't have to."

"There's another fucking bathroom!" She hollered.

"It's in fucking use," Hidan retorted, getting frustrated as well. "Fucking shit chill out, seriously."

"I most certainly will fucking not!" Sakura replied. She wondered if she should risk a peek out to give him a death glare to emphasize her point. When she heard liquid hitting liquid outside of the shower she decided that, no, she didn't need to risk that. "HIDAN!" She screamed again.

Before he could reply to complain about his now blown out ear drum the other door slammed open and she heard a couple voices coming from it.

"Hidan what the fuck are you doing in here?"

"Put your fucking dick away, hm!"

"Sakura are you alright?"

Sakura rubbed her temples. All she wanted was a nice relaxing shower with fun music. Oh right, the music. She reached her arm out from behind the curtain to shut her phone off so the room wasn't being blasted with party music.

"I'm fine, but why does everyone insist on being in here while I'm showering?" Sakura said. At this point she may as well continue. So, while the boys argued mere feet away Sakura grabbed her body puff and soap and started to wash her ripe armpits.

"Can't a guy fucking piss in peace?" Hidan asked.

"Not when someone is taking a shower in that bathroom," Kisame's voice said.

"We do it all the fucking time," Hidan defended.

"Yeah when the other person also has a dick, hm," Deidara said in an exasperated tone. Sakura could imagine the eye roll that earned him from Hidan.

"Come on," Kisame said and Sakura heard his footsteps go in the direction of Hidan.

"Fuck you I'm not done," Hidan said.

"Yeah, you are," Kisame said in a tone of finality.

"Get off of me!" Hidan called out.

"I will when you get out of the damn bathroom," Kisame said sounding strained. Sakura could hear heavy footfalls and grunting. After rinsing off the suds she decided to peek around the curtain to see just what was going on.

Kisame had his arms wrapped around Hidan's torso, pinning his arms down. They were facing away from her as Kisame attempted to push Hidan out of the bathroom. Deidara was standing to the side out of Kisame's way.

Just as Kisame got to the entryway Hidan kicked his legs up so his feet were against the doorframe. He pushed back as hard as he could to catch Kisame off balance. It worked and Kisame stumbled backwards towards the shower and Sakura. Thankfully she was standing to the side and had the sense about her to pull the shower curtain close to her body.

Kisame crashed backwards into the tub and caused the pole holding up the shower curtain to fall down. The curtain was half stuck under Kisame and half covering up Sakura. Hidan had managed to escape just in time and had already made his way back to the toilet.

Sakura stared dumbfounded in Hidan's direction. He couldn't seriously think that was still a good idea?

Zip!

He did. He thought he could still get away with this incredibly ludicrous and shortsighted act. Well, he'd just have to learn the hard way not to fuck with Sakura Haruno's relaxation time.

"Hidan, you pull that dick out and I swear to God I will rip it off," Sakura said in as even a tone as she could manage.

"I'd like to see you try," Hidan turned his head to smirk at her.

The courts will see that the victim antagonized the defendant and clearly invited her to act in any fashion she saw fit.

Sakura yanked a good bit of the shower curtain out from under Kisame before it ripped. In one swift movement she got the curtain off the pole and wrapped around her body. She focused her magic into her fists and then ran full force at Hidan. Not expecting her to take the offensive so quickly he was caught off guard but still managed to move out of the way of her fist before it made contact with his face. Expecting him to dodge Sakura turned on the ball of her foot and let her other fist swing around. Hidan was quick but Sakura managed to clip his chin before he was totally out of range.

"Shit!" Hidan hollered and held his face. "What the fuck?!"

Sakura was too busy holding her almost-broken hand to hear him. "Fuck! Is your face made of diamonds?!"

Kisame came over quickly to look at Sakura's hand while Deidara laughed his lungs out behind them.

"She fucking decked you! Oh my god I wish I had recorded that, hm," Deidara hollered.

"Shut up you idiot," Kisame called back to Deidara then took Sakura's hand in his own to look at it. "Does it hurt when you move it?"

Sakura hesitantly opened and closed her hand then shook her head. "No, it's just a steady dull bunch of ow."

"Did you keep your thumb on the outside of your fist?" Kisame asked.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah."

"You should be okay then," Kisame assured.

"Can I rinse my hair now?" Sakura asked and pulled the shower curtain closer around her body.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Kisame got up and grabbed Hidan's arm. "Come on, dumbass." He looked over to Deidara. "You too."

Deidara stood up and took a deep breath. "Right, coming." He shut the door behind him leaving Sakura in the now peaceful bathroom.

"Idiots," Sakura muttered then threw the shower curtain aside and pulled the pole out of the tub. Everything was put in a corner and she finished her shower without incident.

"I suppose I should thank Kisame," Sakura said to herself while blow drying her hair. Sure he was unsuccessful getting Hidan out of here but he still tried. And he didn't try looking down her makeshift dress unlike a certain artist. She'd be sure to let Deidara know he wasn't as slick as he thought.

Sakura vaguely wondered how Hidan's chin was doing. Her own hand was still throbbing but the feeling was dulling minutely over time. With her current understanding of vampiric healing abilities she wouldn't feel bad even if she'd broken his jaw. As far as she could tell an injury like that would heal by the end of the day. Though if she'd caused that much damage she wouldn't have walked away with her hand intact.

It would've been worth it.

Once fully dry and ready for the day Sakura headed straight for the kitchen. All this commotion had made her hungry. On her way there she passed by Sasori. He held up his hand for a quick high-five which she gladly granted him.

"What was that for?" She asked.

"Hidan needed a good punch," Sasori said and walked off to sit on the couch.

"Makes sense," Sakura said then made her way into the kitchen. While she rifled through the fridge for anything that wasn't red she heard footsteps walking towards her.

Sakura looked to her left out of the corner of her eye. Kisame and Deidara looked down at her crouching form.

"Sup," Sakura nodded up to them.

Deidara was covering his mouth trying to hide giggles of pure glee. Kisame elbowed him in the side, "Shut it would you? It's not that funny."

"It's the best thing that's happened all semester," Deidara said.

"What?" Sakura stood up.

"You put Hidan in the fucking hospital, hm," Deidara began laughing again.

"I – what?" Sakura was genuinely surprised. She hadn't hit him that hard, had she?

Kisame elbowed Deidara again. "It's not as bad as it sounds. The nurse said he'll be fine by tomorrow."

"Did I break his fucking jaw or something?" Sakura asked and closed the refrigerator door.

"Nothing like that," Kisame shook his head. "You just gave him a hell of a bruise."

"He almost looks like Zetsu," Deidara pointed out.

"Damn, Sakura," Sasori's voice came from the couch.

Even though the boys were all taking this lightly Sakura couldn't help the feeling that she'd fucked up in a huge way. It was not possible that Hidan wouldn't get her back for this. And she was sleeping in his room now.

Sakura grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself. Hidan was going to be so pissed. She was going to die tonight. Better go get her affairs in order. Say goodbye to her friends and family. She was a goner.

"Hey, are you okay?" Deidara stepped forward and put his hand on Sakura's.

"He's going to fucking kill me," Sakura muttered. Flashbacks of that weird ritual in the Uchiha mansion flooded her mind. "My blood's gonna be the stuff covering that whacked out body paint now. He's gonna put my head on a spike or something."

Deidara moved his hand up to rest on her shoulder. "Sakura, Hidan's not going to kill you."

Sakura looked up at him wide-eyed. "Are you sure?"

"Trust me," he made a face of disgust. "Killing you is definitely not on his agenda."

Sakura knit her brows together and tilted her head to the side. "Then…what's with the face?"

Deidara forced a smile and patted her shoulder. "You don't want to know."

Sakura did in fact want to know. Unfortunately Kisame cut her off before her interrogation could start, "Look we want to apologize for everything that happened. Let us make it up to you somehow."

Sakura looked between the two boys not really sure what to say. How exactly do you make up for an incident like that? It's not like she could give anyone a taste of their own medicine and there wasn't anything to replace or compensate for. Well except for her hand and mental scaring. Sakura wasn't 100% sure, but for a moment she thought her virgin eyes had been defiled. Normally in court something like that is paid off. She laughed despite herself. Yeah, that's how they'd make it up to her. Pay her off.

"What's so funny?" Deidara asked.

Sakura waved her hand. "Oh, nothing. I just deserve some sort of compensation for this mentally scaring incident," she said in a sarcastic voice. "I mean how else am I supposed to push it out of my mind except with material objects?"

"Alright," Kisame leaned back against the counter and shrugged. "That works."

Sakura turned to him and then looked around, confused. "Uh. I was just joking."

"Yeah but I'm not. Look if you want we'd be happy to take you to get a TV or something," Kisame said.

"Okay a TV's a bit much," Sakura said.

"Then a hair dryer," Kisame offered up.

"I already have one?" Sakura joked. "Look it's okay. Hidan got punched in the face, that's all I needed."

"Oh come on Sakura. It would be fun, hm," Deidara said.

"You two wanna go shopping with a girl?" Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Is there something terrible about that?" Deidara asked genuinely unaware of how modern females normally shop.

"It's just… Most guys would rather jump off of a cliff than go shopping with a girl. Even if they're married." Sakura explained.

"They must not like their wives then," Kisame said.

"Yeah, come on, you need a day out, hm. You've been in your room studying nonstop. I haven't seen you leave except for school and that one day you went out with Ino," Deidara said.

"Exactly, I already went out with Ino. She bought me some stuff. It's okay," Sakura assured. Being doted on by your best friend is one thing but these two? No way.

"Sakura," Sasori's voice came from the living room again. "You need to get out of the house."

"You know what?" Sakura crossed her arms. "Make me. If you guys are so desperate to make me get out then – Hey!"

Kisame picked the girl up and hoisted her over his shoulder. "You heard her. Sasori, get the keys. Your car's the only one out there."

Sakura rested her elbow against Kisame's shoulder blade and placed her head in her hand. "Is this necessary?"

"Yes," Kisame said.

"But I'm still hungry," Sakura complained.

"We'll get something at the food court," Sasori said as he walked past them with keys in hand.

"Food court?" Sakura asked. "Where the hell are we going?"

"The mall, of course," Sasori said.

Sakura started squirming in Kisame's hold. "I thought you guys would just take me to Walmart and buy me a mug! We're not going to the mall!"

"I do believe we are," Deidara said from behind Kisame. Sakura glared at him. He flashed her a smirk as they walked out of the house.

"So why am I the one driving?" Sasori asked and unlocked the car.

"Because Itachi and Tobi took their car to go to some family shindig or whatever," Deidara explained.

"And what about yours?"

"Shit's broke," Deidara said.

"Is it still your brakes?" Kisame asked and opened the backseat door. He placed Sakura down on the ground and gestured for her to get in. Knowing she'd never make it to the house before him she complied. Kisame went around and started to get in on the other side but stopped. "I'm not fitting back here."

Deidara got out from the passenger seat. "Here, I'll sit back there."

"Thanks," Kisame got in the front passenger seat. Because of his gigantism the seat had to be as far away from the dashboard as possible. This left no leg room for Deidara so he had to sit in the middle seat in the back right next to Sakura.

"Hope you don't mind," Deidara said.

"Nope," Sakura replied trying not to get flustered. If she let her mind wander this ride would be very uncomfortable – for her at least.

Deidara looked forward again, "And, yeah, Kisame it's still the brakes. The damn thing won't stop like it's supposed to."

"Get it towed," Kisame said.

"One day," Deidara said.

"It's almost been half a year," Sasori said. "That thing's gonna need more than brakes when you finally get it up to the mechanic."

"Meh," Deidara shrugged.

It wasn't long until they were pulling into a parking lot at the mall. Sakura had come up with a fool proof plan on the way here to deal with the boys. If they wanted to buy her things then she'd simply not say she wanted anything. They'd window shop and look at clothes and shoes and she'd take forever trying things on only to discard everything and move on to the next store. It wouldn't be long until they were looking for any excuse to go back home.

As they walked through the entrance Sakura was greeted with the delicious aromas coming from the food court. Her plan could wait until her stomach was full. Without notice she veered off and made a b-line for Chinese food place. As she looked through the menu she reached down instinctively to check how much money she had on her. When her hand found no purse hanging off of her body or a wallet in her pocket she groaned.

"Forget something?" Kisame asked from behind her.

Sakura turned around. "You did that on purpose."

Kisame pointed to himself. "Me? Do what? Make sure we'll have to pay? Nonsense." Sakura pouted but Kisame simply laughed and nodded up to the menu. "What do you want?"

Sakura crossed her arms fully prepared to go on a hunger strike. However her mind and her stomach were on two different wavelengths. Not even a minute passed when Sakura walked forward to get in line for her food. "Idiots," she mumbled.

"Heard that," Sasori said.

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him. "Shouldn't you guys get some food too? Or blood or whatever?"

"We did this magical thing called eating lunch at home," Deidara said. "You should try it sometime."

"That sounds fantastic," Sakura drawled out. "If only I hadn't been dragged from the kitchen."

Kisame looked at her like she was crazy. "I have no idea what you're insinuating."

Sakura pretended the three of them weren't there as she ordered her food. Once she was handed her food she walked off and let one of them pay for the order. When they all settled down at a table Kisame and Sasori continued to nag Deidara about his screwed up car. That coupled with her hunger made Sakura eat as quickly as she could without choking. When her plate was cleared she dumped it into the garbage and headed off in whatever direction tickled her fancy. Her plan to act as obnoxious as possible whilst shopping was still in play. She walked into the first clothing shop she saw and was glad to see it was a reasonable size.

Sakura looked back at her groupies and smiled sweetly. "This might take a while."

"We have all day," Kisame replied with an equally sweet grin.

"Whatever you say," Sakura sang. Slowly she made her way through the selections pretending to weigh her options. Halfway through she realized the items in this store were actually really cute. Why hadn't Ino and her come through this store? The jeans alone were to die for. Nonchalantly Sakura glanced down at her first price tag of the day. She was just curious, of course. Definitely wasn't considering a new pair of jeans. No way.

When she saw that the pair was $50 Sakura dropped the price tag as if it burned her. No way. If she was going to let herself slip and treat herself it was going to be with something under $15. The only spot she'd find something of that price would be the clearance rack. She made her way over to the small selection. Sometimes she'd find a gem in here but more often than not the clearance rack had atrocities that should never have seen a sewing machine. Sakura made a face at the rack, cursing other girls for buying up all the good things from the previous line of clothes. When she finally found something that spoke to her it was two sizes too small. Sakura only had to hold the shorts up to her waist to know that her thighs would never fit into the small holes. Upset, she put the hanger back on the rack.

"Why are you looking at this stuff?" Deidara asked leaning against the rack.

Sakura crossed her arms. "Because."

Deidara gestured with his hand to continue. "Because? Are you seriously going to look at the reject clothing when you have a free pass to get whatever you want, hm?"

Sakura nodded. "If you all want to buy me things, fine. But it's not going to be a pair of jeans that's fifty freakin' bucks."

Deidara smirked. "Oh so that's your plan? Well then…" He looked around the store until his eyes fell on a particular section. "You keep looking around here," he told Sakura. "I'll be back in a sec."

Sakura didn't try to protest. She knew he'd be across the store before she could. "What's with them…?" Frankly she couldn't figure out why in the world they were all going to such lengths to treat her like this. Sure this morning wasn't the best she's ever had but did that really mean she deserved hundreds of dollars' worth of stuff? She didn't think so. "Why are you guys so determined to buy me off?" She asked Kisame who was trying to figure out why the hell a pair of jeans was full of holes.

"You deserve nice shit," Kisame said looking up from the article of clothing. "And to be honest this is the best idea any of us had. I had no clue how to let you know we were sorry for what happened."

"Say sorry?" Sakura suggested.

"Shut up, you know what I mean," Kisame said.

"Okay but why are you guys so okay with spending a crap ton of money? I mean you could have easily bought me a mug or whatever and that would have done the trick," Sakura said.

"Well, we have a "crap ton" of money lying around collecting dust in our bank accounts. It's been sitting there for decades."

"Then buy yourself stuff?" Sakura suggested, confused. Why would they ever want to spend all that money on her instead of themselves?

"Sakura," Sasori cut in. "I'm over three centuries old. Do you honestly think I haven't bought myself everything I've ever wanted at least once in my life?"

"Okay but this is also the 21st century," Sakura said. "Go get a laptop or an iPod or whatever. Get Deidara a new car for Pete's sake!"

"He'd just break it again," Sasori said.

Kisame walked forward and put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "We're fine with buying you this stuff. We have plenty of money. The organization pays for our schooling. Act like a normal person and be selfish for a day."

Sakura chewed the inside of her cheek while she thought about what they were saying. Part of her wanted oh so badly to throw sensibility to the wind and go insane with their money. That part of her wanted to go to the most expensive shops in this mall and buy herself the things she's always longed for – clothing or otherwise. She wanted to, but the part of her that learned to never take friends for granted was screaming at her to not let them shower her with material objects.

Then again why was she so against them wanting to do this stuff? Obviously they really were fine with it or else they wouldn't have dragged her out here. They wouldn't have continued to tell her over and over again that it was fine. They wouldn't be trying to convince her over and over. Deidara wouldn't be off buying her who-knows-what at who-knows-what-price. On top of all that they did seem to have a larger-than-normal amount of money stashed away…

Before she could finish her contemplation Deidara came back with a small bag and handed it to her. "Here."

Sakura took it hesitantly and looked inside. There was a small square velvet box. She took it out of the bag and looked up at Deidara confused. "Uh…?"

"Open it dummy," Deidara said.

Sakura opened up the little box to see a ring with a metal backing and a colorful band. "Deidara?" She looked up at him confused. Why the hell was he giving her a ring?

"Sasori was telling me about those flame shoes you wanted. I figured your taste was a bit more…eccentric than normal, hm," Deidara explained.

Sakura took the ring out of the box and examined it. The colorful band was swirling and slowly going from one color to another. There was only one kind of ring that made those particular patterns. She put the ring on her right hand and watched as it went from multi-colored to a deep purple and smiled. When she was younger Sakura had wanted this silly little trinket but her parents didn't think it was worth spending money on. Her mother had said, "You know how you feel. You don't need a ring to tell you."

Still smiling, Sakura jumped forward to give Deidara a bear hug. "Thank you! It's awesome!"

He laughed and hugged her back. "You're welcome." Sakura missed the look Deidara gave Kisame and Sasori.

Kisame crossed his arms and glared down at Deidara. "Well if that's the kinda stuff you're interested in I know the perfect shop for you."

Sakura turned back to Kisame. "Yeah? Where?"

Kisame grinned. "Follow me." The four of them walked out of the shop and down the long stretch of mall until they reached an escalator. Up on the second floor there was a little shop nestled in between a large men's wear store and a salon. From the outside it didn't look like much but once Sakura started looking at the individual items inside she couldn't stop her excitement from boiling over.

Since most shops in this mall had stores that were found in the human world they didn't have magical items for sale. This shop was nothing but magical knick knacks and baubles. It took Sakura an hour to look at each item and figure out what it did. It took her another half hour to figure out what items she wanted since she'd already forgotten half of what she'd looked at. Whenever she found an interesting item it was pushed out of her mind by the next amazing piece of magic.

By the end of her excursion to this shop she had armfuls of bags. Sensibilities be damned, she needed a shirt that had whales and turtles literally swimming on it.

"Think you have enough?" Sasori joked while watching Sakura try to walk out of the store with her bags.

"I dunno, man, you may need to bring me back here," she said. "I mean they have stuff I never thought would exist. A book full of spells that will cook for me? The ocean shirt? This shop is the tits."

"You need any help there?" Kisame asked.

Sakura shook her head. "No, and anyways you have enough yourself." She nodded to the bags adorning Kisame's arms. She hadn't been the only one to treat themselves. "But we should get this stuff into the car."

"You know we're not done here, though," Deidara said.

"Seriously?" Sakura asked. "How much more money did you all want to burn?"

"We haven't even scratched the surface," Sasori said.

"Besides it'll be funny when Kakuzu sees all the shit we've bought, hm," Deidara said.

Kisame laughed. "I didn't think of that. It'll be great."

Deidara lowered his voice to mimic what Sakura assumed was Kakuzu's voice, "Why are you buying frivolous things when you could be saving?!"

Kisame lowered his voice as well, "You spent less than 1% of your money! What the hell are you thinking?! You'll be broke in no time, dumbass!"

"Just tell him Hidan did it," Sasori said.

"We don't need to go on a Hidan-scavenger hunt again, hm," Deidara said in his normal voice.

"Remember last time?" Sasori recalled. "He put Hidan's ass on his head."

Sakura's eyes widened and she made a face of horror. "Did he break his fucking back?!"

"What?" Sasori looked over to Sakura. "Oh, no…" He trailed off and rubbed the back of his head. "He… Ah… You probably don't want to know, honestly."

Sakura nodded. "You know what, I agree."

Once the bags were all stowed away in the trunk they headed back inside. On the way Sakura heard what had to be a wolverine growl in Kisame's stomach. She looked at him and laughed. "Hungry or something?"

"I could eat," Kisame grinned.

"I thought you guys were all knowing and ate before we got here," Sakura teased.

"Another magical thing happens called digestion," Sasori teased back. "Let's stop real quick to get something."

"You guys can do that, hm," Deidara said. "I need to go get some supplies."

"What kind of supplies?" Sasori asked skeptically.

"Just art stuff," Deidara defended himself. "I swear," he said when Sasori gave him a look that clearly said he wasn't convinced.

"I'll watch him," Sakura offered. "Make sure he doesn't buy C4 or something."

"Sounds like a plan," Kisame said distracted. He headed straight to the blood concession stand. Sasori followed right behind him, giving Deidara one last warning look.

Deidara and Sakura headed off to the art shop and Sakura asked Deidara if she should be worried about him blowing up the house.

"Of course not," he reassured her as they entered the shop. "I never blow up the place where I live, hm."

"Just where your friends live," Sakura pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Deidara asked.

"The Uchiha mansion," Sakura reminded him. "When you blew up the bathroom wall? When I was peeing?"

Deidara covered his mouth, laughing. "Oh shit, that was you?"

"Do you know any other girls with pink hair?" Sakura asked.

Deidara pulled his hand down to his chin in thought. "Well there was this one smoking hot chick…" He said jokingly. "Had green eyes and shit too, hm."

"Must be my twin," Sakura joked in return.

"That would explain the smoking hot adjective. Oh hey, just what I was looking for," Deidara trailed off and headed over to a display of paints near the back of the store.

Sakura followed after him, trying to keep a cool head. Had he just called her hot? No way. It was obviously just for the sake of humor. Guys didn't find her hot. It just didn't happen. Especially not ones as hot as Deidara. Shaking her head she brought herself back into the moment. "What are you making?"

Deidara shrugged. "Dunno yet."

"Then how do you know that's just what you needed?" Sakura asked.

"Just do," Deidara said. "It's an artist thing. You wouldn't understand."

"Oh I see, you're a deep and enigmatic soul," Sakura teased. "I could never possibly understand the inner workings of such a sophisticated intellectual."

Deidara whacked her arm gently, "Oh shut it."

Sakura whacked him back, a hair more forcefully, "Make me."

Deidara looked down at her and grinned, pushing her shoulder lightly, "Don't test me."

Sakura smirked up at him and pushed him back. "Do you really want to tango with me after seeing what I did to Hidan?"

"He wasn't prepared," Deidara said.

"And you are?" Sakura questioned.

"Of course I – "

Sakura didn't let him finish. Catching him off guard she was able to get his arm behind his back and hold it there for a fraction of a second. Deidara easily wormed his arm out of her grip and pinned her arms to her side while pushing her back up against the wall.

Pouting, Sakura conceded, "Alright you win that one. I'll get you one day, though."

"You sure about that?" Deidara questioned.

Sakura nodded. "Of course. By the end of the semester I'll know everything about your body and your weak spots." She regretted the words the second they left her lips.

Deidara smirked and loosened his hold on her arms. Slowly he brought his right hand up to rest against the wall right next to her head. "If you need any help with that, don't be shy, hm."

Sakura screwed her face into what she hoped looked pissed and fearsome. It would have worked had the blush not been dusting her cheeks. "You know what I meant."

"I know what you thought you meant," Deidara said.

"Huh?" Sakura tilted her head to the side.

"You thought you meant it a certain way but be honest with yourself," he leaned in closer and Sakura could feel his breath fan across her mouth and chin. "You wouldn't have worded it like that if you hadn't been thinking about something else, hm."

Sakura swallowed hard trying to focus on anything that wasn't the chill of his skin touching hers. "S-So what?" She mentally slapped herself for stuttering. "You started it with the comments about physical appearance."

"It was true," Deidara said in a low tone. He was so close and even though his being was enveloping her in an ice cold aura she felt like she was burning up. The intimacy of their positions was doing strange things to her stomach. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest.

"I could say the same thing about you," she replied in a soft voice, her previous thoughts bubbling up to the surface in the form of eloquent word vomit.

For a fraction of a second Sakura thought she had said too much. Deidara didn't back off or continue. All he did was look at her, puzzled. His eyes darted across her face, trying to read her. Once gathering whatever information he was looking for he smiled slightly. Slowly his right hand moved from the wall to her shoulder, then her neck, and then moving down her jawline until his thumb ghosted across her lower lip. Sakura looked down shyly. His stare set her on fire and she didn't think she could take much more.

Deidara put his fingers under her chin to pull her head back up to look at him, his other hand trailing down her arm to rest finally at her waist. His hold on her chin was firm but not so much that she couldn't turn away if she wanted to.

She didn't.

Deidara moved his hand back behind her head and tangled his fingers into her hair. He moved his head forward a slow pace. Sakura let her eyes slide shut.

When his lips finally met hers it was for only a moment. A light brush making sure that this was okay. When Sakura didn't turn her head or push him away Deidara kissed her again. This time pulling her waist closer to his body and letting himself kiss her fully. Sakura brought her arms up to wrap around his neck pulling him more into the kiss.

Sakura was rusty but Deidara was patient, helping her along and taking it slow. It didn't matter to her, though. The feel of his kiss and his hands was already driving her mad. She wasn't sure if it had just been that long since she'd touched another person like this or if Deidara was that good at kissing. She decided that it was pointless it question it. It was heaven either way.

Deidara's hand wandered across her waist and Sakura let hers get tangled in his hair. Bringing one hand forward she moved his bangs out of his face and then rested it on his neck. His entire body was ice and yet his lips were almost a normal temperature. She wondered… Would his tongue be warm?

Sakura poked at his bottom lip asking silently to let her in. It wasn't a hard decision. When her tongue entered and prodded around she found that, yes, his tongue was very warm. And skilled. When his tongue entered her mouth she felt butterflies explode in her stomach. He knew what he was doing and Sakura loved it. She could have spent the rest of the day kissing him but her lungs were screaming for air. She brought a hand down to push gently against his chest. When he pulled back Sakura took a slow deep breath and opened her eyes to look up at him.

"Wow," she whispered.

"Yeah," Deidara said.

"Yeah." A voice came from Sakura's left. She turned her head and saw Kisame and Sasori standing there with their blood cups.

Sakura's eyes widened and her face flushed in embarrassment. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to figure out how the hell she was supposed to explain the situation. In the end all that came out was, "H-Hey guys! Uh… B positive right? Good choice! Ha, ha."

Okay! Finally got some kissing action in here! Woo! Well, again, sorry for the late update, but I'll let you all in on a little secret. The next chapter is close to finished sooo... It should be out soon!

I'm going on a family vacation starting Wednesday and I won't be back until the next Monday (or maybe even Tuesday). So! The next chapter should be out soon.

Let me know what you all thought of this one! I'm eager to hear your thoughts :D

And tell me in your review: Who's your favorite Akatsuki X Sakura pairing? I'd love to hear your all's thoughts!

Until next time, lovelies!