This was, without a doubt, the most awkward moment of Sakura's life. She didn't know what could top it. And it went deeper than Kisame and Sasori finding her sucking face with Deidara. The looks on their faces made her feel like she'd just pissed on the Pope's hat – and they weren't even looking at her.

Sasori's face was twisted into a furious frown while Kisame had a look of anger mixed with utter confusion. Both had their eyes fixated on Deidara who seemed nothing but annoyed. There was total silence for a good minute before Sasori broke the silence.

"Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Kissing Sakura, duh. Did you somehow become blind in the past ten minutes?" Deidara replied.

Sakura bit her bottom lip and squirmed out from between Deidara and the wall. Whatever was going on here, she knew it'd be more comfortable outside of his intimate hold.

What was going on here, anyways? Why in the world would they be this upset finding her and Deidara together like this? It was obvious why Deidara was pouting, but the other two? It didn't make sense.

"Why are you guys so mad?" Sakura asked them all. "What in the world is going on here?"

Kisame and Sasori pulled their death glares away from Deidara to look at Sakura, taken aback. They didn't know how to answer that.

Deidara smirked leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Yeah guys, what's wrong?" He asked, obviously enjoying this.

Sasori pursed his lips and looked around trying to find the right words. Kisame kept opening and closing his mouth trying to figure out what to say.

Sakura took in their expressions, trying to figure out why they suddenly seemed so awkward. The only thing she could think of was that they were somehow jealous of Deidara. But that was impossible. Right?

They wanted a piece of this? Sure she was fairly attractive but had they seen themselves? Sakura knew for a fact that vampires could totally see themselves in the mirror. She'd caught Hidan admiring himself enough times to be sure of that. So, obviously they had to know how totally and utterly breathtaking each of them were in their own ways. Why in the world would they be jealous of Deidara for what just happened?

Sakura couldn't even count how many girls stared and nearly drooled over the boys today alone. Most of which she'd admit were much more attractive than herself. So why in the world would either Kisame or Sasori be jealous of Deidara? It had to be they were jealous of him getting action. That had to be it. Girls never came to their place unless Sakura invited them over.

And yet, Sakura knew that wasn't it. The way the boys were all looking at her screamed it was something else.

Sakura let out a quick laugh and said, as lighthearted as she could, "What, do you guys like me or something?"

Sasori crossed his arms and averted his gaze from her while Kisame put his hands on his hips, looking anywhere that wasn't Sakura.

Sakura's laughter died out. Their nonexistent answer coupled with their body language told her everything she needed to know.

Yes. They liked her. And they were jealous of Deidara. Because he got to kiss her.

Sakura suddenly felt lightheaded. Her lips contorted into a weird smile that she couldn't make go away. Her stomach felt like a thousand angry butterflies were set free. These three extremely attractive men were attracted to her. They, apparently, wanted to kiss her. As complicated as that statement was, Sakura couldn't help the senseless giggling that spewed from her lips. She was a little girl in school again who'd just been told someone had a crush on her.

"Are you okay?" Deidara asked coming up from behind her.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, fine," she managed through the laughter. "It's just… This isn't what I expected to happen today." Or ever, but she didn't think that needed said.

"You and me both," Kisame muttered.

"Well, what now?" Sakura asked. "I'm guessing we're done shopping now."

Sasori turned to leave. "Yeah, let's head out."

The four of them went to the car and all got in. Kisame squished himself in the back because he and Sasori agreed that Deidara was not allowed to sit next to Sakura on the drive home. They knew they were being petty but they also didn't care. He'd had enough of her today.

Once back at the house Sasori pulled around back where some parking spaces were. They all got out and grabbed as many bags as they could each. Thankfully they were able to collect all the bags. Sakura was the last to gather them up and so was in the back of the pack mule conga line. She was still close enough to hear Kisame enter the home and say as loud as he could without actually yelling, "Deidara fucking kissed her."

Sakura knew she should have been embarrassed, even mad at Kisame for blurting that out, but found all those emotions were lost on her when she saw both Hidan and Tobi running out of the house at top speed directly towards Deidara. He was knocked to the ground by the both of them who were yelling different things at varying levels of anger.

"What the fuck, man?!" Hidan yelled while having a firm grip on the collar of Deidara's shirt. "What the fucking shit?! I fucking told you I'd do her first!"

Sakura put her head in a hand. She hoped Hidan meant something more PG rated than what she was thinking.

It had only been a second before she picked her head back up. When she did Hidan was standing up, yelling down at the ground, and Tobi was on top of Deidara taking his turn to yell.

For the first – and probably only – time Sakura was genuinely afraid of Tobi. Not only was he holding Deidara down with one hand but he also had Hidan held back with his other. All the while he was firing questions at Deidara a mile a minute. The poor guy didn't have a chance to answer even one.

"What happened?!" Tobi yelled. "Did you take advantage of her? Did you hurt her?! Where were Sasori and Kisame?!"

"Tobi," Deidara said in the calmest voice he could manage. "Tobi, please get off, hm."

Kisame and Itachi had to come over to try and get them off of Deidara. After a minute Sakura knew this was going to take a while. Knowing she couldn't do anything to help she picked up most of the bags and brought them inside. Not having an actual room to put them in, she set the bags on the dining table.

Admittedly she felt bad that she was cluttering up the shared space like this. The bags took up most of the table space. Thinking she could perhaps make it all more compact she began taking everything out of the bags and stacking them in the smallest pile she could. Sure she could even take the stuff to her temporary bedroom but Hidan and Tobi may not appreciate her cluttering up a private space like that either.

This was conundrum, indeed.

Or at least, Sakura thought so. She had to do something while the boys wrestled over her honor or whatever outside. She was already causing them physical distress. It'd be rude to give them more problems to deal with.

By the time she'd finished and began fiddling with her new items Kisame and Itachi had dragged Hidan and Tobi into the living space. Deidara walked in holding his shoulder and grimacing. Sakura noticed the beginnings of a bruise, but knowing it'd be gone within the day she didn't rush over to assist.

This reminded her of Hidan's well-deserved bruise that she'd given him that morning. Sakura hadn't had the mind to examine his face for bruises while he was attacking Deidara. She looked over and saw that it was already beginning to fade.

"You almost broke my fucking shoulder, hm!" Deidara called over to Hidan.

"So fucking what?" Hidan retorted. "You deserve it."

"For what?" Deidara threw his good arm up in the air.

Hidan got up and gestured in Sakura's direction. "You know damn well what!"

Deidara rolled his eyes and went to the freezer to look for ice.

Tobi came over to sit in the chair next to Sakura.

"Sakura, are you okay?" He asked looking genuinely concerned.

Sakura nodded, "Yes of course. Everything is fine, nothing bad happened."

"Good!" Tobi smiled. Sakura had expected him to make a bigger fuss.

No one broke the silence for ten minutes or more after Tobi spoke. None of them knew what to say or how to start what was obviously a much needed discussion. Sakura started to get annoyed after another five minutes of silence dragged by.

Sakura let out a quick breath through her nose and stood up from her chair. Crossing her arms she looked around at everyone. "So? What's going on here? Did a bunch of pent up sexual tension just get unleashed in one huge wave or something?"

More silence.

Sakura rubbed her temple. "You guys can't keep quiet on this. I mean seriously what the hell? You guys are getting physical with each other over me?" She gestured to her body. "I'm a damn six at best and you all are at least elevens. Easily."

"Oh my god, Sakura," Hidan groaned from the couch. "Shut up, you're way fucking hotter than you give yourself credit for."

Sakura gestured to the front door. "Okay but have you seen the girls on this campus?! There are so many of them! And so many are so much more attractive than me! Why in the world would you guys get so protective over plain me? No one's ever even liked me! Except maybe Lee…" She muttered the last part to herself.

Itachi walked over to stand behind the chair to Sakura's right. "Sakura, I find it hard to believe you really believe that. My brother told me that he and Naruto had to practically drag boys off of you in school."

"That would be Lee," Sakura nodded.

"And that they'd constantly hear about boys falling for you," Itachi added. "In obvious ways, too."

"Okay, but that's guys like Lee and Kiba and whoever," Sakura reasoned. "Not…" she gestured around the room to emphasize her overstated point of them being attractive.

"Oh stop, I'm blushing," Kisame joked.

"It's true, though," Sakura said. "I'm just trying to understand here. You guys are quite obviously out of my league. And there are girls ten times more attractive than me who seem to literally drool when you walk by. So…" She trailed off, not sure what else to add that hadn't already been said.

"You're not weird," Tobi said. When Sakura gave him a blank stare he continued, "All those girls are weird about vampires. Even if they are ones. Or they find out who we actually are and run away as fast as they can. You didn't run."

Sakura laughed and took her seat again. "I wanted to when I first got here."

"You didn't though," Sasori said. "You're the first person in a long time that stuck around long enough to get to know us. Female or otherwise."

Sakura shrugged. "It's just who I am, I guess. Also, not everything Sasuke told us about you guys was bad. Plus I saw you guys around the Uchiha mansion sort of regularly. I don't know, it was just easy to get to know you guys when I didn't think you'd kill me. You do have a bit of a reputation."

"What did the little shit say?" Hidan asked, ignoring the quick glare Itachi shot in his direction.

Sakura leaned back in her chair so that only two legs were on the ground. "Stuff about the organization mostly. Clarifications about whether so-and-so really did kill so-and-so or not. But I guess you meant the positive things. Well, they weren't really so much positive as they were…" Sakura searched for the right words. "Humanizing. For example he'd tell us these really stupid stories about what he'd found you guys doing in the mansion." Sakura giggled remembering some of the better ones.

"Share with the class whenever you want," Hidan said impatiently.

Sakura cleared her throat and sat her chair back down on all four legs. "Well there was the one with you," she nodded to Hidan, "Being trapped in the bathroom because you'd run out of toilet paper."

Kisame barked out a laugh and Hidan threw a pillow at him. Kisame threw it back and looked to Sakura, "Please continue if it's the last thing you do."

"He was apparently flip flopping between asking for help from anyone who walked by and then screaming obscenities when they refused to assist," Sakura said.

Hidan sat back and crossed his arms. "Sasuke was one of them, too."

Sakura noticed Itachi nod just slightly in what she thought could be praise. Or maybe he was just acknowledging that his little brother was in fact a little shit. It was hard to say with the stoic man.

"Those are the sorts of things that made me realize even before I got here that you guys weren't bloodthirsty – well not in a murderous sense," Sakura giggled at her own horrible joke. This time Hidan and Kisame both threw pillows at her. She giggled again and put one of them in her lap to hold on to. "So, my point is that you all could get to know, date, or whatever any girl you wanted if you could just talk to them first."

"Tried that," Sasori said sounding bored. "Still blew up." A few of the others nodded in agreement.

"Didn't your third girlfriend actually blow up, Deidara?" Kisame asked.

"Fuck off," Deidara said, holding ice to his shoulder.

"Nah, nah," Hidan waved his hand, "Remember that was my second."

"Oh yeah," Kisame said casually.

Sakura tuned the boys out so she could try and think. She was getting annoyed with their stubbornness. It was so easy for them to go after different girls so they wouldn't physically go after each other. But no. Instead they seemed to be hell bent on settling on one girl. And it had to be her. What had her life come to? She sighed and rested her chin on the table.

"Are you okay Sakura?" Tobi asked, putting his head down on the table as well so he was eye level with her.

"This is all so confusing," she said and turned her head so her right cheek was resting on the table and she was facing Tobi. "I guess you like me, too?"

Tobi shrugged. "Of course, but I don't think quite like the others."

"Really?" Sakura picked her head up.

Tobi nodded. "Yeah, you're a really good friend and I'm happy with that!"

Sakura smiled. "Thanks, you're a great friend, too." One less weight, apparently. It was a weird mix of feelings. Happy there was one less thing to worry about, but also that pang of rejection. Sakura quickly pushed it aside, knowing the thought was nothing but a knee-jerk reaction.

Sakura still couldn't help the sudden giggle at the idea that popped into her head. First Sasuke, now Tobi? She didn't mix well with Uchihas did she? Then again, Itachi still seemed taken by her. Either way she found the minor situation hilarious. Thankfully Tobi had entered into the current conversation going on between the boys and hadn't noticed her laughter.

When Sakura brought her attention back to the boys she realized most of them had completely gone off track from the main situation. She was about to say something but Deidara beat her to it.

"Are you guys seriously going to get side tracked so easily over a subject you literally attacked me over, hm?"

Sakura couldn't have put it better herself.

"What do you want us to say?" Hidan asked.

"Sorry would be a fantastic start," Deidara said, gesturing to his shoulder.

"Sorry you fucked up." Hidan smirked.

"Oh, but if you'd been the first one to kiss her it'd be fair?" Deidara asked.

Hidan looked at Deidara like he was an idiot. "Well, yeah."

Sakura slammed a hand on the table cutting off Deidara. Everyone looked over in her direction. "So, what? You called dibs or something?"

For once Hidan looked at a loss for words. He simply stared at her as if waiting for a bomb to go off.

Slowly Sakura stood up and took a deep breath to calm herself down. Shouting and getting mad wasn't going to do any good for anyone. "I'm not a toy you all got for Christmas. It doesn't matter who did what first. What matters is we all obviously have some strong feelings floating around and we need to figure out how we're going to deal with them. Without getting physical." She shot a pointed look to both Hidan and Tobi.

"You're right," Itachi said.

"But what did you have in mind?" Sasori asked.

Sakura sighed and walked away from her chair to pace in a small circle next to the table while she thought. Anything that came to her seemed ludicrous. Really the only sensible option was to say she was sorry but there's no way they'd all be able to make some weird love heptagon work. Anything else would erupt into drama and someone was going to get hurt.

It would make up for all the attention you were deprived of in high school, a voice whispered in Sakura's mind. She shook her head, clearing it. No way, she couldn't entertain the idea of letting this continue.

But why? The voice asked.

That was obvious. Everyone would eventually be hurt. The best case scenario had her and one of them happy together forever, but that was it. There wasn't any other light at the end of the tunnel.

But they all know that. So what if it ended up in heartache? It'd be their own faults for allowing them to participate.

Participate? In what? Some polygamous relationship? No way, that only works if everyone's happy with that situation. And no one – except you – would be happy with that.

Don't let it be a committed relationship, then.

Then that would mean she'd be using them for affection. That was even worse. And yet, Sakura found her stomach a flutter thinking about the idea of each of them giving her attention in their own way.

The attention doesn't excite you. They do.

They do? It wasn't a lie. If Sakura thought about Lee crashing through that door and joining in the butterflies fled for the hills. Even Sasuke left her feeling, well, nothing. When Deidara had kissed her earlier, the excitement came from the fact that it had been him doing it – not just that she'd gotten kissed. A real kiss, too. Not some sloppy make out session at a teen party that happened for the sake if kissing alone.

Sakura imagined that the rest of them would give her the same sort of attention – if they're reactions were anything to go by. Kisame and Sasori had seemed so jealous, she could imagine how much they'd probably been wishing Kisame hadn't stopped to eat. And Hidan when they got home… He was rough and brash but he obviously wanted something to do with her that was more than getting to score with the pink-haired girl. Itachi was hard to read, but the concern he showed her said that he really did care, too.

'What would it be like to kiss each of them?' Sakura asked mentally before she could stop herself. It was too late, the thoughts were crashing through her mind like a barrier had been broken. Thoughts of running her fingers through Itachi's long hair; being held in Kisame's large arms; the amount of passion Hidan would have; wondering just what type of kisser Sasori was. Knowing how Deidara kissed made her thoughts of him all the more vivid and easier to dwell on. Knowing what's on the surface her mind was begging to know what would happen if they kissed again. What other things she could get her hands on.

"Sakura?" Sasori asked and put a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura blinked and her eyes focused back to the present world. She hadn't noticed, but her pacing had ceased and she was standing in the middle of the room. She looked around and all the boys were looking at her – some like she was a weirdo and others a tad worried.

"Oh!" Sakura turned her lips up into a smile. "What's up, Sasori?"

"You've been staring off into space for five minutes straight," he informed her.

"Oh," Sakura said dumbly. "Well…" She put her hands behind her back and pursed her lips in thought. Obviously she wasn't about to tell him that she'd been thinking about what it'd be like to kiss all of them. But she hadn't quite finished her original thought anyways.

What was the thought again? All she could seem to focus on at the moment was Sasori's lips.

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, sighing. Sasori was so distracting all of a sudden. When Sakura looked away from him she found herself gazing in Kisame's direction and her mind flew back to how it would feel to be held in his arms while they – no! She tore her eyes away and they settled on Hidan this time. Memories of him pinning her to the floor after she charmed his blood bags came flooding back suddenly. His fangs grazing her neck, that stupid one liner he'd delivered.

Sakura found herself wondering just what would have happened if she'd let him continue. A million different scenarios played out in her mind. Her face heated up at the thoughts.

Whenever she tried to bring her attention away from one of them her eyes settled on another. Even starting straight at the wall or floor didn't help. She could feel all their gazes on her.

"You okay?" Sasori asked.

"You broke her, hm," Deidara said jokingly.

"Sakura?" Kisame got up and walked over to her. "What's up?"

Sakura looked up and tried to find the right words to say. She didn't want anyone to get hurt, but it was clear that she'd never be able to tell them to leave her alone. Running her hands through her hair she groaned.

"Fuck it!" Sakura threw her hands up and walked over to the kitchen table to pick up as many items as she could. "You guys can do whatever you want," she headed to the temporary room and pushed the door open with a foot and then turned around to face everyone. "There's no way I'm going to be able to tell you to leave me be, so you guys decide whatever you want to do. Whatever you all choose I'll honor and we'll live peacefully together." With that she turned around and kicked the door closed.

It wasn't the most responsible decision on her part, but she knew what she wanted.

Sakura loved the idea of them showering her in attention – whether she'd admit it or not. She knew she would not mind most of them doing so. Her only qualm was that she didn't want any of the boys getting hurt. So, they can do whatever they want. They're all big boys, and they can make their own decisions.

Sakura nodded and dropped her armful onto Tobi's bed. She began to go through the items to distract herself from the twinge of excitement bubbling in her stomach. This semester had just taken a very interesting turn.

Sakura couldn't have imagined how well the boys took her decision – nor how loosely they interpreted her statement of, "Do whatever you want."

For the rest of that Saturday Sakura had kept to the bedroom. Half because she wanted to continue planning for Kisame's birthday and half because she felt like if she went out into the living space she'd forget how to use her legs. By the end of the day she'd gotten a pretty good outline of the party going. Simple club outing to a place nearby. The only thing left to do was wait.

So for the rest of the day Sakura read ahead in her textbook and practiced more with her magic. She was getting a lot better. Flowers were becoming much easier to grow and bloom as were other sorts of plants. Some still gave her a bit of difficulty so for the afternoon she focused on those.

By nighttime she was exhausted. It was only 9 o'clock but Sakura didn't care. She changed into some PJs – making sure to include pants – and crawled into bed.

Sakura knew she was covered in at least two blankets, so why did she feel so cold? It hadn't been this cold when she'd gone to sleep last night. Coming out of her half asleep haze she immediately recognized that she had a visitor in her bed – again. She knew who it was without opening her eyes.

"Hidan?"

"Hm?"

"Why?"

Sakura felt his chest rumble with a laugh. "You said I could."

Sakura couldn't come up with a good retort. Instead she shrugged and continued lying in her current position.

"You aren't getting up?" Hidan asked in genuine confusion. He's expected her to shove him off and storm out. This was a much better outcome.

"I'm still tired," Sakura said. With that she let herself drift back off to sleep for a few more minutes, enjoying the unashamed cuddling for once.

The rest of the week Sakura found herself waking up next to someone. Without a specific bedroom for herself it was easy to find herself in a different bed each night. In her defense Sakura wasn't actually the one to pick the bed. Sunday night she just happened to fall asleep in the living room and was taken to Sasori's bed – she'd fallen asleep against him.

After Hidan had joked about waking up next to Sakura the other boys had wondered as well what it would be like to do the same. Sasori just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take his chance.

So each morning that week Sakura had woken up in someone else's bed. On the surface it sounded scandalous but Sakura was sure that all the boys did was put her to bed and then scoot in next to her just before she awoke. She figured this was the case because one night while in Deidara's bed she'd woken up in the middle of the night to pee and noticed he wasn't in the room at all. However in the morning when she got up for class he was right there next to her.

So far that week had been the best of Sakura's semester. None of them pushed themselves onto her. Heck none of them even kissed her on the lips. Sure Sasori and Deidara gave her sweet good morning kisses on the cheek, but that was it in that department.

Kisame and Itachi didn't even try to kiss her anywhere. Monday night Sakura had made sure to fall asleep next to Kisame so that Tuesday morning they could wake up and go to class together. When she'd woken up next to him Kisame acted as her snooze button. Truthfully she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because she'd introduced him and a few others to a new show. She'd been up until midnight watching with them. So Kisame made sure to get her up just in time to leave. Unfortunately for Sakura she was being so stubborn getting up Kisame had to resort to tickling her awake. It worked.

Itachi was the last she woke up next to and that was on Friday. Sure she'd slept in Tobi's bed but all he'd done was make sure she got up for her early class on Thursday. On Friday she didn't need to be at class until noon. She had a lot of classes that day but it was worth it to be able to sleep in. Itachi gladly let her do so. When she woke up the first time he'd greeted her with a very, very small smile.

"Good morning," he said just above a whisper.

"'Mornin'," Sakura grumbled, eyelids heavy. Itachi's bed was without a doubt the comfiest of them all. She already felt like she was floating but when Itachi began carefully trailing his fingers up and down her arm Sakura felt like she was melting. They spent around ten minutes like this in quiet peace. The only thing that drew Sakura away was the call of nature. Grumpy she got up and made her way to the bathroom for her morning routine.

While eating her cereal Sakura looked around at the boys who were here – Itachi, Hidan, and Sasori. She thought doing something like this would be some sort of strain on everyone. Maybe even make it awkward to be in the house together. However that wasn't the case. Sasori and Itachi conversed as normal in the kitchen while Hidan threw in his own two scents every now and then. As far as Sakura could tell they were all as normal as could be.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

Sakura looked down at the table to see she'd gotten a text from Ino.

"Hey, meet up in the courtyard before class? I miss you!"

Sakura smiled and replied that she'd be there in twenty minutes. Ino and she hadn't met up since the trip to the mall. And boy did she have some things to share with her this time. Finishing up her cereal Sakura dumped her bowl into the sink and went to get ready. Ten minutes later she was saying goodbye to the boys and heading out the door.

When at the courtyard Sakura only had to wait a minute before spotting Ino's blonde ponytail bouncing towards her. They hugged and said their hello's before settling down at a table.

"How have you been?" Sakura asked. "Did you and Sai go on that picnic?"

Ino nodded. "Yeah, it was so much fun. Outdoor dates are the best."

"It sounds romantic," Sakura rested her head on a hand.

Ino smiled. "It really was. He made everything, too. I mean it wasn't gourmet, five star dining, but it was still really good. He's getting a lot better."

Sakura smiled back. "That's great."

"What have you been up to?" Ino asked.

Sakura shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh nothing. Woke up in Itachi's bed today, whatever."

Ino did a double take. "You what?"

Sakura waved her hands around, laughing. "Not the way you think!"

"Then what way?" Ino asked obviously seeping with interest.

Sakura went on to explain what happened the morning after they'd seen each other last and the events that followed later at the mall and throughout the week. By the time she'd finished Ino looked like she was going to explode with pride.

"My baby girl is all grown up and participating in orgies!" Ino threw her hands in the air and giggled.

Sakura blushed but giggled bringing Ino's hands back down. "I haven't even done anything with any of them since kissing Deidara."

"But you will?" Ino asked.

Sakura shrugged again. "I dunno, I mean… I guess? The whole thing is pretty much a big we'll-see-how-it-goes."

"Wow," Ino put her chin on her hand and looked at Sakura in amazement. "Little Sakura practically dating the Akatsuki. I never thought I'd see this."

"I'm not dating any of them," Sakura said.

"Dating or not, I hope you know what you're doing," Ino shook her head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ino swiped a hand to the side dismissively. "Nothing, it's just…" She paused and sighed. "Look I'm your best friend and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Interacting with that many guys in that way is tricky. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I'll be okay," Sakura assured her. "Like I said none of us have even done anything yet."

"Alright…" Ino trailed off. "It's just that they are kinda dangerous."

"They'd never hurt me," Sakura said in a serious voice.

"I know," Ino said quickly. "But they still hurt other people. I don't want you getting mixed up in all of that is all. Especially with all the stuff Orochimaru has been spouting lately."

"Like what?" Sakura asked.

"Tch," Ino rolled her eyes and scowled. "They're saying he's been harping on reintroducing segregation into the school. Starting with the dorm arrangements. Obviously it's not going to get any traction without another headmaster's vote. But he can still take control over individual cases."

"What a dick," Sakura said, scrunching up her nose. "He's so backwards."

"I know," Ino agreed. "Didn't you have a form put in to transfer out of the Akatsuki House?"

"Oh shit, you're right," Sakura slapped a hand to her forehead. "Shit, I need to take care of that."

"Especially now," Ino smirked.

Sakura threw a paper ball at Ino's face, giggling. Her eyes caught movement behind Ino's head and saw that Sasuke was on his way back to the dormitories. "Sasuke!" She called and waved her arms.

Sasuke turned and saw Sakura waving to him. He headed over and nodded in her and Ino's directions. "Sup."

"How have you been?" Sakura asked. "I haven't seen you in what feels like forever."

"Alright," Sasuke shrugged. "College is college. What about you?"

Sakura smiled. "I've been doing really well."

"I'll say," Ino smirked. Sakura kicked her leg under the table. "Ow! What was that for?"

"You know what," Sakura gave her a warning look and glanced pointedly at Sasuke.

"What? You don't want Sasuke to know that you got all cozy with his brother this morning?" Ino said, not realizing.

Sasuke looked down at Sakura. "What does she mean?"

Ino opened her mouth to speak and earned another kick from Sakura. That didn't stop her this time. "Oh just that she's been getting cozy in the Akatsuki's beds this week."

Sakura let her head fall into her hands and groaned. "Ino, why?"

"You're playing with fire, you know," Sasuke told her.

Sakura picked her head up and looked at him. "What?"

"Look I've lived with Itachi and by extension most of the Akatsuki for a long time. I know exactly what they're capable of and getting romantically involved with any of them is honestly a horrible idea," Sasuke said.

Sakura glared up at Sasuke. How dare he? "You don't get a say in my love life, Sasuke. If you wanted that privilege then you should have been part of it."

Sasuke put his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying they can be dangerous. Plus you know Naruto's going to flip his shit when he hears about this."

"Well Naruto needs to realize I'm an adult now who can do what and who she wants in her free time," Sakura said and stood up. "I mean if one of them hurts me then sure grab a pitch fork and let's storm the castle. But until then he can just chill."

"I'll be sure to tell him," Sasuke said and turned to go. "I have to get back. There's a paper due tomorrow." He waved and they said their goodbyes. It wasn't long before Sakura also had to leave for her classes and bid Ino farewell, too.

When she got home all Sakura wanted to do was sit down with her laptop and watch stupid cat videos or something. She was exhausted and her wrist hurt from all the notes she'd taken. Sure she had some homework to do, but that could wait. She set an alarm for later that night as a reminder. For the next few hours she laid down on one of the loveseats and watched videos with headphones. She was only disturbed when Itachi pulled the headset off of her head and pointed behind him. Sakura craned her head all the way back and looked behind him to see an upside-down Naruto leaning against the wall, looking bothered.

"Thanks Itachi," Sakura got up and nodded to him then walked over to Naruto. "Hey! What's up?"

"Nothing," He looked around at the boys that were in the living space and then nodded to the front door. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uh, sure," Sakura followed him out the door onto the porch.

They walked over to the far right side of the porch before Naruto turned to lean against the railing. He gestured to the house. "Seriously?"

Sakura motioned for him to continue. "Seriously…what?"

"Them, Sakura!" Naruto raised his voice. "You're seriously sleeping with all of them?"

Sakura frowned and put her hands on her hips. "Who the hell said that?"

"Ino and Sasuke," Naruto said.

Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not sleeping with them like you think I am, Naruto."

"Well then how?" Naruto asked.

"Like sleeping." Sakura said curtly. "And even if I wasn't what concern is it of yours?"

"I'm your friend," Naruto said.

"So that means you get to dictate my romantic life?" Sakura asked.

"It means I'm going to try and protect you," Naruto said in a calmer tone. "You know what these guys are like, how can you think I wouldn't be worried?"

Sakura leaned back against the railing. "I do know what they're like. I live with them. And trust me you have nothing to be worried about."

"Yeah, I do," Naruto insisted. "Sakura I was there with you since elementary school. You've never had the best of luck in the romance department."

"I know, I was there," Sakura said, getting a bit annoyed.

"It's just… You can't do a complete one-eighty like this!" Naruto said.

"Like what?"

Naruto sighed. "Sakura you've never even dated a guy before. You can't go jumping into the deep end with six – especially those six – before you've even had a real kiss!"

"For your information I have had a real kiss," Sakura pushed herself off of the railing. "And it was fantastic! Anyways who are you to criticize me? You're completely clueless when it comes to girls!"

"Exactly, which is why I'm not going off to date half a dozen of them at once," Naruto said.

Sakura clenched her fists. "Face it, Naruto, you're just pissed that it's them. Why don't you come back when you have a better argument than, 'you're a virgin'?"

"That's not what I mean," Naruto said in a soft voice.

"Then what?" Sakura asked.

"I mean you don't have any romantic background. At all. It's hard enough jumping into something like this after having multiple partners, but you haven't had any, Sakura!" Naruto pleaded. "You have no idea what you're walking into here."

"And you do?" Sakura asked.

"I've at least had a girlfriend," Naruto said.

Sakura turned her back on him and crossed her arms, fists still clenched. "Then I'll be sure to ask the oh-so-wise Uzumaki Naruto for advice if I need it." With that she walked away and back into the house. She knew she was being a sort of bitchy but he was now the third person in one day to tell her the reason this entire situation was ludicrous was because she hadn't ever dated before.

Stomping through the house Sakura made her way to Hidan and Tobi's bedroom. Opening the door she was pleased to find the room was empty. After closing the door much harder than necessary, she flopped down onto a bed and glared at the ceiling. Did her friends really have no faith in her? Sakura wasn't stupid. She knew when she was going too far. That hadn't happened yet. Honestly, they could do to give her a bit of support here. If they think she's making such a huge mistake why not offer help instead of coming over to her home just to chastise her?

"Ugh!" Sakura groaned and whacked the wall with the side of her fist. You'd think her friends would have more faith in her. She wasn't a helpless schoolgirl anymore. She knew how to handle herself.

The door swung open with Hidan striding through. "What the hell's going on in here?"

Sakura glanced down without getting up. "I'm venting my frustrations."

"Why are you using my wall?" Hidan asked, kicking the door closed.

"Would you rather I use your face? You looked better with a bruise."

"Ha, ha," Hidan said sarcastically. "Seriously though, why are you throwing a tantrum?"

"Because it seems all of my friends think I'm in way over my head with you guys."

"Why?" Hidan asked seeming genuinely confused. As far as he was concerned sleeping in different beds each night seemed pretty easy.

"Half because, well, it's you guys. Half because they still see me as a little girl who still thinks the stork brings babies," Sakura breathed out a humorless laugh.

"From what Kisame tells me that seems unlikely," Hidan said smirking.

Sakura lifted her head up to look at him more clearly. "Huh?"

Hidan sat next to her on the bed. "He was telling me about seeing you and Deidara at the mall. Sounds to me like you know what you're doing."

Sakura sat up fully now and blushed. "It must have been a while since he's kissed a girl. I'm positive I looked like a flopping mess from the outside. My friends might be annoying but they are right. I'm not too experienced."

"I can always help with that," Hidan said through a wry smirk.

Sakura let out a quick laugh. "What, you'll be my kissing coach?"

Hidan leaned forward towards her. "Free of charge and everything."

Sakura licked her suddenly dry lips. He was obviously teasing her but she doubted he'd reject her if she took the bait at the moment. Naruto was right, after all, she was lacking in experience. And the only way to gain experience is to, well, experience.

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and nodded. "As a college student, I've got to jump on anything free."

"Then come here," Hidan reached forward not giving Sakura time to protest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her over so that she was straddling his lap while he sat on the edge of the bed.

Sakura rested her hands on his shoulders, her heart hammering in her chest. "Right this second?"

"Unless you have some prior engagement?"

Sakura shook her head. "Ah, nope. I call myself a college student but look at me, no plans on a Friday night."

Hidan lowered his hands so they rested just above her rear. "And now you're going to kiss the sexiest man on campus."

Sakura pretended to look around the room. "I don't see Itachi in here."

That earned her a quick glare from Hidan. "You're gonna fucking pay for that one."

"Bring it, bitch," Sakura said. The grin she got in return made her stomach flip.

Hidan leaned forward so that his lips were at her ear. "Remember, you asked for it."

Sakura wanted to reply but was distracted by his hands starting their treks across her torso. One hand stayed planted above her butt while the other came up in a flash to rest at the nape of her neck. He held her in a firm grip that assured she wasn't going anywhere. His violet eyes smoldered into hers for just a moment before they both closed and their lips connected.

Like Deidara's this one began lightly; unlike the first one, this kiss went from light to heated in a matter of seconds. Hidan brought her hips closer so that her body was pressed flush against his. In his usual shirtless state Sakura could feel the chill of his skin through her shirt. Everywhere he touched her she felt a chill that contrasted starkly to the heat that was erupting under Sakura's own skin.

Sakura barely had time to focus on this. Hidan's tongue was already making its way past her own lips to explore and tease. Just this was enough to make Sakura feel lightheaded. She brought one hand up to entwine in his hair while the other roamed down to his neck, shoulder, and then chest.

Hidan brought his tongue back and began nibbling on her bottom lip in between kisses. First tenderly and then slowly more and more rough until Sakura's personal limit. She didn't find the sensation unpleasant but wondered how he'd take her giving him the same treatment. When Hidan went in for another kiss Sakura caught his bottom lip between hers and started the same routine of nibbling lightly and then a bit more rough. From the way he squeezed her rear Sakura knew she was doing well.

Hidan took Sakura by surprise by thrusting his tongue back past her lips. He slowly coaxed her tongue out and past his own lips, encouraging her to do her own exploring. Hesitant at first Sakura let herself poke around and get a feel for the action. Just as she was getting comfortable Hidan started to nip and suck on her tongue earning a low sound emanating from somewhere in the back of Sakura's throat. She didn't care. The way he was kissing her took her breath away. Literally.

Pulling back Sakura took in a slow breath. That breath hitched when Hidan took the opportunity to explore the new territory that was her neck. Once again beginning with his lips ghosting across her neck and evolving into open mouth kisses. When Hidan sucked at a particular spot halfway down the column of her neck, Sakura found that sound making its way back out again. Still, she did not care. It felt amazing. She gripped his head tighter, bringing him closer to her neck, silently asking for him to do that again. When Hidan repeated the action with more force Sakura found her volume also increased.

Hidan was quick to bring his lips back up to hers and the room fell relatively silent once more. He let the hand that was at her neck drop down to mirror his other on Sakura's butt, pulling her even closer to him. While biting at her lip again Hidan let one hand come up just a bit so his fingers could rest underneath her shirt on her waist. When he went to move his other hand up as well Sakura's phone suddenly went off and blared through the room.

Without breaking the kiss Hidan picked Sakura's phone out of her pocket. He put it into her hand and Sakura pulled her head back to look down to see just what the hell was interrupting her.

"Shit," she grumbled looking at the very large message of, "STUDY TIME."

Hidan looked down and read the message as well. "Seriously?"

Sakura shrugged. "I set it when I got home."

Hidan retracted his arms and leaned back on his elbows. "I guess that completes lesson one."

"Lesson one?" Sakura gave him an incredulous stare. "What in the world is lesson two?"

Hidan's eyes pointedly roamed down and back up what was visible of her. "You'll see."

Sakura shook her head but got up quickly to hide the blush flaring up on her face. She could think of a thing or two that Hidan would be happy to "teach" her next time.

I just woke up like, fifteen minutes ago. I forgot to fiddle with this last night. So, here's and extra super long chapter that has not been proofread in the slightest! Woo! (If anyone finds any spelling/grammar mistakes feel free to let me know in the nicest of ways! When I upload the next chapter I'll fix anything that needs fixing.)

I'll be gone for a while after today. Family vacation and then I gotta go do something else for like a week after that. I hope these almost back-to-back chapters make up for it! (Also the kissing -wiggles eyebrows-)

This chapter actually has two chapters from my outline smushed into one. By themselves they weren't long enough... So here we go! Super long!

Now, I am off to finish packing for muthafuckin Disney World.

(Y'all don't even know how excited I am. I've been waiting more than a year for this day. Holy fucking shit.)

ALSO TODAY IS BACK TO THE FUTURE DAY! GET YOUR HOVERBOARDS AND TURN YOUR CLOTHES INSIDE OUT!

See you all next time!