SakuIta Chapter 12 The Party
Yes! I love you, reviewers, got three new reviews and it absolutely made my day when I saw them. Although I was planning on writing this anyway, I'm making this chapter extra long just for you 'cause you rock!
Hope you enjoy, and again:
MORE REVIEWS= ME MORE HAPPY= MORE CHAPTERS!
*RECAP*
Sakura turned a corner and disappeared into the main living room, a big room with lots of space ideal for family gatherings. "Itachi, over here! What's this?" Itachi walked into the room, suddenly suspicious.
"Sakura, what did you fi-" he was abruptly cut off as the lights turned on.
"SURPRISE, ITACHI! HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY!" seemingly a hundred voices cheered. Itachi blinked, his eyes getting accustomed to the sudden light. He couldn't believe what he saw. It was next to impossible.
*END RECAP*
As Itachi openly stared in open-mouthed disbelief at the crowd that gathered in his living room, Sakura quickly handed the bottle of champagne she had popped when the lights were turned on to the nearest person, who happened to be Sasuke, and rushed at the elder Uchiha and threw her arms around his neck.
"Happy birthday, Itachi-kun," she giggled as she sensed the absolute shock he was in. The surprise party was a success. Phase A had worked. Itachi had been left speechless. For his part, Itachi's body still reacted naturally to Sakura's embrace with one of his own; however, the shock was such that he hesitated a few seconds too long before finally wrapping one arm around Sakura's waist. It would suffice for now.
"Sakura," he said, his voice calm and impassive as ever, but the slightly wide and unblinking eyes gave him away. "What exactly happened?"
"It's your birthday party, you dolt," Sasuke said, smirking in satisfaction at his brother. He had helped Sakura plan the party, and he was very pleased that all had gone according to plan so far. Besides, the expression on his brother's face was priceless. It was quite hard to shock an Uchiha speechless, particularly male Uchihas, and most especially Itachi and his father. "Didn't you hear us say 'Happy 19th Birthday'?"
"I did," affirmed Itachi, a smile slowly crawling into place as he looked at his brother. "I just couldn't – can't – believe that you're all here."
"Well, you better believe it man, yeah," a head of long blond hair separated itself from the crowded croup and clapped Itachi on the shoulder, on the side that Sakura wasn't holding on to.
"Deidara," Itachi smiled. "How nice of you to come."
"Don't go forgetting the rest of us," a redhead with messy locks called from beside an enormous blue-skinned man. "We came too."
"Sasori, Kisame," the elder Itachi greeted with a nod of his head.
"I see your manners haven't changed all that much, Itachi," a man with bright orange hair and multiple piercings on his ears, lips, nose and eyebrows teased.
"I agree," smiled the blue-haired woman with a white origami flower in her hair, who was standing beside the orange-head and a dark haired individual with multiple stitches covering his face.
"It wasn't cheap to come here on such short notice, you know," he said, although smiling.
Itachi smirked wider. "Pein, Konan, Kakuzu. I'm glad you're here as well."
"And me! Me! Tobi's here! Tobi is a good boy!" a tuff of jet-black hair bordering the top of a bright orange mask with a swirl in the centre called to Itachi excitedly, waving his arms over his head wildly while jumping in place trying to be seen from behind a tall man whose green hair and divided body color, one side being black and the other white, made him stand out easily.
"Quiet, you," he said, turning his body slightly to stop the energetic masked boy from causing such a racket, but he bolted past him to get nearer to Itachi before he could say anything else.
"Shut the f-oot up, Tobi!" a man with slicked back silver hair
"Tobi, Zetsu, Hidan," the elder Uchiha greeted, this time his smooth calculating features melting away as he half-laughed half-chuckled out loud with a wide smile, running a hand through his black hair as his head leaned back. "I can't believe you're all here. When was the last time we saw each other? Or when we were all together?"
"That would be…I don't know, yeah, the first question would be around two years, and the second…well, that would be about five-ish, not counting the time we bumped at the movies, yeah," Deidara offered. Sasori smacked him lightly on the back of the head, lazily.
"Hey, yeah!" Deidara protested, rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for?"
"That was a theoretical question, you idiot," Sasori sighed as he shook his head. "He really wasn't looking for an answer."
"I know what a theoretical question is, yeah!" Sasori just shook his head at the blond and shrugged as if saying "see what I mean?" Sakura giggled at the antics of Itachi's friends, and Sasori, noticing this, winked at her with a small, secretive smile before walking to the patio with Deidara trailing behind, demanding what that shrug was about.
Sakura gave Itachi a gentle squeeze on his arm before drifting away to help Sasuke and his parents finish setting up the party while Itachi greeted the rest of the guest, mostly some past neighbors and family members since Itachi, being as quiet as he, really didn't have that many close friends aside from the Akatsuki.
Sakura smiled to herself remembering how the group got its name, according to Pein. Pein, with his multiple piercings; Konan, with her blue hair and strange fascination with origami; Zetsu, the very odd-looking plant-lover; Kakuzu, the greedy man with stitches all over his face; Tobi, the man who acts like a five-year-old with a sugar rush; Hidan, who has a very foul mouth and a strange habit to sacrifice things to his never-before heard of god Jashin; Kisame Hoshigaki, the blue-skinned freakishly tall shark-man; Deidara, a true pyromaniac who loves to blow up things in the name of art; Sasori of the Red Sand, a master puppeteer who doesn't care about much; and finally Itachi, the Uchiha prodigy with the frigid, quiet, smooth and respectful personality. They were quiet the group of people whom not many could get along with easily, especially when they were so damn intimidating.
Somehow, Pein had told her, they begun hanging out together and enjoying each other's company. First it was in small groups, such as Konan and himself, Deidara and Sasori, Itachi, Kisame and Hidan. The rest where mostly loners or participated in other activities that either required them to be alone or that was how they preferred.
In the end, Hidan got put into an art class to help him express himself without swearing like a sailor or killing anything. The class happened to be given by both Sasori and Deidara, who in their competitiveness about what was and was not art had decided to volunteer to run the class and teach the students their perspective forms of art. Apparently, they had decided that the true art would be decided by the students democratically. The teacher who inspired the most students to follow their art won.
Hidan loved Deidara's explosions, but he admired the skill and resistance of Sasori's puppets. In the end, the three of them started talking and as is to be expected, Sasori and Deidara started arguing. Hidan, not wanting to be ignored, tried to get a word in, but the two others turned on him and they begun to fight, every man for himself. The racket they caused led Kisame, Itachi, Konan and Pein, who happened to be walking past the art shop, into the art room the stop the fight. Somehow they had all connected and started hanging out together. Zetsu, Kakuzu and Tobi joined later on, attracted by the relatively calmness the odd group radiated.
In the end, they became close friends. However, as they had a large group and didn't try to become friends with others, they decided they were a very unique group that deserved a name. But they truly disliked the names of cliché cliques, like jocks, nerds, performers, 'ganstas,' geniuses, and whatnot. So they came up with Akatsuki, meaning "dawn" because at dawn all the colors in the sky mixed, despite the contrasting colors, creating a unique picture, and not one dawn is equal to another just like one day in the group is never the same. Besides, there were many Akatsuki members who liked the moon or the night, so since Akatsuki has the word "moon" in it (tsuki) everyone was content.
Sakura was brought back to reality as Itachi scooped her in his arms and swung her around, laughing freely.
"Itachi!" Sakura shrieked, both in surprise and delight. "Put me down!"
Itachi swung her once more before hugging her closely against his chest. "My lovely Sakura, this is quite a surprise! Thank you for the party, it has only just started and I'm already having a great time."
"Your welcome Itachi," Sakura smiled as she pecked his cheek. "But Sasuke helped a lot too. He helped me get a hold of your friends."
"Ah, but planning and organizing the party was your idea," Itachi insisted, wrapping one arm loosely around her waist and taking the platter she was going to use to put the chocolate-covered strawberries. Guiding her to the patio where all the younger people were, meaning the rest of the Akatsuki and Sasuke, Itachi chuckled as she tried to give his brother some credit. "Sasuke helped prepare the house, it's true, but aside from that he just told you about my friends and gave you their numbers."
"Sasuke helped me make the calls too," Sakura blushed.
"Nevertheless, this party was possible because of you, and only you." Sakura blushed deeper.
The Akatsuki and Sasuke had brought out a big stereo in which they played the best music and danced on the green grass amongst the flowers, miniature Zen garden and fountain. It was more fun and unique that way, they said. Besides, the older people didn't believe that what was blasting out of the speakers was music. Needless to say, they had a blast.
Once it got too late for the loud music and dancing, they all came back inside where they played games and watched movies and argued about the games and movies. They laughed, they cried (of laughter), they made secret inside jokes among each other, they argued ("you cheated!" "did not!") and were merry.
Finally, it was time for cake. They sung Itachi Happy Birthday, much to his embarrassment although he didn't show it, and they all had a piece of cake, the teenage boys bickered about who got the biggest piece, but finally decided that as the birthday boy Itachi had all rights reserved. This pleased Itachi enormously knowing that Sakura had made the cake with her great-great-great-grandmother's recipe. The recipe was next to sacred in the Haruno family, so that Sakura had taken the time to make it for him deeply touched him. And the taste of the cake itself elated him. It was fluffy, melt in-your-mouth and an explosion of flavors…which caused Deidara to start trailing Sakura, begging her to give him the recipe, that the explosion of so many flavors fitting together so uniquely was what his art was about, and so on.
Many adults had to leave early, so they gave their presents to Itachi, wished him a happy birthday once again and left. Then his parents, Sasuke, the Akatsuki, Sakura and him sat around the living room coffee table and gave their presents to Itachi. His parents gave him a new set of shuriken stars made from meteorite metal and a scroll for a secret family jutsu, believing that Itachi was old, strong and mature enough to learn it. Then Sasuke gave him a trilogy of books about the ninja world and famous ninja moments. Itachi, being the historian in the family, really liked them.
Then it was the Akatsuki's turn as Tobi shoved his present right under Itachi's nose as soon as he had set down his books on the table. It was a $100 gift card for Candy Land. "So you can buy all the sweets you like!" Tobi explained. "Tobi really likes sweets so Tobi figured you'd love them!"
Hidan then handed over a small package covered in black wrap. It was a little box containing two tickets for a four-day trip to a hot spring resort. "I fu-igured," he struggled not to swear, "that since you now have a girlfriend you'd like a vacation." He rose his eyebrows at Itachi with an evil glint in his eyes, which earned him a smack in the head.
Kakuzu, being the greedy guy that he is, gave Itachi his present without so much as a ribbon on it. "Waste of money for such a useless thing," he said. It was a small watch, about the size of the thumb, with different tapes to wrap it around different parts of your body, be it your wrist, your finger, your ankle, your neck, whatever. "Time is money, Itachi," Kakuzu said. "And in the ninja world, time is precious."
Kisame went next, giving Itachi a water balloon. Itachi, being no dummy, asked what it did. "That depends on what you want it to be," Kisame grinned. "It's like one of those Australian things, what are they called? Boomerangs. They come back to you. But it's not something to play fetch with." He grabbed the balloon from Itachi's hands and demonstrated. "Depending on the amount of chakra you put in it, it can stay a liquid-" he held it up, "-a solid-" the balloon petrified, "-or a gas," the balloon lightened and hovered a few centimeters above Kisame's outstretched hand. "With a little practice, it can take any form you want. It can be a kunai, a shuriken, a katana, whatever. Even a backscratcher." Needless to say, everyone was impressed. Itachi thanked Kisame, who grinned and slapped him on the back before returning to his seat.
Next, he reached for a little green bag from Konan. Inside, he founded dozens of tiny origami birds. "They're good for missions," she said. "They may be small, but they're strong. They can carry the equivalent of Kisame's weight, and since they're so small they can hide easily and squeeze into tight spaces. Using the Shared Sight and Hearing Jutsu, they become your little spies without endangering you." Itachi thanked her and put the little birds back in the bag.
Pein reached into his pocket and gave Itachi a little wrapped package the size of a pack of gum. Upon opening it, that's what it was. "It's not actually gum," Pein said before anyone could give him dirty looks. "It's prank gum. Each little stick of 'gum' is actually infused with a benign poison that makes a person do weird things. Each color has a different action."
"I'm not taking any gum from you for a while, that's for sure," Kisame muttered.
Zetsu gave him seeds and a pot for a Venus Fly Trap. "Useful little things," he said. "Particularly in the summer with so many insects buzzing about."
Sasori gave him two medium-sized puppets about the length of his forearm. "They're acting-dancing puppets," Sasori explained. "Play a melody for them and they will dance and act out what you want to the music's rhythm. I thought this would be useful when you're sick."
Finally, Deidara gave him a big lump of clay used for pottery and a bag of fireworks. "Art is a bang, yeah."
Itachi was tired, it was late and it had been a long time since he had used so much energy at a social gathering although this one was exclusively for him. After thanking everyone over again for the presents, he asked, "Have I missed anyone's present?"
There was a moment of silence before a small, sweet voice beside him spoke out. "Me," Sakura said. "I haven't given you mine."