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THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED
stfuSPARKS
Happy New Years guys! I wish you all a great 2007 ;)
Disclaimer: I don't Naruto or any of it's characters. I don't own More Than Useless by Relient K either. :)
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IV.
More Than Useless
"But then you assure me,
I'm a little more than useless,
And when I think that I can't do this,
You promise me that I'll get through this,
And do something right,
Do something right for once."
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There weren't many instances in which Uchiha Sasuke was rendered speechless-
But this was definitely one.
It was hard to imagine that these three hostile men before them had once been Sakura's best friends. Everything about their conversation up until now only indicated pure hatred- if they really had been friends before, there were no traces left of that broken friendship. She could have said 'sworn enemies' and it would have been much more believable, really. She would never stop surprising him.
Deidara feigned a hurt look. "Saku-chan, I thought we were still best buds!" He exclaimed mockingly, earning another one of her death glares. The blond boy didn't flinch back- instead, he smirked at the furious expression on her face. "We made the best group of friends too, what a shame."
"That was in the past, Dei-chan." Sakura said, mocking him back. "Our group is over now. You have nothing to do with me anymore, so I would appreciate it if we stopped acknowledging each other from now on."
Deidara took a few steps forward, closing the distance between them once again. He forcefully grabbed her chin, his lips hovering dangerously close to her own. "Don't say that, Sakura-chan." He whispered. She could feel him breathe. "Don't lie and say you haven't missed me. Was Idate worth abandoning us? Is this who you really are?"
Sasuke expected her to panic, or perhaps even scream- but to his surprise, her face split into a wide grin. She blinked once; when she opened her eyes again, they were red. "You disgust me." She whispered, and before anyone could notice, she pulled her fist back at an amazing speed and punched him right in the face. He flew across the room and crashed against the wall.
Several people around them stopped to stare as Deidara flinched, getting back on his feet. He dusted off his cloak and whirled around to face her.
"You haven't changed at all, Sakura-chan." He said with a wince. Despite his evident pain, he grinned at her once again. "I'll see you soon... and trust me, it'll definitely be soon." It almost sounded like a threat. He headed back towards the elevator, followed by his two partners. "I'll see you soon too... Uchiha Sasuke." Those were his last words before the elevator doors slid shut.
When Sasuke turned back to look at her, her eyes were green again. "I guess it never gets boring with you around, does it?" He dryly commented. "I've only met you yesterday and I feel like I've known you forever." She chuckled at his words. "It's not a good thing either." He added.
"Sorry you had to witness that." She sheepishly apologized.
He ignored her apology. "We should get going. We probably already missed the first five minutes of the movie." He grabbed her arm and dragged her away.
"What a cute couple." A couple of old ladies watching them whispered to each other. "They match so well!"
Neither of them had the heart to turn around and deny it.
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"It was only a movie Sakura, nothing that horrible." Sasuke had to roll his eyes as the usually strong-willed girl clutched his sleeve as he led her out of the dark movie theatre. She whimpered something incomprehensible, her eyes wide open in fear. He looked away, embarrassed at the attention they were receiving from various people. "You can get off me now." He muttered, causing her to jump away from him.
She blushed looking equally as embarrassed. "Sorry," She mumbled. "I didn't notice I was hanging on to you like that."
"I should take you back before your friend freaks out." Sasuke said awkwardly. "He'll think I kidnapped you or something."
Sakura gave him a sheepish grin. "Don't mind him too much, Sai's usually like that. He doesn't really know how to approach people and interact with them... it's like his social growth was stunted. But he eventually warms up if you try hard enough!" She tried to say encouragingly.
"I'm not planning to try hard to become his friend." Sasuke stated flatly. "I have nothing to gain from that."
"I know he's not exactly appealing as friend material," Sakura said with a sigh. "Its just that sometimes I wish he had more friends. We won't have each other forever- when we graduate at the end of this year, we'll have to separate and he's going to have to learn to make new friends by then." She looked away wistfully. "Sai's a good guy, deep inside. Even if he doesn't show it with words, he always tries to protect me."
Sasuke read right through her. "Are you asking me to not judge him too harshly?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm just saying he's a good guy deep inside, that's all." She shot back, looking slightly irritated. "He's the only one who stayed by my side after the accident. That has to count for something, right?"
"I never said he's a bad guy." Sasuke pointed out to her.
"I could see it in your face." She dryly replied. They were now nearing the school gates, and he could distinctly make out Sai's figure leaning against the wall. As they grew closer, Sai noticed their presence and his face split into a wide smile.
"I hope you had fun today, Sakura." Sai told her. "But it's time for us to go now. He didn't try to do anything weird, did he?" He glanced up at the Uchiha.
"I just took her to watch a movie, nothing more." Sasuke grunted, frowning at him. "Don't try to make me into some weird pervert. I just wanted to watch a movie and none of my friends were available. She was the only choice I had. If I went alone, it would have been annoying." She could somehow understand what he was saying. She had seen the way in which all the girls turned around to look at him- if he had gone alone, he would have certainly been pestered to death by his loyal fangirls.
"Don't worry Sai, it was fine." Sakura reassuringly told her friend. She turned around to face Sasuke. "Thanks for today, I had fun. I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?" With one last wave, she disappeared behind the corner of the street with Sai by her side.
"Can we come out now?"
Without waiting for an answer, the loud blond hopped out of a nearby bush to join his friend. "I want details!" He exclaimed in delight, as Shikamaru and Kiba revealed themselves out into the open as well. "Did you guys hold hands? Or maybe even kiss? Tell me everything!" Sasuke was positive that Naruto's eyes were sparkling by now.
"I know you were there the whole time dobe, nothing happened." Sasuke snapped at him, annoyed. "If anything did happen, you would have seen it from your seat in the sixth row, third seat to the left."
Naruto's jaw dropped open, before he regained his composure. "But it was dark!" He whined. "And the movie was pretty scary so I had to close my eyes several times! Maybe you took advantage of Sakura-chan's fear too and kissed her when she was the most vulnerable!"
"I don't have time for your dumb reasoning." Sasuke said, pushing the blond out of the way. "I went on this date so we would be able to follow them to wherever they're going. We don't have time to waste." He stopped for a moment to look at Shikamaru. "And I found out something new too. We ran into some of her old friends- apparently enemies now. You might want to look into that some more- they weren't very normal either."
"What did they look like?" Shikamaru asked, looking quite interested.
"They were wearing some sort of uniform- black cloak with red clouds." Sasuke said, trying to remember. "One had long blond hair, one had short red hair and the other was a blue-skinned man."
"There's no doubt about it, they're members of the Akatsuki." Shikamaru said with a nod. Sasuke immediately tensed. "Much like us, they're an organization that deals with assassinations; but they deal with other things as well, most of them illegal." He curiously eyed Sasuke, who's face was turning darker and darker by the second. "By the looks of it, Sasuke, you already know of the Akatsuki."
"It's none of your business." Sasuke said stiffly. Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "We should get going if we don't want to lose our target. I placed a tracking device on her, but it's not going to work if she's too far." Sasuke said, turning away from them.
The boys immediately gathered their things and started to run in the direction Sakura had disappeared in.
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"I'm glad to see you made it in one piece." A cold voice sneered unpleasantly. "For a second there you had me thinking that you wouldn't show up."
From the other side of the dark, empty warehouse, the pink haired girl scoffed. "Yeah right," She said, a frown gracing her pretty features. "As if we'd run away from the likes of you, Kin." Sai stood tall by her side, giving his opponents his trademark polite smile.
"Sakura doesn't like backing down from requests." He said flatly, setting his bag down. "And I don't blame her either. What a ridiculous idea, to blatantly threaten us. We don't take kindly to insults."
"My, my Haruno, you've fallen so low!" The girl on the other side called Kin said with a sinister laugh. "You caught me at a weak time last year, but I promise you it won't be the same this time." Her eyes narrowed into slits. "Not so cocky now that you don't have your cloaked friends by your side, hm?"
Sakura almost snorted. "As if I need any of them to kick the crap out of you." She said, rolling her eyes. "If I were you, I'd just accept defeat and walk away right now."
Sakura thought back to a year ago, when she had met Kin for the first time. Kin was part of an organization similar to the Akatsuki, called the Sound Corporation (she always thought it was a gay name. Honestly Akatsuki sounded much cooler). And for some absurd reason, she had been ordered to assassinate one of her old friends- Deidara. All she had really done was protect her friend- something completely natural at the time when she and Deidara had still been close. Granted, she had beat Kin into a pulp as a result of the exchange.
A few days ago, she had received a message from Kin herself, after one entire year. The other girl had threatened to harm Sai if she did not show up at the requested location at the requested time- probably for a rematch or something equally as childish.
"You don't know what I went through because of you!" Kin hissed angrily. "I was demoted! I was ridiculed for months because I failed the stupid mission! Orochimaru-sama never looked at me in the same way again, even after all the hard work I went through to earn my status in Sound!"
"That's your own problem." Sakura told her coldly. "You attacked someone I was close to, and I returned the favor twice as much. I didn't think you would be dumb enough to repeat the same mistakes- but here you are, threatening another one of my friends again one year later. You weren't strong enough to beat me back then and you aren't strong enough now- I'm warning you, just turn back."
"As if I'm scared of a little pink haired girl and an artist." Kin sneered. "I'll take revenge this time. You'll wish you never messed with me!"
Sakura turned to Sai in frustraton. "Why is it that people always underestimate us for the color of my hair and your hobby?" She asked him unhappily.
Sai lightly patted her on the head. "It's okay, we'll just prove them wrong, like always." He briefly eyed their opponents. "I see you brought some friends along as well." He calmly stated, observing the other two males by her side.
"I'm Zaku." One of the boys stepped forward, licking his lips in anticipation. "I like killing artists and tasting pink haired girls." He grinned sadistically.
Sai felt Sakura's anger spike by his side. He grabbed her arm as if to warn her to calm down. As a result, she immediately relaxed at his touch. Another boy stepped forwards, one eye peeking at them from the bundle of bandages covering him from head to toe. "I'm Dosu," He introduced himself. "Pleasure to meet you." His raspy voice was entirely sarcastic.
"Is that really the best you coud do?" Sakura asked with a yawn. "A little boy who hasn't hit puberty yet and a mummy who doesn't seem to know that Halloween only happens once a year? How boring." She glanced at her nails, as if to emphasize her disappointment.
"You won't be acting so cocky when we're done with you." Kin cackled, looking absolutely delighted. "You'll wish you spent your time training instead of taking care of your appearance!"
Sakura's face split into an evil grin, as her green irises slowly melted into red.
"Bring it on."
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"Where are they?" Naruto complained, running through the empty docks. "This place is freakin' huge! How are we ever going to find her?" He cast a look towards the raven haired boy next to him. "Can't your stupid tracking device track her any further than this?"
"It only gives me a general location." Sasuke panted, sprinting alongside Naruto. "Just save your breath and keep on running. She's definitely somewhere in this area."
They quickly came to a stop as Kiba raised his hand, motioning for them to follow him. They stood still for a moment, waiting for him to give them another signal. It was times like these when Kiba's heightened senses came in handy to the group. "I think I can hear something going on over there." Kiba whispered, and started to run towards an abandoned warehouse at the very north of the docks.
"They're fighting." Kiba said while running, his eyes widening in realization. "I can hear things crashing and the faint sounds of people punching and kicking at each other."
"We should remain impartial for now." Shikamaru told them, leading them towards a window. "We have to observe the situation to decide whether it's really worth exposing ourselves right now. Our target is already far too suspicious of us because of the incident with Gaara yesterday- if she finds out we've been following her as well, we're never going to be able to earn her trust."
Naruto gave him a pained looked, but obliged. They perched themselves at a window, making sure to be well hidden from sight.
"I don't see you looking so victorious now, Pinky." A female voice sneered. The speaker was an unfamiliar black haired girl, looking extremely satisfied with herself. Sai was kneeling in a corner, each of his arms restrained by two other unfamiliar boys. They were both bruised and battered, but not as much as the artist on the floor. "Where is your barrier now?" The black haired girl sneered again.
Kin forced Sakura's bruised body on the floor by grabbing onto her lovely pink locks. "Where's your precious little barrier now?" She asked, giving Sakura's body another kick. "I finally got it- as long as I don't use weapons, your stupid little barrier won't activate. I'll just beat you to death!" She laughed, throwing her head back. "I trained for an entire year for this day. You think you're so strong, don't you? I bet that you spent all your time growing out your precious hair instead of properly training."
"Shut up," Sakura grit out, trying to lash out at the girl who had the upper hand of the situation. Kin aimed another kick at her stomach; this time, Sakura spat out blood.
"Hey now, why don't you let go of her now? Haven't you had enough of your playtime?"
Sasuke snapped his head sideways- sure enough, Naruto was gone. He rolled his eyes as the loud and obnoxious blond casually strolled into the warehouse, interrupting the fight.
"Che... Naruto's playing hero again." Sasuke muttered under his breath. He was getting ready to join his partner when Sakura's loud cry stopped him.
"Naruto, get the hell out of here."
It wasn't the warm voice Sasuke had grown accustomed to- but it wasn't the cold voice she used when she put up her tough front either. It was a tone he had never heard from her- her voice was bitingly icy, full of nothing but pure hatred. Naruto also stopped in his tracks, surprised at the new side of Sakura he had never seen before.
"I don't need your help." She furiously lashed out, her bright red eyes glaring straight at him. "And I don't need your help either, Sasuke. Take your friends and get out of here- this isn't your problem!"
The Uchiha stiffened as he heard her call out his name. So she had noticed their presence after all.
"Where did all your friendliness from before go?" Sasuke asked monotonously, hopping through the window to join Naruto's side. There was no use in hiding if he had already been discovered. "It's like I told you before, Sakura; you should really stop morphing into so many personalities at once."
"Sasuke." She growled under her breath, her bruised face turning to glare at him. "You only asked me to hang out with you so you could follow me afterwards. I should have realized it sooner." She didn't know why, but it hurt. It hurt to think that she had only been used for another purpose. She had actually been happy when he had treated her so normally.
For a moment-
For a moment, she had actually thought that he simply wanted to spend some time with her.
How naive of her.
"Isn't it a good thing I did though?" He raised an eyebrow at her current position at the floor. "You're looking a little helpless down there."
Sakura's red eyes flashed.
She wasn't helpless.
She wasn't weak.
She'd show him.
Within less than a second, Sakura pulled out a small switchblade from her pocket and flicked the sharp blade out. "We'll see who's really helpless when I'm done with her." Her smirk was absolutely terrifying- it was almost inhuman.
"Stupid girl." Kin tightened her grip on Sakura's pink hair, making her wince. "It's no use, your arms can't reach me from you current position."
Sakura strained her neck to look back at Karin with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes- a look so sinister that even Kin couldn't stop herself from shuddering.
"Who said anything about you?"
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"I thought you guys were going to watch a movie." Hidan called out to the trio who unhappily trudged back into their headquarters.
"We were going to." Deidara furiously retorted, opening the freezer to look for an ice pack. "But we met that stupid pink haired brat on the way. I didn't feel like being in the same buliding with her so we just decided to come back."
"That explains that nasty bruise you have on your face." Kakuzu dryly commented, lazily flipping through the tv channels. He scowled when he saw that nothing interesting was on. "I'm glad she taught you a lesson though. You're too cocky sometimes, Deidara."
"Shut up, yeah." Deidara grumbled, shooting the dark-skinned man a nasty look. Kisame took a seat on the couch next to Hidan, while Sasori immediately marched over to his room, slamming the door closed behind him.
Hidan glanced up from his book once more to look at the closed door. "Someone's in a bad mood," He commented, raising an eyebrow. "What's got his panties in a twist?"
"Sakura called his puppets barbies again." Kisame grunted, rolling his eyes. "It's a blow to his pride- we all know how much time he actually spends on making those things." He shuddered, thinking of the numerous wooden puppets that filled the redhead's room. "And he's probably still bitter that she's not with us anymore."
"What's so good about that stupid Morino Idate?" Deidara snorted, throwing his cloak onto the coffee table in front of the tv. "Seriously, what kind kind of guy tells his girlfriend to stop hanging out with her friends? That's one of the first signs of a potential abusive partner." He spat, looking extremely irritated.
Kisame sighed. "You know that's not what he said, Deidara." He told his blond friend. "He just didn't want his girlfriend to be in the Akatsuki- which is understandable. If you had a girlfriend, you wouldn't want her running around with a bunch of criminals either, would you?" He pointed out, as Deidara sulked at his words. "Maybe it's true that he didn't approach it in the best manner- she could have left the organization without cutting ties with us, but honestly, I don't blame him."
"Are you jealous, Dei-chan?" Hidan snickered delightedly. "You should have seen your face when she told you she was dating that Idate guy, it was abso-fucking-lutely priceless!"
"You should have taken a picture." Zetsu joined in on the conversation, as he entered through the front door with Tobi trailing in behind him. "You could have made some good money by selling copies around."
Short little Tobi let out a laugh.
"What the hell are you laughing at, Tobi?" Deidara snapped, whirling around to face the younger boy.
"N-nothing! Nothing at all, Deidara-sempai!" Tobi quickly defended himself. His face was impossible to see, for it was hidden behind an orange wooden mask, but his voice betrayed his obvious fear of the older man. He dodged as Deidara threw an apple at his head.
"I still don't understand why you're in such a shitty mood." Hidan said, turning a page in his book. "You went to the movies and met Sakura-chan. So fucking what?"
"I think it's because he was with another guy." Kisame whispered.
"Wasn't Sakura-chan dating Idate-san?" Tobi asked loudly, overhearing the blue-skinned man's words. Kisame winced as Deidara shot him a deadly look.
"Don't know and don't care." Deidara snapped, looking more irritated by the second.
"Who was she with?" Hidan asked enthusiastically.
Deidara cast him a look. "Ironically, she was with Uchiha Sasuke." He said, and everyone in the room suddenly looked a tad bit more interested. "Our resident Uchiha's one and only little brother, last surviving member of the Uchiha massacre, and all that other fancy jazz."
"I see my foolish brother is doing well."
The friendly atmosphere in the room was immediately sucked out by the cold voice that interrupted their conversation.
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And I'm just scared,
So scared
That I'll fail you.
A/N: Reviews are love. :)