STANDARD DISCLAIMERS ABOUT ME NOT BEING AWESOME ENOUGH TO OWN NARUTO APPLY.

I'm sick, so I'm updating a lot sooner than I'd anticipated! Bad for me, good for you!

Enjoy.

"Who the hell is this?"

It was the next morning. Deidara and Sakura had risen early to meet up with Kisame and Hidan to head back to Akatsuki headquarters, and the latter was looking at her like she was some sort of freak or anomaly.

"What does it look like, dumbass?" Kisame grunted, hoisting Samehada over his shoulder. Deidara could tell the shark was hung over, yet even hung over he was fairly good-natured.

"She's going to join the Akatsuki." Deidara put in, glancing at Sakura. She was studying Hidan with a slight smile on her face, not the least bit intimidated.

"The last I heard of you, you were rotting alive in a hole," she said pleasantly.

Deidara started- Kisame for his part, simply grinned wider.

"Just a short-term delay in my immortality, bitch." Hidan snorted, but Deidara was surprised to find that he didn't seem all that pissed that she'd mentioned his defeat by that Konoha brat years before- most likely because in the end, Hidan had killed him anyway.

Kisame chose this moment to butt in. "I'm Kisame." he extended a massive hand toward Sakura.

"Sakura." she shook his hand and gave him a smile that could have charmed the pants off of anyone, Deidara supposed. It seemed to work on Kisame, he gave her a big grin back. "You ever flown before, pinkie?"

"No," she said. She gave Deidara a grin that had his heart beginning to pound like crazy. Inwardly, he cursed himself. Still, this morning, he was reacting to her like this? He'd banged the hell out of a woman whose name he didn't bother asking for last night, pushing them both to the edge over and over again, hoping it would help him resist the kunoichi's charms. Apparently, it hadn't worked. At all.

"Are we going to fly?" Sakura asked. "I've seen your clay birds before. I'd love to ride one."

Deidara broke her gaze and looked off into the distance as though he was seeing something really interesting. "We'll fly, yeah. But Hidan and Kisame, you'll ride together and Sakura and I will ride together. I don't feel like wasting clay because you two think you're too masculine to share."

Hidan's eyes narrowed dangerously. "How about you ride with Kisame and I'll ride with the bitch? Two girls on one bird doesn't seem all that fair."

Deidara ignored him, reaching into his sack of clay with both hands. He had bigger things to concern himself with than Hidan's insults- such as why the hell he couldn't tear his eyes away from Sakura's ass, or her legs, or her eyes...or any other part of her body.

He formed the seal that made his birds full-sized, feeling altogether too pleased for his own liking at Sakura's little gasp of approval. Jumping on one of the birds, he gestured to Sakura to do the same, and she did so with a smile on her face.

"Wrap your arms around my waist, yeah." Deidara instructed.

She seemed to hesitate only momentarily before gently putting her arms around him. He tried to ignore the heat that spiked up and down his body at her touch. "You'll want to hold on tightly, yeah. Otherwise you're not going to make it off the ground."

"O-okay." Sakura's arms around him tightened.

"Grab him a little lower," Hidan sneered from his place on the other bird behind Kisame. "That's what he wants you to do."

"I'll grab lower if you grab lower," Sakura's sweet voice rang out the insult like music and Deidara stifled a laugh.

Hidan's eyes narrowed. "Fu-"

Before they could bother to hear the rest of his tirade, Deidara took off into the sky. Sakura's arms tightened around him so hard it actually hurt for a moment and he heard her let out a little squeak. But only a moment later, her arms around him loosened considerably and when he stole a look back at her the look of sheer joy on her face gave him a thrill he didn't expect.

It was too windy for them to exchange words. Besides, Deidara was struggling enough concentrating on flying with Sakura all but wrapped around him. Completely unconsciously, her hold on him had slipped gradually lower, and though it wasn't low enough to really matter at all, Deidara was having an impossible time keeping his mind out of places that didn't include Sakura naked and him on top of Sakura.

Finally, they reached the Akatsuki headquarters. No longer was it necessary for the Akatsuki to hide. Leader-sama had moved the headquarters to a veritable palace in the countryside of the Fire country. They landed in what Konan had dubbed the "Courtyard", followed swiftly by Kisame and Hidan who quickly dismounted, looking around as though worried about who had seen them arrive with Hidan clinging to Kisame for dear life.

"Fucking lunatic-" Hidan muttered, brushing his cloak off. "Last time I ride a giant clay bird with that fish-"

Kisame grinned at Deidara and Sakura as they dismounted, rubbing the top of Sakura's head like she was some kid. "How'd you like your first flight, pinkie?"

Sakura didn't seem to mind his rubbing the top of her head or the obnoxious nickname. "It was wonderful," she said.

"Well, princess, the less wonderful part of your day is about to start." Hidan sneered. "Good luck meeting with Pain. We'll see you after if he doesn't kill you."

Kisame and Hidan headed inside bitching at each other like a couple of little girls. Deidara turned to Sakura, curious if Hidan's words had scared her at all.

She stood, wringing her hands and biting her lip, staring at the building in front of her.

"Don't tell me you're losing all that courage you had last night now, yeah." Deidara said.

Sakura met his gaze, shaking her head, and he was shocked by the amount of fire in her eyes. "Definitely not," she said. "Let's go."

Author's Note:

To those who read and are amazing enough to review :), I'm considering writing from both Deidara AND Sakura's POV from now on...if you have any preference either way, let me know...as of now I'm on the fence about it.

Thanks for reading!