Like Moths to the Light Chapter 7: Explosions, a naruto fanfic

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Chapter Seven

Explosions

Life's too long as the Lemming said

as the candle burned and the Moths were wed.

And we'll all burn together as the wick grows higher

Before the candle's dead.

Sakura fingered a few of her kunai making certain that the fat moth shaped charms that dangled from the knife's circular end were secure. Smirking in satisfaction she hid the weapons away on a hip pocket were they would be most accessible. Their tops only barely peaking out of the dark black fabric that clung to her body.

It was a few hours before sunset and the petal haired assassin was making a few last minuet checks before she and her two partners set out on the mission. Her cloak's hood was set neatly on the top of her head, revealing her calm porcine shaded face. The rest of the tattered fabric fell like a cloud around her feet, still slightly dragging.

She mentally cursed her shortness knowing she would take it back in a few moments. She liked being short. Part of her thinking came from how tall Ino was standing next to her.Tall and taunting and in every way perfect, unlike herself.

Sakura couldn't help but twitch a bit in irritation once again as the two men's shadows fell over her, their heads bent over her shoulder inspecting her now hidden work.

"Could you not do that?" she grudgingly asked trying not to lash out and kill the two.

It was a real struggle and if they didn't loosen up and give her some room she couldn't promise that they would come out in one piece.

"What are you doing yeah?" The tall blond clay expert asked not bothering to move anywhere.

"I'm getting ready for our mission. What dose it look like I'm doing?" She growled drawing her tattered brown cloak closer to her thin frame and taking a steep away from the two. "Are you two both ready?"

"Dederia sempi and I are both ready for departure dokubutsu ga san." The orange masked man replied a bit more politely than his partner with a slight bow in respect.

Sakura lazily raised an eyebrow at the sight of respect and politeness. Some how she didn't expect an S class ex nin would be anything other than rude and blood thirsty, apparently she was wrong.

"Whatever, we still have an hour or so before we need to leave, I doubt it will take us hat long to travel seven miles."

"What are you suggesting yeah?" Dederia asked.

"I'm not suggesting anything. All I'm saying is that we have a while before we need to leave. Don't you two have something you could do without me having to be there?"

"Nope, yeah." Dederia happily chirped.

Sakura sighed letting her shoulders slump. These two guys were really impossible to deal with. She remembered the first time she met them, last night, she thought they would be a little more cold or distant but she couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact they both reminded her of Naruto's old attitude, Dederia being the more sensible of the two.

"Clingy like Naruto too." She muttered shaking her head recalling how she barely had a minuet to herself aside from the time when she took a short mediation nap. And even then, the only reason they left her alone was because they needed their sleep as well.

"Did you say something yeah?" Dederia asked materializing at her side.

"Gah, no! Gee don't you two have something you could be doing right now aside from bugging me?" She growled in frustration at the lack of personal room.

"We told you, yeah."

Sakura breathed deeply hoping to calm her fidgeting nerves. "Yeah, yeah, yea I know but can't you two find something to do to amuse yourselves for a few moments?"

"Okay!" Tobi chirped happily and Sakura couldn't help but smile thinking she would have a few moments to herself. "How about we all play a game then." That hope came crashing down.

"A…a game?" She stuttered out trying to keep her left eye from twitching too much. "Aren't we all a bit too old for that? That's kind of childish…" Sakura was really only annoyed with the fact that she would have to playa game with them. Naruto and her played games with their friends all the time and she was the one who proposed the idea over half the time.

"Nah, Tobi and I play games all the time. Oh, oh I got a good one, yeah. You two both sit down and I'll be right back…." Deidara then rushed off to return a half second latter with a bottle in hand.

"We are not playing spin the bottle!" Sakura said backing up a bit from the two on the floor. There was no way in hell she would play that game with anyone.

"Nah, not the way you think. We'll play spin the bottle secrets, every time the bottle lads on you, you have to share a secret yeah." Dederia chuckled allowing Sakura to inch closer.

Nodding to Dederia Sakura let the artistic blond spin the bottle. Who knows he might gain some voluble information she could take back to Leaf. But then they could find out something of inportance from her. She would just have to keep the secrets very personal and make sure they had nothing to do with her work.

The clear coke shaped bottle slowed down coming to a spot in front of Tobi causing Sakura to sigh in relief.

"Okay Tobi tell a secret, yeah."

"What should Tobi say?"

"…Oh, oh tell us something Kisame dared you to do when you and a bunch of other guys were playing truth and dare without me yeah!"

Tobi stuttered a bit and Sakura could have sworn he was blushing but then you could never tell what was behind the orange mask of his. Kind of like Kakashi. Oh, now she really wanted to rip it off and see what was behind. She never was able to get Kakashi to pull down his navy blue mask and expose what ever it was that was behind it. But Naruto had once told her he had seen it when Kakashi was at the hotsprings. But for some odd reason the fox boy wouldn't say anything more than that.

"...Nah, okay Kisame dared Tobi to…singBarbiegirlkaraokestyleinfrontofeveryoneatthebase." He answered real fast.

Sakura's hands instantly flew to her lips in an effort to conceal her fighting laughter. Kisame dared Tobi to sing Barbie girl karaoke style in a game of truth or dare? Somehow the idea of a bunch of S class criminals and murderers playing truth and dare and singing songs like Barbie girl was not something she would have thought up on her own.

"Do you guys play truth or dare a lot?" Sakura asked, her feminine curiosity getting the better of her. She just had to know.

"Y-yeah a bit, w-whenever missions are slow... Finally, it's my turn to spin." Said Tobi spinning to bottle while keeping his face down like a sky child would. It spun rapidly before decreasing to s slow turn that fell on Dederia. "You turn, do a childhood memory!"

Dederia leaned back for a moment holding his chin while thinking intently. "Okay yeah , when I was little My mom used to dress me up in dresses 'cause she wanted a girl. After I grew up a bit she stopped, but I still like wearing the dresses so I didn't."

"You still do that?" Sakura asked eagerly leaning over. Dederia stuttered and turned his face away.

"Of course not I'm a man, not a woman!"

"I'm not saying anything like that." Sakura replied trying to keep her chuckle down to a minimum so as not to offend the blond artist.

Tobi leaned over towards Sakura and whispered in her ear. "I've seen him before. He still dose, but he doesn't let anyone know cause he's afraid they'll think he's gay and he's not. Trust me he has walls covered with pin ups of models and such. He says it's to save money on wallpaper."

Sakura giggles but was silenced as the spinning bottle fell on her. "Your turn yeah!" The blue eyed male cried in what sounded like joy.

Sakura groaned leaning back and though for a moment. "What should I say?"

"Something about your love life yeah!" Dederia chirped scooting closer to the pink haired assassin as did Tobi.

"My love life? Oh wow, well, when I was little I had a crush on this boy but that dissolved as I grew older, he was a real jerk and a creep and I guess I only liked him because all the other girls liked him. I don't have anyone now and I'm perfectly fine with it. A lot of the guys I knew all thought I was weak and frail so I don't think I could be with the if they are still like that..."

Sakura's voice trailed off and her eyes took on a hazt green color remembering events before she left.

Good memories.

Bad memories.

Sad memories.

Painful memories.

Memories that made her want to hurt someone.

Memories she would trade for the world.

For some reason almost all of them had one of her boys in it. If it was hitting Narutoover the head for a dumb comment or punching Sai in the face for calling her a hag, or trying to get Kakashi to take off his mask for them. There were times when they made her so mad, and did things that hurt her. But there were times that made her smile and laugh till her sides hurt. There were times she would cry and scream and laugh and they were always there.

"Did anyone ever have any crushes on you?" Tobi asked leaning forward a bit.

Sakura looked up coming out of her mind."Umm my best friend was a guy and when we were younger he never went a day without telling me he loved me and all that crap. The same goes with this other guy the really liked me, but that's pretty much it so for a love life I have none as of now. Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy being single, lots of freedom you know. "

"So you are single yeah?"

"Yeah why? What's it to you?"

"N-nothing I just wanted a straight confession that's all." Dederia replied smirking a bit to himself. "We can start asking questions now if you guys want to spice it up a bit."

Sakura smirked darkly as thoughts and ideas streamed through her mind, letting the bottle spin underneath her long thin fingertips. "Okay you two, your on."

Sakura fell on Dederia's shoulder as howled of laughter erupted from her darkly colored lips as she joined him in his laughter. One confession after another kept her laughing till her sides hurt. She didn't even notice the many minuets slipped by like seconds as she enjoyed herself. How she wished everyday could be like this, if only that were possible.

"Damn It's time to get going." Sakura groaned straightening herself upright.

"And it was just getting good too." Dederia complained missing the desired weight on his shoulder.

Sakura hopped out the window and hopped across the roof tops of the huge Japanese styled palace until reaching the edge where Dederia and Tobi materialized next to her. The blond artiest pulled open a pouch of clay and began to mold it into a bird to hopped from his palm. After a moment it grew in size to seat two. Not waiting for another word to be said Sakura pushed off the side of the house with her chakra enhanced legs and glided silently into the trees mimicking a shadow to perfection. The thought of blood playing over and over in her mind.

"I could wait." She frowned to herself at the bloody thought.

"Dang I wanted her to rind with me yeah." Mumbled Deidara slumping his shoulders a bit as he watched the said girl zip in and out of the trees with amazing speed and agility. Speed and agility he admired.

"Did you say something Deidara sempai?" Tobi asked climbing onto the bird beside his partner.

"Uh no. I didn't say anything yeah. Shut up and hold on."

Within a half hour (thanks to her extraordinary speed) Sakura skit to a halt behind a rather large oak and smiled maliciously at the compound. It was a poorly hidden building sunken into the ground shaped like a "E" with three main entrances. "No wonder the old geezer wanted a three man squad to pull this off." Sakura murmured to herself as Deidara's bird landed a few feet behind her with a soft pat.

"What side are you taking yeah?" He huskily whispered in Sakura's ear causing his warm breath to fan across her slightly exposed neck. Biting down on her bottom lip she pulled up her collar a bit to cover the remaining skin and pointed to the far right entrance.

"Deidara, I think you should go last since your moves tend to be a bit showy. If the other guards on the left and right side see your…art then our cover is blown. Tobi you can take the far left, you and I enter at the same time to cerate as much confusion as possible. Deidara after the alarms are tripped you can strike. You guys okay with that?"

Tobi nodded happily and Deidara smirked holding up another clay bird.

"Good than get into position you two." Sakura hissed out in a whisper while slipping into the shadows and descending down the hill.

Hovering above the ground Sakura darted from shadow to shadow quickly advancing upon the blocked entrance. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tobi doing the same. Good they were in perfect synch. Sakura drew to a halt before the large metal door before her guarded by two and started to let a purple colored fog creep out from the edges of her cloak. In a matter of seconds two dull thuds greeted her ears signaling her success.

Grabbing a key card off of the dead guards she quickly swiped it just as Tobi's door began to open. Right on time a loud explosion sounded around the middle gate allowing a giant clay bird to fly straight in. A few guards rushed at her but the mist she sent ahead of her quickly brought them to their knees. Not wanting to kill all of enemies off to quickly Sakura stopped pouring the mist out from underneath her cloak and pulled off her gloves exposing her hands. One guard came at her and she pivoted her attack while touching him on the cheek. A dark red pattern spread across his face in an instant from her fingertips before disappearing as quickly as it came.

"What the…?" He moaned as his body failed him and he fell to the cold hard earth.

"Poison. My whole body is cursed with it. All I need to do is touch you to kill you. Don't dream about an antidote. It's a spratic disease without a cure."

"P…poison y…yukionna." The man gasped in disbelief as his last words were whisked away.

"Goodnight." She hushed letting her eyes turn completely black with malice dancing freely within them.

Her fingertips began to turn from their healthy pale pink to a tainting red as poison started to drip from them. That man had a few moments to live after she touched him since her poison was buried beneath her flesh but now she was bringing it out. She was letting loose and she expected to see blood spilled.

"I'm done holding back, no one gets out alive." She darkly growled dashing forward with her reflecting black eyes of coal flashing the promise of death and blood.

Another body fell lifeless at her feet joining the countless other corps that lay surrounding her. Blood running down her cheek from a little scratch she received when one of the more skilled guards decided to use his head and not loose his guts at the sight of her.

"Fun." She mumbled to herself running a black ad white checkered nail over the cut letting the bright crimson liquid trail down her fingers and off her wrist. "I wonder if Deidara and Tobi are done with their sides. I don't think it was too difficult for them. These guards were very poorly trained a gennin could take one down with minimal trouble. I guess it's time for me to do my part here…" She mused letting a dark pinkish red mist creep out from the hems of her cloak quickly flooding the passage.

Once it was completely filled from stat to finish Sakura turned down the side hallway leaving her deadly mist behind waiting silently for it's mistress' command. She smiled sickly finding the door that held the grand prize.

"Bingo." Sadly it was heavily sealed with multiple protection seal, most still active. "The damn bastard is a coward." She snarled her blood boiling. He'll be a dead coward in a minuet."

Placing both of her palms on the heavy air tight metal door Sakura willed the poison hiding in her body underneath her skin to surface and eat away at the metal in front of it similar to acid. She had to push more of her chakra into this type of poison in order to make it strong to eat through the metal door since it was so thick. The seals hissed at her actions and a few bomb seals began to go off but Sakura's cloak hardened around her body so that they had no effect on her. Her chakra storage was a lot lower then she would have liked it to be but she had to finish this guy off. "Damn it where are those two." She hissed feeling more and more of her spiritual energy drain, the door slowly yielding to her poisons.

"Ga Chaynnnn!" Someone squealed from behind her soon followed closely by a loud explosion.

"Speak of the devil…"

"Ga chan, hey there yeah I'm done with my part yeah. Are you finished as well?" Sakura merely grunted in reply pushing her hands against the door harder than before a bit more eager to enter the room. "Oh that's good yeah. I finished my part too though I don't know if Tobi is done with his, that lazy bum probably freaking out over all the blood yeah. Sissy."

"Deidara san, I appreciate you informing me of your success but I'm kind of busy with this damn door. Please let me concentrate." Sakura grumbled passing through another inch. In another minuet she would be though.

"Oh sorry about that then. Just wanted to let you know yeah." The blond artist ninja replied shyly looking down with a light shade of pink staining his cheeks.

"Deidara Senpi!" Deidara cringed at the sound of his name being called by none other than the his orange masked partner.

'Damn couldn't he have waited a few flipping minuets. I wanted to be alone with Ga chan yeah.' Deidara through with a death glare directed towards his partner who continued to remain oblivious.

Sakura hissed pushing against the door causing it to finally fall under her poison acids with a dull groan and a loud clatter as it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. "Almost done." She coughed straightening up and stepping over the rubble.

Tobi whistled at the mess at her feet and followed the dark eyed assassin into the room. Deidara stuttered a bit to himself before quickly dashing off after the two not liking to see those two together. "So all we have to do is kill this one last guy yeah?" The blond artist nin asked catching up with the two and positioning himself between Tobi and Sakura.

"And blow up the base…Remember there can be nothing left of this shit hole as our dear employer so kindly put it." Sakura added rolling her eyes at the thought of the man's mouth.

"Ah, the blowing up part sounds like fun yeah?" Deidara laughed pulling out a clay bird.

"Do you have enough clay for the entire building cause I could do the wing I came down. I already have it rigged and everything so it would be a synch." Sakura offered as the three continued down the pathway.

"I think I got enough for all three, but I might not have enough for this part here. If you could do your wing l can do the two Tobi and I came down as well as this room yeah."

Sakura nodded but stopped suddenly. Something was up this room was way too big for them to be walking down this far. Channeling her eye nerves to process purely through chakra, just like a moth would. "Damn I knew it." She hissed softly seeing through the genjutsu. "Deidara Tobi duck now!" The two did so instantly without a word of question while Sakura hit the floor next to them only to narrowly avoid a blazing blue flame aimed at their faces. "Change of plans, Deidara you and Tobi to all three of the hallways I'll take this one room."

"Don't you want some back up yeah?" The blond asked in almost a whine, not really concerned about the intense heat or the blue flame waving around their heads.

"Could they be anymore calm about the current situation?" She though I amusement. But then they were both S rank missing nin and part the feared Akatsuki group.

"Y-yeah Ga chan can't we stay and help then do the hallways?" Tobi added completely oblivious to the high rate death glare his partner was sending him when he called Sakura Ga chan. He didn't seem happy about his partner addressing her in such a familiar tone.

"Nah I got it here I'll meet up with you two later." Sakura mumbled waving the two off. She almost laughed at the blond's dejected expression as he and his partner drew back. She could have sworn he hear her sigh and Tobi whine a bit. Sakura stood up once the two were gone and pressed her palms together. Letting her fingers fly in the complex motion of a jutsu she let her dark maroon lips murmur in a whisper the needed words. Soon the ground around her began to shift and the room began to crack as a dark bark like substance sprouted up out of the floor distorting the room and canceling out the booby traps and weapons aimed at her.

"Com on out fat ass there is nowhere in this room you can hide from me!" Sakura called out angrily. You could tell from the tone of her voice she was not happy about having to track and hunt down her pray. She preferred to defeat her opponents in battle.

"What are you doing here?" A voice called out from somewhere in the door Sakura could not pinpoint. "To kill you, why else?" "Why?" Sakura cursed silently to herself on not being able to determine his exact location. He was pretty skilled at throwing his voice around the room but sooner or later she would catch onto his little trick and penetrate it through his flaws. All she had to do was keep him talking.

"Nothing personal sir just good business I guess. I was hired to kill you duh."

"Hired? By who, was it one of my rivals?"

"Who else would hire me to kill you?"

"Was it one of my former friends?"

"Well since you are going to be dead in a few minuets I don't see how it can hurt to tell you that yes, it is one of your rivals." Sakura replied with a smirk pinpointing his location. Kicking aside a metal hinge her smirk grew into a sick twisted smile seeing the fat old man covering in fear under her towering frame. Not that she could blame him, he was going to die and he knew it. "Yeah…" A shadow descended over the man and his strangled cry was cut short by his lack of a throat. Carefully wrapping her prize up in a gray piece of cloth Sakura proceeded to the middle of the room to prepare for her end of the plan.

Closing her eyes she let the pinkish red mist creep out from the hems of her cloak crawling out and filling the room. The dark eyed girl lifted her arms up she turned her body around a few times in a daze letting her poisons seep out and flood the area. It was thick now…real thick. Her Kunai jumped to her outstretched hands as she channeled her little remaining chakra into her legs to give her jump an extra boost. Once high enough she let her daggers fly towards the mist, the fat moth charms clinking against each other before exploding much like Deidara's clay birds. The explosion rippled around the room clinging to her mist that hung everywhere. Her mist acted much like gas or oil would to a fire. The bomb soon doubled and tripled in size rocking the building. The force of the explosion had sent Sakura up higher, the wind trapped under her cloak that was acting a lot like a parachute.

"Boom…" She chuckled to herself rising higher and clear of the flames.

Her prize was tied securely to her belt and she could make out the distant line on one of Deidara's birds coming her way. Tobi was waving wildly to her in excitement. She waved back falling slowly back to earth since the wind was gone from her cloak. The large clay bird passed her by and she grabbed on of it's legs before swing her agile fairy like body up onto it's back and settling herself between the two.

"Yo," She greeted happily with a carefree grin before raising up the gray blood soaked item from her belt. "Mission accomplished, target confirmed and eliminated."

Neji turned another corner searching for the three people he wanted to kill the most at the current moment. Tsunade had shown him the note Sakura had left behind before her departure and he had to admit, he had lost control for a moment in anger. If the Hokage didn't know he had secret affections towards the pink haired Kunoichi she knew now.

But back to the matter at hand, he was currently looking for team seven…or what was left of it without Sakura. He had a few things he wanted to shove in their face. From what he could guess they were the reason she left, they were the reason she wasn't still here, they were the reason for her pain and heartache. He was going to make sure they all felt the pain she felt ten hundred times over.

He remembered reading her letter, recognizing her handwriting but not her words. They seemed so much like another person. Was she really suffering so much under his notice? Was her heart really so broken that she felt like living was a waste? It just didn't seem like the bubby pink haired Kunoichi he trained with every day for the longest time. He didn't like the Sakura he was reading about. He liked the bright joyful Sakura that enjoyed training and talking with him. The Sakura that didn't mind wasting time doing nothing as long as they were in each other's company.

The chocolate haired Jonin winced to himself as his heart pulled back and stung when he remembered reading the words in her letter about her reasons for leaving.

"I don't know if you hate me personally or think I'm so useless I can't help with anything but I know I'm either unwanted or unneeded. And if either one is the case it would serve everyone better if I just left for a while to train until I can be of some small use."

"…if I just left."

"…left."

"They made her feel that way…" He hissed darkly clenching and unclenching his fists.

They made his precious blossom feel pain. How dare they, how could they?

His highly trained pear colored eyes caught the smallest glimpse of orange and he honed in on it.

Naruto turned around weakly to see an angered Neji coming his way. Neji was rarely mad and it was even more rare to see the expression evident on his face. This confused Naruto.

"Hey Neji…" He began only to have the pear eyed man grab him by the collar and thrust him up against a wall with the promise of pain laced in his dark deadly death glare.

"You…" He hissed darkly. "How could you say those things? How could you do that, huh?"

"Wa…what are you talking about Neji?" Naruto asked confused as to why his friend was trying to kill him. The only other time this happened was when Gaara read the letter Sakura left behind….Uh oh.

"You know what I'm talking about. I read the letter and now I want to know why she was feeling that way. Why was Sakura hurting so much. I know you know."

The look in the fox boy's eyes shone with compunction and remorse it hurt to look into them. He could see Naruto was truly regretting his actions but Neji didn't care about him, all he cared about was Sakura and making him feel the same pain she felt.

"Yeah I know…"

"Well what about it? Why did she say those things, what caused her to feel so bad about herself? Was she not good enough for you? Were you so high above her in strength you had the right to judge her like that?"

Naruto looked away not wanting to look Neji in the eye. He couldn't, it hurt too much. He knew what Neji said was true and that only added to his pain.

Neji was in too far to stop or take back his words, he knew he was hurting Naruto and he didn't care. Naruto needed to hear this so that the next time Sakura came back he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"Was she really so pathetic in your eyes that she wasn't worth a place next to you? Did you hate her so much that you couldn't stand to have her on your team? Did you hate her so much Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes blazed back to life with a crimson red fire lit at the mention of hate. The whiskered boy grabbed Neji's collar and looked him dead in the eye with slit crimson orbs. "Don't you ever dare say that about Sakura chan! I cared for her more than you will ever know!"

"Than why did you chase her off like that?" Neji asked hitting Naruto with a verbal blow that brought him to his end. Naruto's eyes faded back to blue loosing their fire as he released Neji's collar. The one comment hit him below the belt. There was truth behind his words…it was because of what he said that made Sakura leave. He chased her away with his words.

Neji saw tears gather at the corner of his brought blue eyes that seemed to fade with the memory of what he said.

"I…I just didn't want her to get hurt…." He horsy whispered.

Neji chose to remain silent. He did enough. He knew Naruto would be kicking himself about this from now on and most likely until Sakura came back. Releasing the black and orange material in his fasts Neji let Naruto go. It was about time he found a silver haired Jonin and a black eyed artist and have a little chat.

Ta da... man I'm mad about this new updateing thing... would let me do it the fast way. Took me forever!

-vents on pile of plushies-

Oh yeah, back to this. I hope you all liked this chapter and it's longness. I want to start making them longer, so tell me if you like them short or long. Oh yeah and Review! Review, flame make a face...just review.