Hey guys. Bored with this story yet? If you're reading this, then I hope not.
Okay, I have a challenge for you readers out there. I have a few DeiSaku videos on YouTube, and if you can figure out which picture in the video that I drew, I'll… I don't know, do a special oneshot request. You can only guess once, so… yeah. No cheating :3 for your guess, just put a time, like 2:19 or 4:56. You can look at either one; my picture is in both:
/watch?v=xua2v4ggsOU – DeiSaku: Love Like Woe (The Ready Set)
/watch?v=ZrUlnlhrffQ – DeiSaku: Let Me Go (Christian Kane)
This is only a little thing for fun. Ignore it if you want, but if you're up to the challenge, guess away :) I'll tell you who guessed correctly in chapter 15.
They had walked in silence for a good hour, and frankly, the tension between the medic and the Uchiha could be cut with a knife.
And it was making her very, VERY uncomfortable.
Sakura was still walking a good ten feet behind him, not wanting to get too close. At first she questioned why she was so uncomfortable, seeing as they were now allies. Maybe it had something to do with him killing his entire clan, screwing with his little brother's mind, and joining an evil organization plotting to take over the world.
Hell, maybe she was just paranoid.
Sakura rolled her eyes at her own little mind-sarcasm. It didn't do much to help get rid of the uneasiness in her stomach. If anything, it got even worse due to old memories.
"We have to quicken our pace." The medic's head jerked up in surprise at hearing him speak. It took her a minute to recover from shock.
"Is there someone following us?" Sakura was immediately on guard, focusing on her surroundings to find any stray chakra signatures. Upon finding none, she was confused.
"No. Akatsuki's ally may not survive his illness if we can't get to him in time." Sakura suddenly felt very stupid, and just nodded, even though he couldn't see it. Their speed greatly increased as they headed for their destination.
Another few hours passed. It was getting dark.
Yet, she wasn't tired. She had too much to think about and not enough time to cram those thoughts in. Her feet moved on autopilot, and her mind travelled everywhere: Naruto, her friends, Tsunade, Konoha… She couldn't get a straight thought to come to her mind. Her head started feeling heavy.
"Haruno," She almost ran into him when he suddenly stopped and turned around to face her, red eyes gleaming under the brim of his kasa. She skidded to a stop a few feet from him, suddenly feeling very nervous. "We stop here." He turned back around and settled himself under a nearby tree.
It took a few minutes for her thoughts to gather back together.
Camp… right, she knew that.
She silently cleared her throat and settled across from the Uchiha at another tree about five yards away. It was times like this that she hated being a missing-nin. They couldn't build a fire this close to city limits in case they're seen by patrolling ANBU. But she also felt quite grateful of her black cloak and kasa shielding her face.
At least no one would recognize her.
Sakura peered out from under her straw hat, eyeing the Uchiha carefully. His eyes were closed, but his posture was too straight. He was still awake and very alert, and by the looks of it, had no intention of actually going to sleep. She sighed to herself and looked up at the sky. It was one of the things she liked about Grass. Every night the stars were out, and the moon was always pure white and luminous. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bright light move across the sky. She glanced towards it, and smiled at the shooting star that moved quickly across the sky and disappeared. Something in the back of her mind said that Deidara would've loved to see that.
Make a wish, she told herself. She closed her eyes and thought.
How could she even come up with one thing to wish for at a time like this?
She scrunched her eyebrows and gave up, deciding to save that wish for later.
The next day, the two Akatsuki got up at dawn and travelled for a few hours before reaching a small village. It wasn't anything special, and Sakura began to wonder what Akatsuki could possibly want with someone who lived in a town this small. What could they provide…? She wondered.
Itachi led the way to a small shack on the outer parts of the village. He knocked on the door once, and waited. They didn't have to wait long, for almost immediately a middle-aged woman swung open the door and smiled brightly at them. "Oh, we've been waiting for you! Thank you so much for coming!" she invited them in eagerly, which Sakura thought was slightly awkward due to the minimal space in what she assumed to be the living room. "My husband has been ill with a poisoned wound for two days now." She chattered about his symptoms, and Sakura listened quietly, thinking about the right combination of herbs to fully cure his ailment. Itachi waited in the small living room as the woman took Sakura into the only bedroom in the little shack.
What the medic saw inside didn't affect her much, for she had seen much worse during her time at Konoha's hospital.
The man laying in the small double-bed had a large gash on his stomach, and some kind of yellow pus mixed in with specks of purple, which was most likely the poison. Sakura groaned inwardly. It looked like they had tried to clean it up themselves, but failed miserably, making her job that much harder.
She placed a glowing green hand on his forehead, checking his temperature and how far the poison had spread. The man's wife watched anxiously, waiting patiently for Sakura's diagnosis. Instead of a diagnosis, the medic gave the woman orders.
"I'll need a bucket of ice water and a cloth. Any dry herbs you have would be useful as well." The woman nodded and almost ran out of the room.
Curing this man would be difficult, but not impossible.
He had a high fever, and the poison had already spread close to his heart. She sighed and grabbed a nearby stool and sat by the bed. She placed her hand on his chest, using her chakra to place a glowing barrier around his heart to prevent any infection to get to it. That would have to hold until the woman came back with the water and herbs.
"Konan-san~!" The hallways echoed with the high-pitched call. "Konan-san~!"
The man pouted behind his mask when he realized that the blue-haired kunoichi was nowhere to be seen. "Tobi is so lonely and bored…" A hard bash on his skull made him realize the presence of another in the Akatsuki base's living room.
"What the hell do you mean by 'bored,' hn?" The blond artist glared at the masked shinobi, annoyed by his loud screaming. "Don't you have work you should be doing, yeah?"
Tobi rubbed at his now bruised head, sobbing loudly. "But Sempai… Tobi hasn't seen Konan-san since yesterday… Konan-san went outside and hasn't come back. What if Konan-san is missing? Or what if Konan-san has been kidnapped?" There was another bash on the younger Akatsuki's head. "Auhhh, Sempaiii! Why are you hurting Tobi?"
"Because you're irritating the hell out of me with your 'Konan-san' this and 'Konan-san' that, un!" Deidara cracked his knuckles menacingly. "You have a job to do, so go and talk to Leader before HE bashes your skull in, hn!"
Tobi quickly walked away, still rubbing at his sore head.
"You are not a good boy, Sempai…"
It only took about an hour for Sakura to finish her healing session. It was about another hour by the time she had finished explaining to the patient's wife when and how to give the medicine to her husband. After many thanks, Itachi and Sakura were able to leave the small house. The medic sighed heavily, rubbing at her sore temples.
"Must be difficult," said the Uchiha in his monotone voice, "I hear medical jutsu takes a lot of concentration." Sakura didn't even bother hiding her surprised look at hearing him speak to her.
Finally she let out a mirthless chuckle and said, "You have no idea…" He watched her carefully as she placed her kasa back over her head. He let a smirk play over his usually blank face, unseen by the pink-haired medic.
"I see." His face immediately dropped back to its normal appearance- all emotion gone.
Sakura just gave a "hn." in reply, letting him know she had heard him.
Itachi gave an inaudible sigh, and then addressed the other ninja's name. When she turned around, he told her that the small village they were in was one of Akatsuki's special 'gates.' Sakura's eyes widened a fraction, and nodded. After performing the special seals Pein had taught her, they were transported to Akatsuki's spacious living room. Almost immediately, Sakura heard a loud, but slightly muffled, scream.
Surprised, she quickly turned around to come face to mask with none other than Tobi. He immediately glomped her, almost causing her to fall over.
"Saku-Saku! You're back! Tobi hasn't been able to see Saku-Saku since Saku-Saku arrived in Akatsuki and Leader-sama doesn't like Tobi so Leader-sama sent Tobi away on a long mission and-"
"Tobi." Sakura looked away from the swirly orange mask pressed up against her cheek to see none other than the Akatsuki leader standing in the kitchen doorway. "That's enough."
Tobi reluctantly backed away, releasing the medic. He mumbled a quick apology before hopping onto one of the leather couches and turning on the television. Sakura cast a quick glance to her side and realized that Itachi had disappeared.
She hesitantly approached the orange haired ninja, but kept her distance. "I should thank you for that."
Pein smirked. "Then thank me."
"Well I'm not going to anymore since you're being so commanding about it." The medic allowed a smile to creep over her features.
"It would be the polite thing to do." He said slowly, trying his best to be a pain in the ass.
Sakura's smile only grew wider, but held a bit of annoyance. "The polite thing to do would be to let Akatsuki's temporary medic go back to her quarters for some much desired rest."
"Who said anything about temporary?"
Sakura's smile dropped immediately and replaced it with a scowl. "Can't I have at least one conversation with you that doesn't result in me wanting to kick your ass?"
"Well that's up to you. Can you?"
Sakura grunted angrily and stormed up the stairs, but not before shoving her shoulder roughly against his as she passed. After a few minutes, he heard a door slam, which caused him to wince. He sighed and stared at the staircase that led to the Akatsuki quarters.
Tobi poked his head out from behind the couch and whispered only loud enough for Pein to hear, "That wasn't very smart, Leader-sama. Even Tobi knows that." He cocked his head to the side when Pein started to glare at him. "Leader-sama should say he's sorry if he wants Saku-Saku to like him."
With that, the masked ninja turned off the television and retreated to his own quarters, leaving a very irritated Akatsuki leader. Frustrated, he plopped himself down on the couch and forced himself to fall asleep as images of pink flooded his mind.