I think the more I write Deidara's character, the funnier he gets. I've gotten a few complaints that he seems a little too OOC. I know that he seems like a big goofball, but there's a big back story to explain his behavior that I'll reveal in a later chapter.

Enjoy the chapter!

Fancy Footwork

Chapter 7: Mr. Pocari's Sweat

Early one morning, Sakura started her day by tumbling to the asphalt. Despite the little stinging on her cheek, there was something else that bothered her more. Pain lanced up her ankle as she sat up and stretched her right leg out in front of her. She tried to twist her foot to the left and was rewarded by a horrible stabbing sensation. Moments later, she heard the crunch of feet on the pavement and Itachi was kneeling in front of her.

"You okay, Kitten?" Kisame demanded as he crouched down beside her. She nodded, breathless with pain. A grimace twisted her face as Itachi carefully grasped her calf. In any other situation, she would have been blushing furiously as Itachi nearly caressed her leg, but the throbbing in her ankle managed to sap most of her modesty.

"Does this hurt?" he asked as he lowered his hands and lightly squeezed around her ankle. A whimper escaped her mouth and Itachi flinched, as if the noise hurt him to hear.

"Should we take her to the studio? I'll tell Deidara to grab ice from the convenience store," Kisame speculated, already grabbing his cell phone. But Itachi lifted his hand, signaling Kisame to wait. Sakura and Kisame watched as Itachi peeled her sock down. The skin was already turning dark red and tender. Sakura bit her lower lip as Itachi carefully pulled her sock back up. He was being so gentle with her, but even the slightest contact made her ankle scream out.

"No. My apartment's closer," Itachi decided as he stood. Sakura started when Kisame slid his arm under her knees and the other around her back. As if she weighed nothing, Kisame lifted her into the air and began walking.

"Kisame-san!" she protested but she was ignored.

"You probably sprained your ankle so you shouldn't walk on it, Sakura-san," said Itachi so she settled for hiding her frustrated blush by tucking her head against her shoulder. Kisame chuckled and she responded by punching him in the chest. Being a solid wall of muscle, he didn't even flinch. Sakura grumbled under her breath about blue sushi kidnappers, making Kisame laugh again. She broodingly watched Itachi's back as he led them back to his place.

Konoha was built on a cluster of hills, meaning that it was an uphill walk to most places. Sakura glumly watched as she was easily lugged up inclines that she knew she could never climb in her condition. As if reading her thoughts, Itachi looked at her over his shoulder and raised his eyebrow at her. She huffed as she hid her face against her shoulder again.

Itachi's apartment was in east Konoha, just a 20-minute walk from Konoha University. Sakura, who rarely had any reason to come near this part of the city, watched the college students darting in and out of the coffee shops and cafes lining the streets. Right across the street from a small park was a small white building with just three stories. Itachi held the glass door open and Kisame walked in, being extra careful not to bump Sakura's leg against the door frame. They headed to the elevators where Itachi pressed the button with an arrow pointing up.

"How's the ankle?" Kisame inquired and Sakura shrugged. There was a dull throb in her ankle, almost harmless enough for her to ignore. But Itachi peeked under her sock and made a face.

"It's purple," he flatly informed them and Kisame cringed.

Itachi lived on the top floor in a corner apartment. For some reason, as Sakura watched him unlock the door, her heart started hammering just a little too hard against her ribcage.

"Welcome to the dungeon," Kisame snickered to Sakura as he stepped inside and toed off his sneakers. Itachi snorted quietly as he shut the door behind them and disappeared to some part of his home.

The first thing that struck Sakura was the pizza box on the coffee table. She tilted her head to the side, trying to imagine Itachi sitting on the black leather sofa, munching on a slice of greasy pizza. Somehow, it didn't fit with the cool, suave image of him she had in her head. But the rest of the apartment was perfectly Itachi. The walls were dark, decorated with modern but simple paintings. Just by the foyer was the living room, complete with two leather sofas and a television. On the other side of the apartment was an open kitchen and dining area. As she looked around, a door opened and Itachi stepped out with a first-aid kit.

"Kisame. Sofa," Itachi ordered and Sakura was tossed onto the comfortable leather seat.

"I'll get some ice," Kisame muttered as he shot one more concerned look at Sakura and then wandered off to the kitchen.

"Um, Itachi-san, my shoes are still on," she hesitantly pointed out as Itachi knelt beside her. He set the first-aid kit on the coffee table, pushing the pizza box to the side. Sakura pointed at her feet and he slowly followed her finger. His forehead furrowed as his gaze lingered on her right ankle. In one swift motion, he pulled her left sneaker off. But when he went to unlace her right sneaker, pain flared up in her traitorous ankle. She bit her lip to cut off the squeak that left her. His fingers carefully undid all the laces before easing her foot out. His palm felt amazingly cool against her burning foot.

"Shit, that thing's swelling up like a balloon," Kisame remarked as he walked over with a plastic bag filled with ice. Itachi rolled his eyes as he gathered a couple throw pillows and arranged them at the end of the sofa before lowering Sakura's leg onto them. Kisame placed the ice on top, like some kind of dysfunctional sundae and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

"I'll call your school and let them know that you won't be able to make it today," Itachi said as he stood.

"No. I want to go."

Itachi froze, his hand hovering just over his cell phone. Kisame, who was sitting on the floor, turned his head to gape at her. But Sakura struggled to sit up on the sofa.

"I can't miss school because of this," Sakura insisted, gesturing to her ankle that had swollen to nearly twice its normal size. Itachi's eyes darted from her now purple ankle to her face. His expression told her that he clearly thought she was insane. Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, face set with determination. After staring at her for a solid minute, Itachi crouched in front of her.

"Sakura-san."

"Yes?"

"How on earth are you going to walk around school like that?"

"I'll manage. Besides, there's a student council meeting today."

"Can you even stand on your own, Kitten?" Kisame challenged her as he crossed his arms over her chest. Sakura bristled and swung her good leg over the edge of the couch. After struggling with the heavy ice pack, Sakura managed to pull her leg free and gingerly placed it next to her left leg. She took a deep breath, trying to ignore Kisame and Itachi's disapproving faces. Her left hand dug into the arm rest as she slowly put all her weight on her left side and managed to pull herself up. Unconvinced, Itachi lightly pushed her to the right. As soon as a tiny bit of weight fell on her right foot, pain shot up her leg and her knee buckled. She fell back onto the sofa, staring up at Itachi's somewhat triumphant expression.

"Lie back down. And let me make the call, Sakura-san," Itachi firmly ordered now that his point was proven. Sakura sulked as she complied and stuck her foot back on top of the mountain of cushions. A low laugh escaped Kisame as he slid over to reposition the bag of ice on top of her ankle. He reached over to pinch her nose.

"I've got to go unlock the studio and let Sasori and Deidara know what happened," Kisame said. Seeing her pout, Kisame added, "Cheer up, Sakura-chan. We'll bring you something good to eat later, okay?" At this, her expression lightened just a little and she slowly nodded. He patted her shoulder and gave her one last grin before he stood. Itachi, who was on the phone, lifted a hand in brief greeting as Kisame jammed his feet into his sneakers and quietly slipped out of the apartment. Itachi wandered over to her and perched on the armrest by her head as he waited for someone to answer.

"Hello, this is Uchiha Itachi. I'm calling on behalf of Haruno Sakura," he said. As he spoke, his gaze drifted to Sakura who scowled at him. He smirked as he ruffled her hair. Sakura turned her head away, feigning irritation. But really, she was trying not to blush over the fact that he had touched her hair.

"Yes. I'm aware of that… No…. She hadn't mentioned that….Her mother is away on business and she sprained her ankle…"

Sakura didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Somehow, the sound of his low voice swept around her, making her eyelids heavy. The quiet sound of his polite laugh was the last thing she heard before she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. And she could have sworn, as her eyelids fluttered shut, that she felt Itachi stroke her head.

"Hey, Sasuke, where's Haruno-chan?" Naruto asked as he popped his head into the classroom. It was just after third period and it wasn't like Sakura to miss school. She had once come in for midterms even though she had a 38 degree fever. Sasuke rubbed at the almost-healed bruise on his forehead as he scanned the room. The seat in front of Hyuuga Hinata was empty.

"You haven't seen Haruno-chan?" inquired Naruto as he made his way over to Hinata. She turned bright red as she furiously shook her head. Naruto sighed.

"Ino, do you know anything?" Naruto demanded. Ino looked at her nails, a little bored since Shikamaru was sleeping soundly.

"No. Let me text her," she said as she whipped out her cell phone and punched in a message. They sat around, waiting, but there was no response. Ino scowled. It wasn't like Sakura not to answer her. Everyone started as Hinata's cell phone lit up from on top of her desk.

"Hey, Hinata-chan. I don't have my phone so I'm using someone else's. Sorry I can't come today. See you tomorrow. Sakura," Hinata read out loud as Naruto craned his neck to read too. Ino's scowl deepened as she looked back to her silent phone. For the first time in her long friendship with Sakura, she felt a little lonely.

"Since when was she close to Hinata?"

"Thank you, Itachi-san," Sakura said as she held out his cell phone. Itachi accepted and tucked it into his pocket before he swapped out the lukewarm bag of water on top of her ankle for a fresh bag of ice. She winced when he lifted her leg to move it on top of the pillows.

"The swelling's gotten better. How do you feel?" he said as he sat on the edge of the sofa.

"I'm better," she said as she experimentally tried to move her foot and a very not ladylike word left her mouth. She thought she heard him laugh, but when she looked up, his expression was completely blank, giving away nothing. She wrinkled her nose at his perfect poker face. Then, out of the blue, Itachi reached out and lightly touched her cheek. It stung just a little bit.

"We should clean this up," Itachi murmured as he retrieved the first-aid kid from the coffee table and set it on his lap. Sakura watched as he opened a package of alcohol wipes. The strong smell made the insides of her nose burn. He grasped her chin with his left hand, tilting her cheek towards him. She squirmed when the cold wipe made contact with her skin. A thousand needles pierced through her cheek as the alcohol seeped into scratches the rough asphalt had made when she had fallen. Sakura bit her lower lip as he passed the wipe over once more and then replaced it with soothing antibiotic ointment.

"It's not deep so it shouldn't scar," he said mostly to himself as he spread the clear gel evenly over the redness. Sakura tried her best not to blush too hard when his face was hovering just over hers. Thankfully, Itachi was too engrossed in treating her to notice the way her eyes grew huge as she felt a strand of his hair brush against her forehead. He placed a band-aid right over her cheekbone and finally released her chin.

"Thank you," she said, lightly touching the band-aid. Itachi nodded as he gathered up the stray wrappers into a ball and lobbed them into a nearby trash can. He remained on the sofa, close enough that she could feel his leg pressing against hers. But she couldn't focus on how nice he smelled or the way she could see the outline of his muscles through his shirt. There was a much more pressing matter at hand.

Sakura flushed as she tried to figure out how to word her next request.

"Um," she began, her ears turning bright red, "I…. need to use….the toilet…" Itachi didn't even bat an eye as he stood. Sakura awkwardly swung her legs over the edge of the couch, trying to figure out how to best stand. She started when she saw Itachi's hands in front of her. She looked up at him and he smiled encouragingly. When she put her hands in his, she was startled by how easily he pulled her up. She stood on her left foot, holding her useless right foot awkwardly above the ground. She eyed the walk to the bathroom and heaved a sigh.

"Excuse me," Itachi suddenly said. Sakura turned her head towards him, confused. Suddenly, the floor disappeared beneath her feet and she was swept up into Itachi's strong arms. Completely mortified, she lay completely still in his arms as he easily carried her to the bathroom at the end of the hall. He carefully set her back on her good foot. She swayed once and automatically hung onto his shoulder to keep from falling. His hand rested on the small of her back, helping her keep balance.

"Um… sorry…" she said and she slapped her hands over her mouth when she realized that she had apologized once again. Turning pink while mustering as much dignity as she could, she hopped on one foot into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She collapsed on the edge of the bathtub and sighed.

There were too many men carrying her around today.

After her short trip to the bathroom, Itachi carried her back to the sofa and deposited her much more gently than Kisame had. He rearranged the pillows and the ice pack, asking if she needed anything else. Since he had some work to catch up on, he retreated to his office and left Sakura with the remote control. She flipped through the channels listlessly. Nothing was on except for the trashy daytime soap operas she hated. After a few minutes of searching, she shut the TV off and threw the remote control onto the other sofa, out of her reach. And the ice was so cold against her skin that it began to hurt rather than soothe. With a frustrated sigh, she nudged the ice off her leg. She glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was only 11 am.

She watched the second hand click its way around the circle. The steady rhythm of the clock sounded oddly loud in the quiet room. She stared at the moving arrows until her eyes slid shut and she fell asleep again.

The doorbell rang just after 1. She listened, still half-sleeping, as Itachi walked across the living room to open the front door. It promptly slammed back shut. Someone proceeded to pound loudly on the door until Itachi muttered under his breath and let the guest inside.

"Sakura-chan! I brought food, yeah!" Deidara loudly announced. With a tired groan, Sakura opened her eyes and found the blond hovering over her with a steaming white bun held in each hand. A delicious smell filled the air that made her stomach gurgle.

"Deidara-san…. Is that what I think it is?" she asked as she sat up. A blanket was wrapped around her and her ankle was elevated again with the icepack placed neatly on top. Confused, Sakura looked down at the blanket and then up at Itachi who was sitting on the armrest by her feet and looking disapprovingly on at Deidara. But Deidara reclaimed her attention by waving the buns in her face again.

"Anman or nikuman*?" he asked. Sakura's eyes widened as she looked from one bun to the other. The anman was filled with her favorite anko but the nikuman had delicious, savory pork in it. Her mouth began to water as she struggled to decide.

"Deidara-san! I can't pick!" she whined. Ever since she was little, she had never been able to choose between them at the convenience store until the clerk would get angry at her. To her surprise, Itachi reached over Deidara's shoulder and snatched one up. Ignoring their protests, he split one in half and handed Sakura part of it. He then took the other bun, ripped it in two and handed Sakura another half. Deidara and Sakura looked down in awe at the bun hybrid sitting in her hands.

"Whoa… Itachi… that's… that's brilliant, yeah," Deidara reverently whispered and Sakura nodded.

"My brother had the same problem when he was little," Itachi said was a shrug. Sakura took a big bite from one side, chewing enthusiastically.

"Thank you, Itachi-san!" she chirped happily with her cheeks bulging like a squirrel. Deidara stifled a laugh as he patted the top of her head.

"Just eat, little Squirrel-chan," Deidara chuckled and she scowled at him as best as she could with her cheeks still puffed out. She eagerly devoured the whole bun while Deidara plowed his way through four nikuman and Itachi had two anman. Deidara brandished his plastic bag full of drinks from the nearby convenience store and watched intently as Sakura chose one.

"You like Pocari Sweat*?" he asked, making a face at the name. She hummed happily as she twisted the white cap off and took a sip.

"It's citrusy and sweet," Sakura defended when Deidara continued to look doubtful. While they squabbled, Itachi calmly reached over Sakura's shoulder and pulled another bottle of Pocari Sweat from the bag. As he took a swig, he noticed Sakura's triumphant smile and Deidara shaking his head.

"It does taste good," Itachi replied and Sakura beamed.

"But the name!" Deidara insisted, pointing to the blue and white label. Sakura and Itachi shrugged.

After a few episodes of a hysterical TV series Deidara had brought along and a little more bickering about "nasty sweat from some old man named Mr. Pocari", Sasori and Kisame arrived. Kisame froze in the doorway when he saw Deidara happily massaging Sakura's calf to help reduce the swelling. He threw his shoe, hitting the blonde straight in the back of the head.

"What were you doing to poor Sakura-chan?" Kisame demanded as Deidara clutched his throbbing head. But, Deidara had the energy to roll over and stick his tongue out mockingly. Sasori quickly pulled Sakura out of the way as Kisame threw himself onto Deidara and began throttling him.

Confused, Sakura turned to Itachi and Sasori who just sighed together.

"Deidara skipped class so he could spend time with you. Kisame is being… well…. Kisame and misinterpreting the situation," Sasori flatly said as he pulled a lollipop from his pocket and patiently peeled off the wrapper. He paused for a moment and then offered it to Sakura who shook her head.

"Misinterpreting?" Sakura repeated, looking down at her leg. After a moment, her face flushed scarlet and she refused to look at anything but the ceiling. Eventually, Sakura managed to convince Kisame to calm down and a nearly purple Deidara sent him dirty looks the entire night.

Sakura watched, revolted, as Kisame stuffed three nikuman into his mouth at once.

"He's not human," Itachi muttered from beside her and she found herself nodding. At the same time, they each took sips from their bottles of Pocari Sweat and Deidara stopped mid-chew to stare at them.

"You two," he grumbled as he leaned towards them, "Are like an old comedy duo or something." Sakura flicked away a stray piece of food that had spurted from his mouth, trying very hard to conceal her disgust. But Deidara, noticing her discomfort, took another huge bite and practically deposited his head in her lap. Sakura squirmed for a moment and then turned to Itachi with huge eyes.

"The only thing comic here is the way you eat," Itachi retorted, coming to her rescue as he pushed Deidara's face away with his foot. Sakura turned her face away as a loud laugh spurted from her.

"Seriously, Dei-chan, have some manners around the lady," Kisame jibed and the blonde scowled at him. He swallowed his mouthful of food and pointed an accusatory finger at Kisame.

"Look at you, Mackerel-"

"You've already used that one, Deidara-san," Sakura cut in and Deidara stopped mid-insult. He looked back at Sakura, thinking.

"Oh. How about Barracuda?" he asked her. Sakura nodded, giving him the go-ahead and Deidara whirled around to face Kisame again.

"Look at you, Barracuda-kun! You're snarfing down a billion nikuman at a time, yeah!" Deidara rebutted. After a few more insults were exchanged, somehow, the two became tangled in a vicious nikuman-eating contest. Sakura looked on, almost horrified at the quantity of food disappearing down their throats.

"I've seen Deidara eat an entire sushi boat in one go," Sasori suddenly said as he sidled over to Sakura.

"Kisame got us banned from two buffet restaurants for eating too much," recalled Itachi. They regarded each other for a moment and then sighed together. It was tough being best friends with two black holes like Kisame and Deidara.

"How much did he buy?" Sakura wondered out loud. She leaned over to peer around Deidara's back and found two more plastic bags filled with the buns. Baffled, she looked over at Itachi who was used to this behavior. At the bewilderment filling her face, he shrugged helplessly. Sasori nonchalantly looked back at his friends steadily devouring anything in sight for another minute.

"I'll go get the alka-seltzer," he muttered as he got to his feet.

Twenty minutes and two glasses of alka-seltzer later, Kisame and Deidara lay groaning side by side. Itachi and Sasori were cleaning up the empty drink bottles and plastic bags scattered around in the aftermath of the furious eating battle. And Sakura sat pouting on the sofa after she had offered to help and was instead repositioned with a fresh bag of ice and told to stay still.

"Ugh. I think I'm gonna barf, yeah," Deidara moaned. Itachi took a moment to glare at the blonde.

"Vomit on my carpet and I'll make you eat it back up," he threatened. Deidara's eyes opened for a moment and he looked oddly torn between nausea and terror.

"What time is it?" Kisame asked as he tried to sit up. But he collapsed back onto the floor after a couple attempts.

"It's almost 8, Kisame-san," Sakura informed him. With much effort, Kisame managed to lift himself off the floor and sit up. He patted his stomach with a triumphant grin.

"You owe me lunch for a week, Deidara," Kisame said tauntingly and Deidara mustered the energy to give him the middle finger. After a lot of heaving and shoving, Sasori managed to get Deidara to his feet. Threatening to shave the blonde's eyebrows off if he vomited in his car, Sasori dragged him away. Kisame, whose inhuman metabolism had already started to kick in, cheerfully gave Sakura a one-armed hug before he walked home. Somewhere in the chaos, a plastic bag filled with ice cream that no one had room for ended up sitting at Sakura's feet.

Sakura eyed the trash bag filled with wrappers with disbelief as she rummaged in the bag and pulled out quart of vanilla ice cream.

"How many pounds of food do you think they ate, Itachi-san?" she asked.

"Enough to feed a small African country," Itachi replied and she giggled as she pulled out a plastic spoon.

"Do you think you'll be okay by yourself at home?" he suddenly asked, turning to her. Sakura froze, caught red-handed. She had doled out about half of the ice cream into the lid of the carton. Her overflowing spoon hovered by her mouth as she stared at Itachi. There was some melted ice cream smeared across her lower lip. Itachi quickly turned away as a laugh spurted from his mouth. Her wide eyes and open mouth were almost comical.

"I like ice cream! Don't laugh at me, Itachi-san," Sakura pouted before chomping down on the spoon. When he drove her home ten minutes later, there was still a little smile on his face. She tore open her second carton of ice cream, earning an incredulous look from Itachi.

"How much ice cream are you going to eat?" he demanded, unable to believe how much sugar she was consuming at once. Sakura peered into the bag and counted two more cartons before holding up two fingers.

"I have a high metabolism," she defended as she took a huge bite of ice cream, shattering the innocent, typical high school-girl-image Itachi had of her.

"What happened to blushing, shy Sakura?" Itachi asked half-teasingly.

"There's no time to be shy when there's ice cream," Sakura replied, completely serious. So, Itachi stole glances at her happily munching away on her ice cream while he drove her home. She hummed happily between bites. Somehow, this gluttonous side of her was cute. Itachi found himself smiling when she set the cold bag of ice cream on her injured ankle like an icepack. Correction: Everything she did was cute.

Sakura was still indulging in her late-night treat when Itachi parked the car in front of her apartment complex. He looped around the car and opened up the passenger side door. With the ice cream distracting her, she had much fewer qualms about letting him scoop her up into his arms and carry her up three flights of stairs. When he set her down in front of her front door, she handed him her carton and spoon before she dug in her bag for her keys. Itachi looked down into the mostly empty carton with wonder. Tonight was certainly a night for overeating.

Sakura hopped on one foot into her apartment. She sat in the foyer and wrestled with her right sneaker before managing to ease it off. Itachi leaned against the doorway and watched as she hobbled into the kitchen to place the rest of the ice cream in the freezer for safe-keeping. When she turned around, he held out her carton and her entire face lit up. She pressed her back against the refrigerator to keep balance as she finished up the entire quart of strawberry ice cream.

"How are you going to get to school tomorrow, Sakura-san?" Itachi asked as she limped over to throw away the carton and spoon. Sakura looked down at her bandaged ankle for a moment.

"I guess I'll have to hop," she replied with a frown. Itachi chuckled.

"How about I drive you?" he suggested. Sakura's frown deepened as she looked at the ceiling, something, he noted, that she did whenever she was thinking deeply. She imagined the look on Sasuke's face as well as all the nagging she would have to endure from Ino the self-proclaimed Queen of Gossip. Her temples began to throb just thinking about it.

"I'll drop you off early so you can avoid unnecessary attention," he added before she could refuse. At that, Sakura's shoulders sagged. There was no way she was passing up an opportunity to avoid hopping like a demented rabbit all the way to school. She nodded.

"Thank you…. And thank you for taking care of me today," Sakura suddenly said, realizing that she had basically taken up his whole day.

"Did you miss class because of me, Itachi-san?" she added as the thought came to her. Before she could start feeling guilty, Itachi shook his head.

"Today was a free day anyway. Besides, you being there got me free food," Itachi said with a smile and she relaxed a little. He glanced down at his watch and was surprised by how late it was.

"You should get to bed, Sakura-san. I'll see you tomorrow," he said, patting her head, something that was quickly becoming a habit. Sakura nodded and waved from the door as he exited her apartment and climbed down the stairs to reach his car. She felt her cheeks warm a little as she touched the spot his hand had been resting on.

Maybe spraining her ankle hadn't been such a bad thing.

Spraining her ankle had been a terrible thing. Sakura collapsed in her seat and heaved a sigh. When she turned back to Hinata, her friend's face was concerned.

"We have gym next. You should go to the nurse, Haruno-chan," Hinata suggested when Sakura bent over to lightly massage her bound ankle. Trying to walk normally had left her poor right leg screaming in pain and she wasn't quite sure, but it looked like it had swollen up more. And her left leg, taking the brunt of the work, was left aching and exhausted.

"But then the volleyball teams will be mismatched," Sakura hesitantly said. Timid little Hinata scowled at her. Sakura put her hands up in a pacifying gesture.

"Okay. I'll go right now," Sakura relented and Hinata looked relieved.

"Do you need me to help you walk?" she asked but Sakura shook her head as she got to her feet.

"I'll be fine. The infirmary's just downstairs," Sakura assured her and waved before she slung her bag over her shoulder and slowly hobbled out of the classroom. Before she could leave, the door slid open and all the girls in class rushed in to change clothes for gym. Sakura squeezed through, biting back a very rude word when someone accidentally stepped on her foot. After a bit more pushing and a lot more hobbling, Sakura stumbled into the infirmary. The nurse, who simply went by Shizune, stood immediately.

"Oh my. Are you alright, Haruno-san?" she asked as she lead Sakura to an empty bed. She helped Sakura pull off her indoor shoe made of canvas. Shizune looked surprised when she rolled down Sakura's white sock.

"Did you do this yourself?" Shizune inquired, examining the bandage wrapped securely around her foot and ankle.

"A friend did it for me," Sakura replied.

"I couldn't have done it better myself," the nurse declared, looking impressed. And for some reason, even though it was Itachi being praised, Sakura glowed with pride. Shizune hurried around elevating Sakura's ankle and shaking ice packs to activate the cold before stacking them around her leg.

"Call me if you need anything. I'll be next door," Shizune said, pointing to the door leading to her office. Sakura thanked her and let her head fall back on the pillow. Making sure that no one else was around, she pulled up the edge of her shirt and retrieved her cell phone that she had tucked into the waistband of her skirt. There were four text messages and without reading, she already knew who they were from.

Just got out of Statistics. Deidara was in my lecture and wouldn't stop freaking out over you…. So I tied a pencil into his hair when he wasn't looking. Don't sprain your other ankle.

-Kisame

Sakura stifled a laugh as she saw the photo that accompanied the message. Deidara was looking to his left and she could see Kisame's finger in the corner, pointing to the green mechanical pencil neatly dangling a little below Deidara's ear. The next text was only a few sentences long, which was unsurprising since Sasori was a man of few words.

I heard from Itachi that you're at school. Deidara has a pencil on his head. I don't know why. Watch out for those two raging perverts.

-Sasori

It was just like Sasori to send such an odd message. It took her a moment to remember Sasori's reaction to Naruto and Sasuke at the beach during summer break. Even though he hadn't mentioned it, she knew that he was worrying about her ankle too.

Sakura-chan, I've been hearing a weird clicking noise every time I turn my head today. I think Sharkie had something to do with it because he keeps laughing at me whenever I ask. I saw Itachi in the cafeteria during lunch and he was eating a nikuman. I thought I was gonna hurl. Hope the ankle's doing better.

-Deidara

Sakura slapped her hand over her mouth to muffle the giggle that escaped her pursed lips. It seemed like poor Deidara was the butt of every joke today. Last, she knew, would be the message from Itachi. He would probably ask how she was feeling and remind her that he would pick her up after school. But to her surprise, when she clicked the arrow button, the only thing that showed up was a photo of the back of Deidara's head. The lime green pencil was still dangling happily from a lock of his golden hair. Underneath were two words:

Kisame, right?

"Is everything alright, Haruno-san?" Shizune asked from next door. Sakura managed a strangled "I'm fine" before she pulled a pillow on top of her head to smother the uncontrollable laughter that wracked her body.

Ooh. This chapter is filled with obscure cultural references that I must apologize for. It didn't occur to me that not everyone knew what Pocari Sweat was since I'm Asian.

*Pocari Sweat is a sports drink that's really popular in Asia. It's sweet and flavored with a hint of grapefruit. The "sweat" is supposed to entail that it's replacing the electrolytes and nutrients you lose when you sweat, but to us Americans, it looks like some nasty man named Mr. Pocari is bottling his perspiration. Oh and the color is cloudy white so that doesn't help much.

*Nikuman and Anman are both fluffy, white steamed buns (like Chinese steamed buns) that are sold at convenience stores in Japan. 'Niku' means meat so nikuman are filled with pork while 'an' is sweetened red-bean paste in the middle of the bun. I know the red-bean sounds weird but it's really delicious and it's actually a popular filling for bread and other snacks in Asia.

Sorry for the crappy mostly directionless chapter, but I felt like I just needed some sweet Akatsuki boys and Sakura time.

Please review because I'm planning something awesome next chapter involving Konan and possible removal of clothes and I'm going to need all the motivation I can get.

I decided to cut part of this chapter but if you're interested in reading it, there's the link to my LJ on my profile. Some Itasaku. May cause cavities.