Found
G is for Gravity
O O O
A few dozen clay birds flew from their place atop the much larger bird, all headed toward the city they had just left. Not more than thirty seconds later, the city went up in a cloud of smoke, flames, and eventually ashes.
Sakura screamed. "You bastard!"
Deidara tightened the grip he had on her throat. "Shut up."
"How dare you? What gives you the right? There were innocent people in that city!" The image of the woman with her baby sprang to her mind, and an insufferable rage filled Sakura. She tried to flip up and kick Deidara in the jaw, but Kisame held her ankles down securely. "You sick fucks!"
Deidara kept his mouth in a tight line, staring at the some point on Sakura's arm. Kisame was frowning, thought he didn't say more.
The receptionist from the first floor; she had been such a nice woman. And all of the shinobi…the people who had just been going about their daily business…
Against her will, she began to cry in violent, shaking sobs. She hated herself for it, because it wasn't just about the loss of life in that city. It was about the war, all the funerals she'd been to because of it, and because these two men just thought that it was okay to kill someone completely uninvolved.
Kisame looked away slowly, though he kept a tight hold on her ankles, and Deidara hunched over slightly. The curtain of his long bangs brushed against and tickled her neck, but she kept crying and closed her eyes to block out the column of smoke rising in the distance.
She couldn't deny that she'd killed people herself on occasions, but they were killings of necessity. Deidara had just decimated a whole village…for no other reason other than he was angry at her, or that he didn't like the architectural structure of it.
And Kisame was no better. He knew. Yet neither of them showed any remorse. She'd always felt a certain sense of guilt after killing someone. She didn't understand how that feeling could not come natural.
"I—" here she hiccupped, "—I hate you. I hate both of you! This is all your fault!"
When Deidara sighed, she could feel his breath against her cheek. "The feeling's mutual, yeah."
She opened her eyes then, surprised at how close his voice sounded, and was met with that single blue eye, piercing and vibrant. The scope twisted and whirred, drawing the external appendix into itself.
She sobbed again, turning her head to the side. "You have to stop this."
He kept his gaze on her—observant, calculating, attentive even without the use of his scope. And he stayed where he was, so that when he spoke his words would warm her ear, cold from the wind blowing past them.
"Stop the killing," she pleaded, turning and twisting under the grip of the two ex-Akatsuki. "I'll help you. I'll be your medic-nin." She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trembling. "The war is hurting enough people without you two helping it along."
Deidara seemed to contemplate this for a moment, but he ultimately stayed silent about the topic, instead opting for sitting down cross-legged so that her head lay against his folded legs instead of the clay bird. His hands gripped her wrists firmly, the mouths on them tightly closed.
Finally, he spoke. "I'm not promising you anything, yeah. I'm a shinobi. Kisame and I are—were—in the Akatsuki. It's impossible to give up killing."
"I never asked you to give up that kind of killing. Just the killing of innocents."
"Still unavoidable," Kisame muttered, and a distant rumble in the clouds alerted the three of them to the impending downpour.
"All I can say is this: cooperate, and we won't do anything unnecessary, yeah." A few seconds after Deidara's reply, small raindrops began to fall.
Sakura hiccupped again, suddenly feeling tired after her outburst. It was funny how crying always made her impeccably drowsy. "Fine."
The only sound for a long while was the wind roaring past the bird's form and the rain beginning to pick up.
Then, and in a whisper from the man whose hold loosened against her wrists, "We're just trying to survive."
"Deidara," Kisame said gruffly. "Land somewhere."
The bird did as asked, swooping down toward the ground slowly.
"You didn't think of the repercussions while you were in the Akatsuki?" Sakura asked distantly, still sniffling a bit. "You didn't think that, should the organization ever fall apart, life would be harder on you than it was before?"
Nobody replied to her question, though Kisame rubbed a particularly deep gash from a stray glass splinter on her leg. "We need to be healed soon."
She took this as a "no."
O O O
They landed in a particularly well-sheltered area, and of this Deidara made absolutely certain.
He admitted that throwing one of his bombs at the girl had been a bit of an overreaction to the circumstances, but it was the heat of battle. Deidara had been panicking, because he was used to attacking from long-range. The small office of the building had been too enclosed, forcing him to flip and dance around the girl's punches.
He hadn't been used to it, damn it, and maybe he'd switched back to his pre-Akatsuki, pre-self-preservation days for a brief second, but he'd gone completely black until Kisame had batted the bomb away from her face. And even then, he'd been filled with such an insufferable rage that he'd wanted to throw a bomb at Kisame, too.
But he'd held himself in check. Kisame was no pink-haired medic-nin. Kisame was no pretty little girl from Konoha. Kisame hadn't willingly, albeit drunkenly, climaxed from a simple touch of the bloodline limit on his hands that had most people running scared.
Granted, he had tried to molest Kisame in his sleep, but this was a fact he was trying desperately to forget. And God help him if the shark man ever found out.
He shuddered at the thought.
Kisame glanced in his direction. "Cold without the cloak?"
"Something like that, yeah." He quickly turned his attention to Sakura, who was healing a few of the more serious cuts and scrapes on her body. When she finished moments later, there was still dried blood coating her, but no visible lacerations or contusions.
She turned to Deidara, and Deidara began removing his mesh shirt and tank top, pushing aside the wave of déjà vu.
And then she turned purposefully to Kisame and started to pull his shirt over his head.
Deidara stopped undressing halfway, hands still clutching the hem of his own shirt. A spike of anger made him narrow his eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came.
Kisame looked a bit surprised, a bit confused, and very pleased. He allowed her to pull off his couple layers of shirts, and then for her to press one gentle hand against a visible cut on his lower stomach. Blue skin glowed from the green light of her chakra as she started the healing process.
She went through the standard, mechanical procedure. Where does it hurt? Can you count to twenty for me? Please try and walk in a straight line. Good.
She got around to the back of his head, where it was still sore from the hit that she'd given him. One hand was placed to a spot just above his neck, right at the base of his skull, and Kisame sighed. He leaned forwards and touched his forehead to her shoulder, though whether this was unconscious or not, Deidara couldn't tell.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she turned to him, though her frown was turning into a considerable scowl. "Where does it hurt?"
He finished pulling off his shirts and pointed to a place on his collarbone. "Here. I think it's bruised, yeah."
She huffed and set to work. "You're lucky it's not broken."
He rolled his eyes. "You say it like it hasn't happened before."
She glanced up at him for a second. "You've broken it?"
"You tend to break odd places on your body when you're in the Akatsuki," Kisame said, stretching, yawning, and settling back against a tree.
A less-than-comfortable silence drifted between the three of them, and as soon as Sakura finished with Deidara, she gathered her things and stood.
"Where are we headed next?"
Kisame shrugged. "Somewhere."
A flick of annoyance flashed in Sakura's eyes, and Deidara was surprised that he caught it at all. "And where exactly is somewhere?" she asked, scowling. "We can't just amble around like freakish, nomadic hippies!"
"And why can't we?"
And then she grew red. "Because…because we just can't!"
"Why?"
She stomped an enraged foot, and by the way that the ground trembled slightly from the added chakra, it became very obvious that she wasn't playing around. "Because I, unlike you disgusting pigs, need sustenance! I need stability!" She counted off the various things on her fingers. "I need at least two meals a day, a bath every three days in the very least, a comfortable, sustainable roof over my head, and a lifestyle that doesn't consist of me traveling with two full-grown, mass-murdering, sadistic, psychopathic, belittling, belligerent, absolutely obnoxious jerks!"
Deidara blinked.
"And if you both just sit there and think that I'm going to settle for any-fucking-thing less, than you are sadly, sadly mistaken, because I will not, I repeat, not—"
A thin strip of cloth was wrapped around Sakura's mouth, courtesy of a very frustrated, very aggravated Kisame.
"Thank you, my friend," Deidara sighed. "Thank you very much, yeah."
Kisame nodded. "Head north, then?"
O O O
"It's such a beautiful day. Don't you agree, Kisame?"
"Quite so. I dare say it rivals yesterday's fair weather rather nicely."
"Indeed. Care for another spot of tea, yes?"
"Please, good sir. Oh—this reminds me, Deidara, you simply must take a look at the new rose bushes I've planted near my porch. They're blooming wonderfully this time of year."
"Is that so? Well, I should come and see them soon, then. I'm surprised more flowers haven't bloomed 'round this town, yes. The days have been absolutely gorgeous as of late."
"Agreed. And have you spoken with that pink-haired child recently?"
"Why, the Haruno Sakura girl? Such a delightful name."
"Yes, she's that one."
"No, I don't believe I have. Why do you ask?"
"She was wearing the loveliest bracelet the other day. I saw her strolling about with that younger fellow…oh, what's his name? I've never been good with names, my friend."
"Ho, never worry: my mind is a steel trap. I do believe that she is engaged to one…Uchiha Sasuke, yes."
"Yes! That's the one. Hmm…I have to wonder whether that bracelet was a gift from him."
"Most likely. You couldn't pry those two away with a reinforced metal pole, yes. It's oh-so charming, though. They do bring some life to this old town."
"Yes, yes, quite so. Well, my tea has run out. And look at the time, Deidara! I really should be returning to my garden. Those roses and gardenias and carnations will certainly wilt without me!"
"So soon, dear friend? Well, if it must be then it must be, yes. Have a lovely day!"
"And you as well! I tip my hat and bid you adieu!"
"Adieu, then!"
And then lightning crashed somewhere, and all the sunshine and flowers melted into a bleak darkness.
Sakura awoke with a groan, much to her dismay, and to the feel of two strong hands shaking her shoulders roughly. When she peered into the offender's face, Deidara solemn, shadow-lined face peered right back.
She tried not to cry tears of frustration.
What had happened to the sun? Where was the white picket fence community? Where was the place where Kisame and Deidara weren't ex-Akatsuki, but nosy old neighbors with nothing else to do but gossip and sip tea and grow roses near their porch?
Where were her friends? Her family? Her home?
Where was anything?
"Get up," Deidara muttered, pulling her by the arm in a twisting, painful motion to stand. "We have to go."
"Why?" she found herself asking, trying to imagine him back on that bright porch, sitting at a green cast-iron table and smiling at the people walking by. "What's going on?"
"It started raining harder. We have to find better shelter than just the trees, yeah."
He'd been so proper in that wondrous, grinning dream. The "yeahs" were replaced with "yeses," and he'd been polite. And Kisame had followed the example, as well. It had made them a little more bearable. Still quite annoying, but bearable, nonetheless.
She stumbled once over a tree root, only just realizing that she was soaked down to her socks. Again.
"Come on," Deidara hissed, a little louder this time. "There's a storm, yeah. Do you want to die?"
"Die from what?"
Lightning flashed across the sky again, followed by an ominous, rumbling roll of thunder.
"That! It could hit a tree, the tree could fall on you, and bang, you'd be dead." He took hold of her arm and led her expertly through the labyrinth of trees.
She didn't really comprehend how he could be so alert upon being awoken so suddenly. But then they found a cave—a dank, dark, for all rights and purposes frightening cave—and Sakura didn't really care anymore.
All she knew was that she did not want to go in that cave. He'd woken her up in the middle of a beautiful dream, scared the wits out of her, and now he wanted her to crawl inside this little hellhole?
"Deidara, I'm not going in there!"
He did a slight double-take at that actual usage of his name, or at least she supposed that was what it was, and then rolled his eyes. "Just shut up. Let's go."
"No, I really don't want to!"
"I don't give a damn what you want, yeah!"
She abruptly began to sob again. "Of course not!"
He released her arm and blinked hard, brow furrowing.
It was so ridiculous for her to cry, really, and at such an inappropriate time, too. But her emotions had been running at the near-overflow level since Deidara and Kisame had taken her captive, and she found herself getting upset more and more often over little things.
Granted, being held prisoner by two men that could very well kill her in an instant wasn't a "little thing," but she hated crying, and now wasn't the time to do so.
He grabbed her once more, but by the wrist this time, and led her inside.
The interior of the cave was just as daunting as the exterior, if not more so. And though it was small, it was not cozy by any means. In fact it was deathly cold, and Sakura immediately began shivering, having regained her senses.
Kisame had removed everything but his inner clothes, consisting of shorts and a thin tank top. Deidara soon followed suit, and then glanced at Sakura.
Sakura took a deep breath.
This was no dream. She was no scared little girl.
And they were no hungry wolves.
They were all just trying to survive.
So she plucked off that dirty old tunic, removed everything beneath that, and stood shivering in nothing but her dark blue shorts and sports bra. She didn't even want to think about the fact that it was white, because she had to be mature about this. She had to be professional.
So she slipped on her medic-hat.
"We need to share body heat or risk the chance of contracting hypothermia."
Deidara glanced at her briefly, and she could tell that he was frowning even through the gloom of their shelter. "I don't think it's cold enough for that, yeah."
"But we can't risk it."
He rolled his eyes. "Then shut up and come here."
She did as asked, settling in beside Deidara, who was lying beside Kisame. "First things first," she said, shuffling so that her head was sufficiently pressed into Deidara's chest, "keep your head—especially the back of your neck—warm. That's where you lose most of your body heat."
"Yeah, yeah."
She couldn't tell whether Kisame or Deidara had said it, because Deidara was way too warm to be normal. It was almost sinfully comfortable.
"Second, if you touch me, I will not hesitate to punch you."
"Sure."
"And third, if anyone starts shivering violently, wake me and tell me."
"Will do."
"Fourth…"
Suddenly, everything was quite groggy, and she didn't remember the fourth rule of Sakura's Guide to the Prevention of Hypothermia.
"Fourth…"
"Fourth is sleep."
And so she did.