Her hand was hesitant to move up and knock on the door or the hokage office, didn't she want to see him? Was she joking!? Hell she wanted to see him! Sakura wanted him to find her though but that wasn't going to happen.
She couldn't wait any longer, the knot in her stomach was just getting worse by the minute.
She slowly raised her hand up to the door heavy wooden door towering over her. Gradually she gave two knocks like she normally did, if she had to knock, then she lowered her hand back to her side.
"There, done" She whispered to herself.
"Come in!" Tsunade shouted so she could be heard over the door, loud like always but not in an angry way.
Sakura hardly ever herd that phrase, she didn't even know why she knocked in the first place. Tsunade never cared if Sakura made her own way in unless she was discussing something highly important but she knew that the hokage wasn't doing that now. Sakura slowly moved her hand up to grasp the cold metal handle that was miniscule in comparison to the rest of the door but seemed huge compared to her pale, delicate hand. You could say the door was the branch and her hand was a petal from a sakura tree. She twisted it and let it open, she didn't have to put any effort it.
She scanned the room to see which nin were present, it turned out to only be team Kakashi, Tsunade herself, Shizune and the man who was the source of her recent uncertainty.
The missing-nin of Iwagakure was standing in the middle of the room with his back to her, not for long though, after he heard the door creak open he slowly turned around but he never gave eye contact to Sakura until he was facing her. As soon as he made eye contact he smiled.
"Long time no see, yeah."
He smirked a little, not in a bad way of course. He didn't want to look like a bastard on their first meeting in a while, no-one knew this of course since he never showed his true emotions, well, rarely did he show them.
"Hey." was the quiet response she gave, along with a sweet smile that she gave most people. She suddenly turned her attention to Tsunade who was the one who called her here, she was surprised that she didn't greet her master before she greeted Deidara, it shocked her in a way.
"What did you call me here for?" She questioned like she always did, she knew the answer though, it was about the missing-nin who was now a Konoha resident. What else was she meant to say in a situation like
this?
"You will be showing our new resident, Deidara, around the village. He Hasn't been allowed out and about just yet and I trust you to show him all the way around, not just ichiraku ramen." The hokage glared at
Naruto who was quick to return the stare.
"Granny thought I was incapable of showing him around." Naruto added in quickly before 'granny' could start her next sentence. He was obviously annoyed at the fact he wasn't trusted to give a tour of the village even though he was part of the team who bought this man back.
"I don't know why she didn't choose me." Sai informant bluntly, with no emotion of course. It was obvious why she hadn't chosen Sai or Naruto, especially by the look on Sakura's face, she wanted to whack them over the head right here right now but she couldn't."
"Carrying on with what I was saying." Tsunade wanted to get Naruto out of the room by now, the second glare she gave him confirmed this.
"You will make Sure Deidara sees all of the village, you will also make sure that he's know where to get to get anything, whether it's food, books, equipment etc." She gave a short pause.
"You will also show him to his apartment" The hokage passed a piece of paper and a key to Shizune to give to Sakura, she guessed that it was the address to where he will live as well as access to the home. Shizune made her was across the room from the hokage side and gave to paper and key to Sakura. Deidara followed the movement until it reached the kunoichi hands.
"Yes ma'am" Sakura said softly.
"Wait, so I'm allowed to go wherever I want in this village whenever yeah?" Deidara asked.
Tsunade clearly replied with "Yes, you will be under a curfew for now though since there are still 1 or 2 more things we must check."
"Finally, it's about time." was the only thing he replied with. Tsunade made sure he received his glare.
"Right, now that everything's clear you are all dismissed, Sakura you know what to do." The hokage sweetly smiled at Sakura and let everyone make their way out, Sai, Naruto and Kakashi left first, followed by Sakura and Deidara.
They walked slower than the rest to give them time to talk, well, it was silent until they made their way outside.
"So … anything you want to see in particular?" Sakura finally said, she wasn't expecting him to mention anywhere in particular since he didn't know what Konoha had to offer but she still asked, this knot in her stomach still hadn't gone.
As they came to the door of the hokage tower, Deidara walked at a faster pace and stopped by the railings. He lowered his forearms down and lent against the cool, metal bar whereas Sakura just stood there, leaning in the doorway, staring at him.
"hmm, you really expect me to know what this town has to offer?" he replied in a cheeky tone, along with a smirk, of course.
Before Sakura could reply he started again, "I suppose you could show me where my apartment is, yeah?" his lips drew into one of those sweet smiles Sakura normally showed, god did he suit it though, Sakura was draw to those lips but she knew she could spend all day gazing at them.
"umm, sure" she paused so she could actually speak instead of stutter "your apartment is near mine, I'll show you where I am just incase you need anything or if you forget anything." she returned the smile whilst she looked him in the eye, again.
He moved his arms away from the railings, stood up straight and replied with "sounds like a plan, yeah"
As soon as the new resident of Konoha replies, him and Sakura made their way down the steps. She explained how this was the way to enter the hokage tower if you were ever called and to not come into the tower grounds unless you've been called or need to discuss something with Tsunade-sama.
Whilst Sakura was walking along the streets to their apartments, he would ask her questions about Konoha, she would always know the answer, and when she asked questions about Iwagakure, he would always reply. From the sounds of it Iwa wasn't a friendly place, it also sounded rather dull and boring compared to Konoha, she was glad she wasn't planning on moving there anytime soon. If they were going past an important place they would have to put the conversation on hold, but not for long.
They came across Sakura's apartment first since it was slightly closed to the hokage tower than his, she was pretty much the hokage's daughter so she was always at the tower or the hospital.
The kunoichi started slowing her pace first, hinting to Deidara that they were nearby, he followed her actions and slowed his pace a few seconds later. Finally Sakura stopped in front of tall, wide building. It looked like it had 4 floors, 2 apartments on each floor.
"I'm guessing you live here, yeah?" He looked at the building, then turned to her, then he looked up at the building again.
"Yeah, the 3rd floor." She replied when he looked at her, they both looked up to the 3rd floor.
Sakura started moving towards the door, "common" she said as she pushed the door open, he followed her into the building, inside it was a corridor with 2 doors on each side. One was for laundry, another must've been for caretakers, if there were any for this building. Further ahead the wall dipped in a bit, the left wall had 6 boxes attached to it, the mail boxes for each tenant, on the right wall there was a display board covered with adverts for restaurants, bars, events and more. Whilst Sakura waited for the lift, Deidara looked around the area, he noted down that it was clean and rather modern, he was hoping his looked similar but he doubted it since it was being paid for by Konoha for the first year.
There was a ping and the sound of doors sliding open, Deidara turned around towards the lift to see that it was here. Sakura turned around to him, smiled, then turned back and walked into the lift, he followed her in and they waited. Sakura had pushed the button for floor 3 and the doors started to shut.
Sakura looked up to Deidara and said "Sorry, I just need to get 1 or 2 things."
"It's fine, I might as well know which apartment you're in just in case I need to contact you, yeah" he smiled down at her and she nodded in agreement. Finally the lift stopped, the doors slid open and they stepped out, Sakura first of course since she lived here.
Straight ahead of them there was a window looking over part of Konoha, whilst Sakura was finding her keys and unlocking the door Deidara looked over the part of town visible.
"This place is so much brighter than Iwa."
Sakura sniggered "from what you told me about that place I kinda guessed you would say that at some point." as she said that they key clicked, she turned the handle and opened the door. Deidara heard the click so he was already at the door by the time it was open.
"I'll be right back, just look around, I think your apartment is in a similar building so yours may look the same" Sakura turned around and disappeared past one of the doors that lead of the main room. It was a good size, the kitchen and living room were in this area and there were 3 doors leading of this main room, he guessed they would be the bedroom, bathroom and a storage room. Just like in every other apartment in Konoha the area by the door was lower than the rest of the floor, he took of his shoes and stepped up to get a better view of the room. The kitchen was against the same wall as the front door and the worktop curved around onto the wall with 2 of the side doors. The floor for this square area was filled up with a table and 2 chairs, he guessed that she lived alone. The rest of the room had a sofa, an armchair, a coffee table with a rug underneath and other bits and bobs. The floor was all the same wood and the walls were cream, there was little décor but the two windows, on the left and right side of the opposite wall, seemed to fill up space and let light in.
All he hoped for was his apartment to be like this, and have enough furniture in it already.
A minuet after he finished observing his surroundings, Sakura appeared again.
"So, what do you thing?" She made her way across to Deidara smiling proudly at what she had done with the space.
He smirked and the corner of his lip curved up "All I can say is that I hope mine looks like this, yeah."
Sakura giggled "Don't worry, they won't give you a grubby abandoned apartment full of cobwebs, they'll be treating you like the treat any other Konoha shinobi" she gave a sweet smile once again.
"I hope your telling the truth." He laughed and smiled back.
"Well, I better show you where your apartment is, don't grow to attached to this place, you're not staying here if you don't like your place." she joked as they made their way to the door.
After a minute of leaving the apartment they bumped into Ino, Sakura had to explain everything since it was Ino. Deidara stood there awkwardly whilst the blond kunoichi jumped to conclusion thinking that they were dating. Sakura managed to come up with an excuse, well it was the trust, about having to hurry up and show him the rest of the village but she accepted it and informed Sakura that they would get together and have a chat soon, because it was Ino she had to agree.
They carried on for a few more minutes until they stopped in front of a similar looking building, except this one was about 3 times as big.
It was a similar layout to Sakura's apartment, except in this one there were 2 apartments on the ground floor. She took the piece of paper that Shizune gave her out of her pocket and read the address scribbled on it, he was on the top floor, number 21. Once again they waited for the lift, except this time they were both looking around the lobby, once again they heard a ping and they stepped into the lift, pressed the button, waited for the doors to shut and started moving.
They reached the top floor they got out and looked out of the windows. You could see much more from here, except it didn't show much town, Sakura was still jealous of this view since it looked over part of town, forest and in the far distance mountains. Deidara was hoping that the view from his apartment looked over the rest of town. They walked down the corridor, it seemed to quiet in this building, maybe half of the rooms were empty?
His apartment was at the far end, well, the building did have 21 rooms so his was the last. Sakura fiddled around with the key, she didn't take long though since pretty much ever key turns the same way to open a door. Deidara stood impatiently behind Sakura, he just wanted to see where he would be living for the next year or until he could afford his own place, once the key clicked he moved slightly closer with curiosity, slightly closer to the door and Sakura. She pushed the door open slowly and they both peeked in.
It was about the same size as Sakura's. The layout was different, of course. They took of their shoes and stepped up onto into the main room. The kitchen was along the right wall with a table in the corner, the table was placed in front of a window looking over Konoha and the stone faces. God Sakura was jealous as hell, he had a view like this and he didn't even have to pay for it!? Along the right wall there were two doors, one for the bedroom and the other was a store room, it turned out that the bathroom was accessed via the bedroom. Along the door wall and the right wall, before the bedroom door, there was a sofa and an armchair with a coffee table and rug in the middle. He space was filled up quite nicely. in front of the other window there was a chair and a little table so you could look out the window whilst reading. To be fair sakura actually preferred his apartment.
"So, you wanna swap apartments?" She said with a giggle. "I'm jealous you know, you have an amazing view and everything you need and it's all for free."
"I guess they just really like me here, yeah?" He smirked and smiled. He carried on, "Don't forget I'm not living here forever" he placed his palm on her shoulder and looked at her "I bet your glad about that, eh?" he laughed again. She could tell she was blushing but she just laughed along, not knowing what to say. God she knew that she was starting to like him more just by the time they had spent together today.
Deidara took his hand of her shoulder and walked towards the bedroom, well the room that he guessed was the bedroom, he guessed right. She followed his feet across the floor as they patted along the wood. He slid open the door and looked in
"They bought my belongings here for me, how nice yeah" he turned back and smirked. It was obvious he liked making the odd joke but at least it meant there was no space for awkward silences. When he came to Konoha, he came with a backpack that had spare cloths, clay and books on art inside, once he arrived this had to be taken away just in case he had weapons or was planning something. "You know what, can you show me around the village tomorrow yeah? I want to get settled in here and sleep, I'm tired as hell."
"Sure, I understand" She smiled and made her way towards the door. "You know where I am if you -"
Next thing she knew she was against the wall, Deidara had pinned her left hand above her head, she lent in shock, staring at him.
"need anything, yeah?" he finished her sentence for her.
She nodded, what the hell was she meant to say!? Just as she was about to ask him what he was doing he surprised her again.
One of his hands was on her wrist against the wall, the other was against the wall down by her hip. He lowered his head down and moved in closer, his nose brushing her forehead and nose as he kept on lowering himself, next thing she knew soft lips were brushing hers. For the next 3 seconds all was silent as his lips pressed against hers, not forcefully but lightly, even though it was light she could taste the sweetness of his. He pushed his closer against her before he pulled away, releasing her wrist and her lips, as he moved back his eyes shined as he smiled. He turned around and started walking towards the bedroom.
He stood in the doorway of his room and turned back, "See you tomorrow then, you know the way out" was all he said before he walked of.
Sakura stayed there, leaning against the wall for a few seconds, taking in what had just happened. Did he really just kiss her? Did he have feeling for her? Wait, if so then how long has he had feeling for her? She was confused as hell. The kunoichi decided that the best thing to do would be to leave and think over it on her way back. She picked up her boots and slid them on one at a time and turned around to look at the door he went through before he had disappeared. She then opened the door to the apartment and exited.
Once she was outside she took a deep breath and started making her way back to her apartment. She still had the majority of the day ahead of her, anything could happen in that time but she decided the best thing to do would be to go back home.