Title: Accidents Do Happen
Author: Nyaaan
Pairing: Itachi/Sakura/LovePolygons
Genres: Romance/Comedy/Family/SliceofLife
Disclaimers: I don't own Naruto and if I did, Sakura would probably be the main character. Haters gonna hate. XD
A/N: An update! Yes, you are not dreaming my dear readers. I'm alive and yush, a graduating student. I'm so sorry for my inactiveness but I'm back now and it's actually my birthday today so as a present to you, here is the ninth chapter. Thank you for patiently waiting everyone. The next chapter, which is really long ... will be posted next week. –le kneels with her eyebags- I think need my nap now. Have a nice day everyone!
Chapter Nine: Tower of Sugarcubes
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Sakura has no idea what to do at the moment.
She left the office with a puzzled Deidara and on her right hand is a certain someone's hand.
Sasori.
Sakura dragged him with her out of reflex and currently they are in the middle of the crowded street both with an unreadable expression on their faces. The red-head didn't seem to mind being held hostage by our heroine and Sakura seems out of it as well.
'What now?'
She still has some stuff to do in the office and her long absence might make Deidara more suspicious than he already is so to avoid anymore wasting of time she decided to yank the lanky red-head to a secluded shop. He seems to just go with the flow which she is secretly thankful for.
The last thing Sakura want is a struggling Sasori and it's all thanks to his abnormal response to things.
A cheerful waitress greeted them.
It's a sweets shop. Your typical sweets shop with laces, ribbons and cute ornaments. Sakura would gladly visit this next time but that's not she's here for.
The mood around them is relaxing and fluffy except about the fact that dark clouds are lurking above their table. Sakura is fidgeting on her seat while Sasori is trying to create a tower out of the sugarcubes that is on the table.
'Silence.'
What he said back in the office convinced Sakura he knows what really happened on that fateful night a few months back. She wanted to believe he knows, but without actual verbal confirmation, they could be speaking about different things.
Sakura decides to break the uncomfortable silence.
"What are you talking about earlier?" she asked him.
He stares at his pyramid with pure interest not even sparing Sakura a look, "Why? What do you think I am talking about?"
Sakura hates it that he's so calm and composed while she's on the verge of pulling out her hair out of frustration. She massaged the bridge of her nose. This matter won't be as easy as she thought it would be.
Sakura coughs loudly and asked again, "Well, I asked you first. What are you talking about earlier?"
Her loud voice must've startled him resulting to his tower of sugarcubes to collapse. He finally laid his eyes on Sakura's direction clearly annoyed. "Same thing that you're thinking, woman."
'Woman?' Someone needs to teach this man some manners.
Not that she cared or anything but it just sounds rude being called like that. For once in his life can he act like a normal individual? Sakura don't expect him to interact with her like a normal person would, because he's like an android.
...An android that's programmed to annoy her. And he's so effortlessly good at it.
"But I haven't said anything, how the hell do you know what I am thinking about?!" her voice raise a few octaves and volume earning a few stares from the couple sitting a few feet from their table.
He shot her an odd look, "I like observing people and it's not my fault that I came to observe a troublesome case. So what I have in mind is what you have in yours."
The conversation is going nowhere. They are talking about the subject like absolute idiots. She would have expected Sasori to be more straightforward and to the point. He spouts everything else he thought straight from his mouth so if he's not going to say it, then she is going to say it herself.
Her mouth inhaled deeply.
"I'm pregnant." She said in a slightly hushed tone.
Sakura swallowed hard waiting for Sasori's reply.
"I know, I even know who the father is.." is his short reply.
His words seem to stung and a bolt of panic shot through her as she wondered if she heard it wrong. She didn't misinterpret the entire situation after all.
'Crap!'
There's no denying it any longer, she has to deal with the problem as early as it is. A stitch in time saves nine. She's starting to regret her rash decisions in life. She just stared at the small bump on her tummy caressing it with an unease heart.
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Sasori finds the situation he's in rather fascinating.
Aside from penguins, extraterrestrial beings and sweets nothing interests him more than the pleasure of trying to figure out things.
And the pink-haired lady in front of him unconsciously handed him a bone he'll gladly chew.
He remembered seeing her on his senior year. She's a friend of both Uchiha hence the circle recognize her...
...except Deidara … he has a memory span of a goldfish.
Sasori doesn't like things that are ordinary so she caught his eyes.
Her pink hair that is.
He doesn't know much about her, and he's torn whether she's what she seems to be or is there something deeper and darker about her?
It was out of pure coincidence that he saw her exiting Itachi's hotel room that night. She was flushed and … looks ravaged all credits to Itachi. He's about to deliver some important documents to Itachi's room when she passed by him.
Imagine his shock.
Yeah, he was shocked but he didn't show it.
He almost didn't recognize her without her glasses and her hair down but that pink hair just screamed her identity.
He received a call from Itachi the next day asking for his help in tracking someone. Sasori seems to enjoy this unusual side of Itachi so he chooses to keep the information to himself. Things got more interesting when he discovered they actually live in the same building.
And the pregnancy kits he saw on the trash bin are a dead giveaway that his suspicions might be right and it seems he is indeed right.
The question that remains in his mind is that ... what are her motives?
Sasori is good at pinpointing bad people so is she one of those?
It seems her pregnancy is kept a secret by only the small group of people close to her and it seems she avoids anything that has to do with that circumstance like a plague.
Her circumstances and her actions contradicts each other and it's confusing him but as Itachi's friend he will protect him from those people whose only intention is to take advantage of whatever he is and what he has.
Not that he'll ever admit that he enjoys playing a hero in the shadows.
Would he feel sorry for her?
Should he expose her fakery or whatever it is?
This game that he started for fun is getting complicated that he's feeling anxious about the outcome. And to thinks he actually starts liking her ... well, like her as a human being. He hated it that he let his guard down.
He'll never let her pat his head again.
He's torn.
And like the crumbling sugarcubes in front of him, he can see his resolve collapsing.
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Sakura is blinking owlishly as Sasori spilled the details about how he knew and even ended up interrogating her about her motives, schemes and such.
"Are you stalking me?" Sakura is stumped. It all makes sense now why she felt as if someone is watching her every moves.
He just stared at her which she translated as the 'are-you-stupid-look.'
Sasori shrug his shoulders. "I don't call it like that. Stalking is a crime, woman. I call it data gathering, collecting of intel, observing..." followed by a slurping sound from his milkshake.
Sakura's eye twitched.
That's a lawyer for you, bending words to his liking.
They end up hanging out in the shop for almost three hours, she guessed they been there that long since it's almost sunset now. The topic strayed to penguins a lot of times but it seems they managed to wrap up the situation. It's unexpected ...
'He's actually capable of having a decent conversation.'
"I'll keep your secret for now." He mutters. "Since I don't see any merits in exposing your secret."
Halleluiah baby, she's seeing him in a different light now.
"As long as you don't do anything to harm those precious to me then I won't destroy you." He said a matter-of-factly, smiling for the first time.
Ah.
She spoke too soon, she's definitely seeing him in a different light, a darker shade of light.
'No doubt, he's an S.'
And that smile, mind you turned her blood ice-cold. It's so damn creepy and it carries promises of pain and torture. This man didn't become a lawyer for nothing and definitely a force to be reckoned with.
After receiving a phone call from Itachi, the two hurried back to the office.
Sakura is trailing behind Sasori when she spoke, "What shall we tell them about our sudden disappearance act Sasori?" They abandoned their post after all and Itachi, their superior won't be too happy to hear that.
Sasori paused, stare at her with that deadpanned-look and spoke. "You're the one who dragged me out, think of something."
"T- This litte shi –.." She's about to let her temper out when a smirking Deidara opened the door. On the swivel chair is a sitting Itachi ... and is he scowling?
"Where were you both? Deidara said you ditched your paperworks."
Sasori choose to be silent leaving Sakura to be the sacrificial lamb.
Sakura adjusts her glasses elbowing Sasori on the process.
"I deserve an explanation. Come on, make sure I'll like it." Itachi is all business-like and it's making Sakura uneasy. This side of Itachi makes him more distant than ever.
She already knows the difference between their social standing but this kind of distance makes it feel like he's a stranger. Right, he's in the world she can never enter.
She sighed, earning the attention of the trio.
Itachi is about to let them off the hook when Deidara decides to open his mouth.
"Before they poofed, they mentioned something about babies."
If looks could kill, Deidara would've been dead by now. Deidara just earned his way on Sakura's blacklist. He'll curse this blondie with a voodoo doll, hammering nails on his crotch.
"What about babies?" Itachi stared at the two keenly.
Sakura starts gripping her skirt, wracking her brain for some convincing lies when Sasori spoke.
"We are having an emergency discussion about dying baby penguins. Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are killing 3% of the penguins, and according to the National Wildlife Poll, the baby Emperor penguins belongs to the threatened species now with their population dropping to 1.563% the last two mon –"
Itachi raised his right hand to stop Sasori's monologue because if no one interferes, he can go on with that penguin-shit for hours. "I think I've heard enough Sasori."
Sasori just nod.
"We did finish our work Itachi, it was Deidara who was napping." Sakura then points to the blonde accusingly.
"Deidara?" Itachi's icy voice made Deidara cringe.
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Another day in the office.
It's supposed to be one but at the moment they are sitting on the round table and Itachi's face is all-serious and sombre. Well, his face is like that at times but today is not one of that typical seriousness.
"I summoned you all here today because we'll be having our first undercover mission." Itachi stated in a calm manner but judging from his face it seems that so called mission would be dangerous and life-threatening.
"What do you mean undercover mission?" Sakura as the newest member of the team is clearly confused. "Isn't it a detective's or investigators job to do such missions?"
"Good question Sakura. This firm's purpose is not only settling matters on court but behind courts as well. All of us here are licensed to do undercover missions and Kisame was hospitalized because of that."
Since she's taking over Kisame's job, she'll be exposed to such risky environment. She pledged her loyalty and service for the betterness of her country and there's no way she'll show cowardice now.
"Before you came to work for us Sakura, we've been investigating a certain designer label botique called 'DEMURE'. It is said that women goes missing in that store and those women are actually applicants that are looking for a job in boutique. Authorities seem unable to have any progress about the case since it involves a certain political figure."
Itachi clicked the projector and it revealed photos of young women.
"These twelve women in the screen are missing. Can someone pinpoint what they have in common?" Itachi enquire white pointing at the photos.
Sasori raised his hand. "They are all female."
"It's quite obvious already Sasori. I'll just answer that question myself then,they are all nice-looking."
"Ooh." The trio nods.
Itachi sighed; he wonders if this mission would be successful.
The Akatsuki is a team considered to be the strongest and reliable. The composition of their manpower can be compared to the Legendary Sannins ... they retired a few years ago and they're not called 'Legendary' for just compliment.
Team Akatsuki got Sasori, a genius hacker, and his skills proved to be a great help in tracking and gathering intels but his obliviousness and weirdness can get the best of him at times.
Deidara despite of his cassanova tendencies actually has many connections on the underground and that includes yakuzas. His charisma makes anyone his ally hence his fearsome skills, he is also a genius when it comes to anything that explodes ... bombs for instance. He's too laid-back though if only he puts it to good use.
Kisame is not here at the moment...
Sakura?
She's the diligent worker in the team and if he's not mistaken she's a black belter in both aikido and judo. She also has background in poisons and medical treatment hence her high level as an asset to the firm. It's the fact that she's a woman that makes him hesitant of putting her on the mission.
His mom will skin him alive if something happens to her under his watch and he'll be damned if he tell Sakura that. A debate about feminism will transpire and she's a lawyer, and a woman ... he'll never hear the end of it so he'd rather say yes.
"According to the data we've gathered so far, it leads to human trafficking."
Sakura clench her fist, Deidara seems really serious all of a sudden and Sasori's attention is all focused to the screen.
'Perfect.'
Itachi needs this kind of look in their eyes.
"In this mission, we need more manpower therefore..."
The door suddenly opens revealing Shikamaru, Sai, and Sasuke. Sakura stares at them, and oh how she misses them. Shikamaru winked at her then sits beside her followed by Sasuke who poked her on the forehead and Sai fakely smiling at her.
'Nice to see you too Sai.'
"Akatsuki will be teaming up with Shikamaru's team. We are dealing with a dangerous syndicate here so I want you to prepare yourselves for the possible worst scenario."
A suffocating silence...
Worst scenario equals death.
Shikamaru raised his hand.
"Itachi-san, have you formulated a plan on how to infiltrate the shop. We need to put people inside to know more about what and who we are dealing with."
"What are you suggesting Shikamaru?"
"No one knows where the twelve missing women are but if the data is right that it is indeed human trafficking, we need to know the set-up. Where they are and what happened to them." Shikamaru explained.
"Get to the point." Itachi nods.
"We need to infiltrate the place." he smirks.
Shikamaru continues. "That's the most effective plan we have. Since they are luring young women we need a woman to act as the bait. With GPS and recording devices wired to the bait, we'll be able to gather the whereabouts of the women thus stopping the dealings once and for all."
"Without further evidences, we can't call the attention of the authorities to arrest them so it would be risky." Sasuke added.
"But who would volunteer as the bait?" Sai asked.
Series of whispers filled the room.
Deidara stood up. "I will."
Shikamaru's brows furrows, "But you're a man."
"Deidara can pass as a woman Shikamaru, it will be her third undercover mission as a woman. He's good at disguises and I assure you he'll be an asset." Itachi explains while showing Deidara's undercover photo on the screen.
Sakura's jaw dropped to the floor and the rest except Sasori and Itachi are did the same.
On the screen is a picture of a pretty blonde with voluptuous feature.
'That awkward moment when a guy is prettier than you.' Sakura mentally cursed Deidara.
"That settles it then, we'll contact – " Shikamaru is about to end the meeting when someone spoke out of the corner.
"I don't think one bait will be enough." Sasori said while poking his penguin toy figures.
"Are you saying I'm useless again?" Deidara barks.
He showed a yellow penguin toy figure and puts it on the table. "If the other bait gets caught, another one should continue the mission. That would make sense right?" he tilts his head.
Itachi inwardly smirks. That's Sasori for you.
"I don't see anyone who can crossdress here better than me, you'll look like drag queens." Deidara spouts as he crosses his arms out of annoyance.
"What's the need for a crossdresser when we have a woman right here?" Sai points at Sakura who points at herself in return.
"Me?"
The men in the room stared at her making Sakura feel a bit uncomfortable.
"No. She has nothing to do with this mission." Sasuke announced a bit grouchily.
"We need a woman of her calibre Sasuke. She can handle herself, she even handed our asses to us back in college and trust me, she's not that bad once she's all dolled up." Shikamaru chuckles with full of humour and confidence.
"Someone sounds like a proud parent." Sai snorts.
"We can hire someone." Sasori offers standing from his chair.
"Sakura is our best choice, and this mission is confidential ... we can't sabotage our only chance." Itachi declare with certainty.
Sakura is sure she can handle herself but ... she unconsciously touches her belly. Her body does not belong to her alone anymore. She raises her eyes to meet Sasuke's angry ones.
Before Sakura joined the firm, she already knows the possible danger that is waiting for her. Its part of her job and things like this are unavoidable anyway, especially now that she is the best option to accompany Deidara on the mission.
Her hand is shaking a bit as she raises it up.
Her hesitation might cost twelve lives, she just has to do her best and be extra careful.
"I'm in."
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End of Chapter 9
A/N: My dear readers, I'm so sorry for my late update. –le cries a river- I'll post the next chapter next week. That's a promise, just need to edit it. Phew, what will happen next? I wonder. XD This fic is not just love and humour but with a bit of action as well like come on, I don't even know what got into me but I assure you this is what it's supposed to be. Review fuels my inspiration so kindly state your comment please. Have a nice day ~ 3
-NYAAN-sama