Author's note: Hello everyone! Here I am with another chapter. This time it didn't take me years to update Please let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Requested by: Crazy Neko Girl

Disclaimer:Nope, I don't own it. Just running with this wild imagination of mine ;)

Recap!: Time seemed to drag on forever and with each passing second not seeing her, his hope grew and grew. Just then, it all came crashing down. Coming from the building was one of the firefighters carrying a limp body. Despite the dark, he saw unmistakable proof as her pink hair swayed back and forth in the wind. Still his mind forced him to believe that it wasn't her. Just then out of the crowd he saw a blond haired man run to the stretcher the body was rested on. A few officials tried to hold him back as he fought to get closer. Deidara's eyes widen in horror. Just then the young man broke free and ran towards her.

"Sakura-chan!" Came the blood curdling scream.

Collide Chapter 14

40 minutes earlier

Naruto was sprawled out across Sasuke's couch with a dazed look across his face. He felt so numb inside as flash backs of what happened played on repeat in his mind.

"Sakura-chan why?" He moaned as he tossed and turned.

"Dude, are you going to lay there all night repeating yourself?" Sasuke asked as he walked into the apartment.

"…"

Sasuke walked over to the arm chair near Naruto and fell back onto it. He was silent for a moment as he looked at his friend.

"I just spoke to Sakura." He said slowly after a moment.

"…"

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at his friend closely. He then released a deep sigh as he leaned back. "Man, you two really need to talk." He muttered.

"There's nothing to talk about. She lied to me. Who knows what else she's lied about." He spat out bitterly, back still turned to his friend.

"Did you give her a chance to talk or did you jump to conclusions?" Sasuke asked plainly.

"…."

Sasuke shook his head. "You really are stubborn you know that? How could you just jump-"

"It's because she didn't even deny anything!" Naruto now sat up facing his friend. A dark look crossed his features briefly before it was replaced by a crushed look. "She looked me right in the eyes and wouldn't even answer my questions."

"Don't you mean couldn't?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow which earned him a dirty look from Naruto.

"Hey! who's side are you on exactly?" He demanded.

Sasuke snorted as he rolled his eyes. "I'm on no one's side. I'm just here to help you two kids work out your differences so that you can have a happy ending."

"What do you know? You've never gone through this with Hinata." He pouted.

"Heh." Sasuke muttered as he looked away. This of course caught Naruto's attention.

"What's that about?" He questioned.

"You act like you're the only guy who feels threaten by his girlfriend's ex." He said slowly as he eyed Naruto.

In turn Naruto's eyes widen in surprise. "Eh? What's that look for? I never even dated Hinata!"

"Of course you didn't. You never noticed anyway since you were so focused on Sakura." Before Naruto could question anymore, he continued. "Every time I'd see her around you, it would piss me off. I thought that the more she was around you, the harder it would be for her to move on." His look soften a bit when he noticed the look on Naruto's face.

He didn't catch on at first but as Sasuke continued he finally understood. Although it was too late, he felt bad that he didn't noticed his friend's feelings for him and that he made Sasuke feel uncomfortable. He looked over at Sasuke as sighed deeply.

"You just have more trust in Hinata then I do for Sakura. Honestly at this point I don't think I'm good enough for-"

"You have got to be kidding me!" Sasuke cried out. Naruto's eyes widen at his friend's outburst. "As I said before, you two really need to talk. Nothing is gonna happen overnight but if you really love her, then fight for her! It took me a little time to accept how Hinata felt for you and to trust that she no longer felt that way. Deidara and Sakura had a long history together. Of course you'd feel threaten. But just sulking around like this isn't going to heal the gap between you two. It's only going to push her towards him more. If you have any love or respect for her, you'd hear her out and give this a fighting chance. Now I'm going to bed. At this point do as you wish. Goodnight." With that, Sasuke stood up and walked to his room closing the door behind him. Naruto remained were he sat with many thoughts running through his head.

A frown came across his face. He remembered when they made up after the first argument. Hadn't he encourage her to talk to him about anything? However the moment she opened up, he blew up. The frown on his face deepen. Sasuke hit the hammer on the nail. He wouldn't admit it, but he did feel threaten by Deidara. It was ridiculous. He knew that they couldn't have any kind of relationship, so why would he feel threaten? He felt like a jerk. Instead of hearing her out, he jumped to conclusions and once again left her. He wouldn't be one bit surprised if she didn't want to talk to him.

Secondly he never noticed Hinata's feelings for him and that hurt as well. She was such a good friend to him and he never had any intentions to hurt her. He also never had intentions to make Sasuke feel uncomfortable. Despite that, the two of them are still together. Somehow they made it through that hurdle, so why couldn't he and Sakura do the same? To him, they have been through so much that to let it all go because of something like this? Unthinkable. He was absolutely in love with her and couldn't imagine a life without her. He smiled softly to himself as he thought of her. Especially her smile. It was all he wanted to see at that moment, though he knew it would be awhile before he saw it again. Either way he made up his mind. Gathering his stuff together he left the apartment and headed towards her place.

As he walked down towards her apartment, he wondered if she'd even be there. He wasn't sure if she went off to see Deidara as he expected. His hands crawled up into a fist at the thought. He had made up his mind that he was not giving up on her. If that meant that he'd have to go there to talk to her, he wouldn't care if he was there or not. He was now three blocks away going over in his mind the right words to say when there was a loud explosion. Seconds later a huge fire danced across the night sky. Startled, Naruto stopped in his tracks and stared up in awe. It didn't take long before he realized just where that explosion came from. The blood drained from his face and a horrified look crossed his face. For once he wished she weren't home. He quickly ran in that direction.

Flashbacks of the explosion that took her parents life came to mind. Something about that night felt so similar to this night and it sent a shiver down his back. By the time he reached the apartment complex, there was already a large crowed. He looked around franticly for his fiancée calling out her name and asking anyone if they have seen her with no luck. After a few minutes, he noticed one of the firefighters coming from the building carrying a limp body. His heart nearly stopped when he caught sight of the pink hair sawing from side to side. His body felt numb and he felt this sickening out of body experience. He watched as they placed the body on a stretcher. The body. That word echoing throughout his mind sound more and more like a foreign word. Slowly he walked over to the stretcher. The closer he got the clearer it became that it really was her. When they tried to hold him back, he snapped, screaming out that she was his fiancée. They finally let him go and he ran to her.

When he finally got there, they were hooking her up to portable machines. He saw how badly injured she was. There was blood everywhere and she looked like she had third degree burns across her chest and legs. As he stood next to her, he reached out for her hand to hold it. Just then her eyes slowly opened. When they focused on him tears started to form behind her eyes. He saw this and gave her an assuring look.

"You're going to be ok." He whispered as he tried to believe in those words. Tears rolled silently down his cheeks and he tighten his grip on her hand.

With whatever strength she had, she lifted her free hand and gently touched his cheek. He saw a soft smile on her face. It only caused more tears to fall. "You…came…back." She whispered softly. Tears quietly rolled down her cheeks as she looked at him. Her face twisted in pain. The pain was unbearable and she was finding it hard to keep awake.

"I..love you…Naruto…kun.." She breathed out just below a whispered. Then her eyes closed and the machines around her made a loud, long beep sound. Naruto's eyes widen in disbelief as the med nins pulled him away and franticly got her in the van. They drove her off to the hospital. The van was long gone but he still looked off into the distance. That couldn't have happened. She couldn't have just died like that in front of him. This couldn't have been real! HIs body shook and soon he dropped down to the ground.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" He let out a blood curdling scream.

Deidara's eyes widen in horror at the scene before him. He saw everything from them taking Sakura out of the building to Naruto screaming out her name. He felt so numb, like the whole thing was a dream. It had to be a nightmare. He was sure he had fallen asleep under the tree as he waited for her. He was positive that they hadn't met and that they didn't come to the conclusion that nothing more could happen between them. He sure as hell didn't want to believe that she just ran off after saying she loved him only for this to happen to her in return. He didn't want to believe it, but the facts were clear as day. It took every ounce of strength not to run to be by her side. Tears silently fell down his cheeks as he watched from afar.

He closed his eyes thinking that if he did so it would prove that all of this was just a dream, a horrible nightmare. However, even after opening his eyes he saw that reality was far crueler. His fist clutched to his side as the only thing left behind was anger boiling through his veins. Itachi's last words echoed through his mind. His blue eyes looked darkly in Itachi's direction. In turn Itachi had a solemn look on his face and didn't seem to flinch at the look Deidara gave him.

"We should go." He said slowly and calmly as he reached out for Deidara's arm.

He gave Itachi a sneer as he snatched his arm away. His voice was shaking with anger as he spoke. " I'm not going anywhere, Not until I find that-"

"Listen." Itachi interrupted as he held his hands up and tried to reason. "I get how much you want to track down who did this, but now is neither the time or place. There are tons of Ambu's in the area. At any given moment we could be spotted and accused of the crime."

For a moment, despite his anger, he took to thought what Itachi had to say. He hated to admit that the man was right. He could see several groups of Ambu combing the area for any clues and one group in particular was drawing uncomfortably close to them. He looked back at Itachi who continued to give him a calm look. He had questions that he wanted answers to and he knew he wouldn't get it if Ambu caught up to them. Also, he'd ever know exactly what happed to Sakura. Sighing deeply he shook his head.

"Fine but as soon as we're a safe distance away, I want answers." With that said, both ran in the direction leading out of Konoha.

Once they were several miles away, the two stopped. In the horizon the sun began to break, casting an eerie fog in the forest. Deidara rested his back against the tree and tried to catch his breath as he slid down. For a moment the two didn't speak. Itachi sat on the ground not to far from Deidara. He was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry about this tragedy. I tried to warn you but-"

"To hell you were trying to warn me!" He shouted, abruptly interrupting Itachi. HIs eyes narrowed as he glared at him. He scoffed as he looked away. "Warning my-"

It was now Itachi's turn to interrupt and return the glare. Really now if he hasn't figured it out by now there was no saving this guy! "It was right in front of you all along!" He snapped. A confused look crossed Deidara's face as he continued. "Tobi might seem like an idiot but no one joins Akatsuki for nothing. Everyone has their own agenda. I have yet to figure out Tobi's. Bluntly put, I don't trust him. If you don't start watching your back, you'll be next."

Deidra shook his head as he tried to understand. "How do you know all of this? Why do you care to warn me? What do you gain from helping me?

For a long time Itachi remained silent as he thought of how he should answer. At this point his cover was more or less blown. There's no way after this he could play dumb. He sighed deeply. "I haven't been entirely honest with you." He began.

"What?" Deidra gasped. Before he could ask anymore Itachi continued.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wasn't suppose to get involved like this. I was only assigned to observe and report."

"Report? Report to whom?!" He demanded as he looked at Itachi with questioning eyes.

Itachi looked down for a moment then he looked back up. He gave him a serious look as he spoke. "You're parents."