“Hey, you’re wearing my cloak, un.”

Sakura stuffed her next bite into her mouth before looking up to answer him sheepishly,

“Yeah…I was cold…” she chewed and swallowed, “Is it okay if I wear it… just for now? You can have it back, if you want.”

“No, its fine, yeah, you can wear it…but don’t you have anything else to wear?” We might get caught in bad weather later.”

Sakura shook her head, ‘no’ before continuing,“…and those bed sheets are disgusting…I don’t know how either of us will sleep in them…”

Deidara looked up frowning from his nearly empty bowl,

“They are?” he finished the last of his food as Sakura nodded an affirmative, “…bastard…even after all that, he still gives us crappy service…I’ll go find the guy and get clean sheets.” Deidara muttered as he got up,

“You stay here, yeah? I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Sakura was about to argue to come with him but he was already gone.

“hmph…leaves me alone like I’m some stupid damsel in distress. I can take care of myself! Who does he think he is? Telling me what to do…” Sakura darkly muttered that and the like under her breath as she got up and cleaned the table of their late dinner. Walking around, she tidied up the dank little room. Noticing the sheets on the bed, she decided that she might as well get rid of the old sheets if Deidara was bringing new ones.

She approached his bed first and noticed the sculpture he’d made of her. It had fallen from her hands and onto the bed. She picked it up, examining it once more before placing it on the bedside table.

Methodically, she stripped the first bed and piled the old sheets on the floor before moving to the next one. Sakura bent over and pulled the nasty blanket off her bed. Stretching it out and holding it away from her, she turned around to walk it to the last pile, but only to come face to face with an orange swirled mask.

Sakura’s eyes widened as she shrieked and Tobi lunged to glomp her while she jumped back and tossed the icky blanket at Tobi’s head. All the while, Tobi shouted,

“Tobi welcomes Pretty Girl! Tobi welcome Pretty Girl to Akatsuki!”

Tobi had wrapped his arms around Sakura while she hit him multiple times with her free arm on his blanket-clad head. For whatever reason, Tobi hadn’t notice it yet.

“Ack!-thump- Get! -thump- Off -thump- Of me! -thump thump-“

“But Tobi wants to give Pretty Girl a welcome hug!” Tobi frowned and opened his eye to see the pretty girl’s angry face, only to find that he couldn’t see it. Instead, he saw darkness and his Sharingan automatically activated to zoom in on the organisms growing on the blanket.

“Aghhhhh! Get it off! Get it off Tobi!” Tobi jumped off Sakura and began darting around the room, knocking the table and chairs over in the process. Sakura watched fascinated for a minute at the unprecedented antics of the unknown Akatsuki and at a complete loss for what to do about them.

Then Tobi ran towards her again and in the blink of an eye, she was once more on the floor as Tobi rolled around, tangled in the filthy blanket. She eyed the blanket with disdain and decided right then and there, that, whoever he was, he didn’t deserve to be under that blanket (and to stop the entire building from crashing down because of all his thrashing about). Knowing that she’d regret this later, Sakura grabbed a hold of the blanket, and using her inhuman strength, whipped it off Tobi in one quick tug. Tobi instantly stilled for a second before glomping Sakura a second time and swinging her around the room.

“Yay! Pretty Girl save Tobi from monster! Thank you, Pretty Girl!”

“T-Tobi-i-i…?” Sakura tried to make a coherent sentence, but she was too dizzy from being spun around the room. A moment later, she heard Deidara roar,

“TOBI! PUT HER DOWN!”

Tobi froze and gasped, dropping the kunoichi where she stood with an ‘oof’. Upon hearing that, Deidara lunged at Tobi. The clean, neat stack of linens in his arms fell in a forgotten heap. Tobi yelped and Deidara growled. Sakura got up unsteadily and put a green-glowing hand to her head as she watched the two men struggle on the floor.

“Dei…dara?”

The men stopped and Deidara looked up to see his muse’s confused look. He gave Tobi one more good smack across the head before getting up and walking to Sakura as if nothing had happened.

“That idiot didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“N-No….but who is he?” She looked over at Tobi. Deidara glared at Tobi with disdain as he got up and brushed himself off. Deidara pulled Sakura to the other side of the room and set her down on the bare mattress with a sigh.

“That’s my idiot partner Tobi, yeah.”

“Yourpartner?” Her eyes widened as she stared at the balefully approaching Akatsuki member whose mask hung askew. Ack! How could I have forgotten that Akatsuki members always travel in pairs!

“Don’t come any closer, un.” Deidara’s voice rang out sharply and froze the other man in place and then, to Sakura’s shock, to start whimpering as he rubbed his head.

“But Tobi only wanted to give Pretty Girl a hug!”

Deidara slapped his own forehead and sat down next to Sakura with a groan.

“Tobi…you know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, let alone, throw your arms around them!”

“Pretty Girl isn’t a stranger! She’s Akatsuki, like Tobi!” At this, both, Sakura and Deidara looked up questioningly at Tobi.

“I’m not part of Akatsuki! I’d die before that happened!” Sakura snapped automatically.

“But then why is Pretty Girl wearing a cloak like Tobi’s? Can Tobi see your ring!” All of a sudden, Tobi was bending down before her and grabbing at her hands before Deidara snatched them back and tucked them down in Sakura’s lap.

“Touch her again and you’ll be all over the streets in pieces, un.” Deidara hissed “and no, she’s isn’t Akatsuki. She’s better then all of us.”

“But then why is she wearing a cloak like Tobi’s? Is she a good girl?”

“None of you business, un.”

Sakura watched the two men bicker about her. The two Akatsuki men bicker. About her. Feeling rather stranger and lost, she began slipping off Deidara’s cloak but his arm came up around her shoulder and held the fabric in place.

“If you’re cold un, then wear it.”

Before Sakura could argue, Tobi gasped in amazement and rocked back and forth on his heels.

“Sempai is being nice! Deidara Sempai is being a good boy!”

“Shut up, Tobi!” Deidara shouted. Sakura quirked a brow at him, amused.

“Sempai?”

Deidara groaned to himself as he tried to explain to her how being called ‘Sempai’ was not his idea. Sakura simply smiled mischievously before getting up to put up the clean linens he’d brought in.

“Sure thing, ‘Sempai’!”

Deidara sighed to himself then moved to berate Tobi again.

“See what you did, un? Now she thinks I’m a ‘Sempai’!”

“But Deidara Sempai is a Sempai.” Tobi cocked his head to the side.

“NO. I’m not her sempai, and I definitely didn’t ask to be yours, yeah.”

“Then if you’re not her sempai, Deidara Sempai, then what are you?”

Deidara bristled and began to painstakingly explain the relationship between an artist and his muse, leaving certain things out so that Tobi’s simplistic mind would better understand. Of course Tobi nodded vehemently throughout the lecture and concluded that Deidara was his muse which incidentally caused another argument to erupt.

All the while, Sakura fixed up her bed and remained lost in her own thoughts. She still wasn’t sure what to make of the strange, new Akatsuki member. Apparently he was Deidara’s partner, wore an orange swirled mask, and had the trademark cloak, so he was really an Akatsuki. But she just couldn’t believe it. He was just so…childish. His actions didn’t match who he was. Akatsuki were always mean, ruthless, and persistent in what they wanted. Like Itachi. Like Sasori. And sometimes, like Deidara. So who was this Tobi fellow who ran around giving people hugs? And furthermore, how in the world did he become part of the Akatsuki? Sakura mentally shrugged and decided she’d rather not know as she patted down the last corner of the bed sheet. She heaved a sigh and collapsed onto the clean sheets. Thankful that they were no longer the horrid excuses for bed linen that they had been before.

“Deidara…here’s your cloak. I’m going to sleep and I’m still going back to Konoha tomorrow. Now fix your own bed and do something about Tobi.” Abruptly, whatever argument the two Akatsuki had been having was halted by the sound of Sakura’s voice and the cloak that came flying at Deidara’s head. Deidara just barely dodged it and shoved Tobi away from his bed.

“Tobi. You. Sleep. Floor.” Deidara pointed each of the things out separately before getting up and fixing his own bed. He looked at Sakura and found that she had already snuggled under the covers and had her back towards them. Her breathing had slowed down. The day had been far too long and draining for her. Not physically, but mentally. She started the day with healing some people at another village, ran into Deidara on the way back to Konoha, fought him and won, and somehow, was now fast asleep with her back turned on a pair of S-class criminals without another care in the world. Inner Sakura had long been knocked out a while ago and Sakura herself was fading fast from the tiring day.

“But Tobi is scared of monsters, Sempai. Tobi doesn’t want to sleep on the floor.” Tobi whimpered while standing in the middle of the room. Deidara looked at his partner and thought about it. He didn’t feel like getting into another argument with Tobi. It would probably wake up Sakura. He was also too tired from the day. His fight with her combined with the flight here had been more draining on him then on her.

“Fine, Tobi. Why don’t you look out for monsters and let us sleep if you don’t want to. Wake me up if you see anything fishy, yeah?”

“Fishy like Kisame-San?”

Deidara groaned.

“No, un. Like somebody sneaky.”

“Oh. Ok. But when will Tobi sleep?”

“Do you even need sleep, un?” Deidara asked wearily as he sat on the bed and took off his shoes.

“Yes. Sleep is good for Tobi. And Tobi is very tired from following Deidara Sempai on his bird all day.”

“You followed us while we were flying?” Deidara queried, slightly incredulous but too tired to show it. Tobi nodded vehemently.

“Tobi is a good boy! Tobi had to run very, very fast, but Tobi did it! Tobi didn’t loose Sempai!”

“Fine, un. Wake me up in a few hours, I’ll take the next watch so you can get some sleep.” Deidara grimaced. He hated being nice to Tobi, but he had to give in. The kid had followed his bird on foot and he knew from experience (that he’d rather not think about) how much that took out of a person.

yeahhh short chapter, but I wanted to update. And this story just seems so weird to me now...-sigh- I don't know what's going to happen next.

Leave a review please :D