Chapter Five: Icy Sapphire Eyes

Tee hee, I love reviews! Thank you Uchiha Sakima, Archer Ri-chan (aka GA-grl), Yuuri Yotsuki, and 2014mw for reviewing!! This chapter will include slight DeiSaku.

There was nothing she could but suffer in silence as she wondered who exactly Madara Uchiha was. Who? What? How? She had always figured that when they said that all of the Uchiha clan had been eradicated, they meant all of the Uchiha. Save for Itachi and Sasuke, of course.

Sakura had clasped her mouth shut after that and decided to rest. She woke up, not knowing that she had fallen asleep, with a start. Itachi, of course, hadn’t dropped her, but she felt the presence of someone’s eyes on her. As a kunoichi, she of course knew how that felt. Even so, she kept her eyes screwed tight. The sudden sound of Itachi’s voice made her also jump.

“Deidara... Please get out of her face.”

Sakura’s eyes flew open and she could only let out a gasp when she saw an ice-colored eye staring at her curiously. This must be Deidara...

Itachi gave the blonde a stern frown. “Deidara, please get out of her face.” With that, said blonde pulled away with a scowl of his own. “What are you, her owner, hm?” He didn’t wait for Itachi’s answer, and instead turned towards Sakura again.

“What’s your...” His voice trailed off dead. His hand had hovered around the left side of his face; he was fumbling with something under his long bangs. “Itachi, you bastard. Why the hell did you bring a Konoha ninja here, hm?”

Again, he didn’t give Itachi a second to answer.

“Were you lonely?” he teased, a playfully evil smirk spreading across his face. But it was quickly washed away and replaced with a frown. “And why are you carrying her like that?”

Itachi gave him a and-how-do-you-expect-me-to-carry-her-like look. Deidara just shrugged in response and turned back to Sakura. “What’s your name?”

Sakura frowned, feeling a little offended. Sasuke had taught her it was common courtesy to say your own name first... Even if she already knew his name, but still. She just sat back and didn’t answer, much to Deidara’s anger.

He scowled and proceeded to lightly poke her shoulder. “Does she talk at all, hm?”

Sakura wriggled and squirmed in a vain attempt to get her shoulder away. However, it was honestly her fault because of her struggling when Deidara’s finger missed her shoulder and poked her breast instead.

And that was how Deidara ended up on the ground a while later, nursing a bruised cheek. “Ow. What the hell?” Itachi just sighed in response, holding Sakura back without any effort wasted.

“How dare you!” Sakura shrieked, and Deidara looked up at her, with an almost hurt expression on his face. “So you do talk, hm.”

Noticing she had broke her barrier of silence, she stopped screaming and shouting and stood still. Deidara turned back to Itachi. “Why did you bring a Konoha-nin here, hm?”

Itachi was about to slap Deidara for being unaware that he hadn’t heard the leader’s orders to capture the Konoha nin, but in the blonde’s defense, he had been on a mission with Sasori. He had the streaks of dirt on his face to prove it. He must have only come back a while ago.

“Sakura-chan is going to hand the Kyuubi-Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto-kun, over to the organization.

Sakura was appalled; she had never agreed to any such thing! Besides, Itachi had said that he would talk to the leader about the situation. Deidara, however, was all smiles (it was more of a smirk, though). “Sakura...” He went over the name a few times mentally.

“Sakura is going to help us, hm?” He glanced at Sakura, and then frowned at her Leaf headband. Without another word, he stood to his feet and began to walk off. “Who was that, Itachi-san?” Sakura asked, looking up at the Uchiha.

He didn’t answer for a while, and Sakura was afraid he hadn’t heard her. “That’s Deidara. He’s a prodigy from Iwagakure.” The pink-haired girl nodded. “And what exactly does ‘hm’ mean?” Sakura asked, trying her best to mimic the so-called word Deidara ended most, if not all sentences with.

Itachi just shook his head. “I have no earthly clue.” She waited awhile before bothering Itachi again. “May I go talk to him?”

“If by talk to him you mean apologize.” Itachi deadpanned. He looked almost tired. “But he was the one who--” Sakura cut herself off with a sigh and then nodded. With that, she sauntered down the empty hallway, as Itachi turned to go talk to the leader about the situation at hand.

~X~X~

It wasn’t that hard to find Deidara’s room. Okay, yeah it was. It took Sakura nearly an hour and a half of searching through the dark rooms to find the explosives expert. She finally found him in a room that was rather dark with plenty of clay sculptures everywhere. He was sitting on his bed making yet another one of his creations, but noticed immediately when the door creaked even a little bit.

“Hidan, if you’re still hellbent on proving I’m female, forget it. I’m not get pantsed again, hm.” That sentence alone got Sakura wondering what the hell happened in the Akatsuki. When the door continued to open, Deidara finally looked up to see Sakura.

He immediately shot her a glare that could melt bricks. “I... just wanted to say I’m sorry for... hitting you, Deidara-kun.” Sakura managed, through gritted teeth. Her eyes danced over repeatedly to the purple and black bruise on his cheek.

Deidara gave her a suspicious look, and Sakura finally got a bit fed up with all of this. She walked over to him and sat on the edge of his bed. “What are you making?”

That simple sentence changed everything.

Deidara’s face practically lit up. “Just a few butterflies, spiders, birds, animals like that, hm.”

And with that, the mouths on the artist’s hands spit out a few clay animals. They fluttered out the window into the sun and exploded. Sakura stared in awe at the explosion, but Deidara just looked on, a frown pulling at his lips.

The emerald-eyed girl didn’t notice this, though. “What do you like best about your, uh, art?” Sakura asked, trying hard not to offend the blonde. An empty smile appeared on Deidara’s face, no doubt it was a cover-up of something that was seriously bothering him. And it also took him quite a while to respond.

“What I like best?” Deidara asked, not even looking at Sakura. Instead his sapphire eyes were locked on the window. “I like the fact that they have freedom.”

Author’s Note: So... did you like this chapter? I’ve been trying to make them a bit longer to satisfy reviewers or just readers. So far, Sakura’s uncovered two very interesting secrets of the Akatsuki: Itachi’s a secret Konoha ally (or so he says), and Deidara is yearning for freedom. If readers like this story, then you might also like an upcoming fanfic of mine called Pearl Princess. It’s not published yet because I have many fanfics already being written, but if you are interested, just PM me. Oh, and I will make Deidara a lot more in- character in the later chapters (Do you really think he would poke people???) Review please!