Title: Apple Blossom Tea
Chapter Title: That Is SO Not Fair!
Author: Backlash Symphony
Music: "Look At Me
Now" by The Faders
"Miss Murder" by
AFI
Summary: They entered silently, trying to stick to their usual plans; ignore everyone and be ignored in return. Usually, the women would blush at the brief view of Itachi's handsome face and cringe at the sight of Kisame. Normally, Itachi would disregard the lustful gazes and Kisame the terrified stares, but one particular roseate-haired waitress changed everything Kisame came to know by simply looking at him and not cowering in fear. Kisa/Saku
Disclaimer: I do not own "Look At Me Now" by The Faders, "Miss Murder" by AFI, and I especially do not own Naruto, for if I did, the show would be called "Sakura".
Text means thoughts
belonging to Inner Sakura
Text means thoughts belonging to Sakura
Text is Sakura and Inner Sakura thinking the same thing
Text is normal writing
Text means two or more people talking at the same time
The soft snow drifted down from the cloudy grey sky. The glistening ice crystals swayed on a gentle breeze and landed in the pink hair of one grumpy Akatsuki member. Sakura sighed heavily, glad that the complex with the heat she needed and the men she was looking for were merely feet away. After making sure she put the genjutsu back over the building, she trudged through the thick snow until she reached the entrance.
She needn't knock for she'd been a part of the 'family' for nearly a year now. The moment she opened the door, heat attacked her shivering body and she hopped inside, slamming the door shut behind her. With snow frozen to her long hair and snow sticking to her cloak, she hurried through the halls to reach her room so she could change into something warmer. That, and she had to find the presents for Kisame and Itachi. It was Christmas Eve, afterall, and no one was expecting her back until two days from now, so it'd be a pleasant surprise.
As she shrugged out of her clothes and into her normal Akatsuki uniform -a black thin strapped shirt that had fishnet covering the bottom four inches of her stomach, a black skirt that came to just above the knee, slit up the sides with a deep crimson colored set of shorts that came to midthigh underneath, and black lace up boots that came up to mid calf- she spotted her present for Miyu, the only other girl who was in the Akatsuki. When Kisame had brought Sakura into the Akatsuki, they had started a new trend.
While on missions, the other members attempted to find a woman who was strong enough to pass the entrance exam as well as fall in love with them. Now, mind you, there were only a few men in Akatsuki that were actually bad-looking. Apparently, Akatsuki was more interested in pretty boys, but some passed through because of their power. Sakura had thought about it and despite the fact that she knew Kisame looked handsome just the way he was, he had probably been a heartthrob in his youth before the demon inside of him emerged and forced the effects onto him, changing his appearance and part of his nature.
Miyu had recently been accepted in Akatsuki and was paired off with Sasori. Yeah, Sakura distinctly remembered killing him but about a week after she had been accepted, he returned from a mission. Let's just say Sakura nearly had a heart attack and spent the next month clinging to Kisame, afraid to be alone in fear that Sasori might try to kill her. She was strong, yes, but even with a group of people's help she wasn't able to defeat Sasori. He was standing right in front of her before her shriek echoed throughout the complex.
Blue hair, red hair. That was that pair.
Blue hair, pink hair. That was her pair.
She found that pattern cute.
Her hands pried the floorboard beneath her bed up and she retrieved three packages and a bag from the darkness, closing up the board when she was done. She had gotten her three friends real gifts and had created little trinkets for the rest of them. And it wasn't easy since there were over 30 members in the Akatsuki organization. She turned to leave the room and headed for the living room. Alright, it wasn't called the living room, but it served the purpose of one. She was surprised to find that they had a very large room filled with soft couches and plush chairs as well as four fireplaces. They called it the lounge.
She remember saying something about the Akatsuki complex being a genjutsu paradise since everything had some sort of genjutsu on it.
The surrounding barrier?
Genjutsu.
The hallways that had doors leading into enormous house sized rooms?
Genjutsu.
The view from the back door that looked like a small backyard?
Genjutsu.
It was actually an orchard.
An orchard.
Yup. Genjutsu in the kitchen, genjutsu in the lounge, genjutsu in the cafeteria. Genjutsu, genjutsu, genjutsu.
So when she entered with her three presents, she didn't expect to walk in to a party.
It was Akatsuki. Murderers didn't have parties, remember?
This being her first Christmas here, she had no idea what to expect. She had figured she wouldn't get a present from anyone but wanted to buy one for her closest boys and Miyu anyway. She had figured it would be quiet, maybe a little more than usual since people would be moping around, having no one to share Christmas with.
A group in the far corner shot up from their seats, cheering as two men slammed their now empty glasses of eggnog onto the table.
Sakura's eye twitched.
"Nope. Normal as anyone else," she muttered. "Eggnog chugging, dancing, excited whispers, drunks, yeah, that's Christmas at Akatsuki for ya..." She began to look for her friends when she noticed the wall to the far side. "...stockings? Oh, now I've seen everything..."
She swore lightly under her breath when she saw the enormous pile of wrapped objects in the actual corner underneath the stockings. With a slightly closer look she noticed that they were actually named in see through bags.
Oh joy. I'll have to sort through allll of that to get these gifts finished...
But snuggled between Kisame's name and Itachi's name was her name, and her bag seemed to be bigger than the rest, or so it seemed.
They...got me presents?
She inhaled a short breath and exhaled as she walked further into the room, shaking her head and searching for Itachi, Kisame, or Miyu. She spotted cotton candy blue first, and headed towards the 20 year old girl, sliding her gift to the top of her small pile. She was going to give the three their gifts directly and put the others in the designated bags. With a tap on her shoulder, Miyu turned around and with a soft smile she nodded to Sakura.
"Merry Christmas, Miyu," Sakura said cheerfully, depositing the thin package into the female's hands. "I've got to find Itachi and Kisame. Have you seen them?"
Miyu pointed to the far corner where the men chugging were and grimaced. She muttered a thanks as Miyu laughed at her expression and moved swiftly to the corner. She spotted the second shade of blue and pulled out Kisame's gift, a wide rectangular box. She waited directly behind Kisame who stuffed a wad of bills he was given into his pocket.
"I thought you said we were going to be honest in our relationship, Kisame," she teased, watching his body stiffen. "You didn't even tell me the Akatsuki celebrated Christmas or that I was going to miss the party while I was on my mission."
The blue skinned man spun around to face the smug looking kunoichi, shock clearly written on his face. He blinked a few times and Sakura laughed, poking him in the chest with his gift. He looked confused for a moment and she smiled kindly.
"Merry Christmas, Kisame," she took his hand and pressed it around his gift.
She gave him a peck on the cheek and watched his stunned look falter.
"And how do you know I even got you something in return?"
She laughed and shrugged.
"I don't, but that doesn't matter to me. I've got everything I could ever want in front of me."
Sakura heard a couple of "aww"s from behind Kisame and she blushed lightly. Itachi walked up behind her and laid his arms over her shoulders.
"You're back early," he said, amused.
Sakura nodded and thrust his present into his face. He darted backwards before she hit him and watched as she spun around, poking him in the chest the same she had with Kisame.
"And you didn't tell me you were going to have a party either!" she huffed.
Her expression quickly changed back and she giggled.
"Now I've got to put these," she shook the bag in her hands, "into their proper places."
She was off to the corner. Within five minutes she had successfully placed each gift in the correct bag and made a move to return to Kisame and Itachi when a loud "I'm back!" followed by "yeah" erupted from halfway across the building. So Deidara was back, too? Sakura smirked and waited for the blonde to appear, and he did in a minute, only he wasn't alone.
Sakura's eyes nearly bugged out her head and her mouth dropped open.
Oh hellll no!
"Ino-pig!" Sakura cried out, obviously shocked.
The blonde looked pissed at the name and let go of Deidara to beat the person who called her that, but surprise quickly overrode everything as she met eyes with Sakura.
"Billboard brow!"
The tension in the air was tangible and anyone sitting or standing between the two girls rocketed from their seats and scrambled to the other sides of the room.
"What are you doing here!"
The two growled at each other and Sakura made a move to step forward, as did Ino, but their respective 'partners' wrapped an arm around their waists. Sakura huffed angrily and glared daggers at the blonde girl who returned each look fiercely.
"Looks like I don't need to introduce the two of you...yeah," Deidara noted cheerfully.
Sakura's glare transferred to him, as did Ino's.
"You didn't tell me she'd be here, Dei-kun," Ino complained, nestling into the warmth of Deidara's body.
Sakura nearly gagged.
"Deidara, you're a good-looking guy, as well as an intelligent and creative one. Why on earth would you be so stupid and pick some trash like her? I know you can do better!" Sakura snapped.
Ino gasped and growled low in her throat.
"At least I'm not a man-stealer!" she retorted, sticking her tongue out.
"Man-stealer? You never gave a crap about Kisame! You were too busy shoving your cleavage into Itachi's face!" Sakura protested.
"Shark face isn't the one holding you!"
That's it.
"Don't call him shark face you...wait, what?"
Sakura tilted her head back and saw two red eyes. She laughed nervously.
"Itachi...where's Kisame?"
Itachi raised a brow and the corners of his lips turned upward.
"Bathroom."
Understanding came over her face.
"Ah. Gotcha."
She turned her head back down.
"So you're with shark face? Figures you couldn't get any!"
"Get any? Ino, do you even realize that life is more about getting laid?"
Ino scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Of course there's more to life! I've got a brain in my head, forehead!"
Sakura snarled.
"I don't have a big forehead anymore!"
"Besides," Kisame's voice said from behind Sakura, "I'm a big guy. Skinny little twigs like you don't interest me. You want something to model after? She's standing right in front of you. Right Itachi?"
Sakura felt Itachi's arm move from her waist and she spun around, wrapping her arms around Kisame.
"I thought you left!" she whined in his ear.
"I hate women who throw themselves at me. Deidara, she's not your type, you know, or am I missing something?" Itachi queried.
Deidara groaned. He had figured this was going to happen.
"Hey, hey, leave off the harsh words, yeah? She's as much my type as cherry over there is Kisame's...yeah."
"But you ruined the pattern!" Sakura whined.
She received confused looks.
"Pattern...yeah?"
"Blue," she pointed to Miyu, "and red," she pointed to Sasori. "Blue," she grabbed a clumb of Kisame's hair, "and pink," she fingered her own hair. "How'd we go from blue and red, blue and pink, to blonde and blonde?"
"Uhh...I never noticed that till now," he chuckled, "yeah."
Sakura let go of Kisame and marched towards the blondes. Ino isntantly took the defensive stance and Sakura shot out her arm in front of her, holding open hand out.
"From now on, neither of us makes fun of the other's choice of male. Name-calling stops here for them and us. No more Ino-pig and no more Billboard Brow or Forehead. Got it?"
Ino scowled at Sakura before sighing and taking her hand. The two shook on it.
"Deal."
"All better now...yeah?"
"Yup."
Sakura moved back to Kisame's side, snuggling against his arm. A clock began to chime, signaling the arrival of Christmas. Sakura gave look shout of approval and giggled happily. She knew she had one gift she could open before the morning arrived when she could open them all. However, she noticed the others moving to their bags and unwrapping one, then two, then three, and Sakura just gawked. Itachi and Kisame nudged for her to move along.
"But, why aren't we waiting until the morning?" she asked, confused.
The two men laughed as the settled in front of their bags, still holding the wrapped presents from Sakura. She knelt before her own bag as well.
"Technically, it's Christmas. So we're allowed to," Itachi explained.
She nodded her head and slowly began to unwrap her presents. One by one, her gifts were opened and she purposely saved Itachi and Kisame's gifts for last. Itachi had bought a dress that she had been eyeing more than once in Mist. Expensive, she had said. Much too expensive for her to be able to afford even if she had been paid greatly at Akatsuki. It was black, halter topped, came to her knees in waves of styled fabric, cut and sewn to make it look unique, with a seethrough red scarf to tie around her waist. She gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek, thanking him for remembering.
Then came Kisame's gift. She opened it was as much care as she had shown with Itachi's and placed the folded paper next to Itachi's. Lifting the top of the box off, her breath caught. A book, but not just any book. It was a leather bound parchment paper book with real gold forming the letters of her name on the cover. It was finely crafted and she opened the cover, unsnapping the clasp. The very first page, written in beautiful calligraphy, said:
To the woman who holds my heart and has shown me what true love is, this is dedicated to you, Sakura, my love.
Kisame.
Sakura felt tears well up and she bit her lip to prevent herself from crying. She flipped to the next page where a short paragraph was written at the top. The rest was blank. As she scanned through the next few pages, she realized they all had some sort of writing on them while the blank yellowed brown of the parchment surfaced blankly on the remaining parts of the page. She noted that there was a black pen tucked neatly in the cover and she realized there was a lump in the back of the book.
She flipped to the back and found a smaller package, about the size of a ring, wrapped in plain white paper. Her fingers slowly picked it up and unwrapped it, and seeing the chain necklace with a ring that would fit one of Kisame's fingers fell onto her lap. Cautiously she picked it up and saw something carved all the way around the outer bit.
Hoshigaki Kisame. Hoshigaki Clan Leader's First Son.
She gave a strangled sob before lurching forward, clinging onto Kisame. The attention of nearly everyone was on her, but she didn't care. She never would either. She cried on him and her other hand reached behind her to hold Itachi's. She gave his hand a soft squeeze. She felt him squeeze back.
"I love you, Kisame," she sniffled, pulling him closer.
The blue skinned man smiled a genuine smile and held her closer to him, whispering those same words back.
"I love you, too."
TADA! And there you have it folks, chapter 7, the final chapter of "Apple Blossom Tea". I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did. Actually, now that I realize it, the last three pieces I've written (including this one) have had crying in them. This chapter, the one-shot I wrote for OrochimaruAnkoJiraiya, and chapter 11 of 'Dirty Little Secret'. Maybe it's a phase? Oh well. You guys like it, right? No need to drop it then.
Thanks to all of my reviewers:
Atika
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-SeXyNoJiTsU-
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This story has hit -up to this point- a total of 82 reviews and 3023 hits. You guys kick ass. Did I mention that? Alright. Hope you guys will keep on the lookout for more work from me.
Don't forget to review. Till later!
Backlash Symphony