Learning to Manipulate

Chapter 4- Revelations and Repentance

The last chapter. There is no more, so don't ask for another update. Perhaps I will write a sequel, in time, but for now just… read it.

Sakura walked across her floor, seemingly sulking as she stared sullenly at the floor. But in reality, she was concentrating intently. If she found out how they controlled her chakra, she'd have a chance of escaping. If she had it back, that flimsy door wouldn't stand a chance against her 'insane' strength.

If it was just their chakra restraining hers, she could distract them… but if it was something else, she'd have to take it out first, hopefully without them realising. It was so hard. She wished someone was there to help her out.

She watched the last golden light of the day disappear from the one small window with a sigh. It was only a day ago when she had slapped and angered Itachi, making that a day since she had had food, or even seen anyone. Maybe she had gone too far. At least no one was bothering her. She slept peacefully for one night, without someone harassing her and with thoughts and plans of escape comforting her.

The next day, she woke up to breakfast, albeit a small one, next to her on a table. And… chakra! It was unmistakable, it had all come back. But… it was so unexpected. She ate the food hurriedly, expecting the now unfamiliar feeling of power to dissipate at any moment. But she finished and stepped out the door to see if anyone was there. It was deserted. She stepped up to the door that led to the front door. The one that was always locked, that led to her freedom.

She put her ear up against the door, and concentrated her chakra on her hearing. There was no sound from the rooms beyond, not even breathing. Itachi and Deidara were out, and her chakra was back. It is them… She smirked. They'd be coming back to an empty building soon enough.

She gathered chakra to her fist and sent it flying towards the door, but before it was even halfway to the rectangle of stubborn oppressive wood, she heard the front door open. Her chakra disappeared in less than a second, and Sakura dashed back to her room, furious at the escaped opportunity.

But… All she needed to do was distract them enough that they forgot about her, forgot about oppressing her chakra. She needed to make them angry enough at each other that they forgot about her. She knew Deidara would get angry easily enough… But Itachi, his anger simmered below the surface often enough, but to get him to explode at his fellow Akatsuki member would take a little more prodding.

Sakura jumped as the door to her room opened. She hadn't expected anyone to come in. As she saw Deidara come in the door, she breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't Itachi.

"What'd you do to Itachi? He's pretty pissed, yeah." Deidara laughed, sounding amused. "Nothing he didn't deserve…" Sakura mumbled. She couldn't help but smirk at the thought. She saw Deidara smirk as well.

"Why are you so happy about this?" She asked Deidara. "Aren't you both a part of the same organization? Same goals and all that..." Deidara nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps… But that doesn't mean we have to get on. Personally, I can't stand him, yeah."

Sakura definitely preferred Deidara to Itachi. "That makes two of us." Deidara was still standing in the doorway. He hadn't invaded her personal space since they had talked in the courtyard. She respected him somewhat more for that. "Hey what happened, un? You used to swear more than Hidan…"

"Well, since Itachi said it was cute when I did. It was a turn off." Come to think of it… she hadn't noticed her lack of profanities until the blonde pointed it out. "He's just so disrespectful. He's… he's gone further than you have…" This was a lie, but the deceptions slipped so easily from her mouth that she hardly noticed.

"Further?" He asked raising one eyebrow. "Never mind." She mumbled. "I wouldn't want you to fight over me or anything. That's just… weird." She stared pointedly at the floor.

"There won't be any fighting." Deidara growled. "I'll kill the bastard, yeah." He turned in the doorway, walking into the middle room. As Sakura followed him tentatively into the room, she saw that Itachi was already sitting there reading. It sent chills up her spine. It was as if he was waiting for something, as if he anticipated Deidara's anger. She couldn't help but feel a slight pang of guilt as she swiftly moved over and sat next to Itachi. "He doesn't like to share. He wants you dead. He told me." She whispered, glancing at him. Itachi met and held her gaze for a moment and then stood up as swiftly as she had sat down, glaring at Deidara. As their eyes locked, she could tell this was no friendly competition. Especially as she saw Deidara's hand move to the pouch of clay at his waist, and she felt chakra returning to her, slowly, gradually. It felt like water dripping almost painfully slowly from a leaking tap, but drip by drip it was all coming back.

She glanced up at Itachi and Deidara again, facing each other like duellists on opposite sides of the room. This would be no harmless argument. Far from harmless…

The first move was made, and easily blocked, but Sakura had turned her attention away from them. She stared down at her hands, now glowing faintly blue with her chakra. She stared at the locked door that she needed to get through and quickly broke it with a swift palm strike to its hinges. She used the sounds of fighting to disguise the noise. Once through there the front door was easy. And explosion shook the entire building, and she distinctly heard a part of the roof cave in. The front door crumbled when she hardly even poked it and she fled out the opening, to freedom.

-x-

What the hell is going on? Sakura looked back behind her. The simple building she had come out of was a good distance behind, and still she could see no one coming from it. But ahead of her, she could also see Konoha, only perhaps half an hour away. To think that she had been so close to it all along… But as much as she walked, the village in front of her got no closer. After three or so hours, it still only looked half an hour away. It was disorienting, and she had no idea what was going on. Eventually even the building behind her disappeared, but she was still no closer to the Hidden Leaf village. She started running, in the vague hope that she might get there if she went faster, but as she started running, she made out two figures coming out of Konoha in front of her. She wished it could have been Kakashi and Naruto, or some other Leaf-ninja. She even wished it could have looked even slightly like them. But there was no mistake who it was. But how, and why, did they come out of the seemingly unreachable Konoha?

"Please no…" She thought she knew what was going on, but hoped that she was wrong. Itachi caught her eye and nodded knowingly, Deidara was grinning widely. She glared at them and put her hands together, fervently hoping nothing would happen. "Kai!"

The landscape around her dissolved into the middle room of the building, sitting next to Itachi on the lounge, With Deidara standing behind it. "You bastard." She glared at Itachi. "You used genjustu on me, bastard. I wish Deidara would go ahead and kill you."

Itachi laughed and stood up, going over to Deidara.

"It looks like you won." He handed some money over to the blonde, who pocketed it with a smirk. "Wait a minute…" Sakura stood up quickly. "You were betting? On what?" All she knew was there was something going on to do with her, and she wasn't in on it. "We just wanted to see who could get you to like them first." Itachi said nonchalantly.

"And you think I like Deidara?" Sakura laughed. "Not a chance." Though while she said that so easily, she wasn't so sure inside. Itachi raised his eyebrows. "Well you believed that we liked you…" His voice was condescending. "Ha. Why would anyone ever like a short bitch like you?" Sakura was trembling, with rage and with shock. "So everything was just…"

"A game." Deidara cut in. "While we wait for Kyuubi." If she could have, Sakura would have killed both of them there. She headed towards the door of her room, now shaking with anger.

"Next time play fucking Monopoly!" She shouted at them, slamming the door behind her. Again she fervently prayed that Naruto wouldn't fall for the blatant trap. She wished she had some way of contacting them…

-x-

"Go away." Sakura growled as she heard the door opening. She was lying on the bed, harbouring thoughts of resentment. Maybe she was just sulking, because she found out she wasn't as special as she thought she was. But she didn't think of it that way. "I hate you more than I did before. And once I get out of here, I'll find you and kill your sorry ass." She glared at Deidara who, as always, stood perfectly still in the doorway.

"I'm sorry." He said simply. "I didn't want to trick you like that." Sakura rolled her eyes. Yeah. Sure. "So I suppose its all Itachi's fault then?" Deidara definitely wasn't himself. He sounded so honest. Yet he must have been lying. "I wasn't lying to you before, un. When I said you were beautiful." He sounded genuinely contrite. When Sakura didn't answer, he went on. "Itachi was lying too, yeah. He does like you. Or more… lust. He just can't cope with rejection, un, and when you slapped him… I had to play along with him before as well, so he didn't figure out what I'm going to do. For you." There was still more silence from the pink haired kunoichi and Deidara stepped inside the room, closing the door. "Sure it started out as a game, yeah. But now… I'm in too deep… Sakura-chan."

"What? What do you mean?" Sakura was shocked. She had almost forgotten about her mistrust of the blonde. "I'll kill you if you're lying again…"

"What I'm trying to say is… I love you, un. And I want to help you. I'll help you escape under one condition." Deidara's voice was so soft that Sakura could hardly hear him, so she moved closer to him. "What?"

"I'll help you escape if I can come with you. Yeah." He smiled at her, slightly. "But… If you came to Konoha, they'd kill or capture you." She said without thinking. What? Why didn't I say no? Sakura was confusing herself.

"I can hide, un. You wouldn't give me away would you?" He sounded serious. For once. "N-no. I guess not." She was actually starting to consider it. And not just to get back to Konoha… What about Akatsuki? Won't they notice you missing?"

"We can spread a rumour that you killed me in order to escape or something. Then it's settled." He grinned again, and it was like the usual Deidara was back. He took Sakura's hand and pulled her towards him, this time not forcefully, but gently. And she didn't resist. So he kissed her, Sakura's real first kiss. It was a kiss of love instead of possession and deception.

"Now I think you really won that bet…" She murmured to him.

-x-

The next morning, Sakura woke to a knock on the door. "Ughh…" She groaned as she peered at the opening door, and the blonde head that poked through it. She struggled to keep her eyes open as she climbed out of her bed, glad she slept in her clothes.

"I'm glad I'm never going to see Itachi again. I told him there was a Bijuu somewhere in the Wave Country, which he left to try and find. But anyway… Come, un." Sakura stood up with a smile, following Deidara out the door. This time, escape was easy- simply walking out the front door. Sakura followed him, and she was glad that Deidara was with her, because without him she surely would have been lost. She found that they really weren't that far from Konoha, but the way was complicated, especially since he took great measures to avoid being seen.

"Akatsuki have spies everywhere, un." He confided in her, which just made Sakura more nervous. Itachi didn't seem like the type to be fooled so easily. But he probably wouldn't think Deidara would let her escape.

"But really, why are you doing this?" Sakura asked him after a while of walking in silence. "Doesn't it worry you that you'd have to live in hiding, for who knows how long? Wouldn't it just be better for you to stay with Akatsuki?" Deidara stared at her. "Ha. Living with the Akatsuki is even worse than living in hiding… I can't stand the others. Someday soon, they'll all just kill each other."

"I can't wait…" Sakura muttered, making Deidara laugh. "But really, do you just not want me to come with you?" He asked hesitantly.

"No… I do, I just thought…" She sighed and went quiet, concentrating on walking again. Soon enough, Konoha was in sight and Sakura took the lead. They snuck in through the back streets of the busy village, carefully and quietly.

Sakura's heart raced as she imagined what might happen if she was caught leading one of the most formidable members of Akatsuki into the centre of Konoha. If they were caught, she wouldn't turn on Deidara. She couldn't. After all, he was risking his life to rescue her, she couldn't just turn him in. Hopefully she wouldn't have to make that choice.

"Stop." She whispered, pulling Deidara into the shadows in the corner of the street. She had heard familiar voices, close to where they were. Only a few seconds later, Naruto came down the narrow street, followed by Hinata and Kiba. "Tomorrow we're going after Sakura-chan. Kakashi-sensei just found out where she was. I knew she shouldn't have gone to Suna for Tsunade-sama. Not by herself at least…"

"Shit…" Sakura swore under her breath. After she got home, she'd have to find Naruto before he ran off into the trap set for him. "Come on." Resisting the urge to run after her friends, she led him back to her somewhat small home. "Can you… wait here for a while?" Sakura asked Deidara tentatively. He nodded and she dashed out the door, heading for Naruto's place.

Sakura knocked on the door, breathing hard. He opened the door, staring in almost disbelief at Sakura. "Sa-sakura-chan?" He laughed and threw his arms around her happily, dragging her inside.

"What happened? It was Akatsuki, right? How did you escape?" He questioned her, before she even had a chance to say hello.

"Yeah… It was Akatsuki. They kidnapped me, on my way to Suna. They didn't treat me that bad. I'm not hurt. When I escaped I uh… I killed Deidara." She explained, hesitating a little as she lied to one of her closest friends.

"What? That bastard? Aw, I wanted to kill him, Sakura-chan!" He complained, and Sakura's stomach twisted with the lie. She worried that if she lied for too long, she'd give Deidara away. But it was too late to do anything about it. There was a missing-nin hiding in her house, and she was lying about him to everyone.

She chatted with him for a while, trying to skirt the topic of her abduction, sticking to what happened in Konoha while she was gone. Eventually she excused herself, eager to get back to Deidara. She was amazed how quickly hate had turned to love with him; and she didn't even know how it happened.

By the time she got back, it was dark. She found Deidara standing in her bedroom, facing the window. "Hey, what are you doing?" Halfway through, the sentence turned into a shout as he turned around. That wasn't Deidara. It was Itachi.

"How the hell did you get away?" He demanded. "Where is that motherfucker Deidara?" He was close to exploding. She could tell, having spent so long with him. There was no way he could take her again, not from the middle of Konoha.

"I killed him." She lied defiantly. It was so easy to lie to him. "I killed him and if you ever come back here, I'll kill you too." She felt strengthened by being back at her home, in a place familiar to her.

"So go away." She said defiantly.

Itachi calmed slightly. "Fine." He turned towards the window again. "But next time you leave Konoha, next time you go on a mission, be ready for me. This isn't about Kyuubi anymore. Even if we get it, I'll still come for you." He leaped out the window, moving so fast that Sakura couldn't follow his movements.

"I'm so sorry, un." Deidara came from the adjoining room just a few minutes after Itachi had left. "I shouldn't have hidden while he was here, leaving you by yourself."

"No it was fine!" Sakura assured him. "If he found you here, he might have killed you or… or something. But we're both safe. We're both fine."

"So you're not angry, yeah?" He asked, looking guilty.

"Yeah." She replied in the same vein. "I love you."

Argh! I have a problem with ending stories with 'I love you' But I like it. So… everyone else will just have to live with it. So how sweet was that? Feel good story of the year? No? I don't mind, just tell me what you thought of it. But that's it for this story.

Peace out!

s2- Envy