Chapter 7

Sakura hadn't wanted to attend, but no, her friends had insisted.

She was decked out in a dark blue furisode with white koi fish adorning it. She had refused to wear anything pink, having pink hair was bad enough, that it matched her name made it worse.

She'd slipped on her sandals and not two seconds after leaving the apartment she'd been assailed by people making puns about her name. All down the street and to the festival she heard people remarking about her and pointing and giggling as if they all were in on an amusing joke.

She snorted silently. She didn't think it was funny that her name matched the one of the festival she was attending. For once she wanted to enjoy the Sakura festival in peace without having to listen to their annoying jokes.

"Sakura! Come to enjoy your festival with us?" a voice shouted from a dango stand.

Naruto was smacked on the back of the head for his remark. "Ow! What did I do?"

Ino growled at him. "You know Naruto, that's really getting old. Sakura doesn't like it."

She tamped down the frown that wanted to bloom on her face and instead greeted them with a smile. "No, it's fine," said Sakura, looking at her friends all dressed in kimonos, and most certainly all armed as well. One wouldn't notice it, but she bet each of them had a couple of kunai hidden beneath the fabric. She herself had a pair strapped to her forearms and more elsewhere. "Where's team Guy?"

Kiba scoffed. "Obviously, they're too lame to come out and have fun."

"Don't be an idiot," said Shikamaru, his form hunched with his hands in his pockets as he leaned against a post. "They're on a mission. I don't know the full details, but it shouldn't be too tough for them."

"Well, too bad for them," said Naruto bluntly, grabbing Shikamaru by the arm. "Come on, I want to get a place at the ramen eating context!"

Naruto got himself a weeks worth of free ramen for winning the context. By the look of his sickly green face at the end, it might be a while before the thought of eating ramen became appetizing again.

"That's what you get for pigging out in public," said Ino in rebuke.

Naruto groaned as they walked him down the street. "Never wanna eat another ramen…"

Sakura laughed. "You say that now, but wait until your stomach empties."

Their group stopped at each booth, playing the games and collecting prizes. There were two different kinds of booths, the ones meant for civilians and the ones for the shinobi. Considering the enormous gap in skill between the two Sakura thought the separation was appropriate. But that didn't stop some of the civilians from trying to play the shinobi contests and failing miserably. The shinobi, however, were not allowed to go near the civilian contests on the grounds that the advantage was so unfair it was considered cheating.

It's not like they were interested in those games anyways. If anything their group liked a challenge.

Sakura slowed down as she spotted a bell ringing game. A shinobi was getting ready to swing a giant mallet and hit the lever. It was only sixty feet high, but the puck at the bottom was a heavy iron ball the size of a watermelon. This was a game of strength and she smiled because strength was her strongpoint.

She ran over, getting in line.

The others didn't notice her absence and carried on walking. The man with the mallet swung and the puck shot up but only reached twenty feet. He cursed and moved aside so the next person could take their turn.

Sakura eagerly waited for her turn.

"You want to move or something? You're blocking the line up."

Sakura tensed and turned to see the owner of the blasé voice standing behind her. He wore a black kimono, open at the front displaying his pecks and hard abs. His hair was a whitish-grey that he had slicked back with some overuse of jell. He was grinning at her almost patronizingly and Sakura looked at him irritated.

It took a second to scrutinize him top to bottom and come to the conclusion that she wasn't really impressed. Sure, he had muscle and looks, but then lots of morons did, and that didn't very well mean that they were tough or anything. It just gave them an overload of cockiness.

"You're not from here are you?" she asked.

The man smiled. "What does that have to fucking do with it? Now are you going to leave the line or what?"

She nodded sagely. "If you were from Konoha you wouldn't be so stupidly making a fool of yourself." She turned around to face the front of the line and heard him snort.

"Oh come on," he laughed in amusement. "You're actually going to try it? Fucking hell. Don't you know they have another one for weak poor bastards over there?"

She didn't respond and he laughed again.

"Alright then, sunshine."

He continued chuckling and muttering quietly behind her and she fisted her hands. The only reason she didn't turn around right now and sock him in the face was the thought of leaving him flabbergasted when she didn't only manage to lift the giant mallet, but was able to use it to ring the bell too.

She entwined her hands and stretched her arms when it came to her turn. She cracked her neck and grasped the handle of the mallet. So far no one had been able to hit the bell. Well, she'd be the first. She wouldn't mind acquiring that new kunai set.

"Hey hey, don't strain yourself, sunshine, you'll pull a muscle."

She repressed the urge to glare at him and easily swung the mallet to rest over her shoulder and turned to him. She saw his eyes widen before his cocky smirk renewed its place on his face. She wasn't even using her chakra yet.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't think that I can hit that bell, do you?"

The man grinned humorously. "I'd like to see you try."

He was underestimating her. She conceded, her fancy get up and petite form didn't give off the impression that she was anything but a weak little damsel, but she was no civilian.

She stared at him and flicked a coin over to the game host who caught it and waved at her. "Any time you're ready, Sakura-sama."

The man blinked, violet eyes flicking from the game host to her. She just smiled at him and faced the lever.

The puck must weigh well over 50 pounds. Not a problem.

She placed her feet apart, standing sideways as she drew the mallet back. She powered her arms with chakra and swung down, slamming the mallet into the metal lever with force.

The lever shattered into pieces as the puck flew upward and collided with the bell. The contact between the two was so fierce that the puck cracked and crumbled into hundreds of small shards while the bell dented in an unrecognizable condition.

Smiling in satisfaction, Sakura held out her hand to the game host to collect her prize.

The host groaned and grumbled. "I should have know…" he handed her the new kunai set, wrapped up in tough leather looking all the while depressed.

Sakura felt a pang of guilt. She'd just destroyed his game and ruined his chance for profit.

"Well I'll be…"

She shifted her gaze to the annoying white-haired man who was staring up at the wrecked game and whistling lowly. He turned his sights to her all the while grinning like there was no tomorrow.

"Shit! Now there's a girl who can handle herself," he said.

Sakura was surprised. She'd expected him to stew with hatred or jealousy like most men did when they were bested by a seemingly innocent little girl. This guy seemed to take it all in stride. That was a good quality.

"Well fuck, I'm Hidan," he asserted, placing his hands on his hips.

She didn't care for his language, but his reaction had garnered some level of respect from her. "I'm Sakura Haruno." Hidan…where had she heard that name again?

Hidan suddenly let out a loud guffaw. "Sakura? Like the Sakura festival? And fuck! Your hair's pink too!"

She sent him a flat look and that seemed to quell his laughter, although he still chuckled to himself.

"Sakura, eh? You a ninja then?" he asked.

"Clearly I'm civilian," she replied snappishly, turning to leave and visit the other booths. Great. She'd lost track of the others. Oh well. Chances are she'd run into them soon enough.

To her surprise Hidan walked beside her, accompanying her down the street.

"Why are you following me?" she asked bluntly and rudely. Maybe he'd get the hint that she didn't want him around.

Hidan smiled. "Because you're the most interesting thing in this entire fucking village."

"I'm not a thing," she said, beyond irritated.

"Fucking too bad," he said. "It's your fault that I didn't get my turn at that game, so you owe me."

If owing him meant that she had to tolerate his company she'd rather drown.

He had not inhibitions about talking her ear out as they visited the next booths, complaining mostly. There were a lot of things about the world he didn't like, other people was number one on his list, among expiry dates on canned food, and separated hot springs for men and women.

As it became late evening she found herself conversing with him with ease, even laughing or agreeing with some of the things he said.

The Sakura festival had been a perfect means of infiltrating the village. Kakuzu had been left outside to await his return while he looked for Deidara and Sasori. That didn't mean Hidan wasn't allowed having fun while he was here. The fucktards could wait to be rescued later. After all, it was their fault for getting caught in the first place. The damsels deserved to rot for a while.

Deep in the Konoha high security prison Sasori occupied himself with thinking of all ways he could rid himself of his partner. Most of these ideas included various methods of murder such as drowning, cutting his body into bits, throwing him off a cliff while weighted down with bags of sand, and locking him up in an incinerator.

Or his latest fantasy was that of Sakura beating him to a black and blue pulp then ripping off his head. He was quite fond of that one.

A clanking of noise sounded from the other cell.

"Well Sasori my man, I think it's time we left, hn."

Sasori felt a wide smile form on his face. At last. Whatever imbecilic little plot Deidara had scheming he was impatient to set it off.

Still updating. Sorry for my lateness (and for the profanity). Life's busy, it's hard to get anything done. Plus a friend of mine is thinking about writing a book and wants me to help her with that. If anyone's interested I'll try to start a blog or something on our progress.