Living a Lie

Chapter Twelve - Come Out of the Closet

I'm sure you can already guess what I did when I got back to HQ.

Yeah, I'm like a freaking bear that's confused about when hibernation season starts.

I literally hid in my closet as soon as I finished reporting the mission to Leader. I felt Deidara and Tobi's chakra signatures enter the premises and instantly concealed my own. Faintly I heard Deidara call my name a few times, and when he got no response, I heard Tobi give a strangled cry of pain.

I tried to calculate how long I would have to stay secluded this time. Two days? A week?

I groaned. Maybe I should just pretend nothing happened. Would Deidara do the same? Or would he try to make a move on me in the presence of the other guys?

Would the others even care?

…

Well, considering that they've all kinda showed an interest, maybe someone will protect me…

This got me thinking about who I'd be paired up with on the next mission.

Which got me thinking about the last time I had an opportunity to send an update via wind jutsu to Tsunade.

Which was last week.

I quickly formed the hand seals necessary to initiate the jutsu, whispered the message, and sent it out.

I jumped guiltily when I heard a knock from the door to my bedroom.

"Sakura," a deeper voice called.

Kakuzu? What the heck would he want?

The door opened slowly, and then closed again. I stayed very still and very quiet, slowing my breathing down as much as possible and hoping that he hadn't come in because of that teeny tiny flare of chakra that occurred when I did the little wind jutsu.

The closet door opened, and I stared up (craned my neck, really; he's pretty tall) at Kakuzu.

He stared at me, a strange look on his unmasked face.

Speaking of which, I had never before seen his face with out his mask and hitai-ate on. He was actually quite handsome, you know, if you like stitches and funky black-and-green eyes.

"Why are you in your closet?"

I blinked. "Um, well… you see… uh," I stuttered trying to think of something convincing.

He waited, a small frown appearing on his lips. Let's go with the truth…

"Well, uh, Deidara―"

"Ah, I see," he interrupted. Which was a good thing, seeing as I didn't really want to explain all the lovely details (and I say lovely with a sarcastic tone).

"Yeah." I scrunched my nose up in a mixture of embarrassment and awkwardness.

"And what was that flare of chakra earlier?" he asked rather bluntly.

Damn.

This time I was a bit faster coming up with a suitable answer. "I got scraped up a little on the mission. I was healing myself."

He seemed to buy it, his posture relaxing infinitesimally.

Inner sighed in relief. 'That was a close one.'

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall of the closet, and suddenly I felt as if there was something in my face. My eyes popped back open again, only to find Kakuzu's face inches away from my own.

"Kakuzu! What―" I stopped when I felt his lips on my forehead, and I felt a blush quickly work its way up my neck and settle into my cheeks.

He pulled back after a second, and stood to leave.