Unwanted Shadows

Sakura stumbled in the dark. She had just completed her mission and was on her way home. At the moment she was in a town a couple of hours away from Konoha. The houses in the town had multiple stories and were unwelcoming. As it was past midnight, the lamps had been extinguished and the only light came from the slim moon.

Squinting, Sakura looked around for an inn. She had originally planned to continue to Konoha without delay, but her consistent faltering convinced her otherwise.

A faded sign directed her left, through a forbidding alleyway. It stated there was an inn at the end. Sakura smiled, she couldn't wait to sleep in a comfortable bed. She ignored the warning in her gut, she was a ninja after all, she could take care of herself and some childish fear of the dark was pointless.

There was barely enough room for two men to walk side by side in the alley. Sakura focused on the ground, who knew what was beneath her feet in the dark alleyway.

Up ahead she heard two lowered voices arguing. She cocked her head, trying to hear what the voices were saying when, after a sharper word from one of them, they stopped.

Again Sakura felt a gut warning, and again she ignored it. She sensed no chakra.

It could be masked. Her inner voice stated annoyingly. Sakura was honestly too tired to check further. She continued walking cautiously, for she had stopped when she heard the voices.

Before she took her third step a hand roughly pushed her into the wall. Sakura gasped, the force from the shove had winded her. She tried to push herself off the wall, but the hand that had pushed her remained on her collar bone and stopped her attempt by shoving her back into the wall, winding Sakura again.

Adrenaline pumped through her. She wasn't going to let this unknown attacker get the best of her! Sakura quickly grabbed the forearm and summoned her chakra. She prepared to use her incredible strength to get this person of her and bash them around.

However, she probably wouldn't be able to do the later. Only a little of her chakra remained. She gripped the arm tightly and thrust. Prepared for some resistance, she fell forward from the lack of any.

Sakura blinked in surprise. Her attacker had jumped away. Damn it, she thought, this person's a ninja! Before she could turn around, a hand that felt like the previous one pushed her into the wall in front of her twice as hard as the first time.

Sakura cursed her laziness in being off her guard in the first place, then cursed her inner self for singing 'I told you so' repeatedly.

She presses both hands against the wall, tensing, and about to push very hard so she would crush the attacker against the other wall with her back.

The hand rose from her back and grabbed her throat. It then spun her around and into the original wall, the momentum creating a loud noise. The hand stayed on her throat.

Sakura ground her teeth. She may be weakened, she may be getting beaten, but she wasn't going to give up. She raised her leg to kick the offender.

"Oh, for god's sake, stop fighting and give up, yeah."

The voice belonged to one of the two earlier, the commanding one. It was also masculine. However, Sakura wasn't just going to give up like he wanted. Her gut warned her not to, but she had already ignored it twice, and her anger had been aroused.

Somewhere in the back of her mind was something important, it had something to do with what the attacker had said. But Sakura couldn't be bothered figuring it out; she just wanted to pound this guy.

She continued with her original action of kicking him where it hurt but as with her first attack, there was no resistance. Although his body had moved, his hand still remained on her throat, and tightened its grip, almost choking her.

"I told you to stop, yeah." He was quite peeved.

Sakura stilled and tensed as the realisation hit her. In the bingo book, there was only one man who had the odd speech pattern and he was an S-ranked criminal. Someone she had no chance of defeating in her current, almost no chakra, state.

There was just one more thing she needed to check before she would be certain of her suspicion.

She raised her leg back tentatively. She moved it around slowly and found what she was looking for. An ankle-height, no doubt black with red clouds on it, cloak.

"What's wrong?" He sounded more curious than annoyed, for she hadn't tried to attack him or do anything stealthy.

"Akatsuki." She growled. He snickered at her answer.

"Yeah. What about it?" He leaned in to say his enticing response.

Before she could reply, another voice cut in, "Hey Deidara-senpai, aren't you overdoing it with the cool, strong guy act?"

Deidara leaned away from Sakura and yelled; "Tobi!" content no-one would hear him. He turned back to the girl he was holding, expecting some kind of attempt to escape whilst he was distracted.

However, all she had done was groan in frustration. She should've known better. Akatsuki travelled in pairs so of course there was another one.

Sakura reviewed her position; she was facing the wall so there possible front attack, the hand on her throat essentially stopped her from moving, he was probably facing her, watching her, and would see any attack.

Both of the men had masked their chakra so no ninja would find them. Going back to the basic fight or flight, Sakura couldn't fight so she had to find a way to escape.

And how are you going to do that? Sakura's sarcastic inner voice asked. Sakura smiled, and the men wouldn't be able to see it.

Sakura decided to use a weapon only females possess. It galled her to use it but it was a last resort, there was almost nothing else she could do.

Sakura opened her mouth and screamed. It was loud and feminine. Both men cringed from the sudden loud noise.

Deidara recovered first whilst Tobi still covered his ears and rolled on the floor.

Deidara took a step back, taking Sakura with him, and threw her into the ground. She coughed from the impact, but was pleased her plan had worked, more or less.

She stood up quickly and ran. She heard Deidara curse and revelled in the fact she had gotten away from the Akatsuki. It seemed to take forever to run to the entrance of the alleyway but then again, she had no chakra to speed herself up.

Unfortunately her attacker did, and before that final step, he put his forearm at her neck height. Her momentum forced her into it and she was on the receiving end as he had tensed and was ready for the impact.

Before she could fall back, his arm pressed against her neck and pulled her into his chest. Sakura felt a kunai press into her throat.

"Don't underestimate me, yeah." He said into her ear.

She opened her mouth to reply, but Tobi beat her to it.

Sakura reflected that someone was usually beating her to doing what she wanted to do.

"Aren't you being a little rough with her?" he asked. Deidara turned his head to the speaker and glared.

"No. She's a ninja anyway, she'll live, yeah." Deidara's words made a thought occur to Sakura, and she wasted no time in making it known.

"Why haven't you killed me?" you could've easily was left unsaid. Sakura twisted her head upwards to see the response of the man holding her.

He noticed her movement and smirked at it, as well as his response. "You'll see, yeah."

The smirk was oddly attractive on his handsome features. Sakura blinked, those thoughts were no use to her.

She wriggled in his arms, trying to find a way to get of them. She refused to think about his comment. So what, Sakura thought, if they find me worthwhile enough not to kill, I'm a medic after all, and the Akatsuki probably get a few injuries they'll want healed. Her inner self hinted some darker possibilities, but she refused to listen to them.

"Having trouble, yeah?" Sakura lost her temper again. Maybe this guy didn't know who she was, or that she was a jounin. She struggled more fiercely.

"It's not fair! You have a kunai!" Sakura yelled. Deidara paled.

He flipped his kunai into the hand of the arm holding Sakura expertly. He then lowered his now free arm. Sakura tensed at his movements, but he ignored her. Deidara searched her pockets. He searched them for kunai, shuriken, senbon, any weapon. When he didn't find any he sighed in relief.

Sakura was annoyed at him for thinking she had a weapon but hadn't used it. She grabbed the kunai in his hand, surprising him. He thought she had given in. He didn't use his free hand to pry hers away; he just tightened his grip on the kunai.

Sakura bared her teeth. There was no way she would get his kunai without chakra. He was too strong. She stopped.

Deidara frowned, "I thought you had pink hair, yeah. Bit hard to see in the dark, but it still looks it." Sakura looked at him but didn't respond. He took this as a yes. "As far as I remember, there's only one ninja with pink hair who'd dare go up against an Akatsuki." He looked at her questioningly. Again, she made no move to respond. Deidara took it as another yes. "Then where's you superhuman strength, yeah?"

Sakura glared at him. He wouldn't get away with calling her weak! "I have no chakra left." The words left her mouth before she could stop them. Damn it! She thought, now he knows I have no chakra!

Deidara gave her a look. "No chakra and no weapons. Man, leaf ninja are getting pathetic." Sakura glared at him ferociously. Inner Sakura was imagining beating him to a pulp.

"I used them both, dammit! I've just been on a mission! I didn't expect to fight an Akatsuki!" Sakura gaped, horrified. Where was her deceit? She had just told him so much already. She'd probably be telling him the inner politics of Konoha soon, she thought dryly.

He looked at her as if she was stupid, "Just because you didn't expect anything doesn't mean you go unprepared."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Did you attack me just to lecture me?" Deidara smirked.

"Deidara-senpai, we should go back to the others now." Sakura jumped, she had forgotten Tobi was there. Deidara glared daggers at his partner, "And you thought I was being rough?"

Sakura frowned, confused. Tobi hasn't done anything rough, she thought, what was he talking about? She only had time to tilt her head up, mouth open to state her question, when it all went black.

Deidara looked at the unconscious woman in his arms and his eyes softened slightly; then he threw her over his shoulder and jumped away.

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Disclaimer: Don't own anything about Naruto bar this Fanfic.

A/N: First story so please excuse any mistakes. No flame please, but advice and constructive criticism welcome. : )