I know I know, I should not be uploading any more stories until I finished my others, but this was lying around so might as well publish it. I do not have internet any more, so I go to the library now. But you know the saying, "If it's free, it's for me." Anyways, I hope you enjoy it and I'll update my other stories later on. K?
I don't own anything, just using the character for my pleasure.
CHAPTER ONE: HERE WE GO AGAIN, WE'RE SICK LIKE ANIMALS
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Sakura willed her nerves to be calm; now was not the time to freak out. Displaying any sort of feebleness would not be promising under any situation. They could smell fear for all she knew and would take action just to humiliate them further. She'd be damned if she gave them the satisfaction. They had done nothing wrong, damn it. They should not fell any hint of shame or guilt at all. This was supposed to be a simple task, a mission of some sort... risking their lives in for the welfares of others. Well, that was not true; it was more them risking their lives in order to for her teammate to salvage a bond. It was a selfish mission really, but she didn't mind it at all. He deserved to be selfish every once in a while. He sacrificed so much for everyone; it was high time he was entitled to this one thing.
He deserved closure.
But that didn't help with the situation they were in now. How the hell could they have known a fucking monsoon would strike during the night? Her team had no clue of how to foresee the wayward weather of the area. Sakura gritted her teeth. This is why she hated the Land of Rain with a passion. She knew they should have just passed around and gone through the Village of Mist, but no, her teammates wanted take a "shortcut" through Rain. And being the idiot that she was, she agreed to their stupidity.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
With the ocean so near the landscape they were crossing, they should have known a monsoon was possible. Her team had been forced to find shelter and it had took hours before they'd found any kind of decent protection. With the rain pouring from the heavens mercilessly and the inhuman gust of fast traveling wind, it was impossible to know where they were going. By then, it was wholly too late. They had gone too far inland, going into territory they should be avoided at all costs.
She should have known they were headed down a path that would lead to their demise. She should have calculated that their shortcut was dangerously close to that area and it was inevitable that they would send people out to scope out any threat. Now, her small group found itself in the hands of the strongest clan out of all the nations.
She'd tested the chains in front of her while they were ushered into the main city of Rain and escorted to the organization's stronghold. She realized with dread they were strengthened with chakra. Shit, she couldn't break out of them. There was no other option but to attempt to talk her team out of this situation. Her other two teammates were useless to her seeing how they had no people skills what so ever. One was insensitive while the other would get them killed instead of saving them. Yes, she was their best bet.
After walking through the night, they were steered into the main hall of some sort of palace, not allowed any sort of break. The pink haired girl's optimisms fell when she entered a grand hall, filled with shinobi who looked just as menacing as the ones in their unprepared welcome party. The news of their imprisonment must have spread fast. The throng of ninja parted for the shinobi that led them as they moved to the front of the room. Sakura could make out a seven thrones, each different from the last. However, the middle throne sat higher than the rest.
'It must be for the High King'
The thrones were empty at the moment but she had no doubt the Princes and High King would be gracing them with their presences. She had heard rumors about the Akatsuki. Made up of with the seven most powerful men of the nations and formed a nation with renegade shinobi as citizens. In just twenty years, the Land of Rain was a consider one of the power nations. But it came to no surprise to Sakura, after all these men were demons, it was expected of them.
Taunts were thrown at Sakura, but she ignored them. However, she could tell Naruto wasn't so tolerant of their jeers at her than she was. She heard Naruto hiss through his teeth in response, eye flickering crimson. She was sure the fox demon was itching to Rasengan their asses to Suna. Unfortunately, once they discovered what he was, they immediately put Naruto with extra enforcements just in case.
Sai, behind her to the left, was taking this unusually well. He had that fake smile plastered on his face and humming a cheery tune. Normally, he would have made some crude remark at one of the ninja or at least thrown an insult or two at the crowd by know. This made Sakura suspect he had something up his sleeve. The last thing she needed was for him to say something caustic and knowing Naruto, he would join in and that would just cause a bloodbath, with them as the victims. Sai always had a knack of pissing people off when he opened his mouth. One inappropriate remark out of him and the pink haired girl knew their heads would end up rolling and bodies drained. She turned to pin him with a warning look.
Sai merely smiled at her and looked forward.
Damn it all.
They stopped when they were a few feet before the thrones. Pushing them onward abruptly, they waited for the Doyens and High King's arrival. Sakura was sure the shinobi would love to kill them if the sound trashing they got from them was any clue. Her lips twisted up into a sardonic smile. That didn't mean they stood there. She enjoyed the pained screams the men let out as they pummeled them into oblivion. However, as much as they put up a fight, they were outnumbered. In the end, there just had been too many assailants. They were just lucky they hadn't been killed on the spot.
The Akatsuki was notorious for being merciless to any suspicious people. And boy, were they suspicious. An aggressive fox demon, a bad mouthed monk, and a pink-haired human girl with inhuman strength. Now all they need was a flying tiger that breathed fire and they were set to go.
Let the Fates have mercy on their souls.
The sound of a door opening to the left was followed by the noise of shuffling feet. Sakura looked up to see a group of shinobi, five of them, coming decidedly their way. By looking at them, she could tell they high ranking officials of some sort. They held themselves differently from the rest; they had a certain air of confidence to them than the others. She was slightly surprised to find a woman with blue hair amongst them. The group arranged themselves round the thrones, each one stood beside a throne. The last one, a monster of a man, with blue skin and looked to be a water demon stood by the High King's throne.
'He must be the Head General. He certainly fits the part.' Sakura mused to herself as she eyed the demon in front of her.
Her exterior facade remained the same as she proceeded to survey his clothing as well as that of the others who had entered with him. Each one sported a black cloak with red clouds, the symbol of the Akatsuki; however, they were altered to suit the needs of the wearer. The woman had hers form fitted, like that of a waist coat and the water demon had his like gi. One didn't even wear a cloak and was shirtless while another with some sort of mask had long sleeves that went past his hands.
"What kind of freaks are these people?" Naruto muttered under his breath. Sakura shot him a glare to shut him up. Naruto gulped nervously at the deadly aura radiating off of her and nodded.
Closing her emerald eyes for a moment, she sent out a prayer to whatever deity was listening at the moment. She wasn't much of a holy person, but right now, she needed all the help she could get if they were going to get out of this in one piece. By the time she was done, the door to their left opened again and the crowd behind them bowed in respect to the newcomers.
The pink haired girl gaped. She couldn't help herself.
If a person would to ask her how she thought the Doyens and High King looked like, she would have replied like anyone would: they were old men who were wise beyond human years and more powerful than any immortal. She would have said they would be bald with long, white beards.
She never would have expected them to look like this.
They were beautiful. That was the only word to describe them. No, not quite. Beautiful and deadly; that suited them perfectly. She was an idiot to not realize demons were immortal; therefore time did not age them. To make matters worse, she should have known they were going to be attractive, I mean, she's a teammate to a demon for Kami's sake! Why the hell would they be shriveled or bald?
Her perfect picture of them blew up just like her brain did at the sight of them.
There were four of them. A man with tousled red hair and bored eyes walked to the throne made up of wood on the far right and sat down. He let out a tired sigh and cradled his head with the palm of his hand while a…girl sat down next to him on a throne with clay birds seated on the top. Was that a girl? With the long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, she couldn't tell. She shrugged and returned her gaze onto the next one.
He was the most bizarre out of the others, with his shocking orange hair and piercings decorating his face like a pushpin and ringed violet eyes. He took a seat on the throne consisted of metal, bedside the High King's throne. The last one she could not tell how he looked like with a hood casting a shadow across his face. All Sakura could see was two luminous green eyes.
Though they were otherworldly in their appearance, these were not their true forms; they were just handsome bodies that attracted souls to them. That's how they caught their prey, that's how they survived. They could choose any they want. The possibilities were endless. She knows this not from knowledge, none of what she knew of their forms can come from books, but from experience. Naruto tends to shape shift into a woman to mess with human men for fun.
She sighed and looked at the empty throne. It was simple enough, with its ebony wood and encrusted with jewels on the headboard. Suddenly, a surge of chakra filled the room, making her take a deep breath and bend her head down. It was overwhelming, like it was trying to swallow her whole. Naruto hissed and Sai turned to look up at the empty throne with narrowed eyes. It seemed the High King has arrived.
Sakura composed herself once more and met the eyes of the King and for the life of her; she couldn't pry her eyes away.
The piercing shade of crimson of his irises was unreal. It was impossible for someone to naturally possess such an eye color. They were the exact same hue of fresh blood. It was impossible to see anything beyond his expressionless face. The black of his hair and pale complexion of his skin, she associated immediately with death. There was absolutely no softness about him. The man staring back at Sakura made her shiver. However, when she looked closer at his eyes, she nearly gasped.
He possessed the Sharigan.
She only knew one other person with it.
Naruto sucked in his breath and looked like he'd seen a ghost. She felt bad for the young man beside her. He resembled Sasuke so much that it must have unraveled so many unwanted memories for the blonde and he seemed to be having a hard time trying to stop himself from breaking down.
Sakura returned her gaze to the Doyens and hoped at least one of them would be reasonable. The red head looked like he would listen. She almost laughed at the ludicrousness of her train of thought. Here she was, making wild deductions over the character of people who would most likely have her soul for dinner. Instead of having delusional thoughts, she should be thinking of what the hell she was going to say when the time came to state their defense.
She shook her head and bowed, just like everyone else was doing. Her companions caught on quickly and did the same, paying their respects to the leaders. The High King made his way gracefully towards the elevated throne and took his seat. Sakura closed her eyes, trying to gather her wits and when she opened them once more, she found the High King staring at her with narrowed eyes.
Inwardly, she was giving him a death glare that even Sasuke would be pissing his pants from. If he thought she was some kind of weak, passive female who would yield at a man's slightest threat, he was sorely mistaken. She didn't care if he ended up torturing her with his Sharigan, which she was sure he could do so quite well; she would never give him the pleasure of seeing her fear.
She could tell from the way he carried himself, he was a skilled leader, probably hundreds of years of experience. People knew he was a force to be reckoned with, hell, he even knew it. He must have been in more battles than Naruto's record of how much ramen he eats. And boy, does Naruto love his ramen.
Once more, she knew it was going to be problematic to get out of the dilemma they were in. The room had gone suddenly quiet and Sakura could feel the weight of the High King's powerful aura more clearly. He lifted his arm and bade the water demon beside him to speak.
"Kisame, report," he said in a deep, smooth voice.
"High King Itachi," the man replied, "We have brought before you the trespassers we found on the southern side. My men came upon them during the night as they tried to sneak into our territory."
"Spies, spies! Kill them!" yelled the crowd behind them at the man's words.
Sakura could almost hear Naruto grinding her teeth.
The man continued speaking. "They fought but they offered no real challenge."
They glared at the man. That was a bunch of bull. They easily took down half of his squad.
"They came here planning an attack! Let's burn them alive!"
The High King raised his hand, silencing the crowd.
"You will have only one chance to speak. Please make good use of it," he said.
The time was upon them. It was now or never.
Sakura stepped forward and opened her mouth when Sai beat her to the punch.
"Your Highness, there's seems to be some mistake. We are just on a mission to retrieve a mission teammate of ours and the quickest way to our destination was through Rain. The young woman is a medic and my other companion is a fox demon that masters in combat. I myself am a monk and a temporary teammate to these two."
Sakura nearly sighed in relief from Sai's rational words. He didn't say anything insulting. Miracles do happen.
Then the shirtless, silver-haired man's voice cut through the room.
"A monk, huh? Why the fuck are you traveling with them? I mean, you should be worshipping to your God in some shrine, not getting involved with these bitches. Some holy man you are."
Sai's lips twitched.
"And you are?"
"Hidan," the man grinned," the most bad assed fighter in Akatsuki."
Sai smile sweetly at Hidan.
Sakura's heart plummeted at the sight.
"Well then Hidan, I suggest you shut that disgusting mouth up before I cast you way to the depths of Hell where you belong."
"What did you say?" Hidan screeched.
Sakura imagined them dying.
Them hanging.
Just when you thought that it couldn't get any worse, it does.
"Did you not quite hear that? You must excuse me, I did not know you were deaf as well as idiotic. And by the way you screamed I only conclude you must have no balls."
No, scratch that.
Them getting their throats slit.
"I'll kill you mother-fucker!"
"Enough." His voice wasn't loud yet it seemed to vibrate all around the room, silencing them. He glared at Hidan and then at Sai, who wisely shut his mouth. His eyes scanned her teammates then settled on her.
"You girl, I suggest you fix your companion's errors if you wish to see the light if day once more. This is your only chance."
Sakura felt a twinge of annoyance, but pushed it aside for the time being.
"As my friend was saying, we are on a mission. We were on our way to meet up with a lead that would tell us the whereabouts of our missing teammate when a monsoon struck our camp last night and we were forced to seek shelter. Unfortunately, we got lost among the wind and rain and stumbled into your land unintentionally."
"You're the medic, as I recall?" he inquired. "I heard from one of my emissaries that you knocked out one of my most stout combatants with a single blow. Isn't that right, Shisui?"
A slim man that resembled the High King stepped forward somewhat unsteadily. He had been the only one thoughtless enough to try and go up against Sakura one on one. His arrogance lost him the match and caused him a devastating punch to the right side of his skull. It wasn't enough to kill him, that hadn't been her intent and doubted it would have killed him; even though the demon was rash, he was powerful and she would have to strengthen her punch if she wanted to kill him. I merely made him sleep for a couple of hours. His comrades had been forced to carry the man as they made their way back towards the base.
Shisui smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "What can I say? The woman packs one hell of a punch."
Itachi turned to look at Sakura with an interrogative look.
The pink haired simply shrugged. "I said I was a medic, I didn't say I was defenseless."
This answer brought a chuckle from the water demon Kisame.
"What proof do you have that you are on a mission?" the red haired man asked.
"We don't have any proof. Our things got carried away when the monsoon hit," Naruto replied bitterly and stared at them, "Look; we're not here to spy on you. We just want to find our teammate."
"Why are you so intent on finding your friend?" Kisame inquired.
"He's more than a friend to us-to me. He's my brother," Naruto said, his blue eyes shining with warmth and determination," and as his family, we need to save him."
"From who?"
"From himself."
Kisame looked at Itachi and shrugged. "Well, it's your call."
Itachi surveyed the team.
"Here we have an idiotic fox, a little girl, and an unholy monk. You ask me to spare you, but you gave me no reason to. I do not know if you speak the truth or not and will not risk the safety of my people because of you."
Sakura grimaced and merely stared at the High King. It was understandable. It was a logical response. She would have done the same thing.
"What? Are you kidding me? We are going to die because we accidently went into your land?" Naruto exclaimed.
Itachi fixed him a glare. "There are no accidents in life, fox. Our kind knows this most of all."
"But I still haven't saved him!"
"Naruto," Sakura warned," stop this."
"Sakura, we're never going to see him. After three fucking years of searching for the bastard, it ends like this? Is this a way the gods mocking us?"
They started to drag them away, but Naruto continued on his tirade.
"Naruto." She pleaded with him, but he was too wrapped up in his realization listen to her. The men started to pull Naruto, who struggled. His eyed bled red and his fangs lengthened.
"Let me go bastards, I need to find him. I need to find Sasuke!"
The Doyens and High King were making their way to the exit when they heard him scream. Itachi froze at the sound of the name.
"Hold."
The guards immediately stopped and looked at the High King confusedly. Itachi flitted to them and stared at Naruto directly in the eyes.
"You know Sasuke? He's your missing teammate?"
"Ye-yeah…"
"Is this some sort of joke? Are you lying to save yourselves, because if you are, you chose the wrong way," Itachi said menacingly, his tomoes swirling in anger.
"We're not lying. Sasuke is our teammate, has been since we were children," Sakura answered seriously.
"Yeah! Ask us anything about him! We'll ace it! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed smugly.
Sai merely sighed and shook his head. "Believe it? Seriously? I thought we were passed this stage already."
"I have a quicker way. If what you say is true then you wouldn't mind if I see for myself."
Sakura lifted her chin at the challenge, her eyes hardening into stone.
"I understand."
Itachi smirked and activated his Mangekyou, wrapping Sakura into blackness.
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Well there you have it. Please Review~
