Chapter One: A Strange Request

Sakura Haruno followed her teammate, Naruto Uzumaki, through the swampy terrain of Sawa no Kuni, dodging the clay birds' explosions that followed them. Not far behind them was one of the members of the criminal organization known as Akatsuki, perched on an enormous clay model of an owl that was not far behind them, a monster known as 'Deidara'.

How had they managed to get into this mess? Their original mission was just to escort an old merchant to the safety of the Swamp Village. They had accomplished that and began heading out on their journey home to Konoha when the two of them had spotted something out of the ordinary, a giant bird in the sky.

The Jinchuuriki had immediately recognized the bird as it was similar to the one that had pursued him and his sensei, Kakashi Hatake, a few years previous. That meant, obviously, that the one who was atop the bird riding it had to be the man who was chosen to capture the Shukaku, the same man who had participated in the murder of his dear friend Gaara. Sure, Gaara had been resurrected but that was beside the point.

They continued to watch from the ground as the bird circled overhead, he was either taking a pleasure ride or searching for something. He couldn't possibly know that they were in the area though, they had just participated in a rather insignificant mission, no one would know enough to tip him or the rest of his organization off. No, Sakura deemed it as just a coincidence, he must have been searching for something else. She turned to tell her friend and comrade that it was okay for them to start moving again, once they got under the cover of the trees they'd be okay. Shame he had already taken matters into his own hands. "Hey! Asshole, get down here!"

Now the two of them were desperately trying to lose the explosives master but it wasn't looking good for either one of them. At this rate they were both going to die, he was just too fast for them to evade and their stamina and chakra levels would only hold out for so long.

She would have to deal with her partner later, she had already made a mental note to pound his head into the ground of the crowded streets of their village. But that would have to wait, now it was time for her to make a rash decision that might cost her her life, "Naruto, you go on ahead, I'll catch up later."

Both of them came to a halt, the shinobi clad in orange looked over at his friend, confused. "Sakura-chan, you know I can't leave you with him like this."

"Go, now." Her gut told her that she was going to regret her decision but it was for the best, she had to save her friend, she would protect him with her life. "I'll catch up soon, I promise."

He opened his mouth to protest but he received quite a glare from her and darted off, leaving Sakura alone to face the Akatsuki explosives expert.

Now she was alone, and he was already in view. She had been lucky thus far, he wasn't as able in maneuvering through the forest as she had been, the bird was just too big. But now she braced herself and prepared for the worst as he swooped by her and landed on a thick limb.

"So you split up. Good, yeah." The man known as 'Deidara' hopped off the back of his clay bird and sat down on the branch, swinging his legs back and forth, amused at her. "I was hoping you would."

Sakura's breath hitched once she had gotten a good luck at him, he was perhaps the most handsome man she had ever seen—even more so than Sasuke. His blonde hair was long, half of it was pulled into a ponytail over his head that resembled a floating cloud and a large strand of it covered most of the left side of his face. His one visible eye was almond-shaped with a black lining around it. The iris was a vivid blue color, a tad darker than the sky above them that wasn't visible at the moment due to the canopy of the trees. "And why's that, so you can kill us separately?"

"No no, I have no intention of killing anyone, well at least not you, yeah," He his lips curled into a half smile. "In fact, I hadn't planned on killing anyone today."

She frowned, just what did he mean by that? If he wasn't going to kill her then why did he bother stopping? She severely doubted he just wanted to share a cup of tea. "So then what are you doing here?"

"Hmm? Oh, well I came here to see you, Sakura Haruno, yeah." Her heart stopped for a moment, was she going to be captured or something? "I don't understand."

"Well I wouldn't expect you to, yeah. I suppose I should tell you that I organized that little mission you just finished." So that meant he had planned on meeting her, but it still didn't make any sense. She stopped questioning herself though, it was pointless, she might as well question him instead. "I don't understand, why me?"

He laughed softly to himself, closing his visible eye and then opening it again, giving her a look with it that caused her heart to stop again. It was becoming harder and harder for her to keep her concentration on what he was saying, she was too focused on taking in his appearance. "Simple, really, yeah. I've become rather…interested in you lately, Sakura-chan.

Once again, she felt her heart stop. If she still had 'Inner Sakura' she was sure she'd be cheering her on inside her head, telling her to go ahead and flirt with this killer. "Interested? In me?"

"That's right; you've just…come to my attention lately. I've paid special notice to you, yeah."

At this point she was totally confused as to what he was getting at. Wasn't he supposed to be chasing after Naruto? Not that she really wanted him to, of course, she was just curious as to why he was 'interested' in her instead of him. Her eyes narrowed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing," He closed his eye again and shrugged. Opening it again, he gave her the same look she had just received from him moments ago. What was up with him? "Well, Sakura-chan, I suppose I should get going, yeah. I just wanted to stop and say 'hello'."

With those words she lunged towards him, breaking the limb that he was sitting on into smithereens. She fell to the ground below and watched him from above; he was back on the bird hovering above her, its powerful wings flapped in such a way that the dust and dirt on the ground was disturbed, coating her in it. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan, I'm not going to go after your little Kyuubi friend. Like I said before, it's you who I wanted to see, yeah."

And with those words he took off through the canopy of the trees and into the blue, leaving Sakura very confused and rather bewildered.

A year to the day had passed since her incident with the Akatsuki member and the whole thing was once again fresh in her mind, she didn't have time to concentrate on reminiscing though.

The pink haired kunoichi walked quickly through the corridors of the Konoha medical hospital towards her shishou's office. Why Tsunade had called for her she wasn't sure of, she had been treating someone for a burst appendix when Shizune had come in to take over for her. It was very odd of her to do such a thing, Tsunade never called while she was treating a patient, unless of course for some reason she wasn't aware of it, but the chance of that ever happening was slim to none.

She turned the corner and approached the Godaime's office in the medical unit. Hesitating, she stepped inside and saw her mentor stand up behind her desk to greet her. "I apologize for interrupting you Sakura, but this cannot wait."

Sakura felt a knot in her stomach form, had someone been seriously hurt? "That's okay, Tsunade-shishou, may I ask why you called for me?"

"I think it's better just to show you," she stepped out from behind her desk and motioned for her to follow her out the door.

The Sannin led her through winding halls that she had never even been through before. She had known that the hospital was huge, but never had she imagined that such a wing ever existed. Unlike the area that she normally worked in, the walls that they were walking through were gradually getting more and more eerie. The lighting was dim, some of the bulbs were flickering on and off. From the cracks in the old cement walls leaked a foul smelling liquid, black in color. The whole thing wreaked with mildew and mold, it was definitely not a place where normal patients would be operated on. 'Just where are we going?'

Whatever wing they were in must have been part of the original hospital. Sakura guessed its age to be much older than she. It was not kept up well and as they proceeded further along it was getting spookier and spookier.

The two of them approached a giant pair of steel doors, several large, rusted locks kept them bound together. Tsunade stopped in front of them and pulled out a ring of mismatched skeleton keys. Sakura felt a cold shiver go down her spine, something wasn't right. "Tsunade-shishou, where are you taking me?"

Tsunade turned to her, her expression a serious one, "Sakura, we are now entering the mental ward of the hospital."

She felt her body go numb, the mental ward? It didn't make any sense; she wasn't trained to handle the insane so why was her teacher taking her there? Maybe it was just to get hands on experience, show her how things were run for future reference.

Not questioning the Godaime, she followed her through the thick steel doors that Tsunade had just unlocked. As if the atmosphere wasn't creepy enough it was about to get a whole lot worse.

They were walking through a long, dimly lit hallway. The floor was coated in a slippery greenish-brown liquid; Sakura had no intention of finding out as to what it was. The stench was getting even worse as they proceeded on.

"Sakura, you need to focus on walking," Tsunade turned her head back to look at her. "Do not stare at the inmates."

Her apprentice wanted to question her words but decided to keep her mouth shut. She didn't know the situation so she continued on walking.

The two of them began to pass cells of where the patients were kept. Sakura couldn't help it, her eyes began to wander.

Some of the in-patients looked highly sedated; they just laid there on their beds and some on the floor. More than a few of them's quarters looked as though a tornado had hit. Their rooms, if that's what you could call them, were out in the open though, this was only the minimal security area.

As they turned the corner things began to look even worse, if that was possible.

Sakura's eyes widened as they passed an open area that looked like a medieval torture chamber. In the center of the room was a large operating table with thick leather restraints and in two of the corners were pairs of shackles used to chain the patients to the wall. There was a crib for a baby next to one of the counters; Sakura cringed at the thought that some child would spend their life in this horrifying place. On the counter itself laid instruments that Sakura had never even seen before in her medical days as well as large syringes already filled with liquid.

She couldn't bare looking at the sight anymore so she turned her head back to the hallway. Now they were reaching a unit of higher level security, the inmates were locked behind thick steel doors like the ones they had first passed through. They were out of sight but they were definitely there, as the two of them passed they could both hear moaning, some of them even let out a high pitched screech. It was as if they were communicating to each other.

Before them stood another pair of thick stainless-steel doors, covered with even more padlocks then the original ones they had gone through. Tsunade took out her ring of keys again, but as she reached out to unlock the locks she turned to Sakura, "This is the maximum security area, please brace yourself."

She didn't need to tell her twice, as they went through Sakura had to cover her ears, blood curdling screams echoed off the walls. At this point she was very shaken, was Tsunade just trying to torture her or something?

One door they walked passed must have had doctors inside as there was a lot of shouting going on. Another's sounded as though the patient inside was throwing itself against the door trying to break out. At that point Sakura stopped, she was already going to have nightmares from visiting the asylum, Tsunade's game was over, she wasn't going to put another step forward before she knew what exactly was going on. "I need to know where we're going."

"Sakura, one of our new patients here requests to be treated by you," Tsunade stopped walking and stood there for a moment, then turned to face her student. "I don't know how to tell you this, but he's our most dangerous admittance here."

Her heart stopped beating and for a moment she wasn't sure if it was going to start up again. Most dangerous? "I'm not equipped to take on a job like that, Tsunade-shishou! I don't even have the authority to work with the minimal security patients!"

"I realize that, I wouldn't have appointed you to this case if I wasn't sure that you could handle it."

"I still don't understand—I don't understand any of this!"

"Sakura, you need to calm down, if it makes you feel any better he isn't necessarily supposed to be in here."

As if she wasn't confused enough already, "What do you mean?!"

"He's supposed to be held in the Konoha prison unit on the outskirts of the village… However…"

"Yes?!" Sakura was already worked up enough, did Tsunade not notice that? It wasn't necessary for her to keep playing mind games with her. "What is going on here?!"

"Our prison isn't fit to handle someone this dangerous."

Those words hit her like a rock. The prison was equipped with so much security it was inescapable. "Just who am I supposed to deal with? Surely someone else can take my place."

"He requests only you, we cannot take the chance of sending someone else in there." Just what was that supposed to mean? Tsunade was okay with sacrificing her own apprentice to this monster but not someone else? She didn't mean to be selfish but it kinda pissed her off. "Do you mind telling me who I'm supposed to take care of?"

The Godaime didn't answer, she just started up walking again, turning a corner. Sakura braced herself, they were walking towards a dead end, she would soon find out who she would be dealing with.

Another steel door protected her and her teacher from the danger behind it. Locks lined the wall, all shapes and sizes. Tsunade pulled out her ring of keys for the final time and began unlocking them.

"Are you ready?"

Sakura didn't have time to answer that question, Tsunade grabbed the steel handle to the door and flung it open.

Her jade eyes widened when she saw who inhabited the room before her.

"It's about time, yeah."

A/N: Poor Sakura, what a way to ruin her day.

I got this idea the other day while mowing my grandparents' lawn, strange yes?

This'll be my third story that I'm working on at the moment but believe it or not it'll be updated soon like the other two. I'm rather excited about the whole plot line, it's a little different…I guess. xD

I hope I didn't offend anyone with the whole description of the mental ward… I just had to make it spooky and old-fashioned.

Thanks for reading.