(Author's Note: Alright, I lied. I said I would never update again... But here I am. Anyways, this is a prologue to another story that I probably will not upload... It's more Sakura-Akatsuki, because there obviously needs to be more... (And no, I don't know if I'm being sarcastic or not.) S'yeah. I though it wasn't that bad, so why waste it?)
Sakura, at first, ignored the Akatsuki's invitation to become their personal health adviser and doctor that arrived on her door step early one brisk September morning. She found it there on the old, dirty welcome mat, slightly dampened form the morning dew. It was a straight forward and polite letter, written neatly in black ink and singed at the bottom with what looked like a signature of each member. Sakura had thought it was just a sick joke, put on by the neighborhood kids, but what kid would have information about Akatsuki? Most of the civilians only heard snippets of information and rumors about the more dangerous threats, no more than possible advances in progress to stop said threats and most of it not being true. None of the Shinobi would dare to put a prank like this, either. Could it actually have been real?
Never the less, they arrived every week, telling her it would be in her best interest to accept their invitation. Every week the letters seemed to be more encouraging and almost frantic. They obviously needed a medic-nin desperately, and Sakura was stone set on refusing. She would have reported these proposals, of course, but in the first letter, and the one's that followed, they clearly stated not to dispatch any information she received from them or the consciences could be dire, and by dire she had no clue what they would actually do… But her imagination was good enough to provide a frightening substitute.
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Sakura, whenever in the presence of the foreboding letters, had the strange feeling she was being watched. And of course she brushed it off as paranoia from getting the letters. Another peculiar thing was that the paper was chakra-lased and would randomly combust after ten minutes or so. The first time it was quite surprising, to say the least. She had set the letter on her small kitchen table as she mulled over the unexpected news. Slumped over in her chair, deep in thought, her sea green eyes were fixated on the paper. She jumped up and knocked over her chair in shock when the small piece of paper and the crimson envelope burst violently into flame, leaving a very noticeable scorch mark and a small pile of hot ash on her table. She was so distracted by this strange event she didn't notice the rustle of the bushes or the swish of a cloak outside her kitchen window.
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After the first month of getting these letters, they started to take on a harsher twist. She could see the hints of threats underlining sentences. They were subtle, but she knew they were there. After all, they were Akatsuki. Threatening must be in their training, right?
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One of the reasons she refused to join was because of Uchiha Itachi, the murderer of the entire Uchiha clan, minus Sasuke of course. She couldn't bare to see the man responsible for messing Sasuke up so much. The man that caused him so much pain and sorrow. The man Sasuke devoted his life to kill and squandered any chance of a normal life for himself, any chance of him loving her. Sakura had, in time, given up on the dream of Sasuke loving her long after he left Konoha for Orochimaru.
It had been painful to realize. Tsunade had told her she had to get over that dream sooner or later and just move on. She had then harshly stated Sasuke was too far gone to save and even if they got him back to Konoha, which was highly unlikely, he would never be the same. Sakura had run out of the room crying. She had said she was never going to work as a medic-nin again and was going to give up on everything. She had taken a few weeks off after that. She cried every night and seldom left her home. It took a while before she realized Sasuke wasn't the only person in her life and Naruto was probable going through the same thing, but instead of moping around, he was getting stronger everyday, working towards his goal of bringing Sasuke back. She went to Tsunade the next day and gave her a full apology for acting like she had and asked for her job back. Surprisingly, Tsunade accepted her with open arms and welcomed her back.
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The Akatsuki were getting inpatient. They had been sending Sakura letters for two months already and she still refused. They now had three options. They could threaten her friends and family, bribe her with something she wants or they could just kidnap her, the latter of the three being the easiest. Now they just had to pick a team and a time. But whom? Itachi was the stealthiest, but Kisame works best with him and his moves 'stand out', to say the least. Deidara was… well, loud but Sasori was an expert when it came poisons, medicine and elixirs and could wipe up a sleeping potion in ten seconds flat that could have her unconscious in five. He was not sure if he could trust Hiden to keep her alive and Kakuzu wasn't interested in kidnapping anyone unless they had a hefty bounty on their head. Zetsu... he didn't even consider him, for obvious reasons. And Tobi, well, he just doesn't count. Konan and himself were possible, but what's the point of having minions if you don't make them do things? Although, if he did decide to 'escort' Sakura to Akatsuki premises she wouldn't dare to refuse if the leader himself showed up, would she? Or maybe that was his ego talking...
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In the third month of there relentless proposals, all most heading in to the forth, they unexpectedly stopped. Sakura was relived and, although she would not admit it, sad. The letters had lost most of their formality by then and had been written with more of a fluent, casual feel. The underlying threats had dissipated and they were becoming more and more friendly with every passing week, as hard as she tried to ignore it. They had become the consistency in her other wise chaotic life, an unwanted albeit interesting weekly subscription. An underlying feeling of anxiety was slowly bubbling to the surface of Sakura's sub consciousness. No matter how terrifying, not to mention creepy, the letters were, they were also a silent reassurance that they were still allowing her to make the decision to join their organization. Now that they had stopped… She was worried. Maybe they gave up, right? Maybe they found a new medic to bother.