A/N: Okay so here's my first Naruto fanfic. I'm excited about this and I plan to make it at least over 15 chapters. As for the Chapter names I'm going to name them all after a song that I think fits with what's going on in that chapter. Anyways enjoy and please review and tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the song Breathe into me by Red


Chapter 1: Breathe into me


Numb

Why do I feel so numb? Sasori thought as darkness began to surround his vision. He'd never felt so cut off from the world around him before. Shouldn't he at least feel some amount of pain before death? Dying was supposed to be painful. Right?

Sakura and lady Chiyo watched in unspoken relief as Sasori collapsed to the ground unmoving as his life force faded away into nothing. The battle had gone on far too long and both of the medical ninjas were exhausted and low on chakra.

"It's over lady Chiyo," Sakura told the elder who was watching Sasori's body with an expression of disbelief plain on her face. "I knew we could do it."

"No…I'm the one who should have been killed," she mumbled. "Sasori saw through my last attack, but for some reason, he didn't try to dodge. He left himself open."

Sakura frowned at what she said, and returned her gaze to the dead puppet master. She almost expected him to come alive, and start attacking them all over again. He was definitely one of the hardest foes she'd ever faced. Multiple times during their battle she had thought he'd died, but every time he'd managed to come back. Sasori had the strongest life force she'd ever seen. His desire to win had been unstoppable. Lady Chiyo was right, he did allow her to kill him with his parent puppets. "You don't think he...?" she paused glancing over at lady Chiyo who'd returned her attention back to the ground.

The question remained unanswered. Lady Chiyo knew that Sasori did it on purpose. But why? He could have maneuvered easily out of the way. Sasori was an S rank missing ninja after all. Was his life so miserable that he chose to end it, when given the opportunity to do so?

Lady Chiyo sighed knowing what she had to do. She rose unsteadily to her feet and stumbled over to where Sasori lay on the ground.

"W-what are you doing lady Chiyo?" Sakura asked confused at the elder's actions.

Lady Chiyo knelt by Sasori and began pulling out the blades in his body. "I'm sorry Sakura… I wish I could explain to you why I'm going to do this, but I wouldn't be able to find the right words. Just promise me this…" the elder glanced up to look at the confused medical ninja, "Please help him find the right path."

It took Sakura a few seconds until her mind registered what was happening. Her emerald eyes widened in shock as the elder began the life transfer jutsu on the puppet master's body.

The wood started to change to flesh, and organs started to form in Sasori's puppet body. He was becoming human again.

Sakura froze; she didn't know what to do. Should she stop her, or honor the elder's wish. No, lady Chiyo knows what she's doing. Even if it sounded totally insane to her, Sakura couldn't do that to the elder. Besides she could always turn him in to Konohana after all of this was over. Why would she look after a psychopath to begin with?

Sakura felt her legs walk her over to the two puppeteers, and she kneeled next to lady Chiyo as the final stages of the jutsu began to take place. The elder was breathing heavily as the jutsu's effects took its toll on her. Sakura offered to help give her more chakra, but she quickly refused, wanting Sakura to save any precious chakra she had left. So Sakura instead let the elder lean on her for support as she slowly began dying before her eyes.

When Sasori took a breath for the first time, Lady Chiyo sighed in relief as she realized the jutsu was a success, and not a wasted effort. His heart was beating, there were no wooden parts, flesh was in its place instead, and for the first time in a long time. Sasori was human.

Lady Chiyo collapsed against Sakura, giving one last shuttering breath before dying in her embrace.

Tears welled in Sakura's eyes, as she saw the light in the elder's eyes dull. She was gone, and the realization of it hit Sakura hard. The woman had been a friend and mentor to her at the same time in her final hours. She'd risked everything to protect and assist her. Now she was gone forever.

Sakura trembled on the hard ground of the ruined cave as sobs escaped her. She knew not to let her emotions show, it wasn't the shinobi way, but for the moment she just didn't care. The loss of the old woman had cut into her deeply.

Time passed by, and she wiped away the tears that still remained. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she realized she had totally forgotten about Sasori during her break down.

She glanced over at the puppeteer who still wasn't in overall great condition. He would also have to learn how to function in a human body again.

Stifling another sob she created a shadow clone with her remaining chakra. Her clone carefully picked up the elder, while Sakura walked over to Sasori's unconscious form. Picking him up bridle style with enhanced chakra in her arms and legs to support his weight, the two Sakura's headed off towards the woods, across the river, and in front of the Akatsuki hideout. She had to find a safe place to tell Kakashi about her "situation" and hopefully he would allow her to return lady Chiyo's body to the sand village. She deserved to be buried in the village she had loved.

Sakura looked down once more at Sasori's peaceful features, and wondered what to do with him exactly. He was a criminal, and he might even try to kill her when he woke up. This was turning out to be a very interesting mission. First the fight against the Akatsuki and now she was going to have to travel with an S ranked missing ninja. This day just keeps getting better and better…


There it was….pain.

That meant he was dead now right? Now he could finally be at ease, and his pitiful life had come to an end. Although, why did he feel the distinct sensation of being carried. Was this what happens after you die. No, he shouldn't feel anything except for the pain. What was going on?

Sasori opened his heavy eyelids, and was awed by all the bright colors. Interesting, he thought deliriously as he tried to focus on the world around him. Strange in death I thought there would only be darkness, so why is there so many colors, and why is it so warm?

He desperately to stay awake in this color place, so when he felt himself slipping back into darkness he panicked and fought against his heavy eyelids. No no no! He screamed mentally. I want to stay….. please let me stay…

Darkness surrounded his vision, and the tiniest whimper of protest escaped Sasori's lips before he gave in not wanting to fight the darkness any longer.


Sakura came to a halt as they reached suitable clearing, she ordered her clone to put lady Chiyo down near a boulder, while she gently laid Sasori down in front of her. She needed to get a hold of Kakashi.

Messing with her portable walkie talkie, she clicked the button to turn it on, and hesitantly asked, "Kakashi?" It was silent for about ten seconds before he finally responded back.

"Sakura are you alright?" he asked, it sounded as if he was running really fast so it was hard to make out the rushed words. She could even hear his harsh breaths in the background.

"Ya I'm fine Kakashi sensei….. but lady Chiyo.." she forced down a sob and continued, "she… she didn't make it."

"She's dead?"

"Yes," her response sounded hollow, and Kakashi felt terrible that he couldn't be there to comfort his former student. It sounded as if the loss of lady Chiyo had really affected the young medical ninja.

"I'm sorry Sakura….. I wish we could come back, but we're still in pursuit of Deidara, and I can't leave Naruto to face him by himself. You know how he can be in situations like this. We'll be back as soon as possible, I promise."

"No it's okay… just don't do anything reckless or idiotic," she told him, before asking the question she'd been thinking about for the last hour. "Actually, I would like to return Lady Chiyo's body back to the sand village, if that is alright with you?" She asked quietly.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment before replying, "Sure…. just don't do anything reckless or idiotic."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "like I would do something like that."

"Whatever you say Sakura," he chuckled before turning his communicator off.

Sakura sat there for a few minutes spaced out, when a huge gust of wind brought her back to reality. Oh crap I forgot to tell him about Sasori. Oops, she thought. She didn't want to disturb him again since he was facing an S rank criminal. Calling him once was dangerous enough she couldn't risk it again. Besides what can Sasori really do in the state he was in now? He wouldn't be able to walk by himself for at least a week or two, she thought trying to reassure herself.

Maybe it was because of the fact that she was so absorbed in her thoughts, but she didn't really notice the crimson haired ninja was waking up until he groaned quietly in front of her.

Sakura jumped at the sudden noise and her emerald eyes settled onto the now awakening shinobi.

He appeared to be disoriented, from the dazed stare, and he looked as if he was about to get sick at any moment. He didn't even make an attempt to sit up or even look at her. Instead he remained unmoving except for the steady rise and fall of his chest.

"Um… Sasori? Sakura asked unsure for the first time. What was she supposed to do now?

"Am I dead?" he said in a raspy unused voice.

"No lady Chiyo revived you," Sakura told him quietly kneeling at his side. He seemed to be in pain, but she had used most of her chakra up and couldn't afford to heal him unless it was life threatening.

"Why didn't you brats just let me die?" he demanded shifting his gaze to her face. After trying to get his body to move for the fifth time, he concluded that the reason he couldn't move in the first place was simply because he was out of chakra.

Sakura noticed his obvious discomfort in his new body and quickly told him, "Sasori you have to get used to your body. You're human again. You can't use your chakra to move now."

Sasori tensed at her words. Human? He was the type of art he despised now. He would grow old and die instead of remaining beautiful forever. Why did the fates hate him so much? After so many long hours of hard work to become an almost complete puppet and he was back at square one, and at the hands of his enemy. Well this is just great, he thought sarcastically.

"I'm not going to harm you unless you attempt to harm me. Lady Chiyo told me to take care of you, so I'm going to honor her last request until you're healthy, then I'm probably going to turn you in to my Hokage, and you'll most likely spend the rest of your life in prison or something after all the crimes you committed. I haven't worked out the exact details yet but I will soon," she said watching as he closed his eyes, the small action of keeping them open was starting to make him tired.

"So what are your plans until then?" he asked defeated. He obviously had no chance in beating this ninja in his current state. This new body of his was beginning to annoy him and it had only been about two minutes.

"Well I'm taking your grandmother's body back to the sand village. Then I'll head back to Konoha. If you want to come with me you can, or I'll just hand you back over to your former village as I return lady Chiyo. They'll probably execute you, considering all the crimes you've committed. It's your choice though I guess," Sakura said in a matter of fact tone.

"What makes you think I'll go anywhere with you brat once I'm healed?" he asked while trying to ignore his body's demands for sleep.

"Because you really don't have much of a choice in the matter," she told him in a superior tone that he immediately disliked.

"Fine," he snapped.

"Fine what?" she teased.

"Fine I'll go with you," he mumbled before succumbing to sleep.

Sakura didn't know whether or not to be pleased or confused with the fact that he wanted to come with her. So she shrugged instead, stood up, walked a short distance away, and performed some hand signs casting a genjutsu as strong as she could manage. Sakura knew they both needed rest to regain some strength and chakra before setting out for their long trip, so having enemies attacking them while they slept wouldn't be any help at all. After one last glance at Sasori, Sakura untied her supply bag from around her waist, and laid it on the ground to use as a pillow. Once I've regained enough chakra I have to leave this place, being so close to the Akatsuki hideout is extremely dangerous, she reminded herself. Besides she couldn't afford to get herself caught now.