A/N: Thanks for the reviews. :D They make me happy. Have a chapter. Oh, right, and THIS FIC IS RATED M, AS IN MATURE. VIOLENCE WILL HAPPEN IN THIS STORY. If you look closely you should know what's coming, and the "violence" warning will come as no surprise. I warned you in the beginning this story was going to start fast and be dark (LIKE MY SOUUUUUUL). If you can't handle a bit of rage and Madara and some serious bruising, then you need to leave before this gets worse. xD;

Disclaimed, as in I do not own Naruto.


Chapter Two

Dead Man's Trap


They said I should know the difference

Between a truth and a lie, but sometimes

Ignorance truly is bliss.


In hindsight, Sakura mused, she really should have brought sunscreen.

It was blindingly sunny, the sky completely free of clouds and the trees hardly providing any shade to the swiftly moving kunoichi. She could have wished for a breeze or some rain or something, but summertime in Fire was always the same—relentless and sweltering, enough to make even the most toughened shinobi sweat like a pig.

And as it happened, she was no different. Her zipped top stuck to her skin, hair plastered to the back of her neck. With each step she could feel the slide of her boots against her skin, lubricated by the sweat… Yeah, this was how she wanted to meet her employer. All sweaty and gross, because that made a great impression on people she was supposed to heal.

She didn't really get a choice, though, and she knew it. The medic had been travelling since about five AM with this heavy-ass bag and a small breakfast, knowing that there would be no stops along the way if she wanted to get there on time. Her patient needed immediate attention and she could not afford to stop and waste time by cleaning herself off. There would be time after she assed the situation and got settled in.

It had been hours since she had seen the ground, but as the trees thinned out and a line of buildings became clear, Sakura knew she was almost at her destination. Hopping down deftly and readjusting her pack as she estimated the time it would take to get into town. According to her calculations it should take approximately thirty more minutes… And the place was shaded. That would be nice, especially since she was almost an hour ahead of time… Her contact wouldn't be arriving until noon, so she might have time to clean off and get something to eat anyway.

With a happy sigh she headed north, a slight skip to her step as she walked along the cobblestone path that lead to the settlement. As she predicted, it took around thirty minutes—twenty-four if she was being critical—and was soon within the town.

It was a charming little place, lots of low, traditional buildings and stalls full of fresh fruits, flowers, and fish. A pleasant smell permeated her senses and she couldn't help but sigh, enjoying the small pleasure that was such a small place. Konoha was nice, yes, but Sakura had always preferred rural landscapes as they left so much more to do and explore, and were peaceful. As much as she loved her job and her team mates and her friends she loved alone time more, and would never tire of spending endless hours curled up on the couch with a good book. After all, she did love to read, even if she didn't have much time to do it.

What she loved most, though, was bathing, and that was at the top of her priority list at the moment. It didn't take much wandering before she found herself lost, and paused in front of a fruit stall to ask the plump, brunette shopkeeper that seemed to have just materialized if she could give her directions.

"Um, hello, Miss. I was just wondering if you could help me," she asked timidly, hands clasped behind her back as if she were a small child again.

The woman blinked and smiled, her dark eyes crinkling warmly. "Of course. What do you need?"

"Well, I'm not from around here, and I—"

"A traveller, lost by the looks of it," the woman nodded, clucking. "Are you a ninja?"

Sakura blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

"It is, dear, but that's not a bad thing," she smiled, and winked at her. "What are you looking for?"

"The bath house, please. I've been travelling a long ways," she replied, her own lips curling into a nervous smile.

"Konoha, I assume." More clucking as the woman pondered, then pointed. "Just down that street there is a large building, red rooftop. Inside's the onsen, but its mixed bathing. If you prefer separate, you might want to go to a hotel."

"Mixed is fine," she replied, though her neck was probably bright red to match her hot face. "Thank you, Miss…?"

"Akiha, Miyaki Akiha." Akiha nodded courteously. "And you are?"

"Oh… I'm Sakura." The medic grinned. "Haruno Sakura. Thanks so much for your help!"

"Of course, dear," the brunette replied, waving at the younger woman before the girl bounded off and rounded the corner, completely out of sight.

With a sigh, Akiha let her hand rise up to her ear, as if to itch, though grimaced at the crackle she was greeted with.

"Sasuke-kun, it's me." The formerly warm smile disappeared from the woman's face as her expression darkened. "The target has arrived. She went to the bath house."

"Good work, Karin. Hold your position until you hear the signal." Karin nearly squealed aloud at the deep voice, and the compliment, but knew better than to have it revoked in the current situation.

"'kay. Do you think she can do it?"

"Do what?"

"Whatever it is Madara wants her to do," she replied, pouting.

"Well, he seems to think so. We'll just have to see how much such a pathetic kunoichi could have grown."

Karin's lips twisted into a smug smirk as she disconnected the line. Today was going to be a good day, she just knew it.


"Mm… Gods, this is nice."

Sakura's words were a dreamy mumble as she sank into the hot water for a carefully planned fifteen-minute soak, eyes closing as she dunked her head below the water. Her muscles were already sore and tight, but now that she was in the onsen it was as if all her cares were just disappearing into the air around her. Of course she knew that she'd have to leave soon but didn't really care, as washing her hair was of main concern.

Slender fingers wrapped around the handle of a jug to wet her hair, smoothing pink locks back with a frown. How was it even possible she had been born with pink hair? Sure, her mother had it too, but that didn't mean it should be genetically possible. Most people assumed that it was dyed and she couldn't even remember how many times she had been asked if the carpet matched the drapes. Of course it had been mostly men that had asked, and most of them had ended up in the hospital with a broken nose and a severely bruised ego.

The kunoichi smiled at the memory as she leaned back and took some soap, lathering it in her hands. Most of those incidents had happened in Konoha, and Naruto had been on the serving end in most cases because he was actually really bad at keeping his fat mouth shut. Surprisingly enough it got him out of trouble almost as many times as in, and Kakashi generally called it his "Preaching-no-jutsu" because of the ridiculous way it worked. The majority of people couldn't withstand the effects, and often enough they caved and bent to Konoha's will. The charismatic jinchuuriki, that's what he was. But there had been one person Naruto couldn't bring back…

"Sasuke." Sakura breathed, closing her eyes. She remembered the night he left her, what he had done to Naruto when he wanted to escape, finding him in Orochimaru's lair and finding out just what he had become… Her best friend had promised to bring him back but now that she had grown up, sometimes she wondered if he was even worth saving.

There was so much about him that had changed, and he was no longer the broken little boy that she had followed like a lovesick puppy. Now he was a man and an enemy, and though he was her team mate and she wanted to bring him home, there was nothing she would or even could do to make his punishment anything less than what he deserved for harming his own village. Even his brother had never killed anyone from Konoha in the time he had been gone…

But that Uchiha was dead, right? Sasuke had fought him to the death and won, according to Zetsu. She had been there and heard it first hand, so there was no way she could have mistaken it. Hadn't Sasuke said he just wanted revenge? That he would return once his brother had died?

Yes, he had, but now that his brother was long gone, the Uchiha still stayed far away from Konoha. It wasn't like he couldn't come home anymore… He had just made the choice to leave for good. There hadn't been word of his movements in weeks, and sometimes Sakura found herself worrying despite her will not to.

And, as if her worries and internal struggles had made him form out of midair, he appeared.

No, seriously. Sakura's eyes bugged out of her head for a moment, blinking repeatedly at the wall of pale, well-muscled back flesh that was presented to her. Spiky hair clung to the back of his neck in a shade of deep, nearly black blue, and though it seemed he had grown up a bit and had gotten more… manly, she could say, all she could think was what the fuck… There was no way it could be real. No way in hell could this be real, because if it was he'd turn around and-

OhfuckSakuraseriouslydon'tlookdon'tlookwellthendon'tstare.

"Sakura?"

The roseate simply squeaked in response. He should be trying to kill her and not coming close and fucking hell he was way to close and she wanted to punch him. Hard and repeatedly.

Okay… don't think like that. Bad train of thought.

"Sakura…" Sasuke's voice broke her reverie, and sense finally snapped back into her, face contorting in rage despite the overwhelming desire just to curl up and die.

"UCHIHA SASUKE, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?"

He blinked. That was unexpected. "Bathing. I just happened to see you, that's all."

"Yeah, sure," she scoffed, trying to ignore the fact that both of them were wet and naked and in a mostly-empty onsen. If she had still been one of his fangirls she probably would have spurted a nosebleed and died happy, but no matter how attractive the younger Uchiha was it did not make up for the assholery she had been through in the last three years. She was about ready to kill him, and he knew it.

Sasuke raised his hands in a fairly placating gesture, his normally blank face holding an expression of slight surprise. "I'm not going to hurt you, Sakura."

"If you're not going to hurt me, why the hell are you showing your face to me?" she snapped, glaring daggers at him in a way he was fairly sure she hadn't been able to before. Wasn't she supposed to love him?

"I… wanted to say hello. Nothing more."

Well that was random. Her expression faltered for a moment but was picked back up soon, and she huffed somewhat sulkily. "I can't say 'hi' to you. I'm supposed to drag your ass back home but right now I'm not a mission, and you need to leave."

"You just did say hi," he pointed out, a slight hint of irritation leaking into his voice. "And come on, Sakura. Just take a walk with me."

She hesitated for a moment, brow furrowing in concentration as her teeth instinctively bit down on her lower lip. She did have ten minutes left of this bath and fifteen more after that, so technically she had about twenty minutes before she'd have to get ready to meet the client… And it was Sasuke. Her Sasuke, her team's Sasuke. Maybe she could plant a chakra tag on him or something and they'd be able to track him down, but the fact he was being so… open with her was disconcerting.

It was really out of character for him and she knew it, but perhaps because they were alone and there was no real threat he didn't feel the need to be so protective of himself, and especially since his brother was dead he didn't feel the need to hide from other people and his emotions. Maybe she had been wrong about him… Maybe this would turn out okay.

"Alright." Sakura sighed, missing the look of triumph that crossed the Uchiha's features. "Just lemme get dried off and dressed, alright?"

"I'll meet you outside, then," he smirked, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Sakura flopped back in the water and rubbed her eyes. This day was just getting plain weird.

First the mysteriously appearing clerk in the market, and now Sasuke? There was no way this couldn't be planned. She knew there was more than one bath house in this town, and the clerk just happened to direct her to this one? It was fishy to say the least, and she couldn't help but feel that perhaps she was taking this too lightly. How could she be sure this wasn't a trap?

In all honesty, well… She couldn't.

There was no proof that he wouldn't just slaughter her once he had her alone, or incapacitate her. The mission couldn't be a fraud—too much detail and it had been paid halfway in advance—so there was no way he had a hand in that, but meeting him in the exact place where she was meant to be was just weird.

But maybe he just wanted to see her, as weird as that sounded inside of her mind. The more she thought about it and rationalized it the more she believed it, and soon found herself getting out of the onsen and heading off to change.

She didn't feel the pair of dark eyes watching her every move from the shadows, one hidden by a swirling orange mask.


The forest was quiet. Far, far too quiet.

In Sakura's opinion, she found being alone in the woods with one Uchiha Sasuke rather alarming, but made no show of it. It wasn't as if he would be able to tell regardless, being an S-ranked missing nin from her very own village and someone she had actually known once. It was difficult to believe that he was just trying to be normal when she felt as if someone was watching her.

The kunoichi adjusted her heavy pack and looked to her left at said Uchiha, who was staring straight ahead with his mouth set in a grim line. As if she didn't have enough worries, the look on Sasuke's face was enough to tell her that she should run as fast as she could in the other direction and never once look back. Just fantastic, really. On top of that she was going to be late, and when she realized this, her lips parted slightly to inform him.

"As lovely as this has been, I really need to go…" Sakura tried to keep her tone nonchalant, looking out of the corner of her eye at his expression.

"Hn," he replied, before correcting himself. "Why's that?"

"Mission." No reason giving the details she didn't need to.

It was then that he stopped, turning to her with no expression on his face, his aura changing to something darker, more sinister. Sakura backed up slightly in alarm but he grabbed her wrist, staring into her eyes as black gave way to crimson. "This is your mission, Sakura," he said, a small, ominous smirk forming on his effeminate features. "You're already in position."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "I… what…? Sasuke, I can't… That's not possible…"

"Tch, typical." His grip tightened, and she felt her bones tighten under the pressure. "Trust you not to see the obvious, Sakura. I can't believe you fell for that."

"That's because she's nowhere near as good as you, Sasuke-kun." A simpering, rather boyish voice came from her right, and the medic craned her neck to catch a glimpse of a red-headed woman with glasses, evidently one of Sasuke's new team mates.

And she called him Sasuke-kun. As if the bastard really deserved that! Right now, in this moment, Sakura had never felt more betrayed in her life. She could feel her eyes begin to grow wet with tears, her breath hitch in her chest as the sheer weight of what was happening crashed down upon her.

"Aw, look! She's gonna cry!" Another voice, this one distinctly male, joined the 'conversation'. "What a weakling, Sasuke. No wonder you compared this broad to Karin: they're both cry-babies."

"Why don't you go fuck yourself, Suigetsu?" the girl named Karin shrieked across the clearing at another boy, this one fairly tall with a shock of silver-blue hair and surprisingly pointy teeth.

"Why don't you go die in a fucking hole, Karin?"

"Why don't both of you shut the hell up and tell me what the fuck is going on!" Sakura's voice rose above Karin's as she tried to wrench her wrist free of Sasuke's grip, her eyes drying out as anger took over.

All three of them went silent for a moment as they stared at the Konoha medic. Sasuke was the first to come back with a reply, however. "We're taking you."

"Taking me?" Sakura repeated, a slight hint of disbelieving laughter in her voice. "Like some damsel in distress? I don't fucking think so."

"There's nothing you can do about it, Sakura." She felt Sasuke's grip tighten further, and bit back the gasp of pain. "You don't get a choice."

Oh, that was it. There was no way that this… this prick could boss her around like this. Not anymore.

"Fuck you and your fucking plans, Sasuke, because I don't take fucking orders from you!"

In the split second it took for her to wrench her fist back from him with surprising strength, the Uchiha found himself wondering when in the hell she had picked up such foul language.

And the second after that he really could not fathom how she had gotten strong—and fast—enough to rear back her fist and punch him hard enough in the face that he flew into a tree ten feet away with a sickening, resounding crack.

It took him a moment to process what happened, as it did his team, but it all became clear once he felt the unnatural angle his nose was bent at while blood streamed steadily, pooling around his chin and staining his white shirt.

"Ouch," he said, the word more out of surprise than actual pain (that's not saying it didn't hurt, because this was more injured than he had ever been in his life and it really, really fucking stung).

Sakura cracked her knuckles, jade orbs dark as they settled on his prone form.

"You… you hit Sasuke-kun!" Karin blinked, face contorting in rage. "I'll kill you!"

As the redhead ran at her Sakura smirked, energy swirling around her in a dangerous way that went unnoticed to everyone but the Uchiha. "Karin, wait, don't—!"

Sasuke's call was seconds too late however, and he jumped to his feet in a split second to push her out of the way as Sakura's heel slammed into the ground, splitting the earth into a deep crevasse. He jumped the gap and realized the battle was on, dodging the shuriken thrown by Suigetsu and drew his katana, using the split ground as leverage to leap into the air.

Sakura, who was busy ignoring Karin's cries, didn't quite hear the "GO SASUKE-KUN~!" but did see the shadow, and reached up just in time to snatch his ankle. Sasuke twisted and took a good swing at her, slicing through the crimson fabric of her shirt, and was rewarded with a hiss of pain from the roseate.

She may have been injured but that didn't mean she was incapacitated, and took the split second opening of Sasuke's smug grin to twist his ankle hard enough to break it. The crack resounded around the forest and she heard Karin's gasp, but didn't think much of it as she had to jump over the six-foot-long executioner's blade that swung her way.

"Fuck!" Sakura breathed, realizing now that this fight was going to get bad. If she thought she was screwed before, she certainly knew as much now.

Just as the blade almost swung down for a second blow a figure caught it, one garbed completely in black.

One that Sakura recognized from that fateful day when the Uchiha battle took place…

"You!" Verdant eyes widened as the man turned, revealing the tell-tale orange mask that she knew would be there. "Tobi!"

"Aw, she remembers me!" 'Tobi's tone was teasing, almost, even as Sakura reared back her fist and punched him clean through the chest—well, her fist fazed right through it. Already infuriated, Sakura made a move to grab the front of his clothing, but before she was even close the man had picked her up by the straps of her pack and was making her look upwards, right into his face. "That's a shame, though… We can't have you trying to escape, now can we?"

"Go to hell!" she ground out, struggling fruitlessly against his grasp, kicking and squirming as she kept her face turned away from his. She couldn't meet his eyes, she just couldn't… This wasn't happening. There was no way that she was really being captured by her ex-team mate and an Akatsuki psycho. "Lemme go!"

"Sorry, Sakura," the masked man replied, taking her chin between his fingers and tilting her face up. It was comical, really, because it might have looked tender if not for the fact she knew she was going to die… And as she saw the Sharingan spin, she realized that he was solid at the moment and punched him so fast in the centre of that mask she swore the air hissed.

But holy mother bitch in heaven, that hurt. Sakura groaned in pain and from the slight fog the Sharingan had caused, cradling her now-broken knuckles in her hand as she dropped to the ground and crumpled up. Damn it, why didn't she reinforce that…

It didn't seem to strike her quite yet that she had just struck an apparently untouchable man across the face, but Sasuke's team mates seemed to. They were currently staring at the young kunoichi's victim, who had indeed fallen back and was actually lying quite still. No one could see his face so they weren't sure if he was laughing or crying as his shoulders shook, and Sakura couldn't lie when she was actually surprised he stood without wavering.

"That's quite the punch you've got, Sakura," he said, voice a hell of a lot darker than she had ever heard it and rather imposing as he came closer. "Almost enough to hurt. I presume you saw that opening when I nearly knocked you out?"

She was fairly sure it was a rhetorical question, but nodded regardless. "You're fucking right I did."

The Akatsuki's only visible eye narrowed. "Insolent child… That tone can be remedied easily enough,"

"Madara, I don't think—" Sakura heard Sasuke call, and her brow creased in confusion. Madara…? And why was Sasuke sticking up for her?

"Quiet, boy. Take your team and go back to base: meet me in the conference room. You will have a mission to attend to." Madara turned back to Sakura. "And as for you, We could have taken the easy way with this, but you just had to fight it, didn't you?"

Before Sakura had the chance to reply she was met with a kick to the ribs, effectively winding her and causing her to bite back the comment. As if that wasn't enough, the blows continued—she felt the pain rattle her to her bones, Madara's words going unheard as tears stung her eyes. She knew if he was going to all this trouble to capture her he wasn't about to kill her, but that didn't mean he wouldn't harm her.

Her chest and sides ached and she was on the verge of begging him to stop when she was lifted again, this time by her neck. She felt the rough fabric of his gloves against her skin, the tightening of his fingers. There would be bruises there in the morning, she knew, but it was enough to kill her determination and this time, simply accept the crimson swirl of his Sharingan.

As consciousness left her she couldn't help but wonder why they wanted her.

If there was no 'lord' and those who had sprung this trap were uninjured… Who was it that required her assistance?


A/N: I should have added more to this, I think. I really do find something's missing with this chapter but I can't put my finger on it. :/ Regardless, updates are going to be a bit slow from here on out, as summer is coming. If you're wondering why Sakura just got kicked while she was down I think you're missing the point of Madara's characterization. He hates Konoha and she back-sassed him like it was nothing: he wouldn't take that from some child. Besides, she's a medic, right?

That being said, I've recently posted a "reasons for how I characterize characters" on my profile. Itachi's the one that I've done for now because sometimes I hear he's OOC and yeah. Reviews are welcome, as are flames and concrit and whatever. My love goes out for those who have reviewed, fo' sho'. -heart-