Chapter Two: Red Letter Day

Chapter Two: Red Letter Day

Sakura Haruno awoke several days later in an unfamiliar bed in a very unfamiliar place.

The walls were black, the floors were of a deep mahogany and the only furniture in the room was an old dresser and a bookshelf filled with various books, scrolls and papers. A single window allowed a small amount of light to enter the room, but other than that the room was pretty much completely dark. It was an uncomfortable place; Sakura was used to her pink walls and décor of her own room. She wished she was there, under the covers of her own bed, now more than ever.

Memories of a few nights previous came flooding back when she noticed the tell-tale sign of whose room it was. In the corner of the room sat a large corpse of a human, preserved. One of Akasuna no Sasori's precious puppets.

Fear fell over her and she attempted to jump out of the bed to her feet but found that she could not and instead fell back over onto the pillow that was warm from the heat of her face.

She tried desperately to move her feet and hands and as she managed to wriggle free of the covers she discovered that they were bound by strong chakra strings that she could not break.

Fear turned into panic as she realized that she was completely vulnerable in this situation, something that she had always despised. In years past before she had trained vigorously with Tsunade she had always been the one that had to be protected from danger whether it was by Naruto, Sasuke or Kakashi. She had hated those times and strived to change them and finally, during her battle with the man she was sure was dead, she managed to prove herself.

'This has to be an awful nightmare, this can't be happening! He's dead! I killed him!'

It was true, months before Sakura and Sasori's own grandmother had defeated him. She had seen with her own two eyes the blood dripping from the only human part of his body, his heart.

But now her whole world seemed to be turned upside-down. She was in some strange place which was obviously Sasori's room, which meant she was obviously in Akatsuki Headquarters. And that meant he was alive! But how could that possibly be?

Her head ached from all the questions she was asking herself. 'How is he alive? Where is this place? What do they want me for? Why am I not dead? When will they kill me?'

That last question that she asked herself sent a chill down her spine. It was only a matter of time; even though she was no longer the weak little girl she had once been there was no way she could take on the whole Akatsuki organization.

But if it was just him then it might be easier. She had defeated him once before, with the help of his grandmother, right? Or had she? She no longer knew, she no longer knew anything. It confused her so. But all of those answers were about to come crashing down on her because at that very moment the door clicked open and an all too familiar figure stood in the doorway.

"Well, it's a special day indeed for Sakura Haruno has graced us with her presence."

A/N: I'm afraid this chapter is much shorter than I had originally anticipated it to be; I do not like short chapters in Fanfiction, they annoy me. Hopefully the next one'll be longer…the previous one was pretty short too. . Until next time!