Sakura woke to find chains on her wrists and ankles. What the hell? She attempted to look around but it was pointless. The room was pitch black and the only sound was a ceiling fan somewhere above her head. A light suddenly filled the room and Sakura could see a figure standing in the doorway. His hair was spiky and she could see a slight glint coming from somewhere on his face.
"Who the hell are you and why the hell am I chained up? Am I some sort of doll for a pedophile?" The figure chuckled and walked into the room, shutting the door behind himself.
"You think that the Akatsuki would keep a girl for sex?" A light flickered on over in a corner. "We do not need to do such things. The Akatsuki does pride itself." The figure's face was hard to make out because of the angle he was at but Sakura could see that he had orange hair and many different piercings.
"You!" Sakura's brain seemed to click in at the thought. "You're Pein! Why would the leader of Akatsuki come and talk to me?"
"Because I want something from you." Sakura got a look of disgust on her face.
"Like what?"
"Let us start from the beginning, shall we?" Pein went over to another corner and lit a light. Now the room was easier to see. It was small and was definitely a holding room. The walls were stained with many people's lives.
"Fine."
"As much as I hate to admit it, our organization is starting to crumble under pressure. The pillars stay strong but the roof does not want to hold." Pein walked over to Sakura and looked down at her. Only then did she realize she was sitting on the ground. "Our problem is that one of our pillars was taken down. As you can see, one pillar effects the rest." Sakura nodded. It made sense. "In order to solve this problem, we need a new pillar. Are you getting my point Sakura?"
"You want me to find you another S-class criminal?"
"No, we want you to become an S-class criminal." Sakura's eyes grew wide.
"What? Hell no! That means that I would have to go after my best friend and I can't do that."
"I am giving up on the Kyuubi. He does not matter. Akatsuki needs to gain back its dignity."
"Akatsuki had dignity? Ha! That's funny."
"I wouldn't antagonize the Leader of a dangerous organization Sakura." The breathe on her ear and the voice in it was cold as ice. It sent shivers down Sakura's spine.
"Nice to see you too Itachi." Sakura knew better but these people were asking a stupid question and they were going to get a stupid answer.
"You're such a bright young girl, Sa-ku-ra." Itachi pulled her name into three syllables and walked over to Pein. "Is she this valuable?"
"Her strength and medic-nin knowledge will help us. It's odd that we'd have to go against Orochimaru in the end instead of Konoha but, there is no other way to do this." Pein looked at a clock on one of the tables. "The meeting is about to start. Itachi, stay here and get to know your new team-mate." Pein seemed to stalk out of the room like a dangerous cat and then it was just Itachi and Sakura.
"Explain to me, why am I so important? I would have expected it to be Naruto. He's the Kyuubi. He's got what you guys all want so bad. So why me?" Itachi seemed glare at her. He has emotion?
"Hn." Sakura got a look on her face and almost had the word 'dumbass' written in it.
"Come on, even Sasuke can give me more than a 'hn' to that one…actually he would be gloating about now. He'd be telling me his master plan to overthrow you and how I would help him to benefit and he'd even be trying to manipulate me. So what's your problem?" Itachi was definitely glaring now.
"Hn." Sakura gave a wicked grin.
"Hey Itachi, too bad you like guys because then I could get you to open up pretty easy." Sakura let the grin fade and then got serious. "I need to take a shower, or, at least get out of these dirty clothes." Itachi threw an Akatsuki cloak and a pink piece of fabric. Right then and there, Sakura stripped down to wearing nothing but her shirt and underwear. She spotted a pair of black shorts with a pink stripe down each thigh. "Pass me the shorts too would you?" The shorts flew and just before they hit her face, Sakura caught them. "Thanks." She put everything on with the cloak tied around her waist with the pink fabric and a black piece of fabric from her old shorts. Her hair had to be dealt with though. It was long again and it couldn't stay down when she was trying to do things. She started looking around for a kunai and Itachi seemed to read her mind.
"Here." He handed her one and she quickly took it. She cut her hair into short layers falling down to long hair at the back. She handed Itachi the kunai and ripped a few more pieces of black fabric. She tied the longer hair into low pigtails.
"That should do." She smiled. Itachi glared.
"Emotions are things to use against you. Things that will get you killed." Sakura's smile turned into a scowl.
"Shut up team-mate."
