AN: This chapter was so fun to write. Please Enjoy :bows:

"Torturing someone doesn't involve mere cruelty. What will break someone is the transition from torture to kindness. Do both and you will break a man." -Anonymous-

Emerald green eyes flickered open and Sakura had to bite back the groan she felt as her entire body pulsed and ached with wretched pain. She choked on the pain and her chakra flared to life her automatic response to get to work on the injured and offending body parts. She paused considering. She was dangerously low on chakra. If she used her chakra to heal herself she would not be able to fend off whoever came. The last thing she remembered was being taken off by Itachi. If Itachi has me captive here there's no way I'll be able to fight him she thought, depressed at her pessimism. If Naruto was here he'd be smiling that stupid goofy grin of his and telling her that he'd get them out of here and that they'd find a way. If Kakashi was here he probably would have thought of something. No…they never would have been caught in the fucking first place. Sakura's eyes stung in bitter shame. Years upon years spent, to avoid this very thing from happening. She was weak…still after all this time…after all this goddamned time. Worse still, she didn't do a damned thing to him. Disillusioned she bit her lip, feeling the tears, as she put her chakra to the best use. Stop that, you need to figure out a plan Shannaro! Inner Sakura reminded her.

That's right. Sakura sniffled once and forced the tears down with a swallow. She took in the environment she was surrounded by. She was still wearing her Anbu uniform though it was a bit worse for wear, containing snags and tears and dents in terms of armor from her un-surreptitious fall. All the weapons he could have found had been removed, excluding the single senbon she had in her bra. Little good it did her she thought with a huff. Her hands were bound and her Anbu vest and shirt kept her from reaching it. No time for focusing on what she didn't have. She didn't know how long she'd been out or how long she still had to formulate a plan before someone would come.

She wasn't naïve enough to think that there wouldn't be torture involved. No she knew exactly what would happen to her at this point and sheer terror coursed through her entire being at the thought. She had sat in on Ibiki's sessions with ninja caught from other clans and countries. He would ask her to help particularly with genjutsu, claiming breaking the mind would hurry the interrogation along. Of course Ibiki loved to break the body first. Shuddering as the images flooded her mind, adrenaline raced through her reaffirming the urgency of her situation. This time she would be the one under interrogation with one Uchiha Itachi the genjutsu master with his feared sharingan applying her torture. You're a ninja! You knew what you were getting into with this She rebuked herself. Stop panicking, it's not helping…take a deep breathe and access your situation.

Jade green eyes took in her situation and atmosphere around her. She realized with dismay that she was bound, lying on a cold concrete floor, and her muscles were cramped, the cold not helping with her pain. Wincing, she wiggled a bit testing her abilities. She shivered but her muscles were tight and asleep, tingling partially from the cold and partially from her wounds and the extent of damage she'd taken when she'd fallen. Damn it. Her ribs were still busted, though not puncturing her lungs as before. She took care of the internal damage first knitting herself back together with her chakra as she bit her lip thinking.

The rocks that the cell appeared to be made of reflected the green from her chakra. Her hands were bound and above her head, hanging painfully. Her feet were bound. She shot small charge of chakra into her handcuffs hoping for luck. Nothing. Her handcuffs were immune to chakra…someone had planned for an elite ninja to be here. She probably should have taken it as a compliment but it only served to upset her more. She wriggled her wrists biting back the cry of pain from her sore arms. She'd slit her wrist on the cuffs and wiggled, hoping the blood would make a way for her to grease her hands through. Success! She nearly cried out in relief as a hand dropped from the cuffs. The other came, and she bit her lip from the pain, the coppery tang of blood waking her up further. She moved her arms, wincing at the pain, but needing to get the blood circulating again. They tingled and ached but at least they would be usable. She clotted the blood from her wrists, hoping not to loose any more blood as she was already feeling dizzy and weak. It was a start, her hands were free.

This was too easy…something wasn't right. A raven overhead cawed, startling Sakura. She dispelled the genjutsu quickly, terror beginning to seize her again. Oh gods…She didn't know…she hadn't known that she was in a genjutsu, she…a genjutsu specialist. Everything had felt so real…she shivered closing her eyes and opening them again

"You know my skill for what it is Kunoichi, having lived it." Itachi said. He sat on a ledge against the wall, watching her with those blood red sharingan. Briefly her heart sank at the family resemblance, but this was Itachi, a monster worse than his little brother had become to try and murder the man standing before her.

"I have a name, and you know it, and therefore have no excuse." Sakura retorted, shifting against her bindings. Her face contorted with pain as she continued her healing.

"Your name is meaningless here" Itachi replied.

"Why are you bothering with this meaningless conversation? Torture me, ask your questions…do something" She replied in a bored manner.

"You tremble as you say that…Sakura." Itachi said, the way her name rolled off his tongue sounding dark and sinister. She shivered again.

"Shall we skip the pleasantries?" Sakura, said irritated by the arrogance of the man before her.

"Tell me how he died" Itachi ordered.

Sakura paused. Truth was usually the best approach as the s class criminal would know if she was lying anyways.

"I don't know. I didn't stay long enough to perform the autopsy" She replied.

"What do you know about his body?" His voice was so soothing to listen to she thought absently.

"That he died and his body was found and brought back to Konoha for the funeral" Sakura replied.

"Even as a missing nin?" Itachi's eyes widened a fraction here.

Jade eyes narrowed giving him the fury of her fully heated gaze. The embodiment of hatred was painted on her expression. Perhaps she wasn't as weak as he'd thought her to be.

"The only reason Sasuke left was because of you" she snarled.

"The fact that Orochimaru offered him power to do so, certainly had no bearing on that, did it?" Itachi retorted, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Since you don't know about his body, you don't know if they've buried him with the rest of the Konoha ninja or not."

Sakura processed this information stoically refusing to give ways to her doubts and fears. He was buried with the other nin. He was trying to cut her, to make her break but she wouldn't be so easily had.

Itachi let her sit and process as he did his own information. He took the information in stride. She didn't know anything about the body, which rendered her useless for the moment. He had already gone to the trouble of bringing her here so killing her would be a waste of time and effort, though it would probably help quell the rage he felt. He had been had by her sentence before she passed out. What a fool he thought. There was no use crying over spilt blood. She was here now and there wasn't much else to be done other than use the opportunity as he could to gain power. She couldn't be entirely useless…she was the hokage's apprentice. She'd been trained by Tsunade in as a medic which was no small feat. She was Anbu and while their skills and fleet had been rapidly declining after he left, she still had some tricks up her sleeve. He thought irritatingly of the senbon he'd had to pull out of his flesh.

She appeared from everything he'd deduced to be a prominent member of Konoha. They would miss her if she was gone. She had been on the same team as his foolish albeit now deceased little brother, which meant that she was also on the team with the kyuubi. From what he remembered of their encounters she had been close with her team mates. Her uselessness was rapidly decreasing as he evaluated the situation. Itachi was not a short range thinker. It had been what had kept him alive thus far.

He had landed a prodigy of the sannin; a medical expert herself would save himself a lot of the trouble along the way as he searched to find out what had happened to his foolish little brother. Itachi allowed his mind to process and formulate. She would be useful since he had taken the time to bring her here, her death would not serve any purpose even if it would make him feel better and shut up her incessant praddling. He had his plan formulated. Now he needed her trust. How could he turn this situation around?

"Not knowing who killed him, or how must keep you up at night" Itachi remarked casually.

"It's none of your concern." Sakura remarked.

"It concerns me more than you might think" Itachi replied.

Green eyes widened incredulously. "You cannot tell me that you actually feel remorse for the loss of your brother?" Sakura said, sitting up and wincing at her chained hands.

Her healing had been real, because she felt much better than she had earlier in the genjutsu. Everything else was still the same in the room except for her freed hands.She also hadn't cut her wrists which she noticed though they were still sore. How had she fallen for a genjutsu in the first place though? When had he done it…and how had she healed herself if she was in a genjutsu? Was she still in one? She dispelled it again to make sure and caught his wry smile at her efforts. Her eyes narrowed, putting feeling into her hatred of him.

"I'm incredibly grieved at his death." Itachi said with feeling.

He'd lost his spare and would now have to settle for Uchiha Madara. His plans would have to be considerably altered and this was the time where he needed to act, before he lost his eyesight for good. Uchiha Itachi would not live blind, and sharingan-less.

"I don't believe you." She said, jade eyes narrowed and glaring daggers at him.

"Believe what you will, Kunoichi. It is of little consequence to me" He said as he rose to stand, Akatsuki cloak flaring as he rose from the stone wall by the window he'd been perching on.

She shifted away from him startled and mistrustful. He didn't blame her. He reached into his coat and she flinched, breath held. He pulled out the key to her bindings, unlocking her legs, which she promptly used to crawl away from him, a cry of pain escaping her lips. He then unlocked her hands from the cuffs, and her arms fell limply to her sides, lack of circulation and heat. She had expected torture, rudeness, conversation with the ability to hurt and harm her, demeaning her entire existence, as a woman, and a ninja.

His kindness broke her.

"What are you doing..." She trembled, trying to get her hands and arms circulated so she could defend herself, terrified because she didn't know when the catch would be. When he would turn on her and torture her.

"You're not staying here. You have need of physical and medial attention. Follow me and do not try anything, less my kindness cease." He said.

Sakura rose shakily and hesitantly to her feet. There was no point in fighting him. Wherever he was taking her, she didn't have the strength to inflict anything remotely close to damage on him, particularly with her severe lack of chakra. She winced in pain using the remaining chakra she had to heal herself and followed after him. She was alert, terror prickling her senses as she watched him like a hawk. He smiled grimly. This would be very entertaining.

Sakura paced, as she walked within the spacious room they had given her. The surrounding room was made with tan rocks, bricked in formation. They almost looked like sandstone, though she had tried to break them with her knuckles earlier and found them more resilient than sandstone. Of course she was also depleted of chakra. In the room itself she had access to medical scrolls and books on jutsu of all kinds within the many bookshelves lining the far back wall. The bed was spacious and soft red and black. The silk sheets were not laced with poison of any kind, the pillows and goose down comforter soft and simple, nothing hidden that might be menacing. She'd tried to look beneath the bed but there was simply a mahogany box holding up the bed and preventing getting beneath the bed. Though Sakura was still skeptical.

They had provided her a chair and tables for study as well as a notebook and pen for any notes she wished to take. Neither of those had been trapped as she'd nearly taken the table apart trying to find the catch to all of this. A big hearth of a fireplace roared with fire, warming the room, and giving off an orange glow. The air wasn't poisoned and there was nothing in the fireplace or with the wood that even hinted of truth serum, or any other chemical. The candles they'd provided her with would give her ample light should she wish to study but simply smelled of vanilla which didn't mask anything when it came to poisons and chemicals. They'd provided her with simple flint to light them, though even as depleted as she was she probably could have used her chakra to light the candles in soon time.

Sakura's pink brows furrowed. She was a prisoner here, being held captive by the Akatsuki. Nothing was laced with poison, or booby trapped to scheme her. She had already explored every crevice in the brick formation, searching for spying jutsu or something that would signify she was a prisoner. Where she had expected torture she'd received nothing but kindness, generosity, and service. The only thing he had done was place a seal upon her to reduce her chakra. She rubbed her shoulder absently, the bastard placing the mark of the Uchiha clan to conceal the sealing patterns. It itched. He'd also placed it in the same place Sasuke's cursed seal had been. The significance was not missed on Sakura's part though she was surprised and suspicious that he had known about it.

"I figured you would appreciate the gesture as one who loved my brother" He'd said simply.

Bastard. With her chakra sealed as much as he had, she was a harmless as a kitten. Especially up against the Akatsuki members. A bowl of fruit rested against the hearth and there was cheese and bread and water for her on the table. He'd left her with a glass of wine, and a pitcher of water. She'd tested them 6 times, depleting the chakra she'd regained, and still there was nothing poisonous or harmful about the fruit. As Anbu even the undetected poisons would still show up, because she'd memorized and dealt with these poisons on a daily basis. Her chakra had tested them. Good fruit was hard to come by, but apparently s classed criminals didn't have that problem. Her stomach cried out, hunger pangs beginning to hurt her. Still, she didn't want to eat. She couldn't trust them, couldn't trust any of this. But if she didn't eat she wouldn't keep up her strength.

Her brow furrowed deeper. This was not at all what she'd thought her experience of the Akatsuki was going to be, of the horror stories she'd heard from victims, of the few that had survived their ordeals. The very last words Itachi had told her before he'd left stuck with her. Is it so hard to accept that I'm not the monster you thought I'd be? She shifted through the conversation again, thinking she'd overlooked something or missed some subtle nuance in all of it.

"What is this? Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?" Sakura demanded, half sobbing from the sheer realization of it all. Damn it, she'd expected torture. Were they playing with her? Giving her all of this and then torturing her later? She would not be played the fool. She couldn't stand it. She wouldn't stand it.

"I have no reason to be cruel to you Sakura san. It was you after all who started our battle, I merely finished it." Itachi replied as he lit the fireplace.

"The hell you don't! I've heard about the things Akatsuki does to their war criminals! The way you've deliberately tortured leaf nins! I've had to heal your victims Itachi!" She snarled storming towards him, in his face, green eyes brilliant with the light of the fire reflecting in them.

"I do not deny that I can be cruel, Sakura. Were you standing in the way of my objectives that might be a different matter, but as you are not currently, I have no reason to be unnecessarily cruel."

"Konoha is hunting Akatsuki members because of your cruelty! You're a liar!" She replied.

Blood red eyes fixed themselves on her intently, his chakra summoned. She felt the sheer power and took a step back, though those green eyes never lost an ounce of their fury. She was so defiant, so proud and stubborn. Truly fitting of a Konoha Kunoichi. Strong yet utterly weak. It fascinated him, that she had these two qualities and how they mixed and interchanged. He would study her. Solve her like a math problem, or a science project and be done with her as he used her to further his goals.

"I have no reason to lie to you. I do not inform you of all information for my own purposes certainly, but I have not lied to you. Tell me Kunoichi, how different would my fate be, if I were captured by Konoha this moment."

"That's completely different, you're a murderer!" She said, scowling.

"What ninja isn't Sakura? I think your assumptions and presumptions about your village as opposed to any other, or in comparison with Akatsuki are a bit naïve."

"Atleast I have a loyalty to a village, Itachi, and not some hell bent S class organization"

"Is it so hard to accept that I am not the monster you thought I'd be?" He said softly and that single sentence shocked her and shut her up.

"I will leave you now to your own devises. The bathroom and kitchen is down the hall should you need anything and your change of clothes is in the dresser. Do not go out without them Sakura or you will not enjoy the consequences. We may be an organization but we are all individuals, after all." Itachi said as he left, the door closing behind him.

Sakura glared at the dresser as she stopped her pacing. There was no way in hell she was going to be stuck here in this room all day, no matter how nice it was. She couldn't trust any of this, but she was in desperate need of a shower. She walked to the dresser opening up the doors to it. An Akatsuki cloak hung from a hanger, and inside the droors were a few fresh pairs of shorts, fishnet undershirts, black shirts to go over said fishnets and lengths of bandages to bind her chest with. Startled she saw her pack hanging from one of the hooks in the dresser, grabbing it she sifted through her things. Her medic skirt, haruno vest and boots were still there. She was still wearing her ruined anbu gear.

"The hell if he thinks I'm going to wear tha-" something caught her eye as she looked beyond the cloak.

It was a ring. The characters spelt Suzaku in reference to an old constellation. This was the ring Uchiha Itachi always wore. She used the last bit of chakra she'd regained in the past hour to check the ring. It wasn't trapped, it didn't appear to have anything that would harm her. She picked it up delicately with the pen she had in the room turning it. It was by all accounts an ordinary ring. It was too big to fit on any of her other digits and so she stuck it on her thumb. Perhaps it had something to do with the Uchiha clan. Regardless he'd left it for her to wear and she thought it was pretty. Maybe she could bring it to Sasuke's grave when she finally killed Itachi and made it out of here. In either case she could research it and it would be useful to keep with her when she returned to Konoha. She didn't know how, but she would.

She changed into her gear zipping up the vest as the final touch of her clothing. She retied her forehead protector as a headband keeping her hair back and out of her face. She felt more like herself even if she didn't have her chakra. She stepped cautiously towards the door listening for anyone as she didn't have the chakra to scan the area any more. Hesitantly she opened the door and stepped outside. There appeared to be no one there. Itachi had said the bathroom was down the hall…but he hadn't said where, damn him!

The sound of a shuffling robe alerted her to a presence, and she barely made out that the figure, though female in appearance, was a man before she registered the bomb. She was blown into the concrete wall before anything else could be done, and cracked her head against those damn tan bricks. The man's breathing was quick and harsh as if she had scared him. I'm so very tired of having the shit beaten out of me and being blown up. Her last thoughts weren't horribly deep as she blacked out, healing chakra unable to staunch the flow of blood.

"Holy Shit, Deidara! This isnt Headquarters, but do you want to alert every nin out there that-" Kisame stopped, as he looked at the disgruntled Deidara, and the body of the Anbu chick he'd carried, on the floor…not moving. The puddle of blood was his first clue of why the explosion had happened. Her pink hair was already red with blood.

"Not good" He said as he made his way down to the scene. The coppery tang of her blood would alert everyone within the vicinity of her presence. Damn, Kisame grumbled.

Deidara was crouched over her unconscious body, now burned from the bomb, which had also left scorch marks on the bricks and poking her with his tongued hand.

"Why does Itachi have a girl, here, Yeah?" Deidara asked blue eyes widening as he looked upon the body.

"Shit. That's Itachi's ring isn't it?" Kisame asked as he looked at her sprawled hand where the ring was still on her thumb.

"It is yeah…Fuck. Uhn!" Deidara replied looking at the mess.

"God damn it Deidara, you just blew the holy shit out of our prisoner!" Kisame groaned fighting the urge to run the skinny blonde twit through with Samehada. Of course then he would have to take the brunt of Itachi's rage, and while beating the shit out of Deidara would make him feel better there was nothing that Kisame would do to trade places on the guillotine when Itachi was the executor, which would happen if he killed the little shit.

"How the hell was I supposed to know, Yeah. She wasn't wearing an Akatsuki robe and I panicked when I saw her in the hallway. I wasn't expecting to get ambushed in our own hideout, Yeah." He replied, indignant.

"You God Damned Idiot!" Kisame growled. His partner was gonna shit a brick when he saw this. And both of them would suffer!

"If Itachi's gonna have a fucking prisoner here, Yeah, then he needs to put a sign on her forehead or something." Deidara grumbled at the unresponsiveness of the unconscious kunoichi.

"Did you ever think to ask before blowing the shit out of someone?" Kisame retorted, rubbing his head in frustration as he set samehada down to lean against the wall before he really did run him through.

"This is just great. You're gonna pay when Itachi gets back. I should run you through but I refuse to give you a break from the beating Itachi's gonna give you. Is she alive?" He asked.

"Ish,yeah." Deidara replied with a crazy grin.

"Damn it. This is all your fault. Wipe that fucking smile off your face…and grab her feet Deidara. Keep her prone. We gotta keep her alive till Itachi gets here" Kisame said, lifting.

"Fuck…Why doesn't anybody ever tell me these things. It's not my fault Itachi's so damn secretive." He groaned as he grabbed her legs, while Kisame supported her hands.

"You'd think she'd be lighter, Uhn!" Deidara complained.

"Shut up, and keep moving!" Kisame growled.