Where the life leads Chapter 2: Sake and Akatsuki, a naruto fanfic

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Chapter Two

Eight years ago, after Sakura left on the mission… Three months later…

Sakura tightened her hold on the cloak she had just bought off the street. She was going to all the bars and taverns to listen to rumors and drown in the anxiety of the whole mission. How could Tsunade expect her to do this? She chugged down the bottle of sake in front of her; it burned like hell's fire down her throat. She did not show the minor pain, she did not care. She had bigger problems.

"Did you hear?" asked the bartender to a local. She was in the land of wind, and they tended drinks to whomever they could. She rubbed her forehead. About fifty of the conversations she had listened to had started like this one and the endings were similar. She sighed, lightly.

"Hear? Hear what?" said the other larger, older male. He looked tired and worn down by the sandstorms.

"Members of Akatsuki have been spotted in the forests of the Land of Fire. It seems that they are heading to the Land of Water," said the bartender, leaning forward while polishing a glass that he had already polished. Sakura was listening intently now, wanting to hear every single breath of the word: Akatsuki.

"Hn, interesting." The old man sighed. "Let's just hope they don't bother Konoha. That place needs a break from all the fighting." Sakura paid and left the bar quickly. It would take her a while before she eve got there. How was she supposed to cross the huge water that surrounded it? Pay someone. She sighed, slipped on her half mask, and tied her headband around her neck. She could use chakra. Yes, that was what she was going to do. It seemed simple enough.

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6 months after Sakura left on the mission…

Sakura leaned on her elbow, watching dully as people passed by drinking and slurring all their words. She had been in this water village for three months and nothing had happened. She narrowed her eyes and slipped down her half mask to drink. This place… was so boring. No one broke into fights like some of the bars she had been to. She did have to bribe this bartender though, but only with 100 yen and that was a very small amount compared to what she held. She felt the cloak slide from her legs. How much longer would she be here? She was dying of sheer boredom. Please, I need a rumor, please! Send me something. She sat still for a few minutes, someone leaned towards the guy next to her. They were jounin, she could tell.

"Akatsuki strikes again," said the leaning man, she searched with her eyes for the bartender. She always ordered a huge bottle of sake before leaving for the day. She wanted to get a whole gourd of sake to celebrate.

"What happened?" asked the seated one, seemingly uninterested as if he had heard it all before. She narrowed her eyes, feeling anxious with happiness.

"Oh, nothing. They have been spotted is all... In the Hidden Mist village…" His friend gave an annoyed grunt. Sakura chuckled inside. She pulled off the gourd she had on her back, (she had also bought this), that was on top of the cloak. She picked up a kunai out of her weapons pouch and slammed it in the table. That was the only way to get the attention around here, so it seemed. The bartender suddenly appeared in front of her, holding a bottle of sake.

"Yes, Miss Ruka?" he asked, she smiled, lightly, at him and handed him her gourd. She slid 100 yen over to him.

"Fill this please," she said, sweetly. He smirked at her; she was his best customer, and the oddest. Sakura never got drunk, her face reddened slightly, but her words never slurred no matter how much and what she drank. She was a perfectly sculpted statue that drank liquor.

"Of course, Miss Ruka," he replied, taking the gourds to the back. Liquor. She had a huge grin on her face, inwardly, but, outwardly, she had a very dull frowning look on her face. She made the cloak cover her legs as she felt a gentle chill. She stood up and started walking to the door. The bartender appeared and threw that gourd at her back. She turned, slightly, and caught it effortlessly. She smirked, slightly, and bowed to the bartender before disappearing in smoke. A drop of sake was sloshed on the floor.

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She walked out from the lake she had landed in. She plugged her sake so it would not water down. She dropped her cloak and gourd on the ground, crashing down beside it and enjoying the luscious grass.

It's always greener on the other side, the thought flashed through her head and she looked calmly to the skies. Inside she was angry. Iruka had said it to Naruto one day, and the day after, when she and Shino had returned from a very interesting mission, he would not stop chanting it. She had become as emotionless as Shino, and had waved a finger in front of Naruto's face in warning. He did not shut up, but he left her alone from the rest of the week. She knew Shino was impressed, but he did not show her.

Sakura sighed, and popped open the gourd to chug down some of the contents. She put the plug back in and slid it on her back awkwardly. She had painted her ANBU arm guards and hand guards black, so it was not obvious that she was ANBU. She let her eyes close, slightly, in timid depression. She missed her ANBU group. She missed Shino, the leader of the ANBU group. She raised her lips a little. Ino was never allowed to join the ANBU, and she was barely a jounin. This made Sakura feel like there was still justice in the world. Se sat up, and touched her cloak to feel the wetness. Another few hours, she figured. She smirked, slightly, and picked up her cloak. She jumped into the tall trees that were near and fell asleep.

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10 hours later…

Sakura was about to enter the Hidden Mist Village. She opened her left eye. Why was the mist so damn thick? She rolled her eyes. Hidden Mist Village.

She walked forward into the mist, all the buildings looked exactly alike. Someone approached her from the shadowy part of the mist. She stopped in front of, seemingly, the man. He looked up at her; he had been staring down at the dirt road. He did not say anything as he scanned her body. She raised an eyebrow. Did he see something he liked? She inwardly shuddered, a total stranger checking her out. Ugh. That was not something she wanted or needed right now.

"I need to know where the tavern is," she said, sternly, narrowing her eyes in a amusement, and smirking, slightly. He raised a black eyebrow to her, and his somewhat blank eyes filled with similar amusement.

"Aren't you a bit young to drink?" he asked, calmly, he was starting to turn away to face the same way as she.

"Never too young to drink, stranger," she said to him. Was he going to lead her there? He started to walk forward, disappearing to the normal human eye. She followed, keeping her distance and watching his every move. Under the brown cloak, he was wearing, seemed to be a very muscular body. She chuckled, very softly, so not to be heard. She was surprised she had chuckled at all. She certainly never laughed, giggled, or smiled in front of others. She could see the stranger watching her, eyeing her shugengan, and trying to decipher if she was going to attack him or not.

When he stopped, she stopped directly beside him. "In there, the only way to tell it apart from the others is the bright light."

"I see," she said, shutting her shugengan, and beginning to walk away. "Thank you, dear stranger." She waved a hand behind her, sensing him walk away.

She heard him chuckle and say, "Yeah, sure. Stranger…" She shook her head, half-smiling to herself, and swung open the door.

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An hour later…

"RUKA! RUKA! RUKA!" shouted the whole bar, so loud that it slightly shook. She slammed another shot glass on the table. Her opponent burped vulgarly, growling at the same time at her and fell over defeated. Twenty-five shot glasses were in front of him, sloppily placed, while she had fifty shot glasses pilled high in a pyramid shape. He was all red in the face and his words were unidentifiable. She smirked, slightly and sighed, again, bored, again. Everyone that gathered around the two disappeared into the shadows and fog of the cigarette smoke. She sighed and sipped the sake very slowly. She was close to vomiting if she drank five more gallons of it, and maybe passing out too. She opened her left eye and dragged her view around. There was a huge mirror in front of her. Three people in the blackest of shadows were staring at her. She narrowed her eyes, lifting her glare to stare at them through the mirror. She handed the bartender her gourd to fill, and he nodded as if he had done it all the time. She waited, watching the black costumed ninjas watching her.

"Here yah go Ruka!" yelled the bartender and slid the gourd across the table. She nodded, dropping a back of 200 yen on the table, and disappearing in a gray cloud.

She appeared outside the door and began to walk down the rows of black monotonous houses or whatever they really were. Her shugengan noticed, after it opened, again, the three males from the tavern following close behind. She gave a soft, aggravated sigh, not speeding up or in anyway feeling threatened.

Her shugengan could break more than human bones; she could tear down the whole village if she willed it. The first time she had done was an accident that happened in a village in the Land of Wind. The bartender would not give her a drink no matter how much she tried to bribe him. The shugengan kind of reminded her of Gaara's inner demon, Shukaku. Having barely any control over it, because of its horrendous power.

Sakura lifted her gourd to her lips, and growled inwardly as she realized that it barely had any drink in it. I must have drunk the place dry, hah. She focused on the three nins. She selected the middle as her victim. She smirked, slightly. Heh, losers…

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She had walked through two more water villages, and was followed only by one of the nins. She knew who it was; she could tall by the blackness of his hair, the coldness of his face, and the redness of his darling sharingan. Inside she was please and happy, jumping off the walls. He was much hotter than Sasuke ever was. It was Akatsuki's Uchiha Itachi. She had finally lured them out; she must not be far from the nest.

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She was starting to tire. It was a while before the sunrise. Could she collapse in peace? Would he try to kill her in her sleep? She smirked ever so slightly. She sped up, adding the little chakra she had left.

She dodged behind a tree, speeding up a bit to not be seen. Sakura leaned back, feeling exhaustion take over her body. She slid to the ground.

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An hour later…

Where was she? Did he miss her? He narrowed his eyes in malice; she was running from him. He fastened his pace as he heard steady breathing. She was right there? He had passed by that (damn) tree three times.

The sun was very close to rising.

Itachi slammed the suspecting kuniochi against the bark of the over grown tree. She opened her right eye and looked at him, emotionlessly. (Even more emotionless than the Uchiha himself.) He was close to punching her in the face.

"Open your left eye!" he ordered, and tightened his hold on her shoulders.

"It won't work," she said, narrowing her eye. He narrowed his eyes the same.

"Open your eye now!" he ordered. She sighed, close to giving in from pure annoyance. He is such a stubborn ass! She had turned her head away in the thought and when she turned back her shugengan was visible.

The red and blue were grinding against each other so much tat the white, and green and yellow cylinders almost disappeared. She felt pure anger at his aggressiveness. He sighed, oddly, revealing his shock. Was he really expecting a normal eye? Stupid Uchiha. Did he really expect anything less than beautiful? He widened his eyes, his black commas swirling at a rat's heartbeat. He noticed that her eye was exceptionally red now, no blue or white at all, and the green and yellow cylinders were moving casually.

After three minutes of nothing happening, she turned towards the sun rising. He sighed, again, and looked with her. She felt the heat radiating off his body, and stuck her leg between his. He turned back to face as she started to fall back down to the ground. He caught her. Perverted girl, he had thought when he felt her slim leg so close to him. He scanned her crumbled body in his arms. The position was indecent. He picked her up fully in his arms, felt her arms wrap around his neck, and her breath touch his neck warmly. It gave him goosebumps. She chuckled, inwardly. This was too easy.

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Itachi placed the unconscious Sakura on a bed and removed all visible weapons under her cloak. He untied her cloak and could not help but notice her leaf headband. Leaf? He placed his hand on her cheek and stroked a thumb across it. He scowled and narrowed his eyes. He pulled away as Deidara and Kisame peeked in. Itachi threw her cloak over her body. Deidara narrowed his eyes, and smashed the ice pack against his head more. They went outside the room, shutting the door and, cautiously, looking at each other.

"How did you get her?" asked Kisame, thinking back to the point where they were trying to stop her… with a big boulder. She had moved right after they had thrown it.

"She fell asleep," said Itachi, simply. Kisame and Deidara stood frozen to their spot with their mouths agape. Itachi rarely lied, so he did not use his sharingan.

"What do you mean 'she fell asleep'?" half-screamed Deidara, narrowing his eyes further and face forming into a scowl. Kisame chuckled and walked a little ways down the hall. "YOU DO KNOW THAT SLEEPING BEAUTY IS IN MY ROOM!" he shouted, and mumbled the rest. "…And not in a dungeon where she deserves to be?" Itachi gave a chilly chuckle and turned the corner. Various want-to-be Akatsuki members stuck their heads out of their rooms, grumbling with complaints. They silenced when they saw Deidara, Kisame and Kakuza there. Kisame chuckled at Deidara and wandered after Itachi slowly.

Deidara sighed, glaring at the Akatsuki followers around him. They sealed themselves into their rooms to fall asleep. He looked down at the floor briefly, and turned to enter his room.

He smirked, seeing her weak, open, vulnerable body on his bed. His smirk widened as he approached with his perverted hand already in front of him. His eyes sparked with lust and oddly, greed.

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Kakuza tapped Kisame on the shoulder, motioning at Deidara's door. Kisame nodded and walked forward. Kakuza sighed and untied the brown cloak he as wearing. So they brought home a sake drinker. She was useless to them, wasn't she? He wanted to know what that thing where her eye was supposed to be was. He sighed and turned into the kitchen, where several men still talked loudly.

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Five minutes after Kisame was advised to stop Deidara…

Deidara's hand had been so close. Why had Kisame ruined such a perfect moment? Argh! He jerked against the ropes that bound his hand together. He could not do any jutsus to get them off, besides the fact that his brain was not functioning quite right at the moment. He glared at his useless feet. They were tied together too, and were numb against the stone floor and the fuzzy couch. He sighed and closed his eyes. He would have to wait, until some sucker came along to help him. Wait…

"Deidara-sama, are you alright?" asked an ex-grass member of Akatsuki, returning from a mission that actually was a waste of time, but he had finished it. He had gotten the forbidden scroll. Deidara sighed and looked up at the grass nin.

"Un, could you please untie me?" he said, oddly nice, putting his wrists in front of him. "Kisame and Kakuza thought it would be funny if they tied me up and left me all alone for the whole night, un." The ex-grass nin tilted his head to the side in consideration, but disappeared a moment later in dark green smoke.

"Bastard," cursed Deidara, looking through an open window, and staring at the moon. He was so close to touching her… so close. He wanted her… He wanted to squeeze her… her… her butt. He blushed with excitement and smirked. He began to jerk around hoping that was enough of adrenaline to help him break the ropes. Or else, he would have to wait… and wait…

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A few minutes later…

"Deidara-sama, are you alright?" asked an ex-stone member, follower of Akatsuki, that was wandering the castle's hallways. Deidara looked up at him and sighed.

"Untie me," he ordered. The stone nin nodded and sliced the ropes with kunai. "Thank you."

"Your welcome?" said the nin, nervously walking away into the darkness of the hallway. Deidara looked from him to the window. He molded his clay into the head of the ex-grass nin and made it explode. He was going to get that bastard back. Oh, yes he was. But first…

He turned and walked down another hallway. He was going to grope that woman. He smirked. Deidara turned into his room and –

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?"

Kakuza, listening in a nearby shadow, raised an eyebrow. She escaped? Who is she?

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At the same time…

Sakura spat out the water in her mouth. She landed in that damn lake, again. She looked over at the empty house and shrugged. She walked over to it and pushed the door open, gently.

"Hello?" she whispered, her shugengan did not see or sense anybody. She shrugged, again, undressing to dry her clothes and going to take a shower.

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Where she came out, she left fifty-yen and began to redress.

Afterwards, she filled her pockets with weapons and left to go back to the same water village.

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Four days later inside of an inn in the water village. In which, she had spent sleeping those four days (in the inn) for merely 60 yen…

She wiped he stardust from her eyes as she redressed and restored the weapons.

She waved, groggily, to the innkeeper and walked out in the afternoon sun. She did not show her grogginess to the world, she just kept her half mask on and her left eye closed. Certain people mainly males that she drank with previously waved to her or greeted her. Their wives or girlfriends whacked them on their heads with jealousy. Someone was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, she smirked slightly. Sakura made sure her cloak was closed as she purchased another gourd.

She walked away from the merchant and looked for a bar that she had bribed with only one hundred yen.

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After a few hours of searching, she realized that she was trapped in a genjutsu, and disappeared in gray smoke…

Sakura's feet slammed against a table as she landed. She almost lost her footing, but was helped down by half-drunken men that had recognized her. She looked up at them semi-surprised.

"Hey Ruka!" the whole bar shouted. She smirked, slightly.

"Sorry about that," she said, nicely, walking towards the bar and its stools. A few nodded or chuckled as she passed, because of her foolishness. She turned slightly pink, and her face turned into a frown. She looked at the bartender with boredom in her eyes. He smirked and slid a bottle of sake over to her. She nodded and poured it into the little cup she had in front of her. She never usually drank from the little cup, but she did today. She drank slower too, as if time had slowed. She felt a headache start to form and an ominous feeling punch her in the gut. She drank so slowly, soon she stopped drinking all together, and stay frozen with her elbow on the bar and her hand plastered to her head. She watched specks of dust pass by her and then something caught her eye.

Her head lifted and she looked straight through the window of the door. She thought she saw red eyes, but that was quickly gone by another type of color. Fire…

"Fire," she said, softly, but as soon as that word passed through her lips everyone turned to look at her as if she had shouted it.

The wind blew the door open, causing its window to shatter, and it was obvious that a building ways away was on fire. Nevertheless, to her, it was right next to her skin, dehydrating the cells, making them crack with death, and fall away.

As the bar was about to evacuate to help, two people stood in the way. Itachi and Kisame.

"Come with us," ordered Itachi, looking directly at Ruka. She narrowed her eyes with amusement and stood up. The bartender, mindlessly, tossed her a bottle of sake and her gourd that he had filled when she was not paying attention.

Once Ruka, Itachi, and Kisame were outside, a pile of ruble fell in front of the door. A chill ran up her arm, not that the other two could tell. Other than her whole body was under a black cloak, she had her arms bandaged up so the engraved markings would not activate by the splash of someone else's blood. Same reason went for her fingertips and thighs.

A bunch of nins that were ex-nins from the Water country brought down another three rows of houses. An ex-sand nin by the threesome dragging dead corpses with chakra sand strings. She sighed. Dear god…

"Would you like to join?" asked Itachi, studying her body language. It did not tense, but relaxed further. She opened her shugengan and looked at him as it spiraled with redness, again eating the white.

This was the next step to becoming one with Akatsuki. One more step to their demise and Orochimaru's death. She smirked, slightly, and nodded.

Itachi took off running, using various jutsus and his sharingan to destroy people just by looking at them. She glanced at him and jumped to the tallest building there. Itachi jumped down beside her. She quickly widened her eyes. A pulse shook through the village.

The whole village collapsed without warning, causing all Akatsuki to jump to the only building left standing. She sighed, relaxing her shugengan to turn back to normal, but the white was still absent. Her left eye could do more than just kill people. She stretched and yawned, listening to all her bones crack and snap. She put her plugged gourd onto her back, (over her cloak), and chugged the rest of the sake in the bottle.

All the while, most of the Akatsuki there were watching her every move with interest. When she finished, she shook the bottle to make sure there was nothing left.

An Akatsuki member turned as he spotted the last survivor of the water village. Ruka's shugengan turned red as she spotted him too. This shugengan was very bloodthirsty it seemed to her. It made her want to kill when it was not white.

A man in his mid-twenties with a bad shave. She froze. Itachi watched closely as she raised the bottle above her head and threw it directly at the man. The man, not being a nin or a very good nin, was hit and killed as fifty kunais exploded from it.

Everyone's eyes were now turned to the dead man in awe. She smashed a smoke bomb down on the ground in front of her and disappeared in her gray smoke.

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Itachi darted after her. He was not going to lose her this time.

He watched as she went 'poof' and landed in water that looked like a lake. A newly founded chuunin scratched his head as she walked by him quietly. He watched her trudge into the forests.

Itachi dared down and walked up to the chuunin. The chuunin stared at him, wondering if he (Itachi) was going to attack. Itachi took out a bag and threw it at the chuunin.

"I was never here," he said, coldly, his face in a wicked scowl and glaring at the poor water chuunin. He nodded, smirking, and rattling the bag as he walked back inside of his house, forgetting all about his intentions to weed the garden.

Itachi ran past the chuunin, wildly eyeing the area around him. He had lost her again. Damn…

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Ruka changed directions from going to the Hidden Mist village to hide in the trees. She needed to join Akatsuki, but it was frightening. She was so close to appearing in their lair again.

She felt arms circle her from behind, covering her mouth. Suddenly, she enveloped entirely and was crushed against a black and white body. She turned around in the arms oddly, and found a black and a white eye staring back at her. It sounded like they were moving underground, quickly. She narrowed her eyes at him, frowning and grabbing her black cloak tighter to her body. She was not sure of his name, but he was more powerful than she was in certain ways. She found her body was becoming more crushed against him as the thing moved underground. She gave a grunt of disgust as he made another type of grunt.

Bastard…

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Reread and review please! I don't appreciate flames. (Nobody does, unless they are psychos!) Umm… I hope you aren't too confused about certain parts. You must have the ability to connect the dots and put things together in your mind, because not all stories are going to be like "A cat is sitting. The cat is black."

Got it?

Sasuke: Cough No!

Sirocco: Shut up!

Sasuke: Make me bit-

Sirocco: Argh! Get your ass back over here you jack-

Sasuke: JACK WHAT!

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