OK, As I've said, you guys know who she'll end up with, well that is if you viewed the poll results or read the last author note. But I need practice with things like love triangle plots and the turning down of one to another. So bear with me and don't be mad -_- pureaase?

Cirque D'Akatsuki

Chapter two: Come See The Bomber!

Sakura awoke the next morning with a headache. She also did not recognize her surroundings. 'Where the hell am I?' she thought to herself. Then the previous night came crashing down on her and she groaned. What had possessed her to run away and join the circus?

She heard a noise, of footsteps, enter the tent and she looked over to see the blue haired woman, Konan, was it? She had a tray of food and water in her hands. Sakura felt her stomach growl and beg for the food.

"Oh, you're awake," Konan smiled, "I brought you some food. You should eat, but me and Yahiko will be back shortly to speak with you…" then she left.

Sakura felt her stomach flip. What about? She desperately wanted to get it over with, but her stomach roared again, so she began to slowly eat the food. It was pretty good, but was a little spicy.

She finished the meal happily, then Konan came back in. The man Yahiko, or Pein, walked in next.

He seated himself in front of her, "I want to ask you a few things." Sakura nodded carefully, "You see, I get the impression you're a runaway, most likely from the town we were performing at a while ago." he waited for Sakura to confirm.

"I'm not going to pry into why you ran away, nor am I going to force you to go home, most of us are runaways and misfits," he smiled, seeing Sakura's sudden discomfort, "But I would like to offer a position for you here. You see we are in constant need of many things and always have jobs open. You will receive pay, though with food and shelter provided it will be mostly for your own frivolity. I would like to know if you are interested. The jobs are small, such as cleaning if it's needed or even first aid, like I said there is a lot.

"How old are you?" the orange haired man asked, tilting his head.

"…seventeen, sir," she muttered.

"Please, call me Pein," he chuckled, "Are you interested in this job?"

Sakura thought it over. She had no where else to go, nor would she fit in with her hair. Anywhere else would be hard. She hadn't even graduated high school yet, who else would hire her?

"Yea, that sounds great!" she smiled.

Pein grinned, "Good deal, you can start today or tomorrow, Konan can run you over everything you'll need to know." He stood and left.

For the next hour, Konan explained the small odd jobs that needed to be done. The few listed were actually really easy things to do. Sakura took the list and started walking towards the mess hall tent. When she entered, most of the group looked up at her. She recognized a few of them, of course the ones she met the night before. The blond, Deidara, stood and walked up to her.

"Good morning, un," the man then proceeded to leave the mess hall, followed by the masked boy. Tobi started begging his sempai for candy or something like that. Sakura watched them walk away and then Deidara smacked Tobi upside the head. He cried out in protest and started whining even more.

Sakura giggled softly, then quickly moved over to where some dirty dishes were stacked up. Sighing heavily, she began washing them. The task was simple and she was thankful for that. An hour later, the whole group was done with their meals, and that enabled her to get the rest done quickly.

Her fingers wrapped around a glass serving dish, mostly empty, but still had the remainder of egg crusted to the sides. She grimaced and walked to a small trash can and began scraping. Her hand slipped and a yelp escaped her lips when she dropped the glass container on the ground, sending it to hell as it shattered into a thousand pieces.

Quickly, the cherry blossomed head, knelt down and began picking up the shards and throwing them into the trash bin. Tears slipped down her cheeks. She ruined the first job she was given, and it was terribly simple. Her balanced was lost and she fell backwards onto her butt. "Great…" she groaned, placing her hands in front of her to get up. Pain erupted in her hand, as blood began seeping from between her fingers.

On closer inspection, she had a rather large piece of glass lodged into her hand. Her heart began to beat faster watching the clear glass turn pink and red as her blood quickly coated it. Fear rose in her. What should she do? Was this something you left in until you got help, or should she just pull it out and go get help? She began to panic and felt the rush of tears.

Another hand grabbed hers, sending a small jolt of pain into her hand. She wince and looked up into the violet eyes of the Cirque's immortal, Hidan. He grinned, "I see you're already getting into trouble…"

She gasped, "Please don't tell anyone! I can't lose this job…" she sobbed and he laughed, which confused the girl. He leaned forward and licked some of her blood away. Sakura's emerald eyes widened and she trembled.

"You're blood is sweet…" he grinned, "But it's fucking horrible it has to be spilled for some damn glass…" he leaned forward and his lips clashed with the girl's.

Sakura gasped as she tasted her own coppery blood on his lips. Her heart raced and made her feel utterly panicked. How did people normally act when some blood loving man was kissing them? Not just any kiss, it was her first kiss!

The frightened girl pulled away and backed away from Hidan and had no idea what to do. Part of her wanted to kick him and yell at him, but then she would be kicked out of the only placed that needed her.

His face held a smirk, a bloody smirk. Her blood dripped off his lower lip, and he licked it up.

"Fucking delicious," he held up a small object in his hand. She gasped. It was her shard. Her eyes darted to her hand, which was free of the glass that had been in it.

"Sorry, pinky, but I needed to distract you so I could pull it out," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cloth. He grabbed her bleeding hand and wrapped it around it.

"Go tell Konan I dropped her dish and you got injured," he sighed.

Sakura opened her mouth to protest, knowing he would get in trouble with the woman, but he glared.

"Just fucking do it, pinky…"

She nodded shyly and walked out of the tent, but not before throwing a look back to him. He was cleaning up her mess.

Sakura made a mental note to thank him later. Her feet carried her to Konan's tent, where she opened the flap, "Konan…?" she looked over to see the blue haired woman holding a small stack of white paper. Her fingers twisted the paper and it slowly formed into a white rose. Then she started the next. Sakura knew she shouldn't have, but she watched the woman go through the small stack, until she had eleven roses in all.

The pink haired girl walked forward and bit her lip. Konan had tears running down her paper skin. "…Konan?" Sakura muttered softly.

The paper woman smiled softly, "I'm sorry Sakura, I was just practicing my origami, what do you need?"

Sakura held out her hand, the cloth was already soaked through with blood. She bit her lip, wondering if she should just tell her the truth, rather than let Hidan take the fall, like he wanted. His angry face came into her mind, yelling at her to just fucking do it. The girl shook her head.

"What happened!"

"I wash cleaning the dishes…and…H-Hidan he…he dropped a glass dish…and it shattered and…" Konan stood, interrupting the girl.

"When I get my hands on him…" she sighed, "let's get you fixed up." Sakura sat still as Konan cleaned the gash and sprayed antibiotics on it. She then called out for Kakuzu. The towering, dark skinned man walked into the room. Konan explained she needed him to stitch up Sakura's hand.

The man nodded and knelt down and grabbed the girls wounded palm. She watched in fascination as a long blackish grey thread seeped out of one of his stitched up lines. In short little bursts of stinging pain, it wove itself into her hand, closing up the gash. When he finished he severed the thread and stood to leave.

"Thank you, Kakuzu," Sakura smiled. He nodded and left. Konan re-cleaned it and sent Sakura on her way, telling her to take her tasks easier.

Sakura spent the next few hours making beds and making sure the dirty clothes were picked up to be taken to a laundry service place later. She finally finished about six that night, just in time to see Tobi directing a bunch of people to the huge tent. So they were starting their show? She smiled and walked up to the masked man, "I don't suppose there's a seat for me in that tent?"

She was aware of the people assuming she had cut in front of them or was begging for a free show. It was then she noticed that Tobi was wearing a black jacket with red and white clouds all over it. She turned to see one of the Path's walking to the tent. He, too, was wearing the jacket. It was longs, almost like a trench coat.

"Hey, Tobi, what's with your jackets?"

"They mean that I'm part of the Akatsuki!" he bellowed happily. Sending more people toward the huge tent.

"Oh…" she felt a little out of place now. Tobi led her to the tent with one of the groups, telling her to walk to the VIP box, Zetsu would let her in.

She did as told, and the half black, half white man gave her an odd grin, "Hello there, little blossom."

She smiled in return and entered the closed off section of seats. She sat down and rested her head on the small wall/guard and boredly waited for the show to start.

The tent filled quickly with spectators. They nosily talked about having seen the shoe already and how 'you just have to see the freak with the detachable body, or the weirdo with four mouths'. Sakura scowled. Was that always going to follow her around? She was always going to be a freak? Even, now, after she had escaped her old life, the people around her were considered freaks. She took offense, but let it go. It was none of her business… and they hadn't been talking about her, only the people she had just met recently.

The room darkened and Sakura looked up to see the man from the night before, the one with the plum colored hair. He held up a small microphone to his mouth, "Welcome to the Cirque D'Akatsuki, where we will blow your minds and test the boundaries of reality. We with stupefy and amaze. You will a man die, over and over, a man shark, and even a woman of paper skin!" the crowd roared, "Remember, things will get bloody, to the squeamish should probably not have come…" he exploded in a shower of white sparkles. I gasped. His voice echoed softly, "And now…Deidara of the Clay…"

Green eyes watched intently as the blonde walked out into the center of the ring. His black and red cloak fluttered wildly behind him. On his head, rested a straw hat with white strips of cloth hanging down, mixing with the blonde hair. Two more cloaked figures walked out and set out several tables and target around the ring. On the tables, they placed huge blocks of light tan clay.

He reached out to the sides and gripped the clay as two huge handfuls. His palms turned upwards and the clay disappeared into the hands. The mouths chewed at it then he released them in a shower of small clay spiders. The crowd clapped, but the way Deidara moved let Sakura know that wasn't the full extent of his act.

The little clay creatures smacked into the targets and everyone that hit blew up into a little shower of colorful sparks. "They're fireworks!" several people exclaimed.

Deidara smiled and grabbed more clay and ended up with a perfect, though lacking color, replica of himself. The replica smiled and if that wasn't enough to freak the people out, it began to grow bigger and bigger until it finally exploded. A rainbow of fire swirled around the crowd, sending shock and awe through everyone.

He finished his act up and walked off stage with the crowd gong wild. The red haired man walked out again, "Deidara has done well, but up next is out very own land shark!" people either began to whisper questioningly or excitedly, based on if they had seen it all before.

"Kisame of the Shark!" he disappeared again, this time in a water balloon like manner, exploding but leaving his voice echoing. Kisame walked out with his black and red cloak waving behind him. The crowd clapped and he smiled.

His act consisted of basically showing his shark like body, getting into a tank of water and remaining for longer than humanly possible. Sakura found out he would remain there until well after the show so people could examine the tank, to show he had no way to breath air and those were gills on his cheeks.

Next up was Itachi. The red headed ring leader had this time faded into a swirl of energy. Sakura was amazing, but she realized that he never really died or anything, and what he did only reflected what the next Akatsuki was going to do.

Itachi walked into the center of the ring. For awhile he just stood there, eyes downcast. The crowd began to whisper. The Uchiha looked up, his red eyes glinted in the light. Sakura found herself drawn to look into them, as did everyone in the crowd.

Suddenly Sakura found herself on a rollercoaster going at full speed. It was dropping down from a huge towering bend. Sakura felt herself scream, and she heard the screaming around her, and upon looking, it was people from the crowd.

Her hair whipped wildly as they entered a cave of the rollercoaster. It began dark and the carts began to speed up to blinding speeds. She wanted to close her eyes but she couldn't. a glowing red appeared at the end of the tunnel, but it seemed to get farther and farther away. She started panicking. She heard ghostly laughter all around her in the cave, and then demonic faces started popping out of nowhere, sending her fear reeling.

When they finally exited the cave, they were sitting right back in the stands in the tent. Itachi stood in the same place he had been the entire time.

"You know, it's rude to fall asleep during someone's act…" he whispered before bursting into a ton of black birds, which flew into the darkness.

Sakura shook her head and many people started questioning what had just happened. It turned out that there had been several different illusions. She just happened to get scary thrill ride, where as a few others had been in things equally as scary.

The red haired man came back out, "It seems the Immortal Duo wishes to seek audience with you," he walked off stage, rather boring and gave no indication as to what was next.

Sakura leaned in her seat when Hidan and Kakuzu walked out. Hidan's cloak was half open, showing off the little pendant. Kakuzu looked as he always had when she saw him, white hood and black face covering, with some big black and red coat.

The silver haired man grabbed his coat and pulled it off. He smiled big pulling out a long black pike. The man took the long spear and tossed it to Kakuzu, "Do your worst, Asshole!"

The tall man growled, "With pleasure you little shit…" he took the black pike and tossed it directly into Hidan's gut. The silver haired man fell back onto the ground. His blood spilled out all over and Sakura's eyes widened.

People in the crowd gasped and she could tell they wished to help, but when Hidan stood back up and pulled the weapon from himself, everyone jumped up.

The violet eyed man growled, "That didn't even sting, you must be fucking losing your touch!" he took the weapon and plunged it into himself, right through the heart.

Any normal man would have been killed, but not Hidan. He laughed in a psychotic manner. Kakuzu glared and raised his arm and the limb shot out toward the laughing male. It gripped Hidan's neck.

Sakura saw thousands of thick black cords, much like the one in her hand. The tall man dragged Hidan toward him and then punched him across the face.

Hidan began yelling profanity, sending the crowd into a foul mouthed induced laughter. To them, it was just like a scene from some action/comedy. The two fought like brothers. Hidan sent a kick into Kakuzu's chest, making the older man let him go.

Kakuzu glared with his odd eyes and ripped off his cloak, preparing to fight the smaller silver haired man.

Sakura saw the full extent of what they meant by 'human scarecrow'. he had long ropey stitches covering his entire body. These were literally holding him together. He grabbed the hood and pulled it off.

A blush spread across the girl's face. He was kind of cute, in that creepy way. Long uneven brown hair tumbled out and framed his face.

Hidan started his crazy laughter and rushed at the man slamming his fist into face. It didn't seem to do much, so the tall man grabbed Hidan and flung him across the room. He landed with a sickening thud, but got up and grabbed his pike and lodged it into Kakuzu, who grabbed Hidan and threw him again. He pulled the long metal from his side and dropped it to the ground, "Are you trying to kill me this time?"

"Yes, yes I am ass hat!" the crowd laughed. Hidan came running and Kakuzu sighed and growled.

The silver haired man ended up with a sharp cord around his neck. Kakuzu kept squeezing until Hidan's head came falling clean off. People in the crowd then did one of the following: Cheering as seeing a beheading, passed out for same reason, or screamed.

Sakura filled with fear for the man. Was this part of Konan's punishment, for what Sakura had done? Sakura felt tears roll down her cheeks. He was immortal, yes, but could he really survive his head coming off?

Kakuzu dropped the body and began to walk away.

"Hey!" a voice yelled, "You can't just leave me here you fat fuck!" Sakura watched the head start screaming more profanity at Kakuzu.

The tall man turned back and in the same way he had done for her, he sewed Hidan's head back on. The two left, with the silver haired man yelling angrily.

Konan did a flying paper trick. The Six Paths did so many different tricks, including hanging my piercing and those Chinese acrobat tricks that huge groups did. Zetsu hadn't been in the show and then the red head walked out again.

"As our show nears its end, I'd like to tell you, our boys and lady have had fun entertaining you, but we've saved the freakiest for last!"

Sakura's eyes widened. The only one she had not seen, "Scorpion of the Red Sand!"

Sasori walked out with his red-brown cloak, rather than the Akatsuki uniform. He raised his arms and another person joined him in the ring. It was a tall man with yellow eyes and black hair. He opened his mouth and Sakura gasped. That man wasn't human…it was a walking puppet!

The cloaked man raised his hands and the puppet slowly made its way across the ring. With Sasori's fingers moving, the puppet followed, doing flips and things, but about half way through the puppet was joined by another. They turned on Sasori and flung him into the air and shot rope out to bind their master up by his hands. Sakura had seen this the night before.

He was hanging up and completely defenseless against the attacking puppets. They pulled out swords and knives and flew at him. A long metal cord came out from beneath the cloak and knocked them back and continued to defend the helpless man. Finally, with the puppets defeated, another oddity came from beneath the cloak. It was the blades she had seen before. They sliced the ropes and left him to fall, but he was caught by the cord, which began to slowly disappear beneath the cloak, lowering him to the ground.

His feet hit the ground and he looked up directly into Sakura's eyes. The girl squeaked. His low voice echoed through out the entire tent.

"I'm going to try something a little different this time around, I'm going to need a volunteer…" his eyes pierced Sakura's and despite the many people begging, he walked up to her and reached out his hand.

Sakura shook her head, but he gripped her hand and pulled her from the VIP box, "Isn't she just lovely," he muttered to the crowd, "She's the newest addition to our little family…" he spun her around and left her standing to the right of him.

She blinked and felt her stomach twisting in knots. The entire crowd was staring at her. She began to run toward the exit but something stopped her. She couldn't move. Fear rose and she turned her head to meet the cold chocolate eyes of Sasori.

A smirk was on his lips, and with his hands raised he pulled his hand back, making her step forward. He had control of her somehow.

She tried to fight, but instead of running like she wanted, she began to dance. "A fine puppet, no?" the crowd cheered.

The show was cut short when Deidara and Hidan came running out, into the ring. Hidan had some of Deidara's clay ad was molding it into some very suggestive things. Deidara was beyond angry, and was chasing him down.

"Give it back, un!"

"Fuck off! I had it first!" Sakura glared, they were being children about it.

"It was mine first, un!" Deidara threw something that had been in his hand and it missed Hidan, but exploded against one of the pillars holding the tent up. The pillar began to crumble. Sakura's eyes widened in horror.

Tobi and Zetsu yelled for everyone to get out, and so they did. People filed out as quickly as possible. Deidara yelled out and damn it, and Hidan laughed.

The pillar came down on top of Hidan and Sasori. Hidan grunted, feeling his ribs break beneath the pillar.

"Damn you fuck head! I will kill you when I get out from underneath this thing!"

Sasori just laid there and the cord tried to move, but had been pinned, too. Sakura gasped. Hidan was immortal, or at least couldn't be killed, so she knew he would be fine after awhile, but Sasori was not.

She ran over to the two, and turned to Deidara, "Go get help!" The blonde nodded and ran off to find Kakuzu and Pein.

A few minutes passed, and Hidan had non stop screamed and ranted about the many ways he was going to kill the blonde. Sakura bit her lip, she had to do something.

Shaking her head she reached down and gripped the pillar. It was heavy, but not quite as heavy as it looked. Sakura pushed adrenaline throughout her body. She gripped harder on the pillar and lifted it up. Sweat poured down her face.

Deidara ran in with Kakuzu and Pein. Their eyes widened at the sight of a little seventeen year old girl holding up the pillar that usually took several of their men to place.

"Don't just stand there and gawk, pull them out!" she screamed. The boys nodded and went to pull them out. Once they were clear of the pillar, she let it fall to the ground, then she rushed to the two's sides.

Hidan was already up and moving, meaning his ribs were probably already healing up. Sasori also sat up. He looked up at Sakura. He grinned, "You're more special than we thought."

Sakura gasped, he shouldn't be able to talk, much less move like that. "How are you…but…"

She watched him pull the cloak off to check the extent of the damage. She stared at him in amazement. He wasn't human. His body was held together with screw and bolts. His limb were made of wood, but covered in synthetic skin. A small circle was in his chest, with his name written neatly on it. His stomach was wide open, but had the cord coiled inside. Part of the chest was cracked and broken.

"It shouldn't be too hard to fix." he muttered.

"You…you're a puppet…" Sakura whispered.

Meh, I was kinda rushing it, I got stuck and I wished I would've spent more time on it, BUUUT I'm working on Home too. PLEASE HELP WITH THE TITLE FOR THAT STORY!

ONt another note. I have come across another SakurAkatsuki obsession . I'm writing a fic for it, but I won't publish until I'm sure I'll continue with it.

So as always I hope You enjoyed ^_^ please review

Lady Pyrien