The Third Member


Chapter Three

Present Time


Sakura arouse with a jolt, sitting up so quickly her back cracked and sent a sudden burst of pain down her spine. She was shocked at the intensity of it, but the thought slipped her mind quickly. She was in an unfamiliar place, and her eyes were difficult to focus, Her skin tingled and every soft sound she heard, like her breathing, was music to her ears. She could smell a mix of aromas in the atmosphere, and when she opened her mouth, the air around her tasted sticky and humid. The phenomena she was experiencing was the aftermath of Itachi's Mangekyo, which had erased almost every memory of breathing, every sense in her body restarting, so for the next few moments, everything would either be like heaven, or be like hell. Her body was rebooting.

She clutched her heart and tried to find a word for how magnificent breathing felt. She knew she had done it before, but now it was unfamiliar, as if she had risen from the dead. The sensation was so sudden she started to cough, and the rattling in her chest was so painful she felt like her lungs were going to burst.

"Oh..." she gasped, going ridgid and waiting for the pain to subside. She was already getting used to breathing, the oxygen flowing into her nostrils wasn't really cold, but it felt like it to her. It felt like she was taking her first icy sniff of winter, the kind that freezes your brain for a moment.

Squinting from the light that was overflowing the room, Sakura saw she was in a small chamber, with only a bed and a lamp on a small shelf. There wasn't even enough room for a dresser. The window next to her bed was clean, and the sky outide was light grey and cloudy. Even a sunless day was impairing her vision and giving her a migrane. Unable to stand the blinding light, she threw herself down onto her shabby pillow and buried her face into the musky fabric.

To her left, as she groaned in discomfort, the metal hinges of the door scraped against the rusty frame as someone unlocked and opened it. The gentle squeak was like nails on a chalkboard and she threw her hands over her ears to muffle the sound.

"Are you awake?" The man that spoke to her had a familiar voice, but she didn't bother to think on it.

"Are you going to kill me?" She moaned, raising her hands from her ears and turning over, squinting into the bright light at whoever was gracing her with their company. He was awfully tall, with turqouise skin and azure hair. His face resembled that of a shark, especially with his sharp teeth and beady eyes. But he sounded human enough.

"Not quite," he assured her, with a not-so-genuine smile. When he noticed tears welling in her eyes, he rose a brow and became nervous. "Are you crying?"

"No." She breathed, "my eyes are watering. What did you do yo me? Did you drug me up?"

"Oh." Kisame's reply was relieved and sounded like he should have suspected this. "Forgive me." It only took him one move from the doorway to reach over her and pull a black curtain down over the window, shrouding the room in complete darkness. "Open your eyes now, is that better?"

Sakura opened her eyes as wide as they could and, since there was no light, felt no pain. She sighed in relief, and crawled out of her bed. "So, what is going on with me?"

"Well, I'm not really allowed to brief you until you talk to my boss," Kisame told her, "but I can tell you that this sensitivity you're having will go away soon."

"That's good." Then she scowled. "Do I know you?"

For a fleeting moment, Kisame was scared that she still had her memories, and Itachi had screwed something up. But the fear subsided as quickly as it had come when he remembered Itachi telling him that things would seem familiar to her, but the real, vivid memories were lost forever. "No, but I need to take you to the main chmber of this place, so your eyes might sting because it's really bright in there, well, at least for you." He ajusted his eyes to the dark and saw her hands hovering over her ears tightly. "What's wrong with you?"

She groaned and fell to her knees. "Could you please talk a little more quietly."

"Oh," Kisame repeated, hitting his forehead with his palm, "Sorry."

Together they exited the tiny room and went out into the hallway, where she could easily see in the dim light. To her, it seemed much more brighter than to him, but it wasn't enough to sting her eyes. As they walked, with Sakura lagging behind a little because she didn't know who this man was and didn't want to get attacked by surprise or something, she brought up a simple question. "Who are you?"

"Kisame Hoshigake." He said naturally. "And you?"

She was about to answer it instinctively, but she hesitated. For a split second she had actually forgotten her own name. "I'm Sakura." She mumbled.

He gave her an impertinent look. "No last name?'

"Do I know you?" She asked again, irritated. Who did this wierdo think he was, getting all friendly with her?

"Fair enough," he sighed, and opened a large wooden door with one hand. The agonizingly familiar light stung her eyes like razor blades, but it was less severe now that she had already expirienced it once. Quickly, she broughts her hands to cover her face, and moaned in pain. The sudden blitz of sounds were pounding in her ears, she heard the rain falling and thunder striking the earth in the distance, but she hadn't heard any of this before in the smaller room. Had it been sound proof? Sakura also heard others whispering, but in all the noise she couldn't make out indivudual voices. Some sounded electonic, while others sounded far away, and some too close. She was going to loose her mind if this didn't go away soon.

Then, she felt hands upon her hands, lowering them from her face. She struggled against whomever it was, but she lost quickly in her weakened state. Unable to bear the light, she kept her eyes shut, but the feeling of skin-on-skin was pleasant.

"You have to endure," her restrainer, a man, had a very monotone and unfriendly voice. "If you keep avoiding it you won't get your normal senses back."

She knew he was right. Once again she heard the familiar tone in his voice as she had in the blue man's, but nothing came to mind other than that. She took in a deep, sensitive breath and felt hundreds of smells flood her sinuses. Reluctantly, she started to expose her eyes, and she struggled to keep them open. Whoever was holding her hands continued to hold them tightly while she slowly adjusted her vision to the light and let her pupils constrict. Once she was used to the light and she could blink adequately without feeling pain, she looked into the eyes of the male before her.

He was much taller than her, maybe even an entire twelve inches, with long swarthy hair that was pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head. His bangs crowded his face, and she could see dark obsidian eyes behind the strands of hair. he didn't look too old, although the marks beneath his eyes told her otherwise, but she suspected he was at least five or six years older than herself.

His expression was like his voice, flat and stoic.

"Can you see now?"

"Pretty much," she told him, dropping her hands to her sides as he pulled away. She began to inspect the other individuals in the room; A very alluring woman with navy-blue hair and a flower made of paper behind her ear, a towering man with several dark piercings and dark amber hair, her blue-skinned guide from a few moments earlier, and a scrawny, hard-faced male with slicked back white hair and blue eyes. These were the only ones who were physically there in the room with her, including the dark-haired one besides her. The others were merely dark shadows, like static on a TV. There were four of the dark shadows, making nine in total.

"Ah, she's kinda cute." On of the faceless ones commented, and Sakura wasn't sure if he was talking about her or the blue-haired girl. His shdow shifted it's weight onto his left leg and crossed his arms. "Too bad Sasori wasn't dead so she could be my partner."

"Deidara, be quiet." The amber-haired man said softly, but his voice was low, and demanding. The way he stood made him look almost a little kingly amongst the others, so she just assumed he was their ring leader.

"Um..." she knew she wasn't exactly unwelcome here, except maybe for the white-haired boy, who was looking at her with very unfriendly eyes. However, she had no clue as to who these people were, and she couldn't remember how she had gotten there. And as for the partner comment the Deidara one had made, it was starting to make her a little skeptical.

"I am Pain," the amber-haired one told her, taking a step forward, but not coming too close. "This," he gestured towards the man beside her, "is Itachi." He started to point out all the other people in the room and introduced them. "Konan, Kisame, Hidan, Tobi, Sasori, Zetsu, and Deidara." When he said Deidara's name, the shadow raised it's hand and seemed to make some sort of waving gesture towards her.

Sakura gave him an addled glace. "...And?"

"Itachi found you a few days ago outside the village of Konoha." He paused and gave her an analytical look. "Are you familiar with that village?"

Sakura tried to rake through her mind for anything sounding so familiar. It was a name she heard before, but she wasn't "familiar" with it. "No, I don't think...Is this the village?" She gazed out the balcony behind him and out at the city below. It wasn't very "village" like.

"No," Pain answered quickly, almost offended, "this is my village, Konoha is far away, but Itachi and Kisame brought you here." If only she knew he was lying through his teeth.

"We found you," Itachi chimed in quietly besides her, "with your memory erased and serious injuries."

Sakura looked at him, confused, and then lookd over her visible body. She felt fine, and she looked fine, no scars in sight exceot for her knuckles, which were scarred on both hands as if she had punched a rock over and over again for about an hour and a half. "I don't feel injured."

"We had medical ninjas heal you," Kisame said quickly. "You should see your back."

Sakura didn't feel anything in her back, either, but when she spotted a mirror in the room she twisted around to see what they were talking about and gasped. She wasn't wearing her black tank top, only her grey sorts bra, so she could see instantly that which they were talking about. From her shoulders down to the small of her back was a narrow, but distinguishable scar. It was easy to see the skin had once been all but torn open, the flesh was tight and wrinkled along the edges of the scar, but when she rolled her shoulders, it moved like the skin had never been touched. Most people would find the sight a little gross, but Sakura thought it looked fascinating. As she stared in awe at the disform of her body, a new question acented. So these strangers had nursed her back to health, after finding her outside of a village called Konoha. However...

Sakura crushed her palm to her forehead, trying to remember. She wasn't trying to remember anything in particular, she just wanted to remember something. Her mother's name? Her father's? Where was she from, and why had she been attacked?

The others watched her as she pulled her hair and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember her life. All she could dig up was her name. She didn't even know how old she was or what her date of birth was. She could remember the entire structure of the human heart off the top of her head though, but she couldn't think of any interaction with anyone other than the men (and woman) who were standing before her.

Desperately, she looked up at Itachi and tried to find the answer in his eyes. "I can't..." She felt like crying, but she knew she wouldn't. "I can't remember anything."

"When we found you," Itachi explained to her, "your mind had been tampered with. I used my bloodline to try and see if I could do anything, but none of your memories remain."

Sakura stared at him, with no words coming to mind. Fircely and enraged, she grab him by the collar and jabbed gently in six unique sections of his chest. He remained stationary, staring at her with narrowed eyes. "I know the loaction of every Chakra Pressure Point in your circulatory system and you think my memory is gone completely? Go back in and try again!" She released him, and was suddenly infuriated at every little thing. If a spider decided right then and there to crawl across her foot, she'd pound it into oblivion just because the legs felt funny.

She snapped her attention on Pain again, who was looking rather bored. "That kid mentioned something about me being his partner-" she pointed at Deidara's shadow "-What the fuck does that mean?!"

"You don't have to get do angry." Deidara said in an offended voice. Sakura merely aknowledged him with a glare.

"We are an Organization called Akatsuki," Pain explained to her, while the four shadows dissapeared, fullfilling their curiosity, "we aren't well liked, but I'm sure you couldnt have fallen into better hands after your incident."

"What does that mean?" She breathed, entirely exasperated.

"Right now there is a massive war between almost every great nation of shinobi, and we were the catalyst for that conflict. The great nation's powers over the world was becoming too great and unbalanced, so we decided to tear their foundation down." He gestured outside his balcony towards the village below. "My village is the only one that remains untouched by war."

"So..." She looked at the last remaining in the room. "You all, plus the other four are all that makes up your little gang?"

"We hope to include you into our little gang as well," Pain told her matter-of-factly.

Her eyebrows went as high as they could go. "Me? You don't even know me."

"Itachi knows you." Kisame chimed in. Sakura glanced at the dark-haired man and found him unreasonably interesting.

"I was inside your mind," he said, "You have remarkable talent in medical ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and expirience in battle. We usually seek out unique shinobi such as yourself, but we haven't heard of you until now."

She frowned. "I don't see how I would fit into your warmongering."

"Right now we're not starting anymore wars." Pains said flatly. "We're attacking Konoha's influence, and seeing as how Konoha probably put you into the position you are in now, we figured you might want to get a little revenge."

There was a long, thoughtful pause where Sakura met the eyes of everyone in the room. Konan's were like Pain and Itachi's, reserved and unrewarding. There didn't seem to be any answer in her eyes as to what she should do. Join with an obviously powerful organization without her memories to give her a position in the world, or politely thank them for their help and be on her way? Who knows what they would do if she refused. Maybe she's seen too much?

Kisame's expression wasn't much help either, he seemed drawn between whether or not he even wanted her around, but Hidan...He seemed like he would be perfectly content with her just dropping dead where she was.

Abruptly, after they stared at each other for less than a nanosecond, he shoved himself off from the wall in which he was leaning on and grabbed his sythe, shouldering it and making towards the door. Pain gave him a bland look, but with his eyes he was telling him something different. "Where are you going?" He asked.

Hidan rolled his eyes and turned towards him. "I don't need to wait around for her fucking answer, do I look like her babysitter?"

"She'll be your partner." Pain reminded him. Hidan scoffed, looking at Sakura with his cold blue eyes.

"I can't work with women," he said grimly, walking out of the room, "I can't handle their whining."

Sakura watched him go with reletively longing eyes. He was the only one who actually seemed to cry for her to leave them, the only other oppinion besides the one the others were pushing her towards. As the door slammed violently behind him, Sakura put her thumb and forefinger to her chin, lost in thought. When she realized everyone was staring at her again, she merely smiled spologetically. "I'm going to need some time to think about it."

Granted her request, Kisame led her through the assylum once more to the tiny room she had been sleeping in previously. When the two of them were far enough away, Itachi turned to Pain.

"She seems close to convincing." Konan said.

"A memory is a delicate thing to loose. She'll want revenge later if not now." Itachi stated.


Sakura was in her quarters for a long time, laying on her mishapen back and staring at her chalky cieling while she hummed a slow, familiar, but releltively original tune. She kept weighing an option against the other; Join this group and become one of the Akatsuki, or refuse. She had already decided what to do if she refused, she wouldn't even inform them. The room she was in had a window, so she planned on running away if she settled on denying their offer. She didn't want to take the chance if they were hostile to her if she didn't go along with them.

Curiously, Sakura raised one of her hands from behind her head and gazed at the palm. Three of the fingers were significantly crooked compared to her other, straighter fingers, but she wasn't paying attention to them. She was actually looking at the creases on her skin. Vividly she could determine her age by them, but it was still beyond her why she could remember this useless talent, but nothing important.

She was nineteen. So at least she wasn't twenty yet, maybe this just wasn't her year of luck. With a sigh, she let her hands fall across her stomach, and with the hand behind her neck she nudged the edge of her scar gently with the tip of her middle finger. It had an interesting feel, but she kind of wished she could have felt it when her senses had been through the roof.

There was a knock on their door and she opened it to see Itachi standing there, tall and plain-faced.

"Hi...?" She said slowly.

"Hello." He greeted, stepping past her without her permission. She didn't really care though, it wasn't her room. "I've come to see if you've come to a decision. And Pain wanted to let you know," his dark eyes met hers and he seemed very indifferent, "that if you want to deny us, you'e welcome to."

Sakura gave him a quizical look, placing her hands on her hips. "How do you know I'm not going to go to Konoha or something and give them detailed descriptions of your faces?"

Itachi smirked slightly, letting her see his amusement. "Let's face it, you're not going to Konoha."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because deep down inside you know they're your enemies." He said, placing a hand on her bed frame. "Eventually you'll want revenge on them for what they did to you." Gently, he tapped his finger against his temple. "That's why we don't mind if you refuse right away."

He turned, walking out of the room to leave her alone again, but she took a step and almost grabbed his arm to pull him back. But she didn't. "Wait!" She said quickly, but quietly. He looked at her from over his shoulder and she shifted her weight. "Will you go back in and try and make it all right?" She was referring to her mind, because her hand drifted to the back of her head and smoothed down the messy pink hair.

"Later." He told her, and left.


Hidan only stared out the window darkly as Kisame informed him of his new partner. "She needs to go on a test mission," he explained. "You need to guide her, so be civil."

"Yeah, yeah," Hidan sighed, he remembered his test mission with Kakuzu. It was the only time that he had actually been nice to him, although he wasn't so friendly returning the favor. After that mission, the two of them never spoke a polite word to one another for the next three years that they would work together. Until that little pink-haired bitch killed Kakuzu by herself.

Hidan was still in awe at the skills she posessed.

"When do I have to get to know the cunt?" He asked, placing his hands on the window sill and straring down at a restauraunt that was particularly busy.

"Now would be good. She's really unsure of her decision, and Pain wants you two to leave as soon as possible."

"Whatever." Leaving his sythe, Hidan pushed past Kisame and wandered down to the main chamber of Pain's place and pushed open the door with one hand clentched into a fist near his side. Instead of seeing everyone there, pampering her, he only saw his leader and his new partner standing on the tip of the tongue balcony, discussing something in low voices. When he cleared his throat, only Sakura looked up, her curious expression suddenly going cold. She must have known that she was going to be paired up with him, now that Pain had the chance to explain the set up of Akatsuki, but she defiantly didn't look too happy about it.

"I've already briefed her on your mission," Pain said, without looking at him, and keeping his eyes on Sakura, who stood an entire foot lower than him. "You two are going to Mist to get the bounty off of a boy named Haku."

Hidan scoffed. "We've been after that brat for years."

"Yes, and now you and her are going after him again." Pain said, irritated at Hidan's inability to follow orders when they were given. When he didn't recieve a reply from the Jashinist, he assumed it meant he was tired of being difficult. Leaving them to their mission, Pain exited the chamber and the two of them were abandoned in an uneasy silence.

Desperate to start a conversation, Sakura smiled sheepishly and held out her hand. "I'm Sakura." She said nervously.

Hidan stared at her, baffled, then narrowed his eyes. "I'm Hidan." His hand was freezing when he reluctantly shook hers.