Bait for the Big Fish
A/N: ok, so as a present for me being a jerk and taking a long break, I will give you TWO chapters in one day. :'D and they're both relatively long. WHOOPEEEEE. I also want to say thank you to xoulblade & lexypink who put me on their author alert/favorite list, story alert/favorite list, and sent in a review. I am so happy for all of your guy's reviews! It means more than you know.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"The wench really grinded Kisame's fucking gears, I'm telling you guys. She was all whiny and complaining, you know, like bitches always are. So Kisame told that cunt, "Fuck off, princess!" It was pretty funny; you guys should've seen it." Hidan giggled as if he was a little school girl, obviously ecstatic from telling his fellow members about his twisted version of the story. However, it seemed as though Tobi was the only one who was listening. Hidan didn't mind, he felt at the center of attention, regardless. That was one of the perks of having an overinflated ego. Itachi cleared his throat and motioned to the food of toast, eggs, and bacon (courtesy of Tobi's cooking) before speaking up. Everyone looked over to him as they waited for him to speak. "She's going to have to eat." Itachi raised an eyebrow and rose from the table to go steep another cup of tea. Kisame would have probably been the likely candidate to go tend to the 'princess' if he wasn't already otherwise indisposed.
"I'll do it." Konan offered softly.
"Yeah, you're the girl, that'd be good!" Tobi grinned and nodded, implying that Sakura might feel more at home if she knew a female was in the building with her. Konan said nothing else and proceeded to pick up a clean plate, delicately forking food over onto it. She set up utensils and wrapped them in a linen napkin. Then, the blue haired woman poured a cup of water from the tap and carefully walked upstairs while balancing herself and the plate. Konan didn't bother knocking as she figured there wasn't much Sakura could be doing in an empty room with only one window and chakra seal. Konan shifted the plate so that she had a free hand and performed the necessary hand signs to unseal the room for long enough. The pinkette lay pressed against the floor, her hands tied behind her back with a grey rag. Konan almost felt a pang of guilt, until she reminded herself to let it wither on the vine. She set down the plate next to Sakura and took out a kunai to cut the rag, as she figured Sakura's chakra was probably too low to be dangerous. Sakura looked up at her with spring green eyes full of contempt. Konan pursed her lips and set down the cup of water as well. The female Akatsuki briskly turned around and made her way out of the door.
Sakura rubbed her sore wrists and looked over the plate of food brought to her. It was a portion of bacon, eggs, and a piece of toast. "Why would they poison me? If they wanted to kill me, they would've done it already," she reasoned with herself. Be it the hunger or boredom, she found herself gobbling up the food in record time. After she was finished eating, the kunoichi made her way around the room, touching the oak paneling and dusty windowsill. Her attention was brought to a seemingly antique mirror, crusted over with dust and debris. She saw the soft outline of her face in the glass, and she moved in order to wipe the thick layer of muck from the mirror. The pinkette's hair was a dusty rose color, and her face was covered in scratches as well as a thin layer of dirt. The scratches reminded her of Naruto and she felt an ache for home in her chest. To be honest, her whole body ached, but this was an ache of emotion and loneliness. She felt secluded and pathetic, locked up in this cell of a room with nothing to see or do.
"Did she eat it?" Kisame grunted at Konan. He sipped from a mug of coffee and rested his elbows on the wooden table. "Yes, she did." Konan nodded her head and went to go wash her hands due to the dust all over the place in that house. "That room is awfully dusty. Don't you think her boundaries should be lifted slightly? With no chakra, she's as dangerous as a mouse." It was uncommon for the blue haired woman to speak more than a phrase at a time, but there she was, rambling on and on. The blue skinned man and she were the only two in the kitchen at the time. Everyone else was in the back acres, either training or just relaxing. "I don't care. She'll just annoy everyone else and get herself smacked around." Kisame let out a low sigh and crossed his arms across his chest. Konan noted how odd and how different he was acting. He had been this way ever since he came back from getting the girl. Maybe something had happened or maybe she was blowing it out of proportion. She decided he was just in a bad mood and so she moved on with her day, along with taking Sakura's second meal during lunchtime. They didn't exchange more than a glance, but Konan spoke up anyways. "You're allowed to walk around the rest of the base as long as you're here." She briskly turned around and made her way back out of the door, leaving it cracked open almost as an offer for Sakura to leave the room.
Sakura seemed shocked; she didn't expect any of this. Honestly, the last thing she wanted to do was leave this stuffy room. It was musty, but it was safe at the same time. She hadn't been awake to see the rest of the house when she was dragged in on top of Hidan's shoulders. Maybe it would serve her well to go exploring around the base. She couldn't even be sure if it was a house or not, honestly. It might just be a shack, for all she knew. Before rising from the room, Sakura checked herself all over for lacerations and wounds. She found a couple scrapes here and there. After sending a small shoot of chakra through her body to see what exactly was wrong, she returned with the notice of a couple hairline fractured ribs. Other than that, not much seemed to stand out and be a bigger deal. Sakura was also very aware of how she looked; therefore, the kunoichi decided that a visit to the bathroom would be in order first. The pinkette had fully honed ears, and so she listened to the faint water flow whenever a toilet was flushed in the house. Thanks to that attention to detail, Sakura knew the general area of the restroom. She carefully poked the door open, flinching and tensing up as the hinge creaked. She swore that it echoed through the hall way. As she stepped out of the old, cramped room, she observed her surroundings. Sakura took a left down the corridor, and another right. At that moment, she realized how large that actual hideout was. Well, leave it to Akatsuki to have an over-eccentric base, despite the fact they moved. She had read about the banker, Kakuzu, and his taste for grandeur and money in the bingo books. Sakura found herself too craven to appreciate the architecture at that moment in time. All she wanted was to hole up in the bathroom for as long as she wanted, scrubbing her face and body of blood and muck. She was thanking the gods that the mirror in this particular bathroom was relatively clear; until she saw herself, that is. After about a week in the desert, her hair was matted into a pink furry mass. Her eyes were shadowed over with bags under them. Tear stains rolled down through her dirt-covered face.
A bar of soap and a towel were the only readily available commodities in the bathroom. The porcelain sink spurted greenish brown water as she first turned it on. That was a clear sign that no one used this bathroom frequently. She waited for the water to flow clearly as she pondered on the Akatsuki's nomadic lifestyle. Sakura found herself thinking that maybe she wouldn't mind the missing-nin way. She splashed the ice cold water against her a face; that is, a welcome waker-upper. The kunoichi proceeded to douse her face in the soapy mixture she made from the bar soap and the water, but her mind was awash with more pressing thoughts. What if Kisame was right about those Konoha-nin? They could really be coming after her as an enemy. Lady Hokage would never mistrust her, though. Sakura was practically a daughter to Tsunade. There was no way Kisame was telling the truth.
Her clothes were soiled from blood, dirt, and the long road. Sakura had no idea how to go about cleaning them, she figured she could wash them in the tub and avoid any contact with the rest of the house inhabitants, or she could man up and ask someone where to find a washing machine in this glorified cage. It was also an option to just sit in her dirt. The most likely option would be the first. Sakura figured she could wrap the towel around her to cover up her naked body and scrub at the clothes just enough to clean them. No one would be expecting her anywhere and so she could wait it out as long as it took while the clothes dried.
Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she finished washing the last of her delicates. She pulled the plug of the tub to let the water out and began to string the clothes up on the shower curtain pole with some dental floss she found in the drawer adjacent to the sink. The pinkette wrapped herself in the plain, white linen towel and started to make her way out of the bathroom and down the hall. She had a plan to acquire some sort of clothes other than those. If she was going to be kept hostage, Sakura would at least want to be comfortable. Now, you might say she didn't have enough room to demand such treatment. In her mind, the kunoichi was dignified enough to believe these were bare necessities.
Sakura stumbled upon a room with two windows, a large cherry oak desk, and a bookcase. She walked in carefully and ran her finger along the leather seat by the desk. A grim, low voice spoke up. "May I help you?" He drawled. The Konoha-nin nearly shrieked, but she kept her façade of dignity quite well. "I need some clothes." She gulped in the middle of speaking, which caused her voice to crack in the most embarrassing way. She could almost feel his eyes caressing the open flesh, due to the fact she was clad in a pick-stitched towel. The much taller figure chuckled and she felt a cold, clammy tentacle slithering its way up her calf. Sakura figured this wasn't on terms of endearment; therefore, he must have been doing this out of pure suspicion. "So we're giving our resources away to the bait, now?" The tentacle groper hissed and tightened the grip on her leg. The pinkette straightened her spine out even more than usual. In response, Kakuzu slipped the appendage off of her pale, milky leg and moved to go out of the room. Sakura visibly relaxed and hummed a bit deep in her throat as self-calming.
When the stitched-man rolled back into the office-like room, Sakura was overjoyed to have her mission being speedily completed. Zombie-guy brought in a plain black shirt and a long ebony skirt of silky texture. "These are another Akatsuki member's spare clothes." He informed the pink-haired ninja. "Oh. Thank you, sir…" Sakura grabbed the clothes out of her new "acquaintance's" hand. She trudged out of the office with all the pride she could muster up after being groped by inky-colored extremities. Haruno then made her way back into the bathroom with the fresh outfit.
The kunoichi took a seat on the marble counter top of the sink. She relaxed and rested her head against the wall. She found that the week of wandering and hardships had taken a toll on her body and her mind. Sakura truly was, in all sense of the word, exhausted. Even if it was in a bathroom, she found that this would probably be the most relaxing sleep and rest she'd gotten in days.
When the three found her, Sakura was damn near passed out on the linoleum floor. She lay out on the tiles like a spread eagle. Deidara nudged her thigh and quirked his eyebrow at her. "I wonder how comfortable that is, yeah." The effeminate blonde looked over to Hidan and Konan for some kind of response, though he doubted he'd get much. Hidan's eyes had already wandered over to the shower curtain pole. He was eyeing the peachy pink colored delicates hanging. Konan traversed her eyes over the whole bathroom and stopped on the borrowed clothes that rested near the sink and cabinets. The blue-haired woman decided it would be awkward for Sakura to have the color of her panties divulged. She quickly pulled the shower curtain over to cover up all of her drying clothes.
Konan knew she had to wake Sakura up to take her to the leader, but something about disturbing her from her sleep irked the female Akatsuki. Deidara continued prodding the pink-haired nin over and over until she roused from her sleep. Sakura pulled the towel up to cover her face, which revealed a wider section of her thigh. She grumbled something sleepily and mewled a bit. Deidara found himself more annoyed than usual. He kicked her sharply in the ribs and the Konoha kunoichi tumbled over, grabbing at her towel to cover her up. She was more aware of her surroundings in that moment. "G-Get out," Sakura yelped as she backed up against the wall. Hidan grinned lasciviously and prowled closer, vilifying himself even further. It somehow reminded her of a lion stalking its prey. She then reminded herself if she was to survive as long as she was here, she would have to think of herself as the only lion.
Sakura slipped on the lent clothes when Konan dragged Hidan out by the scruff of his neck and Deidara strutted out behind the two. She followed behind the group and made her way to the figurative lion's den of the base. It was a large room that smelled of musk and hickory. It was decorated with many leather couches and chairs that surrounded a walnut wood coffee table. A brick hearth warmed the whole vicinity. The whole room reeked of manly presence. Sakura refused to believe that many of the members she saw so far were chivalrous or epitomes of manliness. She curled up in a large armchair in an attempt to cuddle up and cozy down.
"Welcome, Haruno." An orange-haired shadow of a man stood by the doorway with his arms crossed across his chest. He had piercings covering his face and they flowed all the way down his nose. Sakura decided this sit down speech was going to be more important than she was prepared for. The man had such an air of command and respect around him. Almost all of the Akatsuki members had quieted down and settled into the furniture of the room. Konan was the only one standing and she had taken her place next to the enigmatic carrot top.
Sakura bit her lip and braced herself for whatever this meeting was apparently for. It was a good plan for her to do so, because what she was about to hear would stop her heart and start it again all within the same moment. Her captor uttered those magic blood pumping words with fluidity. The apparent orange-haired leader had no idea that he paraphrased her whole existence in that phrase. She met his stormy-grey, vertigo eyes as he spoke, "Would you like to see Uchiha Sasuke again?"
A/N: Okay, that's about all I could shove in one chapter. I feel like I really carry these things out with not much progression and it's really making me annoyed at myself. In other news, I would very much appreciate a beta! If anyone is up to it, I'd really love for you to help me out before I go scouring the beta readers' part of the site. Thanks for reading, again, and I love you guys! Xoxo.