AN: The holidays were long and busy, but I'm back. This is my first time ever writing from Sakura's POV, it was pretty interesting. Sorry for the typos in the last chapter, I double-checked this time *blush*

(C)Masashi Kishimoto

CHAP 4.-Distraction

Like most adolescents, Haruno Sakura often found herself sliding into pessimism, wondering why nothing ever seemed to go her way. When would it be her time, her moment?

She thought these things from the safety of her bed and it's fluffed up pillows as she stared at a photo of her two best friends, both of them much too far away from her. Nonetheless, she felt the need to hang her pink head in shame over her self-absorbtion when she thought of the shivering, scarlett-haired girl that the medics had brought into the village early that morning, the one that just wouldn't stop crying.

Her eyes had appeared glazed over, with a far-away look as though she were in another world of her own creation where nobody else could ever reach her; a horrible world. Sakura shuddered, sitting up and wrapping her arms round her knees as she thought more deeply about it. The girl had taken little notice of anyone or anything around her, and nothing that any of the medics did seemed to succeed in snapping her out of her daze. Sakura wasn't any help either and felt shamed by the fact that she'd done little other than take in her dirt-encrusted, ripped clothing and disheveled hair with wide, saucer eyes.

What had happened to her? Sakura rubbed her red-rimmed eyes and tried to put it out of her mind. Ever since Sasuke and Naruto had both left the village, leaving her as the sole member of team seven left in Konoha, she had been doing her best to try and prove herself on her own, and her sleep had suffered as a result.

Her eyes wandered once again to the framed old image that she kept near to her bed of team seven when it was whole and not fractured and spread out as it now was. She'd grown up so much since that time.

Things had seemed so much simpler back then, so black and white. This girl was like a shade of gray to Sakura. She didn't know quite how to react to her.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING

Despite her lack of a full night's sleep, Sakura had made her way through Konoha's winding, mazelike streets and alleys in record time. Hell, she had even run over Shikamaru, sending the poor guy sprawling, and hadn't even stopped to apologize. She was singleminded in her quest to be one of the first to arrive at the hospital that morning. She hadn't even been tempted to stop and converse with anyone else whom she ran into that foggy dawn.

More than anything else at that moment, Sakura simply had to know juat what had happened to the mysteriously unconscious and fascinatingly foreign red-haired girl. Had she died overnight? Or was she already awake and telling what was sure to be a heart-stoppingly dramatic tale? Sakura only knew one thing for sure. This girl was just the sort of distraction that she needed.

...

"How's she doing?"

There was no need for Sakura to specify who "she" was.

Shizune frowned and stayed silent for a moment. Sakura's fingernails dug deep down into her palms as she clenched her fists, irritated. Was she going to get an answer or what? Shizune sighed, glancing over to the room down the hall where the girl lay resting on a hospital bed, her vital signs closely monitered.

"She's stable. In a state of mild shock, but nothing too serious. She should recover well-enough within the next few hours."

"That's good to hear." Sakura relaxed now, nodding at the dark-haired fellow kunoichi standing before her and giving her a look both grateful and expectant.

Shizune frowned. "You're waiting to hear if we've found out any interesting information regarding her background, aren't you?"

"That thought might've briefly crossed my mind," Sakura replied, her cheeks reddening a little.

Shizune sighed, the puff of air stretching out for what seemed like an exaggerated amount of time to Sakura, before she reached into her pocket and pulled out something long, wrinkled and dirt-encrusted. It took a minute for Sakura to realize that the object was a ninja headband like the one she and pretty much everyone she knew in her world wore.

The image brought to mind the blue headband that Sasuke left behind when he went away, the one which she knew Naruto kept in his room. Sakura placed her fingers around the headband with some hesitation, taking it from Shizune's loose grasp and turning it over in her own hands, examining it. The metal portion of the headband, while dusty, still shone with a wavy symbol which she felt she vaguely recognized, from the chuunin exams perhaps. Those days seemed like a century ago to Sakura and only brought back more unbidden memories of team seven as it once was.

Would she ever be able to find a distraction that wouldn't remind her of what she had lost? She attempted to snap out of it, throwing Shizune a questioning glance as she handed back the headband.

"Kusagakure." Shizune spoke that word flatly, but with an uncomfortable look clouding her dark eyes, and an almost unconscious shudder. "Nobody was left alive there, and how did she end up so close to us? I just don't understand it. She's better wake up soon and explain all of this. I just don't like it. Really I don't." Shizune shook her head before bringing her fingers to her temples and rubbing them as though she were suffering from a particularly nasty headache.

"Well I definitely agree with you about wanting to hear her speak for herself, but you sorta lost me there." Sakura giggled, nervous and a little cross as well. She hated when she didn't know something that was suppossed to be important.

"I'm going to go check up on her now," Shizune answered, her voice rising in pitch. "I'll explain it to you on the way there, if you'll join me. You underestimate yourself as a medic, you know, but perhaps you'll know how best to handle this."

Together the two young women walked the well-lit hallway to the most recently occupied hospital room.

...

"Oh my god! Don't do that, please! Please stay still."

Karin was trying to put herself together as best as she could, but it was hard to when she had just fallen face down on the cold floor, wrapped in a cruel cocoon of blankets with nothing seemingly underneath.

The harsh chemical smell of that floor helped a little to bring her out of Itachi's horrifying genjutsu based world and back into the real world, where two young women were staring down at her, their pity and a little bit of fear seeping into Karin's consciousness and leaving a bitter taste in her mouth as she attempted to calm down and figure out just what was going on. The elder of the two women bent down at Karin's level, placing a hand on her shoulder. Karin pulled away, unused to being touched by random strangers in an unhostile way, but the woman didn't seem to take offense.

"You're safe now. In Konoha. Nobody is going to hurt you here."

In Konoha. Karin shot up instantly, clutching the blanket against herself. She felt an urge to cover herself completely as she was unaware of the abilities of the two women. Can they see through my intentions? She wondered as she remembered her one mission, her sole reason for being there in the first place. Discover the whereabouts of the nine-tails host. Itachi would take care of the rest.

Her eyes flitted from the pretty pink head of the girl standing a shy distance away, and back to the shining coal black hair of the more mature-looking woman in front of her. They certainly didn't look too intimidating, though Karin could sense a quiet sort of strength emanating from them. What was it that Itachi had said about Konoha? That it was a village of bleeding hearts?

"Sit back down on the bed now," the older woman said, helping her back up. "Are you ready to tell us anything about what happened?"

Flashbacks from her hours long genjutsu induced nightmare about kusagakure hit her with a hammerlike force, making her feel sick. She could feel the sob threatening to climb up out of her throat, along with whatever was left in her stomach. She covered her mouth and near-collapsed back onto the crisp white sheets on the bed.

"Don't worry about it," the woman replied, her voice more understanding now. "We won't push you till you're ready."

...

Earlier that morning, Tobi had stopped by to check up on Itachi. It was to be expected, of course, but still it didn't sit well with Itachi. He glared daggers out his black eyes, standing deathly still as he faced Tobi.

"Oh, don't give me that look, Itachi-san. Aren't you growing a little too old for that?"

Itachi sighed, looking back past his shoulder to see if Kisame was back from looking for poor defenseless little animals to gut, kill, and cook for an afternoon snack, but there was not the slightest rustle in the trees to signal his arrival. It looked like Itachi woukd have to deal with Tobi alone, so he might as well get straight to the point.

"Why did you recruit that girl? She's just a child. You should have let her just run away when you found her."

Tobi giggled.

"It bothered you that much to hurt a girl? Truly I'm shocked, Itachi. It's not like you've never killed one before. "

Itachi let the needlessly harsh comment pass, refusing to let it distract him. Saying such things with a straight face (or at least Itachi assumed that it was a straight face beneath the mask) was simply Tobi's way.

"We don't need her," Itachi answered forcefully. "She should be off living a normal girl's life. She'll only get in the way."

Tobi patted Itachi on the shoulder. "There's no such thing as a normal life for her anymore. If we let her go, she'll only get killed trying to take revenge for the destruction of her village. She'd be a lot like your brother don't you think?"

Itachi had no answer for that. Karin's resemblance, both physically and behaviorally, to his brother did disturb him enough that he wanted her far, far away from Akatsuki. She was like a female, red-haired Sasuke, with the tragic loss of family to boot. However, Itachi didn't think that she had the mental fortitude to go off avenging the death of an entire village, and she certainly wasn't physically strong enough. He recalled how embarrassingly easy it was to hold her down.

"What becomes of her is none of our business then."

"Oh, but it is."

Itachi imagined that Tobi must be smiling beneath his mask.

"You're getting sicker and sicker everyday, aren't you Itachi? You're being eaten alive from the inside. I've seen you coughing up blood."

"What does that have to do with anything?," Itachi asked, frustration threatening to raise his voice.

"She's a well of chakra, Itachi. Think of her as a last resort to save your life, if need be. You may need her in your battle with your brother. The rest of Akatsuki may use her as well, with limits of course."

What? "Explain yourself. What do you mean 'use her'?"

Tobi simply vanished into a cloud thin air, a technique which greatly annoyed Itachi at that particular moment.

"What the hell was that about?," Kisame asked, as he finally returned and walked up towards Itachi from behind.

"I don't know," Itachi answered coolly. "But I don't like it."

END OF CHAP. REVIEW...

AN: I know that a few of you weren't crazy about the last chapter, so if you don't like this one please tell me how I can do better...