Sakura noticed, with a disgruntled silent sigh, that she was always waking to weird things these days. Evidently, today was no exception. She was alone and the room was dark, but this couldn't be her prison cell. After all, what kind of prisons had comfy beds for their inmates?
Slowly, her jade eyes traveled over the room. She could only see a few things in the near darkness, like the bed she was laying on and the table beside it, but she could sense that the room was quite crowded. Object lay strewn across the floor and hung up on the walls every which way.
Sakura groaned as she sat up, the covers above her falling down to pool around her waist as she rubbed sleepiness from her eyes. She had no idea where she was or what she was doing there, but she wasn't in prison any longer. That meant she could get back to Konoha as soon as possible and report her status to Lady Tsunade.
Sakura's gaze fell as her thoughts turned to Konoha. It had been nearly four months since she'd been captured by the stupid Cloud ninja. Her friends, she was sure, were worried about her, Naruto the most, but her sensei was probably mad with worry that she kept bottled up inside.
She slid her legs out from under the covers and her feet connected with the polished wooden floor. Don't worry Lady Tsunade, I'm coming back. She stood up, slightly wobbly from her sleep, and surveyed herself. She was still in her prison uniform (good to know that wasn't just some unpleasant dream) and still very much dirty, but she could get new cloths and clean herself once she figured out just where the hell she was.
Just then, the door at the far side of the room swung open and there stood the last person she wanted to see.
"You shouldn't be out of bed yet, yeah."
"Where'd you take me?" Sakura asked heatedly, suddenly extremely weary about her surroundings. What if he had taken her to some hotel at the far end of one of the shinobi countries and planned to do away with her?
Deidara rolled his eyes and leaned against the doorframe, supported by his upper arm. "Where do you think? C'mon Sakura, you're a shinobi. Figure it out, yeah."
Sakura's eyes swept the room one more time. "I don't have time for this bull. Just tell me where I ―" Realization swept over Sakura like a waterfall. Her face drained of color and she had to work to suppress a well-deserved gasp. "No. No! You did not take me to the―"
"Akatsuki base," Deidara smirked, pushing away from the doorframe and walking towards her. "I obviously couldn't return you to Konoha― you know too much about my bloodline limit, yeah. And besides, it'd be nice to have a medic around to heal everyone when they come back from missions."
Sakura's brow furrowed and she snarled under her breath. "And what makes you think I'll help you?"
Deidara shrugged. "Lots of reasons actually. We have no actual need of you, so we really could just kill you anytime and be done with it, but for some reason or another Leader-sama wants you alive, yeah." His expression turned smug and he crossed his arms. "Unless, of course, you are uncooperative."
"I'll kill the first Akatsuki I get my hands on," she vowed, her muscles aching to reach out and punch Deidara across the face so hard, his dentist would wake up.
Deidara rolled his eyes and turned away from the pink haired kunoichi. He started toward the door but stopped in the exit way, one hand firmly around the door handle. He glanced back at her with a smile that would melt most girls' hearts. "Sakura, I was the first Akatsuki you got your hands on, and I'm not dead yet." With that, he shut the door behind himself, leaving a fuming Sakura to scream bloody murder at the door.
Sakura fell back down onto the bed and swore at the ceiling. Finally, just when she thought she was free of imprisonment, the freaking Akatsuki capture her. That was it. The universe hated her. But hey, what had she ever done to the universe? She'd been good as a child, the top of her class, and always worked hard towards being the best at anything she did. She trained diligently under Lady Tsunade to become one of the strongest kunoichi of her day and age. She faced life or death situations on a daily basis. But apparently the greater forces didn't constitute that as a reasonable excuse to give her at least a little happiness in this forsaken world.
She sighed and rolled over so that her head was buried in the pillow. Her situation still sucked, but at least it beat being held hostage in a tiny prison cell of concrete, wearing scraps of cloths and living off the bare minimum amount of food and water. Here, with her eyes closed and her thoughts lucid, she could almost imagine she was back in her apartment in Konoha, just getting off from a long shift at the hospital and eager to get some shut eye before her next mission.
She opened her eyes.
Still at the Akatsuki base.
Damn.
She sighed and sat up in the bed, her fingers drawing lazy circles on the dark red bed sheets she was laying on. Really, she should be thinking of a plan to get out of here. After all, what was Sakura if not a seasoned shinobi? She had gone to school to train for these kinds of situations, and while she'd never actually been captured, she'd imagined it'd be a fairly straightforward process. Don't tell them anything about Konoha, don't make bonds with your captors, and get away as quickly as possible.
She surveyed the room. There were no windows and only one door, the one Deidara had come through. She walked to the wall closest to her, which was nearly completely hidden from sight by large paintings all over the walls, the canvases ranging from no bigger than her palm to nearly the size of the bed. She put her knuckles to an uncovered part of the wall and rapped hard twice on it, intently listening for a sound.
Very faintly, she heard her knock echo into the adjacent room. That meant on the other side of the wall was another room and not the outside. If she could find a side of the room that didn't have another room after it, she could probably break out and be far enough away by the time they noticed she wasn't here to make a safe escape. Probably.
She moved around the room and repeated the test to all four sides of the room, careful not to step on the oddly shaped objects that covered the room. The lights were off and each of them was covered with a sheet, so she couldn't make out what they were exactly, but one of them had a sharp spike sticking out from under the blankets. Sakura shuddered. She didn't even want to know.
Well, great, she mentally groaned. I'm surrounded on all four sides. I should have known. The Akatsuki wouldn't be that sloppy, after all.
A knock on the door jolted her out of her thought.
"C-come in," she answered hesitantly. Why would they even bother knocking? This was their base!
A man walked in, clad in the usual Akatsuki attire, but something about him seemed familiar. Dark, blue-tinged hair, handsome yet expressionless face, and…the sharingan?
"Itachi," Sakura bit as the Uchiha closed the door behind him. The similarity to his brother was so surprising, she'd almost called him Sasuke. How embarrassing would that be?
His cold red eyes fell on her form, the intensity of his presence bearing down on her. Sakura stood her ground and brought her eyes up to meet the wall next to his face. She may be brave, but she wasn't stupid. No way was she looking directly into his eyes.
"What do you want from me?" she hissed angrily, taking a step forward. Not that intimidation tactics were likely to work on the Uchiha, especially the eldest one, but this was a battle of pride, and Sakura wouldn't back down from a challenge.
Itachi stared at her with eyes that seemed almost bored. "The leader has requested your presence in his office. One of the off-duty members will escort you there shortly."
"Itachi, you of all people here know I'll never help the Akatsuki. It's pointless to try and make me, because I promise you I will fuck any of you up if you let my chakra get anywhere near your body."
"That's unfortunate to hear. Luckily, I don't believe you," Itachi stated in a powerful, monotone voice that irritated Sakura to no end. And did he just smirk? Just as Sakura was about to come back with a witty retort, Itachi turned his back and exited the room, shutting the door silently as he left.
Sakura glared at the space where he had been. How dare he just walk out on her like that! She was in the middle of venting. You have to let a girl vent! Sakura growled and flopped back down on the bed, intent on getting some decent sleep and restoring her chakra before confronting the Akatsuki leader directly. This wasn't going to be pretty.
A/N: This chapter took a bit more time to come out, but it's longer so it's okay, right? ^^''
I'm taking online lessons this summer, so I'll still be pretty busy. T.T I think I'll be able to post once a week if I really make myself. You guys have been so supportive. ARIGATO!
[6/14/10] EDIT: Thanks, HeartofEmerald, for informing me that Deidara stopped saying yeah halfway through this. I fixed it. X3
Reviews this and I'll give you a cookie…and Akatsuki cookie. …Okay not really, but still. :D