Crossing a thin Line

Summary: Sakura gets kidnapped by Akatsuki and is to bring them closer to the kyuubi. She refuses but in return learns about the intentions of Akatsuki, the organisation she thought to be so evil, seems to be friendlier in more than one way then she could ever imagine… DeiSaku

Pairings: Main: DeiSaku

Side: InoCho, NaruHina, KonanPein, ShikaTema

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything related to it. Only my OC.

If you have any comments or suggestions I really want to hear them.

-------------------- Chapter Six --------------------

A ripple in the water…

The poor girl was feeling hot in his arms, no real surprise there. Deidara saw how Dasshimen scurried before him, opening up doors and occasionally glancing behind her to see how Sakura was holding up.

Eventually they made it to their destination, Deidara's bedroom. He laid her on the bed carefully while his young assistant moved towards the bathroom to retrieve some water and scrounge up some band-aids or anything else that might prove useful in this situation.

He let his blue eyes wander over Sakura and sighed deeply. He remembered how she'd looked when she had arrived. That determined, beautiful girl was nowhere to be seen in the empty husk that laid on the sheets. There had been a fire, an explosion in her eyes, a sign of the determination for her own safety and that of her friends. He had loved watching how her temper burst in front of no less than 5 S-ranked missing nins of the meanest caliber, Tobi excluded. A shame that art like that had to be punished.

Sure, art was fleeting as was beauty but he had wished for that piece of art to remain just a bit longer.

He looked up when Dasshimen appeared again and carefully started to wash out the various burns of the leaf-ninja. It must've been a painful thing since Sakura flinched and curled up like a small hedgehog.

"Hey there now, un." He muttered. "Hang in there, okay? Leader's going to bust our asses if we lose you. I know it hurts like hell but perhaps you should see this as a lesson, un." Suddenly he noticed something. The girl was still awake, his own grin widened slightly. "What? You should've known better than to pick a fight with those two."

Perhaps he had been wrong, the art before him hadn't died yet. Perhaps there was even going to be a bigger explosion.

The girl groaned in responds, probably of the washingcloth rubbing over her sore skin rather than to what he was saying.

"You're able to handle it from here, Dasshimen?" he asked then.

The girl looked up, surprised and nodded quickly. "Yes, I think I will…"

"I'll be downstairs if you need anything but I advice you not to come down unless you really need something. It might get dangerous down there now...." He muttered, scratching the back of his neck just thinking of the mess Shinkan was about to cause.

Without another word he turned around and quickly stepped out of the room, in his mind those fiery, emerald orbs were still burning with hatred. Oh boy, this was an interesting captive.

-o-

He sat at his desk, looking at a recorder in front of him with such an intense glare that it could combust at any time now. He stretched his hand again and tapped upon a button. It clicked and several radars in the device sprang to life.

"Team Tori reporting." the recorder played itself again. "Our current location is –" The tape went bad at this point, only noise and crackling noises for a few seconds until it continued. "We have a lead concerning the vanishing of Team Izuru. We have discovered two members of Akatsuki at the place of crime, they were hanging over the remains of Team Izuru. Said members consist out of a presumed male with strange venus fly-like mandibles encircling his face. His skin is perfectly parted in black and white. The eyes are a very bright golden.

The other member is presumed to be female. She is a small and frail looking woman with a grey skin and white hair reaching to her lower back. Her sclera has a deep, black color while the sclera is colored a bright orange. Pictures will be included when this tape is sent." The tape produced only crackling sounds at that point. "We think them to be some kind of reconnaissance and evidence-disposal team. The male was seen devouring the remains of Koshi while the woman incinerated the bodies of Renka and Kaizen. We still think they haven't spotted us yet though both of them seem to be looking more frequently into our direction. If they know we are here we have no idea why they haven't gone on the offensive yet. At the moment they have taken refuge in a cave, probably for the upcoming storm."

Ibiki exhaled slowly, the sound similar to the growling of a vexed bear. His finger pushed another button which stopped the tape.

That had been the last of Team Tori. They had gone missing, just as Team Izuru.

He took his hand from the recorder and took the small, brown paper bag and took its contents out. His gloved hand now held various pictures in them. Blurry pictures of the described members. The man with his weird plant-thing and the woman with her burning eyes.

He laid the pictures aside except for one. It was taken in the dark and by no means was it a piece of art but it held something enchanting. There was a smoky effect surrounding the unknown woman, resulting in her entire body being nothing but a grey, black and red blur but her eyes, which were glaring directly into the camera, were sharp. He could almost read a predatory expression in them.

He had looked at it before, knowing that this woman was the one who had entered Konoha and had left it with a captive. It angered him just knowing that nobody had seen her, aside from Kiba and that was by mere luck.

The longer he looked at it the more it started to hypnotize him. All of his thoughts were put out of his mind and only her eyes burned in his mind. The T&I specialist tore his eyes from the picture and laid it aside.

Steadily he rose from his chair and walked out of the room, into a room decorated with only a table, two chairs and a light. There was a guy sitting at the table.

It was a scrawny guy, from the looks and the scent he had a bad hygiene. This morning he had walked into the office of the hokage, demanding money, a lot of money. At closer inspection he gave them a package containing the tape and the pictures. But of course he hadn't given the best of the bunch. The tape was but a piece of the entire thing and every information regarding location had been cut out. The pictures he had given showed also no specific trait, only forest, grass and bushes.

Team Tori had done well, before vanishing, as they had been able to record and photograph information and even been able to send it. Unfortunately their bird had been intercepted by a cockroach like the one sitting before Ibiki.

"How did you come into the possession of this information?" he asked, he knew the answer already but he had to be certain.

"How do ya think I got it?" came the arrogant answer. Ibiki smelt the stale air of alcohol on the breath of the man.

"Do you make a habit of intercepting information?" a serious question.

The man raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "What do I look like? A desperate guy? There's better ways of gathering money than shooting birds down… 'sides they aren't even edible."

Ibiki looked at him, slightly confused.

"The birds… You can't eat 'em. They're too leathery." The man flashed his yellowed teeth in a grin.

"Then why did you intercept this particular message?"

"What's with the questions? Just give me the damn money. Then I'll give ya the real contents of the bag and we're done here…"

"Answer the question. The better you cooperate the sooner this'll end."

"Okay, okay, okay… geez… You'd think I was a criminal!"

"Who were you tracking down? Our ANBU-team or were you after the Akatsuki?"

"What? What kind of hobbies do ya think I 'ave? First birdshooting and now stalking of either some ninja or some cult of loons?"

Ibiki scoffed softly before smirking towards the man. "I think you are trying to gain some money for something you were trying to do but failed in doing…" he concluded. It wasn't the first time Ibiki had seen something like this. It was typical for spineless men like Mister 'Blank' sitting before him. They'd gather some information about a certain criminal and offer it, for a decent price, to a village that was interested in the capturing of said criminal. But more often than not it would be that the criminal had somehow wronged the 'informant'. Mister Blank was obviously not skilled enough to take on Akatsuki nor did he seem the type to have strong friends. So he'd just get paid for getting someone else to get rid of a thorn for who he wasn't strong enough to remove himself.

So in the end Mister Blank would have a double win.

"You do know that it is punishable to extract information directed to Konoha?" Ibiki asked, a smug grin on his face. "I could just torture the real information out of you but… I am willing to convince our Hokage to pay for the remainders of the information, not the full price though, in return for some information you can offer us. Some information that isn't going to be in the pictures nor in the tapes…"

"What?" the man narrowed his eyes at his interrogator. "What do you think I know, then?"

"It is fairly obvious that you wish to get rid of those two particular shinobi… This man and woman who have joined Akatsuki or that you want this group to dissolve entirely." Ibiki summed up what he was thinking. "You give us more information and we have more possibilities of success… Either way you'd still be making money and be rid of them."

Mister Blank growled lowly, annoyed that his entire scheme had been seen through.

-o-

After all that time she still shivered. Her arms were still covered with goose bumps, just from the short time she had seen it. Dasshimen didn't want to think about it but it kept on racing through her mind.

"No!" the girl whispered hoarsely. "I've got to focus on Sakura-chan."

She closed her eyes and whispered the name of her jutsu before she winced in pain. A small fire erupted from her fingertips and began consuming her arm. The skin blackened and the same orange-red streaks appeared upon her arm as seen with Shinkan.

Instead of reforming her fingers to claws some of the skin detached itself only to slowly float down. They moved towards the worst injuries of Sakura and slowly attached themselves, healing her skin.

"Dasshimen?" Sakura muttered with some disbelief audible in her voice.

The blonde girl just shook her head rapidly. "Not now, Sakura-chan. I've got to focus!" she hissed and pinched her eyes closed before uttering a painful moan. A few more seconds went by before Dasshimen rested her burnt arm above a bowl. The fire slipped off her fingers more like a liquid than anything else. As soon as the fire was burning inside the bowl she threw some herbs into it.

The room was almost immediately filled with a heavy, nauseating scent. Even Dasshimen herself stood wobbly upon her feet. She flicked her wrist and the wounds upon her hand started to heal, slowly. They were using some of the ashes created by the burning herbs.

The young medic took another bowl and filled that one with a small amount of water, poured some herbs and a strange liquid before also setting that substance aflame.

"What are you doing?" Sakura questioned the girl's actions. She had never seen anything quite like this though she had to admit that somehow her pain had faded away and her wounds were healing.

"Haiton." Dasshimen muttered as she took a seat, still holding the seal with her hands and focusing her chakra upon the two bowls. "My sister didn't explain it? How it uses ashes to recreate into human flesh? It originally isn't used the way she does it. It was originally used for healing, that is what I'm doing now."

The pinkette was slightly amazed at the skill of the girl, she had never received any proper training on the matter yet she could perform such a good job.

"But please, Sakura-chan." The young girl whispered. "Go to sleep, it'll be better when you wake up again. I promise." The smile she received warmed Sakura inside, it was good to know that she wasn't in some sick, twisted world with only humans as Hidan, Kakuzu and foremost things like Shinkan.

"Thanks, Dasshimen." Were the last things she muttered before nodding off into a blissful sleep.

-o-

Once outside the base Shinkan materialized again and stood for a few seconds in place. Her head turned slowly back to gaze at the building. Her blazing, orange eyes narrowed when thinking of what had happened inside. That pink-haired tramp was becoming a rather big thorn in her side. It was one thing to put her naïve sister against her it was another to convince someone like Deidara to protect her.

Shinkan knew that boy to be a man of simple needs. Give him an explosion and he'd smile. But he couldn't look beyond that 'bang'. He couldn't see past his own pleasure to see the big picture.

She scoffed and shook her head. Suddenly she noticed the surroundings. The darkness around her, as was common in Aasugakura since it was hidden underground. Occasionally the darkness was penetrated by a beam of light coming from a crack or crater above them. Any other man wouldn't build a city underground but they were simple-minded. The soil was fertile, very fertile. And cultivating crops or plants was not difficult, if one did it in such a patch of light.

She could no longer see the green patches of grass, she couldn't smell the fresh fruits in the trees anymore. What rested of those green patches had been overgrown with weeds, thistles, dandelions… Overgrown with filth…

Shinkans eyes wandered over to the darkened regions of the town, the centre of Aasugakure. The lion's den. A big gaping maw which only allowed the big, fat and wealthy to survive.

Her talons ached for an unfinished task to be completed. Her chakrapool, within her body, demanded to be refilled, her mind yearned for a release of frustration while her ears required agonizing screams in the air.

A faint smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. There was an opportunity to slake all those needs. She had sensed it.

"You finally got a dick between those smoky legs of you, didn't you?" a voice suddenly sounded from the mansion. She didn't regard it, she knew who the owner was without even listening to the voice. The mere vocabulary and the subject were enough. "Why else would a cold bitch like you be smiling like a drooling moron?"

"Hidan," the name sounded vicious and hostile as she spoke it. "I am in no need to hear such vulgarities coming from the likes of you."

"Fuck, Shinkan… What's with the damn attitude? You're always a bitch but who the fucking hell managed to ram that stick even further up your ass?"

Her eyes adverted themselves from the horizon to glare at Hidan. "As if you aren't aware of the current situation…"

The Jashinist blinked a few times, staring at her dumbly while silently awaiting an answer. It ticked Shinkan even more off than when he was insulting her again.

"I hope you are well aware of the dumbfounded look upon your face… If not I should recommend you to see a physician." She sighed softly as it was clear that the man had no idea of what she was talking about. "You are aware of the lesson I was teaching our captive, are you not? Well, I was interrupted by our maestro of detonations." She spat those words out as if they were poison, crinkling her nose in irritation and disgust.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Deidara decided to take the little hostage over, fearing I might murder his little flower."

For once Hidan didn't laugh at her misery or misfortune. He actually scoffed and leant into the frame of the door. "Freaking heathen bastard. He doesn't know shit about dealing pain. You fucking see now how I feel when I don't get to fucking do what I want? I haven't been able to sacrifice a single man to Jashin just 'cause we're stuck in this godforsaken hellhole!"

Shinkan moved her eyes from Hidan back at the horizon, her smirk reappearing on her face. "That is true, I recall discussing with Kakuzu whether we'd let you loose in these parts or not. He feared you might get overambitious and get the entire criminal underworld on your head while we were here."

"Tsk! What does that cocksucking fucker know about me? He doesn't know shit! I'll just kill a few guys here, a few there and that's it. No big, fucking deal. Besides…. Isn't this hole infested with men with high bounties on their heads? I don't see why Kakuzu isn't hunting his ass off…"

"Because criminals are low enough to sell information to neighboring countries and once Konoha knows of our little location things might get ugly. I would prefer not to have either Tsunade, Kakashi nor any ANBU on my tail. They tend to be difficult to shake off." Shinkan shifted her weight upon one of her legs, embracing herself with her arms as a chilling breeze floated through the air.

"Tsk, weak bitch…"

"I am no warrior, Hidan. I was chosen to be part of Akatsuki for other reasons." She paused while staring at the face of the silver-haired priest. "You wish a few sacrifices, do you not?"

The man piped up like a dog, his eyes glittering with malice. "Fuck yeah!"

Shinkan walked slowly towards Hidan, keeping her senses upon a point behind her. Her voice dropped to a conspiring whisper. "Spread out your chakra towards those rock formations… What do you feel?"

He thought it to be a strange question until he did what he was asked. His smile widening to a horrible smirk before screaming in enthusiasm. "Oh Jashin, I fucking love you!"

Shinkan had opened her mouth to comment something but closed it again as she saw that the zealous man had already jumped over her, heading head-first into battle.

Before she could even turn around she heard painful howls of his unfortunate victims.

They were neonate shinobi. Their chakra-hiding skills were at a minimal and they were stupid since they didn't even notice Hidan heading their way. Or they were just skilled humans. It didn't matter. They would die this night.

No one could spy upon Akatsuki without paying a price for it.

As the breeze picked up again she dissipated into ashes and let herself get carried off towards the source of agony, joining into some of the fun at least.

A/N: Please Review if you want ^^

I'll be grateful if you did ^^