Chapter Six: Things Are Seldom What They Seem

Wiping the dust off the old mirror, Sakura looked at her reflection. She barely recognized herself, before her in the mirror stood a girl that resembled herself, but was dressed in the robes of the people she had sworn to forever hate. It didn't make any sense, how could she have wound up in such a position, to be a member of the criminal organization that called themselves 'Red Dawn'? The girl in the mirror mimicked her movements, but it couldn't be Sakura Haruno, Sakura Haruno would never let herself wear such clothing, the clothing of murderers. Sakura Haruno had vowed to protect her dear friend, Naruto Uzumaki, not take part in activities that would lead to the death of him. She watched as tears welled up in the girl in the mirror's jade eyes and then trail down her face. Sakura touched her cheek and reality hit her, there were the tears of the girl in the mirror on her own face. 'How did I end up like this? This isn't what I wanted…'

No matter what she truly wanted, this was reality. This was her new life and she had to get used to it, fast. Sasori was her partner in crime, literally, and she had to work with the s-ranked criminal ninja from there on. It was all happening so fast, one day she was having lunch with Ino and Hinata and the next she was in a country far from her hometown wearing the ring and clothing that signified she belonged to an organization feared by all. She was only a chuunin, but they still wanted her among their ranks. Had her skills in medical jutsu and chakra control really improved that much, so much that they had scouted her out for them? It scared her, but for the first time in her life she didn't feel like a burden. She was needed now, the Akatsuki needed her.

But then she remembered that she wasn't only needed for her help in her Leader's plan for world domination, or 'world peace' as he called it, she was also bait for her teammate, her dear friend Naruto. What would happen if the time came for her to have to face him, to face him as an enemy, not as an equal? She couldn't do it, she would never fight against him, never. If the time came she would turn on the Akatsuki, she would fight to save Naruto and protect him from them, even if it cost her her life.

And then she remembered the past two days and how much fun she had with them, how much she had smiled and laughed. Now that she thought about it, could she really face them, could she even attack them, let alone with the intention to kill? She had begun to learn more about them, as people, not as a group bent on a sick ideal. Looking down at her hands, she could not see them clenching into fists and hurting them. Her head ached from all the thoughts that were running through her brain, she dreaded the day that Naruto and the others would come to rescue her, if they were even going to rescue her, because she did not know which side to pick. A part of her wanted the others to never come for her, even if it meant she would never see her friends from Konoha ever again. She just didn't know what she would do when the time came.

It was time for her to face the music and find Sasori so they could start their mission, whatever it was. She looked back into the dirty old full-length mirror to see the girl standing in it, her own reflection, with a confident smirk on her face, eyes determined despite the redness caused from the falling of tears. Sakura was ready for her first mission for the Akatsuki.

"Kabuto…"

The room's only source of light was from the wax candle burning on an old, beat up, side table. What furniture was in the room was just like the side table, the pieces had seen better days. The stench of blood wafted up from the pool of water that covered the concrete floor, it was sickening enough to make even the strongest gag. Large tanks lined the walls filled with various creatures, all which looked mutated, hideous, and highly dangerous. No, this room wouldn't do very well on the real estate market.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto Yakushi adjusted his glasses that had slid down his nose from the sweat that had accumulated, the room was very hot and humid. He looked nervous and almost timid, he always looked that way when his master was hatching some diabolical plan of attack, "Sakura Haruno…I have received word that she is now with the Akatsuki."

The Sannin sat on a wooden rocking chair, wincing in pain, he would have looked rather pathetic if he wasn't such a threat to the world. His arms were charcoal black and rendered useless as the Third Hokage had stolen the soul right out of them. Had he known that his former Sensei would have done such a thing he wouldn't have been so careless. The Hokage had stolen something much more valuable to him than his arms, he had stolen precious jutsus. How could he possibly come in possession of every technique in the book if he couldn't move his fingers to form hand signals? "Yes Orochimaru-sama, I came across that information as well."

"She is the only one besides Tsunade who could possibly return my arms to normal, we need to find her as soon as possible." This wouldn't be as easy now that the Akatsuki had moved Headquarters since he left the organization, it would be even more difficult now that the wretched kunoichi was in the hands of s-ranked criminals, "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

"So what's our mission?" Sakura and Sasori exited Amegakura's gates and found themselves on a dirt road, much different than Ame's pavement. The ex-Suna shinobi had told her to pack lightly so it couldn't be a very long mission, but then again she expected he probably wasn't exactly used to actually having to pack since he had only recently became human again. "We have to head into Rice Country, once we get there I'll tell you more."

"Rice Country? That's near Otogakura!" They were heading towards Orochimaru's village, which possibly meant that they were heading towards Sasuke. What would she do if she came across him? Her safety wasn't exactly what she was worrying about, she had Sasori with her after all, she was worried more about how he would react. Even though her feelings for him were long gone, she didn't want to face him in battle. "Isn't that really far too? Why did you tell me to pack light?!"

"Well if you brought too much with you it would just be a burden, right?" She was right, Sasori really wasn't used to having to carry stuff around, and he couldn't just stash it in the puppet body's stomach that he had inhabited anymore now that he was human again. It seemed strange, him being human, well it seemed strange that he was even alive. He was still cocky and arrogant, his personality hadn't changed, and in some way he was still immortal even in flesh and blood. As long as his soul wasn't ripped out of him like Orochimaru's had been he was pretty much invincible, he could even reconstruct body parts if they were cut off in battle. Thankfully he didn't partake in strange satanic rituals to test his immortality like Hidan did, "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

The sun was setting, the day seemed to have gone on forever. Pink and purple clouds scattered across the peach-colored sky, it was really a very beautiful sunset, and Sakura hadn't seen one like quite like that in a long time. Her feet hurt from all the walking they had been doing, they hadn't stopped once all day. She would do anything to be at her own bed or back in the one at Akatsuki Headquarters, with her luck they'd be sleeping in the dirt with only a tree for shelter. "Where are we staying?"

"There's an inn not too far ahead," Thank God, that would spare her from aches and pains from sleeping on the hard ground, not to mention all the bug bites that she would acquire. Of course, she highly doubted that the place they were going to stay at was a high-class luxury hotel with room-service, but it would have to do. Maybe Sasori would even rent two rooms, then she wouldn't have to listen to his snoring all night long.

He was right, soon enough Sakura could see a roof and chimney along the horizon which quickly turned into a three story inn. The architecture was an old style, the inn itself was made up of large stones, something Sakura had only seen in picture books. It looked rather homey, there was welcoming-looking smoke emitting from the chimney and in front of the inn was a small vegetable garden full of tomatoes, bell peppers, and sunflowers. It had probably been someone's house before it was converted into an inn. "This is it right, I mean we're not stay at some crummy hotel down the lane, right?"

"No, this is it," Sasori held open the light-brown, wooden door for her and followed her inside.

"Oh wow, this looks like it could be where the Three Bears lived," Sakura's eyes lit up looking at the décor of the room, the furniture was made of pine, covered in animal furs sewn together. A fire was lit in the fireplace, which Sakura assumed to be lit all the time. From the ceiling hung a chandelier made out of deer antlers with candles lit, it reminded her of something Shikamaru would have at his house. Above the mantle hung a painting of two deer walking through a meadow and below that sat strange trinkets that had been obtained on various travels. To the side was a large buck's head looking over the room, and below that Sakura noticed a very handsome boy about her age sitting in a chair doing some sort of puzzle on paper. He had hair about the same length of hers only it was a light shade of brown and his skin was tan from the time he spent outdoors, he looked up startled, "I'm sorry, I didn't notice you there."

"My name is Akito," The boy walked over to Sasori and Sakura and held out his hand to shake Sasori's, which Sasori just glared at and then gave the boy a curt nod. He didn't seem phased by the ex-Suna-nin's actions, he smiled kindly at Sakura instead, "I am the owner of this here inn, would you like to rent a room?"

"Yes, we're interested in one for the night," Sasori said flatly, Sakura was surprised at his actions and tone, normally his manners were pretty good. Then again, he wasn't very nice to her either when they had first met, bet then again those were totally different circumstances. 'Ugh, he only wants to rent one room, guess I'm stuck with him tossing and turning all night long again.'

Akito walked behind the front desk and took one of the keys off a notch, handing it to Sakura, completely ignoring the red-haired man standing beside her. "It's the best room in the house, Miss, I hope you enjoy your stay here."

Sakura smiled, it was nice talking to someone normal for a change, at least he seemed normal compared to the Akatsuki members, "Let's go, Sakura."

Sasori was already headed towards the stairs, "I'm going to stay and talk to Akito, you go on ahead." The missing-nin arched an eyebrow in suspicion, but then turned back and climbed the stairs, "Suit yourself."

"So you're a ninja? Impressive," Sakura was sitting opposite the innkeeper on the couch, she was showing him her headband. In reality it probably wasn't a good idea, seeing as they were in Sound territory, but Akito seemed harmless, "We don't get many of them around here, it's usually just traveling merchants."

"Really? That's surprising, I would have thought you would have more seeing as we're so close to Otogakura," Sakura tied her headband back on her head, feeling one of Sasori's that was tied to a lock of her pink hair brush against her hand, she might as well put them to use, it wasn't like he was going to wear them again, at least she hoped not, "So is that man your partner? You two are wearing the same style clothing."

"Yes, and I must apologize for his rudeness earlier, normally he's very polite."

"Don't worry about it, no offense taken or anything. And thanks for staying behind to chat with me, I rarely get to socialize with anyone, especially not someone as beautiful as you, Sakura-san," Akito smiled warmly at Sakura, causing her to flush bright red, "Th-thank you, Akito-san."

The two of them conversed well into the night, they had skipped dinner as they talked about various things, most of them the adventures Sakura had experienced. Akito found the battle against Zabuza Momochi and Haku the most exciting of all of them all. She had left out her first encounter with Sasori though, it would probably confuse him with all the details, plus she would have to reveal that she was with the Akatsuki.

"So what's your relationship with your friend, are you two—"

"No!" Sakura blushed, "It's nothing like that."

"Oh," Akito smiled again, he seemed to do a lot of that, "He seems sort of cold, you deserve better, Sakura-san."

Sakura returned a smile; she tried to make it look as sincere as possible. Sure, Akito was nice and kind, but just exactly what he was getting at…Well Sakura didn't think it was just his kindness talking, "Well, he comes off as sorta aloof, but he means well, I think." It never really occurred to her that Sasori could just be toying with her.

Speaking of which, the missing-nin could be heard descending down the staircase and into view as he entered the room which Sakura and Akito were sitting. His hair was wet and he was wearing the same sleeping yukata that he had let Sakura borrow a few nights previous, "Sakura, it's time you go to bed."

"What are you, her father?" Akito snarled at Sasori, his kindness had vanished into thin air.

Sasori arched an eyebrow; he probably wasn't used to people challenging him, "Pardon?"

"You heard me! Sakura-san can do whatever she wants; she doesn't need you to boss her around. She can make her own decisions." The innkeeper was standing in front of Sasori, glaring into his red eyes with his own grey. "You should treat her better, she deserves respect."

"Listen little boy, I didn't ask for your opinion," Sasori glared right back into Akito's eyes, his normal, calm demeanor had been thrown out the window, "Sakura and I have a long mission ahead of us, unlike you we have things to do and places to see."

"Who are you calling 'little boy'?!" Akito poked Sasori's chest with his finger. "You're only a few years older than me!"

"What do you mean I'm 'only a few years older', I'm about twenty years your senior, little boy."

"Yeah right, you don't look a day over twenty, and that's pushing it."

"Looks can be deceiving."

Sakura's head turned from Sasori and then to Akito as they continued to insult each other. It was almost comical watching them bicker; if she wasn't staying with Sasori she was sure that Akito would have thrown him out. She hadn't seen Sasori so angry in a long time but that didn't surprise her as much as how Akito was acting, Sakura would have never dreamed that he could get so worked up, but then again, he was defending his pride.

"That's it. Sakura, bed. Now."

The pink-haired kunoichi chucked a pillow at Sasori, drying her wet hair, "You didn't have to start an argument, Akito welcomed us as guests, you're so rude."

He placed the pillow back on the bed, pulled back the covers and climbed in. "The little twerp was asking for it, no one bosses me around, especially not some kid."

Sakura frowned, the Scorpion was certainly acting immature, especially for his age that he had defended so diligently. He wasn't mad; he was furious, furious over absolutely nothing. Maybe he just didn't like being challenged by someone her age that barely even knew him. Sakura threw aside the covers on her side of the bed and laid down, her back to him, "You should apologize."

"For what? I didn't do anything to him; he just decided to get all defensive over you. What happened, are you two now an item or something?" He spat, looking down at her.

"Of course not, that's ridiculous," What did he care anyways? "Akito and I are only acquaintances."

Sasori laid down, his own back facing hers, "Whatever."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Akito-san," Sakura bowed in appreciation. Sasori on the other hand was pretending not to pay any attention, his facial expression looked somewhat disgusted, "We really appreciate it."

"No problem, Sakura-san, anytime." Akito bowed as well for Sakura, not for Sasori, "I enjoyed chatting with you, good luck on your mission."

"I'll see you again soon, okay?" Sakura and Sasori turned their backs to him and walked off towards the rising sun in the east.

He watched until they were out of view and then his personality completely changed. He had a maniacal look on his face, "That's right Sakura Haruno, I will see you soon. Much sooner than you would expect…"

The two of them were walking through, what seemed like, an endless rice paddy. The murky water was up past their white stockings, weighing them down slightly as they continued on. 'This has got to be the worst feeling in the world', Sakura frowned, she hated wearing soaked clothing, it was so uncomfortable. The sun overhead was beating down on them, the thick black material of their robes made the heat unbearable, luckily they had their sakkats to block some of the rays. "Are you ever going to tell me what our mission is? I bet we'll be attacked and taken hostage by enemy ninja and then you'll be all 'oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that our mission was to—"

"Our mission is to assassinate the Otokage," Sasori turned to face her. "Leader has given us such a difficult task to test your abilities, I'm assuming."

"Otokage? Does that mean we're going to assassinate Orochimaru? I thought he didn't consider himself a Kage."

"Due to Orochimaru's current condition, he does not show himself to his people. Instead he placed Daisuke Shinozuka in his place and manipulates him from behind the scenes," That sounded like Orochimaru, he loved pulling people's strings to control them to do his dirty work. "Won't Orochimaru be in the area; won't he come to the Otokage's rescue?"

Sasori snickered, "Orochimaru would never save anyone but himself, he'll just replace Shinozuka. I expect him to be no where near Otogakura; it's too obvious for him to hide there. Plus it's rather secluded so his henchman, Kabuto, wouldn't be able to get the supplies necessary to keep Orochimaru comfortable in the state that he is now."

They continued walking in silence. Sakura had gone on assassination missions before, but she never could have dreamed that she would be on an assignment to take down such a powerful opponent. Sasori was with her but even so; could they really take down the Otokage? It wasn't like he was going to be alone either; the two of them would have to take down all the shinobi guarding him. That probably wouldn't be too difficult but it might take a toll on them, making it so that they weren't at their full-potential when they reached Shinozuka.

The two members had been walking for hours; at this rate it would be dark before they reached Otogakura which, when she thought about it, would probably be a good thing. The darkness would provide cover as they infiltrated the village for the assassination attempt. Sakura and Sasori needed to be as stealthy as possible. Unlike how Konoha had been when Sasori kidnapped Sakura, Otogakura was going to be on its absolute highest defense level.

Sakura reached into her shuriken holster, she hadn't brought as many throwing weapons as she had thought. She felt about four kunai and three shuriken, she didn't even have any senbon, 'So much for being prepared'. Sasori did say to pack light, but he was probably referring to the amount of clothing and food that she brought, not her weapons. It was going to be rather embarrassing if he yelled at her for not having enough kunai or something during their battle with the Otokage, she could totally picture him doing that too.

The wind was picking up, the temperature was dropping and the water that Sasori and Sakura were walking through seemed to be getting colder. Their cloaks were heavy enough to keep them warm, but because of the cool water Sakura was shivering. Their breath was visible from the cold, it was expected to be like this as it was almost October, but Sakura wished the weather could have waited for them to finish their mission. "It's freezing out here, are we there yet?"

"Does it look like we're there yet? Do you see villages or something, because all I seem to see is rice." His attitude hinted that he was cold as well and wanted nothing more than to get the mission over with, "It shouldn't be much longer, actually. I expect we'll reach Oto in about an hour or so."

Sasori was right, in a little less than an hour's time the gate to the Hidden Village was in sight. The only thing she could think about was getting the stupid mission over with, even though she probably should have been concentrating on exactly how they were going to take down the Otokage, but she'd leave Sasori up to that, after all, he was her sempai.

The ex-Suna-nin had her follow him into a grove of trees; they were perched on two different limbs of an old Norway maple, Sakura on the branch above Sasori. They both could see the contents of the village, it was rather small, which surprised Sakura, she was expecting something much more grand and spectacular, but then again she didn't think Orochimaru was much of an architectural designer. She looked down at Sasori, whom was carefully observing the layout of the village, trying to find the easiest way to enter the village and avoid the most guards. He was much more experienced in the art of infiltration than she was, "Are you ready?"

The two of them darted into the village; they jumped from rooftop to rooftop, their objective the large estate to the northern part. It took a moment for the Oto guards to realize they had two trespassers, in the dark the only distinguishable features of the two were their hair colors and the red clouds on their robes. They moved so quickly the human eyes of the guards could barely see them; they were two blurs in the darkness.

Adrenaline rushed through Sakura's veins; this was her chance to prove herself to the organization, to Pein, and to her partner, Sasori. Screwing up was not an option. She mimicked Sasori's movements as she followed him as they headed towards the Otokage Estate. He was so fast she could barely keep up with him. "We have to pick some of them off," he called back to her. Sakura put on the brakes, whirled around and faced about twenty guards, armed and dangerous.

She wanted to look back at Sasori so he could tell her what exactly they were going to do, but if she did she'd be a goner. The two of them had only worked against each other and now they were about to take on a small battalion of enemy ninja, how were they supposed to support each other if they barely knew the other's battle style?

Eyes narrowed, Sakura was ready to make the first move against the twenty-some-odd guards, but as she reached for a kunai she found that she couldn't move. Panicking, she cocked her head just enough to see out of the corner of her eye blue chakra strings sprouting out of Sasori's fingers, "Don't struggle, just relax."

Sasori's fingers moved furiously as he pulled on the strings that connected to Sakura's body. He had to move his own entire body in order control her, and if Sakura hadn't been flying towards the guards against her will she would have thought he was doing some kind of strange dance.

Sakura darted back and forth, up and down, slashing her opponents with a kunai that Sasori had made her pull out of her holster. She was moving at a speed that she didn't even know she could reach; Sasori really was a skilled puppet master.

Slitting the throat of one of the men, Sakura dropped the kunai and grabbed the dead man's leg, swinging him around and knocking over several of the remaining guards. She snatched the kunai from where it had fallen and thrust it into one of the fallen's heart. Her fist crushed another's ribcage, and to her horror her hand penetrated the man's skin, tore out his heart, crushed it with her fist, causing blood to gush all over her hand and trail down her arm, and then threw it aside.

Blood rained down on the kunoichi and her attackers' corpses, never in her wildest dreams had Sakura imagined that she could fight the way she was, all thanks to the madman who was controlling her.

Her tired arms fell to her sides, the battle had been won. It was hard to look at what she had done, blood soaked the streets and bodies lay with vital organs ripped out of them. She looked down at her hands, they were stained with blood, the one that had ripped the heart out's entire arm was covered in it. Nausea overcame her, she vomited, the small massacre that she had created was too much for her. How could this have happened? How could she have caused it? But then she remembered the man behind the scenes, Sasori's true personality had surfaced again.

A part of her had thought that he wasn't really that bad, that he wasn't the cold-blooded murderer everyone had made him out to be, but there he was, sitting atop a chimney, calm and collected. Her vision of him had probably changed forever, even though it was herself that had done the dirty work. He wasn't just a murderer, he was a psychopath.

"We should get going, there will be more here soon," Sasori said, completely unaffected by the sight in front of him. How could he just sit there? How could he just act like none of that had just happened? 'He's probably so used to it, he probably does that to all of his enemies…'

To her horror, she realized that when she had fought him she could have suffered the same fate as any one of the men she had murdered. What if it had been her organs that had been torn out and cast aside? Plus it had just been her and Chiyo; he would have more time to make her suffer, to dissect her body, to completely destroy her.

Sakura tried to push the images that were flashing through her mind out of her head as the two of them continued along. When she got back to Akatsuki Headquarters or whatever structure they came across with running water she was going to wash her hands until the skin on them was numb from scrubbing.

"This is it," Sasori called back, jumping through one of the windows of the Otokage's mansion, smashing the window pane. She followed suit landing in an office room, suffering less damages then Sasori, who had just yanked out a large piece of glass that was stuck in his shoulder blade. "Sasori-san, let me heal your—"

"No, we have to get moving," He was bleeding heavily, his robe had been torn around the area where the glass had pierced him and Sakura could see that the heavy black material was soaked, it must have been a much deeper wound than it appeared on the surface.

Sasori opened the door and stepped out, motioning for her to follow him. They ran silently down a long corridor, flinging open the doors they came across as they went, but the Otokage wasn't in any of them. "Where is he?"

"I'm right here," Sakura froze; a kunai was at her throat, millimeters away from slicing into it. The man wore similar clothing as the Third Hokage did, the true Kage uniform, except the hat he wore didn't have the same kanji inscribed on it as Tsunade's, instead it read 'Oto'. Her eyes diverted themselves over to Sasori, who was his usual calm self, "Akasuna no Sasori, long time no see, you're looking well, not a day older than from when I last saw you."

"Long story behind that, Daisuke," Sasori ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. It was a good thing one of them was calm, because Sakura was in panic mode, "It's a story for another day, shame you'll never see it."

Daisuke Shinozuka opened his mouth to say something but instead of words he coughed up blood all over Sakura's shoulder. The clone before him vanished into thin air as he turned to see the real Sasori standing behind him. A kunai was lodged in the back of his neck, its tip protruding from the other side, "You're certainly not as skilled as you used to be, falling for a simple trick like that, pathetic. Orochimaru was a fool to appoint you to such a position."

The Otokage fell against Sakura who jumped forward, letting him land on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Sasori was right, he did look pathetic, "That was too easy, something's not right here." Sakura said, turning the corpse over with her foot.

"Sakura, move!" It was too late, Sakura glanced down to see her own shadow clutching her ankle as it began to drag her down into a black pit that was supposed to be the rest of it. Sasori grabbed her outstretched hand and yanked it, but to no avail. She was sinking into the floor boards. He turned back to the Otokage, and is eyes widened as the corpse was no longer a corpse, it was just a pile of old bones, "That wasn't Shinozuka, this is one of Orochimaru's traps!"

"Sasori, do something!" Sakura's head was just barely visible; the rest of her body had been consumed by the black abyss. He pulled on her arm again but she just continued to sink further and further until she was no longer visible. The hole closed up just as Sasori attempted to descend down into it, "Ugh, Orochimaru, wait until I get my hands on you. Don't worry Sakura, I'll get you back."

A/N: Hurray, another chapter finished. I have to fix the first one, there's some formatting problems. Anywho, that was the first real battle I've ever written, I suppose it could have been worse. It was short, but there was blood, yay blood! And Sasori's vowed to rescue Sakura, how noble of him. xD I hope it's getting better, even though there was no Kisame or Hidan or really any SakuXSaso yet, but don't worry, there will be. R & R, please and thank you. Oh, and Akito's going to become a pretty vital character, by the way.