Kisame threw another medium sized log into the fire between he and Sakura, adding fuel for the flames to linger higher into the night sky. Sakura sat with her knees up to her chest, her right palm placed on her cheek as green chakra was fixated on healing her heavily bruised face. Her eyesight in her eye had come back a little while ago, and she had just healed her broken wrist back to the state where she could use it again. Now she was healing her bruised face, growing impatient because it was a very slow going process. She was weak from hunger and her chakra was drained from not having enough rest.

However, aside from the obvious physical pains, she was growing more concerned because Itachi still had not caught up with them. And her run in with the foreign ninja had been hours ago.

After Itachi had not immediately caught up with them, Kisame found a spot to rest so that Sakura could heal herself and they could wait for the Uchiha to catch up. Night soon fell as they rested, and Kisame was growing annoyed that it was taking so long for Sakura to heal herself. To prevent himself from growing too bored, he went out to a nearby river and caught some fish to prepare for dinner; he claimed: "The food pills are getting old, I need some real food." Sakura did not care, as long as she was able to get any kind of sustenance in her growling stomach.

He had just gotten done cleaning, chopping and placing them on the fire when Sakura was able to heal her face back to where it was somewhat normal looking, other than a small bit of swelling and yellowish bruises left behind.

Ignoring the pain in her rumbling stomach as she watched the juices from the fish drop down into the ashy firepit, she opened her mouth and spoke to Kisame for the first time since the attack.

"It's been hours," She breathed wearily, "Where is Itachi?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Kisame bellowed in response, "He's probably toying with the kid. He does that sometimes when he's in a bad mood."

"Can Itachi handle him alone?" Sakura questioned as she noticed the right side of the fire start to dim down a bit. She pushed a log into the fire with her foot.

"That's a stupid question," Kisame sneered back as he turned the fish with a long, ragged stick.

"No it's not!" Sakura growled, her forehead scrunching in frustration. "That ninja was strong-"

"That little twerp? I've seen shits bigger than that kid," Kisame interrupted, "Maybe you're just too weak to be by yourself and suckered your way into the Akatsuki so we could protect you."

Sakura's mouth dropped. So that's what Kisame believed? If he believed that, how many others believed it as well?

She scowled darkly as she whispered, "I am not weak."

Kisame snarled back, his teeth glistening in the dark against the flames of the fire and his beady eyes unreadable, "The bruises and swelling tell otherwise, kid."

Sakura didn't say anything else as she watched Kisame continue to grill the fish. The smell of the food was almost enough to completely drop the topic for her as she felt her mouth start to water. A bit of saliva escaped her lips and trailed down her chin and she quickly wiped it away before Kisame could grimace at her. He did not seem to notice.

"You're really not worried about him?" Sakura wrapped her tired arms around her knees, trying to stop herself from drooling again.

"Aint in my job description to be worried about him," Kisame commented back, "Why are you, anyway? You're really worried about a man who killed his entire clan by himself?"

"I didn't say I was worried about him," Sakura bit back, "But I am concerned, seeing as it has been hours since we last saw him."

"He's fine. And if for some reason he's not, then oh well." Kisame withdrew a piece of fish from the fire and examined it. "I prefer mine to be a little more charred…" He mumbled to himself about the fish.

"That's what you really believe?" Sakura was surprised by how little he cared about his teammate, "You could care less if he is dead? Aren't you his teammate? His comrade?"

"Listen, pink," Kisame glared at her as he stuck the fish back into the dancing flames, "We don't have comrades in this organization. We have the mission. That's it. Nobody sacrifices themselves for anyone else here. All that matters is the mission."

"How can you say that?" Sakura questioned in disbelief, "If we lose any members, that hurts the Akatsuki!"

"We've lost members before!" Kisame growled back, "And we continue on anyway. This is what you signed up for, kid. Don't come into the Akatsuki expecting everyone to welcome you in with warm hugs and all rush to the rescue to save your ass. We aren't your leaf buddies."

Sakura wanted to argue back, she wanted to explain to him exactly why every member in the Akatsuki was important for the overall mission, but rather than arguing about it, she did not reply. She realized that this was the difference between them. Sakura was used to having backup, someone always behind you and someone who would give their life to jump in and save yours. She was taught that the importance of your teammates safety exceeded the overall mission in most cases, only some things excluded this. Kisame was not used to having comrades like that in his life, and the rest of them were the same way. They were completely alone, never trusting anyone, always relying on their own abilities to get them through trials.

Sakura realized that she was completely alone now.

As Sakura was lost in her thoughts, Kisame pulled out all this fish and laid them on log next to him. Rather than handing a piece to Sakura, he threw it at her, hitting her in the chest and causing her to snap out of her personal thoughts. The fish fell to the ground and crumbled into a few pieces.

Sakura shot him a glare, which he responded to with a smirk, and reached down to pick up the crumbled fish. She normally would have at least dusted her food off, but she was so hungry, she just began shoving the food into her mouth. It was a bit of a tangy and salty flavor which made her question what kind of fish he had caught, but disregarded it as she shoved the rest into her mouth. At this point, it tasted like a five star meal for her.

"You act like you haven't eaten in days," Kisame scoffed across the fire.

Sakura was about to respond to his smart comment, when she was silenced by the rustling of bushes behind her. She quickly swallowed her last mouth full of food and began reaching for her kunai in her pouch, when Kisame stopped her with his words.

"Don't bother," Kisame muttered through a full mouth, looking completely disinterested. "I know that chakra presence anywhere."

Sakura opened her mouth to question him, but stopped as soon as she saw Itachi Uchiha emerge out of the thick, dark bushes in front of her. His facial expression was the same as usual: Blank and unphased as he slowly approached the two other Akatsuki members around the fire.

Sakura did not say anything as she calmly watched Itachi approach the fire, his eyes staring into intently as he stood above Kisame.

Sakura quickly noticed that he appeared to be completely unscathed. Then what had taken him so long to return to them?

"Took you long enough," Kisame ventured displeasingly, "What kept ya?" Kisame did not seem concerned at all that Itachi had randomly appeared as if nothing had happened within the last few hours.

Itachi peered at Kisame and Sakura over his cloak collar, "I wanted to be sure there were no others along with him," Itachi's smooth baritone rolled over Sakura as he responded.

Kisame grinned, "You interrogated him?"

Itachi did not reply as he crouched down next to the fire a few feet away from Sakura. The flames reflections danced on his perfect features as he uncharacteristically seemed to succumb to the fire.

Sakura examined him, trying to get any sort of subtle hint of why it took him so long to return. Did he simply lose his way and not know where they had stopped? It seemed almost impossible that something that minor could stumble someone like the Uchiha prodigy, but Itachi was still human. Maybe Kisame was right and he did take his time on the cloud ninja because he was bored? Nothing pieced together or stuck out to her. He looked completely normal. His cloak wasn't even dirty.

"So were there any others?" Kisame brought Sakura out of her thoughts, it still caught her in disbelief that Kisame was not concerned about where Itachi had been.

He shook his head, "He was alone."

Kisame smirked, "Stupid kid. Should have at least had a backup plan. Oh well, his mistake, not ours." Kisame was about to say something else, but stopped when he noticed that the fire was beginning to get low. "I assume you played with that kid long enough to where you don't have any chakra to spare? No fire jutsu's to light the fire?"

Itachi shook his head again without saying a word.

"I suppose I'm gone to get more firewood, then," Kisame sighed as he stood tall over the fire, turning his back to them.

"We're not continuing on tonight?" Sakura questioned curiously.

"No, you need to rest." Itachi answered for the shark nin, which caught her slightly off guard. He did not look at her as he spoke quietly.

"I told you guys that I'm fine." She objected.

"You're fine because we came," Kisame intervened, "A second later and you would have been food for the vultures. This isn't just about you, kid. Itachi used up chakra fighting your battle, so we're resting for a few hours."

"It will delay our arrival time back to the compound, but our chakra is needed if we should run into anyone else on the way back," Itachi continued off of Kisame's statement.

"I though you said he was alone?" Sakura repeated what Itachi had just said a few moments ago.

"He was, but we can never be too cautious." Itachi replied blandly.

"You got any injuries?" Kisame asked as he seemed to examine Itachi for the first time.

"No," Itachi stated blankly.

"Good, then maybe we won't have to stay here the whole night. That is, of course, unless the princess feels differently." Kisame raised a brow to Sakura and smirked.

She fought the urge to flip him off as she looked away from him, ashamed that she was now considered nothing more than weak. A reputation she did not want to have with the rest of the Akatsuki members.

Without another word, Kisame took off into the forest that was lit with only the moonlight. He soon completely disappeared, leaving Itachi and Sakura completely alone around the fire.

Sakura awkwardly glanced at Itachi, who seemed to still be in a trance while staring into the fire. Although she did not like Itachi and did not want to talk to him anymore than what was necessary, she could not handle the awkward silence that lingered in the air with only the crickets chirping in the background.

"Why did you guys save me?" She blurted out. She had almost regretted it as soon as the question fell out, but rather than trying to make excuses, she just stared at the Uchiha to see how he would react. She was truly curious. If what Kisame had said was true, they did not normally risk their lives for one another, then why had they saved her? Why not just continue on and let her die?

"It would not have went over well with Pain if we lost our only medic on her first mission," Itachi deadpanned, his eyes still focused on the firepit.

She swallowed. Her first mission. That made her stomach turn.

"You're going to tell Pain about this, aren't you?"

Itachi did not respond or look at her.

"What will he do if he finds out I almost died like that?" Sakura continued even through his silence. "How does Pain deal with things like this?"

Itachi's eyes shifted so that he could see her from their corners, yet he would not have to completely turn his face. "He doesn't deal with situations like this. He has never had to in the past, the rest of us are more than capable of taking on a single shinobi."

Sakura gritted her teeth. He was again saying that she was weak, yet in a much more forward way. "I'm not weak. I was caught my surprise, I didn't know he was tailing me. If I would have known, it would not have gone down the way it did."

"Hn," Itachi breathed at her as his eyes shifted back to the fire. It was an indication that he did not want, or care, to proceed further with the conversation.

But Sakura ignored it and continued to press, "If he finds out…you think he will kick me out?"

Itachi smirked, which surprised Sakura, because she had never seen him before with any expression other than unemotional. "He does not dismiss people from the Akatsuki. He kills them."

His words stung Sakura like poison and she was not prepared to hear them. They were so calm, so relaxed, that they made the point that much more terrifying as Sakura digested the statement. She swallowed hard. Of course he kills them. Why would she think that she would be dismissed from something like the Akatsuki? She already knew where their compound was along with too much information about each of them. There was no way that Sakura would leave the Akatsuki with that information alive.

She tried hard to control the shaking in her voice, but failed when she uttered quietly, "Please don't tell him."

"Hn," Itachi replied stiffly, not at all concerned with the terror that suddenly filled her voice.

"Please, it was a mistake," Sakura fought back tears. "I'm stronger than that. I was taken by surprise. I can prove myself-"

"I am obligated to report every detail to Pain about the mission," Itachi interrupted her before she could finish her statement.

Sakura was about to fight back with another plead for her behalf, but was rather caught off guard when she saw a single strand of blood travel down Itachi Uchiha's cheek. It glowered against the flames of the firepit.

"Itachi…" She pointed to the bloody tear as it traveled down his pale cheek, "You're bleeding…"

Itachi finally turned to look at her, obviously caught off guard by her comment. He reached up with his left hand and wiped the blood away, pulling back his hand and examining it, wondering how he had not noticed it before she did.

He was about to tell her to disregard it, but refrained himself as he felt a few more blood tears begin to race down his cheek as well. He quickly wiped them away, but could not help but notice the concern that was plastered on Sakura's face.

"Let me see it," Sakura stated as she began to inch closer to him

He shook his head and lifted his hand as if to keep her at a distance. "It is of no concern. My eyes bleed frequently."

"Frequently?" Sakura repeated, scrunching her eyebrows, "Your eyes should not be bleeding like that, much less frequently. Let me see,"

"It is of no concern," Itachi repeated in a firmer tone as he used the sleeve of his cloak to wipe away the rest of the blood that began to surface on the bottom of his lid.

To a normal person, Itachi's firm tone would have immediately sent them away. But Sakura was not intimidated, or afraid. Rather, she completely ignored him and pushed his arm away, surprising Itachi by the quick and sudden physical reaction. She reached into her pouch as she crawled closer to him, retrieving a small black flashlight. She quickly clicked it on and approached him close enough to where she was only a few inches away from him; Closer than Itachi was used to.

"Be still and cooperate," She ordered as she began flashing the light into his eyes. His pupils immediately began getting smaller as the sudden light hit them.

"I do not need to-"

"Shut up, and let me see," Sakura interrupted angrily as she ignored his objections. "I'm the medic, this is exactly why I'm here. Stop fighting me."

Itachi sighed as he realized that Sakura was too stubborn for him to win this particular battle with her. He was not in the mood to fight with her, so he just did as told and sat still as she continued to shine the flashlight and examine his eyes. She inched closer, once again catching Itachi off guard by the closeness, and he could feel her still breathing against him as she continued to observe.

Once she was done with observing with the flashlight, she set it down onto the ground beside them and reached back into her pouch to retrieve a small white rag.

"Hold this on your left eye to soak up the blood while I examine the right one," She ordered as she shoved the rag into his open palm.

He did as instructed, and pressed the rag against his eye. Sakura emitted green chakra to the palm of her hand and slightly touched Itachi's right eye, causing him to flinch uncharacteristically under her sudden touch. His forehead was a bit warm under her fingers and his eyelashes graced her palm as she closed her eyes to focus on the internal organs behind his eyes. Itachi never grew embarrassed or nervous of anything, but even he had to admit to himself that the closeness of a woman like this had made him feel a bit out of his comfort zone.

After a brief moment, Sakura removed her hand and sat back, her expression was almost unreadable when Itachi opened his eye to look at her.

"What is it?" He questioned, curious of what her reaction meant.

"I've never seen anything like this," Her tone was in surprise as she slowly shook her head, "I have never seen optical nerves this damaged in my medical experience. Frankly, I am shocked you are not completely blind!"

Itachi did not reply for a moment, but then gave a subtle nod as he withdrew the white rag from his other eye. "I understand." he said simply.

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "You don't seem surprised," she quickly observed. "Did you know your eyes were this bad?"

He shook his head, "I did not know the extent of the damage, but I suspected there were extensive damage behind them."

"Have you had any side effects? Headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, temporary blindness?" Sakura asked as she slowly placed her hand back on his eye to examine it once more. "Your optical nerves are completely shot, I'm surprised you're even seeing at all. Have you been temporary blind before?"

Itachi hesitated at the question, and rather than replying verbally, he gave her a very subtle nod.

"When?"

Itachi commented flatly, "Today was one of the occurrences."

Sakura's foreheard scrunched, "What do you mean?" She removed her hand and picked up her flashlight again, shining it into Itachi's other eye this time.

Itachi did not reply.

Sakura narrowed her eyes as she finally put two and two together.

"Is that what took you so long to get back to us?" She pressed. "You used the sharingan on that ninja, and you lost your eyesight for a few hours? You couldn't find us because you lost your vision?"

Itachi did not respond again. Sakura knew that was what had happened, even without Itachi confirming it. It was hard for her to imagine someone as strong as Itachi being handicapped and stumbling in the darkness because he could not physically see.

Sakura sighed in annoyance, "Look, I don't care about ruining your reputation of never being weak. I'm asking from a medical standpoint. I need to know." Apparently stubbornness was just a common trait within the Uchiha clan.

After a moment of awkward hesitation, Itachi simply nodded once.

"You said that today was one of the occurrences. You've suffered from temporary blindness before?" Sakura peered into Itachi's left eye with her flashlight, studying the dilation of his pupils. "And don't lie." She added.

"Yes," He replied in monotone, "There have been two other occurrences."

Sakura switched to his other eye with the flashlight, "Are you sure there's been just two?"

"Yes."

Sakura clicked her flashlight off and used the cloth in Itachi's hand to wipe away a small teardrop of blood that began to surface from his bottom lid. "I'm surprised you're not permanently blind, Itachi. I've never seen anyone's eyes this bad. Your nerves are pinched to hell and hanging by a thread. Its almost like your rods and cones are nonexistent. If someone had fixed this years ago, they probably wouldn't be this bad."

"Can you fix them?" Itachi asked as Sakura removed the blood stained rag.

Sakura sighed deeply as she clicked her flashlight on again to further examine his condition. She pondered to herself what she would be able to do for him.

"Not one hundred percent, no. Their far too damaged for that," She finally replied as she clicked her flashlight off again. "The only way you would have zero complications with your vision is if you had a transplant. I've never done one alone though, Tsunade has always been beside me while i've done any kind of transplant, let alone an eye surgery. But with further studying and practice on animal corpses, I'm confident I could do one successfully."

"That is out of the question," Itachi shot down the idea as quickly as Sakura had presented it to him.

Sakura refrained the urge to roll her eyes and tried to remain professional, "You should consider all possibilities at this point. Any other eyes would be better than the ones you've got right now."

"It is not a possibility to be considered if I will lose the sharingan," Itachi retorted back.

"The sharingan is exactly why their like this in the first place!" Sakura roared, all professionalism flying out the window. "Your optical nerves are completely shot because of your extensive genjutsus and fighting techniques. Hell, I've only been around you for a few days and i have already noticed that you use the sharingan way too much. Those damn eyes are hurting you!"

Itachi did not respond to her sudden anger, "That is part of the sharingan curse, it cannot be helped." He unemotionally replied.

"You don't have to use them," Sakura argued.

Itachi let out a subtle grunt, "That is equivalent to stating that a fish can live without water."

"That is not the same thing!"

Itachi's eyes finally shifted to her in a serious manner, "A Uchiha is not a Uchiha without the sharingan, just as a Hyuga is not a Hyuga without the byakugan. Without our keikei-genkai, we are no different than you."

Sakura fought the urge to punch him upside the head, and instead replied quietly with, "Well, keep using it like you are, and you will be no different than me soon. Except for the fact that I will still be able to see and you won't."

Itachi did not say anything as Sakura rose to her feet, utterly annoyed by his stubbornness, but if he did not want her help, then she would not fight him. She could personally care less if the Uchiha went blind for the rest of his miserable life.

Just as she was about to walk away, Itachi suddenly cleared his throat uncharacteristically, and said, "What else can you do?"

Sakura sighed as she turned back to face him, his head was still facing the ground and he barely made eye contact with her. It was odd seeing him in such a way that it were as if he were a child being disciplined.

"I can patch them up every week or two, restoring the worn tissues and nerves, but regenerating something as fragile and worn as your optical organs will take a lot of poking and prodding and it will be painful. It still won't guarantee you won't have some kind of temporary blindness with overuse of the sharingan, but it will lessen the chances."

Itachi nodded once as he finally lifted his head, almost as if he perked up from the news that there was a chance his sharingan could be saved. "We will proceed with that treatment, pain is of no concern."

Sakura snorted sarcastically, "I said that I could do it, not that I would. That kind of precison would take time and chakra. I don't even like you, so why would I waste my precious time and effort helping you?"

He, of course, did not seem at all affected that Sakura had bluntly told him she did not like him. Of course, she did not expect him to either. "Perhaps if I paid you before each treatment?" Itachi proposed.

He clearly wasn't getting the message.

"I could care less about your money," Sakura snapped.

Rather than fighting back with another proposition, Itachi sighed as he inclined his head slightly again. "I see we have reached an impasse, then. Very well, you have your reasons. I will continue on regardless."

"You really think your eyesight will last much longer without some form of treatment?"

"If I cannot receive the treatment needed, it cannot be helped," Itachi informed her as he leaned away from her, finally growing tired of her close contact with him.

Sakura was going to argue something back, but stopped when she heard Kisame emerge from the trees carrying a large load of firewood. He looked at Sakura and Itachi, curious as to why she was so close to him, but did not address it.

Sakura scooted away from Itachi, back to her spot and looked away from him as Kisame began to shovel the logs into the fire, watching the flames begin to get higher once more. She did not speak to him or Kisame for the rest of the night.

They only rested for a few hours, and once they felt that everyone was able to travel without stopping, they set out and made it back to the compound only three hours later than they originally scheduled. Sakura managed to heal her bruises more on the travels back to where they were barely noticeable. She knew that she would have to deal with Pain once they told him what had happened, but she hoped that she could plead her case if she seemed to not be as beaten up as they claimed her to be.

She would occasionally glance over at Itachi as well, as if to see how he was doing considering she knew the truth about his eyesight now. He did not acknowledge her, but also did not seem to be having any issues with blurred vision or any other type of impair.

When they got back to the compound, they immediately headed to the main meeting room, where they would report to Pain about the mission and give Kakuzu the money that they were sent to retrieve.

However, as soon as they arrived, Pain instructed Sakura to leave until she was called upon to enter. He claimed that he wanted to speak privately with Itachi and Kisame so that they could evaluate her performance on her first mission.

As Sakura awaited outside the meeting room, her stomach was in knots. She felt like she was going to throw up. What would Pain say? What would he do? Would he be forgiving? Or would he simply kill her for wasting their time? What were they saying to him? All the uncertainty was giving her a migraine.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Kisame emerged from the meeting room with Itachi close behind him, both of their faces were unreadable. They did not even acknowledge her as they walked by, which made her feel uneasy.

"Come in," A chilling voice called from inside the room, immediately recognizing it as Pain's. "I would like to speak with you alone."

Sakura swallowed hard and took a deep breath before she entered the room. Her feet felt like lead as she dragged them inside, trying to hide her fear and worry from the Akatsuki leader as she approached the table at which he was sitting at. His violet eyes were piercing through her, and she felt her throat tighten as if she were going to vomit. His expression was also unreadable, so Sakura could not get a good idea of what he were about to say to her.

She felt that the tension alone was enough to suffocate her to , she stood as tall as she could manage and tried to control her voice so that it would not shake in front of him, "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Tell me about the mission," Pain replied darkly, "This was your first one. Were there any complications?"

She gulped, "Complications?" She fought with herself. Should she just play dumb or just come out and admit what had happened?

"Yes, complications. Such as, did you get along well with Itachi and Kisame?"

"We worked well together," She lied, wondering if Itachi had also told him about how she slapped him.

He did not press it any further. "Any unexpected altercations?" He said this with seriousness, almost as if he were leading her into a deadly trap that she would undoubtedly not make it out of.

She bit her tongue, and decided she would play it off until he made it clear that he knew.

"No, it went very smoothly." She replied.

Pain stared at her intently, the silence was deafening. She was waiting for him to catch her in a lie. Shit, why did she lie to him? Any shred of mercy he might have shed on her was ruined. He really was going to kill her, not because of the mission, but because she lied to him!

She averted her eyes and waited for his response. After a tension filled moment of Pain studying her, he simply nodded and looked down at his hands.

"Very well, you are dismissed."

Sakura's eyes brightened and her head shot up. That was it? "I'm sorry?" She asked.

"You are dismissed, that is all." Pain repeated, "Itachi and Kisame reported that you did very well on your first mission and there were no complications. In that case, there is nothing further. Please return to your room for rest and you will be summoned when there is anything else that is needed from you."

Sakura felt like her heart was going to explode. She made it? They hadn't ratted her out?

Before she could make herself seem too suspicious, she simply bowed in respect to Pain, and turned around and practically ran out of the meeting room. She let out a huge breath that she did not know she was holding and caught herself smiling from relief.

She was thrilled they had shown her mercy. But something else quickly bothered her…why had they done it?

She stood up straight, knowing that should would not be able to find peace with it until she knew exactly what their reasonings were for sparing her the wrath of their leader. She power walked away from the meeting hall, and up to the training grounds in the middle of the compound with each members room on the outside hallways.

She hurriedly approached Kisames door that was not too far from her own and knocked, until she heard a muffled reply from inside that indicated that Kisame granted her permission to come in.

She opened the door, first noticing that Kisame was sitting cross legged on the tatami mats, with a kunai in one hand and an old rag with holes in it in the other hand. A glass of water was sitting next to his right knee and he was busy poking around in Samehada with his kunai, retrieving any kinds of left over particles from his shark skinned sword. He did not look up at her when she poked her head in.

He instead said in a very impatient tone, "What do you want?"

Sakura jumped straight to the point, knowing that he would quickly grow impatient with her if she took too long to speak what was on her mind.

"You didn't tell Pain about the cloud ninja?" Sakura questioned quickly, the words almost too jumbled to comprehend, as she stepped completely into Kisame's room and sliding the paper thin door firmly behind her.

Kisame did not look at her as he continued cleaning Samehada and made a 'tch' sound with his teeth. "Don't look at me about it. I wanted to tell him and watch him send you packing, but Itachi wouldn't have it."

Sakura had not expected his response to be so forward, but was more caught off guard of the statement he had just said. "I…Itachi objected? It wasn't you?"

Kisame glared at her with his small eyes as he glanced up from the sharp skinned sword, "Hell no, it wasn't me. I don't have time to babysit some kid who doesn't even know how to hold her own against some asshole. I don't believe in excuses, either you can carry your weight or you can't." He gazed back down to his sword and turned his back slightly to her, his voice was rigid when he responded with, "You're not going to get the rest of us killed. Next time, there won't be anyone there to save you. We don't have time for waste of space ninjas like you."

Kisame's words undoubtedly cut Sakura to the core of her being. She was deadweight. Weak. Just as she had always been. It didn't matter that she had come all this way to get stronger, she was just the same as she had always been. Useless.

She knot in her throat began to tighten and she knew that she only felt that way when she was about to cry. She quickly swallowed hard to disallow herself to shed a tear. She would not, no, could not cry in front of Kisame. It would just further prove that he was right about her. Strong people do not cry. Akatsuki members do not cry.

She breathed in hard and shook off her emotions. There was something more pressing that began to bother her immediately after she felt the tears behind her eyes vanish.

"Why did Itachi object?" She deadpanned, thankful that her voice did not crack or show any indication of hurt emotions.

Kisame scoffed, "Hell if I know. For some reason he wanted to sweep it under the rug; Don't ask me why. Not exactly in his characteristics to protect someone, but that guy is a damn mystery. I never know what he's thinking." He looked up from Samehada and turned his scowling expression towards Sakura, "Now, beat it. I've got things to do. Get out of my sight before I ignore everything Itachi said and turn you in anyway."

Sakura did not respond to his threat as he looked back at his shark blade and reached over to grab a roll of wraps to cover his sword in. Sakura turned around and exited Kisame's room, slamming the door shut once she was outside. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath to do away with any hurt emotions that lingered from Kisame's statement. If she let herself cry in the prescence of the other members, she would not last. They would exploit her weaknesses. No one other than Itachi and Kisame knew the truth about the incident with the ninja, and from what Kisame had just told her, they would keep quiet about it. Sakura could not allow herself to slip up again.

When she opened her eyes, she felt a prescense of chakra slowly approaching her from behind. She quickly turned around and was greeted with Deidara, who was only a few feet away from her.

She began to panic. Had he heard what Kisame and her just spoke about?

"What are you doing?" Sakura blurted out harshly without thinking.

Deidara raised a brow at her, unphased by the question. "Walking," He answered stiffly. "You know, it's a common thing for human beings to be doing, un."

"How long have you been standing there?" Sakura's eyes narrowed as the words came out in a quick jumble.

"Chill out, I just got here," Deidara answered with a grimace like expression. "Jeez, jumpy much? What the hell is up with you?"

It was clear by his confused expression that he wasn't lying about anything and that he had truly just gotten there. Sakura decided to stop grilling him before he really began to suspect she was hiding something.

She shook her head, "Nothing's wrong with me. I guess I'm just tired from the mission." She quickly lied.

"That measly little mission tired you out?" Deidara grinned in amusement, "You'd better step up your game, then. Ninety percent of our missions are way longer than something stupid like a fund retrieval,un."

"Yeah, whatever," Sakura disregarded his comment, she wasn't in the mood to play along with his taunting. "Have you seen Itachi?"

Deidara shrugged, "I saw him about forty five minutes ago. Don't know where he was heading, but he was going towards the onsens."

"Onsens?" Sakura was not familiar with the onsens. She had been shown the bathhouses in the compound, but did not see any outside onsens.

"Outside onsens are about five minutes west of the compound," Deidara replied blandly, "Hard to miss if you just walk straight. Why are you looking for him anyway?"

Sakura tensed, "Why are you interested?"

Deidara rolled his eyes, "I'm not. I don't care what the hell you do."

"Good," Sakura responded as she scrunched her forehead and waltzed past the blond without giving him another thought. She heard him huff at her as she walked by, but she ignored it and headed to the nearest door that would grant her access to the outside.

Just as Deidara instructed her, she headed west in a power walk. She walked through the open forest that surrounded the compound, once again in complete amazement that such a structure existed in a large and well hidden place. One would have to search for days in the endless forest to even have a remote chance of finding such a place. Sakura could not help but wonder what other strange, hidden places that they would reveal her to in the future.

After traveling for several minutes, Sakura finally approached a heavily stoned area. The ground was littered with stones, both big and small, and the air began to get thicker. It was, without a doubt, the air that belonged to the onsens. Natural hot springs were such an amazing experience because they each had their own characteristics and nothing was manmade. It was clear that the compound had been purposely built here because the onsens were so close by and they would be perfect for soaking after long missions.

As the air thickened, Sakura walked forward and heard her feet began to patter in small puddles below her. She continued forward, inhaling the calming steams that belonged to the hot spring, and came across a large boulder that blocked the rest of her path. She immediately recognized a large wad of black clothing that rested on an adjacent stone, and realized that it was the Akatsuki cloak; Sandals rested neatly below it.

She felt her face begin to flush at the sight. It had not registered to her, for an unknown reason, that if Itachi had gone to to Onsen, that he would be in it at the moment. And he would be completely naked.

She assumed from the acceleration of the steam coming from behind the large boulder that the hot spring was behind it. Not wanting to accidentally see Itachi bare, she decided that she would creep away back to the compound and simply wait for him to return to speak to him.

However, she was careless in her stepping, and slipped on a rock filled with moss, which sent her flying back on her bottom and an involuntary scream to escape her lips.

"Sakura?" Itachi's voice spoke from behind the boulder and through the misty air.

Sakura clamped her hand over her mouth, although she wasn't sure why, he had already heard her scream and knew she was there.

"Sakura?" He repeated, she heard the water behind the large rock ripple and crash against each other.

She breathed in, "Itachi?"

He did not reply for a few moments. As Sakura began to climb back up to her feet, her back turned towards the Onsen, she heard Itachi rustle behind her until his chakra presence was only a few feet away from her.

Itachi jumped down over the boulder and stood behind Sakura. She refused to turn around to see him, afraid that he was standing completely naked behind her.

She inhaled again, "Itachi, do you have a towel?"

"I do not need one, I am clothed enough for decency," Itachi's baritone echoed in the steam filled air.

Sakura took a deep breath as she began to turn around, trusting that Itachi's definition of decency was the same as hers. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw that Itachi was not even remotely close to being bare. He stood with a black tshirt on and a pair of violet pants that he usually wore, and his hair was still tied back in its ponytail. The only thing that was bare were his feet. In fact, he did not seem to even be wet at all from the hot spring.

Sakura sighed a sigh of relief. "I was looking for you, but for some reason it didn't register that you came to the onsen to, um, soak, so I can wait until you are done to talk to you."

"Is there something of concern?" His voice questioned.

"No, er, I mean, kind of, but its not too important. I'll just head back-"

"What did you need?" Itachi persisted further, ignoring her comments to speak to him later. "I was simply relaxing with the calmness of the hot spring air. I did not come to soak today. On the contrary, I was just about to head back." He continued as he reached down to grab his cloak.

Sakura thought it was strange that he came to hot spring to sit, rather than soak. "You don't soak in the onsen?" She asked.

"I do quite often, but when I feel like clearing my sinuses, I come to sit in the air for a while. The steam helps." He exhaled clearly, then his eyes met Sakura's sternly, "But you did not come to ask me about this." He stated firmly.

"You're right," Sakura admitted, "I came to ask you why you didn't tell Pain about the incident with the ninja." She was bluntly forward; She was quickly learning that there was no need to beat around the bush when speaking to Itachi. She rather admired that about speaking with him.

"You asked me not to tell him," Itachi stated as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.

"I doubt that's what convinced you," Sakura's eyes narrowed, "Why didn't you rat me out?"

Itachi let out a subtle sigh and replied, "You claimed that you were beaten because you were ambushed and caught off guard, correct?"

"Yes," Sakura nodded to confirm.

"Prove that your theory is true," He responded almost in a whisper, "Prove that you are stronger than you have allowed yourself to seem."

Sakura waited for him to continue on with anything else, but when he did not after a few quiet moments, she raised a brow and said, "That's it? That's the reason?"

Itachi gave her a nod and turned away from her, beginning to pick up his cloak off of the boulder next to him.

"Did you do it in hopes that I would change my mind about treating you?" Sakura accused without thinking. Surely he had? He had to have an alternate motive.

He shook his head without looking at her, "No, I did not do it with any other secret motive. You claim that you possess powers that are a necessity for the Akatsuki to have. I want to see them. That is all."

Sakura did not know quite how to respond, so she just replied with, "You believe me when I say that I have the power I claim to have?"

Itachi simply looked over his shoulder, his eyes meeting hers once more as he quietly responded with, "I believe everyone has the power they believe they possess, if tapped into their true being."

His words touched Sakura. He was, in a very odd way, telling her that he believed in her strength. He believed she had the power to make it. He did not believe she was as weak as she appeared to be thus far.

She felt a grin begin to curl at her lips. For the first time since she had met him, she did not feel like shoving her fist down his throat.

Then, as Itachi began slipping his shoes on, Sakura suddenly replied with, "I will give you one treatment," Itachi once again turned to look at her, to confirm that she had really said what he thought she said. "Its pay back for not squealing on me."

Itachi, rather than reacting with any sort of excitement, simply nodded his head and turned back to continue putting his sandals on.

Sakura huffed, "What? No thank you?"

Itachi smirked at her taunting, although she could not see it with his back turned to her.

"Thank you," He replied clearly as Sakura turned to walk away from the Uchiha.

A/N: As you noticed, this chapter was a lot longer than my previous chapters! I have been working on and off with this one for a few days and finally was able to pull it together tonight. That being said, please tell me how you are liking the story so far! I am not by any means a professional writer. There are flaws in my work, I know this. But sometimes, I have trouble finding them on my own. Please, if there are any apparent flaws, leave me a review pointing out the things that need worked on(however, please be polite in your critiques. I'm human too (: ) the only way I can truly grow as a writer is if I have wonderful readers like you to give me advice on things that need worked on and positive feedback on the things I am doing right. As always, you are appreciated.

Until Next Time,

xoxo