BLOOD-STAINED CHERRY BLOSSOM

Chapter Twelve: The Monk's Tale

The sky seemed to darken as they approached the man sitting on the beach. The wind also picked up speed, making the waves crash loudly against the shoreline. The trio walked carefully along the white sand, their footsteps light as they quietly loomed towards the man. He seemed too absorbed in prayer to notice the two deadly convicts and their medic stop a few feet behind him.

Hidan, impatient as ever, was the first to speak to the man. "Oi," he said, a wide smirk plastered on his face, "You seem like a religious guy. Can you point me in the direction of the nearest Jashinist temple?"

After a few silent moments, the man unclasped his hands and slowly turned around towards the group, still in his seated position. Although he had a hood covering his head, most of his face was visible, showing dark eyes and sharp facial features. Sakura gulped when she recognized his face from the poster Kakuzu showed her. This was Kuma, the guy they were sent to capture. Hidan and Kakuzu exchanged glances briefly. They recognized him as their bounty as well. Kakuzu nodded at Hidan, signaling the attack on the monk. Sakura's heartbeat quickened. This was happening too fast. She needed more time to calculate an escape plan.

Kuma's features remained composed as he turned to face them, as if he knew the three of them were standing there the whole time. "Sorry," he said with a voice low, but calm, "I do not know where one could be."

"Mm, that's a shame," Hidan responded, gripping the handle of the scythe on his back, "I guess I will just have to make my sacrifices here, then," he threatened as he stared down at the seated monk.

"Hidan, our client wants him alive," Kakuzu muttered, watching Kuma's moves carefully although the monk remained seated.

"I know, that is what the girl's for," Hidan addressed his partner, "I haven't made a proper sacrifice in days! I'm close to breaking the commandments of Jashin!"

Sakura shuddered against the cold wind. She was rather hoping that this would not be a bloodbath for Kuma's sake. Even though she feared for him, the man did not look scared in the slightest. Instead, he narrowed his eyes at the trio, his dark eyes analyzing them. "I don't want trouble," he stated simply.

"Well, you got trouble!" Hidan lifted the scythe from his back and swung it downwards towards the sitting man. Sakura winced in anticipation for the decapitation of Kuma, but instead, the three-pronged blade penetrated only sand. In one fluid motion, Kuma had evaded the scythe by rolling to the side, successfully avoiding the weapon by a few inches. Before anyone could assess the skilled dodge performed by the monk, he leapt into the air, back-flipping over the trio so that they were behind him.

"Stop him!" Kakuzu growled, making the stunned Hidan and Sakura snap out of their state of awe. Hidan swung his scythe vertically again towards Kuma as he landed his backflip, crouched low to the ground. The monk managed to evade the attack a second time as he jumped to the side, but the blade snagged his cloak, pinning it to the ground. Kuma quickly removed the cover, exposing the blue and white monk robes that he wore underneath. Sakura was able to perceive a swirling design that resembled waves on the robes before he started running away from the beach and towards the market.

"Damn it!" hissed Hidan through clenched teeth as he missed his target again, "I thought we were dealing with a monk, not a shinobi! He's fucking dancing around my attacks like it's nothing!"

"He must have been trained in some sort of self-defense," responded Kakuzu, "Now stop complaining, he is getting away."

Hidan cast an annoyed glance at his partner before running off in the direction of the market. Kakuzu turned towards Sakura, who jumped slightly as his menacing gaze was directed towards her. "Trust me, you won't make it far if you try to escape," he threatened, "Stay close to me and follow my lead. If you so much as take a step in a different direction, I will kill you. I don't care what the Uchiha will think; you have information regarding the Akatsuki that makes you a potential threat to us so long as you are alive."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. She did have information about their location and descriptions of six of the members. She also did believe that Kakuzu was the kind of person that followed up on his threats, but she was not the kind of person who would let herself succumb to the enemy, no matter how menacing they appeared to be. She nodded anyways, signaling that she would obey. However, once his guard was down, she would take the chance to run.

Kakuzu tore his strange eyes away from the girl and turned towards the marketplace. "Let's go."

Sakura was a fast runner, but her speed was greatly reduced by the lack of chakra. She struggled to keep up with Kakuzu as he ran a few paces ahead of her, following a trail of destruction through the market that was clearly caused by Hidan's unrestrained attacks. She just managed to avoid tripping on watermelons that had fallen into the street when a wooden cart had been smashed to bits just moments ago. Although there were multiple slash marks throughout the marketplace from Hidan's scythe, Sakura saw no blood anywhere, indicating that all of Hidan's attacks on Kuma missed. She was both relieved that the man was still uninjured and impressed that he was able to avoid the attacks by an S-ranked criminal. She found it odd, though, that a mere monk was capable of defending himself against a skilled shinobi.

Before she could ponder the thought anymore, she heard terrified screams of villagers ahead, indicating that they were close to Hidan and Kuma. After Kakuzu and she ran a few more paces ahead, they saw Hidan and Kuma locked into another brawl in the middle of the street, kicking up dust in the air as they moved around. The villagers in the area quickly ran in the opposite direction of the fight to avoid being minced by Hidan's scythe. His actions were wild and disorganized as he tried to land a hit on Kuma, but failed miserably as he pierced only through air. Hidan's lips curled into a snarl as he became more frustrated, letting out a low growl at the man before him. From what Sakura could perceive, Kuma looked extremely tired as he continued to dodge the attacks by the sadist, looking for another chance to run. He may have had the technical abilities of a shinobi, but he lacked the stamina and chakra of one.

Kuma received his opportunity to escape when Hidan aimed a horizontal slash at his abdomen, but missed as Kuma jumped onto the roof of a shop as Hidan's scythe became wedged into the wall. As he struggled to pull the weapon out of the thick wood, Kuma took the chance to run again.

"Don't just stand there, Kakuzu!" Hidan yelled at his partner as he managed to remove the blades from the wall, "Help me catch the monk bastard!"

Kakuzu suddenly disappeared from Sakura's side and reappeared on the roof in front of Kuma, forcing him to skid to a stop and quickly change directions. With the two distracted with capturing the monk, Sakura recognized an opening to run. Adrenaline coursing through her veins as she saw her opportunity to escape, Sakura turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the two Akatsuki criminals. She sprinted though the street, her thoughts only set on fleeing.

She raced as fast as she could through the dirt road, dodging frantic pedestrians and other obstacles when necessary. She willed her body to move faster, be stronger, but without her chakra, she felt slow and weighed-down. Sakura briefly wondered if the Zombie Brothers realized she was escaping. But she dared not look behind her.

Unfortunately, she did not get far. After dashing only a few meters away, she felt hand roughly grab her slender neck. Sakura let out a strangled cough as she was caught off-guard and tried fighting against the hand, trying to pry the fingers away from her neck. She was allowed only a few seconds of struggling before she was quickly pulled backwards and dragged across the ground. She spared a glance upwards as she tried to regain her footing and saw that she was being choked by Kakuzu's disconnected forearm attached by long black tendrils that stretched to his body. She continued to be pulled along the street until she felt herself lift back into the air as the tendrils reattached Kakuzu's arm to his shoulder. She saw Kuma struggling against his grip as well by his other arm, experiencing the same mishap as Sakura as he tried to escape.

"Pitiful," Kakuzu addressed the two escapees, tightening his grip on both of their throats, "To think that either of you had a chance of deceiving us."

Sakura's vision slowly started to fade to darkness as she tried to gasp for air, but she soon felt a sharp pressure hit the back of her head, knocking her unconscious.

Sakura awoke with a pounding headache. She winced at the pain and kept her eyes closed, but surveyed her surroundings with her ears, listening to the subtle background noises. She heard a low crackling a short distant away as well as slow breathing. As she continued to listen to her surroundings for a few moments, she jumped slightly as something next to her moved, touching her arm. Her eyes shot open as she tried to move away, but she found that she was restrained. Ropes were wrapped tightly around her torso, binding her to a tree in a sitting position at its base. Her wrists and feet were also tied together with rope and were aching with pain from being bound so tightly.

Sakura turned her attention to the right when she felt something shift again. She had to turn her head far in order to see what it was. She was surprised to see the face of Kuma, staring back at her calmly although he was also bound to the tree by the same ropes. She realized that Hidan and Kakuzu must have bound them together to prevent them from escaping after they regained consciousness.

The pinkette furrowed her eyebrows as the man nodded his head to the right, signaling for her to look in that direction. With a dying fire casting enough light in the area so she could see, Sakura found that they were on the outside of a small clearing in a forest. She turned her head to find Hidan resting against a tree a short distance away, his head bend low, indicating that he was sleeping. She also saw a mass resting on the ground on the opposite side of the forest clearing and she assumed it to be Kakuzu.

"We must be quiet," Kuma whispered, regaining her attention. "They fell asleep about thirty minutes ago since they couldn't walk around Kiri with two unconscious bodies, so they probably will not hear us if we are discreet."

Sakura nodded, casting an extra glance at the sleeping forms before her before turning back to Kuma. "Right," Sakura said softly, slightly confused, "What is it that you want to talk about?"

His sharp features were even more defined against the waning embers of the fire. "You are against them, no? We should make an effort to escape."

Sakura widened her eyes in surprise. How long was this guy awake to already begin calculating plans of escape? Although she was all for escaping, her sudden flashback to Kakuzu easily disarming her before she could even take a step in the opposite direction made her spirits fall and expression falter.

"What's wrong?" Kuma asked, noticing the girl's worried appearance.

Sakura looked downward, away from the hopeful eyes of the monk before her. How could she tell him that they didn't stand a chance against the immortal duo? "It's just…" she said quietly, trying not to let her voice waver, "They are stronger than you think, stronger than I even anticipated."

She spared a sideways glance at Kuma, who looked confused. "What do you mean?" he asked calmly.

Sakura sighed. She might as well tell him the truth, although she wanted as few people as possible to know of her current situation. But she felt she could trust the man before her. He certainly trusted her if he planned on escaping with her despite being associated with his captors.

"Not long ago," she continued her voice low as she recollected the past week, "I was captured by the Akatsuki after a year of trying to avoid them. I thought when the time came for the next encounter with them, I would be stronger and able to fight back. But I was wrong. They took me away without so much as a struggle on my part and forced me to become their personal medic." She hung her head low in shame, remembering being overpowered by the influence of Itachi's Sharingan. "Now my title as a medic and kunoichi is tarnished by my relations with them and I am now considered a criminal."

After a few quiet moments passed between the two, Kuma spoke, his voice carrying unmistakable sorrow. "I know what it is like, to be innocent yet everyone believes you are guilty. I have spent the last twenty years of my life running as well."

Surprised, Sakura turned to the monk, but his eyes were closed as he began to remember his dreadful past. "When I was just a boy," he continued, "I was taken off the streets of Kiri and raised by a group of monks who worshipped a dragon god that resided in the ocean. I was completely devoted to them; they saved me from my lonely, thieving life as an orphan and gave me a home. But there came a day when the monks were banished from Kiri because our way of life encouraged nonviolent practices, which the Mizukage believed had a bad effect on his military. Before he could retaliate, we left, not wanting to cause uproar in the village. We constructed a new shrine on a coast near Kiri that was underground so we could pray and practice passive taijutsu in peace.

"Unfortunately, our days of amity were numbered. The Mist ninja discovered our location in a matter of months. I watched as the monks who raised me jumped to their deaths off the side of the cliff because they did not want to be taken by the enemy. By distracting the ninja with their suicides, the other child monks and I were given a chance to escape. But while we were able to avoid the enemy then, we were continuously hunted by other shinobi until everyone, excluding myself, was killed."

Sakura's eyes widened in realization. This was the story that Kisame had told her a few days ago, minus the part about the children escapees! How did she not recognize it earlier?! Kakuzu described that the target was a monk in Kiri that worshipped a Sea Dragon, and the patterns on Kuma's robes resembled the wave design on the massive door in the hideout! Kuma was a living monk that resided in the Akatsuki hideout before it was abandoned! Which meant…

"Please, Kuma!" Sakura pleaded quietly but enthusiastically, her heartbeat racing in excitement at her new discovery, "You must tell me how you escaped the shrine!"

Kuma's eyebrows arched in confusion at the girl's strange request. "Why would you need to know such a thing?" he questioned in curiosity.

"The Akatsuki hideout that serves as my prison was your former underground shrine! Please! You must tell me how you escaped so I can free myself from them!" Was this all a coincidence? She had little time to process the thought as the exhilaration of being able to escape took over her mind.

Kuma's expression remained unreadable as he processed the green-eyed girl's plea. "I see…," he said slowly, as if contemplating something, "I will tell you. But I am afraid that I must ask a favor of you. You have an alternate means of escaping if I tell you, but my only chance of running is now. You must aid in my escape and make sure my captors don't follow me, which means you cannot flee with me. I am sorry to impose this deal with you, but I am the last of my kind. I must carry on my religion; I owe it to the people that saved my life. Do you accept?"

Under normal circumstances, Sakura would have been taken aback by his agreement, but she was desperate. Desperate enough to trust that the information he was about to give her was correct and that the alternate escape route still existed, for she wouldn't be able to find out until she was back in the hideout. Despite these odds, she nodded her head. As strange of a coincidence this was, the fates were definitely working in her favor.

Kuma let out a held breath and his body relaxed a little. He was just as desperate and anxious as she was. "Very well. The monks were skilled and clever architects and were no fools. They knew that we would be discovered eventually, so they created an alternate escape route. However, in order for the escape route to be inconspicuous, they had to make it small and unnoticeable. It was a tunnel that was only big enough for a child to crawl through, but it can be possible for a small woman such as you. It is located in the mouth of a dragon sculpture built into a large fountain near the entrance of the shrine. If you crawl upwards into the mouth, you should reach an outside route that is in a forest," he concluded.

Sakura nodded again as the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. She saw the dragon fountain that he mentioned before when she met Kakuzu and Hidan. If she could make her way to the fountain, then escape was guaranteed. Her spirit lifted at the thought of being free once again.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Kuma's low voice. "Now please, help me escape."

"Right," Sakura whispered, "There is a dagger strapped to my right leg. I might be able to cut the bonds with it." The girl struggled against the restraints as she tried to loosen the ropes around her torso. They barely slackened, but it was enough for her to move closer to Kuma. When she was a foot away from him, she worked on loosening the bonds on her hands, as did the monk. Luckily for her, the metal chakra suppressor bracelets prevented the tight ropes from biting into her skin, but Kuma on the other hand grunted in pain as he fought against them, causing his wrists to bleed as the ropes rubbed his skin raw.

When she was able to move her hands a bit, she reached down and grabbed the handle of the knife with her fingers. Kuma lifted his bleeding hands to her as she fumbled with the dagger, trying to get a better grip so she could saw through the ropes. It seemed like hours before she cut the thick ropes one by one, her hands cramping from the awkward position she was holding the knife. Once his hands were released, he took the small blade from Sakura and quickly began to cut the ropes around his torso and feet.

When he was completely freed from his bonds, he quickly stood, surveying his surroundings. Sakura expected him to bolt from the area right then and there like a rabbit escaping from its prey, but instead, he turned to her and knelt down so he could see her face. "I thank you, and I am sorry for leaving you like this," he said softly, his voice showing regret as he looked at the girl before him.

"Please," Sakura said lightly, "We made a deal. I have my chance to escape at a later time. Go now. I will make sure that they don't follow you."

Kuma hesitantly nodded, but remained kneeling, holding the blade in front of him. "I thank you," he said to her, lowering his head so he was bowing, "Please take back your dagger. You will need it more than I."

An idea suddenly crossed her mind as she stared at the small blade as it gleamed in the light of the fire. "Wait, Kuma. I must ask you a favor."

Kuma lifted his head to face the girl, eager to appease her request. "Ask anything of me. I owe you my life."

"I need you to take the dagger to Konoha and deliver a message for me."

A/N: Cliffhanger! Gah! I wonder who she is going to contact in Konoha…?

Since you guys are reviewing so much, I have been working extra hard to finish these chapters. Your comments really motivate me. I thank you all for your kind words!

Hopefully I can update again soon. See you all until then!