Well here goes this thing again, I'm so happy you guys have stuck with me for so long and I'm glad I have people willing to reread this fic to reacquaint themselves with it anew. I hope you enjoy the chapter, as always, if you have questions about the fic, or if you have an idea you'd like me to consider for the fic, hit me a review or PM.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter: Twenty one: The Score

Somewhere near Lightning:

To say they were in a desperate situation would be a huge understatement. Saku's tiger mask lay broken in pieces between him and the female plant Akatsuki, Zetsu. Blood had long ago ran into his left eye from the cut above it when she had broke his mask. He supposed he didn't need the mask, the Akatsuki seemed to already know who he was. Thus this planned ambush for him.

He'd been suspicious as he reasoned out why the guard would run with the scroll into the forest and they hadn't yet caught up, he had realize too late that it had all been a trap, not from the owners of the scroll, but from Akatsuki. They may have even set up this mission to start with, giving false information that lead him and Neji to this mission.

Zetsu had done something to their chakra and poisoned Neji, thus why he was guarding the unconscious kunoichi that lay in a ungraceful heap behind him. He'd have liked to make sure she was alright, but he couldn't even look away from the Akatsuki to see if she still breathed at all.

Saku had fought Akatsuki before, not this one, but still it was only the one he had to fight. He had fought Akatsuki as a child, and with Chiyo's help, defeated Sasori. He was an adult and ANBU now, so one Akatsuki shouldn't been too hard, probably.

' Yes Saku remain optimistic, you won't get yourself or Neji killed that way.' Saku thought to himself in sarcasm. He had to face it, this was very bad.

He flinched when he felt two more chakra signatures from above come into range. Fantastic, reinforcements. He didn't know what he'd ever done to be this hated, but the universe had to despise him something great to shove all this crap on him, plus three Akatsuki against himself and an unconscious teammate.

He knew what they could possibly want, after all it wasn't a secret he was Naruto's teammate, but they had to know he'd never help them get to her, so what would be the point of coming after him? Did they want him for his medic expertise? If Akatsuki wanted him for the same reason Kohona did, he was done with life in general.

Saku knew what these people were capable of, he knew he couldn't surrender, he had to fight, to the death, if need be. He was sure they wanted him alive, but he wasn't about that go easily. Besides, he glanced back at Neji quickly with a clench of jaws, he had to think of her at this point. He needed to end this quickly. He knew he'd not win, but...

Saku sighed, but what? If he gave up right away, knowing he was outnumbered and overpowered, that could give him time to save Neji at least, if he fought he'd not win, even if, Kami willing, he did win, it would take too much time and chakra and he didn't know what Zetsu had poisoned her with, let alone the fact he wouldn't have enough chakra to heal her at that point. The only way to make sure she lived...unfortunately would not be what he'd have chosen had he been alone.

Two figures dropped behind Zetsu from a large winged creature's back, both women as well, but that was to be expected. One he knew, Deidara, the blond Kakashi had fought while he had been fighting with Chiyo, against Sasori, the other had red hair and...

Saku clenched the kunai in his hand tighter. The other should be dead.

" I see time has treated you well Sakura." Sasori herself said, evenly, calm considering she should be dead at this point. How could she be alive? Saku and Sasori's own grandfather had killed her, there had been no doubt, Kankuro had her body as one of her puppets for Kami's sake.

" And for someone dead, you seem well off Sasori." Saku retorted just as evenly. Sasori's mouth twitched slightly at his words.

" Let us not beat around the bush Sakura, you know very well you do not stand a chance. You could perhaps kill one of us, maybe injure the second, but the third would have long ended your life. Surrender to us, and you and your partner can live." Sasori offered easily. She had a point and he knew it. His eyes glanced to the side, but he didn't dare look away from the three Akatsuki.

Saku was already tired from fighting the Akatsuki Zetsu, and the woman/plant person, didn't even look winded. Of course she had taken his chakra somehow, or did something that his body was rejecting, making him break out in a cold sweat. He knew he wasn't poisoned, but that still wasn't all that great an accomplishment considering all the other crap he was into right now. He would have actually preferred he be unconscious and poisoned, he supposed he'd felt worse.

If he allowed himself to be captured, he would have an opportunity later to escape, opposed to dying right now. Saku knew it was the best chance, not only for him, but for Neji as well. Neji annoyed the hell out of him sure, and she never listened at all, but he wasn't about to let her die because she was annoying, if that was the case he would have let a lot of people he healed die.

Saku lowered his kunai and met Sasori's grey brown eyes, she seemed pleased he did so, it was more expressive then he was use to, and...he peered closer surprised. She was older. How could she possibly be older, she was just apuppet. Though people who are killed usually don't show up alive either, so maybe it was just another mystery to add to the growing list surrounding Sasori.

" I assume you want my cooperation, do you need help with something? Healing? Naruto?" Saku asked putting the kunai in it's pouch and crossing his arms, he winced as he did, his shoulder felt like it possibly could be on the verge of falling off all together.

Sasori rose a brow simply at his questions.

" Perhaps." She added mysteriously. Saku didn't like that at all, but he hoped he'd at least have a chance with this suicide plan.

" If I come willingly, will you bring my partner as well? I want a chance to save her from whatever your ' friend' poisoned her with." Saku said.

" Or we could just use her as incentive for you to come willingly, yeah." The blond, Deidara, spoke up with a grin. Saku gave her a firm glare.

" You won't touch her at all, or else I'll fight to the dead and you'll lose your chance at whatever you need me for. I assume it's something if you went to all this trouble to get me out of Kohona and alone." Saku said hoping he was right and he wasn't burning his bridges before he could cross them. Saku kept his eyes on Sasori's.

" You'd rather we bring her then let her free?" Zetsu, the white part he assumed, asked. Saku didn't glance her way, he knew Sasori, he wasn't letting her out of his sight for a second, someone who could apparently come back to life shouldn't be un-watched.

" I'm not stupid, she'll die if she's left untreated. I ask you to let me save her, as long as she lives I'll cooperate with you, no complaints." Saku bargained

" My, how noble of you, yeah." Deidara said sarcastically as she rolled light blue eyes. Sasori tilted her head, red hair falling to brush her shoulders as she did.

" Your word, Sakura Haruno?" Sasori asked.

" What use is a promise-" Deidara began, but Sasori held up a hand, a hand that looked oddly real. Saku eyed Sasori more warily. What was going on with her?

" Yes, if you can promise in turn, that Neji will live, I will give my word." Saku said with a firm nod. Sasori nodded back.

" Then you'll have no problem being blindfolded and tied." She said as she motioned the blond over to him. He forced himself to relax as Deidara came over with a sly smirk on her face.

" No problem at all." He said simply as Deidara took his hands in hers and tied them with clay ropes, he knew that she could detonate them any minute too. That would make escaping with his arms intact a little harder. Maybe he should re-consider how important his arms were to him.

He jerked slightly when something wet ran across his wrist. She giggled next to him, coming to stand in front of him with the cloth of a blindfold, she showed him her hands and the mouths there. He frowned. Well wasn't that interesting?

How did those work? He'd have to think about it further later.

" Maybe we can play later, pretty boy, yeah." She whispered in his ear as she tied the blindfold around his head and eyes. He felt her remove his headband and frowned at it. Why would she need that off?

" You'll find out how explosive time with me can be, yeah." She purred and with her own tongue swiped through the blood on his throat, that had run down from his brow. He held still, he said he'd cooperate without complaint. Besides, he'd dealt with worse things then sexual harassment from Akatsuki.

Warm hands took his arm in hand and steered him to no doubt Deidara's clay creature. They couldn't be Deidara's hands she was in front of him, maybe it was Zetsu? It wasn't Sasori her hands we cold, wooden.

" Neji." He reminded them.

" I keep my word Sakura." Sasori said from behind him, her hands the ones steering him to step up onto the creature. He stumbled on the soft thing in surprise. Why were her hands warm? How could her hands have any heat at all to them let alone be that soft? It was real skin, real flesh.

" Why are you warm?" He questioned as he was forced to sit on the creature. He was relieved to feel Neji's chakra and then Deidara, or Zetsu, laid her at his side, he could feel her arm against his leg.

" I am surprised you did not ask how I escaped the fate you and grandfather tired to inflict." Sasori said sitting at his side. He distantly heard the blond, Deidara, talking to Zetsu, but the words were muffled and too far away to hear. A moment later Deidara returned anyway and boarded the creature and then they were airborne.

" You did die." Saku corrected. Warm fingers brushed the nape of his neck and he tensed up startled at it. How unlike the cold puppet Sasori he'd met before.

" My puppet self did die, this is my human body, the original. I had tossed it away completely." Saku frowned confused.

" Your real body? But didn't you replace parts of it piece at a time?" Saku asked puzzled.

" My puppet body was what I transferred my mind and core into to gain immortality for my art. I left this body behind, after you killed my puppet body, Deidara and Kakuzu woke this one, which for some reason I could never throw away completely." Saku had long ago tensed up at this information.

" Kakuzu kept this body preserved just in case I was ever killed in my puppet body, my mind returned and with a new heart provided by Kakuzu, I am alive." Sasori explained. She was awfully forthcoming considering he had helped kill her once.

" That's why you've aged." Saku said simply. She had looked so young before, a teenager, and now she looked closer to Kakashi's age. Sasori tensed at his words.

" I am working on retrieving my puppet body from Kankuro." Sasori said simply. Saku was the one to tense this time, worried about Kankuro's safety at that information. If he ever got free, he'd have to warn her.

" It was pretty disturbing to see her use...you." Saku said changing the subject so she wouldn't get suspicious as to why he had tensed up. He enjoyed Kankuro's company, but it had been very awkward for him to see Sasori's body being used so easily. It always startled him when she pulled it out, he still could not fight at her side without flinching when she used it.

" It disturbed you to see my old body used?" Sasori asked curious.

" I didn't like to be reminded, no. It seemed...disrespectful to use you like that." Saku said honestly, but Kankuro hated Akatsuki after they had killed Gaara, and Chiyo had died bringing him back, so it was only natural she would want to use Sasori's body in retaliation. Sasori fell silent at his side. He took that time to lean backward and foind Neji's cheek with his fingers.

She was still breathing, shallowly however, and her skin was cold and clammy.

" She will be taken care of back at the base." Sasori informed obviously watching him closely. Saku frowned. Would they make it? She may not have that much time.

XxXxXxxXxXxXxxXxxXxxX

Kohona:

" What's the chance Akatsuki captured him verses he just ran off?" Shisui asked sitting in the window of the Hokage tower. Itachi glanced over, she was standing properly in front of the Hokage, unlike her cousin. The Hokage for his part, didn't seem to mind Shisui's casualness in his presence.

" Akatsuki have been watching him lately, it could be they set up the entire mission to capture Sakura with only the Hyuuga to assist him." Itachi commented.

" How would Akatsuki know Sakura would take the mission at all? Itachi gave it without my permission. I didn't want Sakura out of Kohona at all with only a week left to find a lover and get the Elders off my ass." Tsunade said with crossed arms. Itachi didn't even flinch.

" Well maybe they didn't set up the mission, but they followed him once he left. Depending on how desperate they are for him, they could have been waiting on our boarder for him to leave." Jiraiya commented next to Shisui on the ledge of the window. Tsunade poured himself a cup of Sake and then downed it in a quick shot, slamming the cup hard on the desk.

" What could Akatsuki possibly want with Saku? He's not Naruto, and he would never help them get Naruto." Tsunade pointed out.

" Bait perhaps, knowing Saku is Naruto's old teammate perhaps they thought the simplest thing would be to capture him to get Naruto to leave the village to save him?" Jiraiya asked with a shrug.

" They should know we'd never let Naruto anywhere near them." Tsunade retorted pouring another cup.

" Then maybe they need Saku for another reason. He is a medic and a man." Shisui said with a wave of hand.

" Even if they did find out about Saku's line, why would Akatsuki possibly need him to breed? They shouldn't care about the population." Tsunade said shaking his head.

" Gaining control of someone like Saku, who has many purposes, could be priceless. He could be used as a bargaining chip to the highest bidder if they let who he was, and what he could possibly to do save us all, slip." Jiraiya said with a raised brow. Tsunade huffed.

" So what do we do? Go off on a goose chase to track down Saku and Neji's path and hope we find a note that said the Akatsuki kidnapped him?" Shisui said in sarcasm. Jiraiya snorted.

" If only tracking Akatsuki were that easy." She muttered.

" And if Sakura did leave on his own accord?" Itachi asked bringing all eyes to her.

" I highly doubt Sakura would leave us just for the Elders crap. He's under a lot of stress true, but he wouldn't hurt his teammate no mater how much she annoyed him, and he wouldn't go rouge." Tsunade said confidently.

" Anyone who is being used would rethink their position and try to find a way out." Itachi said reasonably. Shisui glanced her way in confusion. Why did it seem Itachi was so sure he left willingly?

" Then where is Neji? She wouldn't have let him leave willingly, and he wouldn't have killed her." Shisui asked.

" Knowing the Hyuuga she left of her own will, she was never fond of Saku to begin with." Tsunade said and rolled his eyes.

" I doubt it's ever that simple." Itachi said her hands folded behind her back.

Shizune knocked and came hurrying in with panic on his face. Tsunade stood alarmed.

" Neji Hyuuga was found unconscious at the gate, she seems to have been through a great battle." Shizune said in a rush.

" Sakura?" Tsunade asked coming quickly to him. Shizune reached into her pocket and pulled out a headband. It was a leaf headband, and black. Tsunade recognized it as Sakura's.

" Neji was grasping this in her hand." Shizune said. Across the center was a bloodied scratch over the symbol of their village.

XxXxXxXxxXxxXxxXxxXxxxxXxxX

Akatsuki base:

Saku upon being untied and blindfolded didn't take a second to look around the room they had put him and Neji in, he immediately fell to his knees at her side and put glowing hands over her chest and got to work.

The poison wasn't as complicated as Sasori's thankfully. He didn't have the kind of tools to cure that. He was actually surprised that they had allowed him to keep his poisons and antidotes. He didn't have one for her, but it was still kind of reckless to let him keep such dangerous things right?

They of course had taken his weapons and Neji's, and had found even the most hidden. Of course they had practically strip searched him to do it too, leaving him in nothing but his nin-pants with his clothes in a pile by the door. He couldn't care less as he worked on Neji. It took a long time to make her stable, and that wasn't even curing the poison. Whatever the poison did wouldn't kill her at this point, but it was certainly not great on her health either. It was probably why she still hadn't woken.

Perhaps it was something to keep her unconscious for whatever they had planned for him. He was at least certain she wasn't going to die, that was a huge relief, though it brought guilt down on him as well. He'd gotten her into this mess to start with. He'd wanted to leave the village if only for a week. He had to get away, the stress was getting to him. How could he do everything they wanted so easily?

It wasn't so easy to find the person you wanted to be with the rest of your life, let alone three of them. Besides when he thought of what the villages would do to his children, no doubt what they'd done to him in the first place, he didn't want that for them. It made him want to flee. However he wasn't a coward. He would never leave his village, the entire population bordering on complete extinction, on just for the fact he didn't want to be used.

If he could be used to get the population away from extinction for the next generation at least, and then work on a cure for their decline in male children, then it would be worth any trouble he went through now to see the human race continue.

However he shouldn't be thinking of that while he was being held prisoner by Akatsuki. He had tended Neji's well being and now he needed to find a way to escape. It would be much harder in the Akatsuki base. He'd been blindfolded, but he could still remember the steps and turns he'd taken, even if it had been very confusing. Of course this was Akatsuki their base shouldn't be that easy, perhaps it wouldn't be if he ever did escape.

Getting out to escape would be easy, getting around without being caught, with Neji in his arms, in a base full of Akatsuki, would be the hardest thing he possibly ever had to try. Perhaps he best plan before he do anything, besides it wasn't wise to move Neji around too much after just stabilizing her. He still wasn't sure the long term effects this poison was going to have.

He had been so focused he didn't even hear Sasori or Deidara leave, not until he stood and noticed they were gone. He went to his pile of clothes and picked them up. Seeing what they had left him. Not much, but more then he'd thought. Maybe with Sasori they figured any harm he could do with any of his poisons or medical scrolls could be dealt with easily. That or they underestimated him greatly.

He possibly couldn't use anything they left him to escape, but that wasn't the point. He could have used any of the poisons to end his and Neji's own life if anything, but obviously they didn't think he was that desperate, and he wasn't.

He placed his clothes on the floor, picked Neji up gently, and put her on the only bed in the room. It was better then her being on the cold floor certainly. He looked around after covering her and making sure she was well supported and as comfortable as she could get.

The room was bare except the bed, there was no one lurking in any shadows either.

He knelt at her side on the balls of his feet, reaching out a hand to brush back her coffee colored hair from her face. She was pale skinned, paler then Shisui and Itachi.

" I'm sorry I got you into this Neji, but I promise I'll get you out off it. Then you can go back to hating my guts." He said and pressed his face into her hair and sighed. Under the scent of blood and sweat was her, it was comforting in the uncertainty of their lives.

It seemed like only a few minutes after before Deidara and Sasori returned for him. Deidara grinned at him, giving him a appreciative once over.

" I see you conveniently forgot to dress, that's good, yeah." Deidara said amused. Saku frowned and crossed his arms over his bare chest. He had forgotten, he hadn't seen a point at the time, too busy thinking of an escape plan after tending Neji, and then trying to heal his own abused body with the chakra he had left.

" Why?" Saku questioned. They way she had said that sounded like she had something in mind. She glanced over at Sasori as if asking for permission to tell him. Sasori tilted her head at him, as if fascinated by his body, he remembered her wanting to use his body for a puppet and shuttered, then she rose her eyes to his.

" You came willingly, you partner is well and alive, you gave your word to cooperate without complaint." Sasori said waving a hand. He dropped his arms to his sides. He wasn't going to like what she had to say next, he already felt it.

" I suggested we use you for your healing and knowledge of poisons, you will be used as a medic for the Akatsuki." Saku frowned. Well that wasn't so bad.

" For how long? Don't you have medic's? Why do you need me? Not just for that." Saku said confidently. They couldn't possibly want him for just that. Sure he was a skilled medic that was only rivaled by Tsunade himself, but that didn't account for kidnapping him.

" Well we have Medic's, though not as pleasant in healing for sure. Yeah." Deidara said and rubbed her arm as if it hurt, or in a phantom memory.

" So though you'll be used as a medic you'll really just be used for whatever the organization needs you for." Sasori revealed.

" Which is?" Saku asked unhappily. He saw where this was going. He hated being right.

" Well there's so much stress in being Akatsuki and you seem to be such a pretty form of stress relief, yeah." Deidara said with a wicked grin. Saku glared at her.

" You didn't capture me to be a Medic or whore, both of which you could easily get. What do you want from me?" Saku demanded. He definitely needed an escape plan and quick.

" We just needed you out of the way." Sasori said simply.

End chapter:

It's shorter then usual and I'm sorry for that, but it's out there and I got an update for you guys. This chapter was a bit harder for me to write, I had to think of what the heck Akatsuki wanted with Sakura, I mean you can't just kidnap someone because they're sexy and you want to shag, I mean, you could, but that'd be silly. So yeah, that's that. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

If you have questions or anything you want to say, hit me with a PM or review.

Thankx for sticking around guys, seriously. I like hearing what you guys think so tell me about it. :D Until next time.

Kyo