A Risky Proposition

A continuation of Complications

When Sakura woke up, she felt completely drained and sore and achy all over. Kakuzu was standing guard outside her cell, not even bothering to look at her. She winced in pain as she slowly rolled herself to a kneeling position. Her head and her jaw burned so badly that she felt nauseous.

Kakuzu had been a careful eye on her, it had been making him extremely uncomfortable to see her bound and battered that way on the floor…it looked…wrong somehow, to see her so powerless. He silently cursed Leader for unwittingly throwing this wrench into his relationship. He watched from the corner of his eye as she rolled herself to her knees, breathing deeply to keep from vomiting.

Well, he could have let her get away discreetly and there was a fifty percent chance that Leader would be none the wiser. Because for all the talk that Leaf ninja were soft, they were notoriously difficult to take down. She glared at him, her jade eyes burning softly in the semi-darkness, filled with anger at his betrayal.

For a moment, he expected her to start railing at him though he thoroughly deserved it, but it would be dangerous for both of them. His eyes sang her a warning to remain silent and Sakura's expression turned cold. She turned away from him as though he was beneath her notice. At least she was intelligent enough to keep her mouth shut about their former relationship.

Kakuzu wondered why he had allowed it to progress this far. I have little to offer you. You should have stuck to people within your reach Sakura. He thought, feeling angry at her all of a sudden. Then he got angry at himself as he had done nothing to stop it, realized that he had even encouraged it in a passive way.

"Kakuzu, it's time." Kisame called from the top of the stairs.

Kakuzu got up and hauled her to her feet, his green eyes glanced around for a moment then he bent down and whispered in her ear.

"For the sake of our sanity, just cooperate."

He sighed, supposing he should have used a more pleading tone to make his point, but it was not in his nature to plead.

She stared at him, thunderstruck for a moment before her expression turned into one of quiet defiance. Kakuzu grit his teeth before pushing her through the door and he settled outside to guard against a possible escape.

Sakura stared at the weird, flickering holograph of the gray eyed man standing there.

"Sakura Haruno you have been recruited into the Akatsuki."

"Why? Don't you usually take in missing nin?"

"Yes, but we are in need of your skills, both in battle and in healing. If you refuse you will forfeit your life."

"Then I'm afraid you'll just have to kill me. Because there's no way in hell that I could willingly kill my best friend." She thought venomously and was about to say so when a thought occurred to her. If Naruto were to get captured she would be in a prime position to save his life but this would mean that she had to play her cards very carefully and that she'd spend the rest of her days a missing nin, but it would be worth it if she could do it. Taking a deep mental breath she prayed that this little gamble of hers would pay off. After all, she couldn't save Naruto if she were dead.

"You want to kill my best friend. Why should I help you?" She spat angrily.

Pein tilted his head.

"Because there may be a way for you to save his life." He answered simply.

"If that's true then why didn't you bother saving the others?" She asked, green eyes boring into his suspiciously.

"Because a ninja with perfect chakra control is a very rare thing and judging by my careful calculation, it would take nothing less to save a jinchuuriki from dying with their demon. The cost would be risky for the caster of this jutsu but there is a 20 percent chance of both of you living and if you should want to test it, well we do have three more jinchuuriki to capture."

He could see he'd caught her attention now, though she still didn't trust him.

"What if I presented the scroll to you for your perusal before you make a decision Haruno-san?"

She thought hard about this and Pein patiently waited for her decision. It would be difficult for her to make since she and their target were very close.

Sakura swallowed hard. They wanted her to experiment on two faceless, nameless people whose lives would probably be as difficult as Naruto and the Kazekage's had? If there was a chance to save their lives, she supposed that there would be no harm in looking at the scroll. Finally she looked up at the holographic figure.

"That would be acceptable."

He nodded.

"I will have the scroll brought to you by tomorrow Haruno-san."

Sakura rubbed her palm over her eyes. It had been a long, trying day and she needed to regain her chakra to heal herself, Kakuzu opened the door and escorted her back to her prison cell, if it hadn't been so quiet, she might have missed his barely audible sigh of relief.