Emerald eyes narrowed as yet another flare of red chakra alerted the kunoichi to the location of the Kyuubi's vessel. Sakura sighed. If Naruto and the other person had to follow her, they could at least be more discreet. It was almost insulting that they thought she wouldn't sense them. She paused for a moment before continuing on at her neck-breaking speed. Perhaps it wasn't all that bad. The other person was someone she probably wouldn't have sensed at all except for the smell of blood that occasionally reached her through the wind and her own demon's insistence that two others were following her. As for Naruto, she couldn't really blame him. She winced as her chakra exploded from her body, only to hit the shield she'd set up after the first explosion. It reflected back at her, scorching her flesh. No, she definitely couldn't look down on Naruto for not being able to control his chakra – not if she was having trouble as well. It was most likely a side effect from releasing the demon so much.

Still, whether it was Naruto's fault or not, she couldn't have Kisame realizing the boy was there. Akatsuki was after him after all, and although Kaoru seemed nice enough, the pink-haired kunoichi had no intention of joining said organization. Having two demons following her would only make matters worse. Even more, murmured Inner Sakura sadly, if he follows, we might turn on him as well. Like Sasuke.

Sakura shook away the thought and spun around resolutely. "All right, demon. You wanna do something? Here's your chance." With a wicked grin, she dropped the chakra shield and began pouring all of the demon's energy into the ground below her. What the hell are you thinking! Sakura just grinned even more at the demon's yelling. "Don't worry. You'll like it. It's your sort of thing."

Naruto and Gaara started to slow down as they realized Sakura had stopped and was facing them. Gaara's eyes flicked down to the pool of green and red chakra she was standing in. Without a word, he began backing away, dragging Naruto with him. Naruto glared. "Hey! What d'ya think you're doing?!"

"Brace yourself."

Sakura screwed her eyes shut as the last bit of the chakra she was willing to give up drained into the ground. "Raikan!" she shouted, jumping away from the explosion she'd set off. Suddenly she seemed to stop, floating in mid-air for a moment as the wave of power washed over her. Not far away, Naruto watched in awe as she was engulfed in a bright green light, her eyes snapping open in surprise. Then she was gone, shoved out of the way by her own power. Naruto cursed as Gaara's wall of sand covered him from the green light approaching.

"It's speeding up as it goes out," Gaara noted calmly.

Naruto blinked at him in confusion until a stone flew through the sand shield, leaving a bloody streak as it whizzed past his cheek. Naruto cursed again. What the hell did Sakura think she was doing?

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Kaoru nudged the bleeding girl at her feet. "Oi. . . . It's good that you got rid of those two, but honestly . . . don't you think you could've done it without drawing as much attention to yourself?" Shaking her head, the violet-eyed woman motioned for Kisame to come over.

The mist missing-nin merely glared at her and continued trying to pull their hostage out of the rubble that had not too long ago been a shack. "What do you want?" he snarled, shoving off another board and grabbing Kakashi's arm.

Kaoru rolled her eyes and walked over. "She's unconscious right now. I want to wait until she wakes up, then ask her if she'll join Akatsuki or not. Until then – go return Kakashi to the two that were following her." Seeing the derision in her partner's look, she turned away and began tending to Sakura's wounds again. The girl moaned. "Not that I should have to explain myself, but Sakura-chan is much more useful to us if she's willing. If we have her teacher and are blackmailing her into saying yes, it means nothing, and she'll have even more of a grudge against us. We need to know where she stands."

Shrugging, Kisame slung Kakashi over his shoulder and stood. "And if she says no?" he asked as he disappeared to bring back the grey-haired man.

Sakura turned in her sleep, a troubled look on her face, as Kaoru's look hardened. "Not a problem, Sakura-chan. Not a problem at all," she whispered, watching Sakura's eyes flutter open.

The girl winced as the bright afternoon light hit her eyes. "Yuki-chan?" she asked, coughing. Eyes widening, the kunoichi scrambled to her feet and looked about. "Where's Kakashi-san?!"

"Don't worry about him – he's being returned to your friends as we speak. I didn't want him to be a deciding factor in this," Kaoru laughed, easily switching back into her role as a twelve year old. "He's in good shape too. Kisame wasn't allowed to hurt him at all."

Sakura sighed, visibly relieved. "That's good then."

Amethyst eyes narrowed as Sakura turned to leave. "Sakura-chan," Kaoru started with a warning tone. "You haven't answered my question yet."

Without looking back, Sakura answered coldly, "What question is that, Yuki-chan?"

Kaoru stepped closer, wrapping her arms around Sakura's waist and breathing in the scent of blood. "Will you join me? Will you join Akatsuki and return with me?" Her twelve year old image wavered slightly as she pressed her face to Sakura's neck. "I promise you won't regret it – ever."

The pink-haired genin stiffened and pulled away from the embrace. Smiling softly, the girl turned back to face Kaoru and shook her head. "Kakashi's already being returned home? Then I've got to be going. I never planned on becoming a part of your organization."

Sakura started to back away, guard lowered by the childish image Kaoru presented. She was stopped, however, by the sudden coldness engulfing her. She gasped slightly as she glanced down to see ice slowly creeping up her body. Her head shot back up to meet an older version of Yuki Kaoru smirking at her. "Wha – what? How?"

Rolling her eyes, the missing-nin once again closed the distance between them and ran her thumb along the frozen kunoichi's jaw, tilting Sakura's head up to her. Making her voice higher, she imitated mockingly, "Wha – what? Why is sweet little Yuki-chan suddenly using ninjutsu on me? Oh no! Whatever shall I do?" Her voice dropping back to normal, she continued, "Honestly, Sakura-chan. Our reports said that you were supposed to be good at dealing with genjutsu. Didn't you notice me using it?"

She spun around with kunai in hand, grinning as the real Sakura's eyes widened in shock, and struck the girl's head. The frozen duplicate turned into a log in a poof of smoke as Sakura struck the ground, out cold.

"Doing it so she likes us, right?" asked Kisame, appearing behind her.

Kaoru glared at him and slung the unconscious girl over her shoulder. "Shut up."

"Whatever you say – you're the leader of this mission, after all."

"I said shut up!"

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Naruto groaned as he examined the site the chakra had come from. He was covered in scratches from the few rocks that managed to force their way past the sand protecting Gaara and him. "Damn. . . . What did Sakura think she was doing? Whatever demon's in her isn't going to like her using all its energy like that, and what if she's attacked?" He bit his lip, glancing around once more in hopes that his crush would magically appear somewhere.

Kid, she's not here. I can sense it, muttered the Kyuubi. Although he didn't like to admit it, he'd been a bit excited at the prospect of meeting that demon again. Maybe he would've gotten a chance to fight her. . . . She was one of the only demons he knew of that had willingly sealed herself within a host, and in the past he'd killed her vessels in hopes of eliminating her. However, she always managed to find a new one just soon enough to save her pathetic life. Now that he was sealed as well though . . . it was possible that she might know how to get out from the vessel's body, and that would be useful. The fox-demon growled as he sensed a familiar chakra heading towards them. Shark-face on the way. Look out.

Naruto jumped as the grey-skinned man that had once attacked him in a hotel appeared carrying Kakashi. Naruto's eyes widened. "Kakashi-sensei!" Glaring as the S-rank criminal set Kakashi down before Naruto and Gaara, Naruto pointed and exclaimed, "What did you do to our sensei, and where's Sakura-chan?!"

Kisame disappeared and Gaara began walking back towards Konoha, leaving Naruto to pick up his teacher and chase after the red-haired boy, cursing the entire way. Eyes narrowing in determination, he swore silently, "I'll find you Sakura. No matter what it takes, I'll get you back."

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Sakura screamed as another flare of chakra struck her, this time forming a burn on her stomach, melting her clothing to her skin.

"You belong to us – you are a member of Akatsuki," said a faceless figure as he shot out a blade of chakra to slice into her thigh. "You have no will unless it is our will. You will do as we say, and only as we say." The sleeves of her dress became glued to her blackened shoulders. "Your trainer is me. You will do whatever I say."

Tears crept down her face as the litany came to a close. Only one more, she told herself. Only one more.

"You are a demon. You are worthless. You are ours. Now repeat it."

The bloody girl bit her lip. "I –"Another burn, this one across her face, stopped her, reducing the rest of her words to sobs.

The man grinned. "Don't worry, you'll learn. You belong to us. . . ."

Sakura's screams stopped when her voice broke, leaving only choked whispers for help.

Author's Note: All right, I really want a beta now. If anyone could PLEASE do the beta thing for me, I'd appreciate it so much. That having been said. . . . heh. That last scene was hard to write. I mean, the whole chapter was hard to write, but especially that last scene with Sakura. (It's not really hard for a good reason though. . . .) I'm generally good at writing death and torture. The thing is, I tend to have that sort of thing written in first person so I can capture the way they're think, with the broken stream of consciousness and all. To skip out on that was. . . . odd. Ah well. Read and Review, and tell me what I did wrong. Bai!

Sonoda Aki

NEXT CHAPTER ANNOUNCEMENT: The next chapter most likely won't come out for another month, even though it's already planned out. The reason for this? It's National Novel Writing Month, and I'm already three days behind. Go to n a n o w r i m o . c o m to check it out. (Hopefully the link works that way...)