She opened her eyes and looked to her kidnapper, whose grin fell from his face.
"Very well. Please take me to Itachi-san."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The process was simple, really. Infiltrate, obtain target, leave, and wait for Kyuubi. Simplicity is a virtue among the Akatsuki. In fact, it's a virtue among all missing-nin. The politics involved with being a high-level shinobi (especially ANBU) werejust asdangerousas the dangers posed to being a missing-nin. Every jounin thinks about it at some point…becoming a missing-nin, that is. Most are too afraid of the consequences to follow through with it, though. Those who do are quickly disillusioned about the grandeur of their village. From an outside view, you can figuratively see the village rotting with corruption from the inside out.
It's not the fault of the Kages, though. A rotting apple is rotten in the flesh, not in the seed. But the rotting flesh is those high-ranking shinobi around that seed, which quickly affects the entire apple. Sometimes a Kage doesn't see it coming, and suddenly finds the entire village decayed and he or she being labeled as the cause of the rot. That's when Kages, like missing-nin, are disillusioned as well.
Getting back to the point at hand, the girl has just complicated the process just a smidgen. While the fact that the target was a girl was surprising, it didn't make anything difficult, really. It just meant that either Kisame or Sasori would lecture him later about how he should pay closer attention to detail when following a target. Their missions, after all, had to be successful from top to bottom at all times. Itachi would just give him 'The Look' and turn away.
No, it was the many ideas going through Deidara's head about just how Itachi would react when he saw that this particular girl, the target, had Sharingan eyes.Everybody knew that onlyhe and his brother possessed the Sharingan by blood, which means that either this girl was missed when he massacred his family or the girl had transplanted the eyes from another person possessing the Sharingan.
Deidara really doubted that Itachi would have missed a person by accident during his killing rampage. And it seemed even less likely that he would have left her alive on purpose. (Then again, Sasuke was an exception to that idea.) Besides, she looked nothing like the traditional pale, dark-haired Uchihas. Which meant that she'd gotten the Sharingan from another source.
It didn't take a genius like Deidara to know who she could have gotten them from. Surprise surprise.
No, what was disconcerting about the whole thing wasn't how she'd gotten them; it washow Itachi would react. Would he kill her? Would he interrogate her then kill her? Would he demand to know why and from whom she got them, then kill her? Would he ignore it?
This general thought proces may have continued if not for the target's interruption.
"Ano...Are we going to go or not?" The pink-haired girl's voice snapped Deidara back to reality.
"Oh! Yeah...So you're going to come peacefully?"
This was another thing that was confusing him. Why was she being so compliant? Did she not know what he and his robes represented? Or did she not care? She'd been approached by ANBU rather than regular chunin guards, so she had to be a missing-nin of some level. So...
He saw her teeth gleam in the moonlight as she smiled.He thought in the back of hismind that the slightly demented expression with the Sharingan as she smiled was portrait-worthy."I'd like to stay conscious."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Her kidnapper had settled with a sort of handcuff manifested from chakra that laced several times around her hands and through her fingers. It was meant to prevent her from forming any hand seals should he be distracted. It wasn't likely that he would be distracted, however, since the shinobi that had been in the street before were now absent from the setting as she looked down from her perch on the opened window to her room. The blond-haired man stood directly behind her, ready to leap out after her when she landed on the ground outside the hospital tower.
Kidnapping wasn't a new thing to shinobi. It wasn't as common as attempted assassinations (for some strange reason, since ransoming could be more profitable) but it was pretty rare when a kidnapper...well, when they had a compliant target. Sakura couldn't tell if her kidnapper was confused by her willingness to go or not, but she figured he'd have his chance at questioning her while he led her to Itachi. She wasn't so sure herself why she was going quietly - one wouldn't think that when confronted by a cloaked stranger and told he was going to kidnap you that one would react so calmly.
Perhaps it had something to do that, despite the fact that this is the village she came from, she could feel no connection to it or any of its inhabitants. She didn't know any of the people here, not anymore. Thinking this made her feel a small twinge of sorrow; what would become of friends? Friends she no longer even knew the names and faces of? What of parties celebrated for a birthday that she couldn't remember the date of? It was as though she'd been born again - with no knowledge of any people anywhere. She knew that she could formulate upsides to this along the lines of new starts and new friends and new first impressions, but...
She leapt down into the quiet empty street below her and landed easily on her feet. She turned and watched her kidnapper land just as quietly beside her. Instinctively her eyes darted around in search of watching eyes, and was satisfied to find none. He seemed to do the same. "Gotta be quick before more jounin come...yeah." He gestured for her to follow him and did so as he bounded up to the nearest building and over the village wall.
Well...I don't know if this enlists me under 'Missing Person' or 'Missing-nin'... She thought to herself, chuckling at the irony of it. But whichever I'm labeled as, I don't think I'll be coming back any time soon.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Sakura looped around the room for the seven hundred thirty-second time that night. She couldn't decipher if it was impatience or anxiety that was keeping her from sitting, but she felt no desire to stop pacing anytime soon. She couldn't really consider this 'enemy territory,' but the idea of seeing a man who had the Mangekyou Sharingan was keeping her on a mental high-alert status.Kakashi had tried to explain what it was capable of but he wasn't so sure himself, as he'd never seen it in action. The idea scared her a little.
In other words, the idea of being killed on sight was just enough to keep her from not pacing.
It had already been three nights since she and her blond sort-of kidnapper had slipped from Konoha into the shadows of the forest. She had no idea where she was, and no inkling of just how many shinobi might be guarding her right now. If she was even being guarded. She also didn't know when, or if, she would be confronted by Uchiha Itachi.
In addition to her mounting unrest after two days' confinement, the few hourse of sleep she'd obtained had been haunted by Sharingan eyes watching her as she stood under a blood-red moon. A black shadow watched her from all sides with piercing red eyes like her own, mocking her. If she struck out at it the shadow would simply dodge back and resume its standing vigil; and if she stood still she could hear the deep voice whispering to her so quietly she couldn't make out the words he said to her.
The grate of metal against metal snapped Sakura out of her recollection and she quickly slid her ANBU mask off the top of her head and over her face. The door swung inward to reveal first the blond man that was her kidnapper. His usual grin was replaced with an expression that made her think he was saying, 'I've yet to ascertain whether it's your life or mine at risk.' The corner of her lip twitched upward briefly before the second cloaked man entered the room.
He took his straw hat, adorned with strips of white silk and a hauntingly soothing bell, and placed it neatly on the low table stationed in the center of the cell-like room with one hand, while using the other to tug open the black cloak, revealing the lower half of the face of Uchiha Itachi.
Her first impression was of his youth, for if not for the deep lines imprinted between his eyes and the bridge of his nose he wouldn't look a day older thanshe (whom, Kakashi explained, is 19). His jet-black bangs lay down the sides of his face with perfect smoothness, and the rest tied back into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. His skin was pale but not like porcelain, the way hers was, a deceiving factor for his strength; she couldn't even register the intensity of his chakra.
Her second impression was of his eyes. They were slanted slightly upward with an angle that accented the height of his cheekbones, making his face look otherworldly in structure. Smooth and flawless in all aspects: appearance, physical prowess, chakra manipulation...a killing perfection.
He swung his cloak back gracefully and took a seat on the polished hardwood floor beneath him with perfect composure, legs folded neatly underneath him and cloak spread around his body. His eyes gestured that she do the same, and she sat down a respectful distance from him.
The silence lengthened between them for about ten seconds longer before the first cloaked man, almost forgotten in the shock of the moment, bowed slightly and said, "I'll be out back with Sharkhead...yeah." And escused himself. It seemed to be what Itachi had been waiting for, as he gave her a piercing blood-red glare.
"Show me your eyes." He said. It wasn't in a tone that demanded it; in fact there was no tone to it at all. He kept his voice perfectly even and his face void of all expression. She swallowed past a slight lump in her throat and slid the mask off her face, but didn't look him in the eye, staring instead at one of the dark clouds printed on his cloak.
Look at me.
He didn't say it aloud but Sakura found her gaze moving upward of its own accord to meet his. This...The hypnosis...It must be one of his abilities. She thought to herself as Sharingan met Sharingan. This gives him the perfect opportunity to kill me...
Another long period of silence.
"Your name."
"I--What?" Of all the questions she was expecting him to ask, this was at the bottom of the list. "...S-Sakura."
"Surname."
What the hell...? "Haruno."
Another period of silence. Apparently, she thought, he likes to think his statements through carefully before voicing them. He said few words and kept them vry frank and to-the-point.
"How did he die?"
Sakura tried to look down but couldn't - he forced her gaze to remain on his.He'll tolerate no lies. But how will he accept having no truth? "I don't remember," She said, slowly. "I've lost my memory."
"Show me what you remember."
"Wha--"
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Don't waste your chakra...We both know I can't survive. He's already inside, so if I die, --"
"Take my eyes, Sakura."
"I won't need them where I'm going."
"He won't have the satisfaction of being the only person with the Mangekyou..."
Itachi, and Orochimaru. They're the cause of all this.
Thank you.
A flash of light. Sakura saw her hand reach out before her, reaching for the black-haired figure in the center of the blinding light, expelling black chakra from his body. Something small was flung in her direction and it landed in her outstretched hand, then all went white.
Orochimaru!
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The memories had flashed through her mind's eyes too quickly for her to see them all: She saw flashes of faces and reverberating echoes of voices, overlapping each other in their speed, then everything became silent again and she found herself staring into those red eyes again. They had hardened slightly. He actually almost looked a sort of angry surprised.
"Where." It was a demand this time, and Sakura couldn't help but recoil.
"What do you mean?" She said, her voice dropping in volume out of anxiety.
"Ring."
She clenched her hand, the hand that something small had landed in during her flashback.. "I...I don't remember."
Another long period of silence. Finally, he stood again, his cloak falling fully around his body. "Come with me." Was his curt statement, before walking to the door. He paused briefly, watching her stand and uncoil her cramped legs, and veered left, with Haruno Sakura in suit. He led her through a myriad of hallways and corridors into a sort of main room. The blond, along with a peeved-looking sharklike man, looked up from their conversation to turn in their direction. Her kidnapper looked somewhat surprised that she was alive.
"Show Sakura-san to her new room." Itachi said, slowly, not looking at her. The honorific was an immediate flag; something had struck a nerve with the memory of the ring. Both the blond and the Shark-man stood up at once, sensing the tension from their red-eyed comrade. "Kisame, come with me. We must consultLeader before we place phase two in action. There may be complications." The sharklike man nodded and promptly left through another hall.
That left Sakura, Itachi and the blond. Said blond tilted his head. "An emergency...Un?"
Itachi made no effort to respond to his query, but said after a calculated silence, "Orochimaru's ring. And possibly his Biju...Gone." The blond's visible eyebrow rose. "I see...yeah." His grin spread over his face again. "Okay...yeah. She'll be staying until you come back...yeah?" The Uchiha's response was a brief nod.
And with that, Uchiha Itachi left.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Sakura sighed and rubbed her temples. It had to be past midnight, but sleep refused to envelop her on her crisp futon in her equally crisp, obviously unused room. Questions were swirling madly about in her head regarding her situation and the people she was now associated with. She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in the small pillow. I must be incredibly messed up in the head...What did you want me to do with your eyes, niisan? Why did you leave me like this to try and figure this all out? Her eyes squeezed shut. I don't know what to do...
She heard a light tapping on the wood frame of her shoji-screen door and she gave a noncommittal mumble of assent, rolling up to a sitting position as her blond kidnapper/escort slid the door open. He grinned and rubbed the back of his head under the large ponytail.
"I told Sharkhead you wouldn't be asleep...yeah." He said. "Hungry? Got some stuff in here if you are...yeah." She nodded and sit up, eager to get out of the silence of the stiff room. "Sure, uhm...yeah." She laughed suddenly when she realized she accidentally added one of his usual 'yeah's to the end of her own sentence. The blond looked at her and chuckled lightly. "It's a habit...yeah." Her laughter faded as she stepped out of her room and the man slid the door shut again. He blew a stray hair to the side of his face; she thought it made him look rather enigmatic with his hair covering an entire half of his face.
"By the way, I'm Deidara...yeah." He dipped his head lightly. Sakura did the same. "I'm Sakura. Nice to finally know your name, Deidara-san." They both laughed again.
Some things seem a bit off right now, niisan. I left willingly (but not voluntarily) to meet the organization that your...well, our brother is in, whom you hated...Somehow I get the feeling that you're turning in whatever grave you lay in at this predicament of mine...Sasuke. But...I'll think of something to do. Even if I just run away from here...I'll do what I can to not insult your memory, Sasuke. At any rate, I don't think I'll be calling him 'Niichan' anytime soon...
Deidara led her through the hall and took a right, then left into the main room. She saw the blue-skinned man again, this time sitting completely silent, eating his sushi and studiously. Deidara went to his other side and sat beside him after stepping over the enormous halberd he had on the ground behind him. Sakura tentatively moved to a spot across from them. The man looked up at her, chopsticks halfway to his mouth. "Mm?" He clipped. She jumped, having expected a croak. She quickly shook her head.
"Oh, i-it's nothing...But, I thought you left with Itachi-san." He shook his head and slowly chewed his sushi. Finally, he added. "Ran into the Kyuubi. He took the brat with him." Sakura felt her heart skip a beat. Naruto... "What's going to happen to him?" Deidara looked apprehensively to his companion and cut in. "Taking him to Leader...Yeah." He said simply. Sakura's eyes narrowed in, what Deidara thought, a startling resemblance of Itachi himself. Even the sharklike man looked mildly surprised.
"What will happen to Naruto?" She asked, her voice dropping to a dangerously low tone. Deidara sighed slowly. "They'll probably take the Kyuubi out of him...yeah. It's Itachi-san's intended biju...yeah." The shark-man looked at him curiously. "It's none of her business, Deidara. It's Akatsuki business." The last statement was directed at her. The flare of sudden anger gone, she dropped her gaze to focus on pulling some food toward herself. Her appetite was diminished but she knew it would be wise to eat while she could. After all, she'd just stepped out of line with her current superiors.
"I'm sorry," She said simply. "There's a lot of things I don't know and can't remember..." Deidara waved a hand nonchalantly. "Don't worry!" If Sakura didn't know any better she would assume that the shark-manwas sweatdropping now. "It's not a problem, we've quite adapted to erratic behavior here, with Sharkhead and Itachi-san." 'Sharkhead' swung lightly in Deidara's direction and he comically ducked it. "...Yeah." They all laughed briefly. Deep down, Sakura wondered, This is as far from a crime organization as I thought it could ever be. Kakashi made them out to be the sort of people who had no emotion and killed anybody in their way. Then again, I haven't exactly 'gotten in their way' yet...
The next fifteen minutes were spent in a relatively calm silence, talk replaced by the tap of chopsticks against bowls and occasional shifts as one of the trio reached across the table for a helping. Sakura's main focus was the sushi sans cream cheese, which 'Sharkhead' avoided. Speaking of which...
"By the way, I'm Sakura," She glanced up at the blue-faced humanoid curiously. He nodded stiffly and replied, "Kisame." She nodded and smiled. Typical. She thought with a mental chuckle. "I figured your name was something other than Sharkhead and I'd rather not be rude." Deidara hid his laugh with a cough behind his hand, but Kisame seemed to catch the cackle underneath and shot a glare in his direction. He brushed the comment aside and turned back to their guest. "How did you get the Sharingan?" He asked.
Sakura set her chopsticks down next to her now empty bowl and shrugged a shoulder. "Well..." She paused as she tugged off her ANBU gloves, only just realizing that she'd left them on since she left Konoha. I'll have to ask where I may wash these clothes and get something else to wear... Her mind came back to the query at hand. A/N: Wow, A.D.D. much... "Sasuke had me promise to transplant my eyes with his before he died." She felt a slight twinge in her heart. She couldn't remember who he was but the flashback of his blood-soaked body on her lap was as vivid as the highlights onher black leather gloves. She swallowed. "I don't remember what happened, though. Somehow, my memory's been erased."
"Um...Can you tell me something...?" She looked up soon enough to catch a significant glance pass between the two Akatsuki. They seemed to weigh their options, before Deidara said, "If we can...yeah. You know?" She nodded. "I know, but...Orochimaru had a biju?" She bit her lower lip. Somewhere, I can find some answers to this big riddle that's become of me. The only thing I can do is start with what Sasuke told me. Itachi and Orochimaru.
She saw a definite ease of tension; apparently, talk about a dead man was of no consequence. "He did. The eight-headed snake." Kisame said. Deidara nodded. "Couldn't really use it, though. Didn't do much of anything." Deidara cut in.
"Except try to become immortal...yeah."
Sakura grabbed the hook at once. "Immortal? How?"
"A sort of body transfer process...yeah. He became too engrossed in it. Not to mention he was afraid of Itachi-san...yeah."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"He's already inside of me, so if I die..."
"No, Sasuke! There has to be another way to save you!"
"Don't be stupid, Sakura!"
/ "Thank you, Sakura." In her lap was that face again. She could see her hands hovering over his eyes. They were trembling. She couldn't close her eyes for this. She knew. He flinched under her as her chakra severed the tendons in his eye socket and cut through the nerves where they connected to the backs of his eyes. She shuddered and swallowed down the bile in her throat as she carefully pulled the eyes out of his sockets, then stopped the bleeding stumps where they were severed. Sasuke moaned softly; she could sense his chakra fading slowly, along with his life.
Now she turned her hands, covered with fresh blood, toward her own face.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"Sakura-san?"
She jolted out of the memory with a violent tremor. She was almost sure she could still see bloodstains on her hands, which gripped the table's edge so tightly that her knuckles were red. They fell into her lap, numb from pressure. "Sorry," She said slowly. "Flashback..." Deidara nodded slowly. "You should probably go to bed...yeah. It's late...Or should I say early?" Kisame got up, and picked up his halberd. "I'm gonna go, too - I had watch last night." He excused himself. Sakura wondered if he'd had other reasons for departing that abruptly. She asked Deidara, "Does that mean you have watch tonight?" He nodded, standing and heading toward the hallway to her room, gesturing for her to follow.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
One hour later, Sakura was lying on her crisp futon, in her stiffly new room, and sleep again wouldn't come to her. Frustrated, she growled into the pillow. Why am I not tired? I'm wide awake, but I feel it's got nothing to do with the incident during dinner...or breakfast, rather. She sighed and rolled off the bed, getting to her bare feet. Deidara had managed to find for her a spare set of black, knee-long skintight shorts and an equally fitting sleeveless shirt like the one she had for her ANBU uniform. She scratched the back of her neck as she slid her shoji screen open as quietly as possible and made her way back into the living room-like area. Against one wall was a dark green couch, on which she took a seat.
What will I be doing around here? She thought. I wonder if there's anything around here that will keep me occupied...Other than a clearing in which to train. Her thoughts went to her memories. Sasuke...What should I do about Naruto...? About your brother?
She was too engrossed in her ponderings to sense Deidara standing in the doorway, silently watching her. You've complicated things quite a bit, Sakura-san...yeah.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Whew. Getting Sakura to the Akatsuki location was a bitch like no other. I just had a sort of brain fart in that part, so I just decided to make a little time-jump so she was already there. I love being able to do that. With the ideas I have in mind, this is probably going to change from a Drama/Romance to a Romance/Tragedy...
Anyways...Next chapter: Kyuubi's Fate and the Lost Ring