Chapter FIVE

Sasori had never been the most patient person around. In fact, some people might say he was one of the most impatient people around. Of course, Sasori would deny this, because he was sure there was a difference between being impatient and being on time.

Still, he had to admit he did not like wasting time, not when he could have been using said time to do something more productive.

That was why he would not be admitting anytime soon that he had spent the last few hours simply staring at his Soulmate's face. When not covered in blood and dirt, clean of the stench of rotting bodies, and when he himself was not confused, the girl was rather pretty.

Sakura, his mind supplied.

Sakura, he corrected, was rather pretty.

He could clearly remember the black markings that had decorated her skin when her body had been repairing itself. He slowly raised a hand and ran a finger gently over her bare arm, right where he knew the black lines lay dormant. Sakura was currently dressed int eh Akatsuki medical garb. The healers had taken a look at her when they had returned.

Still, even before that, the girl had appeared perfectly healed. Sasori once again glanced over her, trying to imagine the tremendous stress Orochimaru's experiments must have put on her. To this girl, who was seventeen according to the data records and looked much younger probably due to malnutrition as well as genetics, pain probably had a whole different meaning. He wondered if she even noticed when she felt his pain through their link?

As he ran his finger over her delicate ones, he felt them twitch. He froze, and his eyes darted up to see her eyelashes fluttering before they slowly opened.

She was awake.

Sasori knew that he should be getting someone, or at least letting the rest of the Akatsuki know. He found himself unable to, though, and he simply sat there, watching her as she slowly appeared to gather her bearings.

The girl slowly sat up and glanced down at her wrists as she did so. Sasori wondered if she noticed his own bandages, or if it had been something else that had caught her attention. She then looked up and Sasori found himself staring into empty green eyes.

She did not speak and made no signs of speaking anytime soon. What kind of things had been beaten into her during her time with Orochimaru?

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

The girl blinked, as though surprised by the sound of his voice. He saw her lips quiver, like she was considering opening her mouth, before it resolutely clamped shut. The green of her eyes seemed to stare right into his soul and he abruptly decided that he had to leave.

"It's rude to not reply when someone asks you a question," he muttered. He got to his feet and turned towards the door. "Don't try to leave the room; you won't get far. I'll go report you're awake."

That got a reaction out of her. It wasn't much, but Sasori saw the way her fingers twitched. He thought of the way she had snapped his wrist and how he had let her get a hold of his limb in the first place. He put a careful distance between them but made no further moves towards the door.

The girl continued to watch him but made no signs of recognizing him. Of course, that was normal, seeing as they had never met before, but Sasori felt a surge of irritation over the fact that he was very aware of the girl before him, while she was looking at him as if he were something between a possible threat and an insignificant insect on the wall.

That did not sit well with him. At all.

"Well?" Sasori had no idea why he was so on edge.

Sakura seemed to gather whatever courage she had been scrapping together.

"Orochimaru-Orochimaru-sama said I can see him-" She clamped down on her tongue again, eyes wide at her own outburst. Her words were choppy and hesitant and her voice was raspy. Sasori guessed she hadn't been taught to speak, and hence she did not talk often. That, or it was a result of a raw throat caused by continuous screaming. He remembered the wounds they had found on her, and it was not very hard to picture the second possibility being a reality as well.

Sasori wondered who the 'he' she wanted to see was.

"Did he now?" Sasori took one last glance at the door before he slowly sat back down. "And where is Orochimaru-sama?"

He hadn't meant for his tone to be so mocking, but the girl did not seem to notice. Her eyes narrowed a little, though, as something seemed to catch her attention. "You are not one of Orochimaru-sama's men."

Sasori took one last glance at the door, then decided that reporting in could wait just a little longer. In fact, he would not be surprised if someone had already noticed. He pulled his chair a little away from the bed and sat down. "How did you guess?"

Sakura did not reply. Her mouth stayed resolutely shut and Sasori sighed at the expected reaction. "You're right," he told her. "You're currently not with Orochimaru."

The pinkette curled in on herself, eyes flashing and eyebrows furrowed. "What did you do to him?" She asked.

"Nothing," Sasori said, and kept the yet to himself. "We're looking for him, though, because there is something he can do for us."

Sakura wrapped her arms around her knees and continued to peek out at him. "And what will you do to me?"

There were many ways Sasori could have answered that. There were no plans for her yet, but that would change once the rest of the members came in contact with her. The Akatsuki could not torture the girl for information without putting Sasori himself under great pain, but he knew that it could very well come to that if the girl showed signs of being willingly loyal to the snake.

However, the way she asked the question put him on edge. He recognized the way she protectively curled in on herself, an instinctive reaction built in against constant abuse. He had also seen the way she looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes, her piercing green orbs partially hidden by her hair. She did not know whether to look him in the eyes or not, and he could easily guess that that was also something built into her after years of being looked down on.

He didn't touch on that at all and, instead, he shrugged. "Nothing," he said again. "So just stay put and no running away."

He did not know why he rushed out of the way he did, but no one was around to suggest that perhaps it had been because of the way Sakura's eyes had widened in confusion in a way he recognized.

He remembered how, years ago, back when he had been a child, he would stumble into the living room clutching at wounds that did not exist and crying at pain he could not understand, questioning why he hurt even if he had done nothing. He could picture the look in his eyes reflecting on his parents' gaze and he could easily overlap Sakura's expression to that of his own.

And yet, there was something slightly different, and he knew exactly why.

Sakura was questioning why she did not hurt, even if she had probably done something, and that brought a surge of pressure he could not name onto his chest. Perhaps it had not been her eyes after all, because the weight stayed even after he had closed the door and he could no longer see them.

Sasori went to Deidara first. He did not know why he thought his partner was a better person to go to than, say, the leader of their organization, but that was what his blank mind had come up with, and he regretted it the moment he had knocked on the blond's door.

He must be more out of it than he had initially thought if he thought Deidara of all people could give him answers.

The door was thrown open seconds later and Deidara stared at him for a while. Sasori halfheartedly noted that he rarely visited the younger teen in his room.

"Uh, hi?" Deidara glanced around, as though he thought it was a prank. Sasori held back the urge to hit him.

"The girl is awake," he said. "What do I do with her?"

Deidara blinked once, twice. "Oh."

Sasori tried to keep the impatience off his face. "What do I do with her?" He repeated.

Deidara stepped out of his room and closed his door. "Have you told Nagato?" He asked. "Yahiko?"

Sasori shook his head. "She just woke up."

Deidara hummed. "Did you talk to her?"

Sasori hesitated. "Yes," he said slowly.

"Did she try to kill you?"

Sasori glared at the amusement in Deidara's eyes. "No."

Deidara huffed. "Had to ask, un," he muttered to himself. He then placed his hands on his hips. "Well, first thing first, I think you better go tell Yahiko and the others," he said. "Maybe Kakuzu too? In case she needs medical checkup?"

Sasori blinked, surprised at the rather mature reply. "That's a good idea," he admitted.

Deidara grinned, then began leading the way towards Nagato and Yahiko's office. "What did you talk about, un?" He asked.

"A little about Orochimaru," Sasori replied. "I asked her if she knew where he was."

"I doubt she did," Deidara said thoughtfully. "What did you think of her reaction to his name?"

"Unless she's a good actor, I'd say definitely not a fan."

"That's good."

Sasori nodded.

"Did you tell her you're her Soulmate?" Deidara asked.

Sasori paused in his steps. "No."

The blond stopped as well. "What? Why not?"

"She is a prisoner here," Sasori deadpanned. "It is a little difficult to bring up."

Deidara winced. "Ah, right." The two of them stopped once again, this time in front of a door. "We're here."

Sasori knocked without much thought and pushed the door open when permission was given. Nagato was sitting at the table, surrounded by piles of paper and files, while Yahiko was on the ground, sorting through another stack.

"Sasori, Deidara," Nagato greeted. Yahiko waved. "How can we help you?"

"The girl is awake," Sasori said. There was a brief silence, an awkward pause, where everyone waited for him to continue, but Sasori's mind went blank all over again. He mentally cursed Sakura for haunting his thoughts even when she wasn't here.

Yahiko seemed to take pity on him. "Does the girl, you know, have a name?"

Sasori nodded. "Sakura," he said, then held up the files he had brought back with him. "These are experiment data," he said. "And these appear to be observations outside of the lab." He placed the two stacks on the table, already feeling better. Facts, numbers and data, he could work with.

Nagato took the top one flipped it open. Sasori caught a glimpse of the photo he had put to the side the first time around. "Is her name a code of some sort?" He asked. "Or was it the result of very uncreative scientists giving a girl with pink hair and green eyes a very uncreative name?"

Sasori shrugged. "I flipped through it, but there wasn't much explanation."

Nagato hummed in response. "And what kind of impression did you get from Sakura?"

Sasori frowned, and Deidara nudged him. "Just tell him what you told me, un," he said.

Sasori glared at the blond, who merely grinned in response. "She appears aware that we are not with Orochimaru," he said. "And she did not appear particularly affected when I told her we were after him. She does not seem to know where Orochimaru is at this moment in time."

"A victim of his, then," Nagato mused. "Still, we will have to keep an eye on her, just in case."

Yahiko stretched. "Should I go call the others?" He asked eagerly, already pushing the mountain of paper to the side.

Nagato glared. "You finish your work," he ordered, then turned back towards him. "Did she say anything else?"

Sasori shook his head. "Nothing that caught my attention," he said. "Though there are signs of long-term abuse. However, with the way her chakra appears to be centered around healing, I doubt we can find scars and the likes which will allow us to identify them. Also, I suspect she may either not be comfortable with speaking due to past injuries, or that she has not been taught at all."

Nagato made a few notes. "Have Kakuzu check on her again," he said. "I don't think we should move her out of the room just yet. I want Itachi to talk to her at some point, and I will visit her myself once I finish off here."

"Will we be reporting this to the higher ups?" Yahiko asked. "If I recall, Tsunade-sama is a renowned medic as well. I, for one, would rather have a pretty lady look at me than a guy covered in stitches."

The man's comment was largely ignored, but Sasori thought of Senju Tsunade. The woman acted as the head medic for the Elemental Nation and worked closely with Namikaze Minato, who was the current leader of the City of Fire. If there really was something wrong with the girl, she would be the one to go to.

"I sent off the status report for yesterday's operation this morning," Nagato said offhandedly. "I made no mention of Sakura just yet. I want to make sure of a few things before I reveal her existence to the council."

"Some of those old people can be really mean," Yahiko agreed.

Sasori himself had no qualms with that. He was sure many, especially those who were against the Akatsuki, would find fault in keeping Sakura with them. "I will go alert Itachi?" He asked. "And Kakuzu?"

Nagato nodded. "I will make an official announcement at dinner today," he told them. "But it might be better to get things sorted out before everyone decides they want to catch a glimpse of your girl."

Sasori just about held himself back from making a comment about 'his girl'. Was that how everyone thought of it? Instead, he bowed his head. "Understood."

However, before he could turn and leave, Deidara slapped him hard on the shoulder. "Actually, Danna, why don't you go back to your girl?" He asked. "I can go talk to Kakuzu and the Uchiha bastard."

Sasori paused, wondering if he had heard right. "Why would I do that?" He asked.

Deidara rolled his eyes and seemed to ignore him as he turned towards Nagato and Yahiko instead. "What'd you think, un?"

Nagato tapped his chin thoughtfully. "That is a good idea," he said. "You said Sakura is awake, right?"

Sasori nodded warily.

"She must be very confused and afraid of what is going on," Yahiko chirped.

"And I have to be the one to babysit her?" Sasori asked, knowing where this was going and not liking it one bit. "Why?"

"Because she's your Soulmate," Deidara said like it was obvious.

"She's your girl," Yahiko said at the same time.

"That's an order, Sasori," Nagato said.

Sasori was then promptly kicked out of the room.

Update~

Darque: A little interaction...sorry if it's not much...but you see...yeah...

Raven:...So, Sasori is pushing Sakura away because he is new to all this and he's a shy little boy.

Darque: Yes, exactly. More SasoSaku will come in future chapters, I promise. Also, I think I kind of reverted to the old 'bully the MC for comedy' thing I tend to do with other stories near the end.

Raven: You did.

Darque: I can't help it.

Raven: Haha. Well, other characters will soon be making an entrance. Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara~

Darque: OH MY YES SO LOOK FORWARD TO THAT~

Read and Review~