A/N Thank you for your lovely reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2

It had to be a dream, it just had to be. There was no way she was staring at those red eyes on her face in the mirror. It was simply impossible.

Sakura blinked.

They're still there...

She blinked again.

Not gone...

She blinked ag-

"I think we've established that this is real." Inner Sakura said, annoyed that her outer-self was extremely indenial.

The pinkette's dojutsu faded back into her black eyes. She continued to stare at her reflection before the mask wearing man caught her attention.

"I gave you this gift, Sakura." He said.

How does he know my name? The girl asked herself. This man was frightening her. He gave her the sharingan, he appeared out of a swirl, he knew her name and he was apart of a criminal organisation! Why would she not be scared?!

The anonymous man moved from his chair and sat on the bed. Sakura inched away a little more but it wasn't very effective because of the wall. It was at this moment that Sakura realised she was naked; only a white blanket covering her.

It just had to get worse. Inner Sakura nodded.

"I'll explain everything." Anonymous said. "I do not intend to kill you. Actually, I want you to join me."

"For wh-" Sakura began.

"Questions at the end!" The man harshly interrupted her, his right eye (which is his only visible eye) showing his own sharingan. The cherry blossom restrained herself from making an 'eep' sound.

"I'll be honest, I've been keeping my eye on Konoha and you had caught my eye. You were a little girl put on a team with an Uchiha and a jinchuriki." The man chuckled a bit before noticing Sakura's confused expression. "Do you not know what a jinchuriki is?" The girl only shook her head - scared that the criminal would reprimand her for speaking again.

Anonymous continued. "A jinchuriki is a host to a Tailed-Beast." The kunoichi was confused again. "Did you not know that Naruto Uzumaki is a jinchuriki?" She shook her head, causing the man to sigh quite loudly.

Sakura frowned. It's not my fault no one told me.

"Moving on. After Sasuke and Naruto left, you trained with a member of the Legendary Sannin. Too bad they weren't there to celebrate your accomplishments. You know, they never were." The man stood up from the bed and closed the door, talking as he did so. "Sakura made it to Chuunin rank. Oh, wait, her teammates didn't care enough to stay. It even started earlier on. Sakura was the first to climb a tree, Kakashi then doesn't teach you anything else and uses your accomplishment to give the boys a boost."

Just how long has he been watching us? The pinkette asked herself. The Land of the Waves was so long ago yet this man seemed to know everything.

Anonymous sat back down next to Sakura. "My subordinate found you; injured and asleep. He brought you back here and I tended to your wounds."

"My arm and my eyes..." Sakura said, her voice just above a whisper.

"I replaced your arm..." The man trailed off as if he was deciding how he should tell her something. "...With one that was cultivated from the cells of the First Hokage."

"What?!" Sakuta shrieked and was about to get up. Anonymous' sharingan flashed which caused her to shrink back into the corner of the bed.

"You possess the cells of Hashirama Senju. As do I." He said it so casually that it didn't sit well with Sakura. However, the girl wanted to move on. The sooner she found out about what happened to her, the sooner she could find a way to leave.

"And my eyes...?"

"I had them lying around." He answered.

That's not creepy. Sakura bit back the remark. There was more to what he was letting on but what should Sakura do about that? No matter where he got them from, she still had the eyes of an Uchiha. She still had this power that she never in a million years thought she would have.

"I can train you, Sakura." Anonymous said, shocking the pinkette. "We both possess the sharingan. We both possess cells of the God of Shinobi. Join the Akatsuki and you will never be doubted or called weak."

He was serious. The stranger wanted to train her.

"You're mental!" Sakura spat. "I would never join you criminals no matter what you offer me!"

"Really?" The man asked, dragging out the 'ee' sound. "Project Tsuki No Me."

"What?"

"I can create a dream world, Sakura. A world tailored to you and your desires. To be strong, to be celebrated for your accomplishments. To have your team back with you. All I need is for you to help me capture all the Jinchuriki. Granted, they'll die but that doesn't matter because you can bring them back to life with the Infinite Tsukiyomi."

"Do it!" Inner Sakura screamed. "I want that life!"

I can't... Not if Naruto's going to die...

Sakura did it quickly. She punched Anonymous in the stomach, jumped out of the bed and ran out of the door. She was aware she was not wearing anything but she didn't care. She had to find her way out and then she would worry about that.

The cherry blossom was running through the corridors, guessing where to go since she had no idea where she was.

They already know I'm running so... She looked at her right fist before punching the nearest wall. It crumbled into pieces.

I used way too much chakra for that... Sakura looked at her hand in wonder before quickly running once again.

But she was stopped by a now familiar swirl.

Anonymous stood in front of her, shaking his head. He began to take off his cloak. "This is not even mine." He said as he handed it to her, showing that he was wearing a black shirt and black trousers underneath. "Be sure to return it to Zetsu once we get you new clothes."

Sakura slowly put the cloak on. There were a lot of things that were wrong with what he said. Sakura was not going to stay here so they didn't need to buy her clothes and like she was going to return the Akatsuki cloak. It could prove useful for infiltration or something...

Sakura began to think of more ways to escape. I could chop his head off. Whatever she chose to do, she had to be careful. He was an Akatsuki member so it would prove difficult to escape.

"Where were you going, Sakura-chan?" He used the honorific in a mocking sort of tone. "I don't know why you want to go back to Konoha. Where no one cares about you."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. "They do care-"

"Bullshit!" Anonymous yelled suddenly. The kunoichi couldn't see his face but she felt his glare. "No one there cares about you, Sakura! And you don't need them." He flashed his sharingan once more when Sakura was about to shout her retort. The pinkette swallowed her arguement with an audible 'gulp'.

"If Sasuke cared about you, why didn't he stay? Why did he leave you in the village when you begged him to take you with him? Why did he leave you on that bench?" They were questions she couldn't answer.

"And Naruto. His arguement to Sasuke was that he could get stronger at Konoha. But, next thing you know, he left the village too. He left you without a team. He just left you to suffer alone. He never cared."

How did this man know everything? He knew what Sakura felt when she was alone. He knew that when her teammates left, she was going through hell.

"I still have my friends..." It was a weak and unconvincing whisper.

"Those people who doubt you aren't your friends." Anonymous' tone was a lot softer than it was before. The man's changes in tone were terrifying and comfusing. "Where were they when your parents died two weeks ago?"

It was like a slap to the face. Sakura remembered the Anbu ninja who gave her the news. The cherry blossom cried for three days, not seeing a single person in that time. Once she was ready to go into public, Ino apologised for the sudden deaths of her parents. It was nice, but it wasn't like it helped. The hole in her chest from her teammates' departure grew bigger with the death of her parents.

Tears rolled down the pinkette's face as her shoulders shook. She began to sniff uncontrollably while furiously wiping away her tears.

"Sakura..." The masked man's voice whispered to her. "They don't care about you. They never did." She let out a strangled cry - maybe trying to protest but failing. "Only one person in this world cares about you."

The cherry blossom looked up at him with her teary eyes, curious as to what he would say. The man simply opened his arms wide.

It was an invitation from this stranger (She didn't even know his name). An invitation for Sakura to join this organisation and help with Project Tsuki No Me. A dream world... Where people cared about her. Where people didn't doubt her. Where people congratulated her for her achievements.

"Do it!" Inner Sakura urged her outer. "This is what we want!"

Sakura dove into Anonymous' arms, hugging him tightly as she continued to cry.

And that was that. Sakura Haruno had joined the Akatsuki.

A/N This is not a Tobi/Sakura fic, by the way.