Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 3
"Ino." A knock resounded on said girl's locked bedroom door. She didn't respond. She didn't want to. How could she? She didn't want to go there. "Ino." The person knocked once more and the blonde girl deduced that it was Shikamaru on the other side of the door.
"Y...Yes?" The kunoichi finally replied, her voice just below a whisper.
"It's time for the..." He trailed off, not wanting to say it.
"Okay." Her voice was louder as she stood up in her black dress. Opening the door, she tried to give her teammate, who was in a black suit, a smile but she couldn't.
What was it time for, you ask? Sakura Haruno's funeral.
Once the pinkette used the Last Resort Scroll, Ino, Lee and Neji found themselves in Tsunade's office. Ino told the Hokage about her apprentice and an Anbu squad was sent to investigate.
Only to find nothing.
No bodies.
No Sakura.
Tsunade was going to put her as a missing ninja but the elders told her there was no point. There was no point for a civilian girl like Sakura to have Anbu squads looking for her. They gave her a few days to return. She never did.
So that was why Sakura was going to have a funeral. With no body to descend into the ground. With no body to be honoured for it's sacrifice. With no body for them to ever see again.
Or so they thought.
Kakashi stood in the back of the crowd, silently mourning his female student. It would never ever be the same without Sakura. If Naruto was to somehow bring Sasuke back, it still wouldn't heal the hole in Team Seven.
Neji stood next to his team. Sakura Haruno. He thought. I was wrong about you.
Tenten stopped tears from sliding down her face. You were never useless, Sakura-san.
Team Eight had their heads bowed along with Chouji who was soon joined by the rest of his team. Ino quietly looked at her best friend's name that was carved into the Hero's stone. Sakura Haruno is a hero. The girl thought.
Tsunade stood at the front. She wasn't shedding any tears. No, she did that in the morning. Now, she was going to have to speak about her apprentice. And she was going to drill into these people's heads that Sakura Haruno was the strongest ninja in Konoha. And the most determined ninja in Konoha. And the most improved ninja in Konoha.
And as the funeral was taking place, far away, Jiraiya received a letter from Tsunade. And that letter would break Naruto.
A blue-eyed, blonde-haired ninja was sparring with a shadow clone when his master asked to speak with him. Releasing the jutsu, the boy walked over to his master.
"Ero-sennin." Naruto said, mildly irritated from being interrupted probably for something stupid. "What is it?"
Jiraiya didn't know how to say it so he passed the letter over to Naruto.
It was deathly silent as Naruto read the letter. Jiraiya waited in agony for his student to make any reaction whatsoever. Once the Nine-Tails' host got to that specific part of the Hokage's message, his eyes widened and he dropped the piece of paper.
"No." He said it quickly as his body began to shake. "We were supposed to bring back..." He didn't finish as tears rolled down his cheeks. The boy didn't try to wipe them away. That wasn't his focus.
"Sakura!" He screamed.
Days after waking up in a empty room, Sakura stood in front of a huge boulder with a sealing tag placed on top of it. She was wearing new clothes; a black shirt and black trousers - the exact same the masked man was wearing who was standing right beside her. She also wore her forehead protector but the Leaf's symbol was slashed, signifying that she was now a rogue ninja.
Anonymous told her that his name was Madara Uchiha. The pinkette remembered the name from some of her studies in Konoha's library. The Uchiha also told her that he went under the name 'Tobi' when in the prescence of the other Akatsuki members and that his behaviour would be quite "unexpected" for her.
Another person stood with them. Sakura learnt that this was Zetsu - the man she returned the Akatsuki cloak to - and he completely and utterly freaked her out. Half of his face was white and the other half was black. She didn't want to be racist but he still freaked her out because of how he spoke (in two different voices) and how he looked like a giant venus flytrap.
White Zetsu said his name and the giant boulder simply vanished. Sakura blinked to make sure she was seeing this correctly and followed the other men when they walked into the hideout.
It was dark inside the cave and Sakura was wondering where the other members of the Akatsuki were.
"Hey, hey, hey. What's going on here?"
A figure approached them from the darkness. A man with blonde hair and a camera covering one of his eyes was the owner of the voice and he was accompanied by another man with silver hair and a red blade on his back.
"Deidara, Hidan." Black Zetsu said.
"Where's Leader-sama?" White Zetsu asked. "We have a girl here," He gestured to Sakura. "Who would like to join us."
"A girl?" The man with silver hair said. "She has pink hair?!" The criminal let out a loud laugh causing Sakura to frown.
Suddenly, a flash appeared in between the ex-Team Seven kunoichi and the new people. A hologram of another man appeared. His eye grey with a ripple pattern spread across it. The cherry blossom's eyes widened as she noticed what this man's eyes were. The most powerful Great Eye Dojutsu. The Rinnegan.
"Sakura Haruno." The hologram said. "Pupil of Tsunade Senju - the Fifth Hokage."
"Holy shit!" Silver hair said. "The woman with the big breasts-"
"Hidan." Black Zetsu's tone suggested a warning.
"If we are to let this girl join," The hologram said. "She'll have to pass our test."
"Hey," Deidara caught everyone's attention. "Tobi asked first, why should we let Pinky join?" Sakura scowled at the nickname.
"Tobi will let Haruno-san join first!" Madara yelled, stunning Sakura that he sounded like a child and was speaking in third person. That's what he meant by "Unexpected".
"Test?" Sakura spoke up for the first time - trying to use a tough-guy voice but failing as she sounded like a frightened child. All of the members present turned to her and she tried not to make any sounds that implicated any sense of fear from her.
"A one-on-one match." White Zetsu said. "With one of us." He continued.
Sakura felt the blood drain from her face as he said so. She would have to battle one of these people?! Who exactly?! Venus Flytrap freaked her out, Hologram had the Rinnegan and she knew nothing of the other two but Hidan's red blade was enough for her to want to fight Deidara.
Sakura was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice more Akatsuki members arrive at the scene. When she did, her eyes immediately looked straight into Itachi's.
He looks a lot like Sasuke... The name felt weird in her mind.
She knew who this man was. She knew that he greatly resembled her anti-social teammate from descriptions given to her by the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. Along with him, there was Kisame Hoshigaki. Or "Shark-man" as Naruto referred him to.
Sakura noticed that Itachi looked at her oddly. She half expected him to use his Sharingan on her and that's when the paranoia hit her. What if he knows I have the Sharingan? Is he going to kill me because of that? Will he let me live but take my eyes?
"Bitch.Inner Sakura spoke. "How the hell would he know about our eyes?"
Sakura ignored her inner self.
There were some others whom she didn't know of. A hunched man who's cloak dragged on the floor as he moved and another man with a mask like Kakashi's on his face but he looked a lot more fierce.
Another hologram appeared and, from the figure, Sakura thought it was a girl. She didn't know what the woman looked like since the holograms didn't really show appearances.
They all stood in silence. Sakura didn't know what was going on until the leader spoke again.
"Deidara." He said. Everyone except said man walked away onto the sidelines. Sakura was about to follow Zetsu but he pushed her back.
"It's your match." White informed her. The cherry blossom blushed and turned towards her opponent. She felt nervous because everyone else was going to watch. Shaking away the thoughts of everyone watching her, Sakura focused on her opponent only to find him smirking at her.
"You do realise that if you fail, we'll kill you, right?" The pinkette didn't resond to Deidara's question. This only made his smirk grow wider.
He placed his hand into his pouch and kept it there for a while. To be honest, it made the kunoichi feel uncomfortable. Once he took it out, he held a white piece of clay and moulded it into the shape of a bird.
Sakura was confused. Why was he sculpting something on the battlefield? Did he think she was going to bow at his art skills?
"Art," He began and through the piece of clay at Sakura. In a poof, it transformed into an actual bird and flew towards the girl. "Is an explosion!" Once it was right next to her, the clay bird glowed and exploded.
They explode?! Sakura jumped away just in time. But Deidara was already throwing more birds at her. She was glad that Tsunade gave her extensive training in evasion or, at this point, she would be screwed.
"This is getting boring." The blonde groaned and made clay spiders. They crawled across the floor and ran at Sakura who was trying not to scream at the insects.
The ex-Leaf ninja threw kunai at them and they exploded on the spot. But she felt something wrap around her. It turned out to be a clay snake. Multiple more wrapped themselves around her body so she couldn't move. Looking at Deidara, he was making a giant clay bird and once he was done, he hurled it at the girl.
Break out, break out, break out! Using a lot of force, Sakura broke the clay snakes and ran from the bird's explosion just in time. She ran on the wall of the cave, much faster than she ever had before. That's when she noticed her Sharingan was activated.
I run faster with the Sharingan... Good to know.
Jumping off of the wall, Sakura enhanced her fist with chakra and punched Deidara - who tried to block it but failed. The hideout shook and the pinkette's punch caused rocks to fall as well as made a crater with an unconscious Deidara in it.
"That was one helluva punch!" Hidan yelled.
Sakura looked at the crowd, her eyes once again landing on Itachi's. His face held no emotion, just like before, but it seemed different. She could detect a hint of surprise in his eyes and she, at first, thought it was because of her strength.
"The Sharingan." The male hologram said. "How did you obtain this, Sakura Haruno?" He emphasised her last name because she was not an Uchiha.
Sakura thought about how to answer the question. She looked at Madara who discreetly shook his head.
"That is none of your business." The cherry blossom replied, trying her best to keep her voice steady and actually succeeding.
"She's feisty too! Leader-sama, you have to let her join!" The silver-haired man yelled again.
"Hidan." The man, who had a mask like Kakashi's, said. "Shut up."
The Rinnegan Possesser looked Sakura over. "Very well. Sakura of the Sharingan, welcome to the Akatsuki."