Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 5

"Naruto..." Kankuro coughed as the people surrounding him begged him to stop talking. Temari felt the need to punch him for defying them but held herself back because of the situation. There was no way the Godaime could make it in time to save the puppet master. They could see his life force slipping away as he groaned in agony.

"Sa... Ku... Ra..." The boy's voice was slow as he spoke through the pain of his poison. But he had to tell them who he saw. He had to tell them he saw her, wearing the robes of that organisation and travelling with the bastard who took Gaara.

"What?" The blonde asked. Did I hear him right? He wondered.

"Sakura Harun-!" Kankuro coughed harshly multiple times.

"Stop talking!" His sister ordered but he ignored her.

"She..." He tried to regain his breath. "She is with them."

"I don't understand." Naruto replied, his eyebrows knitted together. What did his deceased teammate have to do with this?

"She is with... Akatsuki."

"Achoo!" Sakura sneezed and rubbed her nose. "Any one of you got a tissue?" She asked her travelling companions. The pinkette recieved no response. "Can't believe I got stuck with these two douche-bags..." She grumbled. "Wish I got Hidan."

It was annoying that they had to travel all the way to the hideout on foot. And they had to do it secretly too so no one would see the Kazekage in a clay bird's mouth that was following them. But, then again, because they were a part of this 'super terrifying organisation', they had to be sneaky all the time.

"Can't believe you forgot to bring a sealing scroll." Sakura said to Deidara. The man shot her an evil glare but she blew a kiss in response - not affected by his efforts. The trio had been travelling for a couple of days and were almost to the hideout.

Once they made it into the hidden cave, Sakura shouted her usual greeting. "Lovelies, we're back!" She sang. "And we brought you guys a treat!"

Deidara's bird spat out the Kazekage and shrunk back to action figure size. The other Akatsuki members appeared as holograms in the hideouts. Sakura wished that they had let Madara, or Tobi, join the organisation but they deemed him 'not ready'.

All members were here - all eleven of them. The cherry blossom took a seat on the ground as the Gedo Statue was summoned. She would have joined them but only ten were required for the jutsu and she was voted out because her "unnecessary comments annoyed everyone."

Bastards. She thought. So what if I asked Itachi who was better in bed: Kisame or Deidara? I was just making conversation.

"Sakura..." The pinkette smirked at the voice in her head. It had been a while.

"Madara-sensei, you're connecting to me now of all times? To what do I owe this disturbance?" She asked.

"Your Leaf comrades are on their way to the hideout. You should be careful." The masked man warned his student.

"Why? I could kill them with a flick." The female Sharingan user responded.

"That's not why I told you to be careful. Naruto and Kakashi are on their way there. Do you know what this means?"

Sakura smirked again. "Looks like it's my turn to capture a jinchuriki. And meet some old friends."

After Kankuro told everyone about Sakura, everyone was rushed out of the room. Moments later, he died and Naruto was left feeling utterly confused - and also betrayed if what the Puppet User said was true.

Naruto didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. Well, until he saw it with his own eyes.

There was no way in hell that Sakura was with the Akatsuki. She was dead - they didn't find a body but - it was said that there wasn't any way she could escape.

The blonde, Sai, Yamato, Kakashi, Temari and Chiyo were jumping from branch to branch. They were following Pakkun as he had found the hideout. Temari had decided to go with them instead of mourning for her brother. It was, of course, out of revenge for his death and no one could change her mind.

Sai moved closer to Naruto. "Does it put you in distress that your former teammate - who was presumably dead- is in a criminal organisation?" He asked.

The jinchuriki rolled his eyes. "No, I love it." He responded.

"Okay." The boy was clueless to sarcasm.

Was his teammate really with the Akatsuki? Why? Why would she join them? Naruto couldn't find an answer to these questions. If what Kankuro said was true, then he would ask Sakura. Face-to-face.

The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki was not the only one who was greatly affected by the news of the Cherry Blossom. Kakashi was also wondering why she would join that group. Maybe there was some sort of curse on Team Seven. First Sasuke left, and now Sakura. But, what confused - and intrigued - Kakashi the most was that his students were all on different sides. Naruto was with Konoha, Sasuke was with Orochimaru and Sakura was with the Akatsuki.

It sounded weird to say together. Sakura is with the Akatsuki. The silver-haired jonin wondered where everything went wrong. He wondered why fate was such a bitch and made this happen. To him, it was pretty obvious that Team Seven was broken. Maybe broken beyond repair. But, Naruto would obviously be determined as ever to bring Sasuke and Sakura back. However, how would the two rogues react to meeting each other...?

Kakashi had already sent word with one of his ninkens back to Konoha. They would, at some point, get word back from them to see their next course of action. The jonin wondered how everyone would react to the news.

This is a riot. Sakura dryly commented as she let out a bored sigh. It took ages for the extraction to finish and she had nothing to do. The leader had let Kisame and Itachi delay the Leaf Village ninja - much to Sakura's dismay. But, what she loved was not just the fact that her former teammate and sensei were on their way here but, on the other squad, there was one person whom Sakura wanted to have fun with.

"Neji Hyuga." Inner seethed. "Let's spit on him."

The pinkette laughed at the nostalgic statement.

Once the extraction of the jinchuriki was done, Deidara thought it would be hilarious to sit on the dead body of the Kazekage. Sakura only rolled her eyes at his antics and Sasori made no comment on his actions.

"They're taking so long, man!" The blonde angrily shouted. He shuffled on top of Gaara.

"Long?" The cherry blossom snorted. "Something you can't relate to." She ignored his middle finger which was directed at her.

Suddenly, the boulder at the front of cave began to crumble and Sakura saw lightning sparkle around it. She believed that Kakashi must have used his Lightning Blade to break it.

Once all the smoke cleared, she saw six figures appear. She recognised her former teammates and the Kazekage's sister but the other three were strangers to her. Actually, the other three were strangers to her as well.

Sakura loved their faces turn from shocked to confusion. To add fuel to the fire, she wore her slashed forehead protector in her hair to keep it up.

"Where's the other group?" Deidara asked.

"Fighting the traps." The Leaf rogue replied and her ex-teammates continued to stare at her. Kakashi had a literal and metaphorical mask over his face but Naruto, he was outwardly displaying his emotions.

"Sakura-chan..." He whispered and the girl cringed at the honorific.

"You guys can deal with them for a second, right?" She asked the other Akatsuki members. Before her teammates could reply, she used her Cherry Blossom Transportation Technique. Her body slowly dissolved into the flower which she shared her name with. The pink petals spread out and left the cave - but only to meet with a certain 'genius' of Konoha.

Two blue hemi-spheres rotated against each other furiously on the green plains. Neji Hyuga was currently fighting the trap that had been set off, a clone of himself.

It was tough. This clone had all of his moves so there seemed to be no way to win. But, he would not give up. This was a life or death situation and he was a shinobi. If he lost here, what would become of the others?

Before he could proceed to attack the trap, it paused. The genius stopped for a moment and flashed his Byakugan. He noticed a person with a black cloak, with red clouds standing to the side, watching him.

The clone sunk to the ground and Neji turned to the criminal but, only to notice it was his former comrade. She was smiling devilishly, her hand on her face and pulling the skin around her eye.

"Sakura Haruno." He made it a point to not show any emotion. However, inwardly, he was shocked. "So it's true."

"Believe it." The cherry blossom mocked her teammate. "And way to state the obvious. You really are a genius."

"Neji, what's going on?" Gai asked through the headset the Hyuga had.

"I've come face-to-face with Sakura." He responded. "I'll capture her and bring her in."

"Wait!" Tenten shouted. "She's part of the Akatsuki! You're going to need some help!"

"Against Sakura Haruno?" He snorted and got into his stance. His opponent narrowed her eyes, her evil expression gone and she was not going to make any jokes now. "I think I'll be fine."

A smirk. A smirk graced his features. A Goddamn cocky-ass smirk! Sakura was going to lose it. She was going to be nice (sort of) at first but now, she was going to make him feel pain.

Her former friend did not make a move. "Are you waiting for me to strike first?" She asked, her own smirk making its way onto her face. Raising her right hand into the air, Sakura sang. "It's your funeral."

Wood shot out of the ground at the Leaf ninja, and he jumped back. Although he faltered from the shock, he was able to withstand his ground. Once the branches shot at him, he quickly began attacking with his Gentle Fist to destroy the Wood Style jutsu. Sakura knew that he was a fast fighter so she had something else up her sleeve.

Neji finished disposing of the branches and looked at the rogue ninja. He looked right at her Sharingan. In a split-second, he was put into a genjutsu where he was trapped in the middle of a tree as it was on fire. The flames were rising and he quickly tried to break the illusion.

He succeeded but he woke up in the real world with Sakura's Wood Style wrapped around him, immobilizing him. He couldn't move and he didn't know a way to win.

"...What did you do?!" He growled at Sakura, his teeth clenched and sweat appearing around his face. He began struggling, but the branches were to strong.

The pinkette took out one of her daggers that were hidden in her sleeves. She licked the blade and transferred her chakra to it. A sharp blue light danced around the weapon.

"Do you remember our last mission?" She asked as she slowly began to walk towards him. "My eyes were slashed as well as my arm. I'm better now, I have these." The Sharingan flashed in her eyes, the two tomoe spinning wildly.

Neji made no response of shock since he had seen them moments ago.

Sakura was right in front of him now. He looked almost afraid, whereas she looked like she was on cloud nine.

Without warning, she sliced her dagger up at his right arm and it fell to the ground. The genius groaned at the attack, his eyes wide.

"Your eyes are next." Sakura said. "At first, I thought I was going to take them because, you were right, I am a disgrace of a ninja. But, I've realised something. The reason that you're such a stubborn prick is because of these." She pointed her dagger at his Byakugan and he squirmed. "They're like a symbol to you Hyuga which apparently gives you bastards the confidence to act like asses all the time. So, I'd rather not have them in this world."

Sakura roughly grabbed onto his head so he would stop moving away. Without hesitation, she got rid of Neji's eyes. To add pain to his squad, she turned on his microphone so his teammate could hear his screaming.

"Neji-kun!" It was Tenten. "What's happening?! Neji!"

The others also shouted out things along the same lines as Tenten so Sakura ripped the headset off and threw it away. She punched Neji in the stomach and the branches broke as he flew away.

He was unconscious now and Sakura began healing his eyes and arm. She wanted him to live with the pain of being even more of an outsider to his clan. Without the Byakugan, he was not a Hyuga.

Once she finished healing him, Sakura fled to where she could sense Naruto, Kakashi, Deidara and one of her replacements fighting. Now, she was going to capture her former teammate and extract his beast to create her new world.