Author's Notes: Okay well there was some feedback on the last chapter ! Anyway, i just felt an urge to update to quickly. I don't know why, but I better start before I lose the urge !

Chapter Five: A Real Member

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The serpent sanin stood shaking. He slowly dropped to his knee's and looked up into dark opsidean eyes. "It's not over..." he said as he fell to the ground.

Sasuke bent down and placed his hand over Orochimaru's body as there was a slight glow of blue. Orochimaru's body began to dissolve and dissapear. Sasuke stood and looked at his body as his wounds began healing instantaneously. He smirked and exited the room.

He walked down the dark halls as he saw a man with blue hair ahead. He stopped a few feet away.

The man pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "What happend to Orochimaru-sama?" he asked looking up at Sasuke. Sasuke stood silent for a moment. "I've killed him." he said with a sigh.

Kabuto's eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal. "I see." he said glaring at Sasuke with a smirk. "That foolish old man." he said walking by Sasuke in the direction Sasuke had just come from.

Sasuke watched as he walked away and he soon left the hideout.

Kabuto stood where the remenants of Orochimaru were, spread across the ground. He smirked collecting the rest and placing it in a jar. He put the jar in his robe and dissapeared.

Sasuke walked up the steps into the sunlight as three individuals awaited him. "It's about time." one of them said. He had silver hair, sharp triangular teeth and a large sword on his back, it was the sword of the great Zabuza Momochi.

"Did you kill him?" another asked. This time it was a woman. She had orange-red hair, glasses and carried no visable weapons.

"Hn." Sasuke answered with a nod as he walked towards them eventually passing them and they turned and followed.

"I knew you could kill him Sasuke-kun!" Karin, the woman, exclaimed following close behind him. The other two man just looked at Karin and rolled their eyes.

"Hn." Sasuke said without turning around.

"Is that all you're going to say!" Suigetsu, the one with the traingular teeth, yelled. "Hn." Sasuke answered. "ARGHH !" Suigetsu yelled in frustration

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"After days of arguing with the elders, and days of training I've finally assembled a team to go and retrieve Sakura Haruno. Her whereabouts are still unknown which will make this mission that more complicated. The last place she was spotted was the mist country. She is an S-Class criminal and is considered dangerous. You are to take all percautions in retrieving her. We want her back alive. Do not engage in combat unless necesary. You have five days. If you cannot locate her in that time you are to return to Konoha and we will hand over te search to the ANBU. "

The room fell silent. They knew if the ANBU took control of finding Sakura they would kill her without a moments hesistation if she tried to firght and protect herself.

Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake, Sai, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanka, Choji Akimichi and Asuma Sarutobi. You have been assigned this mission. I have faith in you all, and I trust that you will all do your best to bring back Sakura...our Sakura." Tsunade said, her voice cracking slightly.

Naruto clutched his hands tightly, determination written all over his face as he stared at Tsunade. He could tell she was hurt and upset by Sakura leaving. As was everyone else. He vowed to bring her back.

"You have fifteen minutes to gather any supplies that you need, you will meet at the gates and leave immeadiatly. Asuma and Kakashi will be the leaders for this mission. I cannot see you off so I say my farewell here, be safe and good luck. I don't want anyone comming back in a bodybag. Farewell." Tsunade said as they bowed and exited the room.

Everyone raced home and gathered their things. They all met at the gates and everyone checked their equipment. They all sprinted off and dissapeared over the hill. Tsunade watched from the window in her office as the seven shinobi dissapeared into the distance. She let out a sigh and retutrned to her desk. "Don't die." she said to herself.

--

He made a hand sign as the waterfall parted and the two entered. They walked down the long hall that opened up to the mansion. They walked up the stairs and towards the room of the leader. Itachi knocked on the door and it slowly opened.

Pein sat in his chair above the stairs as Konon, his partner stood off to the side looking out the window. "Ah, you've returned." Pein said standing and stretching with a yawn. "Well?"

"We've retrieved the scrolls sucessfully." Itachi said as Sakura stepped forward and handed the scrolls to Pein. "Excellent." Pein said taking the scrolls from Sakura. "How was Sakura-chan's performance?" Pein asked.

"She did extremly well for a trainee. She managed to take down two giant stone statue's single handedly in under 10 minutes." Itachi explained without emotion. "Impressive." Pein said snapping his fingers as two servents appeared with two seperate boxes, one bigger than the other.

"Because you have done exceptionally well on this mission, and have grown in your powers. I herby rank y ou as an official Akatsuki member, Sakura Haruno." He said opening one of the boxes that contained an Akatsuki robe. He took it out and handed it to Sakura as she accepted it. "Another accesory that you must wear at all times is a ring that indicates who you are. Since you were the one who defeated Sasori, it is only appropriate that you recieve his ring." He opened the second box and took out the ring.

It had a symbol on it which mean jewel, or king in kanji. Sakura held out her hand as Pein placed the finger on her left thumb. "It can only be worn on this finger, understood?" he asked. Sakura nodded. "Arigatou Pein-sama." she said with a bow as Pein smirked and Konon rolled her eyes.

Pein began walking as he dusted off the scrolls and began reading something on it aloud. " Like dew drops on a lotus leaf..." he stoppd and sighed in frustration. "I can't make out these last few words, it's eroded away." he said squinting to try and see better.

"I vanish." Sakura said as Pein stopped and looked at her. "What?" he said confused. "Like dew drops on a lotus leaf, I vanish." she said again. "It's the death poem my great great great grandfather wrote minute's before his death. I read the document in Konoha...how is it on that." she said confused.

Pein looked down at the scrolls then at Sakura. "Hmm." he said handing the scrolls to Sakura. "Say it again." he said. "Huh?" she said confused. "Say the poem again, read it aloud." he instructed.

Sakura looked down at the scroll and began reading. "Like dew drops on a lotus leaf, I vanish." she repeated once more as the words began glowing and writing appeared on the scroll. Pein's eyes widened as he took the scroll from Sakura's hands and the writing vanished only showing the poem once more.

"Try again." he said handing the scrolls to Sakura as she read again. "Like dew drops on a Lotus leaf, I vanish." she said and the words began glowing and dissapeared being replaced by different words. Pein reached and took the scrolls from her, as again the writing dissapeared. "The scrolls only work in the hands of Sakura." he gave the scrolls to her as walked up the stairs.

"What am I supposed to do with them?" she asked. Pein shrugged. "Read it. It's useless to me." he said sitting in his chair. Sakura nodded and exited the room with Itachi.

Sakura walked up to Itachi's room with him and closed the door behind her. He walked over to his desk and began writing as per usual. Sakura walked over to the bed and sat on it. She draped the cloak around her and held the scrolls. She read the line again as the words glowed and different words replaced them. She began reading it as her eyes grew wide with excitement.

Itachi looked over at Sakura and saw her reading the scrolls. A few moments passed and he sighed. He stood and exited the room heading for the training grounds. He was curious as to what the scrolls said but he knew it was none of his business and he wasn't about to ask.

Sakura put the scrolls down and the writing dissapeared. She exited the room and headed to the kitchen where she began preparing dinner.

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Itachi stood outside in the training grounds as he took out his kunai's and began practising. He threw them hitting every target dead center. He then began running and throwing them. He stopped and layed down on the ground. He started doing sit ups and completed 100 in less then five minutes. He sighed and sat up looking around the training ground.

Thunder rorared through the sky as a few rain drops fell followed by more and more until it began pouring and the rain claimed him as their new victim. He closed his eyes and felt the rain fall on his skin.

He rememberd the day when he was sent to recruit Sakura and they sat beneath a tree as it began raining and she was healing his wound. A small smile appeared on his face as he quickly shook the thought away.

Why was he thinking of such insufficiant things. He needed to focus on his training. He stood and began practising again. He practiced his ninjutsu and his arim. After a few hours he finally decide to go inside. He entered his room and walked into the bathroom.

He undressed and stepped into the shower. The warm water washed all over his body as he leaned one hand against the walla dn his head faced down. His hair fell just above his shoulders was dripping and he sighed. He was still thinking about that pink haired kunoichi and he didn't know why.

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"Hey kiddo!" Sakura heard as she turned around and saw Hidan and Kazuku walk into the kitchen. "Hey guys, what can I help you with?" she said slapping away Hidan's hand as he reached in to grab a piece of pork that was cooking. "Yeah, could you hurry it up a bit we need to leave for a mission soon and we're kinda hungry." Kazuu said leaning against a wall.

"Oh shut up, you're always hungry." Hidan said as he looked to his side and saw a kunai poking out of it. Sakura saw the blood drip to the ground and sighed. "Get out of her both of you before you drip blood all over my stirfry! Go ! Go! o!" she said shooing them out of the kitchen as she sighed.

She walked over to the frying pana dn reached for the spices and noticed she ran out. She exited the kitchen and headed to the pantry where there was more spices.

Konan was walking towards Sakura concentrating on making origami. Sakura was concentrating on the doos not paying attention when they collided. Sakura rubbed her head. "Sorry." she said continuing on. "You better watch where you're going." Konan said coldly continuing to walk.

Sakura stopped. "What was that?" she asked turning and facing Konan as Konan sighed and looked at her. "I said watch where you're going clutz." she said coldly. "What is your problem." Sakura said offended. "You weren't watching where you were going either so shut up." Sakura snapped.

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Konan yelled. "Or what!" Sakura yelled back. "Why you pathetic excuse for a kunoichi!" Konan said. "What was that !" Sakura said getting really angry now. "You heard me!" Konan said as they inched closer.

"You better watch yourself." Konan threatend. "An empty threat means nothing to me!" Sakura snapped. "You don't belong here, go back to where you came from. We don't need you. Your medical abilities mean nothing to us!" she yelled.

"Fine! Don't come to me when you're injured and dieing because I won't help!" Sakura yelled. "Good!" Konan yelled back.

By now they had got the attention of all the other members. Hidan and Kazuku stuck their heads out of the dining room and watched. Pein stood at his doorway and pressed his ear to the door to listen better. Zatsu stuck partially out of the ground and Itatchi was standing in the hall around the corner.

"Who fights with paper." Sakura muttered before walking away. Konan clutched her hand into a tight fist after hearing this when multiple weapons created from paper flew towards Sakura. Sakura flipped and leapt dodging the weapons. "Bitch!" she yelled as she had suffered a few cuts.

Sakura charged forward and began throwing chakra filled punches as Konan dodged them but unfortunatly couldn't dodge one and she was sent flying back crashing through a wall. Her nose bloody.

The ran at each other again when they suddenly stopped.

Pein was behind Konan. He held her wrists in the air and his other arm was gripped tightly on the back of her neck so she couldn't move.

Itatchi was behind Sakura. He wrapped his arm around her waist holding her tight while his other arm was used to restrain her hands behind her back. Both women glared at each other.

"You need to calm down." Pein said demaningly. "You're going to kill each other." he said looking over at Sakura. "Not to mention bring down the mansion as well."

Sakura's breathing returned to normal. She felt her body pressed against Itachi's.

"Now, if we let you go, you promise to be nice?" Pein said looking at both women as they sighed and then nodded. Pein released Konan and Itachi let go of Sakura. Konan rubbed her wrists and Sakura adjusted her top.

"Now, we will all eat dinner peacefully and this will be forgotton. Let's go." he said walking into the dining room past Hidan and Kakuzu as Itachi, Zetsu and Kisame followed.

Konan and Sakura stood in the hallway looking at each other before they each sighed. Blood dripped from Konan's now broken nose as Sakura slowly approached her. "Let me heal that for you." Sakura said as Konan shot her a cold glare and then looked away as if giving her permission.

Sakura's hands began glowing a pale green as Konan could feel the pain dissapearing and within seconds her nose was healed and fixed. "Look...I'm sorry for snapping like that. " Konan said with a smile. "Yeah..I'm sorry for nearly knocking your head off." Sakura said with a smile rubbing the back of her head.

"You do have a hard punch." Konan said rubbing her nose. "Those papercuts hurt like hell." Sakura said healing her injuries as they both shared a laugh and entered the dining room sitting down for dinner.

A while later they finished dinner and Sakura cleaned up the dishes. Konon helped her.

Konan waved to Sakura and headed off to her room as Sakura walked into the entrace hall where Hidan and Kazkuzu were preparing to leave. "How long are you going to be gone?" Sakura asked. " However long it takes. We're supposed to get rid of a mior threat nearing the hideout. It shouldn't take too long. Why, are you anxious to get your butt whooped in shogi, AGAIN." Hidan said with a smirk.

Sakura smiled. "Whatever, you know I'm totally going to kick your ass when you get back." "We'll see." he said with a smirk. "Bye kiddo." he said rubbing the top of her head so hard she swore a fire could've started. Hidan and Kakuzu exited the hideout and Sakura fixed her hair.

She headed back up to Itachi's room. She entered and found him at his desk writing, again. She yawned and sat on the bed. She took off her cloak and looked at it. She then played with the ring on her thumb.

She sighed and looked around the room. She spotted a pair of siccorss(SP) on the bookshelf and she looked over at her cloak and got an idea. "Hey Itachi-san." Sakura said cheerfully.

Itachi stopped drawing and looked at her. "What." he said. "Do you have any old cloaks?" she asked with a smile. Itachi looked at her blankly wondering what the hell she was asking that for when he sighed and pointed the the drawers under the shelf. "There's old ones in there. They're kinda ripped." he said returning to his writing.

"That's okay!" Sakura said jumping off the bed as she opened the drawer and pulled out and old Akatsuki cloak. She brough it over to the bed and placed her cloak aside.

She picked up the siccorss and began cutting away at the old cloak. She sighed looking at it and exited Itachi's room. She searched for Konan's room and finally found it. She knocked on the door. Moments later Konan appeared at the door her hair and body wrapped in a towel. "Oh hey..is this a bad time?" Sakura asked.

"No it's alright, what do you want?" Konan asked. "I was wondering if you had any old kimono's or ribbons you don't have any use for?" Konan thought for a minute before heading into her room and re-appearing at the door with a box of old clothing and different coloured ribbons. "Thanks!" Sakura said taking the box and running off down the hall back to her..Itachi's room.

She entered the room closing the door behind her. Itachi wasn't sitting at his deak. She could hear water running and she figured he was in the shower. She plopped back down on the bed as she continued cutting and attaching fabric together.

A few mometns later she undressed and put on her newly made clothes. She drapped her cloak over it and gathered all the bits and pieces of the unuse material and placed it in the box and slid it under the bed.

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Itachi turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed the towel and dried his hair. he then dried the rest of his body and put on his black track pants and didn't bother putting on a shirt.

He opened the cupboard and took out his toothbrush and toothpaste. He began brushing his teeth. Once he finished he decided to leave his hair down. He left his headband off and grabbed his pile of laundry and placed it in the basket. He looked in the mirror once more and sighed.

He turned the knob and opened the door of the bathroom. He entered his room and saw Sakura standing on the other side of the bed with a smile. He shut the bathroom door behind him and headed over to his desk.

He found it kind of weird that Sakura was just kind of standing there smiling. He found..creepy even. "Itachi-san." he heard her say. "Do you like what I'm wearing?"

What she was wearing? Itachi was actually anxious to see, but he turned his head slowly to give the impression that he wasn't that interested. His expression stayed the same but his thinking changed.

She wore a black and red and black kimono version of the Akatsuki cloak. It was all black with the red clouds. Around her midsection was a white piece of materal that wrapped around her body. Ontop of the white was a red piece of material that also ran around her whold midsection. And ontop of the red were two black leather straps done up at the front. She wore netting underneath the dress and it came out from underneath it stopping in the middle of her thighs. On her right leg were white bandages wrapped around and on the bandages was a weapons holster which was empty at the moment. The sleeves were cut short and netting came out from where the sleeves would be stopping at her shoulders. She wore long gloves, part of them was black while the other was red. The kimono stretched up in front of her face, very much like Itachi's own cloak. And the rest of her cloak was attactched to the sleeves and draped over like a cape that fell long. She could pull it foward and clasp it together providing as a full cloak or let it hang to the side from the back like a cape. To finish the outfit she wore her long black ninja shoes.

Itachi looked at her as he was impressed that she made it with just siccorss and a few pieces of extra material. His expression didn't change and he really did like what she was wearing. In fact he thought it look good, it made her look good.

He shook those thoughts away and simply nodded his head. "It's alright." he said turning back to his desk contnuing to draw.

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'Oh." Sakura answered sitting on the bed. She sighed and took off the cloak and set it aside now just wearing the kimono she made. She picked up the scrolls and said the death poem as she began reading.

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"This better not take long." Hidan whined "Oh shut up." Kakuzu said stabbing him.

"Someone's comming." Hidan said as Kakuzu looked at him and then at the forest ahead. They shared a smirk and jumped dissapearing.

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They ran through the forest finally comming to stop. "We'll rest here for the night." the silver haired jonin said. "Well don't just stand there, set up camp. I'll find some firewood and Asuma will find food. " Kakashi explained. "What, I will?" he said as theother laughed, all except Naruto who stood staring at the moon. Kakashi smirked and dissapeared as Asuma did as well. The rest began setting up camp.

"Well look here, the threats turned out to be the brats from Konoha. And one of them is the jinchuuriki." Kakuzu said with a smirk. "They will die here by our hands." he said. " I can already taste their blood." Hidan said with an evil smirk.

-to be continued-

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Author's notes: WELL THERE YOU GO. another chapter up. review and let me know what you think. i will write the next one asap ! WOO. ive done three chapters right after each other .YAY FOR ME. kay im done. )

http://i94. the link to see what Sakura looks like now ! ( EXCEPT HER HAIR IS THE SAME ! )

if it doesnt work, let me know ! )