Title: Standing Tall

Pairings: Deidara & Haruno Sakura

Rating: M - Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.

Disclaimer: Me. Not. Own. Anything.

Chapter Three: Something I can never be

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Sakura stepped in a door lead by Itachi, it was dark and she could barely see beyond the tip of her nose.

"I have brought the kunoichi Leader-sama," The Uchiha said in a respectful tone she didn't imagine he would use… ever. But that was besides the point, she still couldn't see said leader he was talking to.

Sakura eyes shot around the room scanning for the other presence she could feel. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, her eyes still in search of the unbelievably strong chakra she could feel was choking out anyone else's… even the Uchiha's.

"Haruno Sakura" a shady voice called out.

"Hai" She responded turning her head in the direction of the voice. All she could see was a shadow towering over her, she suppressed a gasp when she noticed just how close he had gotten before she noticed him there, and only due to his voice.

"Do you know why you are here?" He inquired

"Umm..." Sakura did her best to put on a confused face "Well I'd say it's either to serve as bait for the kyuubi jinchuuriki the Konoha Jounin Uzumaki Naruto or for my medical skills as apprentice of Konoha's Godaime Hokage and Medical genius Tsunade-shishou" She blurted out before stopping to properly think about what she was saying, sure that was exactly what she though… but had been planning on acting stupid to see if she could learn more.

"Quite clever you are Haruno" the leader mused almost to himself "Tell me would you consider serving the Akatsuki willingly as a medic?"

"No" Sakura said with a tone of disgust.

"Are you sure about that answer? Wouldn't you like to think about?"

"I've had plenty of time to think. And I refuse to willingly stay in company of Uchiha-san there. I'm one hundred percent sure of that."

"I see you seem to not get along well with Haruno Itachi?"

"Hn"

"Do not worry Haruno; if you choose to stay you will not remain in company of Itachi. In fact I'm sure you will enjoy your company"

"Either way I refuse to associate myself with criminals" she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I'm afraid I won't take no for an answer" Pein replied choosing to ignore for now her lack of respect.

"Make Me," she hissed.

"That is what we intend" the leader stated, smirking to himself at how Itachi would make her regret every word she just said, and in the end how she WOULD do what he asked, whether she wanted or not.

"You can dream I'll sit around and be bossed by a S-class kage ... Or a mass murderer" she nudged her head in the direction of Itachi.

"You've got courage I'll give you that..." smile "And one HELL of a time for your attitude he finished to himself.

Turning to Itachi "Take the spirited kunoichi... She is to 'lively' for my taste... Fix it" he said using his business tone again

"Hai... Leader-sama" Itachi shot Sakura an evil smirk as he turned to take her away, only to be stopped by the leader's voice.

"Itachi..."

"Hai"

"Remember that you will have to respond to her master on any permanent damage"

"With all due respect Leader-sama, I will not answer to that baka about any of my actions"

"She is HIS kunoichi, and I will not deal with him if he complains on her state... And remember we still will make use of her"

Itachi's eye twitched "Hai leader-sama"

"Crap!" Sakura inwardly frowned "Damn why did he have to... Wait, what? My what?" She almost yelled the last part.

"Don't raise your voice kunoichi" Itachi hissed in her ear. Sakura lowered her voice but was not about to give up.

"Uchiha-san, what did he mean by 'my master?"

"You should know, shouldn't you?"

"Hun?"

Itachi chuckled. "I guess you aren't all that smart are you?"

"What? I mean how should I know what you're talking about? And I have NO master. If you're dreaming I'm going to let some random S-class criminal go around calling himself my master you're dead wrong" Sakura crossed her arms in an attempt to look dead serious about what she had just said, but resulted in looking like a small child pouting, which Itachi found to be extremely amusing.

"Are you done ranting kunoichi?" he said fighting all urges to laugh… Uchiha's don't laugh. They only use their evil laughter, and only moments before giving you a horrible death, which he couldn't do to her at the moment.

Sakura was about to shoot him her best death glare so far when she had an idea!

"Itachi-san?" She gave him her very best puppy face look

Itachi just looked at her; what was the kunoichi trying to pull off now?

"What did he mean? I don't understand? Who is this person he said is my 'master'" the 'master' came out with as much sarcasm she could manage without ruining her puppy face.

Itachi smirked "For now kunoichi that would be me"

"For now?" Now Sakura was truly confused.

But Itachi offered no further explanation and only pushed down the hall. After walking for about 15 minutes through what seemed like endless corridors, Itachi shoved her in a door, turning the light on he made his way across the room coming to a bed where he proceeded to remove his cloak his leg guards, arms guards, shirt, shoes and clad in only his pants turned in direction of another door which she could only guess to be the bathroom.

"What you're gonna leave alone in a room full of weapons with the door unlocked?" Sakura asked in pure disbelieve. Was he really THAT confident of himself?

Itachi being… well… Itachi simply looked at the kunoichi with a 'if-you-as-much-as-breath-in-a-way-I-don't-like-you-will-regret-the-day- you-were-born', and then disappeared behind the door.

Sakura understood very well what his look said as if he had said every word, and was currently trying to decided on ignoring him, or living.

Choosing life she made her way to the bed and in one swoop wiped all of his clothes and guards to the floor in a series of low thumps and clanks as the weapons hit the floor removing her own cloak and shoes she jumped on the bed stretching her limbs to reach the corners of the bed until she looked very much like a star fish.

"Must enjoy what I can," she said to herself. Giving a small sigh she closed her eyes to rest.

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I know not that great.. but I didn't really have time to do more as I am working on another fic it's a SasuSaku I never thought I'd write one of those, I hate Sasuke but I had an idea and decided to give it a try…

Well… review!! And you will get another chapter before you know it xD

But I will not post the next chapter until I get 6 reviews… I get a lot of alerts but hardly any reviews… so I figured that if you can tag my story you might as well encourage me by reviewing, right?

Thanks again to all who reviewed… I will always have a special place for you in my left kidney (internal joke… if you want to know why let me know and I'll post it)