Chapter 4

Sakura hesitantly let slide the final key in the last door of the hallway they were currently standing in.

It matched like predicted and as soon as she turned it around she could hear Sai impatiently stepping from one foot onto the other one and back again.

He was as nervous as she was right now and it didn't surprise her. Her two boys had gotten really close- after all they were in her proximity nearly all of their free time so they couldn't avoid getting to know each other.

Sai, having given Neji the nickname "Barbie" the first time he got to see Sakura's friend and sparring partner, soon started to show him the same smile he had saved for the pink haired girl-his real one.

Neji was, except for the nickname, happy that another boy was added to their little group-it was much more fun for him to spar with Sai than with Sakura. It wasn't like Sakura was too weak or anything like that- he just couldn't hurt her because she was a girl and he was really old-fashioned. So he tried to dodge her attacks. But when she actually was able to hit him it always hurt like hell and he would have a large purple bruise on one of his eyes for several days.

So it was an improvement for him- mainly concerning his flawless face

Wanting to know if the pale-eyed boy was really in this cell Sakura stepped inside of it, closely followed by Sai. As soon as they saw a large figure lying in the right corner they started to rush to their friend. Neji was enchained, just like Sakura had been and seemed to be unconscious. They both crouched down on their knees and Sakura started to gather her minimal recovered chakra to heal his worst injuries.

But as soon as her chakra started to mix with his body she jumped away from Neji.

"Crap" she hissed. "Sai be careful that isn't Neji"

"What are you talking about ugly? Of course this is Ne-"

"Oh" they could hear an amused voice interrupting Sai "so you noticed, yeah?"

The body of Neji had opened his eyes and chuckled. "Thought I could do better. But Itachi was obviously right. You are a good medic-nin after all, Sakura. Maybe that is why you were able to kill Sasori-danna"

Slowly the brown hair of their friend started to turn fair, his eyes were suddenly a bright blue and he started to get up.

"Well I think I should introduce myself again-judging by your faces you don't remember me.

The name's Deidara. I used to be Sasori's partner – up until you killed him, brat!"

Deidara shouted and lunged at Sakura with a kunai ready for slicing the pink haired girl into pieces. Maybe some kind of late revenge, she thought. Sakura, having been prepared for an attack quickly sidestepped him and skilfully throw the nails she had drawn out of the broken chair in his direction.

Deidara, not counting on being attacked with weapons of any sort was soon nailed to the opposite wall.

"What was that? You aren't supposed to have any weapons, yeah!" Deidara nearly pouted.

"Oh just shut up Blondie" Sai spat. "Nice one, Sakura" he added a bit more friendly.

"Uh thanks I guess…" she answered, still a bit shocked because of the sudden attack she had nearly received.

"Alright, now tell us were Neji is!" Sai hissed at Deidara.

"Yeah, right. Why should I do such a thing? Itachi would kill me without anyone caring 'bout my death" the blond man answered bored and seemingly uninterested.

Sakura, lifting her head so that her face was only inches away from Deidara's, grinned widely. "You want to know why you should tell us where our friend is?"

While she was talking to him she grabbed the kunai that was still positioned in his right hand and then continued.

"Well, ya know, I think I know some things that will persuade you." she said with an overly cheerful voice while spinning the kunai she had stolen around her index finger.

Deidara, having clearly understood the hidden warning, swallowed hard.

"Uh that's a kinda difficult choice. Ya know, being killed by a teenage girl or by the legendary Itachi Uchiha…" Deidara stated without finishing his sentence.

"Like I have already said, I know ways to persuade you." Sakura threatened. She slowly lifted the kunai and touched the warm skin directly next to his artery. Deidara flinched at the cold feeling of metal against his neck and swallowed again.

Due to the movement of his throat his skin was pressed against the sharp weapon and the first drops of blood started to flow down his neck, soon being hidden inside of his Akatsuki cloak.

Deidara, now getting really nervous – he was sweating quite a lot – continued to act nonchalantly. Sakura, impatiently like always, removed the kunai from it's threatening spot and lifted it even higher. She had to tiptoe but reached the top of his head nonetheless and buried the metal weapon behind his high-held pony tail.

Then, with a strong jerk she cut his beautiful Ino-like hair. Grinning sweetly she held the quite large amount of soft fair hair in front of his face and enjoyed the look of utterly shock and horror currently clearly visible in his facial expression

Sai, standing behind her, let a small snort of amusement slip out of his tightly closed lips.

"Y-you cut my hair! How dare you, yeah!" Deidara shouted.

"I am such a klutz sometimes. I'm so sorry." Sakura said with a total lack of emotion.

Sai started to chuckle again but stopped as soon as he had received a threatening look of Sakura.

"And believe me that is not the only thing I can cut off from your body. Other parts may be a bit more painful to remove but I am sure I will be successful." while she said that she adjusted the kunai a bit lower to emphasize which body part she meant exactly with these words.

Deidara swallowed again. Harder this time. "Okay okay. I will tell you, yeah."

"Why, thank you Deidara-kun" Sakura teased him. "That's so nice of you."

Sai loudly snorted but didn't say a word. Sakura had always been the best of them when it came to interrogation. The few days of training with Ibiki had paid off after all.

"Itachi knew that you wouldn't flee without your friends. So he has given Tobi, the idiot who was supposed to watch you, the keys for the basement. He most likely knew that you would knock Tobi out without any problems and then search for your friends.

Well, you obviously found one of them- I was supposed to act like this Neji-guy so I could follow you and tell Itachi what you are up to do next." Deidra explained hurriedly. "The other boy is imprisoned in the upper level of this building. He's inside the room directly next to Itachi's so you have to be very quiet if you want to escape without him noticing."

Sakura nodded to herself while he was speaking. "Okay. So first of all we have to get ride of Deidara. Sai, it's your turn!" She commanded.

As soon as she noticed that Sai didn't move a muscle she sighed and added: "Please?"

Sai, now satisfied, moved towards the struggling blonde and quickly hit him in his face.

"Sai!" Sakura scowled at him. Sai snorted again and finally hit one of the pressure points at his neck.

Deidara, knocked out cold, made a rather interesting image because of his new hairstyle. The pink-hair girl had cut off nearly everything except for the long hank still hanging over one of his eyes.

Sakura quickly scanned through the contents of his pockets and was soon rewarded by another three keys tagged to an iron-ring.

Then she carefully removed the nails from the blond man and put them back inside her pouch. Maybe they would be of use later again.

Sai waited for her before he left the cell and closed the heavy door again. They were so used to it that they didn't even notice the croaking sound anymore.

"Okay Ugly, what now? Search for the staircase?" the dark-haired artist asked Sakura as soon as the door was locked again.

"I guess." she answered unmotivated. Sai, standing closely by her side, cautiously laid one of his palms at her cheek. Softly caressing her he whispered "Cheer up Sakura. We will find him and then we can finally escape. We will stay together as missing-nins and nobody will be able to capture us ever again." he assured her.

Sakura had to fight her tears because of the care he showed to her.

Sai normally wasn't an emotional person and so she knew how much this simple act actually meant to him.

Smiling and blinking her tears away she leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his left cheek.

"Thank you Sai" she honestly said before she turned around and insinuated him to follow her.

They quickly made their way towards the direction they had originally came from and soon stood in front of the stairs which would lead to the first story of this building and hopefully to their friend. The staircase was of a dark wooden colour and seemed to be quite old. Here and there you could see small holes inside of the individual steps, making the whole construction seem to be very insecure.

Before they started to move upwards they stopped in order to control if they could detect someone walking on the upper stories but they weren't able to hear anything. Sakura was the first one to lay step on the wooden stairs and flinched as they gave away a croaking sound. Why does everything in this fucking building has to croak? She angrily asked herself.

Sai followed soon after her and again she had to flinch. They behaved like bulls in a china shop. It would be some sort of miracle if nobody was able to hear them but right now she just wanted to be up there. They decrepit state of the staircase really was quite alarming.

Hurriedly reaching the last step she cautiously looked around.

"Can you see anything" Sai asked immediately.

"No. There's nothing." she answered as quiet as possible.

She could see a large hallway with several corridors leading in nearly every direction. Everything was held in dark colours such as black and brown and the only light was coming from two tinny windows at the left and right wall.

Akatsuki people sure like cheerless places, huh? Sakura thought to herself while she inspected everything with a sweat drop forming on her forehead.

She could see a kitchen, held in dark blue and brown, furnished with a big wooden desk in the middle of the room and with several chairs positioned around it. Fortunately nobody was in there or else they would have been immediately detected.

They cautiously moved towards one of the corridors and searched for some clue where they could find Neji. Concentrating on the different chakra trails inside of this building she could feel Sai's chakra closely next to her, as well as some other ones. The biggest one was fortunately coming from outside so he was maybe away to do some training or whatever else he wanted to do outside.

Sakura actually didn't want to know the details. She detected another chakra coming from her right direction and she immediately tensed. Itachi! she thought but soon remembered what Deidara had told them. And really, there, next to Itachi's she could feel a very familiar but unusual weak chakra signature.

She let out a sigh of relief. So they had finally found Neji.

Now they only had to rescue him.

Well that was chapter 4 for you! Please review!