Hi there!
Well here I am with another late update of my story 'The treachery of Konoha' and first of all I wanted to thank every single reviewer! You just make my day! And I do have a good reason for not updating! You know the book 'twilight' from Stephenie Meyer? If not you just have to read it. It's one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, you know. The sequel 'New moon' is just as good as the first one, and right now I am reading 'eclipse', the third part. I am sure that there are quite many of you who will agree with my opinion so I hope you understand why I couldn't update before I finished the books! Anyway, here's chapter 14 for you:
Chapter 14
So finally she was allowed to meet her new master. And she was surprised to see that she couldn't really see him. He was covered in black shadows even thought the large room Sakura was currently standing in was not that dark. She figured that it was a jutsu, made to intimidate foreigners and his own men, the Akatsuki.
But she could make out his approximate silhouette so she could at least detect that he seemed to be normal sized, maybe a bit bigger than Itachi or Deidara. His hair seemed to spike at the ends so that he had a quite surprisingly resemblance with her former best friend Naruto.
She couldn't see his eyes, but since Itachi wasn't saying a word she figured that Leader-sama was currently speaking with a member of Akatsuki in his head like Itachi had shown her before.
Not daring to say anything that would interrupt his trail of thoughts she observed her accompanist. Itachi's jaw line was set hard as if he was pressing his teeth roughly against each other. His meanwhile crimson eyes were set on a dark corner to their left side and he didn't even blink.
Curious about what was so interesting she followed his gaze but it was way to dark to see anything but shadows. She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at leader-sama. And in exact that moment he opened his eyes. Itachi could hear his companion drawing a deep breath and immediately tensed "Rinnegan!" she hissed, completely shocked. To make it even worse Itachi suddenly throw himself in front of her, his arm lifted in front of his face. He twitched shortly and Sakura could see some drops of blood dripping down towards the cold floor. He slowly lowered his hurt arm again and glowered towards the corner he had observed earlier. "Konan!" he hissed "what was that? You can't just simply kill her!"
A woman quickly emerged from the clinging shadows and made her way towards the throne of her master. "Don't tell me what to do, Itachi. You know what leader-sama once told us to do when someone knows about his rinnegan!"
"But she will join Akatsuki and he only told us to kill that person if he was a foreigner!" Itachi growled back, clearly annoyed by the blue haired woman.
"Silence, both of you." a clear voice suddenly interrupted them and everyone in the room immediately shifted their attention towards the leader of Akatsuki. "You don't have to kill her, Konan so relax." Said woman seemed to pout for a short moment before she thought better and vanished inside the shadows.
"So, Sakura, right?" he asked her with an emotionless but somewhat friendly voice. "Uh yeah, I guess." Gosh girl what was that? You have to know your name so why 'I guess' inner Sakura imitated her voice Oh shut up I want to concentrate! She hissed back in her thoughts and snarled lightly. Itachi shot her a warning glance and she quickly straightened up again.
The leader merely lifted his eyebrows at her reaction and continued immediately. "I am Pain-"
"What?" Sakura interrupted. "You are in pain?! Let me see, I can heal you-"
Before she could elaborate she heard Itachi chuckling slightly and noticed leader-sama shifting his weight in his swanky throne. "No, Sakura, I am Pain. That's my name."
"Oh." the girl mumbled, blushing quickly due to her mistake. Ignoring her inner-self laughing like crazy she said. "I am sorry for interrupting you. Please continue."
Pain nodded slightly. "First of all I want to know why you know about the 'rinnegan' you mentioned before Konan attacked you."
"Uhm, I read about it in one of the scrolls of my master, the fifth Hokage."
"And what exactly was mentioned there?" leader-sama inquired immediately.
Sakura shifted her weight uncomfortably. She still wasn't used to giving secret information to the former enemy and had some sort of qualms to tell them what they obviously implicitly wanted to know. Girl, they betrayed you! It's your turn to pay them back, just like you promised yourself earlier inner-Sakura said somewhat annoyed.
Yeah, but to actually do it is something completely different….
All hat and no cattle, huh? Her inner-self taunted
Oh, just shut up for once, I have got to consider what I ought to tell them. She hissed back annoyed.
And surprisingly the image in her head sulked and moved towards a dark corner with a leader-like throne and sat down there, still pouting with her arms crossed.
Sighing contently, but only in her head to avoid annoying and embarrassing question she started to explain:" Well, I know that the rinnegan was first possessed by the founder of our current ninja world and that it is characterized by a number of concentric circles around the owner's pupil." she repeated in the exact same way she read it about two months ago.
Both men looked at her anticipatory, waiting for more information. "Uhm, that's it. I don't know anything else." she stated after a moment of awkward silence.
"You don't know how it works? Or what I am able to do with it?" Pain asked distrustful, while Itachi looked at her with his crimson eyes obviously trying to detect if she told the truth.
Meanwhile Inner-Sakura had emerged out of her sulking place and paced up and down with a big, old looking book in her hands. The rinnegan: It gives the wielder access to all six types of elemental chakra and it also allows sharing visual information with other people. She read out bumptious. You know where I got that from? She closed her book and continued. This book contains all of our valuable memories that we have gathered during our wonderful seventeen years of comradeship so you sure you don't know anything else? Better come up with a fine excuse unless you want that sharingan freak to detect your lie immediately!
Sakura gulped nervously and said with as much determination as possible. "Uhm...no?"
Inner Sakura smote her forehead.
"All right..." the leader said, but spoke the words so slowly that it was obvious that de didn't believe her. "Anyway, let's discuss your joining in our organization."
The pink haired girl immediately tensed and listened carefully to every word he told her. "As you know several of our members unfortunately deceased. They were mostly killed by your former people. But who I am to tell you?" he suddenly said with a sharper voice. "After all you killed one yourself." Sakura smiled sheepishly and received a warning glance from Itachi so she quickly removed the silly expression from her face before Pain could see it. Said man continued his little speech.
"It would be normal to give Sasori's place to you so that you would be the partner of Deidara." Sakura could hear Itachi shifting his weight from one foot to another, but was quickly distracted by the next words of her leader. "But after all we have already given that spot to Tobi- you have met him, I am sure of that- so this opportunity doesn't exist any longer." Itachi stopped moving and relaxed again, but this time Sakura didn't pay any attention to the sharingan-user. "Our only members who are still alive are Deidara, Itachi, Tobi, Kisame, Zetsu, Konan, you and me." He slowly lifted his hand and moved his forefinger back and forth, obviously meant to call his partner, the woman that had attacked her earlier and wounded Itachi instead. Right, as soon as she was allowed to go she would heal Itachi's arm. It wasn't like she felt sorry for him or anything like that. She just hated it to be in someone's debt and right now she clearly was since he saved her life.
And true to her earlier assumption Konan moved towards the throne of Pain, carrying a small box and as soon as she had given it to leader-sama she vanished again without making a single sound. "Since Zetsu always works alone and everyone already has got a partner we will change the teams for your first mission so that you don't have to work alone, Sakura. Since you obviously seem to get along with Deidara quite well he will be your partner for the time being."
Sakura had to force the smile that wanted to spread over her face away and completely ignored Itachi who meanwhile had clench his fists and seemed to be royally pissed of. "But I am sure you understand that we can't let act Tobi on his own. That would be…unwise. And since I highly doubt that Itachi and he would get along without any problems, I will order Kisame to be Tobi's momentary partner. Itachi meanwhile will join your group so that you will be a three men squad." Inner Sakura made a gagging sound. "All right." the pink haired girl said without especially much enthusiasm. But then Itachi interfered, surprisingly glaring at the head of Akatsuki. "Pain, as much as I value your opinion, I don't think it will be necessary to create a three men squad."
Pain immediately lifted himself from his throne and vanished, only to appear in front of Itachi, his shadow like features showing extreme anger, directed towards the sharingan-user. "I don't think that you are allowed to disagree with me, Itachi. Didn't I teach you what will happen if you do?" Itachi winced only barley noticeable and nodded stiffly. "Very well." leader-sama stated calmly again and moved back towards his voluminous chair. Sakura had observed the whole scene with interest, wondering silently what Pain had done to make Itachi so afraid of him. That's certainly a first. The mighty Uchiha prodigy being afraid! Inner-Sakura stated with barely covered glee in her voice. Didn't I tell you to shut up? The seventeen-year old kunoichi hissed. Calm down, girl! Just joking…
Sakura shook her head in her thought and shortly glanced towards Itachi. He still seemed to be stiff and his one hand clutched the hem of his Akatsuki cloak
Not sure if she should be concerned for him-he saved her life after all- or to agree with her inner self since he was the one to kidnap her she simply averted her glance to Pain again, pretending to not notice what had just happened in this weird room.
"You certainly have noticed that every member of our organization wears a different ring. Each ring bears a unique symbol, the first kanji of its name." Pain indicated Itachi with a movement of his head to show his right hand to Sakura. He complied after a short pause and lifted his right arm. Instead of focusing her emerald eyes at the ring, like predicted, her glance was set firmly at the wound Konan had inflicted earlier.
There was something white sticking in his forearm and blood pouring from the obviously deep wound. The front of the strange object was drenched in the crimson liquid and she shortly wondered what thing Konan had thrown that could inflect such high damage even thought it didn't seem to be made out of iron or another strong material. Before she could enwrap herself deeper in possible conclusion she was abruptly taken out of her trail of thoughts by Itachi who had quietly cleared his throat. Indicating Sakura to look at the ring rather than at his wound she complied and lowered her glance until she reached his pale hand. The ring was blood red, somewhat matching his sharingan with a black kanji written in the middle of it. "Crimson…" she mumbled.
"Exactly. The kanji scratched inside of the ring means 'red' and it is the beginning of 'Suzaku', the Vermilion Bird."
Sakura nodded her head, showing that she understood what he told her. He continued, while opening the little box which had lain on the ground, forgotten by everyone. "Right now we have got two rings left; the one of Hidan and the one of Kakuzu. Considering your personality I would rather give 'Hokuto', the Big Dipper, to you. I guess that would be more fitting than the one of Hidan."
"Uh, I guess that's okay with me." Sakura didn't have a single clue about what leader-sama was talking about so she just agreed with whatever he was saying. Maybe she could ask Deidara sometime why Pain thought that the Big Dipper was suiting her personality.
And again Konan vanished out of the shadows and paced towards Pain without him saying a word of order to her. She quickly grabbed the box and walked towards Sakura steadily but without giving her a single glance. She obviously already dislikes me. Sakura thought kind of disappointed. She had hoped to get along with the only other female member of Akatsuki but Konan's attitude had burst her bubble effectively. Before she could listen to a most likely ironic comment of inner-Sakura the blue-haired woman already positioned herself in front of the way smaller girl and opened the box.
Inside of the wooden container was a small ring, witch was quite similar to Itachi's. They had the same crimson color but the kanji was different. Her one meant 'north'. She couldn't help but somehow feel proud as she took the metal piece out of the box and positioned it on her left middle finger, remembering the files she read about Kakuzu. He had always worn it on this finger and she assumed that there was a special meaning to the different positions every single ring harbored. So she sure as hell wouldn't change that tradition. "You may go now. I will inform you about your next mission as soon as possible." Only moments after Pain had finally released them Itachi paced towards the exit and Sakura hurriedly followed him. He really seemed to be uncomfortable around the leader of Akatsuki. The pink-haired girl smiled slightly. At least he seemed to have one weak point. And if she could find out why he respected Pain so much she could maybe take advantage of that fact.
He opened the door and let her pass the threshold first, but immediately followed her. As soon as the door was closed he seemed to relax again. Whoa, I had never thought I would ever be able to read him so well. I guess he really is just human after all. Yeah, right. He just simply killed his whole family, messed up his brother's mind and joined Akatsuki. But, really, who wouldn't love to do that? Yeah, I know. But maybe he did have good reasons. You can't judge him without knowing every single fact. Seriously, you think there is any fact that would excuse what he has done this far? I don't think so. Sakura hated to admit it but her inner-self was right. But she would ask him to explain his reasons to her nonetheless.
"Itachi!" she said, suddenly noticing drops of blood scattered at the dusky ground. They seemed to glow in the dim light the torches caused. Said man turned his head around to face her, since he had gained the lead again and stopped his hurried footsteps. "What?" he asked surprisingly patient. "Your wound…let me heal it." Sakura answered calmly.
After a short moment of silence he sighed defeated and sat on the ground, all the time watching her movements. She sat closely beside him, immediately lifting his arm and observing the wound. She quickly pulled out the white thing she had noticed earlier and was really surprised to see that it was a piece of paper, neatly folded in the form of a rose, with spicy endings which had bored deeply into the flesh of his arm. "Origami." she mumbled surprised, but loud enough for Itachi to detect. "Yeah. She can divide her body into countless numbers of paper sheets which are covered in a secretion that stops the wound healing."
"I see." she simply stated, already focused on his lesion. It was quite easy to heal, since the spiky endings had only caused several small wounds and that was way easier to heal than a gash. "You know…" she began, unsure if he would be okay with talking. "What?" he encouraged her, while observing the process she made with healing his wound. "I just wanted to ask you…why you killed your clan?" Itachi chuckled slightly but answered nonetheless, glancing up in her eyes to emphasize his response. "I can't tell you yet. Ask me that again when I am sure that you are trustworthy."
"All right…"she made disappointed, once again concentrating back at her work. She had almost closed every scratch so she only had to heal the bigger ones. "You know…" This time it was Itachi who started making conversation. "Yeah?" she encouraged him just like he had only moments before. "I was wondering…if you know why leader-sama thought that the Big Dipper would be matching for you." Even thought she was pretty sure that that hadn't been the question he wanted to ask she responded with shaking her head. "No, I don't."
"I could explain it to you, if you want me to." Sakura glanced up from her work to look at him surprised. Why was he suddenly so friendly and polite? Had she missed something? "Uhm, sure."
"You know, not especially many people are able to locate the Big Dipper in the sky. It is always there in approximately the same place, day and night. They think that it must be very bright, but it is not. Its most outstanding quality results from its location, rather than from its relative brightness."
"Wow, that's… significant. " Sakura stated after a short moment of silence. She had meanwhile finished her work and looked up in his eyes. They were crimson, like her new ring, and they watched her somewhat intently. She nervously gulped, blushing slightly because of their proximity. Her glance focused on his lips and she could help but remember the kiss they had shared earlier this day. If she hadn't been so surprised, she would have been able to remember how it had exactly felt like to have his perfect lips pressed against her one's, his tongue exploring her mouth… Okay, cut it! What are you thinking? This man is your enemy! The ranting of her inner-self had harshly retrieved her from her not so good thoughts and she quickly stood up, breaking the moment of intensity. "Let's go." she quietly mumbled and avoided Itachi's searching glance for the rest of the way back to her room.
This one is the longest chapter I have ever written! Oh, and I hope the things I mentioned about the different rings and the other Akatsuki concerning business is actually right. If not please tell me so I can fix it! About the election thing, I guess it is pretty obvious that the majority of you prefer ItachiXSakura. I will ensure that there will be other pairings as well so don't worry; there will be a lot of jealousy! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and I hope you will review!
Have a nice day,
serafina25