I really want to thank Yuti-Chan for my first ever review! It was so cool to come home, hit the computer, and find out some besides my sister actually likes my stories! It's hard to spend alot of time writing with my home work load, but I promise I'll spend 3/4 of my free time writing! (I need to spend the remaining 1/4 eating.) Now that I know there are people out there reading my stories I hope to get them done alot faster, because no on likes to wait! Thank you so much, even if you don't review! Oh, and plaese tell me what you don't like about my story so I can fix it.
Hello, Akatsuki Friends!
Chapter 2
Sakura blinked open her eyes. She found her self looking at a dimly lit view of a stone ceiling. Where am I? She struggled to sit up, but found that she was chained to a bed. With that realization came a wave of memories. Akatsuki! Shit! She struggled to get up again, thrashing desperately in the chains that restricted her movement. The chains rattling together must have made quite a racket because shortly after Sakura began her struggle she heard a door creak open. Ceasing her struggle, Sakura strained her eyes in a futile attempt to view her surroundings. She heard footsteps walking toward her.
"If I unchain you, will you promise not to try to attack or escape?" A calm female voice asked.
"No." Sakura replied, hoping her fear wasn't obvious in her voice.
"You don't need to be afraid. We wont hurt you." The woman commented, her voice surprisingly stoic. Sakura could hear the woman walk toward the foot of her bed. She flinched as the woman clasped something cold and metallic around her already bound ankle.
"That's a chakra restraint." The woman explained wile removing the chains that bound Sakura. "Any resistance would be futile." There was a rather awkward silence as the woman continued unlocking and untying Sakura. "You can stand up now."
Sakura quickly sat up, ignoring the dizzy feeling in her head from the sudden movement. She whipped around to face the woman who had untied her. She couldn't help but to blink in surprise. She had expected any woman who worked for Akatsuki to be some ugly whore. This woman was defiantly not that. She had chin length blue hair, part of her hair was held up in a small bun topped with a light blue paper flower. Her eyes were amber with blue eye shadow and she wore a piercing under her bottom lip. Her attire was of black sandals with long white socks, common black ninja pants, and a black T-shirt with netting underneath. The room she was in was dimly lit, and was empty except for a bed, an old lamp, and a closet. What surprised her though was that, like the ceiling, the walls and floor were also stone. There aren't any windows.
"Come with me, Sakura." The woman directed, walking out the door. "My name is Konan. Were in the Akatsuki main base."
Sakura hopped off the bed and ran to catch up to Konan. Konan led Sakura down a long hall with several doors on each side. All the doors were made of black wood. They walked for a long time in silence. They turned a corner before walking up a long set of stairs. The halls are also made of stone. There still aren't any windows.
"Are we underground?" Sakura couldn't help but ask as they reached the top of the stairs and turned another corner. That was one of her most dominate traits. Her demanding need for answers.
"Were inside a mountain." Konan said as they rounded another yet corner.
Sakura was about to ask what the blue haired woman meant but the had reached a large black marble door at the end of the hall. The door was probably double the size of an ordinary door, but other than it's size and material it wasn't to fancy. I wonder how you open that? It's probably pretty heavy. Her question went unanswered however, because closer inspection revealed the door was already open a few feet. Before going through the door Konan turned to Sakura.
"Your going to meat the leader of Akatsuki. Address him as Leader or Leader-sama. I don't suggest addressing him as any thing else." Konan advised before turning back around and slipping through the partially open door, beckoning for Sakura to fallow.
The room they entered was rather magnificent. Not exceptionally fancy, just amazing. It was spacious and the floor and walls were stone like the rest of the base she had seen so far, the only difference was that they were smooth and shiny. It reflected the light of a two large red chandeliers that hung in the on either sides of the room. The left side of the room had a set of ten black chairs and a large round table. There were to more black wooden doors in the back of the room. In the right side of the room there was a large black desk against the wall. Konan led Sakura up to the desk. Sitting in the desk was an orange haired man with several piercings decorating his face. His eyes were unnerving. They had a ripple-like pattern around the pupil, with a grayish-purple iris and sclera. Is that a kekkei genkai?
"Pain, this is Sakura." Konan greeted the man behind the desk.
So I guess this is "Leader". Wait, why did she call him "Pain"? She just told me to only call him leader! Sakura looked at Konan for an explanation but the blue haired woman's expression was unchanged.
"Thank you, Konan." Acknowledged Leader before turning to Sakura. "Sakura, do you know why you're here?"
"Um, D-Deidara said you wanted me t-to join Akatsuki." Sakura stammered. She wanted more than anything to be back at home right now and away from these people.
"That's right. We, Akatsuki, need you Sakura." Leader elaborated. "As you may or may not know, Akatsuki usually has ten members. After Orochimaru left we only had nine. The reason we never replaced Orochimaru is because he kept his ring. You can't be in Akatsuki without a ring. Recently though, and I know you know this, Orochimaru has been killed by Sasuke. After finding out about his death I sent out Zetsu to retrieve Orochimaru's ring. Zetsu returned a few days ago with the ring. You are going to ware this ring on your left little finger, and join Akatsuki." After he finished speaking Leader pulled out a drawer in his desk and removed from it a slate blue ring. Written on the ring was 空, meaning "sky" or "void". Leader leaned forward and handed the ring to Sakura. He sat down again and watched her expectantly waiting for her to put it on.
"I-I'm not joining Akatsuki." Sakura managed to say, voice trembling.
"You don't have a choice." Leader stated in a aloof voice.
"S-some one will come for me. I-I'll be rescued!" She stated defiantly.
"No you wont be. There's no one to rescue. Your not even missing, your just dead." Replied Leader, his voice just as emotionless as before.
"W-what?" Sakura asked, taken aback.
Leader replied by opening another drawer in his desk and removing a newspaper, Konoha Times, and leaning forward once again to hand it to Sakura. The pink haired kunoichi gasped as she read the headline. The newspaper article looked like this:
Young Kunoichi Killed in House Fire!
Sakura Haruno was killed in around 2:00am yesterday morning when her house caught fire. The cause of the fire is still unknown but evidence of explosion leads to the theory of explosive tag misuse or malfunction. The fire seemed to have started in the kitchen leading to another theory that the fire might have been caused by an appliance malfunction. No one suspects arson. The victim of the tragic accident is none other that the skill Konoha kunoichi Sakura Haruno, apprentice to Hokage Tsunade. The body was burned beyond recognition but there are no doubts that the brave young girl was killed as she slept. The friends of the sixteen year old girl are devastated. Her parents are yet to be informed for they are on vacation and are said to return in a few days…
Continued on page 36.
Sakura could only stare. Every one thinks I'm dead? The thought left her feeling empty. I don't exist to them anymore. And oh, poor Naruto! I hope he isn't to sad. Him and Tsunade. I've got to go back! It can't be like this! I belong in Konoha! I need to be with my mom and dad! And Kakashi, Shizune, and the rest of the rookie nine! And Sasuke! What will Sasuke do when he finds out I'm dead? I was supposed to help Naruto save him! Sakura could feel tears stinging her eyes. She tried to hold them back and failed. With a choked sob the tears rushed out of her eyes. She cursed her self for crying. Ninja weren't supposed to cry. It was a rule. And here she was showing weakness in front of enemies. She dropped the ring and the news paper, letting them both fall to the ground.
Leader frowned at Konan, who just sighed walking up to Sakura. "There, there, Sakura." Konan murmured to they crying girl, her voice for the first time since Sakura had met her, showing emotion. "We are here for you. Your one of us now." Konan walked up to Sakura and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Sakura flinched away from the older kunoichi's touch and yelled, "It's your guys' fault things are like this to begin with!"
With that Leader stood up from his desk. Konan stepped away from Sakura as the pierced man bent down in front of her and grabbed the pink haired girl's chin lightly in his hand, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
"Sakura Haruno I order you to get a hold of your this very moment." Leader said in a kind yet stern voice. With his free hand he bent down and picked up the ring she dropped. "As of this moment you are part of Akatsuki weather you want to be or not."
He held out his hand. Sakura hesitated for a moment before placing her hand in his. Leader placed the ring on her left pinky and let her hand drop. As he stood up Konan came back to Sakura.
"Thank you Sakura, take this." Konan said, handing Sakura a cloth.
Sakura murmured her thanks then began wiping her tears away.
Leader walked back around his desk and sat down before continuing his speech. "Sakura you are now a member of Akatsuki. You will be treated like all the other members. There will be no special privileges because your new. There aren't many rules except these few: 1 Do as I say, you are my subordinate. 2 Missions are to be carried out quickly and precisely. 3 Do not try and kill other members. 4 Do not give away any of are motives or locations. 5 Do not randomly start a war. Akatsuki members have had quite a bit of free time on there hands since we abandoned the biju chase. We still recive missions from many of the smaller countries, but not as many now that there aren't any wars going on. We usually are a more widespread and busy organization, but now we're all at the main base. Akatsuki rarely gathers together and something like this hasn't happened in years. Since there is such a lag in business there is no need to operate many bases at once or have members floating all over the place. In any case, your free to leave the base whenever, so long as you don't cause any problems. Your goning to be our medic. There will be times, even without as many missions, when a member will be injurred in training or something. Your expected to heal them no matter what. I understand you are also a skilled fighter so expect to be sent on missions as well. Konan will introduce you to all of our members, get you an outfit, and give you a tour of the base." Leader turned to Konan before finishing up. "I think everyone is outside training right now, you might want to get her situated at first."
"Yes sir." Konan replied, her voice stoic once again.
"Do you understand everything Sakura?" Leader asked the now calmer girl.
Sakura looked him straight in the eye and replied. "Yes, but I need you to understand one thing. No matter what you tell me, I will never do two things. I will never hurt an innocent person, and I will never raise a hand against Konoha."
Leader, seemingly unfazed by the comment only said, "One last thing before you go Sakura. You will find that, unlike the rest of the members, Konan and I are hardly ever present. Tomorrow we will be heading back to Amegakure, that's were we spend most of our time."
Sakura nodded her understanding. She was rather annoyed that her previous comment had no affect on him.
"You may go." Leader dismissed.
To be continued...