A/N: I know there isn't a lot of Sakura interacting with the Akatsuki just yet.

It has been five years since Sakura had been adopted by Pein and Konan. Since then she has grown considerably. Her rosette hair now falls an inch above her back, her hair stays parted to the side held in place by a cherry blossom clip that Pein had bought her on her sixth birthday. Her regular outfit consist of a black and red ninja kimono with the Akatsuki clouds printed over it and black ninja sandals. And at the young age of seven, it was very clear how precious she is the criminal organization. Sakura can walk into any room and immediately change the atmosphere cheery. Most of the Akatsuki members love her (minus Hidan and Kakazu and Zetsu who simple tolerate her; not that she could blame them necessarily. I mean, they were very, very rough around the edges). However, the trio knows better to say anything to the cherry blossom in fear of Pein's wrath (not to mention everyone else).

Sakura is strong; especially so for a seven year old - but that goes hand and hand with her being trained by S Ranked criminals (not that she knew that her family was considered criminals). Fair to say, it is obvious that Sakura is a treasure to the little merry band of mercenaries. She even gets called Hime.

"Ne, Ita-Ita-kun, where is papa?" a smiling Sakura asks, tugging on said man's robe.

Glancing down, Itachi Uchiha eyes the bundle of pink. "Aa. Leader-sama is at the farther training grounds with Konan-sama."

"Yaya! Thank you Ita-Ita-kun!" with a huge smile at her helper, Sakura runs off to where Itachi told her. The elder Uchiha's eyes soften when he sees her retreating figure. When he sees her happy form, he can't help but to be reminded of his little brother. A sad smile twitches at his lips.

"Mama, Papa!" screams the young pinkette as she spots orange and blue in the distance. Upon reaching them, Sakura jumps into Pein's arms and cuddles his neck.

Giggling, Konan ruffles Sakura's hair. "Sakura-chan, you act as though you didn't just see us an hour ago."

"But Mama, that was a looong time ago!"

"Aah, Sakura your patience is as shallow as ever." Pein smirks.

Sakura, not liking the smirk her father was sending her, puffs out her cheeks in annoyance. "Ne, you don't have to pick on me!"

At this, Konan and Pein give each other an amusing look. Konan pokes Sakura's inflated cheeks and laughs at her tiny glare.

"Mama, stop making fun of me!" Sakura crossed her arms and swatted Konan's hand away from her face. Unable to hold himself back, Pein chuckles at his daughter's antics. "You're hurting my feelings!"

"How about Mama and I allow you to travel with us today since we've, uh, 'hurt' your feelings?"

Emerald eyes sparkle upon hearing this. It is very rare for Pein and Konan to allow her to leave the Akatsuki hideout. And it is not like Sakura doesn't ask. Usually when she asks to travel with the Akatsuki she gets told no because it is 'too dangerous'. As if Sakura knows what that means. She has been told countless times by her little family that she is a very skilled kunoichi; yet when the time comes she always gets treated as if she would get in the way. Upon this train of thought, emerald eyes turn weary.

"Really?" Sakura asks suspiciously.

"Really really." Konan smiles.

"Hmmm…. Where are we going then?" Sakura draws, still not fully trusting her parents. They're probably just going to take her around Amegakure and hope that will fulfil her desire to travel for a little while. But Sakura will not fall for such things.

"Konohagakure."

Emerald eyes sparkle once again. She's never been there before. And if her memory serves her correctly, that is where Itachi is from. "YAYA! REAL TRAVELING."

Konan and Pein just laugh at their daughter's energy.

Several hours later, the trio are entering Konohagakure. Pein was disguised as farmer with dark red hair (very similar to her natural hair color as Nagato) and blue eyes. On his back was a straw backpack to give to the illusion that he had come to sell some of his crop at the local market. Konan, on the other side of Pein, was wearing a pasty green gown and had disguised herself with light blonde hair and emerald green eyes, the same shade as Sakura's. While red and blonde hair may not be the most ideal hair colors to choose while going undercover, the idea was to look more like Sakura so that all three could easily pass as wondering family. It would be easier to just have Sakura transform her hair into a more subtle color, but, to be honest, Pein and Konan couldn't bear to see Sakura without her cherry blossom hair.

Nodding a greeting to the guards at the gate, the trio make their way down the main road of Konohagakure. After some walking, they find themselves at a Farmer's Market with several stalls filled with different varieties of fruit, vegetables, meat, candy, ect. Sakura's eyes light up. Never before had she seen so much people all in one place. Ame was a very rainy place, it was very rare for people to be walking around outside for prolonged periods of times. At a young age, it was very obvious that Sakura was a social butterfly – she could make friends with a wall (*cough*Itachi Uchiha*cough*). All around her people were smiling, laughing and carrying on without a care in the world. It was a very lovely site. The sun was high in the sky, the air smelled of delicious food and Sakura couldn't help but to smile.

However, there was one lone figure amongst the crowd of smiling people. It was a boy about Sakura's age with raven-black hair, spiked up in the back and what seemed like a permanent frown etched onto his face. What grabbed Sakura's attention the most (besides this boy being the only person within her radius that was not smiling) was his onyx eyes. The boy's eyes looked so… so sad. This young boy had eyes that just radiated bone deep loneliness, betrayal and anger. Sakura just couldn't tear her eyes away from him. There was just something about him that drew her undivided attention. Emerald eyes followed the lone boy as he walked across the happy crowd to the tomato vender. Upon reaching the vender, it seemed as though the boy's eyes lit up a fraction of an inch. Sakura couldn't help but to smile at this. Maybe the boy wasn't so lost.

Noticing her daughter's distracting, Konan looked down at the pink haired girl with a curious look. "Sakura-chan, is everything okay?"

Snapping out of her own head, Sakura peered up at her now blond mother and nodded. Then she looked back the boy who was now inspecting the various tomatoes. Sakura tugged on her mother's arm and point at the raven haired boy. "Ne, Mama, why is that boy so sad?"

Following her daughters finger, Konan spotted the youngest Uchiha. Immediately Konan frowned. She did not like where this was going. Of course her daughter would notice the young Uchiha. It was like she had a radar for unhappy people. Pein turned to see what his girls were discussing and noticed Sakura's arm pointing at the Uchiha. He mimicked Konan's face immediately.

"Sakura, it is nothing. Let's get going." Pein said, taking ahold of the girl's still pointing hand and pulling her away from the boy. Konan grabbed Sakura's other hand and continue to walk along with Pein. They had a mission to do and Sakura talking to the youngest Uchiha was not it.

"But papa! It is something!" Sakura groaned. Realizing that Sakura was not going to get anywhere with her parents, she looked behind her at the lone boy once again. She just couldn't keep her eyes off of him.

As if sensing someone staring at him, Sasuke Uchiha looked behind him and saw a pink haired girl getting pulled away by a red haired man and a blond woman with a disgruntled look on her face. The girl, realizing that the person she had been staring at had noticed her, quickly turned her head the other way. But not before Sasuke caught sight of her face turning the exact same shade of her hair. What an odd girl. She must be a fangirl. However, for some reason Sasuke felt his lips slip upwards when saw the red faced girl quickly peak over her shoulder to state at him again.

"Sakura-chan, papa and I have to do a few things real quick, okay? Play in the park until we get back." Konan smiles, releasing Sakura's hand.

However, Sakura was promised to travel with her parents and she will be damned if they try to cheat her out of this. "No! Papa said that I could travel with you guys!"

"And you have. Now we have to visit a few places and it would easier on us if you would just wait here." Pein replied sternly.

"Papa you said –"

"Sweetie, if you make this easy on us, I promise you Papa and I will buy you some of those strawberry cakes you were eyeing on the way up here." Konan smiled.

Immediately Sakura shut her mouth. "Promise?" Sakura asked holding her pinky finger to her mother. "Promise, dear." Konan said, connecting their pinkies together.

A little bit grumpily, Sakura made her way over to the swings, muttering to herself. Of course her parents would get her hopes up just to crush them. It was just like them. No amount of strawberry cakes could make up for what they have done (that was a lie, of course). Sakura took a seat on one of the swings and continued her inner complaining. I mean, how could they do this to her? Inner Sakura, of course, agreed.

"Hey, you okay?"

Snapping out of her train of thought, Sakura looked up and saw a spikey blond hair boy (what is it with this village and spikey hair?) with whisker marks on his cheeks. Realizing that she must have been complaining out loud, Sakura blushed in embarrassment. "Y-yeah."

The young boy mistook her embarrassment as her being uncomfortable and took a step back from the girl. "A-ano, s-sorry. I didn't mean t-to… Ummm, I'll be, er, going now."

Sakura's eyes widened and she grabbed the boy's arm before he could back up anymore. "Wait, no! I'm sorry, I was mumbling to myself! Hi! My name is Sakura! What's yours?" Sakura sent a grin up at the boy to further prove her point.

Taken back by the girl's genuine happiness, the blond boy gave Sakura a cheeky grin in return. The boy could defiantly say that this was a first. Usually people tend to stay away from him. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it! Hehehe."

"Hiya, Naruto-kun! My parents left me here all alone to play by myself." Sakura said with a frown.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that. I am left here to play all by myself too." Naruto said while scratching the back of his head.

"Ne, why don't we play together then?" Sakura smiled again.

"Really? You would want to play with me?" Naruto said, a little sadly. From past experience Naruto knew what would happen next.

"No, no. Why the sad look? I said let's play!"

An hour later, both children were laying on their backs underneath the cherry blossom tree, trying to catch their breaths. The two had worn themselves out. Of course, the duo did receive weird looks from people passing by. Naruto knew what they were staring at: the village 'monster' playing with an unknowing girl. In fact, someone had tried to pull Sakura away from Naruto while they were playing only to get kicked in the shin. Naruto couldn't help but to smile at that.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, why haven't I seen you before?" Naruto asked while playing with a leaf.

"'Cause baka, I don't live here. I told you that already!" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah. Hehehe." Naruto smiled sheepishly.

Once again, Sakura rolled her eyes. She sat up and looked around the now almost empty park. It seems like Naruto and herself had ran people off. Hmph. Their fault, not ours. Sakura thought. Sakura's eyes scanned her surrounding area only to land upon the gloomy boy from the market. Immediately, Sakura's cheeks darkened at the sight of the boy. Naruto, noticing, his friend's sudden change of mood, asked her what was wrong.

"Naruto-kun, who is that boy?" Sakura asked without taking her eyes off of the boy.

Frowning at who Sakura was talking about, Naruto scoffed. "That's just Sasuke-teme. He's 'Mr. Popular' at school. Everyone loves him…. And apparently so do you." Naruto glared.

"HEY! I DO NOT!" Sakura smacked Naruto upside the head, drawing Sasuke's attention. "Crap! NARUTO. Look at what you've done!"

"Owww…."

Sasuke glanced to the left of him when he heard someone yelling. What he saw surprised him. It's that one girl from the market. Looking amused, he changed directions to walk through the park. Of course, he told himself it was just convenient for him to do this. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the girl was hanging out with the blond idiot. At this he frowned.

"Hey, teme, get out of here! I was playing with Sakura-chan first!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing figure at the stoic boy.

"Tch, dobe." Sasuke, er, said. Sasuke attempted to walk around Naruto and to the pink haired girl, only to be face to face with Naruto once again. "Get out of the way, dobe."

"No! Sakura-chan was with me first!" Naruto growled.

"Tch. Dobe."

"Teme."

"Dobe."

"TEME."

"DOBE."

"TEME."

"DOBE."

"TE-"

"SHUT UP ALREADY."

Both boys jumped back a little bit. Geeze, for such a small thing Sakura sure knew how to get people's attention.

"Hahaa, Sorry, Sakura-chan."

"Hn."

"Naruto-kun, be nice." At this Sasuke couldn't help but to glare at the idiot. Why did he get the 'kun'? "If Sasuke-kun wants to play with us he can." Sasuke's ears turned a little red at the 'kun' in his name.

"So what do you say, Sasuke-kun? Do you want to play with us?" Sakura smiled widely.

"Tch. Sure, I-… I don't see why I couldn't." Sasuke's cheeks turned a little pink.

"FINE. I guess I can handle the teme playing with us." Naruto grumbled.

"Yaya! More friends!" Sakura clapped. "Okay…. TAG! SASUKE-KUN, YOU'RE IT!"

At that, a giggling Sakura and a laughing Naruto took off running.

"H-hey. No fair!" Sasuke hollered, chasing after the duo.

By the time Konan and Pein had come to collect Sakura from the park and head home, the sun was about to set.

"Sakura-chan is not going to be happy that we took so long." Konan sighed, thinking about all the money she was about to fork over on strawberry cakes just to keep her little angel happy.

"Agreed." Pein nodded.

"HEY THAT'S CHEATING!"

"NUT-UH!"

Konan and Pein shared a look with one another.

"Tch. Dobe, stop arguing with her. You're not going to win."

"SHUT UP, TEME. I AM RIGHT. THE SWINGS WERE OUT OF BOUNDS. SAKURA-CHAN WAS CHEATING."

"NARUTO, YOU BAKA. I DIDN'T CROSS THE BOUDNRY LINES, MY CLONE DID. IT TECHNICALLY WASN'T ME!"

"CLONES, YOU. SAME THING."

"NO IT ISN'T."

"Guys, you're annoying."

"NO WE ARE NOT, TEME/SASUKE-KUN!"

"Geeze…."

Upon reaching the park, Konan and Pein (still in their disguises, of course) witness something that would be comical in any other situation. However, the fact that their daughter, the last Uchiha and the nine tailed jinchuuriki were currently in a shouting match at the moment slightly worried both members of the Akatsuki. Of course, of course; of course their daughter would make friends with the last two people in this village that Konan and Pein would want her to. This just made the Akatsuki's mission harder.

"Sakura." Pein called.

Stopping mid-argument with Sasuke and Naruto, Sakura looked over her shoulder at her parents. Her features when from murderous rage to placid happiness in a blink of an eye. This spooked Naruto and Sasuke to the bone. She had just been seconds away from knocking their heads together, and now she was all lovey dovey. Weird girl.

"Mama, Papa!" Sakura screamed in delight, running over to the pair. She grabbed their hands and pulled them over to the two boys. "Look, meet my friends! This is Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said pointing to each boy.

"Aa. Hello, sir and ma'am." Sasuke bowed.

"'Sup." Naruto said, only to be elbowed in the gut by Sasuke. "OW!" Sasuke forced Naruto's head down as a way to force him to bow. "Be respectful, dobe."

"Oh. Oh. OH. Hehehe, night to meet the both of you." Naruto chuckled nervously when Sakura's father's expression just remained the same blank expression. Sakura's mother, on the other hand, had on a forced smile. Her parents were strangely not as good as their daughter was when it came to emotions.

"Hello, Naruto, Sasuke." Konan said.

"Aah." Pein nodded at the boys. "Ready to go, Sakura?"

Sakura frowned. "I guess so, papa…" Sakura looked back at the two boys she had grown very close to in a very short amount of time. She hugged Naruto around the waist. "It was fun to play with you today Naruto-kun."

"Likewise, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled sadly at the pinkette.

Sakura released Naruto and smiled at him and went to stand in front of Sasuke. She hugged him around his neck and smiled brightly. "It was nice to meet you, Sasuke-kun! I'm glad you aren't as sad as I first thought you were!"

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing! Bye guys!" Sakura said, walking off with her parents.

"So, Sakura-chan, you had fun today, didn't you?" Konan smiled brightly down at her daughter.

"Yes, Mama!" Sakura skipped. "But I'm tired." Sakura sagged behind.

Konan giggled. "I'm sure papa wouldn't mind carrying you back home. Ne, papa?"

Pein raised his eyebrow at Konan. "Hai, Sakura. C'mere." Pein crouched down to Sakura's level and scooped her up into his arms bridal style. "Sleep."

Sakura giggled tiredly and snugged into Pein's neck. "Hai, papa."

"We're never going to see her again, are we teme?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"No, we aren't, dobe." Sasuke replied. His scowl seemed to be never ending.

A/N: Taadone.