The three sitting Akatsuki didn't bother to hide their curiosity as they eyed the pink haired female who suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned her head towards them.
Maybe she had realised who she was actually up against?
The next thing they knew, blindfold-less Sakura had a backpack over her shoulders, running off in the direction of Amegakure.
Kakuzu's brows knit together.
'How foolish, does she really think she can out-run all four of us while running toward our base?'
Shirtless Kisame rose to his feet, effortlessly slinging Samehada and his Akatsuki cloak over his left shoulder.
Glancing over at Itachi he raised a questioning brow, waiting for his partner's silent decision.
The said partner only gave a single nod as he also grabbed his Akatsuki cloak off the ground and performed a couple of hand seals, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
The swordsman then too, followed the example of his partner and also disappeared into the thin air.
Hidan, surprisingly quiet for probably the longest time he had ever been, suddenly stared over at Kakuzu.
"Did you notice how the bitch doesn't look injured?" He casually asked, lazily scratching his chin.
The zombie man's eyes widened in sudden realization as his gaze shifted to his partner.
'That explains it all.'
Hidan, being the dumbest of the whole group had probably grasped onto something that the others haven't.
That was surprising.
"We are going after her too, Hidan." Hissed Kakuzu,picking up his cloak and a money filled suitcase before also running off after Sakura.
Hidan only grinned as he stood up from his spot on the ground and reached for his triple-bladed scythe that had been resting in a pile of sand.
Swinging the beloved weapon over his shoulder, he too then followed in the tracks of the pink haired female.
Because after all, sooner or later he will definitely sacrifice her, that he was sure of.
Sakura sat on the ground, firmly pressing her aching back against a tall oak.
Spitting out blood, the pinkette ripped off her tank top and reached into her backpack.
'They are catching up with us..' warned her mental disease that felt almost as bad as her outer self.
Pulling out her bottle of water, Sakura unscrewed the lid, wetting the material in her hands.
Not bothering to get rid of the excess water, she then used the soaked piece of cloth to wipe away the blood and sweat from her pale face.
"We will just wait then." Hissed the kunoichi at the stabbing pain in her ribs as scowled after coughing and spitting out more of her blood.
'All right, the last attack will be in about fifteen seconds, use the top outer.'
Weakly nodding, the pinkette took the wet fabric in her hands and bit onto it before shutting her eyes and letting hot tears roll down her cheeks.
14..13..12..11..10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..
An ear piercing scream of pure pain and agony was let out by a certain pink haired kunoichi as the ground surrounding her shook, cracking all of the tall trees nearby.
Without a warning, a white hand was slapped onto Sakura's mouth as a foreign arm wrapped itself around her waist, forcefully pulling her backwards into a tree.
A groan was let out from behind when the pinkette elbowed her attacker in the face, quickly pushing herself out of the man's strong grip and rolling a good two meters away from the tree.
Sakura's pale green eyes widened at the blood-chilling sight before her.
There was a bi-colored young man plant thing looking, no- intently staring at her while salivating all over the grass.
Oddly enough he seemed to be half-way stuck in the oak.
The medic-nin's breath hitched in her throat as the bi colored man licked his lips, the crazed look on his face forcing her to downright worry for her well being.
"Kunoichi, Cherry."
It spoke.
Pinkette only stared in disbelief at the creature in front of her. It had spoken in two different voices, it had a venus fly trap and it looked ready to devour her.
That's when it all clicked together.
"Are you Zetsu?"
She carefully asked the plant-man, not actually wanting to hear the confirmation to what she feared was true.
The man tilted his head to the side, grinning at the pinkette before wiping his generous amount of saliva away with her tank top.
"How did you know my name, Kunoichi? You smell so tasty. She's a sharp one. Indeed."
Sakura nervously swallowed and licked her dry lips in silent horror.
"I..I've gathered some information on the Akatsuki member..s." She replied, cringing when the man fully emerged from the tree.
Zetsu smirked at the pinkette as she slowly pushed herself backwards across the ground, gasping when she realised he had somehow appeared behind her back, sniffing her neck.
"Mmm. See you around, Cherry." The man groaned before slipping into the ground and completely vanishing from Sakura's sight.
The medic-nin blinked once, then twice before letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, clutching her chest.
"Wow, this day keeps getting stranger and stranger."
'Mmh.' Agreed the inner.
'Wait..he..my top..oh my..THAT SON OF A..'
Sakura trailed off, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion slowly spread over her being, instantly forgetting the incident that had occurred just a moment ago.
"I'm tired.." yawned the medic-nin,letting her body fall onto the soft grass,closing her eyes.
'The Akatsuki better get to me before someone else does..' were the kunoichi's last thoughts before she fell asleep.
"Do you think she used some sort of jutsu to store all of the physical damage inside her body just to release it all at once later?"
"Perhaps. It is a brilliant yet very foolish thing to do,don't you think so, Kisame?"
"Yeah. You must have the right conditions and timing if you want the technique to succeed. Who'd known she would pull something like that on us."
"Hn. The kunoichi is surprising indeed."
The swordsman inwardly rolled eyes at his partner. 'Look who's being talkative now, eh.'
"I still say we kill her and harvest her bounty."
"Ahh, Kakuzu. Leave her be for now."
"Kisame, money is everything.."
"There you go again, talking about money.."
"Shut the fuck up both of you, the bitch is waking up."
"Mmm.." Sakura yawned from her comfortable mattress as she stretched her sore limbs, slowly cracking her eyes open and letting them adjust to the light.
The comfortable mattress tensed up.
"Eh?" The pinkette blinked, letting her eyes drift upwards and then sideways, catching a glimpse of the blueish grey skin along with gills and sharp teeth.
"SHARKY!" Sakura exclaimed, almost falling off a stiched shoulder she was being carried on.
"Pinky." Kisame nodded his head in acknowledgement, grinning at her.
Scanning her surroundings the pinkette noticed that she, along with the four Akatsuki members, were getting closer and closer to Amegakure.
'Just as planned!'
'Yeah right.' Snorted the inner Sakura.
Kunoichi also noted that the money grubber Kakuzu was carrying her body over his shoulder, meanwhile Kisame aka sharky was carrying her belongings, both of them shirtless.
Sure they were weird, creepy and intimidating enough to make grown men shit bricks. Yet Sakura couldn't help but openly stare at their muscled torsos.
'The lack of physical contact for five years seems to be rubbing off on me.'
'And whose fault is that? Yours.'
'Well excuse me if I'm not a whore!'
'Of course, you are just the 40 year old virgin type, am I right my dear?'
'Ugh, piss off bitch.'
Ending the sudden, short conversation with her inner self, Sakura sighed and let her eyes travel down the zombie man's arm,noticing that he was carrying a suitcase.
Pumping a tiny bit of chakra into her nostrils, pinkette casually sniffed for the insides of the suitcase, soon discovering that it was to the brim filled with money.
'Ceh.'
"And there I was wondering who took out that guy..." Sakura thought out-loud as she started to rub her aching back, eagerly awaiting the money grubber's reaction.
Kakuzu raised a brow, slightly turning his head toward the kunoichi that was lazily hanging over his shoulder, looking as bored as possible.
"How?"
Pinkette lazily smirked back at him, feeling all of the eyes present begin to focus on her.
"Let me down and I'll tell you."
"No."
"Oh come on, I'm not going to run away without my bag, now will I?"
A moment later an emotionless hn was heard from the Uchiha as all of the Akatsuki stopped running.
Grunting, Kakuzu let Sakura slide down his shoulder onto the ground.
"Okay.." The girl trailed off, stretching her toned limbs. Her movement of course, didn't go unnoticed as all of the men present took in her appearance.
From their point of view, she looked ridiculously inviting in her now bloody and grey chest bindings, fingerless gloves and baggy black pants that were tucked into the knee high leather boots.
The scars she had in different places over her pale skin, somehow managed to make her look all the more sexy at the same time forcing one wonder, if she also had scars in her more private areas.
Sakura, oblivious to the somewhat lusty glances she was receiving, finally decided to reply to Kakuzu.
"Well, the amount of money you have in your suitcase matches the bounty of the guy you killed."
The stitched man snapped out of his trance and looked straight into Sakura's tired, green eyes.
"How do you know about the amount of money in my suitcase, Kunoichi?"
The pinkette smugly smiled at the zombie man.
"I can smell it!" She replied with an enthusiastic fist pump.
"What the shit bitch, seriously." Muttered Hidan as he rolled his eyes at the cheerful medic-nin. That of course didn't go unnoticed by Sakura who privately glared at the silver haired Jashinist.
"Soo..aren't you guys going to knock me out or something?" The pinkette curiously questioned the Akatsuki she was now running alongside with.
Kisame chuckled at the girl but said nothing, waiting to see what the said she would do.
Sakura was not amused by the lack of attention she was getting so she decided to somehow entertain herself, starting with Kakuzu.
"Oh, stitch-san. Do return my money please, I can smell it in your suitcase!"
The Stitch-san coughed, thinking: 'Damn, she's good.'
"You wish, Kunoichi." Was his only reply as he struggled to maintain his almost bored look.
"Ka-ku-zu-san~" Sakura said in a sing-a-long voice, now running on the left side,right next to the stitched man. The man grunted in response.
"I will get my money back from you, greedy ass bastard." Hissed the medic-nin, letting Kakuzu feel her killing intent.
Then he did something unexpected, he chuckled beneath his mask.
The pinkette scowled, was she not scary enough or something?
Kakuzu tilts his head and studies the kunoichi next to him.
She seems to like money as much as he does which is always a good thing in his book.
Letting his eyes drift downwards the stitched man inwardly scolds himself for being so obvious in checking her out, but then again, he couldn't be blamed.
The pink haired kunoichi turned out to be quite an eye-catching beauty.
Averting his gaze to the side, the stitched man smirks to himself.
He might not kill her after all.
Kisame glanced over his shoulder, intently observing the pink haired female and the stitched man.
Something seemed very wrong since Kakuzu was known for having no sense of humour, yet there he was, chuckling at the angry pinkette.
But then again, that hadn't been the only strange thing happening as of late since Hidan too, seemed to be out of it.
The crazy foul-mouthed Jashinist had never been as quiet as he was now and that fact alone was only added on to the strange list of things that kept happening after meeting a certain pink haired kunoichi.
'Strange.'
"So Zombie-kun, do you eat brains?" Asked the oh-so-bored-out-of-her-mind-suicidal-kunoichi as she kept using up the remaints of her chakra, trying to piss off her fellow bounty hunter.
"Can I knock her out?" In return asked Kakuzu, addressing his question towards the silent Uchiha who in return, ignored him.
Sakura giggled, clearly enjoying the way she had managed to piss off the stitched man without getting herself killed.
"It's okay Kakuzu-san, I'll pass out in a moment."
And truthful to her words, pinkette passed right out the next moment, falling into the arms of Kisame who laughed at her silly behaviour.
She was either really stupid or absolutely insane to act the way she did, with the Akatsuki members nonetheless.
He did appreciate it though, she was a nice addition to their gloomy company.