Chapter 2

Sakura woke to a loud crashing bang. She felt something wrap around her as her eyes opened, and stared out, wondering. Before her were three people, none of which she'd ever seen. "Haruno Sakura, you've been using forbidden jutsu within the limits of the village of Konoha. For this you must be punished. An execution is mandatory for the sheer number of lives you've stolen!" She looked at the three. "What?!"

"An old woman you killed yesterday to revive the life of a ninja! She still had a few years left, but you stole them from her!"

"What?!" She was struggling against the iron that surrounded her, the faces of the three before her angered.

"That woman was my mother! You killed my mother to resurrect the ninja Hatake Kakashi!" She just stared.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember." She looked around. "Where's the Hokage?"

"We don't need her!" the woman of the group growled, slapping Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!" She heard and looked over, seeing Naruto jumping at the attackers. His fist crushed into the older of the three, as he hit the ground the iron on Sakura turned to dust, releasing her. She jumped up, her hands before her. "Naruto! Don't hurt them! They're just angry over what's been done!"

"That's no excuse! No one hurts my Sakura!" He turned at the other two and leaped forwards, fury in everything he did.

Sakura gasped, the sight of her attack had been too much for him too early. He was losing to his demon. "Naruto!" She ran out in front of him and reached out, her arms wrapping around him. "I'm safe. They won't get me again. His hands wrapped around her and she smiled. Same old Naruto. Her getting hurt was the thing that drove him over.

"Sakura, you're not allowed to die."

"It's over her head. There's nothing the Hokage can do now! It's been allowed by the city coordinators!" The woman spoke again and Naruto tore past Sakura after them.

She was able to catch Naruto again after a while, and turned to the three.

"If you kill me, the Kyuubi will see to your deaths. Are you willing to release such a demon for someone you can't do anything for?"

"If need be, we'll kill him first."

"You're all assholes." She turned, seeing Sasuke look at them. His tomoe spun quickly as he looked at them, each one becoming deathly still. "There will be no execution. This is ridiculous." Sasuke frowned as he looked at them. "They spiked her Sake, that's why the Hokage wouldn't help. She was out." Sakura looked over and smiled. "Sasuke, this is too much." He looked at her, surprised.

"What do you mean?"

She smiled at him as she walked over, wrapping her arms around his back. "They'll never let me rest. If they're going to go this far, Sasuke..."

"They now think their mother died peacefully in her sleep last night. You're safe."

"But you have to keep coming to save me." She smiled into his neck. He was so warm...

She had a sudden flash, hugging him, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She stepped back, her hand on her head. "I think... Sasuke... you blocked something..." She felt a ping in her head before the sharingan came into view behind him, in front of her. She was hugging him, she was crying, Kakashi was in the other room and there was a sharingan staring at her.

"Why am I remembering..." She stepped back, her mind fighting itself.

She woke the next day in the hospital. Sasuke was in the corner of the room, Naruto at the side of her bed. ""Sakura?" She looked over, the blond beside her looking more worried second by second. "Are you alright?"

"Hn." She sat up, her hand on her head. "What happened?"

"You're about to be banished." Naruto's eyes were scared. "You just killed the three people who were attacking you. Whether the Hokage knew about things or not, you just killed three people who brought you an official document." Sakura sat up, surprised. "What?"

"There was an outrage by many of the people. If you won't listen to the Hokage, they see you as a threat. It took Tsunade threatening to kill them before they finally decided to let it go with a banishment." Sasuke spoke softly. She looked down with a soft smile. "When?"

"As soon as you're strong enough to stand." Sasuke spoke. "We're going with you."

"No." Sakura stood, looking at them. She was surprised to find she couldn't allow them this. "Naruto, you need to stay with Sasuke and Yamato. Sasuke, you need to take care of the Uchiha district and stay with Naruto. You've both gotten so strong..." She smiled and stood, stretching. "Take care of things for me. I'll see if I can find a way to come back, maybe after things cool off a bit." She smiled as she reached down, grabbing her haiate and then to Naruto's hip, yanking out a kunai. She crashed the metal across the head band, widening Sasuke and Naruto's eyes.

"Sakura-chan..."

"You can't come with me now. I'm a missing nin. Take care. I'll send you notes." She smiled as she walked over to the window. She took off at light speed, reaching her apartment and packed as she would for a mission. She headed to Tsunade's office next, peeking in to see the boys leave before she opened the window. "Sorry, Tsunade-sama, but I couldn't let them come with me." She smiled and Tsunade turned to her, eyes soft.

"You made yourself a missing nin to save them."

"Tsunade, you know I would sacrifice anything for them. Especially myself." She smiled and Tsunade walked over to her, handing her a bag. "There's money and a few notes of recommendation in there for you. I want you to know, as soon as this is over, I'm calling you back."

"I would hope so. Make sure I have a new headband, would you?" She smiled and Tsunade's smile faltered, really seeing the mark for the first time. "I will. Take care."

"You too. Tell them I'll miss them." She smiled and Tsunade faltered again. "Sakura?" She turned, eyes wide.

"If you came here, Naruto wanted me to tell you he loves you, and Sasuke wanted me to tell you that you're stronger than he is." Sakura nodded and turned. "JaNe." She took off, waving at Genma at the gate. Genma stood, waving at her, knowing what was happening.

She was about four hours out when she felt that she was being followed. She turned, seeing nothing behind her and frowned, coming to a halt. "Who's there?" She looked around and saw no one.

She sped up, going to the first place that came to her mind.

She was there in two days, one of the Akatsuki safe houses. She wandered in, knowing no one but a few of the ninja knew where it was. There were only two of the Akatsuki left and they were somewhere in the land of stone, nowhere near here, the outskirts between the Konoha and the land of rice.

She quickly made friends and money, as no one in the area seemed to be knowledgeable in medicinal jutsu at all. She was quite quickly the area's doctor.

She laid down one night, about a month after coming here and smiled. She had more freedom, the people here were occasionally ill, but many of them were just children, colds and fevers, scraped knees and injuries from playing ninja. It was so much more rewarding than her previous occupation.

It was three weeks when she'd refurnished the place, though it still had the red cloud on the door, it was now more comfortable to her than her real home. She smiled as she came in one day, looking around and grabbed one of the pieces of paper from the desk. She smiled, wondering if any of them had noticed how many of their abilities she'd picked up.

Though Sai's ability had been a kekkei genkai it had been easy to learn, though she had to use special ink. Her own blood. She sighed as she lifted her fingers using chakra as a knife to slice into her side, catching the blood in a small vial. She slowly dipped her quill in before writing to Tsunade.

'Akatsuki base 3 if you need me. Hope things have been well. I'm being a general doctor here, it's quite nice. You don't need to worry about me, things here are great. Send my love to Naruto and Sasuke, tell Kakashi to remember to exercise.

Take care.'

She smiled as she raised her fingers before her face. "Ninpou, Choujuu Giga!"

It was about two that morning when she heard someone enter the place. She sat up carefully, hearing two voices. Though they sounded familiar, she couldn't really place either of them.

"What the fuck..."

"Someone's moved in. Maybe we should just leave."

"It's a woman, yeah. I know this scent. Lavender."

"Look." It fell silent for a moment before she heard them approach the door.

"Miss, We mean you no harm. Please come out." She darted out, keeping her eyes closed as she ran. In the darkness here she was at an advantage. One of them reached out and grabbed her, the other tripped over her table, knocking the first one's grip from her. She ran ahead again, grabbing her kunai and turned, waiting, her ears open for any sound.

One was panicking. She could hear his heart pound, the other was calm, quiet. That was the one she wanted to get. If she could get the one with more power, the other would be easier.

He was there next to her in an instant, her eyes shot open as she turned instinctively, stabbing him in the side. She could tell he was surprised, he was gone again, leaving her feeling the warmth of blood on her hands.

"She got me!" She heard the one hiss as he stumbled towards the door. "Be gone by tomorrow! We don't have patience anymore!" She heard the other murmur as he ran towards the door, oblivious as to when he ran past Sakura.

She stood still, eyes wide, suddenly wondering if she should head out the next night.

She was a ninja though. She could take care of them. The quiet of the two had been stabbed so easily, they did have ability, but they weren't trained enough.

She'd stand her ground.

The next day she held out her appointments, taking care of the elderly couple down the street that took care of the farm. The old man had hip troubles and the woman had problems with her hands and knees, mostly arthritic. They laughed as she handed them the medicine to help for the next week. "It may be an extra day or two before I get to come back, I'm going to have to postpone my appointments for tomorrow. After this, I'm headed to the town square to warn them, I was attacked last night."

"Who would attack such a sweet innocent girl?!" The man jumped up, waving his cane around and Sakura looked at him, laughing. "It's alright. I got one of them." She smiled, remembering the feeling of the blood on her hand. "It'll take a lot more than them to hurt me!" She grinned and the old man settled down.

By the end of the day her head was spinning with ideas. Should she set traps? Should she stay awake all night on the couch? Would she be able to sleep if she decided not to stay awake? The chances were that they weren't ninja, so she should be able to handle them pretty easily, but maybe they realized that she was stronger. Maybe they wouldn't come back after all...

She laid down on her bed, looking over at the door. She strewn bells across the front door and kept the lights off, knowing that she knew the layout here better than anyone.

It was about midnight that the bells jingled lightly, telling her it was time for action.

She jumped from her bed and snuck out of the room, hearing small footsteps, as if a small animal were near her. She stepped aside, wondering what they'd let in when she felt the thing grasp onto her foot. She turned, kicking and the thing flew a good foot away before it exploded, sending small burning embers to her leg.

She bit her lip, refusing to make noise, to let them know where she was and she stepped back, hearing more footsteps approach.

She stepped back, sighed and ran forwards, knowing they were somehow controlling animals with detonator tags on them. She wouldn't forgive them for this.

She ran into the living room, sensing one's presence near her and the other was across the room. She turned towards the closest, the one who had been so excited the day before and jabbed at him, aiming for the jugular.

He stepped back, avoiding her easily and she lunged again, aiming for his chest.

He was able to block, twisting her arms behind her back and landed on her, straddling her waist.

"Can you get the lights?"

The other stood and walked across the room, switching on the lights with no effort.

She looked over at the knee by her shoulder and all she could see was black pants. She looked over to the other, seeing her table in the center of the room.

"How did you get so much stronger in one day? It was so easy to get you yesterday..." She struggled but was unable to free herself.

"Oi, can you see that? On the desk?" The other walked away and Sakura fought harder as she heard her squad seven pic lifted from the desk.

"No! Don't touch that!" She fought again, to no avail. The room fell silent, save her fighting and she heard the one holding the picture speak. "Is this you in this picture?"

"What?!" She tried her damnedest to turn her head, but was unable to see anything save the knee beside her and she suddenly hated her ability to get good furniture. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It's the one thing now that might save your life." The voice was cold, velvet, she was a little surprised to find the voice slightly familiar, though she knew she'd never heard it before. "Your voice... Who are you?"

"You're Haruno Sakura, aren't you?" She gave up, laying her head on the ground. "I am."

"You're friends with the Kyuubi boy, Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, right?" She just laid there, not another word escaping her. She was surprised to hear the softness in his voice at the next question.

"How are they?"

"What does that have to do with this? Why did you break into my home?" She suddenly realized where she was and her skin seemed to instantly chill. "Are you... Akatsuki?"

"We were, yeah, but not much anymore. Hard to stay with an organization that used you for a sacrifice." Her head started whirling with ideas. Sacrifices? Were these ones that they'd thought dead? If so, she was about to die as well.

"If you're going to kill me, get it over with."

"If that's the situation, maybe I should have a little fun with you first, yeah." She felt the hand on her wrist open, a tongue lapping across her wrist and she shuddered. "Oh, god, not you!" She started kicking, fighting, anything she could to escape. She was able to fight herself about two feet forwards before his hand hit her throat, sending her into a gagging fit.

"Don't touch her." She heard the other speak softly and she fought harder to look.

He was tall, though she couldn't see his head, only about mid-chest down. He was thinner, yet very muscular. His mesh shirt showed the Anbu tattoo on his shoulder. "You were... Konoha... Anbu..." Her head ran though the Akatsuki and she realized it had to be one of two people. "Please, oh god please say you're not Sasori..."

His head turned, she could see the hair trailing down his back and her throat nearly completely closed off. "Why would you think that?"

"His ability to use real people... Here with Diedera... I can't... Not AGAIN!!" She started screaming, thrashing around in a feral manor, kicking and bucking, whatever way she could move.

"You're that chick! Ooh, how I wanted to get my hands on you!" She heard Diedera's cheerful laugh and she fought harder, trying to get his hands off of her.

"I said don't touch her." She heard the voice right by her head now and she froze. "For a girl so young to kill Sasori is quite impressive, but don't think for a second you'd have a chance against us. I've seen this." Right by her face fell her headband, the scratch through it sending chills down her spine.

"Why did you leave?"

"The two in the photo, I had to save them. I was about to be banished and they wanted to go with me. I couldn't, They couldn't ruin their lives for me like that." She heard the sounds above her stop.

"Let her go. We have no reason to fight." Diedera sighed but listened to the other, standing and releasing her hands.

"Guess you win this fight, sweety, yeah." She stood, wringing her wrists before looking up.

She turned, seeing Diedera looking at her with a grin. She turned to the other and froze solid, seeing his mouth, the way his hair framed his face, she stilled, closing her eyes quickly.

"Uchiha Itachi..."

"You've finally gotten it."