Chapter Five: The Test and The Initiation
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Pein smiled somewhat menacingly, obvious pleased with her submission, and turned his head to the plant man standing next to his partner, "Zetsu, do we still have that...visitor...with us?"
Zetsu seemed perplexed for a moment until he remembered exactly what Pein was talking about, still keeping his eyes on the kunoichi, he said, "Yes, Leader-sama. What do you suggest we do with him? Would you like me to dispose of him for you, sir?"
"Well, that all depends upon Sakura-san. Konan, escort Sakura down to the chambers, Zetsu and I will meet you shortly. Explain to her the situation on the way down, would you?"
Konan nodded and motioned at Sakura to follow her, Sakura, although confused, obliged.
The two women exited the huge office and began making their way down the hallway and into one of the doors Sakura had seen on the way in. Before she could speak, as if reading her mind, Konan spoke for her.
"We captured a shinobi from the sound village about four days ago, we caught him sneaking around our complex, one of Orochimaru's subordinates I am sure."
"Orochimaru is dead isn't he?"
"That's what the records confirm but no one is completely sure. Even so, even if he is dead, he still had subordinates and probably still does trying to do what it was he failed to do when he was alive."
Konan, kept walking at her brisk pace, Sakura matching her stride for stride, down a long flight of dirty stone steps. Why were they going underground so far?
"Like Yakushi Kabuto for example. Anyhow, we caught him and now we can't seem to get any information out of him. He is incredibly crass and rude and he will make inappropriate comments, he bit me once and it took all I could to keep Pein from killing him. We needed whatever information he has. We still do." She stopped at an old wooden door, a dungeon style door and placed her hand on the handle before stopping and turning to Sakura.
"I need you to get out the information for me, you may use any form of interrogation you can think of, as long as he doesn't die until we get the info we need. Can you do this, Sakura-san? If not, you need to tell me right now. I have to warn you...this may be alot more than what you have been exposed to in Konoha, if you can't handle it you need to let me know now, because once you go in there there's no going back."
Sakura felt Konan's warm hand on her arm and noted the concerned look in her eye. She smiled and Konan smiled back.
"Yes...I..I think I can do this. Thank you Konan-san," Konan looked down at the ground almost sheepishly before speaking.
"You know, I really hope you can join us, I have been wanting another female around here. To talk to you know? It gets quite boring surrounded by men all of the time," She pushed open the door, "Okay, here we go."
The room was dark and smelled wet, they must have been quite a ways down, Sakura sniffed the mildewed air with distaste.
"Ahh, welcome to my interrogation room, Sakura-san."
The Leader. How did he get down here so quickly?
"Are you ready, Sakura-san? Your test is ready to begin, all I need is your consent." He said, his velvety voice spreading all around the room, making the darkness seem even darker than it was.
Did she have a choice anyway? It was too late to go back now.
Sakura swallowed hard and sucked down whatever doubt she had. Finally, she held her chin up high and spoke, her voice not quivering one bit.
"I'm ready."
"Good, then we can begin. Zetsu, the lights please."
All of a sudden the room was filled with a bright, fluorescent glow. Sakura's eyes were assaulted with the drastic change in lighting and she immediately brought her hand up to her eyes to shield them from the attack. After they had gotten used to it, Sakura looked around the room, her stomach feeling even more queasy than it had before. There were chains and shackles all over the walls, the sheen of fresh and dried blood covered them and made them look like they were painted red. There were all kind of torture devices planted all over this room, everything from electric chairs to an old iron maiden stood against the walls. This was sick, there was no way she could go through with this.
Her eyes found a chair that was sitting in the middle of the room and immediately she knew that whoever she was supposed to interrogate was sitting in that chair, only problem was that chair was turned around, so she couldn't see who was in it. Pein seemed to notice this and motioned for Zetsu to flip the chair around, which he did.
The sound of Sakura's gasp filled the room as he did.
Her hands trembled.
Her skin grew pale.
Her throat was closing up.
Her stomach contents were sloshing.
She was going to be sick.
There in that chair, sat a young man - if he could even be called that - and Sakura knew he could only be about 12 or 13 at the most, his skin sallow and his eyes closed. He was unconscious. They wanted her to interrogate - torture was a better word, she thought - this...this...boy! He was just a child, she turned to Konan and Zetsu, eyes pleading. Zetsu turned away from her, and Konan looked at her with those soft, soothing blue eyes. She could almost hear her thoughts as she looked at her.
'I know. I know.'
Maybe there was a way that she could get information out of him without injuring him too much. YES! Inner Sakura did an arm pump in the air, she could get away with this by not hurting this boy, and getting what she needed. All she needed was her pack and a few common ingredients that she was sure they would have around this base. Pein spoke first.
"Sakura-san, do what you need to with our little friend here, Konan-san and Ihave other business to attend to. Zetsu will stay here with you, ask him to fetch you anything you need. When you are done record the information for me and give it to Zetsu. Zetsu?"
"Yes, Leader-sama?" Zetsu seemed uncomfortable for some odd reason, and Pein wondered if it had anything to do with the girl. He made a mental note to speak with Zetsu later, he couldn't have one of his subordinates going soft for the medic-nin. That wouldn't do at all.
He continued, "Take her to her assigned quarters when she is done, I will have Tobi and Deidara make the preperations in her room so she will have clothes and supplies."
Zetsu nodded demurely, and just before Pein walked out of the room he stopped, never turning around. "Oh and Zetsu?"
"Leader-sama?"
"Dispose of the body when she is done. Whether or not he's dead already. Do not let him go. I wouldn't want anymore Sound Ninja invading my village, now would I?"
"Of course, Leader-sama. ...As you wish."
And before anyone knew it, Konan and Pein were gone in a wist of smoke.
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Sakura sat on her bed, her knees to her chest, rocking slightly back and forth, silent tears streaming down her face.
She couldn't do this. She just couldn't...
Once the two had left, Zetsu silently turned to Sakura, feeling oddly uneasy for the woman. "Is there anything you require, Sakura-san?"
She didn't speak. Not one single word. She just blinked her eyes quickly and continued to stare at the child who was about to become a snack for an overgrown weed. Sakura sighed, she supposed it really didn't matter how she did this now, considering the poor boy was going to die anyways.
"No, Zetsu-san. Thank you."
With a shudder and few unshed tears, Sakura pressed her chakra infused hand to the boy's temple to wake him up.
After she was done, she wrote down the information on a scroll and handed it to Zetsu, who showed her to her room. She would have been ecstatic about how lavish her new bedroom was if she hadn't felt so terrible inside. After she had said her quiet goodnight to him, she crawled ontop of the huge bed and sat there in the same position, for how long she had no idea.
She wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, this much she knew. She stood up stoically and walked towards where Zetsu had showed her where her bathroom was - her own bathroom, one more thing she would have been ecstatic about, had she not felt so horrid.
She needed a shower, if nothing else than to purge the disgust she felt within her, she smelled pretty bad too.
Her bathroom was indeed very lavish, what with the huge square footage and the lovely attributes inside. Sakura stood, almost excited despite the days rather tiring events, and took in the scenery. There was a white and light green marbled floor, with plain - but not unattractively so - smooth white walls. A huge black granite tub was centered in the room, adorned by platinum plated faucets and knobs, and a very large stand up shower was in the corner, large enough for at least three people. There were alot of cherry wood cabinets, all holding normal household bathroom supplies and some toiletries. Sakura would have to go out and fetch some more things and clothing too, when the option became ready to her, but for now what she had was quite enough to take a nice, hot, long shower. She had really wanted to try out the bathtub, but if she got in it she knew she would fall asleep and she really didn't want someone to come waltzing in and seeing her naked, in the tub asleep.
That simply wouldn't do at all.
Sakura was drying her hair in the bathroom, when she heard a knock at the door. It was awfully late for anyone to be up, but she didn't give it that much thought as she went to the door and opened it. To her surprise - and pleasure actually - she found Konan standing on the other side, a small smile on her pretty features.
"Can I come in?" She asked, she would have been considered shy in Sakura's opinion if she didn't hold herself with such poised grace. Sakura merely nodded, a small smile of her own as stepped aside to let the kunoichi pass. Konan entered and stood near to the door, removing something from her pocket and handing it Sakura. Sakura took the object, noting it was an envelope, and she cast a puzzling glare at Konan, who merely smiled that trademark tiny smile and said, "An advancement on your first month's pay. So you can get some weapons, supplies, clothes, things of that nature."
"Akatsuki is a paying job?" Sakura asked, she honestly didn't realize that they got a paycheck every month. She knew that they had to have some kind of money, she just figured that they made it themselves.
Konan merely nodded and smiled, "Open it."
Sakura pulled the flap on the envelope open and smiled widely at the contents inside. Inside that envelope had to be enough money to equivalent two A-Ranked missions put together. There was enough money in here for her to live comfortably for at least a month, if not more.
"Akatsuki members get this every month?" She asked disbelieving. Konan nodded and perched herself on the bed, looking pleased with Sakura's obvious excitement.
"Yes. Not too long ago it wasn't like this, Pein and I were currently holed up here, our financial situation not so well, with all of the other members scraping and surviving the best way they knew how. But," She paused for a moment, as if pondering what exactly to say, and then continued, "We came into a very good investment, and then another, and others began to practically fall in our laps and we managed to make something out of nothing. Eventually, we had our first goal well over completedly."
"Which is?" Sakura tilted her head.
"Our first and most base goal was to accumulate mass amounts of funds. For obvious reasons." She was fiddling with the strap on her boot, when her head popped up with a little, 'oh'. "Sakura, I very nearly forgot. We have to get you your things."
She stood abruptly and bowed before walking out of the room. Sakura barely had time to be confused before Konan re-entered, nothing visible to be found. She held out her hand as if trying to give Sakura something, and Sakura followed suit. Konan placed the object in her hand, slowly closing Sakura's fingers over the cold metal circular object. Sakura opened her hand to reveal a white gold ring, adorned with a silver-blue stone the kanji symbol for 'star' in the middle. She examined the little ring closely before looking up to Konan for instructions.
"You are to wear it on your right middle finger, and I will take you to the dressing rooms to get fitted for your cloak. Then we will head to the kitchen as I am sure you are starving. First though, I need to give you the rules. You are allowed to go anywhere in the compound that you would like, except for the other members quarters, unless they invite you of course. You are also not allowed into the meeting room, except when Pein has summoned you. I would not recommend going any higher than the fifth floor of the building, which shouldn't be a problem seeing as there isn't much up there. Do you have all that?"
Sakura nodded, silently hoping that Konan would hurry so that they could get on with the tour of the complex, she wouldn't lie and say that she wasn't even the slightest bit interested in what this giant place held. Konan gave a genuine smile and bowed, "Well shall we get started?"
Sakura smiled genuinely and chimed in, "Yes we shall."
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