A/N: All your reviews were amazing! Thanks guys. Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 5

Deidara almost smirked when he felt the presences behind him. Almost. That is until he realized that the people behind him were Tobi and Zetsu. He hated Tobi, the annoying brat. Well, maybe not hate, but he definitely felt extreme dislike for the ninja. He was so annoying, always bouncing around him and saying the wrong things at the wrong time. And Zetsu just creeped the hell out of him, with his dead body eating and such. It disgusted him, to be honest. There was also another reason why he shouldn't be smirking, one that was far more important that Tobi or Zetsu.

Sakura.

He was relieved beyond belief when he found out that she was okay, and she was alive. Of course, that meant that she had defeated Sasori, which did sadden him a little. It also greatly surprised him. He knew how strong Sasori was, and it was amazing that a fragile looking girl like Sakura and an old lady could have defeated them. Sakura had grown strong, very strong. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride for her.

He was aware that conversation was happening around him, but he ignored it, choosing to instead think of a way to explain himself to Sakura, to make her see that he wasn't the person she believed he was. A plan started to formulate in his mind, a plan that although wasn't the greatest, it would have to do. He knew that she would be beyond angry with her, but at that moment, he didn't care. He would do anything to make her trust him again, but to do that, he needed time with her. His plan would give him that time, hopefully.

Now that he might lose her again, when he finally had her back with him, even if she hated him, and he felt like if he lost her... he couldn't think about it, he wouldn't let it happen.

And so, when he felt Zetsu's hand on his shoulder, followed shortly by Tobi's, he leaned over and used his teeth to bite into Sakura's gloves. It was time to take his plan into action. He could feel her surprise at what he was doing, but there was nothing she could do, before they vanished, away from the forest, far, far away.

.:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:..:*:.

Sakura could only stare in horror at the two new arrivals on each side of Deidara. Her mouth was slightly open in shock, and her eyes were wide. Sakura felt Kakashi's hand tighten on her shoulder, pulling her back. But Sakura couldn't bring herself to move her feet, nor to let go of Deidara's shirt.

"Sakura," Kakashi whispered to her. "We have to move!" This time, Sakura managed to move her feet back, but her fist still wouldn't let go of Deidara's shirt, so she backed up as much as far away from Deidara as she could, without letting go of him.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Asked the masked Akatsuki, sounding cheerful, waving at them and everything.

Sakura looked back at Kakashi, a quizzical expression on her face. Kakashi simply shrugged at her look.

The other Akatsuki shinobi looked like a huge plant, sort of like a venus fly trap around his head. Sakura wondered if all the Akatsuki were crazy; as far as she knew, they had a giant plant man, a little kid, a human puppet, and a crazy mass murderer that killed his entire family. Sakura wondered how Deidara had managed to get into a group like this. Oh, that's right. He killed Gaara on his own and almost took out the entire village of Suna.

"We're leaving." Stated Zetsu, in an odd, dark voice. "Grab onto Deidara, Tobi." Zetsu's voice had suddenly changed, into a lighter version of his other voice. He extended his arm and placed it on Deidara's shoulder.

'That's odd.' Thought Sakura. Part of her was panicking. The plant-man said they were leaving, meaning they were taking Deidara with them. Part of her was relieved, because this meant that they wouldn't have kill or torture him. Another part of her didn't want him to go; it had been so long since she had seen him last. She didn't know why she cared about him anymore, seeing as he was after her best friend and wanted to kill him, but the little part of her heart that had belonged to him still cared for him.

"Okay, Zetsu!" Exclaimed the masked ninja, Tobi, excitedly grabbing onto Deidara's shoulder. Sakura wondered how he could've gotten into an organization like Akatsuki. He seemed way too cheerful to be a murderer.

Suddenly, she felt Deidara move his head, and watched him bite into her glove. She looked at him, surprised. 'What is he doing...?' She was too confused to move her hand away, and even if she knew what was going to happen, she wouldn't have had enough time to act, for before she could blink, she felt her feet lift the ground and the forest started spinning around her. Sakura closed her eyes, feeling like she was going to be sick.

Opening her eyes, fist still clasped in Deidara's shirt, she realized she was no longer in the forest anymore.

'Oh no...' Sakura found herself in a huge cave, surrounded by Akatsuki members. 'Great, just great.'

'How dare he?' Screeched Inner-Sakura, and Sakura silently agreed with her. She knew what happened; when Deidara grabbed onto her glove with his teeth, he had intended to take her with him to wherever this was. What he had planned, she had no idea. But she knew that it wouldn't be good.

"What is this?"

Sakura looked up to where the voice had come from. In the cave, there stood a giant statue, it's arms extended and hands cupped, so that the fingers stood high in the air. Sakura noticed that the statue had many eyes, but only one was opened.

The man who had spoken was shrouded in darkness, only his ringed eyes being visible and the slight outline of his body. Looking around her, Sakura noticed six shinobi standing on separate fingers, looking down on the little group of four, standing between and before the two hands.

"I expected only Deidara to return with you, Tobi, Zetsu. Why is the girl here?"

"Leader-sama," Sakura heard Deidara say, "the girl is a friend of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, yeah. I believe that we could use her to lure him to us, so we won't have to go after him. Instead, he'll come to us, yeah."

'So that's it then! That's why he wanted me here. As bait.' Sakura felt anger bubbling up in her, her fists and teeth clenched and eyes on fire. She felt angry at his betrayal, not that he had really betrayed anything. After all, it was only a childhood friendship, something that he probably found silly now. She felt her free hand raise, and let her anger take over her as she swung her open hand right across Deidara's face, hard. He let his head hand there for a moment, probably in shock, before he slowly faced her. He looked surprised at her actions, his eyes widening and mouth slightly open. 'That bastard deserved it.'

Her anger dulled a little bit, when she saw that his eyes looked sad and almost sorry for what he was doing.

"She's a feisty kunoichi, that one." Growled a voice from one of the fingers.

"Very well, Deidara." Said the leader, "Since you failed to detain the Kyuubi, we will use her to bring him to us. However, because you brought her, you will have to take her with you. The kyuubi will know she is with you, as you are the one to take her. She will wear a cloak to blend in with you, she is not to look like a hostage. We don't want any unwanted attention."

"What of her chakra, leader-sama? The girl has her master's, Tsunade-sama's, strength in her." The voice came from one of the fingers. It sounded deep and velvety. It reminded Sakura of Sasuke.

'Maybe that's Itachi...' She wondered.

"She will have to wear a chakra restraining bracelet around her wrist at all times. It will only be able to come off by one of the members of Akatsuki. Is this all understood, Deidara?" When Deidara nodded, Leader continued. "We will have Kakuzu restitch your arms for you, and then I will give you your next assignment."

Sakura watched as Deidara bowed to his leader. She was very bewildered right now, completely blown away that this was actually happening to her. She was glad that, at least, she would be taken by Deidara, someone she actually knew. Sort of. She guessed she didn't really know him anymore. Maybe she could get him to tell her what had lead him to this life. Sakura wasn't looking forward to having the chakra constraint on. She had no idea how she was going to get out of this, but she vowed that she wasn't about to play the good, obedient hostage. Every opportunity, every chance she saw, she would take to escape. For now, however, she knew that it was best to obey her captors. With nine SS class ninja with her, there was no way she was about to escape anytime soon. It was good for her health to play along, for now, she reasoned.

And so, when the plant-man walked up to her and slapped a thick, metal like bracelet on her wrist, she didn't complain or resist. When Tobi bounced over and handed her a bag filled with what she believed to be the Akatsuki cloak and under clothes, she silently accepted it.

"Oh, and Deidara?" Deidara looked up to Leader, "Because of Sasori's death, Tobi will be your new parter. That is all." And with that, leader and four Akatsuki members on the fingers flickered and disappeared.

The look on Deidara's face at finding out who his new partner was almost made Sakura giggle. However, her situation was looming over her like a dark cloud and it made her want to scream at Deidara and shake him and hit him.

So she did.

"How DARE you do this to me, Deidara?" She screamed at him, her fist finally unclenching from his shirt, moving to his shoulder. "After all these years, I finally see you again, and you're HERE? In the bloody Akatsuki? What happened to you?" Sakura's voice had gotten quieter and quieter as she asked her questions, calming down to a whisper. She felt her eyes tearing up again, and cursed. She would not cry in front of him. She would be strong.

"You don't understand-"

"I don't understand?" Sakura cut Deidara off, "Well then why don't you fill me in then, hmm?"

Deidara opened his mouth to respond, only to stop and close it again, looking away from her and off to the side. Sakura turned her head to look at whatever had distracted Deidara, and watched as two Akatsuki members walked over to them, and Sakura suddenly remembered where they were, and who was watching them. She didn't let go of Deidara, secretly feeling like if she did, she wouldn't be safe anymore. Well, she wasn't exactly safe right now, but she just felt... safer with Deidara.

The plant-man handed one of the men what looked like... arms? Odd. The Akatsuki came over to where Sakura and Deidara were standing, and pulled up what was left of Deidara's sleeve and held up one of the arms. He connected Deidara's arm to his shoulder, and held up one of his hands. Long string-like black strands came out of his sleeve, and stitched Deidara's arm together. Moving to the other side of Deidara, he did the same with the other arm.

"Tch." Grunted the shinobi. "Stupid. Lost both your arms, how bad can you be?"

"Hey!" Deidara grunted, obviously displeased with the other Akatsuki's mocking comments. "You try taking on an entire village and then Konoha's copy ninja and the Kyuubi not three days later, after the extraction jutsu, Kazuku, yeah."

Kazuku chose not to respond to that, and instead grunted to his partner they were leaving after giving Deidara's arms another once over check.

'That won't work..' Thought Sakura. Being a medic, she knew that even though the arm was recently severed, just stitching them back together wouldn't work. There were nerves and blood veins that needed to be connected, and the bone to be healed. It was a silly thought to think that stitching it would do anything but keep it to his arm.

That was why, when Deidara moved his arm in seemingly full control over it, Sakura was shocked out of her mind.

'What the...? How did he do that?' To say Sakura was surprised was an understatement. Her inner medic took over and she grabbed one of Deidara's arms, looking intently at the stitches, desperately wishing she had chakra so she could run scans on it. 'This is... amazing!' Even without her chakra, Sakura could tell just how incredible that ability is. She knew the Akatsuki was full of high level shinobi... But this was just ridiculous.

Sakura was brought out of her thoughts when Deidara grabbed her arm.

"We won't be staying here for long, yeah." He said. "Let me show you our room."

"Wait a second, our room?"

"Well, we can't exactly give you your own room. We need to watch you, so you don't escape." Deidara reasoned with her.

"Why can't I stay with Tobi?" Sakura said angrily. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with Deidara, because she did. Deep down, she knew she did. This confused her, after everything he's done, she still wanted to be with him. She wasn't ready for this, at all. She wanted to talk to him, but not yet. First she needed to sort out her feelings, and steel herself for the coming days. So, she covered her confusion with anger. She thought that Tobi was the next best choice seeing as he acted like a child and she doubted he'd do anything to her.

Deidara looked hurt, but she told herself she didn't care. She did, though. Tobi looked ecstatic, however, and Sakura couldn't help but smile at him.

"Hear that, Deidara-senpai? Sakura-chan wants to stay with Tobi! Oh, can she can she can she can she?" Tobi all but yelled at Deidara, bouncing all around him as he spoke. Sakura marveled at how much energy he had. Tobi was practically doing backflips over Deidara. He really was like a child.

"I guess so, yeah. The rooms are escape proof; you have to be the owner of the room to leave, yeah." Deidara sighed.

Sakura was relieved. She couldn't have her own room, but now that she's avoided awkward situations that she wasn't ready for and answers to questions she didn't want to hear right now, she was feeling alright. All things considering, that is.

"Tobi will show you to your room!" Tobi exclaimed, grabbing her arm and almost dragging her down the hall. Sakura had to job to keep up with him, but he looked like it was just a leisurely walk to him.

She never looked back to see Deidara watching her leave.

TBC

A/N: I hope that was alright. And of course, I always like reviews!