AN: I don't own Naruto.

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Chapter 13 –Discovering Emotions...

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"Ahh!" Sakura yelled, panting. She sat up abruptly, successfully making her dizzy from the sudden blood rush. She found herself sitting in a twin sized bed in an unknown room. There was one window, and judging by the amount of sunlight illuminating the room, it was early in the afternoon. Sakura then recalled all of the events from the previous night.

"Was it a dream?" Sakura asked herself, but she soon found that it wasn't a dream when she saw her bandaged hand. She slowly, carefully unwrapped the bandage to find a mildly healed cut across her palm. She closed her eyes, clenching the blanket with her unwounded hand and bit her bottom lip in regret.

"Hinata-chan! Kakashi!" Sakura thought as she jumped out of the bed. On a hook near the door, hung an Akatsuki robe. She found that she was still wearing her old clothes and let out a sigh. Sakura walked toward it. "Do I have to wear this from now on, like the rest of them?" She narrowed her eyes, feeling the fabric between her fingers, before grabbing it and throwing it to the floor. She gave it one last glare before opening the door, and sprinting through the hallways.

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"Tell me again why you didn't, and why we can't kill White Fang." Sasori asked rubbing his temple with his left hand. Kakashi sat there motionless in the dungeon in Hinata's old cell, chained, all of his chakra deprived of him by Kisame's sword. He seemed to be in a state between consciousness and sleep, barely able to concentrate in the conversation taking place in front of him.

"I told you multiple times." Itachi said, a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Yes, but I don't see any need to keep your end of the deal. Sakura's blood was absorbed by one of our scrolls, she's bound to your service until death." Sasori said.

"Kisame, go have Deidara fully introduce our guild to Sakura before she tries to run out the south exit. She should be there in about three minutes." Itachi ordered as Kisame left the dungeon. Itachi, too, began to head for the door.

"Lord Uchi-" Sasori began, but was cut off by Itachi's answer.

"When I give my word, I keep it. It's as simple as that Sasori. Now go find Tobi and have him feed Katsu. Then inform the rest of our new recruit." Itachi closed the door behind him.

Sasori let out a sigh as he looked at the half dead Kakashi. "I'll never understand that Uchiha."

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"Why the hell do all these corridors have to look alike?!" Sakura said in frustration as she continued to look for possible exits. She knew she couldn't save Hinata and Kakashi by herself, she had to go and find to others, but the pain she felt about being too weak to save the ones she loved seemed to grow stronger by the minute. She came to another turn in her path as she started to walk, feeling as though she was being followed. She came to a full stop when she heard footstep coming from behind her.

She cursed under her breath as she let out a sigh. She swiftly turned around in a defensive position as she readied herself for a fight. Her narrowed eyes widened to shock, to relief, then to confusion.

"Deidara? You won't believe what happened to-what's wrong?" Sakura asked, seeing his gloomy look. He didn't answer, which made her now concerned. The last time she saw him was before he left off to that meeting days before.

"Deida-" She tried once again.

"Why?" Deidara said in an emotionless tone, cutting her off.

"What do you-"

"Why did you sell yourself to him? Why did you join Akatsuki? Do you realize what you've done?!" Deidara said, emotion returning to his voice, as his feature visibly displayed some anger.

"I had to! You don't understand-" Sakura tried to defend herself, but she was cut off again.

"Understand? No you don't get it! He can make you do almost anything now! You're now like Sasori's puppet!" Deidara yelled, frustrated that she now shared the same fate as him.

"How can he control me?"

"Your blood."

"My blood? How would that-"

"The scroll Itachi has that possesses your blood has a similar effect to what Hidan can do. It can kill you from the inside out or torture you to the point of insanity. If that happened he could control your every movement, your every thought!" Deidara said with such anger that, he punched the wall to the side of them. Sakura gasped when she saw blood dripping from his hand as it dropped to his side. "He can make you hurt the ones closest to you." He barely whispered, but she heard every word nonetheless.

"Deidara..." Sakura began, but silence just filled in whatever she couldn't say. She carefully took his wounded hand, him doing nothing to stop her. She healed his hand to perfection as she released it carefully. "I suppose you can't tell me where Hinata-chan, and Kakashi are, or how they're doing, huh?"

"They're safe. Kakashi is alive surprisingly. I never expected Lord Uchiha to do such a thing though. The princess, I don't know." Deidara said as Sakura heart sank at the mention of Hinata's welfare, but she guess that if Itachi kept his promise for Kakashi, then Hinata was most likely in no danger at the moment as well.

"They're ok. He kept his word." Sakura said to herself.

"His word? You made a deal with Lord Uchiha?" Deidara said, not believing what she just said.

"Yes, that was our agreement. That was how and why I joined your guild." Sakura said looking to the floor.

"Either he has taken a fancy towards you milady, or he's gone mad." Deidara said.

"What?"

"Lord Uchiha never truly keeps his word. He always somehow manages to find a loophole of some sort. Either you were very specific in your request, or you still haven't noticed how he was able to get around your words, like the weasel he is."

"Oi, Deidara, I was relieved for a second, but now I'm more worried than ever." Sakura said confusion flooding into her thoughts mixing with her concern.

Deidara immediately felt bad about making her distressed. Wanting to erase the growing tension he said, "I guess since you're an Akatsuki member, I should show you around properly. Maybe you could be my partner instead of that idiot Tobi!" Deidara put up a happy facade. She just gave him a sad smile, as she followed him back towards her room.

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"We finally made it." Tenten said as she and the others looked over the Akatsuki's abandoned castle.

"Come on! Let's get into that bloody castle now and-" Naruto ranted.

"No, we have to go when it gets dark. We want to avoid combat as much as possible." Neji said, glaring at the castle only about a mile away.

"Speak for yourself, Hyuuga." Sasuke said.

"What was that?" Neji questioned.

"We need to find Itachi.-"

"No, we will avoid him at all costs."

"Listen Hyuuga. All our problems will be gone if-"

"Hey! You want to save the girls too don't you? Don't bring your family issues into this. It will jeopardize our plans!" Naruto yelled.

"For once I agree with the idiot." Sai said casually. Sasuke glared at his best friend and look-alike.

"Sasuke, I've warned you already about this." Neji said, challenging the Uchiha's gaze.

"If we get rid of him now, he won't be a threat to us in the future." Sasuke argued.

"Our goal right now is to get Hinata and Sakura-chan out of there safely, or is fighting your brother a more pressing issue at the moment?!" Neji spat. Naruto and the rest sensed the dark cloud forming over the two.

"Come on you two. The head knights shouldn't be fighting each other like this, especially when on a mission." Naruto said, hoping to stop them from ripping each other's head off.

Both Neji and Sasuke glared at each other for another few seconds before breaking off simultaneously.

"Damn idiots, acting like children!" Ino huffed. Tenten could only agree, as Shikamaru and the rest let out a sigh. The two then walked in different directions, everyone guessing to vent of frustration. Naruto, being the best friend he was, ran after Sasuke to have a talk with him.

"Teme, don't do anything stupid." Naruto said, successfully bringing his friend to a complete hault.

"How is killing Itachi doing something stupid?" Sasuke asked, not looking back.

"You have to wait for another time. We can't risk endangering Hinata and Sakura-chan any more. If you just go straight for your brother, what do you think is going to happen, huh teme? There'll be an all out war that's what! How are we suppose to fight and get the girls out? Use your head." Naruto said poking at his skull.

"Can you imagine what he could have done to Sa-them?!" Sasuke said, quickly correcting himself. Naruto raised a brow, but decided not to interrupt what his friend was saying. "I have to stop him before he takes more from me."

"Sakura's yours? Since when?" Naruto asked with his all-knowing smile.

"What are you going on about? Who said that Sakura was mine? That's not what I was referring to!" Sasuke said quickly.

"Riiiiight, okay teme. Keeping fooling thy self." Naruto said with a smirk.

"Don't talk to me like those foreigners. I don't even know why we went to one of their crappy plays, they make up their one damn words, which obviously affected your literacy."

"Hey, I think that Romeo and July...ummm Juiley something play was ok. It was a bit mushy, and they talked a lot, but it wasn't crappy! But that's besides the point!" Naruto said, but Sasuke began to lose interest in what Naruto had to say anymore.

"Hey teme, don't walk out on me!...Argh!" Naruto said seeing the receding form of the Uchiha's back. "Just don't go after the bastard!"

Sasuke looked up at the sky to see the sun beginning to set. His thoughts went back to his and Naruto's recent conversation. "Sakura's yours? Since when?" "Damn that baka, making me confused like this." "Riiiiight, okay teme. Keeping fooling thy self." "Argh! Even if he isn't here, I can still hear the imbecile!"

"Damn girl, why didn't she listen to me and run!" Sasuke said in frustration as he kicked a rock out of the dirt.

"Sakura, run while you still can. I'll hold them both off." Sasuke unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Itachi. "Go."

"Damnit Sasuke, are you crazy?!" Sakura said. Sasuke just looked at her, annoyed.

"Stop being so stub-"

"Stop trying to be my knight in shining armor. If you're going to fight, so am I!" Sakura said as she unsheathed her sword.

Sasuke recalled the time when she didn't run, but stayed and helped his ass out. "She isn't like anyone I've ever met before." Sasuke admitted to himself as he headed back toward the others to discuss their plans again.

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AN:...It's short but I'm having a huge writers block, I'm sorry...Thank you for reading...ja ne.