A/N: Just wanted to thank everyone who has Reviewed, Favorited or Followed. Every bit of feedback and encouragement really helps. Also please feel free to suggest ideas for this story. I have a good idea of where the plot will go, but anything that could help fill in the details would be greatly appreciated.

Also, sorry about the long gaps between updates. School is mostly to blame, but now that I have a mid-term break, I should have more time to write.

The next morning she was woken up by a kick in the ribs. For a second, Sakura thought she was back in the hideout, and the horrors of last night had all been a dream. She actually felt relieved at the thought of being back in Baiu's care.

But when she opened her eyes, she was met by Sasori's brown ones. He smiled at her, oddly cheerful. She reckoned it was because he had thoroughly humiliated her last night. He seemed to think it was a victory over her, like they were in some kind of competition that he needed to win. Whatever he thought they were doing, he was wrong. Sakura didn't give a damn about proving that she was superior to him. She was just trying to survive. If he wanted to look down on her, he could. Unlike him, she had no pride left that he could hurt, especially after last night.

As she became more awake and alert, memories of last night came flooding back to her. She immediately tried to repress them. The pain she had gone through had been worse than every single training session with Baiu combined, and right now, with Sasori watching, she couldn't afford to show him how badly it had affected her. So she blocked it all out, and gave him her blankest stare.

"We're leaving." he informed her, his eyes lingering on the puncture marks along her arms. "Do you feel strange? Are there any aftereffects?"

She opened her mouth to tell him that her throat was sore, but nothing came out. She frowned and tried again. This time, all that came out was a rasping cough.

"I see. You've lost your voice." he shrugged. "I'll double check with Orochimaru, but that's probably just from all the screaming you did." He smirked. "That was very unhelpful, by the way. I'm sure that if you still had your voice you'd be apologizing right now for being such a horrible test subject."

She said nothing, concentrating on staring at the floor.

Sasori shrugged, moving over to his puppet body.

"Well at least I won't have to listen to you at all today. We should complete the mission by nightfall, so just keep your mouth shut and do as you're told, and tomorrow we'll be back at the base. That is, unless you experience any other side-effects to the poison. You don't feel any, do you?"

She shook her head.

"Good."

He sat down inside his puppet, and a second later a whirring sound started emanating from it. With a flick of his hands, the puppet smoothly folded upwards and clicked together, covering him completely. A second later, there was a knock on the door.

"That'll be Orochimaru." he said, his voice ten times rougher from inside his puppet.

She opened the door- a kunai in her hand just in case- and found Orochimaru standing on the other side. He smiled down at her, also seeming brighter than the day before.

"Hello Sakura-chan." he said, almost cheerfully. "Are you ready to assassinate the Daimyō?"

From what she could remember, the Daimyō were the rulers of the various lands, full of power and influence. She could vaguely recall the faces of four of the five most powerful, but the only one that really stood out in her mind was the Hi no Kuni Daimyō. Nonetheless, even her patchy memories knew that to kill a Daimyō was a difficult task.

Or, at least, it should be.

In reality, it was almost pathetically easy to break into his palace. Sasori explained that Kusagakure weren't satisfied with the way their Daimyō was running the land, so only the shinobi loyal to him would be guarding his palace today. He and Orochimaru made quick work of them, so quick that Sakura didn't need to help at all.

The only time they encountered resistance was when they were almost at the Daimyō's personal quarters. His two bodyguards ran out to meet them. Sakura tensed, but to her surprise neither of them drew out a weapon. The first one, a red haired woman, slid to a stop right in front of Orochimaru. The second one, a heavy-set man with beady brown eyes, rushed straight at Sasori, his fist raised to strike.

Almost lazily, Sasori flicked his tail. The man dodged, but a second later two senbon caught him in the throat. His body fell to the ground in front of his partner, who's only reaction to his death was to close her eyes. She still hadn't moved.

Orochimaru's tongue flickered out, as if he was tasting the air, or perhaps the woman's chakra. A small smile appeared on his face.

"So, you're a Sensor. Rather unique too. This will be quite fascinating."

The woman's eyes snapped open. Nothing but the whites of her eyes could be seen. Was she blind? Sakura couldn't tell. Her brain didn't know much about Sensors.

The woman's eyes skimmed over Sasori, lingered on Sakura for a few seconds, before finally staring straight at Orochimaru.

He smirked.

And suddenly, Sakura found she couldn't breathe. The air around her was filled with such foul, dense chakra that her entire body felt like it was rotting. Uncontrollable panic rose up inside her and she felt bile flood her mouth. Back in the base, she had thought Orochimaru's chakra was horrible, but that had only been a tiny morsel of his true nature. Just how twisted was this man? She felt herself drop to one knee, struggling to regain control over her body. It felt like tiny miniscule serpents were crawling through her flesh, similar to the effect a certain poison had had on her. Thinking about last night brought on a fresh wave of nausea, and she found herself struggling not to faint.

It's ok. You've been through this before. You're stronger than this, just block it out.

For the first time since it appeared, Sakura was grateful for the voice in her head. Somewhere in her mess of a memory, she realized that she had been through an experience similar to this before. Strangely, she felt like it had happened when she was older than she was now, but she ignored that part and focused on the reassuring presence in her mind.

Breathe.

She did, and with her next breath she stood back up. Now that she had regained her senses, she was conscious of the look Sasori was giving her. She stared back, trying to act like nothing had happened. It was hard, since she could still feel Orochimaru's chakra swirling around the room.

Sasori merely smirked and walked past her to stand next to the Sannin. Only then did Sakura notice that the woman had collapsed. She wasn't dead, that much Sakura knew. Orochimaru's chakra had probably overloaded her system.

Orochimaru unfurled a scroll filled with seals, which Sakura's brain instantly identified as a storage scroll. For a second she was tempted to slit the woman's throat. After last night, Sakura felt like she could personally vouch that the fate Orochimaru had in store for the Sensor was much worse than death.

She didn't dare try to help the woman. Instead, she watched as Orochimaru rolled the woman onto the scroll, positioning her in the middle of one of the seals. One quick smear of blood later, and the woman vanished with a small 'puff'.

"Is that really necessary?" Sasori asked, clearly bored.

"Now, now Sasori let me have my fun. If you want something to do there's still the matter of the two children."

Sasori turned around, and for a second Sakura thought he was looking at her, until she realized that he was staring behind her. She whirled around to see what had caught his attention. In the doorway they had come through, two young boys were staring at the body of the dead guard. They were a few years older than Sakura, yet it was clear that they were terrified.

"Shiba and Midori, I presume?" Orochimaru asked, although Sakura doubted he expected a reply.

"You…you…Dad!"

"He's dead." Sasori growled. "And if you don't want to follow him into the afterlife one of you should go get the Daimyō's son. You." he flicked his tail at the one on the left, who had a scarf wrapped around the bottom half of his face. "Go. Your friend stays right here. You alert a single person to our presence, and he pays the price. Understood?"

The terrified boy scuttled off, leaving the other one shaking in the doorway. Sakura didn't understand why they didn't just kill the boys, or why they needed the Daimyō's son. As far as she knew, the order was just to kill the Daimyō. No one had told her anything about children getting involved.

"You must be Midori." Orochimaru said smoothly. "I apologize for my partner's rudeness. Unlike me, he didn't bother memorizing the notes we received. Quite a nice family business you have going. Your father guards- sorry, guarded- the Daimyō and you guard his child. Lifelong bonds are formed, cementing your loyalty to the Daimyō and his heir."

He smiled. Sakura was becoming familiar with that smile of his. It promised nothing good.

"It's such a shame that you two haven't spent enough time around his son to form that bond yet. I imagine the boy trusts you with his life. Poor thing, he probably has no idea that what he's about to go through."

"Leave him alone!" the boy snarled. Sakura almost cringed. He was trying to sound tough, but his blatant terror made his outburst almost comical.

"But Midori-kun, we are." Orochimaru answered with a smirk. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it your partner that's currently bringing him here, not us?"

Something seemed to break in the boy, and tears started streaming down his face. Sakura looked away, while Orochimaru watched the boy with a satisfied expression.

Footsteps sounded from outside the room, and the other boy appeared. What was his name again? Sakura wondered.

"Ah Shiba, you're back. Do you have the son?"

Shiba glared at Orochimaru with enough hatred to burn him to ashes, but he stepped aside and pushed another boy into the room. This one looked about Sakura's age, with dull black hair and wide innocent eyes.

"Excellent." Sasori said briskly, clearly tired of Orochimaru's games. "Sakura, stay here and guard these two. Orochimaru, grab the son. The Daimyō should be in the next room."

"Shiba what's going-" Orochimaru grabbed the Daimyō's son and dragged him off before he had time to finish his sentence, leaving Sakura alone with the two older boys.

And the dead body on the floor. She'd almost forgotten about that.

The boys certainly hadn't. Midori's eyes were rooted on his father's corpse. His left hand kept fidgeting with his sleeve, and Sakura kept a close eye on that to make sure he didn't try and go for his weapons. His right arm was busy trying to stop his left from shaking. He seemed to be in too much shock to pose much of a threat.

Shiba was harder to read. The lower half of his face was covered by a striped scarf, and his eyes were dark and narrow. Sakura noticed his fists clench, and decided to defuse this situation before he did something stupid.

"Both of you stand in the corner over there." They obeyed, Shiba still glaring at her while wrapping a comforting arm around Midori. "Good. One false move and I'll break your legs. If you want to live, stay still and don't do anything stupid and rash."

They didn't say a word, but the tension remained. Sakura tried her best to hear what was going on in the adjoining room. Had Sasori and Orochimaru completed the mission? Was the son still alive?

"I think we can take her."

She frowned. Midori was whispering, but if he was trying not to be overheard he was doing a very bad job.

"I think they underestimated us. We didn't show them our power, so they thought it'd be ok if they left us with the little girl."

Shiba muttered something in reply. Unlike his partner, he kept his voice too low for her to hear. Sakura kept her back to them, pretending to focus on the noises in the adjacent room.

"I doubt it." That was Midori again. "She hasn't done anything since they got here. Plus she's too young to be much good. They're probably just babysitting her."

He was starting to get on her nerves. She turned around, just in time to catch Shiba's reply.

"Should we risk it? I mean, she does have pink hair. What's the worst she could do?"

Idoits. They were both idiots. Sakura was fully confident in her ability to defeat them, but the fact that they didn't consider her a threat in any way stung a little.

"We have to try something. On three, we'll rush-"

Before Midori could finish that sentence, Sakura lunged. Grabbing their heads, she smashed them together. The boys crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Sakura frowned. There was something familiar about the violent act she had just done. She knew that there were far easier ways of stopping the boys, yet her instinct was to whack their skulls. What was even stranger was that her hands had felt surer and stronger than they had since her first kill. An image of a boy with blond hair and a stupid grin flashed through her head before it disappeared back into her fog of unknown memories.

Before she could contemplate this any further, Sasori stuck his head in. As his eyes swept over the unconscious bodies, Sakura tried to appear calm and controlled. Sasori merely raised an eyebrow.

"They weren't cooperating." Sakura explained.

Sasori nodded, although Sakura felt like he was patronizing her.

"Well, since they won't be bothering us for a while, why don't you come in and help us with the Daimyō?"

She followed him, wondering when he and Orochimaru would stop acting like she had a choice.

She entered the room, and her eyes immediately zeroed in on the two figures cowering in the corner. The Daimyō looked fairly average to Sakura. Not particularly attractive, not particularly intimidating. Then again, it was hard to be intimidating when you were crying against the wall and holding your terrified child out in front of you like a shield.

Orochimaru slowly walked towards the Daimyō, his hands clasped behind his back. The Daimyō tried pushing himself further into the corner, shoving his son out in front of him.

"Please." he sobbed. "Please don't kill me. My wife is already dead, but you can take my son. I don't understand what you want. Is it money? I can give you money. Power? I have plenty. Just please don't kill me!"

Sakura started at him, feeling both horrified and fascinated. She could kind of understand where the Kusagakure shinobi were coming from. She wouldn't want this man in charge of anything, and his willingness to sacrifice his child disgusted her.

Orochimaru shoved the child aside and grabbed the man by his robe, dragging him into the centre of the room. The man pushed himself upwards and made a desperate lunge for the doorway. He was a well-built man, but Sasori shot a pair of senbon into his kneecaps, and he crumpled to the ground. Sasori ignored his cries of pain and turned to the child.

"Listen closely boy." Sasori said. "Your shinboi weren't happy with your father, so they sent us to kill him, and to give you a message."

Orochimaru grabbed the child's head, forcing him to look at his father. The boy had tears streaming down his face, and Sakura felt her gut twist.

"Sakura. Kill him."

Her head snapped to look at Sasori in surprise. Why did she have to do it? Sasori merely glared at her. Memories of last night came rushing back to her, and she hastily grabbed a kunai from her pouch before he got too impatient.

She walked over to the man, who was curled in a ball on the floor. Sakura felt an unexpected surge of anger. Why did he get to cry? She wanted to cry too. She didn't want to do this.

You don't get to choose. Konan's words rang through her head and suddenly she had had enough. She was sick of it. She was sick of feeling horrible for just doing what she was told. She was a weapon. She was strong. This Daimyō was weak and pitiful. If he wanted to stop her he should be stronger. She was tired of caring about her victims. It was tearing her apart, and that wasn't fair. She was only supposed to care about the Akatsuki, not these random strangers. She wasn't supposed to have emotions. So she wouldn't.

Deep down, she knew it was nowhere near that simple. But it was enough for now.

She walked over to the Daimyō and pulled him up by his hair, exposing his neck. She could hear him pleading for his life, but it sounded like it was coming from far away. She deliberately looked straight at the son, because she knew that would please Orochimaru and Sasori. They were the ones that mattered, not the soon-to-be orphan crying in front of her. Weak. He was weak. They were the same age, yet he was helpless. Why should she care? His weakness wasn't her problem.

In one quick movement, she stabbed the kunai into the Daimyō's throat. The son started to scream, and Sakura felt hysterical laughter bubbling up inside. She forced it back down. She couldn't let it show, couldn't let Orochimaru and Sasori see her so weak.

After a few seconds Orochimaru released his grip on the Daimyō's son, and Sakura let the Daimyō fall face-first on the floor. She wiped her kunai clean on his robe, before walking back to Sasori's side. He was looking at her with a brand new expression, but for once she didn't actually care what it meant. She did what he ordered her to do. That was enough.

"Congratulations." Orochimaru said, and Sakura wasn't sure if he was talking to her or the son.

"You're the new Daimyō." Sasori said. "And from now on, you do exactly as Kusagakure tell you, otherwise you'll end up like your father. You have no actual power, understood?"

The boy continued to stare at his father's body with tears streaming down his face, but apparently that was enough to satisfy Sasori.

"Good." he muttered. "Our work here is done. Let's go."

Sakura followed him out the door, the screams and sobs of the young boy echoing behind her. Orochimaru kept glancing at her, as if he expected her to look back at her handiwork.

She didn't.

As if her day couldn't get any worse, when they were almost at the border, they were ambushed.

At this point, Sakura had spent the last few hours trying to avoid Orochimaru and his tongue. The Sannin had made a game of shooting out his incredibly long tongue and trying to surprise her as they walked. Occasionally he would shoot a snake or two at her to keep her on her toes. Unlike their journey to Kusagakure, Sasori seemed to find it amusing rather than irritating. Thankfully, he didn't join in, but he certainly did nothing to discourage Orochimaru.

So, when the shinobi rushed at her, naturally assuming her to be the weakest, Sakura found some small pleasure in punching them hard enough to hear their bones crack. In fact, she got so into the fight that she accidentally punched a man into one of the shinobi Sasori was busy poisoning. Both men went flying, and Sasori turned towards Sakura, anger in his eyes.

The next thing she knew, she was being slammed into a tree, Sasori's tail inches from her face.

"That man was mine." Sasori hissed. Behind him, Orochimaru finished the last of the shinobi off, but made no move to help her. She hadn't really expected him to.

At this point, Sakura felt something break inside her. She had already stopped caring about the lives of others. Now she felt her concern for her own life dwindling. It was easier to just accept the fact that she was going to die than to constantly fear for her life.

"My apologies Sasori-sama." she murmured. "It won't happen again."

Sasori's eyes bored into hers. Maybe he was trying to see if she was mocking him. Maybe he was searching for fear. Either way, he clearly didn't find what he was looking for.

He let her go, and she slumped to the ground. This was the part where she was supposed to feel relieved that he'd let her live, but it didn't happen. She honestly didn't care anymore. She was just tired.

Orochimaru watched it all with a smirk.

"Shall we continue?"

By the time they reached the base the sun had long since set. Baiu was waiting right inside the entrance, a scowl on his face. Orochimaru and Sasori walked off without saying goodbye. Sakura assumed one of them would report to Pein and tell him that they were back.

"How was it?" Baiu asked.

"Successful." Sakura replied.

When she didn't say anything else, he nodded, satisfied.

"Good. Let's go."

She followed him through the corridors, expecting him to take her to the training room. To her surprise, he led her to her bedroom instead.

"Wash up and get some sleep." he ordered. "We'll resume training tomorrow."

She nodded, deciding not to question his motives. She was dirty, sore and tired, so if he was going to be nice, she wasn't going to ruin it.

He closed the door behind her, surprising her again by not locking it. That was nice. If they had decided to trust her more, it meant she was making progress.

She lay down on her bed and curled up in a ball, willing herself to fall asleep before her mind could wander. She didn't want to think about everything that happened. She just wanted to sleep, to be nothing for a little while. Not a weapon, not a murderer, not Sakura, just a tired little girl.

She closed her eyes and slept.

Baiu smiled as he made his way through the base. Things had gone much better than he had expected.

Baiu was a man who excelled in torture, both mental and physical. Over the years, he had crushed the spirits of countless hardened shinobi. One of the most important things he had learnt was that pushing them to the limit wasn't enough.

The human mind was incredibly tough. Torture a man, crush his identity, push him to his breaking point, and he would snap. He'd convince himself that this was as far as he could go, that he was broken. But Baiu knew that wasn't true.

Even if one of Baiu's victims gave up and broke, some part of him would always be waiting for a glimmer of hope. He wouldn't know that that part existed, but it would hide and wait.

To Baiu, breaking them wasn't enough. You had to break them again and again, without giving them any time to heal. Break the parts of them that they didn't even know existed. Only when their souls had been crushed into nothingness would Baiu finally be satisfied.

Sakura was more delicate than most. Normally, he would use sit her in the electric chair and torture her until she was well and truly broken. Then all he would need to do was brainwash her. But Konan had warned him that that might trigger her memories, which was something that was to be avoided at all cost.

So instead, he had to do it the slow way, wearing her down with a mixture of physical, verbal and mental abuse. He had to admit, it was quite fun. He hadn't had a chance to do something like that in a long time, and he was enjoying himself immensely. Still, he couldn't help but worry that the Leader was growing impatient. Baiu had a good self-preservation instinct, and angering a god was not something he planned to do.

So, when it was announced that Sakura would be going on a mission, he had been quite worried. Without him around, she would have time to recover, to develop her own ideas and a better sense of self. Even worse, she was going with Sasori. Baiu knew that the puppet master had a grudge against her, and he was worried that Sasori might push her into hating him back.

However, it seemed like the mission had been a success. One look at Sakura when she came back and Baiu was impressed. Somehow, instead of giving her more fighting spirit, they had managed to break her down faster than Baiu had planned. At this rate, she could be ready in three weeks or less.

He idly wondered what exactly had happened on the mission. It was probably Orochimaru's doing. Baiu hated even going near the Sannin and his horrible chakra, never mind spending two days with him. Hopefully the man would be long gone when Baiu arrived at his destination.

He reached Konan's office and knocked twice. The door swung open and he entered, determined not to appear nervous at all. He didn't quite understand why Konan unnerved him so much. He didn't have a clue how powerful she was, or even if she could fight at all. All he knew what that she used paper. But there was something about her…

He realised that she was staring at him, and quickly straightened up, plastering a smirk on his face. Her face remained cold and expressionless.

"Well?"

"It went better than I expected." he said. "I was worried that being away from me would reverse some of the progress I'd made, but the opposite happened. Whatever they did to her, it exceeded my expectations."

If Konan cared in the slightest, she certainly didn't show it. She almost sounded bored with this whole conversation.

"When will she be ready?"

"Three weeks or so."

"Good." She turned around so that her back was to him. For a brief second Baiu entertained the thought of lunging at her with a kunai, just to see if he could crack her façade. But he knew that that would be suicide. Even if he managed to kill her, he had no doubt that Pein would find him and destroy him in the most painful way possible.

"Are you still here?"

He realized that he had lost himself in thought again and quickly slipped out of the office before Konan could say anything else.

Once Baiu had left, Konan sat down in her chair with a sigh. She wanted to go and check up on Sakura, maybe bring her a set of clean clothes, but showing anything that could be remotely perceived as concern would make Nagato suspicious, and she knew that if she tried to explain he wouldn't listen to her.

He never did, nowadays.

She frowned. It didn't matter what Nagato thought. She wasn't one of his dead bodies. He didn't control her. She chose to be loyal to him, for the sake of Yahiko's dream.

Yahiko would never have wanted you to treat a child like your treating Sakura.

She ignored that thought, and left the office to find Sakura some more clothes. If Nagato confronted her, she'd tell him the truth. It wasn't like he could stop her.

Once Konan started walking, Pein's Deva Path stepped out of the shadows, his unblinking eyes following her as she made her way down the corridor.

When she turned the corner and vanished out of his sight, he started walking in the other direction.

This was not good. Konan couldn't grow attached to the girl, not if she was to become a weapon.

He would have to put a stop to this. And he would have to do it soon.