"A new member has arrived."
Itachi steeled himself and activated his sharingan, before slowly walking into the abandoned lair. The place was simple, one room entirely made of wood, situated in the middle of nowhere and easy to overlook. He could see why the Akatsuki had chosen it as their meeting place.
He allowed his sandals to make noise as he entered, alerting the room to his presence. The first face he saw was Orochimaru. The Sannin lit up with unbridled excitement at the sight of Itachi's eyes. What was going through his sick mind, Itachi had no desire to ever know.
"Itachi Uchiha." Orochimaru hissed, with a sinister smile on his face.
Itachi ignored him and focused on the others. Next to Orochimaru was the leader of the Akatsuki, Pein. From his piercings to his eyes to his hair, everything about this man stood out, yet whatever power he held was muted and contained. This man was a mystery to Itachi, and knowing all the valuable information he would collect on Pein made joining the Akatsuki a little easier.
No, he couldn't think like that anymore. He was a traitor who cared for no one, here only to increase his own power. He had to stay in that mentality or he would go insane.
He sized up the other two members, Kisame Hoshigaki, wielder of Samehada and Akasuna no Sasori, the most fearsome puppet master Suna ever created. Itachi was fairly confident in his ability to defeat them should the need arise, but judging by the way they looked at him he would need to keep his guard up at all times.
There was someone else in the room. It wasn't Madara; that much Itachi knew, but other than that he couldn't tell who it was. His sharingan showed that there was no one hiding in the walls or using genjutsu, which meant they must be hiding in plain sight.
"Itachi of the Sharingan, the prodigy of the Uchiha clan." Pein said at last. "We hear that you're highly proficient in taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. Due to the rumours about the downfall of the Uchiha we have very little reason to doubt your talent, but if you wouldn't mind giving us a demonstration..."
Madara may have been eager for Itachi to join, but Itachi had still expected a test of some kind. He had no idea what it would entail; however seeing as this was a criminal organization he doubted it would be pleasant.
Pein stepped to the side, and Itachi finally saw the other person he had sensed. No wonder he hadn't been able to see them, they were small enough that they could stand behind Pein and be completely hidden, without a need for jutsu at all.
Itachi stared at the girl. She had pink hair that just reached her shoulders, dull green eyes, and a neutral expression. She wore a simple black top with no sleeves, revealing slender yet muscular arms that reminded Itachi of his own when he was her age. This girl was definitely a fighter, but what she was doing with the Akatsuki was a mystery. For some reason, she looked familiar…
No. That couldn't be right.
It made no sense, yet the evidence was right in front of his eyes. Itachi rarely forgot a face, and this was no exception. Sakura Haruno, the little civilian girl whose disappearance had given Itachi his first solo mission, was right here working for the Akatsuki. For the life of him, Itachi couldn't figure out how that could have happened. Why would they have taken her in? Why was she here?
Like Pein, he could sense that she was muting her power. The fact that she had any power in the first place was baffling, never mind the chakra control that was needed to keep it contained. How had they taken a young civilian girl and turned her into a proficient shinobi?
"You see, the Akatsuki is desperately in need of a genjutsu specialist." Pein said. "Right now, Sakura here has the most talent and aptitude for genjutsu, but since we have you now I'd like to test your skills on her."
This situation still made no sense, but Itachi had always been good at rolling with the punches. He'd defeat the girl and then later on when he was settled in, he'd figure out how she'd gotten here.
He cast his first genjutsu, making everyone in the room think he was standing still, when in fact he was moving around. He wasn't sure if the genjutsu worked on Pein, but he made no move to stop Itachi as he walked past him, so it seemed like he wouldn't interfere either way.
Sakura hadn't looked at his eyes, but he could feel her under the genjutsu. She could clearly sense it too, and within a few seconds she'd broken out of it and turned to face him. He'd expected that, so he cast another one, which she broke, and then a slightly more advanced genjutsu, which took her a few seconds to break. His sharingan spun as he cast another one.
She broke that too.
This was worrying. If he wasn't limited to genjutsu-and how odd, to think of genjutsu as something that limited him- Itachi could have beat this girl easily. Without ninjutsu and taijutsu, it should have been a little harder, but he had yet to lose a genjutsu battle. The problem was that Sakura wasn't trying to fight him in a genjutsu battle as he hoped she would, because she clearly understood that she would lose. Instead, she was simply sensing his genjutsu and breaking them over and over again. The other members were oblivious, but Pein was staring expectantly at him. He needed to end this quickly.
His sharingan spun faster as he weaved the most intricate genjutsu he knew, and his glare increased slightly when she managed to break it. Pein hadn't been exaggerating her aptitude for genjutsu. He wondered if she was actually able to cast good genjutsu or if she was simply skilled at noticing and breaking them.
He weighed his options. He could keep trying to use genjutsu on her and hope that one of them would stick, but he highly doubted that would work. Itachi's sharingan allowed him to push the limits of reality, to the point where even the strongest shinobi would be shaken. What was genjutsu and what was real? When you fought Itachi, he blended the two so seamlessly that you rarely knew.
The problem was that this girl refused to let go of reality. She just kept breaking every genjutsu he tried. She had a far better grip on what was real than most shinobi Itachi knew, which meant that he wasn't sure he could pass this little test with normal genjutsu.
What would happen if he failed? He had to join the Akatsuki, that much was certain, but would they still let him join if he didn't beat the girl? He wasn't sure, so even though he didn't want to; it was time to use his strongest genjutsu.
He felt his eyes strain as the pattern changed, and he watched the girl take a step back as she noticed the Mangekyo. By then it was too late, and he'd already made eye contact.
"Tsukuyomi."
The world turned red and black, with the only white being Sakura's outline. Here, Itachi had complete control, and there was no way for her to escape. 72 hours of torture was a bit extreme, but the girl had left him no choice. He would do what was necessary to maintain his cover, and then he could find out how to save her.
Only…something wasn't right. Sakura hadn't moved at all. Her eyes were dead, staring blankly at him. Itachi reached out to her, and she faded into thin air.
That definitely shouldn't have happened.
"Is that you Itachi?" a familiar voice called out.
His eyes narrowed slightly. Why did Sakura sound older, and how in the world was she doing this? He moved through the genjutsu world he had created, looking for her. She shouldn't have any control here. Itachi could have never seen this coming because much like a civilian child from Konoha being part of the Akatsuki, it shouldn't be possible. There was no record of the Tsukuyomi ever being countered.
The situation was unexpected, but Itachi could still adapt. The first thing he needed to do was figure out how much control he still had. He willed the world to show him Sakura, and suddenly the colours around him were warping.
When they settled he stood in front of a cage. The seal on the cage was so intricate and detailed that Itachi almost got side-tracked just looking at it. His eyes focused on what was in the cage, and he struggled to wrap his mind around it.
A white outline of a teenage kunoichi, with short hair and a kunai balanced on her finger. The words 'Inner Sakura' was stamped on her forehead in kanji. It was like an older version of Sakura, except something was…off about her. It looked like she had been drawn with jagged lines, her eyes were slits without pupils and her whole body was slightly out of proportion. When she smiled her teeth were like sharp triangles.
"I should have known it would be you who would break in first." She flipped the kunai and caught it by its pommel, causing Itachi to tense up, wary of an attack.
This was one of the strangest days he'd ever had, and he recently slaughtered his entire family.
"You're Sakura." he said, his voice steady despite the tension in the air.
Her eyes narrowed and the smile left her face.
"And you're the bastard that murdered Sasuke's entire family."
Up until that moment, Itachi had been ready to defend himself. But the mention of his little brother had him ready to attack. Sakura didn't seem fazed, throwing her arms out openly.
"Welcome to my home." she said bitterly. "There's fuck all to do here except play with my tools. At one point I started cutting myself open just so I could heal myself for entertainment. So even though I really want to kill you for what you did to Sasuke I have to admit I'm happy to have the company."
There were a million questions he could have asked her, but right now Itachi was only focused on one thing.
"If you go near Sasuke-" his voice got deeper as he issued his threat.
The girl rolled her eyes, which was not a reaction Itachi usually got.
"You're a bit late there. I'm his- I mean I was his- You know what never mind, that's irrelevant. Where do you get off threatening me when what you did to him was horrific? I should be the one threatening you."
He had no good reply to that, and she did seem trapped here so Sasuke wasn't in imminent danger. He still needed to figure out what she was and how to kill her, but he could be more cautious now. They stared at each other for a minute, both uncertain about what would happen next.
"What are you?" he asked. "How did you get like this?"
She shrugged and flopped backwards against the bars of her cage.
"To be honest my head's always been a little messed up. A Yamanaka once tried to take over my brain and my inner self roughed her up real good. It's gotten messier though, especially since I can't communicate with my outer self anymore. Now that I'm Inner Sakura and it's my job to hurt unwelcome intruders, trying to play with my mind was a really, really bad idea."
He noticed that she hadn't answered his second question, nor had she explained her connection to his brother. Sakura had disappeared from Konoha before Sasuke started the Academy, so how her inner self knew about him was puzzling. That, combined with her older appearance, made Itachi wonder just what exactly had happened to Sakura Haruno. The grotesque figure slouched and staring curiously at him did not match either the little girl he'd seen in photos or the dull eyed girl he'd seen today.
"I'm curious." she drawled. "What's it like, being scum? Living with yourself after what you did?"
"I imagine you'd know, considering you're working with a criminal organization."
She laughed at that.
"You're part of it too now, you know. Besides, I had no choice, whereas you chose to murder your family, you chose scar Sasuke for life and you chose join the Akatsuki. You do realise that your scum don't you?"
Her words hit far too close, and while it was clear that she didn't know the full story it bothered Itachi that she knew about Sasuke. Either the Akatsuki spy network ran deeper than he had estimated or Madara was more loose-lipped than Itachi had thought he was.
"I'm aware that my actions are seen as morally reprehensible by the general shinobi society." he answered carefully. "That is why I'm with the Akatsuki."
"A shitty answer for a shitty person." she sneered.
He stiffened. When people taunted Itachi about murdering his clan, it was easy to let his cold, ruthless mass murderer persona take over. They had no idea what he'd been through, how he'd damned himself for the sake of his village. She was right, he was scum, but acting like she knew his mentality only highlighted her ignorance.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand." he said disdainfully.
"You're not the one I want to understand." she replied coldly.
She reached over and grabbed the bars of her cage, pushing her head nearer his.
"Did you do this to Sasuke too? Bring him into this inner world?"
She was staring intensely at him, but Itachi gave no answer. He would not endanger his little brother by baiting this monster.
"You did, didn't you? What exactly did you do to him? Show me."
He didn't want to. More than anything, he did not want to relive that night again. But this Tsukuyomi was not under his complete control, and he could only watch as the world shifted to show his granduncle being cut down by his blade.
"You made him watch his entire clan die?" Sakura hissed.
She sounded truly outraged now. Itachi had a feeling that if she wasn't in the cage she would be attempting to tear his throat out. She didn't understand that while Sasuke suffered by watching his clan die, Itachi also suffered by being forced to kill them. He did not want to see his sins again. He deserved to, he knew that. He deserved to spend an eternity reliving the massacre, but that did not mean he wanted to.
He had no choice. The scene shifted to Itachi slitting his cousin's throat. Sakura also watched, no longer interested in taunting Itachi. There was sadness in her eyes, perhaps for Sasuke? Itachi still didn't understand the connection.
"How could you do this? Don't you feel any remorse? These people were you're family, they loved you, and you killed them without feeling a thing!"
He stared at her, his emotionless face disguising the horror he felt inside. Right now, he wished her words were true. As he watched the gruesome slaughter of that night play out again in this fantasy world he longed to feel nothing at all. It would be so much easier if Sakura was right, if he really was a ruthless, murderous sociopath. If he had done this for personal gain, if he truly felt no remorse, then all these visions wouldn't affect him in the slightest.
His third cousin's scream echoed through the fabricated reality. Itachi forced himself not to close his eyes. He couldn't let his mask slip, not now or ever. If he had to stand here and pretend he felt nothing while his family died then that's what he would do. He was a shinobi of Konoha, and he had a mission.
The scene changed to his parents, and Itachi braced himself.
When he finally broke free from the genjutsu, it was to the sound of Sakura screaming curses at him. She cursed him for ever being born, for daring to hurt Sasuke, for being an evil human being, and for anything else she could think of. As the massacre went on her screams got louder, and when he broke free his ears were ringing. It was quite the shock to come back to reality and lock eyes with a calm young girl instead of a vaguely insane young woman.
Sakura turned to look at Pein, and Itachi tensed up. He wasn't sure who had won that genjutsu battle, considering neither of them had been in control towards the end. He had no idea what she knew, or what she had experienced. The other Sakura had mentioned that the two personalities weren't connected but he may have altered that. If that was the case, and he failed the test, then there was a good chance he would need to fight his way out.
Sakura nodded at Pein, and he turned to face Itachi. Itachi stared at him unblinkingly.
"Welcome to the Akatsuki, Itachi Uchiha."
Itachi let the genjutsu on the other members drop. They stared around in confusion for a few seconds, before realising what had happened. He ignored them and focused on Sakura, who was staring calmly at Pein.
Just what did she think happened in the genjutsu? How much did she remember?
Itachi wasn't sure, but now he had yet another reason to keep an eye on the girl.
Sakura wasn't quite sure what Itachi's problem was. In the two weeks since he'd arrived she'd caught him glancing at her and occasionally tracking her movements during meetings. Normally she was good at reading people, and she could tell whether Akatsuki members hated her or not. But Itachi was an enigma. She had no idea what was going on behind his dark eyes, and the fact that she'd caught his attention made her uneasy.
Was it because of the genjutsu battle? She didn't understand why, seeing as he'd won. She'd blacked out for a good few minutes, and he hadn't seemed to care much at the time. So why was he interested in her? Was it her age? Her hair? There were a million and one possible explanations and it frustrated Sakura to no end that she couldn't get a read on Itachi.
If she could even figure out whether he hated her or not it would narrow down the reasons for his curiosity, but as it was she was stuck making split second eye contact with him while Pein and Konan informed them about the latest Akatsuki activities. She wasn't sure if he got anything from her when it happened, because she certainly got nothing from him. A second wasn't enough to decode his unreadable facial expressions, but that was all she could get unless she directly confronted him, and she really didn't want to do that.
The decision was taken out of her hands when they bumped into each other in the hall of the main building. Sakura was on her way back from training, flushed and dirty. Judging by Itachi's neat and clean clothes it seemed like he was just heading out. She had the misfortune of choosing the same hallway as him, and so they came to an awkward standstill a few meters away from each other.
It was awkward for Sakura anyway; she couldn't quite tell what Itachi was feeling.
"Itachi-sama." she bowed, and made to move past him.
"Sakura-san." She froze when he spoke. "Tell me, how much do you know about me?"
She still couldn't tell what his intentions were, so she answered carefully.
"I only know what Pein told me." she replied.
"And what did he tell you?"
"That you were a prodigy of the Uchiha clan and that you joined us after murdering your entire clan, sparing only your younger brother."
"Do you know the name of my younger brother?"
"No."
It felt like she should. Sakura couldn't explain it but that name felt important to her, like it was on the tip of her tongue and she just needed a small push to remember.
"I see."
He left her then, with no answers for his strange behaviour and a dozen more questions. Did he think she was lying? Was she lying? Pein hadn't mentioned the name of Itachi's brother and yet she felt like she knew it. Why had Itachi even brought it up in the first place? What did he know that she didn't?
Ah, of course. He was from Konoha. She should have made that connection sooner. It seemed like all of Sakura's questions and mysteries led back to that one village. She really needed to properly visit it someday.
She sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair. She would get her answers in time, she was sure of it. She just needed to survive until the day came.
The short interrogation had ruined her desire to rest, so she headed back down to her training cavern. Until she figured out if Itachi was a friend or a foe, it was best to be prepared.
"You alright Itachi? You don't seem focused on the mission."
Juzo's words cut through Itachi's thoughts. He gave no outward sign of disturbance, but inwardly he frowned at himself for getting distracted.
"I'm fine."
He left it at that, and Juzo made no further comment. The mission was simple, take out some rouge bandits that had been bothering a small farming village. Itachi was content to let Juzo do most of the planning. He had something else on his mind.
What should he do about Sakura Haruno? The village and the girl's parents deserved to know that she was alive, the girl herself deserved to go home, but how could Itachi get the information to them without blowing his cover?
And then there was that inner demon that had attacked him. It was possible that whatever the Akatsuki had done to Sakura had changed her beyond repair. He couldn't knowingly send a dangerous, unstable shinobi back to a pair of civilian parents, and he didn't know how Sakura had gotten this way in the first place.
If he was to help her, he needed more information. Unfortunately, he was rarely in the base long enough to communicate with her, and she was always defensive and cold towards him. Her actions were often robotic, and she hardly ever wore any expression other than a carefully blank mask. He imagined this was what it had been like for his teachers at the Academy trying to get him to open up, and he didn't like being on the other side of it.
He needed time. He needed time to learn how to communicate without getting caught and he needed time to understand Sakura better. Itachi could be patient, but it did bother him that every day that went by was another day of suffering for Sakura and her family.
It wouldn't happen easily, but all he could do was try and make it right. It's what he always did.
Pein and Konan were planning something, Sakura could tell. It was the little glances Konan gave her when she thought Sakura wasn't watching. It was Pein staring contemplatively at her for a second too long before dismissing her. It was the general air of anticipation that hung heavy over their meetings.
Knowing them it was probably a painful test of some sort. However she didn't understand why they were choosing to do this now. She couldn't think of anything she'd done that would warrant a test, but she'd long since learnt not to bother trying to understand Pein's reasoning. As long as she obeyed his orders she would be fine.
Or at least she hoped she would. With Itachi acting suspicious and the general danger that came with her day to day life she really didn't need something else to worry about.
Just as she thought that, Itachi appeared in front of her. His approach was silent enough to put her on guard. She had lived in this building for so long that not many people could sneak up on her here. The fact that he could be so silent without even trying was troubling.
"Itachi-sama." She tried not to sound annoyed, because she was aware that if she wasn't perfectly impassive and polite this could go terribly, terribly wrong.
"Sakura-san." He was always equally as polite. "I have a request, if you wouldn't mind."
"Of course. Who is the request for?"
"For you Sakura-san. You're skills in our last battle interested me. When I come back from my mission, will you spar with me?"
She wondered why he bothered being so polite to her. Hadn't anyone explained to him that she was a weapon? She couldn't refuse his request even if she wanted to. Perhaps his politeness was just a character quirk, like Kakuzu's love for money or Madara's need to stand where the lighting was most dramatic during meetings.
Either way, she wasn't going to tell him to treat her like a tool. It he wanted to act like she had any choice when he asked her to do something then she would gladly indulge him, because the alternative was telling him to stop and probably making him angry.
"Of course. Itachi-sama." she bowed and moved past him. "I'll see you when you get back."
She could feel his eyes on her as she left. What she wouldn't give to get inside his head, even for a minute. Then again, considering his history of mass murder his head was probably a terrifying place. She was lucky he hadn't done anything too awful during their genjutsu battle.
"The resemblance really is uncanny. Such similar fighting styles…"
"I'm still not certain this is the right thing to do. I doubt their similarities are a coincidence. Sending Sakura to find her could result in her memory recovery."
"She's been with us for too long, even memory recovery would not shake her loyalty. There are very few ways I can think of that would result in her turning against us, and in this case the advantages outweigh the risks. If she can find and convince that woman, the training she would receive would increase her skills immensely."
"I suppose… we are at a point where she's not currently needed. No one is looking to hurt us and we're slowly building up our funds and resources. If there was ever a good time to send her away for more training this would be it."
"So you agree?"
Konan nodded.
"Good. We'll talk to her about it tomorrow."
"Nagato… are you sure? Tomorrow is the anniversary of your parents' death; I thought you would want to visit your old home."
He kept his eyes on the rain outside.
"There's nothing there for me anymore. My home is here, with the Akatsuki."
His hand twitched out towards her, some old sentimental instinct surfacing that he tried to ignore. Both of them knew that the Akatsuki wasn't a home for anyone, but she didn't call him out on it. Instead Konan gently reached out to hold Yahiko's cold, dead hand in her own, and Pein let her.
He was a god, but he had once been human. Emotions still lingered, much as he wished they wouldn't. He squeezed her hand once, then let it go and moved away. They both had work to do.
There was always more work to be done. Until Yahiko's dream became a reality, small moments like this were all he could allow himself.
When he looked away from the steadily pouring rain, Konan was gone.
The grass was still covered in morning dew when Sakura received a note from Konan. The paper butterfly was small and contained only one sentence.
Meet in the central room for new orders.
Sakura stuffed the last of her dango into her mouth and took off for the main building. She tried to use the chill in the air to focus her mind, but she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen. She'd been so busy trying to assess Itachi that she'd pushed her worries about Pein and Konan to the back of her head. Now as she hurried through the village, she regretted how unprepared she was. Perhaps she would get lucky and she was simply being summoned for another regular mission, but her gut instinct told her that this was different.
When she arrived Pein was already standing in the centre. She dropped to one knee and they waited in silence until Konan arrived. When the swirls of paper finally assembled into the shape of a woman, Pein spoke.
"I can see the apprehension in your eyes, so I imagine you've guessed that your next mission will not be a normal one."
Sakura was resigned to it at this point, but she did not look forward to whatever pain she would experience in her near future.
"You've done well." Konan said softly, the last sheets of paper sticking together to form her face. "You're skills have improved greatly since we took you in, and you've succeeded every mission we set you, but there's a reason for that."
"We deliberately kept you from fighting the most dangerous S-rank shinobi because we weren't sure of your capability to defeat them." Pein explained. "And while you're ability as a weapon has been very useful up until now, we may need more from you in the future. If you are to assist the Akatsuki when we begin our revolution, you need better training to reach the level of skill we want from you."
That didn't sound good, but usually if they were going to make her suffer Konan looked a lot colder, as if to steel herself against what she was going to put Sakura through. Today she looked as calm as usual, which left Sakura slightly hopeful.
"As you've probably noticed there hasn't been as much activity lately. Thanks to Itachi's recruitment we can take on more difficult missions and gain more funds. The Akatsuki is growing steadily, but it will be a while until we reach our intended goal."
"So we're sending you away." Pein announced. "There's a certain woman you must find, with a skill set similar to yours. Convince her to train you for a year, and then return to us. Understand that this is not a chance to slack off. If upon your return your skills have not improved to the level we want then there will be consequences."
Sakura nodded. That much was to be expected, but the thought of doing something new, of exploring the world independently for a year, was enough to mute the harshness of Pein's words.
Konan held out a picture toward Sakura. A woman with brown eyes and blonde hair. The first thing that caught Sakura's attention was the Konoha hitai-ate. The second thing was the surge of familiarity that went through Sakura at the sight of this woman.
"Tell me Sakura, have you ever heard of Tsunade?"