A Reason to Leave; A Reason to Love

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

Chapter 5: Meetings…Sakura's POV

I hated guards. No, scratch that, I hated the people who hired the guards because they were too weak and cowardly to defend themselves so innocent people had to die for my target. Really they were just some of the worst; if you have guards think ahead and learn some self defense from them so that way you don't need as many guards. It costs less and less people have to die.

Take right now as an example; here I was fighting an army of guards-literally-just to kill 1 man. I mean really he was all alone in this big ass house. Does he really need so many men, it is said and it is true that it's quality over quantity. I mean these guys weren't at all skilled fighters, a genin could take them out, they thought because I was a woman and alone that sheer force of numbers could take me out. I don't think so assholes.

It was my 13th mission since I had last scene Naruto and the others. And it had only been 1 month. I was making good progress with moving towards Amegakure, and right before the police would come to investigate everything I would have them notice me or leave a tiger-stripe like burn on their body. This way they would recognize who it is and word would spread of me of which way I was heading and my reputation. It was killing 2 birds with one stone.

Lily had gotten much stronger since the little run-in a month ago. We trained relentlessly while also taking missions. It was hard but we got through it on sheer will, to reach the goal that we aimed for. Lily and I understood one another; we are connected by our desire for strength. She was probable the strongest ninja animal partner alive right now. And I knew she would just get stronger as time went on.

Like right now, she was tearing through guard after guard just to get to the room that our target was located in. She had no problem fighting guys like these. I had no problem either, but I was elated when I noticed that not that many were left to cut through. When I heard some noises of the police I pushed harder through them all with Lily. I signaled for her to go ahead and not bother with the guards. She started to jump on all of the guards and ran through the mansion to find and kill the target.

I was just finishing with all of the guards when I noticed one coming for m behind and just as I was turning around I saw a scythe cut the guard right through the middle. Blood from the body flew into the air and then all of the other guards were taken out by weird threads. When I looked over the first thing that stood out to me was the cloaks: black with red clouds outlined with white. I looked at their faces and saw the smug smirk of the silver haired man I had punched all that time at the bar in mist, and his partner stitches. It was none other than the zombie brothers: Hidan and Kakuzu.

I huffed at their interference with my fighting when I could have taken them all out by myself. Hidan and Kakuzu appeared in front of me and as they were about to speak a window burst open from the upper levels of the mansion. The dead body of the target fell out, bloody and cut up all over the place. I looked up and saw Lily sitting there innocently licking the blood from her paws. I made a motion for her to come down, and like I taught her she jumped from the window 3 stories up and walked gracefully towards us.

She bared her teeth at the zombie brothers, not liking their smell. She started growling and hissing and nudging them back with her head hitting them in the hip to back away from her being and me. Once they were a good 10 feet away from me she lay down next to me and looked at them, glaring through narrowed eyes.

Stitches decided to speak on the two of theirs behalf knowing that Hidan would probably making thing worse. "Leader-sama would like to talk to you. He asked us to find you and bring you back with us. Come quietly and I won't have to tie you and your kitten up." At being called at Kitten Lily got up, roared so loudly that it shook the earth and trees them selves and sent Hidan and Kakuzu sliding back from it. It was a little trick I invented for her, she had to roar really loudly while pushing some chalkra into it and it would create a sonic blast that would knock enemies back. Of course I either had to be beside her or behind her when she did or I would be it with it to. But if she added more chalkra to it, it would create blades in it and slice the enemy from it.

Just as Lily was about to lunge for them I stood in front of her and gave her a look that made her lower her head and stay where she was. I turned back to look at them as they slowly wiped to shock off their face at the power of Lily's roar. I smirked smugly at their faces, proud that Lily could leave such and impression on them. But I wiped it clean to have a blank and professional face. "As you have seen she does not like to be referred to as a 'kitten'," I heard Lily growl lowly at the word. "But I will not struggle; I will come willingly back with you. But not before I collect my earnings for my mission. I believe that most of the money will go towards something that Lily will want. As she did finish off the target and helped with the guards."

As soon as I had collected the money from the client Lily and I were racing through the trees with the two Zombie twins. All I could think about was how I was going to convince them to allow me to have a loose membership. Hopefully it would be allowed.

3 days later

I was about ready to cry when we entered Amegakure. I had to deal with Hidan staring at my but and chest the whole time, and then had to make sure that Lily didn't attack them even if I wanted her to. I finally had enough of Hidan's comments and sicked her on him. His partner didn't seem to mind at all seeing as how the silver-haired priest could not die.

I was escorted to a building at the center of the village. It was taller and nicer than the rest making me believe that whoever lived there was wealthier and more important to everybody in the village. But for the village itself it wasn't that bad. I had heard that Ame was a poor village but it looked just fine, the people looked happy and the people all seemed to have money. The houses and buildings were made well too.

WE walked into the large building and made our way to one of the higher levels. I stood in front of a door with the Hidan and Kakuzu by my sides. They knocked on the door and opened it door me when there was a subtle 'come in' behind the door. Kakuzu walked in front of me and Lily and Hidan were behind us.

Inside I saw a man inside, he had orange hair and weird ringed eyes. He also had A LOT of piercings all over himself. He was working at a desk doing paperwork when he looked up at us and his ringer gaze landed on me and Lily. Lily just huffed and growled at him, but sat down in the end. She was tired from not stopping except for at night.

The man behind the desk who I was assuming was their leader just looked at her with a blank expression causing her to growl and hiss more at him. I put a hand on her head to calm down and she lay down on the floor besides my feet.

The mad signaled for Hidan and Kakuzu to leave and as they left a woman with blue hair and orange eyes came in. She stood behind the leader and looked at me and Lily with the same blank expression he had. From how close she was standing next to him-closer than needed-I assumed that they were either very close or in a relationship of some sort. It was probably a combination of both.

"Tigris-san, I am Pein, leader of the Akatsuki. I have heard much about you and would like to welcome you into this organization. Of course if you do not agree we will have to kill you because you will know where our base of operation is. So it would just be better if you just agreed. It would work out in both of out favors. You would get to live and we would have the fearsome Tiger Lily among us. But I am guessing that is nothing but an Alias so I would like to know your real name." He said smoothly in a detached tone.

I came up to the seat in front of his desk and sat down. Lily sitting head held high beside me. I just smirked lazily at them, not really caring for their threats. "Ah, but Pein-san this is what I have been hoping for. I took all those mission letting police see me before I left to let news spread of me coming this way. I was hoping to catch your attention. So I really got just what I wanted." I crossed my legs and leaned back in my seat now grinning at the two behind the desk. "But though I would love to join your prestigious and widely known organization, I can not join fully with you yet. I propose a loose membership to your organization. I would rather build up my reputation a little more before being known as a member of the Akatsuki. Besides if I did that before putting on the cloak wouldn't this organization be even more feared?"

Pein just looked at me in contemplation…or at least I thought he was contemplating what I had said. "So you would wish to be a member without being known as a member to the whole world so that way when you eventually do wear the cloak you are more revered and stronger seeming to the world?"

"Yes, I would still take your missions Pein-san; but I would be able to take my own as well. I wouldn't have to wear your cloak or live at the base. But in secret I would be apart of this organization. Of course Lily would be my partner as well. She is the only one I can stand to work with. We have an understanding of each other so I would not wish to have anybody else but her as my partner. She would be a part of this loose membership as well. So do we have a deal?"

He looked over Lily and I and then focused mainly on me. "Hm, well I wouldn't wish to pass up the opportunity to have someone like you in our organization. So I will agree if you check in and send reports of your where about and missions every 2 weeks. I will expect you of course to don the cloak soon though so that this organization will be more known than it already is. Also, don't think that I forgot my earlier question, who exactly are you, truly?"

I hadn't taken off my mask in the time that I was with the 2 Akatsuki and I ad made sure that my hair was henged a dark blood red so that only my eyes were the same. I gently peeled off my mask and let the henge drop revealing the true color. My pink hair fell between my breast and the top of my collarbone. Its spikes at the bottom un-even and different lengths from each other at the bottom making it edgier. "My name is Sakura Haruno, Former ANBU agent of Konohagakure and top medic. I am Tiger and this is Lily. I will accept your terms and become a loose member of the Akatsuki."

Sorry for updating soo late but I had serious writers block! I hope you liked this chapter, I am currently on vacation and it was soo good to help the writers block. Just what the doctor ordered.

I hope you Read and Review for this chapter becasue Reviews really do make me happy. PLEASE NOOOO FLAMES!

~Ja-ne~