Chapter 2: "Realization"
Sakura's POV
We walked up to this woman who had a paper-like flower in her dark blue hair. "It's about time you got here. Kakuzu already told me-let's go." She put her hand on my shoulder, and when I looked up at her she actually smiled at me. I could hear Sasori mumble, "Sakura-chan, close your eyes." I was afraid they were going to know me out, so I kept one eye open, only to see my legs and arms disintegrating into paper. I closed my eyes, horrified to see myself disappear.
When I opened my eyes, we appeared in front of a large boulder, with a huge sign on it, I couldn't read it but the writing was in red ink. Deidara, Sasori, and the dark haired lady quickly did some hand signs, and the boulder lifted from the lake we were standing on. We walked in, but I couldn't see a thing it was so dark. It had an eerie aura. "Where are we?" was all I could get out. I heard someone chuckle. "I already told you, we are home Sakura-chan."
We continued to walk in the dark until we reached another door. Deidara opened it, and we finally walked into a room with light. I only saw one man in the room, who also had a black cloak with red clouds across it. He had long black hair, which was put into a pony tail, and Konoha headband with a slash through it. "Sasori- who's the little girl", he said sternly.
"Sakura Haruno. My new roommate." "That's unhealthy perv." I prayed to Kami he was kidding. "If she's anyone's roommate, it would clearly be Konan, not you baka." Sasori looked really mad. "I'm not a baka!" I giggled at his last remark. His facial expression was hilarious. Everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy. "It's rare to see someone happy here, un." Deidara had a smile on his face, but the others grew silent. No one was happy here? I hope it's not too boring here. "Anyways, Sakura-chan – Konan will show you your room." Konan reached for my hand, and I happily took her. I waved goodbye to Sasori, and left the room with Konan.
No POV
Itachi started a long speech when Sakura and Konan left. "Why did you bring an innocent little girl here? Do you know what they will do to her once they come? Very few of us are decently civilized anymore." "What do you mean by that?" Itachi continued with his boring speech, "I understand you feel pity for this little girl, but we are criminals, S-ranked. She won't last here very long – unless you had something else in mind?" "I'm not going to do that to her. I have a hunch that she can become a threat within time." The Uchiha may be young, but he was a great debater. "You lack common sense." The two sat in silence. They were yelling so loud Sakura could hear them bickering down the hall.
Sakura's POV
"Inner what do they mean by 'I can become a threat'?" 'I guess they see potential in you kid.' "Who me? I hardly know anything besides medical jutsu!" 'They most likely need a medic then.' "Great." Konan noticed the pinkette was staring off in space and couldn't help but laugh. "Did I say something Konan?" "Huh? Oh, no. We are almost to Pein's office. It's this way." The hallway wasn't lit very well. It seemed like the hallway let to another making the whole base just a huge maze! We reached a door finally at the end of the winding hall. Konan knocked on the door, and then we walked in. The room had no windows at all. There was only a desk with a lot of papers on it neatly stacked. Behind the desk, there was a chair, with a man sitting in it. But he was turned around so I couldn't see him at the time.
Pein's POV
"What do you need Konan?" I was having a rather stressful day today, and I didn't feel like particularly talking much today, not that I ever did anyways. "We found, well Sasori found a little girl and we decided to take her in. I wanted you two to get acquainted." I turned around to see a small girl with soft pink hair and emerald green eyes. It was her.
"Right. Thank you Konan." She left the room, with a small smile on her face. The little girl looked frightened. I already knew the answer, but wanted to break the silence, "What's your name little girl?" She looked down at the floor. "Haruno. Sakura." "Nice to meet you Sakura." She was too scared to even look up at me, so I turned around. "I do hope that you will be staying here, since you don't really have anywhere else to go. You will become a strong kunoichi with us. If you put in the effort at least." Still no reply. "Anyways, welcome to the Akatsuki, my name is Pein, but you can call me Leader-sama." "Umm, Leader-sama?" I turned around,"Yes?" "You need a medic don't you?" I sighed, thinking about that made me flinch. Kakuzu and Konan were ok at medical jutsu, but not to be able to save someone if they are dying. "Yes, we do." "I…can do some medical jutsu, but not a lot. I was training with Tsunade-sama before Konoha was attacked, and I was supposed to enter the Academy next week."
"Well we have plenty of scrolls about medical jutsu you can study off of. And I'm sure our members can help you train as well." She looked a little relieved to hear that. "Is Sasori a member here?" She had a small smile on her face. "Hai. I presume you will start training with him soon. Eventually you will meet all the members." She looked a bit shocked. "How..how many members are there?" "Well including myself there are ten members." "Um Leader-sama? What exactly do the Akatsuki do?" I knew she was going to ask that. "I guess you could say were kind of like spies." Her eyes widened. "That's so cool! I wanna be a spy!" "First you will train. Then I'll think about it." She quickly jumped out of her chair and hugged me. She actually hugged me? "Hai!" "Konan, please show Sakura to her room." Sakura returned back to Konan and waved goodbye.
Sakura's POV
'He seems like a nice guy outer.' I couldn't agree more. He has a scary face, but I think I'll get used to it in time. I kinda like it here. We went into another hallway which had a ton of doors. The last door on the right was going to be my room. The room was rather plain. White walls, a desk with a lamp nest to it, and the bedding was just a solid black. There was also a bookcase near the desk. The good thing was it had a closet and its own bathroom, which was quite spacious. I sat on my new bed and looked up at Konan. "Within time I'm sure this room will have a pretty pink feel to it." "We can paint the walls?" "Sure! I don't see why not. You are living here now." "Thank you Konan!" She nodded, "If you need anything ask me ok? Jaa ne!" When she shut the door, it felt really lonely in my room. Almost like it would be completely lifeless in here if I wasn't sitting on my bed. Should I leave my room? I didn't know what to do, so I walked over to the bookcase which had a couple of books in it. I picked up a book about medical jutsu and sat on my bed. 'I have a feeling you're going to be reading a lot.' With a sigh I agreed with Inner. Hopefully Sasori will come in here or something. Leader-sama said there were 10 members including him. So Leader-sama, Konan, Deidara, Sasori, that weird guy with red and green eyes, and I think his name was Itachi are the ones I've met. So the other four don't even know I'm here. I hope they aren't scary. I started to read the book, which actually made sense to me. Before long though, I fell asleep from exhaustion.
Next Morning
"Sakura-chan. Wake up." The voice was quiet, but I could still process it. I slowly rubbed my eyes and saw Sasori standing over me. "Sasori? Is that you?" "Hai. Let's go eat breakfast and then we can start training." He took my hand, and I quickly followed him. After many twists and turns in the hallway, we finally entered a large room. The kitchen was huge! The dining room table sat for 15 and had a nice dark finish. At the dining table sat Deidara, Itachi, and a man who looked kind of like a shark. Sasori told me to go sit at the table while he made pancakes. I sat next to a half-awake Deidara. I just stared at the table because I knew that Itachi and that other man were looking at me, and of course they sat across from Deidara and I.
The man started to talk. "Oi! Isn't that the girl that Leader-sama was talking about Itachi?" Itachi started to read, but before he did he replied with a simple 'Hn'. "Isn't your name Sakura?" "H-hai." I decided to look at him. He had oddly colored hair and skin. "Name's Kisame, kid." "Nice to meet you, Kisame." I smiled, overlooking his stare. He continued to talk with Itachi about some mission they were going to do next. I couldn't help but notice how young Itachi looked. Maybe 15 or 16? He must be really powerful to be in the Akatsuki. Sasori returned to the table with the pancakes. Everyone thanked for the food and started to eat the delicious breakfast.
Deidara was still sleeping surprisingly. "So Sakura-chan, do you know any ninjutsu?" "I know some taijutsu and medical ninjutsu, but that's it. I was going to start the academy next week." "How old are you kid?" "I'm five." Kisame looked kinda shocked. "How do you know medical ninjutsu then Sakura-chan?" "Well my mom was a high ranked medical nin so she got Tsunade-sama to teach me the basics." Itachi looked up from his book. "This Tsunade-sama is one of the three Sannin, correct?" "Hai. At the time she was also teaching me ninjutsu, but I only know a little." They all looked kinda surprised, like they didn't believe me. 'Well you are pretty young outer.' Sasori looked pleased with my answer. "Today we are going over basic ninjutsu, ok?" "Hai!" I smiled hoping for the best today.