Hey, come on guys, it's only been...wait, what? 53 DAYS? Gaaah I'm sorry. School got in the way, you know how it is! Anyway, I've wanted to write some of the scenes in this chapter FOREVER. I guess you could sort of consider it filler, but it's necessary for the transition and stuff. Sorry it's kinda short!

Sakura collapsed.

The pounding heat made her head swim. She hadn't had anything to eat in days. The sun felt like it was piercing through her skin, literally. Deidara and Sasori were just getting heavier…and heavier… and heavier. The fight hadn't exactly been easy, and even if Chiyo had healed her when she brought her back to life… she was dead on chakra.

The sand was horribly coarse.

She really should have thought ahead. She should have stayed with Sasuke, but she was about two miles away at this point and she felt like she couldn't take another step.

She heard a groan from her side.

It was Deidara, sitting up and rubbing his bruised cheek. Sakura shut her eyes and played dead.

"Well, that's interesting, yeah." Deidara said hoarsely. "Pink bitch k.o.s me, apparently has killed Master Sasori, and then collapses. Wow. Takes a real idiot to be THAT skilled. And she left the Uchiha behind too. Wonder if she's dead, yeah."

Sakura slowed her already snails-pace heartbeat, hoping it would fool the Akatsuki member as he picked up her wrist for a pulse.

"Poor bitch is still alive. Oh well."

Sakura cracked an eye open, seeing it wasn't working. "Hi there," she said.

Deidara narrowed his eyes. "Hi. What are you"—

Sakura swung a fist.

This time, Deidara caught it. "Same trick won't work twice, girl." Deidara stood. "And I can stand, which clearly can't be said for you."

Sakura fell back. "Yeah." She croaked, "So watcha gonna do to me?"

Deidara mulled it over. "You're coming to Akatsuki. I'm sure there's a few secrets on the Hokage in your head. Plus, Hidan will thank me for giving him a new plaything, since you have spirit and all. Or maybe they'll feed you to Zetsu…who knows?"

"I object," Sakura protested.

"Too bad," Deidara smirked, and knocked her out.

Sakura dreamed.

She dreamed that Shikamaru was yelling at her. "You're an idiot! You shouldn't have gone after Akatsuki!"

Ino was next to him, sitting on a bench, crying hard, shoulders shaking. Shikamaru glanced at her and looked back toward Sakura. "Look what you've done! You've hurt all your friends!" He swept his arm and gestured to the rest of her old friends, all of whom had appeared, wearing solemn expressions and all dressed in black.

And then Naruto arrived. He walked up to her and just…stood there. The worst thing, however, was when Sakura looked into his eyes…she saw hollowness. She saw everything that should never, ever be seen on Naruto's face. "You chose him over us," he said, voice just as empty.

Then a cold voice from behind her. She didn't have to turn who it was. "You're too weak," the voice sneered. "You can't break the bonds. You choose them over me."

And then there was Sasori, the Akatsuki she'd killed. Pale as a ghost. "You killed me," he said emotionlessly. "You killed. And you had to sacrifice the life of an innocent old woman to do it. Aren't you just disgusted with yourself? You're not worthy of joining the Akatsuki, little girl."

The worst: Kakashi looking at her solemnly, the kunai in his forehead, murmuring, "You've disappointed me, Sakura."

As Sakura came too, she immediately heard voices and kept still. Observe your surroundings before letting them know you're awake, she reminded herself.

"…and this girl took down Sasori?"

"Yeah, her and some grandma."

"…her hair is pink."

"Your hair is orange. Your point?"

"She's been out for hours. How hard did you hit her?"

"Well, she was already pretty exhausted. Chances are she hasn't even eaten in days. Maybe she won't wake up."

"Hn. Anyway, I don't have the time to watch over her. Get our favorite interrogater to watch over her. We're in his room anyway. Maybe the girl has some information on Orochimaru we could use."

"Yeah, fine, whatever."

Footsteps padded away from her. A door opened and closed.

Sakura leaped up. This was her chance to…to what? Get away? Look around? She was right where she wanted to be: Akatsuki's base. But she was having second thoughts. Maybe, just maybe, Orochimaru would take her back if she brought him the ring… the ring!

She winced. Her arms still ached, but at least her throat was no longer parched. Someone had been nice enough to give her water. Her stomach was still growling a little, but she figured she had enough strength to punch through at least one wall. She'd been on a rough cot—there were two in the room. The room was bare, although there were some oddities on one shelf that sat between the two beds. The walls were wooden and hard. There were no windows; the only light came from several candles. Yep, typical evil lair. At least she was no longer dressed in summer wear—there was a dark, brown cloak around her. She assumed her surroundings were fairly cold, since she still wanted to shiver. Perhaps it was nighttime…

As Sakura looked behind her, she saw, among various other strange decorations, a severed hand in a jar. She grimaced upon realizing it had a ring exactly like the one she was looking for. It was suspended in a greenish liquid. Perhaps there was some sort of jutsu on the ring, where it would destroy itself the moment it left the finger of a living hand…such measures were not unheard of; they were great to prevent theft. Still, this should be easy. Sakura reached over and unscrewed the top of the jar.

"You're not very good at the whole sneaking thing."

Sakura froze, her hand inches away from the severed one. That voice was horribly familiar, yet not so. She hadn't even heard the footsteps…she closed her eyes. She'd been discovered. She figured she could hold off most of the Akatsuki members, even in a tired state, unless it was…

"My eyesight may be failing me, but you seem slightly familiar."

…him…

"Ah yes, you were on the same team as the Kyuubi and…"

…The betrayer, the slaughterer of an entire clan…

"My little brother."

…Uchiha Itachi.

She was so screwed.

"What brings you here to my…ah…humble abode?"

Sakura mentally ran through all the books she'd read on the Uchiha. She remembered one of them saying, very clearly, "If you're one-on-one with an Uchiha, run. You have no hope."

So Sakura did just that. She ran.

But she couldn't run. A hand seized the back of her cloak, and though she tried to rip out of it, she couldn't—and the hand grabbing it had quite a peculiar ring on it. "Not so quickly…let's talk a little."

She knew now she was trapped in a genjutsu. She could not break free—she was clamped against a wall, invisible ropes suspending her. Itachi was standing a few feet away, looking straight at her, his arm hanging lazily out of his Akatsuki cloak adorned with red clouds. "Speak," he said briskly. "Why are you really here?"

Sakura's lips moved, and she couldn't stop them. The words forced their way out of her throat… "I'm on a mission," she gasped out.

"For whom do you work?" Sakura fought. She bit her tongue until blood flowed, craned her neck trying to stop the bonds constricting her throat. She struggled for breath as her blood dribbled down her neck. She couldn't answer, she wouldn't betray Orochima—

"So it's Orochimaru, is it?"

What? How had he known? She hadn't spo—

"You don't have to speak aloud. You are in my genjustu. I control everything. I know your thoughts. You may as well be screaming them to the world. What does he want from Akatsuki?"

Don't think about it, Sakura told herself. Don't think about it, and he can't get the information from you. Instead, Sakura began translating the Ninja know-how into sign language in her mind, ignoring the blood dripping from her chin.

Itachi seemed amused. "You're an intelligent one. Let's see how strong you are." The ropes around her arms and legs tightened, and Sakura's nerves screamed out in pain. She felt her radius crack. "Ngh—" Ponies! Ponies! Think about ponies! But it didn't work: she couldn't see her usual distraction galloping through meadows of pink grass. She had to find something to take her mind off of her mission. Something that would also stop Itachi. She gritted her teeth and forced her closed eyes open. After all, it wasn't like Itachi could put her in a worse genjustu. Sakura knew she would literally bite her tongue off if she tried to speak, so she thought her broken words. Why did you kill your clan—and why did you leave Sasuke alive?

Bad idea. It definitely didn't stop Itachi. The ropes tightened. Sakura continued her assault: she visualized Sasuke, in all his glory, defending Naruto from Haku, attacking Kakashi, screaming in pain from Orochimaru's bite when he was first given the curse seal. Sasuke's smirk. Sasuke sparring with her. Sasuke at the Valley of the End, his shoulders barely trembling—There was a flash of red, and Sakura coughed blood, feeling one of her ribs crack. Pain shot through her, and then her brain decided it had had enough and shut down.

Through her darkening vision, she saw Itachi standing over her, his face entirely emotionless. And then everything went dark.

Sakura woke, and for a moment she felt nothing.

Then she let out a scream of agony, and when she was done, vomited over the side of her bed.

Wait, bed? That couldn't be right. She was on a mission. She wasn't supposed to have a bed—

Then she remembered what had happened, faintly, before another pang of pain hit her and she bit down on her fist, hard, muffling her scream. Tears sprang to her eyes, threatening to flow.

"Oh, for the love of…aren't you supposed to be a medical nin? Heal yourself already."

Was that man at her bedside blue?

Sakura raised her undamaged arm—which was now bleeding from her biting it—and attempted to heal herself. It was then that she realized that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her arm. The nerves were screaming, but the bone was perfectly intact. It had to be aftereffects from the genjutsu. "Who—why am I here?" she croaked, her voice hoarse from screaming. "Where's…"

"Itachi?" the man supplied. "He's out, talking to the leader about how you're too weak to interrogate correctly. I'm Kisame, by the way. As to why you're here, that's what we couldn't get you to tell us. Deidara says you wanted to come to Akatsuki, but none of us know why."

Kisame. Another missing-nin from the Rain or something… Sakura thought blearily. "What day is it?"

"Oh, you've been out for three days. Itachi's genjutsu apparently did a bit much. He fainted right afterwards too, ya know."

"Wait… three days? WHAT?"

"Shut up! You wouldn't want one of the other members to find you. Trust me. They're not as nice as me." Kisame showed all his sharp, shark teeth. Sakura supposed it was supposed to be some sort of sick grin.

She missed Sasuke's smirk. She missed her cold, hard mattress at Orochimaru's base. She missed her kitchen, where she could make all the rice balls she wanted. She missed…everything she'd taken for granted.

She had really gotten herself into a mess now.

Alright, time to proceed with what she'd come here to do. This was when she'd throw her life and everything she cared for away.

"I want to speak to your leader."

"You can tell me and I'll relay your information to him," Kisame sneered. "You're not important enough to see the leader."

"Oh, I will be," Sakura said. "I'm going to willingly tell you everything I know about Orochimaru, on one condition."

"And what's that?" A skeptical expression.

"I want to join Akatsuki."

What. A. Twist. Wheee. Sakura, make up your mind. Are you gonna nab the ring and run or join Akatsuki and get stronger?

Anyway, sorry again, guys! I'm so grateful for all the faves and alerts and stuff. Reviews would be even more awesome!

Hopefully the next update gap won't be nearly as large! I'm having a little spat with writer's block, which is why this might seem a little bit forced.