Chapter Twenty Four

"SHE BACK!" Tobi called as he ran through the base. Itachi and Kisame looked up from their shoji game and Kakuzu paused in counting the payment from their last mission.

"Who?" Hidan asked casually, rolling his eyes towards the subordinate. Zetsu walked in casually after the hyperactive boy.

"Haruno Sakura has been retrieved by Deidara-san and Sasori-san. She has been taken to her room." Zetsu explained. He then left the room, calling Tobi to go after him.

"She's back, huh?" Kisame hummed, looking back to the board.

"Bound to happen eventually." Kakuzu sighed, flipping a coin into his money pouch. Itachi said nothing, but his eyes kept flicking towards the door that led to the bedrooms. Kisame noticed and chuckled.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Itachi-san, but Hidan-san already beat you to the punch on that one." He stated, amusement flaring when Itachi quickly looked towards the sofa and then back to the doorway that led to the rooms, his eyes narrowing.

—With Sasuke—

Sasuke frowned, watching as Naruto walked past him without a single glance or even a slight glare as he usually would. He knew something was up, but no one was talking. Sakura was missing—he hadn't seen her for days and didn't know where she was—Kakashi was acting strange, avoiding questions, and Naruto seemed depressed. Sasuke was at a loss for what was going on.

He walked up the street, watching as people stared at him, shaking their heads and giving him looks of pity. He twitched. Apparently, he was the only one in all of Konoha who didn't know what was going on. The foreign ninja were leaving today so that they could train in their own villages and then come back in a month. Sasuke watched the gates, waiting for any sign of the Yukigakure ninja so that he could ask if they knew anything about Sakura's disappearance.

"Hey, Uchiha!" A Sand-nin—Kankuro, if he remembered correctly—called with a slight smirk. "I heard what happened. Tough break." He commented as he and his siblings left the village. Sasuke twitched again. It would seem that he was the only one in the world who didn't know what was going on.

"What're you doing here?" A familiar voice asked. Sasuke turned and saw Juhi, accompanied by two very grouchy-looking twins.

"I was looking for you." He told them. "Have you seen Sakura around recently?"

"You mean you don't know?" Taiyoo scoffed, glaring at him as he took off his straw hat. "You must be the only person alive who doesn't." He added, not noticing Sasuke twitch for the third time as his belief was confirmed.

"She's long gone." Tsuki muttered scornfully.

"Gone?" Sasuke repeated. "Where?"

"How're we supposed to know?" Juhi sighed. "I can't believe my little sister would betray the village like that, though. She just didn't seem like the type of person to do that."

"Betray the village?" The Uchiha said in shock. Taiyoo knocked him on the head slightly, standing a head above the now annoyed Genin.

"Stop repeating everything. It's annoying." He announced. "And yes, she betrayed your village. Working for the Akatsuki the whole time she was here, apparently."

"Akatsuki?" Sasuke repeated, moving away slightly to avoid another knock to the head. The three Yuki ninja sighed in union and left the village, but not before Tsuki handed Sasuke a piece of paper.

"If she comes back, or if anyone hears anything about her, contact us immediately." Tsuki ordered, leaving with his brother and team mate.

"Wait!" Sasuke called. The turned to look at him. "Aren't you going to stay in case she comes back?" He asked, watching as they smirked and scoffed.

"Nah." Juhi shrugged. "Sakura-chan can't stay in one place too long. She'll be travelling again in no time and we're gonna go round the world to find her. It's a new mission that I'm assigning myself and my team." He chuckled.

"See ya, Uchiha!" Taiyoo laughed. Tsuki pouted and followed the two, all three of them soon fading into the distance. Sasuke looked down at the paper in his hand and sighed, shoving it in his pocket before walking away.

—With Naruto—

"I can't believe it." He said for the fifth time when he got home to his apartment and had fallen onto the sofa. Inari was at school—he promised to take care of the year-younger boy until Sakura came back, because he was sure she would.

He knew that he had been ignoring everyone, Hinata included, but the Hyuuga heiress had become slightly aggressive towards him since Sakura was taken into custody. Now that she had been 'rescued' by Akatsuki, he didn't even want to face the younger Daffodil Maiden. Naruto turned over on the sofa so that he was facing the wall, staring at the peeling paint blankly.

"I wonder if she's okay." He muttered to himself before shaking his head. "No, I can't think of her! She's betrayed me...I mean, Konoha!" Naruto added, scratching the back of his head.

"Good to hear, Naruto." Kakashi, who was sitting on Naruto's window ledge, said as he let himself into the room.

"Sensei!" Naruto acknowledged, jumping off of the sofa. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm here to tell you who your teacher until the final exam will be." He explained with a smile. "And also to say what a mess your apartment is."

"Shut up! And why can't you teach me?" He scoffed, crossing his arms. Kakashi sighed and shrugged.

"I'm busy training Sasuke. He asked first." Kakashi told him. "Don't worry about Inari. I've organised for Sakura's neighbours to take him in until the end of the exams. They'll pick him up after school today. He has his own key to Sakura's house, and so he'll be fine taking some belongings from there."

"Fine." Naruto agreed hesitantly.

"Good. Come to the hospital tomorrow. You'll meet him there."

—With Hinata—

"HYA!" Hinata looked away sadly as she listened to her father training her cousin, who had been acknowledged as superior that the clan heir. The welcome she had received after returning from the exams was far from warm, but she had expected no less.

"I think I'm going to go inside for a while." She said quietly, knowing that no one heard her. Sighing, Hinata stood and walked into her home, stepping quickly to her room and sliding the door closed. Once inside she allowed herself to fall to her bed and cry.

Sakura was gone. Naruto was avoiding her. Her father hated her. She was in a storm of depression, wanting nothing more than for things to return to how they were before graduation. When it was just her, Sakura and Naruto at the ramen bar. She even missed the times when Naruto was mistakenly praised for dating to girls at once, and how Sakura would glare at him until he corrected the one who said it.

However, more than anything else, she missed before Naruto joined their little group. She loved being a duo, just the two of them. It was harsh, and she would never tell Naruto, but the group before he joined was exactly how she liked it. In more ways than one, she believed that having Naruto around ruined their friendship. He took Sakura way from her.

Before Naruto joined them, she believed that she loved him. She would gaze longingly at him in the classroom from the first moment they met in the first year of the academy. Her heart had called to him every time she saw him. The one time their eyes met during a kunai-throwing exercise, she had thought that her heart would stop.

Then she met Sakura.

The cold, uncaring attitude thrown in her direction was a shock, as most in the class at least pretended to like her to get on her family's good side. So, when Sakura did nothing more than ditch her and tell her to get lost, she found her eyes drifting in class from orange and blonde to red and pink.

In the beginning, it was just following her around as the rest of the class tried to get close to her. She at first believed that Sakura enjoyed being alone, that she didn't want people to keep annoying her. So, one day, she decided to stop following the pinkette around. When she got to class the next day, she expected things to be normal, or even a little better since she had left Sakura alone. Then again, the pinkette was always surprising her.

-Flashback-

Hinata walked into the classroom slowly and made her way to her seat, making sure to keep her head down. When she was at down, she looked around and saw that Sakura wasn't in the room yet. It was odd, since the pinkette was usually the first to arrive. Thinking nothing of it—she had decided to stop annoying Sakura, after all—she turned her face again to the desk.

Tap...Tap...Tap...

The sound of feet approaching her desk was nothing new, since she sat just one row from the front and so most people had to walk past her. However, she was shocked when the person sat in the space next to her. Looking up sharply, her vision was obscured with pink. Hinata took in a deep gasp and the rest of the class froze, turning silent. Everything soon returned to normal and Hinata decided to ignore the wimp of the pink-hair girl.

"Where were you?" Sakura asked quietly. This was the first time Hinata had heard her say anything that wasn't either 'Go away' or 'Whatever'.

"Wh-What are y-you-you talk-talking abo-bout?" Hinata stuttered meekly. The girl turned and glared at her, taking Hinata's shoulder firmly.

"Don't. You always follow me around and when I couldn't see you yesterday I thought that something had happened." She told her, a frown marring her angelic features. Hinata's eyes widened.

"You were w-worried about m-me?" She asked in a whispered tone, too shocked to do anything else. The Haruno's face lit up in a bright shade of pink that could have rivalled her hair and she turned, glaring harshly at Hinata.

"D-Don't be absurd. I was merely making an observation." She corrected, though Hinata could see through her lie. The Hyuuga smiled slightly and turned away, not seeing how Sakura's eyes softened and a ghost of a smile flitted across her mouth.

-End of Flashback-

Hinata smiled at the memory, tears in her eyes. That was the first sign of acceptance she had ever been shown and, thanks to Sakura, it also wasn't the last. It was that day that marked the start of their friendship, and also the day that Hinata believed to be the happiest day of her life. Then, years later, Sakura accepted Naruto into their group. So as not to appear possessive, Hinata allowed the friendship between the blonde and the pinkette to flourish, but she had never expected it to grow so much.

She wasn't blind. She could see love when it was right in front of her. The way Naruto had looked at Sakura on their way into the hall from the second exam; the way he had called out to her during her preliminary. Hinata knew that she had already lost her best friend to the boy. She also knew, thanks to her family name and the privileges that came with being associated with such a strong clan, that Sakura had been taken from the village by two members of Akatsuki.

Tugging her pre-packed bag from under her bed, Hinata pulled it onto her back and looked out of the window at the setting sun. She nodded once to herself in confidence and walked towards the compound exit.

"I'm getting my friend back."

—With Sakura—

"Why?!" Sakura screamed, not know how many times she had yelled previously since she had woken up, only to find herself locked in her old room at the Akatsuki base in Amegakure. She fell to her knees, hugging herself in despair and looking around frantically for an exit. Of course there wasn't one. Of course they wouldn't let her escape. She had betrayed them. She would be killed.

Sakura grabbed her head, trying to calm the range of emotions that tried to escape all at once. Just as an Uchiha was fated to fall into their own insanity, just as a Senju was bound by destiny to lose all of those close to them, a Haruno was destined to become a slave to their emotions when their Kekkei Genkai goes out of control. She gulped and sighed shakily, trying to stand and made her way to her bed.

"Done screaming?" A voice from the door asked. Sakura ignored the speaker as she heard the lock click. The door opened and a tall, broad figure stepped into the room.

"What do you want, Hidan?" Her voice was hoarse and gruff from screaming so much and her face was stained from the hot tears that had spilled over her cheeks.

"You look like shit." Hidan commented bluntly as he took her face in his hands, glaring at her. "Why did you do it? Why did you fucking betray the Akatsuki like that, Sakura? Do you know how much shit you put me through?"

"Right." She scoffed, pulling away from her closets acquaintance in the Akatsuki and sniffing. "I just got kidnapped from Konoha and now the guy I like probably thinks I completely betrayed him."

"You did betray Konoha." The Jashinist rolled his eyes. Sakura shook her head and sighed again.

"I know I betrayed the village, but...I would never try to purposefully hurt Naruto-kun." She smirked, shaking her head once more. Hidan looked at her in amazement and huffed.

"Why can't you show that kind of loyalty to Akatsuki, huh?" He questioned, looking at her trembling hands.

"Akatsuki isn't loyal to me. Akatsuki doesn't care about me. Akatsuki doesn't treat me like I'm the only important person in the world, like I'm the only one that matters." She laughed humourlessly. "I have no loyalty towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves. My loyalty lies with Uzumaki Naruto."

"I see, un." Deidara said from the door, glaring at Sakura when her head snapped in his direction. "What? Surprised? I am the one who brought you back, after all." He smirked angrily. "Hidan—get out."

"No way. I don't trust you when you have that crazy look in your eye." Hidan refused, standing and clenching his fists, not allowing Deidara to see the pinkette behind him. This only increased Deidara's anger. "What're you gonna do to he—?"

"GET OUT!" He yelled, grabbing Hidan's arm and throwing him out of the room, locking the door after him. He turned back to Sakura, only to see that she wasn't on the bed anymore. Deidara turned to his left in just enough time to dodge the fist aimed at his head. He caught her hand and pulled her closer, his face close enough to hers for them to feel each other's breath.

"What do you want from me? Why couldn't you just leave me alone?" She demanded to know, flinching when Deidara let out one dry, rough laugh with no humour in it.

"What do I want?" He repeated. "I want you to forget the Kyuubi-brat, forget the Hyuuga chick and just accept the fact that you're in the Akatsuki for good; you're never getting out unless you die." The crazy look in Deidara's eyes left and he relaxed slightly, pulling Sakura closer to him. "Why can't you just stay here and be happy?"

"Happiness and hatred don't exactly go hand-in-hand and, to be honest, I hate this place and the people in it." She told him honestly, brushing away his bang and looking into his blue eyes. "Why couldn't you just let me be happy, Deidara?" She asked, a tear trailing down her cheek. Deidara stepped back and looked at her in shock.

"I can't...I can't let you stay in Konoha. Think about it!" He said to her softly, his tone showing the desperation he had for needed her to see things through his eyes. "They were all so quick to reject you when they found out why you even came to the village in the first place. Heck, even after you told them everything about Akatsuki, they—"

"I didn't tell them anything." She cut in. Deidara looked at her in surprise and opened his mouth, but froze when he saw her face. She was glaring at him, her teeth bared in a snarl. "Now get out."

Deidara sighed and left the room, bumping into Hidan as he left. The Jashinist closed the door and grinned murderously at the blonde, who gulped slightly but didn't let his fear show in his eyes.

"I think we need to talk." Hidan said calmly, dragging the pyromaniac down the hall.

Neither noticed the red eyes staring at Sakura's door.