Illusions of Innocence
Chapter Three – New Horizons
Please R&R!
XOXOX
I might have nowhere left to go,
But I know that I cannot go home,
These voices trapped inside my head
Tell me to run before I'm dead.
XOXOX
"What's up with you, Itachi? I mean, I know you don't like to chat, but you haven't blinked in, like, an hour." Kisame was beginning to worry a little. Itachi had said nothing since they had run away from – no, they hadn't run away, they had left, Kisame reminded himself firmly – Konan and Sakura. The lack of speech wasn't unusual when it came to Itachi's habits, but even the Uchiha tended to blink every now and then, albeit not as often as a normal person would.
"Hn." Itachi grunted non-committally, blinking once before reverting to his previous, statue-still state. Kisame sighed, still no closer to finding out what Itachi was thinking.
"Life around you, huh? There's never a dull moment." Kisame said after a few more minutes of complete and utter silence.
Itachi did not reply. Kisame decided to play a game of noughts and crosses. On his own.
XOXOX
Konan stepped out of the room Sakura lay in, now decisively unconscious thanks to Zetsu's herbal painkiller-slash-sedative concoction, planning to return in a few hours to see if the frail kunoichi had woken. There was now the small matter of clearing everything with Pein. She had been lying to Sakura when she had said that she and Pein had considered offering Sakura a place in the Akatsuki, and she could only hope that he'd understand her decision and not retract the offer, which he would be well within his rights to do.
She hurried off down the corridor, glancing in at all the rooms she passed, searching for her partner. He was nowhere to be found. As she headed back to her and Pein's room, an uncharacteristic annoyance nagging at her, she saw that the door was slightly ajar.
"Pein! When did you get back?" She asked, jogging over to the room and stepping inside, being careful to avoid the scrolls littering the floor. Tidying up could come later.
"About half an hour ago." Pein answered, studying her face. "What's wrong, Konan?"
Konan had to smile at this. He knew her so well: there were no secrets between them. Well, not many.
"No one's told you, then?" She asked. Pein's perplexed look was answer enough. "Hidan and Deidara found Haruno Sakura, close to death and brought her back. We managed to save her. Kami knows where Itachi learnt medical ninjutsu."
"She'll be useful." Pein said, taking his Akatsuki cloak off and draping it over the bedpost. Konan sighed and resisted the urge to go and hang it up neatly.
"Yes, but...that's not all." She said after a moment's hesitation. Pein looked at her expectantly. "I...I offered to let her join Akatsuki."
There was a long pause. Pein's eyebrows rose a little.
"Right. Why?" His tone gave away none of his feelings towards Konan's confession.
"I don't know. I feel so sorry for her – she's obviously been hurt badly by someone, tortured. She's so young. Besides," She became more practical, "We need more members and she's...well, she's another woman. Strong, too."
Pein nodded, and Konan breathed a sigh of relief as his expression softened.
"Okay, fine. If she agrees, she can stay. If she says no, we have to kill her. Agreed?"
Konan frowned. She didn't really want Sakura to die, but she guessed it was the most she was going to get from Pein at the moment. She hadn't expected to talk him around so easily. She hadn't really done much persuading at all. A little worried that Sakura would refuse to join the criminal organisation she had grown up learning to despise, Konan nodded reluctantly.
"Alright. I agree." She said, biting her lip slightly.
"Now that's all sorted, why don't we get down to the more important things?" Pein gave Konan a suggestive smirk. Konan grinned, shaking her head fondly. That's why he didn't put up a decent fight.
XOXOX
As she woke again, Sakura was aware of a number of things. One, she was in the Akatsuki base. Two, the leader's partner had suggested she join said criminal organisation hell-bent on hunting down and killing one of her closest friends. Three, it really was a complete miracle one of her broken ribs hadn't punctured her lungs and killed her.
With a sigh, and a wince at the pain that action induced, Sakura drew on her chakra supply that had slowly been replenished whilst she had been asleep. Cautiously, she healed her ribs and her ankle, moulding the bones back into position carefully, and then sat up hesitantly. She exhaled in relief as nothing cracked or snapped again. Taking a good look around the small room to make sure no one was around to watch her feeble attempts, Sakura struggled to her feet, using the arm of the couch as leverage.
As she took small steps out of the room, she wondered if she could find the bathroom alone. She stank. Over fourteen days without a shower tended to do that to you. She couldn't help shuddering. An aching pain coursed through her body. It wasn't unbearable, like the agony she had gone through when she had woken up the first time. She guessed Zetsu's wonder-potion must not have worn off completely.
Shuffling along the corridor, Sakura peered into the first room she came across. It looked like a communal living room and was completely deserted. She shook her head and continued on her search for a bathroom with cautious treads. It wouldn't do to go breaking her ankle again so soon after healing a fracture.
Sakura found a small wash room at the far end of the corridor, and seeing the door wide open and the room as empty as the living room she had glanced into before, she stepped inside and locked the door behind her.
It was only when she stepped out of her filthy clothes and under the warm water of the shower that she realised how cold she had been. She stood with her arms wrapped around her body, staring at her already-scabbing wounds in the steaming-up mirror opposite the shower. Letting the water cascade down her back, saturating her hair and stinging her injuries, she thought about Konan's offer.
Join the Akatsuki? They're violent criminals who want to kill my best friend, for Kami's sake! Even as she thought it, she realised her point was invalid. She was also, much as she hated to admit it, trained to be a violent criminal who murdered and stole for her country. This knowledge wasn't particularly comforting to her. It was one less reason as to why she should never join the evil organisation. They had healed her. They should have just killed her when they found her, and made everything a whole lot simpler, she thought bitterly.
With a sudden jolt, Sakura noticed her abdomen. Where that signhad been. The blood had been wiped away, by one of the Akatsuki, she assumed, but a faint outline remained. What did it say? Blood? Death? Torture? She read it, expecting one of the standard torture symbols.
Then, as she realised, she wheeled backwards, slamming her head into the back of the shower, knocking the mirror from its place on the wall with her hands. It smashed into tiny pieces as it hit the floor, littering the tiled surface with shards of glass. Seven years bad luck. Sakura couldn't bring herself to be upset over a stupid superstition. Instead, she stared at the now-blank wall, water still falling on her, as she tried desperately not to cry, as she had vowed.
Triumph.
Was that what her humiliation and ordeal had been to her tormentors? A triumph? A triumph over the Hokage. An attempt to score extra points, to further crush Konoha's weak infrastructure. Eliminate all threats. Would the Hokage herself be next? Sakura shuddered at that thought. Her vision blurred and reddened with rage. She felt her frail hold on sanity and normality snap cleanly in half.
How dare they do this to her mentor? To her?
It was the frantic knocking at the door that made Sakura snap back to reality. She had no idea how much time had passed or even what was going on. All she could see was blood, glass, water and rubble. Her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings.
Have I...done all this?
She shook her head at the sight of the blood dripping from her hands to the floor, staining the previously clean white tiles.
"Hey!" The voice was male, hesitant yet insistent. "Hey, are you okay, un?"
"Get the fuck away from there, blondie, I'll try."
Sakura heard someone being shoved to the side, and another 'negotiator' had a shot. "Get the fuck out of there. If you've done any fucking damage I swear to fucking -"
"Hidan! For Kami's sake, that's not going to help, you idiot. Hey, Pinkie, come on. It's okay, we aren't gonna get mad at you."
Sakura couldn't bring herself to speak. If she had felt capable, she would have told him where he could shove the nickname he'd just given her. Instead, she stayed silent. Slowly, she worked out that the rushing noise in her ear that had been bothering her unconsciously for a while was the shower, which was still on. Making hardly a sound, she reached and switched it off.
"Come on!" The first voice whispered. Sakura assumed it was Deidara. "I think she's going to come out now."
"And I think that 'she' can most probably hear everything you say about her."
Sakura's blood ran cold as this new voice joined the fray. Uchiha Itachi. When Deidara spoke again, his voice sounded as hostile as Sakura felt.
"Itachi. Don't tell me -" Deidara began, only to be cut off by the Uchiha.
"Sakura." He said smoothly. Sakura frowned. What was it about him? He was the only one out of the male Akatsuki members she had met so far to actually use her name. She doubted any of the other Akatsuki could make it sound so good, either.
Sakura repressed a growl. Damn him. Damn the evil bastard to hell for all eternity. Trying to fuck with her mind! She'd had enough of being used and manipulated. He was just like the others, worse than the others.
"Sakura, you cannot stay in there forever. Be rational. Get dressed and come out." He sounded quite charming, actually. Very persuasive. Sakura had never once thought that the monster that was Itachi could be charming when he so wished. The tone seemed strange to her ears, a little off coming from a person such as himself. Maybe she wouldn't have noticed if she didn't have the knowledge of what he'd done over ten years ago lurking in the back of her mind constantly.
She was reaching for her filthy, ripped clothes before she had processed what she was doing. She was going to go out there and remind herself that Uchiha Itachi was not in the least bit charming, and if the opportunity to punch him in the face arose, she would not be forsaking it.
She didn't speak a word as she dressed and unlocked the door, the light from the window indicating it was mid-afternoon, around two or three o' clock. Sakura stared up at the four Akatsuki, three of whom looked slightly embarrassed, but one of whom was merely considering her with a raised eyebrow.
See: he is most definitely not 'charming'. Sakura glared back at Itachi.
Just as the right moment for the punch loomed closer to arising, Konan hurried around the corner, flanked by the man who could only be the leader – Pein. Sakura suddenly felt incredibly bad about the wash room she had wrecked with her bare hands.
"Sakura! I heard that awful noise. Are you okay?" Konan rushed over to Sakura, who blinked a few times, trying to remember how to make her vocal chords work. When she finally managed to choke a few words out, her voice sounded rusty, as if it was seldom used.
"I'm...fine." She said. "I'm...you know, sorry about the room..." She gestured with bloodied hands towards the debris of the once neat and ordered bathroom. "I'll help fix it if you want...I'll be spending a lot more time here."
"You're staying?" Konan asked, almost incredulously. Sakura nodded. Deidara and Hidan looked just as dumbfounded, but Sakura noticed that Itachi and Kisame exchanged an odd look that Sakura couldn't make head nor tail of. She decided to ignore them.
Ignoring Sakura's suddenly horrified look, Konan hugged the young kunoichi.
Sakura's surprising saviour from forced physical contact was none other than the Uchiha prodigy.
"Let her go, Konan; she needs to sort her hands out." He said without a trace of emotion on his face or in his voice. Gone was the ubiquitous charm, and Sakura for one was glad. It helped her remember that he was, and could only ever be a homicidal sociopath. As she extricated herself from the older woman's embrace, she had a feeling she would need to cling onto that knowledge in the weeks, and even months, to come.
XOXOX
A/N: Hmm, what's Sakura hiding about her torturers? All will be revealed next time, I promise, so keep please keep reading.
TIMELINE (There are some spoilers in the next paragraph.)
If you're confused about the timeline, this is an AT (Alternate Timeline) fic. Not an AU, though. It's set in canon up until the Uchiha fight (Itachi and Sasuke), which in my fic happens as the manga version, except Madara is not involved and Sasuke does not know of his existence. Also, Itachi dies in the manga, but faked his death in my fic. He went back to Akatsuki. Sasuke did not join the Akatsuki after the fight, but we'll find out more about him as the fic goes on. Madara will appear later on in this fic. Nagato has not been revealed, and Konoha has not been invaded. Deidara and Hidan are alive because...well, I needed them. Epic plothole there, but the fact that they are alive and not dead as they are in the manga doesn't really affect the story.
Sorry if Konan seems OOC. I'd give loads of reasons why she's acting like this, but I think some people would get bored. This is already a massive A/N. Sorry. But if you want to know the reasons, just ask in a review.