Oh snap, I'm not dead! So yeah, sorry about hte lack of updates but I'm having my ass handed to me this semester. Between my love hate relationship with Caryl Churchill (love her plays, hate the lack of research material on her especially when I have to write a 15 page research paper on her) and the amount of reading I have to do for my Toni Morrison class, I've barely had any time to do anything that wasn't school related. So I do apologize because I did miss this story.

I'm also going to apologize in advance because I personally don't think this chapter is as good a the previous ones. I'm sure that's not what you want to hear but I'm going to preface that with the excuse that this chapter is needed to move the plot forward, to set up the much anticipated reunion between Sakura and Sasuke, and to somewhat follow the cannon material Kishimoto has layed out for me. With that said, I hope you don't completely hate...

As always, I do not own Naruto, though I'd totally do the rich bitch dance if I did.

I'd also like to give a shout out to AnimaniacXOX mainly because I'm glad she's doing better and has gone back to writing...I'm envious of her ideas. And I'd like to thank KurosakiLove for showing me how to get around the Error Type 2 that kept popping up when I tried to update...you're a sweetheart. Oh yeah, don't forget to review! Reviews make my Churchill research easier :) Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/alerted and thank you for your patience with me.


Kidnapped

"Sakura, run!"

Sakura looked around disoriented, trying to gain her bearings. She had been standing too closely to the exploding tag Shikamaru had thrown to distract Yamato, Guy, and Killer Bee, and now she felt as if she was moving in a haze. She felt disconnected, as if someone else was moving for her as time slowed down, and she stumbled through the dust cloud that distorted her view, a byproduct of the explosion. Her ears were ringing, if anyone was shouting for her, she couldn't hear them. Unfortunately for her, there was one voice that she could never escape, even in deafness.

Someone else will be moving for you if you don't start moving faster, Inner Sakura sniped, Or do you want to be executed for treason?

Sakura quickly sobered at the sound of her subconscious's tone and made a beeline for the temple's exit as the smoke cleared. She ran past Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto engaged in combat without a second glance. She couldn't afford the distraction. As she neared the exit, Sai grabbed her hand and pulled her outside, running at breakneck speed.

Without pause, they ran through the surrounding jungle, Sakura barely noticing as she dodged low hanging branches and leaped over fallen trunks and debris, her focus intent on escape and survival. She was oblivious to the death grip Sai had on her hand as he lead her through the thick vegetation, afraid her unstable personality would win over and he would become separated from her, lose her for good. It wasn't until they reached the island's shoreline, a dead end, that Sakura was able to notice the lack of feeling in her hand.

"How did you plan on us escaping an island again?" Sakura asked through gasping breath as she doubled over and tried to loosen her hand from Sai's vice-like grip.

Without a word Sai reluctantly let go and whipped out a scroll and inkbrush, quickly sketching a few large birds before summoning the ink beasts. "We're going to fly off," he deadpanned as he reached for her hand again.

"Are we waiting for the others?" she asked considering the number of birds he drew. She ignored the possessive way Sai interlocked their fingers.

"We agreed that I'd wait five minutes when I reached the shore, and if they don't show up, you and I are to leave without them."

"What if our team mates don't show up but Yamato-taichou does?"

"Then you're to escape while I distract him." Sai turned to the medic-nin and fixed her with a determined gaze as his grip on her hand tightened. "You have to get off this island no matter what. Don't worry about what happens to us, we'll find you, but you can't go back to Konoha."

Sakura nodded her head in understanding to cover her wincing in pain, and glanced at the tree-lines anxiously. She hoped her friends were the ones to appear, she didn't want to have to escape on her own.

But you wouldn't be alone, Sakura-chan, her subconscious teased. I'd make sure you escape, and I'll kill anyone who tries to take you back to Konoha.

Sakura shivered from the creepily concerned tone echoing in her head in a vain attempt to silence the voice, and instead turned her focus onto the hand that Sai was slowly beginning to crush. "Sai please, you're hurting me."

"I don't want to lose you," Sai said, his gaze on her intense. "I lost my brother, my only friend, I don't want to lose you too."

Sakura's eyes widened at the desperation in his tone, startled by the rare display of emotion. "I'm here, I'm not going anywhere except with you and the rest of our team, I promise." She let out a sigh of relief as she felt Sai's hold slacken and let her gaze fall back to the trees, intently searching for any sign of her friends.

"I know that's a promise that you can't make, but thank you anyways," Sai said quietly as his thumb began to massage the back of her hand.

You know, we could just slit his throat and escape on our own, Inner Sakura gently suggested. Sakura quickly shifted her gaze from the trees to the artist-nin standing closely beside her. It would be so easy too with Heartless in this emotional state. All you have to do is—

"Look out!"

Inner Sakura was silenced as Sai threw himself on top of the pink haired girl, shielding her with his body from an unexpected explosion. Sakura involuntarily clutched Sai closer to her, pressing her face into his chest as she clung to her human shield. She blushed as she remembered the circumstances surrounding the last time she had been this physically close to Sai and cursed herself for letting her mind fall to those distracting thoughts during a combat situation. At least this time she was fully clothed, and Sai wasn't angry with her anymore; however, she would rather be violently pressed up against Sai because they were still working out their differences and not because someone was trying to blow them up. As Sakura shook her head to clear those thoughts, a shadow passed over them. The two shinobi looked up to see a giant clay bird flying overhead with two cloaked riders.

"Deidara!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise as she recognized the attack and the flying clay bird. "But he died in a suicide bombing when he fought Sasuke." Despite her shock at being attacked by a dead man, her heart still clenched painfully at the utterance of her old team mate's name. However, she gave herself points for not immediately looking at Sai when she mentioned Sasuke. She wasn't comparing the artist-nin to her ex-team mate anymore. She watched transfixed as the two Akatsuki members landed and moved towards them. Although she could see Deidara, his companion was hidden in the shadows of his cloak.

"You call this art?" Deidara began disdainfully as he surveyed Sai's ink birds. "I bet he can't even make them explode, yeah?"

"Deidara, shut up," a cool voice commanded. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the voice.

"Sai get off of me," her voice quavered as she struggled to get up. Sai, sensing her distress, quickly disentangled himself from the kunoichi and glanced at the enshrouded Akatsuki member.

"What's wrong, Kunoichi?" mocked the Akatsuki member as he pulled his hood down and revealed a shock of red hair atop an impossibly handsome enemy. "Afraid you won't be able to kill me again without my grandmother's help?"

"Sasori," Sakura gasped as she slowly stood up and took a defensive stance. "But you're dead." Although Sasori was correct in declaring he was her first kill, it wasn't exactly like it was murder. Sasori had been trying to kill her. It wasn't like he was unconscious and hooked up to life support. It wasn't cold blooded murder.

Is that what the Old Bitch told you to make the nightmares stop after you killed him? Inner Sakura mocked.

Sakura shivered at the memory of those nightmares. She remembered waking up screaming at night convinced Sasori was not really dead and was intent on getting his revenge. Her shishou had eased her guilt by explaining to her that she was in a kill-or-be-killed situation and that Sasori had forced her hand. The nightmares had stopped after that, but now she wondered if with the return of her inner demon had brought the return of other psychological problems. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, convinced that she was hallucinating. She was convinced that the guilt over killing of another Akatsuki member, Kisame, was manifesting itself into hallucinations of her first kill.

Would you like me to pinch you? Inner Sakura said in a tone that suggested she was rolling her eyes.

Unperturbed by her subconscious' remark, she opened she opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief to find him gone.

"Oh good," Sasori whispered mockingly in her ear from behind, grinning in amusement as Sakura visibly jumped in surprise. "I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me. You know, it's rude to forget about your first kill." Gently, almost tenderly, he let his hands rest on her shoulders before letting them move down, caressing her arms as he felt her chakra begin to stir within her.

"You're surprisingly warm for a dead man," Sakura deadpanned.

Sasori frowned, taken aback by the sudden change in her chakra and the sudden change in her tone. Whereas before she seemed fragile and off-guard from shock, now she seemed confident and battle-ready. His mind flashed to the look of determination on her blood covered face as she dealt him the killing blow and forced him to tell her about Orochimaru's hideout. She had gone through a slight personality change then too, but now it seemed more pronounced. They hadn't even started to fight yet and there seemed to be something wrong. The change was too rapid, too extreme. Something was different about his murderess and it intrigued him. He noticed that her companion was eyeing her with increasing alarm.

"How are you two alive?" Sai questioned, keeping his gaze on Sakura. He had immediately noticed the change in her tone and demeanor as she came to grips with facing a perceived to be dead enemy. From the outright hatred in Sasori's eyes, Sai had a feeling things were about to get pretty ugly. He just wasn't sure if Sasori's revenge or Sakura's split personality would be the source of that ugliness. He hoped Naruto and the others would hurry soon.

"We were resurrected to fight for Kabuto," Sasori explained, unable to hide the disdain in his voice as he spat out the name of his former servant now turned master. Although he answered Sai's question, he kept his gaze locked onto the back of the medic-nin's voice. He didn't know why, but he began to think that if he could see her face, he wouldn't be able to recognize the girl in front of him.

"Kabuto has joined the Akatsuki?" asked Sakura, quirking her head to the side. "I guess he wants to feel relevant in this war now doesn't he?" Her mocking tone suggested that she was smiling. Sasori desperately wanted to see how that suspected twisted smile would distort her face.

"Well that's a silly question, yeah?" Deidara said stepping forward. "Did you think Kabuto was just going to stand aside as the next Great Ninja War breaks out? Sasori no Danna, let me take care of them for you."

"As much as I would like to make you suffer Kunoichi, I am on a mission," Sasori sighed, stepping away from Sakura and returning to Deidara's side. As he passed the pink-haired girl, he caught a glimpse of her face out of the corner of his eye. As suspected he didn't recognize the smirk or the combination of disinterest, lust and, violence in her eyes. "Go ahead, Deidara, but be quick about it. I might be dead, but I still hate waiting." His gaze immediately snapped back to his murderess when he noticed her chakra had returned to normal. He wondered if the fact that he had triggered the personality change, and now that he wasn't going to be her opponent, she had returned to normal. However, there was another reason his attention had snapped back to the medic-nin. Kabuto had taken a sudden interest in the kunoichi.

"I'll make you pay for killing my sempai, yeah?" Deidara fixed Sakura with a leering glare as the mouths in his hands began to vomit out clay spiders.

Sakura shrieked in disgust as one landed on her arm. She quickly brushed it off before it exploded.

If I were you, I wouldn't let anymore of them land on you, Inner Sakura warned. I don't know about you, but being blown up is not the way I plan for us to die.

"You have a plan for us to die?" Sakura exclaimed as she moved to dodged more exploding clay spiders.

"Who are you talking to?" Sasori asked, fixing his murderess with a curious gaze.

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the sudden appearance of Yamato.

"Excellent, one of our targets has arrived, yeah," Deidara said, moving to attack the newly arrived Leaf Shinobi.

"An Akatsuki attack?" Yamato exclaimed, surprised to see Sakura and Sai defending themselves. He had expected to find the two struggling to escape the island, not fighting off two supposedly dead Akatsuki members. "Wood Locking Wall!" he quickly performed the jutsu, constructing a defensive wall between the Leaf shinobi and the Akatsuki. "Sakura, Sai, get Naruto and Killer Bee out of here!"

"Wait, you were hell-bent on stopping us from leaving, and now you're just going to let us go?" Sai asked suspiciously.

"Circumstances dictate a priority change," Yamato explained. "Protecting the Jinchuurikis is more important than executing an arrest warrant. Now move, I won't be able to hold them off for much longer!"

Sakura and Sai made a dash for the jungle, eager to regroup with their team mates and finally escape.


As Sakura ran through the thick vegetation with Sai in front of her, looking for her comrades, she was surprised by the overwhelming urge to kill Sasori again. What surprised her most was that the urge did not stem from her darker personality, it stemmed from herself.

See, we're not that different after all, Inner Sakura smirked. We could just kill them all and be done with it. No one would come looking for us for awhile, at least until the war is over…if Konoha wins that is.

"Don't you ever tire of being violent?" Sakura asked exasperated.

We're kunoichi. Violence is all we have. Well, maybe not all we have, Inner Sakura ended suggestively.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort, when suddenly her hand moved on its own to grab a kunai out of the small bag on her hip. "What the hell are you trying to make me do?"

It's not me, Inner Sakura said defensively.

"Sakura what are you doing?" shouted Sai in alarm as he narrowly dodged an attempted stab in the back. However, Sakura did not stop and charged at the artist-nin again, slashing at his abdomen. Sai had not been fast enough to dodge that time and blood splattered onto the ground as he suffered a deep gash across his stomach. He had to be quicker next time, or Sakura would end up splattering his guts all over the jungle floor.

"Sai, I can't stop it," Sakura cried, tears beginning to spring in her eyes. "You have to run away."

"I know you can control her, Sakura," Sai reasoned in a calming voice. However, it was hard to look reasonable when you were covered in your own blood and concentrating on keeping your organs from spilling out. "You told me before that you were in control. I believe in you, I know you can maintain control."

"It's not her Sai," Neji said from behind the medic, causing Sakura to whirl around as he emerged suddenly from the surrounding forest to join his comrades. He turned his Byakugan on and examined the unstable medic closely. "There are chakra strings attached to her. Someone close by is controlling her. What happened at the shore, why didn't you two escape?"

"I think I can answer that," Sasori answered before jumping down from his hiding place amongst the treetops.

"Sasori?" exclaimed Neji. "How are you still alive?" He glanced at Sakura questioningly, briefly wondering if his team mate had lied when she claimed to kill the Akatsuki member.

"I am still very much dead," Sasori explained in a bored tone. "However, much as I control Sakura through my puppet technique, Kabuto controls me through his Impure Souls Resurrection."

"Where's Yamato-taicho?" Sakura demanded, relieved that she was attacking her team mates anymore.

"With Deidara for safe-keeping," Sasori began. "He was our objective, but now Kabuto has taken an interest in you my murderess, so you will be coming with me."

"You won't be taking her anywhere," Sai said, moving to put himself between the pink haired girl and the Akatsuki member, but something was wrong. A numbing sensation throbbed its way through his body from the wound to his abdomen until Sai felt himself sinking to his knees. It wasn't until he was lying face down in the dirt that he remembered Sakura's kunais were laced with poison.

"Don't even think about it," Sasori warned, as Neji moved to attack the undead Suna-nin. He yanked Sakura towards him with his chakra strings and manipulated her limbs so that she held her own kunai to her throat. "One step and I'll make her slit her pretty little neck."

Neji looked into the frightened eyes of his team mate, knowing that he was defeated. However, he fixed her with a determined gaze. "Stay strong, Sakura. No matter what, don't forget that we'll rescue you. We won't stop looking until you're back with us."

"How touching," Sasori sneered as he manipulated Sakura's limbs again. The pink haired medic let out a cry of protest as the Puppet Master made her throw the kunai at the Hyuuga clan member. Tears streamed out of her eyes as she watched the blade sink into his shoulder. The poison didn't take long to paralyze the Konoha-nin.

"Don't worry, Koishii," Sasori began, smirking at the tears streaking his murderesses face. "I promise this experience will be as excruciating as you think it will be." Without hesitation, he hit a pressure point in the back of Sakura's neck, knocking her out cold.

The last thing Sakura remembered before the darkness swallowed her whole was the sight of her comrades face down on the ground, and the overwhelming fear of what was to come in captivity.


Thank you again for reading, and I hope it wasn't as god awful as I made it out to seem. There probably won't be another update until May, but I promise things are going to get a lot more interesting in the next chapter. Let me know what you think :)