Burick Building

I was practically squealing with delight as the lights dimmed, focusing on the orchestra as they walked onto stage and took their seats. A tuning note was played. Everyone tuned to it, and this process was made three more times before the man of the night walked out of another door. Eric Whitacre.

The first song played was The Ghost Train, and it left me marveling at how in tune the flutes were. In the band I had been in, that never happened. Ever. The crowd clapped. And then they played possible my favorite song. Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! A projector screen came down and images fitting the music danced across the screen, making the crowd laugh and lean in to listen closer.

It was during the return of the Elvi while Godzilla was in a tango with the Sphinx that Sasori tugged on my arm and pointed to three heads. Three heads I knew well. Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei were sitting not far from us. My stomach did a flip. Suddenly, it was a lot harder to focus on the enjoyable music, suddenly all I could think about was what I was going to do once the kidnapping was commenced.

I wasn't doing too bad with Akatsuki- I was doing better than I ever had in Konoha. I didn't want to go back. But I wanted to fight alongside Naruto and Sakura again under Lady Tsunade's command and train under sensei, but what about fighting under Leader-sir? He was the alpha. I couldn't disobey him. And my cousin, I had finally found my cousin. Tugging on Hidan's sleeve, I pointed out the three. He nodded and went back to listening.

The end came too soon. People were getting up to leave, Sasori motioned us to keep seated. Team Seven stayed seated, too. The building was almost empty. "Now!" We leaped across the seats. Kakashi was the first to notice; he pushed Naruto down met Hidan mid-air. I didn't see what happened to them. Sakura has let out a war cry and had aimed a punch at Sasori, a punch that I knew full well would kill him on impact. Managing to ground my feet, I changed course. I knocked Sasori aside and took the punch, although it wasn't full force because Sakura saw what I was doing and had pulled her chakra out of her fist.

"Zero!" she gasped.

I didn't respond, just kicked her in the head. She fell, knocked out. Naruto witnessed it all, eyes wide with shock; I landed and faced him, growling, and the shock turned into anger. "What the Hell are you doing!"

He formed the Rasengan and charged. I jumped, using his shoulders to launch myself further into the air. "Zero!" Sasori called, him and Hidan near the door with Sakura's limp figure thrown over the immortal's shoulder. "Let's go!"

I landed and faced my teammates. My Konoha teammates. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "But don't come after me; and don't come for Sakura." My last glimpse of those two was a heartbroken Naruto and Kakashi gingerly holding a broken arm, both watching our departure in disbelief. But I couldn't look back again. I could only look to the future and hope that it held much more than those hurt expressions I left behind.

Traveling Back to the Akatsuki Base

Sasori looked back at Zero repeatedly. Her head was down and her feet scuffed the ground, leaving a neat little trail behind her. Then he looked to Sakura. Since she woke the girl hadn't stopped yelling at the three of them, demanding Hidan put her down so she could "punch his guts out." Hidan's reply had been nowhere near polite. So Sasori had knocked her out again.

Sasori drew back to walk next to Zero. "Are you alright?" he asked. His voice held genuine concern, but he also wanted to make sure that the trail of scuffs wasn't for any Konoha nin that would without a doubt be attempting to trail them. "You haven't said a word since we left."

She shrugged. "Hasn't been much to say. The mission went faster than I thought."

Sasori nodded. "Very true. Leader will be nicely surprised. But I feel like a werewolf would have more to say than just that."

Zero snorted. "I wanted to eat Hidan? I don't think a werewolf would have anything more to say." She was silent. Sasori was about to walk away in exasperation and mutter cross things about women, but then Zero asked, "So how long has Itachi been going blind?"

Sasori grimaced. "Quite some time. Ever since he activated those eyes of his; it costs him dearly every time he uses them." He paused, feeling sorry for the werewolf. "I suppose he never told you?"

"No, but we didn't exactly keep in touch after he murdered the clan. And he didn't know about William, in all fairness. So I'd understand if that was why he wouldn't tell me."

Sasori couldn't believe himself as he touched her arm gently with a hand. Since when was he so damn emotional? First concern, then pity? What was wrong with him! Zero's hand gratefully squeezed it and she gave him a small smile. "That seems pretty petty." Ha! He saved himself!

"Petty? Uchihas? Never! I haven't held a decent conversation with Neji Hyuuga in years because he lost the screw on my clarinet. And you call us petty…"

"Hey, you two! Get over here and keep an eye on bitchtits in case she wakes up!" Hidan commanded. "I don't want to be obliterated by one of her punches!" Zero obediently sprang to walk a few inches behind Hidan, watching the Pinky with all the earnestness of a dog ready to eat a piece of meat. She didn't even brush off the insect that landed on her shoulder.

Hokage's Office

Lady Tsunade couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sakura Haruno, kidnapped? Her apprentice, taken down by some half-assed ninjas? She wouldn't believe it. There must have been some dirty trick in place in order for three criminals to take her so easily. And she refused to believe that Zero had meant what she said. There was no way.

"Go home now, Kakashi. And don't let Naruto go and attempt to do anything stupid. We'll see what we can do." The silver-haired nin nodded and left without a word. He was feeling as if he had been beaten into the ground and then run over by several carts; he had lost two students in less than a month and another six years earlier. It was quite the blow.

But he was also determined. He would keep Naruto safe, and together they would get Sakura back. Kakashi knew that Sasuke was close to a lost cause, but Zero was not. She had a chance; they could get her back. And he knew they would.

"Get me Genma and Raidou!" Tsunade ordered Shizune as soon as Kakashi was out of earshot. "And are Kurenai and all of them back from their mission yet? It's been too long since I've heard word from them; I'm getting worried."

"They should be back tomorrow. And I'll get them right away," she said, darting out of the room. Tonton followed, waddling along.

Akatsuki Base

I flinched as I heard Sakura yelling my name from the basement, calling me to go down there and talk to her, face-to-face. But I didn't. Leader had given specific instructions that he would dictate who went downstairs and when; getting the feisty kunoichi over to their side was going to be tough. There was talk of pushing Itachi down the stairs to convince her that he needed help, but that was quickly squashed by an angry weasel-boy threatening to throw them all into a painful genjutsu world.

"Zero!"

"Want to go outside, Zero-san?"

I blinked at the masked idiot. Did I? Did I really want to? With him? Sakura called again, a much less appropriate name this time. Yep, I did. "Sure, Tobi! Should I bring a ball?" He nodded so fast I was afraid his head would go flying off.

"How was Zero during the mission?" Sasori jumped a little bit at the voice, and turned around to see Itachi standing in the doorway of the kitchen. The Uchiha had a flake of concern on his face. That was something only Kisame ever got, never anyone else.

Sasori crossly snapped, "How should I know? Why don't you go talk to her yourself?" He wasn't in the best of moods, and had no patience where Sakura and Zero were concerned. Reasons unknown to him, Sasori was getting annoyed when anyone mentioned Zero. Especially when he couldn't talk to her. He couldn't talk to her, so why didn't they go talk to her? She was obviously not taking the situation completely in stride, so why did everyone keep coming to him and not her?

Itachi was unabashed by the response. "Hidan said you too talked a lot during the mission, so I assumed it would be best to ask you and let her deal with the situation in her own way. And you've seemed to have warmed up to her quickly."

"Well, there's nothing to say. She took the mission about as well as she's taking the situation." Sasori stormed out of the kitchen, annoyed with Itachi's roundabout way of getting information about his own cousin. Why couldn't he just go talk to her?Why all this stupid interrogating and private conversations? He found solace in his quiet room.

Until a bomb went off.

"DEIDARA!" Hidan screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

"It wasn't me, un! I'm right here!"

"THEN WHO JUST TOTALED MY ROOM!" Tobi's giggle floated down the hall. Oh, dear. "TOBI!" Total chaos ensued, somehow dragging everyone but Leader and Sasori into the fray. Kisame tried to pry Hidan off Tobi. The immortal had a firm hold on his neck, and it took Kisame, Zero and Itachi to release Tobi, and then Kakuzu and Deidara added to the mix to hold him back. Hidan's face was fuming like a steam engine and Sasori was almost in fear of an explosion.

"What's going on here?" Konan stepped into the middle. She placed a hand on Hidan's chest and stared with authority at Tobi. Tobi seemed to shrink. "Tobi, answer me."

"He set off a freakin' bomb in my room! I was nearly in pieces!" Hidan shouted.

"Go downstairs to the living room, Hidan, I'll deal with Tobi." He stormed off, in an even worse mood than Sasori had ever been; in fact, he didn't think that he had ever seen Hidan in such an angry state. But he wouldn't ask questions. If Hidan needed something he would have no trouble voicing it.

Konan stared down the cringing Tobi. Slowly, unsure and feeling awkward, the rest of the Akatsuki disbanded to their respective rooms. "What were you doing, Tobi?" she asked, deadly calm.

"I was playing outside with Zero, and then I decided it'd be fun to take some of Deidara's 'splodies. Zero didn't want to; she tried to stop me. But I managed to sneak one into Hidan's room… And then Deidara was outside practicing a-and when he exploded one of his…" Tobi went from excited to talking to trailing off in ashamed, scared embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Konan. I won't do it again," he apologized.

"Make sure of it," was all Konan needed to say; she walked away to her room and left a disciplined Tobi behind. He slunk to his room, too. Sasori had listened to the conversation with amusement. This was why Konan and Leader were together, both commanded respect and dealt with all problems flawlessly. He wished he could deal with his problems like that. But first he needed to identify them…

Zero's Room

I lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. In my hand crawled an ant, scrambling around with excitement as it tried to gather all the crumbs in my hand. It had been three days since Sakura had come to the base and nearly two days since Hidan's explosion; the poor guy seemed to be feeling pretty sick. Whenever I walked past him I could practically feel the heat radiating off him. Kakuzu was worried about his partner. We needed Sakura.

So it was just my luck when Itachi knocked on my door. "Zero," he called through it. After gently setting the ecstatic ant down, I opened it, curious as to what my stoic cousin had to say. "We're making the 'we're a sorry lot so please help us' strategy, so it's your turn to go appeal to her pathos." Oh, boy. It was my turn to see Sakura.

"Alright," I answered. "I'll head down."

The basement cells were not very pleasant. They were dimly lit and smelled of mold and rats; in fact, I think I saw some snakes and mice quivering in the corner shadows. A fine layer of filth covered the floor. The cells had some dirty hay strewn over the floor, but hardly enough for a make-shift bed. Water and bread was set out on a tray on a table near one of the seven cells; I assumed that it was for Sakura so I grabbed on my way over to the occupied cell.

She didn't even look up when I set the tray down. I stood there, unsure of what to do next, the silence killing me. I noticed a chair. When I dragged it over the floor to the cell it screeched loudly, slicing through the silence like a knife. I sat down. "…Uh, Sakura?"

"What?" she snapped. "I am not helping the likes of you; you all make me sick with your talk of bringing world peace through domination! As if I'd help a group of cowardly murderers grow and prosper. I'd much rather die a thousand deaths, each one more painful than the last. I'd do that countless times before I even considered helping you!"

"…So I'll see you upstairs healing Itachi in an hour?"

Her head whipped up and shot me a glare that could've stopped my heart in its tracks. "You're the worst, Zero. I trusted you; we grew up together. And you betrayed me and Konoha without a second thought," her angry voice cracked. "You'll be the first one I kill when I get out of here."

I scooted my chair closer, trying to ignore her insults. "Sakura," I begged, "Please, they aren't as bad as you think they are. They're like a family. They'll welcome you and make you feel at home, much more at home than Konoha. And they need you. I need you-,"

"Get out of my sight, Zero! That's the last time I'll ever use your name. You are the reason I won't even dare to feel sorry for the Akatsuki. I hate you and everything you associate yourself with. You deserve death even more than them. Our situations should be reversed; you should be in the Konoha jails on death row."

Well, that concluded negotiations. I stood up and left without a word, lightly running up the steps and onto the main floor. Itachi waited for me. "How'd it go?"

"I made it worse." I entered my room and sat back on the floor, picking up my clarinet and blowing a nameless tune. It took my thoughts away and sent them out the window to drown in the lake. The ant was gone.

Unknown

"A werewolf, eh?"

"She's not worth your time."

"I'd disagree; the Akatsuki want her, so I think I should have her. At the very least she would make for a very interesting test subject."

"Yes, my Lord. I will seek her out immediately."

Konoha, Hokage's Office

"Lady Tsunade," Shino interrupted Kiba's mission report. Everyone turned in shock towards the bug maniac; he never said anything during mission reports, let alone interrupt someone telling it. "While we were traveling back to Konoha I noticed Zero and Sakura traveling with two… men."

Tsunade sat up in her desk, not believing her ears. "Are you sure?" Shino nodded. "Where were they?"

"Near Benisakura Village."

Shizune broke in, "Do you know which way they were heading?" Lady Tsunade had gotten to her feet and was pacing around the room, gears turning and clinking together in her head. They may be able to start searching for the Akatsuki base. They were becoming a threat and needed to be cut down before they got too strong.

"I know where they stopped; I placed one of my bugs on her."

She stopped in her tracks. "Shizune, get Genma and Raidou and tell them their mission is about to begin. And then get Kakashi in here. Shino, you stay. The rest of you are excused until further notice; we may wage a battle against the Akatsuki sooner than expected."