Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter Three

I sat next to Hidan on my bed, he had rewrapped my wounds and now we were simply talking. "So you mean that nobody in the Akatsuki know what happened to Sasori or to me?" I was really chocked that my brother hadn´t told anyone, how could he have the nerve to tell me that I had to talk about what had happened when he himself had done the exact opposite?

"Yeah, he only said that you were his baby sister and that you´d had a traumatic experience and that you needed help and shelter." I was fuming with anger but it quickly went away again, I just couldn´t be angry with my brother for this. Instead I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment before asking Hidan. "Will you tell the others that I'm here because my parents abused me? They don´t need to know exactly what happened but I want them to know that at least."

Hidans violet eyes searched mine for any sign that I didn't want this but when he didn´t find any he slowly nodded and said. "As you wish." "Thanks…" I told him and gently put my head on his shoulder. At first he tensed up, apparently nervous, but he soon relaxed when I didn´t show any signs of distress. "What was it that triggered your anxiety-attack before?" he asked me softly after a couple of minutes. I wasn´t far from falling asleep so I answered him without actually opening my eyes. "It was the sudden outburst with the cussing and the anger, for a moment I thought it was my father even if I at the same time knew it wasn´t."

Hidan remained silent and I opened my eyes to meet his gaze. "I know that this gentle and caring way to be isn´t who you normally are, and I want to know the regular Hidan as well, but right now I can´t handle it…" I told him and lowered my eyes. I hoped that I had not scared him away with my confession that I knew he wasn´t his regular self. He gently lifted my head so that he could see my eyes and then gave me a small smile. "I actually don´t mind this, at least not when we are alone, the only hard thing is to remember to hold back the cussing." I returned his smile and put my head back on his shoulder, he radiated warmth and soon sleep overtook me.

When I woke up the sun was shining in through my windows and a look at the watch on my bedside table told me that it was only eight in the morning. But I was no longer tired and got up from bed in search of clothes, I was still wearing the same clothes as last night and I was still without a shirt. I found a pair of dark jeans in the wardrobe that I pulled on. The search for a shirt was more difficult since all the shirts in my room were too tight for me to get them on with my broken ribs.

So I made my way through the bathroom to knock on the door to the room that I last night found out was occupied by no other than Hidan. I heard a muffled "come in" and slowly opened the door. His room was the same size as mine but had different colors. His floor were dark wood with a black rug on it, his furniture were the same dark wood as mine. His walls were a deep, midnight blue and his bed had black satin sheets. I froze in the spot when my eyes found him, he was still in bed and the satin sheets pooled around his hips as he sat up, effectively showing off the rippling muscles in his upper body. He smirked when he saw me staring and I could see that he wanted to make a dirty remark on it but he held himself back, instead asking me. "Sakura, is everything alright?"

He couldn´t erase the smirk though, and I found myself blushing as I said. "I was just wondering if I could borrow a shirt from you? The ones in my room are all too tight…" He nodded and then jumped out of bed before I had a chance to stop him. Thank Kami he wore a pair of black boxers at least. "That's right, you wouldn´t be able to put on your shirts because of your ribs, I didn´t think of that." He admitted before pulling out a simple black t-shirt with a picture of the reaper on the back and handing it to me. "Will this one do?" He asked me. I just nodded then quickly pulled the shirt over my head. It was so big that it reached me to the middle of my thighs, but he was much taller than me after all.

Suddenly I heard Sasoris voice from my room so with a quick "Thank you!" to Hidan I returned to my own room. Sasori had brought me breakfast and I closed my bathroom door silently behind me, I needed to have a little talk with my brother. As soon as I had finished eating I focused my eyes on Sasori and said. "Why didn´t you tell anyone why I´m here?" I saw him flinch but he answered me. "I didn´t think it was their business." I glared at him. "Well I told Hidan last night that he could tell everyone that I´m here because our parents abused me." Sasori nodded. "If that's what you want then it´s up to you." He answered calmly. "That's when I found out that you hadn´t told anyone besides Pein, Konan and Kakuzu that the same thing happened to you."

Sasori went completely silent and gave me a glance in which I could see something reminding me of fear. He grabbed my upper arms and asked me desperately. "Please tell me Hidans not telling them that the same thing happened to me!" I was shocked by his reaction and quickly calmed him. "No he´s only telling about me, I told him to keep your part a secret." He seemed to relax hearing that but he kept his eyes away from mine as I tried to find out more. "But why haven´t you told anyone?" I asked him and he seemed to deflate a little before gathering courage and lifted his head to look at me. "That is none of your business Sakura." Then he left. To say I was shocked didn´t even begin to cover it. I was still standing exactly as he left me ten minutes later when Konan knocked on my door.

"Morning Sakura, did something happen?" She asked as she saw my shocked face. "No, nothing important, just something with Sasori…" I answered her. "Good, did it go well last night? I heard from Kakuzu that you got a panic-attack." I nodded. "Yeah, after that it went fine." Konan smiled at me and said. "It must have since you´re wearing Hidans shirt." She giggled and I tried to explain why I was wearing his shirt. "Well, all the shirts in this room were too small to put on because of my ribs…" Thankfully she quickly realized what I was talking about and said. "Yeah, the ribs must hurt I imagine, how about you and I go shopping when you´re feeling better?" I felt myself smile, I hadn´t gone shopping for ages. "I´d love to." I answered her.

"But I really came her to ask if you mind sitting with Deidara for a little while? All the others are out and I need to go get some more medical supplies. It would only be for an hour or so…" I suddenly felt afraid, did she expect me to be able to take care of an injured person? "He isn´t badly hurt but I don´t want him up and walking just yet, if you were to sit with him he would probably stay in bed as he would have someone to talk to." I couldn´t make myself say no to her when she put it like that so I agreed to go sit with this Deidara guy.

On the way over there I asked her where everyone else was, they must have left unplanned since Sasori and Hidan didn´t seem to be in a hurry when I met them. "Oh, most of them is just grocery shopping but I believe that Sasori and Hidan were going to your old house, even if I don´t know why…" She told me before stopping in front of a simple white door. "What do I do if I get another anxiety-attack?" I asked her, suddenly nervous. "I don´t think that will happen while you´re with Deidara, he´s Sasoris best friend." I felt myself relax again, even if I was still worried. But Konan had opened the door and disappeared inside, I could already hear her voice telling Deidara to behave himself.

I followed her voice into the room and let my eyes scan the new surroundings. The room went in different blue shades but my gaze quickly locked on the person in the bed. I knew it was a man but the long blonde hair momentarily confused me. He had sky-blue eyes and a lithe yet muscular body. He had at the moment bandages wrapped around his arms and hands as well as his neck and part of his face. "Sakura meet Deidara, Deidara meet Sakura." Konan said and then with the blink of an eye, she was gone, leaving us all alone. "Um… Hi?" I felt slightly embarrassed but he didn´t seem to notice. "Hi, un." He then momentarily closed his eyes before opening them again and focusing on me. I could see pain in his eyes as well as some curiosity. "You do actually look like Sasori, got the same eyes, just different colors, un." I smiled. "Well I'm going to take that as a compliment, how are you feeling?" I asked him as he clenched his teeth.

"Like I´ve been blown across a street, un." I just stared at him, he must be kidding. He saw my expression and gave a small chuckle. "Didn´t Sasori tell you most of us met in the navy, un?" I nodded. "Well I was in the bomb squad, last night a job went wrong and the bomb detonated early." He slowly raised his arms for me to see then just as carefully laid them back down. "As you can see, I was to close when it happened, un." I gave him a smile of sympathy and showed him that I too was wrapped in bandages. "I know what you mean." I saw his eyes widen slightly before he asked the expected question. "What happened to you, un?" I gave him a sad smile before telling him my story.

"I´m sorry for you, un." He let one of his bandaged hands slip into one of mine and gave me a gentle squeeze. "Thank you." I whispered. "But I'm worried about Sasori he…" I stopped myself, realizing that I almost told Sasoris secret. "What about Sasori?" asked Deidara warily. "I promised not to tell… But if I do tell you, you have to promise not to tell a soul." He nodded. "I promise Sakura, Sasori is my best friend, perhaps I can help him in some way, un." I gently pushed some hair out of his face and said. "Sasori left because our parents were beating him, they didn´t torture him like they did to me but what´s worrying me is that he hasn´t told anybody of this. He´s locking it all up inside himself." We fell into silence before it was broken by some of the guys coming home, they were making a lot of noise. I gave Deidara a quick glance and saw that he was frowning. "What is it?" I asked him. "I wished we could have had more time alone, I got a feeling that we have more to talk about, un." I nodded. "I agree, maybe I can come back later tonight?" He smiled and nodded eagerly. "I would like that, un." Shortly thereafter came a knock on the door and Kakuzu entered the room. "Got a new friend Deidara?" He asked him with a smile hidden under that mask of his. "I sure did, un." Deidara answered as my face got a dark shade of pink and I escaped from the room, hearing both Deidara and Kakuzu chuckle.

I tried to find my way back to my room but since nobody has giving me a tour of the place yet, it didn´t take long for me to become totally lost. This place was really huge. I sighed and decided to simply wait for someone to find me, I sat down on the floor in a hallway with four doors and waited. I didn´t have to wait long before one of the doors in the hallway opened and the biggest man I have ever seen entered the hallway. He was so tall he almost had to bend his head to be able to exit from what I assumed was his room into the hallway without hitting his head. His shoulders were as wide as the doorway and dear Kami he was ripped. His bulky muscles at first distracted me from the fact that his skin was a strange blue-greyish. His hair was also blue but a darker shade, and his eyes were a dark golden. I wasn´t sure if I wanted him to see me or not.

But he did and he seemed surprised to do that. He kneeled in front of me and said. "What are you doing here Kitten?" His voice was a dark rumble and I still hadn´t made up my mind if I was going to be afraid of him or not. "You´re Sasoris baby sister are you not, Kitten?" I nodded and quickly decided that this huge guy probably had a huge heart as well. "Yes I am, I´m kind of lost…" "Has nobody given you a tour of the house yet?" He asked me and I shook my head no. "Well we´ll have to do something about that won't we." He stood up and gently pulled me with him, careful of my injuries. When standing, I didn´t even reached his shoulder. He kept his hold of my hand and started pointing out everyone's bedrooms, the hallway we were in contained the bedrooms of Kisame, Itachi, Zetzu and Tobi. Then he showed me the corridor containing my bedroom, as well as Hidans and Kakuzus. At last he showed me the corridor with Deidaras, Sasoris and Pein and Konans bedrooms. Then he proceeded to show me the laundry room, the library, the office, the game room, the living room, the dining room, the gym, the indoor pool, the garden and at last we ended up in the kitchen. I found out that his name was Kisame and I realized that I didn´t mind being close to him. It felt safe, he felt safe. Even though my head didn´t even reach his shoulder. "You hungry Kitten?" He asked me and I nodded and gave him a smile. He opened the fridge and asked me. "How about some chicken teriyaki?" I just stared at him, shocked. "You can make chicken teriyaki?" I asked, wonder clearly visible in my voice. "Yes, do you like it?" He gave me a quick glance over his shoulder. "I love chicken teriyaki." I told him and stood beside him to see if I could help. But he just chuckled at me and lifted me up on the counter next to him. I was amazed that he managed to do that without hurting my broken ribs. I found out that Kisame was very fun to be around and we were both laughing when another unknown male entered the kitchen.

Kisame noticed when I tensed up and turned around to see who had entered. "Itachi, want some chicken?" He asked him but Itachi didn´t seemed to have heard him. He only kept looking at me. I was frozen in the spot, Itachi looked so much like Sasuke only his eyes were a dark red and Sasukes was charcoal black. Itachi had the same raven hair as Sasuke, only his was long and in a low ponytail instead of in a crazy chicken butt style. They both had the same pale skin, taller than average and decent muscles. Itachi scared the hell out of me and he didn´t even know it. Kisame looked at me and noticed that I had gone really pale and that I was having trouble breathing. "Kitten what´s wrong?" He asked me and when he did Itachi stepped even closer to us, increasing my panic. Thankfully that´s when Hidan showed up.

"What´s going on shitheads?" He asked Kisame and Itachi before he saw me. But when he did he immediately realized what was happening and without a word as explanation he picked me up and hurried to his room since his was closer than mine. He then sat on the floor, pulled my back flush against his chest and put his large, warm hand over my eyes. "It´s okay Sakura, just take slow, deep breaths." He told me and after a little while my breathing slowed enough to be in sync with his. I felt really safe wrapped in his arms like this, but that only made the feeling of shame worse. I wondered what Kisame and Itachi thought of me now. They didn´t know why Itachi scared me so, he hadn´t even said anything, only Sasori knew and I thought that he had told Pein and Konan. Not even Hidan knew. A sob escaped from my lips and I wasn´t capable of containing my tears any longer. I turned around in Hidans lap so that I was facing him instead and said. "I don´t want it to be like this anymore, I don´t want to be scared, I want to be free…" Then I hid my face against his chest and cried.

Hidan stroke my back as I cried but didn´t say anything before my tears finally stopped. "Things will get better, I promise, things are just new to you still." Then a comfortable silence followed before he asked me. "But was it really Itachi that scared you so bad? I mean he is an emotionless bastard but he´s not going to hurt you." I realized that I had to tell them of Sasuke and Orochimaru, even though I didn´t want to… "I´ll explain what scared me, but can you get Kisame and Itachi to?" Hidan looked at me long and hard before nodding. "I´ll go get them, want me to bring something to you?" I thought for a second before answering him. "Could you perhaps get Deidara and Kakuzu too? And a bottle of water, please?" When the door closed behind him I took a seat on his bed instead. His black satin sheets were surprisingly soft, they were smooth and cool to the touch. As Hidan reentered the room with all the others I clutched one of his pillows against my chest. Hidan sat beside me on the bed, Kisame sat on the floor, Itachi sat on the desk chair and Deidara got helped to the bed by Kakuzu who then proceeded to lean on the wall. Hidan leaned back against the headboard and I leaned back against Hidan before I started talking.

"I´m only going to tell you this one time, so you need to tell the other two, Tobi and Zetzu, later." I told them and everybody nodded. "I panicked in the kitchen because Itachi looks so much like this guy Sasuke, who wants me to be his slave in every meaning of the word. He´s a member of Orochimarus gang and Orochimaru himself made a contract with my parents. The contract says that I'm to be a member of his gang as well, whether I want it or not. I believe he made the contract with my parents to please Sasuke. I don´t want to know what would happen to me if they ever succeeded in capturing me…" Everything was completely silent before Itachi decided to speak. "First I wish to tell you that I don't blame you for what happened in the kitchen, I also wish to tell you that Sasuke is my little brother, that's why we´re so alike. But I also want you to know that I never will let my brother or anyone else hurt you. I believe you have been hurt enough for this lifetime." I saw in his eyes that he truly meant what he said and when all the others agreed with him, I suddenly realized that I no longer was afraid that the Akatsuki would hurt me.

Later that evening when Konan and I were cooking dinner for the boys I met the two last members. "KONAN-CHAN WHO IS THE PRETTY PINK HAIRED LADY?!" I jumped and almost dropped the salad I was carrying to the table when the loud voice echoed through the kitchen. I quickly spun around only to be tackled in a fierce hug by an unknown male. He was tall, but not as tall as Kisame or Kakuzu. He had black unruly hair and an orange mask that covered his entire face and only had a hole for his right eye. He wore black baggy clothes but I could feel that he had quite impressive muscles underneath. "TOBI! Put Sakura down, she is Sasoris baby sister." Explained Konan and thankfully Tobi let go of me, I was starting to have trouble breathing. I took a few steps back nervously before Tobi once again exclaimed. "TOBI THINKS SAKURA-CHAN IS PRETTY!" I flinched at his loud voice and suddenly Kisames voice also boomed through the kitchen. "Tobi lower your voice for Kami's sake, can´t you see your scaring her?" His words made Tobi take a good look on me before he said. "Tobi is sorry Tobi scared Sakura-chan. Tobi will be a good boy from now on!" He then skipped out of the room, leaving me wondering what the hell just happened. "Don´t worry about him Kitten, Tobi is just a little special." Kisame told me before he helped setting the table. When Konan called that dinner was ready I met the last Akatsuki member, Zetzu. He was not as tall as the others, but he was well built and had beautiful golden eyes. His hair was a dark green but the most eye-catching was that one half of his body was albino white while the other half was a dark tanned. He sat next to me at the table and it didn´t take long before we were discussing the best way to care for roses. Apparently Zetzu had a green thumb and was the one that took care of the beautiful garden outside.

When Itachi and Kisame were taking care of the dishes and most of the others were in the living room discussing witch movie to watch, I snuck away to Deidaras room.

I carefully cracked his door opened and peered in. "Deidara, are you awake?" I asked and immediately I got a response. "Yeah come on in Blossom." I swiftly entered and closed the door behind me, Deidara was once again in his bed and I hesitantly sat down beside him. I didn´t know what to say and I felt slightly uncomfortable. "You look so serious, un. Relax." He told me and leaned back against the pillows. "What did you want to talk about?" I asked him after a few minutes of silence. "I wanted to ask you what your parents did to Sasori exactly. Perhaps we can figure out why he hasn´t told anybody but Pein, Konan and Kakuzu." I thought about his question for a while before answering him. "I don´t remember much of my childhood but I remember that they used to hit him if he did something against their will. But no matter what we did there was always something that was against their will. If he didn´t score full points on his tests he got beaten. And if he wasn´t home on time. And if I…" I stopped myself, remembering that he took the beatings if I did something wrong. He was protecting me. "What´s wrong, un?" I didn´t answer him. I was ashamed. "Blossom?" He was starting to sound worried so I swallowed once and said. "It´s my fault…" Deidara just stared at me. "How can it be your fault, un? You weren´t the one who hit him." I didn't dare to look at him as I answered. "He took the beatings for me when I had done something to anger our parents…" "So? It only means he was protecting you, un." "But…" "No buts, un. I can promise you that it isn´t because of that Blossom. I would also have protected you if I had been in Sasoris situation. You´re a couple years younger are you not, un?" It did sound kind of logical when he said it that way, I had to admit that. "Yeah I´m six years younger than him, he is 23 and I´m 17." I told him. His eyes widened and he said. "You´re only 17, un?" I nodded. "Well then you are the youngest of us that's for sure…" "Really? You guys don´t look that much older..." "Kisame and Kakuzu are 28. Pein, Konan and Zetzu are 26. Itachi are 25. Hidan and Tobi are 24 and I am also 23." "Oh…" Suddenly the door flew open and Konan rushed in. "Deidara have you seen… Sakura?" She looked like she didn´t believe her eyes at first but then a smile stretched across her face. "Come on Sakura, Sasori and Hidan are just about to tear apart the whole house looking for you." She started dragging me away and I heard Deidara chuckle behind me. "See you around Blossom."

When Sasori and Hidan saw me behind Konan, they immediately calmed down. "Don´t disappear on me like that Saku." Sasori told me, half joking, half serious. All of them followed me back to my room but they soon said good night and left me alone.

When I was tucked into bed a thought hit me. Maybe the Akatsuki would be like the family I didn´t have when growing up. Maybe I could finally find happiness.