"Thank you all for gathering here on such short notice," Tsunade scanned the room, eyes narrowed in both seriousness and sadness. "As I am sure Shizune has informed you, Sakura has gone missing. Evidence points to her being abducted…by Akatsuki." The hokage's last words earned terrified gasps from the young ninjas filling the room. "I know. I know. It is an awful, heart-wrenching situation. But, hope should not be lost. The moment we lose our hope, we run the risk of losing Sakura forever. The scene at which she was most likely kidnapped from shows signs of a struggle, but no signs of fatal injuries on either side, as there was no blood. From this, it has been concluded that Sakura is still alive somewhere, under Akatsuki's supervision. They must have needed her for something, and that is why they went out of their way to waste their time with her in a fight and do nothing but knock her unconscious. As to what reason she was abducted for, we still have yet to figure out…"

"Permission to speak, Lady Hokage," Neji requested as he stepped forward. "I believe I may be able to shed a bit of light upon what Sakura has that the Akatsuki needs. You see, it is a little known fact that the Haruno clan was once made up of top-class medics. They created specialized medical ninjutsu, the likes of which had never been seen before. As we all know, the Haruno clan has dwindled to little more than Sakura in recent years, which would leave our comrade being one of the last living ninjas to have the Haruno special medical chakra running through her veins. I have been conducting research on the Akatsuki, and it seems as though Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's elder brother, has been having severe issues with his Sharingan eyes. I have no way to be certain, but by piecing the evidence together I have come to a conclusion that Sakura was most likely abducted to serve as a sort of eye doctor to Itachi."

"Brilliant, Neji!" Tenten declared, hand over her mouth in awe at Neji's intelligence.

"Y-Yes, Brother Neji. Even if we cannot be sure that what you say is absolutely accurate, it s-still gives us an amazing lead to start from," Hinata anxiously added in.

"You are worthy of your title of Jonin, Neji," Tsunade praised the Hyuga as she placed a grateful hand on his shoulder. "Shikamaru, can you add any information to Neji's statement?"

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head in thought before answering. "I can give you coordinates of possible hideout locations as well as any stats we have on the Atatsuki members."

"Please distribute your data to everyone in the group before you leave the villiage. Neji, Lee, Tenten, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino… I am counting on you. Please help us bring Sakura home. Report back to me with any findings. You are dismissed!" At Tsunade's word, the nine young ninja dispersed, eager to find their lost friend.

"I would like to express my gratitude for your gathering as well as my apologies for taking up your time," Itachi starts, eyeing over the room of S-ranked criminals. "As I am sure you are all well aware of by this point in time, I have been harboring a young medical ninja with me to assist in healing my eyes. Her name is Sakura Haruno. In a change of fate, she has been more of a help to me than I could have initially imagined. As a result, I have decided that she may be a help to us all, given the chance. So today, during this meeting, I would like to officially introduce her to you all. I have confidence that none of you will step out of line and you will all participate fully in the issue at hand. Should any of you fail to either participate in the meeting or attempt to harm her, I will kill you."

"You surely are invested in the girl, Itachi," Kakuzu crossed his arms, obviously annoyed with having to attend the gathering but also intrigued by the new occurrences.

"Kakuzu is right. What is so special about her and what could she possibly have to offer the rest of us?" Sasori added.

"I will allow her to explain her worth," Itachi calmly replied as he stepped aside, allowing Sakura to present herself.

The pink-haired kunoichi opened her mouth but then snapped it shut again. Her body froze. She was afraid; even with Itachi at her side, she was very, very afraid. Who wouldn't be if they were in a room with some of the most dangerous individuals in the world?

"I…I…" Sakura tried to speak, but the words that usually so aggressively flowed out of her mouth were caught in her throat for what seemed to be the first time in her life. All of a sudden, the nervous medical nin was startled by something touching her shoulder. When she looked over, she saw the calm, confident face of Itachi looking back at her. She gulped, and tried again.

"As Itachi said, my name is Sakura Haruno. I am seventeen years old, and I come from a clan of incredible medical abilities. I'm one of the last living Haruno members, if not THE last. My parents went off on a mission and never came home… and my younger brother was beaten to death when I was about eight. When in the ninja academy, I was placed on a team with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi's younger brother. Through them and the legendary sannin Lady Tsunade, I've learned a great amount of skills and techniques. I'm a leaf ninja, and my heart will always be with them. I can't offer anything to any of you that would come back to harm my village, but… maybe I could let you all in on what you've been missing in your time of being outcasts…"

"What the hell do you think we've been missing, huh? And what makes you think we care?!" Hidan complained, as irritated as ever.

As Hidan yelled, a voice spoke up from the back of the room. "Hidan, let the girl speak. She has done no wrong." To everyone's surprise, it was Pain.

"You of all people may want to take the girl up on her offer," Konan leisurely added on.

"T-thank you, Leader." Sakura stumbled over her words a bit. She bowed slightly in respect and earned a nod of acknowledgement in return. "Anyway, to address your questions, Hidan, I think that you guys have just been missing…living. You know, having fun, doing things just for the hell of it…Even though you're all able to distract yourself with the work you guys do, there still must be a hole in there somewhere. Even Orochimaru, one of the Hidden Leaf's biggest threats, finds some kind of…twisted…fun in the things he does. Can evil people not have fun or something?"

At Sakura's odd question, all of the Akatsuki members looked around at each other.

"Well…What would you suggest as a 'fun' activity?" Deidara slowly questioned.

"Hmmm…"

"Alright everyone! Whoever can make the most appealing piece of art using their jutsus wins! The rules are simple: you cannot mold anything without using your chakra unless it is a very slight adjustment, you cannot harm your fellow contestants, and no cheating! Itachi, Pain, and I will be your judges! You have five minutes! BEGIN!" Sakura hurriedly sat down at the edge of the garden beside Pain and Itachi after her speech. She watched as the other Akatsuki members rushed to complete their "masterpieces". After Deidara had asked what she would recommend as a fun activity, the pink-haired teenager thought of Itachi's drawing skills and suggested that they have some kind of art contest. Everyone seemed skeptical, but they all dove right into their projects. Konan was supposed to be a judge instead of Itachi, but she decided that she wanted to put her origami skills to the test. The older Uchiha brother offered to judge in her place.

"Five minutes are up," Pain informed the group after some time has passed. Everyone quickly stopped what they were doing. The three judges walked over to see what Tobi had created first.

The judges examined Tobi's…art. He created what appeared to be a flower crown with sakura blossoms. "Here! A cherry blossom crown for the cherry blossom princess!" the excitable masked man exclaimed as he placed the crown on Sakura's head.

"Oh! Well, thank you, Tobi. That's very sweet of you," Sakura smiled as she adjusted the mass of flowers on her head. "It's simple, but it's well done. I think I'll give it a…6/10!" Itachi and Pain glanced at one another, but nodded their heads in agreement. Next, the three walked over to Deidara.

"I have created a masterpiece out of my special detonating clay, hn," Deidara explained as he motions towards his creation. It was an extremely well made sculpture of a dove in flight. Sakura clapped her hands in acknowledgement of its beauty.

"Well done, Deidara. 9/10." Pain praised and quickly moved on to the next contestant. Sakura and Itachi agreed, and then followed close behind.

Next was Sasori. Beside the sand ninja was a puppet made completely out of things found in the garden, such as flowers, sticks, and long blades of grass. "I figured that creating another one of my normal puppets would be too average, in this instance. So, I decided to go with something a bit new," Sasori explained. Although he was trying to hide it, he seemed proud of his piece of art.

"A unique twist on an already unique talent. Interesting. Well executed. 9/10," Itachi analyzed as he gave a nod of content. The judges then made their way to Hidan.

"Yeah, yeah. I already know, ya bastards. It's below average. I'm talented in killin', not in doing shitty art projects," the Jashin follower quickly shouted as he turned his head away from his art. Sakura was frightened at first glance, but then widened her eyes in awe. Hidan had drawn a picture using his own blood, but it was actually quite…appealing to the eye. It was a kind of abstract work. Definitely—or hopefully, for that matter—one of a kind.

"It's…um…a bit scary, but…I think that's part of the appeal. It's different. 7/10!" Sakura giggled a bit as Hidan smiled at her words.

"No shittin'? Huh. Maybe I am a bit better at this than I thought!"

Although the pink-haired kunoichi somewhat enjoyed Hidan's art and enthusiasm, she quickly scurried on to the next person, as the overly religious man still sent shivers down her spine.

"Kakuzu. A doll out of stitches, is it?" Pain observed Kakuzu's creation.

"Yeah. Something of the sort. You like it, or not?" the accountant replied, obviously not in the mood for any beating around the bush.

I can see why he and Hidan are partners. They're both pretty morbid…Sakura thought to herself before hearing Pain speak again.

"Adequate. It has potential. 6/10."

With the leader's verdict, the three judges then made their way to Kisame.

"My water abilities don't really make art too easy for me, so I did the best I could, as always."

Itachi took a step toward his partner to examine his work. The shark-like man had used his water manipulation to mold a beautiful water dragon. The ripples of the water made it seem as though it were shining.

"9/10, Kisame," Itachi quickly stated. Sakura and Pain both nodded their heads in agreement, and then followed the Uchiha over to the next contestant. Zetsu had decided not to participate in the competition but to instead supervise everyone else to prevent any cheating from occurring, so the only member left was Konan.

At feasting her eyes upon Konan's masterpiece, Sakura let out an audible gasp. Although Pain and Itachi remained silent, their eyes illustrated that they shared their fellow judge's amazement. The blue-haired woman had crafted an entire Cherry Blossom Tree, just out of origami. It was in bloom, and pedals of paper fell to the ground in the wind.

"Wow, Konan… This is really just… stunning. I can't even put words to how amazing this is. You're so cool! I really admire your artistic ability, that's for sure! I think Itachi and Pain can agree that your tree deserves a score of 10/10!" At Sakura's words, a faint blush crept its way onto Konan's face.

"You truly think so? Well… I am grateful for your kind words. It brings me joy to know that someone appreciates my art."

"You're welcome, of course! I'm just acknowledging your talent, that's all! Well, this concludes our competition. The winner is Konan!" the green eyed girl announced. All but slightly to her surprise, the rest of the Akatsuki members began clapping for the winner. Not even Hidan murmured a threat or complaint.

Sakura turned to Itachi and smiled widely; Itachi looked back at her and placed a gentle hand on her head.

"I knew that you had something to offer them, Sakura, just as you had something to offer me: hope that there are still joys in life for those of us who have walked the path of darkness for so long."