Naruto: Creatures

Chapter 2 – The Akatsuki's Attack!

XXX

"They're always protecting me..." Thinking to herself while walking in the falling paper storm, Sakura had mixed emotions of what she was going through tonight. "Don't they know I want to be like them so I can protect them back? I hate being a burden to my team."

"Look here fellas." A crimson haired man smiled. "Looks like someone ignored our little warning Konan created."

Snapping out of her thoughts, the human girl realized she was in an alleyway with three men dressed in red and black cloaks blocking her way home.

"What a cute little mouse. Arr." The pirate took a step forward. "Lost are we lass?"

"I was just heading home..." Sakura took a step back. "I will just take the other way since you are busy here..."

"Why not stay awhile?" Using charka strings, Sasori controlled Sakura like a puppet.

"I can't move my body!" She was forced to walk up to them. "What are they?!"

"The leader wants us to focus on the mission." Itachi stared at his teammates with red ruby eyes. "No distractions."

"The one with raven hair..." Sakura couldn't believe her eyes. "He looks like Sasuke! But that's not impossible. Everyone in the Uchiha clan besides Sasuke were killed by..."

Forcing herself, Sakura managed to look over at the one in charged and asked, "Who are you guys?"

"Whoa." Sasori chuckled softly. "I must not be using my charka strings hard enough. Most creatures can't talk once they are under my justu."

Sasori tighten his grip on the strings, making Sakura grunt.

"There we go." Sasori slowly scanned her body with his eyes. "What a little beauty you are."

"Why is she covered with blood? Arr." Deidara asked. "Is she a vampire too?"

"No. The only vampire clans in Haunted Konoha are the Uchihas and the Hyugas." Itachi answered. "From her uniform, I can guess she is a nurse working for the famous pixie Tsunade."

"Ooh, a pixie." Sasori lean down to whisper in Sakura's ear, twirling a finger in her long pink hair. "I've heard that pixies are freaky in bed."

"Pervert!"

Breaking loose of his justu, Sakura kneed Sasori in the groin and managed to reach closer to her escape before getting stopped by an explosion.

"Bang. Arr!" Deidara laughed, patting his cannon gun. "I know leader didn't want me to bring the mini cannon, but he didn't say anything about the cannon gun!"

"How odd." Sasori and the others walked over to her. "She was able to break out of my justu again with no problem."

"He should be out cold. Naruto was limping for a week when I did that to him for peeping at me in the hot springs." Sakura looked over her shoulder to see a wall of fire. "They are blocking the only way out."

"Sasori, Deidara. Enough." Itachi commanded. "We have orders to follow out."

"Don't you remember what leader said?" Sasori's attention was focused on Sakura. "If we caught any creatures out in the storm, we can kill them."

Before she could move, Sasori grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the wall.

"Gah!" Sakura cried out.

"I think before you meet your maker, I should answer your question from awhile back." The puppet stared into Sakura's emerald green eyes. "We are members of the deadliest creature group in the world, the Akatsuki."

Still holding her against the walk with his right arm, he used his free hand to grab Sakura's leg.

"And the reason why I'm not on the ground balling?" He leaned closer to her face. "I'm nothing but wood babe."

"I can't die like this." Sakura thought, trying to claw Sasori's hand off of her throat.

"What a waste." Sasori sighed. "Oh well, there's more pixies somewhere I'm sure."

Seeing that trying to get her throat free wasn't working, Sakura used her free hands to attack his face.

"Hey!" He shouted. "Knock that off you brat!"

Sasori dropped his kunai to pin Sakura's hands firmly to wall.

"Ah!" A piece of the wall's stone sliced open her hand.

Smelling the blood, Itachi realized they weren't dealing with a pixie.

"When I say enough, I mean it." Itachi made his way over and tossed Sasori over to Deidara.

"What's wrong with you?" He shouted. "I'm only following orders!"

"The leader said to kill any creature lurking in the paper storm." Itachi couldn't move his eyes away from Sakura's bleeding hand. "He didn't say to kill any humans."

Deidara and Sasori's eyes widen. "She's a human?"

Sakura collapsed to the ground and took deep breaths.

"That explains why my justu wasn't working that well on her. It's meant for creatures." Sasori stated.

"I need to get out of here." Sakura slowly crawled by them.

"Being born a human is extremely rare." Itachi picked her up and held her bride styled. "Because there's not a single drop of creature blood in their body and they have an unique gift."

"Let go of me!" Sakura yelled, punching Itachi all over his face.

"You're only hurting yourself." Itachi tossed her over his shoulder. "We have completed the mission, let's get out of here."

"Sakura!"

Running into the alley, Sasuke couldn't believe his eyes.

"What's this? Matching eyes? Arr." Deidara looked at the older Uchiha. "Itachi, who is he?"

Itachi half lidded his eyes. "He's my little brother."

"Sasuke's brother?!" Sakura tried to break free. "No wonder he looks so familiar."

"Itachi..." Sasuke hissed from the only way out of the alley. "You have some nerve showing your face around here after what you did to our family."

"Your family." He corrected him. "They never cared for me. As I never cared for them."

"Let her go." Powerful crackling charka formed in his right hand.

"That move..." Itachi realized what Sasuke was doing. "Kakashi sensei taught you that technique?"

Itachi grabbed the human and tossed her over to Deidara.

"Let's see how strong your hatred is little brother."

"My hatred is strong enough to stop you!" He roared, charging towards them. "Chidori!"

Watching his brother carefully, Itachi took one side step and grabbed the arm the Chidori was in, breaking his wrist. Quickly after that, he punched Sasuke in the stomach and kicked him further away from Sakura.

"Stop!" Sakura yelled, trying to get herself loose.

"Quit squirming around! Arr."

Itachi then grabbed Sasuke by the neck and pushed Sasuke against the wall. "Weak... Why are you so weak?"

Itachi lean forward and smiled. "It's because you lack hatred."

"Gah..." Sasuke looked over at Sakura one last time before Itachi knocked him out.

"No!" She cried, biting down on Deidara's hand.

"Ouch!" He let go of her.

She hurried over to him to check for vital signs.

"He's still alive. For now." Itachi informed her, looking at her blood crusted hand that scabbed up. He reached down and forced her to stand up. "I've only heard from stories how intoxicating human blood tastes."

Itachi caressed her hair back to expose her neck. "One little bite is all I need to..."

Before he could sink his fangs into her neck, a large turtle shell was thrown at Itachi. Seeing it from the corner of his eyes, Itachi grabbed it. "A shell?"

"Leave these children alone before you face my wrath!" A man with the appearance of a toad stepped forward.

"Jiraya san." Itachi hissed, dropping Sakura and walking backwards to his group. "We need to leave."

"We can handle him together. Arr."

"No." Itachi took deeper breaths, noticing that his eyesight was failing him. "We can't. No matter, the mission is completed with or without the girl."

"Hmph." Sasori looked over at Sakura. "Hey babe!"

With Sasuke in her arms, Sakura looked over.

"We'll be back for you." He winked. "That's a promise."

In a dense cloud of smoke, the three members of the Akatsuki disappeared. Seconds later, Kakashi and Might Guy arrived to see Sasuke and Sakura.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked.

"He tried to save me." She whimpered, wrapping her arms around Sasuke. "And when he needed saving, I was useless."

XXX

After healing herself back to normal at the hospital, all Sakura could think about was Sasuke's well being. If she had listen to Kakashi sensei's orders and went into hiding with her teammates, none of this would had happened.

"Sakura chan?" A familiar voice knocked on the patient's door.

"Come in Naruto." Her demon friend entered the door and sat down on the edge of her bed. "How is Sasuke kun doing?"

"If he fought with a vampire that wasn't his blood, he wouldn't be so hurt." Naruto sighed. "He'll be okay, but he's going to need a night's rest to heal."

"Naruto..." She looked down at the white blanket covering her. "This is all my fault."

"No it isn't. How were you suppose to know that you were going up against three Akatsuki members in an alleyway?" Naruto's teasing wasn't making her feel any better. "With all jokes aside, I'm just happy that nothing bad happened to you."

"Coming in." Kakashi knocked on the door and entered the room. "Just checking up on you."

"Kakashi sensei, have you figured out why those creeps were after Sakura chan?"

"I'm afraid not." He sighed. "And from Sakura told us, it sounds like they will be coming back."

"Then I need to prepare myself so that I'm not sitting on the sidelines." Naruto nodded. "Kakashi sensei, I need you to teach me the Chidori!"

"Why learn the Chidori when you can learn the Rasengan?" The toad man entered the room without knocking. "It's a special technique that you will have no problem mastering!"

"Who's the old dude?" The blonde boy asked.

"Glad to see that you decided to visit the Haunted village Jiraya." Tsunade walked into the room. "You will be the perfect person to explain to the Hokage why the Akatsuki were here."

"Their main intentions are still unknown. All I know is they were about to attack this girl and I managed to stop them before they could do anymore damage."

"I see." Tsunade rubbed her chin. "Then I will do some research on humans then. There must be something we're not understanding."

"Tsunade sama," Sakura climbed out of bed, "may I see Sasuke kun?"

"He's resting right now." She answered. "And you should be too. It's almost day break. In fact, all of us should get some rest. We have no idea what the Akatsuki are up to and we will need our strength."

As they all left, Tsunade stayed behind and closed the window blinds before getting a question from Sakura. "Tsunade sama, humans have no special powers, so why are they after me?"

"Humans might have no creature powers, but they are impossible to find. The human gene is a recessive trait that has nearly died off. In my lifetime, I have only met two other humans including you."

"I had no idea humans were so rare." She frowned, climbing back into bed.

"I plan on doing as much research about it as I can to see what use they would have with you." Tsunade sighed, walking over to the bed. "Don't worry about it, I will get to the bottom of it. I promise."

*"We'll be back for you." He winked. "That's a promise."*

Shivers went through Sakura's spine as she remembered what the puppet Akatsuki member said to her. As Tsunade headed towards the door, it was then when Sakura decided to ask her something that would change her life forever.

"Tsunade sama, wait." Sakura reached out from the bed.

"Yes Sakura?"

She bit the bottom of her lip before asking. "Neither of us knows why the Akatsuki are after me, but we do know that they will be coming back. I want to be prepared for when they arrive again. I understand that I am already your apprentice when it comes to medical justu, but I need to know more to stand a chance against them. You are one of the legendary Sannin and it would be an honor if you could teach me everything you know."

Tsunade smiled. "I thought you would never ask."

XXX

"How did the plan go?"

"It was a success." Konan, the woman made out of paper, answered. "They have been warned of our arrival."

Pein nodded. "How about you Itachi? How did scouting go?"

"We weren't able to find the ninth demon spirit, but we found something far more important." Itachi's red eyes flashed. "A human."

Pein was shocked to hear that someone has located a pure blood so soon. "Are you sure?"

"The only way to tell if someone is human is through their blood and I didn't smell a scent of creature on her." He replied. "I have done some research on the girl. Her name is Sakura Haruno. Her sensei is Kakashi Hatake. Her teammates are Sasuke Uchiha, Sai, and Naruto Uzumaki."

"Uzumaki? The child of the former spirit container?"

Itachi nodded. "I looked him up as well. He now bears the ninth spirit."

"Good. We have located a demon spirit and a human. During the next two years, we will be locating and abstracting spirits from the containers. Once we have all nine, we will be able to put all nine spirits into the human host 'who can adapt, but not change' and unleash unlimited power."

Pein walked to the center of the cave. "We have no time to waste. Let's start tracking down these demon spirit hosts."

"Sakura Haruno." Sasori smirked.

"Cherry blossom. Arr."

Itachi rolled his eyes, making a hand sign.

"Oh come on Itachi. We saw you trying to drink her blood." Sasori teased. "We've never seen you want blood so badly before."

"I'm done with this talk. Let's head out Kisame."

"Sure." The two disappeared.

"This Haruno chick better be as amazing as you guys are making her out to be." Hidan laughed. "Is she hot?"

"The hottest human I've seen." Sasori answered.

"Come on Hidan, let's look for some demon spirit hosts."

"Fine fine." Hidan and Kakazu made hand signs and disappeared.

"This 'plan' of yours is far more elaborate than your other ones." Konan reminded Pein. "Are you sure you want to go through this?"

"The world will know the Akatsuki as the most feared group of skilled creatures in the world. Once we get our hands on the unlimited power, no one can stop us. Not even him."

Konan nodded and left with the leader and left in a cloud of smoke. Shortly after, the human flytrap left as well.

"The sooner we get the containers, the sooner we get to see the babe." The puppet looked over at his blonde friend.

"Sounds good mate. Arr." The reminding two disappeared.

XXX

"Oh my," entering a hidden underground hideout, the flytrap relaxed against a stone wall, "looks like we're in trouble."

"What makes you say that?" Asked a man wearing an orange mask.

"The Akatsuki are on the move. They are locating all nine spirits."

"Waste of effort unless they have a human host."

"That's the problem." The other half of the flytrap said. "They have located a human."

"Impossible." He hissed walking back and fort. "Madara Uchiha killed all the human clans and I released the ninth demon spirit from Kushina Uzumaki that killed the last human. There are no others."

"Looks like you miscounted." The plant laughed.

"This isn't funny Zetsu! This could ruin everything we've been working for!" He was freaking out. "If Madara finds out..."

"Finds out what?"

"Gah!" The man wearing the mask nearly jumped to the ceiling. "I had no idea you were already home Madara."

"Answer my question," The vampire with long white hair wasn't amused, "And you better not lie Obito."

"It's Tobi now old man." He hissed. "It looks like there's a human left."

Madara's stern look soften. "A human? How fortunate."

"Fortunate isn't a word I would use." Tobi explained as Madara walked over to family pictures. "It could ruin all of our plans if the Akatsuki uses the mortal to unleash all nine spirits of the demons."

"Not if I get my hands on the human first." He frowned, looking at his portrait. "Look at my picture Obito, I was so young and powerful back then. But now look at me. I'm nothing more than a walking pile of bones."

"Tell us something we don't know." Zetsu rolled his eyes.

"Thanks to the curse Hashirama placed on me and my clan, I will remain looking like this and stay powerless unless I get a drink of human blood." He spun around and hissed at Tobi. "This stranger we know nothing about is my only chance of regaining my youth and strength."

"We do know the human's name." The flytrap informed the two Uchihas. "Her name is Sakura Haruno."

"Sakura Haruno." Madara smiled. "One thing is for sure. I will get my hands on Sakura Haruno before the Akatsuki does and make the world mine."

XXX