Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or their backstories, they all belong to their rightful owners. I only own my plot.

He couldn't believe how stupid he was. He had let her trick him into believing that a shadow clone was her, he had to admit, she was smart. And good at her chakra control too, good enough to make even him believe it was her.

His pale purple eyes, darted around, searching every inch of the area, eventually spotting her father away than he had expected her to be. Konan followed as he jumped through the trees, following the pink-haired kunoichi's chakra signature. His friend had materialised beside him as they ran, only to find nothing where he had sensed the signature.

"Pein." Konan called, directing his attention to a small scroll, from which chakra was leaking out of. "She used this, to distract us. She is most likely far away by now." His friend was right. They would have to search every nearby village and town to find her, or even a trace of her.

Sakura POV:

'You got me into this mess, now you can get me out of it.' Sakura thought to herself as she darted, in and out of trees, as fast as she could. That stupid scroll was meant to help get her out of situations, not into them. 'Never mind that! Just keep RUNNING!' her inner yelled at her. She was right though. No time to think, just run.

It was before daylight when a small village came into view just beyond the forest's edge. A few merchants were walking along the trading route, staring at her confusedly, before she came to a stop just outside the parameters of the village. She walked through the gates and made her way to a stall selling slightly burnt fish, but in the state of hunger she was in, she couldn't really care less. She bought three whole fish and went to sit down at a bench near a small park/training grounds that some of the children in the village used to pretend fight in.

Sakura smiled as she watched the littlest child take down an older kid who had obviously let him push her down, but still pretended to have died from the brute force of the younger's push. It was funny how much it reminded her of Naruto, strong yet childish. Suited him perfectly. Sakura stood up and brushed imaginary dust off of her uniform, deciding on leaving the village. But not before a change of appearance.

Pein POV:

'Where in the hell could she have gone?' he sighed inwardly. They had been searching for her all night long, and had yet to come up with anything regarding her chakra signature or even the slightest indentation in a tree trunk. She must have used as little chakra as possible to bound from tree to tree, so as to not leave behind any marks or the like, that could possibly pertain to her location or even the direction thereof.

"Maybe we should stop for now, the other members have most likely already come back from their missions. Well hopefully anyway." His friend made a good point. Pein gave the area one last sweep with the Rinnegan before, again, sighing inwardly in defeat. Now he was going to have to deal with ramblings from the other members of the Akatsuki for being late, even though he usually reprimanded them for doing so. Great.

Deidara POV:

Oh this was going to be good. Their leader was never late. Currently, they were all waiting in the lounge room, waiting for their leader, so they could scold the hypocrite. Deidara couldn't believe that Pein would allow himself to be so late, especially when it pertained to a meeting that he himself had called. Kisame currently lounged on the couch while Itachi was sitting in one of the two reclining chairs sat across from Kisame.

Deidara was leaning on the kitchen bench, waiting to watch the whole scene unfold, whereas Kakuzu was simply leaning up against the wall nearest to the door with his arms crossed, seemingly uninterested in the whole situation. Tobi was prancing around like an idiot, as per freaking usual, with Hidan looking as if he was about to lose his temper with the masked man, dancing or not. Apparently he had broken one of his favourite pikes, Tobi was definitely dead if he continued.

Deidara's ears suddenly perked up and the room fell silent as two figures walked through the doorway, into the kitchen, all eyes on them. Konan walked past Deidara and towards the fridge, seemingly hungry, while Pein simply sat down on the other recliner next Itachi. Next thing you know; the damned leader was asleep! The nerve of it all had Deidara and Hidan fuming, they had wanted to call out his lateness, maybe even reprimand him, but no, he couldn't stay awake for one more minute, could he?

Konan had finished preparing what she called breakfast, instant noodles, walked past all the men and went out the door, down the hall and into her room. As the door shut, Deidara audibly sighed and decided to just give the matter up and go back to his room for a couple more hours of rest. Evidently though, both Hidan and Tobi had decided to try and wake Pein up. Unsuccessfulness proved itself existent, as he heard yelling from down the hallway as he jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his cold body. Maybe the leader being late wasn't so bad, that just meant that he didn't have a mission today.

That last thought was as enough persuasion as he needed to go back to sleep. He closed his eyes, inhaled and exhaled relaxedly, and let unconsciousness drag him down into the depths of his dreams.

Pein POV:

Once all the remaining members of the Akatsuki had left the room, he opened his eyes and sneakily walked into the kitchen to grab a meal, then off to bed with him. He was quite tired after searching the entire night for that girl, her pink hair had fascinated him, as well as the fact that she could avert even him.

Pein walked down the hallway towards his room, opened the door and was greeted to the fact that he had left his window open, so now the whole room was cold.

'That bastard.' He thought to himself as he closed it, remembering he had asked Hidan to fetch something from his room earlier, he knew he couldn't trust anyone to not play tricks on him. Even Konan did it every now and then. He sighed, then stripped bare as he headed to the shower for the gloriousness that is hot water.

After the shower, Pein dried himself off and slipped on some pants. Jumping onto bed, his mind was filled with the Konoha ninja he had seen, her pink tresses forever burned into his mind. After all, it was an unusual hair colour, how could he not remember it.