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Reminder: Sakura's clothes; a red, hooded short-sleeve top, black fingerless gloves, low-heeled, knee-high black boots , and black shorts. To complete the outfit, she wrapped a red shawl around her hips.

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Special thanks to my Beta-Reader: GreyHowler

Sasuke and his team were walking through the woods. Suigetsu and Jugo had left the group earlier to gather information on Akatsuki. As they neared another village, Sakura was about to leave too, but froze when she sensed a familiar presence. Sasuke first looked at her, then slowly turned to face the same direction she was staring at and wondered what was wrong.

"Say, Karin…" she spoke without making eye contact, "I need you to confirm that there is someone up a head…" She pointed in the direction she was staring at.

Karin wanted to protest, but did as Sakura requested when Sasuke looked at her, waiting for her answer. Karin focused on the direction Sakura pointed at and did sense someone, but that person was not alone. She sensed two people.

Satisfied with her answer, Sakura began to smile. Her bloodlust showed all over her face as she slowly activated her curse mark. Sasuke noticed her and asked Karin who the strangers were.

"They are from Akatsuki. Itachi is not one of them." Sakura answered his question.

"We can use this to find Ita-"

"Don't get in my way, Karin!" Sakura yelled and glared at Karin. Her curse began to spread to her face. She looked at Sasuke and continued,

"I know you can use them to find Itachi, but don't get in my way. You remember what I told you and Orochimaru in the beginning when I joined you that I'm looking for a certain someone…" she finished before dashing towards the two Akatsuki.

Before Sasuke followed her, he ordered Karin to go and gather information about Itachi. When he caught up to Sakura, he saw the guy on the left had very long blond hair which he wore with the front drawn into a half ponytail and left the rest to hang down freely. He wore the Akatsuki cloak with navy blue pants with matching shinobi sandals. The second guy had mousy red hair with the same clothes; Akatsuki cloak with pants and matching shinobi sandals.

"My, my, saved me the trouble to look for you or the nine-tail brat, Uchiha." the blonde, Deidara spoke.

"Hmpf, I see you didn't replace your previous puppet to disguise yourself, Sasori." Sakura spoke and looked at the red haired guy.

"Sasori my man, who is she?" Deidara asked.

"It's that Leaf brat who destroyed my puppet, Hiruko. I'm impressed you're still alive. My poison should have killed you." said Sasori.

Much to Sasuke's surprise, Sakura didn't deny it,

"Heh, former Leaf brat. Yeah, your poison should have killed me and it almost did. The only reason I'm standing right in front of you, is because I had to inject myself with lots of different medicine. Once I recovered enough, I studied and researched all kinds of poisons and figured out that you made the poison yourself. I've waited patiently for this moment, to kill you and take enough of your poison to make the antidote that will fully cure me."

"What makes you think you can make an antidote?" Sasori asked.

"Heheh, oh, I can." Sakura answered and smirk.

"Hmpf, you should have killed her…" Deidara spoke.

"Shut up." Sasori replied.

"Sasuke, I'll be fine. Leave and let me fight this guy alone," Sakura whispered, "Blondie wants to fight you. I'm sure he'll follow you. You can ask him where Itachi is…"

Sasuke nodded and left Sakura to her own devices. Just as Sakura predicted, Deidara immediately followed Sasuke.

"First I had to fight that nine-tail brat, now this…" Sasori complained.

Sakura's eyes widened, but she stayed silent while her curse mark began to spread more until it covered her whole body.

'Naruto….' Thought Sakura.

Not wanting to underestimate her a second time, Sasori summoned his human puppet, the Third Kazekage.

"I made the Third Kazekage into a puppet, a human puppet. I have done the same to 297 other people and you will be my 298th." Sasori bragged.

"I'm not the same person you fought back then. I'm a lot stronger!" Sakura yelled.

'She was really reckless back then. I trapped her with ropes and surrounded her with poison fumes. To escape the situation, she used an explosive tag on herself to free herself from the ropes along with blowing the poison away. Now…the only difference I see is that she has the curse mark…don't know what else she is hiding. Better kill her quickly.' thought Sasori.

Sasori unleashed the Third's Iron Sand Drizzle. He formed it into a giant pyramid and rectangular prism and attacked Sakura.

'Perfect for me.' thought Sakura and smirked.

Sakura was able to anticipate Sasori's movements and used her monstrous strength to punch and kick the pyramid and rectangular prism around the forest. Impressed by Sakura's strength and realizing she could continue to repel his attacks, Sasori decided to create more Iron Sand, which he formed into a gigantic sphere of branching spikes.

With widened eyes, Sakura looked up as the attack rained down on her. Sakura weaved through the spikes and managed to escape his attack with little more than a few scratches. As the last spike fell and Sakura was readying her own attack, she suddenly felt her legs weaken and she fell to the ground. Sasori had infused the Iron Sand with his special brand of poison.

"You should know by now that my poison is very effective. The body instantly becomes numb and immobile your chakra. If I left you alone, you would be dead in three days…but I won't make the same mistake!"

Revealing a blade hidden within the Third Kazekage puppet, he sent it flying towards Sakura to finish her off. At the last second, Sakura suddenly leaped up and destroyed the entire puppet with a single punch.

Sasori stared in awe at Sakura; no one had ever escaped his poison so quickly. Then he remembered Kankuro. Sasori had left him to die from the poison as he had Sakura.

"You couldn't have…"

Sakura smirked, proving he had guessed correctly; "You should really stop leaving people alive, just so they can die from your poison and I told you, I can make an antidote. When I heard you poisoned Kankuro of the Sand Village and left him alive to die from your poison, I disguised myself and visited the Sand village. I extracted the poison from him like I did to myself, and made a cure for him. You left enough poison in his body for me to fully cure him and for me to make a small antidote that neutralize the poison in my body for a few minutes."

"What a foolish mistake. You could have taken the antidote for yourself, but instead you gave it to that foolish Sand ninja."

"What good would that do? I'm not selfish. Besides, it's way more fun to kill you and collect enough poison from you."

"You were the one who let Chiyo escape…" Sasori replied.

"Also correct." Sakura answered, "What I don't understand is how you look so young. Kabuto told me that you betrayed your village many years ago."

"Kabuto, huh…" Sasori murmured.

"Yeah, Kabuto. The person you thought was spying on Orochimaru for you, but in truth, he was spying on you for Orochimaru all along."

"…" Sasori stayed quiet.

"…That's how Naruto found us….found Orochimaru's hideout…You tipped him off, didn't you…" Sakura mused.

~Flashback~

Sakura was busy training, when one of her followers, a sound ninja, visited her. He told her about a rumor that the Akatsuki attacked and captured the One-tailed, the Kazekage; Gaara of the sand. Someone tried to bring the Kazekage back, but lost the battle and was poisoned. Sakura knew exactly who attacked the village.

According to Kabuto's data book of the Akatsuki, there was only one person in the group that worked with poison; Sasori.

She needed to go there. She needed to extract that poison from that person to make the antidote she had been seeking all these years. Her follower knew exactly what she was thinking about and requested to help her.

She, however, denied the request at first. This was hiding something from Orochimaru and would be a sort of betrayal to Orochimaru; sneaking out of the hideout to visit a village. Especially a village that was against Orochimaru and that had connection with the Leaf village. If they caught her, they'd immediately contact the Leaf and bring her back.

Her follower assured her that he knew what the consequences would be and didn't care. He would follow her and only her.

Satisfied with his answer, Sakura accepted his requested and with his help, she snuck out of the hideout. While she was on her way towards the Sand Village, her follower was pretending to be her. Sakura disguised herself as a traveler and visited the Sand village.

They of course, stopped her from entering the village. The village had been under an attack just a little while ago and their Kazekage was captured. They couldn't just let a stranger in, even if she claimed she was a traveler.

"I'm a medical. I heard a rumor that someone was poisoned by a strange poison and you guys don't have an antidote. I can cure him." Sakura explained.

The sand ninjas hesitated first, but Temari who happened to overhear the conversation, started to yell at them,

"What are you waiting for?! We don't have time to second guess! She offered to help, let her pass and help!" Temari looked at the traveler, her angry expression changed into a worried one, "C-can you really cure my brother?"

They let her pass the moment Sakura nodded. She followed Temari to the place where Kankuro was. Sakura stared at Temari's back; thankfully, she hadn't noticed the strange "traveler" was Sakura. If it went on like this, she could accomplish her mission and go back to Orochimaru's hideout without a problem.

But she thought way too soon. As soon as she entered the building, she saw Kakashi and Naruto sitting in the hall. She froze the moment they looked at her.

She wasn't worried about Naruto, but she was worried about the person sitting next to Naruto, Kakashi Hatake. He was a Jonin, a former Anbu member, and what troubled her the most was that he had the Sharingan. She mustn't panic. She needed to hold her chakra steady or he'd notice something was not right. She avoided eye contact with both of them and looked into the room they were sitting across from. She saw Ino attempting unsuccessfully to heal Kankuro.

Sakura took a deep breath and entered to room. She ordered Ino to stop what she was doing; it was no use. She'd just use up all her chakra for nothing. Everyone looked at the new arrival and asked her who she was. Temari entered the room and explained to them that she could help Kankuro. After hearing this, no one except Ino hesitated to ask Sakura what she needed.

"I will perform a Delicate Illness Extraction Technique, to remove the poison while simultaneously repairing the damage cause by the poison. I need all these materials," Sakura explained and handed them a list. They ran out of the room to get the materials she needed. "The process itself is extremely painful and requires the patient to be restrained in order for it to work."

Everyone did as she requested and began to restrain Kankuro. After bringing Sakura the material she needed, she began her technique and saved his life.

After hearing her brother was not in danger anymore, Temari leaned against a wall and sank down to the ground.

"This technique only draws out most of the poison, not all of it, so the patient can potentially still be in danger, but not immediate. To fully treat the patient, I need to make an antidote. Do you have herbs I can use?"

Much to Sakura's surprise, she was brought to a medicine storehouse, which held more medicinal herbs than she had ever seen before. She had not been expecting this at all.

After finding all the herbs she needed, she began mixing the herbs together. When she finally finished, she stared quietly at it. After a while she slowly looked around the storehouse. There were only two people in the storehouse with her and they were busy taking care of the herbs.

'They are too trusting. They just let a stranger enter their village just save their comrade's life. Now, they showed me their medicine storehouse and they leave their guards out…I could use this opportunity to cure myself. I can take this antidote and escape…why…' thought Sakura.

"T-the antidote is done" Sakura stuttered.

They were overjoyed to hear the news and escorted her back to the building where Kankuro was. She entered the room and gave Kankuro the antidote to drink.

"You'll be fine now," she announced.

Everyone thanked her and praised her. Naruto ran into the room, grabbed her hand and thanked her. Even Ino ran up to her to praise her. Sakura immediately pulled her hand away from Naruto. After realizing what she just did, she looked at Naruto who was stunned of her action.

"S-sorry. Y-you startled me." Sakura stuttered.

"Hehehe, it's okay. I'm sorry too, for suddenly grabbing you." Naruto replied with a smile.

The guilt was eating her alive. Sakura betrayed him, her sensei…the two of the three people she cared about most were standing right in front of her. She needed to leave the Sand village immediately. She didn't sign up for this. She came to steal the antidote, but in the end…she saved Kankuro's life. She shouldn't second guess herself.

She bid farewell and slowly walked out of the room, but froze the minute Naruto popped up with a question,

"Why don't you join our mission? Right, Kakashi-sensei? We are facing that Akatsuki guy who uses poison, she could help us if we get affected by him."

"Well…normally we don't do this, but…." Kakashi spoke and looked at the traveler…

Sakura thought of the opportunity she had at the moment…she could join them and fight Sasori to obtain the poison she was looking for….but the risk of being caught by Orochimaru that she snuck out of his hideout is dangerously high. The longer she was away, the closer she'd become to getting caught…Also she couldn't fight Sasori while holding her chakra steady in front of Kakashi….The transformation would be incomplete and she'd return to her true self. They'd see that it was Sakura all along….

Sakura bit her lip before giving them the answer she wasn't happy with,

"No thank you…..I'm just a traveler. I can't fight and I'll be just in your way. You guys are ninjas, you'll manage somehow…just don't get affected…"

Sakura looked at the speechless Naruto. His silence gave her the answer that she was right. She once again bit farewell and walked out of the building and out of the village.

The moment she couldn't see any sign of the Sand Village, she dashed back toward the hideout. However, on her way back, she stopped for a moment and looked back. She kept second guessing herself. It was staring to frustrate her.

"Damn it!" she cursed and cast a Shadow clone. After cloning herself, she once again hurried back to the hideout.

When she finally arrived at the hideout, she was totally out of breath. She hadn't taken a single break. The hideout was way too far from the Sand Village; it took her a whole day with no break from the hideout to reach the Sand Village. Now it took her another day to reach the hideout. She had to keep her guard up in case someone noticed her and followed her. She had been away from the hideout for two and a half days.

Hoping Orochimaru and Kabuto hadn't noticed she had sneaked out of the hideout, Sakura slowly walked through the halls and entered her training room. She saw her follower who had transformed into her, was busy pretending he was studying a poison from her poison data book she had collected.

Her follower was relieved the moment he saw her and transformed back to himself. She thanked him before returning to her room to get some rest.

She was exhausted. She hadn't slept for two days. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn't slept for three days straight. She had already pulled an all-nighter, before hearing the news about the Sand Village vs the Akatsuki. She was too busy concentrating on her chakra control. She didn't take the time to rest, before she sneaked out of the hideout.

Sakura sighed in disappointment when she thought back on how she gave the antidote to Kankuro. She made the right decision. She just couldn't believe she was this close to having the antidote, the real antidote, but it wasn't for her. She also couldn't believe she was this close to finding Sasori and fight him….but in the end she had rejected the offer.

When she entered her room, she saw Sasuke waiting for her. Her blood ran cold, when something jumped into her head. She had totally forgotten that she had to train with Sasuke…She couldn't come up with any excuse. Without a doubt, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with the training. Heck, she wouldn't last a second the moment they started their training.

"…I'm sorry, Sasuke. I got caught up with my training, hehehe." Sakura apologized with a sarcastic soft laugh.

"Hmpf, you finally arrived. Get some rest." Sasuke replied and walked past Sakura, out of the room to do some training.

'I finally arrived? Did he know I snuck out of the hideout?' Thought Sakura as she looked at his back. 'No, don't think so.'

She let herself fall down on her bed. She started to concentrate on what her clone had seen;

xXx

While Sakura was on her way back to Orochimaru's hideout, her clone which she cast, dashed back towards the Sand Village. When it finally arrived, she noticed Temari running along with a group out of the village.

'Naruto and others left already and Temari must be on her way to back them up.' thought her clone.

Sakura transformed herself into a Sand Ninja, observed the direction where Temari and her group were going and ran ahead of them. Along the way, she noticed damage to the trees in some areas. She followed the trail until she heard some loud noises. She found a cave and heard more noises coming from inside. She peeked inside to see who was battling against whom.

She observed the area and cast another clone. Knowing that Sasori's partner was someone who could fly with his art Jutsu, she followed the trail where Kakashi and Naruto might have headed. She moved forward until she saw a forest.

"Tsk!" Sakura knew it would be even more difficult to follow Naruto. Until now, she had followed her instinct and observations from the battle field and enemies range of attack. She had guessed everything right so far, but it wouldn't last for long. She slowly walked through the woods to find any damage or trails, but saw nothing.

Sakura began to doubt about what she had guessed and almost decided that this path was not right, but didn't when she heard noises coming from her left. She quietly walked towards the sound and hid behind a tree. When she peeked, she saw Naruto and Kakashi with Gaara. They were able to retrieve him.

'Meaning, either Deidara is dead, or he escaped, or he is hiding. I should go before they notice me.' thought Sakura and released the Clone.

Sakura's other clone who was still at the cave watching the battle between Sasori and Chiyo, closed her eyes to concentrate to see what her second clone had seen. She opened her eyes and jumped above the cave, using her monstrous strength to crack open the ground. The moment the ground crumbled down the lair, she jumped inside and requested Chiyo to follow her.

Without a hesitation, Chiyo followed her out of the Lair towards the path Naruto and Kakashi had taken.

"You used that as a distraction for me to escape. I could have taken him…No, it was my job to take care of him." Chiyo spoke.

"Then why did you listen and follow me?" Sakura asked.

"I saw that look in your eyes,…You had some unfinished business with him and you want to take care of him…" Chiyo paused and stared at the suspicious person, "Why didn't you fight him?"

"I want to fight him some other time. Not now. I want to focus on fighting him and nothing else. Nothing and no one should get in my way." Sakura answered.

"You're not from the Sand Village, are you?" Chiyo answered.

Chiyo knew what Sakura's answer was when she stayed quiet. "Don't worry. I won't say anything. I don't know why, but you don't seem to be a bad person."

Sakura smiled lightly when she heard that. She showed Chiyo where Naruto and Kakashi were. When Chiyo saw them, she thanked Sakura for showing her the way and wished her good luck on her mission to kill Sasori. After nodding, Sakura released her Clone-Jutsu.

Back at Orochimari's hideout, Sakura thought, 'Chiyo, huh. I don't need luck. I'm strong. I can kill Sasori.' before she fell into a deep sleep.

xXx

Back to the battle between Sasori and Sakura.

"That day, before Naruto found the hideout, Kabuto walked out of the hideout to meet someone….He was supposed to meet you, wasn't he? But instead, Naruto came. You tipped Naruto off….why?" Sakura asked.

"For defeating that loser, Deidara." Sasori answered.

"So, what's next? You have used your 100 puppets when you fought Chiyo. I doubt you were able to replace all 100 precious puppets in such a short time." Sakura spoke.

Not wanting to risk losing any more human puppets, Sasori undressed and revealed the secret to his eternal youth; that he himself was a puppet equipped with various weapons along with his special brand of poison.

"We have talked enough" Sasori spoke and launched himself at her.

~To Be Continued~

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