Asking For It

Sakura's stomach churned harshly. She felt a shadow of evil melt into her soul. Inside a part of her mind, was sense of guilt at the sudden thought of betraying her friends. Becoming a disgrace to her village did not sound pleasant for Sakura. She shook her pink fringe back quietly whilst not paying attention to Pein and everyone else involved in the conversation. She felt unprepared for what was about to happen to her. Sakura had no intention of betraying her friends, however already a part of Akatsuki, she felt that she already has made an ultimate betrayal.

Sakura had suddenly reminded herself that she was suppose to be meeting up with Naruto tonight. If she hadn't had been kidnapped she would have been having lunch with Naruto, Ino and Sai right now. Sakura had started to like Naruto for quite a while since Sasuke's departure. Sakura actually didn't mind going on a date with Naruto at all. Whilst Naruto was not Sakura's ideal man, however since being teamed up with him, Sakura finally accept him. Sakura always thought of Sasuke as her ideal man, though she finally had to accept it; there was no such thing as an ideal man.

Sakura wasn't exactly too sure if Itachi would allow her to go and visit Naruto. In fact, Sakura knew that Itachi would rather have him slaughtered. She knew that if she was going to visit Naruto, she would have to do it alone. Now all that Sakura had to do was wait for the right time to sneak off. At the same time, Sakura did not wish to be rude to her new team. She knew it would annoy Itachi and would possibly lead her to her death.

"You're very quiet Haruno," Itachi stated staring at Sakura in an uncomfortable way. "Something must be troubling you!"

"Oh yeah," Sakura babbled, "I'm suppose to be meeting Naruto, Sai and Ino for lunch right now. Also I have with Naruto tonight too."

"Not anymore you don't," Itachi snapped. "You belong to us now, you will have no interaction with your friends whatsoever."

"Don't be so rash about things Itachi," Sakura begged. "I mean it will just be for one day…" Sakura paused herself struggling to think of a decent excuse to please everyone. "I could be a spy. Everyone trusts me, so they'll be clueless." Sakura grinned although she did not intend it.

"Sounds like a great idea," Pein smiled. "Itachi, you were clever when you decided to kidnap Sakura."

"This was not exactly what I had in mind," Itachi admitted honestly, "Go ahead Haruno. Meet up with your friends." Itachi dragged Sakura's shoulder over to his chest and whispered in his ear. "Remember you belong to us now." Itachi whispered clearly in his ear. "The only thing I want you to do with your friends is kill them." Sakura gasped from Itachi's cruel request. "Preferably served on a silver plate for us." Itachi slightly sniggered as he gave Sakura a quick kiss on the cheek. Sakura didn't laugh at such sadistic comments but Itachi's comment was so sadistic, it could be considered as black comedy.

"So, I better go." Sakura replied. "See you guys soon I guess."

-

Naruto slurped excessively, his bowl of ramen. Ino stared at him in a disgusted way, whilst trying to fix her make up. Sai sat rather quietly staring at Ino as if he was charmed by her strongly. "Where's Sakura?" Naruto asked, "She should have been here by now."

"Please," Ino answered displeased. "Don't talk with your moth full! It's disgusting." Ino turned her back at Naruto and nudged Chouji almost as if Naruto hasn't even asked the question. "As for Sakura, I don't know. She'll be ok. Kakashi's been looking for her."

"I've heard nothing from her since yesterday." Sai pointed out. Pointing outside the window. "Just over there, I saw her speak to Hinata. Haven't heard from her since."

"She better show up soon," Naruto announced. "I was suppose to be going out with her in a minute."

"Sounds cool," Sai replied with his elbows on the table. "Where were you two planning to go?" He asked.

"Just walking around." Naruto smiled.

"SORRY I'M LATE!" A huge voice echoed. Sakura became out of breath and started breathing heavily. Sakura saw Naruto, Ino and Sai stare at her. "Heya," Sakura waved whilst faking a huge smile. "I was trying to think of what to wear." Sakura was wearing a silky sapphire sleeveless dress that just about a centimetre below her buttocks. Her dark tights removed the scratches that were caused by Itachi.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto said happily. He quickly ran up to Sakura in a hyper way. "I gotta say you look very gorgeous in that dress."

"I agree," Sai replied smiling away.

"Thanks," Sakura smiled, blushing at the same time. "I was at home doing my make-up, my hair and then I had no idea what to wear."

Ino marched over to Sakura. Ino was shocked at what Sakura was wearing. Ino found Sakura's dress to be inappropriate but it looked very good on her. "Well I like the dress Sakura," Ino said without thinking of anything else to say other than words of concern. Ino noticed that Sakura had been acting weird, almost as if she wasn't seeing Sakura at all. "Sakura, you might get raped with wearing clothes like that!"

"Don't worry," Sakura replied. "We're ninjas. We can knock them perverts out."

"So Sakura," Naruto asked the pink haired girl, "Where do you wanna go?"

"I dunno," Sakura replied "let's just walk around." Sakura held Naruto by the arm and walked out of the restaurant with him. By this time, Sakura's guilt was starting to catch up on her. Lying about where she was and what happened to her didn't exactly make her feel better. She felt even worse walking around with Naruto with the full awareness that she was about to hurt him. Sakura knew telling Naruto about what Itachi did to her would only make the situation worse. Things were already bad enough as they are now.

Sakura laughed at Naruto's hyper behavior regardless. Sakura was able to put her mind of things. Sakura knew that this may possibly be the last time she'll ever be able to see her friends again. Although she knew she had to make the most of it, Sakura struggled too. She felt herself changing into someone else. She knew it was going to make her and others suffer. Sakura and Naruto walked around dark streets whilst holding hands with eachother. "Very pretty at the night time." Sakura pointed out staring out in the skylight.

"I know," Naruto replied. "Not as pretty as you though. I'm actually really happy now."

"Why is that?" Sakura asked.

"Well because I'm on a date with you," Naruto pointed out. "I mean loads of people think that I would never be on a date with anyone. Here I am now, on a date with a girl I've always liked."

"I'm flattered." Sakura replied feeling even guiltier then she did ten minutes ago. Joining Akatsuki was hard enough to sink in. About to break Naruto's heart would be even more painful to cope. Sakura imagined Naruto's embarrassment of getting dumped on the first date, it must seem horrible but she knew that Naruto would be strong enough to get over it.

"I'm happy too." Sakura replied softly looking down to the floor. She felt unable to look at Naruto nor felt that she deserved to. "To be honest I thought it was going to be a disaster, but actually it's been ok. You're not too bad after all."

"Because I am awesome!" Naruto bellowed causing Sakura to burst out laughing.

"Yeah you are awesome," Sakura replied submissively. "You are also very special. Sometimes, I don't think I deserve you."

"Don't put yourself down like that!" Naruto thought wrapping his arm around Sakura's neck. "You do deserve me and I really love you. What have you got to worry about."

Sakura looked sadly into Naruto's eyes. "Naruto, I'm really sorry. I mean you're a very nice person. It's just we can never be together Naruto."

"Of course we can be together!" Naruto snapped looking quite sad himself. "What is wrong with you Sakura? I though you were looking forward to this for a while!"

"Naruto please listen," Sakura hugged Naruto very tightly as if she knew she was never going to see him again. Sakura stroked his blonde hair at the same time. "I need to do my own thing in my own way. I must meet new people and go into different kind of journeys."

"You can still do all of that with me," Naruto told her. "And your friends, we all need you here." Sakura pulled herself away from Naruto, her eyes started filling up and redness occurred on the skin around her eyes. "I was thinking about this for a while, I'm not really happy about this either but since your one of my friends I think it's best if I told you. " Sakura's back faced Naruto and then she openly and reluctantly said, "Tell everyone that I'm gone to do things on my own and I won't return." Tears fell down Sakura's face; she walked over to Naruto and gently kissed his cheek. "Naruto, I'm sorry. You're strong, you'll move on and there are much better girls out there than me. Hinata for example, she's rather sweet." Sakura became utterly speechless and had no other words to say other than sorry and goodbye. "Goodbye Naruto," Sakura dashed away from Naruto as fast as she could, whilst crying her eyes out in sheer guilt.

Sakura halted near a huge tree branch and looked up into the sky. 'Things can't get any worse than they are now.' Sakura thought.